baldilocks

Tough and Tender

This week’s Cotillion contributions are excellent reads; Katrina, 9/11 and other subjects as well. Mary Katharine Ham, E-Claire and Zendo Deb are this week’s hostesses. Go check them out.

Nighty Night

Due to the incoherent spewing of a few of my commenters, I am forced to batten down the blog for the night and hold the comments and the trackbacks. It isn't that trollage bothers me all that much. It's just that, when I get up to see what's going on tomorrow, I want to edit only a few posts into something interesting, not a gazillion.

BTW, finding out that I am not white requires but a small amount of investigation. (This means: use the scroll wheel, geniuses.)

See all you fine people tomorrow, after I offer a burnt sacrifice to my idol, Karl Rove.

KATRINA RELIEF: Give.org

Interviewed

Go read my bio at Pajamas Media!

Read the other interviews also.

Back in the Mix

Hi there.

It’s nice to see that all of you good people--friend and troll alike—have been entertaining yourselves in my short absence. Additionally, thanks for all of the pertinent information. Now I’m back and ready for “fun.”

New fan, clean drive, most programs re-installed. Gee; it’s almost like having a tummy tuck.

No, I’m not going to complain about how much it cost. I’ll just be thankful that I was able to get it done.

I do have one problem: my email sundries--old mails and address book--were backed up and sit in a folder on my hard drive. How do I access this stuff and/or import it from one mail client to another (T-bird to Outlook)?

Stormy Tuesday

It’s Tuesday and that means that it’s time for the Amazons ladies of the Cotillion to have our say.

Mary Katharine Ham, Not a Desperate Housewife, A Mom and Her Blog and Girl on the Right are hosting this week’s Cotillion link fest. Lots of good stuff here, so what are you waiting for?

What's Up With The Bile?

Has everyone in the blogosphere gone stark raving nuts? Maybe it's the August heat. Perhaps it's because The Manolo is on hiatus (his shoes and his wit calm the nerves of the Baldilocks; perhaps it does that for others).

Who knows?

I just know that the there's a lot of screaming-banshee vintage vitriol out there right now; more than usual. Perhaps there's a more cynical answer: the vitriol is good for links and hits.

Can't argue with that.

Day By Day

Chris Muir has a worthwhile project going on. Go see what it is.

Cotillion

This week, I'm pleased to showcase part of the blogger alliance known as the Cotillion; women all; ladies, when appropriate. Other sites hosting this week's Cotillion are Darleen's Place, Maxed Out Mama and Small Dead Animals.

Crystal chronicles the perqs and perils of interviewing and networking.

Darleen points out to Eugene Volokh that what’s legal isn’t always moral or ethical. When the ACLU is the subject, that’s almost a given.

Dr. Sanity gives us a new bloggish twist on an old game: Bingo.

What’s that smell? Claire goes to the county fair.

Feisty Repartee's post has a bit of everything; you have your good friends, you have your praising God, you have your baby pooping at the wrong time and you have your husband without pants. Or something like that.

At Fistful of Fortnights, Sadie, who’s preparing to get hitched, gives us a view into the exciting lifestyle she’s giving up.

Florida Cracker points to the incredible sweet and wonderful story of the horribly burned and disfigured Afghan girl who was made to look beautiful again.

Free Thoughts, Stephania’s bilingual (Italian) blog contains many posts which document the war against terrorists and terrorist counterstrikes against freedom.

Girl on the Right notes that Bell Mobility (a cell phone service) quietly assisted passengers of the ill-fated Air France flight in Toronto last week.

Ilyka Damen took a bit of a hiatus last week

And Kelly’s co-blogger, SeanO, who mentors young conservatives at the the University of Rhode Island, highlights a Frontpage Magazine Article written by of his charges.

Enjoy!

(Cross-posted at the Cotillion website)

(Thanks to Jay Russell)

Kate Needs Your Help

Venomous Kate was one the first few bloggers to link to me when I got started (exactly) two years ago. So we go way back in blog years. I know how I’d be were I in Kate’s shoes. Not quite suicidal, but only because I don’t believe in it. Kate’s had an accident which ruined her teeth and, on her own, she can’t get them fixed. You know what to do. After all what’s the Fanged One without her fangs?

About Pajamas Media

I received an offer. I’m taking it. More here, here , and here

UPDATE: Another perspective.

The Cotillion This Week

The Cotillion rolls on via Sissy Willis, Portia Rediscovered, Ilyka Damen and KelliPundit.

Cotillion

This week, the Cotillion moves here, here and here.

Loads of interesting reading.

UPDATE: And here!

Cotillion

The Cotillion Carousel goes round and round at Dr. Sanity's place.

