Pining for the Fjords

This is an EX-BLOG.

You know what to do.

Buh-bye

It occurs to me that I have better things to do.

Shout out

Hey, where'd Dipnut go? (By the way, this post is the source of my idea that his real name was "Tom Perry.")

Hey, dude, whoever you are -- are you out there?

The Year in Quotes

Provided by Tim Blair. Twelve months, twelve posts. Read them all -- bask in the memories.

Late-breaking news

Late to break over my head, anyway -- John "Akatsukami" Braue is back posting at his Rat's Nest blog. Ooooh... (rubs hands in anticipation...)

Update, MUCH later: guess who else has been back for a while and I just found out. (Link to Myria via Moira.)

Life's Mad Pageant, etc.

I had to run around town yesterday, which in my present carless state (hinty hinty) means utilizing Orlando's fine public transportation system. The result is I am still feeling pretty wiped out, though I think that has partly to do with the fact that I think I have a sinus infection. (Unless it is that Deadly Killer Flu that is going around, yay.) Anyway, I had wanted to do at least a daily post thing on le Blog, but that isn't working out. Could it be, as this person sneers, that <SCREAM>Warbloggers</SCREAM> haven't had much to say lately because we (the Collective! You will be assimilated!) are afraid to "admit" the War Is a Failure™? Shyeah, right, you wish. (Dig Dipnut's replies in the comments and then this post.)

Apropos of this, I think that the thing that hurts antis the most re the Turkey Incident is the fact that this was how Bush was received by the troops in Iraq. For those too lazy to link, here's a sample:

Soldiers were hollering, cheering, and a lot of them were crying. There was not a dry eye at my table. When he stepped up to the cheering, I could clearly see tears running down his cheeks. It was the most surreal moment I've had in years. Not since my wedding and Aaron being born. Here was this man, our President, came all the way around the world, spending 17 hours on an airplane and landing in the most dangerous airport in the world, where a plane was shot out of the sky not six days before.

Dang. I happened to catch that scene on the teevee Evening Snooze. I know that if I was an anti I'd want to stab myself at the sight of all those soldiers cheering like mad, as opposed to the polite but cool (come on, let's admit it) reception Senator Clinton received.

Anyway, today is Pearl Harbor Day. Charles Austin has a new post up about it that you should read; Michele wonders if September 11th will be remembered the same way -- or forgotten the same way. All I can say is it would be nice if the band of psychos that currently have control of the Muslim world* could be dissuaded from their current course with less force 'n' violence than we had to use on the Japanese.

*This "band of psychos" is to be understood to consist of a small subset of the main bulk of Muslims who are, we are told, gentle, peace-loving, flower-gathering, pretty-thing-making, hobbitlike creatures or at least they are human just like you and me! I say this in a no-doubt futile effort to stave off the inevitable "Muslims Love Their Children Too" pop hit song by Sting or someone like that. Allah forbid.

Update: and here's an interview with someone who was at Pearl Harbor on that day, courtesy of the Lakeland Ledger.

Second Update: here's another commentary on Pearl Harbor/September 11th by Vicki of Liquid Courage.

PS: now, shitty as I feel, I think I'm going to have to walk to the store for some stronger cold medicine. Laters.

The Prodigal does something-or-other

Jim Treacher is ba-aa-ack.... Finally. Now I can quit blogging.

Kim strikes back!

And his rebuttal is better written than the original essay. (Do I have to say that that is my opinion only? I guess that I do.)

So I guess I wasn't entirely done. Anyway, this post meets with 75% Spleenville Approval™. (Points off for quoting an over-quoted Seventies movie. I am cruel only to be kind.)

Iraqi blogger alert

There's another Iraqi blog: Iraq at a glance.

(Via Jeff Jarvis.)

Crashing

Yeah, what she said:

Arguing with liberals is so exhausting; they only know four or five words and just keep repeating them, hoping you'll go away if they play brain-dead. Assuming they're playing...

You know, I've been really creeped out by something in this blogthing world stuff whatever. I can't put my finger on it, except for a general rise in the level of nastiness. Just... nastiness. No, I'm not talking about the sort of blunt, often dumb, but at least openly in advocacy of something rants that so-called rightwingers engage in, but this ongoing oozing flood of negative tearing down that seems to be offered mostly by those on the so-called "leftist" or "liberal" side of things. But both those designations are really meaningless -- they have to be, when the "liberals" are taking reactionary, "don't touch anything!" positions on just about everything, and so-called "rightwing conservatives" are the ones going about promoting dumb classical liberal ideas like bringing democracy to crazy foreigners who like as not will just vote themselves sooner or later into another thugocracy. (Excuse me, my cynicism is rising; I do in fact support the dumb classical liberal idea of bringing democracy, or at least responsible, civilized government, to the rest of the Thug World, but I also recognize that it's an uphill battle against human nature -- oh, but that makes me conservative doesn't it? Names, names, names.) But the others, the "antis" I will call them, don't seem to be for anything, except for tearing down anyone who doesn't think like them. I keep seeing people asking trolls just what they would do instead of whatever it is that is being slammed, and getting in return nothing but more trash talk.

I can't think of anything else to say right now. I didn't mean to stay up so late but I kept going from blog to blog, staring, as one would at a car crash.

Blair update

The Tim Blair World Tour, US Leg, continues. This latest post was apparently sent by carrier penguin, after he typed it in an igloo or something. To think it's been unusually warm in Florida (highs in the mid-to-upper 80s in the Central part) for this time of year.

Books for Soldiers

Charles Austin has a post on a couple of efforts to send books to soldiers stationed in Iraq. Pass it on.

Incidentally, I keep reading (hah!) articles and columns and commentary and such decrying the supposed lack of reading done by Americans, and/or the fact that when we do read, we read crap; anyway, no one reads the classics anymore. But when I had my cable modem installed in my new place, the cable guy, a young kids in his twenties who looked more to be the type to watch tv and drive around in a Ford Explorer playing hip hop real loud, saw all my books piled around and revealed the interesting information that he loved to read, especially the "classics" (he liked that "old-fashioned" style of writing) and his favorite book was Jane Eyre. He also wanted to be a hacker and go to work for the government showing them security holes in computer systems. The moral of the story? Well, perhaps that people are more complex than polls, studies, and learned academicians on teevee can handle.

DOSsed again

This is getting really annoying. I hope someone somewhere finds the little fucker(s) perpetrating this and puts a foot up their ass. I'll donate my pointy, metal-studded 80s rock star boots.

A new Iraqi blog

It's called Healing Iraq and it's run by a 24-year old dentist named Zeyad who lives in Baghdad. He posts from the many internet cafés that have apparently sprung up in that city. (Via Jeff Jarvis.)

Look who's back

It's Happy Fun Pundit! Their archives seem a little wacked, though; but maybe it is just a glitch. In the meantime, their main page seems to work okay.

Mystery solved

Lt. Smash rips off the mask.

Something to crow about

Ken Layne has has put a band together. They are recording a CD. (Read this classic account of a studio management mishap.) Take that, music biz!

Phat-wa

Allah Is In The House. (A funny site, but it gets serious here. No really, go visit. Via Out of Lascaux.)

Blogspam or legitimate cry for help?

Well, I have been seeing this message in peoples' blog comments from "Haleh" -- for example, the latest one appeared here, and I am sure that one of my posts had this same comment in it a while back -- about this "BLOG-IRAN" thing. I was (and still am, a little) rather suspicious -- what if this was a link to a kyddie pr0n site, or a viagra-reseller, or something of that nature? But it seems legit enough, and there are lots of links to matters Iranian. I don't have the time or the inclination right now to research it, but it looks like an interesting site. I wish they'd use something other than blogspamming to get the word out, though. Hint hint, guys -- off-topic posts in peoples' comments piss them off, no matter how worthy the cause. If there is a way for you to get the word out via email without being spied on by the mullahs, you might want to look into that instead.

