Propeller Week In Review: February 8, 2008 — Feb 8th 2008

By James Marcus

Several stories about Mitt Romney made our Top Twenty over the past week, charting his rise (such as it was) and fall. Earlier on, there was "Debate Dial Testers: Voters Liked Mitt Romney," with 119 votes and 305 comments, which exposed a real vein of distaste for John McCain. Said Raiderwall: "He was cocky, arrogant, and was mocking Romney." ZiegfeldGirl suggested that the Arizona senator was cruising for a biblical bruising: "As they say, Pride goeth before a fall!" Another story, "Mitt Romney: Faith In America," looked back at the candidate's December 6 speech on religion and politics, and prompted one of the week's best comments from earthlingerer: "How dare you bring concrete reality into this thread!?!?!" Then there was "Rick Santorum and Laura Ingraham Endorse Mitt Romney" (108 votes, 205 comments), and yet another reminder that polling is an art, not a science. And finally, in the wake of his tepid performance on Super Tuesday, the candidate threw in the towel. "GOP sources: Romney to suspend campaign" garnered 157 votes and an impressive 744 comments. GWHayduke wasn't sure that we were seeing the last of Mitt: "He still has the option to flip back to his flop position and get back in the race in the event of a Latter Day miracle." Poulenc, too, chimed in with a sardonic fare-thee-well: "Yeah, losing Mitt's really hard to countenance. Such a noble chin; such a proud brow; such a one-syllable name... " But at least one member, simonsez, regretted Romney's exit: "We throw away a talented candidate in favor of an old warrior way past his prime."



Most Propeller members seemed tickled--and some were outright delirious--when the New York Giants achieved their upset victory in the Super Bowl. Said Bacalao: "I am always happy when the underdog wins (unless I have money on the other team)." Added mozzer: "Freaking fantastic game." There were a few unkind words for the losing Patriots, including this slap on the wrist from icono1: "NE was supposed to go in [and] have another boring super performance with T. Brady rolling up huge numbers while on the way to being coronated as king of the football world, and Belicheck being equated to V. Lombardi, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great..." But in general, the vanquished were treated with courtesy. Said studentambassador: "You gotta love Tom Brady being sacked five, six times." And just for the record, not every single Propeller member was glued to the contest. After stumbling across the comment thread, postaphis chimed in: "Oh yeah, there was a game yesterday. We watched Antiques Roadshow and Poirot on DVD." Tsk tsk, you missed a good one.




The ongoing struggle between Israel and Hamas was also in the spotlight over the past week. "Hamas escalates attacks on Israel," with 48 votes and 149 comments, generated a predictably heated conversation. Said Dionys: "The God of the Muslims is the God of the Jews is the God of the Christians. Kind of makes it difficult for all of them to be God's favorite at the same time." (Thinker22 thought otherwise: "No, he is not. Neither the God of the Jews nor the God of the Christians had Mohammad as His chief prophet.") Commented engineer: "There will never be peace until Hamas and other evil terrorist organizations decide to get along." But cherev argued that a group like Hamas was essentially beyond redemption: "There can never be peace with these organizations. Even if they renounced their methods, as Fatah did, justice demands that they be held accountable for their terrorist acts." There was also "The Strangulation of Gaza," with 82 votes and 278 comments. Aidenag, who posted the Nation article in the first place, argued that the Israeli crackdown on the Gaza Strip had gone too far: "It in fact has many similarities to the Warsaw Ghetto in its early years. Not saying it's the same thing, but nobody can deny the many things the two have in common." This got a pointed response from cherev: "The Arabs of Gaza wanted to be led by terrorists committed to the destruction of the Jewish state and the extermination of the Jews." In the midst of such a polarized debate, it was almost a shock to come across an expression of hope from walden3: "I just have to keep believing that the 'arc of the moral universe turns slowly towards justice.'"



Which story chalked up the most votes this week at Propeller? That would be "US military may not be ready for attack," with 188 votes and 122 comments. (Said splitrch: "Sorry , but I'd rather rely on my Grandma than on FEMA.") Propeller members sounded off on the Clinton-Obama debate, on the Bush budget, and on the Microsoft bid for Yahoo. "Floating rubbish dump 'bigger than US'" earned 133 votes and 60 comments. Dicax Maximus sounded a note of despair about the whole mess (in the literal sense of the word): "The ability of mankind to destroy its home is boundless." Some members doubted the extent of the problem, but joeblowe delivered his own report from full fathom five: "Anyone who doesn't think there is a lot of human garbage in the oceans clearly is not a certified diver. You can't dive anywhere (that I am aware of or have been) that you don't find human trash on the bottom of the ocean." There was more self-examination in "Propellertalk: Bigotry, The Internet, And You," with a lengthy thread of 395 comments. In the classic Propeller tradition, the discussion took some unpredictable detours, including an exchange about the relative merits of tomatoes, ketchup, and beets, which led Bkumm to declare: "Strange world inhabited by strange people. Glad I'm here to see it!" (A second Propeller-driven post, "How To Propel Yourself Around Propeller," bagged 159 votes and 180 comments--and yes, the ketchup roundtable continued in that thread as well.) And finally, there was a much celebrated link to this video of Black Sabbath performing "Paranoid." The sight of a youthful Ozzie O. whipping his hair around took many members back to the good old days. Waxing rhapsodic, mntnman444 recalled: "Black Sabbath was the first concert I ever snuck into back in about '73... deaf for days after!" That "must have been a good concert," responded greenmac. Said mntnman444: "I was gonna say deaf and dumb... but I was dumb before I got there."

Tags: week in review, wir

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