Dan Merritt's Comments

QUESTION OF THE DAY{SPECIAL GUEST QUESTION} by Mandi -Watch where the chalk-white arrows go. To the place where the sidewalk ends. S.S.

Jun 27, 2008 | rating: 9.9 | comments: 54

Dan Merritt Jun 27, 2008, 9:32pm EDT

The egg.

QUESTION OF THE DAY by Mandi -Watch where the chalk-white arrows go. To the place where the sidewalk ends. S.S.

Jun 11, 2008 | rating: 9.8 | comments: 75

Dan Merritt Jun 11, 2008, 11:47pm EDT

2. No doubt about it.

Dandelion Beauty by Mandi -Watch where the chalk-white arrows go. To the place where the sidewalk ends. S.S.

Jun 9, 2008 | rating: 9.9 | comments: 78

Dan Merritt Jun 10, 2008, 6:13am EDT

Very nice!

Question of the Day {what can the future President do to save us?} by Mandi -Watch where the chalk-white arrows go. To the place where the sidewalk ends. S.S.

Jun 6, 2008 | rating: 9.9 | comments: 77

Dan Merritt Jun 6, 2008, 10:57pm EDT

Quit crying in the darkness and light a candle. Put up money and incentives for alternate energy. Stop fighting wars with people we have no reason to be bothering with. Stop trying to make the rest of the world be like us. Bring the armys home. Use some of the savings to back a health care plan that means all Americans can have good basic health care. And use some to reignite the belief we used to have in our ability to find a way. Concentrate on being 'all that we can be' .

QUESTION OF THE DAY{hard question to think about} by Mandi -Watch where the chalk-white arrows go. To the place where the sidewalk ends. S.S.

Jun 3, 2008 | rating: 9.6 | comments: 62

Dan Merritt Jun 4, 2008, 5:49pm EDT

The world as I knew it when I was 15 has been gone for, oh at least, 20 years now. The world as we knew it a dozen years ago will never be likely to come again either. Will there be total economic and social crash in our lifetime? I would say the odds are much better for that then they were for our parents. But there are numerous things that could change the whole descent into dark ages thing. We might discover viable methods of moving off this earth and gain not only new places but new dreams. WE might die back with some sort of medical plague that reverses population growth but not so rapidly as to crash our economic and social structures. For example if something were to cause a evenly distributed negative population 'growth' rate of say 1 percent or less we could probably adjust and get to a much improved standard of living for the majority of the remaining people. We are living on the edge to be sure but we may stay there for quite sometime or we may get lucky and be offered a clear path 'upward' at any time.

QUESTION OF THE DAY{SOME FUN!} by Mandi -Watch where the chalk-white arrows go. To the place where the sidewalk ends. S.S.

May 31, 2008 | rating: 9.9 | comments: 54

Dan Merritt May 31, 2008, 6:00am EDT

1. What is your name? Daniel

2. A 4 letter word. damn

3. A vehicle: datsun

4. A city: detroit

5. A boy's name: Darian

6. A girl's name: Deborah

7. Alcoholic drink: Dandelion Wine

8. An occupation: doctor

9. Something you wear: duds

10. A celebrity: Danica Patrick

11. A food: donuts

12. Something found in a bathroom: Dental Flass

13. Reason for being late: dead

14. Something you shout: duck

15. An animal: dog

16. A body part: digit

17. Word to describe yourself: dapper

Question of the Day {?} by Mandi -Watch where the chalk-white arrows go. To the place where the sidewalk ends. S.S.

May 23, 2008 | rating: 9.8 | comments: 98

Dan Merritt May 24, 2008, 6:27pm EDT

I whistle. Reasonably well to. I can do most any song if I just heard it and anything at all I know the words to.

