I'm glad to see that there are no non-americans in tech - Adewale Oshineye
It's okay, Paul. FriendFreed users still like you. We're going to keep giving you grief, of course, but we like you. - Bruce Lewis
Let me qualify - I ran into so many people I wanted to see, I haven't seen in a long time, or meant to see currently that I made the comment - it wasn't meant in a facetious way. Brian - I'm an early Googler (hence I know Paul) turned angel investor (which explains why I was at TC50 networking)... - Aydin Senkut
Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but also, in part, how the brain is able to recreate it. - Brandon Werner
via Bookmarklet
I apparently haven't been following closely enough recently to catch the thread(s) but I will say that I think it's probably more useful to support ideas you believe in than to attempt to tear down the opinions of others. The former can contribute to a movement, while the latter is merely a personal attack. - Jason Wehmhoener
People were posting a bunch of feed items about the Sarah Palin stories of the day and everyone was freaking out. The issue was that all politics on FriendFeed is bad and people saying they're going to stop using FriendFeed for the next three months. Died down after about an hour. - Mark Trapp
People are sick of the political chatter - see? this is why we need "hide" by keyword! - Sarah Perez
What bugs me is that many of the same people who whine about good, healthy political discussion on FriendFeed are the same ones who flood FF with their tiring, pointless, Being-John-Malkovich, belly-button-gazing, blogging about blogging, FFing about FF, gadget worship, and other assorted provincial head-up-the-ass mutual Web 2.0 masturbation. I find those topics marginally interesting, partially for entertainment value, but they're hardly going to change the world. Who is elected in November will. - Anthony Citrano
I would hope that the Americans on Friendfeed wouldn't be "sick of the political chatter" in an election year. I do wish people would discuss more substantial issues and leave the spin and personality politics to the networks. I also feel that personal attacks are always counterproductive. I really appreciate political discussion that introduces new information or ideas, and it would bum me out if I stopped seeing that kind of content in Friendfeed. Fortunately I don't see any such thing happening. - Jason Wehmhoener
+1 Anthony, in other words it is OK to flood FF w/topics you have interest/passion about, but if no interest in something else: those folks are annoying. - Ruth Ferguson
i suspect the problem is not centered on politics, but emotions. lots of people get emotionally tied to a side of an argument and, when things get tight, emotions are liable to replace reason. i see religious arguments follow a similar trajectory. - MikeAmundsen
It's possible for adults to gain the maturity to recognize the value of reason and the dangers of unfocused and unexamined passion. - Jason Wehmhoener
@Mike - this is definitely an issue and I have been unimpressed with some people's ability to keep things focused on the issues. But I have found this almost everywhere - not just FriendFeed - people instinctively go ad hominem without any realization of how unconstructive it is (for all sides.) - Anthony Citrano
Yeah, it was never the issue of banning the discussion of politics but the fact that people were getting coarse and personal. And if Anthony doesn't like tiring, pointless, Being-John-Malkovich, belly-button-gazing, blogging about blogging, FFing about FF, gadget worship, and other assorted provincial head-up-the-ass mutual Web 2.0 masturbation then why is he subscribed to me?!* I probably have the most pointless feed in FriendFeed! (*for some reason, I typed that out rather than cutting and pasting) - Akiva Moskovitz
Akiva, I imagine it was satisfying to type that out. :-) - Jason Wehmhoener
Anthony, that means that I *PIRATED* your words rather than *STOLE* them. - Akiva Moskovitz
Mark, what, Noah David Simon's comment? There's a reason why he and Igor are probably the most blocked people on FriendFeed. There's been plenty of discussion about it. - Akiva Moskovitz
@Akiva - that might explain why I was so confused looking at those links. Noah and Igor long ago landed in my FF dustbin. - Anthony Citrano
Akiva: yeah, I've blocked both of those people too, which left me confused. - Robert Scoble
Akiva, I blocked Noah, I don't know what he said. I'm talking about the non-rational, emotional, and half-the-time offensive comments and analysis in the web 2.0 world. Steve Gillmor is the epitome of that. Nobody seems to care about those: that's just business-as-usual. But when it's something outside the web 2.0 world, "Jesus Christ, get that out of here!" - Mark Trapp
