Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 22, 2010

I’m afraid they aren’t what they used to be, either.

Maybe it takes a newspaper to pull us back from the feeding-frenzy of blaming BP. Cable news does a poor job of presenting the big picture, particularly the foreign perspectives. Cable plays to our worst parochial instincts.

A Brit economist sagely observes that the English are willing to admit BP’s responsibility for the spill, but if the Americans are going to pretend that their looming, double-dip recession will also have been caused by BP, then perhaps it’s time for the English to demand reparation for what Goldman Sachs has done to ravage THEIR pension accounts.

The English have never paid us war reparations for the War of 1812. They did burn down the White House, after all.

Well, to be fair, we set fire to York first….

That rolls of the newspapers are wasting like the pieces of wasting papers. The same thing is with the recycled papers, too! I prefer to read on the online via the Internet easily.

Wildmustang, if I interpreted correctly that you think using paper for news distribution is a waste of resources, and using the internet isn’t: computers / the internet need a LOT of energy, and lots of precious metals, which are 1. extremely rare resources and 2. mined under ecologically and socially dreadful conditions. Whereas recycled paper is not that bad.

The liberal news groups control what we see in the news, even the news papers.

nagut. I think you have a point, computers have a life span, then are disposed of. (Hopefuly recycled)

\\//_

Try reading UK newspapers online if you want some different viewpoints - Times run by Murdoch who’s hardly a liberal, and if you want right-wing rant try the Daily Mail. (The Guardian is the bastion of liberality)

Good first step. Step Two: take the television out of the kitchen.

Dkram, the mainstream media leans rightward.

Besides getting the newspaper, Boopsie (and I love how she has matured over the course of the strip) should watch more C-Span & P.B.S.: the NewsHour. Television news, though, cable & broadcast, besides P.B.S., is all pretty bad. What a shame that C.N.N., the father of them all blew the opportunity for intelligent reporting & commentary.

Boopsie could always listen to N.P.R.

Yes, radio is much better there instead (read that seriously if you have BBC, sarcastically for most other cases)

dkram: I’m not sure how many computers are recycled, I suspect not that many. And a lot of those that are are recycled in Africa or somewhere, where children burn the plastic from the copper cables without protection. But apart from that: Even just using your computer (which you have anyway) needs a lot of energy. A friend uses his computer instead of turning on the heating, which shows what a lot of energy is used just by having the computer running. Also, when you use internet services, they need lots and lots of energy for their servers. So it really does make a difference how you use your computer or (specifically) internet services. And, by the way, the more energy we need, the more oil is needed. So your (and my) computer is partly responsible for all the oil in the gulf.

Sorry BrianCrook, but you were flagged, You made some great points. Try to express them without clever vulgarities next time.

Back to topic, there’s a relevant story on “Right Wing News” which tries to explain the decline of newspapers in America. You may not agree with their conclusions, but they make a couple valid points.

http://rightwingnews.com/2010/06/why-newspapers-are-dying-the-ann-coulter-edition/

We read online news, and comics but also get the paper. Gives more depth. We get BBC, CBC and may USA oriented news feeds. Have not tried the Times, etc. we just might want to sometime! Having a more well rounded information base helps us remain independants!

nagut, I saw an interesting documentary at a film festival that explored the recycling of computer products in China. Most “recycling” consists of starvation-paid workers ripping out a few valuable parts such as copper and then burning the rest. Many small villages specialize in “recycling”, and the people in them and their environment are being poisoned by the plastics and heavy metals. The levels of cancer and sterility in those areas is over 50%.

It feels good to “recycle”, but it may not mean what we think it does.

My newspaper downloads to my Nook every day.

Nemesys, thanks for the “unbiased” news source – Ann Coulter: Queen Wingnut.

You always flag people who differ from your party line?

Although I prefer newspaper to TV news, one has to have more than one of each. My local rag is a Tribune owned liberal opinion page who see no problem in printing an obviously slated story on the front page. As a somewhat intelligent reader, I should still be able to find who, where, what (why being opinion). The paper provides more information than the TV and I can reread to check facts. TV news is likely to spend more airtime on a fiery crash than the new budget proposal. I find opinion papers useful if I’m willing to read The Nation and the New Republic. Some people only want to read their party line. Hate to say it but both sides have valid points

BRIAN Glad to see you are in your usual reasonable mood. glad to see housing sales are up. Wonder what June’s numbers will be like now the government isn’t paying? Maybe the expected inflation caused by government over-borrowing will cause people to continue buying while the dollar is still worth more than kindling. Remember the Carter years? 18% inflation.People spent as fast as they could.

