Disqus - Latest Comments for mlhradio

Re: Discontinuing Self-Published Reader Comments

mlhradio — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:22:16 -0000

125 comments down, I'm not sure if Pete or any of the TMV moderators are still reading this thread. But add me to the nearly-unanimous chorus that thinks that cutting off your nose in spite of your face (e.g. disabling comments) is A Bad Idea. I understand the reasoning behind it, but there *has* to be a better solution available.

While I have never been a prolific commenter, I have been here for a few years. I'll be sorry to see the TMV *community* disappear.

Re: Obama Plans to Use Momentum From Health Care Reform Victory to Press On

mlhradio — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 23:42:53 -0000

Anyone else remember a certain other president that had recently won a very close, bi-partisan vote and uttered the phrase "I earned political capital, and I intend to use it."?

To Obama, I say, proceed with extreme caution.

That being said, I am glad that the President has finally found his cojones, and it is probably the wisest decision to press forward with as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Political capital is fickle and fleeting. After spending a year frittering away opportunities, extending the olive branch to the republicans over and over and over again in attempt to gain bipartisanship only to be rejected *each* and *every* time, it's time for some hardball. Good luck.

Re: Quote of the Day: Proof of the Double Standard On Recess Appointments

mlhradio — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 22:07:47 -0000

If I remember correctly, just before everyone went on break this past week, the *entire* republican voting block in the Senate signed on to a letter to the President telling him essentially "don't you dare make any recess appointments." That's the entire 41 republican contigent once again trying to stand up to Obama.

When I read that, I thought to myself, okay, if the entire republican minority is going to vote against Obama's appointment picks, and sign a letter to that affect, then what's the incentive for Obama *not* to make the recess appointments? If only 35 or 36 senators has signed the letter, then there was a small amount of wiggle room, a handful of senators that could be convinced to vote with the Democrats. But if all 41 are going to vote as a block, then there's no point in even *trying*.

Makes me wonder if Obama came to the same conclusion.

Re: BREAKING: Democrats Have (More Than) the Votes They Need

mlhradio — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:26:50 -0000

Rather than get all worked up about all the political in-fighting, back-stabbing and mystifying machinations, I decided to spend my time doing something much more productive and ultimately more satisfying: Curling up and petting the cat.

Gotta get my priorities straight, y'know?

Re: Is God Angry at Haiti?

mlhradio — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:09:13 -0000

Haiti's predicament has little to do with some sort of divine intervention or punishment. Rather, there are just simply some locations on this planet that human beings should not build large, permanent, highly-populated settlements. Y'know, places like Haiti, that sit on major tectonic faults and sit in the path of multiple hurricanes every year. It's just plain science - parts of the planet are more prone to major disasters than others.

Of course, Haitians are far from uniquely 'punished' by natural disasters. Could the same be said of the thousands killed by the Izmit earthquake in Turkey in 1999? Or how about the millions evacuated from Mount Pinatubo in 1991? Or how about the million-plus displaced and thousands killed in mudslides in Honduras and Nicaragua in 1998? And let's not forget the tsunami that wiped out a quarter of a million Sumatrans just five years ago.

As long as we build and live in places that are prone to floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and other major natural disasters, we are going to continue to see more "Haitis" in the future. If anyone wishes to interpret the natural forces of the planet as 'divine wrath', then so be it.

And let's not forget the United States is far from immune - we could just as easily be talking about an 8.0 earthquake in Los Angeles or New Madrid or Anchorage. Who knows where the next disaster will strike?

Re: The Hidden Costs of MasterCard & Visa Debit Cards

mlhradio — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:00:34 -0000

>>I'm with DaMav, the system may be complicated and arbitrary, but it is conducted by consenting adults. And like Tyler Cowan, I'm enjoying my 1% rebate. Hard to see how letting Uncle Sam into my wallet would leave me better off.

