On 2013-05-01, at 2:01 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
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> On May 1, 2013, at 1:53 PM, "Jim Farmelant" <farmelantj at juno.com> wrote:
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>> In the case of both LBO-Talk and Marxmail, the fact that both lists have managed to survive for as long as they have has been due to the work of their respective moderators who have striven to keep discussions focused and to the point.
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> Thank you. List quality swooned because I stopped paying so much attention last year - though that was in part because of serial annoyances by people I didn't feel like booting or moderating. I am paying more attention now, and I think that's helped.
Glad to see that. I second Jim's point. I'm not among those who have taken permanent leave of the list, BTW. We returned last week from a long (sometimes gruelling, but overall great) hiking/road trip through the Southwest, Southern California, and Utah. Some summary impressions: 1. The infrastructure and living standards seem to have deteriorated further since our last trip to the US three years ago, excluding for the most part, of course, those living in gated communities in the hills surrounding a major city or overlooking the coast. 2. We were again struck by the ubiquitous obesity in the small towns and working class neighbourhoods. 3. Hurtling down the LA freeways was quite the experience, one we expected, though for myself, having learned to drive in Quebec, I like to think I was up for the challenge. :) 4. Long road trips are easier these days, thanks to the wide variety of podcasts and audio books available for download and playback through modern car radio systems. We listened among, other things, to a taped conference on Modern Monetary Theory and an excellent history of westward expansion by Hine and Faragher.