HyperInfluential's Comments (4140)

“Sarah Palin's official Trig birth story, and Obama's official birth certificate story are connected in that they point out the fact that apparently 20% of the nation have lost the ability to do critical thinking and assess evidence.

One of these stories, the one that involves a woman announcing a pregnancy late into the third trimester, pulling her daughter out of school for half a year for "mono", flying while in labor, bypassing NICU hospitals, and giving birth in a hospital she has tremendous influence over, attended by a longtime friend physician who is not even an expert in high-risk births, THAT story is CLEARLY full of holes.

The other story, the one with the documents certified by the state, the state officials vouching for it, the numerous judges agreeing everything is in order, THAT story is CLEARLY case closed.

The fact that some people seem incapable of making these simple judgment calls is really worrisome, but I take comfort that it seems to only affect a tiny but obnoxious minority of the population.”

“It matters because male politicians who hide the inconvenient birth of scandalous children have had to deal with it many times in the past. It's sexism to say that even if she engaged in the same conduct that we already said was wrong for these other people, she shouldn't be questioned about it.

It is always wrong to lie to a child about who his parents are. A child's self-identity is more important than any election campaign, and any decent person who deserves to be in office would not hide any of their true children, or pretend to have children they didn't really give birth to, to avoid a teenage pregnancy scandal in the family.”

“Exactly. They refuse to face the real issues that cause them to feel that no matter what evidence is presented, it "just can't be true." They would rather believe the State of Hawaii is perpetrating a massive fraud on the American People for a global New World Order conspiracy than believe a black man honestly won a landslide of votes in the United States. We should really pass true full public healthcare soon so these people can get the help they need!”

“If they kept writing stories about Octomom and the Heenes there would be just as much comment activity, and for exactly the same reasons. People can't look away from a train wreck.”

“Oh but surely it's simply beyond consideration to speculate that a prominent GOP politician would take extreme measures like hiding the true parentage of a child just to prevent a scandal that could damage their ability to be re-elected! I mean such a thing has just never, EVER happened and we should be ashamed of ourselves for asking these questions. It's not like any male politicians have ever hidden illegitimate babies or anything, that simply never occurs and it's just wild conspiracy to suggest anything like that could have happened.

No way. The official story that Ms. Palin boarded a flight from Texas to Alaska WHILE IN LABOR and then bypassed two excellent hospitals with NICU units to have a high-risk birth at her hometown hospital, where she happens to be on the board, attended by a physician she happened to have appointed to a highly-paid government job is TOTALLY believable. Nothing strange there at all, no need for nosy questions.

/end sarcasm”

“Creative story, but science doesn't work like that. Though indeed, we are all descended from the original people of Africa, lighter-skinned people lost their melanin through another process, not albinism.”

“To me the most disturbing part of all this is that Bachmann can post on her website: "Come and meet up with your Representative and tell them that you want to control your health care." And then her spokesperson can say with a straight face, "Rep. Bachmann's website encourages the American people to exercise their right to petition and ensure their voices are heard, what ever their position may be."

No, no that's not what her website said AT ALL. The website tells the people what they are supposed to say to their congressperson, in explicit terms. It in no way tells people to come and tell their congresspeople their opinion no matter what, it says to do it if you agree with her.

Karl Rove told these people that if they just keep repeating lies, they will become the truth, and they're sticking with it ALL THE WAY, apparently.”

“Office of CONGRESSIONAL Ethics made the rule. For people in CONGRESS. Which the president is not. Sometimes it's like you guys aren't even trying.”

“I think there is a dangerous level of irony in the fact that, in order to protest people illegally crossing designated border lines, the teabaggers illegally crossed the borders set up by police to prevent violence between the two groups.

So poor people from Mexico crossing the US border to try to feed their kids should be dealt with as harshly as possible, but white teabaggers should be allowed to cross police designated borders with impunity, and then apparently insult the people on the other side. GOP logic at its finest.”

“Actually the question is very simple: Who crossed the designated boundary lines between protests? Why do you think the police set up two separate areas for the two groups? Was it because if they got in each others' faces, violence would be far more likely to ensue? The person who violated the police rules and aggressively entered the opposing protest area shares much of the blame for the violence that occurred.”

“I'm pretty sure they weren't LITERALLY egging people, though THAT would be a video sure to go viral!”

“I was with you until you said Joe Scarborough was "hunky". I think you might need new glasses.”

“Um...Fox News is actually a corporation. So yeah. You should probably also google "FreedomWorks". Happy to help, have a nice day.”

“You are mistaken. They did indeed clearly and unequivocally call themselves "tea baggers," even going to the point of using the rallying cry "Teabag Washington" before it was tactfully explained to them why the entire rest of the country started giggling. We have the signs and footage to prove it. Karl Rove cannot wish these facts away. Deal with it.”

“Great point! When you're arguing over exactly how close someone is to being the worst guy anybody can remember, it's pretty much moot which one comes out most evil in the final assessment.”

