Rants and Raves! 10.19
Here it is, folks, the inaugural edition of yet another Anlir creation — “Rants and Raves!” On Fridays, we’ll use this thread to praise and pan events public and personal. Your Rants! and Raves! might include news events, personal events, sports victories that thrilled/devastated you, or even just a new restaurant you tried. Here are the rules:
1. A “rant” shall apply to some thing or event which displeased you within the past week, however slightly, and shall be signified by, um…the word “Rant!” or by some emoticon signaling disapproval, such as…
2. A “rave” shall apply to some thing or event that tickled you pink within the past week, and shall be signified by, the word “Rave!” or by some emoticon signaling delight, such as…
3. General, abiding disapproval of people is not allowed. For example, you may “Rant!” about a person’s speech, writing, or actions that have occurred in the past week. But you may not “Rant!” that you just plain dislike so-and-so.
Example:
OK: Rant!: QWERTY’S graphic and increasingly juvenile attacks on the person of Jesus.
NOT OKAY: Rant!: I disapprove of QWERTY.
4. All Rants! and Raves! must involve specific events of the past week.
Have fun….and thank you, Anlir!




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back to top86 Comments to “Rants and Raves! 10.19”
First!
Rave: Lynn’s example for this thread!
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I have a rant! I just can’t understand the NRSC.
As someone with an unhealthy fixation on the US Senate, I just can’t believe that they can be doing as poor a job as they are and not at least admitting to it a little bit. If I were a Republican I would be doubly pissed.
I’m referring primarily to a blog post written by John Randall titled “Embarrassed Yet”? It reads like so:
Democrats continue to state they are going to expand the playing field and compete in red states. One of the many problems with this delusion – you need candidates to compete. According to the KC Star this is proving to be a problem for Democrats in Kansas.
I have 3 comments for John Randall (I couldn’t find his email address and NRSC wont post any of my comments to the blog),
[1]- According to the KC Star?
[2]- Kansas is the new fire line for the GOP? AWESOME!
[3]- Has John Ensign found someone to run is Louisiana yet? Republicans have 1 and only 1 chance to flip a senate seat in 2008 and that would be in LA, thanks to Bush’s redistricting plan. And they haven’t found a top-tier candidate.
Meanwhile, popular former governors are running in NH and VA, MN and OR are going to be massive showdowns, retirements have set the GOP to lose to strong democratic candidates in CO and NM, and the NRSC is going to have to spend serious money that they don’t want to spend (and also don’t have) in OK, ID, NE, and AR!
So what’s more embarrassing, The DSCC not finding a strong Dem in Kansas or the NRSC not finding anyone in LA?
We are also more than a year away from a Senate race, there is still time.
Ok, rant over. I understand where John Randall is coming from, I do. For anyone who was ever a debater will appreciates: “When all you have in the 2nd rebuttal is PICS=Bad; you go 6 mins on PICS=Bad!
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‘Rave’
This is also about the NRSC blog! But it’s a little less intentionally and makes me happy!
I love how republican’s just don’t understand how to use the term “fair trade.” Every time I hear them applying to it to heartland farmers I just want to giggle! I can see where they make the mistake. They think they like fairness and they hear the term thrown around! It lead to this little Gem also about Kansas Sen. Roberts by none other than John Ensign:
“As a Senator, Pat has fought hard for Kansans — on issues like free and fair trade policies for agriculture and businesses.”
This is either:
[A] A bold attempt to reclaim language (doubtful)!
[B] An embarrassing misspeak, as he has just implied that Sen Roberts has worked tirelessly both for “free trade” and its opposition movement!
This should also offer answers for anyone thinking to ask: “Why does Luke read the NRSC blog”?
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Rave!
Yay! All proceeds (and Rush Limbaugh’s matching funds!) going to a military charity!
The eBay bid for Harry Reid’s ignorant smear letter is past the $2 million mark.
Harry tried to take Rush Limbaugh’s comments about “phoney soldiers” out of context and use it to smear him as being unsupportive of our military (a blatant lie obvious to anyone who has ever listened to Rush). Unfortunately Harry and his 40 co-conspirators didn’t know what they were talking about. Those “phoney soldiers” really were phoney, and had falsified their records.
