Two Bloggers Retire

Some sad news to report. Two long time Bloggers are going into retirement. The other side of Kim and His Wife have given it up.

Which got me to thinking. Blogging is not a one sided conversation; at least it is not supposed to be.  I think one of the most tragic things I have done, is I have possibly chased people away from here. Because of my hard stance on the comments section. I say this because I noticed how much of a community that some of the more older Blogs have become.

So, as of today. I am making a change. As of today. I am shutting off the comment moderation.

What does that mean? Well…..

What it means is, that I will not have to approve every comment that comes through here.

Now, does that mean that you can come onto here and act like a spastic idiot and insult me and I will do nothing? Nope!

What it does mean is this. I am letting a bit more freedom around here. However, anarchy will not be allowed. I have a swear filter on here. I also will remove or edit stuff that I deem inappropriate for  my reading audience. I also will ban people who are presistant in breaking the comment rules, which are clearly posted in more than one place around here.

Anyhow, I wish nothing but the best for Kim and his wife. They’ve been Blogging since 2002. Wow. Such a long time, in computer and internet years.

Why am I killing the moderation? I figure if I lighten up around here a little, maybe people will be more inclined to hang around a little more. 😀

I mean, it can only help. 🙂

(Thanks Traction Control)

Editorial: A Look Back and a Look Ahead

The last time that one of these wonderful little editorials was written; in any sort of earnest, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were still trying to convince the rest of the country that one of them would make the best candidate for President of the United States of America.  John McCain was just being realized as a serious candidate and the Presidential race seemed like it was most likely going to last for the rest of my adult life.

Since that time, after one too many weeks of her carrying out a President campaign that was chalk full of many an error of comedic proportion; and after being told that waiting around for your opponent to be assassinated was just outrageously morbid.  Hillary Clinton; finally, did the World, the Democratic Party, The Feminist Movement, and anyone else you want to add to that list; a huge favor and dropped out of the Presidential race.  However, Hillary did this after ripping a gigantic gulf size hole, the size of the Grand Canyon between the Democratic Party faction lines.  Heck, as it is now, a Liberal Feminist Lesbian and an African-American cannot walk down the street in New York City without snarling at one another.  How is that for Hope and Change?

Once Hillary did finally get it through the miles of granite between her ears, that the American people wanted Obama, and not her —- she finally stepped aside.  However, not before doing a little dog and pony show with Obama.  I mean, the woman does have an ego; they had to make her feel good, one last time.

At this point is when the real action started, John McCain was anointed the golden boy of his Party, and that is when the bare-knuckle brawl between McCain and Obama and their many surrogates began.  There was a point when this writer was not sure what was worse, the race baiting of the Obama surrogates or some of the more moronic racism of the surrogates of McCain.

One of the biggest tragedies of this Presidential race was that the contenders of Barack Obama made some of the same silly mistakes, McCain and Hillary made the same misfires, miscalculations, and bad decisions.  This proves quite a few things.  One it proves that a Caucasian cannot effectively run against an African-American Candidate.  The reason is the “race card” issue, when cornered on his lack of experience; Obama’s surrogates would play that card and play it quite effectively.  This would cause a misfire by the other campaign and for the other campaign to be looked upon as racist.  This is what happened in Hillary Clinton and John McCain’s campaigns both; and they both made the same dreadfully awful mistakes.

However, I would committing a crime of epic proportions, if I did not acknowledge the fact that the Republican Party and those controlling John McCain’s campaign made some horrifically awful mistakes.  The Republican Party and John McCain’s campaign both tried to paint Obama as a terrorist by proxy.  The sick part is that they learned it from Hillary’s Campaign.  The very worst thing that Obama did was sit on a board with a man, who committed criminal acts; that were done in opposition to the Vietnam War.  These acts, horrific as they were, happened when Obama was all of eight years old.  How could anyone, who has a sane rational mind; want to try to subjugate a man to that sort of scrutiny over something he had no control over?

Barack Obama’s Pastor though was another matter entirely, this author does not entirely believe Obama’s claim that he did not ever hear his Pastor, say incendiary comments from the pulpit.  Obama might have heard the sermons and chose to ignore the content that he found offensive, which is an entirely plausible scenario.  It did however; bring up some very harsh differences between the White and Black cultures, sometimes to an uncomfortable and unsettling pitch at times.

The amazing thing was that; as much as I disagree with a great deal of his political ideologies, Obama handled all of the distractions and the controversies —- I refer to the man himself, not his tag-along followers; with a great deal of grace.  Obama did not run your “A typical” African-American campaign.  Obama ran a campaign like a very intelligent Harvard Graduate would run a campaign.  Obama’s campaign was not about the; whether real or imagined —- “Struggle.”

