Destin's Comments (84)

“Great article and I understand your points and wish there was a better way. Unfortunately, commerce is what dictates the system and methods. And when commerce conspires with governmental institutions, they pretty much are allowed to create their own monopoly.

Case in point, my city. When I was born it was still a small farm town and those that were not farmers were employees at the nearby air force base. As a kid, I can remember good, honest farms being everywhere all around the city. You could even own farm animals inside the city. But then the city did something I think was irresponsible. Outlawed farm animals within city limits. That meant, we coudn't keep a cow and chickens on our acre of land with which to supplement our food sources. My dad still maintained a pretty big garden for our vegetable needs at least.

Anyways, I think other things should be considered before passing sweeping condemnation. 2 things like Laws and Economics. Many of us have no choice but to purchase meats that most probably comes from factory farms because it's against the law to raise our own. Then there is the economic aspect. How much does it cost for responsibly farmed cattle as opposed to other sources? Doesn't matter how much people will want to do the right thing, the laws of economics will force their decision and people will do and eat whatever they must in order to keep on living.”

“I don't think slow sex has ever been out of favor. I think people are just into instant gratification that our culture seems to expect everyone to follow. And the way many people live, they are rush, rush, rush. Not me, lol. I don't even want a landline phone. The only distraction I tolerate is the internet. I don't have a cellphone and don't want one. That's just me, lol. But I've always like it slow and taking our time, relishing in everything and trying a variety of things. I always hear people saying "people wanna have sex like a pornstar but never do". Why not? I've done quite alot of things. I can't say I've done EVERYTHING cause there's quite alot to try. But I have done alot of things and thoroughly enjoyed it. If it feels good, do it. And slowly, the ladies like it like that.”

“Oh my dearest Amanda, I weep that you are taken. My kind of woman and with the right recipe to go with it. I am truly in awe of the man who did win your heart.”

“I must be the only person around to have grasped what Arianna said. I look at pages of comments and they are nothing more than the same thing in reverse. Instead of it appearing on Free Republic and Red State, they are now here. Funny, I never thought I'd see Obama supporters turn into the very Bush apologists and sheeple that they always claimed to despise. I always thought that the whole reason for change was to stop the "stay the course" mentality of an administration too blind to see good advice, or too blind to see where it was doing things wrong. Or often with Bush, too arrogant to ever admit they were wrong.

People, while it's a great thing to be supportive of Obama, I think we'd be better served and be even more supportive if we showed him where he was erring. The last thing we need right now is a group of cheerleaders who jump up and cheer at anything the President says. We had 8 years of that already, it's what got us in this mess. It's time for honesty.”

“By the way, it's apparent my deliberate use of the phrase "stay the course" went right over your head. Bush refused to accept anything other than what he wanted. He refused to admit he was ever wrong, he refused to change policy when the writing was on the big huge billboard telling him he needed to change.

We don't need that again. We're lucky to have survived the world's biggest narcissist.”

“Well, you are free to support him all that you want. But I think you miss the point that Arianna is making. The reason we got into this mess after 8 straight years of one disaster after another from Bush, is because nobody would be honest with him. Nobody would stand up to him. Nobody would say anything to try and change him mind or give him another opinion.

Bush was surrounded by "yes men". People who would bend over backwards to agree with him, stroke his ego, do whatever he asked. We do not need 1 more year of that kind of government, let alone 8 more.

I do support Obama on alot of things. I did vote for Obama. But one thing I am NOT going to do is become a blind sheep like the Republicans were for the last 8 years. As I pointed out, that's how we got into this huge mess we're dealing with right now.”

“I agree with you Arianna. If Biden just stands around with his hands in his pockets, we'll return to the same state of government that we had the previous 8 years. No accountability, nobody with backbone, no difference. It would be a welcome relief to see people make a stand on their convictions, rather than bow to the will of the Party for the good of the Party.

Biden is right about one thing, we need to do something about Pakistan. Otherwise, we'll be forced to stay in Afghanistan for the next 100 years or more. There's no way we can occupy a country that long. If we do nothing about Pakistan, then soon as we do ever pull our troops out, then Pakistan will swoop right back in and put the Taliban and Al Qaeda right back in power. Then all of our time, money and lives put into Afghanistan will then have become a complete waste. All of it being thrown away for no reason and no purpose.

For those stating that if Biden resigned it would destroy the Democrats in 2010 and 2012, I don't think so. Look at the Republicans, they stayed in lock step all of that time, they wouldn't do the right thing and resign in protest like they should have. Know what happened? They suffered crushing defeats in 2006 and 2008.

So if you folks wanna stay the course, go right ahead. You'll regret it in 2010 and 2012.”

“I find it interesting about the airlift of folks out of Afghanistan you mention. I had long heard about that for years and it's a well known fact that the reason we had the long delay before doing anything in Afghanistan, was to give the Pakistani's time to get 10,000+ Pakistani troops and hundreds of ISI "advisers" out of Afghanistan first, some flown out on US Military aircraft even.”

