Disqus - Latest Comments for tikaro

Re: Chester County too restrictive in allowing schools to open

John Young — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 09:56:09 -0000

The author of this letter sounds like a Harry Potter villain.

"Guidance" in scare quotes? Just because you disagree with the guidance doesn't make it "guidance", it's simply guidance you disagree with.

The author of this letter's argument seems to be "unless you allow us to pack students three feet apart, we'll _never_ return to school!" That's not an argument, that's a complaint.

The proof will be in the infection numbers from Montgomery and Bucks, at which point I believe we'll see the wisdom of Chester County's (no scare quotes) guidance.

Re: Dead (Congress)Men Walking: Are Philly's suburban GOPers totally doomed? | Will Bunch

John Young — Fri, 10 Nov 2017 10:54:06 -0000

Hear, hear!

And thanks for the homework assignment. I'm a lib-leaner, I'll do the reading you suggest.

Re: Demonstrators in West Chester urge lawmakers to reject new health care bill

John Young — Tue, 26 Sep 2017 08:23:22 -0000

Thanks very much for putting yourselves out on the street, folks. It's SUPER important to make sure that our voices are heard and to make sure our representatives know just how important this issue is. I know you get hollered at by folks waiting in traffic on Market street: "Get a job!" or the always-popular "Trump! TRUUUUMP!", and it's no fun being out there. So I want to make sure to let you know how grateful I and others are for you doing this!

Re: More than 100 stage rally at Ryan Costello’s office urging him to vote no on ACA repeal

John Young — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 15:03:20 -0000

I was heartened to see a whole bunch of folks out there making it clear that the majority of Ryan Costello's constituents want him to vote NO on this poorly conceived, hastily assembled, and altogether wretched piece of legislation.

The ACA was always supposed to be a work-in-progress, but eight years of obstructionism have kept us from making meaningful progress on it. Let's finally get to work fixing the warts in the ACA, not starting over with something much, MUCH worse.

Re: Congressman holds pop-up town hall meeting with protesters

John Young — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 11:05:46 -0000

Gorilla suit man here! I'm a West Chester resident and a constituent of the 6th district.

First, a word of thanks, then an explanation about why I was there, and finally, my questions:

A WORD OF THANKS

Republicans have been getting raked over the coals (and rightly so, in my opinion) for avoiding face-to-face interactions with their constituents. Toomey's highly-managed speakerphone tele-town-halls were a joke.

Props to you, Congressman Costello, for stepping out on to the curb and talking to the roughly forty folks outside your office, plus one in a gorilla suit. That's not a controlled situation -- you've done your homework, you KNOW that all of us have video cameras and a bone to pick -- and I appreciate you taking a risk.

WHY I WAS OUT THERE IN A GORILLA SUIT

If I were you, Congressman, I would be trying SO HARD to continue being the moderate Republican that -- up until the November 2016 election -- matched the makeup and mood of the PA 6th district.

But the time to sit on the fence is over.

A Trump/Bannon-led executive branch is NOT business as usual. The Republican party is deeply split; half "traditional" moderates, and half reactionaries. The executive branch is flailing. This is not going to blow over.

This is NOT the time for you to continue politics as usual. It's not enough to issue carefully-worded equivocations. It's not enough for you to vote with Trump and then explain those votes away, saying "well, you see, actually..."

My purpose in putting on a goofy costume and holding a sign is to make sure you know we -- your constituents -- need you to rise to the challenge of the times. Most of the folks out on your curb are not seasoned firebrand liberal activists. I know I wasn't, I'm just a local goofball. But now I'm outside your office to try to push you outside of your comfort zone.

HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS

* What will it take for you to come off the sidelines, break with the reactionary side of the Republican party, and clearly denounce the actions of the Trump administration?

* When will you show us that you truly are a moderate Republican, NOT just with carefully worded statements explaining your Trump-aligned votes, but with the actual votes themselves?

Re: Baldwin’s Book Barn – West Chester PA

John Young — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 14:46:02 -0000

This is a wonderful write-up -- and BEAUTIFUL pictures!

