DISQUS

"V for Vendetta" is based on a comic book series published in the 80s. It may draw parallels to current terrorist themes but it in no way originates from recent events.

I'm totally with you on the "if you don't like the movies then vote with your wallet" train. There's room for things that you both like and don't like in the media and you can avoid the things you don't like pretty easily with technical marvels like the V chip, responsibility, and the power button.

I think this leads to a much bigger issue though: people as a whole don't want to think critically anymore, and a work of art that challenges their viewpoints is a risk to that. Art exists to confirm as well as to offend, and if you only choose to stick to one side you will never get the full effect.

I don't think he will resign but I don't think he's doing a good job either...

Gas prices were seriously the top concern? Unless you’re in the shipping industry it shouldn’t be THAT much of an issue. I think the difference between peak gas prices back in September and now was a whopping $10 per week to me, and I drive 350+ miles every week.

I thought Free Republic was a parody site for the longest time.

I wish I was right :(

Time to start trimming your RSS feeds?

Whenever I find a bunch of bloggers circlejerking around the same story too much (and without any unique insight) I cut all of them off except for the one or two who tend to get to the story first.

ry living in Philadelphia and hearing this stuff at work every day…

At least my dad’s happy; the Cowboys won last night.

Uh MS-13 isn’t terrorism, it’s gang activity just like you would have seen in South Central LA ten years ago. Unless everything we don’t like is now labelled “terrorism” and I missed the talking points memo…

Thanks for recommending my article :)

PS before anyone says it here yes I know it’s Ben Trott and not John Trott, I’m working on getting that edited!

There’s pap_xpoll for polling, though it’s not as web 2.0 as the Wordpress plugin you were using (no AJAX that I’m aware of).

Another test comment

I've been on textpattern for 8 months now and honestly I don't miss Trackback at all. Sure I might get one or two less links but it's not that big a deal, and I haven't had to deal with comment/trackback spam at all since I installed it, which I think says a lot.

Ignore my email then :)

Good idea in theory but it looks kind of ugly now (not matching up with the rest of your layout).

PS: I'm surprised Smoke on the Water and Purple Haze aren't in your list :)

Days 7-14 are when the cravings come back hard. Good luck getting through that, it's where I fell off last time :(

I do think Bush did better this time around than in the first two elections. Did he "win"? Not sure. Frankly, Kerry only beat him by a hair in the first two debates in my opinion. However, I was thinking that Bush would cream him in all three debates (and I'm rooting for Kerry this time around). The real winner will be decided next month I guess.

Don't put The Loop in the index template. ;)

Comcast's internet service has been perfect for me. The only time it went out, I hit the power button on my modem a couple of times and all went well again. I can't stand their sloooooooow digital cable and horrible installation servicee though (the installer was an idiot and used the same cable outlet for both TVs and my cable modem in my condo. I have black cables EVERYWHERE :mad: ).



Also, your profanity filter is way off. Are you using stristr? Try regular expressions instead, like bassb to search for word boundaries and filter out the right things and not words like Massachusetts ;).

:lol:



This is what you get when you send the contact form without filling in any information. Priceless!

You apparently lack the rudimentary skills necessary to send us a message via this basic mail form. That's pretty sad.



Click here to go back and give it another try. Otherwise, perhaps you should stop jerking around and get back to work sometime soon.



Best of luck in this, and all your ventures in life, as most of them will obviously be quite a challenge for someone like you.

Very nice! :)

Good luck. I nearly always root for those who work to get their marriages back in order (except in extreme cases i.e. abuse), especially when kids are involved.

And I forgot to add: while the Republican party has been pandering to the socially conservative base lately, they seem to be pissing away their fiscally conservative base by running massive deficits. The fiscal conservatives probably won't vote Democrat as a result, but that doesn't mean that a party like the Libertarians can't pick up some votes at the Republicans' expense.

Extremists get nominated, moderates get elected. I forget who said that previous sentence but it's mostly true.

I think it’s a fallacy to believe that all the power resides with “the base”.

Agreed there. Even with "the base" the Republican party only got a small victory margin last time. Seeing that most of the promises that energized the social conservative base haven't come to pass, I'm not sure they'll be as easily convinced to get out and vote red the next time around either.

If it was Giuliani/McCain versus Hillary I think I'd vote for a Republican president for the first time ever. I agree with Mike though; I don't think Hillary will make it through the primaries because of the non-moderate stigma attached to her name (and a social liberal like me wouldn't vote for her because of her stance on censorship).

Frankly I'm saddened that the hurricane has distilled down to a bunch of political talking points on both sides. It makes me mad that so many aren't doing much other than talking about who was wrong and why, when there is so much else at stake and people who still need help.



For those of you who have never lived in hurricane-prone areas, here is why many of those who may have been able to evacuate didn't: because most of the time those who issue the evacuations are wrong. I can't tell you how many times I was under hurricane warnings when I lived in Florida, but I can tell you how many actual hurricanes I have been through: one. Hurricane Andrew, 1992. After hearing wolf cried so many times you get numb to the whole thing. You still carry out the drill of boarding up your house and hoarding water and supplies from your local grocery store and home depot, but odds are nothing happens and you take your boards down the next day, mad at the weatherman for making you poke a bunch of holes in the stucco exterior of your house and missing a day of work.



The people of New Orleans have had many a warning that turned out to be nothing. Remember that.



You also have to remember that many who stayed behind had no other choice. Many people forget that being poor in the US can still mean not having viable transportation, and not having enough money in the bank to get on the next bus/plane out of town, and in a city like New Orleans getting around without a car can be impossible under emergency conditions. Even if Nagin had ordered people to get on a bus and get the hell out of town, where would they go? Some people just can't get out, and none of your complaining at them will change that unless your complaints somehow land them a higher-paying job.



And about the race thing: I sincerely believe that the whole Katrina fiasco has little to do with race and everything to do with class/social status. New Orleans is 67% African-American so of course there will be more of them affected than anybody else. It's just statistical fact. However, the poor of all races were hit harder than those who were better off because they couldn't do much to evacuate or prepare.



The only way this will get any better is if we as individuals and as a nation realize that it's the fault of all of us and actually help those in need rather than paying lip service and politics about these situations.



I've said a lot. Thanks for letting me speak my piece :)