Publius-Whelan-Gate Continues: Whelan Apologizes and Publius accepts and moves on…

An update to a story that I blogged on the other day.  One of NRO’s writers named Ed Whelan outed a centrist Blogger who we now know is named John Blevins, but blogged under the pseudonym of publius. Earlier I shared my feelings about this. But it appears that Ed has apologized and John has accepted.

The Apology:

On reflection, I now realize that, completely apart from any debate over our respective rights and completely apart from our competing views on the merits of pseudonymous blogging, I have been uncharitable in my conduct towards the blogger who has used the pseudonym Publius. Earlier this evening, I sent him an e-mail setting forth my apology for my uncharitable conduct. As I stated in that e-mail, I realize that, unfortunately, it is impossible for me to undo my ill-considered disclosure of his identity.  For that reason, I recognize that Publius may understandably regard my apology as inadequate.

Done in very good form and I hereby retract my statement about him being an f’ing a-hole. It takes a big man to apologize and admit you screwed up.

Publius as well, in good form accepts the apology:

Ed Whelan has written both publicly and privately and apologized.  I know it was not an easy thing to do, and it is of course accepted.  I therefore consider the matter done, and don’t intend on writing about it anymore.

The real story here wasn’t really about me anyway — it’s about whether the norm of pseudonymity is a good thing.  And there’s a legitimate debate about that.  Personally, I think that pseudonymity is a net benefit, whatever other costs it brings.  More voices are better than less — and pseudonymity (to me) enriches the public sphere by adding voices that could not otherwise be heard.  But people can disagree in good faith about these things, as Whelan correctly notes.

Anyway, I’m moving on.  I appreciate Whelan’s update.  And that’s all I have to say.  Let’s talk about Jon & Kate Plus 8 instead.  I’ve heard they hired attorneys.

Some are saying that this apology was forced. Whelan is denying this charge and I do believe him. I highly doubt that NRO would get involved in such matters.

Anyhow, to both of them; well done. I just wish that the rest of the blogsphere was this civil and decent.

Others covering, on both sides of the aisle: The Moderate Voice, Right Wing Nut House, The Anonymous Liberal, Winds of Change.NET, Balloon Juice, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Washington Monthly, Outside The Beltway, The Daily Dish, Macsmind, Lean Left, Bloggasm, The American Scene, Southern Appeal, And So it Goes in Shreveport, QandO and Majikthise, The Moderate Voice, Bench Memos, Riehl World View, The Debate Link, The TrogloPundit, The Daily Dish, TBogg, The Anonymous Liberal, PointOfLaw Forum, The Opinionator and pandagon.net

Bleh…. Another Stupid Hot Conservative Women Meme

Why must I blog about such stupid stuff? But eh, what else is there? Besides this and bitching about Obama’s socialism; there isn’t much else.

John “Horndog” Hawkings is again making a list of hot Conservative women. There’s 15 of them, here’s my reaction to them all.

Update – 5/20/14: I feel the need to update these, because I see it’s being brought up a bit here as of late. I know a good deal about them now. All the next update info will be bolded.

1) Dana Loesch

Dana Loesch

Cute, Don’t know her. But she is pretty. I’m not much into short haired women though… She’s a looker. Update: I respect this woman, because she’s in the political game and all; but she is a bit of a pistol and she can be an asshole towards other bloggers. At least she was towards me. She’s also happily married to a guy named Chris, who owns a studio. Don’t know her personally, but the way she acted towards me on twitter and the stuff she said about her real Father, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, really turned me off. Sorry, I don’t disrespect the Military, I don’t care who they are. Just my way. 

2) Ashley Herzog, Townhall

Ashley Herzog

Ugh, That pose tells me all I need to know about her; and believe me it is not good.  But, I don’t know really know her so…

3) Shelly Roche, Bytestyle TV

Shelly Roche

Bleh…. You see one Ann Coulter wanna be, you see ’em all. Pretty, Blonde, Nuff said.

