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Good Morning!

This will be the daily open thread. Talk about whatever you’d like.

Since this is the first, I’ll pick the Question of the Day today.

QoD-What should we call this? Give me some suggestions of your own, or tell me what name someone else came up with that you like. We’ll take the top 3 or 4 choices from today’s post. I’ll post a poll and then you fine folks can vote on it tomorrow. The one that recieves the most votes wins. Have fun. 🙂

178 thoughts on “Good Morning!”

  3. Good Morning all. Life is back to semi-normal today. Baby Girl is up and getting ready for school. It is still wet and rainy here. I tried to watch the Republican Convention last night but I could not stomach the reporters bias and one woman went on a personal Obama campaign about how the economy NEEDED him and now he was EXPERIENCED and Romney is not, blah, blah, blah. Rewatching the Sandlot with BG was much better for my blood pressure.
    Chas asked us yesterday about our memories of World Views and WMB. I have way too many to tell so I won’t. I will express appreciation for finding the site all those years ago. Where else would this Southern Belle come in contact with a couple of authors/writers, an editor, someone who helped map the moon, homeschoolers, Mother Nature, accountants, financial advisors, doctors, stay at home dads, good men to restore my trust in men, and a whole slew of people it is too early for me to remember.
    I am off to Youtube Condoleeza Rice’s speech and see what I think.

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  7. I might suggest Saints and Sinners … heh, That was a joke.

    I actually like wandering views, but then there are some days where I lack creativity.

    Kim — Rice’s speech was pretty good in the main. At some point though, I would like clarity on what it means to stand up for freedom in terms of military commitments.

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  8. Whatever happens in November, in Paul Ryan the Republicans have the inspiring, intelligent, conservative leader they have lacked for 24 years.

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  10. Hey Ricky

    Yeah — it’s a bigger orb like thing here. No idea what it actually is, just liked the way it looked.

    On Ryan — My formerly GOP significant other was ready to toss things at the TV watching him last night. If she’s an indication of the old paleo con reactions, he may not be quite what you think.

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  11. Concerning avatar, I’m afraid mine will be too good.
    Sawgunner said to me, “You look just like your avitar”. 😦
    Bob Buckles, on “The Five”, said, the Republicans have the bench, they have lots of good young people. Democrats don’t have anyone waiting in the wings.

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    • Chas, I agree with Buckles. There are some solid conservative leaders in the wings. I thought the speeches by Rice, Martinez (? the NM governor, not sure I’m remembering her name exactly, but the first name was Susana?), and, especially Ryan, were exceptional. And I’m pretty jaded when it comes to politicians, as you all know. 😉

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  12. Good morning! I came here to make sure it was reality and that I was not just dreaming yesterday!

    Possible names: Whirled Viewers : Our Whirled; View From the Whirled

    Thanks, again, AJ, for setting this up!

    I am using Janice instead of Toobizy now.

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  13. CB, I’ve been following Ryan for several years. He is what I think he is. Whether he is electable in modern America is another question. Interestingly, I posted the same pro-Ryan statement on Facebook and the first three “likes” I got were from 20 something’s I rarely hear from. I am definitely a paleo con, but maybe working with youth at church has made me think like a 20 year old.

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  14. It’s a challenge trying to be all things to all people. 😦

    I’ve never liked the conventions. Even when there is a good speech, it reminds me too much of high school pep rallies . . . Which I didn’t like either. 🙂

    I’m wandering through the Metropolitan Museum of Art today with a hip, artsy, avant garde niece I do not know well enough. I’m thankful for this opportunity and looking forward to it!

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    • I listened to Paul Ryan’s Speech last night Michelle. I really liked it. I also really enjoyed the speech given by the former Democratic Representative from Alabama. His speech was both eloquent and effective.

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    • Michelle, I agree generally about conventions. But they can be an important window — or snapshot in time — into where a party is going in terms of it’s larger vision. I generally don’t watch many of the speeches, but last night’s were really quite good and included what I thought was some real substance. Certainly a contrast with where the other party has taken us in the last four years.

