The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    Bottom Ten

    By Donal on Wed, 12/29/2010 - 10:35pm | Humor & Satire

    It seems traditional to do top ten lists this time of year, but I was stumped until A-Man noted that blogs had ruts. So I want commenter lists of the top ten subject ruts, which will really be the bottom ten, least-covered, but important subjects.

    Topics: 
    Humor & Satire

    Comments

    Ooh, great idea, Donal.  Not to be self serving, but one of the reasons that I like Dagblog is that the people here write about the unusual and little noticed.  Indeed, sometimes I think I'm way too mainstream.

    So... some undercovered but worth topics for a top ten...

    1) Prison conditions, as Richard Day has reminded us.  This really is the measure of our society.

    2) Work, as I have reminded you all.  It's really not the point of life.  How do we get beyond that?

    3) Law, as pointed out here... many of our laws our outdated and no longer server the way we live.

    4) China nonsense.  I don't think people quite get it but... China is not about to take over the world.  Yes, we owe them $2 trillion. But they have no means to collect ahead of schedule (while we have every means to pay on schedule) and it's a disfunctional dictatorship.

    5) Civil liberties.  I'm sorry, we discussed this a ton during the Bush years but... Obama hasn't given anything back.  I understand why not, as there are big risks involved, but this is a major and little discussed topic.

    6) Health care.  My insurance premiums are going up in 2011, despite health care reform!  While reforms have not yet been implemented and won't be for years, this is a major issues.  The premiums are too damned high!

    7) Corporate tax reform.  Dagblogger AmericanDreamer steered me towards a book that I plan to write about soon... within is a fantastic idea about corporate taxation -- tax gross margins instead of employee wages.  I'm stunned by this, especially that I haven't seen it before.

    8) Snooki! Just kidding.  But, seriously... Snooki!

    9) Real bank stories.  While these stories about TARP not costing as much as expected are true they obscure the alternarive scenarios.  Had we nationalized and then sold off these banks we would have reaped real returns and, as owners, could have influence financial policy to better serve society.

    10) I'l end with one undercovered positive for Obama... Nobody's really written this, but the New York Review of Books should -- our discourse, despite the Tea Party, is far more intelligent than it was during the Bush years.  Obama, ever since his race speech during the campaign, has (as Jon Stewart said) "talked to the nation as if we're adults."  I think that a lot of people have answered that by raising their game, and that includes people on the right.  That needs to be chronicled because it's frankly more important than the little stuff.


    by Michael Maiello on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 12:50am

    Great summary, Destor, even if they do show you to be the pinko commie radical big-brother, tax-loving goof-off I've always thought you were! That #2! Really!

    (Can't think of a better list myself!)


    by CVille Dem on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 10:13am

    See we all KNOW Destor is a commie. He just chooses to deny it!!!


    by Richard Day on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 7:01pm


    by Donal on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 6:35pm

    Yay!


    by Michael Maiello on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 7:39pm

    Geez, lists of ten--you are asking for too much hard work from us lazy reactive commenter types.

    I will just suggest one:

    The liberal blogosphere simply hasn't paid enough attention to Obama and the Democrats needing to get BACKBONES, not to mention SPINES! Laughing


    by artappraiser on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 9:39am

    Well, I'll update this with the ten best, or would that be the worst, of what I find in the comments. Or maybe I'll do a new post.


    by Donal on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 11:46am

    Well I did hand out awards for the decade:

    http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/worst-new-millenium-so-far-7860

    But the piece did not seem to work very well!

    I think Destor has hit important points. AA & CVille make good points. We get such diverse subject matter here, it is hard to accuse Dagblog of having blinders on as far as issues are concerned.

    1. Challenges to our Constitution--from the right mostly. I mean they want to amend the 14th Amendment, ignore a great deal of case law attendant to the First Amendment, add new Amendments that would define marriage as well as provide the states an opportunity to line veto Federal legislation.

    2. Wikileaks that relate to corporate improprieties including campaign contributions.

    3. Campaign reform or lack thereof.

    4. State reforms that worked or are working; how have individual states handled some problems with regard to education, prisons, financing, campaign contributions...I hate to sound like a tea partier but screw the Feds. What successful reforms have been instituted by various states.

    5. I am not the smartest guy on the block and I swear I still do not understand net neutrality at all after reading tons of materials. Of course I do not twitter or use functions available by phone or...I need to hear from someone experienced in teaching grammar schoolers in this area.

    6. Advertising on the net. Anyone else being assaulted with sound as you hit certain sites on the internet.

    7. Reports on movies I will not see for a few years. Surely somebody is going to see these new blockbusters and we do have a creative corner.

    8. Good things that individual politicians have accomplished. Jimmy Carter was just applauded with regard to these awful worms that at one time affected fifty million people and the problem has almost been eliminated.

    9. Instances where people were hired as a direct result of stimulus.

    10. A cheap way to make good beer in your own abode.

    THE END


    by Richard Day on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 2:11pm

    I love your list, Dickon!  Especially # 10, hahaha.  I can't come up with a whole list yet, myself, but would love to add Anorexia and Puppy Mills to the list of someone who can only come up with eight.

    The other day I caught part of the Ellen show when she had her lovely wife Portia on, and Portia was discussing her battle with anorexia and bulimia and, while I rarely watch these types of shows, I found myself hooked just listening to her.  It's heartbreaking to see someone slowly killing themself, and that's basically what Portia was doing.  Today at Yahoo there's a headline about another anorexic, a 28-year-old model who just passed away.  I know, I know, we should all be concentrating on curing cancer, etc etc but disorders like this blow my mind just as much.

    As for puppy mills....thank heavens for the ASPCA and the Humane Society.  I just got my calendar for 2011 and am making a donation to the Humane Society accordingly.  I hope everyone considers doing the same.


    by LisB on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 6:35pm

    But Snooki isn't anorexic or bulimic. She makes me want to throw up, though.


    by Donal on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 6:38pm

    OMG, Donal....to this day, all I know of Snookie is from the SNL skits on Weekend Update.  I prefer to keep it that way.

     


    by LisB on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 7:57pm

    Uh, Donal.

    Pretty girls make you wish to throw up.

    Now just admit your penchant for putting up those Elvis posters in your youth.

    It is a touch road to follow, but we all must admit our penchants. As it were.

    hahahahaha

     


    by Richard Day on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 9:35pm

    Well thank you LisB. ha!!

    Suicide is not painless.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6_M-lFT4qE&feature=fvst

    It hurts all the 'survivors' and brings us all to wonder: WHAT IF?

    Now this comment of yours brings me pause for a number of reasons. What a painful existence; as painful as any drug addict experiences for sure.

    Oh would the power the gift to gee us?

    No, I would not do away with the ASPCA or Humane Society for anything.

     

    Let us work to help our prisoners and our pets!


    by Richard Day on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 6:58pm

    And our addicts.  Let's A) get small time drug offenders out of jail and B) provide safe clean needles and C) lighten up our Puritanical stupid-ass ways and legalize marijuana.  For starters.  At the same time, let's crack down on puppy mills and those godawful places where people let dogs fight dogs and birds fight birds.  Lastly, let's let every girl (and boy) out there know that having a normal body is not only normal, but sexy.

    / wishlist off

     


    by LisB on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 8:04pm

    I don't understand the question.

    You want the bottom ten overcovered topics or the top ten undercovered but they are really the same?


    by EmmaZahn on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 8:10pm

    Top ten UNDER covered, yes.  And, no, I don't think they are the same.  Do you?

     


    by LisB on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 8:14pm

    No but I thought that is what Donal said plus Destor has Snooki on his list.  Since I actually know who she is, definitely overcovered.  I have never watched a reality show from beginning to end.  Hate them.

    Thanks for the help.


    by EmmaZahn on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 8:21pm

    Ah, good point about Snooki.  May she fall into the under-covered list soon, haha.

    I do admit to watching Top Chef sometimes, but that's the closest I get to "reality" shows these days.  IF I watch TV at all anymore.


    by LisB on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 8:28pm

    I figured out that I watch TV to either escape reality or learn something.  Mostly to escape hence no reality shows.  No soaps either.  I want to escape, not be captured.


    by EmmaZahn on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 8:31pm

    Yes.  I mostly watch PBS now, if I turn on the TV at all.  I'm hooked on Masterpiece Classics and Mystery.  Am trying out more of their Contemporary series as well lately.  Okay, I watch House sometimes, though, on Fox. 


    by LisB on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 8:36pm

    I watch Bones...and NCIS.  

    Not so guilty pleasures.  

    Now that would make a good list.  


    by EmmaZahn on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 8:47pm

    Can you ever really "over" cover Jersey Shore?

    Can we ever do without Snooki, who has the skin tone of John Boehner and the breasts of Newt Gingrich?


    by Michael Maiello on Fri, 12/31/2010 - 9:26am

    Over / Under

    1.  Tea Party / Democratic Party : comparative disarray, threat

    2.  Glenn Beck / Rolling Stone Magazine : their comparative bots

    3.  Political Labels / Platforms : 

    4.  Econometrics / Economics : 

    5.  Banking / Money

     

    That's ten topics.  I'll stop,.


    by EmmaZahn on Thu, 12/30/2010 - 9:10pm