“Shoot, didn't know the link didn't work. Well, best way I can describe it is a finance company type of middle man had done the deal, bank holding the deed, and homeowners making the payments. Did this with 4 homes.

Now the guy who was the middle man had some partners file bankruptcy, he himself did not. All payments and loans on the homes in question were up to date. However, the bank felt the middle man was a risk I guess and so they essentially seized the 4 homes from both him and the homeowners, giving them all a notice to get out.”

“I love you Arianna, always a class act and not afraid to tell it like it is! With that said, I'd like to bring something to your attention, not worthy of national news but it's something to show just how extensive this problem is.

http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=69889&catid=175

Four more homes in my area that are being foreclosed on by one of the bigger banks in our area. Why? Well, simply boils down to the fact that the bank can do it because it wants to do it and nobody can stop them even tho the homeowners never even defaulted on a loan nor did they miss any payments.

Things are bad all over, but then the bank does this. They need to be publicly called out for such farce.”

“Intelligence and beauty, Arianna rocks and I've been a fan for a long time. She is the reason I've been a member over 4 years now. I love her prodding the Democrats to stop appeasing the Republicans. She's right, the Democrats have the big majority in both house, they know best how to fix this country's problems, they should seize that opportunity to get the job done. We saw 8 years of inaction domestically with a misguided foreign policy. We need to get this country caught back up again. The previous administration did not want to fix anything, instead wishing to leave it for a future administration to deal with. Ok, let's deal with it. Get the job done!”

“That is quite an interesting post. Dunno if you've seen Palemoon on here, but she's a relative of mine. And she's big on exploring other systems, such as socialism. And she gets furious at people making off the wall comparisons about something being socialism when she says it's nothing to do with it, etc.

I admit, she's changed my view in alot of ways, lol, even has me wondering about Marx and if he was really the bad guy our govt claims he is or not.

Anyways, I'm not so big into the stuff like she is, she's way passionate. I understand there's nothing I can do to change our current system. And like a good friend of mine who now lives in Utah told me, so long as people think that there is some remote chance they could strike it rich, win the lottery or create some toy that makes them billions, then they will never give up that dream of being better than someone else. Even when offered the chance of a guaranteed life in which they live very comfortably under another system. They would refuse to part with their current system and it's dream. 99% of them will forever remain poor and dreamers. Ambition doesn't count for nothing if you don't have the means to act upon it, which is money.”

“True, but perhaps it shows how far that we human beings have fallen in our moral standing. Politics trumps what is right. We need to get away from politics and stop making it the moral basis for everything we do.”

“You have a point, but on the flip side, do you think a serial killer is actually going to be scared by torture? You think threatening them with death row execution will stop them?

Our cops do things every day that I find offensive, but would probably find that girl in 5 seconds. Give him immunity. If they can give it to some of the most heinous criminals, why not someone in your instance? Or even plea deal him into a confession? That typically works very well too.”

“You would have an awesome argument if this happened in 1962-1965 after something called the Geneva Conventions was signed. I'm not sure I could even fault Lincoln as he probably was unaware of what exactly was going on. The Confederates had their Andersonville, which is live very close to here in Georgia, where atrocities as bad or worse happened to.

It's not about trying to rewrite the past, or punish those people in the past. It is about coming to the enlightenment during the latter stages of World War II in which even the most barbaric of people were horrified at what we humans were capable of. Unspeakable things like the holocaust, torture, biological and chemical warfare. We finally reached a point in our existance on this planet where we finally found some sense of moral obligation perhaps. I don't know what to call it, I'm not some grand statesman type.

I guess what I'm saying is this. We don't have the power to change what happened in the 1860's, but we do have the power to make changes right now to ensure that it never, ever, happens again.”

“Arianna, that was one awesome post. It's no wonder I've been smitten by you for so many years now. You are not afraid to stand your ground and speak your mind. I love that. And you are right that this should not, nor ever be, about right vs left. As you said, it's about right vs wrong. And that is the kind of knockout punch statement that needs to be repeated to these talking heads on tv who just don't get it.”

“How's that smartdefrag work? I was tempted to try that one, but was wary about it running all the time in the background. The reviews say it's not even noticeable, is that true? I ended up downloading the Auslogics free defragger for now to try out, seems to work ok and seems pretty fast. Just want to know a little something about that smartdefrag before I try it.”

