October 3, 2003
So, naturalists observe, a flea Hath smaller fleas which on him prey And these have smaller still to bite 'em, and so proceed ad infinitum. Thus every poet, in his kind, Is bit by him who comes behind. -- Jonathan Swift I love this quote, and I've had it memorized since I first read it in Tom Burnham's Dictionary of Misinformation. In fact, I think it explains blogs and their popularity, and in some degrees their incestuousness. Glenn Reynolds or Andrew Sullivan read a news story, and they post a commentary, and then other blogs post commentaries to their commentaries, and so proceed ad infinitum. Don't get me wrong - I think that's terrific! We need an open market for political discussion. Hash things out to the nth degree. Argue, bicker, and scold. The trick is to keep your head, check your assumptions, and expose yourselves to differing points of...
Glenn's right -- we should all be reviewing actual news sources for our blogs. But let's all go to Instapundit first just to piss him off....
October 7, 2003
Still haven't gotten a link from Best of the Web Today -- I'll keep trying. They did mention my name in the credits, though, and a lot closer to the top than ever before ......
How cool is it to have a comment on your blog from Chris Muir, the artist behind Day By Day? It's this cool! Thanks for dropping by, Chris! I am so jazzed ... now go read Chris' comic strip, and you'd better read the entire archive....
October 10, 2003
Too often, blog readers tend to focus on those sites where they expect to find no disagreement with their own opinions and prejudices. When I started this blog, I took a quick look around at a few other TypePad blogs, and I stumbled across the TwilightCafé. (Literally stumbled, by the way; I still have a Band-Aid on my elbow.) The next day, Alicia was the first person to post a comment on one of my posts, and I added her to my blogroll, and now she's done the same for me. My first link! We probably don't agree on a lot, as Alicia acknowledges: Since I started this weblog on TypePad, I have found lots of interesting people's sites. I have finally found a conservative (that is safe to say, I believe) whose arguments are well thought out and logical. (I am sure there are more out there, but I...
October 11, 2003
OK, now it's confirmed ... I'm 62% good: ... which means, of course ... These calculations come to me via the Gematriculator, using arcane mathematics to analyze word and phrase patterns on the website. How does it work? Haven't got a friggin' clue, even (and especially) after reading through the explanation on their website. Thanks to Alicia over at Twilight Café for the link! (I'm 6% more good than Twilight Café ... just for the record.)...
Here's how other blogs rate on the ol' Gematriculator: Instapundit: 74% good Daily Dish (Andrew Sullivan): 73% good Power Line: 71% good Meaningful Media: 70% good (how did Steve get ahead of me??) hmmm ... I was on board with this until I saw Steve's ratings ... lemme see who else scores high: NakedJen: 65% good (ahead of me, too!) Merde in France: 62% -- a tie! But something tells me that this is not terribly accurate. For instance: Michaelmoore.com: 82% CBC.com (Pat Robertson's website): 96% good These two are deal-killers, I'm sorry to say ......
October 14, 2003
Here's an interesting article on blogs, and the blogging bloggers who blog them. I saw this yesterday at Amygdala but didn't get a chance to post on the article. Like Amygdala, I am in the 1% demographic, although I just started there. Not to rub it in or anything. Perseus Development Corp. estimates that there are 4.12 million blogs out here in the blogosphere, but 2.72 million have been abandoned, either temporarily or permanently. Over a million of these were one-day wonders. (Guess I've surpassed that threshold; I believe this is my 140th post.) There's lots of interesting data here for bloggers who like a bit of navel-gazing....
October 15, 2003
I'll be making some tweaks tonight -- the three-column format doesn't quite work for me, so I'll be playing around with some other options ... let me know what you think!...
OxBlog has an essay which, unbeknownst to Oxblog, expands on my post yesterday about name-calling and elevating political discourse: Are people really so sure of themselves that they simply cannot acknowledge that anyone who disagrees could be intelligent? Have they no humility whatsoever? Of course we all think we're right -- if we didn't think we were right, we'd change our opinions until we did. Maybe I'm just naive, but it really does amaze me when people claim that everyone who disagrees with them (on topics where general opinion is relatively divided -- I'm not talking about largely uncontroversial opinions like "slavery is wrong") is either malevolent, stupid, or both. This attitude exists in a lot more places than in the blogosphere, although Josh Chafetz understandably focuses on that area of debate. I mentioned talk radio in yesterday's post, of course, but it wouldn't exist in the blogosphere or on...