Mark: that's because tech doesn't piss off people. Politics pisses off 50% if you really discuss it from any one angle. - Robert Scoble
Robert, sure, which goes to my point. Akiva and Mike were suggesting that it wasn't politics that was causing issues, but the way people were presenting them. - Mark Trapp
Quite honestly, I've been more pissed off by the Google Browser shared items. People share the news as item, then write a blog post, then share via Google reader, then twitter, etc. FF needs to eliminate dupes somehow. It's ironic that I need to turn to Techmeme to filter the noise. - trextor
Robert, it really shouldn't piss off 50%. That's setting the bar pretty low. I would really like to hope that a statistically significant percentage of Friendfeed users are capable of discussing something as important as politics without automatically getting pissed off due to some shallow red/blue categorization of perceived spin. Tell me I'm dreaming and we'll have to agree to disagree. - Jason Wehmhoener
Mark, what Mike and I suggested is proven by Robert's addition. The subject that causes the overly-emotional presentations is irrelevant. It could be made about politics, religion, Mac vs. PC (Mac), vim vs. emacs (vim), Volkswagen vs. Hondas (Volkswagen), etc., etc. - Akiva Moskovitz
Well, I was fascinated that Digg segmented out tech talk and made other "categories" for politics, business, etc. It would have made more sense to keep everything in one stream and search from an architecture / philosophical perspective. It seems geeks are more in love with their echo chamber than even the political types :-) - Brandon Werner
Akiva, that hypothesis isn't demonstrably proven. Polarizing issues in tech are perpetuated, with hardly any outrage, for months. Steve Gillmor's post today is indicative of that: beating the same Twitter vs. Everything argument out that's been going on since March. Yet I don't see a dozen feed items about people getting physically sick of the Twitter vs. everything arguments. It's not the presentation, it's the content. People have a serious issue talking about substantive topics outside of tech. - Mark Trapp
Jason, you're mostly right. I think the majority of the issue stemmed from just one or two users' disrespectful attitudes. I'm consistently amazed at the high level of quality and maturity here. And I'm amazed at the majority's tolerance of goofy-assed shit like the uppercase frenzy last night. - Akiva Moskovitz
Mark, let's get one thing nice and sparkling clear: you are not allowed to disagree with me. Seriously, though, of course it's anecdotal. I don't think anyone has statistical data to back up such a claim. But I have seen plenty of tech arguments get downright nasty. - Akiva Moskovitz
I dunno, Scoble, most adults I know can carry on intelligent discourse about an issue of the day without getting upset. Passion is one thing, but "pissed off" at the other person - to the Person - is unconstructive. Working on a campaign it becomes even harder to depersonalize some pretty intense shit. I have seen many personal relationships crumble as a result. I'm not saying we don't all get angry, I know I have. I'm just saying that when I do, it's not a part of myself I am terribly proud of. - Anthony Citrano
Anthony: I've been thinking about this. Part of the problem is that so many people are so passionate about politics that it causes a very real repetition problem. I've seen hundreds of Tweets about Palin today that mostly say the same thing. After seeing a few I started getting tired of seeing the same thing over and over from different people. - Robert Scoble
I think the answer to the repetition (the "low" level of discourse) is not to tune out politics altogether, but to raise the bar, add something substantive to the conversation. Some potential topics that would help: poverty, health care, taxes, lobbying, military privitization, etc. In other words: issues. Those of us that frequent forums such as this have a unique opportunity to set the tone and topic in a way that WE define. We don't have to stick to the network television talking points. - Jason Wehmhoener
+1 Robert. I don't mind opinions on politics nut after awhile repetition numbs me to the whole process in general - Kyle Lacy
via fftogo
Ooh, that belly-button-gazing riff by Anthony Citrano was a fine piece of writing and dead on. Here's the thing: the Friendfeed software should be powerful and flexible enough to customize and fine-tune the information stream for each of us. No one's obsessions should intrude upon anyone else's obsessions. One should feel fully comfortable in expressing oneself without worrying about invading the space of anyone else. Regarding politics: if it was good enough for Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, John Adams, etc. it's good enough for me. - Sean McBride
