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bigtom posted:
I think you may be the only non-engineer to actually go out and seek out an HD radio. I remember having multiple conversation with a former CC regional VP about all the cool poo poo we were going to be able to do with IBOC but unfortunately it came about the same time owners stopped investing in content, so most of the HD stations out there were just jukeboxes. A friend of mine helped sign one on in Boston, it was litteraly a laptop on a cart in the corner of one of the FM studios....such a waste. Plus they never were successful in getting wide adoption in cars, the last true holdout for terrestrial radio.
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Jul 21, 2013 03:06
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I got an HD radio module put in to my car stereo for $30 and it works great. A lot of new cars are actually coming with it just thrown in, and most recent head units can have it added in for around $30-$40. I like that the all-news AM stations I listen to are simulcast on a subchannel on FM with it. A lot of AM stations seem to be hopping on to that these days
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Jul 21, 2013 04:03
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The radio business is worthy of an A/T thread of its own, I think. Any of you radio folks feel up to posting one?
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Jul 21, 2013 04:28
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I swear that am radios in new cars are not as good as older models. They seem much more prone to interference. Maybe because they are just afterthoughts or modern cars are more noisy in RF because of their fancy new gizmos and whatsits that all them young whippersnappers want. Honestly I am shocked that some automaker has not experimented with dropping am or even fm radio. Tesla for example. I suppose there is nowhere near enough money in podcasts to support these people.
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Jul 21, 2013 04:48
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Grand Prize Winner posted:The radio business is worthy of an A/T thread of its own, I think. Any of you radio folks feel up to posting one? Seconding this. More info. on more recent stuff going on in the radio biz would be cool too. Many of the articles linked so far are from mid 2009 it seems when some of the new Arbitron tech was being questioned by a lot of people in the biz. If the articles are anything to go by anyways.
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Jul 21, 2013 05:10
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Vertical Lime posted:WABC and WOR are respectively owned by Cumulus and Clear Channel. That explains a lot. I worked at WOR during the last of its ownership under Buckley and during the transition to Clear Channel (the first day they took over almost all of the union people got fired. Good times.) As GoatSeeGuy has pointed out, it was less about ideology than making money. They only got rid of Glenn Beck when he started causing trouble with advertisers. The local hosts were moderates (Joan Hamburg could be liberal at times), but the syndicated stuff was whatever WABC wasn't running that Premiere wanted cleared (they paid for Coast to Coast to be put on for example). Plus with news/talk stations you can cram in more "brought to you by" and other sponsorships to make money moreso than on a music station. WABC used to be a decent talk station in the 80's and 90's...but with the death of live & local came with it anyone with a viewpoint to the left of Attila the Hun. I have a friend who board opps there, and the place is a ghost town - the news department is non existent, and outside of a 5AM news block it is just fed off the bird. 96.9 has been a basket case for years...between Imus, the failure to lure Howie Carr over and the inability to keep a consistent schedule for more than a month, no wonder it failed. Plus WBUR and WGBH are some of the best public talkers in the nation....and the 300 lb gorilla that is WBZ - that station has one of the best signals out there and is always consistent...even if they do lean right at night with Dan Rea. Most new car radios are worse at pulling in AM/FM signals than older ones - the RF sections are an afterthought, and unless you have a 31 inch whip antenna on the fender reception can get dicey. HD Radios are amazing analog receivers because they use DSP to decode the signal. HD can be a crapshoot depending on your location - in an area with a relatively clear dial (like Los Angeles), HD reception on FM can match that of clean analog stereo. But in the northeast with the dial jammed from Boston down to DC you are lucky to get clean reception 15 or 20 miles out from the transmitter antenna depending on conditions. WABC has neglected its facility to the point that the once legendary signal now has issues in Central NJ where it used to boom in. Many operators seem to just be milking places dry until they can find someone else to buy, or like Clear Channel keep restructuring