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Free Talk Live => The Polling Pit => Topic started by: Level 20 Anklebiter on September 27, 2008, 01:48:17 PM

Title: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Level 20 Anklebiter on September 27, 2008, 01:48:17 PM
In light of last night's show when Ian yet again went off the deep end calling a small-time judge a control freak I have to wonder if his move to NH has only deepened his insanity, but I want to ask you all how nutty his the lawn dart these days?
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Andy on September 27, 2008, 01:54:31 PM
Yeah, he's a fruitcake alright and I'm about 3 months behind on listening.

Do I really want to know if he gets worse?
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Level 20 Anklebiter on September 27, 2008, 01:57:48 PM
Yeah, he's a fruitcake alright and I'm about 3 months behind on listening.

Do I really want to know if he gets worse?

That's when he'll start dressing up and calling himself Ianana? o_O
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: John Shaw on September 27, 2008, 02:13:03 PM
That's when he'll start dressing up and calling himself Ianana? o_O

Um...

Might wanna watch your glass house, there. I'm just sayin'.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Level 20 Anklebiter on September 27, 2008, 02:17:32 PM
That's when he'll start dressing up and calling himself Ianana? o_O

Um...

Might wanna watch your glass house, there. I'm just sayin'.

You clearly missed the joke didn't you? :3
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: John Shaw on September 27, 2008, 02:18:55 PM
You clearly missed the joke didn't you? :3

(http://www.forumspile.com/Misc-I_see_what_you_did_there.jpg)
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Level 20 Anklebiter on September 27, 2008, 02:20:10 PM
You clearly missed the joke didn't you? :3

(http://www.forumspile.com/Misc-I_see_what_you_did_there.jpg)

Matching Ian's hyperbole with my own. Which I don't think compares... Yet. o_O
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: John Shaw on September 27, 2008, 02:21:46 PM
You can nevar defeat Ian so long as he has this: (I'll just leave this right here.)

(http://home.comcast.net/~archindividual/IanPorn.jpg)
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: sillyperson on September 27, 2008, 06:48:58 PM
I have to wonder if his move to NH has only deepened his insanity
I do fear he spends all his time talking to anarchists and not enough time talking with average people in his community.
I've forgotten the word for it, someone help me -- when you go kinda nuts from being in an isolated peer-group and little or no contact with the rest of civil society.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: John Shaw on September 27, 2008, 06:52:08 PM
I do fear he spends all his time talking to anarchists and not enough time talking with average people in his community.
I've forgotten the word for it, someone help me -- when you go kinda nuts from being in an isolated peer-group and little or no contact with the rest of civil society.

Cult member.  :P

("Insular" is actually what I think you're looking for.)
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Soundwave on September 27, 2008, 08:14:06 PM
I have to wonder if his move to NH has only deepened his insanity
I do fear he spends all his time talking to anarchists and not enough time talking with average people in his community.
I've forgotten the word for it, someone help me -- when you go kinda nuts from being in an isolated peer-group and little or no contact with the rest of civil society.

I make this argument all the time.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: freeAgent on September 27, 2008, 09:52:08 PM
I have to wonder if his move to NH has only deepened his insanity
I do fear he spends all his time talking to anarchists and not enough time talking with average people in his community.
I've forgotten the word for it, someone help me -- when you go kinda nuts from being in an isolated peer-group and little or no contact with the rest of civil society.

I make this argument all the time.

I also agree with this.  Ian has gone even more extreme since the move to NH (in my opinion).  I think this is because he surrounds himself with and immerses himself in FSP culture.  I'm not sure that's really necessarily a bad thing for him personally, but it does seem to make him less capable of empathizing with regular, everyday people.  Mark does a better job at that.  Most of the time.  On occasion. :P
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: BonerJoe on September 27, 2008, 09:54:55 PM
Does he ever talk about anything other than freedom or radio related topics? Heh.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: hellbilly on September 27, 2008, 10:29:16 PM
I'd say he's passionate about it all, not nuts.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Lindsey on September 27, 2008, 10:43:20 PM
Does he ever talk about anything other than freedom or radio related topics? Heh.

Probably not.  I think we're all very passionate about what we believe in, but when it gets to the point where you can't sustain a conversation without bringing that shit up, you've gone off the deep end.  And that's with any subject. 
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: MacFall on September 27, 2008, 10:51:23 PM
Does he ever talk about anything other than freedom or radio related topics? Heh.

Probably not.  I think we're all very passionate about what we believe in, but when it gets to the point where you can't sustain a conversation without bringing that shit up, you've gone off the deep end.  And that's with any subject. 

