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Page 759 of 760, comments 15161 - 15180 of 15193

Sat 2011 May 21

Sat 2011 May 21, 9:02pm
On Arlo and Janis

You guy-uys! Stop stimulating memories! ;-}

Recently, I saw a ‘68 blue Mustang that could have been my first car. For sale sign in the window. Stopped the kids & talked about it, but sigh! the old man is not in the market. Rare to see that exact car, but it was!

But I’ve never ever seen the one for which I traded in that beloved ‘68. Checking biomemory mnemonic: “1970 Mustang Mach I 351 4-in-the-floor Hearst shifter.” Yeah, that was it. As muscle as any car I’ve ever owned. Had a flip-up tail instead of a spoiler. No great ugly wide stripes on the hood, just tasteful pinstripes. No big ugly hood scoop, just the little side ones IIRC. Red exterior = instant ticket on entering small towns. Red and black interior (trashed the first time I took a girl to Tulsa’s classic Pennington’s drive-in on The Strip; great story, but I’ll save it). Couldn’t keep dogs and other drivers from denting in the right-front panel, though. I mean, cursed: same dent, over and over. Eventually sold it dented.

So, I’ve been meaning for a long time to search the web for its likeness. Inspired by ye olde car pharts here, I searched for pix and you know what? There’s Pontiacs that look like it, sorta, some similar Mustangs, but even online, not one that looks like mine! This is not it.

As the statute of embarrassment limitations has (nearly) passed, I’ll confess I got talked into trading that in on the Bic Lighter of vehicles, a Chevy Vega hatchback with the guaranteed-limited-lifetime aluminum engine. Taught my wife to drive on that one, though.

Fri 2011 May 20

Fri 2011 May 20, 9:52am
On HillBuzz

Pam, I like your fire, and your capacity for expression. On the vengeance-justice matter, you better said succinctly in under sixty words what I struggled to say in several hundred; that's the only comment on the web I've ever clicked thumbs-up. Here, maybe, go back to polite and to the point, rightly suggesting how the Confederacy association might be imprudent, impolitic. Just as a matter of taste, this kind of "action item" makes my eyes roll, too, but the merely pointless and stupid should not fire indignation as much as the unjust and immoral. Who knows? Get the old couple who sang the Sarah Palin Battle Hymn (search YouTube; h/t to Hillbuzz commenter Sebaneau way back), the final product might even be tolerable for one viewing.

United! We! Stand!

Mon 2011 May 16

Mon 2011 May 16, 9:07am
On HillBuzz
A follow-up to this message (with this emendation) and replying comments

[For my prior abusive invocation of scripture, I am rightly admonished and regretful.]

Dear friends, I have no heart for this debate, but consider how badly thinking can be unprincipled when emotionally driven. Hasn't similar ends-justifying-means emotionalism been remarked upon as the error of liberalism?

Shall we cut off the hand of the thief, too, or would that be two eyes for an eye? How about just a fingertip for petty theft? (Where's Kevin? Was Bridget just baiting us? What is going on here?) Look, friends, when we say that the punishment should fit the crime, do we rape the rapist, eat the cannibal, murder the family of the person who murders a family? Of course not! "That'll teach 'em" doesn't and revenge is lust that will never bring spiritual satisfaction.

Society must behave like a sober, loving, patient, but firm parent, even like the divine parent. Exacting judgment, yes, and when we're dealing with returning stolen value and paying fines, recompense (not revenge) can sometimes be achieved. In violent crime, there really cannot be recompense. One cannot bring back the murdered, repay for wounding, undo terror and pain.

Exacting justice never involves cruelty for cruelty. We forbid cruel punishment in the heart of our Law. We forbid vigilantism and vendetta, the means of revenge when barbaric people are unsatisfied with civil judgments. We leave whatever "vengeance" there may need to be to the Higher Judge.

