The Black Republican

Just F**king great! Like my world isn't F'd up enough with the Republican Party nominating a damn "Maverick" liberal asshole, supporters of the wife of the first "Black" President claiming that her opponent - a Black man - isn't Black enough, and that man's supporter claiming In many ways, he really will be the first woman president" - now I find out that Global warming isn't gonna kill us, but Global Cooling will!!

ARGGGGGGGG!!!

"Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling. Forty years of darkness. Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria."

I just had to post this! It seems more and more that no matter how hard we try, we just cannot parody these people any better than they do themselves.

The Corner

OK, I've been on vacation the past week and a half and am just now trying to do some catch-up. To that end I have compiled a list of some observations over that time:

Continue reading "A Pseudo Religion, Real Racism, and True Terror." »

I've been aggravated (and I'm going into withdrawal) by the fact that internet connectivity at home has been out for the last 48 hours. And as my bad luck would have it, now is the time I happen to get a Tarantolanche. For any new readers, please feel free to take a spin around the site and enjoy what we have to offer, and I promise to get new content up as soon as I can. I'm sure if we guilt them into it, the other contributors might add something during the void.

Jonah Goldberg is having some really strange conversations with his liberal readership.

Your liberal critic has it exactly right. Not reviewing everything in an opinion piece you link to is a bad thing because it allows you to have it both ways. You can win the approval of those who support all of the sentiments within the piece, but if anyone calls you out on it, you can claim you didn't read it and didn't endorse it. Linking to something supporting something you say without reviewing it is endorsing it. Liberal blog readers have a word for it: Disenglennousness (n.) - The practice of saying, after the fact, that just because you linked to something outrageous with "THIS IS INTERESTING" or "EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS", you don't necessarily agree with the linked sentiments, their having been exposed as utter pig-bollocks. The term comes from its biggest practitioner, Glenn Reynolds. It is a real problem on the right side of the blogosphere and conservatives would be wise to apply some self criticism to these types of tactics. The GOP is going to go through a rough period right here and this type of intellectual dishonesty will not serve them well as they work to return from the wilderness.

After lashing out at a Daily News editorial on his website, Glenn Reynolds got a chance to respond in their own pages. Good for him - and us.

According to the LA Times, Democrats are worried that they inadvertantly stumbled into ejecting themselves from a prime source of valuable media airtime. But the thing that grabbed by attention was the contention that the pajama brigade has been taken over by the left.

"This is a real bind for Democrats," said Dan Gerstein, an advisor to one of Imus' favorite regulars, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). "Talk radio has become primarily the province of the right, and the blogosphere is largely the province of the left. If Imus loses his microphone, there aren't many other venues like it around."

If you thought there was a chance that Fred Thompson might not eventually enter the presidential race, consider this piece of evidence hanging out at RedState, posted by da Man himself.

Some in the West seem part of Iran's propaganda war; claiming that the release of the hostages was a victory that proves the Iranian dictatorship can be reasoned with. To misrepresent unpunished piracy as a victory is as Orwellian as the congressional mandate banning use of the term "the global war on terror." What are we — Reuters?

And, I might add, he's speaking the language of the blogosphere with remarkable adeptness. Between his choice of venue and his snarky use of anti-MSM language, here's someone who (at the very least) is being given great advice about how to formulate a script in the new media. After eight years of domestic defensiveness and mangled prose, choosing another hard-nosed, politically-adept, conservative Hollywood actor (like Dutch, God rest his soul) might just be what the Republican party needs most in 2008.

Okay, I know I've been distracted and brooding, but I never meant it to be so bad that I wouldn't celebrate the good times. When I realized we've almost missed TBR of the Year, it also occurred to me I never noted our fourth birthday, either. A welcoming message to the start of Year 5 has been been backdated.

In a terrible oversight, I look at my calendar and realize we're two days away from awarding our 2006 The Black Republican of the Year Award, and I have yet to even ask for nominations. Who among the inhabitants of the fruited plain (and beyond) best exemplified the spirit of The Black Republican in the past year?

