Recent Comments
Re: “Medicaid noise leads to inevitable conclusion — expansion won't pass in Arkansas”
Max, I assume you've seen this from AACF?
http://aradvocates.org/industries-low-inco…
150,000+ hard working, low income, employed Arkansans with no health insurance.
I hope even half of them vote...
Re: “Little Rock proposes to outsource jobs that discriminate on basis of religion”
Little Rock has never wanted to deal in a realistic and humane way with the homeless people and families that spend nights under its bridges. How many years did it take for them to craft this "solution?" How long did they try to keep the VA clinic for homeless vets from opening?
This is the easiest way to continue avoiding the issue. That one lawsuit that shuts this down will make it really easy for Stodola and Carpenter to say, "Well see, we tried..."
Re: “The 2013 open line”
I already ditched my subscription to the Dem-Gaz, when I saw that the online-only edition was the same price as the print edition. That was when they went up on the per copy price at the news stand, and said subscribers wouldn't get a price hike.
There would be no way I'd pay to read the Dem-Gaz at a higher price - either in print or online. They made themselves irrelevant in my life. Interesting to see that it only took a few short months for them to go back on their word to subscribers. Or to consider going back on their word.
And I don't pay to read blogs Max, even one as good as yours. I have 50 some odd blogs in my Google Reader and do not pay to read any of them. Nor do I charge people to read mine.
Electronic media is here to stay. If the Dem-Gaz is having issues with overhead, it should consider going completely digital and being reasonable with pricing.
Re: “The morning report: You pay for storm cleanup”
The PSC is going to need some push from some ratepayers.
As several others have noted, here in Arkansas, we are dealing with Entergy's failure to gradually phase out and replace infrastructure (poles and lines) from what? - the 60s and 70s? My hat is grudgingly off to a greedy corporate utility that refuses to start burying the lines, and does not, as is required by PSC regulation, periodically inspect those poles and lines for hazards, which in our state are lots of trees and their branches - nothwithstanding the desire of the logging companies to leave our landscape devoid of forests. How many of you have driven down a road or highway and seen power poles listing dangerously?
And Entergy skates - over and over. They look at the calendar and tell themselves, oh well, there's only a major ice storm every decade or so. And they move on.
A quarter of a million customers in the dark and cold for a week is inexcusable in a state the size of Arkansas.
Where is Ratepayers Fight Back? Please, let's find them, and sign me up.
Re: “Shootout in Walmart Riverdale parking lot”
Sadly Ron, there are folks who will read this batch of comments who actually believe that.
I think it would have been less likely that there would have been anyone left standing to get the photos WalMart would like to suppress.
Wonder why "discussions" with conservatives seem to come down to a battle between the First Amendment and the Second?
Re: “What to do about gun violence”
"We need to work on making access to mental health care at least as easy as access to a gun."
As you've already pointed out in another blog entry Max, Arkansas is not lined up to do that.
It sickened me to see a photo posted by one of my FB friends yesterday in Fort Thompson Sporting Goods, with his own cutline about he had been there just a few minutes, and already 25 guns had been sold.
I'm afraid we have an uphill battle on this. Last night, the CBS Evening News interviewed a collector of AR 15s.
Apparently for some folks, the answer to gun violence is to buy more AR 15s.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=501…
We've got our work cut out for us if we are really going to get rational solutions for this massive problem, in which during "peacetime," we have the greatest number of gun deaths in the world.
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Re: “Nate Bell's shot at Boston heard 'round the world”
My favorite response to date to Bell's asinine, attention-seeking comment was one posted to Esquire's article on the tweet by man named Joshua Gutoff. Here's what he said:
"Here's my note to him:
Dear Representative Bell,
My parents (ages 83 and 85) still live in the suburb of Boston where I grew up. While they have been inside their apartment since last night, I assure you they were not cowering. I can assure you as well, that my mother, who fled Poland in 1939 and spent much of the next several years travelling across the Eurasian continent, saw more gun violence as a teenager than you will ever experience in your life.
Like many of their friends and peers, they live independently, and like many of their friends, they do not own a gun. Does this make them feel less secure? I assure you, Mr. Bell, that nothing would make me feel more scared for my parents' safety than to imagine them living in an apartment building filled with untrained, shaky, nervous, senior citizens armed with powerful weapons.
Your comments were mean-spirited, cruel and ugly. I know nothing about you as a person, but I do wish that you practiced a religion or creed that taught about love, compassion, and not judging others. You bring shame to Arkansas."
I, for one, refuse to apologize for Bell, although unquestionably, a heartfelt apology is due. But I'd hate to offend his conservative values about personal responsibility.