The appropriate combination of punishment and rehabilitation is set by a wise and impartial arbitrator. Not always possible, but the ideal, the principle, to which we aspire. While society must protect itself, we can only stop the crime, and if we're not going to execute then hold the prisoner until "rehabilitated," if ever. (As if.) Our justice system is poor, fails to exact justice perfectly, and those who operate in it are too often more concerned with dollars than principles, but it's the best we've got to separate us from anarchy. We strive for true justice and do not sink to the level of the criminal to do so.

Sun 2011 May 15

Sun 2011 May 15, 1:25pm
On HillBuzz

(Speaking of walking back, I see some edits I might've made if I could've, but I can't, so, sorry if my own hastily-toasted comment offended anyone's beliefs or seemed scolding, Bridget.)

Sun 2011 May 15, 8:54am
On HillBuzz

Breaking from self-imposed lurk to object strenuously.

Bridget! I appreciate your degree of outrage, but think! This is not "justice," this is disgusting! Barbaric! If you want to get Biblical about it, the Lord says "vengeance is mine." God's early attempt to inform us that vengeance is not ours to exact. (It's a bit of divine humor, really, talking down to the primitive human soul, for we find in heaven that God is never actually vengeful like animalistic mortals; God can only be just.) That crazy homeless man who beheaded a woman in a supermarket this week, would you have the woman's relatives stab him to death and run down the street with his bloody head? Followed to its logical conclusion, why wait for the tedium of evidentiary hearings and all that delay of the courts? If thy neighbor offend thee, haul out the AK-47 and start blasting! That's the path you're praising! Mrs Webworker adds, the concept that this will be good for women, that she will be better off because she's done this to someone else is [I'll substitute the word, misguided].

Ameneh BahramiIt is precisely because such horrific offenses as this woman's mutilation blind us (no pun intended) with rage and affect our judgment that we have as a society moved beyond personal vendetta to (ideally) impartial judges and juries, standardized imprisonment or (in the case of the crazy homeless man) incarceration with whatever medical and chemical help he might need, if only to protect his jailers.

I'm not a Fundamentalist so I don't have to try to make God say "eye for an eye" out of one side of his mouth and "Turn the other cheek" out of the other. Without the scriptural literalists' strained exegesis, there's an obvious progression from "eye for an eye" to "turn the other cheek," representing, not a bipolar or capricious Deity, but rather the development — improvement — of human understanding of the justice and mercy the Spirit would reveal through us.

Once, justice was an individual matter. Later, courts — the will of the group — replaced personal revenge, a decided advance even if the forms of "justice" still involved vengeance. That's the level of society you're posting about & praising. Most of our "justice" system — and most of the population — has not progressed far beyond that desire for vengeance, but our rejection of "cruel and unusual" punishments represents a vast and Jesusonian advance over "eye for an eye." Fines, incarceration and not exacting eye for an eye have replaced bloody vengeance in modern justice.

Someday, our meager and in-name-only "rehabilitation" efforts may actually rehabilitate many who choose criminality but could be reformed. The criminally poor we will have with us always. Some few we might even really, in the balance of mercy and self-protection, remove as life forms from among us (merciful, painless state execution), but in no case should we step backward into the cesspools of this kind of mentality.

Want to walk that back a bit, darlin'?

Shirzad Bozorgmehr, CNN, 2011 July 31:
A woman blinded in an acid attack seven years ago said Sunday she stopped the "eye for an eye" punishment for her attacker because "such revenge is not worth it." … "I never intended to allow Majid to be blinded," Ameneh Bahrami told CNN. "... Each of us, individually, must try and treat others with respect and kindness in order to have a better society." … She said two men were instrumental in bringing about her change of heart: a doctor at a clinic in Spain and Amir Sabouri, an Iranian who helped her get medical attention. Sabouri told her to forgive Movahedi and prove to the world that Iranians are kind and forgiving, she said. … She said Sunday that she does not expect others to follow her example of forgiveness, but noted that if they do, "it would prove that they are great human beings." … However, she said Movahedi is unrepentant and has been rude to her, even after she halted his punishment.

