Talk like a Pirate

Onced again it is Talk like a Pirate Day , Arrh!

Memories

I was going through a few old posts and I came on one written about the death of Blogger Rob Smith who passed away 6 years ago yesterday.

A lot had changed since then and in some ways nothing has changed, life is still too short.

this-is-the-way-the-world-ends

That is the title of a good post over at Sarah Hoyt's blog.

I like these words to live by

It still feels like we’re overdoing it, and we go about sheepishly, with a suspicion we’re being dramatic. On the other hand overplanning is survivable. Under planning isn’t.

Blog Pr and Megan Fox

Glenn states:

I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE USE hot babe pics to boost traffic. It’s just so cheap and tawdry.

Of course in that there is a link to this site with these pictures of Megan Fox.

I think he doth protest too much.
And she is pretty hot, as you can see.

Another Departure

Since 2002 when I started blogging my blogroll has filled up with past sites that are no longer working for one reason or another.
It is always a sad day when one of the bloggers I like and have motivated me to do this at some point decide to pack it in. More so when it is one of the sites I really do read on a regualr basis.

Kim du Toit over the years has provided an excellent voice on gun related issues but he never stopped there and his wide range of coverage will sorely be missed. that doesn't even include the Sunday pictures of beautiful and classy women that he has been posting for a while.

On Novemer 30, Kim and his wife Connie will both cease blogging perhaps forever. Go over there and give them a shout and thank them for the years of effort they have put in to make the blogging world a better place.

Undefended city

New from Bill Whittle

Against all of that stand these two.

No wonder they must be destroyed. Because — Sarah Palin especially — presents a mortal threat to these people who have determined over cocktails who the next President should be and who now clearly mean to grind into metal shards the transaxle of their credibility in order to get the result they must have. Truly, they are before our eyes destroying the machine they have built in order to get their victory. What the hell is so threatening to be worth that?

Only this: the living proof that they are not needed. Not needed to govern, not needed to influence and guide, not needed to lecture us on our intellectual and moral failings which are visible only from the heights of Manhattan skyscrapers or the palaces up on Mulholland Drive. Not needed. We can do it — and do it better — without all of them.

As with all of Bill's stuff read the whole thing

Good Video Advice

Continuing what looks like a theme today is this post from Glenn and while I am too poor to get an HD Camcorder like he has the advice of lighting is spot on.

I recommend -- pretty much no matter what camera you have -- that you get one of those little fill lights. We have one for the Canon, too, and it also makes a surprising difference in video quality, and in how people look.

He also makes a comment about sounds I agree with. When it comes to video sound and lighting are the two most important things anyone can do to improve their product. Content on the other hand is a way different topic and not everyone can produce good content.

Now as far as I go I don't really think I look good on camera thought I might do some shooting outside with my little Sony mini DV handiCam at some point.
It is more likely I would do some podcasting since I have been thinking about it for awhile now but we shall see, I still have to edit about 20 hours of audio from the TechFest so that it can be posted online. Since I won't have fast internet in NY I might get around to it then

Not everyone can do everything

One of the bloggers I still check out from time to time is Ann Althouse and while I like her writting and even her pictures from time to time I have to take exception with her latest vlog entry.
Ann please stick with what you are good at because this isn't it.

Now I will try to be nice since I have the benefit of spending last year as a producer for the local Public Access Station learning the trade but this was just so bad in so many ways that I had to say something.
First sound, yes I know this is video but sound is very important and while it is clear the volume is awful even after I turned it up all the way.

Next framing. What is with this plant? Is the vlog about a plant or you? Much too much plant in this picture. Ok flowers but the principal is the same,

Props: It seems you have a problem with keeping your hands still but sniffing the bloom all the time is a little too far, unless of course you have some illegal substance on it but since Ann is a lawyer I doubt that. What really got me to write this is when she stuck the flower in her eye. Ann please , Steve Martin you are not.

I will say the she at least did a decent job on the lighting which is one of the more important aspects of video so at least she got something right.

For a better example try this vlog which was on the sidebar of where Ann's was on you tube. I am not really into rings in lips but she got the sounds right and she know when the bring in props and when to get rid of them. She is also honest enough to label here video as "pretty much rambling nonsense"

reading room

I have been busy reading Bill Whittle's new essay. As always this ia a semi major job so go check it out.