the debt to keep out of bankruptcy. Rush's $400 million contract is up in a few years, and I don't think will be getting anything near that again, especially with Cumulus blaming him personally for losing them money - http://www.ibtimes.com/rush-limbaugh-leaving-cumulus-media-conservative-radio-host-may-end-contract-over-ad-revenue-dispute. Side note - some of it is an act with these people, but with others it isn't (Mike Gallagher is a true believer). I'm up for a A/T thread to take the mainstream radio chat elsewhere... Edit: I have a collection of HD Radios since they are great on analog FM, and I kind of am engineer (on air/production are my main duties with me being the backup engineer/IT guy). I bought the radio when WCBS-FM was banished to a HD-2 channel during the Jack-FM fiasco...with my friends making fun of me when I did buy it - "Dude...you can get an iPod with accessories for that money? Are you retarded??" I was... bigtom fucked around with this message at 06:12 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 06:07
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Since we're talking Sprawl stations I have to endure the bullshit of NJ 101.5 at work. On friday they had 'call in to bitch abut healthcare in America' and the woman host said 'privatize everything'. They added 'booga booga don't raise the minimum wage' and 'carbon tax bad' spots into their endless barrage of advertising as well (I'd say they have a 50/50 content-ad ratio).
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Jul 21, 2013 06:13
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McDowell posted:Since we're talking Sprawl stations I have to endure the bullshit of NJ 101.5 at work. NJ101.5 is a strange beast....topics range from the inane "Name Your Favorite M&M Color" to the usual political conversations of "Chris Christie - great or greatest governor??". I used to like the talk programming more when Roberta Gale was on at night since she was one of the few moderates. But given that the signal covers the suburban sprawl, with a big chunk of it the Republican strongholds of Monmouth/Ocean counties, it's not shocking that they tack right. Most people listen just for the traffic/weather, and the news - which is the best in the state. And with WWOR-9 shutting down its NJ operations, and NJT gone, there are few strong NJ news outlets. And no other stations with a signal footprint like 101.5. Fun fact: what helped put the station on the map was basically running Governor Florio out of office in '93 over tax hikes (John and Ken spoke at rallies and devoted a good chunk of airtime to it...they are now on KFI in LA and simulcast on WOR). Also, when they first launched, they would play oldies in between phone calls since they didn't have enough listeners - eventually they just moved the music to the weekends. I worked there as a music jock, and it was strange going from wall to wall oldies (err, "classic hits") to talk and vice versa. Can't you just snip the antenna lead to the radio at work, or do they stream it online?
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Jul 21, 2013 06:59
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poor nose posted:My local right wing morning radio host (Greg Garrison, Indianapolis) has our terrible new Governor (Mike Pence) on this morning but is not taking phone calls. I'm bummed me out because I want to call in and ask him about his increasing possession of an 8th of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a felony and if that was in any way connected to the fact that one of his primary donors for Governor was the private prison system. Oh god, Garrison. He's such a sanctimonious tool. He's everything wrong with Indiana bullshit. I used to send him lovely emails until he blocked me. I had my alarm clock set to WIBC because I woke up when Garrison was on and I knew he'd piss me off enough to make sure I woke up enough to be angry at his stupid stupid mouth.
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Jul 21, 2013 07:16
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bigtom posted:Fun fact: what helped put the station on the map was basically running Governor Florio out of office in '93 over tax hikes (John and Ken spoke at rallies and devoted a good chunk of airtime to it...they are now on KFI in LA and simulcast on WOR). Also, when they first launched, they would play oldies in between phone calls since they didn't have enough listeners - eventually they just moved the music to the weekends. I worked there as a music jock, and it was strange going from wall to wall oldies (err, "classic hits") to talk and vice versa. drat, I wouldn't have guessed my local libertarian loudmouths had such an auspicious past. I try to listen to them sometimes, but if it's not John's nasally rantings about taxes, unions, or mexicans, then it's either high profile crime coverage or John's nasally rantings about declining moral values. And there's like 4 minutes of commercials for every 5 minutes of content. I don't understand how people continually listen to something so abrasive and repetitive.