October 16, 2003
It looks like HostingMatters has crashed for some unknown reason, and some major blogs seem to be down with them. Instapundit is definitely one who is affected -- you can hit the backup site here, but so far the only post is from Glenn confirming that the servers are down. Power Line isn't responding, and neither is Little Green Footballs or Dissident Frogman. I hope the problem gets corrected soon, so I can continue to avoid commercials between innings. (Score so far: Red Sox 4, Overhyped-Babe-Curse Bronxies 2.) If nothing else, take a look at James Lileks today, who's in fine curmudgeonly style. He's ranting about Kill Bill and rooting for Agent Smith. Ortiz just went yard on David Wells' first pitch, so it's Red Sox 5, Crushing Monotony in Pinstripes 2....
October 17, 2003
It's not often that you run across people who do thoughtful things just because they're truly nice people. I'm lucky to have "met" Alicia through our efforts at blogging on Typepad. Alicia runs the excellent and intriguing Twilight Café, where I encourage you all to visit any chance you get. She's been kind enough to surprise me with a new banner, which is now posted proudly at the top of my blog here. Isn't that great? Thank you, Alicia -- I feel like a real blog now!...
I'd like to give a salute to any visitors being referred from Hugh Hewitt's excellent story on the General Boykin/LA Times scandal. Welcome aboard!...
Over the weekend, I'll be testing some design changes, some of which you may have already seen -- I've switched fonts from Palatino to Arial in my posts for better readability, and to Geneva on the sidebar items to be able to read them at all. This makes the page longer, but I've cut the numbers of days displayed to three now. I will be switching between two- and three-column layouts and two different, very cool Alicia-designed logos, so be sure to let me know what you think!...
October 18, 2003
I've found a new neighbor, or rather she's found me! Brainstorming is a fairly new Typepad blog, with an easygoing nature but some smart commentary. Definitely drop by and check out what DC's brainstorming on now!...
October 19, 2003
This is the 200th post for The Captain's Quarters, and today I'll be trying a new design. If you've seen the prior design (with the other Alicia-designed logo), let me know which one you prefer. Just drop a comment onto this post and I'll be reviewing them as they come in....
October 20, 2003
Okay, I know I'm a novice at the whole blog thing, but what the hell is a Clarkbot? a. It's a cybernetic Clark decoy sent out on the campaign trail as a security decoy. (Would anyone be able to tell the difference?) b. It's a wind-up toy from a merchandising system gone mad. c. It's a blog program, designed to search the Internet, never sleeping, never stopping, for blog references to Wesley Clark ... it cannot be reasoned with, it cannot be reprogrammed ... it is relentless ... Yes, I guess it's Option C. If you follow the link back, you'll see two of my earlier posts about Clark listed on his campaign blog. I hope they enjoy the posts, but something tells me they won't. Hell, the second one wasn't even about them, it was about AP's inability to spell caucuses correctly....
Note to Fareed Zakaria: stifling free speech isn't the American way. That tactic is employed by others. Interesting to note where the DoS attacks originated. Do you suppose this is in retaliation for General Boykin's churchgoing activities?...
October 21, 2003
The Blogosphere's most prominent citizens are back on line after another DoS attack from Islamofascists. The outage affected not just Power Line, but Hosting Matters and all of the web sites hosted by that company, a group that includes Insta Pundit, Little Green Footballs and many others. ... If Americans' news sources were limited to the network news and major daily newspapers, the Islamofascists would have a much better chance of winning the war. No doubt their first choice would be to blow up Fox News and various talk radio stations, but that is much more difficult than launching remote attacks on web sites from locations like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Hence their attacks on the blogosphere. Power Line makes a good point about the value of the blogosphere, and why the Islamofascists target sites like Hosting Matters. I'd expand on Power Line and say that, based on the reporting...
I've decided to pledge my Web loyalty (bloyalty?) to Instapundit and join the Axis of Naughty. There's no sense in spending this much time and effort on something if I can't be part of something divisive, after all. As Gaeilge, I'll add: Sin Instapundit an blog is fearr sa domhain, gan dabht! In the meantime, now that I've picked sides, I've also entered the Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem, and I've entered into a contest for new bloggers on the site. I had to pick a post to feature during the contest, so I picked my post on Fareed Zakaria's column on Boykin, but I probably should have picked the one on German husband day care. [sigh] Anyway, if you think about it, do me a favor and link to the Zakaria post on your own blog, even if it's to say what a dink I am for having that opinion....
Alicia pitches in again with a post about my shameless begging for trackbacks in the Truth Laid Bear contest. If you haven't visited the Twilight Café yet, go now. She designed my terrific logo (and another one, too, that I'm going to fit in here somewhere). Check out this post, too, at the Twilight Café. Who was your choice?...