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  16. I liked Karen O’s idea yesterday of Who Moved the Watercooler. But as that’s kind of long, and new people here (we will get some, won’t we?) wouldn’t know what that refered to, maybe something like Watercooler Visits – that way it could still be abbreviated to WV.

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  17. My biggest complaint is the news people not leaving their views out of it. I hate the shameless campaigning for Obama going on AT the Republican Convention by the media. If I want to watch an campain for the Democrats I will watch their convention (which I would like to watch because I do think you need to hear what the other side has to say) but I can’t stomach the shamelessness of the media.
    I have stayed quiet on this subject for a long time because I really wasn’t watching CNN or MSNBC or even Fox News. I was searching the internet and reading what was written and getting a lot of information from the comments section. This is the first time in a while I have turned on the TV and sat down to watch something like this. I had read about the media bias but I hadn’t really SEEN it.

    What I see out of Obama is pandering to special interest and desperation. I have tried to have this conversation with my gay friends but they are so “latching on” to his stance on gay marriage that I cannot even have a conversation with them. Usually we are quite able to do that. I especially appreciate my friend B in Pittsburgh. I was telling him about the Don’t Renig 2012 bumber sticker I saw and how I couldn’t believe someone would print them up and THEN even put it on their vehicle. He told me he is unapologetically an Obama supporter but he did get a chuckle when he saw a bumper sticker with a picture of Obama that said “Does this A$$ make my truck look big?” So yes, under most circumstances we are able to at least talk about it.

    I will give you this. I don’t necessarily think Romney and Paul are the best thing since sliced bread but I do think they are the best thing we have to choose from D or R at this time.
    As someone who has studied history, I am appalled that Obama would continue to campaign during the R Convention. I’m no longer shocked but I am appalled. Also you aren’t hearing a whole lot about the Yahoo/ABC flub where the guy said something about all the white people having a party while black people were drowning.

    This forum may just give me the freedom to tell you people what I REALLY think 😉

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  19. I agree with michelle concerning the similarity between pep rallies and political conventions. They come across as grossly choreographed high pressure infomercials. I’m so thankful that I now have Christ to place my faith in and I don’t have to depend upon politicians and political parties for my hopes and aspirations anymore.

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  20. Kim

    The press coverage is pretty typical. When they do the dems, they’ll have republicans commenting. It’s not a story for these guys without conflict. What’s sad, imo, is the lack of factual reporting and that goes both ways.

    On discussing with gay friends the Romney campaign – at a certain point whether one is liberal, conservative or moderate, an lgbt person notices the rhetoric. The republican platform criticizes the Obama administrations focus on decriminalization of sexual orientation abroad. There is no spin that can make a gay person see that as a friendly or at least non-hostile possible Romney administration.

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  23. Checking in. This is “jayw” from the WM. Jayw was already taken. So now I’m Carlos J Krinklebine.

    Question: Maybe CB can explain this to me – is the liberal left attraction to Obama made out of a personal moral conviction alone? Or is it a more socialistic/communistic personally held belief? I’m trying to identify what it is that people see in the guy when they want to vote for him.

    I wonder if Barrack or Michelle balances their checkbook. I’m guessing to be as educated as Barrack is, it can’t be him, because he’s clearly proven he can’t do math…
    not in the sense of assets = liabilities + owner’s equity
    or in the US gov’t’s case:
    gov’t assets = liabilities (funded and unfunded) + fund balances

    I’m just not very confident in a person that can’t do math. And that’s non partisan. Bush couldn’t either.

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  24. Carlos,

    Let me start by reminding readers that I am a moderate. Liberals would not consider me one of their own in large part because of law enforcement positions (like supporting the death penalty).