4) Tabitha Hale, Pink Elephant Pundit

Tabitha Hale

I sorta know this one, cute, but quite stuck on herself. As are most Conservative women. Too young for me anyhow. Update: When I originally wrote this, I didn’t know much about this woman, except that she posted many pictures of herself on twitter and facebook. 😀 But, honestly, I got nothing personally against her at all. She’s went on to do some big things in the conservative blogging world. She’s also been looking pretty hot as of late. 😉 😛

5) Moxie

Moxie

See #3 please.

6) Media Lizzy, Media Lizzy & Friends

Media Lizzy

Lizzy is a cutie. I follow her on facebook. Most of her stuff is basic cut and paste Conservative Blogging, not much on original thought. But her looks make her work. She deserves a spot on here.

7) Michelle Oddis, Human Events

Michelle Oddis

See #3 and #5 please.

8.Michelle Malkin

Update: I removed her profile and picture from this blog for some very good reasons; and anyone who reads my new blog or follows me on twitter, knows why.

9) Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs 

Pamela Geller

Overrated Screechy Michelle Malkin wanna-be and married with kids. Also see #3 and #5 Update: When I wrote this, I didn’t know about much Geller at all. I do now; Geller does her thing, okay? Pam Geller is an anti-Jihadi blogger, that’s her thing. I commend her for having the stones to stand up for what she damned believes in. She’s not married, she is divorced. She was married to Michael Geller, a car dealership owner, who was caught up in a huge scandal; and shortly afterward died of a heart attack. Geller is Jewish and stands for her Jewish Heritage and you know what? That’s okay! She’s been attacked by a particular pony-tailed asshole in California and she weathered it and is still trucking. God Bless her for it too. 😀

10) S.E. Cupp, Red S.E. Cupp

S.E. Cupp

Pretty, Red-headed, I follow her on facebook. Well, actually, she followed me first, which was a shocker. She needs to get a wordpress blog though. Deserves face time on Fox News, I think.

11) Bettina Inclan

Bettina Inclan

Don’t really know much about her. She’s a Conservative and a Latino. So, that’s always a plus.

12) Dr. Helen

Dr. Helen Smith

Here we go again…. UGH! This is Glenn Reyonld‘s Wife. Cute, but she’s married. Why pimp out married women on a Hot Conservative women list? I just do not get that, at all.

13) Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter

The queen on Neo-Conservative Screech herself. Pretty, but totally unapproachable and terminally unfuckable. Besides, she’s pushing 50. Egad, Egad indeed.

14) Amanda Carpenter, Hot Button

Amanda Carpenter

Pretty and quite married. She still got the hotness thing going on though. Update: She’s now married with two babies and still HOT! If given the chance, I’d rip her clothes off and stick my….. *&^%^^%^&%** NO CARRIER 😉 

15) Rachel Marsden

Rachel Marsden

See #3 and #5

Okay, they missed one… The douche nozzles:

Mary Katharine Ham

mkh

Mary Katharine Ham writes over at the Weekly Standard, which is decidedly Neo-Conservative in nature. But I still like this woman very much. She’s a southern gal, with a very down to earth personality and pretty face to boot. She’s just pretty enough to make any guy take notice and just tom-boy enough to get away with it. I think her exclusion from this list was a HUGE mistake. If I were about 10 year younger, I’d sweep this beautiful woman off her feet and marry her. 😀 Update: All that and now married with a baby. 😥 er, um, I mean 😀

Unemployment Soars higher than expected and the Dems solution is throw more money at it!

But of course, is that not what Democrats always do? When a problem arises, they throw more money at a problem and exert more Governmental Control over it; thinking that will fix it?

Anyhow, here is the story; The Voice of America reports:

The White House says America’s employment picture is worse than the Obama administration had anticipated just a few months ago. The somber admission follows the latest jobless report showing the highest unemployment rate the United States has seen in more than 25 years.