And that is my semi-good deed for the day.

Death goes on

Johnny Cash and John Ritter are both dead. Links to the stories are on Primal Purge.

I am not surprised to hear about Cash; his wife passed away a few weeks ago I expected him to follow her soon. John Ritter apparently had a heart problem no one knew about, though. I liked him even though I couldn't stand his most famous work, Three's Company. (Link to CNN story from Daimnation.)

Like, Oh m' gawd!

It's.... Back to the 80s : Get Thee To A DeLorean!!.

How funny. Just last night on Court TV there was one of the ubiquitous Jon-Benet Ramsey things on, and the show was featuring some detective who worked on the case. His car is a DeLorean. All I can think is, how can he get parts?

The dangers of personal blogging

I have been considering setting up a password-protected blog for some time. I still haven't decided whether or not to do so; if I do it will be to keep a journal of personal details such as I never have talked about on any of my online sites, so you wouldn't be missing anything anyway. Here is an article on some bloggers who have set up private blogs, and their reasons for doing so. It's a decent article (for once, neither clueless nor condescending).

(Via Tampatantrum.com.)

Update: Robyn has some links to various ways to password-protect websites.

They're on the move

People continue to flee Blogspot (or "grow out of it," if you prefer). The latest to do so is John Weidner's Random Jottings.

Aaaand... he's off!

Charles Austin has moved into Spleenville. Dang, it's getting classy around here. I guess now I'll have to mow the lawn and have those rusted-out car bodies hauled away.

Oh, one more note

You have to read E. Nough's comment (number 105, if the link doesn't go to the right target for some reason).

And here's his weblog, by the way. Go and read.

And on that note

So it's been eleven days already. Hey, I moved, packed a whole 5'X10' storage room with four rooms of my junk (okay I threw out half of it), had to have my computer hooked up at a friend's, cancelled my Earthlink account, waited for job calls, comforted my traumatized cat, have my friend's chihuahua sleeping on my lap (thus severely curtailing movement, but it's the only way to keep her from jumping around like an overheated molecule), and you still see an entry from me every day! Writer's block my foot. The trick, see, is to stop caring about the quality of what you post. Let your inner driveler free! Just post stuff! No matter what it is, it can't be as bad as the things I've been reading today.

(Yes, I am trying guilt. Evil of me, but I was driven to read an entry on Kos's blog -- Kos, I tell you. Is Blogville dead or what?)

A loss

One of my readers had a tragic loss in his family: read the details here.

Some thanks are in order

To the person who sent me Musique de la Grèce Antique, and the other benefactor who sent me both Machavelli's The Prince, and Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War.

I say we start a club

Call it "Bloggers Unjobbed." Andy at The World Wide Rant is the latest to be handed a chance to practice his job interviewing skilz. Go give him a visit and maybe hit that tip jar of his.

Blogger distress signal

Moira Breen of Inappropriate Response is having some technical difficulties at the moment; her site will be back up as soon as the requisite exorcism ceremonies have been performed and/or the Elder Gods of the Internet have been appeased with the appropriate sacrifices.

Maybe I'll pitch a tent...

Well, look who's famous: CNN has gotten wind of Scott's "tiny bidness." Uh oh -- will celebrities inundate his campground? Will fame Go to His Head? Will he start blogging about "doing lunch" with "J. Lo"? Will he start wearing sunglasses at night? Well heck, if anyone deserves a slice of the good life, Scott does.

Good-bye, so long, auf wiedersehn...

Well, I guess this sort of thing is better than just mysteriously ceasing to add new posts and thus leaving people wondering if you are dead or something. Or saying one will be gone "for a week or two" and then never being seen again.

Then again, Spoons couldn't stay away.

Day by Day hiatus

Chris Muir, author of day by day, is going to be out of commission for 30 days due to surgery. Wish him a speedy recovery (and that's an order!).

Brought to you by the Yes I Think "Day By Day" is a Funny and Well-Drawn Cartoon Brigade.

She's back

Letter from Gotham, that is.

Music for the Masses

Now Ken Layne's gone and done a CD of music stuff. He sings and everything, but don't be afraid, because he can actually sing, unlike some "real" "hit" "song" "artists" (cough Britney Christina That Guy In Tool cough). And you get lots of songs for cheap. If I have any money left over from paying rent (or storage space for my stuff while I bed down in my car) I plan to buy it. And you know how picky I am. What, you didn't know? Well I am!

Fear and Trembling

Hey everyone, make sure you celebrate Frank's history of his pathetic need for affirmation in the form of hit counts and Google rankings Blogiversansary -- Blogiviver -- Bloga-- oh, whatever the word is, it's been an entire dreadful, horrible amazing year for Frank. Go say hi! Link to his site! (Really, I mean it -- you'd better link to his site. I can't be responsible for what happens if you don't. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get out of the way for the firemen and the hazmat crew. Long story. Jeez what a hair-trigger temper, it was just a lightly mocking email, he didn't have to take it so seriously...)

Celebrate

227.

Full disclosure

In honor of Tim Blair's latest efforts to reach out to his audience, I hereby offer you all this picture of myself:

Yes, I've been having a stressful week, why do you ask?

Spam problems

Someone named Jake D at jake.duffy@bigpond.com sent me an email claiming to have received spam with my email from one of those penis-enlarging outfits. I didn't reply to him through my email in case this was just a slightly more clever way of getting email addresses for a spam list. But I did go to the trouble of running my virus checker -- nothing was found. (Yes, it's up to date.) So if some spambot stole my email address and you get something from either harrisandrea-at-earthlink.net or webmistress-at-spleenville.com offering you a foolproof method of adding inches to your dick, rest assured it's not really from me.

Revolution Number 9

By the way, Charles Austin (of Sine Qua Non) has been posting over at Ipse Dixit while Dodd Harris is away in some foreign place. And when the cat is away, the mice will play.

Patriotism vs. Nationalism

One more thing -- Mrs. du Toit has a useful definition of patriotism as opposed to nationalism -- and it's only a footnote to this entry. But I think it might help some people out there who still quake in fear when they see someone with a US flag bumper sticker to read it.

Up in the sky -- it's a bird, it's a plane, it's

Four Color Hell, a blog about comics. (Graphic novels! Slap.)

Image search

Argh. I knew there was a reason I should have opted for a dvd burner: I have been looking for an image of Frodo from the Council of Elrond scene in Fellowship of the Ring; specifically, that one part where he grabs his forehead and makes a face when Gimli tries to smash the One Ring with an axe. I can't make myself go through another We Heart Elijah! or Welcome to (Insert Fake Elvish-sounding Name)'s Lord of the Rings Fan Club website. Help a sister out.

Thank you!

I just want to thank the person(s) (I am not sure they want to be identified so I won't name them) who sent me The Death of Right and Wrong by Tammy Bruce, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.* Thank you, thank you, thank you!

*Now I can be one with the sheeple!

That wild and crazy web

Rand Simberg corrects Bill "Aaargh! The Internet is coming! The Internet is coming!" O'Reilly upside the head.

In a hole in a blog there lived a rabbit

It's getting so I can't keep up: Silflay Hraka is now free of Blowspot™.

Harrassment warning

There's a person calling himself "Sparky" who has been posting nasty comments on my site* and has refused to cease doing so despite repeated demands and bannings of several IPs he has used. A quick whois search of the url (sparkmonkey.com) he left in his blog comments info brought up this information:

Domain Name.......... sparkmonkey.com
Creation Date........ 2002-01-16
Registration Date.... 2002-01-16
Expiry Date.......... 2004-01-16
Organisation Name.... Jesse Paulsen
Organisation Address. [removed]
Organisation Address. Madison
Organisation Address. [removed]
Organisation Address. WI
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES
Admin Name........... Jesse Paulsen
Admin Address........ [removed]
Admin Address........ Madison
Admin Address........ [removed]
Admin Address........ WI
Admin Address........ UNITED STATES
Admin Email.......... jesse_paulsen@sparkmonkey.com
Admin Phone.......... [removed]
Tech Name............ Jesse Paulsen
Tech Address......... [removed]
Tech Address......... Madison
Tech Address......... [removed]
Tech Address......... WI
Tech Address......... UNITED STATES
Tech Email........... jesse_paulsen@sparkmonkey.com
Tech Phone........... [removed]

Here are the several IP addresses that showed as his that I have banned:

207.44.154.35
66.168.62.160
66.222.33.52
140.186.45.14
66.222.108.216

I wonder what the law says regarding someone who refuses to stop harrassing someone on the internet?

