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About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
The author of “Greenspan’s Fraud” is on CSPAN2 right now… just started.
That’s strange (or maybe not). I read that diary this morning – following a referral link at the site meter.
I fully agree with his analysis.
Which is also why I think European Tribune can be a success in terms of generating traffic and content. I saw comments before ET opened to the effect that there were previously no European Scoop-based sites, which is why I now believe ET has great potential.
I think so too. If only we can make Europeans aware of the site.
Do you not think Language is going to be a problem over there. Having spent a lot of time in Europe, I am wondering if the site should have a place where they can feel free and comfortable to write/chat in their own language. IF it was me over there and My English wasn’t so good, I would feel intimidated to post or comment..but I would try and read as much as possible. Just wondering what might be done to help lurkers out that don’t write or understand English so well. btw/ regarding spell check..when I hit spell check and the words that are spelled wrong are highlighted in red is there a way for them to be corrected without me going to the dictionary and looking them up? Just want to make sure I know how to use it correctly.
about options for language on the site.
The spellcheck here can only point out words it doesn’t recognize. It can’t tell you how to spell anything.
doing a front page diary in French when you know traffic is high and see if it brings out lurkers or others that would feel free to comment in French? Might be an interesting way to test the waters. Also thanks for the spell check answer, I had a feeling that was it but just wanted to make sure I was using it correctly. Also it might be a good idea to get the word out about EuroTrib to some of the most popular internet cafes over there.
you should post your ideas in the suggestion box over at ET, where Jerome is sure to see them.
He is the editor-in-chief of the site, so, while I have quite a bit of influence, he is the one who will make final decisions on how to develop the site.
Maybe something akin to the regional threads here. I’d suggest French, Spanish, Italian, Serbian and Russian (most northern Europeans seem to do well enough in English). Maybe we could have volunteers to translate and bring important points of discussion over to the Open Thread or other suitable story.
having someone spend some time over in either AOL or Yahoo chat sites that cater to Europeans..perhaps there is some way to get the word out through something like that. I always notice chat rooms from other countries where they speak English. Just a thought. Wonder if it’s worth a shot at having Jerome do a diary in French and see how many people pickup on it and comment in French. Kinda like an experiment.
Speaking of which, may I tempt with… this?
The document from Venus by Peter W. Zapffe, part I. For the first time in English by yours truly.
Me, I gotta go though. Cheers!
Great stuff. I recommend everyone to have a look.
Got to go myself.
Where I live in Harlem, there is a regular Catholic church across the street frequented by blacks, and then next to it is a honest-to-god fundamentalist street ministry in a converted storefront that seems only to open up on weekends. Right now, they are preaching and singing from a mike/bullhorn across the street.
Some of the singing is okay, but right now, the songs are just plain bad…
Wait until they start preaching.
It’s warm and I have the windows up for air. If I close the windows, then it gets too warm and I have no air conditioning.
They are just ‘local color’ to passersby and perhaps tourists and unfortunately, cops. It is driving me bats right now. I hate this kind of proselytizing and cajoling, especially when hardly no one is reading their tracts or coming to their meetings.
I remember once being on a S.F. bus when some holymo started singing badly at the top of her lungs during rush hour. It had been a long day and finally, I loudly said that she should pack it in. Do you know that some bitch actually told her to press on, and that it was okay? The bus driver, of course, said nothing, despite the fact that a sign clearly states no one should start any ruckus that makes people uncomfortable. I had my fingers in my ears during the entire ride home. When I got off the bus she was still wailing like a banshee.
I’m a black woman. I like some black women. But I don’t like black women who are religious zealots and fanatics.
A church service on a Saturday afternoon. Now that’d be low on my list of activities.
Know what you mean about the bus. When I took the bus in Seattle to get to Redmond, and vice versa, one of its blessings was that it was very quiet. I could listen to NPR on my radio headset, read a book or magazine, or snooze a little. It was sometimes the only quiet time I had all day. Then, immigrants began taking the bus and talked constantly, and rather loudly. When I couldn’t take it, I’d ask them if they could speak a bit more softly. But how does one tell complete strangers — especially people new to the city and/or country where loud conversations are perfectly acceptable — that the custom on buses here is not to talk much, if at all. I never figured that one out.