U.S. unemployment jumped a half percent in May, to 9.4 percent prompting this comment by Austan Goolsbee, a member of President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors:

“The economy clearly has gotten substantially worse from the initial predictions that were being made, not just by the White House, but by all of the private sector,” said Austan Goolsbee.

Economists point out that the current jobless rate is already higher than the hypothetical rate that was used to calculate the health of banks and other financial institutions in so-called “stress tests” earlier this year. And, the upward unemployment trajectory is expected to continue in coming months, even if the overall economy begins to recover.

But never fear your Government is on the case! They are going to do, what Government has always done; especially Liberal Governments. They going to throw money at the problem! Woo Hoo! 🙄

The Barack Obama Apologist, Politico reports:

President Barack Obama is announcing Monday that he is ramping up stimulus spending exponentially in the next three months, allowing the administration to “save or create” 600,00 jobs — four times as many as during the first 100 days since he signed the bill.

The spending plans include National Parks, summer youth jobs, veterans’ medical centers, police and teachers.

Obama will make the announcement during a late-morning Cabinet meeting, when Vice President Joe Biden will present a Roadmap to Recovery, which the White House calls “an Administration-wide effort to accelerate implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in its second 100 days.”

“As a result of this accelerated pace of activity, over 600,000 jobs are expected to be created or saved by the Recovery Act in the second 100 days,” compared with roughly 150,000 in the first 100 days, the White House said.

While the administration is sensitive to criticism that stimulus spending has been too slow, a new Gallup Poll shows danger in the other direction. For the first time, a majority of respondents disapprove of Obama on the issue of “controlling federal spending” (51 percent to 45 percent), compared to the 67 percent who view him favorably overall.

Here’s what the “Magic One” is going to do with all that money:

  • Enable 1,129 Health Centers in 50 States and 8 Territories to Provide Expanded Service to Approximately 300,000 Patients – Department of Health and Human Services
  • Begin Work on 107 National Parks – Department of the Interior
  • Begin Work on Rehabilitation and Improvement Projects at 98 Airports and Over 1,500 Highway Locations throughout the Country – Department of Transportation
  • Fund 135,000 Education Jobs Including Teachers, Principals and Support Staff – Department of Education
  • Begin Improvements at 90 Veterans Medical Centers across 38 States – Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Hire or Keep on the Job Approximately 5,000 Law Enforcement Officers – Department of Justice
  • Start 200 New Waste and Water Systems in Rural America – United States Department of Agriculture
  • Begin or Accelerate Cleanup Work at 20 Superfund Sites from the National Priority List – Environmental Protection Agency
  • Create 125,000 Summer Youth Jobs – Department of Labor
  • Initiate 2,300 Construction and Rehabilitation Projects at 359 Military Facilities across the Nation – Department of Defense

Here’s the problem; The President or more specifically our wonderful Government is going do all these wonderful things with money that we don’t even have; because we are barrowing it all from China. After all, did not the President say that we are broke? Yes, he did!

Quotable Quote:

In a sobering holiday interview with C-SPAN, President Obama boldly told Americans: “We are out of money.”

C-SPAN host Steve Scully broke from a meek Washington press corps with probing questions for the new president.

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we’ve made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we’ve seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.

So we’ve got a short-term problem, which is we had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it’s putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off.

So we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem. And the long-term problem is Medicaid and Medicare. If we don’t reduce long-term health care inflation substantially, we can’t get control of the deficit.

So, one option is just to do nothing. We say, well, it’s too expensive for us to make some short-term investments in health care. We can’t afford it. We’ve got this big deficit. Let’s just keep the health care system that we’ve got now.

Along that trajectory, we will see health care cost as an overall share of our federal spending grow and grow and grow and grow until essentially it consumes everything…

But yet, we are going to throw more money at the jobless problem. But we’re broke? Does anyone else see the problem with this picture?

Mixed feelings on the Blogger outing

I am commenting on this because I think it deserves a comment.  I have very mixed feelings on the outing of a centrist Blogger, who blogged under the name of publius over at Obsidian Wings.