The definition of a "blog" has been a somewhat evolving concept. Even before I started, there were some bloggers giving up on the medium because it was no longer the realm of the simple diarist and was becoming more of commentator's pulpit. In a schoolyard pique, they took their keyboards and went somewhere else. But as The New York Times points out, newspapers have started trying to get in on the act, and their websites are now prolific with entries from their professional journos writing blog-style.

I dunno. Unlike my predecessors, I'm not going to quit just because the pros are working their way into our turf. But it almost seems to me that it requires a different name when the creator of the thing is a corporation and they're hiring someone to push commentary from a particular perspective. To me, "blogging" can be diary or commentary - I prefer the latter, and think the former is pabulum, but they're both blogging. Even a moblog-type effort I can appreciate from professional commentators - like NRO's The Corner - isn't close enough for me to think of it as a "blog". For it to be a blog, it's got to be personal, and come from the gut. Make all the money you want from your site, but it doesn't mean so much when the money somehow influences how it gets said.

Unfortunately, what else could we call them - and would they accept the label if we did?

Leave it to Fark to lead me to stuff I didn't hear about any where else first. The short of it: S.1, section 220 will require "...bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress." This site has NOTHING to worry about. :)

It's New Year's Eve, so don't forget to stop by LGF and vote for the Fiskie. Charles has also added a new award dedicated to Oriana Fallaci to be given to the Anti-Idiotarian of the Year. I'll post the results when they come in.

UPDATE: This year's winner of the Fiskie (Robert Fisk Award for Idiotarian of the Year) is departing UN chief Kofi Annan. And in a remarkably lopsided - and entertainingly juxtaposed - victory, departing US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton was the inaugural winner of the Oriana Fallaci Award for Anti-Idiotarian of the Year. Congratulations to both worthy winners.

This date marks our fourth blogiversary. Hopefully, next year, I'll notice us turning 5 years old before February.

Most people probably aren't aware of it, but we here at TBR have continued to have problems with pernicious spam. Happily, even the other contributors probably are unaware of that, because MT's newest upgrade has kept almost all of it off the blog and in the mechanism's moderation system, which only I have to deal with. Unfortunately, I have had the settings for the tripwire into the junk mailbox torqued up so high, we occasionally have lost comments. And since we were averaging about 25,000 junk comments a month, it's only been sheer luck when I've found a good comment amid all the crap - when I've bothered to look at all, which was almost never.

My friend Doug long ago told me to institute a CAPTCHA mechanism, but I could never find an MT plugin that didn't require modification. And unlike the Generic Geek, I'm not really enough of a coder to want to climb inside the php to do it manually (assuming I could figure the code in the first place).

Well, I think I've finally beaten the spammers, because I found a CAPTCHA plugin that actually works relatively out of the box. I had a scare for about an hour while (like every other attempt at CAPTCHA) I was failing to get it to work, and after I found that Arvind stopped supporting his creation. But eventually I got the kinks out and it seems to be smooth sailing so far.

While I was at it, I made a few improvements to the look and operation of the comment and preview templates, including the requirement that all comments have to be previewed before being posted. (This being an extra step against the spammers now that should save me a modification later.)

As always, let me know if you see any problems.

Always on the search of left-wing lunacy, I have a Google Toolbar button for CQPolitics.com. However, today's amusement came from the map they have of how the Senate races are currently predicted. What caught my attention (being not color blind) was that the Florida Senate race isn't exactly buttoned up, as the MSM would have you believe.

Although this website isn't really that old yet, we have still tried to establish some 'traditions' here. The first is our unwritten rule that nearly any article, book, or mention by a politician of Abraham Lincoln or the Civil War gets mentioned somehow. It may only be a post to our Recommended Reading section, but such references seldom go unnoticed.