Rush challenged these leftists (including Hillary Clinton) to match the bid themselves, but so far no takers (as far as I know). Just like them to try to use this to smear Rush for his “lack of support” for the military, when they are the ones guilty of this accusation.
This is classic Rush Limbaugh and I love it!
RANT!
[shouting] WHERE’S THE PREVIEW BUTTON?!!!!!!
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RANT: Not being able to choose my password that I can remember. The combination of letters and numbers sent to me is hard to remember. Then of course there is getting kicked out and not being able to log back in.
RAVE: I do like the new format and it is fun to see what people identify with for their gravatars.
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RAVE: Three good nights of sleep in a row!
RANT: The four previous bad nights!
See my comments on Anne Lamott’s latest book for a real rant.
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Rant: Being stuck at home with a sick four-year- old.
I asked the drugist if the medicine would make him sleepy. Sadly he said “No”.
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Rant: All the spam that is creeping onto these threads.
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RAVE: I had TiVo’d an episode of Oprah and watched it about 5 am this morning. (see whirled views for reason)
Bill Cosby and Dr. Poussant (sp) were on. I really had a lot of respect for both of them and what they were saying. They were speaking about fathers being involved in childrens lives and taking personal responsibility. That there are more choices than being a drug dealer or pimp or ‘ho. It was really funny at one point when Bill Cosby looked at Oprah and said “You found a job” or something to that effect. Of course the show was directed at black people but we could all use the lesson.
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I hear you, KBELLS!
Rant: some fundamentalist believers who automatically assume the worst without evaluating worldview and don’t know how to read carefully (and won’t read widely)
Rave: youtube–I keep finding gems that I never thought I’d hear or see
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Actually I’m coming to the conclusion that internet chat is just not a helpful form of discourse for serious topics. Cars or antiques maybe, but not religion or politics. No matter how civil the tone at the start, once a blog gets popular enough to draw a large audience, it’s inevitable that trolls will show up and gainsay everything anybody says, just for the sake of being a nuisance.
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RANT: The width of the blog not adjusting on monitors with higher resolutions (it really does become irksome when one has plenty of space on either side but is restricted to such a small column that you can only see the last three or four posts above as you attempt to reply.
RAVE: Anlir’s been posting so brilliantly that I have no need of doing so myself.
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Luke #2- Pardon my ignorance, but I don’t know what your abbreviations mean: NRSC and DSCC.
Kim #5- Try copying and pasting the password you receive (I do it all the time), then change it to something you can remember.
RAVE- Anlir and his great ideas (is this an acceptable rave?)
RANT- The Arizona Diamondbacks for not winning at least one game against the very hot Rockies.
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Kim- You CAN change your password. Click on your name and it takes you to your profile page.
Rant or Rave (not sure) The Bank of America TV ad I saw last night. My sweet husband tends to mute the ads, though they are my favorite part of televised sports, so I didn’t really hear it. But the visual is the BofA logo as a mirror where various people look into and see their dream for their future. The sophisticated businesswoman looks in and sees herself unloading a minivan full of soccer players. Rave- Admitting that not all women have dreams of shattering the glass ceiling, and that active parenting is a goal for some. Rant- How does BofA think they can provide that dream?
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My rant is for those against both abortion and insurance for children. How can you be against both? Especially considering we spend 9 billion a month in Iraq for people that want us dead.
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Rave! It rained here in Crescent City, CA all week so the forest service will allow burning and I can get my burn piles burned. We have to do this so we can start building our house!
Rant! It rained here in Crescent City, CA all week so I couldn’t put roof sealer on the motor home I am sleeping in while we build our house!
Rant! I have had a cold so I couldn’t go out in the rain and put up the storage shed for all our stuff I bring up from Los Angeles.
