“It’s not that the war on terror has finished,” he said. “It’s never going to be finished, but I think things have reached the point now where it’s not as pressing as it was. Some of the measures we took to protect ourselves against extremists have been pretty effective. And so I realized, you know, that maybe it’s time to tell people that I’m not onboard with a lot of this social-conservative agenda. And I think that I actually speak for a lot of people.” Though our conversation took place in the fall, he told me in a subsequent e-mail message that the failed Christmas Day airplane bombing “doesn’t change my opinion about that.”
“I don’t know why things can’t just stay on the level of the factual,” he said. “I don’t know why everything has to have a slant. I mean, The New York Times has a slant, and in the past I’ve called them out for that.” He sighed. “I miss the days of Walter Cronkite.”
Neither of these statements are startling though they do seem somewhat reactionary. I just have a hard time believing that as CJ insists he's always held these views.
Feel free to delete this post, Lady Red. I know everyone is bored with the subject. I just thought it a well done article on a subject with which we're all too familiar.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, as if Cronkite didn't have a slant.
ReplyDeleteYes, Matt, I found that a rather astounding assertion on his part.
ReplyDeleteI was only there for about a year, I found Discarded Lies through LGF so I will be forever grateful for that.
ReplyDeleteCharles Johnson seems like a real prima donna to me; I never visit his site, when I'd follow a link and end up there it actually made me feel slightly nauseous due to the ill treatment of zorkie & ev (and later, anyone at all who posted on bloggie!)
He is a legend in his own mind :-)
No, I don't ever visit LGF anymore either. The links are not fabulous, the commentary is unoriginal and UNthought provoking, and the comments...zzzzzzz.
ReplyDeleteI just went and took a look, and wow! Just the same way it was last time I peeked in ages ago. An ugly photo of the desert and a not-interesting rant about Glenn Beck.
Yawn.
Luther, I think it's worth talking about if we talk about something different.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll take the opportunity to talk about his blog. The software and features, that is.
There are some things I like about LGF: the speed and smoothness of the comment update makes it feel more like a chat room than a blog comment section. Other blogs are lame in this regard. I've been commenting a bit at ZeroHedge, which is a professionally maintained site using Drupal (a well regarded site software system), and it's just awful - clumsy entry, terrible response time, bad formatting. By the time the damn page refreshes I've lost interest.
The overall design / colors / font / whatever at LGF has gotten some negative reviews but I like that the features are provided with small, relatively unobtrusive icons, not "text litter" like some other sites (Facebook and most Ning sites come to mind).
There is a DL hippo style "link viewer" system where people can submit links and comment on them. Many links, but little comment traffic. Most everyone hangs out on CJ threads.
On the downside, the whole "up ding / down ding" thing is a travesty and monstrously stupid.
If anyone has thoughts about features, email me in addition to / in lieu of commenting; it will be easier for me to sort through it that way.
Like I said, no promises!
Luther, I want people here to feel free to post anything that interests them. I don't have a "list" of what's acceptable content. I trust the judgment of all the contributors.
ReplyDeleteI used to post on LGF many years ago, when the commenting was first rate. When they had the meltdown, I escaped to Discarded Lies, and found a home with two of LGF's most erudite posters, zorkmidden and evariste. Many of my other favorite DL posters also came from LGF.
I'm not sure Charles was ever a conservative at heart. He was frightened by 9-11 (who wasn't?) and his reaction was a temporary move to the right. Now that the world is relatively calm, he's moved back into his comfort zone. It's his blog. He can do whatever he wants with it. Ho hum.
CJs drama did have some positive effects; hours of hilarity on DL, and an utterly brilliant BOOL creation by zorkie.
LGF does have some features that I like, but some I dislike. The "ding" feature is idiotic. The Amazon button inserted absolutely EVERYWHERE smacks of financial desperation. If you're THAT broke Charles, get a job, fer crissakes!
DL has some features that I really like. The commenting ribbons/palettes are sweet, sweet, sweet. I also like the hippo. I love how the comments appear instantly in the sidebar. Ev did an amazing job adding goodies, and I think we're all incredibly spoiled. The comment box here on blogger makes me want to tear my hair out by the roots! Arghh!
One thing Lewy has mentioned that I think is worth exploring: it would be fun to have some way to tell who's online/offline. What do you all think?