Hey, Bloggers

Go participate in Jack Lewis' survey; it’s quick and easy.

(Thanks to John Hawkins)

Citizen Warrior Journalist

Everyone is linking to the missives of Michael Yon for a very good reason. At first I thought that he was the latest in a long line of willing and able OIF warriors whose musings were unfiltered by the traditional media and unhampered—for obvious reasons--by unwillingness to venture outside of the Green Zone, the “safe” area for journalists in Baghdad.

As it turns out, Mr. Yon is a civilian who is doing what he’s doing because he wants to. I envy him and am grateful to him.

Go buy him a new camera, among other things.

Cooking With Gas

If you like to eat as much as I do—especially so since I quit smoking again—then you might want to check out this week’s Carnival of the Recipes. Even if you don’t cook, maybe you can sweet talk someone into whipping up one of these yummy-sounding dishes for you.

Mouthy Women

Including me. The Cotillion caravan is resting at Feisty Repartee this week. Go check it out.

Sounds Like Fun

Babalu is blogging for the Cuba Nostalgia Convention for the next few days. Go check him out.

Problems

The Reverend Donald Sensing has a problem with the portrayal of Christians in the movie Kingdom of Heaven; but it may not be the problem that you suspect.

Paul Jané has a problem with a couple of paintings at the Canadian War Museum; so do many Canadian warriors.

David Anderson had a problem with his website, so he’s regrouped and redesigned.

Greyhawk presents evidence that the alleged religious problem at the Air Force Academy is bogus.

Rusty Shackleford is a problem—for at least one terrorist.

And in Aaron’s version of Star Wars, Obi-Wan’s got a problem with weapon appropriateness.

UPDATE: Jeff has a whole list of professional whiners critics that have problems with Kingdom of Heaven.

A Little Linkage

Solomon on “The Culture of Disrespect.”

Beth has gathered a lot of the South Park portraits in one place. Hilarious and cute!

Kelley of Suburban Blight is back!

One of these lives right across the street. Another lives two blocks away with the same house number as mine. Of course, this is LA; doors and windows stay locked anyway. I’ve ceased power-walking in the area.

I wish I had thought of this sort of thing when I was a kid.

Cal Tech Girl is hosting this week’s Carnival of the Recipes.

And Varifrank reminds us that commies are against having fun.

Let’s amend that last sentence to ‘most commies.’ What’s that sound? It’s the sound of a joke flying over the head of some of the Commissar’s readers.

An Arduous Task

Here's a multi-post Bear Flag League Roundup by Justene at CalBlog. Eighty-one blogs and counting!

Serendipity

The kerfuffle regarding the Conservative Brotherhood at Wizbang has yielded a lot of comments and some interesting posts and outcomes at other blogs.

Here's proof that good things often come unexpectedly: David Anderson, a liberal/leftist blogger and Cobb--the Conservative Brotherhood was his brainchild--have cleared up a misunderstanding and buried the hatchet like the classy gentlemen they are.

Jeremy Pierce of Parablemania articulates the reasoning behind the existence of the CB quite well.

One reason we can pretty much know that this isn't some kind of separatist notion of gathering together to the exclusion of all others is just from observing an empirical fact. Most of the members of the Conservative Brotherhood have mostly white readers, and many of them belong to some of the blog alliances I've already mentioned that have nothing to do with race. Most of the links from CB blogs go to blogs by white people. I'm sure at least most of them spend lots of time reading and commenting on blogs by white people. This is not isolation. It's not exclusion. It's not separatism. It's a formation of an alliance from a shared background for a very particular purpose. That purpose requires that the people allying in this case be black.

Additionally, he points out that if CB’s aim was to separate itself from others, that at least one member has an odd way of demonstrating this alleged goal.

The fact that one of the members is married to a white man, is watering down what's left of African ancestry in her genes through reproduction that has led to kids whose skin tone looks like that of some Italians, and has mostly white friends, at least of those in town, just shows how silly these claims are.

And Jack at Random Fate doesn’t quite get it, but, unlike some others, is open to getting it, which is all one human being can ask of another.

I always am searching for my brothers and sisters of the heart. I don't give a damn what color their skin is or the shape of their eyes or noses or mouths are.

In this, as in most other things, it appears I have little if any company.

I, at least, am with you, Jack. You do acknowledge in your post, however, the complexity of race issues as they exist today. Today, the types of overt enemies against whom you battled are toothless. (I was going to say Senator Robert Byrd notwithstanding, but at his age, he’s probably literally toothless also; his political clout is another matter, however.) Closed-mindedness is the enemy that has teeth now.