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Jul 21, 2013 07:43
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bigtom posted:Side note - some of it is an act with these people, but with others it isn't (Mike Gallagher is a true believer). You can't just drop something like that and not name more names.
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Jul 21, 2013 08:25
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Install Gentoo posted:Not really, it covers very little space on the spectrum, and both bands have important other uses crowding their sides. Give it to hams, we can always use more spectrum down in the HF ranges  For what it's worth the anecdote about radio stations turning into syndicated jukeboxes and losing listeners matches my personal experience. At my parents' house there is a great oldies station that always has a nice variety of music, and that was one of my primary stations unless there was something I wanted to listen to on NPR. Where I live there's nothing except jesus music and NPR and one jukebox "rock" station. They operate on about a weekly cycle, I hear the same poo poo over and over again to the point where I just stopped listening. It's not a top charts station or anything, they just don't have a very long list put into whatever they use. Not surprisingly it's a Cumulus station. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 17:38
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bigtom posted:It is a very efficient use of spectrum given that the FM band occupies only 20 MHz of space, and the AM broadcast band even less. 20MHz is a lot of space, and the AM band particularly gets a LOT of space. Remember, up until the FM broadcast band there's only 90mhz of other space in total. It's not a lot in comparison to the 2.4GHz bands or other UHF/EHF bands, but the lower the frequency gets, the less bandwidth is available. However, lower frequencies are extremely useful. They can skip off the ionosphere which can extend the signal beyond line of sight, they can penetrate more deeply (into tunnels or underwater), etc. For comparison AM broadcast radio gets 1,100 KHz in the frequencies from 531-1611 KHz. The very longest band amateur radio operators get is 1800-2000 KHz, which is about 20 meters shorter in wavelength and less than a fifth the size. People would literally salivate at the thought of getting that spectrum. Take a peek at the overall allocation here, for a bit of a comparison as to how much broadcast gets versus everyone else (particularly AM broadcast). Note that bars are log-scaled. I'd hate to see Rush's persecution complex if the FCC killed his band though. Paul MaudDib fucked around with this message at 18:52 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 17:50
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Paul MaudDib posted:I'd hate to see Rush's persecution complex if the FCC killed his band though.
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Jul 21, 2013 18:07
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I used to joke with a friend of mine that he was so negative that if he won the lottery, he'd complain about having to pay taxes on it. Then I realized that's basically what most wealthy conservatives in this country do anyway. The persecution complex is extraordinary, considering they're literally among the most fortunate 1% of the global population. Rush Limbaugh has hundreds of millions of dollars and many thousands of loyal, daily listeners. The man is one of the most fortunate people in the world in terms of economic means and influence, and he does nothing but complain, nonstop, about how he and people like him are being persecuted. I realize that's his bread and butter, but it's absolutely infuriating how well off these people are, and how they (for example) literally begrudge poor people the ability to visit a dentist, without going completely bankrupt or ending up on the streets, to get treatment for an abscess that will otherwise very likely kill them (and cause excruciating pain in the process). I used to listen to the local right wing station a lot, purely for shits and giggles, but lately I can't even stomach a few minutes of the least offensive guy on there. It's a 24 / 7 pity party from people who have *nothing* legitimate to complain about.