    Why do folks vote for Obama — well, I’d start with several things — first most who are not on the hard right don’t view him as a socialist/communist. Support for social security, medicare other federal progams is pretty non-descript democrat and had been acceptable in the moderate wing of the republicans. Obama doesn’t threaten the dems — they don’t see him as a radical. There are more than a few conservative (I should say formerly conservative because they are now concerend CINO’s and RINOs bu the Natl Review and Townhall powers that be) commentators who would agree — (see David Frum, Rod Dreher, Daniel Larison, Andrew Sullivan, Bruce Bartlett). What the libs do see in Obama is someone who is trying to tackle health care costs overall, trying to unextend military commitments abroad, trying to address tax burden ratios — conservatives like to cite x percentage of the 1 percent pay most of the taxes while dems cite the ratio of the individual taxpayer along the lines of Buffett’s secretary pays 28 percent while Buffet pays 15 percent of total income (I’m not sure about the exact numbers here, but you get the idea). Libs also prescribe to Keynesian economics — as has every Republican President since Hoover — when there is a recession private business is not up to growing the economy — that was the idea behind the stimulus. One can argue about how effective it was or wasn’t, but that’s not your question.

    On social issues most of the dems find the republicans to be frightening with respect to individual liberties — its the inverse issue for conservatives.

    On the budget — one has to wonder if any representative or senator can do math as well. Republican budget submissions are also pretty non-transparent, cook the books and shade the truth of what they are doing. Example — there is no credible economist who argues that we can balance the budget without some tax increases — perhaps up to the level of the Clinton era (which featured lower taxes than the Reagan era, btw).

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    • Good explanation – although I’m pretty sure the record shows Keynesianism has failed. It failed to end the Depression in the 1930’s under Hoover and Roosevelt, it failed in the 1970’s, the decade of “we are all Keynesians” (Nixon) by bringing on stagflation, and it failed in the past 4 years as Obama’s stimulus packages couldn’t prevent the economy from going into the doldrums and unemployment from going over 8% for most of Obama’s term (heck, it went near 10% for awhile) – and that probably doesn’t tell the whole story because of people who just stopped looking for work.

      That doesn’t mean that I think supply-side economics is totally the answer, either. Surely there’s something in between. How about monetarism? It seems to me that monetary policy has a greater effect than either tax cuts or stimulus spending – though I certainly believe tax cuts have their place, and high taxes – the sort that Reagan ended – stifle the economy. Paul Volcker’s policies in the ’80s helped end the stagflation and the recession (the recession caused by Volcker’s policies which helped end the inflation, and the recession then ended in part by Volcker shifting gears to combat the recession). The Fed’s screwups in the early ’30s had a big impact on the recession and turned it into the Depression.

      I don’t call Obama a socialist. He’s more a social democrat, which is basically what most liberals are – which is not the same as a democratic socialist.

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    • On taxes – Did you see Tom Coburn’s kerfuffle last month with Grover Norquist? Coburn is generally thought of as a hard-line conservative, so that might surprise you.

      I’m willing to consider some tax increases. The Simpson-Bowles plan was interesting, though I’m not necessarily endorsing that plan. But here’s the flip side: there is no way to balance the budget without serious entitlement cuts. Even Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s proposal in 2010, which went far beyond Simpson-Bowles in proposing massive tax increases, would only fix the budget gap for a fleeting moment while doing lots of damage to the economy with massive tax increases. Entitlements will explode over the next fifteen years if costs are not controlled. Austerity is in order. As for what a Romney administration would do, the Ryan-Wyden plan is probably a good blueprint. (Note: that’s not an extreme or hardline conservative plan – Wyden is an Oregon Democrat).

      Also, on the budget: the proposed Romney budget has some serious weight behind it. Note that over 600 economists have endorsed it, including 6 Nobel laureates. A couple of moderate-conservative economists – Harvard economist Greg Mankiw and Columbia Business School’s Glenn Hubbard – put it together or at least had a lot of input in it.

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  26. CoyoteBlue I don’t see how anyone can support the killing of gay people abroad or anywhere else. Remember, all you have to do is walk past my family tree and several fall out! (That is my attempt at humor). I wouldn’t want my nephew, my stepbrother, my cousin, or two of my oldest and dearest friends to suffer any sort of abuse because of who they love.
    The jury is still out on what the press will do during the Democratic National Convention.
    Artur Davis and Condoleeza Rice make me proud of Alabama!