Yeah, but it seems like everyone has a subject like that. It just differs from person to person. POKEMANS LET ME SHO U MY POKEMANZ DO U LIEK POKEMANS
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: sillyperson on September 28, 2008, 02:21:24 PM
I also agree with this.  Ian has gone even more extreme since the move to NH (in my opinion).  I think this is because he surrounds himself with and immerses himself in FSP culture.

Wrong.

The majority of FSPers think the "Keene Krowd" are both (a) unhinged and (b) not helping the FSP much, by how they portray us.

Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Andy on September 28, 2008, 05:08:47 PM
Another example of Ian's hyperbole:

Just listened to the 5 July podcast - at one point Ian says  Japanese Americans were put in concentration camps during WW2.

The life expectancy in a concentration camp was about 9 months - even less in extermination camps.

I honestly don't know what the death rate in American internment camps was, but the wiki page on the subject seems mostly focused on the loss of property by people who had to leave suddenly. I'd expect some prominence to 'causalty' figures if they differed much from the outside world.

I think I might keep a running thread of the more outrageous (and wrong) utterances on the show.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Soundwave on September 28, 2008, 07:29:48 PM
Does he ever talk about anything other than freedom or radio related topics? Heh.

In all honesty, Ian does have interest in and talks about other subjects all the time. I will say though that I do enjoy hanging out with my non-liberty friends to get away from all the FSP folk. Not that they aren't nice (most of them anyway) and not that this applies to everyone, but I do get sick of hearing the same libertarian conversations over and over again. I mean, I love liberty, but you have to balance that shit out. Ian doesn't interact with non-liberty people as often as I do; that would drive me nuts. 
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: John Shaw on September 28, 2008, 08:18:49 PM
In all honesty, Ian does have interest in and talks about other subjects all the time. I will say though that I do enjoy hanging out with my non-liberty friends to get away from all the FSP folk. Not that they aren't nice (most of them anyway) and not that this applies to everyone, but I do get sick of hearing the same libertarian conversations over and over again. I mean, I love liberty, but you have to balance that shit out. Ian doesn't interact with non-liberty people as often as I do; that would drive me nuts. 

I was wondering about that. I met some people recently in the flesh, (No one who posts on the BBS) and the conversation started repeating after an hour or so. I can't imagine how repetitive it could get after a while.

Julia has BALLS OF STEEL.  :P

Seriously though, I made that old thread pigeonholing libertarian stereotypes after years of experience.

http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=23439.0

I can only guess what being around that even, say, 4/5 (As opposed to 24/7) would do to me.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: KDus on September 28, 2008, 09:22:18 PM
If T.Jefferson, S.Adams, or J. Hancock,,,....had a regular podcast, they might sound extreem and too radical from time to time. Maybe Jefferson could get Franklin or John Adams to be the small government co-host?
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: JWI on September 28, 2008, 09:24:16 PM
If T.Jefferson, S.Adams, or J. Hancock,,,....had a regular podcast, they might sound extreem and too radical from time to time. Maybe Jefferson could get Franklin or John Adams to be the small government co-host?

Who would drop an F-bomb first?
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: BonerJoe on September 28, 2008, 09:26:48 PM
If T.Jefferson, S.Adams, or J. Hancock,,,....had a regular podcast, they might sound extreem and too radical from time to time. Maybe Jefferson could get Franklin or John Adams to be the small government co-host?

Who would drop an F-bomb first?

The nigger wiping T. Jefferson's butthole.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: JWI on September 28, 2008, 09:27:26 PM
If T.Jefferson, S.Adams, or J. Hancock,,,....had a regular podcast, they might sound extreem and too radical from time to time. Maybe Jefferson could get Franklin or John Adams to be the small government co-host?

Who would drop an F-bomb first?

The nigger wiping T. Jefferson's butthole.

Oh he'd be on the show too?
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: John Shaw on September 28, 2008, 09:31:33 PM
If T.Jefferson, S.Adams, or J. Hancock,,,....had a regular podcast, they might sound extreem and too radical from time to time. Maybe Jefferson could get Franklin or John Adams to be the small government co-host?

It's not the "Extreme" or "Radical" that is the problem.

It is the "Repetitious" and the "Never ending"
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Johnson on September 28, 2008, 11:30:26 PM
Does he ever talk about anything other than freedom or radio related topics? Heh.

In all honesty, Ian does have interest in and talks about other subjects all the time. I will say though that I do enjoy hanging out with my non-liberty friends to get away from all the FSP folk. Not that they aren't nice (most of them anyway) and not that this applies to everyone, but I do get sick of hearing the same libertarian conversations over and over again. I mean, I love liberty, but you have to balance that shit out. Ian doesn't interact with non-liberty people as often as I do; that would drive me nuts. 