Re: Why Dan Fradin thinks his startup is worth fighting for

John Young — Fri, 20 Feb 2015 13:39:01 -0000

This is fantastic! Man, I hope one of the things you will do with it is to let me watch myself destroy a car, like Ken in Streetfighter: https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Re: West Chester Guerilla Drive-In: Get on the Updates List

John Young — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 12:03:09 -0000

Sorry to disappoint, Zach! I'm sure we'll do the GDI again _someday_, but for right now, we're all having a great time doing roller derby :)

Re: Blog Design Copied - What Would You Do?

John Young — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 10:20:40 -0000

I can _totally_ imagine myself making this kind of mistake -- or even this exact mistake -- earlier in my career, or even (to be perfectly honest) in my future career, if I wasn't paying strict attention. Sounds like everyone involved is a stand-up person.

Re: Blog Design Copied - What Would You Do?

John Young — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 09:03:25 -0000

Here's what I would do (standard disclaimers apply):

1) Apply Hanlon's Razor http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... and assume that this fellow just wasn't thinking carefully. People do dumb stuff all the time, and I think anyone in the ruby community should get at least one thoughtless mistake forgiven.
2) Send him an email saying "say, even though that repo was public, I'm not okay with what you did", and give him a face-saving opportunity to say "You are right, I'm sorry" and make it right. I would guess that he would do so: "Oh, sorry, I thought it was a public theme, because it's so beautiful, mea culpa", etc.
3) If he gives an unsatisfactory response or no response, then make this blog post and (Just as Scott says below) and move on.

Re: Downingtown area couple are part of same sex lawsuit

John Young — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 14:04:14 -0000

How does a child grasp this?

Very easily, is how. My daughter had absolutely zero problem understanding how two people who love each other want to be married, share health insurance, and make a home together.
I had a much harder time explaining to her why Pennsylvania passed a law making SOME marriages illegal, but not others.

Bottom line: you don't explain gay marriage to your kid, you explain _marriage_ to your kid. As far as I (and my family) are concerned, whether the people are gay or straight doesn't much matter. A home is made of love, honesty, and commitment.

Life full of confusing problems. This is not one of them!

Re: Downingtown area couple are part of same sex lawsuit

John Young — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 11:37:15 -0000

@hacker1952 , thirty years ago Miss Manners published some GREAT advice for folks feeling unsure of how to deal with the idea of gay couples:

====
Dear Miss Manners: What should I say when I am introduced to a homosexual "couple?"
Gentle Reader: "How do you do?" "How do you do?"
-- Miss Manners Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behavior (1983)
====

Miss Manners' point, as I interpret it, is that gay people are PEOPLE first, last, and foremost. There's as many different kinds of couple relationships as there are different kinds of people, and getting to know a gay couple is neither more nor less confusing than getting to know a straight couple. Who washes the dishes? Who mows the lawn? Who deals with spiders? Who is the one who asks for directions? It doesn't much matter who gets what label, and you can always ask, as long as you are coming from a place of friendship and "getting to know you", not a place of "explain yourself so I can argue with you."

I think I'm saying everything @ddjjbb just said, except longer.

Re: Downingtown couple part of Pa. gay marriage lawsuit

John Young — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 17:43:42 -0000

Lumber4life, I have been to seminary and studied scripture in its original language. I utterly reject your knee-jerk proof-texting. You know perfectly well that other passages in Leviticus permit ownership of slaves, prohibit eating shellfish, et cetera. That dog simply won't hunt. Shame on you for using such a lazy argument under a pseudonym.

Re: Downingtown couple part of Pa. gay marriage lawsuit

John Young — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 16:41:28 -0000

I know the Poehlers and I'm very glad they moved to Chester County. They're good people, and I'm proud to support them and the ACLU in bringing justice to the state of Pennsylvania.

DirtBird, there's a big difference between good, honest Chester County manure, and dirty repressive legislation that is designed to take away equal rights. One of them stinks, and you're darn right we should clean it up!