Thu 2011 Apr 28

Thu 2011 Apr 28, 11:21pm
On HillBuzz

Just based on your quote, this sounds like he's laying into ABC news for what they did, like he's trying to take Gifford's side, and just based on this (as far as one can stomach interpreting it), ABC might deserve to be criticized. (Could this be the photo he's talking about?) However, as Mrs Webworker suggested (but is too nice to put this way), this cretin doesn't seem to understand that his foul rant is more horrible than what he's snarking about. You have to wonder about this boy's momma!

Wed 2011 Apr 27

Wed 2011 Apr 27, 8:52pm
On HillBuzz

I tried to leave a comment yesterday about this, but the modera… tech bug ate it. :) CNN, CBS, now I find even Fox were trumpeting the indisputable validity of the Pres's eligibility yesterday. Link

Isn't that a remarkable coincidence such a big propaganda push happens just one day before the document's miraculous appearance!?!

First comment anyone made to me when I mentioned the BC release: "OMG! He finally photoshopped it?" Bwahahaha! Thanks for links to refutations, folks. Here's an interesting note, although they say it is not a sign of alteration:

PDF has “Layers”

Anyway, big surprise! Dad's African. DISQUALIFIED!

(Oh, wait, wait, that would only be if we were still a land of Constitutional law.)

Trump/Graham 2012! :P

Paranoid much, webwonker? Yesterday's comment was posted. (Dang! Oh, to be able to edit my last post!)

Wed 2011 Apr 27, 3:07pm
On HillBuzz

Along with the physical weather damage there's been waves of what I've come to call "April madness," a seeming spike in random beat-downs, suicides, family murders, etc. If weather — especially dramatic changes — seriously affect moods, for whatever reasons, well, April is major weather change month.That storm that blew through earlier this month, with tornadoes killing dozens? Before, during, and for a while after, emotions raged around our house. Afterward, in recovery, we realized we felt like we'd been drugged, poisoned. Try to remember your (or someone else's) foul mood could be an uncontrollable reaction related to weather. The mood alteration begins well before the actual storm breaks, just as the barometer changes. Watch the barometer, get plenty of rest, take your B vitamins, watch Marx Bros movies, and wait out the storms. (Excerpted from article I put on my website, which started as a comment for this page, then grew out of control as my words often do. Mindful Webworks: Ill Winds of April if you want to see the whole thing.)

Tue 2011 Apr 26

Tue 2011 Apr 26, 7:02pm
On HillBuzz

Saw a headline from CBS, the network that brought us Dan "ol' Reliable" Rather: "Birther" claims debunked in new report. Oh, really? thinks I. Okay, the original report was at Commie News Network, but I scanned the CBS article. Paragraph 1: "there is no doubt that President Obama was born in the United States." Graph 2: [CNN report] concludes that "Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Period." Graph 3: Doubt… has been thoroughly debunked by multiple sources. Graph 4: The matter was dead until The Donald (tell Joe Farah!). Graph 5: Poll results showing which groups believe what. Finally! in paragraph 6, the PROOF: CNN interviewed a number of sources who were able to confirm the validity of the president's birth certificate and provide first-person accounts of the events surrounding his Hawaiian birth. Oh, I see. Hearsay by a number of people confirming a birth certificate nobody's seen, and "eyewitnesses." Boy, I'M convinced!

Mon 2011 Apr 25

Mon 2011 Apr 25, 4:48pm
On HillBuzz

Sun 2011 Apr 17

Sun 2011 Apr 17, 9:20pm
On HillBuzz

"The cold, snowy weather did not diminish her fire!" Er, well, yeah. She is from Alaska, you know. :)

Sun 2011 Apr 17, 8:03am
On HillBuzz

"…whatever their equivalent of red meat is to their far left base."

Arugula at Whole Foods. -Obama

(No offense to the fine folks at Whole Foods… although they do give our son variable shifts that drive him crazy. :) )

Fri 2011 Apr 15

Fri 2011 Apr 15, 10:21pm
On HillBuzz

Okay, but is this mere whining-about-the-whiners post an exception where we can comment about site problems, or is this too noble and Smithsonian a thread as well?