*He first graced my site with his presence here. As you can see, he started right off with the sweet talk. Then nothing for ages; I thought he had gotten the message to fuck off. I guess not. I think there is a pattern to this, but I am not sure what it is, nor do I much care.

Birthday shoutout

It's Jim Treacher's B-Day. Here's a little song:

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, dear Ji-im!
Happy birthday to you!

Help for the Blogspot refugees

Hey, I keep forgetting that Dean Esmay is the man for helping so many people off Blowspot™. And here's the site he set up to help people new to the universe of Movable Type.

Defining the dialogue

As an aid to people commenting on this post, I thought I'd provide these various definitions of racism from Dictionary.com:

rac·ism

1. n. The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
2. Discrimination or prejudice based on race.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

racism

n 1: the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races 2: discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race [syn: racialism]

Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University

Hope that helps.

Blogs over Iraq

There's another Iraqi with a blog. (It's Blogspot, but so far the site is behaving today.) His first post is about the horrors of American occupation -- oh wait, it's not.

(Via Jeff Jarvis.)

Now we've got a cantina

The Brazos de Dios Cantina is now on a server of it's own, and spiffied up with Movable Type.

Blogger identity theft

Someone trying to pass himself off as Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan had put up a blog on blogspot, written in Farsi.* It seems to have been another Iranian living in the Toronto area. I wonder what motive someone would have to do such a thing; it seems that the imposter was using his site to say all sorts of nasty things. Could this be an attempt to discredit expatriate Iranian bloggers in the eyes of their own people, especially back home in Iran?

*Or Arabic. I read somewhere that both languages are used by Iranian bloggers, but since I read neither, I'll just say it's written in that pretty alphabet that looks like clouds and tree branches.

I see it's asshat week again

The list of things I refuse to tolerate on my blog is always growing. Here are a couple more things that you had better not post in my comments unless you want to get banned:

1. Literary criticism used to discredit something I wrote. All it does is make you look like a nasty little shit who couldn't think of a comeback. Though if that is what you, Jon Darby, were going for here, then you used the right technique. Too bad, though -- you've been banned.

2. I am sick of the all the "Florida is full of dummies" crapola. If you live in a state where everyone is an Einstein, what are you doing wasting your time reading blogs? Shouldn't you be researching FTL theory or trying to find the cure for cancer? And I am also banning anyone who engages in South-bashing. While I have lived in Florida all my life, and my family is principally from the South, I have never been a gung-ho Florida-flag-waver nor have I had the slightest interest in various causes Southern, on the other hand I am growing sick of the "Hyuck, hyuck, those Southern yokels are such rubes!" jokes and remarks. It's bigotry, pure and simple, and I refuse to allow it on my blog. That is why Dark Avenger has been judged to have crossed the line here, and his IP has been banned.

And if either of you are spoofing IPs or use some other IP-changing technique to enable yourselves to make more comments, I will ban those IPs too. I'll be here all night, folks, I have plenty of time.

(And if you are intending to leave a comment along the lines of "I don't see what was so bad about what they said" -- don't bother. Read the New FAQ instead.)

Update: "Don't make bitchy comments about people who use linguistic acid better than you do, dear." Try again, Princess.

By the way, I'm not in the martyr-enabling business. Mr. Darby has been unbanned, because he was getting too much of a jones out of it.

Tunes

Woohoo! I just got my Dr. Frank cd in the mail.

How to do stuff

I haven't had much to say recently -- and I've been too busy to say much anyway. But here's a couple of things. Seems a lot of people aren't as willing to go through the trouble and do a lot of cursing and screaming and sweating smart as I am, and need a little help doing some things that are -- tcha! -- so easy! So here is a guide to blogging with Movable Type for those like all normal people to whom the MT documentation is too abstruse. (Hey, I could have called it "MT Blogging for Dummies" like some other people have.)

Speaking of stuff for dummies, someone has uttered aloud the wish for a "Democracy for Dummies." Well, here's a plan that has worked, more or less efficiently, for a couple hundred years or so.

This public service announcement has been brought to you by Spleenville, where you will always find plenty of ego to go around.

Congratulations to some new parents

Adoption is good. Of course, being adopted, I am slightly biased towards the practice. ;)

Back in the saddle

The Timekeeper is back on his own server after a period of exile on Blowspot™.

Jimtreacher.com

Yay!

Help a soldier out

A fire at Kevin's base wiped out the possessions of the servicemen whose tents burned down. He's got a Paypal button up at the site where you can donate.

Well, heck

Bleat is taking the day off. So what are us Lileks junkies supposed to do -- make up our own clever-yet-profound slice of life essays? Jeez.

Thank you!

This is just a shout-out and a thank you to those folks who have contributed to the Spleenville fund this week. What can I say but -- thank you! Among other things, the increase in my pot o'gold has enabled me to invest in Dr. Frank's Eight Little Songs CD. Dr. Frank, he of the much-heard-of Mr. T. Experience, is the source of the song "Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy." You all should at least download that song, and at ten US smackers the 8-song collection is a bargain. (Also check out "Institutionalized Misogyny." He reminds me of John Wesley Harding (you may remember him for his cover of Madonna's "Like A Prayer" -- which sounded like a halfway decent song in his hands).

Important announcement

Hey, Tim Blair fans, reset your blogrolls: Tim has moved into the spleenville universe, and can now be found at http://timblair.spleenville.com.

Can I just say one thing

I really, really, really hate Blogspot and Blogger. HATE them. That web service is dead to me. DEAD, do you hear?

I just wanted to get that off my chest.

Consume mass quantities

My mug is on its way.

Movement of the Blogs, cont.

Huzzah! Damian Penny is free of Blogspot!

Communication breakdown

Argh. Frustrated with trying to open Tim Blair's site, I sent him this email:

How about: timblair.spleenville.com? I can set it up in five minutes. Think about it -- a nice new NON-BLOGSPOT blog running Movable Type or some other easy-to-use software that won't crash or disappear your archives.

I am sending this because I have had it with trying to load your site today. If I can save just one blogger from Blogspot.... ;)

So how about it?

Andrea Harris
http://spleenville.com/

And I mean it too. Consider it my service to the snarky-Aussie¹-dependent segment of the Blogosphere². But there seems to be something wrong with his email -- I could swear all it did was bounce my email back -- so I'm posting it here in case he or someone happens to surf by my site.

1. That's for whoever keeps searching through my site for "aussie" references.
2. Term invented by Bill Quick. I disavow all responsibility.

Goth not dead!

It's undead. Gaze upon a short Flash film on vampirism and stuff, starring Andrew Castel-Dodge. This takes me back to those days of dancing all night at the Kitchen Club... (or, in my case, staggering in place; I dance about as well as the average day-old corpse).

Shout out

Steven Den Beste has a column on OpinionJournal. Way to go. (Via Cut on the Bias -- if Den Beste said anything about it on his own site I missed it.)

Another escapee from Blogspot

Hey, everyone -- look who's moved. Go visit! (And now you can!)

Warning signs

Kevin Parrott is pissed off at Blogger. If I were the Blogger people, I'd be hiding under my desks right now and sucking my thumbs. (I'd be plural too.) Aw heck, they have probably been doing that for weeks now.