Our second 'tradition' - albeit a rather new one - is to annually designate one national figure as our Black Republican of the Year.

As a contributor to this blog my official nomination for this year's award, whether he wins or loses, goes to Michael Steele.

Today we welcome longtime friend and occasional kibbitzer Dan Wheeler as our newest contributor to The Black Republican. Despite being the instigator of more than a few posts, Dan has rebuffed several requests to join the blog on prior occasions. Finally, today, after sending a blistering email complaining about our foes in the Dino-Media, he has accepted the offer. The retooled rant is already posted as Dan's first contribution.

As is our tradition, we eagerly await a brief statement from the new arrival that can serve as his bio on our About Us page. Welcome aboard, Dan!

UPDATE: Unlike our other contributors, Dan sent me a brief bio within 24 hours (as requested) rather than post an elaborate self-introduction. You can read it here.

With a little bit of help from their mother, two home-schooled kids named Ben and Noah have their own blog, even though they're barely able to write. As if "Tree Fort Enterprises TM, Parent Company of Better Than A Lemonade Stand" isn't cool enough in itself, the two lads have managed a moving tribute to Lester Vincent Marino and his family, which are, together, probably the best eulogy I've ever seen on the net to one of the casualties on September 11th.

A commenter to our previous post, Falcon, had this to say about Thomas Sowell and the state of things in general:

I just listened to Thomas Sowell talk about his article on the Laura Ingraham Show. You're right, he's simply brilliant.

Off topic - Here's another article that may interest you. Let me know what you think.

I dare anyone, of any political persuasion, to peruse the liberal and conservative blogs (or, to use Ace's terms, the sinistrosphere and dextrosphere) and see which of those sites have more snarling hatred, more venom, more intolerance, segregation, divisiveness, and racism. See which site has commenters and supporters (and even posters) that actually use terms like Hymie, compare people to Hitler, Nazis and Ava Braun, pillory their own candidates who dare to think for themselves or stray from the script, photoshop people to be in Minstrel blackface, or call a Black political candidate an Oreo or Uncle Tom.

They scream that we on the right are intolerant, divisive, and racist. But, to paraphrase William Shakespeare's Hamlet, "The liberal protests too much, methinks."

* Projection: Projection is one of the defense mechanisms identified by Freud and still acknowledged today. According to Freud, projection is when someone is threatened by or afraid of their own impulses so they attribute these impulses to someone else. For example, a person in psychoanalysis may insist to the therapist that he knows the therapist wants to rape some women, when in fact the client has these awful feelings to rape the woman.

A scant three years after I first saw a PDA version of a blog and thought I should create one for TBR, and just two years after PDAs ceased to be really relevant, The Black Republican - PDA version is born.

Well, at least I'm persistent.

NOTE TO CONTRIBUTORS: Please avoid posting BMPs to your entries. Not only is the format a waste of server space, it can't be processed by some PDA browsers. Most images convert well to either JPG (if you need lots of colors, like a photo) or GIF (if you don't), but PNG is a good compromise if you want lossless compression. Thanks.

I grew up in New York and New Jersey not long after Kitty Genovese was murdered. I have such vivid memories of that story being repeated over and over again, I never knew until just now that it happened four years before I was even born. Indeed, that incident was one of the things that eventually drove my parents into "white flight" mode, eventually moving us out to the New Jersey countryside.

Michelle Malkin used this memory to great effect tonight, reminding me why I shouldn't sit by and let Jeff Goldstein's problems go without mention. Jeff has now received a little bit of help from our PayPal account, and I'm sure he'll be needing anything you can spare.

But that doesn't mean the Kitty Genovese Appeal isn't a cheap shot at my conscience, Michelle.

Welcome to Internet Vocabulary 201, class. Today's word is frisch.

With a 4-day weekend at hand, you may see some strange stuff from the site, as I try again to fix various problems and update the templates. We will return to our regularly-scheduled lethargy shortly. :-)

UPDATE (Saturday 2:25pm): IE sucks.

