Camel54's Comments (209)

“It's ridiculous to say he should lose his job for this. He wasn't exposing students to anything vulgar. No, he absolutely shouldn't have used the school's computer just like none of the people who read HuffPo EVER use their work computers for anything other than work. Students in today's schools use profanity around teachers and even directly verbally abuse teachers and nothing happens to them. If the school does punish them, you had better believe their parents are up at the school the next day making threats. And yet a teacher does something tasteless and that's it, career's over.

Should we really be so quick to judge? We don't know anything about this teacher or how effective he may be at his job. But more importantly, you can only pronounce judgment if you have never done a single inappropriate thing at work--never used profanity, never taken a secret smoke break, never told a dirty joke, never used company equipment for personal use.”

“No one is saying the recession is over. The only claim being made here is that this is a good sign of heading toward recovery. You see, recovery and heading toward recovery are not the same thing.

I always enjoy how you right wingers like to say, "Throwing money at a problem doesn't fix it." It's such a clever little bit of nonsense. When your car breaks down or your HVAC unit dies or your water heater explodes, how do you fix them? Do you build the parts yourself from elements you, yourself mine from the earth? No, you buy parts and you pay for labor. Sometimes, spending money is exactly how you fix a problem. The issue really isn't to spend or not to spend--that's a child's mentality trying to grasp grown-up problems. The issue is how to spend. That's where earnest debate lies.”

“"...the fraud ridden clunker debacle tanked..."

What are you talking about? It tanked because it was used in such massive amounts that had to be expanded? Government spending is the last resort when consumers are not or cannot spend. There's nothing unusual or fraudulent or PR driven about that.”

“The ER is absolutely not an option for primary care. First of all there is the danger to the individual. If you go to the ER wanting a physical or general care, they will send you on your way. They don't have to provide primary care services to you. They are required to provide emergency care. So then you only see a physician when you have an emergency? Brilliant. That's a recipe for a long life. Second, doing that is what clogs the ERs around the country and causes those with actual life-threatening emergencies to suffer more than they should have or end up dying as a result of someone with the sniffles using ER services. Third, the rest of us end up paying for your ER visit anyway in our order of magnitude increases in insurance and hospital care. Inappropriate ER visits is one of the biggest problems in health care today. As long as the rest of the public is paying for that care anyway, why not just provide it through public services so those without insurance have access to primary care.

Medicaid, though, is a better option because that may help you actually see an internist to handle your ongoing health care needs. I agree the health dept. is a good place to start. Local clinics frequently provide referrals to care providers after a brief screening. Those options are FAR better than the ER.”

“To be fair, proc, we're not the ones painting the president to look like Hitler or The Joker or calling him muslim or calling him the Antichrist. We're the side that has been presenting bills and creating policy while all we're getting from Republicans is no! No! No! They call us socialists, communists, Nazis, the Gestapo, unpatriotic. They accuse us of hating America and wanting to destroy it because we believe everyone deserves to actually stay alive. They accuse us of setting up death panels to kill the elderly and kill veterans and yet the president just signed into law a major advancement in VA funding--something Bush, for all his troop loving rhetoric couldn't manage. Tea parties, nonsensical loud noises to disrupt town halls, how are these things debate? How does that advance the general welfare of anyone in this country?”

“You're right. When the government ran the armies that won WWI and WWII, they didn't do that right. When they created the space program and put a man on the moon and then developed advanced microchips, plastics, medicines as a result of studies conducted in the gov't run space program, they didn't do that right. When they developed the atomic bomb, they must have done something wrong there too. When the gov't created the interstate hwy system, they did it wrong. When they established and have run the post office for more than two centuries, boy was that a doozy. When the VA treated my mom for cancer and gave her as good, if not better care than she had received elsewhere, all I could think was how the government just can't do anything right.”

“Is it really a victory when an organization who deals only in lies and not actual news is defended by the idiots who work in the other conventional wisdom, if-it-blee­ds-it-lead­s organizations? How is that freedom. I suspect you would not feel the same way if Fox was telling old people you were out to kill them. Or if Fox was telling people you broke the law by allowing a statutory rape to go unreported when that is a complete falsehood.”

“Yeah, I'll buy a Mac as soon as it can run actual work software and not be limited to making totally awesome home movies and then letting me blog about them with super cool templates. I have nothing against Macs, I just have enough toys at the moment, and that one comes with too high a price for me to indulge myself.”

“This was hardly some wellspring result of free market economics unless you consider the fact that the people helped by this effort were destroyed by unregulated free markets. There is a big difference in the need for a product or service creating a demand that is filled by business and the profiteering of big business creating a health care vacuum and forcing action by those who believe it is unconscionable to have this much wealth in this country and still have tens of thousands die for no reason other than they lack primary care.

Please, stop using the Internet that was created with those "confiscated tax dollars." Stop using roads too if you please, and we'd appreciate your not touching our postal system. And could you start growing and seeing to the safety of your own food since you hate having your tax dollars stolen and used for the common good. And you need to develop and ensure the safety of your own medications please since you don't want Big Brother keeping an eye on the perfectly honest, free market pharmaceutical companies.”

“Do you really want to bash NASA? You know that plastics, computer chips (and other parts), and the Internet itself have government science programs to thank for their existence, right? That includes NASA, which is responsible for making or improving much of the conveniences, technological and otherwise, you enjoy today.”

“That's just not true unless you make more than $250K, which you must not since you said you can't afford a new car. Your taxes have not increased. If you take your paycheck from now and compare it to your paycheck from January, determine the percentage of federal withholdings, you'll see that those withholdings have gone done.

You're not safer? So the multiple terrorist plots that were broken up in the past month are imaginary? Your insurance premiums have increased because of private health insurance companies.­..the ones Obama is trying to prevent from doing that.”