Speaking of other bloggers and on a related note the legendary Rachel Lucas is blogging again so I had to reset my blogroll to her old URL. I knew what I was doing by not deleting her entry. Go check her out too.

Life is too short and fragile

One of my favorite bloggers for the past few years has been Rob Smith, who passed away recently and suddenly..
His daughter has reposted some of his old posts on the site and I go over every now and then to read a few.
There was this one about his new years resolutions that hit me hard. Rob had plans, had things he wanted to do and all of a sudden he is gone. He was my age.

We found out today that a close friend of my wife has recently died of cancer.

Love your loved ones and keep them close because we never know what the next day or moment will bring. You might be sitting at work drinking coffee and chatting with a co-worker when a plane comes flying through your window. You just never know.

Don't ever not tell those you love that you love them because it might be the last chance you get.

Eject ....

Chapter one of Bill Whittle's new book.

Read it all.

This Sucks

Many of the links to the bloggers I read on the right no longer work because they have stopped blogging, by choice.

Rob didn't make that choice.

Read the following on Gut Rumbles just a while ago.

This is Sam. Rob has passed away. They found him at 2:00 this morning slumped over on the couch. He did not shoot himself and no pills or alcohol were found in the house. When I find out anything else I'll let you know. Out of respect for my family please do not leave nasty comments.

~Sam

Damn.

New from Whittle

If you have been waiting, as I have, for Bill Whittle to write something new the wait is over. You can go read about rafts and also catch the liner notes.

Get confy first, Bill is not brief.

Guns and Wet T-Shirts

Check out Chis Muir's last few days of strips as the gang hits the target range.

It could be worse

Speaking of Dax, I was over at his site and saw a reference to this post from a guy having a heart attack while blogging.

He seems to have come through it ok but since every one of my college friends is in the zipper club I am quite aware of this kind of thing.

The worst that can happen to me at this point is a operation and a cast, the best is a cast. Not very great when going on job interviews but all in all I prefer it to what this guy is going through.

The War over PJ Media

One of the most interesting things that has been happening in the recent past in the Blogosphere is the creation of PJ Media which was briefly known as Open Source Media.

I have been following this story for a while and have not written about it for several reasons (see disclosure at the bottom), but it seems to just go on and on. Not PJ Media itself but the controversy surrounding it. Now as you know if you are a long time reader (both of you) I love a controversy especially when it mutates into a full fledged Blog powered flame war.

Not since the Moxie-Moxiepop war have I seen such involvement and venom splashing across the HTML powered pages of so many blogs and their comments. As I have done in previous cases I am going to post a roadmap to bring people up to date. I do this as a public service and because I see the whole thing as kind of funny. There some things connected to it that are indeed not funny and some words have been written that should not have been however in the larger scheme of what is going on in the world ,ie TWOT this is just a sideshow.

I mearly report what I am seeing and I will let you the reader decide for yourself what the truth of the matter is.

Key background can be gotten from Dennis the Peasant

Update: I actually started writting this piece a while ago and as I have said things have continued to move,, much more at Dennis's site.

Then you can reac the Wikipedia entries here and here.

Steve H. has a post here.

Winds of change has a post here

One of the key players who has gotten involved in this little comedy oddly enough is Moxie herself. Really she is not a key player but she has become one because she refuses to back down and she has generated more HTML than a lot of the other players.
Moxie latest post with tons of comments can be found here.

Other Moxie posts can be found (deep breath), here , here , here, here, here and here, though I probably missed a few.

Last but not least Ann Althouse is caught up in all this and has post that you can read here and here.

Quote of the day:
Somewhere recently I saw one of those Internet quizzes asked what character from Shakespeare you would be. I didn't take it because I know if I could be any character it would be Puck.