….and so, the election happened.  There was this release of an overwhelming feeling of, “Finally, it’s over.”  Obama Won.  The Republican Party got a lesson of how just how smart America really is, despite their attempts to paint Americans as complete idiots.  John McCain went back to the senate, Obama is now picking staff, Hillary, rewarded for her hard work, and maybe the Dog and Pony Shows, will be the new Secretary of State. Yeah, she is getting Condi’s old job.  As they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Bloggers and pundits —-Liberal and Conservative alike are now facing a very daunting task and that is, trying to figure out, what happens now? At the risk of sounding like Arlo Guthrie — I mean, most pundits and we Bloggers made it our life’s daily chore to analyze the Election.  I mean, Liberal Bloggers made it their life’s work to mock, and generally hate George W. Bush.  I mean…Now what?

I know what this author will do.  First, like many Americas who lived through the Bush era, I will happily put the past 8 years behind me.  I will, as someone who voted for Bob Barr, praise Obama after he is sworn in as President, when he does something that I think is great and wonderful.  Likewise, as a member of the loyal opposition, I will criticize Obama when I feel he has something that goes against the political beliefs that I hold as a somewhat Moderate Conservative Libertarian. It will be fair, not overly partisan, but rooted in what I consider to be fair.  I will not stoop to the stupidity of some on the right; who do feel the need to mock the man, every time he takes a breath.  However, my criticism will strictly be policy based.  Anything other than that is either racist in nature or goes into the realm of partisan idiocy.  Something I despise as a rule.

Therefore, there you have it.  Where we have been and where we are going.  Stick around; the mountaintop is coming on quickly.  I just want to be able to see it for myself.

Memeoramdum Sucks

That’s right, I said it.

Memeorandum got a mention on a U.K. News Blog.

Big fucking deal.

Why do I think that it sucks?

Well, for starters, there is just enough Conservative Blogs on there to keep the Conservatives from bitching about it.

The truth is the only blogs that get on that stupid service are new Blogs or those that get more than 5K hits a day, if you’re between those two groups, you’re basically fucking ignored.

Also, the damn service is ran by a San Francisco Liberal. He tries very hard to hide his bias. But if you’re smart and have the right tools, you can see the fucking bias. He does not fool me at all.

I use it, sparingly anymore. I sign up for RSS feeds, both Conservative and Liberal and Blog about what I see there. I don’t follow the herd anymore, if I get on that… whatever the fuck it is… service, fine, if I don’t, my life does not end.

Honestly, there is more to life that being the star of the show on some sobbish Meme Tag scanner.

List of Bloggers who are licking Gabe Riviera’ s rather large liberal asshole: Buck Naked Politics, Outside The Beltway and The Other McCain, The Moderate Voice, The Impolitic

A Seriously Funny Blog Posting

I’m not much into Football, but this right here is some seriously funny stuff.

Go Read

Money Quote:

At one point I simply had to go to the bathroom.  So, I spied a Woman’s Room just feet away and went for it.  Now, remember, it had been raining most of the afternoon. My jeans were SOAKED.  As I’m doin’ my business I’m listening to what’s going on down on the field. What? They’re goin’ for a field goal? To Win the Game?!?!?

I started tryin’ to pull my jeans back up. The fieldgoal unit takes the field.

My jeans are too wet! I can’t get them up!! DAMNIT!!!

They make it!! Bucs take the lead with little time left!!! And I’m screamin’ and celebrating along with everyone else. But I’m in a very small metal cubical tryin’ to get my jeans up.

ROFLMAO! SurpriseRolling on the floorLaughingHee hee

Thank You for your support

The Following was made by me. It is my feelings towards those who opposed and still oppose the help that the Detroit Auto Industry needs. It might cost me readers, but it is how I feel.

I declare this photo PUBLIC DOMAIN. Feel free to copy it and post it to your Blogs.

Thank you for your support
Thank you for your support

Update: I posted this for one reason and one reason alone, Washington D.C. will hand over 4 BILLION dollars to Wall Street banks and not even flinch, but when Detroit needs help, they are like “You need a plan.” I am not saying that the companies are not at fault. But it just strikes me as pretty damned funny that Wall St. Gets that help and Detroit gets told to go fuck themselves, in essence. So, Yeah, I’m a little pissed off and a bit jaded at this point. Can’t you tell??!

Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, The Pink Flamingo – WordPress, 123beta, Right Truth, Shadowscope, DragonLady’s World, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, , Allie is Wired, Faultline USA, Woman Honor Thyself, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Rosemary’s News and Ideas, The Pink Flamingo, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, CORSARI D’ITALIA, L.O.M.A., Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Whew! Internet Advertising will not be affected by Economy downturn

Via The Economist:

AT THE beginning of the year Jeff Zucker, the boss of NBC Universal, a big television and film company, told an audience of TV executives that their biggest challenge was to ensure “that we do not end up trading analogue dollars for digital pennies”. He meant that audiences were moving online faster than advertisers, thus leaving media companies short-changed. Now, near the end of the year, the situation looks even worse, as the recession threatens to turn even the analogue dollars into pennies. Will this hasten the shift towards internet advertising, or will it decline too?

