Disqus - Latest Comments for houlios

Re: What Your Neighborhood List-Serv Tells You About The Demise of America | The Federalist

houlios — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 14:27:48 -0000

But isn't it obvious that Mollie and all these commenters know more than the American Academy of Pediatricians???

Re: What Your Neighborhood List-Serv Tells You About The Demise of America | The Federalist

houlios — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 14:03:27 -0000

OK, then...In 1950 there were almost 400% more fatal childhood accidents than there are today.

However you word it it doesn't change the numbers. Focus on safety has saved millions of lives.

Now you can say that all those dead kids are the price we pay for the freedom to ride bikes w/o helmets, or swim w/o supervision or to not pay attention to our kids for the afternoon but that's a different argument entirely than the one Mollie is making.

Re: What Your Neighborhood List-Serv Tells You About The Demise of America | The Federalist

houlios — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 11:03:29 -0000

I'll repeat - childhood fatalities due to home accidents are down almost 400% since 1950. Safety is real.

Its pretty clear that Ms. Hemingway was not only referring to lawn mower accidents but using that example to make a broader point about childhood safety. Anyone making this point needs to understand that many, many, measurable lives have been saved due to increased safety attention.

Re: What Your Neighborhood List-Serv Tells You About The Demise of America | The Federalist

houlios — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 10:50:13 -0000

The problem here is that children are far safer now than they were in the past. How safe? Well according to the CDC -

"The nostalgia about unsupervised kids roaming the city or countryside all day seems especially pernicious when you take a look at the statistics. Accident and disease mortality among children has seen a rapid decline in the last 60 years.
In 1950, accident mortality for children ages 5-14 was 22.7 per 100,000 and 6.2 per 100,000 in 2005. Auto accident mortalityfor children ages 5-14 was 9 per 100,000 in 1950 and 4 per 100,000 in 2005. Additionally, disease mortality is also much lower. Disease mortality rates for children were 36.6 per 1000 in 1950 and a startling 8.6 per 100,000 in 2005."

http://southwestminneapolis...

So childhood accident mortality has decreased almost 400% since 1950. There's millions of people alive now because of people being more safety conscious.

Re: Pain pain go away

houlios — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:16:03 -0000

Cara used to work in a lab at the U where she tested her own blood daily...With Patrick O'Keefe!

Re: Whammers!

houlios — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:40:04 -0000

In his eye!

I saw the "Whammers!" on my Facebook home page and I thought it was an acceptance announcement.

What you could do is pay me and Brett Howe our $1 million a bit early.

Re: Grant II

houlios — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:57:51 -0000

That is great news. Now go eat yourself into a celebratory coma!

Re: Submission #3 and rejection #1

houlios — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:08:14 -0000

As Omar Little would say, "You in the game."

Re: Twenty Ten

houlios — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:32:19 -0000

Awesome! Break a leg!

Re: Cat

houlios — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:09:23 -0000

Buy more cat litter?

Re: How stupid are we?

houlios — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:46:08 -0000

538 did some Palin stuff and showed how she dominates among non-college grads.

And back to the quote - they trust the government to decide in secret who to torture and who not to torture, even US citizens (Padilla) but they don't trust the government to conduct a census or hand out welfare checks. Funny, funny hardcore they are about being wary of the government.

Re: Oh my lord

houlios — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:27:13 -0000

My favorite part about this poll and the surrounding controversy was Karl Rove and BillO on Fox this week being outraged that republicans actually believe the stuff that Glenn Beck broadcasts 5 nights a week on Fox. Priceless.

Also, the #s on torture aren't even included in this poll and those numbers are through the roof with approval for republicans and christians.

And people wonder why I'm not a republican anymore.

Re: This is what I finally decided, too

houlios — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:40:48 -0000

Hah! I totally thought you made up that quote, and I've read all those damn books. Negits shitty memory.

Re: Obama to Republicans

houlios — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:32:28 -0000

I've only been following politics since 9/11 so I don't have the longest frame of reference here, but I don't remember any president ever just offering himself up and taking questions from the other party's congressmen and televising it. Has this ever been done before?

Meanwhile, Sarah Bleeping Palin has never even given one single press conference but ~33% of the country thinks she'd be the greatest president in the history of hockey moms.