One of my favorites lines in any movie is Mickey Rooney saying:

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

A Midsummer Night's Dream - 1935

Full Disclosure:
I did at some point in the past sign a non disclosure form during the creation stages of PJ Media. I also not too far in the past got an email from them telling me that I was invited to the Launch and that a snail mail invitation was on the way, which never came. I would not have been able to go anyway but as in a lot of things in life it is the thought or in this case the lack of thought that counts

Another one Bites the Dust

I know I have not been looking at as many blogs as I once did but it truth it is really sad when I do because so many of those who inspired me early have left the scene. Today I looked around at some I have not in a while and that first thing I notices was that michele catalano has stopped blogging. I know things change a lot in 3 and a half years but in most of that time reading Michele's posts was one of the high points. I don't know exactly when she stopped but I think it was pretty recently.

Thanks Michele I will miss your posts and look forward to your finishing that novel as you have always meant to.

Talk Like A Priate

I almost forgot.
Today was Talk like A Pirate Day

Avast me hearties.

No Joy in Blogsville

I know it has been some time since I have made three posts in one day and I want you all to know that I don't expect to continue but I would be very remiss if I did not call attention to the closing of one of my favorite blogs possilby forever.

Many bloggers are similar but none was/is quite like Kim DuToit. He came to this country from South Africa and had very strong opinions about freedom. He also knew and educated lots of people, including me, about handguns and rifles.
His ggp's were a resource on the web that will be sorely missed.

I had the honor of meeting Kim and Connie last year and I wish them well in the future. They are good people and deserve the best.

I don't know what the circumstances were that caused Kim to pull the site but you can find out more here , here and here.

Jim has posted a link to the archive here.

New Whittle

Bill Whittle has a new Essay up.
If you have not read it yet, what are you waiting for?

Diversity BS

Glenn links to this reply by Jeff Jarvis to Steve Levy's column in Newsweek about diversity in the blogosphere.
I think Glenn got the link right but the wrong quote.

I honestly don't know the race or gender of many bloggers and commenters I read and -- listen carefully now -- I don't care. When I was raised in this country, we were taught that it was a goal of our culture -- melting-pot nirvana -- to get to the point where race and gender didn't matter. Well, we've finally created a medium where that's possible. But now we're trying to make race and gender matter again. How crazy is that? That is, to paraphrase my West Virginia father [you see, I'm hillbilly, actually], bassackwards.

I don't always agree with Jeff but he is right on this time.
Read the whole thing.

Video Spotlight

Both Glenn and Roger have posts talking about their various new TV's.
While the new TV I posted about here is not as sexy as the flat panels they are talking about I have to say I am more than happy with my HDTV even though I have not gotten the HD tuner for it yet.

Rookies

One of our local talk radio stations KSEV, last year, decided to go into print online with what they call an alternative to the Houston Cronicle primarily because they were mad at the Cronicle for a number of things and there is no alternatve to the Cron's very liberal point of view in Houston.
The online rag,now called the Lone Star Times, (you don't even want to know what their original name was, trust me) has evolved and they now refer to it as a blog, which it is since they are using blogging software and also because now all of a sudden these people who probably didn't know the word two years ago think it is cool to be a Blog.

I think it is great thet is is now thought cool to be a Blog but I digress.

Yesterday they did something really cool. The put up this post where they offered:

While we still need to talk to some sharp lawyers and nail down the details, if these restrictions come to pass, KSEV and LST are committed to working out a legally sound way in which individual bloggers– of every ideological persuasion and partisan affiliation– can somehow register with us and be credentialed as a press representative of KSEV and LST.

Like I said a very cool idea.

Well Glenn at the big blog caught wind of this and threw them a link which made their hits go through the roof, something we all know fondly as an Instalance.

I was listening to them gush about it on the radio coming home from work last night and the breathless wonder they expressed on the air suggested the title of this post.

Welcome to the real blogosphere boys.

Goings on

Speaking of Glenn whose wife is in the hospital, I offer my prayers that she her procedure goes well and she gets home soon.

On a sadder note our friend Kim had raised some money to equip some sharpshooters he had met who are now fighting for our freedoms in Iraq. One of them Sgt. Adam Plumondore has fallen victim to a car bomb attack. Our heart goes out to the family of this brave american.

Speed of the Internet

As I continue to go through closed posts to comments and pings one by one I am struck by some old posts, July 2003, where I was commenting on what a big thing it was that blogs has been mentioned on a major TV program.

