Letters to the Editor
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Ondelette - From Afganistan to Iraq, From Pakistan to Iran
Ondelette wrote: "...they changed the subject from Afghanistan to Iraq, and they started the day after 9/11. Now the desired change is from Pakistan to Iran, and it's started the day after 12/27."
Yes.
And part of the reason the assassination happened is that Bush busied himself and the military with Iraq rather than finishing off Afghanistan and making Afghanistan the shining light of democracy for the region.
Bin Laden and co are probably in Pakistan!
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New Jersey flunks math ...
NYT:
New Jersey Requires H.I.V. Test in Pregnancy
An H.I.V. test is about to become as routine as an ultrasound for pregnant women in New Jersey.
Under a bill signed into law on Wednesday, all pregnant women in the state will be tested for the virus as part of their prenatal care unless they object. The law also requires testing for newborns if the H.I.V. status of the mother is unknown. ...
Bayes' Rule tells us that you do not go giving tests to everyone for a disease without having some prior reason to think they might have it since the false positives will almost certainly outweigh the true positives.
To be labeled as having AIDS in this country means you *will* take the poison until you are dead. F'ing great New Jersey.
http://www.kevinboone.com/bayes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayes%27_theorem
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@ Ossifer Mancuso
OM opines: "The most cringe inducing thing about gay men is their terrible, self hating self-centeredness. In the world their minds inhabit everything anyone says is a catty cut at the gay man. They must listen with four ears all the time, in all places. It's a shame. Those gay men, many of whom seem otherwise intelligent (thought (sic) not, frankly well adjusted) become distinguished by their extreme cattiness - none more so that (sic) Glenn Greenwald."
Firstly Ossifer, in your post, substitute "blacks", "Jews", or "Asians" for "gay men", then substitute comparable racial/ethnic slurs (criminality, greed, inscrutability) to comprehend the sheer loathsome bigotry of your statement. Ascribing judgemental, negative, necessarily individual characteristics ("self hating, self centeredness", "extreme cattiness", "not, frankly, well adjusted") to a large & varied population is the key identifier for the type of unexamined, hate-filled prejudice you so laughably personify.
Secondly, Glenn wasn't even discussing a "catty cut at the gay man". He was discussing a catty cut at John Edwards, who is inarguably heterosexual. Like Coulter's "faggot" & Maureen Dowd's "Breck Girl", Peggy Noonan's "poofing" was a transparent attempt to homosexualize & feminize John Edwards. It was a gay slur against a straight man. As gay men, Glenn & I share a lifelong, intimate familiarity with this particular language of bigotry. People of colour are comparably familiar with & sensitized to racial/ethnic slurs. And Ossifer, it isn't remotely about being self-centered or self hating. It's about being self-preservative. Ask any Jew. Murderous bigotry starts with the kind of moronic generalizations you make, graduates to hate-language & eventually proceeds to extreme violence. That inexorable progression tends to sharpen one's senses to the unsubtle semiotics of hatred.
Thirdly, finally, it seems wonderfully ironic that in seeking to prove ("self-centered, self hating") homosexual hypersensitivity to criticism, you yourself resort to precisely the kind of bigoted slurs you suggest that gay men imagine. With the lead-footed surety of all the best bigots, you vividly illustrate everything you so emphatically deny exists.
Thanks.
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Peggy's fetish
this is the same Noonan who once wrote an enire passage in her book about the grandeur of Reagan's feet; how she couldn't take her eyes off of them, how masculine they were, how they said so much about the man, etc. etc. It was poetry!
I claim here to speak for thousands, millions, when I say: these pundits are nuts!
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Chris Sinnard @ 2:28
~Skip this. It's a awkward rant. As Normal.
Some comment-post will make me scoff a shrieking "gads"...Then friendy mice scamper around the computer room to run for cover.
They fear a incomming "rpg" or a "loco-train" has derailed from the tracks?
The warmth of witty 'letters' here always makes me chuckle. Yows< Sinnard, made me rumble sound. It was a cross between a chuckle and a gaily-giggle?
Zoos are interesting. Child petting zoos are safe. Here it is often reminding me of having to, unfortnatley, be caution and not pet or get too close to certain newcomer-human-chimpanzees lovers? Also: It's sad to have to 'yell' to toddlers elsewhere for their safety protections , "No, Don't Pet, that Dog Might Bite!" A child will trust a animal and want to pat.
The 'community' of friendly comments here is so invitational. Is it similar, as if, (~) readers love to see the human flock of friendly birds chirp, and we each learn from each 'others' life experiences and expertise?
Then Pewee! A new voice is hard. It is a memorable wild-loose-goose, a smoking-cannon burst, a volley of shotgun burst-- "'Bang' got you. Your dead!" Boom-sounds...bang, and then a commenter flees. It's shocking. A verbal bomb-detonated-so-to-speak. People take 10-minutes to gather the shopping list of thought? (that needs read thrice) huh.
Who doesn't potentially love a 'guy' who will be critical of a poor speller, and then come back and misspells Ctheney? He meant no harm and reminds me of Mr. McCormick Pepper? He was a Baltimore entrepreneur spice man.
We get to observe a ornery calf, cute baa-baa black scraggly sheep, hunt club bushies members, and we hear the moo-cow flop paddies. Even one parakeet can give ya's a bad pounding headache.
What fun memorable critters. In the vet-manual black-bible it says somewhere 'pet- them all' and use caution. Remember some discretion is always wise. Ya's cant give a hog a good face-lift. Ya's can put red lipstick on Bush enthusiast Peggy. Thus saith the truth...carefully.
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In season- For insight and conversation...I'll go where the fisher-person go. At the water edge I'll ask, "Hey is the fish bitin' today?" ..."Aw, I don't know. I just got here."
"Nibbles"...
I like to watch a lady fingering the pile of purchased night-crawler worms out of a white Styrofoam cup. She, without washing the hands, after hooking the worm, grasp several slices of pink meat. It gets flapped upon some white Wonder Bread. "Then you hear from the pundit partner, "Peggy, the mustard and other condiments are stashed in the Styrofoam cooler in the back of the pick-up truck."
Amid all the excitement at the river or lake on Sunday...I'm always happy to have missed The Morn News Sunday jokes 'drip' and the latest "news" bleeps.
At the water-- It's like fish jumping into the boat- I mean truck. I ride them home. I No choke on the wish bones. I do wish more quality humans would be invited to take the country canoe oars before the floating boat goes over the Niagara Aqua Water Falls?
It's nice that people don't need to tiptoe around politico's when so much needless suffering and pain is being made and manufactured. The stage is scary. I say politico's need to go digg too, elsewhere.
Cover entertainment stories? The GOP loyalist are grabbers for the fish-smellier-angler story publications? I need a big hug. I gonna go. I'm 'sounding' awkward. Watch a verbal-bomber roar down the pike. Boom!
P.S. I've been cordially invited to a shin-kick-gig in Burptimore, Merryland.
There may be some sprawled out sinners there? Crowds of rowdies may be barging in the door? I'll gaze at a few clothed angelic figures? Innocent sleeping babies will be there. And a roaring host. Cooks wiki be gettin' food ready. There will bow-wo nice mouths, turned upward, people with big pleasant smiles.
A hope there are no wry smirks with no amusement. The year has almost ended! It's time we/me got in some pot-Luck innocent Sinnard opportunity's....THAT needs fitting in...?
SKIP. It will be another day. It's a opportunity to meet new people. Oh, potential friends!