Advertising rises and falls with the economy, though how much is a matter of debate. Randall Rothenberg, the boss of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade association for digital advertisers, points to the remarkable stability of advertising at about 2% of GDP since 1919, when the data began to be collected. This would suggest that ad budgets will move roughly in line with economic output.

But Mary Meeker, an internet analyst at Morgan Stanley, believes that modern ad budgets rise and fall much more than GDP does. According to her estimates, if the economy stops growing, ad spending is likely to fall by 4%. If the economy shrinks by 2%, overall ad spending may fall by 10%. As for the online segment, recent history is cause for pessimism. Between 2000 and 2002, during the dotcom recession, online ad spending in America fell by 27%.

Yet the web has changed a lot since 2002. Back then, gaudy display “banners” on web portals such as Yahoo! and MSN were the preferred technology. These still exist, but they now account for less than 20% of online ad spending. More than half goes to search advertising on Google and rival search-engines, which place small text ads next to results based on the keyword of the query, and charge only when a user clicks on them. In brand advertising, “rich media” ads are taking over from banners. These allow users to interact by clicking, so their engagement can be tracked.

All this makes spending on advertising much less speculative, so that it starts to be treated instead as a cost of sales. This is one reason why online advertising should suffer less than other sorts. This week eMarketer, a market-research firm, predicted that online-advertising spending in America, which makes up about half the global total, will increase by 8.9% in 2009, rather than the 14.5% it had forecast in August. The firm thinks search advertising will grow by 14.9% and rich-media ads by 7.5%, whereas display ads will grow by 6.6%. In short, online advertising will continue to expand in the recession—just not as quickly as previously expected.

Another reason for optimism, says Mr Rothenberg, is that online advertising is making obsolete the old distinction between marketing spending “above the line” and “below” it. In the jargon, above-the-line spending drives brand “awareness” (probably on television) or “consideration” by a consumer planning a purchase (probably in a newspaper). Such spending is often slashed in recessions. Below-the-line spending includes promotions or coupons to whet the consumer’s “preference” for the brand as he nears a purchase, or schemes such as frequent- flyer miles to increase his “loyalty” afterwards. These budgets are more robust. — Rest the Rest

Job Security people…. Job Security…. 😀

Although, BlogAds are not selling here. 🙄 I mean, people $50 for advertising, that is cheap! Come on, Buy people BUY!

In case you're wondering….

Good afternoon….

In case your wondering… Yes, I will be blogging through thanksgiving. Our Family doesn’t really do much on Thanksgiving. Oh, We eat. But we don’t go anywhere, and nobody comes here. Most of our family goes elsewhere. The days of meeting at grandma’s house are gone forever. 🙁  I miss those days… Anyhow, I’ll be here commenting on news stories.

So, if you’re needing your politics fix, on a holiday. you can get it here. 😀

and…. again, Happy Thanksgiving! 😀

Let's say thanks to our troops

You might notice the new thingy on the left there, that says “Let’s say thanks to our troops!” Well, what that is about is this here.  Everyday our American Military serves this Country Faithfully. Right now, we have soldiers serving in two wars. Not matter what you feelings about the events leading up to Iraq, or the fact that we’re even there; one thing that cannot be debated, argued or even dismissed, is the fact that our United States Military is the best, the bravest and the strongest. It is also a fact that they are doing the jobs, that the rest of us will not or cannot do…. and for this the fine men and women serving deserve our praise, honor and respect. Not to be ignored, there are also brave men and women fighting a war, against extremists in Afghanistan, in a country that is increasingly hostile to our presence.

Seeing all of this, I believe that some respect is due. So, I ask you, nicely, to click on the widget on the left and send a nice message to our Military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you run a Blog and would like to run this widget, check out the website below:

Let’s Say Thanks HomePage

(Thanks Sister Toldjah)

Blogs 4 Borders is going on long term Hiatus!

It seems that my friends M.J. and Jake are going have to put Blogs for Borders on Long term hiatus, due to a personal financial situation. Hey, it’s tough everywhere right now, including in the world of border security. I know their pain, all too well, this is why I stick up for the middle class on this Blog.

Here’s their “final” Video:

I don’t know if they’ll be back, but until then, you can head on over to their Blog called “Freedom Folks” and check out the latest on the battle against illegal immigration.

A New Look….

I’ve decided to go with something a bit different. I noticed that a theme that I absolutely love has been updated…finally, after many years of it not being up to date for the latest wordpress.

I may add a picture at a later date. But this is what I’ve wanted to run for a long while now. I needed a change of pace, badly.. That other theme was getting quite old. I promise. I won’t be changing themes every other week.

I hope you like it. 😀