If you think back just 18 months ago very few people outside of our circle knew who we were and now hardly a day goes by without blogs in general or specific bloggers (Glenn as well as Ana Marie) are been talked about or interviewed on the tube. We have not quite got respectibilty yet but respectibilty in PJ's is IMHO as amazing journey that we have gone in quite a short time.

Rock on Dudes.

Another One Bites the Dust

A fine blog that I have linked to though never put on my blog roll, The Ville, is packing it up.

It had some fine pictures, posts and some good music.
Sorry to see it go.

Life is too short

I went to this web site following a link from Glenn to this post.

What I found when I looked further was this post.
I have been a Road Warrior and I have lost people close to me my age and younger, it hit home.

As they say you have to stop and take time to smell the roses, of which I bought two today but that is another post.

Update: It looks like some problems with links. I will fix them later. Glenn and Frank both seem to be down at the moment.

Buy this book

Well the elder god of blogging is just a few days behind me but go out and buy Bill Whittle's book anyway. It is number 401 on Amazon and rising.

Silent America: Essays from a Democracy at war.

Reading Room

Great article on blogs in Fortune that you can read here.

Something else that you can read online but you really should buy the book is Bill Whittle's Silent America.

Something you can't read online, at least I don't think, so is Hugh Hewett's book Blog.

New Blog - Sort of

I have been a little remiss in not calling the attention to the return of one of my favorite bloggers, Rachel Lucas whose new site is the Blue Eyed Infidel.

It sounds like she has been reading Allah too much.

Check her out, it is worth the trip.

Thanks Steven

A lot of us in Blogdom, myself included, were inspired and owe a debt of gratitude we can never repay to Steven Den Beste.

He has retired from blogging likely to never return. The reasons can be found here .

Thank You Steven and I wish you all the best.

Unreal

I continue to rank impossibly high in the Ecosphere but I seemed to have peaked at 411 and have now fallen to 420. I assume the bug has not been fixed yet.

Dead Pool 2005

Lair is doing the Dead Pool again this year and it is not too late to get your entries in for 2005, just go here.

Unlike last year I at least made it unto the scoreboard this year thanks to the overdue passing of Yassar Arafat.

Retrograde

We have developed a saying at work over the last few weeks as things seem to be going awry. Much the same as things seem to be happening to this lady.

The cause of our problems and hers is the planet Mercury which is currently in retrograde.

Being a former Astronomy major I course have been long aware of what retrograde motion is. It is the apparent movement of a planet backwards in the sky caused by our own planets revolution around the sun. I didn't realize, until it was pointed out to me, how this affected things in a Astrological way.

I don't of course believe in Astrology and like any true double Aries I know I am entirely responsible for all my headlong rushing about but this Mercury stuff is starting to make sense. I can't wait until it is over on the 19th and I am so glad that I got my car before it started.

What really matters

What really matters to some people is getting a high vote count on the wizbang weblog awards.
Not people like Meryl who is asking for votes but whoever it is that has caused Kevin to put in one of those things where you have to enter some numbers to proceed.

I guess someone set up a robot to vote multiple times and Kevin is reacting to it. I just don't get it.

Peeps of the Year - Bloggers

I don't know how Time does their selection but if you are looking for a group that has had influence in the past year I would vote for bloggers.

Last year we were pretty much a fringe group. Oh we had been around for a while, even I had been blogging for more than 18 months at this time last year, but every time there was a mention of bloggers on a major media outlet it was a big thing and lots of us wrote it up. Now I am stuck by how many matter of fact references Bloggers get and how many people have heard of us. Even my cousin in NYC who doesn't have a computer knows about bloggers.

People like Glenn, Jeff and Roger are regularly of news shows.

The reason for this is of course Rathergate, but if it hadn't been that there would have been another incident where the new media broke out to such an extent that they could not be ignored by the dinosaurs at Black Rock and other media fortresses.
Maybe it would have been the UN Oil for food scam which is still being under investigated.

Whatever it might have been it would have happened and now the genie is out of the bottle. We are strong, we are invincible, I just hope that we don't get so full of ourselves that we become stupid.

Note:
Man of the Year should really be Prisedent Bush but the wimps at Time will go to any extreme in order to not give him his due.

