. . . at a lowish-but-respectable level. I take it the best ways to bulid traffic are:
1) come up with a turn of phrase clever enough to attract the attention of Glenn Reynolds;
2) provoke arguments among my readers about abortion;
3) run pictures of my chest; and
4) criticize abusive fundamentalist preachers.

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Blogging Rules, Blogkeeping, Stacy's Crew 6 Comments »

. . . rolls on, with today’s initiation of the Big Peace website.

Posted in Around the 'Sphere No Comments »

And John Hawkins is a pro; listen to him.

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Blogging Rules, Blogkeeping, The Writing Life, + Novels No Comments »

How funny; Townhall.com just sent me an utterly hysterical email this morning about what the “radical homosexuals” are up to. Does Salem know about the scaremongering Townhall is engaging in, in order to raise funds? If it does, is it also aware that Hot Air is chock-full of “homosexual” sympathizers? Townhall:
The Homosexual Lobby played a [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Civil Liberties, Gay Marriage 5 Comments »

. . . on the Mosab Yousef case.
Also posting on Mosab Yousef are Pundette, Nice Deb, Darleen, Israel Matzev, and Atlas Shrugs.
And, of course, Bob Belvedere, The Lonely Conservative, and the excellent Maggie’s Notebook.
For the latest on the fight to prevent Mosab Yousef from being deported/executed, please visit the amazing blog that Maggie, Bob, [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Islam, Israel and Its Friendly Neighbors, Mosab Yousef, new media No Comments »

Carol of “No Sheeples” fame has joined the cause! Here’s the graphic she produced:
For years, this man risked everything to stop terrorism and save innocent lives, but the United States Department of Homeland Security is considering deporting him.
In 2007, Mr. Yousef came to the United States, where he converted to Christianity from Islam and applied [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Faith and Faiths, Freedom of Speech, Golden State, Immigration, Islam, Israel and Its Friendly Neighbors, Mosab Yousef, Organizing, Prayer Requests, Stacy's Crew, Trust the Gubmint, new media 5 Comments »

As Insty likes to point out, it’s “seldom” a hot idea to do this.
(Of course, if one does not comply with their threats to remove critical posts, they may quote your posts out of context, extracting the swear words and any biographical data they consider to be unflattering, as the Roberts Hymers did with me. [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Cult Life, Freedom of Speech 2 Comments »

This time, it’s “friendly fire,” in a sense: Mahindra has gone after a fan. Heaven forfend that a company simply let New Media outlets promote their products.
Via Glenn, who remarks, “As I’ve said before, siccing the law on bloggers isn’t that smart . . . For a Blogspot name including ‘Mahindra.’ Dumb, dumb, dumb.”
It’s like [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere No Comments »

Here.
He quotes Gardner, too, though I suspect he left a few words out of the last sentence in that blockquote. It doesn’t parse as reproduced.
For me, Martin Gardner will always be The Annotator from The Annotated Alice.

Posted in Around the 'Sphere No Comments »

For your fisking/snarking pleasure. First, the attorney’s cover note:
Boren Osher & Luftman LLP
5900 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 920
Los Angeles, CA 90036
[phone numbers redacted]
www.bollaw.com
April 28, 2010
[J.S.K., Esq., at his work address]
[D.R., at his home address]
Joy Whittemore McCann
[home address redacted, of course]
Re: Robert Leslie Hymers, III
Dear Ms. McCann and Messrs. K—– and R——–:
This firm represents Robert Leslie Hymers [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Cult Life 27 Comments »

But James Taranto is running early. Taranto met Bobby Sue once, as an intern. He found him “personable,” which is of course what you would expect of any cult leader.
Even one who winks at rape and counsels his flock to pray for the deaths of public figures.
For the record, I don’t pray for [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Attila, Girl Reporter, Cult Life, Faith and Faiths No Comments »

Why pay for content when you can just copy it from people who are trying to make a name for themselves for little or no money?
This is f’d up. Shame on CNN.
The post I wrote did well, getting picked up by Veronica Belmont and BuzzFeed among others, and garnering close to 20,000 visits at last [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, The Writing Life, + Novels 1 Comment »

. . . to Almost Everything.
That book looks like a blast. Maybe after I’ve caught up on most of my other reading, and put at least one of Father Keating’s books away. {{{Sigh}}} If only one didn’t have to take time out of one’s reading life to interact with other humans, try to make a [...]

Posted in All About Meeeee!, Around the 'Sphere, Faith and Faiths, The Writing Life, + Novels 1 Comment »

Da TechGuy will cover your event from his blog for $1000 a week, plus expenses.
And, yes: the Rockford Files joke has been duly made in his comments. But it would be difficult or impossible to find a place in Paradise Cove—or anywhere in Malibu, California—that would be compatible with that income level. Even in a [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Hats, Stacy's Crew, The Writing Life, + Novels No Comments »

Or, as we used to call them in the old days, “skins.” You’ll note that some old-school blogs have a function that allows you to pick a design that the site will always display for you in. (Tammy’s has that feature, though now and then there will be, mixed in with the legitimate A Mom [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, Blogkeeping, Fundraising No Comments »

Clearly, the time he met me I wasn’t wearing it on my sleeve.
How cool to see him getting recognition in the world beyond blogging, politics and tech trends . . . which is to say, in normal life.

Posted in Around the 'Sphere No Comments »

. . . engage in a little impromptu karaoke in Bloggers’ Lounge at CPAC:

The best things about this are the indifferent reactions from the other bloggers working away in the lounge, Moe Lane’s hearty joining in, and the near eye-roll from Da Tech Guy as he slides on by these two.
Not to mention the [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, CPAC 3 Comments »

The original Gay Patriot weighs in at Big Journalism on the sea change at CPAC this year. He’s got both of the infamous videos up: the pro-GOProud cheering of Alexander McCobin and the pro-GOProud booing of Ryan Sorba. Bruce was the first one to point out that it was probably Sorba who provided the outnumbered—but [...]

Posted in CPAC, Civil Liberties, Economics, GOP, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Media, Organizing No Comments »

I’ve just checked in, and after sleeping for a couple of years I’m eager to face the challenges ahead!
UPDATE: For some reason, there are large amounts of white stuff all over the sidewalks, on the curbs, on the monuments, and covering the rooftops and building trim. Please advise.

Posted in Around the 'Sphere, CPAC 6 Comments »

I haven’t been able to find any of the “Rules for Bloggers” that were around when I started, so I’m recreating them.* None of these ideas are original with me.
Linkage, Quotations, and Proper Credit
When mentioning other bloggers, you’ll want to add links to their blogs. It’s courteous, and it will create more traffic for you [...]

Posted in Around the 'Sphere 31 Comments »