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My rave is that Bush only has 15 months to go. Anyone see him, was it yesterday? Talking about the Palistinians? He said, “You can’t force a form of government on people that don’t want it”. “An outside force can’t come in and force governement on these people that they don’t want”. “They don’t want democracy”. “They are not like us and we can’t force them to have democracy”. While channel surfing, I came across him saying this and at first, I thought he was talking about Iraq. Then, at the end, they said he was talking about the Palistinians.
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Rave & Rant: Arizona Diamondbacks for a great season and a sudden collapse.
Rant: For those right and left who rant without fact checking first.
Rant: Where’s the Preview?
Rave: God’s Amazing Grace
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Rant! My Internet was hard-down for two days this week!
Rant! My purse was stolen from my car on Wednesday night!
Rave! Wells Fargo’s fraud-alert service immediately called about suspicious debit-card activity!
Rave! The yahoos who stole my purse were too stupid to do any real damage with my ATM and credit cards…they chose to tip their hand at Jack-in-the-Box and 7-Eleven instead of, say, Neiman-Marcus!
Doh!
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Rant: I agree that there should be a “Preview” button.
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Rant 2: I think the red “22 (or X number of)comments” link to review and add comments should be at the bottom of the blog entry, so that we can open the options (review other comments, post a comment, e-mail to a friend, etc.) without having to scroll back up to the top of the entry and click on “22 comments.”
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Rave : Earlier in the week I applauded Ellen DeGeneres for making a public spectacle out of the heartless way the dog pound took the dog and and Ranted about the peeve that people just couldn’t work minor problems things out properly.
New Rant : It turns out the Pound people told Ellen that it was no problem all she had to do is bring in the new owners and have them fill out the same paperwork Ellen did to get Iggy in the first place. When Ellen and new owners refused – The pooch was taken away. I should have known better than to ever back a Rosie wanna be until all the facts are known. And I broke my cardinal rule never to listen to a lefty and believe what they say – shame on me.
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Rave: Random Name said I have charm and charisma.
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Rave: Despite all the violence we read about in the newspapers every day, like 100 killed in Pakistan, or the local drugstore was robbed by gunmen, most people are extremely friendly and always willing to help out strangers, expecting nothing in return. This is the kind of good news that happens every day but it’s never in the newspaper. In a world crammed full with almost 7 billion people, there’s bound to be problems, but for the most part our planet is what a heaven could be imagined to be. The world we live in is a paradise, full of beauty everywhere, and the species that has taken over this world, the humans, have made accomplishments that boggle the mind, from landing on the moon, to finding cures to countless diseases. Definitely we all have a lot to be grateful for.
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Rave! The yahoos who stole my purse were too stupid to do any real damage with my ATM and credit cards…they chose to tip their hand at Jack-in-the-Box and 7-Eleven instead of, say, Neiman-Marcus!
Sounds like they might have been hungry, not fashionable.
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Adding,
Someone stealing for food doesn’t always have the resources, like ebay, to convert designer wear into cash or the appearance to use a credit card at a designer store credibly, or the transportation to get their.
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Peter L,
National Republican Senatorial Committee
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
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Rave: For Ellen. She placed the blame squarely on her own sholders. She said she should have read the contract and didn’t. She said because of her not paying attention, two little girls are unhappy. She asked the public to be kind to the shelter because everything was completely her own fault. If this is the type of person that comes from this “lifestyle”, Jesus would be proud.
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Rave: Qwerty’s comments here: “…most people are extremely friendly and always willing to help out strangers, expecting nothing in return. This is the kind of good news that happens every day but it’s never in the newspaper. … Definitely we all have a lot to be grateful for.”
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Rave: For all the shelters, missions and churches in every city and town, so hungry people in this country don’t have to steal.
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Someone stealing for food doesn’t always have the resources, like ebay, to convert designer wear into cash or the appearance to use a credit card at a designer store credibly, or the transportation to get their.
So how do you explain the $150 they charged to Verizon?
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Anlir,
I’m sure you’ve heard about Scott Adams (Dilbert creator) losing his voice and how he got it back. Is your situation similar at all?
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Lynn – In all fairness to Luke, you hadn’t mentioned the Verizon charge had you?