“Follow the story a while and you'll see why it holds such fascination for some. The Iranians are an ancient people with a complex history and rich traditions, and they are amazing at expressing their feelings about their country and what they hope to achieve for their people. They will MAKE you care about them if you just listen to their stories a moment.”

“Thank you, Huffington Post, for carrying this important story! Your coverage of the initial street demonstrations after the election was outstanding, the best coverage available anywhere, and it was an invaluable resource to everyone following the story. Although other world events have become more prominent than the ongoing events in Iran, as this article shows, the resistance is far from over. People don't get THAT angry and then just get over it.

More demonstrations are planned for the near future, and it's possible the situation could escalate dramatically and rapidly at any time, so thanks for keeping an eye on it and I hope to see more coverage of the ongoing events as they unfold!”

“I agree with you that the requirement to purchase health insurance MUST be scrapped, either by Congress or eventually by the Supreme Court. It is 100% unconstitutional to require people to purchase anything! People have the right to go their entire lives without ever picking up a Federal Reserve Note if they choose not to, and they certainly have the right to choose not to use medical care, or to pay for medical expenses out of pocket rather than pay huge premiums that likely would add up to more than their expenses in a given year anyway.

My mind boggles that legislators could seriously be considering such a thing, and comparing it, apples-and-oranges style, to car insurance! If you want to drive a car then you must also purchase the insurance, just as if you want to ride a bicycle you must have a helmet too, or if you want to practice medicine you must have malpractice insurance. It's fine to say that if someone wants to do something dangerous they have to take precautions, but it's completely out of left field to say that you can then be required to purchase something just because Congress thinks you ought to have it!

If we ever once give Congress the power to force us to buy things, there will be no end to the number of "essential" products their lobbyists will think of for us to be required to own.”

“The short answer is yes, yes you should chip in to pay for our nation's medical care, even for people who you apparently feel deserve to suffer because of their immoral lifestyles. It is in fact YOUR duty to help make this country as great as it can be, and you ought to be proud to do your part to defeat a killer that takes thousands of American lives every year: lack of proper access to healthcare.

But if you don't care about being proud of yourself for helping to make a great country even better, or if you don't believe your Deity will reward you for contributing to the welfare of those less fortunate than yourself, you should support public healthcare for the simple reason that diseases are contagious and if there are a lot of sick people running around breathing on you, eventually you too will become ill. Remember smallpox? Ever heard of H1N1? We are all connected. Everything you touch in a given day has been touched by thousands of other people. Other, germy, disease-infested people.

Public healthcare is a right, and it's the decent thing to do, but if all you care about is yourself, it's STILL the smart bet to make because germs don't care whether you're moral and upstanding or not.”

“I still haven't used up my "free checks" from when I first opened my account five years ago. I only use them to pay the lawn guy, everyone else in my life takes plastic! So free checks aren't exactly the alluring perk they probably once were.”

“You're absolutely correct, we cannot and should not force anyone to do anything "our way" just because that's how we like it. It just happens that EVERYONE likes to be free, that's just how humans are. I didn't say anything about weapons, I said WE, the people should demand, with our voices, that everybody, even people in the Middle East, be free to choose THEIR own destiny, their own government.

We can't be fooled into thinking that when fanatic gunmen oversee a "democratic vote" where people are forced to openly write candidates' names, that's good enough, and it's okay to do business with that government and act like it's actually a democracy. We have to call brutal dictators on being brutal dictators, and demand governments live up to the name of democracy or just admit they're dictatorships.”

“See what happens when you elect a star student instead of a guy who made it through with a Gentleman's C? I'm so proud to have a president who actually is taking the time to read the history, gather the facts, demand the best from everyone around him, and find a way out of an entanglement in a land that has sucked in many empires of the past. There are just too many caves. Sure we could destroy all the caves if we made enough bunker-busters but the ecological damage would be devastating.

The key to winning in Afghanistan, and in the whole Middle East is to stop thinking of the people who live there with the paternalistic view that they just "can't handle" democracy, it's just not suited to their culture, they want to live under vicious warlords and brutal religious fanatics and rich crazy tyrants. That's nonsense. Everyone wants to live free and decide their own fate, our Founders held that to be self-evident, and so should we.

We should demand true democratic freedom for everyone living in the Middle East, and then these fanatics can be reduced to their proper place, not taking over the countryside and forming violent criminal gangs, but ranting at rallies like Palin & Bachmann with teabags stapled to their turbans.”

“You mean the "party" where rich old white men lord it over everyone else and get tremendous privilege just for their appearance? That party? Yeah I'm kinda glad that one's ending.”

“Ain't THAT the truth!”

“A justice of the peace IS a state official. It's really frightening to me how many people seem to have no concept of what American marriage actually is. It is a state contract which you can choose, if you wish, to have blessed in a religion of your choice. Or not. The state doesn't care. It's only concerned with noting that these two Social Security subscribers have now formed a household unit and should be taxed accordingly, that the partners in the unit should be given hospital access rights, the right to dispose of each others' property after death, and all the other numerous rights granted by the state to the taxpayers entering the partnership agreement. That IS marriage RIGHT NOW. How do people not know that?”