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Jul 21, 2013 18:45
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Paul MaudDib posted:For comparison AM broadcast radio gets 1,100 KHz in the frequencies from 531-1611 KHz. The very longest band amateur radio operators get is 1800-2000 KHz, which is about 20 meters shorter in wavelength and less than a fifth the size. People would literally salivate to get that spectrum. The problem with AM is that between all the badly designed switching power supplies, LED traffic lights, and broadband over power lines in many spots what used to be a listenable signal is now drowned out by noise. I'm sure the hams would love that spectrum, but what do you do with all the stations that occupy that spectrum now? Pass out FM licenses could work in some areas, but in the Northeast where there is no more spots on the dial there could be an issue. I still think that the FCC should have used the old Channel 6 allocation to expand the FM band and migrate all the AM's over to it, but hey, they didn't ask me. Or just turn it into whitespace so I can finally realize my dream of having a AM pirate and seeing just how far I can push an Optimod 9100 playing oldies before it smokes the transmitter  I used to DX AM all the time when I was a kid...I loved picking up stations from all over the East Coast and Canada - but that was when oldies music on AM had a resurgence. With more syndicated crap, why bother DX'ing if there's nothing to listen to but AM 740 from Toronto? I'd love for some of the restrictions from the bad old days to come back - there were limits on the amount of commercials you could run per hour, the Fairness Doctrine, etc. But between the 20+ minutes of commercials per hour, new ratings metrics, and advertisers not wanting to be associated with anything that reeks of controversy, the right wing welfare of talk radio may peter out on its own in a few years. Look at TheBlaze.com to see where the future lies - subscription services to tell people what they want to hear to make them feel better about themselves.
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Jul 21, 2013 18:55
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Walter posted:I used to joke with a friend of mine that he was so negative that if he won the lottery, he'd complain about having to pay taxes on it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/02/living-limbaugh-400-milli_n_110449.html quote:On Living Limbaugh: "There are five homes -- all of them his -- on the property. The big house is 24,000 square feet. Limbaugh lives there with a cat. He's been married three times but has no children." Truly this 
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Jul 21, 2013 19:07
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He's also a Francophile, which was my favorite bit of trivia to come out of those pieces on him. I mean I don't think he's a particularly educated or deep Francophile, but he'll go on about it if you query him.
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Jul 21, 2013 19:13
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ReindeerF posted:He's also a Francophile, which was my favorite bit of trivia to come out of those pieces on him. I mean I don't think he's a particularly educated or deep Francophile, but he'll go on about it if you query him. Man, I wonder what he thought of that whole "Freedom Fries" kerfuffle.
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Jul 21, 2013 19:19
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bigtom posted:Can't you just snip the antenna lead to the radio at work, or do they stream it online? It's a small shop so I couldn't pull it off. Compared to some of the talk programs we hear in this thread it isn't too bad. I just get pissed off with their constant perception management - the mix of inane populist stupidity* with subtle right wing points presented as 'informative and fun'. bigtom posted:Most people listen just for the traffic/weather, and the news - which is the best in the state. It is a good thing a Doppler Radar App and the Google Maps Traffic layer make them completely obsolete As for the news, that might have changed since you were there, the owners have started up their own 'Townsquare News Network'. I think they used to be partnered with NJ.com but I'd guess it is much easier to stifle dissent against Wall Street by having complete control over your news service. *One day a caller for 'Dennis & Judy' was complaining about his gout and Judy thought gout had 'been eradicated'. These morons constantly establish themselves as authoritative too. Mc Do Well fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jul 21, 2013 |
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Jul 21, 2013 19:27
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ReindeerF posted:He's also a Francophile, which was my favorite bit of trivia to come out of those pieces on him. I mean I don't think he's a particularly educated or deep Francophile, but he'll go on about it if you query him. He also has Lucille Bluth's taste in interior decorating. Tell me this doesn't look like something from Arrested Development. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/rush-limbaughs-penthouse_n_483065.html#s71940
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Jul 21, 2013 19:33
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Robotnik Nudes posted:He also has Lucille Bluth's taste in interior decorating. Tell me this doesn't look like something from Arrested Development. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/rush-limbaughs-penthouse_n_483065.html#s71940 Looks like Humphrey Bogart got mugged by the set decorator from Hawaii 5-0.