Also: dig those crazy signs. I was going to make some in the neat sign-maker program (needs Acrobat Reader), but I couldn't think of anything neat to say.

(No, no permalinks, you can't connect to any permalinks in Blogspot blogs, what are you, crazy?)

Update: Kevin has Paypal and Amazon links up -- help a fellow blogger escape from the evil Blogspot dungeon.

Dammit, people

My blog, my rules. My blog, my rules. MY BLOG, MY GODDAMN RULES. Why can't you understand that?

Here, I'll try to make it easy for you. In your house, say you don't want anyone to smoke. You tell people: "I'm sorry, no smoking inside." The people don't like it? Tough shizzle. Friends don't treat friends like doormats -- and strangers don't treat strangers whose homes they have been invited into like ashtrays. One does, of course, make certain accomodations for people -- one does not hang visitors from meathooks or make them sing the theme from "Annie" while letting one's dog hump their leg, but otherwise it's the duty of the guest to behave. And if the guest ceases to behave the guest deserves to get his ass handed to him in a sack.

Here are some things I don't want to see on my blog. Their appearance will get your ass handed to you in a small paper sack:

1. Any more comments referencing, favorably or unfavorably, the Country-Pop Trio Who Shall Not Be Named.
2. Any reference to the 2000 "stolen" election. The last time I checked my calendar we were halfway through 2003. I am not responsible for your psychological inability to accept the passage of time.
3. Any reference to anything the US does as being "all about the OIIILLLL." That includes saying, "But it is all about the oil --" and then listing umpteen thousand reasons to support your claim. Been there, done that, I'm over it.
4. Any reference to how we "had no right to interfere" in Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever the hell. It's not only a little too late to piss and moan about that now; but I will simply redirect you to this article until you either get it or get tired.
5. If, after reading the above article, you comment that the US "didn't really care about the Iraqi people, that wasn't the real reason for the invasion" yadda yadda, my reply to you will be: "Neither did you nor anyone else." Please note also that the shelf life of that argument is well past its expiration date.
6. Comments telling me that I am "vicious," "mean," or that I should be "nicer" in order to "persuade" people to come across to my point of view. I am not interested in "persuading" anybody of anything. I use this blog to express my opinions on things, and if others are entertained, that is fine with me. If somehow some rant of mine causes someone to rethink a position of theirs, that's nice, but I am not responsible for how others conduct their own thought processes. I am also not particularly interested in "being nice." I already have friends. They know what I am like.
7. People who ask snippily: "So what do you have a blog for anyway if it isn't to communicate?" Please see above, and remind yourself that "communication" doesn't always end happily. Consider it a life lesson.
8. And last (for now): any "helpful" comments suggesting I am getting "too upset" over something -- trolls, politics, the weather -- even from people I like, will get an eyebrow-singeing reply from me. I really am not interested in changing the name of my blog even though it is obvious that it is not enough that my domain is called "Spleenville" to get across to people the sort of stuff they are likely to find herein.

There. I hope this was an aid to all visitors and potential commenters.

Rock star

Ken Layne: rock star. Now we can all say we knew him when...

The open road

Words to live by:

Take a drive cross country. Leave the "fly-over" mentality at home where it belongs and savor this country from the road. It's an incredibly diverse and vast stretch of land with characteristics you don't get to see from sitting in your living room watching The Travel Channel. Stop at the historical markers, the monuments and the sights. Read about what happened before you got there. Get off the interstate and see what's happening in the rest of America. And just drive. After a while, it will dawn on you that we're all pretty fortunate to have ended up here in this land. Free to move about. Free to drink it all in. Free to roam around on our own. Free to just be. And you'll be thankful that somehow, someway, we've managed to keep it together here as a nation for over 225 years. Do it when you're young. And then do it again later. It never gets old.

(Via Dustbury.)

Shout out

Look who's back posting (well, more or less).

Via On the Third Hand.

Pay for the funny man

Have you given to Treacher today? I did.

Since it's my blog

I think I can say: don't bore me.

Message to Texas people in the Austin area

And any others not in Texas too -- Scott Chaffin helped me, now you guys can help him help someone else much more deserving, and have a good time doing it. Wish I were there...

You need to read this

Now. (If the link goes to that stupid blue "we can't find that site" page, copy and paste the URL into your browser window and take out all of this text: 2003_05_04_junkyardblog_archive.html.)

Neener Neener, Hollyweird Fascists

Good news: it looks as if the mutant rats of the left have been beaten back for now, and Boycott Hollywood is still online. Also, they will have a new server and hopefully some other domain name service-registry-thingie than Dotster. So, to Hollywood I say:

HAH HAH HAH HAH.
:PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

Songsongsongsingsingsingsong

Hey, now I know what Ken Layne sounds like. At least when he sings. For some reason I thought his voice would be deeper and scarier. I'm kind of relieved.

Blog alarm

Uh oh. What happened to Juan Gato Ron Wilson?

Another blogger down

Dang! There is no joy in Blogville tonight. :(

Disappearing Bleat?

Still no Lileks for me, and some other people can't get to him either. Last night I was getting a secure site when I went to his website -- now I get one of those busy pages that asks you if you want to make them your home page when you try to leave. Hacked by a spam site?

On the other hand, some other people can get to the site just fine. Weird.

Turn to face the strange

The King is dead, long live the king!

More on Iranian Webloggers

On BuzzMachine. And here is a banner you can put on your site to show support for the blogger arrested recently in Iran.

Unigolyn

Check out Unigolyn, "an individual from Estonia." Especially this post, about looting and anarchy after a totalitarian regime falls. And I am glad I was right about the site description -- it is in Welsh. I just have one question: why Welsh and not Estonian?

Iranian blogger/journalist arrested

The Iranian government continues to dig themselves into a hole; now they have gone and arrested a journalist and blogger who was well-known and popular in that country. The excuse the authorities gave for the arrest sounds like the usual compendium of totalitarian weasel words: "threatening the national security by giving interviews to Persian language radios outside Iran, wrtiting articles both in newspapers and his weblog." Yeah, words threaten governments who are losing their hold on power. Sounds like they are taking the Castro route of reaction to the success of the US and its allies in Iraq. But unlike Castro, the Iranian government doesn't have a contingent of leftist celebrity twits to defend their every move.

Iranian blogs update

Hossein Derakhshan is now off Blogger and using Movable Type. Check out the pics! Mmm... Sangak bread looks like nan bread...

We have quite a large Iranian (call them Persian!) community in Florida, especially around Orlando. I haven't seen any Persian restaurants, though. But there was one in Miami in my old neighborhood that I ate at a couple of times, good food -- I recall the flat bread like that pictured here, and a yoghurty dip for it, and some sort of ground meat on a skewer over rice the name of which I forget. Before I moved up to O-town, the place had become a pizza take-out joint.

1,001 Things to Do With a Live Terrorist

I love Dipnut's idea. Which is actually here. Bob Lang also has a nice idea. Dipnut is right though: I was too kind. I was kind of thinking, though, that maybe they could be sort of well-fed sharks, not really all that hungry right then, maybe just looking for a little snack, something to fill up those little extra inner spaces. They could just sort of chew on Abu for a while, and then he could be pitched overboard.

Hm. I haven't read The Hobbit in while. I'm not sure why I just thought of that.

The New FAQ

Comments will now be closed after fifteen days.

I do not tolerate emotional abuse. Abusers will be banned. Behavior I would not tolerate in a real-life relationship will not be tolerated here. That goes for people who use the "you said mean things to me in the past" bullshit argument on me. Trust me, I do not remember all the people I have insulted in the course of my life much less in the years I have been on the internet. If I said something to you two years ago on someone's blog comments, I have forgotten it, because I did not and do not care. Don't bring it up unless you want to be freshly insulted. (Read the comments here for an example of what I mean.)

Banning policy: unpredictable, and totally arbitrary. There is no one else to appeal to: I am the sole proprietor and absolute ruler of this website. What I say here goes. Don't like it? That's just Too. Fucking. Bad.

