There are a few issues with the current commenting system and, unfortunately, since it is the holidays, the issues are not going to get addressed until January 3 at the soonest.
Therefore, bear these in mind.
You must post under your first and last name unless you were specifically approved otherwise. If you account has a user name that is a first name or last name, I can manually fix it or you can, for the time being, post if you disclose your first and last name in the message so that you are not anonymous.
Anyone who posts under a pseudonym or moniker will have their post removed unless you have specifically applied for and received permission to post under that name.
Apologies for the technical glitches, but we no longer allow anonymous posts (even if you can technically still access your account).
Again the options:
Option 1: This is the main option and the only open registration as of 4 pm. Log in through Facebook. To clarify, you must post under your actual name here. Any obviously fake Facebook accounts will result in deleted registrations. It is important to note that you are not having your personal Facebook information posted to the Vanguard and you don’t need to have your Vanguard posts post to Facebook.
Option 2: For those who want to post through the Vanguard system under their real name – either with an existing account or a new one – send an email and so long as I can verify your identity, I’m happy to give you access that way.
Option 3: You can petition for use of an anonymous posting. You need to provide me in writing (email is fine): Name, a valid email address, a valid phone number and a reason for remaining anonymous. We will not share this information with anyone. No promises on the approval, but I’m more likely to approve people posting under a first name or first name/ last initial than a moniker. Also your posts will be more highly scrutinized especially on personal attacks.
All requests should be emailed to: info@davisvanguard.org
I was one of the leading and loudest advocates of killing anonymous posting, mostly because a couple of anonymous posters would insult people personally from behind the cloak of anonymity, then claim they would be harmed if they spoke publicly, which even if true was no excuse for the courage-lacking anonymous insult chucking. Yes, I’ve seen much worse from people who aren’t anonymous here, but at least they are known and therefore accountable for their spew.
However, the quality of the discussions here has taken a nosedive, and I’m not convinced it will return with the new year. The conservative view is lacking, and without that view, the liberal view has no strong adversary to buck up against. I have never been one to listen to people I agree with for self-affirmation, a disease of society. I listen to all sides and prefer adversaries, no matter how much I disagree with them (unless they lower themselves to personal attacks or blatant lies), and the old comments section had that.
In summary, to Paraphrase the last pathetically tear-jerking scene from the movie ‘Shane’:
“BP, come back!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtoCw2iOTSc
Can’t judge anything by what you see from December 23 to December 30. It’s been a week. A week with Christmas in the middle. I haven’t had a chance to really promote the change or implement the rest of the program. Give it time.
Alan… nice cite… brought back memories…
David… all in due time…
All the conservative voices are welcome. All they have to do is post under their own names.
Yup.
Or . . .
Seems to me that the commentators haven’t been walking arm-in-arm singing Kumbaya. There’s been plenty of disagreement. There’s just been no name calling or vitriol, and good riddance to that. I too welcome a conservative viewpoint and a productive disagreement, but those were drowned out by the nastiness.
Alan, if you recall, Shane was a good guy who brought down the bullies but was kind to everyone else.
Go for option 3… think you might make the cut…
“Howard”, are you talking to B.P. ? I saw that B.P. posted, but didn’t have a chance to read it and had restarted by computer, and the ghost of B.P. was gone! I doubt Shane ever came back either (or did he?). Anyway, Shane was probably an alias.
PS. What did B.P. say, in that brief “appearance”?
Not particularly memorable, except somewhat fascinated that his/her post showed up… nothing “untoward”… Don may remember, as his 10:49 post, I seem to recall, was also in response to BP…
Oh, and Howard is a real name of mine… just not my first name… my grandfather (and namesake) was known to his family as Howard, but to the outside world he was known by another… confused me as a kid… but many years later, Rabbi Wolf explained, at a ‘naming ceremony’, that we are known by 3 names… the name God (Yahweh) knows us by, the name we are known by with family, and the name “the world” knows us by… now some also have ‘avatar’ names… a “nom de plume, ou nom de guerre”, as it were…
Remember, Mark Twain “wasn’t”… not that I aspire to that…
now even more becomes apparent.. some names like Howard are not particularly exclusively jewish or something….
in the slavic tradition.. .one was named after whichever saint your birthday fell on … thus the names day..
if you were lucky you were a St. George (RIP to my brother and uncle) .. fortunately there were many days of George.
if ya were truly unlucky there was some “once on the planet” saint name perhaps like Rumor or apple or dweezil or something…
In the meantime some folks are like wtf do I wanna name my son dweezil. … so we will name him something else. and from then on others also broke ranks and before ya know if the person has TWO holidays to celebrate and get presents for instead of one…
interesting idea you share, Howard.. how does anyone besides god know what your name is then? I mean if you are a practicing jew….
would you please explain that? or is that not for anyone else but God to know?
and is there a hierarchy of which name is most important or so on?
just curious.. it has been over 60 or so years since I last read the old testament and it was also in old Russian slavic.. but is this in the old testament or the Torah? just curious as I always am…
Marina… no… not in Old or New testaments, that I’ve ever read… a hint tho’, it is written, ‘I knew you in the womb’ (Jer 1:5)… … think it is midrash [commentaries], or oral tradition… I do not know… am not ethnically nor religiously Jewish… would it matter?