The reason why I have these mixed feelings is this. Because I personally know how frustrating it can be, when you have some anonymous Blogger or even person on the internet harassing you. Believe me when I tell you; I have been there and done that.  However, I also believe in the right to privacy as well. So, I am quite conflicted.

To his credit, publius or John Blevins gives some very valid reasons for his wanting to remain anonymous:

As I told Ed (to no avail), I have blogged under a pseudonym largely for private and professional reasons.  Professionally, I’ve heard that pre-tenure blogging (particularly on politics) can cause problems.  And before that, I was a lawyer with real clients.  I also believe that the classroom should be as nonpolitical as possible – and I don’t want conservative students to feel uncomfortable before they take a single class based on my posts.  So I don’t tell them about this blog.  Also, I write and research on telecom policy – and I consider blogging and academic research separate endeavors.  This, frankly, is a hobby.

Privately, I don’t write under my own name for family reasons.  I’m from a conservative Southern family – and there are certain family members who I’d prefer not to know about this blog (thanks Ed).  Also, I have family members who are well known in my home state who have had political jobs with Republicans, and I don’t want my posts to jeopardize anything for them (thanks again).

All of these things I would have told Ed, if he had asked.  Instead, I told him that I have family and professional reasons for not publishing under my own name, and he wrote back and called me an “idiot” and a “coward.”  (I’ve posted the email exchange below).

So there you have it – I’ve been successfully pseudonymous since the Iowa caucuses in 2004.  During that time, I’ve criticized hundreds of people – and been criticized myself by hundreds more.  But this has never happened.

And yes – I criticized Whelan rather harshly.  But that’s what the blogosphere is about.  Blogging is not for the thin-skinned.  And you would think that someone who spends their days trying to destroy other people’s reputations in dishonest and inflammatory ways wouldn’t be so childish and thin-skinned.

Again, I believe that Ed did have a right to know who it was that was criticizing him. However, I have reviewed the posts in question, and I simply do not believe that a public outing was necessary and quite frankly; it shows a lack of class and a very childish demeanor on the part of Ed Whelan.  I do however disagree with the line of “But that’s what the blogosphere is about.” I feel that if you are going to criticize someone, you should have the guts to give your true identity. Criticizing someone behind the cloak of anonymity is the essence of cowardice, in my humble opinion.

The bottom line is this; if you are going criticize someone and you are going to hide behind an assumed named, you should be prepared to be exposed for the coward that you are. Further, one should not complain that they are being exposed, because a “pen name” is not a guarantee of privacy.

However, in the wake of the shooting of the abortion doctor and many of the other incidents in the last few months, one would think that Ed Whelan would have used a bit more common sense in a situation as this. But then again, we are talking about Neo-Cons. Not that they care about privacy, just ask George W. Bush. 🙄

Update: Ed Morrissey gives his take and quite surprisingly basically somewhat agrees with me. Not to rip off Redd Foxx or anything, but….This is the big one, Elizabeth I’m coming join you honey!  Oh hell, Here’s Mr. Foxx doing it better, than I ever could: (Scroll to the 3:13 mark, if you want to see what I’m referring to…)

Update #2: Ed Whelan posts a follow up, further proving that he’s nothing more than a fucking asshole. But then again, you most likely already knew that. I retract this, click here to see why.

Update #3: Whelan Apologizes and Outed blogger accepts. Case Closed. Well done on both sides.

Others:The Anonymous Liberal, Washington Monthly, Outside The Beltway, JustOneMinute, Opinio Juris, The Strata-Sphere, Riehl World View, PointOfLaw Forum, PoliGazette, Sadly, No!, TBogg and Balloon Juice

The reading room: Friday Church News Notes

The Friday Church News Notes is designed for use in churches and is published by Way of Life Literature’s Fundamental Baptist Information Service. Unless otherwise stated, the Notes are written by David Cloud. Of necessity we quote from a wide variety of sources, but this does not imply an endorsement. For instructions on how to unsubscribe to this list or to change mailing addresses, please consult the information paragraph at the end.

