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All Blog Posts (2,375)

Does Referring to a Town in Austria Constitute a Prohibited F-Bomb?

I left a post on "All Drift All The Time" about the town of Fucking, Austria. It was meant as humorous, and I think it would be viewed as humorous by any reasonable standard. I do not believe that referring to the name of a town in Austria, whether it be Vienna, Linz, or Fucking constitutes the use of offensive language. It does not even constitute an F-bomb by any stretch of the imagination.

Several days later -- I emphasize, several days later -- I was deleted from the group on the… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 20, 2009 at 11:38am — 5 Comments

Bing - Two thumbs down

I'm a fuddy duddy. Yes it's true. So I forced myself to try Microsoft's new search engine Bing. I did a taste test: I searched for "FTP client torrent" on Bing. I got a list of commercial FTP client sites, and a link to the uTorrent client. Hurrah.

Then I googled the same thing. Got a link to the BulletProofFTP client with crack on Pirate Bay (still alive!). The link brought me to a torrent description. The torrent appeared to be valid, though "I did not download it, install it or… Continue

Added by Alendar on July 20, 2009 at 11:11am — 1 Comment

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

While joining the in-laws at their annual reunion in East BFE, Mississippi, my 16 y/o daughter, Sara, twisted her ankle and broke both leg bones. The thin one is splintered vertically, and the big bone is cracked open horizontally.

Three doctors concur that it will take surgery to set the bones. Which can't be done at least until tomorrow, when they open their "SurgiCenter," where her orthopedist practices.

Mercifully, the ER doc loaded us down with GOOOOD drugs, so I'm… Continue

Added by Quilty on July 19, 2009 at 8:57pm — 5 Comments

This is getting ridiculous.

If I were a superstitious man, I'd start to think that my ex was still placing curses on me....

But then, I remember that she could never do anything right - So it's just more of the usual Weird Luck...and one very sick fiancee. Gotta stick to those priorities...

I sincerely hope to be back on the air next Sunday. My apologies to all that tried to listen in....

Added by Snagg on July 19, 2009 at 4:26pm — 8 Comments

On the Problem of Censorship--on TBD and Elsewhere

I guess the rules of some of the groups on TBD preclude me from quoting some of my favorite passages from James Joyce's masterpiece, the novel "Ulysses." Can you imagine getting deleted from a TBD group because you have quoted from a masterpiece of literature? Ha, absurd! I suspect that some of the TBD group administrators are just a clinamen away from insanity.

Speaking of Ulysses, my tenth-grade (1968-1969) English teacher, Thomas Horan, a proud Irishman, wrote his Ph.D. thesis on… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 19, 2009 at 12:30pm — 3 Comments

Whatever Happened to Ben Greenberg?

My thoughts go back 19 years, to the year 1990, when I worked at the Washington, DC office of the Dallas-based law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld. And, yes, those were the happiest times of my life, working for my mentor, Bob Strauss.

During the summer of 1990 the firm hired three temporary employees. They were college students: Ben Greenberg (University of Pennsylvania); Robert Wyman (Brown University); and Matthew Erskine (University of Virginia). Greenberg, Wyman,… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 19, 2009 at 11:00am — No Comments

Sonic Youth, St Louis, Mo, 7/17/09

My, My - What a difference thirty years makes.

Not for Sonic Youth, exactly - They have remained remarkably dedicated to their vision of experimentalism, musical independence, the beauty that can be found in the tension between extremes, and squalling, ear-shattering racket.

Maybe that was a part of the point; A band whose staked-out territory is usually thought of as heaving, sweaty clubs and gnarly, art-damaged New York critical discussions, playing a free show on the… Continue

Added by Snagg on July 18, 2009 at 3:50pm — No Comments

A death in the family

It is always interesting to me at what events in my life and in the world I shed tears. A friend once told me you can’t help how you feel. Tonight, I learned of the death of Walter Cronkite. As I saw his face on the television and heard the sound of his voice once again, the tears started to come. I found this odd, at least at first.

Growing up black in America was not as hard on me as it was on my parents, grandparents, or even my older sister, but it was no walk in the park either.… Continue

Added by Vernon Windsor on July 18, 2009 at 1:29pm — 11 Comments

All hope abandon ye who enter here

Hope

It has been said:

"All Ye Who Enter Here

Abandon All Hope".

I'm here to tell Ya

I ain't buyin' that dope.

If You are soo transfixed by the truth

that it demands bloodshed to be proved,

than perhaps the truth has lost it's luster.

instead proving itself worthless and unimportant;

hence the belligerence.

I review the common denominators.

I may have missed the nick… Continue

Added by Michael J Masiko on July 18, 2009 at 12:01pm — 4 Comments

On Talking About Toothpaste in Non-Toothpaste Groups on TBD

I got a message from George V. Richards yesterday about wanting to keep his group "All Drift All The Time" light. He doesn't want toothpaste comments on his site. He thinks it's inappropriate to talk about toothpaste there. And we all know about the sites where they talk about toothpaste and related issues all the time.

But I'm a nonconformist and a free-speech advocate. So, what the heck, if I want to talk about toothpaste, I'll talk about toothpaste! Here goes.

