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Member since:
May 8, 2007
Comments:
4656

News affects us all: let's talk about it.

Profile Q & A

Headline:
Pardon my typos
Hometown:
Knoxville, TN
Local Favorites:
I don't dare have one--they keep closing!
I Belong To:
Nothing and no one.
When I'm Not on Topix:
I'm making music.
Read My Forum Posts Because:
I have a different take on things.
I'm Listening To:
Beatles--Rubber Soul
Read This Book:
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Favorite Things:
Books, music, drama, food, wine, beer, nature, ideas.
On My Mind:
What makes people kind or cruel.
I Believe In:
The capacity of people to acquire wisdom throughout life.

NightSerf's Recent Posts

Knoxville, TN

ACORN, obamas weapon of mass destruction

This just in: http://www.knoxnew s.com/news/2008/oc t/10/legislative-p anel-palin-abused- authority/  (20 hrs ago | post #17)

Knoxville, TN

ACORN, obamas weapon of mass destruction

Palin's obvious shortcomings are that she is shallow, incurious, and intellectually lazy. She is power-hungry, petty, and vengeful. She is selfish, self-centered, and utterly devoid of the quintessential qualities that are required for the level of responsibility that she seeks: benevolence and wisdom. I will leave the merits of the case for abuse of power to those who are responsible for investigating it. Impeding that investigation so that it will not influence an election of this magnitude should give pause to anyone who remembers or has studied the times of Nixon and Agnew.  (20 hrs ago | post #16)

Knoxville, TN

ACORN, obamas weapon of mass destruction

The secrecy and delay on the investigations into Palin's alleged abuses is reminiscent of the delaying tactics that the Nixon administration erected as the 1972 election approached. It worked, and Nixon endured some of the most miserable years ever spent in the White House before he finally resigned, his one small comfort being that Agnew suffered more and gave up sooner than he. Frankly, I hope Palin is innocent. I like her even if I don't think she's qualified to be Vice President. But the foot-dragging looks like a desperate attempt to hide the truth from the electorate until it's too late for it to put the final seal of doom onto the McCain candidacy. Even if I favored McCain enough to overlook Palin's other obvious shortcomings, I could never vote for any ticket with such a shadow hanging over it after having endured the Watergate years. I find it hard to understand how anyone else could.  (22 hrs ago | post #14)

Knoxville, TN

Police: 1 dead after multiple shots fired at Tenn. mall; suspec...

Your post has been cross-posted across a number of Topix forums. Which state are you asking about?  (Yesterday | post #3)

Knoxville, TN

ACORN, obamas weapon of mass destruction

As far as I can make out from the reports, most of which are too biased to be reliable, ACORN's main failures have to do with the selection, training, and oversight of the people they send out to register new voters. Their pay must be based on how many registrations they list, because there are reports of making lists up out of thin air or from telephone books. Since there are no actual voters who will show up at the polls, that kind of activity, while fraudulent, won't change what happens at the polls on election day. The second problem is with incentives to register motivating people to do so as many times as possible, but I doubt that those people will vote even once either, so again the fraudulent registrations are unlikely to result in voter fraud at the polls. At any rate, none of this is being done at Obama's behest or with his approval or even knowledge, so any assertions that he is involved in ACORN's misdeeds are pure fabrications and certainly no reason to change one's vote one way or the other. As far as the race for the White House goes, it's a non-issue.  (Yesterday | post #10)

Knoxville, TN

What should Topix Admins remove?

In order to have freedom of the press, you have to have a press, and we should all bless Gutenberg for getting the ball rolling. It probably wasn't long after his invention, though, that someone first noted that freedom of the press belongs to the one who owns the press, and Topix owns this one. The First Amendment protects publishers from government censorship within reasonable limits; it does not guarantee that our letters to the editors will be published at all, much less without modification, by those same publishers. Topix publishes these forums, and our posts are analogous to those letters. We don't own this press. We all have "the freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitation"-- in our living rooms. Even in the public square, we are prohibited from inciting to riot or spreading dangerous panic, nor are we permitted to spread vicious lies about other people. It all boils down to the nature of rights. Many, including our founding Fathers, believe that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. I don't hold to that theory. I contend that rights are granted, not inherent, that we (grudgingly) grant to others the rights that we wish for ourselves and that when a large enough majority are willing to do this, we encode those rights into our legal frameworks. A right is a legal reality, not a theological one. As such, rights vary as our changing perceptions of them are reflected in the laws that we create and modify. In the course of the last century or so in America, they have mostly grown and advanced; that has no always been so. With greater freedoms come correspondingly greater excesses and abuses, and from time to time the resentment that this causes brings about reversals, and we humans rarely return to a center or moderate our tendencies to oppress one another. So we have Stalinist purges, Nazi excesses, Spanish Inquisitions, and McCarthy era censorship. But not here, not yet. The Topix Terms of Service put very reasonable limits on what we can write here. Even the exhortation to be polite is only suggestive. There are no wartime censors at work here, only overworked administrators who really don't have time to sweat the small stuff. It's all good. Enjoy it.  (Yesterday | post #25)

Knoxville, TN

What should Topix Admins remove?