Re: Story #14: The Difference Between A Redwood And A Sequoia

houlios — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:08:56 -0000

This was awesome: "Superninja thought about killing them all. He could do it in nine seconds, kill the cameraman last, leave Lynn alive to witness it, to tell everyone how he tore through them like a man in fast-forward, how he delivered temple-blows so precisely that their corpses fell unmarred, a whole store full of beautiful sleeping people with shit in their pants." Really, really cool. Obviously, I loved the fact that he was a real badass ninja and I loved all the throw-away references to old missions and the "undead legions of Wang-tan" and stuff like that. Very entertaining. Kinda reminded me of a Quentin Tarantino story.

For some reason him going out with Lynn seemed not very believable. I'm not sure why but that stuck out to me as awkward.

Re: Story #13: The Chinese Hate Us

houlios — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:54:24 -0000

Lots of really funny parts, arguing about shit in the ways that I recognize always makes me giddy. I also liked the ending this time, I felt I got some payoff.

Disliked - I thought Carl could've been fleshed out a bit more or he could've just been left out. As it was, he didn't add much, but I am nitpicking mostly just to come up with something I disliked about this story. It was really funny.

Re: Story #12: Breaking Camp

houlios — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:40:31 -0000

I loved the bit about the coffee and the "final insult." Made me laugh out loud.

Disliked the ending, again. I am so predictable.

Re: Story #11: Red and Blue

houlios — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:32:04 -0000

I liked this one a lot too. But generally I like your genre stories a lot.

I liked pretty much everything about it: The dialogue, the dystopian setting, the characterization of Saunders, the violence.

I didn't like the ending though, as usual, I want more explanation and/or payoff, a lot of times the endings are too abrupt IMO.

Re: Story #10: More Or Less Drunk

houlios — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:17:04 -0000

I liked that it made me sad, but sad in a good way, if you get my drift.

I agree with Leafmuncher, the dudes needed more differentiation.

Re: Story #9: Nothing Beyond Repair

houlios — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:31:45 -0000

Liked: You built a real feeling of anticipation, almost dread, with just wtf Jameson was up to, I couldn't wait to get to the end and find out.

Disliked: The frisbee playing.

Re: Story #7: Free States

houlios — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:42:40 -0000

I liked the action of this story and the tension I felt as I expected terrible things to happen at any moment. It read fast. I also liked the setting which I believe is the same setting as the story that got you into CW if I remember correctly. I've said b4 that some of your stuff reminds me of Richard K. Morgan's good stuff and this story falls into that category.

I didn't like that we knew so little about James. I think a hint or a couple of details could've gone a long way without giving away the store.

Re: Story 4: Testament

houlios — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:34:02 -0000

I loved the setting - the combo of real and speculative and all the throw away details that make this BizarroNYC.

Again, I feel left hanging by the conclusion of the story. What possible reason would they have to cause a drought just b/c some retard make a sarcastic remark in a bar? I do realize its a short story so maybe this sort of satisfying conclusion is not in the cards, and maybe that's why I generally don't like short stories. Shrug.

Re: CW0809 Writing Contest, or, Where I’ve Been

houlios — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:32:25 -0000

re: Story #1

I liked the dialog between Brody and Simonsen - it made me LOL a couple of times.
I didn't like not knowing wtf was going on at the end when the guys get run off, I know its probably not important but I wanted to know anyway and it bugged me that I didn't.

Re: Excerpt from best LSH post ever

houlios — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:43:06 -0000

I have a theory are why cocks occasionally behave in this traitorous fashion but I will keep it private until I see you next.

Re: Very Strong Statements

houlios — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:03:42 -0000

Re: the Nobel Prize

Most of the people reading this blog know that my hat-of-Obama-love knows no limit, but even I wouldn't have given it to him at this point. But I think Shane is on the money when he points out that this shows how low regard for America and the office of the POTUS had fallen around the world based on the Dubya presidency.

In the "I wish I had written it" department, Josh Marshall @ talkingpointsmemo.com writes:

"This is an odd award. You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the 'hyper-power' as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it's a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was 'normal history' rather than dark aberration."