I know it wasn't a phone, but wasn't that the first touchscreen equipped gadget available?

That's the first one I remember. I liked them. Can't wait to get the new iPhone - I hate my current (LG) phone!

Morford is nuts. His columns are for ENTERTAINMENT, folks. They're free form, stream-of-consciousness, weirdness for its own sake. I don't actually read them much myself.

People here seem not to realize that he's SFGate's resident poet/lunatic, so I thought maybe I should point that out. Also please note that the SF Chronicle/SFGate is a second rate news source at best.

So, you live on the Spicket River then? Fascinating. That's a pretty short river.

"The Spicket River is a 17.7 mile long (28.5 km)[1] river located in New Hampshire and Massachusetts in the United States. It is a tributary of the Merrimack River, part of the Gulf of Maine watershed."

"The Spicket River begins at the outlet of Island Pond in Derry, New Hampshire, and flows south into Salem, New Hampshire, passing through the Arlington Mill Reservoir. The river continues through Salem, encountering copious suburban development, and enters the city of Methuen, Massachusetts, where it drops nearly 100 feet over a series of dams on its way to the Merrimack River in Lawrence."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spicket_River

You don't mean 'spigot' by any chance, do you?

http://www.jstor.org/pss/487109

Anyway, I NEVER drink bottled water. I installed a two-stage water filter under my kitchen sink, it's very effective and for about $35 a year my water tastes great.

Again, I'm just not getting it...

The tearing down of Obama, the wailing, the gnashing of teeth, the sackcloth and ashes...

Jesus, it's fucking POLITICS, people! If you think anything Hillary did was actually damaging to Obama, you're going to be in shock, crying in your beer after the Republicans sink their teeth into him.

What's the deal with this constant drumbeat of 'she should have quit 2 days ago, 3 weeks ago, 4 months ago,' blah blah blah....

Did they have the Democratic convention already and I somehow missed it? No, I didn't think so.

And I for one am GLAD Hillary is not a quitter! I hate that! And I think she did Obama a favor by holding his tender feet to the fire. She wasn't even all that mean. Even so, I thought he stood up to it very well. Sheesh, get over the Hillary bashing already. Pick on the senile old fart Republican for a few months.

Two (so far) pages of letters in response with 3-4 ads per page is what such a post achieves.

Not bad for 5 throwaway paragraphs.

Buy some land (with a house) somewhere relatively immune to the ravages of climate change or revolution.

Put at least 1.5 million of it OFF LIMITS. Invest it diversely, in things you like, and leave it alone. You can keep the dividends and interest, or reinvest. But seriously, leave the principal alone. When you die, you can have a redwood forest or orphanage or animal shelter or whatever named after you.

Get a life! Paint or sculpt or write or volunteer at the animal or human shelter 40 hours a week, or however much you have to so you don't have time to drink much.

"Ever since the news broke that former Gawker editor Emily Gould would be writing the cover story for this weekend's New York Times magazine,"

Isn't 'news' stuff that somebody actually gives a damn about?

Isn't this 'news', on the other hand, something that no one could give a crap about?

Given the state of the culture in this 'nation' we brought 'democracy' to, the only way for our troops to get war brides would be to buy them outright. Any other sort of fraternization with GI's would of course result in 'honor' killing of the women in question.

Maybe some of the female GI's would like to take up with some Iraqi guys? Maybe not.

I emailed and phoned Pelosi about this 'compromise' of hers, and made it QUITE clear (politely, but very sternly) what I think of the idea. I live in SF, so I hope she listens just a little.

"profoundly inarticulate, with shifty eyes, an utterly stupid look on his face, a fake "folksy" manner and the attention span of a fruit fly."

That's our boy!

and when was it ever considered impregnable? It's a fancy armored personnel carrier.

The Abrams is a tank.

"My S.O. declared at age 33 that that was, as they say, that. Finito. Office hours are over, forever. That was 16 years ago."

Well, maybe that explains some of the odd letters to Salon...

Well, isn't that special? He's learned to accept injuries! That's really great!

Now, if only the HORSES could learn to accept injuries! After all, they're the ones actually running the races (and occasionally dying) for Mr. McClelland's amusement.

Fuckwit.

You're a sorry excuse for a human being if you've "learned" to accept this inhumane, barbaric "sport".

Maybe someone should whip you into running and we'll see if you fall and break a leg or better yet, just have a heart attack. I think I could accept that.

It's important to do it well. College age kids who get this idea seem to be fairly rare.

I think this kid will turn out pretty well, whether he finishes school now or later.

I wish him well.

"Junk"? Really? That isn't nice. You take issue with someone suggesting that Hillary has man-parts, and then you go and call her woman-parts "junk". What's in a name, anyhow?

Break up with her and find a therapist.