HOW THE POP CULTURE HAS DUMBED DOWN SOCIETY (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The rock & roll pop culture has been dumbing down society since its inception in the 1950s. The pop culture image of cool is the individual who excels in foolishness, the Elvis Presleys, the James Deans, the John Lennons, the rock & roll playboys, the Hollywood starlets. Influential pop culture movies such as “Blackboard Jungle,” “Rebel without a Cause,” and “The Wild One” emphasized irresponsibility, insubordination, free sex, and scholastic laziness. “The Blackboard Jungle” used a Bill Haley soundtrack to encourage young people to forget their studies and “rock around the clock.” In “Rebel without a Cause” James Dean exuded the essence of pop cool: unisex sensuality, narcissism, and rebellion to authority. “The Wild One,” played by the very cool Marlon Brando, glorified self-centered living and neglect of education. Chuck Berry’s hit “School Days” encouraged young people to exchange their boring studies for the glories of rock & roll partying: “Hail, hail rock and roll/ Deliver me from the days of old/ Long live rock and roll/ The beat of the drums, loud and bold/ Rock, rock, rock and roll/ The feelin’ is there, body and soul.” By the 1960s, the modern teenage culture was well established, with its own me-first attitude, Dionysian philosophy, oft ridiculous fashions (anything to differentiate the teenager from his elders), and particularly its own music. The modern teenager has always been driven by pop music. Rock stars set the tone. A serious education is downplayed for the sake of having “fun, fun, fun.” I was dramatically influenced by the pop culture from the time I arrived in junior high school in 1962. Though I had some God-given intelligence and love for reading, I soon realized that being a diligent student was not cool. I became far too busy being a proper pop culture teenager to give serious attention to my studies and as a result I was a mediocre to poor student. Nothing has changed since then. The term “nerd” comes from the climate of teenage cool. It defines a young person who is serious about scholarship and probably doesn’t fit in too well with the foolish but oh-so-cool crowd. I was reminded of this by a recent Associated Press report entitled “I Love Nerds” about the 2009 National Spelling Bee contestants. It observed that the bright students “stand out as a bit dorkey back home.” Jose Cabal of Miami said, “It’s like back home I’m a nerd. Up there, everyone else is a nerd.” The serious spellers have memorized tens of thousands of words and have sharpened their intellect and perfected their use of the English language, but they aren’t cool. The entire concept of the “nerd” exposes the vanity and foolishness of the pop culture. It is the “nerd” that is using his or her life sensibly, whereas the cool crowd is dedicated to vanity. The pop culture teenage philosophy typically leaves young people ignorant and deeply scarred with sin. But the power of teenage cool is enormous and the average young person is not wise enough to withstand its appeal. Many reports have been written on the decline in education in America. In 1994 the editor of Harper magazine characterized the national test scores as “a coroner’s report …  [that] returned a finding of mortal ignorance.” But most studies on modern American education neglect one of the most powerful influences, which is the pop culture. When the Herman’s Hermits sang in the 1965, “Don’t know much about history/ Don’t know much biology/ Don’t know much about a science book,” they were expressing the philosophy of teenage cool.

BOMBING KILLS TWO AT CHURCH IN NEPAL (Friday Church News Notes, June 5, 2009, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – A Hindu organization took credit for a bombing on May 23 that killed two and wounded 15 others at a Catholic mass in Kathmandu, Nepal. An unidentified woman entered the church just before mass began and left the bomb behind in a bag. A second bomb was disarmed by police. The Nepal Defense Army took responsibility for the murders. This is a radical Hindu group with probable ties to extremist Hindus in India that have viciously persecuted Christians. It was formed in 2007 with the objective of reinstating a Hindu state in Nepal (hindujagruti.org, Sept. 13, 2007). The Nepal Defense Army has demanded that all Christians leave Nepal and has stated its intent to “fight against the foreign religious invaders” (telegraphnepal.com, May 30, 2009). The NDA murdered a priest in July 2008. They have also bombed a mosque and another church. Police have quietly visited the churches in Kathmandu and warned them to be on the outlook for suspicious packages.
Continue reading “The reading room: Friday Church News Notes”

Ouch: So much for that simulus!

