Hi, all,

I'm an introvert so I don't much like to talk about myself, I don't know what to say anyway. I'd rather it related to whomever I'm talking with so it makes some sort of sense to me when I say something about myself. I'm not much of a talker but I do like to write.

A person who I very much respect just joined your board, and my reasons for looking for a board are much like his. He told me about this, I looked and I like what I see, and I like the discussion philosophy. You seem to be doing more than just marketing an idea about discussions.

I will have been at the Thom Hartmann board four years in just a couple of weeks from now. When I first joined, it was much like this one, a great group of diverse people who just wanted to discuss ideas rather than hold trench warfare. Thom has become a national figure on talk radio since then, and all the moderators involved when I arrived have left with many of the community since then, I'm one of the last of the group, and it looks like I'm going too. It's difficult to start new with all the history there, but it looks like most of that history is going to vanish, anyway, and the new board they are setting up doesn't appeal to me.

This is a beautiful board, and I look forward to posting and discussing the topics I see here.

When I joined Thom's I was one of the few on the board who even knew what a Neoconservative was. I'd first heard the term back in the early eighties, and had kept track of them ever since. I'm interested in IR geopolitical theory, the globalization process, the spread of neoliberalism, polyarchic "democratization," so knowing those in the "idealist" camp of that genre of theory is only natural. I knew about the PNAC, and I introduced in my discussion at Thom's the famous document you can find on their site that was released in 2000, more or less predicting the new Pearl Harbor Event that transpired on 911, and it laid out much of the blue print for what's been transpiring, militarily, since then. And, since then, the term 'Neoconservative' has evolved into a number of interestingly applied meanings, but I still try to discuss it in its original, ideological form whenever I refer to those who call themselves by that term.

So, I very much appreciate the irony of POAC.

Hi Anti!


rén

Welcome Ren !
The more the merrier.

"There are no strangers here, only friends I haven't met."

Welcome, ren.

Now go start a Ron Paul thread.

Hi Maxine,

Ron Paul scares the crap out of me, and I'd rather not start off on a contentious note, but thanks for the suggestion!

thank you. And, yes, a long row to hoe for me. Lots of friends I haven't met yet...

I'm sorry - that was a joke. We're currently awash in Ron Paul threads.

Sky's the Limit!

Welcome to the White Rose Ren.
I can already see that we have something in common!


I look forward to your input!

hola!

Welcome. I'm glad to see people coming from the Thom Hartmann forum. Coming from such a place speaks well of you, as Thom is a hero of mine. Sorry to see his forum go downhill, but I'm thrilled to see some of his people coming here.

Thanks, everyone.



Thanks POAC,

I hastily wish to correct the false impression I may have clumsily created that Thom's forum is going downhill. It's only that it's not working for me, as well as a few others. Thom himself has gone in a new direction with his career since getting with Air America, that's perhaps left some of us behind. He himself spends virtually no time on the board anymore. I have a number of hypotheses about why things have changed, but I'd rather keep them to myself for the same reason I'm trying now to correct a false impression. They have a lot to work out with this switch to a new board, I'll be checking back from time to time. But I know enough about board software to feel dubious about the potential for for what I see with this new one of theirs.

Well, that makes me feel better. I'm glad to know it's just changes and not deterioration or such. Either way, I'm glad you guys picked here to come spend time. You both look like you'll be stellar contributors. Let me know if there's anything I can do to make your time here as rewarding as possible.

tj, did you go to finishing school?

Wut? Are you making fun of me?

Maxanne, I apologize too, I hastily misspelled your name.

I usually get jokes, but I had just looked at the Ron Paul impersonator when I posted, and I feared you were associating me with him. I'd mentioned a friend had recommended the board and I saw a possibility you might have made that connection.

Hi Ren. - From what I've seen so far in this thread, I'm very much looking forward to seeing you around the POAC forum.
Welcome!

You da man, ren!

I crack me up.

nah... just making a smartass comment about how nice you can be when not dealing with paulbots.

Karen, Jubal, Hi, and greetings.

Welcome Ren. A quick search of Willapa Watershed tells me you must live in Sky of Minds neighborhood. Be very careful.

Hush!

As far as anyone outside of Washington is concerned, that area's just one big mud pit.

I think I'm going to be needing proof there Hap! - Not that I disbelieve you, you understand... it's just that I have this scientific mind you see.

God, I crack me up! 'Scientific mind'

Thanks, and greetings.

Don't worry, they ain't got nuthin' on me. B)

That's probably because too many people have risked driving up US 101 in the winter time, crossed below a clear cut, and got caught in a mudslide.

I was thinking of the people who got stuck wading in the mudlfats at low tide, but that too.

Isn't that also where the highway spontaniously combusted back in the late nineties?

edit:

http://www.incidentnews.gov/entry/508690

(This PDF has a picture on page 22)

When the tide goes out, Willapa Bay looks much like a river from the air. Very shallow. But one of the cleanest bays in the world and the best oysters. Not exactly great for swimming though, I see the mud correlation. Go to Long Beach or out past Tokeland if you want sand.

That highway incident is about an hour's drive from me. Not something we heard about here.