Sorry to see that your think the Bush years were utter chaos, but that is your opinion. You think the Prez hasn’t had enough time to fix all this damage. Let’s see, he’s almost at the half way mark. When is he going to start? I thought he was the captain at the helm. How long is he going to whine about the man before him.?

You obviously think it was a good idea to start a huge government entitlement program instead of working on the economy. Congress only wasted how much time on that? Come Open Season this November when we see what our health care insurance is going to cost, I’m sure America will be overjoyed.

I’m glad highways and bridges are being selectively funded. What’s that four letter word that starts with P? I do believe this will cost more than Sarah’s (will I get bleeped for that?) bridge. What about that bridge to tomorrow another minority (Irish Catholic) president promised that came true? All the scientific breakthroughs NASA made are to be thrown in the gutter?.

I can’t begin to address all your opinions stated as fact. I just asked you a few questions. Have a good day.

To return to today’s strip, is Sam the child of BD and Boopsie? In any case, Sam stands for the youngest generation–familiar only with online media and needing to be informed by Zonker (!) that a newspaper is not “a limp iPad.”

GT is saying that our future as an informed citizenry depends on Sam’s native intelligence and curiosity. Sam may go on to subscribe to The New Republic and The American Conservative–two fine publications that require more time than many of us on this forum can muster (especially for their book reviews).

1) the idea that news media have a “liberal bias” is not supported by fact. According to Publisher and Editor, an industry trade paper, surveys show a slight liberal slant by reporters and writers, but a strong conservative bias on the part of editors and publishers, the people who ultimately decide what’s “news.” As a result, most media have a conservative, pro-business, pro-Republican party slant.

2) if you want to be really disgusted and scared about electronics “recycling,” see this PBS Frontline/World segment:

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/ghana804/video/video_index.html

It’s hard to believe that making paper could be more environmentally destructive than dismantling obsolete computers…

I agree, Nagut, that using computers uses energy, but much less than, say, a refrigerator. I disagree that the energy must come from oil. More & more electric services are getting more of their power from wind & sun, and, of course, Niagara Falls, for one example, has powered much of the northeast for generations.

Nemesys, I don’t know about what you write. You flagged which remark & for what reason? What vulgarities?

In re newspapers: I get the Sunday NEW YORK TIMES. When I’m traveling, I buy the local paper, which is almost always superior to my hometown paper. I’m afraid that, otherwise, I don’t read a daily, but I do pick up a local semi weekly, and I subscribe to a few magazines, so print ahs not died in my abode.

Although the HARTFORD COURANT isn’t the nation’s best paper, Lew, it’s hardly left-wing biased. I agree with you that both THE NATION & THE NEW REPUBLIC are worth reading, though I miss THE NEW REPUBLIC’s heyday in the early 1970s.

As to your reply about President Obama’s work, I am pleased that you couldn’t knock down one of my points, and I am pleased to see that, given an open opportunity to say something good about Bush-Dick, you came up with… nothing. Obama is just past the one-third mark in his first term. You know as well as I that cleaning up a mess takes longer than making one. It can take a five-year-old thirty minutes to make a mess that will take an adult an hour to clean. Well, we just left eight years of having the equivalent of a five-year-old in charge. You can’t expect the adult we finally (legitimately) elected to clean it up in one-sixth the time. He’s doing his best.

By the way, Congress worked on the economy WHILE working on health-insurance reform. Congress would’ve done more if the Senate Republicans hadn’t wanted to see the unemployed starve.

Drome, Sam is indeed B.D. & Boopsie’s daughter. She was born, if memory serves, in 1997. Zonker was brought in as nanny.

corzak, I enjoy intellectual discourse and never flag people who disagree with me. Whom else would I debate otherwise? However, I do flag obscene speech, as that cannot be debated. Thanks for playing.

And I never claimed that “Right Wing News” was unbiased. Duh! But they do make a good point that newspapers refuse to carry the columns that appeal to those right of center. Since that accounts for at least half the country, is there any wonder why their circulation is drying up? Independent thinkers are tired of being spoon fed liberal biases over their daily oatmeal. A little balance goes a long way to establish credibility and trust.

Brian, well played, but I’m not going to repeat them. Since the forum apparently agreed with me and removed your comments, you’ll have to ask them what they found offensive. Thanks for upgrading your language in the meantime.

