I gotta tell ya, there just isn't anything going on today that I feel like commenting on. I blog when something inspires me but today, well, you know the old saying....

Labels: Blogging, YouTube

Until my bank account grows by a few digits, I'm gonna say no. Ace has the details of such discussions in Washington state.

Labels: Blogging

Iowahawk, a.k.a. Dave Burge, is now going to be writing for the British rag Anorak while still maintaining his Iowahawk site. I think the Brits has a lot of misconceptions about Americans and our culture. Who better than Iowahawk to set them straight. For example:

In the matter of politics you have "Tories" and "Labour" where we have "Republicans" and "Democrats"; just as our "lawyers" must pass the "bar exam," I'm sure your "barristers" must pass some sort of "pub quiz." In America we call our stupid white racists "crackers," where I believe you refer to them as "scones" or "crisps" or something. But these minor language quirks are nothing compared to the many things we have in common. For example, did you know we also have a new Stalinist dictator, and he also turns out to be Brown?

Bob's your uncle.

Labels: Blogging, Iowahawk, UK

Hey folks, sorry for the light posting of late. I'm currently sitting in a coffee shop in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska taking care of some business in my old college stomping grounds...those were the days. Isn't technology something? I'm at a small wood table with a lamp, cup of coffee and my laptop with free wireless provided by the management. I feel like a young Bill Ayers. Ah, the life of academia.

Anywho, more news and views coming this weekend.

Labels: Blogging, Personal

There's more to blogging than just banging on a keyboard. The future of blogging is vlogging, that is, video blogging. As technology gets more sophisticated and cheap, pretty much anybody can do it. Ed Driscoll is taking the lead with his series "Silicon Graffiti." In this installment he looks at the 1960s and the influence of the film Bonnie & Clyde. Highly interesting.

Labels: Blogging, Politics, Pop Culture

My readers know by now that I'm a bit neurotic and need to change the look of my blog once or twice a year. Just the way I was built, I guess.

Labels: Blogging, Personal

As I've said before...every so often I get bored and just have to change the website. Hope you like it!

Labels: Blogging, Personal

Sad news in Las Vegas as longtime blogger D.C. Thornton has decided to hang up the keyboard. After 6+years of blogging at dcthornton.com, D.C. has decided to bring his webpage to a close as other priorities take center stage. While disappointed, I understand his decision. Blogging is fun and interesting, but believe it or not, it takes time and discipline to make a blog worth reading. I've done pretty well in my 3+years but still I haven't been able to devote the time and hard work necessary to compete with the big boys. Maybe someday, but right now my job as a video director for the Las Vegas destination is my number one priority, but when I can, I will continue to throw my two cents into the ether.

Thanks, D.C. for your mentoring of me and other Nevada bloggers.

Labels: Blogging, Personal

As usual, the bloggers are giving us the best war reporting since Ed Murrow in the London Blitz. The MSM can't be bothered. Michael J. Totten has the latest from Fallujah and the battle military commanders have against complacency.

Labels: Blogging, Iraq

A nice turnout at the first BlogWorld Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center. A truly convenient convention for me as I work at the LVCC. I was able to check out the convention and some of the blog celebs in attendance.


The world famous Chippendales? No, just two bloggers in their prime: the Libertarian Popinjay meets "Captain" Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters and Blog Talk Radio. An incredibly nice man and one of the best bloggers on the net.



I also had the pleasure of meeting writer, producer, comedian Evan Sayet at the Pajamas Media booth. Evan has written for the Arsenio Hall Show, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and other comedy projects in Hollywood for several years, but like his fellow comedian Dennis Miller, the events of 9/11 would change him forever. Evan noticed how many of his liberal friends were actually glad to see America get attacked, feeling that the country deserves what it gets. Evan spoke about this and his political transformation in a speech to the Hertiage Foundation. This speech has since become required viewing for the right side of the blogosphere. He did some standup bits throughout the day at the PJ Media booth. He was very congenial and we talked for about 5 minutes about his career and mine. Good guy.

More pics of the convention floor:




Poker lessons for bloggers!


Evan Sayet conducts a "White House press briefing."

Labels: Blogging

I just read how Don Surber is ranked number 2 in a list of best blog reads by Carnegie-Mellon University. There are so many jokes I want to make, my brain has gone into overload.

Don Surber: the John Oates of the Blogosphere;
Don Surber: the Ed McMahon of the Blogosphere;
Don Surber: the Jim Messina of the Blogosphere;
Don Surber: the new Number 2. (Obscure reference)
Don Surber: (generic poop joke)

Okay, yes, you're right, I'm just jealous. He's one of the best bloggers out there, if not the best. Every day he has great links and commentary and he gets loads of hits. Meanwhile, I'm saving my pennies in a jar so I can someday, hopefully, buy a new pair of pants!