Non-Political Blogging

I came home early this afternoon and was watching CNBC , which I usually don't do this early, and they featured a Blogger, Queen of Sky whose blog is called the Diary of a Flight Attendant. I guess you could call it non-political except all of a sudden she is in the middle of a free speech fight since her airline(Delta) has canned her becuase of some pictures that she posted on her site. (scroll down)

More on this from Cathy Seipp.

I am posting more?

Well at least Stoney seems to think so. I guess I was posting even less than I thought. I do have a bunch of pictures to put up maybe even tonight.

I have four days off who knows what I might do.

Have a happy Turkey day everyone.

New Essay

Not me silly, Bill Whittle. Since it is probably going to take me all night or maybe two to read it (I am in a mood), just follow the link. I am sure it is as worthy of your time as all of Bill's posts have been.

Pictures from Dallas Weekend

I didn't take many pictures this weekend due to being busy talking and listening(mostly listening) to the other people there.
Here are a few quick snaps, first the host and bar.
Kim thought I was going to blackmail him with this but I told him that a picture of him mixing adult beverages would shock no one.

This is a picture of us outside of the DFW range on Sunday. Notice the various rifles on the pavement. They were only about half of what was actually there.
Kim is telling stories about people trying to hold up gun shops. Not a very wise thing to do.

Great Weekend

I had a great weekend in Dallas courtesy of Kim and Connie du Toit.
Saturday started out talking with the other guests both bloggers and non-bloggers. This was followed by a marvelous meal prepared by Connie who fed us like us like kings and queens.
Sunday was spent at the DFW range where I got to try out some handguns and found out what a rotten shot I am compared to some folks there. Of course when you are shooting at at target with Osama's picture you do have extra motivation.

Kim and Connie thank you for sharing your home with me and the other people there and for hosting this event in the first place. Having done things like this before I know they don't just happen but you both made it seem so easy.

I did manage to take a few pictures which will appear later. I had intended to do a series of posts last night but I was just too worn out.

The new Element performed better than I expected. I am a little confused. When I bought it it seemed to me to be a boy car but when I was getting the bugs washed off by the Plano HS band on Saturday I refered to it as a she. Unlike computers I usually don't name cars though I do identify them as male or female. I will have to see on this one.

Also got my new cell phones Friday. Now I can not only have my ringer play more rings including classical snippits but it takes pictures too

Update: More on the weekend and one of the wonderful shared moments here on Connie's blog.

John Kerry this morning

Diana has the kind of observation about John Kerry that she used to have all the time.
I saw him on Meet the Press this morning too and I agree with her.

He ain't going nowhere. Because he's simply unbearable. Because he is the kind of man who can say things you might agree with but you are still saying to yourself, "he is so full of shit." The hook, please.

one less blogspot

Rachael at Mookie Riffic has moved to MT.
Will be the last person on Blogger please shut off the lights.

Something only I could do

I think I set a new record. I must be the only blogger ever mentioned on Glenn's blog who got not a single referral from it.
Oh well, back to the drawing board.


Listening To: Sad Song - Lou Reed

WOW

I sent Glenn an email mentioning my post on Wifi in Houston Libraries and he actually mentioned it on the Big Blog.
I think I better go to sleep now and quit while I am ahead.
Since it was added as an update I probably won't get my bandwidth trashed but it is an exciting first.


Listening to: You Turned My World Around - Frank Sinatra

Welcome Home

Lt. Smash has the story of his return from Kuwait. Good Reading.
Welcome Home Sailor.


Listening to: Fame and Fortune - Elvis Presley

Another ex-frenchman

Another story linked from Merde about a former frenchman now living in the US who went back for a visit.
I wish some of our own citizens could appreciate this country the same way that those from foriegn countries do.
To be honest I think most do but a lot of them just don't know how good they have it.

People confuse me sometimes

Sometimes, rarely, I misjudge people.
With Diana I don't think it is my problem, it must be hers.
I am convinced that this blogger has a multiple personality disorder.
A few days ago she wrote a piece titled
Angry Vengeful rant for which I will probably be sorry for one day and I can't undertand why she thinks she would be sorry for it.
The post rakes the Palestinian's over the coals in reaction to the bombing in Isreal.
It is not as good as the post written by the Emperor Misha on the same subject but a fine rant about something that should concern all civilized people.
Back to Diana.
Then she makes this post about Mel Gibson's unreleased movie the Passion and I think she is off her meds again.
She reads an article written by someone who may or may have not even seen the movie, which will not even be released until next spring and concludes that Christian-Jewish relations are headed for the rocks.
On top of that she jumps on Christian conservatives for something that has not even happened yet and IMHO will not.