As much as I disagree with DaMav on nearly every other issue on this site, I am on his side on this one. As far as consumers go, the system of using debit cards, credit cards, cash or other forms of payment is essentially voluntary. While I understand there is always a need for various government laws and regulations over transactions (such as Reg. E, which governs electronic transactions and disputes for consumers), it seems to me that the best solution to the "credit/debit problem" can be addressed by gold ole-fashioned free market forces.

As just a single example which happened *today*, Best Buy announces that they will no longer accept contactless Visa payments due to a long-running dispute with Visa over fees. (Link here: http://www.storefrontbackta...

Re: Press 1 For English, 2 For Spanish

mlhradio — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:27:36 -0000

I actually work on the other side of that phone tree, for an inbound call center for a major international bank (specifically, business accounts). Because I work the overnight shift, when our foreign language department (Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese) does not operate, I have calls from the Spanish phone gate routed to me on occasion. About half the time, I have to get an AT&T interpreter on the line for assistance, but about half the time I discover the people who dial in to the Spanish gate can speak and understand English perfectly fine - it's just that they default to the Spanish option because that is their native language.

>>So why Press 2 for Spanish when it involves not one-sixth of our population but only a small percentage of that same group who resettled here?<<

I have learned that many people will "Press 2 for Spanish" not because they *have* to, but because they *want* to. Don't automatically assume it is done out of necessity, but consider the option that it is done out of choice.

Re: Obama’s Year One Accomplishments

mlhradio — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:31:14 -0000

To me, Obama's single biggest "accomplishment" is that he is actually doing what he said he would do during his campaign. Far too many times, we've seen politicians make all sorts of empty promises to get elected, then once in office conveniently forget everything they said just a few months earlier. Obama, by contrast, is sticking fairly closely to his campaign promises.

Taking a quick look over at the Obameter at PolitiFact: (http://www.politifact.com/t... - out of 511 documented campaign promises:

Promises kept: 79
Compromise: 21
Promises broken: 9
Stalled: 53
In the works: 216
Not yet rated: 133

For just a single year in office, that's a pretty substantial list of work completed and work in progress.

Re: What Took You So Long, Dick?

mlhradio — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:31:27 -0000

And people are still listening to the disgraced former VP because....???

Re: Boobs, Birthers, and Birchers

mlhradio — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:47:39 -0000

>Do you really think AKA Obama would have won the election if all the things he is hiding were made known?
...
>Why is Obama paying millions to his lawyers to fight the release of his hospital birth certificate?
...
>All Obama needs is to release his long form birth certificate and his father's birth certificate to end the controversey.

...Must...resist...urge...to poke fun...at the birthers....

Re: When A Bad Prayer Goes Good

mlhradio — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:52:56 -0000

>>I'm a tea partier (and also a democrat) and have been against the use of "tea baggers". It was meant as a marginalization word.

I have used the teabagger phrase before, I will admit. However, a little while back I decided to decrease my use of some of the more outrageous political insults - I may slip up and use an insult every now and then when I get angry, but by-and-large I'm cutting it out of my commentary.

The main reason being, it's just plain *not helpful*. If you insult someone on the message boards by calling them a derogatory name or slur, they are only going to tune you out, no matter how valid your argument or solid your logical reasoning. If I'm going to try and argue a point or prove someone wrong, I'd rather do it with an intelligent, well-reasoned paragraph than by simply dismissing them as some "nutjob teabagger".

Although, I must admit, there is that short-term feel-good moment when I write some little insulting zinger, and others who agree with me "like" my comment. But whenever I do that, I'm just preaching to the choir, and how does that really help anyone on this message board?

Re: When A Bad Prayer Goes Good

mlhradio — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:12:02 -0000

Agreed - this certainly smells like a prank. But perhaps the most scary part of this is that it seems *almost* plausible. Almost. The obvious giveaway for me is that no Tea Party extremist would refer to themselves as a "tea bag group".

Re: Update on Offutt Military Base-Ben Nelson Story

mlhradio — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:02:11 -0000

Kathy, you are technically 100% correct - the whole base closure story is complete bupkes. A complete fabrication, a total lie, a terrible rumor.