From what you had noted to that point, Luke’s comment was not an unreasonable surmise.
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Rant
That usually-intelligent people still leave their purses, or other valuables in their cars.
(Sorry, Lynn, I couldn’t resist.)
Rave
My friend/neighbor’s very skittish & afraid-of-people cat actually came running after me today, as I visited her home, for aome affection.
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That’s supposed to be “some affection”. I don’t know what “aome” is.
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On Lynn’s stolen cards… It’s actually standard procedure for thieves to try a few small purchases first, just to make sure that the cards haven’t been canceled before going for the bigger scores.
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TRR,
No I haven’t. I read Dilbert every day and I have a daily calendar, but I haven’t heard about Scott losing his voice or getting it back. Do tell.
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ANLIR!!! Go to the Dilbert blog and search in the archives. He used an unorthodox method of getting it back. I hope something works for you.
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#42: What will I watch instead?
Go to Utube. Type in Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole. So many of these legend’s performances have been put on the site. Check out this performance (below) by Carol Burnett. Who knew? I didn’t know she could sing like that. There is even a performance of Julie Andrews doing a spoof on the Sound of Music years before she ever knew she was going to be in the movie. When she sings, “Goose fat and duck fat and hand fat and lard, the things we like best are these, pigs feet and cheese”, I thought I would fall out of my chair. And all the time in the sickening sweet voice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0TSuCU7_jE
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TRR & Learner,
I have never heard of SD (spasmodic dysphonia). I suppose it’s possible.
I am scheduled for a second opinion before I have a biopsy done on my vocal cords. I will mention it.
All I know is that it’s been extremely frustrating only being able to talk in a whisper for 4 months! I can barely talk on the phone at work. I can’t go through any drive-throughs because no one can hear me. I can’t yell at the TV when the Vols make a stupid play
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Rant: In my mailbox today, I received a copious package from the Arbor Day Foundation. A big honking envelope full of papers, pamphlets, and handouts asking for donations for their ‘Save the Trees’ efforts. Absolutely mind boggling to me that an organization devoted to stewardship of the trees and forests resorts to junk mail for their cause.
Rave: I just booked a getaway to the tropics to celebrate my girlfriend’s 40th. And I’m thinking about giving her a ring too. Yes, one of those rings, Gandalf.
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Rave: “QWERTY’S graphic and increasingly juvenile attacks on the person of Jesus.”
These form a nice counter-balance to the delusionary white-washed and sycophantic pablum posted by the “believing” posters here.
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Rant!
Harry Reid is now trying to take credit for the money Rush Limbaugh raised with his letter.
Hd didn’t realize it would make so much money for a worthy cause. No kidding Harry. You were trying to get Rush fired. Try shutting up or admitting you were flat wrong Harry. And for good measure, try matching the funds Harry…. Of all the despicable politicians…
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Anlir, since The Daily Show has now put its archives online, you can simply catch up on past episodes here: http://www.thedailyshow.com/
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RAVE
It’s Friday!!!!!
RANT
The grass needs cut after all the rain, the garage needs cleaned out so I can get the car in it, there is a lot to do with this old house that I have not the finances nor the know-how to do myself…
RAVE
My second daughter became a Christian (20 years old) a few weeks ago and is to be Baptized Sunday. The Lord provided enough rain so the creek has water in it!
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50 Rant: That Metanoia thinks “niceness” = agreeing with him
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Karen O writes: That usually-intelligent people still leave their purses, or other valuables in their cars.
It was in my driveway!
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Anlir,
Please read this:
from the Dilbert Blog (I pulled from archive.org since it was no longer archived on dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog)
Good News Day
As regular readers of my blog know, I lost my voice about 18 months ago. Permanently. It’s something exotic called Spasmodic Dysphonia. Essentially a part of the brain that controls speech just shuts down in some people, usually after you strain your voice during a bout with allergies (in my case) or some other sort of normal laryngitis. It happens to people in my age bracket.
