Doug C

What a night and show indeed! IRBD, our paths may have crossed as I also "sat on the ground right in front of him". As Huey Lewis sang, "Small World".

This made me laugh because in the Raleigh airport the morning after the show, my friend and I were at our gate when Jeff Tweedy walked past. As we jumped up to run after him my friend said, "I expect someone to yell, 'Stop those guys. They're gonna roll that bum!'". Tweedy was quite gracious despite our behaving like idiots. He stopped and gave us maybe 2 minutes, which was far more than we deserved for basically accosting him.

Ha ha ha. That is the teaching profession. In addition to my fulltime H.S. gig, I also teach online credit recovery 6 hours a week. I had an email from a student last Monday asking if the reason that she couldn't log in to her class was because the site was closed for Memorial Day.

I have taught high school social studies, mainly Advanced Placement psychology, for 28 years. I have 8 years remaining. If we want to improve education and teacher quality in America, we need to look to Finland, South Korea, Singapore and Canada. I have followed the news and research regarding their teacher education systems for years. This recent article does a nice job of comparing them, Finland specifically, with America. I urge all of you to read it. It is about 24 paragraphs, but well worth it. If we could realize that other nations have worthwhile ideas, rather than believing that nobody

Hear

Ditto. A big thanks to them and cre618 for the tears of joy. I wish that the tour itinerary had been in reverse. I'm glad that I caught the second show. I thought that it was special but the latter one's have been extra.

You know, I honestly never thought about that. I just believe that it's the right thing to do. But you are correct. Reform will add Democratic voters. I see that as a by-product of doing the right thing. If I believed that doing the right thing would result in more Republican voters, I would still be in favor of it. I have no data, but in my gut I believe that many conservatives/Republicans would be against what they felt was right if they believed the end result would be an increase Democratic voters.

I'm an atheist but Good God!!

As a junior high schooler enthralled with palindromes, this was always my favorite: Dennis, Nell, Edna, Leon, Nedra, Anita, Rolf, Nora, Alice, Carol, Leo, Jane, Reed, Dena, Dale, Basil, Rae, Penny, Lana, Dave, Denny, Lena, Ida, Bernadette, Ben, Ray, Lila, Nina, Jo, Ira, Mara, Sara, Mario, Jan, Ina, Lily, Arne, Bette, Dan, Reba, Diane, Lynn, Ed, Eva, Dana, Lynne, Pearl, Isabel, Ada, Ned, Dee, Rena, Joel, Lora, Cecil, Aaron, Flora, Tina, Arden, Noel, and Ellen sinned.

We are going to see the Monkees this Sunday. I was excited by the set Analogman posted except for Peter Percival's Pet Pig Porky- Gah! Especially as an encore. I can handle Your Auntie Grizelda but would prefer something else. I just checked all of the set lists and am happy to report that it not surprisingly was axed after the second night. Unfortunately, it wasn't replaced, just omitted. The hell.

The case could be made that you are as confrontational as you think George Zimmerman was.

That made me laugh. Yesterday, my wife and I were in line at Evos (a 'healthy' fast food place) and I was wearing the Wilco cosmonaut shirt. The manager said, "Cool shirt". I thanked him. He asked me if I had heard about the concert Wilco had recently played. I assumed that he meant the Tampa Americanrama show from 27 June but before I could reply, he said, "Yeah, Wilco headlined for Paul Simon, one of the guys from the Grateful Dead and another old classic rock guy but I forget who it was. Can you believe Wilco was the headliner? You'd think it would be Paul Simon. They're really big". We j

Hixter is correct. I have been reading this Zimmerman portion of the thread for a couple of weeks and have decided to post. I would be willing to wager that I am as liberal/left wing as I Remember D. Boon (as if such a thing could be determined) but this case is quite clear. No matter how much folks assumed/were told that it all boiled down to George Zimmerman driving around, blasting Skrewdriver while on an N-word hunt, seeing Martin and suddenly yelling, "Yeehaw, I'm a gonna shoot me an N-word", the evidence, testimony, etc. do not bear that out. It was a tragedy that could have been prevent

Wow, between the scrubbed cheeks and the host's fashion, clearly age has progressed and times have changed. Every cable access station had a show like this, it seemed. Excellent music, though. Sorry if this was posted somewhere else.

She was on the inaugural episode of Funny or Die's entry into the performance session trend. We are looking forward to seeing her in Atlanta on our annual Fall Color/Country Living Fair weekend. It's the first time someone we want to see has been in town at the same time. We had Sirius in the rental for 2 weeks and Man was getting lots of play on various channels. http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/awesome_of_the_day/2013/07/watch-neko-case-kind-of-perform-man-for-funny-or-die.html?utm_source=PANL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=130718

Opening with the collaboration. Nice! I'd love to hear it. Closing with Bull Black Nova would not have pleased me, though.

My wife's concert favorite. She has the gift as it gets played often at our shows (AmericanaramA Tampa let her down though). Ballot box will be stuffed twice at least.

Yes. What are your thoughts on the electoral college, Jiminy? Also, Magic C-man, you forgot the question mark after "aren't you".

Wow! Any system that allows for a candidate to receive the most votes but still lose is the wrong system. " State issues matter. The electoral college is a brilliant way to give ALL the people a voice, but force the candidates to address issues state by state." What? They don't address issues state by state DUE to the electoral college. They address them swing state by swing state. If the electoral college was abolished THEN not only would all voters have a voice but the candidates would be forced to treat all states equally because every vote would matter, not just those in so-called swi

I want to believe that you are joking but doubt it. If our Constitution were being wriiten today, would you include the electoral college? It is such an anachronism that, were it tangible, it's picture would be next to anachronism in the dictionary. I understand your republic comment, but it is not the proper way to elect our chief executive. Many other "hallmarks of our founding fathers" have, thankfully and intelligently, been swept into the dustbin of history. If you are in favor of keeping the electoral college, I'd find a better argument. The truth is that Americans don't like change an

Gee, I'ma gonna vote for the smart feller even though he agin ever thing I stand for... Ha ha! Do you really believe that is what I was saying or would do? If I felt that my guy, issue-wise, was a Dumbya (say what you like, he isn't a brain trust. Trust fund, yes) but the other guy was intelligent, open-minded and well-reasoned, I'd vote for him because it would be better for the country. Also, my dad was a badass and could've so kicked your dad's arse. Unfortunately, he is dead and can't demonstrate it. Hell, he couldn't demonstrate it if alive as he would be 106 years old.

According to your above post, "Jules", you believe that W. was/is smart, every Republican is dumb (confused on W., then...), Romney is smart, a real debate would be a slam dunk intellectual rogering of Romney, it wasn't hyperbole of me to say the President would make Romney look the fool, it wouldn't be easy for the Pres to point out Romney's incoherence, the Pres isn't intelligent enough to keep romney from weaseling out and the President isn't afraid of average yahoos thinking he's a meanie (uppity black guy) if he is overly aggresive in a debate. Thanks for clarifying. What do you have t

I agree that George W. was/is dumb, that not every Republican is dumb and that Mitt Romney isn't dumb and that it would not be a slam dunk intellectual rogering (though a right rogering it would be). It was hyperbole for me to say "the President would make Mitt Romney look the fool". What I meant was that due to this: "Right now, he's trying to get elected by appealing to the base and draw in lots of independents and moderates, so he often falters or waffles in his statements.", it would be easy for the President to point out Romney's incoherence. The President is also intelligent enough to no

Jules, I know that I have said this before but I'll try again... no bullshit, no baiting, no chain pulling, okay? Please? You honestly, sincerely believe that Mitt Romney is smarter than Barack Obama? In a no-holds barred, old school debate where the goal is to show the other guy to be lacking and with no concerns about how the Great Unwashed might perceive you, the President would make Mitt Romney look the fool. Regardless of who you support issue-wise, it is true. The simplest evidence? He is smart enough to know that any mythology forbidding beer is irrational.

It might not have, which is crazy. I prefer the candidate that points out incorrect, inane, irrelevant, etc. things that the other candidate says. I don't see it as elitist, snotty, etc. You should call the other guy on their bullshit in a clear, loud, direct, intelligent and witty manner. I want the smartest guy in the room as president. To compare the Navy of almost 100 years ago with the Navy of today is irrelevant and that needs to be pointed out because the average American is stupid and ignorant and would likely think, "Yeah! Why we have less ships than 1917? We should have more" withou