Trolls come in all sizes, shapes, and colors, and not all are bad. It depends on what we're trolling for and what we use as bait. I used this poll to get a useful conversation going and especially enjoyed the response I got from Southern Sister. The typical troll elicits angry responses to begin an animated discussion. I prefer more thoughtful discourse, so my approach is different. But the goal is the same: to fill the soul-quenching voids in space, time, thought, and spirit. Most trolls choose their bait and set their lines to bring out the worst in people. I seek the best. Not all trolls are bad.  (Yesterday | post #16)

Knoxville, TN

What should Topix Admins remove?

I also left out plagiarism and spam. I didn't want to complicate it too much. Just the biggies. Dan's complaints and our friend in Madison got me to thinking that we don't all have the same ideas about what's okay to post and what's not. I thought a separate thread to discuss the issue might be useful.  (Yesterday | post #5)

Knoxville, TN

What should Topix Admins remove?

The purpose of this poll is to see how much agreement there is in this forum with the Topix Terms of Service (ToS). As usual, I do ask that each person vote only once so that the results reflect our opinion with some degree of accuracy. Than ks for participating.  (Yesterday | post #3)

Knoxville, TN

'Soul Man' Sam Moore tells Obama to stop using his song

You're right about the song, R4W and mbd, but unless he signed them away Moore would hold the copyright to his recording of the song. He probably did, though--that was the usual practice in those days. The recording companies held the rights to their recordings with a contractual obligation to forward royalties to the artists. And it's likely that those rights have been bought and sold a time or two since then. But my reading is that he asked tho Obama campaign to stop using it as a courtesy, which they did. Would that more people here exercised a measure of courtesy.  (Yesterday | post #32)

Knoxville, TN

Legislator's son denies hacking Palin e-mail

Actually, the Associated Press has a staff of writers who write the reports that go out "on the wire," and they are rarely credited by name. It is quite comomon to see breaking news reports credited simply to the AP.  (Thursday | post #4)

Topix Editor

Delete the post or the thread?

Oops--"title OR the first post."  (Thursday | post #9)

Topix Editor

Delete the post or the thread?

One more comment before I let this go: I've seen a number of user initiated threads allowed to "live" when either the title of the first post was a serious ToS violation. It's my opinion that Topix should have a policy of deleting whole threads in these instances, not just the first post.  (Thursday | post #8)

Knoxville, TN

IRS: Tenn. retirees, vets may lose economic stimulus checks

Unless I misunderstand the story, no efforts are being made to deny vets or retirees their stimulus payments--it's their own inaction that's doing that. The purpose of the article is to remind them that the deadline for filing a return to receive the payment is approaching so that they won't miss out.  (Thursday | post #5)

Knoxville, TN

'Zoo Man' in court seeking break on rape conviction : Local New...

When a mentally unbalanced serial killer is trying to get out of prison, it is news no matter how old the original crimes are. NEW news.  (Thursday | post #9)