Personal About Politics: Economic Stimulus- Just Moving the Deck Chairs Around While the (Economic) Ship Sinks? State of the Union: A Sorry State Indeed. by Cheri Cabot

Jan 30, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 35

Dan Merritt Jan 31, 2008, 8:13am EST

Predicting economic disaster with accurate timing is a lot like predicting the weather. Not too reliable even today, but certainly this 'economic stimulus 'package is pretty much nonsense. $600 or $500 per taxpayer? Common it wouldn't even pay a month's rent, hell for any decent job it is barely a week's wages. And it sure is nice that the Senate wants the Rockefellers (and the Bushes) to get theirs too! One more cigar and bottle of champagne! Wow! Now the economy will really rock! And how do they propose to pay for this? Send the troops over to protect Bush's friends oil with knives instead of guns and bullets? If this administration and most of the elected politicians in both parties got what they deserved the 'deep digging and a lot a singing' would go on for weeks!

Will McCain terminate the competition with Schwarzeneggers endorsement? by Deon Moby

Jan 30, 2008 | rating: 10 | comments: 4

Dan Merritt Jan 31, 2008, 7:18am EST

A strange world, is it not, when the backing of a man Austrian born and raised and an American only because that is where the bodybuilding/movie making money was can decide who gets to be president of the country. I hope it knocks Romney out. I think it likely that McCain would be less of a disaster but thankfully also pretty unelectable.

Ok, I suck! by Jihaan Karjeker

Jan 31, 2008 | rating: 8.9 | comments: 14

Dan Merritt Jan 31, 2008, 7:03am EST

Interesting question! I would think that if you want to actually use the same characters so that they are clearly recognizable as the TV series characters there might be a problem with permissions, but if you just want to do a variation on the theme of a TV series there should be no problem. But that is just my guess. Advice? Write the book and then ask a publisher. Without seeing the quality and 'gist' of what you are writing I am sure no required permissions would be granted anyway.

It worrys me than some people might think this a good thing. by Col. George W.

Dec 31, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 10

Dan Merritt Jan 1, 2008, 10:42am EST

Not that I think she is likely to get elected, for various reasons, but isn't this the same crap by the same people that said she was the one really in charge when Bill was President? I guess they are a "2 fer" and thats the way it goes. Got to be better than another '0' like we've had for the past 8 years.

Term Limits Are Ineffective by Bud S.

Dec 21, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 6

Dan Merritt Dec 23, 2007, 6:59am EST

Term limits are effective. Not perfect but effective. And they would be much more effective in the House and Senate where positions of extreme authority are currently given out on the basis of seniority. They will, of course, never happen because not significant numbers of the greedy, corrupt, power hunger charlatans that currently run those bodies are ever going to consider giving up the opportunity for graft that their position gives them. They did not spend years toadying up to idiots, eating rubber chicken and selling their souls to the devil just give up the power once they got it. These are seriously greedy, power hungry, megalomaniacs we are talking about here. It is simply not going to happen. Probably the most serious error the framers of the Constitution made was not even considering the idea that 'political office' might become a 'career choice' . It never occurred to them and therefore they did not rule it out. Had it occurred to them I am sure they would have built such limitations in, but it is too late now. Maybe after the collapse but not now.

a breath of fresh air in winter by jessie voigts

Dec 17, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 34

Dan Merritt Dec 19, 2007, 5:53am EST

Beautiful Jesse! Thanks

Odd People Photography {or Odd Photography of People} by Mandi -Watch where the chalk-white arrows go. To the place where the sidewalk ends. S.S.

Dec 15, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 15

Dan Merritt Dec 15, 2007, 10:19am EST

Nice find Mandi!

God or No God? by Mandi -Watch where the chalk-white arrows go. To the place where the sidewalk ends. S.S.

Dec 13, 2007 | rating: 9.8 | comments: 145

Dan Merritt Dec 14, 2007, 10:08pm EST

It is my personal opinion that if such a thing as the Christian God could actually be shown to exists it would be all moral persons responsibility to do everything in their power to hunt it down and kill it. Fortunately there is no evidence that any such creature exists.