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Jul 21, 2013 19:46
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Walter posted:I realize that's his bread and butter, but it's absolutely infuriating how well off these people are, and how they (for example) literally begrudge poor people the ability to visit a dentist, without going completely bankrupt or ending up on the streets, to get treatment for an abscess that will otherwise very likely kill them (and cause excruciating pain in the process). Tom the Dancing Bug has a great series of comic about this (it originated with the WSJ's labeling of terribly poor people as "Lucky Duckies" since they didn't pay income tax)  more here
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Jul 21, 2013 19:51
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Robotnik Nudes posted:He also has Lucille Bluth's taste in interior decorating. Tell me this doesn't look like something from Arrested Development. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/02/rush-limbaughs-penthouse_n_483065.html#s71940
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Jul 21, 2013 19:58
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bigtom posted:I'm sure the hams would love that spectrum, but what do you do with all the stations that occupy that spectrum now? The post you're responding to is in the argument about killing off radio entirely and parceling out the bandwidth to other services, so presumably they wouldn't get anything at all.
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Jul 21, 2013 20:07
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McDowell posted:It is a good thing a Doppler Radar App and the Google Maps Traffic layer make them completely obsolete Before Townsquare, it was the "Millennium Radio New Jersey" network with local bureaus in Toms River, Trenton, and Asbury Park. Erick Scott is very conservative, but hides it most of the time when reporting. And yeah...most times Google Maps is better than what is fed to Traffic.com. But some of the older traffic guys know decent alternate routes that aren't on the maps. Dennis & Judy are a odd couple...both made their bones as music jocks (Dennis was at WFIL Philadelphia in the 70's, Judy at various stations along the shore) - but neither are exactly geniuses. Was it Judy's dad on the phone who had the gout? I took law classes in college, and the professor new I was a comm major - he used to poke fun at Rush and Fox News and would ask what the hell someone as smart as me was doing in radio. I wonder myself...
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Jul 21, 2013 23:33
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Rorus Raz posted:Has anyone ever...timed these talk shows to see how much is actual content? (well, "content" but you get the idea) I've wanted to call and get on live with Hannity just to remark on this. It's unbefuckinglievable how many ads there are. That little respect for his viewers. C'mon Hannity/Rush, if your messages are so important, pay for the ad space yourself so you have more time to preach it .
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Jul 21, 2013 23:44
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Nf3 posted:I've wanted to call and get on live with Hannity just to remark on this. It's unbefuckinglievable how many ads there are. That little respect for his viewers. C'mon Hannity/Rush, if your messages are so important, pay for the ad space yourself so you have more time to preach it . That is just it though. Their "message" sucks and they just want money. Hannity...I keep waiting for him to stroke out on air from the sheer amount of rage he seems to possess. Such a smug little sycophant.
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Jul 22, 2013 00:20
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If you took issue with the ads, they'd say you have a problem with the free market and are jealous of of people who can leverage their talents into something lucrative.
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Jul 22, 2013 04:06
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Dr Christmas posted:If you took issue with the ads, they'd say you have a problem with the free market and are jealous of of people who can leverage their talents into something lucrative. If they were in a room together I'd be willing to bet they'd laugh at how stupid their listeners are and how they don't believe a single word they say though.
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Jul 22, 2013 07:30
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Seemed like the sorta-right thread for this: In Seattle today, some dumb [woman] was gathering signatures for some "save our guns" type of bullshit. An older [woman] was talking with her about some european country making abortions so highly regulated that few could get them. In my unbridled rage I said something like "Good, those sluts should die for having sex!". I don't thing these dumb [women] understood the sarcasm fully. I'm glad that gun nuts end up getting shot by their own family members (or shooting them). Solves the problem on its own. I was so goddamn mad that this dumb b-word dared collect signatures in Seattle for stupid poo poo like this. The government isn't even taking away guns anytime soon. Guns are big business, the NRA gets their idiot members to buy a fresh gun every year, and they donate money to a lot of politicians. Anyone that had the balls to stand up to them was bought out or shot.