The best minds I know are intensely interested in cutting-edge technology and deep politics, and all the strategic interactions between these two domains. - Sean McBride
@Scoble: I can understand - I, too, tire of repetition - whether it be about the latest FriendFeed widget or McCain nominating a nobody as his running mate. I've worked in and around American politics a long time now, and Palin is huge, huge political news. My sense is if you subscribed to fewer people it wouldn't seem as bad, but there are probably emerging features that could help manage the flow, too. Consider that it might be a flaw/by-product of the medium rather than the subject matter. - Anthony Citrano
I couldn't hope to count the Tweets and FF shares I had to wade through around the iPhone launch about who had/didn't have one, how many people were in which line, which store had what stock, who had which line position, how long the line was, who had ice cream with whom while waiting, and every other associated quirk, twist, and subplot. For those who don't get a boner over such things, it's excruciatingly tedious. But I don't complain because I realize, with my friending choices, I've asked for it. - Anthony Citrano
One man's meat is another man's poison, perhaps these things go in cycles. My feed was full of bacon one week (I'm mostly vegetarian) and rather than rant I just ruthlessly hid stuff. Same with Chrome, when you're on a Mac it's not useful. Tolerance, hiding stuff and respect for others go a long way online. - Sally Church
@Anthony Citrano: My thoughts exactly. Exactly. - Niguel Valley
Quote: "For their part, Identi.ca and FriendFeed proponents have gone from anger to despair to revolutionary fervor to silence as users offer muted reassurance while at the same time wandering “aimlessly” back to Mother Twitter." - Louis Gray
"Facebook has freshened up its UI and allowed us to personalize the news stream to vaguely emulate Twitter." He misspelled FriendFeed. - Mark Trapp
Twitter can "win" - doesn't matter to me. I prefer FF so I'm staying here. Others are free to do whatever makes them happy. Didn't know it was a contest! - Abby Martin
Wait until he sees I just sent everyone here from Twitter. Heheh. - Robert Scoble
Gillmor: Elevating even the most mundane technology events in to a constitutional battle of epic historical significance for humanity... again. - Brandon Werner
Twitter has a better name than Identi.ca, eg. "I just twittered something" vs "I just said something on Identi.ca"? - Shawn Molnar
LOL @ Brandon. I'm with you - I thought TechCrunchIT covered IT related news. Apparently its real purpose is to assemble an anti-Twitter army and achieve global microblogging dominance. - Shawn Farner
Good Post! The only reason I haven’t totally moved to Identi.ca is the network effect of twitter. I am getting far more value out of twitter+twhirl with my current follows than I would suspect at Identi.ca. - Sheraz Mahmood
via twhirl
Does TinyURL still hold the strategic high ground? - Elliott Ng
While Abby Martin is here, and I am here, and Robert Scoble is here, we are only three people, and perhaps it DOES matter that Twitter is cited on CNN. To grow, Twitter needs to make inroads with tens of millions of members of the general population. That means we'll see Twitter accounts on cola bottles and cereal boxes and trading cards. (I don't think there's a http://friendfeed.com/gossipgi... yet.) Hopefully Twitter has improved its uptime to deal with this workload. - Ontario Emperor
via fftogo
Robert, good to see you back on FriendFeed. - Steve Gillmor
nah, Twitter sucks with the photos plus conversations are so chopped up. Give it a year. FF will prevail. - Thomas Hawk
And good to see you on FriendFeed Steve! - JodyUnwired
We're racing? I think there's plenty of room for several services. And to compare friendfeed and twitter to is like comparing apples to fail whales. Twitter is like a shoelace compared to friendfeed's professional basketball team. Some people don't like basketball and would be overwhelmed managing a team but most people can tie their shoes. - ·[▪_▪]·
Twitter has that thing we used to get excited about in Web 1.0...first mover advantage. The follow-up attempts have to be more than just competent. For better or worse Twitter is to microblogging as Kleenex is to tissues and Walkman to mobile cassette players. cf Shawn Molnar's comment above. - Andrew Grumet
Um... who wants a winner yet? I want them to keep slugging it out and developing new features. - John Worthington
Twitter's advantage:traffic.FF:discussions - Igor Poltavskiy
