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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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OR you can try this Link Generator, which a contributor recommends: "All you do is paste in the URL and supply the text to highlight. Then hit 'Get Code.'... Return to RealityChex and paste it in."

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

The Ledes

Thursday, April 25, 2024

CNN: “The US economy cooled more than expected in the first quarter of the year, but remained healthy by historical standards. Economic growth has slowed steadily over the past 12 months, which bodes well for lower interest rates, but the Federal Reserve has made it clear it’s in no rush to cut rates.”

The Wires
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Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Washington Post: “The last known location of 'Portrait of Fräulein Lieser' by world-renowned Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was in Vienna in the mid-1920s. The vivid painting featuring a young woman was listed as property of a 'Mrs Lieser' — believed to be Henriette Lieser, who was deported and killed by the Nazis. The only remaining record of the work was a black and white photograph from 1925, around the time it was last exhibited, which was kept in the archives of the Austrian National Library. Now, almost 100 years later, this painting by one of the world’s most famous modernist artists is on display and up for sale — having been rediscovered in what the auction house has hailed as a sensational find.... It is unclear which member of the Lieser family is depicted in the piece[.]”

~~~ Marie: I don't know if this podcast will update automatically, or if I have to do it manually. In any event, both you and I can find the latest update of the published episodes here. The episodes begin with ads, but you can fast-forward through them.

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Page Links
Thursday
Jan262012

Comment "Approval"

My site host Squarespace has a new forced feature which automatically throws some comments into an "awaiting approval" bin. I have no facility to disable this feature (actually, it IS disabled, but Squarespace has installed an override). I have asked Squarespace to change this. I don't think they will.

This is an equal-opportunity site, and I don't bar anyone from commenting. I apologize for this annoying, discriminatory "feature." I will "approve" comments as soon as I'm aware of them and before reading them. With the exception of some ad spam, I can count on one hand the number of comments I've had to remove in the past six months for offensive content. This approval system is a real pain for commenters, readers and me.

I do, BTW, read all the comments, though not necessarily timely. If I ever remove a comment for what I deem cause, the writer will know it & know why.

Update: a commenter has suggested that "the best solution is just not to comment." That's was not my goal in making readers & contributors aware of the approval process imposed by my host. Since I'm not going to read the comments as I "approve" them, it takes me only seconds to release the comments for publication. The delay is what is unfair to commenters: I don't sit at my computer waiting for comments to come in, so any comments that trigger the approval algorithm will be delayed, sometimes by hours if I'm not around. This delay severely limits commenters' ability to engage in an exchange of ideas, which is one of the purposes of the comments facility. Not only that, I think the approval process itself is insulting to contributors, who 999 times out of 1,000, write comments which falls within my so-called standards.

So keep on commenting, please. What annoys me is the approval requirement, not the comments.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (5)

As I was reading off all the stuff on Reality Chex this morning, my husband said, "Wow. What would we do without Marie?"

So I hope you get to read this before it's dumped. Every day starts with Reality Chex here at Casa de Duxbury. :)

January 26, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterJulemry

Interesting. So one does NOT have a control of his 'won' website. It is practically impossible to handle (read) all comments at a timely fashion. It costs the real New York Times a lot of money, I guess.

Well, the best solution is just NOT to comment.

January 26, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterLadislav Nemec

The Duhigg and Bradsher piece was disturbing in its specificity. Most of us, I imagine, were well aware of the working conditions in China, but this piece fleshed it out and one feels sick knowing all the details. I teared reading about the poor mother who had to view her burned son, was afraid to touch him, and failed to understand how this could have happened. Some of the comments following the article blamed consumers; while that has merit, it does not address the greed and ineptitude that prevails in these companies. The fact that Mitch Daniels cited Steve Jobs in his speech as someone to emulate is ironic and moronic. And so it goes~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

January 26, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

So it goes. It did not have to be like this. A timid government yielded to the big international companies when negotiating trade agreements, We took no advantage of the importance of the American market and just rolled over and said do me. And they did.
An example of what we could have done is Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart dictates what their cost will be, where the product
will be made, how it will be marked and what the pallet pattern and height will be. They are the huge market.
Being in the huge American market was so important to other countries that we could have demanded compete acceptance of American products in return. Korea and Japan still keep out many American products. We could have charged a import fee to protect Americn jobs and defray costs of educating or relocating American workers.
Since the foreign suppliers shipped a lot and imported little, they could not retaliate. And to get a foot hold in the world's largest market they would have acccepted anything, had we asked.
All of the foreign countries were tough negotitors, we were weak and have had our lunch eaten while big American companies cheered and even directed our defeat to make things cheaper and easier for themselves.
We could have had our own elecronics cluster, with clean air and no child labor and no poisoning of employees. The damage to America caused by out sourcing far exceeds the benefits. Benefits going to a small percentage of Americans.

January 27, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterCarlyle

I really miss you on the NYT website. You and Karen Garcia.Their present commentariat is pitiful

It's taking me a while to get accustomed to this website

January 27, 2012 | Unregistered CommenterTim Giles
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