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  27. Kim

    Not killing — putting in jail, although killing would also be included. The Obama admin added a human rights focus that would work to decriminalize. This is significant, particularly in Africa as reaching the AIDS/HIV with education and health care is complicated by criminalization — people don’t seek help, don’t speak about what goes on on the down low and so forth — it makes the problem worse, health experts have been pretty clear about that.

    Fruits falling out of trees — heh, I like that.

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    • My apologies. I mis-read you. I wouldn’t want any of my folks jailed either. You do also have to give credit where credit is due. George W. Bush did a lot for AIDS in Africa and I believe just not too long ago went over to help build a clinic. Love him or hate him.

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      • Absolutley, PEPFAR was a W initiative and it’s done quite a lot of good in the world, especially in Africa. W also had pretty good human rights policies overall.

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  28. How much influence will Obama, or anyone, have with Muslem nations concerning homosexual activity? Obama has zero influence with Muslims, he just caters to them.

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    • I’m not sure that the relationship with Pakistan or Iran would bear out the notion of catering. And if you are addressing countries in the middle east and some of south central asia you have a real point on LGBT activity.

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  29. I heard something the other day that I think reflects how a lot of people feel — and that is that no one likes the idea of the nation’s first black president not succeeding.

    I think that’s true even for many of us who are more conservative and didn’t vote for him. After the ’08 election, I genuinely hoped he’d track more center and maybe manage to be what so many who voted for him (especially independents) hoped he’d be. In that sense alone, I was rooting for him but only in as much as in so many ways he was a blank slate (let’s face it, he said very little of substance in his ’07 speeches, right?).

    He didn’t turn out to be that kind of leader, in my opinion. And the thing to me that’s just inescapable is the competence issue. We’re just simply in a great big mess.

    He may be a nice guy (although I certainly now pick up an unappealing testiness and sharpness from him, but maybe part of that is me). But he simply has not managed to turn anything around — he’s managed only to dig the hole deeper. And I don’t hear any suggestion from him that he’ll do anything different in another 4 years, only the mantra that what he’s done really is working and it’ll take more time (and, presumably, more money).

    Most voters, I suspect, don’t buy that no matter how much they want to believe he’s as wonderful as they thought he was 4 years ago.

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    • My SO says the issue with Obama is that he leads through consensus building and when folks don’t want to have consensus, the leadershi style is not so effective. She may have a point.

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  31. Obama has two basic problems (other than being liberal, that is).
    1. He doesn’t like America as it is structured.
    2. He has no experience at anything. In 2008, some of you may remember, my platform was “I am more qualified to be president than Obama.” Sadly, that is still true.

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  32. For someone like me — who grew up amid the 1960s civil rights movement — electing our first black president was a big deal. It was the one aspect of the ’08 election I really was heartened by. How far we’d come as a nation.

    Of course, I would have preferred a conservative black president, but there you go. And I remember trying to be at least hopeful before he took office. I found myself smiling as I watched him & his wife dancing at the inaugural ball on television. Remembering the turmoil of the 1960s and the open racism that was still condoned in so many places, this was a victory for all of us as Americans.

    Regarding political conventions, yes, they are orchestrated PR stints for the parties. But I also think sometimes you get a real glimpse into where a party is going, who will be taking center stage in just a few years to come. From last night’s speeches, I’d say also that the movements of the Tea Party & Ron Paul have had a definite influence on the GOP, mostly for the better in terms of a renewed seriousness about the economy and national debt.

    Getting out of the mess won’t be easy. But at least the dialogue has begun (and hopefully on the Democratic side as well).

    And for those of us who are election hounds, these four-year playoffs are all fun to some degree. Even when it’s all downright aggravating. 😉

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    • Yes, Donna, even I your White Trash Southern Belle was encouraged to see that a black man could be elected but in the time since I am sick to death of having Moo-shelle the Fashion ICON shoved down my throat and I am sick of popping on youtube or other websites and having something pop up to be all in in supporting his re-election.
      I think if he loses this election it might be a while before we see another black president, but isn’t it time to give a few of our other American minorities a seat at the table. What would be wrong in seeing an Asian, or Hispanic, or Heinz 57 become POTUS?