The Courant’s worst fault over the years is their unashamed support of Chris Dodd. They have traditionally printed his press releases as actual news stories, and as Connecticut’s leading investigative paper have never held him accountable over the years. That relationship spilled over into support of anyone Dodd identified as a friend, which pretty much poisoned the well for the expectation of getting meaningful news out of that paper. Their Sunday coupon section is pretty good, however.

puddleglum, rather than rely on self-serving surveys of editors and publishers, consider research evidence gathered by UCLA (surpirsing results) http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/polisci/faculty/groseclose/Media.Bias.8.htm or data gathered by the PEW Research Center. The selectivity of coverage speaks for itself. The villification of our previous administration compared with the adoration of our current president simply highlights what the evidence has been telling us all along.

Ironically, perhaps the best indication of “mainstream” media bias has been the unqualfied success of those media outlets (such as Fox, etc.) who have capitalized upon it as an alternative.

Nemesys,

I don’t remember BrianCook’s language, but as I recall he used the word “Teabaggers,” and I know you objected to my use of the label, too, even though it’s now embraced by the Teaparty themselves. I hope you’re not going to pretend that you feel personally insulted by the name the party has adopted. They no longer need your protection.

To repeat what I said last week, “The objection to “Baggies” has become so yesterday. In their admirable political innocence, Teapartiers have stripped the word “teabagging” of its sexual innuendo and they hang real teabags on their ears like earrings. Give them credit for reviving a great moment (Machiavelli would say “crisis/opportunity”) in America’s history.”

plus4, I’ve been blackballed by the editors of the NYT Letters ever since 2004, when I suggested that if “history” decides to condemn Bush for going to war in Iraq, it won’t be because Bush failed to clear his policy first with the NYT.

I rely on the NYT daily for world news and for its unparalleled reporting and research, but I ignore the editorials and the letters–those have devolved into a forum for the local eggheads. (New York may or may not be our most interesting city, but it’s for sure the most parochial in its view of everybody else.)

palin drome, I remember quite well what you said last week. I simply don’t agree with you. Hanging tea bags on their ears doesn’t equate with use of the term as vulgar slang. As I stated previously, use of the “n” word by African Americans within context is hardly a licence for use of the term as vulgar slang against that population. Try yelling it at 125th Street and see how “yesterday” it is.

However, you’re welcome to prove me wrong, and if you can point to specific examples of where the Tea Party has used that term to describe themselves in any official capacity such as press releases or general public communications, then I’ll gladly admit it.

Replying to comments from yesterday (with a slight change, thanks to Nemesys & Palindrome) (please read these remarks as having been posted somefour hours earlier):

Lew, we still discuss the problems from Bush-Dick, because they were legion & massive, and no president could overcome them all in a mere seventeen months. I note, though, that you have no argument with the contention that Bush-Dick’s presidency was an utter disaster.

As for President Obama’s accomplishments, have you noticed that the economy is improving? General Motors is back on its feet? Your beloved Wall Street is rising? The housing market has begun to rebound? In two years, Obama, the Democrats in the House, & the chicken-hearted Senate stopped Bush-Dick’s Great Recession from becoming another Depression.

Besides helping the economy, Obama re-funded family planning clinics worldwide, which saves the lives of millions of poor women & children.

Obama approved California’s car-emissions standards. Bush-Dick, owned by Big Oil (see B.P. spill) had prevented California from instituting these standards.

Obama’s stimulus has helped rebuild our infrastructure from coast-to-coast. Oh, that’s right: That’s “socialism” to you, to have new highway bridges. Sorry: The rest of us like having safer roads & bridges.

Obama re-started stem-cell research, which will help Alzheimer’s research, in particular. You should be especially grateful of that, Lew.

Obama has replaced one Supreme Court justice & is about to replace another, which will take a small step in moving the Court back from the extreme right.

Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which Bush-Dick would not sign, and which should also please you, considering that you live on your wife’s income.

Obama cut taxes for working-class Americans. What could better please those who hang tea bags from hatbrims?

Finally, Obama passed health-insurance reform, the first step in fixing America’s broken health-care system.

Thanks, Rina, for those words about birds. I had heard the same story on N.P.R. last week. Cleaning most oil-covered birds apparently does little to save them, unfortunately. This B.P. spill is a terrible disaster, the last embodiment of Bush-Dick’s attempted destruction of America.

Coyoty, I heard the same thing that Rina heard. What is your source for saying that current bird-cleaning shows better results?

nagut said, about 8 hours ago

Wildmustang, if I interpreted correctly that you think using paper for news distribution is a waste of resources, and using the internet isn’t: computers / the internet need a LOT of energy, and lots of precious metals, which are 1. extremely rare resources and 2. mined under ecologically and socially dreadful conditions. Whereas recycled paper is not that bad.