Ugh, i would like to hang out with 'Liberty People' and just NOT talk about it. That would be nice. Ya know, to not HAVE to. Of course, for now, I'm in California, and I don't talk to anyone. I'm all sort of getting cabin fever up in here... but I also have no desire to mingle in the Irish pub across the street either.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Andy on October 20, 2008, 05:08:16 PM
24 July Show

Pretty sure Ian just implied that force is not an appropriate response to fraud.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: BonerJoe on October 20, 2008, 05:44:16 PM
Pretty sure Ian just implied that force is not an appropriate response to fraud.

That's what he gets from hanging around the Russell Kanning cult.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: mikehz on October 21, 2008, 04:32:21 PM
Another example of Ian's hyperbole:

Just listened to the 5 July podcast - at one point Ian says  Japanese Americans were put in concentration camps during WW2.

The life expectancy in a concentration camp was about 9 months - even less in extermination camps.

I honestly don't know what the death rate in American internment camps was, but the wiki page on the subject seems mostly focused on the loss of property by people who had to leave suddenly. I'd expect some prominence to 'causalty' figures if they differed much from the outside world.

I think I might keep a running thread of the more outrageous (and wrong) utterances on the show.

If the war were going badly for the Americans, and it looked as though America was going to lose, things probably would have gotten pretty bad for those in the interment camps. "Interment camp" is a euphemism for concentration camp. These places were prisons. The crime was being of the wrong ethnic race.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: gibson042 on October 21, 2008, 04:43:06 PM
I'm in California, and I don't talk to anyone. I'm all sort of getting cabin fever up in here...

Explaining why you went off the deep end with those iGoogle changes.  Did you ever get that resolved, by the way?
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Andy on October 21, 2008, 04:59:13 PM
Another example of Ian's hyperbole:

Just listened to the 5 July podcast - at one point Ian says  Japanese Americans were put in concentration camps during WW2.

The life expectancy in a concentration camp was about 9 months - even less in extermination camps.

I honestly don't know what the death rate in American internment camps was, but the wiki page on the subject seems mostly focused on the loss of property by people who had to leave suddenly. I'd expect some prominence to 'causalty' figures if they differed much from the outside world.

I think I might keep a running thread of the more outrageous (and wrong) utterances on the show.

If the war were going badly for the Americans, and it looked as though America was going to lose, things probably would have gotten pretty bad for those in the interment camps.


Maybe.

Quote
"Interment camp" is a euphemism for concentration camp. 

No. A concentration camp is a place where people are dehumanised and worked to death.

Quote
These places were prisons. The crime was being of the wrong ethnic race.

Sure.

I think there is a qualitative difference Mike, almost to the same extent as the difference between being in prison and being "free" in a "free country."

Frankly if I heard that statement and didn't already know where Ian was coming from I really  would think he was literally  nuts.

Call it prison for sure, call it racist sure, but 'concentration camp' has implications that just aren't supported by reality.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: blackie on October 21, 2008, 05:44:58 PM

No. A concentration camp is a place where people are dehumanised and worked to death.
The Auschwitz camp had a swimming pool.
Quote
(http://www.heretical.com/miscella/swimpool.jpg)

It was meant for the detainees. Marc Klein mentions it at least twice in his recollections of the camp. In an article entitled 'Auschwitz I Stammlager' he wrote:

The working hours were modified on Sundays and holidays, when most of the kommandos were at leisure. Roll call was at around noon; evenings were devoted to rest and to a choice of cultural and sporting activities. Football, basketball, and water-polo matches (in an open-air pool built within the perimeter by detainees) attracted crowds of onlookers. It should be noted that only the very fit and well-fed, exempt from the harsh jobs, could indulge in these games which drew the liveliest applause from the masses of other detainees (De l'Université aux camps de concentration: Télmorgnages strasbourgeois, Paris, les Belles-lettres, 1947, p. 453).


Some also had an orchestra.
Quote
(http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/uploads/pics/85881__The_prisoners___orchestra_in_Buchenwald_concentration_camp.jpg)
The prisoners' orchestra in Buchenwald concentration camp, 1941 - Apr 11, 1945. USHMM (85881), courtesy of Gedenkstaette Buchenwald.