“I can agree with that. I've got one of those 500gb FreeAgent external/portable backup hard drives. Got it for like $89 on sale. Tempted to clear up alot of my personal clutter in my home by getting rid of the hundreds of music cd's that take up alot of space in 2 big cd racks. Debating about just moving them all onto the FreeAgent drive and then selling/giving away all of the actual cd's since they have become a space wasting medium anymore with the proliferation of mp3, wma, and other music formats in which everything is stored digitally. And even rewriteable dvd's are getting to be down around the $1 dollar per barrier now. Just a couple months ago, bought a 5 pack for $9.99. Now you can get it for $5.99. Still, even those are clutter, tho they are another viable backup option for those on the cheap and can't justify buying a large backup drive.”

“I think some here are missing the point about the article that I thought it was going to be about too. Many are posting about cleaning, as in viri, spam, adware, etc, utilities to do that, or erase tracks, defragging etc. I don't think the article is about that so much as it is about organizing the things you want to be on the computer.

As far as the utility folks go, one interesting utility I've been trying out and seems to help, is called Glary Utilities. Erases tracks from all your browsers, goes after obvious spyware tho it's best to use a dedicated spyware/malware defense to be honest, but it also cleans up your registry, cleans up your temp folders where programmers are too lazy to tell their installation programs to remove all of that clutter they left behind, checks your startup sequence looking for threats or needless things there. Does several categories of cleaning and optimizing, plus has a whole other section of tools like memory cleaners/freemem type stuff.”

“I'm not done yet. Think about it. Now that hardly anyone making under $20,000 is getting welfare, that means far less goods and services are being bought. More homes are going into default. More cars are being repossessed.

Do you think the GOP ever thought for a moment, the immense ripple effect it would create in our economy? So what if these people weren't working very hard for what little welfare they were getting, they were BUYING. I thought that was the foundation of capitalism, to ensure there was always plenty of people to buy those goods and services. Now there is not, and the economy is suffering. Can you put 2 and 2 together? Or do you come up with 5, or 16 or 743 as the answer to that mathemitical comparison? Fact is, the less disposable income people have, whether it comes from welfare or not, the less there is to be spent within the economy.

I can't believe the capitalists cut their own throats and are now whining about it.”

“It worked out pretty good I thought. You have a very short memory. Remember, the reason the GOP fascists wanted to do away with welfare, is because poor people were out buying what they considered "luxury" items, like a nice car, nice clothes, a nice home not to mention a nicely stocked kitchen where they could have nice meals. The GOP was jealous because they considered these people as getting something for nothing.

Remember?

By the way, you make zero mention of golden parachutes and lavish items that are heaped upon the CEO's of these FAILED corporations. Using our tax money to do it. Using our tax money to justify their incredibly rich lifestyle.

I find it very hypocritical of you to claim that welfare for the poor is bad, but welfare for the rich is great.”

“Hey John, wanted to mention that I remember the first time I saw you was on Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. I remember one of the songs being "Living In Miami". I feel old, lol. But I always figured you would make it big, you had a bit of charisma and some good material to work with, plus a good backing band. Nice to see the good guys make it big once in a while.”

“Great aticle. I am reminded of a few things that rarely happen, and in some cases may never happen again. Such as the lone DJ, who started playing a curious song called 99 Luftballons someone brought to him from overseas. It goes on to hit #2 on the US charts.

The internet alone can help an artist reach out, though some have made the RIAA jealous. I used to listen to the old mp3.com back when artists themselves controlled their fate on it. I discovered artists like The Gathering (from the Netherlands) of whom I have a cd and dvd. Also American artists like Jodee James, Clandestine and some others. I liked that I could preview the music before I bought it. The artist simply created their page and their mere presence helped them sell. In that respect, they didn't have to be Barnum.

I am also struck by the difference in Europe and the US. I have a YouTube account, Destin65, and have posted some of my own videos. Of the "fan created" type videos, I have had 100% failure in trying to use an American artist as soundtrack music. Yet, of the European music I've posted, not 1 complaint. Matter of fact, people post that I turned them on to this band, or that movie. And you know what they say, any publicity is GOOD publicity. It's all about exposure. Maybe that's why my cd/dvd collection over the last few years is almost exclusively European content.”

“I think the best measure, is to measure the amount to which both sides are able to influence public opinion.”

“I have a few additions to make......

"Energize Me" by After Forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjm4BrNAf6s

"Bliss" by Muse (Live 8 version (Americans celebrating more than the folks here))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndwlQn03UDU

And going back to my childhood happy days which I feel will happen again after this election..­.

"Tra la la Song" (Banana Splits) updated version by Liz Phair
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49oDGIg2QXY

I'll definitely be singing and skipping along to that song if he wins and looking like a 40+ dork, lol.

One other song plug, one for those who can't enjoy it. Either because of their passing, or by their deployments, or whatever the reason. Those who can't be here. A very touching and emotional song going into the holidays and time of year that the song is about. I know I get choked up at times hearing this most beautiful song while thinking of special people like friends, family and heroes.

Let's raise a toast and remember those who aren't here, and cherish the ones who still are.

"You Would Have Loved This" by Tarja Turunen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnGsYC89OSI”