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    • Donna, I was trying to be hopeful, too, before Obama took office, especially hoping that he would moderate his views on abortion. So many black babies are being aborted; I was hoping that he would come to understand and try to turn around that horrible decimation within the black community.

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      • I do think it’s unfortunate that race relations seem to be more tense right now. 😦 He was not a very unifying figure in the end (as he’d promised to be). And I do think he came into office with a fair amount of goodwill even from those who didn’t vote for him.

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  34. I do wish the GOP would move more center on immigration. Enforce the laws, sure, but too often I hear a hardness toward those who are just trying to make life better for their families and that’s just wrong.

    But perhaps (?) the hardness comes, in part, from our country’s dropping the ball on doing immigration “right”: Enforcing the laws while genuinely encouraging legal immigration and making sure that new citizens fully become part of our unique melting pot (yet one) culture.

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  37. CoyoteBlue,

    Let me start by reminding readers that I am a moderate.

    All liberals think they are moderate.

    “What the libs do see in Obama is someone who is trying to tackle health care costs overall…”

    By making health care more expensive?

    “trying to unextend military commitments abroad”

    By assassinating American citizens abroad?

    “trying to address tax burden ratios”

    By punishing success and purchasing votes through wealth redistribution, corruption and cronyism?

    “conservatives like to cite x percentage of the 1 percent pay most of the taxes while dems cite the ratio of the individual taxpayer along the lines of Buffett’s secretary pays 28 percent while Buffet pays 15 percent of total income”

    No one disagrees that the tax code is unfair and should be changed, but the ruse is that Buffet is not in a lower tax bracket than his secretary, he just chooses to not take a salary. When you have that kind of money, who needs a salary. Progressive taxation is not fair. A flat tax with no loop holes would be fair.

    Libs also prescribe to Keynesian economics — as has every Republican President since Hoover

    Is speaking against it the same as prescribing to it?

    “On social issues most of the dems find the republicans to be frightening with respect to individual liberties — its the inverse issue for conservatives.”

    This is the strangest one, since it is liberals who are consistently taking away liberties. The only liberty Republicans want to take away is the right to dismember your child.

    “Republican budget submissions are also pretty non-transparent, cook the books and shade the truth of what they are doing.”

    True, but the Democrats have refused to put forward a budget in the last few years.

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  40. Actually, I can run the cursor over most of your picture places and a profile box appears, but not on mine. I suspect it is because I am not really here.

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    • Did you all go to WordPress to get a user name? I can’t remember exactly how I did all that yesterday, but I found I already had a WordPress “profile” (though i’d forgotten my old user name) attached to the email I was using. And it was all previously (by me) hooked up to the tess photo. I just had to change my “display” name back to the old one everyone was used to seeing.

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  41. How are new people going to stumble upon this site? I could see how they found us on World, but aren’t we out here, just the other side of nowhere? Hmmm, that is where I live and people seem to find us.

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  43. Xion

    LOL — Tell you what, why don’t you construct a quiz defining moderate, conservative and liberal or find one online that you think is fair. The you can decide what my views are and label me for me and we don’t have to discuss it …

    The orginial question was why do liberal support Obama — I tried to answer that as best I could. Don’t have time or inclination to debate every sentence!

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    • You explained what liberals support (which we already know), the question was why. The reason is that liberals want to make the world a better place through the strong arm of government. In order to do that you must take away freedom, because if you allow people to be free they might make things worse. What they don’t realize is that in the end you have a society which is not free which is far worse than any alternative.

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  44. Rumor has it that the “Mystery Speaker” at the Republican Convention tonight will be Clint Eastwood. Nothing against the man, but why would he be important enough to present in this manner? I’d rather it turned out to be someone of real importance, like General David Pretaus [sp?] rather than an actor, no matter how much movie-goers like him.

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  47. Webmasters – one suggestion I would make is that you have a Morning all thread that is primarily social — nonpolitical. One of the useful things about WV is that it gave folks a place to unwind and keep most of their political stuff separate.