Everybody, please sound off on any features you'd like incorporated into the new platform. It may take awhile for Lewy to get us moved onto it (he's a slacker, he has nothing better to do than humor us...heh!), but I know he appreciates any and all feedback.
Two thing:
ReplyDelete1 -- Fay was looking at some software that we could use here to add more features such as more HTML codes, and posting pictures and YouTube links. Do we wanna give it a shot?
2 -- While the idea of showing who is on-line may seem like a good idea, how many of us leave our computers on and logged in? It takes ten minutes to start this computer -- it is easier not to turn it off. This means that such a feature may not give an accurate representation of who is really here. Overall, though, I would say, "Why not?"
For the record, the main reason I stopped looking at LFG (originally) was that every thread seemed to have over 500 comments. I did not have time to read all of them to figure out what is going on. The size of the DL crowd was more what I liked. We knew who we all were, we were willing to accept newbies, and it would have to be a hot thread to get out of hand.
Great idea, Matt & Fay. Yes, the thing that bothers me the most if the comments in the sidebar being so slow. It's easier to have a conversation if you know where people are currently commenting.
ReplyDeleteI post on a sports blog that lists members when they are logged onto the site. At first it used to bother me but now that I'm used to it, it's nice to know who is around. So either way, I could take it or leave it.
But it would be great to speed up that comment list on the sidebar and to enable graphics abd links in the comments!!!
I'm a graphics person so I've been suffering withdrawal...
heh heh
Jaysus! Spell check would also apparently benefit moi.
ReplyDeleteI out my comment in Word and check them there. That way, if I accidentally delete half of my comment, I can just hit "undo" and get it back.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea!
ReplyDelete"Jaysus! Spell check would also apparently benefit moi."
ReplyDeleteFlorrie... this is a small simple program that lets you spell check, dictionary search, and copy/paste, all with a right click.
I couldn't write without it.
Just popping in for a moment so only a URL.
http://www.iespell.com/
I've been using it for years.
Fay, lady red, what is the software that Fay is looking at? It sounds cool.
ReplyDeleteI think the comment sidebar speed issue is probably number 1 in terms of priority - it's a PITA, SRSLY.
I think there are other comment tech systems out there, several different choices for WordPress in particular.
Blogger -> WordPress is a fairly straightforward migration (I'm given to understand - never done it).
When a group of people split off from The Command Post several years ago, they formed this blog: Redneck's Revenge. They moved from blogspot to WordPress some time ago. (Sorry about that .gif in the upper right. Redneck likes it, apparently.)
It gives an idea of what can be done.
Thanks, Luther, I'll bookmark the link!
ReplyDeleteLewy, we are looking at Echo. One of the things Echo does it speed up the comments in the sidebar. It also allows more HTML codes, YouTube links, and photos in comments. After the thirty-day trial, Echo costs $48.00 per year for a non-commercial site.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, WordPress also charges. I am certainly not against it – obviously, since I am willing to cover Echo. What benefits would WordPress give us that we don’t have here? If Echo would clear up our major issues regarding comments, is there anything else we would want from WordPress? Would WordPress give us a stand-alone URL? That would be nice.
Enquiring minds want to know!
OK, I just looked up WordPress. it is free, and they have a free hosting service. They also work with other hosting sites. I saw one that charges $6.95 a month, give us one domain name, give us 2500 email addresses, and some other neat stuff. (That is BlueHost.com)
ReplyDeleteDo we want to go that far (yet), or do we just want to make commenting easier? Let me know and I will work on it.
BlueHost's $6.95 a month is for a 24 month contract. Again, I can cover that if we are interested. I just need some feedback.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I like having a number of contributors. This way, none of us has the pressure of keeping a blog up-to-date.
Matt, just checking in...
ReplyDeleteStill looking at these writeups, no hard conclusions on my part yet.
Redneck's experience with Echo. Not so great.
He eventually went with WordPress.
He's even got a back room. Nice concept.
Nice as that all is, I'd propose seeing if we can't get a more responsive "recent comments" without moving, and then also look at moving.
Thanks, Lewy. I am certainly open to suggestions. I would not want to adopt Echo if we wanted to change URLs. I have read that Echo is better than Haloscan. But I would not want to change if Echo did what we needed it to do.
ReplyDeleteDecisions, decisions.
Well I pretty much HAD to switch from Blogger to Wordpress after ECHO forced me to switch from Haloscan. Commenting with ECHO was like pulling teeth compared to Haloscan ..... regular commenters were not commenting any more.
