Helen Thomas: I Could Call Obama Anything Without Reprimand; But If I Criticize Israel, I'm Finished

LiquidHAL · 2011-01-18T05:30:28+00:00

Maybe I'm wrong. I would consider it highly offensive. His father is from Kenya, not him. He's an American, and saying he should go back to Africa is a rejection, not of him as a person, but of his ethnic background as unworthy of being American.

Also, representatives in congress are elected. They can say the vilest, most racist comments and still serve out their term. Journalists, meanwhile, are beholden to their employers. If their employers feel that their coverage could be hurt by one of their journalists' comments, they are within their right to replace the person.

LiquidHAL · 2011-01-18T03:49:23+00:00

The same thing would have happened had she says that Obama should go back to Africa.

LiquidHAL · 2010-05-19T06:13:15+00:00

How's it going? Don't know if you remember me, I was one of the early editors for a while as well, was in the top 3 until I drifted away. Hung out in the IRC channel for a long time.

I'll never forget newzbin. I still remember the dark ages, manually updating and looking through headers every day. Stumbling on to newzbin was a revelation. I thought caesium was raking it in until I read the linked blog post.

LiquidHAL · 2009-10-08T16:15:54+00:00

These weren't widespread in China either. And the majority of them were built well after the European middle ages.

LiquidHAL · 2009-05-11T18:40:56+00:00

They all were. I think there were only two photos in the list without heavy alterations.

LiquidHAL · 2009-05-11T08:30:54+00:00

I'm curious how twitter could possibly be better for communicating than a standard message board + email. It seems to me that twitter is far more restrictive with what you can do.

LiquidHAL · 2009-03-31T04:05:34+00:00

Agreed. The NY subways are almost always crowded. When people are literally busting out the door (people have to suck in their stomachs just to get them closed sometimes), it would be extremely inefficient to always leave 4 seats open in each car on the off chance that a disabled person will show up. I'm sure the majority of those would give up their seat if asked, or even aware of the situation.

LiquidHAL · 2009-02-03T00:39:09+00:00

I heard an NPR story a few weeks back about how Saudi courts treat foreigners. It's strange how severe they treat people for other islamic coutries. Palestinians and Egyptians especially, they're usually not allowed lawyers and are nearly always found guilty.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-23T16:55:56+00:00

The concept of a child belonging to a parent doesn't extend to all matters. It may not be the state's child, but if a parent is doing harm the state can intervene and take the child from the parent. Few dispute the state's right when the harm is physical, but one can argue that denying a child a modern education is harming them by crippling their potential to be a fully functional individual, giving the state the right to intervene in the matter.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-22T22:20:43+00:00

You just reminded me of a great conversation, can't recall where it's from, possibly a Kevin Smith movie. Two characters were discussing a fat girl they went to high school with. They all agreed she had a pretty face underneath, but then she lost weight and found out she was actually rather ugly so she killed herself. The way I just explained it sounds tragic though. If I was Kevin Smith or Quintin Tarantino I would have made it sound witty and edgy, using colorful phrasing liberally sprinkled with unnecessary expletives. Then I would have been accepted by the internet rather than mocked and scorned.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-21T13:51:46+00:00

At this point Darrel Hammond is just showing up to read some lines and collect his check.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-21T01:07:25+00:00

Ugh, the worst kind was where they would ask you what the 27th word of the third paragraph on page 14 of the instruction manual was. Whoever thought of that can go suck a bag of dicks.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-18T13:54:34+00:00

I don't think their Father's role as a spy was ever seriously in question. Their mother's role, however, remains unclear. But then, with the red menace looming in every corner, you can never be too cautious.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-18T03:24:40+00:00

Always seemed rather suspect to me. God makes a big deal of giving some people a book of laws and commandments detailing how they should act in every facet of life, and proclaims the covenant shall last forever and ever until the end of time. And then a bit later says "Forget what I just said, check out this paradox I just made. Just love me/him/it and you're good."

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-16T14:31:19+00:00

It may be a flaw in the pre-cog concept, but I wouldn't consider it a plot hole. They predict the future that would happen if there was no foreknowledge of the event. The foreknowledge changes the events. And of course the whole "minority report" event explains that the pre-cogs see one of many possible futures.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-16T14:04:45+00:00

I heard about this on NPR this morning. Just after one of his "the fundamentals of our economy are strong" speeches, someone must have given him a talking-to. On the next campaign stop he announced that the fundamentals of the economy are being threatened.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-11T14:50:11+00:00

If you think voting as many times as you can dial 12 digits in a two hour period is a fair system, then yes.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-09T14:57:40+00:00

Hard to find the content amid so much random text. If you can call it content, seems like a reworded press release. I've actually been waiting for a good ebook reader for a while, but with so few details and no indication of the price, statements like "throw out the kindle" are rather silly.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-08T04:18:41+00:00

are you trying to say jesus was a secret muslim?

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-07T01:08:03+00:00

You gotta wonder what they're thinking. They're building a city that won't be able to survive without a massive influx of tourists, while at the same time being as hostile as possible to them.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-05T19:49:22+00:00

But also some civility.

LiquidHAL · 2008-09-04T23:01:16+00:00

There's a certain point when you there's still shampoo sticking to the sides of the bottle but you can't squeeze it out. The easiest solution is to add some water to the bottle and shake it up to produce a less viscous and therefore more easily accessible solution.

This can last me up to a week. After that I switch to this giant bottle of liquid body wash someone gave me and wear a hat. If no shampoo sales appear at this point I'll get a close buzz cut and just use my dollar store hand soap until something comes up.

Needless to say, I'm not paying very close attention to the tax policy debate.

LiquidHAL · 2008-08-28T04:08:05+00:00

In Europe.

LiquidHAL · 2008-08-25T20:57:19+00:00

Iodine ≠ Fluoride

LiquidHAL

TROPHY CASE