    You might then add threads periodically on political issues, current events, culture and such.

    I’ll send this by e-mail too.

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  48. I like what CB said – I was thinking the same thing. Maybe a thread for each of the articles that you would have posted on WMB?

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  49. Good idea CB and Linda. I was thinking about alot of different ways to approach it. One was to have more than one daily thread. The normal one, the new prayer request one I’ve already added, and perhaps a daily news/politics open thread as well. If you have specific ideas, send ’em to me at the new email posted on the homepage in the “Do you have something you want to tell us” post. I’m taking ideas, and then maybe some polls so everyone can help decide where we go with all this. Thanks for the input.

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  51. Looks I was able to get in; I guess this is where the gang will be hanging out from now on.

    Even though I already ‘know’ most of you, this still has a ‘new kid on the 2nd day of school’ feel about it.

    One more thing: I’ve dropped the ‘Robinson’ in favor of the shorter ‘R’. Like everything else in this Obama economy, I’ve been forced to downsize.

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  52. A couple suggestions for blog name from 3rd Arrow and me (and we do like the name Wandering Views, as well):

    The Real Views
    Whirly Gig

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  55. I generally prefer having a ‘mixed use’ thread. I’m not likely to go from thread to thread to see what might have been posted on different general topics [specific news items are the exception]. I’d prefer being able to respond [or not] to someone’s thought as I came across it, rather than go looking to see if anyone said anything interesting about politics, or a television program, or anything out of the blue.

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  56. Chas, how do we know it’s really you? Say something about Elvera…or Hendersonville…or the Lions’ club.

    Until then, we might have to presume you’re a pretender.

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  58. Scott, changed my mind. I can say anything I want and get away with it.
    No gravitar, no name.
    Nobody knows until I run for president and the media digs up all this.

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  60. My problem with this is that the count changes but not that many added comments at the end. Must mean people are replying to various thoughts and that would take going back and rereading everything to find what was said.

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  61. I like the idea of politics and news being separate. On the “news” thread, perhaps AJ or someone else can post some links with brief summaries, and then people can discuss whichever ones suit their fancy.

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  64. Chas,

    It will let you comment anonymously at this point. That will change eventually. If you start typing you’ll see 3 icons below the box you’re typing in. Click the one on the left, that’s wordpress. It will pop up a box to log in. Or just be anon, but remember, I still know who you are.

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  67. If I go with the old style with just descending first to last order we lose the reply option. I’m thinking that’s OK, but we’ll see how the next few days go and decide which everyone likes best.

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    • They’re right there Linda, don’t you see them?

      I’m kidding. 🙂 You don’t see them now because reply feature is on. It won’t let me run numbers and reply. So it has to be one or the other. For now, it’s reply but that will change soon.

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  70. I usually had time only for the Whirled Views thread. I’d read some of the other articles on WMB, but rarely would get into the comments. Even Rants and Raves was more than I could take time for. So if this gets broken into separate threads for prayer requests and political discussions, etc., I probably won’t keep up as well as I did with the single WV thread.

    If the reply feature is optional, I’d vote for turning it off. It makes sense if you want to keep all the postings in a sub-thread together, but it makes it much harder to come back later in the day to see what’s new since you last checked.

    I’d love to see numbers so we can race for 100, or 57 or 75.

    AJ, I’d caution you not to make it so complicated that it becomes hard to maintain. The World staff got paid to do this. You’ve got to do it in your spare time (I hope you have enough).

    And thanks again (and again) for doing this.

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  72. I like a single long thread. I read and skim most of it. The political stuff is interesting to see from different perspectives though I rarely say anything about them.

    Second choice would be separate threads so the most interesting to each person can be read.

    Third choice and last is the reply feature as it makes it too complicated to keep track.

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  77. Now, I don’t have anything to say.
    Mumsee, do you know that back on WV, we’ve committed you to the cake for our going away party tomorrow.
    Tomorrow is Friday. You know what that means.
    It’s my busy day, for one thing.

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  81. Hi Chas!