"If you want to whine and complain, feel free to do so via email…."
I just double-checked because I've had an emotionally devastating and error-prone day — your contact page has as email links only "contribute" (articles? opinions? e-money?) and "media contact". I found no clearly-marked to-the-editors link, nor one specifically to the webmaster for whiney tech matters.

Fri 2011 Apr 15, 8:52pm
On HillBuzz

Kev & buzzers, not wanting to clutter threads more with tech discussion, I went to your Contact Us page and found... how to donate page, media inquires link, follow on facer and twitsbook, and HillBuzz Radio and lots of FAQs, But ... No email? Okay, then, I'll put my comment here. Is no-email deliberate?

Sympathies with the new site & all (for the 3rd or 4th time, although I think only one got posted. Maybe 75% of my few comments since the switchover got posted, possibly because I leave long complicated a-tag links upon which your new system seems to choke, just like it cuts off the links folks post. I try to remember to keep my own copy, but you guys say re-posting just makes things worse, so... you'll have to do without some of my wit and wisdom, alas.

If I weren't quite so busy, I might go do the TinyURL thing as someone suggested, but you REALLY have to fix the links! Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you know this already, but, see, I like the random rambles & fascinating thinking of the Buzzards and commenters, but a main reason I come to HB multiple times a day is that folks here post SO MANY GREAT LINKS, practically none of which seem to be working now! Lost! Lost foreverrrrrr! (Okay I'm done. Not to see if THIS posts!)

Or maybe I meant to say "75% FAILED to get posted." Yes I did. Also, at the end, "Now," not "Not" to see if it posts. I'm going to turn in early now. ZZZZ

Fri 2011 Apr 15, 8:27pm
On HillBuzz

sybilll said: "As you have learned, we are a live and let live bunch, as long as government remains unobtrusive."

Indeed:

…all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security….

The world's finest radical revolutionary propaganda!

Wed 2011 Apr 13

Wed 2011 Apr 13, 2:03pm
On HillBuzz

What's he going to say? What's he going to say? He's going up to that podium, and he's going to praise Boener while doing that little one-finger salute he does, then he's going to pump his fist, waggle his behind like Dogbert, and tweet on his Blackberry, "1 4 teh win! Up yrs, T prtyrs"

Mon 2011 Apr 11

Mon 2011 Apr 11, 8:09pm
On HillBuzz

My first reply to this comment, though I thought it harmless, seemingly went directly to "deleted by the administrator." Then I went to take the survey. Came to the section about what I liked about HillBuzz and that checkbox about heavy handed moderation. I like the peaceful ship, but, upon reflection, did not check that one. :)

Mon 2011 Apr 11, 6:48pm
On HillBuzz

What is this? Ew! Looks terrible! Put it back the way it was!

[Aw, c'mon. You were waiting for SOMEBODY to say it.]

I'm currently involved in converting two old static-type websites to these modern whoopty-doo type sites, along with launching several others. I cannot sympathize one bit, no, not at all, with what you've been going through. Missing images? Befuddled links? Dropped styling? Everything suddenly blank? You haven't had any of those moments, I'm sure.

Okay, okay, it looks good. May your new framework enhance your image. :)

Sat 2011 Apr 9

Sat 2011 Apr 9, 7:21am
On HillBuzz
Comment appears to have been deleted (2011-06-28)

[Posted this on Sat. open thread, but it hasn't shown up yet. This looks like a more appropriate venue anyway.]

Sometimes I can't remember… am I posting a link to the place where I first found it? :) Anyway, if so, it bears repeating…

There's only one secret, real motive driving those cruel Republicans in their budget battles:

Reid says Republicans want shutdown to close clinics

"Republicans want to shut down the government because they think there's nothing more important than keeping women from getting cancer screenings. This is indefensible and everyone should be outraged," Reid said on the Senate floor.

Someone get this doddering old fool a glass of warm milk and put him to bed. He's gone.

Mon 2011 Apr 4

Mon 2011 Apr 4, 9:29am
On HillBuzz
Comment appears to have been deleted (2011-06-28)
Earlier comment in same thread

"Kissinger was born in Germany and he was SOS under Nixon." Oh, yeah. How succinct your example where I used so many words! :)

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