If it is any consolation, blksista, here is a corresponding rant from the suburbs. At least your noises emanate from people. Here in the suburbs on the weekend all the noise emanates from machines. Since everyone spent last weekend acquiring all sorts of power toys at Home Depot they just have to get out and start them up first thing Saturday morning. My neighbors are some of the worst offenders. The woman next door has a serious thing for her leaf-blower. She will strap that thing on and run it for hours. I know that the vibrations such machines cause can be, um, pleasurable when applied to certain parts of your anatomy, but not your back!
This morning I sat down with a nice cup of coffee and started to write and a gigantic flatbed truck pulled up outside and they unloaded a huge amount of lumber with heavy equipment. Beep, beep, beep. So now the rest of the day is sure to be interrupted by the Screeech of power saws.
Man, can I relate, TW. My next door neighbor walks around his entire yard searching for something, anything to blow – the whole time the damn thing is blasting away at 1,000 decibels. And since he knows it bugs me, he waits until I go outside to garden, then he goes out in his yard and revs it up. Does his entire friggin’ (large) yard with that thing, instead of using a rake! (And it’s extra distressing for me because I have a hearing problem in which noises such as that pierce through my skull and often reduce me to tears.)
Last fall he pushed me to the limit. Peaceful afternoon, no one around, so I went outside to plant some bulbs. No sooner had I set everything up by my garden then he came outside, ten feet away with the damn leaf blower. Okay – fine – have your damn fun. So I went in the back yard to rake. Gee – guess who followed me to his backyard. Dropped my rake and went back to the bulbs. Same thing. When he once again followed me back to where I was raking I finally had enough and flipped him off. (Of course, being the conflict avoiding chickens–t that I am, I didn’t look him in the eye or anything – just proudly gave him the one finger salute all the way to my back door) F—er purposely ruined my afternoon. Dickhead. . .MF. . .SOB.
Every time he does it when I’m trying to work and facing critical deadlines, I go over to my picture window, slam the windows shut and scream A–HOLE!! at the top of my lungs. Which. . .of course. . .he can’t hear because the windows are closed and he has that damn thing blasting. He might as well be out there playing with himself, swinging it to and fro. (Which, of course, my husband and I laugh about frequently, since the neighbor seems to be so damn enthralled with his. . .um. . . manly extension)
LOL, jeeze. This guy sounds downright evil. You really have to find out a way to get revenge (in a manner that won’t point back to you though, of course ;).
That evil SOB not only uses that leafblower non-stop, he aims it so his leaves come through our mutual chain link fence, into our yard, right after I’m done raking.
So. . . my dear, sweet, wonderful, Mr. Anomalous . . . understanding my pissedoffedness. . . waited until Mr. Leafblower left to winter in Texas. (Now there’s a surprising destination, doncha think 😉 And every so often. . .late at night. . . Mr. A would go outside. . .meander over by the fence . . . whistling nonchalantly. . .and scatter leaves all over Mr. Leafblower’s yard when no one was around to see. Fa la!
Oh my – The Practice is on – another wild Saturday night in the Anom household.
Good night!
Here is Bush spouting off about the elections in Iraq, from yesterday’s NY Times:
“Today Iran is ruled by men who suppress liberty at home and spread terror across the world,” Mr. Bush said in a statement Thursday. “Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy.” He called Friday’s election “sadly consistent with this oppressive record.”
Hmm, a little ironic, no? Link here
This article also quotes the NSA adviser making a claim that sounds to me like it must be wrong: “Egypt has not had an election for 7,000 years.” The point is that we should be easy on them because they are just starting. Basically BushCo has to differentiate somehow between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, on the one hand, and Iran, on the other. The previous two are bastions of democracy (hah!) while Iran is evil (and so must be invaded?).
What a bunch of crap.
is going on with all this ‘lost data’ stuff all of a sudden? Doesn’t it seem awfully strange to go years and years with only minimal lost data, and then suddenly to have story after story of millions of people’s information being stolen from these companies?
Is is only because more of these companies now exist, or it’s getting more press, or… what?
And… what do you do with the inevitable millions of “stolen identity” claims that are bound to come up?
::adjusts her tinfoil hat just a tad to improve reception::
I have a simple question that I can’t seem to find an answer to. What do the red exclamation marks in front of a diary title mean? Just curious.
I think the exclamation points mark diaries you haven’t read/opened.
You’d think I could have figured that out.
You’d think we both could have figured it out – and I’ve been here for several months :^).
That’s one great thing about being a newbie – you can pose your questions without facing mockery. So please do ask anything that comes to mind – it likely involves something I have yet to figure out!