Oh, and I don't give a shit what Christian conservatives think, and I don't understand why anyone would conclude from what I've written that I do. But I think that the blogosphere Likudniks would at least recognize the situation.

Not content with that she rants that she would enjoy a Dean Presidency, which I think would be a major disaster to not only our defense but our way of life.
I must say that I am impressed for in one sentence she not only shows how shallow her support of Dean is but manages to display a level of religious intolerance that I had not before noticed in her postings.

One of the reasons why I'd enjoy a Dean Presidency is because I am sick and frikkin' tired of our Psalm-singing President, and I am sick of pretending that I enjoy his form of Christianity. It makes me want to puke.

No Diana you don't have to like the president and I cannot fathom why you would pretend that you enjoy his form of Christianity since I believe you are Jewish as am I.
Already having displayed a shallowness that her other personality hadn't she goes on to come out of the closet as an elistist who obviously believes that unless a person went to an Ivy League school like she did that their opinions don't count for a shit.

I want a White House that looks like me. I want a White House with two neurotic Ivy-League products of the NY-area who take their religion lite. Lite, like me.

Well Diana since you are a neurotic Ivy-League product of the NY-area I guess we will just have to treat your future opinions for what they are worth, namely the end result of the dysfuntional education that our best universities now deliver.
Since you are, as you admit not religious, you can hardly have any idea what motivates the millions of americans who are very or somewhat religious.
We should regard you by the words you write and consider all your posts as you have categorized yourself LITE.

Bowling for ...

Rachel has a good piece on her take on the infamous Michael Moore flick.

Comments

I just got finished reading a post on Jane's blog about some things that Joe Conason said.
Reading the post wasn't so bad but going through the comments was a major task. It makes me happy I don't have as much traffic as she does. I would try to keep up with the comments and I barely have enough time to do what I should be doing now.
If it ever gets that bad here I may bail.

Venomous Roundup

No I am not going to say anymore about this.
Kevin however has an overview of some of the cross currents that have build up on various blogs and their comments.
Not much new but for those who are interested more background material.

My last word on this (I hope)

I have to admit I am not very sure about this whole thing between Kate and Joanie.
Obviously there was bad blood there or at least friction for a while now.

Continue reading "My last word on this (I hope)"

Curiouser and Curiouser

As Alice said.
Doing some diligent surfing I think I have found the other end of this latest blog war but I have to admit I am no closer to finding the truth of the matter. In fact things are getting murkier by the moment.
I have to go tend to my poor car but I will return and try to sift through the murk to find a pearl or two.
If you want to try to figure it out your self try going to da Godess and reading more from Greg.
I will have more to say on this later.

Update : I was leaving but Dave has a good overview of exactly what happened. At least he is reportiong both sides with relevant links.

Nastiness in the Blogosphere

I know that some of you were pretty upset with the Moxie/Moxiepop dust up a few months ago but in relation to this mornings latest outrage that was nothing.
You can read about it on Kate's Blog.
Someone had the viciousness to call child protective services on Kate.
The sheer , I can't say stupidity because it doesn't sound like it was done by a stupid person, gall of whoever did this ranks in my list of all time detestable online related acts.
Go over to Kate and give her a good word or two she can probably use the support.
Others who have chimed in on the topic are Michele , Dean and Adam.
There are more links on Kate's site.

Stereotypes

Dawn seems to have gotten herself a lot of heat for this post on the blackout where she reffered to Michael Bloomberg:

I don't like to say this, but an extremely rich, selfish Jewish man should not be mayor of New York.

I commented at the time that she should have probably left the jewish part out but others who are less tolerant of her style have said a lot worse it seems.
Today she writes that some have said that she is an anti-semite and she tries to explain herself.
Dawn seems to say that because someone fits into a certain stereotype it is ok to refer to them that way.
It is NOT.