Quote
Call it prison for sure, call it racist sure, but 'concentration camp' has implications that just aren't supported by reality.
Whever. Indian reservations were also concentration camps. Prisons are concentration camps.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: YixilTesiphon on October 21, 2008, 05:55:51 PM
"Concentration camp" just means a place where a large number of members of a certain demographic are kept.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Plyte on October 21, 2008, 06:03:47 PM
I just get a little wierded out by the constant usage of the phrase "lock you up in cages".  Its one of the reasons I refuse to listen to alex jones (never listened to him once, but saw a DNC protest video of him, and hes outta control).  Alex jones uses fear mongering to try to get his message out, and it seems to me that using phrases like "lock you up in cages" and "steal your house" are trying to create fear/dehumanize gov't people they talk about.  It seems also a bit paranoid.  Even if he believes these things are true, putting it in such language doesn't help draw new people (IMO).

I do understand and respect that hes principled.  I dunno if someone else has said it, but if you make an exception to your principles ONCE in the name of effiency, you might as well not have principles at all.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: mikehz on October 21, 2008, 06:08:47 PM
"Concentration camp" just means a place where a large number of members of a certain demographic are kept.

Exactly. And, at the first, the German camps weren't all that awful. Prisoners worked, just as they do in most prisons. They were fed, ect. Then, once the war started and Germany began losing (which, really, didn't take all that long) conditions in the camps started getting bad. Hitler ordered the "final solution," partly as punishment for what Germany was enduring and partly with the idea that, even if Germany lost, at least the hated Jews would be gone.

I can see the same thing happening to the Japanese Americans in the (highly unlikely) event the US started losing the war. Certainly, if the Fundies ever gain real political power, life will get very hard for homosexuals, atheists, and anyone of the "wrong" belief system.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Travis on October 21, 2008, 06:29:49 PM
I just get a little wierded out by the constant usage of the phrase "lock you up in cages".  Its one of the reasons I refuse to listen to alex jones (never listened to him once, but saw a DNC protest video of him, and hes outta control).  Alex jones uses fear mongering to try to get his message out, and it seems to me that using phrases like "lock you up in cages" and "steal your house" are trying to create fear/dehumanize gov't people they talk about.  It seems also a bit paranoid.  Even if he believes these things are true, putting it in such language doesn't help draw new people (IMO).

I do understand and respect that hes principled.  I dunno if someone else has said it, but if you make an exception to your principles ONCE in the name of effiency, you might as well not have principles at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o25I2fzFGoY

[youtube=425,350]o25I2fzFGoY[/youtube]
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: FTL_Ian on October 22, 2008, 01:01:54 PM
Let's see:

So, give me a fucking break, people.  I can get along with "regular people" just fine.  How the hell do you think I got to where I am?

Because I like to spend some of my free time socializing with people with a similar belief system, I'm crazy?  I might add that the liberty people in Keene talk about a lot of things. 

I will not apologize for my priorities in life:

Julia
FTL
Liberty
Everything else.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: NHArticleTen on October 22, 2008, 01:05:29 PM
Let's see:
  • I interact with regular people every day on the telephone.  (Radio station people)
  • I sit down and have lunch with my adversaries and have pleasant conversations with them.  (City people like Fred Parsells, Carl Patten, John MacLean, Medard Kopczynski, etc.)
  • Julia has her friends over and we talk about liberty about hardly ever.  (Though, the son of the "city clerk" did ask us the other night what Free Staters were.   8))
  • I am on the board of directors of Cheshire TV.  (Regular meetings with "real people".)

So, give me a fucking break, people.  I can get along with "regular people" just fine.  How the hell do you think I got to where I am?

Because I like to spend some of my free time socializing with people with a similar belief system, I'm crazy?  I might add that the liberty people in Keene talk about a lot of things. 

I will not apologize for my priorities in life:

Julia
FTL
Liberty
Everything else.


well said

Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Taors on October 22, 2008, 01:18:44 PM
  • I sit down and have lunch with my adversaries and have pleasant conversations with them.  (City people like Fred Parsells, Carl Patten, John MacLean, Medard Kopczynski, etc.)

Thanks for proving everyone's points.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: FTL_Ian on October 22, 2008, 01:45:13 PM
  • I sit down and have lunch with my adversaries and have pleasant conversations with them.  (City people like Fred Parsells, Carl Patten, John MacLean, Medard Kopczynski, etc.)

Thanks for proving everyone's points.

Thanks for speaking for everyone.   :lol:
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: FTL_Ian on October 22, 2008, 01:49:10 PM
  • I sit down and have lunch with my adversaries and have pleasant conversations with them.  (City people like Fred Parsells, Carl Patten, John MacLean, Medard Kopczynski, etc.)

Thanks for proving everyone's points.