Oh, you show your ignorance, or sloppy ‘parsing’… the Torah and the Old testament are not mutually exclusive… they are also not the same… much overlap… I’ll leave to those more familiar with Judaism to explain further, if they wish to engage you or you questions…
not sure why there are sometimes “reply’ links and otherwise not. (perhaps to not encourage replying?…who knows.. but thus this is not in the “correct spot”). but I do know that the old testament and the Torah are not the same though there is some overlap… but that is about all I know 🙂 just as I once picked up the Koran in the 70s.. but didn’t get very far either. .. more “urgent” matters or something presented.. ..
I did find your post interesting and I figure at some point the “answers” will turn up somewhere or sometime….. for now I am happy to let this go as just one of those things which may or may present with an answer at some point or not… I typically have hundreds or thousands of such questions … some peak my interest enough to go researching but many are fine to leave be until the universe, or someone on a list, wants to present the answer..
Happy New Year to you and all who are hanging around…
The reply links only go three deep, if you want to reply further, go to the reply link immediately above or post anew at the bottom
ahhhh… the civil discourse of those who use their full names… gotta’ love them! Particularly when they use a term normally saved for males, and the female equivalent would probably trigger the filter, if not used to describe multiple felines wearing boots…
I inadvertently ‘ignored’ Don Shor and cannot correct it. I only see his comments when I log out. I tried following instructions in an old post but my profile doesn’t seem to have the same screen as what was described. Can someone help?
Also is it necessary to have a 12 character password?
happy new year!
Not sure this will help (I’m using Google Chrome as a browser)…
Log in… [not sure if you are like me, where David gave me a link to re-establish, and a temp pw, but when I chose a new one, it met criteria, but was not 12 characters… was ~10.
once you’re “in”, look below your main ‘bar’… for me I see a ‘Davis Vanguard’ item. Hold your cursor over that, and (at least for me), you have a choice for ‘Dashboard’… click it… there you can find an option to ignore or un-ignore… hope that helps, or perhaps you can send a message to David, and he can re-send an e-mail… I’m assuming you’e been here before, but needed to re-do your “persona”…
‘Gotta ask… are you related to Harry Tobias (UCD student in the 70’s who ran track), or Kathryn Tobias, who practiced development and solid waste law in Sacto?
No and no! It is my ex husband’s name not my current husband’s name but I go by it more and more as it is ‘who I am’. Often think women should keep maiden names as in other cultures in that changing from one day to the next (marriage, divorce) is disconcerting.
Yeah, I encouraged my spouse to be open to keeping her last name, and she just moved her maiden name to her middle name (usually just using the initial)… her surname was 12 letters long… mine is 8 letters… I got it…
In any event, best wishes to you and yours in the coming year… and found Kathryn on Facebook… Harry taught me how to shave my legs… made the taping for shin splints a lot less painful… or at least the changing of the tape…
yes and yes… I spent a few decades with the 1st hubby’s last name as for recognition of the children… we never officially separated either.. . but when I was considering marrying again.. it was time to go back to my maiden name and it was way after 9/11 so that took on such a life of it’s own..
I tell any young women who is contemplating marrying to think long and hard if it is worth the hassle..
after the divorce went through I started using my new legal name on new documents, bank accounts and credit cards or what not but kept the old as is as who had time to make all those changes.. it got so bad that new hubby and I would show up at a reservation and I would have to give both names as I couldn’t keep straight it I changed Marrriot or not yet..
and each place had their own rules… . my very first account from the 70s which I started in my maiden name refused to update it without a new Social security card.. I said cannot you just go back in the records.. . but nada.. I even had that old card around.. but we had been packing and so on
nary a day goes by that I haven’t finished updating my name somewhere today I got the AAA renewal and so on. …..and some are easier to fix. (Virgin Air my fave airline said here lemme see if I can do it for ya and did) Hawaiian took myriads of attempts over several months to do it online and nada… on our annual vacation to the timeshare just 2 months afo, we arrived in HON with nada a flight to the next island as I was still trying to get it handled… and still so many issues that they still owe me my free bag). . note to self .. put that memo to customer service back on the to-do list)….
professional women were the first in the USA to not change their names..
but in many other countries, like the Soviet Union around the time of the bolshevik revolution, many a women was disgusted at the thought of changing her name to the husbands.. .in some circles that stil meant possession and to the man.. .. and then soon folks got married very quickly for reasons other than love, changing one’s name went by the wayside very fast.. the higher the divorce rate, the less likely a woman was to go through the hassle….