Finally, something to draw me out of my funk.  Yeah, I know, I’ve been slipping. I’m just bored of the whole damn thing.

Seems ol’ Barry’s Stimulus horseshit, is just that…. Horseshit.

Via Innocent Bystanders:

stimulus-vs-unemployment-may2
So much for that stimulus eh? (click to make bigger)

Of interest….: (H/T The Strata-Sphere)

of the 2009 deficit by $481 billion, to $1.7 trillion (see Table 1-3). Much of that change stems from lower esti mated revenues and the increased costs attributable to the TARP. Over the 2010–2019 period, CBO has increased its estimate of the cumulative deficit by $1.3 trillion—mostly because of recently enacted legislation. Nearly half of that projected increase occurs in 2010 and 2011, largely as a result of the 2009 stimulus legislation (ARRA)

Lovely. Of course, that’s what the people voted for. All I can say is; Welcome to my world folks. It was bad back when I became unemployed, it is now worse.I guess I will be blogging for a while. That is if I can get back into the swing of it. It would help if people would donate and I could get readers. It gets old blogging to myself. I guess because I do not suck up to the idiot Neo-Cons and do not placate the Military-Hating so-called “libertarians”; nobody wants to read my site. I say screw ’em. I don’t need their readership anyhow.

So, yeah, it is going to be an interesting new few years around these damned parts.

Others Covering: Stop The ACLU, BizzyBlog, QandO, Fausta’s Blog, Politics and Critical Thinking, Gateway Pundit, Fox News, Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Cold Fury, Conservatives4Palin.com and protein wisdom

Liberal Writer Tommy Christopher fired by AOL

I don’t always agree with Tommy Christopher. But this here is just pure B.S.:

AOL News has been bending over backwards lately to make sure that the do not cover the controversy surrounding Playboy.com writer Guy Cimbalo’s vile attack on conservative women. AOL News has taken some drastic steps to censor any mention, let alone criticism, of Playboy’s screed. They have deleted posts about the article, banned contributors from mentioning it, and even fired one of their liberal writers over it.

The fact that banning reporters from, well, reporting is so contrary to the purpose of a news organization it really is puzzling. It seems to be in direct contrast to their commitment to “traditional journalistic values”.

The evidence is stacking up quite high that AOL News fired liberal writer Tommy Christopher today due to his repeated attempts to get coverage of the Playboy attack list on AOL’s Politics Daily. Christopher had first attempted to post this criticism of Playboy’s sick list the day it was published on their website. However, he was surprised to find that shortly after putting his article on Politics Daily it was deleted by an editor.

His surprise stemmed from the fact that in his two years of writing for the site not one other post had ever been deleted by an editor.

via Liberal Writer Fired By AOL News For Reporting Vile Playboy List | NewsBusters.org.

If and when I do happen to go over and listen to Ed Morrissey’s Show, I sometimes listen to Ed & Tommy Christopher. Christopher is one of the more rational liberals out there.  This is just further example of the liberal intolerance that I have blogged about before. It also goes further than this; there are corporate ties here that might explain Tommy’s firing.

Anyway, it was quite the shock to Tommy and he is looking for donations. Click here to go to his blog, and click here to check out his twitter feed.

I personally want to wish Tommy all the best and hopefully He will be able to pick up a new writing gig in short order.

Gents, I do believe it is time to drop the Playboy subscriptions and the AOL subscriptions. I mean surly there must be better masturbation material and faster Internet out there, right?

Others: Townhall.com, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, media lizzy & friends, Daily Dose, Don Surber, Flopping Aces, Riehl World View and five feet of fury.