“I'm not defending the cop, but I'm also not going to be so quick to judge as most of you are. If you haven't spent any time in nearly any school in the country lately, you don't realize what smart-mouthed, entitled brats kids are. When you are told to eff off day after day; when you are treated like you're nothing, less than nothing by some snot nosed punk every single day, you reach a tipping point. Is it right, no, I'm not suggesting that it is, but the issue is far more deep-seeded than a cop with a bully complex. The problem is the total lack of discipline in schools. That kid didn't tuck in his shirt and didn't respond to the cop because he has never had to obey anyone. He gets his way and if they try to punish him, you'd better believe that's when his parents would threatening to sue. Schools these days are upside down. Kids run the place and their parents back them up. All for fear of being sued or attacked in the media...ah­em. They are not held accountable for ANYTHING. That leads to cops overreacting when some SOB 15 year old talked him like he was dirt. So the cop will lose his job and have this racist stigma placed on him and this kid will continue to be the same punk he is today. Not b/c he's black, either. This is everywhere.”

“Something ignorant people who have not looked at the actual bill(s) might want to say but not something intelligent individuals, who know how to read policy instead of having it interpreted by Sean Hannity for them, know to be untrue.”

“Bush was warned that Bin Laden was determined to attack US using airplanes and was unable to stop it. He sat reading to children instead of jumping to action when the attack occurred. He denied millions of children healthcare. He gave tax breaks to the rich that will cost us almost double what healthcare reform will cost. Bush bumbled the Afghanistan war by lying so we could go to Iraq and wasted American service men/women lives as well as civilian lives. Bush did nothing when Katrina ravaged a US city.

Bush deserved to be disrespected, but he was never called a liar during a speech to congress. Beyond that, your assertion that dems disrespected the military is just nonsense that has been programmed into you by right wing, lying, talk show hosts.”

“Except as many have already proven, he was not telling the truth. There is already language in the bill he has been denouncing that forbids the use of federal dollars for illegal aliens.

Besides, illegals are already receiving health care through grants from private companies including private hospital chains. If it is such a source of consternation to you that human beings not be given basic care, you need to protest the private health care providers as well as the government for making funds available to those you feel God deemed less worthy than yourself.”

“This is just a bad move on the part of the Dems. It's going to bolster support for Wilson. They are going to be attacked by the right for shutting down free speech I guarantee. The right doesn't give a damn about decorum. They should publicly admonish him, give an official reprimand that amounts to no more than a 30 second all in favor, all opposed, the congressman is reprimanded and then make their public statement something like, "In light of the fact that the American people have chosen to support his opponent so strongly as a result of his lack of respect for the president and for the people, we feel his likely ousting from office should be punishment enough. He spoke and now the people have spoken."”

“Not to mention that in those states, such as Texas, where tort reform has capped damages, the savings the doctors see in lower malpractice insurance premiums have NOT been passed on to patients so aside from hospitals/doctors making more by paying less, nothing has changed.”

“I assume that every one of you people complaining about how doomed we are and how spineless the Democrats are, you are all calling, emailing, sending paper letters and visiting your representatives, your senators and calling the Democrats standing in the way of this and threatening to fund their opponents in their next election.

I agree it looks bleak. I totally agree that Democrats are spineless worms, but complaining about it while doing nothing is senseless.”

“That's exactly right, and that's why all of us should be calling his office and telling him we are going to donate money to his opponent in the next election. They only understand money so that's what our message needs to be. We may not live in his district, but I assume our dollars work there as well as anywhere.”

“Any time any politician says, "The American people want or don't want or understand this or that..." they are lying. They are imposing their own agenda and calling the will of the American people. Republicans are usually the worst about this, but the same goes for Dems.

Where is the polling data that says the people don't want a firm date set? Where is the evidence for this at all?”

“The good news is they don't have to be your senator or representative for you to call them and tell them that you will donate money to their opponent if they stand in the way of the public option. There's no point in calling my senators, in TN, they're both Republicans, and we all know how they'll vote. But I've been calling the on-the-fence Democrats and telling them I may not live in their state, but my money works just as well in their state as it does mine, and I plan to help get them removed if they aren't going to act like Democrats and do the right thing.

Call the Blue Dogs, tell them you will vote against them with your wallet if they won't support the public option. Donate to MoveOn in their campaign for the public option. Donate to Lee Stranahan in his fight against these spineless DINOs.”

“Those hardware components are not reflective of the operating system. They are all made by the same foreign companies no matter what type of computer you buy.

The OSX is definitely more stable, but as more people use Macs, there will be more viruses and spyware out there for everyone. So here's your dilemma, keep proselytizing about the wonders of the Mac so they take the majority of the market and are subsequently put on the radar of every black hat out there or keep quiet, keep it to yourself and keep it stable and secure?

Mac users are incapable of not running on and on about their glorious computers that recently switched over to using the same exact hardware PCs have been using for years.”

“Definitely. The little adapter that lets you plug the Mac into projectors for instance, different type for every model so you have to buy one of those whenever you buy a different Mac. Nice. I thought that type of proprietary hardware BS died out a decade ago. Oh, yeah, it did in the PC world.”

“If it's such a wonderful machine, why would you ever need their customer service? Why would they need a customer service department if the machines are perfect?”

“That is certainly an essential difference, but it isn't something to base serious computer purchases on. It's great to love your Mac. I have no special feeling toward any of my computers b/c they're just tools to me. But because I use them as tools for serious computer work, I can't use a Mac b/c the things I need aren't available on that platform.

I think you've hit on the heart of this debate. Mac users tend to imbue their computers with personality as a result of the style, ease of use, etc. PC users tend to think of their computers as something they use for work or something to take apart and modify. There's no sentimentality with a PC.”