We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos. Our diaries inform, inflame, impassion, and even entertain. We Kossacks have strong voices and an even stronger will to be the change we wish to see in this country.
One of the richest, and perhaps most under-appreciated, areas of thought come in the form of comments attached to these diaries.
Here at Top Comments we strive to recognize and promote the talent of this community by highlighting outstanding comments found throughout the day by the diarist, and through nominations at made at TopComments at gmail dot com by your fellow Kossacks.
These nominations are subjective, and certainly not complete (as no one can read the complete site on a daily basis!). But we hope they will serve to shine a light where deserved, and to give the reader a good starting point in finding conversation on the site.
Please come in and make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fold...
Nearly two years ago, I happened to fall into doing a Top Comments diary when the European date format allowed for 10/09/08 (10 September 2008), giving me an opportunity to write two quick paragraphs for Top Comments: Counting Down Edition.
Today, we reverse that order here in the U.S., and get to count up 08/09/10; we'd have to wait until September 8 (the Wednesday after Labor Day) to count up European style, and who knows who will be doing the diary then. So I'm striking while the iron is hot, and my brain incapable of finding another topic for the evening.
Tomorrow will be 08/10/10 hereabouts, not nearly so exciting, and the month goes downhill from there if all you care about is dates. Most people I know don't give a fig for dates, and while I think they can be good in certain nutrition bars if cocoa powder's another major ingredient, I'm not so fond of dates au naturel...oh wait, I've shifted dates. Never mind.
(Okay, I'll confess; I like the Lärabar company's Jocalat bars, especially the Chocolate Cherry flavor. I carry a stash with me when I'm traveling, and I gave extras to a couple of Kossacks when I was out at Netroots Nation and they'd been neglecting to eat regularly. Six ingredients only in these bars: organic dates, organic almonds, organic walnuts, organic unsweetened cherries, organic cocoa powder, organic cocoa mass. 90% raw—the first four ingredients, I believe—and the cocoa is also fair trade certified. What's not to like?)
Even though Netroots Nation has been over for a fortnight, this is my first diary since I returned, and it's worth mentioning that I had a good time hanging with my DKos peeps, including at the Cheers and Jeers party, got to talk to some excellent Democrats (including a few candidates I'd been supporting from afar), was blown away by Elizabeth Warren even more in person and on NN panels than I had been hearing her on NPR hour-long shows, and have decided to avoid Las Vegas from now on. Mind, I'd been avoiding the place on general principles heretofore; now, having experienced it, I'll be avoiding it with great deliberation henceforth. Noisy, smoky, hot, unhealthy: it's far easier to stay away.
Netroots Nation is a generally excellent convention. I'm still not sure why an NN party isn't considered a success unless the decibel level is high enough to induce hearing loss—I came out of the Karaoke with a (temporary) 50% diminution in hearing capacity, because I forgot to bring foam ear plugs to drop the level about 25 decibels—but I'm completely puzzled as to why it should be necessary. We're political bloggers; why make it impossible to hear to talk politics, or even to talk on any subject without shouting and making things worse? It makes no sense to this Kossack.
I wish I could go next year, but they've moved NN11 into mid-June, and I have a long-standing prior commitment that entire week; there's no possible way I can go. So I'll be back to where I was the first three years, cheering everyone on from the sidelines. I'll try not to cheer so loud as to add to the hearing loss.
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We didn't hear much from our normal crew of nominators who seem not to have come in from the cold heat weekend; I gratefully thank those who took time today to send in their favorites to the Top Comments mailbox, all in advance of the 9:30pm Eastern Time deadline. The address of our mailbox for top comments submissions remains:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can send great comments to our address. Be sure to include the direct link to a comment—the URL—which is available from that comment's date/time; we need that to find your choice. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we are able to include that, too, though we reserve the right to edit.
From JG in MD:
In teacherken's on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere, joseph rainmound offers a good summary of the ambivalence we feel when we look up from our computers and see the environment deteriorating.
From Ed Tracey:
In this diary by LaughingPlanet about flooding in Pakistan and the lack of media attention, there was a reminder from MD patriot that given the media fixation on blonde cheerleaders and cursing stars, they had little time left for anything else.
From gizmo59:
From kos's front page diary CT-Sen: Run, Joe, Run!, I liked this comment by Joybar, in reply to a comment by Senate Agenda recalling Joe Lieberman's spiteful nature.
In Ezekial 23 20's recommended diary I was raped. But it doesn't matter, Geek of all trades makes an important observation.
Ralphdog makes a pithy observation himself in Barbara Morrill's front page diary Palin's run-in with a former constituent.