Ok, fine, but that's not the point.

The point is to convince Californians not to move up here.

Californians don't last long around here. Not much in the way of culture for them. I have to roast my own coffee to get good coffee.

Are you somewhere near Vancouver? I know that's been a problem area.

This year it's been raining since July. I can't recall if we had a week of summer but it doesn't seem like it. Then we had that storm in December they are calling a hundred year storm because they don't know what else to call it. 30 hours of hurricane force winds with micro gusts to 150 mph. We lost our last old growth grove, with trees up to 500 years old.

How was it by you? I don't think you got the winds like we did. Plenty of rain though.

I have a brother and a cousin that live out on the Penninsula. The cousin is actually on the bay side.
Mom used to live down there too. Till she up and got too old.

Anyway, I'm pretty familier with that part of the world.
Unfortunately, always in a hurry either coming or going. Didn't stop often enough to look around and take pictures.

But I did this time. This is bay side, at the southern end of the bay.

The low pressure never really came inland. It was just another heavy storm, not even that much rain here.

Very familiar looking, of course. I'm at the other end, looking down the Willapa River, up above the wetlands, a ways in from the Bay, but still affected by the tides.

I always figured Long Beach Peninsula would be in a bad way if a 60 foot Tsunami came ashore. I've hiked along the eastern shore of Willapa Bay near Bay Center and I've seen the bottom of the bay turned upside down as cliffs from some ancient Tsunami.

This is what it looks like near me:

B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!

So you didn't catch it like Centralia on up to Seattle.

I admit to not really knowing what happened elsewhere. We were devastated here. Couldn't go anywhere for days, no power. I'm still helping people dig out, and that was early December. I know the Oregon coast got hit hard. Must have been moving northeastish; it came from Hawaii, I read.

The storm was actually much worse than Katrina. Hurricanes last about two hours, this went on for 30 some hours. The trees simply couldn't take it and just got rocked out of the ground by their roots after awhile, those that didn't get snapped in half. Whole forests went down like Mt. St. Helens went off.

Well, this makes my day. I have tremendous respect for Ren. You will discover that he is really an excellent writer. He really contributes a lot to the Hartmann board. I like the gang over there but I have been at the same board for three and a half years and the new Hartmann board is just too meager for my taste. I still listen to Thom's radio show everyday and only missed four or five programs since Oct. 2004.

I like the whole premise of POAC, the news page is very good and many of my posted articles were found here at POAC. It is important that there is a long term resource like POAC for Progressives to go to.

Anyway, Welcome Ren, even though I'm a newcomer myself.

Pretty territory up river. One day maybe I'll get to paddle the kayak up there.
Time it to ride the tide in and then back out again.


Not long ago the communities up and down the Penninsula did a coordinated Tsunami drill, and it was an unmitigated disaster. The drill was the result of a genuine earthquake off the coast of northern Calif, and a false alarm tsunami alarm. What happened was that everybody hit the roads at once, and nobody when anywhere for hours! Additionally, had the penninsula suffered a quake, since the roads are laid out on sand, they'd allbe useless.

In other words, anybody more than a mile up the penninsula better put a boat with emergency supplies in it up on the roof, cause they sure as hell ain't gonna drive out!

It's great kayaking country. Out in the Bay you can just reach down and pick up oysters in the shallows.

You got it on the dangers of the peninsula!

You know, you're just as welcome Anti. Your posts may bit a bit high brow and dry for me (that's just cos, while I have a brilliantly sharp and insightful mind - don't let anyone tell you different! - I choose not to use it too often! ), but they(your posts)'re no less relevant or important my silliness.
I hope when you feel a bit more relaxed in our company you venture out of your essay posts from time to time to enjoy a little chit-chat with the rest of us... We're quite a personable bunch who I think you might get along with.

Why lie to him so early? Maxanne, our smiling greetor will be along shortly to welcome you, extract your liver and serve the Farber Beans.

Through your back passage.


With a rusty file.

damn, and I just got "hannibal rising"... you know how to get a guy's taste buds going, don't you.

The films good, too.

Hi,

I'm a friend of Ren's who told me about the board. I started chatting on message boards in 2000, discussing parenting issues with a group of parents. A few of them told me about Thom Hartmann's board, where I've been a regular poster since June of 2002.

While I don't have much time right now to learn this new board and it's members, I am interested in honest and thorough discussion of the issues of the day, plus I like give and take in a fun-minded spirit among people who just about making human connections. It looks like this board is set up with those same attitude toward internet chat.

I look forward to getting to know people here.

Kate

hi kate

Hi Kate. Welcome!

Howdy Kate!

Are you a Cascadian too?

Welcome !

Everybody likes TJ's board.

It's fancy!


Hi Kate. Sorry you had trouble getting in. Glad you are here now.

Hi, Kate, good to see you, finally.

Those of you who expressed your preference for "less is more" will appreciate Kate. Where I have to do extensive rewrites to pare things down (and I generally don't), Kate is a good enough writer to do it coming out the gate. She's also very witty, but can be obtuse for some. I've enjoyed exchanging posts with her for about four years now. We've had some great collaborations on some interesting subject in that time.