I am kinda bored here alone in paradise tonight..it even rained a tad.. so folks are not out en masse and it is overcast.. a rare poor evening for the fave activity in this area of the planet.. sunset watching.. ..
and yes, names used to mean more, and now they mean little to many .. and yet I am proud of my maiden name and never going through more hassles to change it again.. cept what I still HAVE to 🙂 see ya folks.. enjoy the holidays …
Because no one asked, and we all care so much.
Because it is so groundbreaking in comment sections, I, too, will report on the arrival of my 2017 AAA renewal, and I encourage all others to as well. Scintillating.
ooops….
too funny.. I have often mentioned that a nice FAQ might be helpful
but likely most on here have me on ignore 🙂
as far as the need for 12 digit passcodes..
only if the Russians are watching each keystroke like the NSA is
or the powers that be expect there will be top secret info you and others plan to share on this open to the public blog…
of for other just as absurd reasons…..
Thanks Howard. Am away on iPhone and iPad. Not sure I have tried on PC.
Hope it works for you, one way or another… best for the coming year…
The new login rules that, as I understand them, are supposed to prevent commenters from busting each other’s chops when one doesn’t know who the other one is so they can’t be nasty back at them. My understanding is that it is also to prevent those, under the cloak of anonymity, from lashing out viciously at article contributors dissuading them from ever writing for the Vanguard again.
I have seen a few people out themselves but I have seen even more people with just a first name and last initial (presumably) and a few old monikers that slipped by but deleted at some point.
Seems to me there are still anonymous posters to the public but David now knows who they are (or will). I guess that’s the plan?
When John D say’s something about my post today I won’t know who they are but someone will. Very comforting.
What if a snowflake writes an article, and a currently anonymous (last and first initial) criticizes the article. Is the criticism bashing because of auto-offense if any person is offended? Does the snowflake melt?
interesting. AM.. have you ever wondered if others may also have the same thoughts like “no one asked”. but not be so rude to say it? I mean about things you share?
I kinda doubt it.. I mean that you would have ever wondered… .why would you?
you are probably of the mindset that everything you share is accepted with baited breath by the others….
Taking it a little further… I would bet many a time when someone shares something on here that is opposite of ones own views.. many folks may think the same thing…
and I would bet more often then not about your posts also..
of course, I truly do not care about this topic or what you say about my topics or what I share. . if anyone finds it useful.. that has served its purpose.
Happy New Year..AM .. may this year be a better one for you and the rest of us
Well, some may be waiting with “baited breath”; on the topics that Alan M is knowledgeable on, I often wait with “bated breath”…
Happy New Year, Alan…
see Alan you got one fan.. once my husband was a speaker where some of the attendees were from other countries.. and this young lady with mediocre English ran over and was trying to tell him how much she enjoyed his videos (someone had translated them into Russian). . and he looks at me and says. . .oh look I’ve made the big time I have A FAN. . . …
PS are you sure I didn’t mean baited? sometimes there are typos or wordos and other times the puns are on purpose..
No, not sure… and don’t care… please note, I did not correct you, nor criticize, nor make fun…I ‘punned’… skin a bit thin today?
And yes, am a fan of Alan M’s, as have worked with him over years, and even when we disagreed, I respect his knowledge of transportation (particularly rail) issues…
Actually I own five.
Leave that to me.
There is a thin line between “fan” and “fanatic”.
Do tell.
Well deserved respect, I might add.
Now you’re scaring me. I just type and s**t comes out.
Alan…feel free to contact me @ hortensepierce@yahoo.com… yeah, “fan” was a bit over the top, but got provoked, and succumbed [I really need to grow up]… the respect for you on transportation matters, and the fact that I have often disagreed with you, is real…
All is cool Mr. H.P. Just being a drama non-gendered royal.
I assume it, so I speak for the many, like Batman. As for rude, I find the rudest people are cloaked in a perfume of sweetness . . . or verbosity . . . and the rude are at least being real.
Why do you wonder what I wonder?
There’s an old Soviet cold war tactic of blaming others for what you, yourself, do. Just sayin’.
Now that’s just taking it too far!
I’m sure that’s true (I’m just being “nice”, I have no idea what you are saying)
So you’re off topic by default.
That’s obvious in your having to say it so firmly.
The Davis masses rejoice!
And on THAT we agree.
some folks are sooooo easy to get going sometimes… hope the audience had some laughs.. enjoy this lovely day.. or at least it is very lovely here….I heard that the local Weston A Price Foundation meeting got cancelled last night due to the weather.. CA could use the rain…so happy for ya
Because we all care sooooo much about Weston A Price. Maybe they should rent a place with a roof.