UPDATE II (Saturday 9:45pm): If Microsoft made vacuum cleaners, David Oreck would be out of a job.

UPDATE III (Sunday 11:08pm): Have I mentioned that IE sucks like a newborn hippo on his mother's teat?

UPDATE IV (Monday 3:47am): Good news: front page looks to be done. Bad news: the rest of the site is still hosed. Let me know what you think of the layout so far.

UPDATE V (Monday 6:42pm): Individual entry pages are mostly rebuilt, but there's a bug somewhere preventing the TypeKey login from appearing. I've put in a support tickey at SixApart, so meanwhile I'll work on the Monthly and Category Archive pages, and the Search templates.

UPDATE VI (Monday 8:51pm): TypeKey login is now fixed.

UPDATE VII (Tuesday 6:53pm): Monthly and Category Archive pages are done, including a new Category page for Recommended Reading that includes an automated phrase explaining that each entry is "Recommended Reading", instead of showing a bare link. The code used on this page is also seen on the Individual Entry pages for those posts, as well as on the Monthly Archive pages.

Also, a bug was found and corrected in the Recent Comments block on the front page, which was preventing links from anchoring directly to the respective comments.

Next - and hopefully last - I've got to check the System modules for things like Comment Preview and Trackback Listing, and modify anything that's broken. Beyond that, I've just got a lot of cleanup of back entries that I've been putting off for a long time. It's necessary but not system-related, so it'll get fixed when I get to it.

UPDATE VIII (Tuesday 9:52pm): Done! Please let me know if you see anything broken or out of place.

The only thing funnier than posting a vulgar title is posting proof of human nature.

Crap. Just damn.

I'd just finished posting the article below, and refreshed the page, when I saw Chris Muir's homage to a man who probably wouldn't have blinked twice - no, not even once - over my little rant. And despite all his threats to the contrary, Rob apparently didn't leave this world by his own hand.

There's a lesson there, boys and girls. A powerful and meaningful lesson, reflected in the lives and times of two very different people.

The abbreviated version of the Irish Blessing goes double for you, buddy. And in your case, I'm not just saying it because I oughta. I really hope it's true. But I'm sure you'd prefer if I'd leave you to Clemens than to God. Most appropriate is probably: "Death, the refuge, the solace, the best and kindliest and most prized friend and benefactor of the erring, the forsaken, the old and weary and broken of heart." But that one is so sad, and Irishmen prefer other sentiments with their wake toast.

So for you, I prefer this one:

It has been reported that I was seriously ill--it was another man; dying--it was another man; dead--the other man again...As far as I can see, nothing remains to be reported, except that I have become a foreigner. When you hear it, don't you believe it. And don't take the trouble to deny it. Merely just raise the American flag on our house... and let it talk.

Rest in peace.

When we recently upgraded to the most recent version of MoveableType, it caused some havoc with our dynamic templates. In an effort to resolve the issues, I'm moving the blog temporarily to the default template so I can compare the old with the new. As I play with this throughout the day, things may look funky from time to time, and in the end, there may be some changes in the way the blog looks. I'll let you know when I'm done tinkering.

UPDATE: Well, I haven't fixed what was broken, and I'm still tinkering with some changes, but for now we're going back to the broken template, just so we don't leave anything missing that's supposed to be displayed. More later.

OK... because Sue liked the first Caption Contest so much, and because of the finger similarity to the Speaker Pelosi photo, she asked if it would be feasible to do it again with this one. Why not?!

Knock yourselves out!

Ever seen a picture and thought "That would be great for a Caption contest?" Well, here is such a picture. So feel free to opine. There is no prize for winning, nor even any certainty that we will even attempt to judge the entries at all. Let's just say the humor value will be it's own reward!

Tip of the ol' stovepipe to Drudge for the image.