October 22, 2003
If you scroll down through my Miscellaneous Links, you'll notice that I've evolved from an Insignificant Microbe to a Slimy Mollusc in the Ecosystem. Always the optimist, I hope to be some variety of vertebrate by the weekend. (It would, of course, be a first for me.)...
October 24, 2003
I've added content to the third column again -- I just couldn't leave it alone, could I? -- in order to list the posts I think best represent Captain's Quarters. The latest post is listed first, and goes all the way back [all the way back being 3 weeks!] to my first post, which explains the slogan that Alicia included in my logo. Now, if I could just figure out how to configure links in Typepad to open a new page ......
Moving on up ... moving on up ... to that upright primate ... on la-and (oh yeah) ... I've progressed from Insignificant Microbe, to Slimy Mollusc, to Flippery Fish, and now I'm a Crawly Amphibian! [sniff] My parents will be so proud of me! Please note that if you want to see me evolve into something remotely mammalian, you'll need to keep linking to my posts and visit the Captain's Quarters regularly! If I wind up being plankton, it'll be on your heads ... eww....
October 26, 2003
I've managed to graduate to a land-based animal in the TTLB ecosystem. Thanks to everyone who's linking to my blog or my posts! It appears that Irreconcilable Musings and Demosophia are going to be competing for the win at the New Blog Showcase, where my post on Fareed Zakaria's column trails significantly. Both blogs are terrific and have excellent posts. Make sure you read them, and the rest of the blog entries too....
If you get a chance, check out Meaningful Media MediaBlog, v 2.0. Steve's doing a nice job in his redesign. UPDATE: It's also in the Comments here, but don't forget to check out Steve's other blog, Indypundit, which "is more or less what Meaningful Media used to be, except with more of a cultural/newsy focus"....
A cordial welcome to all Power Line readers! I hope you enjoy Captain's Quarters, and I look forward to your comments. If you like what you read, I hope you'll blogroll Captain's Quarters. Big thanks to Big Trunk for the mention!...
October 29, 2003
Captain's Quarters has been blogrolled by The Politburo Diktat, a very clever and humorous blog with tongue impaled in cheek. Stephen, aka "The Commissar", manages to sound like a [mild?] version of International ANSWER, which in less capable hands would be frightening. Check it out!...
Tonight I'm finishing up with my 300th post in just under 4 weeks, and instead of posting on current events, I'm going to just talk a little bit about why I blog and some of the experience of Captain's Quarters and the people I've "met" as a result. Like most bloggers, I suspect, I love to write and have written for years, in several different formats. I've written short stories and three novels (all unsold), as well as quite a bit of technical documentation when I worked in the defense industry in the 80s. What I hadn't written on a regular basis was commentary, unless I was worked up enough on an issue or about a particular article to fire something off. I've written several letters to local papers, about half of which wound up being published, and even had a couple of longer-form commentaries published in the Star Tribune....
October 30, 2003
Colskee, a Londoner blog, mentions the latest crime wave in urban Britain: phone jacking? People pedalling up on bikes to relive unsuspecting folk of their mobile phones. This has been an increasing problem in London, especially amoungst younger teenagers (don't even ask me why a schoolkid would need a mobile phone). It's a short post, and Colskee wonders if the cell-phone manufacturers aren't encouraging this by including a lot of teenager-friendly options on the phones. Anyone hear of this in the US?...
I've decided to enter the Carnival Of The Vanities for next week, being hosted by Wizbang of the Axis of Naughty. I'm submitting my post on the Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston peace movement, as it's one of my favorites so far. This week's Carnival is up at Blogger Rabbit, with a special introduction offering readers a unique opportunity -- unique, that is, unless you have an e-mail address, in which case you've probably had this opportunity come your way once a month for a year. Here are a few I liked from this week's Carnival ... Catfish 'n Cod waxes poetic about the Rumsfeld memo ... The Smallest Minority contributes a well-written broadside against the war on drugs ... Kiril at Sneakeasyjoint explains why he's crossing the picket line in Southern California to get his shopping done ... Blogfriend DC at Brainstorming cajoles the Republicans into getting active in supporting Justice...
November 1, 2003
Brant at Strange Women Lying in Ponds, a most excellent blog, would like to get blogrolled at Little Green Footballs: Let's talk turkey. The reader who gets SWLiP blogrolled on LGF will win a special prize: The Al Jarreau CD of his or her choice. So if anyone reading this has any influence with the guys at LGF, let's see if we can't help Brant out. And while we're at it, maybe someone can get me a mention there too, or a link over at Instapundit. I'll cough up a Jim Croce double-CD album for anyone who can get me blogrolled at either place. Between Brant and I, we'll rescue the RIAA singlehandedly. Well, doublehandedly, at least....
