Open Thread for Thursday, May 15, 2014

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Some possible topics:

  1. FCC moves closer to ending net neutrality — I still don’t know what I think about this. How about you?
  2. New York Times boss denies row over pay led to Abramson dismissal — I don’t know what’s true here, but I bet I would have jumped at the job for whatever they were paying her. But that’s me.
  3. Girl’s 12,000-year-old skeleton may solve a mystery — A little something from the world of science.
  4. Graham wants a SENATE select panel on Benghazi — I think maybe he’s way jealous that the House is having all the fun.

Or, bring up your own topic…

 

8 thoughts on “Open Thread for Thursday, May 15, 2014

  1. Kathryn Fenner

    But you’d find it hard to afford the Warthen Compound in Manhattan or even Brooklyn….

  2. Kathryn Fenner

    While I would personally benefit from the end of net neutrality, as I stream videos from pay sites like Netflix and Amazon, it is wrong. Same as it is wrong to pay for highways with tolls.

  3. bud

    Graham is clearly playing politics with Benghazi. He knows full well that the Senate is done with Benghazi so long as the Democrats are in control.

    Trey Gowdy on the the other is having a good ole time of it trying to stir stuff up on an event that is pretty much settled. He tried to make this into something with his faux press conference that trotted out once again the same tired assault lines (Why no rescue mission. Why were the talking points changed. Why was their inadequate security). The Pickering Report pretty much answered all the relevant questions. And that was more than a year ago. The GOP is trying to shore up its base but they risk losing the tiny cadre of swing voters who decide elections.

  4. Bryan Caskey

    Real moral of the story about Abramson being fired: Don’t get a tattoo of your company’s logo unless you own the company.

    Now, the REAL problem the New York Times has is that they hired Baquet – an African American guy to replace Abramson.

    If they pay him more than her, the NYT is obviously sexist. If they pay him less, the NYT is obviously racist.

    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      On the tattoo thing — yeah, you don’t want to have to do what Maximus had to do with his “SPQR” tat in “Gladiator.”

      Can you believe I couldn’t find video, or even a still, of that scene to link to?

      I’ve always thought that if I ever got a tattoo, it would be one like that. If I had ever been a Marine (my first ambition when I was a kid), I might have gotten USMC right in the same spot where Maximus had “SPQR.” Because, you know, once you’re a Marine, you’re always a Marine.

      But since I have never been either a Marine or a drunken sailor, I have no tats.

  5. Norm Ivey

    The net neutrality rules concern me mostly because it may allow the telecom giants to bargain with the busiest websites to deliver their content at faster speeds than smaller operations. Smaller operations will be priced out of the market not because their product is inferior, but because the larger companies squeeze them out. The same thing happened in this country with the oil companies, the banks, and the beer industry (and probably plenty of other industries as well). The free market is ostensibly driven by competition for consumers, but in many cases it’s actually driven by elimination of the competition.

  6. Karen Pearson

    The story about the skeleton found in an underwater pit was fascinating. However, given the hard life that the early (but post paleo) Indians lived, I have a hard time subscribing to the hypothesis that the rapid change in facial features was the result of neotony, although I can’t offer an alternative hypothesis.

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