    I sent this to AJ in an email, but as a way to keep the political stuff off of the more open thread (if that’s everyone’s general desire?) we could maybe have an “open election” thread each day. Let’s face it, for the next few months many of us will be very focused on that topic and that would be a place where we could talk about convention speeches, etc.

    It could just be a temporary feature until the election is over — or maybe it somehow becomes an open thread for political themes in general, how the new presidential term is going etc.

    But maybe that complicates it with too many threads each day, I don’t know.

    I do like the dedicated prayer thread, a general open thread & specific topic threads. Maybe also a devotional/Scripture thread that could be ongoing for the week or a few days, maybe not necessary to start brand new threads for some of these every day. ? Whatever’s easiest for AJ, I’m sure none of us want this to become an administrative burden.

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  84. Donna, There’s also Kelsey Grammer & Patricia Heaton. That makes 3 🙂

    I wouldn’t mind any of them as an early in the convention speaker, but I would just rather the Rs didn’t turn to Hollywood for someone to highlight the way Ds do.

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  85. Good afternoon fellow exiles. I look forward to numbers. I like the idea of a separate politics/news thread, but let’s not get so many different threads that we can’t get to all of them. After all, be fore long we’ll have a sports thread, a pets thread, a sporting pets thread, a political pets thread, a making sport of politics thread, etc.

    But I think the daily “open” thread should be Random Ramblings (borrowing from someone’ suggestion about a half mile up from this post). Or the WV ideas to keep with the old theme.

    Oh, and I think there is too much “Manning” already in the media, so pick another avatar, AJ. (At least I presume your avatar is Eli Manning.)

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  88. Somebody posted something on Whirled a couple of weeks ago on the importance of good written communication skills when applying at a certain computer company. I wanted to print that for certain young adults around here but it got lost in the chaos. Any suggestions on where to find it?

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  89. Whew! I finally reached the end…that’s much catching up…and the anonymous posters make it a bit intriguing!
    Donna’s suggestion of “Who moved the Watercooler”…just makes me laugh…but the current title is a good one AJ…and have I thanked you for starting this? If not…thanks! I have not watched any of the convention yet..but, my friend says I really need to watch tonight….so I will…if I don’t fall asleep…

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  91. I watched the convention on PBS when I got home because they were playing all the speeches. Glad I did. That Governor Martinez from New Mexico is something else. It got me thinking how many female Republican governors there are or recently were: Arizona (can’t think of her name); Martinez in NM; New Jersey had one recently; the one form South Carolina (Nikki someone); Palin in Alaska. Any I am missing? So how many female Democrat governors come to mind? All I can think of is Napolitano in Arizona (now in the Obama cabinet) and Ma Richards from Texas (about 20 years ago, it seems).

    All the talk from the Democrats about diversity and women’s rights, and it seems the Republicans are farther ahead in promoting women in government. Reagan appointed the first female SCOTUS justice, Bush had several women in his cabinet, etc. Yeah, I realize Clinton and Carter had a few as well. And Obama has plenty. And of course, Mondale had a woman as his VP candidate. SO, how can the Democrats call Republicans bigots when we have our share of females in high places?

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  92. Hollywood stars who are Christians:

    Not sure about this, but didn’t Jane Fonda announce in the recent past that she became a Christian? Was that or is that currently true?

    And how about Mel Gibson? I’m not much into Hollywood, so I don’t know.

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  94. It really, really doesn’t want me here. I finally got to the point of creating an account, and it told me I already had one–but it won’t let me log into it. 😦 I even had Misten’s photo showing up next to my post for a minute there.

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  95. I read were the little Christian girl in Pakistan who was accused of burning the Qur’an has Downs Syndrome. This is simply barbaric. I have honestly tried to be respectful of Muslims but I draw the line here. It makes me want to go to General Quarters. Michelle’s a Navy Wife. She knows what that means.

    On a second topic. Anyone have Lynn Vincent’s e-mail? Maybe she would like to Join us?

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  96. Don’t forget that Jeb Bush is married to a Latina. Can’t wait until George Prescott Bush can run for POTUS 😉 He’s a cutey pie!

