Blogolalia

Saturday, February 05, 2005

I’ve exported the database of my old blog and I’m still considering whether or not to import the entries to this one. My dilemma? Comment spam still residing on those old posts. After a while I stopped fighting the battle with the comment spammers that were hitting my old blog and there are hundreds of those link-infested comments riddled throughout the archives. I don’t want to bring them here and I can’t be bothered with cleaning them up. I thought about just deleting all the comments from the database, but there are some good conversations I’d hate to lose.

Anyone have any suggestions? I have some time before the hosting at that place ends (in May), so it’ll still have a home there. But once that ends, I’d like to have a home for that stuff.

Friday, February 04, 2005

Generally speaking, it seems that the American political Left just doesn’t get it yet - why they keep losing. Dr. Joyner has a great post that touches on “Fascists and Nazis, Republicans and Democrats.”

On Fascism:

“Islamo-fascist” is not used merely to describe a set of ideas with which, presumably, virtually all Americans disagree. Rather, it describes the political credo that motivates a terrorist movement and its sympathizers. The facist label is used because the fascsist ideology, like Islamism, required an absolute fealty to a dogma issued by a central leadership, a totalitarian worship of that idea, and terroristic violence to kill or intimidate the opposition.

On Janeane Garofalo/Nazism:

“The inked fingers was disgusting,” said Garofalo, who is one of the hosts on the Air America radio network. “The inked fingers and the position of them, which is gonna be a ‘Daily Show’ photo already, of them signaling in this manner [Nazi salute], as if they have solidarity with the Iraqis who braved physical threats against their lives to vote as if somehow these inked-fingered Republicans have something to do with that.”

Given that, if Garofalo’s policy preferences had been enacted, Saddam Hussein would still be in power, this is an odd position indeed. All taxpaying Americans had something to do with the Iraqi vote, in that we financed it. Congressional Republicans have more to do with it than most, given that they supported the policies that led to the Iraqi elections against considerable political opposition at home.

He includes a bonus link to Victor Davis Hanson, who says:

If the American Left is furious over the loss of most of the nation’s governorships and legislatures, the U.S. House, the Senate, the presidency, and soon the Supreme Court, the Europeans themselves are furious over America’s power — as if Red America is to Blue America as America is to Europe itself. Thus how can a mongrel culture of Taco Bell, Bud Light, and Desperate Housewives project such military and political influence abroad when the soft, subtle triangulation of far more cultured diplomats and sophisticated intellectuals from France, Germany, and Scandinavia is ignored by thugs from Iran, North Korea, and most of the Middle East? Why would the world listen to a stumbling George Bush when it could be mesmerized by a poet, biographer, aristocrat, and metrosexual of the caliber of a Monsieur Dominique de Villepin? Why praise brave Iraqis lining up to vote, while at the same hour the defeated John Kerry somberly intones on Tim Russert’s show that he really did go into Cambodia to supply arms to the mass-murdering Khmer Rouge — a statement that either cannot be true or is almost an admission of being a party to crimes against humanity if it is.

[...]

Perhaps the result of this frustration is that European intellectuals damn the United States for action in Iraq, but lament that they could do nothing in the Balkans. Democrats at home talk of the need for idealism abroad, but fear the dirty road of war that sometimes is part of that bargain — thus the retreat into “democracy is good, BUT…” So here we have the global throng that focuses on one purported American crime to the next, as it simmers in the luxury of its privilege, education, and sophistication — and exhibits little power, new ideas, intellectual seriousness, or relevance.

Ouch, indeed.

Go read the whole thing, as they say.

Since the Friday Five is no more and I have nothing much to say, here’s the FridayQ:

FQ TOPIC: Sleepy.

FQ1: On average, how many hours of sleep do you get each night? Do you think that’s a good number?

I try to get 8 hours of sleep a night. It’s a great number since it’s the recommended number.

FQ2: Have you any sleep essentials? A nightlight or teddy bear perhaps? Must the door and closet be either closed or open?

No sleep essentials per se. I do sleep with the radio on. The door is usually open. I usually lotion up the hands right before turning out the light - mostly in winter.

FQ3: What do you wear to bed? What color are your sheets? How many pillows under your head?

Pajamas - all year round. In the summer I wear cotton pj pants with a t-shirt. In the winter it’s flannel with a long-sleeve T.

One pillow under my head.

FQ BIG SLEEP: Share some helpful advice you use when having trouble falling asleep.

I’m a good sleeper usually. However, I try to limit my caffeine and sugar intake in the evening. I never watch TV in bed and I rarely read in bed. My bed is for sleeping only.

Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Via Jay is an interview with a link spammer - you know, blogdom’s pestering comment spammers. Here’s the part that raised my blood pressure:

Will the initiative by Google, Yahoo and MSN, to honour “don’t follow” links defeat Sam and his ilk? “I don’t think it’ll have much effect in the short, medium or long term. The search engines caused the problem” - we didn’t quite follow this bit of logic, but Sam continued - “and they’re doing this to placate the community. It won’t work because most blogs and forms are set up with the best intentions, but when people find hard graft has to go into it they’re left to rot. To use this, they’ll all have to be updated. The majority won’t be. And there’ll just be trackback spamming.”

ARGH!

The good news?

“The hardest form to spam is that which requires manual authentication such as captchas. Or those where you have to reply to an email, click on a link in it; though that can be automated too. Those where you have to register and click on links, they’re hard as well. And if you change the folder names where things usually reside, that’s a challenge, because you just gather lists of installations’ folder names.”

Monday, January 31, 2005

I have mentioned my concerns about Joel Osteen in the past. Via The Thinklings, I learned that the Internet Monk has challenged Christian bloggers to challenge Osteen because he does not preach the Gospel. So consider this doing my part.

Go take a look at the links to two interviews that Osteen did recently and you’ll see what Spencer is talking about. I’ve seen enough of his TV sermons to know that there’s something crucial missing in the messages he preaches. And the “alter call” he gives at the end of his shows each week are given out of context of the total picture of what the gospel is - a need for redemption that was provided through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That Osteen rarely mentions Jesus, much less his death, should be a concern.

UPDATE: I added a link to one of my old posts where I mentioned Osteen and my concerns about his ministry.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Happy birthday to Robert the Llama Butcher!

Family tradition dictates that I regale you with this chorus after the requisite Birthday Song:

Oh why was he born so beautiful?
Oh why was he born at all?
He’s no bloody use to anyone,
He’s no bloody use at all!

Being the good Scot that he is, maybe Robert will know it.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

OK, so she’s trying to moderate her stance to appeal to pro-lifers in preparation for her ‘08 Presidential campaign. But she better be aware that true pro-lifers and the Right will be watching her inconsistencies very carefully.

What Robert the Llama Butcher said goes for me too.

... Clinton’s use of this language here is flawed. I think it’s a trap. Mrs. Clinton knows perfectly well that there is no “common ground” agreement of this sort between pro-life and pro-choice partisans with respect to abortion itself. By tossing out such a sugar-coated rhetorical plea in a manner that blurs the philosophical distinction between pregnancy prevention and termination, I believe she is trying to bait pro-lifers into overreacting and painting themselves as cold, harsh and unreasonable, all the while pumping up her own seeming moderation and protecting her pro-choice creds.

Like Robert, I’m wary of Senator Clinton - she’s crafty.

Monday, January 24, 2005

I meant to link this earlier, but the boys at The Thinklings have a story meme going today. Go contribute a line or two.

Saturday, January 22, 2005

I sort of knew most of ya’ll preferred the old name. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the new one’s here to stay. However, I will keep the “formerly known as Jen Speaks” on there. How’s that for a compromise?

As for the suggestion that I revert back to the old name with the new name as the tag - I don’t like that much. It makes less sense to the newbie than the reverse, imho.

Anyhow, it’s my blog, right?

Friday, January 21, 2005

This will be a weekly read now that AI4 has started.

I tell you people right now, Simon is my favorite person on this benighted show. He’s tired, he’s cranky, he’s bored with mediocrity. And I am with him six thousand percent. I look forward to the day he vaults over the table, albeit in a stodgy British sort of way, and mic-whips some smart mouthed little punk who believes his rendition of WHATEVER is the best thing since Stairway.

Courtesy: Ith

Thursday, January 20, 2005

What Bryan said goes double for me.

My sincere appreciation to Jon of Misplaced Keys for his invaluable technical service today. He got my show/hide blogrolls working. Many thanks, friend!

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

What Ith said goes double for me, too.

It’s snowing like crazy today, although the experts are insisting that the accumulation will be 1-2”. We’ll see. It is, however, just enough to close schools (sigh) and hose traffic. I’m hoping the drive home tonight won’t be too terrible since a lot of DC commuters stayed home today or will have left early because of the inauguration stuff.

LATER: Rob Llama has the best line regarding the DC snow attitude.

Well, it’s snowing here in Your Nation’s Capital for the first time this season and already people in my office are acting as if a glacier had just rolled across the Beltway.

Heh.

LATERER (3:00pm): ECD and I left together in my car. She needed to get home for her daughter since she was being released from school early. She didn’t want to drive a government car in the snow and I didn’t want to face the crazy drivers in the dark. So I’m at home now.

Surprisingly, the roads were worse closer to work than at home. The roads out here had been treated and were much clearer than inside the Beltway.

If you’re interested in my sister’s Survivor pool, let me know in the comments. I’ll forward the email invite to you with the sign up info.