The Nickel Under The Foot is one of the most important songs in the history of the American theatre. The back story.
posted on Aug 4, 2006 - View this thread

Why You Should Ignore The Gallup Poll This Morning - And Maybe All Of Theirs If you support the Dems, you might want to pass this on!
"This morning we awoke to the startling news that despite a flurry of different polls this week all showing a tied race, the venerable Gallup Poll, as reported widely in the media (USA Today and CNN) today, showed George W. Bush with a huge 55%-42% lead over John Kerry amongst likely voters. The same Gallup Poll showed an 8-point lead for Bush amongst registered voters (52%-44%). Before you get discouraged by these results, you should be more upset that Gallup gets major media outlets to tout these polls and present a false, disappointing account of the actual state of the race. Why?"...
posted on Sep 17, 2004 - View this thread

The Shallowing of American Taste First tastebuds and palates fall to McDonalds, now the eyes, ears, and minds fall to Wal-Mart, according to this NY Times article (free registration required)...

"The growing clout of Wal-Mart and the other big discount chains ? they now often account for more than 50 percent of the sales of a best-selling album, more than 40 percent for a best-selling book, and more than 60 percent for a best-selling DVD -- has bent American popular culture toward the tastes of their relatively traditionalist customers...But with the chains' power has come criticism from authors, musicians and civil liberties groups who argue that the stores are in effect censoring and homogenizing popular culture. The discounters and price clubs typically carry an assortment of fewer than a thousand books, videos and albums, and they are far more ruthless than specialized stores about returning goods if they fail to meet a minimum threshold of weekly sales."

Add in Clear Channel Radio and sanitized text books, and all I can say is that the internet has come along at the time it's needed. With the fingers of big commerce all over our culture, the web can serve to reverse an old mega-trend to "high-touch, high-tech." With Wal-Mart, et al, touching our minds, we need to resort to tech to add some depth and breath to their narrow and shallow offerings.
posted on May 17, 2003 - View this thread

Blair Hornstine has won an injunction against her school naming a co-valedictorian. Now the suit (discussed earlier in this thread) will proceed to a trial to decide damages. The judge bought the argument of Hornstine's very expensive lawyer that the school is discriminating against her because of her vague, Chronic-Fatigue-like illness. The judge may have sided with Ms. Hornstine, but her classmates and the public at large are not. One anonymous poster who claims to be a classmate says "I can assure you from years of experience that the only condition Blair suffers from is chronic inflammation of the ego. " A Philly Columnist feels sorry for her. Personally, I think the judge is off her nut, as it seems pretty apparent that Ms. Hornstine isn't a bit disabled.
posted on May 9, 2003 - View this thread

Last Civil War Widows Do Lunch. Gertrude Janeway, the Union War widow, passed away Friday at 93. Live tonight on ABC, Alberta Martin will receive the grand prize -- one million confederate dollars and a 2003 Dodge Durango. [Just kidding.]
posted on Jan 20, 2003 - View this thread

Is Gavin Menzies the Stephen Wolfram of history? That's the question today's New York Times (login: dr_mabuse, pw: mabuse) suggests in a Menzies profile. Menzies has a new book out, 1421, which claims that the Chinese discovered America seven decades before Columbus did. Some people have made similarly precise claims about this planet's developments. Others have seen their amateur claims initially mocked and later proven to be correct. Is Menzies onto something or is he a crank? And how do we place the passionate amateur within the realm of scholarly pursuits?
posted on Jan 5, 2003 - View this thread

Am I the only one who doesn't think this is news? This story also showed up here a few days ago. (more inside)
posted on Nov 4, 2002 - View this thread

What is America and what is its role in the world today? Not being American, I often find myself in conflict when speaking to them about their country. Looking for a way to express my views, I find myself agreeing more and more with Fareed Zakaria’s viewpoint.
posted on Oct 30, 2002 - View this thread

Gary Condit's wife suing the National Enquirer. Condit. Tabloid. Condit. Tabloid. There's so much to hate in this story.... yay?
posted on Aug 18, 2002 - View this thread

UHaul "Venture Across America Series" - surprisingly compelling content for a moving company. There are about twenty-five features about various states and provinces.
posted on Jul 19, 2002 - View this thread

It's the clothes. A fashion columnist in The Washington Post blames corporate scandals on business-casual clothes, which lead to casual ethics.
posted on Jul 5, 2002 - View this thread

