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    marye
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    When our previous topic hit the 1,000-response mark, sleazy behavior by politicians was eliciting a certain amount of non-astonishment.

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  • Anonymous (not verified)
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    Police state increasingly obvious in US
    The ACLU is successfully dragging several police departments into court over what they say are unconstitutional arrests for recording police conversations and behavior. DAs say that because police have sensitive conversations with witnesses, etc., they can't be recorded. They make the distinction that the recording is not illegal, just the publication of it. What bullshit! Cops don't want their illegal behavior to ruin their careers. Not all cops, just the ones that are doing illegal things. This has to change but I'm not holding my breath for the Supremes to make the right decision.
  • marye
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    wait, wait, infear
    if this is it http://cgi.ebay.com/DEAD-Summer-Getaway-2003-85cd-Box-Set-Lim-Ed-/25068… it's legit. Munck was the licensee for that tour. and now, back to bedbugs and addiction...
  • johnman
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    Ok....lemme get this straight...
    is the Govt willing to pay for the treatment?...and why would someone be foolish enough to turn down free treatment?..or would they rather live with an unhealthy addiction? If they have the money to spend on alcohol and drugs why not spend it on something more sensible.....like....oh....food and shelter, for instance? Aren't the benefits being given for that purpose? If I'm outa line here, please let me know......
  • marye
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    never heard of it either
    I think it's safe to assume it's a bootleg. What's the auction link? I don't actually remember if they sold the live recordings at the 2003 shows or not, but I never heard of this. If someone else knows please speak up!
  • infear
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    Help
    I'm l;ooking at an Ebay Item, it's a box set with 85cds in it, says it's the whole 2003 Summer Tour is this legit??? Says only 500 were made? Never heard of this any help would be appreciated-
  • marye
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    yeah, it is not just a fleabag hotel issue these days
    a little googling will really scare you! Of course I haven't stayed in a hotel for ages, but yeah, kinda does creep you out! There are all these clips on the TV news about washing all your clothes in hot water when you get home from a trip. It seems to be a pretty big problem even on the pricier side of the travel world. And yes, in the US.
  • Anonymous (not verified)
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    We owe the troop an exit
    By BOB HERBERTPublished: August 30, 2010 NY Times We learned on Saturday that our so-called partner in this forlorn war, Hamid Karzai, fired a top prosecutor who had insisted on, gasp, fighting the corruption that runs like a crippling disease through his country. Time magazine tells us that stressed-out, depressed and despondent soldiers are seeking help for their mental difficulties at a rate that is overwhelming the capacity of available professionals. What we are doing to these troops who have been serving tour after tour in Afghanistan and Iraq is unconscionable. Time described the mental-health issue as “the U.S. Army’s third front,” with the reporter, Mark Thompson, writing: “While its combat troops fight two wars, its mental-health professionals are waging a battle to save soldiers’ sanity when they come back, one that will cost billions long after combat ends in Baghdad and Kabul.” In addition to the terrible physical toll, the ultimate economic costs of these two wars, as the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and his colleague Linda Bilmes have pointed out, will run to more than $3 trillion. I get a headache when I hear supporters of this endless warfare complaining about the federal budget deficits. They’re like arsonists complaining about the smell of smoke in the neighborhood. There is no silver lining to this nearly decade-old war in Afghanistan. Poll after poll has shown that it no longer has the support of most Americans. And yet we fight on, feeding troops into the meat-grinder year after tragic year — to what end? “Clearly, the final chapters of this particular endeavor are very much yet to be written,” said Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, during a BBC interview over the weekend. He sounded as if those chapters would not be written any time soon. In a reference to President Obama’s assertion that U.S. troops would begin to withdraw from Afghanistan next July, General Petraeus told the interviewer: “That’s a date when a process begins, nothing more, nothing less. It’s not the date when the American forces begin an exodus and look for the exit and the light to turn off on the way out of the room.” A lot of Americans who had listened to the president thought it was, in fact, a date when the American forces would begin an exodus. The general seems to have heard something quite different. In truth, it’s not at all clear how President Obama really feels about the awesome responsibilities involved in waging war, and that’s a problem. The Times’s Peter Baker wrote a compelling and in many ways troubling article recently about the steep learning curve that Mr. Obama, with no previous military background, has had to negotiate as a wartime commander in chief. Quoting an unnamed adviser to the president, Mr. Baker wrote that Mr. Obama sees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as “problems that need managing” while he pursues his mission of transforming the nation. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking on the record, said, “He’s got a very full plate of very big issues, and I think he does not want to create the impression that he’s so preoccupied with these two wars that he’s not addressing the domestic issues that are uppermost in people’s minds.” Wars are not problems that need managing, which suggests that they will always be with us. They are catastrophes that need to be brought to an end as quickly as possible. Wars consume lives by the thousands (in Iraq, by the scores of thousands) and sometimes, as in World War II, by the millions. The goal when fighting any war should be peace, not a permanent simmer of nonstop maiming and killing. Wars are meant to be won — if they have to be fought at all — not endlessly looked after. One of the reasons we’re in this state of nonstop warfare is the fact that so few Americans have had any personal stake in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no draft and no direct financial hardship resulting from the wars. So we keep shipping other people’s children off to combat as if they were some sort of commodity, like coal or wheat, with no real regard for the terrible price so many have to pay, physically and psychologically. Not only is this tragic, it is profoundly disrespectful. These are real men and women, courageous and mostly uncomplaining human beings, that we are sending into the war zones, and we owe them our most careful attention. Above all, we owe them an end to two wars that have gone on much too long. A version of this op-ed appeared in print on August 31, 2010, on page A21 of the New York edition.
  • Anonymous (not verified)
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    Jeez, the ritziest, Marye?
    That kind of makes my skin crawl and not want to stay in a hotel anymore...
  • marye
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    gonzo
    re bedbugs, if it's any consolation I'm always editing stuff for travel sites warning people that they can get bedbugs in the ritziest hotels these days. Re the NYC issue, I agree with you also.
  • TigerLilly
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    My personal opinion hasn't changed
    one whit! :) no worries Gonzo!! Is rare that I form an opinion before reading and thinking for at least a bit, so is also rare that I change my mind :P Am still for the right to build, though I agree with you that an interfaith center would be a really cool idea!!********************************** By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's I mean. Mark Twain
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When our previous topic hit the 1,000-response mark, sleazy behavior by politicians was eliciting a certain amount of non-astonishment.