I do it… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 18, 2009 at 11:00am — 6 Comments

The Master

The great swordsman Yagyu Tajima-no-kami became a teacher at the shogun's court. One day, one of the shogun's personal guards came to him and asked him to give him training in fencing. The master looked at the man and said, "As I observe, you seem to be a master of fencing yourself. Tell me to what school you belong before we enter into the relationship of teacher and pupil."

The guardsman said, "It shames me to confess it, but I have never learned the art."

"Are you… Continue

Added by Bill on July 18, 2009 at 12:01am — 3 Comments

Why Isn't Joan Nathan Preparing for Shabbat?

It's 4:30 on a Friday afternoon at the Cleveland Park Public Library in DC, and Joan Nathan, the world renowned authority on Jewish cuisine is talking to Barbara Gaunt, one of the librarians, about research on her latest book. Wow, a celebrity in my midst! I can't believe it. At this very moment I'm looking at the face of a woman I've seen on Martha Stewart. My heart is racing. I'm in the presence of a real-life personage. I wonder if she's ever read my story, The Dinner Party?

Wow,… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 17, 2009 at 2:00pm — 2 Comments

The Other Seinfeld

Jeffrey Seinfeld, Professor of Social Work

BA City College of NY; MSW Hunter College; PhD New York University

jeffrey.seinfeld@nyu.edu | (212) 998-5978

Dr. Jeffrey Seinfeld, professor of social work, joined the faculty at NYU in 1987. He served as chairperson of the Human Behavior and Social Environment area from 1998 to 2001. Dr. Seinfeld’s professional areas of interest include Object Relations Theory, Social Philosophy, and Existential Philosophy. He has received… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 17, 2009 at 1:30pm — 2 Comments

Why Obama's Health Care Reform Will Destroy US Jobs and Devastate the Economy

If you want to know why U.S. businesses increasingly outsource jobs to other countries, just add up the cost of doing business in America: As an employer, you have to pay not only higher wages than most other countries, but you also have to pay for the lost productivity and missed days due to the astonishingly poor health of the U.S. workforce.

Now, under the new Obama health care reform bill, you'll have to pay an additional eight percent of your payroll as a new tax to cover the… Continue

Added by OCNaturalDoc on July 17, 2009 at 11:00am — 20 Comments

The Ore and Aura of the Real

I swim in a sea of reality, but that makes me no more a fish than Moby Dick was. Mine is an unreal universe in which the exceptional is commonplace, in which the transient states of frustration or depression or meaninglessness are the norm. I am not a character whose life conforms more or less to the life of the ordinary man. I am an anticharacter in my experiences and in my sense of the world of reality. I require the fabulous and the bizarre. That is my metier. My purpose and philosophy of… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 17, 2009 at 10:59am — No Comments

Sarah Palin's New Political Party!

Hi! Welcome to the first meeting of a Brand New Political Party - United! Democrat or Republican Conclave! I’m Queen of the Tundra, your hostess and obvious choice for Presidential Candidate. Your fellow U-DORCs await inside. There are just a few rules you need to know before you enter.

1) You must be able to see a foreign country from where you stand at home. Sorry, I know this is harsh, but only those with such intensive international exposure can possibly… Continue

Added by Madhatterat60 on July 17, 2009 at 10:19am — No Comments

Growing Up Jewish in the South -- by Jesse Raben

Back in the late 1980s I worked with a fine young man named Jesse Raben at a local law firm. This is his story:

Twenty years later, I still remember one incident vividly. I was in 8th grade at Aycock Junior High School. A boy named Darryl Massey had been bothering me everyday in class, calling me names, sometimes making reference to the fact that I was Jewish. I asked him to stop, but he continued.

I didn’t know what to do about it. I brought the issue up around the dinner… Continue

Added by Gary Freedman on July 17, 2009 at 10:17am — 3 Comments

Homeless

My job takes me from one coast to the other and because of this I see all kinds of things. What hurts me though is the ever growing homlessness. It used to be one or two here and there but now it is groups huddled together under bridges. One such group of six or more where sitting in a circle and singing as a friend was playing the guitar. In another place I saw a small tent city and one person used scrap wood and metal to make a fence around his/her tent with a potted plant.

So today as… Continue

Added by cynthia Hunter on July 17, 2009 at 6:39am — 2 Comments

Legitimate work at home jobs

Hi Gang! Hope all is well with you!

Has anyone in these groups ever found legitimate work from home jobs? I am in need of a second income now that I have been downsized and need to find something that I can do from home to bring in extra cash.

I have been Googled to death and all I have received are CD's that are virused to the hilt, so PLEASE none of those.

If anyone can help, let me know and let me know if I can help you with anything you… Continue

Added by Donna on July 16, 2009 at 7:20pm — 1 Comment

Shh!

Listen, didyou hear the song that the day has brought? It is in the sounds of the city* people walking the shoes clicking* the hum of the streetlights* It is the sound of the country* the birds singing* the cattle waiting to be milked*the hum of the tracor starting.Listen to the sounds around you they are the songs that we hear everyday.

Added by cynthia Hunter on July 16, 2009 at 5:30pm — 1 Comment