I asked my doctor – a specialist for this condition – how many people have ever gotten better. Answer: zero. While there’s no cure, painful Botox injections through the front of the neck and into the vocal cords can stop the spasms for a few months. That weakens the muscles that otherwise spasm, but your voice is breathy and weak.
The weirdest part of this phenomenon is that speech is processed in different parts of the brain depending on the context. So people with this problem can often sing but they can’t talk. In my case I could do my normal professional speaking to large crowds but I could barely whisper and grunt off stage. And most people with this condition report they have the most trouble talking on the telephone or when there is background noise. I can speak normally alone, but not around others. That makes it sound like a social anxiety problem, but it’s really just a different context, because I could easily sing to those same people.
I stopped getting the Botox shots because although they allowed me to talk for a few weeks, my voice was too weak for public speaking. So at least until the fall speaking season ended, I chose to maximize my onstage voice at the expense of being able to speak in person.
My family and friends have been great. They read my lips as best they can. They lean in to hear the whispers. They guess. They put up with my six tries to say one word. And my personality is completely altered. My normal wittiness becomes slow and deliberate. And often, when it takes effort to speak a word intelligibly, the wrong word comes out because too much of my focus is on the effort of talking instead of the thinking of what to say. So a lot of the things that came out of my mouth frankly made no sense.
To state the obvious, much of life’s pleasure is diminished when you can’t speak. It has been tough.
But have I mentioned I’m an optimist?
Just because no one has ever gotten better from Spasmodic Dysphonia before doesn’t mean I can’t be the first. So every day for months and months I tried new tricks to regain my voice. I visualized speaking correctly and repeatedly told myself I could (affirmations). I used self hypnosis. I used voice therapy exercises. I spoke in higher pitches, or changing pitches. I observed when my voice worked best and when it was worst and looked for patterns. I tried speaking in foreign accents. I tried “singing” some words that were especially hard.
My theory was that the part of my brain responsible for normal speech was still intact, but for some reason had become disconnected from the neural pathways to my vocal cords. (That’s consistent with any expert’s best guess of what’s happening with Spasmodic Dysphonia. It’s somewhat mysterious.) And so I reasoned that there was some way to remap that connection. All I needed to do was find the type of speaking or context most similar – but still different enough – from normal speech that still worked. Once I could speak in that slightly different context, I would continue to close the gap between the different-context speech and normal speech until my neural pathways remapped. Well, that was my theory. But I’m no brain surgeon.
The day before yesterday, while helping on a homework assignment, I noticed I could speak perfectly in rhyme. Rhyme was a context I hadn’t considered. A poem isn’t singing and it isn’t regular talking. But for some reason the context is just different enough from normal speech that my brain handled it fine.
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
Jack jumped over the candlestick.
I repeated it dozens of times, partly because I could. It was effortless, even though it was similar to regular speech. I enjoyed repeating it, hearing the sound of my own voice working almost flawlessly. I longed for that sound, and the memory of normal speech. Perhaps the rhyme took me back to my own childhood too. Or maybe it’s just plain catchy. I enjoyed repeating it more than I should have. Then something happened.
My brain remapped.
My speech returned.
Not 100%, but close, like a car starting up on a cold winter night. And so I talked that night. A lot. And all the next day. A few times I felt my voice slipping away, so I repeated the nursery rhyme and tuned it back in. By the following night my voice was almost completely normal.
When I say my brain remapped, that’s the best description I have. During the worst of my voice problems, I would know in advance that I couldn’t get a word out. It was if I could feel the lack of connection between my brain and my vocal cords. But suddenly, yesterday, I felt the connection again. It wasn’t just being able to speak, it was KNOWING how. The knowing returned.
I still don’t know if this is permanent. But I do know that for one day I got to speak normally. And this is one of the happiest days of my life.
But enough about me. Leave me a comment telling me the happiest moment of YOUR life. Keep it brief. Only good news today. I don’t want to hear anything else.
October 24, 2006
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#55 Rant: That Metanoia thinks I’m not nice
Rave: That I know I am!
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Rant: Anlir has lost his voice
Rave: Apparently it gives him lots of time to think up things for us to do.