Yeah, you are sort of right but for me, why should I keep those wasting original and recycled newspapers piling up too long? That become an “eyesores!” Plus, pay too much cost to get the newspapers. You see what I mean. But it is up to people who want to read the newspapers, that will be fine. Suit themselves whether if they want to have newspapers or not. Anyway, hope y’all enjoy a nice day! Adios!

Newspaper ? What’s that ?

Thanks, Nemesys & Palindrome, for clarifying Nemesys’s radical objection to my earlier remark. I refer to the “Tea Party” as “T—B-gg-rs”, because (1) The “Tea Party” is not a party, and (B) They first made themselves known to me when I saw pictures of an April 15th protest with many people hanging tea bags from the brims of their caps & hats. Forgive my ignorance, but how is the term “T– B-gg-r” vulgar sexual innuendo? or, as Nemesys contends, equivalent to applying the “N” word to an African-American, which is one of the worst ways that one can use the English language? I openly & sincerely request an explanation, but I must admit that I doubt there is any way that “T– Bgg-r” vulgar as it may be, could equate with the “N” word.

Drome, I agree with you about the NEW YORK TIMES. It is very sensitive to criticism & New Yorkers are unfortunately parochial. The paper is still pretty bleeep good, however, if one ignores those flaws & its less-than-progressive politics.

[Note: I posted this remark with the T.B. term spelled out, but Gocomics didn’t accept it. I try it this way in hopes that we can circumvent Gocomics’ censors & discuss this matter.]

Nemesys–

I don’t have to debate “context” with you when the Teabaggers themselves have given concrete meaning to the word. They’re using teabags to symbolize the original Boston Tea Party–a pretty neat modern adaptation, I’d say, considering the awkwardness of hauling out one of the big tins our forebears dumped into the harbor.

I trust you’re “not going to repeat” the personal, sexualized context you give the word for BrianCook’s benefit. Why poison the political innocence that should be axiomatic for all comments on a GT strip?

For a thoughtful examination of this radical movement, see Daniel Bernstein’s essay for The Stone at

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/the-very-angry-tea-party/

palin drome, continuing to cite the use of tea bags by ‘Partiers as decorations is a red herring. You know the term that I am referring to, and my challenge still stands… ignored at present. There’s no debate of context required.

Brian, it’s not a question of “better” or “worse” degrees of vulgarity, but intent to the target audience. My last name ends in a vowel, and in my household the use of slang for our shared ethnicity was routine. However, if someone outside the group used the terms, they were given the opportunity to be educated. If they continued, they graduated to the next level of education.

I agree that the NY Times isn’t particularly progressive… many of their editorial paradigms are actually somewhat backwards and/or old-fashioned. However, they’ve been very faithful to their motto of determining of what’s “fit to print” and how to print it, and most of those decisions are based on a very outdated yellow journalism model… hence their flagging circulation.

“Fair and Balanced” is the new mode of journalistic integrity. Take whatever stand you wish, and be open about it… but don’t pretend that your biases represent any kind of sacred “truth”. Invite debate (Americans have always loved drama, the secret of Fox’s success, not their conservative viewpoints) , present the objective data, and let the subjective truth be determined by the readers. It’s no more complicated than a high school debate.

Mayor Koch used to refer to the NY Times as his “paper of record”, but he has recently backed off on his trust of them after reading their unbalanced “news” about issues very personal to him. That pretty much tells the story, methinks. People who know better no longer trust them to tell the whole story.

The T-B word first arose in politics as a term of abuse against the Tea Partyers [my preferred spelling], wielded by snotty Leftist commentors who knew full well the sexual meaning. (Look it up on urbandictionary.com if you don’t know what that meaning is.)

If Tea Partyers are unknowingly embracing the term, that is regrettable. If they are knowingly using it, that is a mistake.

Discussions of the term aside, I too will be flagging anyone using the term as an insult against citizens concerned with excessive taxation, diminished freedom, and the erosion of the Constitution.

Sorry, BrianCrook… but NPR? Don’t make me laugh.

http://nprcheck.blogspot.com/

And sadly, PBS dispensed with Moyers Journal and NOW, replacing them with a limp program that’s akin to NPR-TV.