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Jul 22, 2013 08:11
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Don't wish violence on your political opponents. I understand, because I totally do it in my head too, but then I always make sure to think "no. I hope they come around. I am better than that." That's what they do. Don't do what they do.
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Jul 22, 2013 18:20
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Warchicken posted:Don't wish violence on your political opponents. I understand, because I totally do it in my head too, but then I always make sure to think "no. I hope they come around. I am better than that." I dunno... I sometimes think it's unfair that the GOP folks get to have a monopoly on all the vitriol and hate. When I make the mistake of getting into a gay marriage argument online, I'm often told "typical liberal, wants to be accepting of everyone's viewpoints until someone disagrees with them!  " The straw hippy treehugger image they've created makes it feel easy for them to shut liberals down for speaking at all. That's bullshit. I'm angry about how Rep. talk about the poor, women, etc., and I should be allowed to be mad, esp. if the GOP can leverage anger so often and so effectively.  So I hope Pat Robertson falls into a pit and is eaten alive by fire ants or something. It would be good to know that bad things can happen to bad people.
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Jul 22, 2013 19:15
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Ema Nymton posted:I dunno... I sometimes think it's unfair that the GOP folks get to have a monopoly on all the vitriol and hate. "Tolerance of intolerance is nothing to be proud of, you god damned Nazi"  I could definitely go for hearing about Pat Robertson eaten alive by fire ants. I'd probably throw a "Holy poo poo karma might really be a thing afterall" party
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Jul 22, 2013 19:29
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"White people shouldn't feel guilty about slavery because they've done more to end it than any other race!" edit: ahahaha man who got me this title, I'm loving it Jerry Manderbilt fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jul 22, 2013 |
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Jul 22, 2013 19:39
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:"White people shouldn't feel guilty about slavery because they've done more to end it than any other race!" Yeah, the racial stuff on talk radio today has been extremely over the top. Just in the last few hours I've heard about how Trayvon was going to use the skittles and tea to make purple drank which is apparently just like PCP, constant stuff about how the media turned Zimmerman into 'a white' to fit their narrative, and endless ranting about how Sharpton is the real racist and black youths are the real threat to black kids. It's like Obama kicked a hornets nest full of racists with his speech. Oh, and apparently the blacks are now running around in 'bash mobs' which are like flash mobs but with more punching people and the media refuses to point out that its mostly black people. That's it. I'm going back into right wing embargo mode for a few days
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Jul 22, 2013 19:46
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So I hope everyone is prepared for the new right-wing narrative of 'George Zimmerman: American Hero', since he apparently rescued a guy from a car last week down here.
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Jul 22, 2013 20:14
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:edit: ahahaha man who got me this title, I'm loving it I'm guessing Kyrie. I'm guessing he got Hegel's too.
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Jul 22, 2013 20:28
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Good Citizen posted:Oh, and apparently the blacks are now running around in 'bash mobs' which are like flash mobs but with more punching people and the media refuses to point out that its mostly black people. And it's always been known that they're poor black people, mostly from North Philly high schools who have nothing better to do all summer. It even prompted our mayor to say a bunch of borderline racist poo poo that he apparently thought was needed to contextualize the new curfew laws and punishments. Mayor Nutter in 2011 posted:“Take those God-darn hoodies down, especially in the summer,” Mr. Nutter, the city’s third black mayor, said in an angry lecture aimed at black teens. “Pull your pants up and buy a belt ‘cause no one wants to see your underwear or the crack of your butt.” But my point was supposed to be that it happened here in Philly, and everyone acknowledged what it was when it happened. Not trying to make the mayor out to be racist. ChristsDickWorship fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Jul 22, 2013 |
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Jul 22, 2013 20:53
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What is borderline racist about that quote? I attended a 99% black charter middle school and heard the exact same sentiment expressed countless times by older black people who were not Bill Cosby.
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Jul 22, 2013 20:58
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