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Rant
That Spinoza is indeed not nice
Rave
Read his comments and the evidence supports my rant
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Rant: That some people think you’re being mean when your just being honest and earnestly provocative to get people to think critically about their prejudices
Rave: That it really doesn’t matter if they think you’re mean or not, so long as they remember your point. And they will remember it best if they find it irritating.
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I read this thread from the bottom up and wondered why Lynn left her purse in the driveway. Now I get it. I have no rants nor raves though I could rave about Mrs L’s cookies. Delicious.
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Cameron, you can have some of our rain. Not sure how to get it to you though. It’s a gift, not an exchange. We don’t need any tornadoes.
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rave: To speak or write with wild enthusiasm.
From #51: The world is a beautiful place because of God’s grace and bounty to us. How can we look at a sunset or the snow falling delicately on the ground without thinking about the awesomeness of the one who created it.
I feel the same way but for a better reason that doesn’t include man-made delusions. What I would like to rave about is how amazing it is that the human species, which arose only about 100,000 or 200,000 years ago, on a planet where life has been evolving for almost 4 Billion years, has only relatively recently acquired the knowledge that explains why we have beautiful sunsets, how the sun was formed, how even today in the universe there are new stars and new planets being formed naturally. Only very recently, in the last 150 years, we have finally been able to explain the massive diversity of life. After the force of gravity has made escape from this planet impossible for billions of years, humans have developed the technology to fly to the moon, a feat unimaginable only a century ago. All this knowledge, all these incredible accomplishments, and we did it completely on our own. No god helped us do any of this. No god had anything to do with our evolution. All this was achieved by an animal species that arose naturally. This fact is far more amazing than any invented god.
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I typed out this really long rant, then looked at the thread and noticed that Make it Man had the same rant in #48
Harry Reid, and the other 41 dems. who signed that violation of the first amendment are absolutely shameless.
And so is ABC for reporting this like it was a wonderful thing that Harry Reid is doing.
I guess they think that the federal govt. trying to censor a private citizen is a good thing.
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Rant – The dryer (drier? I can’t spell) in the laundry room ate my quarter and then promptly decided to give an “error” message instead of run. It then shaped up, I put in a quarter, it looked good, so I put in a second quarter – and it said “ERR” again. So it ate 3 quarters and my laundry was still wet. And the apartment office was closed, even though it should have been open per the new office hours, so I just had to wait.
Rave – Today, before going to the office, I decided to see if laundry was still there. Someone had dried it for me – and then folded it up and left it on top of the dryer!
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Rant: I have a cold and my house has gone to pot while I have been sick! My ‘helper’ didn’t want to help at all, did a half-baked job, so, I landed out on my hands and knees, scrubbing the floor, while feeling ill.
Rave: The floor and counters and kitchen look sparkling clean now. I took my aggression out on the floors and windows.
Rave: I discovered painting with oil paints, and they are much more to my liking than acrylics.
Some church yuck that is taking up too much time, attention and energy!!!
My husband took me to the art store and loaded me down with new oil paints!!!
I couldn’t get my painting to do what I was trying to do with acrylics.
But then I discovered oils.
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Rant: The spam which makes post appear to be recently commented on. My inability to find the webpage which displays current comments and who is making them — otherwise known as the dashboard.
Rave: Fall — my favourite time of the year to drive home from work through the valley that leads to my small town
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Lynn.
I’d be ranting if my purse was stolen, too.
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Spinoza and Qwerty: it almost seems like you two are vying to be the most curmudgeonly toward all us foolish believers.
You should read Chesterton (if you haven’t already); he seems right up your alley.
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HRW,
Click on your name above the comment box, which takes you to your profile (sort of–not our bios). The dashboard tab is in the upper left-hand corner.
-Cameron (didn’t feeling logging TJ out!
)
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RAVE
Kudos to Harrison Scott Key for dropping the habit of using lame puns for headlines.
Well done.
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Dad Dog (#71): …vying to be the most curmudgeonly toward all us foolish believers.
curmudgeon: An ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions.
Were you talking about my comments in #65?