Whining about being insulted by me is liable to produce one or more of the following responses: further insults and mockery, cursing and ranting directed at the whiner, banning the whiner's IP. What it will not result in: craven contrition, promises to be sweeter and more understanding, an offer to buy the whiner dinner and send flowers and candy to make up. If you are a thin-skinned, fragile-egoed sort, I suggest you make this visit to my blog your last, because sooner or later I will rub you the wrong way and like as not ruin your week.

I am female. I am not: nurturing, your mother, kind and loving, patient, ready to listen to your troubles, your psychiatrist, your priest, your grandma, your girlfriend, your muse. If this disappoints you, get an electron microscope and look through it -- you may be able to see the tiny violin I am playing for you.

If you don't like my new rules, we can meet on the corner of Tough and Shit and work it out. Not.

I have a new hero

His or her name is Puce.

Pucisms:

Make as fat US, kill in sands with plane tank and wepon

Hallo fat America! Chew and smiling for flappy stomich fill with more Irak childs, phoney towerevenge. Statue fallens from Sadam, put Chucky Cheeze rastorant with cola in locate!

BOY GROW AS SOLDIER FOR SPILL BLOOD TO IRAK SAND!!

Swoon!

Blogspot blahs no more

Another one has joined the Dark Side. Soon MT bloggers shall rule the galaxy! Bwahahahahahaaa!

Time is fleeting, madness takes its toll

But until that happens, congratulations to Michele, Long Island mother of two children and "one of the hottest Web logs about the war in Iraq." (Dismay quotient: they put in a word about The Plagiarist The Agonist. Why? Guess they didn't get the memo...)

(If you can guess the two movie references in this post, you'll get... a congratulations from me!)

Another blogger rescued from the sinking ship

Damian Penny will be moving to a Movable Type-powered blog by the end of April, he says (in his post of April 6 at 8:56pm -- the dates on his blogspot blog are set up with the dates first and of course the permalinks aren't working, because, well you know -- Blogspot*).

*It's time for a sequel to "Manos" the Hands of Fate, isn't it? PS: if you aren't really into Mystery Science Theater 3000 you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. For those who do, here is the "Manos" the Hands of Fate Personality Test.

A clarification

Sigh. As regards the hacking post, I would like to clarify a few things:

1. I don't condone hacking.
2. Laughing at something isn't condoning it; I disapprove in general with the act of hitting people over the head with a weighted sock, but it was funny when Homey the Clown did it.
3. I was mainly inspired by the urge to make a pun with the title of that rather obscure David Bowie song. There are links to the entire lyrics plus the title in the original post, to help non-Bowie fans (non-fans of Bowie?) get my little inside joke.
4. Number two is a reference to a recurring character on the defunct tv show In Living Color.
5. I would not know how to hack a website, and wouldn't do it if I knew how.
6. Yes, it would be very annoying if someone hacked my website. I might laugh, however, if it was an especially clever and funny hack; those are few and far between, though.
7. (This one is for Steve H.) I am not sure that hacking constitutes "censorship" unless the government does it by official fiat. I think a better term for it is "vandalism." I prefer that term because, for one thing, censorship is not against the law (it can't be, since it is usually enacted by laws); vandalism, however, is.

I am only posting this because I have been getting some minor flack from a few people here and there, because I didn't put some sort of disclaimer in my post about how even though I think this is funny I think hackers should be fed while alive to rabid wolves. So here: I think that hackers should be fed, while still alive, to rabid wolves. Feet first. Is that better?

(Yes, I am in a rather bad mood. I am in no mood to coddle the sensibilities of "netizens." Well that is nothing new; but I have started and cancelled several posts on various subjects that were turning out too rancid for even my tastes, which is why you have not seen very many posts from me in the last few days. Consider yourselves lucky.)

The Blair Watch Papers, the End

Tim Blair is back home! A happy ending for one of us at least. Me, my flask has run dry, I lost my hat running around like a crazy person last night (long story), and I can't seem to find my way out of these darn woods. Hm, that rotting log looks familiar. Hey, where did these weird figures made out of twigs come fr

USDWS

I think we have a new national logo:

Picture courtesy of James Lileks.

Keep 'em burning

Home fires, that is. Connie du Toit's new troop-support blog, Keeping the Home Fires Burning, is up and running after a server outage.

The Blair Watch Papers

What could be behind the mysterious refusable of indispensable Ozblogger Tim Blair to return to his happy Blogspot home? He was last seen hiding out in the Blogs of War central command complex. Could it be that he is avoiding thousands of screaming fans? Or is something more sinister afoot?

I guess it's time for me to park my car carelessly by the road and launch myself into the trackless Blogland woods, armed only with a videocam, a flask of Jack, and a really lame yarn hat. Or maybe not.

New Clothes

AC Douglas has a new look. He's also had it -- with the notion that the war in Iraq is for Iraqi-people-freeing purposes. Well, I can understand his ire. Free Iraqis will be a happy result, one hopes, but that is mostly up to them. (For instance, if they just go do the traditional Arab thing and install another strongman, it won't be our fault, but theirs. No one is concealing the Guide to Responsible Government from anyone.) But it's not the primary objective, and it's important not to let the bleatings of the peacenuggets drive one into making that assertion. (Have I let this happen to me? I don't think so...)

I also understand why the administration has been pimping that theme. It is an unfortunate fact that the media is populated by softheads and moral babies who can't handle the truth. Fortunately the bulk of the population seems to see through this nonsense, or in any case I haven't heard much about the "poor oppressed Iraqis" about town from anyone who isn't employed at or going to university.

Heartbreak Hotel for Bloggers

So that's why there haven't been any updates to Daimnation! or Tim Blair's blog today -- Blogspot is potty, and they've been given a temporary home on Blogs of War. I hope this leads to a realization for those two of how wonderful running MT on one's own server space is. I need my daily updates of Aussie and Canadian snark.

My new button

I've been remiss: Dave at Dave Does the Blog made me a new button, and I said "Duh -- thanks!" And I didn't put it up for anyone to acquire. D'oh! Anyway, here it is:

You should be able to see it in any browser -- it's PNG format. But if you can't see it, let me know and I'll convert it.

Another one has been assimilated

Heh heh... another blogger has escaped the evil confines of Blogspot and found a new home in the safe arms of Movable Type: it's Pejman. Come, join the collective... you cannot resist...

Susanna is cool

She has made a button you can use to link to Chris Muir's very funny "Day By Day" comic. Look over to the right menu in the category "Worthy Causes and Sites." (Please right-click and copy the image to your own hard drive and then upload it to your server; don't link to it from mine or Susanna's. I will hunt you down and feed you to the wolverines if you do not follow my advice. My wolverines are hungry.)

A parable

Our times, in a nutshell.

Signage

Got it, Tim. Click for larger:

And another

Here's another war-focused blog: Warmongering Illustrated. "Up for 45 hours watching CNN," the title continues. Now that's dedication. (Via Toren at the Safety Valve.)

Shout out to some blogs

The Lone Dissenter is stuck at a school where, as the song says, "all the children are insane." Example:

Then at break, I'm standing around the lockers, and we're discussing the war. My friend Alex was complaining about the necessity of war.
Alex: I mean, I just don't want anyone to die, you know?
Me: People are dying. Saddam is feeding them into plastic shredders and laughing.
Alex: That's not true. You're making that up.
(I pull the Ann Clwyd article out of my pocket)
Me: Am not. Look.
Alex: Whatever. It's just one of your stupid conservative writers, I don't trust them either.
Me: Clwyd is a Labour MP from Wales. It's in the London Times.
Alex: Well then, she had bad sources.
Me: She went there and got the testimony directly from people who'd seen it.
Alex: Well, she misunderstood them, then!

Urghhh....

Shanti Bradford linked to me so I linked to her him and to her his Popdex news aggregate site. Check it out.

