I would actually suggest that you vote for one of the women who’s writing on a semi-regular basis, rather than me: I think I’m only there based on my past work. It’s exciting to see Neo-Neocon doing as well as she is, and it’s very cool that Emily and Sarah are in the running this year. Also: Cassandra!

So, get over to Gay Patriot, and vote!

One never knows which is worse—blogging, which makes one feel guilty, or not-blogging, which makes one feel guiltier.

I think I’ve spent as much time mourning over the collapse of my last enterprise as I spent involved in that enterprise, actually. So it’s time to get a handle on my electronic life (beyond, of course, FaceBook).

In a couple of weeks it will have been a year since I had a drink. In four months it will have been 11 years since I last worked a “real job.”

One never knows how to change anything, really—whether it’s better to take charge of one’s destiny, or whether that constitutes trying to force things before their times. It’s impossible to be certain.

“After Long Silence

Speech after long silence; it is right,
All other lovers being estranged or dead,
Unfriendly lamplight hid under its shade,
The curtains drawn upon unfriendly night,
That we descant and yet again descant
Upon the supreme theme of Art and Song:
Bodily decrepitude is wisdom; young
We loved each other and were ignorant.”

—William Butler Yeats

It focuses on the “tea cozy” style of mystery—talky, cerebral—and it can be found here.

discusses the importance of crime stories, particularly on television. And how some of them should transcend left-right politics, though that is very hard to do.

interviews Evan Sayet on his new book.

On 9/11.

This is unreal. I simply can’t believe we let something like this happen.

The only thing that keeps me from flying into a white-hot rage over the murders of Americans in Libya on 9/11/12 is that I want to find a way to disseminate the information to independent and centrist voters without appearing like I’m a frothing-at-the-mouth conservative Republican. Or like I’m livid that the MSM wants to let nitpicking over the events in Egypt, and Romney’s response, overshadow the far more serious events in Libya . . . and the President’s underreaction thereto.

I’m also aware of the pitfalls in looking like we want to get “bogged down” in the Middle East one more time. There has to be a way of communicating to even the isolationists that we cannot simply “leave” dangerous parts of the world in the way they would like us to—and that being careless about our embassies and personnel abroad is not only an amoral abandonment of our diplomats and armed forces, but truly hurts our international standing.

I actually suspect Romney will be able to strike the balance, because he tends to go for the jugular . . . and the primaries taught him how to do it without losing his cool. He has a thicker skin than the President; he’ll find a way to use that fact.

This diplomatic/security failure should be hammered in the debates—particularly in light of the fact that the President has been skipping his national security briefings over half the time. A habit he continued in the weeks leading up to the anniversary of 9/11.

This isn’t about politically exploiting the murders, but rather reminding people that one of the guys interviewing for the job Leader of the Free World has as troublesome a track record on diplomatic/security issues as he does on economic ones.

Also, my fellow Marine wife Cassandra reminds us that we basically have no details about the murders in Libya . . . so beyond the bad planning of having everyone in an unsecured building on the 11th of September, we don’t know much. We need to keep our powder dry regarding the Ambassador’s death in particular until more reliable reports come in.

But I honestly don’t think the MSM will be able to keep attention off of the Libya incident forever by criticizing Romney’s reaction to the clumsy statement made at our Egyptian embassy . . . particularly since it was indefensible in and of itself.

UPDATE: Moe Lane tries to explain to the President that in the Middle East, Western democracies should adhere to, um, prison etiquette. Which means doing our best to look like a nation that one wouldn’t necessarily want to fuck with.

UPDATE II: Phil Klein has more on the media’s attempts to make this into a “Romney gaffe” (my understanding is that a Romney gaffe these days is anything he says that appears uncomplimentary toward the President):

When Romney gave a press conference Wednesday, the questions focused on whether it was appropriate for him to criticize Obama at the time he did. Romney’s responses didn’t really matter, because reporters had already decided their narrative. Obama did not take any questions in his own press conference moments later.

In 2004, John Kerry routinely attacked President Bush’s handling of Iraq when things weren’t going well in the country. And the media dutifully reported on Bush’s foreign policy blunders in Iraq. But now, instead of scrutinizing Obama’s handling of a foreign policy crisis, the media has decided that the real story in Egypt and Libya is a Mitt Romney gaffe.