The SAFE Act by Dan Merritt

Dec 8, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 4

Dan Merritt Dec 9, 2007, 6:48am EST

Wouldn't be anything worse than 'useless and misguided' if it were just the 'nanny state'.

Unfortunately, it is a deliberate stab at our freedom. No, not our freedom to view child porn! It won't hinder that in any way since it cannot actually be enforced in any broad way. But it can be selectively used as a threat to censor the dissemination of text based information the authorities would like to see hidden. I once hitched a ride with a truck driver in Italy from Naples to Rome. We were stopped twice on that trip by Italian police for bribes of cigarettes. I asked the driver why he paid up. (He went through 20 cartons from the beginning of his trip from down south of Naples.) He said because the police could always find something wrong with a truck, or simply break a light with their gun buts, so it would cost way more to get inspected then it did to pay them off. The SAFE act is designed to put Internet service providers of all types and stripes in the same position as that Italian trucker.

It is not 'nanny state', it is 'criminal state' hiding in nanny's clothing!

Online Poll. by Karl Leuba

Dec 8, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 13

Dan Merritt Dec 8, 2007, 4:27pm EST

I have to consider the possibility that he never was told. I mean if I was going to do something illegal it is not likely that the village idiot is the first one I would tell.

TO ANY CANDIDATE WHO BELIEVES THAT UNIVERSAL IS BEST by Randy- Being true to myself

Nov 28, 2007 | rating: 6.2 | comments: 21

Dan Merritt Dec 5, 2007, 9:26pm EST

Randy I presume that you have quoted your sources correctly which does not in any way keep them from being 'bunk'. There is simply no way these figures can be taken seriously unless that unlimited gouging will be allowed AND PAID. And it still has nothing to do with the pros or cons of 'universal' health care.

TO ANY CANDIDATE WHO BELIEVES THAT UNIVERSAL IS BEST by Randy- Being true to myself

Nov 28, 2007 | rating: 6.2 | comments: 21

Dan Merritt Nov 29, 2007, 10:48pm EST

Lets start with this Your numbers are bunk. 4 trillion is at least 10000 per person(thats right every man woman and child) likely to be living in the US by 2011 or to put it another way about 60% of the average family of four's income. Or about $1,000,000 per medical professional in the country. The only possible way those 'costs' could be correct is if somebody is doing some serious price gouging, which is of course the case in our fine medical care as a 'whatever the market will bear product' current system.

And; Universal health care merely means that everybody gets the coverage, not that the coverage pays whatever the unregulated gougers feel like charging. Nor that every elective item is covered, for example nose and boob jobs. It works in many places and it works quite well. It is not without problems and not without adjustments to things like how much is paid for procedure X or Who pays what premium, tax etc. but it does work and it does mean that everybody gets the help they need and nobody goes broke because they have a sick child.

The silly kind of numbers and scare mongering in this article is exactly what the lobby group, which might be referred to as the 'medical industrial complex', likes to hear. It helps them soothe the qualms Representatives and Senators they are buying. If 'the People' are talking this kind of nonsense seriously then they won't notice that their representatives again voted to give the gougers carte blanche.

Can CT Scans Raise Cancer Risk? by Donald H.

Nov 29, 2007 | rating: 10 | comments: 8

Dan Merritt Nov 29, 2007, 1:18pm EST

There have already been studies that indicate that mammograms increase the likelihood of breast cancer, though that was not how the medical story wanted the data interpreted. It is highly likely that the huge increase in the use of xray and CT scans will give rise to an increase in the incidence of cancer, but the bulge will be pretty hard to pickout of the statistical data given the rise in the incidence of cancer that comes about simply because we so seldom die young of things like pneumonia and the flu and diabetes and heart failure and all the other things that used to lower life expectancy so much in the past. It is a simple fact that the fewer of us that die of other things the more of us will live long enough to die of cancer.