Displaying 631 To 660 Of 960 Comments Mubarak: Half sunk, a shattered visage lies So this is what an open comment thread without a 250 word limit and links permitted works? Bring it on! Great stuff and I only got through three pages so far I like “WE” are providing the filler information from our own sources. There’s so much more material here to read and absorb compared to my former home where there’d be a tickler comment on the front page but you wouldn’t find it when you went into the story with updates. I could never figure that out except it got more clicks. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 9, 2011 @ 7:45 am GOP won’t defund NASA. Make too many new technologies that their corporate buddies can then turn into commercial products without having to do any R&D I can see them defunding the Smithsonian though. Why not completely impoverish the American Heritage so you can reinvent it? Next thing we’ll be funding the Noah Ark Theme park and franchising it every state, then they can intertwine the “discovery of America into it and make it a complete package » Posted By jdmn17 On February 25, 2011 @ 8:04 am Jkk so I don’t need to send you my carrot cake recipe? » Posted By jdmn17 On February 24, 2011 @ 1:11 pm Surface area freshwater is our own (and Canada’s) Lake Superior » Posted By jdmn17 On February 24, 2011 @ 10:16 am I’m going with Egypt, many years of war, little moisture to reduce them. The entire western border was mined with anti-tank mines during WW II by both the Allies and Germans and Italians. Eastern border to Israel, same issue. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 20, 2011 @ 9:25 am Firefox is great except when I scroll back a page or two and write a response the refresh takes me back to the first page making me to go back and scroll back. Kind of a pain. Anyone have the same issue or is there a secret way back? » Posted By jdmn17 On February 12, 2011 @ 4:38 pm You can bet on of her trolls will see this and I wouldn’t be surprised if Buddy gets tweeted about it. Please – I’d love to see what “she” might have to say about it. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 12, 2011 @ 7:42 am Buddy, great stuff, I liked McCain, kind of like you caught him standing behind Sara as he started to figure out what exactly he brought into the fray. HAHA. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 12, 2011 @ 7:40 am Try doing Michele Bachman but I don’t think you can do her eyes nearly as scary as they are. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 12, 2011 @ 7:38 am Kalima, it does seem to be that whenever you hear of unrest and the sabers rattling in DC it has to do with oil or transporting it. Maybe when we run out of oil there will be world peace? Or maybe we just won’t care anymore. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 10, 2011 @ 10:19 am boomer – google it. there are lots of horrific photos on the internet of surgery gone wild. We used to call it “surgical adventure” in the industry and it didn’t just apply to cosmetic surgery » Posted By jdmn17 On February 10, 2011 @ 10:17 am When I was in the medical device industry and working with silicone and polyurethane implants – not THOSE although they figured in the conversation – I saw many studies of the migratory potential for silicone. Very scary stuff, I’m guessing some day someone is going to write a Botox expose’ – that will be very interesting, » Posted By jdmn17 On February 10, 2011 @ 10:16 am I’m not sure how to react to that. I have traveled Europe a lot and rarely used air. I lived in Baltimore four years and used the metroliner and the DC metro system. I was happy as a clam. Between Mpls and Chicago a high speed rail would take about an hour less than getting to the airport early, getting your grope, standing at the gate, sitting in the plane, flight delays, landing, getting luggage and going to the rental car. I got to where it was less hassle to drive there from Minnie. Longer trip but more certainty on arrival and the drive was more relaxing. The train is even better. Alas our cheesehead friends returned their part of the money that was going to go for building it. They were probably miffed there weren’t enough stops or maybe they were afraid the beer concession would go to Budweiser. Regardless, it’s not going to happen here for now. Of course I might argue we’d be better spending rail money on new bridges, ours are not in very good shape. Regardless I’d rather see money being spent here than enriching some potentate overseas. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 9, 2011 @ 1:06 pm Hope you guys have a big enough lifeboat, there’s a lot of people in the water swimming your way » Posted By jdmn17 On February 9, 2011 @ 1:00 pm They need those children’s shows to keep the stay at home mom’s happy with their brood. And let’s not forget Antiques Road Show and the nature shows. Anything remotely approaching fair and balanced news or political facts are ignored. » Posted By jdmn17 On March 2, 2011 @ 3:04 pm Enforce no fly zone, engage economic sanctions and put US troops on full alert. And start profiling Germans here as potential terrorist, same treatment for Kosovo. » Posted By jdmn17 On March 2, 2011 @ 9:55 am I started reading Howard Zinn right after his first release of the People’s History. His stories about labor unrest in this country relative to company abuse of non-union workers were chilling. What the Republicans are attempting to do now is take this country back to those days. I am waiting for Walker to call in the Guard to disperse the protesters. Still cold here, I wonder if he has a clue what might happen once the weather breaks? On a related note, the Green Bay Packer football team came out in favor of the union and the union busting tactics of the NFL owners just took a huge hit in a MN Federal court. There is some light » Posted By jdmn17 