Re: Chesco couple among those challenging Pa. same-sex marriage ban

John Young — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 13:55:49 -0000

I am proud to know the Poehlers! I look forward to the day when justice is done in PA, and we provide equal rights to all couples under the law.

Re: West Chester Guerilla Drive-In: Get on the Updates List

John Young — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 08:56:19 -0000

Hi suedefringe! We've never left! The GDI crew is doing roller derby these days. But we'll show movies again... someday!

Re: Knit muffler

John Young — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 15:39:29 -0000

Coincidence! My wife just made me something similar out of $0.79 of recycled fleece. I love it because it doesn't come unraveled like a scarf, and you can stick your nose in for additional warmth, or out.

We've been calling it a "yarf" for no very good reason. AND I LOVE IT

Re: Astounding N.C. Wyeth illustrations from old children's storybook

John Young — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:40:59 -0000

Say, I'll take a moment to say in here, for any BB readers that are in or near southeastern Pennsylvania, where Wyeth lived and worked: if you like these images, you would love a trip to the Brandywine River Museum, where many of Wyeth's paintings are on display, large as live and twice as piratical:
http://www.brandywinemuseum...

Wyeth liked to work from models and props, and so there's racks and racks of Actual Swords and Actual Guns. Don't miss the studio tour, too!

Re: P8tch: buy

John Young — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 06:00:20 -0000

It has to be a p8tch URL, because I make the patches in quantity, using pre-generated URLs. Really, though, the "secret sauce" of the p8tch patches is in the RE-directability of the codes; if you just want a "straight" code, you can do this less expensively yourself. Here's a good, quick tutorial on how to do it: http://lifehacker.com/55117...

...and then you can simply get that design on anything you like using stuff from the craft store!

Re: P8tch: buy

John Young — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 05:55:52 -0000

Okay, okay, you've shamed me! Starting the restocking process RIGHT NOW.

Re: Shit White People Do, part umptybillion: "Les Indes galantes—Les Sauvages" (video)

John Young — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:38:24 -0000

Point taken.

Re: Shit White People Do, part umptybillion: "Les Indes galantes—Les Sauvages" (video)

John Young — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 16:25:04 -0000

Are we on opposite sides of this argument? I'm not sure.

I _think_ where the director is going with this is "the concept of the noble savage is, and always has been, ridiculous, and says more about the beholder than the beheld."

Kind of like the "Camptown Races" scene in Blazing Saddles.

In any case, thanks for posting this, it's possibly the best/worst thing I've ever seen.

Re: Shit White People Do, part umptybillion: "Les Indes galantes—Les Sauvages" (video)

John Young — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:45:25 -0000

My opera friends confirm: this is tongue-in-cheek. Or "corncob pipe in smirky drummer's cheek", I guess.

I have a new favorite opera director:"As a student, he directed Julius Caesar, which he now calls his "most daring production ever". Set in the Japanese Kabuki style, with a flower bridge built over the audience, and with Caesar's death performed in slow motion created an enormous scandal. After that, it became very hard for him to find a job in Romania."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Re: Shit White People Do, part umptybillion: "Les Indes galantes—Les Sauvages" (video)

John Young — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:41:27 -0000

Almost all of it can be a clever, self-referential statement about how the 21st century is an intentionally distorted lens to view how the distorted lens of the 18th century viewed the Other. Okay, sure.

But the King Tut dance at 7:00? ...that is REAL.

Re: Shit White People Do, part umptybillion: "Les Indes galantes—Les Sauvages" (video)

John Young — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:34:37 -0000

This is a defensible argument. I mean, I can see how you could say that the whole construct of the "noble savage" is and always has been ridiculous, so we make it ridiculous in order to POSTMODERNISM HERMENEUTICS DECONSTRUCTION OWL OF MINERVA ET CETERA

...but is it? I mean, they do the King Tut at seven minutes. The king tut? It has to be a joke, right? Right? My American eyeballs are not used to this level of uncertainty! Please add a laugh track, or make somebody wink, or something!