twitter continues to capture the imagination of non-tech people... While I find FF great, I wonder whether it would ever break out into the non-tech crowd and get real acceptance. To me FF is a hybrid of both a discussion forum and social aggregator... its confusing to many. I tried to sell to a few of my non-tech friends and they say that they dont have that many accounts to manage to come to friendfeed. I guess FF should market themselves more as a personalized discussion tool rather than a social aggregator to reach the average crowd - Krishna Gade
People used to say the same types of things about Twitter. - Rah™
Um no and i don't really care if they choose a musician :Mad ! - Victor
I certainly hope you are using that word in it's original context, that of happy or good... and if so, I agree, it is a good way! - John Worthington
Anthony, yes, perhaps "ghey" would be the better spelling. - David Risley
If David you are saying that it's kinda "happy" then I agree and if you say it's kinda "homosexual" then I think that's a good thing. Now, if you think that calling things "gay" is equal to something not good then I have to say that your thinking is not good. Need to rethink your world view. - Robert Scoble
Simian: I think David needs to be sent on a trip to Berlin to study Germany's history and where it went wrong. The use of language against other people is horrible. I won't allow it to be used that way here. David is very close to getting a block. - Robert Scoble
This just earned David a block. David, you really need to go back and study Nazi world history. How you can use a perjorative against any group without expecting to see consequences is pretty over the line in my book. - Robert Scoble
Dude. It's the best explanation of a browser I've ever seen. I can't wait to see Ponzi's reaction to it, if she'd like to make it all the way through (though I do believe it'd be easier to digest as a single PDF). - l0ckergn0me
I gotta head out, but guys, seriously, let's not turn this into a political correctness debate. I meant lame, stupid, etc. I was not, in any way, referring to homosexuals. Guess I need to leave the slang out of FriendFeed from now on. - David Risley
David: when you use language that you don't understand the roots of you come across as not only hurtful but stupid. Whenever you say "gay" it comes across here as "homosexual." That's been a word used in United States to ONLY mean that for decades. - Robert Scoble
And yes, if anybody thought I was referring to homosexuals, I apologize. It was in bad taste, in retrospect. - David Risley
It grabs attention much better than black and white script on a page with a bold headline. It's a great way for people to take notice and guess what? It worked. - ::Kristen::
you can justify your ignorant use of such a term, but it only serves to alert me that you're 11 and haven't been taught better. is that the angle you're going for? i still can't believe almost a decade out, people are 1) still using that offensive term and 2) defending said use. - Faboo Mama
I am so tired of people using "slang" like this and excusing it by claiming "oh, I didn't mean anything bad." It's the same as calling something "retarded," or "ghetto." I don't like any of those words used as a pejorative, even "jokingly." Grow up, people! - Jim Milles
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I thought it was very hardcore geeky of them. I don't know if it is gay, but I go all gay for google services. :) - Jay Cruz
Bashing comics in a geek forum? Not sure that's the best tactic to get your point across. - Brian Norwood
Regardless, it's obvious why the word "gay" came to be used the way it has by teenagers and others and you used to sound "hip". It meant "queer, different, lame" just as homosexuals are considered the same by that group. It was not as if someone wanted another word for "lame" and gay was just picked out of thin air. You're smarter than that, and I know your smarter than to think writing that word in that way to the extremely educated users on FriendFeed/Twitter wouldn't be problematic. - Brandon Werner
Brian: Yah, I made two huge gaffes in one tweet. Not my day. - David Risley
Brandon, I do agree. The intellectual side of me, of course, knows that. Sometimes my stupid side tweets without thinking about how it can be taken by others. - David Risley
I just read the comic, and for me, it worked. A lot of information was delivered, and with the benefit of interesting drawings, I felt that I got more from this than several pages of a White Paper. - Henry Burger