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Recent edits

23 hr - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Prosecutor: DNA links motel worker to Alabama woman's death: <p>An Alabama homecoming queen found... [story]
Oct 8 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Farragut middle schooler dies after zip-line accident: <p>A Farragut Middle School student has di... [story]
Oct 8 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - One reassigned, one retired, $300K paid after Karns student's death: <p>Knox County Schools has p... [story]
Oct 8 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Erin McLean charged with contempt: Erin McLean today was charged with criminal contempt for conta... [story]
Oct 8 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - 2 shot at Knoxville Center Mall; suspect in custody: An employee of the Reno Menswear clothing st... [story]
Oct 7 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - summary - <p><b>Man convicted as accessory led officers to alleged killer</b></p> <p>A serial rob... [story]
Oct 7 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - summary - <p><b>Faces 30 years for downloading more than 300 photos</b></p> Jerry Stiles Jr., 27,... [story]
Oct 7 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - summary photos - <p><b>Lawyer: Defendant guilty of having drugs but didn't shoot at rival</b></p>... [story]
Oct 7 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - title summary - Copper Cellar brewmaster says Brewer's Jam among best beer festivals nationwide -... [story]
Oct 7 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - summary - <p><b>Names of those lost added to KFD monument</b></p> The Knoxville Fire Department w... [story]
Oct 7 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Memorial honors fallen firefighters: <p><b><Names of those lost added to KFD monument</b></p> The... [story]
Oct 7 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Copper Cellar brewmaster says Brewersa Jam among best beer festivals nationwide: Marty Velas is q... [story]
Oct 7 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Boyd to request sentence leniency: <p>A serial robber convicted as an accessory to a carjacking-t... [story]
Oct 7 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Man arrested for child porn: <p>A man faces charges of downloading more than 300 child pornograph... [story]
Oct 7 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Man says he fired at ex-lover: <p>Latawyne D. Osborne readily admits he fired a gun from a car lo... [story]
Oct 6 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Feds pleased with probe : Local News : Knoxville News Sentinel: <p><b>Rose Thorn considered a suc... [story]
Oct 6 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Money linked to scam sought : <p><b>Investors sued for return of funds pulled out before scheme's... [story]
Oct 6 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Area banks down sharply as Wall Street tumbles: Knoxville area banks were down sharply in early t... [story]
Oct 3 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Suspect in gun thefts jailed: <p><b>Weaponry taken from unattended car of officer</b></p> SEVIERV... [story]
Oct 3 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Man killed, girl wounded in attack at Newport home: <p>Police in Newport said a young man was kil... [story]
Oct 3 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Police investigate Beaumont exposure complaint: <p>A substitute teacher at Beaumont Elementary Sc... [story]
Oct 3 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Marine's widow decides to stay in Japan for birth: <p><b>Doctor OKs trip to Tenn., but pregnant w... [story]
Oct 3 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Reforms make ballot: <p><b>Knox group gathers enough signatures to put proposals to a vote</b></p... [story]
Oct 3 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Student gets sentence cut in half: <p><b>Prior defendant’s record worse, so judge shows mercy</b>... [story]
Oct 2 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - summary - <p><b>Board OKs first reading but wants more details</b></p> <p>By Lola Alapo, Thursday... [story]
Oct 2 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Random searches in Knox schools closer: <p>The possibility of random searches in Knox County scho... [story]
Oct 2 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Police seek man in 2 armed robberies: <p>Knoxville police this morning were searching for a man s... [story]
Oct 2 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Erin McLean and children found in Texas: <p><b>Boys headed home to live with paternal grandmother... [story]
Oct 1 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Blount Marine's widow granted visa to have baby in U.S.: <p>By <b>Robert Wilson,</b> October 1, ... [story]
Oct 1 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Hotel security mostly self-regulated: By <b>Emily Stroud,</b> 10/1/2008 <p>The murder of a hotel... [story]
Oct 1 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - United pilot charged with PI, mooning Alcoa Highway motorists: <p>A United Airlines pilot has bee... [story]
Oct 1 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Former judge convicted on child porn may lose law license: A former Sevier County judge convicted... [story]
Oct 1 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - summary - <p><b>Red tape frustrates Maryville family</b></p> <p>By <b>Robert Wilson,</b> Wednesda... [story]
Oct 1 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - title summary - Pregnant wife of Marine killed in Iraq denied U.S. entry - <p><b>Red tape frustra... [story]
Oct 1 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Pregnant wife of Marine killed in Iraq denied U.S. entry : Local News : Knoxville News Sentinel: ... [story]
Oct 1 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Anderson County woman pleads guilty to stabbing husband to death: <p>By <b>Bob Fowler,</b> Wednes... [story]
Oct 1 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Knox school superintendent proposes random searches; board to hear plan tonight : <p>The Knox Cou... [story]
Oct 1 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - summary - <p><b>Man's behavior found to offend 'dignity' of court</b></p> <p>By <b>Jamie Satterf... [story]
Oct 1 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Houston lawyer's contempt charge stays |: <p>Rocky Houston talks to attorney Randy Rogers, right,... [story]
Oct 1 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Sex-offender policy enacted: The first sex offender nabbed in East Tennessee by the U.S. Marshals... [story]
Sep 29 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - title - KPD says ID not ready on body in lake; family believes it's Hampton [story]
Sep 29 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - summary - <p>By <b>Jamie Satterfield</b>, September 29, 2008</p> <p>Commissioners clearly broke ... [story]
Sep 29 - UPDATE in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - summary - <p>By <b>Don Jacobs,</b> September 29, 2008</p><p>An employee of the Mountain View Yout... [story]
Sep 29 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Attorney: Body found in lake likely missing Alabama woman: The attorney for the family of a missi... [story]
Sep 29 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Birthday party fight ends in fatal stabbing: <p>A fight at a birthday party campout in Charleston... [story]
Sep 29 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Mountain View employee charged with abusing infant daughter: <p>An employee of the Mountain View ... [story]
Sep 29 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Commissioners clearly broke law, judge says, but did they lie? : <p>Commissioners clearly broke l... [story]
Sep 29 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Digital dispute may go to court: <p><b>Lamar quiet on legal action after denied appeal </b></p> <... [story]
Sep 28 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - House at center of 2007 murders to be razed; memorial planned: <p>When Jack King sold the house o... [story]
Sep 28 - POST in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - Authorities: Brothers charged in fatal stabbing in Knox: Two brothers have been charged in the Sa... [story]
Sep 27 - KILL in Knoxville, TN [ page ] - other not news : Body may be that of missing Alabama woman