berkeleygirl1962's Comments (97)

“This is too funny. How about, in exchange for getting their good public-option health plan, they submit to pre-speech drug and alcohol testing?;-)”

“Famous. Last. Words.”

“Why is this kid being named?”

“"Seize" and "seizure" are exceptions to the i-before-e-except-after-c rule (along with weird, leisure, either, and neither) so the headline ("...siezure [sic]...") is WRONG. C'mon, editors!”

“Sorry, there is no choice involved when no act of marital intercourse may be undertaken without risk of pregnancy. Choosing to belong to a faith that gives you no choice may be a choice, but it is a different ethical value.”

“"Calvin Harrison ran a leg of the 4x400 meter relay race at the 2000 Olympics in Sidney [sic], and helped the United States win the gold medal. Now he is homeless, living with his family in a shelter in San Diego..."

Sad as this story is, it'd still be nice to see "Sydney" spelled correctly.”

“About six months ago I noticed my ten year old watching their show. My first assumption was that it was a family of adoptees. When she told me they'd given birth to these kids, I watched an episode--then forbade her to watch it, because the Duggars behavior does not accord with OUR family values (which include birth control and reproductive choice), and because I believe their choice--which should never be legally foreclosed--represents an ethical obscenity.”

“See subsequent comment from "Tyler-Durden" which isn't reconcilable with your experience but matches mine. Perhaps you're on a list of FB users deemed more valuable to advertisers.:-)”

“I'm thoroughly surprised to be defending Facebook, but the settings they're "recommending" are your current settings! This is much ado about nothing, unless you can find someone who's actually aware of their current privacy settings and can demonstrate that Facebook is suggesting they make specific information more public than they'd previously chosen to do. They actually suggested that I make my settings MORE private, which I appreciated but declined to do.”

“Y'all put an extra "e" in "croquembouche." Please fix.”

“*stifling a yawn*...this story peaked way back when it was revealed that Ensign's daddy bailed him out by buying off the mistress and the cuckolded husband...”

“Heartfelt condolences on the loss of your friend. All of the absurd speculation obscures that this man who accomplished so much and was cherished by so many has been lost to those who cared for him and whose lives he touched.”

“I am so sorry for your loss. Suicide touches nearly everyone the victim ever knew or came in contact with, and leaves us wondering what if anything we could have done to prevent it--and even angry at the victim (or their alleged persecutors, if any)--compounding the grief we feel in the wake of any sudden and/or premature death.”

“"He would not have committed suicide just because of a federal grand jury..."???

There may be, as you suggest, grounds for outside investigation of widespread corruption in CPS--but this sad death is not a tipoff to anything other than the need to increase mental health awareness and de-stigmatize treatment.

With the possible exception of the terminally ill, the only reason that people commit suicide is mental illness. They don't kill themselves because their husband left them, or because they lost their job, or because they're being investigated--if that were so, suicide would be epidemic. People kill themselves because their clinical depression--frequently (but not always) undiagnosed or untreated--does not allow them to see any other options.”

“Hmmmm...I thought the verb was "defriend" (or, more properly, "de-friend"), not "unfriend."”

“If you want to get straight to the graphic sex part, check out the last paragraph on Page 9. You're welcome.:-)”

“We can all "help," collectively and individually, by raising our voices to speak out against the hatred and prejudice against our fellow Americans who are Muslims that is already permeating the airwaves and internets in the wake of this tragedy.”

“Regarding J street, the first part of your statement (that "it" subscribes to Zionist racist policies, whatever they are--Jews are not a "race") is vague and unsupportable. The second part is probably true, and I am in fundamental agreement with you that we should not have a "Jewish state" or "Christian states" or "Islamic States" and that the existence of such states prevent peace in that region.”

“see Huffpost blogger Richard Silverstein at
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/10/30/j-street-supports-house-attack-on-goldstone/

I think it's significant that Ben-Ami himself contacted Silverstein to provide "additional information," though perhaps only if you are a seeker of optimistic signs (mea maxima culpa!) would you find any comfort in that development.

I still see a great deal of potential for J street as a loose aggregation of inchoate dissent from AIPAC. Debate within the conference was apparently far more vibrant and wide-ranging than the "outcomes" would indicate. And that there would be space for this kind of discussion today would have been nearly unthinkable a year ago.”

“You are so right.”

“You're right that Israel policy is has been the third rail for American politicians, but Gideon Levy's plea could not be more timely and I'm puzzled by your point here, Mr. Linkins.

There are a couple of crucial errors in your commentary: first, such opinion pieces "challenging [Israeli] exceptionalism" don't appear "from time to time" in Ha'aretz, they appear almost daily. Second, by its obdurate intransigence the Netanyahu-Lieberman government has made it EASIER for the US to take a hard line with Israel on the crucial issue of settlements, IN SUPPORT of anti-occupation, pro-peace Israelis.

Third, the rise of a visible challenge to AIPAC hegemony (by the heretofore "silent majority" of a certain segment of the American community of which I am a part), as exemplified by the large J Street conference that just concluded, has created a wedge of political space in THIS country for the US to revoke Israel's blank check. Obama and Clinton are wasting the opportunity created by this perfect storm, and your commentary only blurs the issues.”

“"No single authority interprets religious law for Orthodox Jews. But Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the revered 99-year-old scholar who signed the elevator ruling, is one of the most influential voices in the Jewish world, widely considered to be one of his generation's greatest authorities on religious law....Elyashiv has been behind other controversial decisions before. In September, he proclaimed Jews could not wear Crocs shoes on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, because they were deemed too comfortable for the somber fasting holiday." [Traditionally, leather shoes are not worn on Yom Kippur, so Now What?]

No imposition of rules on anyone who doesn't volunteer, Rand, but oy! talk about hairsplitting!;-)”

“WE DON'T NEED SIXTY VOTES to pass a bill in the Senate. We need Democrats to refuse to support a GOP filibuster. And frankly, rather than water down the bill any further, LET THEM FILIBUSTER. The Majority Leader has the right to force a "traditional filibuster"--i.e., one where a quorum must hold the floor around the clock--and what could drive the pro-reform forces' point home better than this kind of spectacle, live on C-SPAN, with the bought-and-paid defenders of the insurance industry and the supporters of the status quo declaiming against Health Care For All (or babbling off-topic nonsense, reading bad poetry, or the DC phonebook, all allowable under Senate rules)? I repeat, let them filibuster!”

“I won't be commenting on this non-story. Sorry. Extra time and energy devoted to some difficult family issues. We'll be wrestling with ethical dilemmas, exposing hypocrisies, nursing long-simmering resentments, losing our religion, challenging long-held assumptions, and we need to have total privacy during this arduous process. We expect to be done by noon.”

“Amen, Brother Sullivan!”