I was so excited to see more of Scott McCloud's work. He does a great job of explaining why the browser is better in ways that laypeople can understand. I only found it ironic that one of the pioneers of transitioning comics into the digital realm ended up making a 32-page print comic to tout a new browser. Note that I would find it a lot less ironic if I got a hold of one of the print copies. - Kevin Fox
It was an architecture document narrated by Engineers, disguised as a comic. I was thinking as I read it "I should do this with my stuff" :-) - Brandon Werner
"gay" is used frequently in australia interchangebly with gh3y and other variants. hey Scoble, the US's prudish view doesn't reflect the world. - David Petar Novakovic
via twhirl
Comic book idea is a stroke of genius. - Mike Reynolds
I thought it was pretty clever too. It's just funny. And different. Anime and Manga have made "comics" quite popular the past few years. - Jaemi Kehoe
@David Petar Novakovic (dpn): So, what you're saying is that Scoble getting all up in arms about something being 'ghey' is faggotry of the first order? (Sophistry is fun! Irony is fun! My gay friends pwning me in Call of Duty and snickering in chat that my camping spots on Bloc are ghey is ... not so fun, but funny, and I'm willing to accept that.) - Alexander Williams
via NoiseRiver
So I take it the Puritans in this thread prefer that language stop evolving? Frankly I'd rather see gay (and especially ghey) used much more often in a humorous or ironic context. This'll help marginalize the few people remaining on the planet who actually would use it as an implication that someone's sexuality is a valid measure of their societal worth. This whole thread is ghey if you ask me. - Anthony Citrano
as I blogged, this is their operating system. - Brandon Werner
Their OS if I remember well, was something employees at Google were self-doing. - Zu aka ElijahBailey
If Android can finally act on some devices, their Web browser shouldn't be too far. Chris' call is somewhat around what I'd say too. - Zu aka ElijahBailey
I'm going for an official announcement on April Fool's next year. ;-) - Jake Jarvis
Ctrl + Eject to get the dialog to shut down. Option + Cmd + Eject for "Fast Sleep" - Paul Reynolds
Last time I did it, it was Control + Command + Eject. That won't ask you anything, it will force a restart right away. Try this for other shortcuts, straight from Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT... - Raoul Pop
Dryad is an infrastructure which allows a programmer to use the resources of a computer cluster or a data center for running data-parallel programs. A Dryad programmer can use thousands of machines, each of them with multiple processors or cores, without knowing anything about concurrent programming. - Brandon Werner
via Bookmarklet
As long as Hotmail continues to include ads at the bottom of their email messages, a rude intrusion, I won't believe they are serious about consumer email. - Brandon Werner
Ditto on that Chris, make it work in FF3 or it's worthless. - Crutis
Hadoop On Demand (HOD) is a system for provisioning virtual Hadoop clusters over a large physical cluster. It uses the Torque resource manager to do node allocation. On the allocated nodes, it can start Hadoop Map/Reduce and HDFS daemons. It automatically generates the appropriate configuration files (hadoop-site.xml) for the Hadoop daemons and client. HOD also has the capability to distribute Hadoop to the nodes in the virtual cluster that it allocates. In short, HOD makes it easy for administrators and users to quickly setup and use Hadoop. It is also a very useful tool for Hadoop developers and testers who need to share a physical cluster for testing their own Hadoop versions. - Brandon Werner
via Bookmarklet
"After the previous set of tests wtih parallel Kmeans clusting using CGL-MapReduce, Hadoop and MPI I shift the direction of testing to another set of tests. This time, the test is to process large number (and volume of) High Energy Physics data files and produce a histogram of interesting events. The amount of data that needs to be processed is 1 terabyte." - Brandon Werner
via Bookmarklet
"Yes, it's an "upscale mall" chain like Cheese Cake Factory and P.F. Changs - which are across the street. Do yourself a favor and cross that street. Although the atmosphere is fancy and the price…" - Brandon Werner
Cramer's right...just like his CNBC bit last year. "THEY HAVE NO IDEA!" - Ben Turner
Usually I find Cramer to be so shrill and full of hot air that I can't bear to listen to him. BUT, he is 100% right about this. (Although I disagree with Ben - he was wrong last year in my view - the Fed should not have been rate-cutting.) - Anthony Citrano
Bad actor, but entertaining given the bar and channel - Ryan