Perhaps saying this will ease the complexity a bit: as is so for like nearly any other type of topic, race issues aren’t static. Sometimes the dimensions are interracial, sometimes intra-racial; sometimes social issues are at the forefront, other times political issues upstage all others. Sometimes there might be a combination of these forces at work or none of them.

Unlike in the Klan rally you disrupted (heh), one can’t run over a blind spot in the thinking (no matter how much one may wish it were so). And that enemy is what many of all hues and perspectives are facing. Conservatives who happen to be black merely get their own flavor of stereotype, often from people in their own families (see Jeremy's post). Other groups (for example, white southern males) have other kinds of stereotypes leveled at them. The stereotypers may be different, but one trait they likely share, I'll bet, is the inability to see past their own noses and past previously received "wisdom."

All of you: well done, gentlemen.

Administrative note: tomorrow is the last day of school and my school work is done, so I’ll probably get back to doing some original posting after I come back from my appointment to have my head examined eyes checked.

UPDATE: Speaking of heads in need of examination... ;-)

This Has Potential (UPDATED)

Don’t forget. The bloggers of INDC Journal and Protein Wisdom have their weekly gabfest on RightTalk Radio today at 3PM EST.

Today’s guests: Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, Rob Harrison of Our Hobbit Hole and Oliver Willis of Oliver Willis. Yawn.

Just kidding! Pop some popcorn.

UPDATE: BAM!!!! First we get to hear two dorks going back and forth in the New Energized Tone.

Oliver was a no-show, but we got to find out some of Charles' personal views on the WOT, the Bush Administration and the potential domestic Islamist threat. Additionally, we got to find out which set of roadies had the best pharmaceuticals between those of Stanley Clarke, George Duke and Al Jarreau (Charles is a Jazz guitarist).

And most importantly, we got to find out the intricacies of building a Hobbit hole for the veritcally-challenged hairy foot set. I'm sure the folks at It Comes in Pints enjoyed that segment.

The show is still finding its theme, but the charm of its hosts can keep it afloat for a while.

Next Week: Ace of Spades

New Media

Bill and Jeff interview Glenn on Right Talk Radio.

UPDATE: And the other Jeff!

Reading the Fine Print

Even that brave warrior, John Kerry, trembles before the great pajama-clad unwashed.

“… there's a subculture and a sub-media that talks and keeps things going for entertainment purposes rather than for the flow of information. And that has a profound impact and undermines what we call the mainstream media of the country. And so the decision-making ability of the American electorate has been profoundly impacted as a consequence of that. The question is, what are we going to do about it?"

Well. It appears that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has an answer. Since many others have long been on to the FEC’s attempt to expand the tenacles tenets of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002—better known as the McCain-Feingold Act--to blogs. While I did sign this letter for FEC Chairman Scott Thomas requesting an exemption for bloggers, Patterico thinks the letter should have a broader scope. He cites this portion of the letter,

While paid political advertising on the Internet should remain subject to FEC rules and regulations, curtailing blogs and other online publications will dampen the impact of new voices in the political process and will do a disservice to the millions of voters who rely on the web for original, insightful political commentary.

and responds,

In my view, political speech is speech at the core of the First Amendment. Neither the FEC nor any other government agency has any right to regulate it in any way. When my right to engage in such speech is threatened, my impulse is not to seek out a law carving out some exception for my speech. My impulse is to tell those responsible that they can go to hell.

Look at the big picture, folks. This isn’t about our precious Internet. It’s about the very concept of free speech.

What we’re seeing is not a crazy offshoot of campaign finance “reform” legislation. It’s a logical consequence of it. Something this important can’t be handled by legislation, and left to the whims of lawmakers and regulators. It is a constitutional issue, and affects all free speech. We must treat it that way.

Is anyone out there with me?

(Emphasis Patterico’s)

I think you may have a point, Counselor. Most of us--left and right--are in agreement that McCain-Feingold is unconstitutional, but I think that we were beginning to resign ourselves to its existence, which is reflected in the letter. You may just be shaking us awake.

So now what? How do we legally dispatch McCain-Feingold?

You’re the lawyer, dude.

(Thanks to Tim Blair and Charles G. Hill)

Looking at the Navel Again

If you’re tired of the “white male hegemony” that is the blogosphere, sit your butt down in the chair and write. Otherwise, stop whining!

"It has taken 'mainstream media' a very long time to get to [the] point of inclusion," Jenkins wrote. "My fear is that the overwhelmingly white and male American blogosphere ... will return us to a day where the dialogue about issues was a predominantly white-only one."