On March 2, 2011 @ 8:06 am And anything decent is scrubbed. It’s getting to be mostly one liners filled with innocuous words, deliberate (one can hope) misspellings, and symbols and codes. There are even some posters putting in what words are tripping the mods. It feels like trying to pass notes in high school » Posted By jdmn17 On March 1, 2011 @ 11:30 am This is an old tip from my days working in patient care – instead of “is” try using “appears to be” » Posted By jdmn17 On February 27, 2011 @ 10:29 am 2CCP For me it’s more the weather than the news. I go through this every late winter into spring. Mentally done with winter doesn’t mean it’s done with me and up here we can still expect two large March storms, usually coinciding with the MN State HS boys hockey and basketball tournaments. Once the snow piles get below eight feet at the end of my driveway and I don’t have to struggle out through sub-zero overnight temps with a sub-freezing daily high I start to get right chipper 🙂 » Posted By jdmn17 On February 27, 2011 @ 9:49 am I saw over 700 surgeries in my years in the medical device field, teaching surgeons and their teams how to use (not abuse) medical devices I was involved with. Let’s just say most surgeons are awfully good, let’s also say there were more procedures than I care to count that were what they “lovingly” described as “surgical adventures”. There are any number of surgeons I wouldn’t let operate on a pig carcass let alone a human being. And a few anesthesiologists who neglected to get the patient fully pain free and unconscious. No left behind instruments mind you, the surgical nurses are pretty good, but enough times where I watched a surgeon ignore instructions because they thought they had a better way. You don’t ever want to hear “oops”, “damn”, and other noises of surprise. And I’ve seen many procedures where a person has endured multiple surgeries that all failed to remedy the problem and actually exacerbated it. That’s when you need a good attorney. The flip side is I’ve seen and been a part of depositions where the “aggrieved” patient was looking for money. I don’t like either end of that spectrum. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 27, 2011 @ 9:43 am HCP I’m not an admin but I would tell you to write away. There are others here who have family there and it would be a compelling story. I’m sure most of us are rather poorly informed here, given there are no headlines for the MSM about some right wing personality or talking point coming from your home. Take a shot, the photos I’ve seen look terrifying and having someone report first hand would be awesome » Posted By jdmn17 On February 26, 2011 @ 5:48 pm Artist You should know by now that men have two brains physically separate from each other. One does most of the critical thinking, the other has a mind and will of its own. Left unchecked and free to rule it often causes significant damage, esp when the brain that does the critical thinking isn’t all that swift » Posted By jdmn17 On February 26, 2011 @ 4:03 pm I spent two months on an internship at the U of MN on the transgender unit. It was a very unusual place as we had men>women and women>men. Some days I wasn’t sure who was who or where they were. And they didn’t always make it easy as several had both sets of “clothes” and would interchange between them. I think they were bored and just messing with the “help”. I do recall some of the women going to men got “that” procedure done, back then penile prostheses were all the rage and I think there were ways to stretch skin and get one inserted. I better stop there. Let’s just say it was a very unusual experience and I really did feel for these folks. That their sexual confusion put them through a lot of pain and adjustment. Took guts and at the U hospital that was part of the “treatment” the emotional side of the decision. And believe me, there was no surgery until they were settled in their choice, » Posted By jdmn17 On February 26, 2011 @ 7:46 am SallyT Great story, and here you were worrying about your ability to write here and be interesting 🙂 The “old days”, back when people just did things because they had some special tool, even a tractor and helped others – I think that is not so much the case anymore. I would spend more time talking about the changes in the neighborhood. I grew up here and have seen the changes in the neighborhood community, from helping each other without being asked, or being a hero to one where we rarely interact with our neighbors unless it’s the annual “block” party where people collect and talk. It’s very strange in a way. We had block parties every week when I was growing up. People set their grills up in their front yards and the kids played football in the street. They were never organized. They simply happened. About ten years ago I made my first Adirondack chairs from reclaimed cedar and instead of putting them out back I put them in the front yard so I could sit out there. One old timer, who always grumbled at me as a kid, came by one day and took a seat and we talked for a while about growing up there. Several neighbors eventually walked by, stopped and talked and since then I’ve noted more chairs in front yards, more people talking to each other as they walk by on their way to the nearby lake or little shopping center two blocks away. It’s a small step, nothing big but I think it’s good to know your neighbors, they look out for each other a little more. Anyway, your dad sounds awesome and very dedicated to his daughter. Thanks for the story » Posted By jdmn17 On February 26, 2011 @ 7:33 am Gees you two, I was born in Indy and I kind of believe it, just the kind of thinking I always thought existed down there. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 25, 2011 @ 5:04 pm 2nd I would but truth be I was really pushing the envelope on getting a snowblower We do have thick skin up here and it was a little hilarious I’m out at the end of Feb trying to buy a snowblower. Kind of like Christmas shopping at the local gas station food mart on Christmas afternoon for Christmas gifts. Bad analogy but I might have laughed if the shoe had been on the other foot. I know these guys have had a “boom” year, they’ve needed it given the lack of snow here in the past few years so I think some of their good natured ribbing was borne of relief the risk they took buying inventory paid off. We are within a couple of inches of having our snowiest winter ever. And there’s more coming. I even looked on Craigs List but those guys who were selling were priced at new blowers for five year old used ones. What a racket » Posted By jdmn17 On February 25, 2011 @ 5:00 pm OR PUPPIES. Some woman here in MN tried to mail her son a puppy USPS, I suppose we should give her credit for wanting to ship it Priority instead of Parcel Post but really! » Posted By jdmn17 On February 25, 2011 @ 4:28 pm Abby You know who is making a ton of money this winter? The guys who invested in snow melting equipment. That’s correct. These dudes set up this large vat, the dump trucks come in, dump their loads and they melt it into water and down the storm drain it goes. Some of the shopping malls piles are enormous and there are rumors the Mall of America may open up a snowboard beginner slope soon on one of their larger piles. I’m tired, fed up and I broke down and went to buy a snowblower and the guys at the five stores I stopped at LAUGHED at me. And believe me, there’s nothing worse than being laughed out of a hardware store. “What? You think we stock them all winter?” I walked shamefully back to my car, my son patting me on the back in sympathy all the while chastising me lovingly for not buying one in December. And the worst part is Toro is just down the road from me. I asked one guy about that and he told me Toro has shut down the snowblower line and is building lawnmowers. At this rate we won’t need them until June. » Posted By jdmn17 On February 25, 2011 @ 4:16 pm Sally Here’s my story because I think it fits some of your concerns. There are some amazing writers here. Me? Not so much. I managed to get my butt thrown out of the U of Mn twice, even after taking the same courses the football players took 🙂 I wasn’t ready at all emotionally or spiritually. And I didn’t have the simplest grasp of English, or at least formal English. I think most of my English teachers in grade, middle, high school and college would have me on their list of lost souls. To this day I could no more dissect a sentence under the threat of death than I could whip up some spectacular science experiment (I got banned from HS Chemistry for attempting to “blow up the lab” by using a banned substance in an experiment). I spent time in the USMC, learned how to duck when it was time to duck and when I got home went into the antique business. Five years settled me enough to go back to college where I finally got a degree, mostly because I studied constantly to the point of not having a date in almost three years. From there, emboldened and financially able I went to grad school. At the same time, in a parallel universe, my writing skills continued to plague me. Finally I took a night course in Communications. It was adult ed and the teacher seemed bewildered because I had a lot I could speak to, I could assess extremely well and I wrote like a third grader. I kept trying to write like an “adult” and he, bless his heart, finally took me aside and told me to write like I talk. I did that and things worked out. I became a writer, for fun – hard to imagine since I hated it. I keep a journal and write stories – fiction – for fun and relaxation where in the past I had anxiety attacks. When I got to HP I found it was a venue for short clips and eventually I tried writing longer thoughts (keeping in mind the 250 word limit which always tested me). As time went by most of those were scrubbed – I did find I had an opinion. When Black Monday came along I came here; wet and bedraggled. I came and stayed because the super writers welcomed me and accepted me even though I was pretty sure I wasn’t worthy of being on the same page as them. When I finally said it aloud, they wrote back and told me to just keep writing, that everyone’s input, esp that from “life” was as valuable as anything else that gets written. I rarely initiate an comment. More inclined to respond but I keep sticking my toe in the water and lo and behold I even post things myself from time to time. One thing I do, because I lack the research skills present here, is to ask a question and let someone else who is skilled here answer for me. That’s a huge difference. Here there are experts in many areas and I dive into so many of their posts because I don’t have the time to really delve into something like they can. They are my anchors here. I can rely on them to inform me. And at no time, after some initial discomfort, do I feel like they are smarter or more learned than me. I look at your brief resume and think you must have something going for you. People aren’t successful by just being a “personality”, unless you are Sarah Palin 🙂 So, hang in here. It’s so worth it. I go back to HP, write something and most of the time it’s scrubbed. Occasionally it goes through and 90% of the responses are not simply negative, they are mean and ugly. I don’t need that. And I know you want to fight the fight but like others have said, the people you respond to aren’t there to debate, they are simply there to make trouble, or make money on clicks. This is from someone who can’t write his way out of a paper bag, or as one teacher told me – “You never met a dangling participle you didn’t like” » Posted By jdmn17 On February 25, 2011 @ 3:57 pmComments Posted By jdmn17
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