"Although I think it's great for tourists, I didn't think it was worth $15 a person for the tour. If you had more time to linger and see the underground, it might be more worth it. As it is, you don't…" - Brandon Werner
The op-ed might hold water if McCain's opponent had a better understanding of the US economy than McCain does. However, since Obama is nothing short of a Socialist and might even lean toward Communism, then the op-ed is a useless piece of political fodder and presents nothing more than a straw man. - Gregory Pittman
Yep. Just yesterday, in fact, I saw a hammer and sickle tattoo on Obama's neck. He's a Communist alright, just like I'm Napoleon. - David Worrell
@Gregory Do you realize that there is way too much commonality between free market fundamentalists and communists than saner people like Obama. - Krishnan Hussein Subraman
David, one of Obama's greatest influences in politics, by his own admission, is a Communist. He writes about it at length in his book. And when you study his resource redistribution plans, they match very well what one would expect from that end of the political spectrum. I have no idealogical or moral dilemma calling Obama a Communist. Because he is. - Gregory Pittman
Krish, "sane" is not a word I would use to describe Obama. Deluded, deceiving, opportunistic, etc., maybe, but not sane. - Gregory Pittman
Gregory Roosevelt was a Socialist was his economic policy so dire? - Fred Grott
Gregory, when you start redefining words to mean whatever you want them to mean, eventually they lose all meaning. You might as well call him a ham sandwich. - David Worrell
David, I'm not redefining words. I'm using Obama's own. But, he does redefine words at will, so you may have a point. - Gregory Pittman
Fred, Oh my goodness, yes! Roosevelt's New Deal is the very reason we have such a government-dependent society today. He ushered in an era of teaching us to lean on government rather taking responsibility for our own actions. The result decades later is a country strapped with debt, not because we buy oil from other countries (as Obama likes to argue), but because we make too many people dependent on an ever-growing government welfare system. Roosevelt is responsible in many for this country's downfall. - Gregory Pittman
Good Christ -- talk radio talking points on Friendfeed. - Sean McBride
Are you reading all of that off cue cards Gregory? Way to stick to the far right party line! - Tad - the Meme Maker
Gregory do you think for yourself at any point in a debate or conversation? Cost of Oil imports plus war cost is significantly higher than Social Security cost - Fred Grott
Tad: arguing with guys like Gregory never helps anything. But I guess he would be happy to spend hundreds of billions to kill Iraquis but wouldn't like to spend that money helping the poor at home. And people wonder why our country is so screwed up... - Robert Scoble
Gregory, how the fuck is Obama a Socialist? Cut the absurd hyperbole. - Alexander Carlill
Ah well. Another addition to the block list I guess. - Alexander Carlill
Gregory: have you thought very much about the negative social and economic impacts of corrupt oligarchies, plutocracies and monopolies, crony and vulture capitalism, welfare state institutions for the military-industrial complex, no-bid contracts, predatory nepotocracies and the like? There's a great deal of fine scholarly research out there on these subjects. I approach these issues as a progressive libertarian and fan of creative capitalism, by the way, not as a "leftist" or, God forbid, a "Marxist." - Sean McBride
Robert, I think the war in Iraq has been mishandled in as many ways as you do, most likely. I'm terribly sorry I ever voted for GWB in 2000; so much so that I didn't vote for him in 04. Alexander, Obama's wealth redistribution (taking from the rich and buying the votes of the poor) is straight out of the Socialist manual. And, again, Obama himself has said one of his most significant political influences was a Communist. I'm not making that up; the great Obama said it. - Gregory Pittman
Tad, I might have listened to a total of three or four hours of talk radio in the last decade. No exaggeration there. But why is it that I have to hold the same opinions you do in order to have a discussion? If I don't, I'm the problem with America. I'm not so sure I'm the one reading the cue cards. - Gregory Pittman
Gregory: during the last two terms, under the most fiscally irresponsible and anti-conservative administration in my memory, we have witnessed a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to a small oligarchy which in many cases hasn't earned the pelf by creative and productive labor. Trends like this invariably lead to social breakdowns and disasters, sometimes even revolutions. One doesn't have to be a "socialist" to notice. - Sean McBride