Continue reading "Stereotypes"

Kate Blew it

One of the nice things about blogging is you get the chance to write whatever you want and make an ass of yourself in front of the entire internet.

Kate didn't make an ass out of herself but she sure blew a call when she posted Ten Reasons Arnold won't run yesterday.

She has been on a roll recently but it just goes to prove, you can't win 'em all.


Listening To: Rocket Man - Elton John

More From Diana

I am continuing to follow the changing attitudes of Diana Moon.
Diana was one of the first blogs I read and along with Meryl inspired me to start my own.
She really has gone into uncharted areas though.

I've spoken with a lot of people recently, all of them supporters of the war. We've all developed tremendous misgivings. Every day, every new American death, every ambush, and I feel those doubts grow. Am I not supposed to blog about that?

From what did she and her friends develop misgivings?
Perhaps they all thought that we would march into Baghdad and the people would be cheering in the streets?
That would have been nice but that only had a 10 to 20 percent chance and only if we had gotten Saddam during the war.
No one likes seeing american boys getting killed but this what happens in war.
This is what war is all about and if they supported it, as they say they did, they should have realized that this could happen.
These are not the kind of people you would find drinking latte at Starbucks.
They are animals.
They are vicious, depraved killers.
They won't go easily.
We are going to have to root them out and put them somewhere where they can't hurt others.
My own preference would be six feet under but I suppose we are too civilized for that.
It is going to be a messy business but we will get it done.
In contrast I am pretty upbeat about Iraq because I think things could be going a lot worse, a whole lot worse.
Things may still go a whole lot worse but it looks like we have a handle on the situation and it is improving.


Diana also has some strange ideas about National Defense.

I think that true national defense consists of getting our education system together, because if we had a crack K-12 system we would create our own cognitive elite instead of having to import it from abroad.

Where do I start?
I will grant that our K-12 school system, especially in our major cities is a mess. Howard Dean is not going to change that. If Bush could get a voucher program through congress it would go a long way to moving in the right direction.
The school system is not national defense however.
In some ways it is more important than national defense but it has taken us a long time to let it get as screwed up as it is and it is a problem that we are not going to solve overnight.
Fixing the school system, not just K-12 but the colleges also is going to be a major factor in the future direction of this country.


Real national defense is concerned with breaking things and killing people.
For this Howard Dean would be a disaster.
The world is a messy place, to quote Rush's Undeniable Truth of life #6: Ours is a world governed by the aggressive use of force.
This is not something Howard Dean understands.
Saddam understands this, so does Bin Laden. Every two bit dictator knows this.
The mullahs in Iran and the generals in North Korea understand this.
The Chinese understand this, that is why they are continuing to build missiles that can reach Taiwan.
When Dean was on Meet the Press last, he didn't have a clue. When Russert asked him about the military he gave some lame answer about his advisors. Who are these advisors?
Let's hope that Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is not one of them. I recently watched her on TV and was amazed that a woman from California could think herself an expert of military matters just because she was elected to congress.
She is the kind of person, and so is Dean, who would overule generals on tacitcal metters that they have no business being involved in.
Bush at least seems to have enough sense to let the generals do their jobs.


The final problem I have with this post of hers is this idea of a "cognitive elite".
We have plenty of "cognitive elites" already.
What we need is basic citizens who know how to read.
Who know enough to be productive members of society.
Who know who the Founding Fathers were and what they did.
We need people who know what is in the constitution.
We need people who know that the purpose of the bill of rights is to limit what government can do.
We need people who can work together to build a better America for our children and our children's children.

Diana, we Thought We Knew You

Diana, we thought we knew you
Ever since Diana has returned to blogging she has posted things very much at odds with her previous attitudes or so it seems to me.
Since she is no longer answering her emails, at least the ones I send, which she used to, I can not say what is up with her or even if it is the same person doing the posting as the postings I read in the old Letter from Gotham.
Now she has really gone off the deep end claiming she is going to vote for Dean.
I find this very strange because in my previous discussions with her I got the impression that she was concerned with national defense and Dean would be a disaster for defense. Another reason I suspect a ghost blogger has taken over her identity.