It was nearly two years ago when I presented SoCaP Part I. And I thought the issue had been settled, until, first I heard Rush limbaugh mention it today, and now I see Ace is referencing it as news. But, there is nothing about it on Rush's website, the search engines reveal no new stories, and the story which Ace links is old. So, what is the deal? Has this matter resurfaced? I don't know.

But, I do know that my feelings haven't changed, I still say use 'em if you got 'em.

Btw- In researching this matter I discovered that Aaron, of the late blog "Aaron's Rantblog" is back; now found at Aaron's cc:. And he is as militantly anti-Islamofacist as ever. Check out his line of merchandise. Are you brave enough to wear a "I Draw Mohammad Cartoons" ball cap, or a "Muck Fuslims" t-shirt? Me either, though I could be convinced to wear the hat under certain conditions. (Cue the Brad Paisley song, "Alcohol").

Welcome back to the blogoshphere Aaron. To isfullofcrap for letting us know that you have returned.

This is an absolutely brilliant article that lays out precisely what I've been trying to express for some time, but just lacked the time - and probably intellect - to do. Even if I do possess the requisite number of grey cells, I know for a fact that I could not have done anything as eloquent or complete. But even with my lagging intellect, I know a gem when I see it, and this is it! Kudos to Rudy Rummel for writing it, and a big hat tip to Dean Esmay for allowing it to be posted to his site.

Articles like this provide me a glimmer of hope that maybe - and this is a BIG maybe - some of the anti-Bush and anti-war Pollyannas will wake from their slumber and open their eye to the fact that this is as much a war of will as anything else... and that if we lose the will, we lose the war. I say glimmer, but it's really more like seeing a candle from a mile away on a pitch-black night. But hey, as improbable as it may be, hope still springs eternal.

But even given that small light of hope, it's still scary to realize how dark that night can actually be. Some in this country (Cindy Sheehan and her ilk), actually want and are using the MSM to try and achieve that very end - to weaken our will - and the MSM plays right along with them. Many who advocate this approach consider themselves "champions for peace" and believe that since this tactic worked for them regarding Vietnam, it will work for them again now.

The problem with this thinking is that the Vietnamese people were glad just to have us leave and had no agenda other than ruling and rebuilding their own country. But if these self-proclaimed "champions for peace" are allowed to successfully lull enough of the American people into the slumber and lethargy of their own Pollyanna dream world, and thus weaken our resolve to the point that we pull out of Iraq prematurely or disengage from the Middle-east and slip into isolationism, the enemy we fight now will not be content to just stay home, glad that we are gone. The Islamo-fasist enemy we are at war with are on a mission to eradicate the "infidels" from the earth - all the infidels - and our withdrawal from Iraq, the Middle-east, or the world stage in general will do nothing but embolden them to fight harder to achieve that goal. And guess what? If you are not a Muslim, your an infidel. And what you do not now and maybe never will understand my dear, dear Pollyanna Pink, champion of peace, love and harmony, is that that pristine and peace-loving throat of your's will be rendered as silent as the grave, because it will the first one slit.

Todd Manzi has a very good article at TownHall.com today that does a great job of exposing the obvious bias of the MSM in general, and The Associated Press in particular. But I must take exception to the articles conclusion:

The AP and the mainstream media control the news. They set the agenda. They determine what will be a story and what will not be a story. They determine how the story will be spun. Nobody is holding them accountable. The MSM would be all over a teacher who made a disagreeable comment about women, gays, minorities or Democrats. But, geography teachers who attempt to indoctrinate their students toward socialism while deriding capitalism get a pass.

Don't worry... they will not be given a pass, and there will be no quarter given.

Or a stone, or pebble, or whichever small, hard, spherical type object you prefer. I mean that metaphorically, of course. I have come to this conclusion because of an interview I heard on the radio this past weekend (though it may have been a re-broadcast). The venue was The Tammy Bruce Show, the interviewee (?) was Glenn Reynolds, and the subject was his new book "An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths."