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  98. Thanks to all who worked to make this happen. I hardly ever comment, though I read all your comments regularly! My hope is that I’ll have more time to write thoughtfully when I stop working full time. (November? I’m hoping…) I’ve been looking forward to that time, so was very sad to see Whirled Views coming to an end right before my eyes! Again, thanks to you all, and know that your contributions are greatly appreciated, even by some of us who may not chime in often.

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  101. All right, let’s see if the photo shows up. It finally shows up below. (I had to use a different e-mail address and get a gravatar all over again.)

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  102. I have always admired the ability of announcers in pre game shows to talk for two hours about the teams without really telling you anything.
    Not their fault. Nobody knows till the ball is kicked.

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  105. Thanks, that is quite an encouragement. I hope to check it regularly. Will it be connected with the real’s? I am having a hard enough time finding this site as it is. I found the bookmark symbol but how does one access it later?

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  106. I added this site to this one, But I am not sure how it works. After I close on my house and get moved, I will upgrade site and pay the 18.00 a year. I believe that will include searches by Google and Bing. I am going to see if I can link mine to Dr. Moeler’s blog as well. I have always loved his preaching.

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  107. Anyone have Lynn Vincent’s e-mail? Maybe she would like to Join us?

    Maybe Michelle does? I notice she is no longer with WORLD, otherwise we could get her address there. I had it on an old computer. Maybe I can still get to it. (The computer is now in D3’s room. She uses it for the music she stored on it.)

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  115. Hey, I managed a gravatar! Had to change my username from Kare N though.

    I would like to have numbers and no reply feature. It’s helpful when I can only log on in the morning and then again in the evening.

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  118. And obviously I’m not succeeding. AJ, any ideas? There’s a note immediately below the box I’m typing in right now that says I’m commenting using my WordPress.com account, and even shows my picture. But when I post the comment the picture doesn’t show up.

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  120. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? And there’s this odd thought that has crossed my mind in the last couple days that says, “What if they consider Friday as the start of the weekend, and Thursday is actually the last day of WV?” I mean, Friday isn’t a weekend day, really, but some people treat it like it is…KWIM? They wouldn’t do that to us, would they?

    But then I didn’t think they’d pull WV and R&R, either. 😦

    But what a blessing we have AJ’s blog now. Thank you again, The Real! 🙂

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  124. Kevin, I can see which number a comment has by positioning the cursor over the date and time of someone’s post, then looking down to the bottom left corner of my computer screen. A tiny rectangular box appears that says, among other things, the particular comment number out of all the comments that have come in on this entire blog.

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  125. Hello everyone, I”M here today just mostly lurking as usual. My 2 cents worth is that I think a seperate political thread is a good idea. I like the prayer request thread and I vote for numbers over replies.

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  131. #333 and #334 were me, but I was on a different computer so my sign-in didn’t come on.

    Poor Cheryl. Seems like what you’ve already done should make it work. I think Michelle is maybe more adept at WordPress than most of us (her blog is on that platform). But I also remembering having a hard time commenting on my retired pastor’s blog a few years ago, some of the same issues.

    Did anyone see Clint Eastwood? He said conservatives in Hollywood — by the nature of being conservative — aren’t as “out there” with their beliefs all the time.

    I really do think liberals are a lot more aggressive (in general) about their politics.

    I like the idea of a dedicated “political pets” thread. 😉

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  133. I sent Lynn a message via FB yesterday, but she does not check FB very often and I know is on deadline, so I do not know what will happen with her.

    As to Gravatars, I set mine up with WordPress several years ago and haven’t touched it since. I have one through World’s WP and one of my own. I suspect you should set up a new account.

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  135. Well. I tried to read through these but fell asleep about 2/3 of the way through. See ya’ll in the AM. I’m… yawn… sleepy.

    Night.

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  137. whew, so glad to see you made it Michelle. I do realize it is not an appliance and this is what you do, but I was still concerned. Having been lost myself, and still often invisible on here, I was concerned that the same should happen to anyone else.

    Did Sails make it beyond the introductory thread?

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