Iron Rob

Reply to Why Kerry lost: Backlash in Politics JoeUser Forums

Okay, I'll stop. I'm obviously not going to pursuade you, Drag. I guess the reason I responded to this thread in the first place is that I'm fascinated that you want to define the election results in terms of the Kerry negatives rather than the Bush positives. In a way, I'm trying to pursuade you that Republicans are just better at motivating people right now. And it isn't just because Democrats are jerks. I do think Democrats should loo

Reply to Why Kerry lost: Backlash in Politics JoeUser Forums

Well Iron Bob you must be new to JoeUser. Because anyone who has spent any serious time debating politics on-line will tell you that liberals are much more likely to appeal to emotions and it's conservatives who are much more likely to try to back up their arguments with facts and data. You've got me

Reply to Ordinary Life, The Day after the Election in Politics JoeUser Forums

Thanks, Deference.

Reply to Why Kerry lost: Backlash in Politics JoeUser Forums

Iron Bob, I find your comments about Republicans totally condescending and arrogant. You talk about us as if we were mindless idiots. You, however, out the goodness of your heart chose to actually communicate and even go to parties with Republicans. How kind of you. And you state that you talked to some of them. How difficult tha

Reply to Ordinary Life, The Day after the Election in Politics JoeUser Forums

Thanks Kj! I was starting to wonder if I had been too subtle with that metaphor, since no one had responded. It's weird how writing a blog can make you sort of vain. You could write your own blog, by the way. Your observations about your coworkers are hilarious. At least we both live in blue states. And here in Minnesota, Democrats won most of the elections for state assembly, so we're moving in the right direction.

Reply to I am probably going to get raked over the coals for this one in Politics JoeUser Forums

Then there is the argument that once marriage is re-defined to include two individuals (i.e. same sex couples) what is there to stop litigation from making it 3 people, or an adult and a minor same sex couple? (possible legal precedent opens the door). Keep in mind I am playing devil's

Reply to Why Kerry lost: Backlash in Politics JoeUser Forums

Draginol, What's especially interesting about your argument is that it presumes Bush didn't win based on the merit of his message. That people didn't vote FOR Bush but AGAINST Kerry. Maybe you feel that way because you have expressed your own doubts about Bush's performance as president, and you'd like to think that Bush won not because people were uninformed about his poor performance, but because Kerry and his supporters were such jerks.<b

Reply to Why Kerry lost: Backlash in Politics JoeUser Forums

I find this argument (that Republicans won because Democrats are elitist snobs) fascinating because it's totally unsupported by the facts. Republicans won for two reasons, as shown by the exit polls: moral values and terrorism. Republicans correctly calculated that the gay marriage amendments would get cultural conservatives to the polls, and all those scary commercials about wolves and evil doers put enough fear into the non-evangelicals to get them

Reply to Watching Too Much TV On DVD in Movies & TV & Books JoeUser Forums

Here's my thing with The Office: hilarious, yes, but at some point about halfway through the first season (and I watched it the same way you and Nancy did--all in one sitting, on DVD) it got, for me, more uncomfortable than it did funny. In the same way that you guys identified with it, I found it so accurate a depiction of that

Ordinary Life, The Day after the Election in Politics JoeUser Forums

My baby, Isadora, woke me up at 4:00 AM, the morning after the election, and I got up to attend to her. My wife Nancy woke up soon after to feed her. I asked her if she had checked the news for any election updates at the last feeding, and she said no. For the next few hours I kept dreaming about the Ohio results, then waking up to realize that dream resu

Reply to Election is over in Politics JoeUser Forums

I like that you say, "Back to reality TV, sit-coms, and video games." I feel the same way. I actually remember thinking, when I first heard that Bush had probably won, "Well, at least I have Dance Dance Revolution." I also really felt like buying something expensive to make myself feel better. Isn't that weird?

Reply to Keanu Reeves vs. Takuya Kimura in Entertainment JoeUser Forums

hi jamie - this is not Iron Rob, it's Nancy. this is one of my favorite blogs yet! I especially like your comparison spreadsheet. I would like to say that Keanu does have nice hair. It isn't as magnificent as Takuya Kimura's but when it's long, it's very nice.

Watching Too Much TV On DVD in Movies & TV & Books JoeUser Forums

So it’s been almost three weeks (I think) since I last posted anything on this blog. Can I briefly mention my distaste for the word “blog”? It sounds like something swollen and gelatinous (blob) or wet, smelly, and possibly full of long-preserved dead bodies (bog). And when you precede it with the word “my” as in “my blog” it sounds like you’re

Reply to Tandoori chicken/ Walking baby in Home & Family JoeUser Forums

You should invite me, Nancy, and Isadora to your house sometime soon, so we can eat your Tandoori chicken! I love Tandoori anything!