Supporting the troops

Here's a list of troop-support sites sponsored by the US Department of Defense -- including Troop Trax, set up by Michele.

The Command Post

A new blog has been started by Michele and Alan that will focus on war-related issues. Check it out. (PS: guys, I think you might want to ditch the pale-yellow-text-on-blue template; it doesn't bother me, but I know you'll get lots of complaints.)

Stuff to read

Things that are making sure I will weigh five-hundred pounds by Christmas: Rick McGinnis reviews the media. Can't -- stop -- reading...

Chris Muir interview

Dean Esmay has interviewed Chris Muir, the creator of the cartoon strip "Day by Day." (Chris Muir is as funny now as Doonesbury used to be back in the day. No -- funnier.)

How to annoy stupid celebrities

My "dumb celebrity" posts seem to draw all the blogvermin, but oh well, here's another. Actually, this is a post to alert everyone to Kevin Parrott's excellent idea on how to give certain know-it-all celebrities who have been mouthing off lately, or at least their managers (who seem to be much more sensitive to that sort of thing) a figurative kick in the pants.

A blogger takes time off

Mrs. Dutoit is going on a long hiatus for some very good reasons. I took the blog link down because she asked us to, but I'll be waiting to put it back! Now if I could just get that Wonder Woman theme out of my head...

Virtual March on Hollywood

Crush celebrity dissent! Sharon Ferguson has the contacts.

Kick the frogs

I haven't really jumped on the Hate France bandwagon, mostly because in general, I don't hate France. I do prefer wines from California or Australia, but that is because the French wines I've been able to afford weren't really all that great. But anyway, the actions of their current government have pissed me off to a great degree, so in honor of that, I bring you a report of the latest anti-France protest. There's a link with pictures. Also the website's name is funny: "Pave France." Heh heh.

Little Steven's Little Ego

Well, well well. It looks like some people don't like being brushed off. A person calling himself "Steven Brewis" left a comment in this post that managed to be both nasty and weird. His friend "Shaun" also left a message, but I deleted it, since it was even nastier, but not as weird -- merely par for the course. I noticed they came from the same IP, which I banned.

Well, little Stevie didn't appreciate being banned. He sent me an email. It had an attachment, which of course I did not open (I am not stupid). I deleted the email. Then I looked up the IP on whois. This is what I found:

Search results for: 168.209.98.35 +

OrgName: Dimension Data
OrgID: DIDA
Address: Guardian National
Address: 10th Floor West wing
Address: Libridge building
Address: Ameshof Street
Address: Braamfontein
Address: Johannesburg
City:
StateProv:
PostalCode:
Country: ZA

NetRange: 168.209.0.0 - 168.210.255.255
CIDR: 168.209.0.0/16, 168.210.0.0/16
NetName: NEDNET2
NetHandle: NET-168-209-0-0-1
Parent: NET-168-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: APOLLO.IS.CO.ZA
NameServer: HERMES.IS.CO.ZA
NameServer: NS0.PIPEX.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 1994-07-13
Updated: 2000-06-12

TechHandle: DA25-ORG-ARIN
TechName: DNS Administration
TechPhone: +27 11 447-5566
TechEmail: dns-admin@is.co.za

And this is the email I sent to this company (I am not calling overseas):

To whom it may concern:

I run a public-accessible weblog on which readers can leave comments. Recently I received some nasty and disturbing comments that may possibly have come from two of your employees. The weblogging software I use enables me to ban IPs -- I noticed that the last two comments from two separate people came from the same IP. I deleted one of the comments, and left the other one. Here is the content of the one I left up (it can be accessed here -- http://www.spleenville.com/journal/archives/001139.php):

Ghandi once said: I will die for the cause I believe in but I will not kill for my cause.
The way you judge, will determine how you will be jusdged. The Bible said forgive and forget, Bush the idiot that he is says: "We will not forgive and we will not forget."
I believe that settles that.
Respect your mind, boycott CNN

The writer of the comment was one Steven Brewis, at this email address: sbrewis@yebo.co.za. The comment of his friend, whom I considered to be merely this Mr. Brewis using a fake name, I deleted.

Mr. Brewis sent me an email. He helpfully informed me that he and Shaun were two separate people who use the same computer "at work," and then enjoined me to enjoy my "sad life," and also said something about how God will judge people like me. I can't copy the remarks to you because I deleted the email immediately. I deleted it because he sent it with an attachment. I do not open attachments, especially from hostile emailers. Especially possibly disturbed ones who invoke the Bible in vaguely threatening comments and send me emails threatening me with God and with attachments of an unknown nature.

I looked up the IP the comments came from and found your address. The South African location matches the South African email address of Mr. Brewis. I do not know this person. If he and his friend "Shaun" work for you, I suggest you monitor their internet usage more closely.

I expect a reply to this email.

Thank you.

Andrea Harris
harrisandrea@earthlink.net

Blogygy

Via Dipnut I found out that I too am on the blog-list of Simone Koo, a South Korean student currently enrolled in Georgetown University. I like this post, where she succinctly puts an antiwar babbler in her place:

Sue Sanders of Denver writes to the Rocky Mountain News (last letter): "I'd rather die in a terrorist attack than initiate war anywhere, anytime, any place." That's real noble of you there, Sue, but terrorist attacks are likely to kill people other than you, which means your suicidal impulses are actually homicidal.

Heh heh. There is an interesting sort of pattern to this: my father was a Korean War vet who graduated from Georgetown thanks to the GI Bill. (He enrolled after he got back.) I still have his diploma, which is all in Latin. I once had ambitions of going there, but like many things in my life I let that slide.

The Unblogger

Ooh, now here's a contest I can get enthusiastic about: the Anti-Bloggies. Which category do I belong in... I'm torn between "Most Caffeinated Blogger," "Most Often Late to Work" (or class, heh heh), and "Biggest Potty Mouth." Snork! (Or should that be "torn among?" Whatever.)

(Via Solonor.)

Dumb Celebs

Another website dedicated to exposing the stupid celebrities in our midst is up: Dumb Celebs. Bookmark it, add it to your blogroll. I'm sure they won't run out of material!

Reefer sanity

Kevin Parrott on the question of marijuana. Read it.

Announcement

All right, I have to say something.

I have already made up my mind re: this war. Nothing you say will change MY mind. I have all the information I need. Anyone who comes to these pages could figure that out. If you are looking for a debate, kindly check the link on the left that says "all the blogs," and click on it. (If you are using IE, it will open a side window; other browsers will have a second window open.) There are approximately 400 blogs for you to choose from where you may be able to find someone who is willing to argue over the finer points of Bush vs. Hitler or Bush vs. Saddam or Bush vs. Clinton, or whatever bee you have in your bonnet. I have no interest in getting into it. I do not support this war because of some sycophantic attachment to Bush: I didn't vote for him, so far he has my tentative approval in some but not all of his actions, about the same as Clinton had from me back in the day, and I did vote for him. Wow, that's some partisanship, eh? I'm sorry that my support for the war against Saddam Hussein and the rest of the Islamoloonies out there can't be fit into the slot of "oh, it's just because Bush is president and she has an altar to him in her apartment." You know what? I was all for the Clinton-overseen military actions in Bosnia, Kosovo, and what-have-you. I was supportive of the first Gulf War effort, and one reason I did not vote for Bush Sr. for a second term is because he crapped out on the Iraqis and gave in to the UN, leaving our Current Problem in power.

So trolls, and I mean "Horatio," who think you can fit me into the same sort of tiny little ideological box you live in, give up now. Go away, find some other sandbox to play in. This is my website where I record my thoughts and opinions. If you think they are lacking in "depth," "nuance," or some other deep philosophical bullshit, tough. You aren't paying for my server space or internet connection.