After the comment was posted, a couple of the women at the conference—bloggers MacKinnon and Halley Suitt—looked around and saw that there weren't many other women in attendance. Nor were the faces yapping about the failings of Big Media representative of the human quiltwork one would see in the streets of Cambridge or New York City, let alone overseas. They were, however, representative of the top 100 blogs according to the Web site Technorati—a list dominated by bigmouths of the white-male variety.

I can see it now. “New, Fast, Free Blog Software For White Men Only. Never Be Bothered By Those Pesky Broads and Negroes Again!”

Is there going to be a “Lift Every Keyboard and Blog” Conference? “Why Johnny Won’t Blog?” “Take Back the Blog?”

People will engage in the activities that hold their interest, including writing and reading blogs of choice. There are plenty of black blogging voices out there, including Negrophile and our own Conservative Brotherhood and a gazillion female bloggers. Is there going to be a push for a TTLB or Technorati Affirmative Action? A token top 100 spot for each selected group?

Does the blogosphere have a diversity problem?

No, but the people worried about this nonsense do.

So why, when millions of blogs are written by all sorts of people, does the top rung look so homogeneous? It appears that some clubbiness is involved. Suitt puts it more bluntly: "It's white people linking to other white people!"

Oooo! And we know what happens when white people link to each other! Blogcest! Blogs born with deformed blogrolls and cleft trackback options!

Suitt challenged people to each find 10 bloggers who weren't male, white or English-speaking—and link to them. "Don't you think," she says, "that out of 8 million blogs, there could be 50 new voices worth hearing?"

It is an Affirmative Action proposal. Whatever. I can picture my blogroll and think of far more than ten without being totally awake (I’ve given up caffeine for a bit). And thanks Miss (Mr.?) Suitt, but I'll get by on my own merits.

Sure, folks, I’ll accept your links--most of you--and be happy for them. However, I hope you’re linking to me because I say something that interests you, not because you think you “should.”

Harvard sure has a lot of money to waste spend.

(Thanks to La Shawn who's guest-blogging at Vodkapundit)

UPDATE: Cobb, tongue-in-cheek, has an offer for the A-List bloggers,

I hereby submit Cobb for the consideration of all A-List Bloggers as the Head Negro in Blogs. Send me your poor, huddled vanillified readers yearning to breathe diversity. I lift my banner beside the olive greed sidebar!

within a longer, more serious and interesting post on the subject. For my money, Cobb should be on that A-List through sheer quality.

Bleeding Brain's Got A Secret

Sort of… go see what it is.

My Secret Life, Part One

My Secret Life, Part Two

My Secret Life, Part Three

Links

I have a question: who?

Noel muses on the left’s shifting definition of free speech, featuring Larry Summers and Ward Churchill.

Rae’s in town to do the Larry Elder (TV) Show! Way to go!

Acidman has his readers contributing to his series on the Mars and Venus of it all. Go see my entry.

Another battle won in the War on Dirt Drugs!

Speaking of controlled substances, check out this fish story.

Why does anyone bother trying to reason with an attention hog? (via Glenn)

Marty has some beautiful and sobering photos posted.

Marc Cooper is outraged at being listed in Discover the Network: A Guide to the Political Left .
Well, sort of.

And Ocean Guy gives us yet another cautionary tale regarding “beer goggles.”

Right Here, Dude!

Kevin Drum asks the musical question, “Where da White Women Female Bloggers At?" I suppose that he missed it when I took down his GWB AWOL-musings at his old site. But that was a blog-swarm extraordinaire, so I can’t get too worked up about it.

Actually, Mr. Drum answers the question for himself by taking a gander at the TTLB Ecosystem rankings, only to find that La Shawn, Michelle and Michele are among the bigwigs—so to speak. And that's just on the right side of the political divide.

So what's up? There aren't any institutional barriers in the traditional sense of the word, which means either (a) there are fewer female political bloggers and thus fewer in the top 30, or (b) there are plenty of women who blog about politics but they don't get a lot of traffic or links from high-traffic male bloggers.

My guess is that it's a bit of both, and the proximate reason is that men are more comfortable with the food fight nature of opinion writing — both writing it and reading it. Since I don't wish to suffer the fate of Larry Summers I'll refrain from speculating on deep causes — it might be social, cultural, genetic, or Martian mind rays for all I know — but I imagine that the fundamental viciousness and self aggrandizement inherent in opinion writing turns off a lot of women.

Women not vicious? Surely you jest, Mr. Drum. Any woman who has been part of any group comprised solely of women know that women can pull out the sharpest of knives on one of their number should that one commit some sort of offense—real or imagined. (Yes, that happened to me in a civilian workplace.)