My household is in mourning for a family friend—my husband’s ex-girlfriend, actually—who passed away a few weeks ago . . . blessedly, perhaps, given how many physical challenges the Lord had given her to deal with. We only heard a few days ago, due to the notices-sent-to-seldom-used-email-addresses issue.

Our emotions are all tangled up right now, because our 9/11 recollections actually begin with her calling our house eleven years ago and alerting us that something Very Important was going on. In those days I never listened to news before I left for work, so I might well have left for work without her intervention.

Sarah Hoyt offers coherence, which I do not possess at present. So, go.

* * * * *

Goodbye, Karen.

They will be updating it soon, but believe me—you’ll want to see it.

. . . who have decided to spend the past few days reading polls put out by our political enemies, I have two pieces of advice:

1. Put on your big-girl panties;

2. Go read Sarah Hoyt, so she can set you straight.

Stay focused; keep talking to people, or volunteering to walk precincts/make phone calls in a swing state. Ignore most polling outfits right how. They are not your friends.

. . . used to be weird. I believe that’s what he’d call “news you can use.”

I haven’t finished compiling the eBooks, but I’m missing the blog.

Of course, there are stories that I’d like to tell, but can’t—like how my last two business ventures failed, and why that left me so bruised. (Consequently, I’ll have to start keeping a real journal again. A private one.)

What I do know is that although I have trouble blogging without it taking over my life, and making it that much harder to focus on making money . . . I also cannot live without it.

Writing is the hardest thing to do in a disciplined, consistent way. But it is also my life.

Most of you will be aware that:

1) The “gag order” aspect of the limitations Mr. Aaron Walker has been operating under were terminated yesterday, and he may now blog about Brett Kimberlin (provided he do so lawfully, as—to my knowledge—he always has). That is, the unconstitutional element in the “peace order” filed against him has been removed.

2) In a huge “coincidence,” last night Walker was SWATted. That is, armed law enforcement were sent to his house, having received a call to the effect that he had shot his wife. This seems to keep happening to people who irk Brett Kimberlin in some fashion or other. Naturally, Walker had warned the local authorities that this might happen, since it has already happened to Patterico, Erick Erickson, and Mike Stack.

What you may not know is that:

3) Walker’s attorney, Bruce Godfrey, grasps the critical principles at stake in this case, and is going to stay the course—no matter what Team Kimberlin-Rauhauser throws at him.

Testes and ovaries, people: they aren’t just for reproduction. Not in times like these.

RSM:

What Rauhauser has been aiming to do, for nearly two years, is to gather (or perhaps we should say, manufacture) “evidence” of a right-wing conspiracy, so that he and his allies, by claiming they are targets of “harassment,” can file civil lawsuits or criminal complaints. Then, as Neal has quite explicitly explained, he expects to use the discovery process (in civil action) or subpoena authority (in criminal cases) to acquire information that can be used to continue this strategy. . . .

Anyone who will take the time to research Neal Rauhauser’s conspiracy theories (and his own descriptions of his motives and methods) will understand how everything fits together. Are Rauhauser’s claims of a right-wing conspiracy so ludicrous and implausible as to suggest that Neal is quite literally insane? Yes, but . . .

Despite all that, if Rauhauser can ever get courts and law enforcement agencies to buy into any of his claims, so that Neal gets hold of private information he can use against his enemies, the kookiness of his theories will ultimately be irrelevant: Neal wins.

Having spent 40 days reporting this story — and I was on the phone with four different sources this morning — I am just now beginning to see clearly what is actually happening. The “accuse the accusers” strategy, whereby Rauhauser and Kimberlin introduce zany conspiracy claims via criminal complaints and civil actions, strikes most rational people as lunacy. Yet it is actually much shrewder than it looks, because this tactic steadily creates a sort of bread-crumb trail of legal “evidence” for the existence of the (alleged and entirely imaginary) right-wing conspiracy that would be the premise of a RICO claim.

Google “RICO + Rauhauser,” and you find that Patterico understands exactly what Rauhauser & Co. have been up to, the evidence of which has been piling up on the Internet for months.

In short, the hope from the very illiberal forces of chaos is that muddying the waters legally will provide tangible legal victories—or at least more data with which to create yet more chaos.

There is, by the way, a “webinar” tonight hosted by the Franklin Center at 6:30 PST (9:30 Eastern) on Freedom of the Press, and featuring free speech stalwarts such as Mandy Nagy (of Breitbart.com), the wonderful Lee Stranahan, Aaron Walker, and Mr. Popehat Himself, “Snort My Taint” Ken.