LaughingPlanet's comment, and responses to it, in Mark Sumner aka Devilstower's front page diary Onion say, Conservapedia do... was very droll, I thought.
From sardonyx (your Monday diarist):
DBunn writes an interesting comment on the psychology of new construction vs. maintenance in today's Morning Feature by NCrissieB; be sure to check the second and third paragraphs after the break, as they produced guffaws chez sardonyx. Also check Crissie's comment that inspired the comment, here.
When i m bobo wants to sue some .gov types, gchaucer is all for it...with a historical twist, of course.
Please add your own comment finds below!
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Finally, we have today's top mojo using my revision of the cskendrick-devised mojo-to-Excel process.
First, Top Mojo excluding Cheers and Jeers, miscellaneous cute animals, search-identifiable tip jars, and first diary comments:
1) Don't feel you need to respond.... by Alexandra Lynch — 152
2) Come on, you know what this is REALLY all about! by leevank — 147
3) Hell. by Ezekial 23 20 — 118
4) not at all xxdr, no problem by nyceve — 117
5) Healing is cyclical, my friend. by Alexandra Lynch — 112
6) You're sure doing a great job of by JesseCW — 107
7) MSNBC just said the disaster has by Julie Gulden — 104
8) You should read Common Nonsense by Alex Zaitchik. by boofdah — 102
9) he advised caution by Cedwyn — 85
10) He's talking about prevention not guilt or blame. by Skeptical Bastard — 81
11) All prisons are a profit scheme now by soothsayer99 — 80
12) Sorry to take cuts, but Media Matters comes up w/ by dmhlt 66 — 78
13) You're wrong by Hopefruit2 — 69
14) If they were acting like white GOP presidents by stef — 67
15) Hm... I'm Not Entirely Sure by TooFolkGR — 65
16) That's a great picture. Love it, Love it. Thxs... by jdmorg — 64
17) Absolutely abhorrent by marykk — 64
18) No, Mr. Beck, we can't let you out until we by Oke — 64
19) You do matter by Actbriniel — 64
20) My handle is an injoke, a commentary on how by Ezekial 23 20 — 64
21) Urban Cowboy - Obama in Texas by JekyllnHyde — 63
22) Thanks for pointing this out by otto — 62
23) This actually happened by jan4insight — 62
24) Thousands of teachers being laid off by icemilkcoffee — 62
25) Shhh... he's warming up for the blame game. by Corporate Dog — 61
26) Filipino teachers in Baltimore also by MD patriot — 61
27) No problem at all xxxdr, great comments by nyceve — 60
28) It seems pretty obvious to me that... by Trix — 58
29) True Marie moment by blacksnake — 57
30) For the record... by angry marmot — 57
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Tip Jar by Chris Rodda — 544
2) I don't know if I'm up to by Ezekial 23 20 — 385
3) Tip Jar by bobswern — 278
4) Tip Jar by devtob — 277
5) That number was nearly 14 million affected by LaughingPlanet — 264
6) Tip Jar by stef — 232
7) Tip Jar: Michelle Obama and her Mini-me in Spain by Muzikal203 — 212
8) Tip Jar by AdamGreen — 206
9) Human trafficking....in 2010.... in the US by sluggahjells — 196
10) Yes, there is something missing from the diary by teacherken — 189
11) Tip Jar by Whimsical Pearl — 172
12) Don't feel you need to respond.... by Alexandra Lynch — 152
13) Come on, you know what this is REALLY all about! by leevank — 147
14) Tip Jar by Congressman John Dingell — 136
15) 1 Word: Capitalism. by xxdr zombiexx — 124
16) Tip Jar by blackwaterdog — 118
17) Hell. by Ezekial 23 20 — 118
18) We need to win this November by LWelsch — 117
19) not at all xxdr, no problem by nyceve — 117
20) Healing is cyclical, my friend. by Alexandra Lynch — 112
21) You're sure doing a great job of by JesseCW — 107
22) MSNBC just said the disaster has by Julie Gulden — 104
23) Tip Jar by triciawyse — 103
24) You should read Common Nonsense by Alex Zaitchik. by boofdah — 102
25) Tip Jar by Eclectablog — 100
26) Please Donate Generously to the INDN by JekyllnHyde — 92
27) Eat up or shut up, Mr. Suttles by LaughingPlanet — 89
28) he advised caution by Cedwyn — 85
29) He's talking about prevention not guilt or blame. by Skeptical Bastard — 81
30) All prisons are a profit scheme now by soothsayer99 — 80
© sardonyx; all rights reserved
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