Which begs another question: does this mean that women need to change if they want to enter the fray, or does it mean that the fray needs to change in order to attract more women? As usual, probably some of both. Unfortunately, the blogosphere, which ought to be an ideal training ground for finding new voices in nontraditional places, is far more vitriolic than any op-ed page in the country, even the Wall Street Journal's, and therefore probably turns off women far more than it attracts them.

Some of the august ladies of the blogosphere are giving Mr. Drum the beat-down for his comments. As you know, I’m not opposed to one of those myself, when warranted, but, this time, it isn't. The only problem I have with his statement is that the blogosphere needs to change to attract others.

Blogs, by their very nature, are the means to vent unedited opinion--polite or otherwise--and politics is an impolite, if entertaining, business. Both practices are for the big boys and girls. Delicate flowers of any genital architecture need not apply. To recommend that blog owner of the political bent “tone it down” is a leopard-spot suggestion.

I submit that to be a widely read political blogger, you need to have three things—along with that most-important ability to put together an idea in a coherent manner—to hang tough in and, dare I say, to enjoy this venue: a big mouth, a big ego and a thick skin. The proportion of each may vary with the individual, but I think all exist in most political bloggers at some level.

(Some of the more amusing comments I’ve received here point to my propensity to rant and my possession of a large ego. It’s like pointing out that I have dark skin. Such comments do make useful blog fodder, however!) :-)

Political bloggers are—for the most part--an excitable lot. Granted, the distaff portion of this group gets called “hysterical,” told that they’re “blowing a fuse and going off on a bizarre tear,” even though the guys rant just as often—more, since there are more of them. Exhibit A. :-P

Stereotype? Hey, we all do it everyday.

Michelle handled this sort of thing well. When Bret Stephens of WSJ dismissed her by saying that she was “suspended somewhere between meltdown and release” regarding the Eason Jordan remarks, she stuck the phrase in her tagline.

Here’s to vitriol and self-aggrandizement.

(Thanks to Ken Summers, who links to me early and often. {{{Ken}}})

UPDATE: I decided to emulate Michelle. Check the new tagline!

Filling In

Three volunteers, so far.

Volunteers, please be sure to introduce yourselves and provide a link to your blogs in your posts.

At least one of you will need no intro to many. :-)

Fill In For Me

Okay, I’m back, at least for the weekend.

Lots of comment-worthy events occurred during my impromptu vacation. Between the Inaugural, the Iraqi election, the State-of-the-Union address, the Social Security controversy, Secretary of State Rice’s Grand Tour and the dozens of lesser dramas that have dropped off in the last two weeks, I have a lot of catching up to do regarding current events. (In addition to not posting, I had also left off of surfing the news.)

And, as of the upcoming Monday, the forty-hour grind begins anew, lasting up to March first at least. Therefore, I’d like to request that those who wish to post here as co-bloggers during the work week send a volunteer notice in comments to this post or via email. Already, I have the intrepid Ith, but she’s a bit under the weather. (Be well, girlfriend.) I’d like to add nine more into the mix.

Your Guidelines

1. Try to keep the language clean—my mom’s reading. If you absolutely must drop the f-bomb, the synonym for a donkey-horse hybrid or the like in here, please use asterisks. (Yes I know that I haven’t always held to this standard, but I’ve tried mightily. I’d like you to do the same.)

I absolutely draw the line at taking the Lord’s Name in vain: don’t do it. (BTW, I’ve heard my mostly polite, proper and pristine mom drop the f-bomb on occasion; usually in traffic.) :-P
2. The subject matter need not be pristine, however.
3. I’d like for at least two people to post on a single day, Monday through Friday.
4. In the title, post your screen name in parentheses so a reader will know that it’s not me. No worries if you forget. I’ll fix it later.
5. You need not have a blog of your own to be considered.
6. You need not be a Christian or even a conservative Republican to be considered. Just remember the views of the majority of my audience—and those of the author--should you post something opposite to these creeds.

My Guidelines

1. I reserve the right to disagree with you—politely, of course—in comments.
2. If I violently disagree with you—or you step over the line--I’ll save my comments for email. You are doing me a favor, so my inclination to nail a given pelt to my wall will be suppressed. :-)
3. I’ll hook you up with a correction if I find any obvious misspellings (hey, I do it all the time). If an idea is unclear, I’ll ask you about it via email.

If you have a blog, don’t be shy about linking to it.

For those who do have blogs, I’d prefer that those persons with smaller traffic than mine apply for the position. However, if you’re a larger, warm-blooded creature with a more developed intellect than I, believe me, that will be no drawback to your being selected.