Given the title of the book, I think many of you may see how I'm extending the metaphor here. We all know that there are indeed "Davids" out there trying to slay the "Goliaths" of our modern world - Glenn, Bill at InDC, Scott at LGF, Michelle, Drudge, Ace, Dean, Wretchard at the Belmont Club, and James Taranto, just to name some of the more renown rock-slingers. And I think we all understand that the Internet in general, and the blogosphere specifically, is the slingshot in this metaphor - the technological advancement that gave the original David the ability to do what he did. But where is the rock, the pebble, the stone? All the technology in the world would have done David no good, no matter how much skill he had with that slingshot, if it weren't for that rock!

So in this metaphor - where is the rock?

Right here! Those of us in the blogosphere not big enough to actually sling the big missiles, we are the rocks. Those of you who don't actually blog yourselves but just use blogs as a source of news and information, you are the rocks. We are the ones that make the impact, the ones who make sure the shots from the Davids are felt by the Goliaths. Oh, we little Davids may occasionally take a shot or two ourselves, but our real value lies elsewhere. By bringing up issues at home, work, or school and using arguments advanced by the New Media (whatever your viewpoint), by holding elected officials accountable for their actions with information gleaned from blogs, by writing letters to newspaper editors, by informing friends, family, and coworkers about the issues that affect their everyday lives that otherwise gets hidden or overlooked by the MSM, we ensure that those shots fired by the Davids actually strike flesh. The choice of those "five smooth stones" by David was of critical importance, as is the impact each of us can have.

But given the entrenchment of the giants we are fighting, one David with one rock could never have been enough. The Goliaths are still standing tall and leading a mighty army. An army that has, like the Philistines, invested all their confidence in their champion. But we in the Blogosphere are not one David, we are legion, and these mighty champions of the left are beginning to show the affects - both in fear and fatigue - of the thousands of shots being lobbed at them. When this bold experiment called the Blogosphere first began to take its shots, the rocks and stones (We, and our arguments and debating skills) were rough and hard to aim. But as time has passed we rocks have become more polished, smooth, hard, and have learned to be self directed... and our impact is being felt. Expect the leftist Philistines to become more and more anxious as they begin to see their champion Goliaths - big Government, the MSM, Hollywood, Academia - suffer a death from a thousand cuts.

I have already ordered the book, and I suggest you do the same. Let's strike fear in their hearts and show these big Government, MSM, Hollywood, and Academia Goliaths that not only do we have bigger stones, but that we have an unlimited supply of them!

"The makers of the gay cowboy flick 'Brokeback Mountain' were too rough on sheep, an animal-rights group charged yesterday." - New York Post

Best of the Web

Bill Sammons' new book Strategery is really starting to make some waves inside the beltway and other Blue-state bastions. Just as a snippet, via Drudge comes evidence that the big guy himself (GWB) sees the affect of the new media and Blogosphere all too well:

"I think what’s healthy is that there’s no monopoly on the news. There’s competition. There’s competition for the attention of, you know, 290 million people, or whatever it is.

And the amazing thing about this world we live in is that there’s a kind of free-flowing, kind of bulletin board of ideas and thoughts out there in the ether space, sometimes landing on somebody’s desk and sometimes not, but always available. It’s a very interesting period."

He is so right, we do live in interesting times! And the Architect Carl Rove not only considers Memogate a watershed in the rise of this new media, but he actually hat tips the Pajamahadeen in the process...

"The whole incident in the fall of 2004 showed really the power of the 'blogosphere'...

Because in essence you had now, an army of self-appointed experts looking over the shoulder of the mainstream media and bringing to bear enormously sophisticated skills..."

"There is so much ugliness and viciousness and fundamental untruths that the blogosphere transmits...

It also is a vehicle for ugly rumors, for scurrilous personal attacks, an avenue for the creation of urban legends which are deeply corrosive of the political system and of people’s faith in it."