Reply to America votes? in Politics JoeUser Forums

As the article Grim provided points out, those registration workers are registering peoplemultiple times because they get paid per registration. So they are actually stealing money from whatever Democratic group is employing them. Which hurts democrats, but does it influence the election? Probably not. Just because someone was fradulently registered multiple times doesn't mean that person will vote multiple times. Republicans, on the oth

Reply to Awarding the final debate to Bush? in Politics JoeUser Forums

What I am curious about is whether Bush actually did meet with some representative of the NAACP. That question seemed to have just drifted off into the stratosphere after it had been raised. I would be surprised if Bush hadn't met with them. The photo-opportunities/ lip-service is good publicity. Act

Reply to Awarding the final debate to Bush? in Politics JoeUser Forums

I'm with you Jamie. I don't think either guy was particularly convincing when it came to explaining how they were going to pay for things. But I don't know how anyone could say Bush was more convincing the way he kept dodging questions. When asked about jobs, he talked about no child left behind. When asked about minimum wage, he talked about no child left behind. When Kerry confronted him on not fully funding no child left behind,

Reply to Why is President Bush 'throwing' this election? in Politics JoeUser Forums

Wrong answer my friend! Halliburton is under investigation for it's accounting practices by the SEC. It has nothing to do with weapons or weapons parts sales.: I was wrong to suggest that Halliburton was selling weapons to questionable countries (do people on these forums ever admit they're wrong? I'm

Reply to American Idol 4 in Entertainment JoeUser Forums

I heard a great interview with Simon Cowell (sp?) on NPR's Fresh Air. He's really what makes that show great. But on the subject of the age of contestants: the interviewer asked him what he thought of the American Idol-style show for little kids, and he said he thought it was the worst idea of all time. When asked why, he said something like, "It's hard enough to tell a sixteen year old the truth, that they stink. How are you supposed to t

Reply to Taxes made easy for Democrats in Democrat JoeUser Forums

In the last 45 years, after each of the largest 3 tax cuts, tax revenues have increased! Why? Because of the multiplier effect of money (i.e. a dollar I spend actually gets respent 6 or 7 times within a year). Actually, when Ronald Reagan passed the first big supply-side tax cut in the 1980's, the econ

Reply to Taxes made easy for Democrats in Democrat JoeUser Forums

I'm not saying I know what one individual Brad or Sue or Joe will do. I'm saying we can predict what they're likely to do. Someone who already has a disposable income is less to change his or her spending habits when he or she gets a tax cut than someone who has no disposible income. I know people who pay their bills based on which collection agency is currently

Reply to Why is President Bush 'throwing' this election? in Politics JoeUser Forums

You wrote, "Sanctions were NOT working, but instead they were allowing Saddam to purchase nations on the UN security council! You know, those same nations that were pushing for sanctions on Iraq to be lifted? These guys were getting rich from Saddam, and we now have documentation that Saddam was buying these officials in France, Russia, China and elsewhere, and had promised them more riches once sanctions were lifted!" If you tone down your rh

Reply to Taxes made easy for Democrats in Democrat JoeUser Forums

Actually, the question isn't whether it's fair. The question is what effect it has. Republicans argue that tax cuts are good for the economy, and therefore good for everybody, no matter what. But a tax cut for Joe and Sue has a different effect on the economy than a tax cut for Brad. Joe and Sue will likely spend their tax cuts, therefore giving an almost guaranteed short-term benefit to the economy. Brad will likely save, or invest, h

Reply to Still think Saddam had WMD's? in Politics JoeUser Forums

The fact is, the neo-cons wanted to take Saddam down well before September 11th. Bush said he was going to, "Take Saddam out," while he was campaigning for President in 2000. So of course there were other reasons to invade Iraq, if you agreed with the neo-con argument that regime change would stabilize the region rather than destabilize it. The miscalculation the Bush administration made was when they decided to invade Iraq in 2003, not beca

The Disturbing Allure of Late Night TV in Movies & TV & Books JoeUser Forums

Somehow, in the last year or so, I’ve welcomed late-night TV into my life. I began suffering from insomnia around the time I found out I was going to be a dad (I’m sure that’s coincidental), and so I began staying up later and later, usually watching TV. At first, I was disturbed by what I found on the dial after midnight, but now I’m just fascinated.