Don’t be afraid to stir up feces here. I’m no delicate flower and can deal with controversy. (Some might say that I *like* kicking up dust.) I’m a big girl.

I look forward to seeing who applies. More so, I look forward to reading what you have to say in my own little corner of this thing that connects people who would have never met otherwise.

Poking My Head In (Ith)

Hi, I'm Ith from Absinthe & Cookies, and Juliette asked if I'd guest blog here for a bit. Of course, I said yes -- although it's all rather intimidating! I'll do my best to try and be brilliant, or at least moderatly  amusing :)   That will start, uhhh, soon. Yep, real soon. As soon as I can think of something to post....

Thanks, J!

Wealth of Knowledge

Jason of CounterColumn (the blog formerly known as Iraq Now) exposes NY Times columnist Bob Herbert’s horrendous ignorance regarding the function of that old oxymoron, military intelligence.

In the commentary, Mr. Herbert also takes a shot at Lt. Gen. William Boykin. You remember him, don’t you? He’s the deputy undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence who also happens to be a member of one of the most feared groups in the world: fundamentalist Christians. Mr. Herbert seems to think that membership in this group somehow disqualifies General Boykin from taking an active part in any endeavors regarding national security.

Tell me, Mr. Herbert, does the military have a regulation that specifies to which religion its intelligence personnel can adhere? Will accepting Jesus Christ as Savior prevent competence at intelligence collection and analysis? And has the military never been involved in intelligence matters in the past? Surely, you know the answers to these questions from your apparent wealth of knowledge on both subjects. (That's sarcasm, folks. I know the answer to all of them.)

When did fundamentalist Christians—who occasionally annoy—become more feared than Islamists—who occasionally cut off folks’ heads? And when did fundamentalist Christians, as a group, become generally known for not doing their appointed duties as military men and women?

But I won’t fully fisk the column, since Jason has already done an able job.

(Thanks to Instapundit, who also tossed me an Instalanche in the link)

MilBlogs Roundup

This is but a mere sampler of the expressive abilities of those who are serving and have served in the US Armed Forces. For a much larger slice, click on the MilBlogs link. 109 members and going strong!

At Going Down Range, B. has some perspective on the problem of Afghanistan’s most profitable crop.

Blackfive posts a letter to actor Harrison Ford from Amy K., a Marine wife whose husband is presently in Iraq. Mr. Ford is slated to portray Marine General Jim Mattis in a movie about the Battle of Fallujah. In light of Mr. Ford’s previously published views on the Iraq War, Mrs. K. has a question for Mr. Ford. As do many others, undoubtedly.

David Green gets poked before going to Iraq. (Relax, it is a technical term among those of us who give shots for a living.) :-)

Remember Pablo Paredes? You know, the sailor who refused to board ship before his craft sailed to the Arabian Gulf? Well, he’s finally done the right thing: present himself to face the consequences of his actions. Additional in the post, Smash shows his Commander side!

Walt at Truth, Lies and Common Sense points out that the Brits aren’t taking Christmas bashing lying down either.

If you're old enough to die for your country, you're old enough to have a Bud.

Froggy may be a tough guy, but Superman would think twice about having to confront the raging nutcase in his own office. I suggest referring her to a doctor who prescribes HRT. Or valium. Wait! Maybe you should take that last one, Matt. ;-)

A One-Winger Pinger, Ramrod, back in The World, has some interesting musings on his Iraq deployment, among several other items.

What it’s really about: 2Slick points to Dr. Haim Harari’s April 2004 commentary regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Um, that's why God invented the dry cleaners, darling.

And Mrs.Greyhawk gives a review of a USO tour in Germany. (Mr. Greyhawk is in Iraq.)

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, etc. to all of you, whether you’re at home or in the hot places. (That would be Iraq and Afghanistan, not the Hot Place.) Much Love.

Lazy

As my loyal readers may have surmised, I am “not feeling” the posting that much. Must be the natural inclination to relax during the Christmas season.

However, I won’t be taking an actual break. What I will be doing is linking to others who are working through Christmas. And if the spirit moves me, some original content may be had here.

I’ll start by linking to myself. :-) Roughly three hundred posts ago I requested that you fine readers help me compose a “best of” list. Not much response, so here’s a prospective list (in alphabetical order):

A Little Substance, Please

Again With This Bovine Excrement

Blowing Smoke

Coin With Two Sides

Fear Itself

Measuring Up

One Word In Front of The Other

Open Letter to Monica Lewinsky

Questioning Patriotism

Renaissance Man Remembered

The Criterium

The Cooler

The Last Word On AWOL

The Lingo

The Standard

If you have any other suggestions, post ‘em. The choices will end up on one of the side bars.