Liberal news? BAH!! The PNAC crowd fixed that “mistake” after watergate; including print. I cancelled my newspaper during the Downing St. memos thing because there was nothing in the paper on it. I found out everything online. I wrote the editor and told him I didn’t want to pay for being manipulated. I can get that for free by watching FOX or CNN.

Thank you Mr. Hitler! Please take away my right to free speech. Oh wait, the “Patriot” Act already did that.

The T-B term must hit too close to home, eh?

Thanks, Pschearer, for the citation to Urban Dictionary. There are eleven definitions for “t— b-gg-r”, starting with the vulgar sexual use and moving through political definitions written by different political perspectives. Interestingly, definition #5 claims that Fox News used the term. I did not intend the term as an insult, although I am highly aware of the irrational inconsistencies of the positions w/in the Tea Bag group. I used it for the reasons given above. I shall use the term “Tea Bag group” from now on.

Thanks, Drome, for the link to THE NEW YORK TIMES op-ed. It looks interesting. Indeed, the whole series looks interesting.

Nemesys, I am afraid that your circumlocutions escape me. All I glean from your statement is that you casually used ethnic slurs to refer to family members but would take great umbrage if others, “Outside the group”, did the same. I grew up in an Italian household and we would NEVER use any ethnic slurs w/in or w/out. Such behavior is either self-demeaning or insulting and most definitely low class. My African-American friends feel the same way about the “N” word. I do not see my term for the Tea Bag group as falling at all in the same vein. People in the Tea Bag group are there by choice. Ethnic, racial, & sexist terms are an attempt to place people in an inferior situation based upon aspects of themselves over which they should feel pride & about which they had no choice. Additionally, America has a terrible history of oppression & bias toward those whose race & ethnicity was not Anglo or Northern European, toward those whose sex was not male, and toward those whose sexual inclinations were not hetero-. There is no concomitant history of oppression toward members of the Tea Bag group. You may find the “T—B-gg-r” term offensive but please do not make any association with ethnic, racial, sexist, or homophobic slurs.

As to your comparison between THE NEW YORK TIMES & Fox News, I am afraid that it is risible. THE NEW YORK TIMES, for all its flaws, presents objective intelligent calm reporting. Fox News is filled with little news, less objectivity, & almost no calm. Fox News called itself “fair and balanced” as a motto of what it was not & still is not. We can explain its current popularity by these factors: (1) it is simplistic & hysterical, thus playing to two of television’s strengths; (2) It was the most jingoistic news station immediately after September 11th, when the American public was in a fearful, defensive mood that expressed itself through an unfortunate jingoism; (3) Its owner has very deep pockets, paid for billions of dollars in advertising, forced the channel onto all cable packages, and survived the years in which it lost money; (4) Thirty years of cuts to public education, beginning in the 1970s, have led to a generation that has trouble reading and loves the most simplistic version possible of national & world events.

Pschearer, if you are concerned with diminished freedom & erosion of the Constitution, then I trust you keep your A.C.L.U. membership current. The A.C.L.U. works much harder than does the Tea Bag group in protecting our freedom & the Constitution. Bush-Dick’s America, which we still see on the Supreme Court, continues to erode our rights. We must fight against the remnants of Bush-Dickism.

Herb, I agree with you about the loss of Bill Moyers JOURNAL & NOW & about the limpness of NEED TO KNOW. Nonetheless, the P.B.S. NEWSHOUR, WASHINGTON WEEK, FRONTLINE, & NOVA provide more intelligence than one finds on any other news network this side of C-SPAN.

“PNAC”, Moondoggie?

I’ve always found newspapers to be lacking in in-depth coverage. I learn more from National Review Online.

Who was Boopsie watching in the first panel, I wonder?

Out of curiosity, has the BP CEO been accused of lying in real life? The only documented liar I know about is Admiral Thad Allen.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/breaking-coast-guard-head-was-informed-of-maine-oil-boom-on-521-yesterday-he-claimed-he-didnt-know/

The CEO’s big crime was turning down that Dutch oil containment assistance.

BrianCrook: I would never support the ACLU, because while they often defend legitimate rights, since they have no consistent underlying concept of rights, they will just as often support causes that involve the violation of the rights of some by others. My position is for a consistent concept and defense of rights for all.

The Founding Fathers came very close to getting it right but had fatal flaws from the beginning, starting with “We hold these truths to be self-evident….” Your hand in front of your face is self-evident. 2+2=4 is self-evident. But the concept of inalienable, inherent, universal rights requires a philosophic foundation the Founding Fathers lacked. (It certainly wasn’t provided by John Locke who thought we had rights because as God’s property we had to protect ourselves. Not a view the many deists among the FF’s could support.)