We also killed a kid

We also killed a kid
That is a title of Diana's latest post. It is one of the most odd posts I have ever read on her blog. In an ideal world no one would shoot 14 year olds. In an ideal world 14 year olds would not shoot at you. What does she expect our soldiers to do when they have this kid shooting a AK-47 at them, offer him an ice cream cone?
Welcome to the real world kiddo, teens with guns can kill.
She also seems to think that we could have/should have taken them alive. There are some people how would rather not be taken alive. It is easy to understand why, they probably thought we would turn them over to Iraqis who would treat them the same way they treated so many of their countrymen.


Listening To: Another Day - Paul McCartney

Local boy makes it big

Local boy makes it big
Blogdom's own Steven den Beste has a post in the Opinion Journal today about why "We won't back down".

Blogs in the Media

Blogs in the Media
Good Op-ed here about blogging. I don't agree did the final quote though:

In the end, a blog is just a blog, but a newspaper -- cradled caffeinated in a morning lap curled barefoot into the seat of a porch rocker -- is a read.

.
I don't read newspapers, the writer who writes for one is certainly biased in that direction. We will find that blogs are a read indeed. Sometimes preferable to newspapers.
Current Song: Brass in Pocket - The Pretenders

Mookie Riffic

Rachael has written me that she didn't mean to remove me from her sidebar and the fact that she changed commenting facilities is why my comments were lost. She is a high school sophomore in Va. I hope she keeps posting because my own daughter is starting high school this year and I will need to know as much as I can about what goes on there. This is actually my second round with a teenage daughter. I managed to live through my step-daughter's teenage years even though we were not married then and she turned out pretty well. I can only hope that is has better prepared me for the next several years.
She is also a Mercedes Lackey fan which is a great thing to be in my book.
Current Song: Things I could be - James Gang

You win some you lose

You win some you lose some
It seems that Dawn has decided to add me back into her sidebar. Dawn is a great read, soon to me mom again and I urge everyone to check her out,er read her blog I mean but I guess she wouldn't mind you checking her out either.
On the other hand Rachael of Mookie Riffic apparently didn't like some comments I made about her statement that "they just help me prove that America isn't as great a place as people think.", based on one book she read that was very critical of all things US and had some stats to support that which seemed very dubious. She not only removed me from her sidebar but my comments are gone also.
I will give both ladies credit for not making a big deal out of it and so neither will I. I is a beautiful day out, hot of course, and I intend to enjoy it while I can, before another lady named Claudette arrives here in the next day or so and makes life miserable for everyone in the area.

Crawly Amphibian

I know this is probably a mistake but I have moved up in the Blogosphere Ecosystem to 1274th into the category of Crawly Amphibian. That does not mean I am getting more hits but I was getting tired of being a Flippery Fish. By traffic I came in at 484, not bad.
Current Song: Caravan - Todd Rundgren

Return of Diana Letter from

Return of Diana
Letter from Gotham is back at this URL. Check her out, welcome her back and update your blogrolls, I have already updated mine.

Ecosystem

Ecosystem
According to the ecosystem where I am firmly set into the category of Flippery Fish I have two new blogs linking to me which I thought I should check out.


The first is About Face which must be hiding the link somewhere because I can't find it anywhere.

The other is Mookie Riffic where I found the link even though she neglected to put a 'break' after the URL so I ended up sharing a line with another blog.


Not that I am complaining mind you since I will accept any links that keep me from falling into the ranks of the Slimy Molluscs.

New Whittle

New Whittle
Bill Whittle has a new post named Trinity. Is it long, of course it is, but I read the whole thing, broken into two parts because he found a limit to what Movable Type could handle in one post. Meryl thinks he needs an editor.

Local blogger makes the big

Local blogger makes the big time
Houston's own Laurence Simon makes the print media in Salt Lake City on his findings on Sen. Hatch's Web site. The only thing that pisses me off is that they didn't give a link to Amish Tech Support which they obviously could have since they linked to Hatch's site.

Another Mover Silflay hraka has

Another Mover
Silflay hraka has moved to Movable type and a new domain. Sidebar will be updated soon.

He's Back. The Vodkapundit, Stephen

He's Back.
The Vodkapundit, Stephen Green is back and he agrees with me that we might see some bloodshed in Iran before long.