The point I was trying to make in #65, the theists, especially the creationists, are missing out on something far more interesting than their belief in supernatural creation. Compare the idea that humans are successful because they were created by God, to the idea that humans are successful despite the fact their ancestors from only 5 million years ago were only ape-like creatures with much smaller brains. The 1st idea is boring. The 2nd idea is amazing. The 2nd idea also has the advantage of being a proven scientific fact.
Just imagine this. After life began there was only bacteria. After almost 4 billion years of natural selection there’s every kind of plant and animal imaginable, from animals that can fly at great speeds, animals that can run at great speeds, animals that can move under water at great speeds. Every one of these animals have developed naturally. Even the human ape species developed naturally from other animals. The humans are not the fastest runners, they can’t fly at all, they can’t live underwater, but with no help from any god, they managed to invent every machine imaginable to do whatever any other animal can do. We have even visited other worlds, all without any god’s help, and despite the fact we are just animals. It’s boring to think all this diversity was the result of a god saying “poof”. It’s much more interesting to learn about how this life developed naturally, to be able to understand there were countless baby steps to go from bacteria to millions of different species. It’s so much more interesting than god-did-it to understand the formation of our sun, our moon, our planet, and all life on our planet was all from natural processes. It’s much more interesting to understand that from these natural processes, without any supernatural intervention, one species has evolved to be able to accomplish so much.
The creationists are missing out on all this fascinating knowledge. They are making a big mistake. They have only one life and they are wasting it.
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Rant: J.K. Rowling recently said that Professor Dumbledore in her Harry Potter series was gay. Now, may I ask, in a book that has no sex in it at all (except a few teen “snoggings”) why oh why do we have to assign a sexual preference to a wizard? Does she just want to get all we parents up in arms? Is she just nuts?
Rave: J.K. Rowling also came out (finally) and admitted that the Harry Potter books were heavy with Christian symbolism.
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Small blessings but significant ones.
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Rave:
Went to a hog roast last Saturday, and when the sun went down, several of us got the telescopes out, and perused the heavens. One fellow brought in a 8 inch Newtonian reflector on a Dobson mount, and we had a blast with it. It pulled in a good bit of detail we hadn’t seen on previous outings!
Rant:
Large portions of the Southeast are in a severe drought, and we’re under water restrictions. Surrounding counties have dropped their water consumption by 33%, but Atlanta? I can’t find the figures again, but from memory… Well, how about less than 5%? Disgusting. Annoying. People, get your act together.
http://tinyurl.com/ynvq8o
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Rant: The car died — after 19 years we aren’t gong to spend money on it.
Rave: My kids are being pretty flexible about being dropped off places an hour early so we can meet everyone’s schedules.
Rave: The doctor who took off my 18yr old daughter’s lesion on her scalp yesterday. Wonderful man even if he was wearing a Gator tie.
Rave: Third Saturday in October means Tennessee plays Alabama. Plus my 12 yr old can now play Rocky Top on the piano!
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rant: my husband and I haven’t been on a date for some time
rave: he returned from a business trip
rant: the kids kept knocking at our door this morning
rave: the kids went into the living room and sang a number of songs pretty well, accompanied by Tinker-toys-turned-percussion-instruments
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Rant- Two members (whose initials are M and S) not keeping the thread free from direct insult.
Rave- They seemed to have stopped.
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Rave: Sick kid’s feeling better.
Rant: Now I’ve got it.
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From #75: Rave: J.K. Rowling also came out (finally) and admitted that the Harry Potter books were heavy with Christian symbolism.
I’m going to modify #75 to make it more accurate.
Rave: J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books were heavy with Christian symbolism because she thought that would be useful for books of fiction.
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#46 Travis,
Hey, Travis, that’s not a rant, that’s a rave – that’s how I renew my yearly supply of address labels.
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The creationists are missing out on all this fascinating knowledge. They are making a big mistake. They have only one life and they are wasting it.
Qwerty: Good thing we have ETERNAL life!
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Rave: My older son was selected for All-State today! (for singing – he also plays an instrument but singing is his real love)
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