For all those people who complain that I don't blog enough, I'm just feeling okay, thanks.

We have an unofficial and undocumented rule here at The Black Republican: News and opinion article that mention Abraham Lincoln and/or The Civil War earns automatic recognition - either in our Recommended Reading section or, less often but more prestigiously (if that's even possible here), via a front page post. As a weblog dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, the founder of the Grand Old Party and author of the enduring principles upon which it was founded, I cannot see how we can do otherwise.

As an adjunct to that unofficial rule, however, it seems to be a growing trend that any mention or reference to anything Monty Python has started to garner the same results! I must stress that this is an absolutely un-unofficial, non-rule, but it seems to be occurring often and... spontaneously? I cannot explain this phenomenon in any other way other than to say that some of us must have a hidden fondness for SPAM, a soft spot for Norwegian Blue parrots, or a historical interest in the Spanish Inquisition. (Didn't see that one coming did you? Well, nobody expects...)

All of this having been said, John O'Sullivan over at National Review Online has a very well written and funny article regarding the current Canadian political scene that, under normal circumstances, may or may not have earned a mention on this site. In this case, however, Mr. O'Sullivan had the luck to entitle his piece I'm a Lumberjack and I'm Okay, so...

Hat tip to Sue!

Google has not become the worlds leading search engine by accident. It has take a lot of hard work by a lot of talented people to make Google faster, more comprehensive, and - most importantly - more accurate than all the others. For a quick and illustrative demonstration of all of all these qualities, do the following:

1. Open a new browser window and go to Google.
2. In the search field, type french military victories and click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

See what I mean! Fast, comprehensive, and 100% accurate!

Hat tip to my coworkers Sue and Doug (aka the GenericGeek)

This entry will spend more time talking about me than the subject at hand, kind of like a Democratic Senator interrogating Judge Alioto Alito. I recommend that you simply skip to the provided link and ignore the rest, except remember that if you identify yourself, the new legal revisions do not apply to you.

I have been experiencing something akin to writer's block of late. In my case though, I have things I want to say, but I can't write them down fast enough. So, my mind moves on to another element of the subject, which is also forgotten as I become involved in some other facet of the universe. So, my problems aside, I proudly announce that in commenting on another blog I mostly expressed the thought which came to mind.

It happened at, The Volokh Conspiracy - Annoying Anonymous Speech Online:, in response to a discussion of some new legal language intended to protect us from anonymous abuse on the internet. A revision of the existing telecommunications rules prohibiting such cowardly activity via telephone.

Take a look, at the issue, primarily, and at my comment if you wish.

I am taking baby steps as I search for my blog voice again, I trust that my logic on that issue isn't also infantile. I always go for the shortest route to a solution.

I cannot let today pass without acknowledging our third blogiversary.

It's been a tough year. We knew it was going to be a tough one coming in, but we were at times surpised by disaster from unexpected directions. We have seen moments of terrible injustice, disturbing inappropriateness, and hilarious ineptitude.

That said, we have also seen moments of great determination and inspiration. Familiar faces wore new hats, and noble heroes followed radical saints to their great reward.

Skimming back on the year in our archives, I've barely begun to recap the best and worst of the last year. Take a trip through the months yourself and tell us in the comments what moments will be most memorable for you. And while you're doing that...

I think it's about time we started a tradition that Steve, Rick, and I have mulled over for some time. While skipping through the archives, and as our friends in the MSM begin their "Year in Review" pieces (like TIME Magazine's "Man of the Year"), take a moment to think who might deserve the honor of Black Republican of the Year.

While I am tempted to nominate our Secretary of State, and despite his many missteps throughout the year, I believe the man who made this happen may be the person most exemplifying the principles and ideals of The Black Republican: George W. Bush.

Who will you nominate?