Linkage

(I actually composed this one yesterday. It’s been a very long day)

More on rising violent crime in the UK: Scottish psychologist Dr. Ian Stephen gives some appalling advice to potential crime victims. Wretchard recalls where he’s seen this type of advice before.

Val takes down the Che Guevara spin and gets quoted about it in the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Additionally, here’s a picture of his fine self.

Accentuate the positive: DarkStar has some constructive suggestions for the black right and the black left.

Andrew Ian Dodge gives us a list of the latest politically-correct terminology.

Conversely, The Lion has a transcript of a very un-PC Carl’s Jr. commercial. Oh, Jacques Chirac will be ready to declare war! :::shudder::::

DCGI, an air traffic controller, is the relay for a cool exchange between a civilian Beechcraft Baron pilot and a B-52 pilot.

Stay Away From Musicians: Key tells a tale from her wayward youth (which I’m not so sure has ended).

And a Christmas poem for the Rough Men and Women from Indigo.

The Big A

An Allah sighting, along with a hilarious and interesting comment thread, can be found here. Isn't that just like a Deity? Throwing bones to the faithful every now and then. Come back, O Great One!

(Thanks to the Commissar)

Spirit of America Day Seven

The Fighting Fusileers are fine upstanding, all-American, teetotaling salt-of-the-Earth types unlike those preverts [sic] of the Northern Alliance. Or so says Cool Blue of the Blog. (Hey wait a minute! Aren’t some of those preverts on our team?)

Over four grand donated! (Click here to donate.)

Right Wing News

John Hawkins has his Third Annual 2004 Warblogger Award results posted. I was asked to contribute but was too late in submitting my ratings. However, many of the choices were my choices as well.

Additional, John submits his opinion on the remarks made by Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)—the Senate Minority Leader to-be—regarding Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Sunday had harsh words for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

When asked to comment on Thomas as a possible replacement for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Reid told NBC's "Meet the Press": "I think that he has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court.

"I think that his opinions are poorly written. I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice."[SNIP]

But the Nevada Democrat said that he could support Thomas' fellow conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, if he were nominated.

"I cannot dispute the fact, as I have said, that this is one smart guy," Reid said of Scalia. "And I disagree with many of the results that he arrives at, but his reasons for arriving at those results are very hard to dispute."

Says John:

Harry Reid's real problem with Clarence Thomas isn't the opinions he's written, it has to do with his skin color.

Larry Elder said much the same thing on his radio show yesterday. Well guess what? I’m going to have to disagree with two gentlemen who will usually make points that make sense to me.

The problem with assuming that Senator Reid dislikes Justice Thomas because he is a black conservative *using the evidence of the senator’s above statement* is that, to do so, one must assume that black people in general are notoriously bad writers and that the senator is playing to that stereotype.

Being unfamiliar with the quality of Justice Thomas’ written opinions in comparison to those of his peers--legal eagles may weigh in on this subject--I can’t comment one way or the other. However, if his writing abilities *are* inferior, it should be okay to say so, in spite of the recent denigration of the competence of other prominent black conservatives. If content of character is the tool against which all conservatives want to be measured, then it’s not racist to opine that a given black person isn’t up to a particular position, if it’s a legitimate opinion based on evidence.

Senator Reid isn’t off the hook, however. It’s interesting that Senator Reid didn’t give any examples of the justice’s allegedly less-than-stellar written opinions. Has the senator had actually read a Thomas opinion? Or was he just repeating the opinions of others who have spread the rumor that Justice Thomas isn’t quite up to snuff? Or was he merely playing to a portion of the Democrat base, a large portion of whom rabidly despise the youngest Supreme Court Justice? These are questions that probably have interesting answers.

Vote Early, Not Often

The voting has begun for Kevin Aylward’s Wizbang 2004 Weblog Awards.

Here are my picks. (BTW, I didn’t vote in the categories containing blogs with which I’m not familiar.)

Oh, and before you check my choices, the word is out that the denizens of a certain blog are using their technological prowess to…uh…rock the vote.

UPDATE: The rumor has been confirmed.

Day By Day Returns

A hearty "Welcome Back" is due to Chris Muir and, as usual, he has the scoop on the rest of us. It seems that a certain soon-to-be unemployed network anchor has come over to the dark side.

Brotherhood Blogging

Is Alberto Gonzales--mentioned in the last post as President Bush’s pick for Attorney General—a La Raza member? La Shawn provides some answers and commentary.

Cobb presents the Thanksgiving Cuteness Factor and then gets even more serious about images.