Sean, I absolutely agree with you. Bush has been completely fiscally irresponsible and anti-conservative. And therein lies the problem. But, you must be pretty young because Carter was the worst President on both counts in US history (really trying to avoid hyperbole there, but I think it's true); thankfully the country was relieved of his damage after just one term. Obama could easily strip Carter of that title, however. In fact, I'm almost certain he will. - Gregory Pittman
You have to wonder about economic ability of anyone who thinks you increase govt. Revenue by raising taxes. A study of history shows the opposite to be true. - Robert Hafer
Gregory: I'd be more comfortable voting for Obama if he were a Socialist, but he's not. I grew up under Thatcher, was born at the end of Callaghan's tenure and was witness to the end of British manufacturing under the iron lady. NOTHING was accomplished and whole communities in northern England were stripped of their livelihood. If you are in favour of this and think this is a great idea, you need to tell the coal miners that; see what their lives have become. - Prolific Programmer
Gregory: perhaps we can find a bit of common ground. I don't know what Obama is really about, and I am certainly not an Obama true believer. What I do know for certain, however, is that the neoconservative policies of military aggression in the Mideast which McCain clearly intends to pursue will bankrupt and destroy the United States as an economic superpower. He's drunk the neocon Kool-Aid to the dregs. We're running out of trillions of dollars to fund these wars against "Islamofascism." - Sean McBride
this thread shows the difficulty of even talking about economy, let alone having a plan ... let's see, which one of these guys here above should i pick for my advisor? .... - Gregory Lent
and finally, an article about an issue, instead of a poll or a gaffe, wonder if there will be more? - Gregory Lent
Sean, again, very little argument from my end. Provided we can secure our own borders properly so that we stop potential attacks on our soil, I'm all for putting an end to a proactive use of our military. I wonder if we truly can secure our borders, but that's another issue. I am, however, all for a military response in the case of attack. And I doubt you'll ever find me arguing on behalf of a McCain presidency. - Gregory Pittman
Gregory: I share your views about a strong military. So does the American military establishment -- that is why it strongly opposes expanding the Iraq War to Iran, a policy which would severely damage the United States in every possible dimension. A policy which McCain's advisers are pushing hard, and which, I see, you reject. I think, however, you need to refine your rhetorical attacks on Obama. You're over the top, imo. - Sean McBride
Good gracious, Gregory. Someone "connected" enough to use FriendFeed should know that "closing our borders" isn't at the top of the list of priorities to fix. Cyber-terrorism is certainly number 1 and port security and the joke that is the TSA are much bigger priorities. And what's more socialist than using my tax dollars to bail out Fannie and Freddie? - JonathanJoseph
I would like to point out that "neo-con" has long been a left-wing code word, first meaning conservative Jew sand evoling into a general derogative for non-liberals - Robert Hafer
Robert -- "neoconservative" is a term that neoconservatives coined themselves to describe themselves. It originates in the Commentary culture developed by Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz since the 1970s. Not only is it a perfectly legitimate term, but it is the most appropriate term to describe the political bloc which has dominated the Bush 43 administration. Do an Amazon search on the term and you will be inundated by respectable, high-quality books on the subject. You might start by reading Jacob Heilbrunn's They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons http://tinyurl.com/5newez - Sean McBride
Robert: further note: most Jews are anti-neoconservative and many neoconservatives are not Jewish. "Neoconservative" is a shifty, dishonest term: neoconservatives are anti-conservative (and anti-liberal). Arguably they are also anti-American: witness their assault on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Most of them are closely associated with Israel's Likud Party. They have a distinctly messianic and totalitarian bent, and are driven by raw ethnic and religious xenophobia. - Sean McBride
Another fine book on the neocons: Fred Kaplan: Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power http://tinyurl.com/6rzz9s There are dozens of fine books to choose from to get a handle on the neocons. - Sean McBride