I was asked this morning to post the following:

Allow me to express my sincere apologies to all TBR readers out there who are frustrated by the nearly complete lack of postings. Chris and Steve determined this morning that this seeming complete lack of interest is because of me. You see, everyday Chris and I start the day out discussing various items that we see in different blogs as well as in the MSM. Because he is far more passionate about these things than I am, I both encourage and allow him to carry on until he wears himself out. This has been by design. If this "morning vent” does not occur, he sits at his desk and mopes all day which, in turn, casts a shadow all over my day.

I see now that I have been selfish. I hope you can forgive me for my selfishness. I will cease to encourage the morning release and will allow him to vent again in his forum.

With my sincerest apologies...

Sue

The future has arrived, and its name is Open Source Media.

OK... one look at the website name and I know going in that this is parody, but why does the logic employed by this - ahem, writer - sound exactly like that of so many people I see protesting in Crawford, Texas or hear on Sunday morning network news shows? I think some enterprising independent film maker could make a fortune with a movie documenting how this kind of thinking actually goes on - and often in front of TV cameras no less! I've even got a suggestion for the title. Call it: Dr. Moonbat or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Michael Moore!

John Derbyshire over at The Corner

In case you haven't been following it, a group of bloggers, columnists, reporters, editors and journalism professors have banded together to... well, it's not quite clear at this point exactly what it is they're about to do, but it appears to be an attempt to start a new form of blogging syndication. The venture, initially called Pajamas Media but soon to appear under a new name, was started by Roger L. Simon and Charles Johnson (of Little Green Footballs). They even have an editorial board (!) made up of an eclectic bunch of big names, including Jane Hall, Michael Barone, Tammy Bruce, David Corn, Marc Cooper and John Podhoretz. Contributing blogs include Vodkapundit, Protein Wisdom, Dean's World, Volokh Conspiracy, Baldilocks, and Michelle Malkin.

Wait... did I say, Michelle Malkin?

Okay, okay - while I'm very interested in what's being hatched at Pajamas Media, this post is really just an excuse to post this publicity photo of Michelle. Can you blame me?

Ok... not only she a hottie, but Michelle Malkin is extremely intelligent, a conservative, a prolific blogger, and the author of what is sure to be a best-selling new book that slices, dices, skewers, grills, and then serves up the Democrats and liberal on a silver platter:

It’s not Republicans taking chainsaws to Democrat campaign signs and running down political opponents with their cars. It’s not conservatives burning Democrats in effigy, defacing war memorials, and supporting the fragging of American troops. And it’s not conservatives producing a bullet-riddled bumper crop of assassination-themed musicals, books and collectible stamps.

It’s not a Republican who invoked Pol Pot and Nazis and Soviet gulag operators when discussing American troops at Guantanamo Bay. That was Democrat Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, who kept his Senate Minority Whip position and who continues to blame an "orchestrated right-wing attack" for what came out of his mouth.

It’s not Republicans who suggested that President Bush had advance knowledge of the September 11th attacks or that Osama bin Laden has already been captured. Those notions were advanced by former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and current Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean.

And it wasn’t a Republican who asserted that the war Iraq was "just as bad as six million Jews being killed." That was Democrat Rep. Charlie Rangel, who has refused to apologize and whom no Democrat leader has denounced.

The views of unhinged liberals are no longer relegated to the private remarks of a few Democrat politicians or the bloviations of a few fringe figures on the far Left. The syndrome is far more pervasive, intense, and sanctimoniously self-delusional than anything on the Right.

To see just how deeply this unhinged disease has infected the entire party leadership and its liberal body politic, you'll have to buy the book.

Oh yea, stick a fork in 'em... they're done! (I sure am glad we're on the same side!)

Hurricane Wilma has blown past, and after a week of long drives and hurricane shudders, we're back from bliatus. Unfortunately, I'm now sick with a cold, but I'm trying to catch up as best I can. Stay tuned.

Bliatus, is my new word, combining blogging and hiatus. The most recent hurricane is predicted to come this way (Naples, FL.), and,