I'm the one who is conversing in real life with the govt people and building relationships, while you sit here and snipe on an internet forum.  Case closed.   :P
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: FTL_Ian on October 22, 2008, 01:53:14 PM
As a further point of clarification, I was using adversary in the opponent sense, not "enemy".  The govt people are our opponents for now, but we can change that.  Already some are less opposition that others.  People like Sam and I are doing what it takes to make that change happen:

http://freekeene.com/2008/10/21/conversation-with-shane-maxfield-kpd-lt-part-15/
http://freekeene.com/2008/10/22/conversation-with-shane-maxfield-kpd-lt-part-25/
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: sillyperson on October 22, 2008, 01:57:55 PM
  • I Radio station people
  • City people like Fred Parsells, Carl Patten,
  • Julia has her friends
  • Cheshire TV
Hmmmm... depending on the kind of people Julia hangs out with, I figure at most 1 of the above 4 count as "regular people"
;)


























Just busting yer chops, Ian. Smoke a bowl and relaaaaax.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Taors on October 22, 2008, 02:31:24 PM
  • I sit down and have lunch with my adversaries and have pleasant conversations with them.  (City people like Fred Parsells, Carl Patten, John MacLean, Medard Kopczynski, etc.)

Thanks for proving everyone's points.

Thanks for speaking for everyone.   :lol:

No problem. I'm a good representative.

  • I sit down and have lunch with my adversaries and have pleasant conversations with them.  (City people like Fred Parsells, Carl Patten, John MacLean, Medard Kopczynski, etc.)

Thanks for proving everyone's points.

I'm the one who is conversing in real life with the govt people and building relationships, while you sit here and snipe on an internet forum.  Case closed.   :P

What has it gotten you?
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: FTL_Ian on October 22, 2008, 02:52:52 PM
It's helped me understand the bureaucrats better.  They are people too.  Just misguided and unaware of the benefits of consensual interaction.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: sillyperson on October 22, 2008, 03:27:56 PM
It's helped me understand the bureaucrats better.  They are people too.  Just misguided and unaware of the benefits of consensual interaction.
Bingo.

They actually think they are making <Operative>"a better world"</Operative>
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Johnson on October 23, 2008, 05:08:44 AM
ugh... I'm done... trolls get the shithead usergroup. God damn... you win! here's your prize! I dub thee - shithead!
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Taors on October 23, 2008, 09:30:01 AM
ugh... I'm done... trolls get the shithead usergroup. God damn... you win! here's your prize! I dub thee - shithead!

Alright, I took you off ignore to respond to this.

I'm not a troll. Ian knows this. Mark knows this. Julia knows this. I don't know what error or Torgo think, and don't care.

Fuck off and stop abusing your power, douche.

I guess John Shaw was right in saying that if he insulted you, you'd start fucking with his account on the forum. Look what happened to mine.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Taors on October 23, 2008, 09:32:34 AM
Also, it seems that me questioning the FSP is what set you off. Nice to know that other people's opinions don't affect the way you go about your job as an administrator.

Sorry for making a double post, everybody. I no longer have the edit feature.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Russell Griswold on October 23, 2008, 05:41:58 PM
Also, it seems that me questioning the FSP is what set you off.

Yup.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Taors on October 23, 2008, 06:51:11 PM
Also, it seems that me questioning the FSP is what set you off.

Yup.

It's all good. Ian, my favorite host of FTL, took care of everything.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Taors on October 23, 2008, 06:59:23 PM
When did this become the FSP buttbuddies forum anyway?

About a year or two ago.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: rmjarvis on November 01, 2008, 02:00:03 AM
I'm in California, and I don't talk to anyone. I'm all sort of getting cabin fever up in here...

Explaining why you went off the deep end with those iGoogle changes.  Did you ever get that resolved, by the way?

FYI to Johnson and anyone else who cares about this.  Just use:

http://www.google.com/ig?gl=all

for you iGoogle page, and it should be navigation-tab-free.

You're welcome.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: Johnson on November 01, 2008, 03:26:22 AM
Now if only we could fix the rape job they did on the gmail widget. I'd rather just have a button to full gmail and basic listing than the annoying thing they have now. I can't believe someone thought it would be a good idea to change the widget so it strips links out of e-mails.
Title: Re: Ian is fracking nuts!
Post by: freeAgent on November 01, 2008, 10:46:45 AM
Now if only we could fix the rape job they did on the gmail widget. I'd rather just have a button to full gmail and basic listing than the annoying thing they have now. I can't believe someone thought it would be a good idea to change the widget so it strips links out of e-mails.

Yeah, stripping the links out of emails was a ridiculously stupid and shortsighted move.  I noticed that they have at least added some functionality from the full Gmail back into it.  I'm hoping that this is on their list as well.