Update: oh yeah, and Horatio? Jacitelli wasn't praising Bush blindly, he was pointing out how the antiwar position the bulk of the "left" has taken is based mainly on partisan Bush-hatred, unlike the position I and others have taken that Saddam Hussein is a menace to our country and the rest of the world whose removal from power is long overdue, it doesn't matter what political party the president belongs to. If you are too dense to get that, then you are probably too stupid to understand anything else I have written; not a surprise.

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.

America, What's Not To Like? Solonor has collected them all (originally featured on a small victory.)

Love Train

Paolo in Italy loves America. Go visit his website and practice your Italian! It will give me a chance to remember all that Italian I took in high school mumble years ago. (Found in the comments on E. Nough's blog.)

Oil Refinery Explosion in Staten Island

Tim Blair had this entry (and he had it tomorrow!):

SOMETHING BIG is happening in Staten Island. Fire, explosions. No news links yet.

I decided to look around. Sure enough, the New York Times has this report up. There are the usual disclaimers of the "T" word.

Attrition

Aaaarrrggghhh!!!

Update: aaahhh.

What's so great about the USA?

Tell Michele. It's all about the love, people.

Instapundit is the Borg!

You will be assimilated! Heh heh.

And guess what, he says something in this column that underscores what I said in my post below :

It's been forgotten now, but in October 2001, the media was full of dark predictions about a "quagmire" in Afghanistan, and claims that there wasn't enough "proof" that Osama bin Laden was behind the attacks. Noam Chomsky was claiming that the US was planning a "silent genocide" in which millions of Afghans would starve to death as a result of war, and humanitarian groups were more or less echoing his predictions. Meanwhile we were told that the Afghans, natural warriors, would pick off American troops by the thousand, and Muslims across the world would rise as one, plunging the planet into conflict.

Uh huh. That's why I and many others are wondering about the condition of the "peace" activists when much of their current blathering seems to be from a template with the word "Afghanistan" replaced by the word "Iraq."

The last word

Best line on the peace marchers ever:

If it weren’t for the autonomous nervous system, some of these people would die because they’re too stupid to remember to breathe.

I know it's gilding the lily to say "read Lileks today," but -- read Lileks today.

People with no lives, Pt. 2564

What the fuck? Is Usenet down?

(PS: I refer specifically to the logorrheac rantings of commenters "GT," "Lilly," "jill," "SteveM ," and "ND." Their bitchfestations have to be read to be believed.)

I guess I should have used pictures

Okay, what part of "STFU" didn't you understand?

How many times do I have to say it?

Update: I have made this post an extended entry. I figure that I have gotten the message across, even if it didn't penetrate some extra-thick, frozen-brain-containing skulls.

I mean, just how dense are you people? Here. Is the message. AGAIN for those of you who are too FUCKING BRAIN DAMAGED to get it:

If you don't like what you see here, GO AWAY.

NO. DO NOT leave any of your comments. I AM NOT INTERESTED in how I do not measure up to your standards. GET IT??? Just in case the hemp buzz hasn't worn off, I will repeat:

I. AM. NOT. INTERESTED. FUCK OFF.

And yes, this is especially directed at some bitch called "Laura" who left her bon mots in my comments here. No, Miss Manners, I will not close my comments. But if you leave another pile of droppings in them don't complain about the response you get: you brought it on yourself. Now go masturbate with a copy of Blogging For Dummies because you've been noticed.

And no, I will not apologize for cussing on my blog. I have no children and I have no intentions of writing a child-friendly blog.

Forget this month

Jesus, what a suck of a month February is. No, this has nothing to do with Valentine's Day, I am utterly indifferent to that holiday and always have been. And nothing is wrong in my life, I'm just fine. But I look around me and see some other people going through some hard times that they don't deserve. That really sucks. Screw you, February.

Contrarianiste

Dear Mr. Soon:

1. No, and who ever said he was? And,
2. He also owned slaves. Your point is?

Caption this

Instapundit gets into the caption contest thing. His comments are open for this one!

Message to Hollywood

Citizens Against Celebrity "Pundits" has a petition you can sign. This is all very well and good, but I have one criticism: it's too wordy. Well, I fancy myself a writer; here is what it would say if I had written it:

Dear Celebrities:

SHUT UP AND DANCE.

(Via Sharon Ferguson and Chris in my comments.)

Movement of the Blogs, Pt. 78454

Steve H. has imbibed the Koolaid and joined the Borg Collective moved his blog up to Movable Type. Now he will be at one with our collective will able to have entries with working permalinks, and a comment program that is not dependant upon avoiding Federation meddling someone's wonky server.

(Hey, who let those aliens in here? What's this thing in my neck? Must... become... one....)

A blogger to the rescue

Michele at A Small Victory, noticing that many of her commenters have a tendency to type a great many words that say the same boring, pointless thing over and over, which as we all know can lead to repetitive stress syndrome, has come up with a way to help. Now who says members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy don't have hearts?

Blog walk

Take yourself on a blog walk, courtesy of Kevin Parrott. (And thanks for the linky love!)

Spill the blood, take that cheese

"This really blew my mind, that I, an overfed, long-haired, leaping gnome, could be the star of a Hollywood movie."

Write your own.

Cold molasses

The internet sucks.

To a Canadian Aviator Who Died for his Country in France

That's the title of a very good poem by Duncan Campbell Scott, who wrote it back in the days when poetry actually was. Angua posted it in reaction to the Columbia disaster. Here's a sample:

Tossed like a falcon from the hunter's wrist,
A sweeping plunge, a sudden shattering noise,
And thou hast dared, with a long spiral twist,
The elastic stairway to the rising sun.

But you should read it all.

Quote of the Day

"Condescension is the preserve of the impotent everywhere." -- Greg Sheridan, in the Australian.

(Also via Tim Blair.)

Spread the meme

From Jim, to Kevin, to Michele, and now, to me:

Sublime

Rock on. Kevin McGehee lets loose with some righteous cussing at some blogroaches. Click and drag to highlight for maximum pleasure.

Bandwagon jumping

Why not -- it's what people seem to think, anyway.

Yes, I am referring to the addition to the banner.

Just my opinion

A "tizzy." Oh that's nice. And then there is this one, who knows a Blogger's Duty, not to mention the only correct way to show respect. Gosh, I'm so glad there are so many helpful people out there who are ready to help us with all the minutia of life. I can't wait until the Big Internet Fight on the Correct Way to Hang Toilet Paper starts. (Not on my blog though. It's paper over, and any comment to the contrary will be replaced by an obscene limerick about your grandma.)

Sulu speaks

To continue with the Star Trek OS theme I seem to be in, here is George Takei's essay on the Columbia disaster.

Popup Blocker

I've installed Popup Blocker, and it's pretty cool, but there is one thing you should know: it will block the MT comments and trackback boxes from opening unless you specifically allow each MT website to always allow popups. To do this just go into your Popup blocker settings and put a check in the box next to the website that you were just prevented from opening a popup window from. (Excuse the garbled syntax -- I'm not sure how to phrase that sentence any better than I just did.) This goes the same for sites where they have links set to open in a new window. I'm sure most users of this program know what I am talking about, but I've had some people complain that they haven't been able to use my comments because of this.

Another one has been assimilated

Clubbeaux is the latest blogger to flee Blogspot for the warm, happy haven of his own domain and Movable Type.

Ad Astra

Nothing ever dies once it's on the internet.

Just for today

I feel gray.

That is all.

Space Shuttle

Oh, crap. Yes, that's the only thing I can think of to say.

Via Cut on the Bias -- if I hadn't gone to Susanna's site I wouldn't have known about this probably until much later. I never watch tv.