Is scientific illiteracy a problem in America? Take the quiz, how do you measure up? Sample question asked (with response)
Q: "Where would you find chlorophyll?"
A: "Probably in your toilet."
posted on Jun 18, 2002 - View this thread

"America is Blinded on Human Rights" Christopher Hitchens comments on the U.S. and international standards of human rights.
posted on Jan 27, 2002 - View this thread

It's About Freaking Time! Finally, Someone is actually looking into whether or not Enron might maybe have violated the law. Until now, Ashcroft's little Department was just about the only organization in Washington DC not investigating these jokers. For those who haven't been paying attention, allegations include accounting irregularities, improper partnerships, price fixing, single handedly causing the California Energy Crisis, and failing to let thier employees get thier 401k money out of company stock before it dropped precipitously.
posted on Jan 9, 2002 - View this thread

Noam Chomsky's Jihad against America
posted on Dec 19, 2001 - View this thread

Why Do They Hate Americans? (I know, I know it is very close in title to the post below, but differs in content). Prior to September 11 I had really mixed feelings on the policies (foreign and domestic) of the U.S. of A. (and I still do), but this article was read on a talk radio show as I was driving to work. Not to sound sappy, but it really did move me. Best part of all, its not written by an American.
posted on Oct 13, 2001 - View this thread

The Day America Grew Up. "Let's hope this is what future historians write about yesterday's events. If not, we won't be here -- and won't deserve to be."
posted on Sep 12, 2001 - View this thread

The American Institute of Graphic Arts offer a selection of useful symbols in eps and gif formats for free download. Are there any other sites offering similar symbols?
posted on Sep 10, 2001 - View this thread

The Secret Vote That Made Bush President Credit actually goes to Drudge who put this up on his site. The irony in this story was the Russian judges telling Supreme Court justices that "in Russia, we would never allow judges to pick the President."
posted on Sep 9, 2001 - View this thread

I did a brief search through the archives for Scientology because I know there have been a number of varying posts about it in the past. I didn't, however, see anything directly relating to the page I'm linking, so here goes. In the past I've heard and read comments about how horrible the Church of Scientology is, but not having anything to judge these comments on, I never paid much attention. But after watching all of these Real Audio streams of an indepth interview about a young woman who tells all about her experience with the church, I'm absolutely shocked and horrified that these kinds of things happen. It's completely ruining these people's lives.
posted on Sep 3, 2001 - View this thread

America @ 225. We're still working out all the kinks, but the "Gang of 50" keeps on chugging along. The Fourth of July for me is the day where we can extol the virtues of nationalism unabashedly...
posted on Jul 4, 2001 - View this thread

On Americans and their Morals. A look at the demise of morality in America and our history as a country and a culture to always complain that our moral fabric is worse than it really is.
posted on Jun 19, 2001 - View this thread

Should all of America pay for Davenport? If a community has the ability to avoid a natural disaster and chooses not to, are the rest of us responsible? How many times. Apparently, Davenport benefits economically from the great view, unobstructed by a floodwall. Maybe it should use some of those benefits to clean up the mess?
posted on Apr 25, 2001 - View this thread

"More Americans having gay sex, study shows."
posted on Mar 15, 2001 - View this thread

how to buy the new republican party "The tax cuts will make the economy grow. As people do better, they start voting like Republicans--unless they have too much education and vote Democratic"
[this is the recently launched newyorker online]
posted on Feb 14, 2001 - View this thread

"President Bush intends to move ahead with a national missile defense plan despite objections from Russia and other countries." Is it just me, or is Bush on some kind of mission to destroy America as we know it? Does anyone still believe that America is under threat of nuclear annhilation? (other than Dubya?) We are so screwed.
posted on Jan 26, 2001 - View this thread

Some of us made jokes in the days after the election about "Gore stealing votes from Nader", to ape those who said the reverse. But we didn't read the Libertarian Party's press release, wherein they said the same thing, and they were both serious, and believable. [quote inside]
posted on Nov 19, 2000 - View this thread

Headlines gone awry: "Fla. Judge Gives Big Blow to Gore Camp"
posted on Nov 17, 2000 - View this thread

The blood of American citizens will be on the hands of their President, Thursday on Mattdabrowski.com.
posted on Sep 8, 1999 - View this thread