Good evening everyone, and welcome to tonight's Top Comments!
Comment pimps, comment whoring, random snark, Top Tigers, serious discussion, and late-night rants a house specialty.
And as always: guaranteed 100% subjective for your protection!
Contributions of anything I missed are heartily encouraged. Post 'em in the comments below and tell me how much I suck for missing them! C'mon, it's fun! :)
I feel like I've made a great many friends here at dKos. Tuesday will mark an important anniversary in my life and I'd like to share it with you. Bear with me (the comments are below if you just want to skip past this).
+
On August 1, 2005, four friends and I were traveling home in a van from Northern California when, without warning, the left rear tire blew. Our van flipped, spinning a number of times, towards a guardrail. For those who aren't familiar with the southbound 5 near Valencia: those guardrails have impossibly sheer drops on the other side.
I held onto the seat, suddenly at peace, watching the guardrail come at me, helpless to do anything. I was going to die.
But it was a day for many miracles. A truck driver in a semi behind us saw what was happening and very slowly started to angle his truck through the lanes and then stopped, blocking oncoming traffic. No one hit us; we hit no one.
The back door of the van blew off during the flip, scattering our possessions onto the freeway. And I was curled up in the very back seat without a seat-belt (yes, I know, I know, don't chide me). Now, I have theories about why I wasn't thrown from the vehicle, most of them spiritual in nature, but there's no good physical reason I shouldn't have been blown out with the luggage.
In the end we all walked away from the accident. The van lost momentum and skidded sideways at the last moment. I was the only person hurt, and the injury was minor.
There's something life-changing about seeing a guardrail coming at you, upside down.
The realization you've been given a second chance changes many things. There have been a lot of changes in my life over the past year. It's one of the reasons I'm here: dedicating myself to causes beyond myself. Standing up for what's important.
What's your paradigm-changing moment? Your "second chance"? Have you had one? What did you draw from it?
Think about that as you read the comments for tonight. I'd love to hear your story.
+
Here are tonight's comments!
First, contributions:
From BeninSC:
Ellicatt on an interesting first-time canvasser experience. This is the tip jar, with content!
phillygal's pootie homage to ET tip jar! Sweet!
Another tip jar! What the heck is going on today?! This from devilstower, in the fascinating diary on future cars Also, in the same diary, her callout challenge to all Kossacks and Koslings (va dare recommends this one too!)
newsie8200 with a lot of good information in this afternoon's open thread diary.
pat208 on getting along within the progressive community with its diversity of views
From va dare:
buhdydharma's not sure about this one (quite frankly, neither am I!)
RevRandy writes about the liberal religious revolution
Mike S shares this tear-inducing happy story
From Mother Knows Breast!, the author, nonnie9999, shares this comment from PBJDiddie : And yet...
+
And here are my finds for the day:
tonyahky, teacherken, sessal, have a fascinating discussion regarding the education of special needs children, and what we can expect from NCLB. From teacherken's diary If we are going to talk about education
From David Grossman's GOP Gives Paris Hilton $91M @ 2AM, these comments: inclusiveheart on class wars used as a political tool. pkbarbiedoll cries foul on the GOP's opinion of what gums up the American dream.
Last week I included dolailin's I feel like I'm about to come unglued ... it seems like there's been a welcome awakening. Ellicatt sends in another of donailin's comments on the same thread.
From Welcome to the Police State, David points out and expands on the edits made to Bush's new terror bill (va dare also sent this one in).
From molly bloom's I was a Republican until they lost their minds, adigal comments on the importance of being welcoming to those who switch sides, and The Raven gives an opinion what what they should be called.
BobCatz contributes an updated-for-dKos "We Want You" volunteer graphic
abben asks a pointed question in Rep. Slaughter's diary Republicans Sneaking a Trojan Horse on to House floor on Friday Night
sailmaker proposes a script for a new Dem ad
buhdydarma snarks on religious patriotism, and daulton makes an apt comparison between mega-churches and Faux News in Preacher refuses politics in church by fahrenheit2200
LeftHandedMan has this to say about Karl Rove's apparent disassociation from most of humanity
nicejoest makes this addition to Bill in Portland Maine's The Legacy of the Oh I Don't Know Gang
+
...and that's all for tonight! Please contribute any I missed in the comments below; I look forward to reading your picks.