It indicates a diary that you haven’t read yet. Better get busy! :^)
I think it means that you have not opened it. Sort of a little reminder.
What happened to Hidden Comments header in menu box?
It appears I still have TU stat but no access to HC’s…perhaps there are none?
I think Andy deleted the link when he upgraded the userbox. We’ll restore it soon.
Are there any hidden comments?
The last I checked there were only a couple and pretty boring they were. We need to get some trolls to enliven the Hidden Comments Section as part of the general tendenz of BooTrib moving into the Forefront of Bloggerdom.
Perhaps we should start cross-posting to Freeper-ville?
I’m sure I could come up with something really nasty that you can troll rate into oblivion, thus giving TUs something to read. 🙂
The hell if you could! Screw you, Catnip – thinking you’re all full of nastiness and stuff.
Oh please, who am I kidding . . . (the worst that would happen is a “3” from Slacker – oh wait, I forgot to mention the war in Iraq. Never mind.)
Hey Catnip, nice to see you and I hope you’re feeling well! And hey – I didn’t mean to barge in on your DSM minutes the other day. I had intended to help out, but the subject line was too long and required changing each time, and the thread took too long to enter and post, so my big ol’ contribution was one little post. WOO HOO! (And leave it to you – I cracked up when I saw you had given me a “4” for that pitiful little entry. Bless your heart – you’re just too damn funny!)
I’m still exploring all of the niches in the site. Took a gander at my “Ratings” page and discovered 2 hidden comments. But but but.. I’m not TU. So what does this mean?
that only one person has rated your comment so far, if it is like KOS at least.
ah, but these are the ratings I’ve given to other comments. oh the world gets so confusing sometimes!
in a hurry, Bowers knows how to write an analysis. Very cool that you got some recognition.
I’m off to my parents’ house till Monday, see you all then.
I’m emotionally crushed. Devastated. Forlorn. How could you leave me without advance warning? How . . . . . .how. . . .
I miss you already, dude. {sniff} Guess I’ll just visit the picture of your adorable baby and those big ol’ loving puppy eyes when I need some hugs.
By the time you read this. . .I hope you’re safely home, after a wonderful visit with your family. (I’ll probably later find out they merely live across the street from you :^)
Welcome home, dude – I missed ya! {sniff}
1. 15 second quick review of the BlogAds proves Bowers’ argument.
2. I found a short but fun article.
Here is the link <A http://satire.myblogsite.com/blog A>
"MICHAEL JACKSON RECEIVES 4 OFFICIAL AND 1 UNOFFICIAL OSCAR VERDICTS"
The Audience Raves as "Hillarious, Awesome, Cool, Hot, Funny, and Wow"
Enjoy the weekend.
Statisical comparisons between right and left-wing blogs leave out one very important thing – the human factor. The GOP has had a tremendous amount of power for a long time. The left is busy strategizing and making plans to correct that imbalance. That requires conversation and open (and sometimes messy) dialogue.
IMHO, measuring trackbacks as a sign of success is akin to counting “atta boys!” – the congratulatory slaps on the back. That doesn’t necessarily mean much in the whole scheme of things and can actually show a lack of free-thinking going on in right-wing blogs. The left is creating new ideas, while the right is just reinforcing the stale majority opinion.
Just my 2 cents.
I find myself needing to ask. . .
What is a trackback? I’ve never understood that term.
Thanking you in advance for your anticipated helpfulness . . .
Good to know thatBooman is kicking Hugh Hewitt’s ass. He is such a wanker.
What the heck is there to accomplish on the right?
Blogging on the right makes the same contribution as blogging about football.
Sorry, but you lost me with that analogy. (While I may be a bit slow, I’d prefer to admit it rather than missing someone’s point.) Thank you kindly. . .
It’s a hum dinger, and they have a couple of stories that look like sidebars. Here’s the big one at Yahoo to rate up.
Yahoo
I’m going to post this to the open thread, too.
Lots of papers will pick this up ;O
This is the most in-depth story I have seen so far. Off thread–but aren’t the names of some of these Brits great: Dearlove and Goodhart!
all of a sudden become harder to earn a TU status?
Lost mine..
I think they are just messing with the site and will get it fixed soonish. We all lost our ability to see The Hidden Comment — although I think maybe we have two now. Plus, of course, the ‘troll rate BooMan’ comment. I haven’t done that yet… I’m saving it for when I’m really mad or something.
Rob Kall, at OpEd news is looking for some volunteers to help with the site.