But, that being said -- you're missing the point. It really doesn't matter whether it is true or not. Instead, people who *want* to believe it, *will* believe it, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. We've seen the same thing with birth certificates, Obama's sooper-seekrit Muslim religion, ACORN, death panels, climate change deniers, you name it. Plain and simple: Facts Don't Matter.

I refer you back to an interesting TED Talk by Jonathan Haidt earlier this year, that touches on this whole idea. Read it in full here: http://blog.ted.com/2009/09...

The most relevant paragraph: "We engage in moral thinking not to find the truth, but to find arguments that support our intuitive judgments, so that we can defend ourselves if challenged. The crucial insight here comes from psychologist Tom Gilovich at Cornell, who says that when we want to believe a proposition, we ask, "Can I believe it?" -- and we look only for evidence that the proposition might be true. If we find a single piece of evidence then we're done. We stop. We have a reason we can trot out to support our belief. But if we don't want to believe a proposition, we ask, "Must I believe it?" -- and we look for an escape hatch, a single reason why maybe, just maybe, the proposition is false. So people who have a negative intuitive reaction to Obama, or who are fearful about the enormous changes going on, are already inclined to believe rumors against him and his plans. They hear about death panels and forged birth certificates and ask "can I believe it?" The answer is usually yes, particularly if Fox News raises these questions and brings on experts who claim that the propositions are true. Even if Fox News presents both sides, the fact that somebody on TV endorsed a proposition gives viewers permission to believe it, if they want to. Conversely, Democrats can give rebuttals till they're blue in the face, but if people are asking themselves "must I believe it" about the Democrats' claims then the answer they will usually reach is "no." Logic and consistency just aren't very important when it comes to morality. Reasoning is "the servant of the passions," as the philosopher David Hume said long ago."

My conclusion: There is no reasoning with these types of people. So I don't even try.

Re: Parker Wins Houston Mayorality

mlhradio — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:05:12 -0000

I look forward to the day when this is *not* news.

Someday, someday...

Re: Harry Reid, Uncensored (Guest Voice)

mlhradio — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:37:14 -0000

I'm kinda curious how this entirely-immoderate editorial ended up on The Moderate Voice in the first place. This junior-high-school level of taunting is not exactly up to TMV's normal level of discourse.

Re: An Exception to the GOP Disdain for “Symbolic” Resolutions

mlhradio — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:01:34 -0000

Whether or not the republican leadership is being hypocritical, I feel that offering up a resolution to recognize Christmas is a good idea, even if it is nothing more than a symbolic measure. And I support good ideas, *regardless* of whether they are offered by hypocritical politicians or not.

And I would hope that more people would make determinations based on the merits of a bill or resolution, rather than by the person offering it.

Re: Copenhagen 2009: The carbon footprint | GDS Publishing

mlhradio — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:30:22 -0000

Highly misleading - keep in mind that the 15,000 delegates and 5,000 journalists would still be eating their 200,000 meals, 50,000 sandwiches and drinking their 200,000 cups of tea whether they were in Copenhagen or not. If anything, this chart only shows how much of the carbon footprint is *shifted* from various localities around the world to Copenhagen, it does not show *new* carbon that would be produced exclusively because of the conference.

Of course, the whole purpose of producing a chart in this fashion is to push the creator's own bias, so it's no surprise that it would be created with the intent to mislead.

Re: Is Palin A Birther Who Thinks Obama Birth Certificate Is An Issue? Or a Serial Gaffer?

mlhradio — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:52:54 -0000

My first reaction to all this: ****sigh****

I enjoy watching slow-moving train wrecks as much as the next guy, but even I am getting pretty tired of the All-Palin-All-The-Time media coverage. And I got fully sick and tired of the whole birther ridiculousness a while ago.

But of course, that's just me. Alas.

