open threads

2564 posts

Your Open Post Love

489 comments

Happy Valentine’s Day, even if you are single you have the Crasstalk love to keep you warm tonight.

Just a quick rehash in case you haven’t been over here. We did a redesign last night and hope that everyone is feeling very pretty. Please give the new format a chance, but please also report any bugs or issues to crasstalk at gmail dot com. Here’s a few headlines to start of the conversation tonight:

Iranian security forces clashed with protesters today in Tehran. Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the street after last week’s detention of a number of journalists and activists.

Pro Publica has an interesting investigative report on disabled student loan borrowers. People who become disabled are entitled to get the loans forgiven, but apparently the process of doing this has become confusing and arbitrary leaving many disabled borrowers in severe financial trouble.

A report from Politico details the enduring nature of the Obama birth certificate conspiracy. While national politicians will not touch the issue state and local politicians have taken up the cause. Ten states so far have introduced birth certificate requirement bills before their state legislatures. I am sure this is a productive way to spend lawmaker’s time.

Hope you all have a wonderful evening.

The Brave New World Monday Open Thread

679 comments

Good morning fine Crasstalkers. I know you may feel a bit out of sorts by the changes, but please give this a try because we think you will like the new design. Courage.

Please see the post from our fearless leader for more information about the redesign. We hope that we are making you look as fancy as you all deserve. While no news on Crasstalk is as important as what is happening on Crasstalk, here are a couple of stories from overnight. Continue reading →

Your Sunday Evening Open Post

562 comments

Hi all, hope you are having a relaxing Sunday. Here’s a couple of conversation starters (as if we need those).

The Atlantic has some fantastic videos of the reaction of protesters during the moments after Mubarak was removed a s Egyptian President. It really captures the emotions of a beautiful moment.

Ron Paul (R-TX) won the CPAC presidential poll this weekend in Washington. This is the second year he has won, but Paul is not exactly embraced by the mainstream part of the Republican party. Alex Jones is probably pretty stoked though. Sarah Palin finshed third, suggesting that their are limits to crazy, even at CPAC.

The Economist has an interesting article about income inequality in Angola. While the country has become rich from national resources, corruption, poor planning, and lingering animosity over the civl war have meant most Angolans still live in abject poverty.

Also, Jerry Springer turns 67 today. Try not to throw a chair or get anyone knocked up during your celebration.

An Evening Thread Has Opened: S. A. T.U.R. D.A.Y. NIGHT!

852 comments

I’m putting this up because there isn’t one.  And because there isn’t one I don’t have an appropriate place to say “Whatever.  I fucking hate life for no good reason sometimes, and I feel lazy, and I wish my wife were here, although if she were I’d be bummed I hadn’t done the cleaning I wanted to do today, because this place is a mess.”  And maybe you also wanted to say something like that and wanted an open thread to say it in. Continue reading →

Open Thread: Morning Edition

194 comments

Top o’ the morning, Crasstalkers. Here’s some reading for you:

Question of the morning:

What should Crasstalk’s first Photo Phriday theme be? Continue reading →

Second Shift Open Thread

117 comments

Hi gang and welcome to Crasstalk. If you are new here you can take a look at this post to get you started. Please feel free to use the post as an open thread, but since we would like to see more of you writing for us, I am going to suggest that you can also use this space to kick around ideas for new articles and to ask questions about the process of posting to word press. If you need extra help please email me at [email protected]. I will be checking in throughout the evening. Since I want to encourage you to write I will give you a few handy tips to help get you started: Continue reading →