But don't despair, you small-potatoes of the blogosphere, Don has some tips for success!

Congrats, Don...you deserve the recognition.

Labels: Blogging, Blogosphere, Don Surber

It's been a crazy week for me in the world of blogging. First, I was unable to blog for about three days due to a Blogger-to-FTP problem that Google was having. Just when I was ready to kick Blogger to the curb, they saved my ass by rescuing my blog from the ash-heap after I accidentally erased it from my dashboard. So, now that I'm back in business, I have a new, updated design courtesy the good folks at Gecko & Fly. I'll be making more little tweaks to the page this weekend.

Labels: Blogging, Personal

Classic.

Labels: Blogging, MSM, MSNBC

Richard Miniter over at Pajamas Media has done some extensive research on the Scott Thomas Beauchamp scandal at The New Republic. The story has a little bit of everything: blind ambition, a jilted lover, a woman on the inside and even a gay Republican.

As expected, the only action the magazine has taken is to fire the whistle-blower who told a few conservative bloggers about the fact that Beauchamp is married to one of TNR's "fact-checkers (a fact that has been thoroughly checked). While some may be amazed by this, it's hardly surprising. The MSM sees the Blogosphere (at least the conservative Blogosphere) as a pesky rebellion on the outskirts of the capital. While it may be the right thing to do to come clean and admit they were duped, the last thing the editors at TNR or any MSM outlet want to do is give the rebels any kind of credibility. If the New York Times or Time Magazine had revealed that Beauchamp was a fraud, TNR would still have been annoyed but also more likely to come clean. Since they're being exposed by the likes of Little Green Footballs and The Confederate Yankee, they're wrapping themselves in a cone of silence.

It's more than ideology at work here. It's not about being pro-war or anti-war. It's about class, about TNR's standing in the Fourth Estate hierarchy. They're being challenged and they don't like it...none of the MSM likes it and they're not going to leave the ivory tower without a fight.

The great war...the battle over the control of information and ideas, will be a generational war.

Labels: Blogging, Media Bias, MSM

Michael Yon is the Edward R. Murrow of the War on Terror. Murrow, during the London Blitz in World War II put himself in harm's way to inform the American public what was happening in Europe. He did it on a fairly new form of media: radio.

Today, Michael Yon, along with Bill Roggio and a handful of others are following Murrows path as they send reports from Iraq and Afghanistan via the Blogosphere. Recently, Yon reported news of the massacre of a small village near Baqubah by al-Qaeda forces. He has pictures....brace yourself.

The reaction from the MSM/Driveby Media has been one of near complete silence. Why? One can easily speculate that it's their standard liberal/anti-Bush bias that is wont to play up any wrongdoings by American forces, but quick to downplay terrorists' atrocities. However, it appears there's more to it than that.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit recently got an email from a member of the MSM who wishes to remain anonymous, but according to Glenn is someone "whose name you'd recognize." Once again I say, brace yourself:

Yon's story doesn't get attention because it is humiliating.

It is humiliating because it is obvious that we media – and our allies in the state department, the legal trade, the NGOs, the Democratic Party, the UN, etc., - can’t do squat about such determined use of force.

Our words, images, arguments and skills can’t stop the killing. Only the rough soldiers and their guns can solve the problem, and we won’t admit that fact because the admission would weaken our influence and our claim to social status.

So we pretend Yon’s massacre – and the North Korean killing fields, the Arab treatment of women, the Arab hatred of Israel, etc. - doesn’t exist, and instead focus our emotions and attention on the somewhat-bad domestic things that we can ‘fix’ with our DC-based allies. Things such as Abu Ghraib, wiretapping, etc. When we ‘fix’ them, then we get status, applause, power, new jobs, ego, etc.

Please don’t be surprised. We media are an interest group not much different from the automakers, the unions, and the farmers.

Journalism is dead. It only exist in a few places: smaller newspapers, occasionally on Fox News and in certain sections of the Blogosphere. As this country enters into its 232 year, we as a nation must face the fact that our Fourth Estate has become, like the anonymous emailer says, an interest group concerned only with status and power. The truth, the First Amendment and all other tenets that the MSM claims to represent no longer matter to them. Without Glenn's "Army of Davids," journalism has little hope.

UPDATE: Here's a great example.

Labels: Blogging, MSM

By now many of you have heard how sportscaster Gary Thorne said during a broadcast that Curt Schilling used paint on his sock during the 2004 postseason to make it look like his ankle was bleeding. Schilling has denied this charge and the story has been all over sports talk radio.

Guess how Thorne's comments got the MSM's attention? The whole thing started when it was picked up by a blog.

Labels: Blogging