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May 15 screed commented on The White House Strikes Back.

#2 Please, you are embarrassing yourself, insinuating that what the DOJ did was somehow legit and not a radical infringement on the freedom of the press. Just because Obama has a D after his name does not make him a friend of civil liberties or rights. From the very start, Obama has worked consistently to limit and undermine citizens' ability to know what the government is doing.

May 15 screed commented on The White House Strikes Back.

My understanding is that the media shield law the WH asked Shumer to 'reintroduce' is the version of the bill that the WH watered down, which subsequently led to its 'shelving.' The money quote for me (from the link provided) is, "As the New York Times notes, the media shield compromise language would actually help the government pursue reporters to root out leaks of classified information." Same ol' same ol' from the Obama admin: talk like a progressive, govern like a corporatist oligarch.

May 13 screed commented on This Is What You Get, Liberals: Obama's Surveillance Scandal.

Obama-bots are just as bad as republicans when it comes to being willfully blind partisans. Most self-proclaimed liberals that I know still give Obama the benefit of the doubt and when pressed fall back to the, 'well, at least he's not as bad as a republican' argument. Yea, and at what point does he cross the line to being bad enough? For me, he crossed that line early, after 3 strikes: 1) Didn't investigate, never mind prosecute any of the Wall Street banksters, while keeping the no-strings attached bail-out program going full bore, 2) pursued a health care policy that was developed by the Heritage Foundation (huh!?), while jettisoning the one truly progressive (and very popular) component, the public option, and 3) aggressively pursuing cuts to Social Security (this has been a policy objective from the very start, funny how he didn't mention it during the 2008 campaign). Honorable mentions include actively intervening to water down the already weak Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill, not investigating or holding accountable any of the Bush Admin war criminals, expanding warrentless wiretapping, 'surging' the war in Afghanistan, the drone policy, not closing Gitmo, green lighting the Keystone Oil Pipe (you know he's gonna do it, he's just waiting for the right moment), etc, etc. With a Democrat like Obama, who needs a republican president?

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May 10 screed commented on The Source of Morality Isn't God.

I read somewhere long ago that religion in Mesopotamia, the cradle of western religious thought, originated with the discovery and production of alcohol. A priesthood developed to organize and control production of the grains to make beer (in essence), facilitating communion with god, and in so doing initiated the agricultural revolution and the birth of 'western civilization'. Dunno how true this is but I like the story all the same.

May 1 screed commented on A Critical Overview of The Stranger.

Hilarious! Hey David, if you get bored in your retirement, you should take a shot at being a columnist! That way you can piss on the whole country with your rants, not just Seattle. Any chance we can get him on the ballot as mayor? A write-in candidate? I'm definitely gonna vote for him anyway. Just to see him 'negotiate' with the city council would be worth all the chaos that would ensue.

Apr 30 screed commented on Brave CBS Reporter Speaks Up for Underprivileged Older Christian White Men.

#27 not sure I understand what you mean. I think my dad was of a generation that is still coming to grips with major cultural shifts that probably started becoming noticeable, at least to those who were paying attention, in the 60s and 70s. I don't this is a phenomenon that started 'today,' if that is what you mean.

Apr 30 screed commented on Brave CBS Reporter Speaks Up for Underprivileged Older Christian White Men.

#2 I agree - there has been a shift in how respect, at least outwardly, is bestowed on people. My dad grew up in a world that automatically gave males of his color (white) and income (upper-middle class) automatic respect, especially when they got older and became 'patriarchs' of the community. By the time he reached an age where he was a senior member of the community, that world had changed. He really struggled with it - he expected deference and respect just because of who he 'was' and his 'station' and when it wasn't always forthcoming it pissed him off and he suffered a lot for it. Today, you have to earn respect, either by having so much money you can buy it by surrounding yourself with toadies and other money/celebrity worshipers, or continuously earn it through the strength of your personality and your actions. A lot of older white males that don't have piles of money won't see the kind of respect/deference/attention they expect cause they haven't earned it and they can't buy it.

Having said that, I do think we as a society though could do a better job of respecting our seniors, regardless of gender or ethnicity/skin color.

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Apr 24 screed commented on Well Regulated Militia Kills 5, Including 2 Children, in Illinois Mass Shooting.

#13 The argument ("The only way you could eliminate the possibility of this kind of crime is to take all guns out of private hands.") is nonsensical. This event, like many gun-related murders, might very well not have happened if guns were not so ridiculously easy to get. You can't point to any one event and say that because a proposed law might not have prevented that specific event, the law is therefore ineffective and should not be enacted. If the litmus test was 100% effectiveness for any law to be enacted, we wouldn't have any laws at all. Would you drop all laws against drunk driving because there are still drunk drivers on the road? Its a matter of percentages - lower availability of guns will mean fewer gun murders. Right now the NRA, gun manufacturers, and other groups are trying really hard to 'normalize' gun violence, make it un-newsworthy, to make gun violence acceptable, to inure us against the ongoing carnage. Gun murders are still outrageous and still unacceptable, and we can live in a society where gun murders are not so common. It will take laws, as imperfect as they are, and education, and change will happen incrementally. But we have to start. Right now, this is madness.

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Apr 24 screed commented on Well Regulated Militia Kills 5, Including 2 Children, in Illinois Mass Shooting.

#1 yes, the weapons do change, that is exactly the problem. Guns kill people. If the issue was only the 'root' pathology' and not the weapon, why ban any weapon at all? I mean, why not allow the open sale of grenades? Or other large explosives? I mean, bombs don't kill people, people kill people, right?

But... but.. the Second Amendment! So we got an ideologically extreme, right-wing Supreme Court imposing a bogus interpretation of the 2nd amendment on the country. Never mind the number of kids who must now be sacrificed on the alter of NRA's gun-shilling business model.

And you are wrong... it is newsworthy. The descent into madness should be documented. There need be witnesses. There needs to be a record of the insanity.

Apr 22 screed commented on Should the Smoking Age Be Raised to 21?.

#17 If we all lived on an island, sure. But your 18 year old drunk driver may wipe out my family. I've known enough immature, immortal 18 year olds to realize that giving that age group permission to hit the bars will result in a lot of bad things happening. If our transportation system wasn't so car dependent and comprehensive mass transit was widely available (and affordable), even at 2am, then you might have an argument. But until then, forget it. Yea, I know if you take my argument to its extreme, then we should close down all bars and ban public serving of alcohol. I wouldn't go that far - It is just that too many18 year old kids think they are bullet proof and that nothing bad will happen. They still need to grow up before given permission to drink in public while also having a car license. Important life lessons should not come in the form of mangled bodies from car accidents, especially if that includes me or my family.