November 2, 2003
A collection of links to interesting posts around the Axis of Naughty and other great blogs this morning ... Michelle at A Small Victory wonders how to determine when ululating Arabs is a good or bad sign ... and also has a sane look at this morning's bad news in Iraq which puts it in perspective ... Wizbang has the Howard Dean Metrosexual Quiz ready for you (be sure to read the comments!) ... Samizdata has an example of left-wing hypocrisy in education policy in Britain, but we've seen it here before, too ... Kate over at Electric Venom (cool site!) is angry about the dilution of her Social Security money ... Roger Simon ponders the war of civilizations ... DC at Brainstorming wonders about the world-changing power of the new Apple computers, but over at Jessica's Well, the concern is over the hard-drive-changing power of their new operating system...
SurlyPundit has a note on her blog showing her Political Compass which gives a more sophisticated indication of her politics than simple "left-right" designations. Her graph point is 7.25/-3.69, which indicates significant rightist economics and libertarian philosophy. My numbers are more centrist: 4.75/-0.56. Quite frankly, I'm a little surprised; I would have expected more libertarian tendencies than that. SurlyPundit has an intriguing blog; you should check it out....
November 3, 2003
I didn't notice this until after I'd been on a while, but I've evolved further, from Slithering Reptile to Flappy Bird in the TTLB Ecosystem. Thanks to everyone who's been linking back here -- and if you haven't yet blogrolled me, let me know if you do so I can make sure I've blogrolled you in return!...
November 4, 2003
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler honors a deserving QandO for its excellent fisking of Kucinich.
November 5, 2003
Wizbang has the Carnival of the Vanities up and running. I'll post up some links later on in order to cast my votes. Don't forget that I've entered this post as my first-ever entry!...
Here's my first vote for this week's Carnival entry -- Blackfive's deep commitment to the French boycott: The biggest fight that I have ever had with my wife in over six years of marriage was over my personal French Boycott. She had gone shopping and brought back some wine which happened to be made in France. She opened it before I knew what it was, and I asked her to pour it down the drain. Of course, my wife knows me well, and she knows how much it would kill me to watch good booze destroyed. But, we went back and forth over it and she finally poured it down the drain, looking me in the eye the whole time. He'd get my vote even if he wrote atrocious posts just for going through with that, but fortunately, he's a good writer. Check out his blog while you're there. And...
November 7, 2003
Electric Venom has its weekly snark hunt posted ... and the snark are running! Venomous Kate was kind enough to include one of my entries this week. But there's lots more snark to hunt, so be sure to go there and check it all out. Enjoy!...
I've decided to cast a vote in the TTLB New Weblog Showcase for Mr. Cranky and his excellent Halloween story: I am always amazed at how nicely the boy is treated as he goes trick or treating. This year he wore a Hulk costume - you know the one, it has the foam muscles. At one place, the lady of the house gave him a candy after the usual holiday exchange, then squeezed his foam arms and said, "Wow, you're strong!". My boy grinned from ear to ear under his mask. Read the whole thing, it's a great piece of writing. (I have a neighbor like A.H., too ... I wonder if they're related?) I've added Mr. Cranky to my blogroll, too....
November 8, 2003
You say it's your birthday ... Happy Birthday to ya!...
November 10, 2003
For those of us who enjoyed Cori Dauber's prolific and excellent posts while guest-blogging at the Volokh Conspiracy, she's back at her home blog now. I've blogrolled Rantingprofs; be sure to add her to yours....
November 11, 2003
Instapundit, Power Line, and Little Green Footballs all are off-line this morning -- could this be another deliberate DoS attack on Hosting Matters? It could simply be a technical problem, but this is happening quite a bit lately. Don't forget that Instapundit's backup site is here; if this is a DoS attack, Glenn will probably post a message there soon. I don't know of any backup site for Power Line or LGF. UPDATE: Although I can't access Instapundit or the other Hosting Matters sites, they do seem to be up and running, as I am getting a lot of referrals from Instapundit this morning about the Rock the Vote story. Welcome to all of Glenn's faithful readers (which includes me), and I hope you enjoy your visit....
Meryl Yourish, another excellent blogger, fisks Michael Moore, albeit reluctantly: I almost never write about Michael Moore, because I find him a tiresome windbag. I saw him on The View a few weeks ago, and even the ladies of the ABC morning were fed up with his lying and dodging of questions. I have never seen a harsher interview on that show. They don't have transcripts available, but CNN's Kara Henderson asked the tough questions. But once she gets started, she gets rather enthusiastic. A sample: Let's think about why so many Europeans would have passports, and why so many Americans do not. Let's go look at a map of Europe. Okay, now let's go look at a map of America. