Pruning Shears - Comments

Dan comments on Blogroll Amnesty Day

Dan — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:37:52 +0000

Thanks so much, skippy!

skippy comments on Blogroll Amnesty Day

skippy — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:34:03 +0000

as one of the co-founfers of blogroll amnesty day, dan, may i sayni am honored that pruning shears is participating. i check your blog every night.

Batocchio comments on Blogroll Amnesty Day

Batocchio — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:13:15 +0000

Nice! In past years, it ran the whole weekend, so I'll have something up.

Dan comments on Partial transcript, Up with Chris Hayes - Sunday, Jan. 15

Dan — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:08:34 +0000

Great points, Charles.

Sorry about the commenting problems - I think my provider is trying out a new moderation system, because I saw some problems elsewhere. (Sigh)

Charles comments on Partial transcript, Up with Chris Hayes - Sunday, Jan. 15

Charles — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:03:42 +0000

A longish post I tried to make was defeated by the posting system. Ah, well.

The gist was that I think that stupidity can explain the behavior of Congress; it is not necessary to invoke malevolence. PIPA and SOPA are so poorly written that legal experts disagree as to what the results would be. No legislation should be of that quality. The debate in UP mirrors that. Both sides make unsupported assertions and provide few/no facts to back them up or refute the opponent. They talk over one another.

And why is the quality of legislation so poor? Because no one is minding the store. The Congress spends all of its time raising money. Their aides, many of whom are inexperienced and underpaid, have one eye on their next career step. They tend to write overly complicated legislation. And, of course, Congressmen try to use legislation to score political points.

The system is dysfunctional. Dysfunction is contagious. Their hands must be kept off the Internet, or it will become dysfunctional too.

Ava comments on Partial transcript, Up with Chris Hayes - Sunday, Jan. 15

Ava — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:42:17 +0000

There are more effective ways than SOPA.

Sean comments on Best Music of 2011

Sean — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 04:21:24 +0000

Went to listen to some of these songs again and was disappointed that they're gone! My fault for being too slow to download things.

Dan comments on Best Music of 2011

Dan — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:29:43 +0000

Thanks arthur and mitsuko - I'll check out a few of them. If you had to pick 3 to pass along which ones would they be?

arthur and mitsuko comments on Best Music of 2011

arthur and mitsuko — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:24:37 +0000

Somehow you left us off your list......
From untravelledpath.com click on the blue link to our "Work In Progress Frozen MP3 blog" for 55 minutes of music that's a deeper weirder flavor of rad (4 songs that focus more on the weak fearfulness of the 1% than on their greedy arrogance, 5 instrumentals that are beyond slow, violate every musical rule, but are sweet and magically beautiful.)

Dan comments on Best Music of 2011

Dan — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:52:31 +0000

Thanks much for stopping by to listen and comment, S!

There's been some really good protest music this year; "Union Town," "Scotty We're Coming for You" and "The Wisconsin Song" for three. Lupe Fiasco too - download his mixtape! It's out there, just not on the radio.

During the Bush years "We Can't Make it Here" by James McMurtry leaps to mind; Jason Isbell had a nice one called "Dress Blues," and Emperor X from my 2010 list.

As for the rest, music is ultimately idiosyncratic. Either a song does it for you or it doesn't. Giving it an honest listen is what's important, and again I appreciate your stopping by and doing that.

Happy New Year!