Glenn Reynolds has more commentary. (I had to turn the tv off. I just can't stand the talking heads and filler talk.) He seems to think that this accident won't traumatize people like the Challenger disaster did. I'm not so optimistic about humanity: I fully expect the Safety Nazis to come out in force any minute now. And even though it is highly unlikely that terrorism had anything to do with this, I'll bet there will be a tie-in with the war effort pretty soon (they'll use the "we just lost billions of dollars and seven lives and Bush wants to throw even more money and lives away!" spiel). Yes, it's all right there in my crystal ball. One thing that won't happen? Re-thinking this whole Bureacracy in Space thing NASA has going, with its "let's just keep on using the twenty-five-year-old space vehicles instead of building newer, more efficiently-designed ones; we need to keep this quarter's budget down!" way of thinking.

Update: always believe the crystal ball. The accusation bandwagon has its first passenger, an interviewer on CBC Newsworld:

CBC Newsworld just interviewed writer Robert Sawyer for his reflections on the shuttle program and potential causes of the disaster. The Newsworld interviewer asked Sawyer whether the cause was "arrogance" on the part of the U.S. government.
............................
Furthermore... the interviewer linked American "arrogance" explicitly to current potential conflict in the Middle East.

All-Purpose America Hatred, the gift that keeps on giving. (Also via Glenn Reynolds.)

A Further Update: Michele has lifted some rocks and found the slimy creatures thereunder emitting their predictable foul stenches.

Site news: I'm leaving just this one entry up here on the front page for today.

Swine commentary update: Bill Quick has it. To said quoted Iraqi person: you had better have said that under duress. Ah well, I bet six weeks from now (+/-) he'll be lining up to sing the praises of the US occupying forces, with his hand out. Am I cynical? You tell me.

Sometimes you just gotta come clean...

... and admit a few things to yourself. And the world. I -- I --

I want to live in Frank's world.

Yes! Yessss! I admit it! I want to live in Frank's world! It's true! The truth shall set you free! Bwahaahaahahaahahaaa!!!

(Come on, admit it. You all want to live in his world too!)

Editor in the house

Solonor has come up with a unique way of dealing with a moron's comments. Excellent.

Pinter-mocking update

I run the risk that my trolls will start using both hands again in order to communicate their ire, but I have been alerted that one of them professional journal thingies have taken note of the little Harold Pinter poetry slam that we here in the Blog Multiverse engaged in recently. The author's favorite of all our efforts was Loretta Serrano's Monkees Theme takeoff, and Tim Blair's post gets a shout-out too. With luck, this meme will multiply and spread. I have a dream, a dream that someday no Advanced Placement high school class will have to suffer through analysis of one of Pinter's awful plays...

(Via Loretta's link to the article.)

It's Miss Harris if you're nasty

Bo-ring. Have you tried reading "liberal bloggers" lately? I have come to the conclusion that I can't possibly be a liberal -- even though I hold all sorts of supposedly liberal opinions -- I think gay people should be able to get married and adopt kids (why not? they can't be any worse than some of the "normal" hetero parents out there), I don't worship any god and I don't care if others do, I think everyone deserves equality of opportunity (that is, don't put obstacles deliberately in the way of people based on ridiculous characteristics like skin color), and so on. But apparently today to be a liberal you have to be a paranoid, nasty, name-calling, mud-slinging, knee-jerking, accusatory (as in, accusing people who disagree with you of being a troll or starting a flame war), miserable fuck.

"Man, that shizzit is nasty." "I'm depressed now."

No, I'm not going to link to the pertinent blogs, because they are legion, and they know who they are. Also, the whole right-vs.-left bitchfest is starting to depress me. Obviously this whole Looming Shadow of War thing is starting to get to people. But day-umn, momma never promised you a rose garden. Grow a spine. Stop whining about our Eville, Darth-Vader-like (only without the charm) president and his Dastardly Cabal of Snidely Whiplashes who are planning this very instant to steal candy from all the cute little orphan babies. Christ, what do we have of Bush -- at worst, another four years after next year. Oh, I know, it's just so painful having to wait for foour more years to get rid of a leader! It's almost as bad as having to endure a lifetime with a dictator! Only it's not, because it's not at all like having to endure an entire freaking lifetime with a dictator. If our current president annoys you so much, find a candidate who pleases you better. We're a free effing country. And for ghod's sake, stop with the useless "anti-war" marches. They do nothing for the Suffering Third-World Peoples™ that Evil Fascist Amerikkka is supposedly always stomping on; they do nothing to change the mind of people who don't get a coolness jones from being around Sixties rejects; they don't do anything except tie up traffic. Oh -- and your complaints about being subject Real Soon Now to the stamping jackboot of oppression because someone on a blog made fun of your assertion that Bush was the worst world leader since Hitler is not a brave and principled stand, it's pathetic, and makes you look like a moron, especially when a simple Google search turns up thousands of accounts of real oppression going on in those foreign countries you say you want to "save" from the dreaded American hegemon.

PS: here is what one person thinks of the American and European "human shields" that have descended upon his country. He calls them "war tourists." Funny, I don't think that that is the impression the "human shields" intended to give.

If only we used our power for good

Oh look, Dave Barry has a blog now. Guess what inspired him?

OK, thanks to Ken Layne I now have a real blog, sort of.

I will now spend days and days trying to figure out how this works, as opposed to doing anything productive.

Now that's power. Tremble, Big Media.

Movement of the Blogs

Balloon Juice has moved to a new site. It is no longer languishing in the dungeons of Blogspot, and is now a member of the MT Army. Huzzah!

A new blog

Welcome Angua's First Blog to the world. Looks promising: give her props. We needed a werewolf-policewoman around this place.

Blogspot alert

By the way -- Blogspot's archives seemed to be bungholed again, which is why I have not been leaving any permalinks today to individual posts on Blogger-run sites I reference. Hooray for Movable Type. (On a side note, this looks interesting. All you people intimidated by MT might want to check it out. Via Stacy Tabb.)

Dumb Poets Society

First of all, all you guys who have emailed me and posted your poems in the comments here rock. Here are some more efforts from others across the bloggyverse:

Bigwig helps Mr. Pinter by providing an edited and "corrected" version of the poem.

Tim Blair provides some efforts here.

These were sent to Glenn Reynolds.

I'll put up more links as I find them, and later, when I get time, Maybe I'll gather them all and put them on a separate page, including the ones in my comments.

Blogs: saving the world of literature from one dumb writer at a time.

Syzygy

In other news, while smug, whiny, Communist-led protestors were tromping around the Mall and waving their silly signs, fires in Canberra, Australia destroyed over 400 homes, have killed four people so far, and destroyed much of that city's power and sewage grid. I am only thankful that this past year was one of the wettest we've had for quite some time in Florida. I can still remember the fires of 1998, which caused about a zillion dollars damage. (That was before I moved to this area; I lived in Miami back then, and the smoke came all the way down there until the whole place smelled like Los Angeles on a bad smog day.) Tex, who lives in the area, has updates -- including this amazing picture of darkness at noon with fires burning all too near. It looks like Mount Doom. Tim Blair also has reports.

Crap!

Ah, Jebus. Hey, man, you can comment on my blog anytime. Forget your "friend."

Another British blogger in trouble

Now it's Andrew Ian Dodge. What the hell is going on?

Fired for Blogging

Iain Murray was fired for blogging. That's what his bosses told him anyway. The kicker? His previous boss had no trouble with his blogging.

R.I.P., Knight

:(

Blogger closing up shop

Dang.

A pundit's return

I'm just getting around to noticing this now, but Adil Farooq of Muslimpundit.com is now going to be blogging on Winds of Change. Read his introductory post.

Laugh-in

Okay, I've been laughing myself sick over at Frank's blog, so you have to go there too.

Fresh blog stuff

Baltic Blog comes to you live from Estonia. Today the subject is local elections, with photos of campaign posters in Tallinn.

The Baltic states are on my list of places to go to if I ever go world travelling again.

A gift!

Look what Dave made for me!

Feel free to snag it and use it to link to me. (Remember: right-click and "save as," then upload it to your own server space; do not link to it from my server.)

Sad news

Send your sympathies to Shiloh Bucher. (I found out from Glenn Reynolds.)