The American Public loves a Spectacle, and Palin never fails to provide the cable and blog punditry trainloads of red meat to satisfy. No doubt "we" will still be gabbing about the latest Palin triumph/disaster/discussion/whatever tomorrow and on the next day, the next week, the next month, and I suspect the next year as well. And just as much as the American Public loves a Spectacle, they love a Conspiracy Theory as well. I suspect the whole Birther nonsense will join the pantheon of "great" American conspiracies, right next to the JFK murder, 9/11 conspiracies, and Who Shot J.R.

So, I repeat: ****sigh***

Re: Cheney Blasts Obama On Afghanistan Before Speech: Accuses Obama of Giving “Aid and Comfort” to the Enemy

mlhradio — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:40:58 -0000

I never did agree with the whole "former presidents/vice-presidents/etc should not speak ill of the current administration" argument - as a private citizen, Cheney should have just as much of a right to express his opinion as any other private citizen. One should not attack him because of that point.

Rather, one should attack him because his opinions are just plain *wrong*. Attack him on the merits (or in this case, the lack of merits) of his argument, not whether or not he can express it.

Re: Poll: 52% of Republicans Think ACORN Stole Election For Obama

mlhradio — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:39:15 -0000

>>Fourteen percent of the population is an impressive number of people. And 22% is anything but anemic--it's nearly a quarter of the population. It's not hard to imagine why they are being pandered to.<<

More than 20% of the population also believes in witchcraft, astrology, communication with the dead, extraterrestrial visitations, and hauntings (Gallup Link). Does that mean we should pander to those groups, too?

Re: Poll: 52% of Republicans Think ACORN Stole Election For Obama

mlhradio — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:42:11 -0000

Tangentially, I do find that the republicans' monomaniacal obsession with ACORN to be curious. For such a minor group that most people (including myself) had never heard of until last year's election coverage, the frothy-mouthed pundits sure are raising a fuss.

...then again, the exact same could be said for Sarah Palin. So I guess monomaniacal obsession is fair game for both sides, eh?

Re: Poll: 52% of Republicans Think ACORN Stole Election For Obama

mlhradio — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:19:56 -0000

Statistics can be alarming when played the right way. However, all statistics must be taken into perspective. While 52% of republicans may erroneously say that the election was stolen, you must keep in mind that only 27% of the electorate self-identifies as republican (http://www.gallup.com/poll/.... 52% times 27% equals...14%, not exactly an impressive percentage. 14% is dipping into Lizard Brain Territory (http://www.eschatonblog.com.... Even if you add in the group "republican leaning independents", that still works out an anemic 22% of the electorate.

To put this in perspective, 18% of Americans believe that the Sun revolves around the Earth. And 31% believe in astrology.

Re: Fox News Airs Misleading Old Footage Again

mlhradio — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:19:26 -0000

Using the 'wrong' footage once -- I can see that as a mistake, such as someone in the back rooms grabbing the wrong reel or something like that.

But for the Fox Opinion Channel to use misleading footage *twice* in a week - well, it's getting hard to write that off as a simple mistake.

Shame on you, Fox Opinion Channel!

Re: Hoffman “Unconceeds” In NY 23 Race As Loss Margin Narrows

mlhradio — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:44:56 -0000

435 House seats, elected every two years, for the past many decades...something like this *must* have happened before. Is there any precedence for how this might have been handled in a previous example?

Re: Palin’s Magical Mystery Book Tour: Birth or Death of a Serious Presidential Candidacy?

mlhradio — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:20:47 -0000

>>Scummy attacks on Palin by the Left are lofting her more than the social conservatives' enamoration or adoration of her.<<

Um....I think that's part of "The Plan". I suspect most of those taking pot shots at Palin from the left realize just how much it riles up the right. So they keep doing it. Keep poking that stick in that open sore, y'know?

Personally, speaking as someone who falls in the slightly-left-of-center camp, I really hope that Palin does have some sort of national political aspirations in mind. I really, really, REALLY do - if there was any one single figure that could keep the republicans out of power for years to come, it would be her.

Dobbs/Palin 2012? You betchya!