Michael K. reports that the NAACP came out to slam radio host John Sylvester and his characterization of Dr. Condoleezza Rice as an “Aunt Jemima.” There’s an appropriate graphic to go along with the post. (Good going, Mr. Mfume.)

Yes, Virginia. There are fine, upstanding men who happen to play in the NBA.

Samantha tells of a riot. Where? In Ephesus.

Molotov (Shay Riley) has many fascinating posts on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born Dutch parliamentarian, who, as an ex-Muslim, fears suffering the same fate as murdered Dutch filmmaker, Theo Van Gogh. Here’s Molotov’s latest on Ms. Ali.

Avery notes that it’s easy to throw historical stones at those who actually had to deal with Jim Crow.

I love fish too, PETA. Especially baked with lemon on top.

And just when some nice was said here about the NAACP, Scott reports on two of the organization’s more characteristic actions.

Most Wonderful Time of The Year

It's that time again. Wizbang is hosting the 2004 Weblog Awards. Vote your conscience!

There are thirty-three(!) categories.

Wanna be a Watcher?

The Watcher’s Council is looking for a new member. If you’re interested, follow the directions located in this link.

All Your Sleepwear Are Belong to Us

The Great Cartographer has a new layout of the bourgeoisie (and you *know* I had to look that one up).

Dean Esmay's New Swift Vet Interview

Dean has another powerful interview with Swift Vet Steve Gardner, a former enlisted man whose commander was then-Lieutenant John Kerry.

Here are the others:

George Elliot
Van Odell

BFL Roundup

C. Miller took on the the herculian task of composing a Bear Flag League overview. Wow! The league is humongous. Check it out after the debate (and/or the game).

Linkage

Greyhawk is in Iraq. Godspeed, good friend.

Paul’s recent laser eye surgery seems to not have affected his aim.

XRLQ is relishing his last few days of uninterrupted sleep. Possibly forever.

Bill at INDC Journal links to documented sightings of Moonbats in their natural habitat (Berkeley). Be prepared to fight down the overwhelming desire to pluck out both eyes.

Molotov points to a Washington Post article about demographics of Prince Georges County, Maryland: 63% black and definitely not poor.

And, finally, a post by the King of Fools that has to be read to be believed. Frankly, I still don’t believe it.

Excuses

Lame excuses for not blogging:

Bad:

• Kerry makes me tired.
• Household plumbing problems.
• It feels as though I broke my right little toe (even putting the covers on it hurts).

Good:

• Working, if only in a temporary position (yes! four hours on swing shift). I will limp in there this evening. See you tomorrow.

Fronting

Right-of-center bloggers have been disappeared.* At least by the New York Times they have.

The four blogs that showcased the most leg work in exposing the so-called Killian memos as forgeries—Powerline, LGF, INDC Journal and Allah—get nary a mention. Charles, the proprietor of LGF, says that he was even interviewed for this article, but there’s not one word about him, his blog or his posted proof that the memos were fraudulent. Matthew Klam even mentions “Memogate,” without mentioning the investigators.

Instead, Matthew Klam chooses to highlight bloggers of a certain bent. Take a WAG as to which. (Although, if I were Wonkette—in light of the info given here--I would have preferred it if Klam had not mentioned my name at all. I guess all that matters is that one’s name is spelled correctly, however.)

I don’t begrudge the big Leftist bloggers their place in the sun. I mean, after all, the Conservative Brotherhood received its exposure to the wider world. There are a couple of differences, however. The article about us appeared in a known and admitted conservative publication—the National Review—and specifically stated that its focus was to highlight black conservative bloggers. In contrast, Klam’s commentary, published in the most famous newspaper in the world—nominally a non-partisan publication (no laughing)--appears to assert that high-traffic blogs feature mainly leftist content:

Left-wing politics are thriving on blogs the way Rush Limbaugh has dominated talk radio, and in the last six months, the angrier, nastier partisan blogs have been growing the fastest.

Mr. Klam probably didn't know about this:

Seven of the Top Ten blogs in the TTLB ecosystem are decidedly non-leftist in nature. A mere mention of this, an outright statement that the piece was a showcase for left-of-center blogs or leaving out the CBS Fraudulent Memo story, might have saved this article. Of course, if Mr. Klam had had any prior knowledge about the leading blogs and their traffic indices, he would have never called Charles in the first place.

I wonder if the purpose of the omission of the conservatives was to keep from sending people to their blogs? :shrug: No biggie. I do that too, but I don't try to front about it.

*Glenn Reynolds, perennially at the top of the blogger food-chain, gets a bare mention; so does Andrew Sullivan. That both repudiate the conservative tag made a difference that's really no difference, however.

UPDATE: Great minds think alike.