ReplyDeleteBut I was just as hesitant about moving urls as you are. Didn't want to lose all my incoming linkage and google juice, etc.
But now ...... I wish I had done it years ago.
When you go to Bluehost they ask you to pick a URL, to see if its available, once you find one that is, and then fill out a short form and pay up ....... setting up a Wordpress blog is a one click operation. Importing all your old posts from Blogger is a single click operation from inside Wordpress.
The thing about self-hosted wordpress (as compared to Blogspot or Wordpress.com) is that your not restricted to a few choice of commenting systems. There's thousands of free plugins out there that you can configure a commenting system virtually any way you want.
Now my visitors can post images and youtube videos inside there comments, and I have several different clickable smilie themes to choose from.
Even though there are hundreds of free templates out there to choose from, I did have to muddle through some manual CSS changes to get it to look exactly the way I wanted it to.
I suggest if you do pull the trigger and start a bluehost / wordpress blog, you dont tell anyone about it until you get it all tweaked out the way you want it.
The big issue that remained was getting everyone that linked to me to change there links. I, or actually my 14 year old son ;-), took care of that by finding instructions online on how to set up an automatic redirect from the old blogger site to the new domain. That way no one has to change their linkage they push the old link, they go to the new site .... the never even notice they've been redirected. Once he did that my traffic levels and google juice were right back up where the were before the switchover.
Nice to see your still kickin' Lewy.
btw Lewy ...... some of the first comments on the new blog were "were's the dancing girl?"
ReplyDeleteI was told the transformation was inclompete until she was shakin' over the conversations. ;-)
Thanks for the great info, Redneck.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is only about two weeks old, so we don't have a large audience yet.
If we use the self-hosted WordPress, will we have a stand-alone UPRl as opposed to xxxxx.blogspot.com, or whatever?
I imagine that there are advantages and disadvantages to whatever we do. Perhaps we should make a list of what we want, then prioritize the items on that list. We can make a better decision that way.
Fay just had a couple of questions: can WordPress have more than one administrator, and can more than one person make posts. We imagine both are true, but we need to be sure.
As a sideline, does WordPress have email addresses? That is not a big thing, but it might be cool to have.
"UPRI" should say "URL"
ReplyDeleteWith a hosted wordpress blog you HAVE to have your own Domain URL. Rednecksrevenge.com was unavaliable, so I had to go with Rednecksrevenge.org. If the .com ever comes free I can buy it and use both.
ReplyDeleteAfter you choose the URL you can have an unlimited number of subdomians such as backroom.redencksrevenge or practiceblog.rednecksrevenge, etc. and each subdomain can have its own wordpress blog with a different set of themes etc.
You can have as many administrators as you want, and you have several levels of authors as well.
I dont know about "wordpress e-mails" but bluehost gives you like a thousand ..... but I haven't tried to configure any yet, so I cant explain the process.
..... a couple things I forgot to mention. I studied up on the process by watch tons of step by step tutorial videos on you-tube, but in the end they were all dated, overly complicated tutorials. Bluehost has made it as simple as clicking the wordpress icon on the their control panel. I have yet to need the ftp software "filezilla" that all the videos told me I would need to use to upload stuff. Its all incorporated inside Wordpress these days.
.... another thing to consider on the costs. Before, Blogger was free but I was paying for Haloscan / ECHO and photo hosting (when I first started RR Blogger did not come with comments or image hosting). With bluehost / wordpress you get unlimited image (or any kind of file) hosting, so you dont need anything else.
Its basically like having an online hard drive. You can transfer anything you want up or down.
.... Wordpress btw, has several different styles of sidebar recent comments widgets available, and they're all easy to download and install.
If you decide to start one, and run into any trouble, let me know, and I'll try to help.
I want to clarify that your own domain is included in the cost of signing up with bluehost. You dont have to pay extra for your own domain, you only have to pay extra if you want more than one.
ReplyDeleteWhatcha think, Lewy? Do you have a preference, or do you want to chat on the phone?
ReplyDeleteLady Red? What are your thoughts? Do you want us to come up with a recommendation and run it by you first before we do anything?
I don't know enough to make a unilateral decision.
Welcome Redneck Texan! Thanks for all the great advice.
ReplyDeleteMatt, it sounds good to me. I trust you and Lewy when it comes to the tech stuff. Let 'er rip!