With the concept of rights undercut, soon the idea of government specifically as the defender of rights (requiring strict limits on government power) began to corrode, to be replaced by the idea of government as the solver of problems, the manager of the economy, the protector of the entire world, etc., which implies there is no longer any substantial limit on the growth of government power. That is where we are today.

the trouble is, there is no such thing as completely unbiased writing. far better to have a newspaper explicitly call itself, say, the voice of the left (or right), so you know what to expect.

a long time ago people in france would buy one left-wing newspaper and one right-wing newspaper, and read them both to get two sides of a story. then they had a reasonably well-rounded idea of what was going on. i don’t know what it’s like now.

but europeans would call american newspapers (and americans) right-wing. so there is no real left-wing balance. well, there was when there was i. f. stone’s weekly. but very few people knew about it, or would have had the desire, as the french did, for balanced reporting.

teabagging has a sexual connotation? hey, i’m way behind you! can someone tell me (in a euphemistic way that won’t get bleeped, of course) what on earth that is?

we had a magazine (about wildlife) called the beaver after canada’s national animal. but some people made a fuss, altho the magazine had been around for many years. so now it has another name. can’t remember what at all.

Not gonna touch that one with a 10-foot pole!

The older folks running around with tea bags hanging from their hats called themselves the term we can’t use any more. After a month or six weeks, some younger, hip persons let it slip out that there was a sexual act in the gay community that made the description of the political group offensive. Hope that explains it without being crude. But they did use it FIRST! And I don’t know where you all live, but my local paper is so far right that Mallard Fillmore is on the editorial page, and the daily Doonesbury is not printed at all. And I’m so far out in the boonies the NYT is not available for purchase.

If you don’t think the Crazys have taken over this message board, you are one.

@Alabama_Al……..Amen, brother.

BRIAN Thank you for letting me know the Hartford Courant was unbiased. Sundays lead headline, ANOTHER SCANDAL, ANOTHER LESSON might give a reader a slight clue that this NEWS article might be biased, right or left. If a paper can blatantly editorialize on the front page, I think I’d better read very carefully.

The Courant fought for the ACLU coming to defend the First Amendment rights of two students and a parent who felt threatened by graduation is a large church. Tell granny not to show up unless she brings an umbrella, Wouldn’t want her offended by the word “church” in the parking lot.

I’m glad you believe in your First Amendment right to use a derogatory word for people whose beliefs you dislike> Mind if I call you “Pinko” or “Commie”?

Have a nice day. Oh, what about that promise about GITMO?

Thanks, guys, for the link to urbandictionary –my reaction is: THAT is what got everybodys knickers wadded up? Well, my goodness gracious golly gee whillikers .. your undergrad years must have been memorable indeed because you sure haven’t been able to let go of them!

@pschearer, thank you for referring me to unbandictionary. Actually I had looked up the word tttbbbgggr once before, but I had forgotten it. Evidently not very important as far as my mind was concerned.

RinaFarina,

Here’s a link that will explain it in detail!

@mythreesons, “there was a sexual act in the gay community” is not clear enough for me. I wanted an explicit description. I got it at urbandictionary. I don’t find them vulgar; they are just providing information that people might want. If you don’t want that information, just don’t go to that web site.

There are lots of things that I want to know about, that it doesn’t mean I will use in real life.

Just for the record:

Teabagging is fun,

teapartiers are dumb.

Doesn’t scan, but who cares?

Here’s some news: McChrystal just offered to resign because of this article in RS.

http://bit.ly/cepMPs

The headlines should be: “McChrystal has met his Waterloo”.

Hey guys and gals,

What I said about Lewreader yesterday, I take it back.

The man is really a gushing fountain of (name your poison).

What a difference a day makes, the folks who were lamenting the lack of serious discourse on the forum yesterday, are going over all the ins and outs of tea bagging today.

I’ve always felt that you can get at least one good erudite comment a day here … but I could be wrong.

Not normally a big GT or Doonesbury fan, but I have to give props where props are due. “A limp ipad” is a fantastic line.

RIP Newspapers.

I will need to repeat this in the morning, but Lew, you have fallen in my estimation. The piece headlined “Another Scandal, Another Lesson” is an opinion piece, a column, written by one of the Courant’s staff columnists. It is NOT reportage. Either (A) you can’t tell the difference between the reportage & opinion, or (B) you will say anything to try, feebly, to win the argument.

I feel sorry for you, Lew. You either know very little or you lie.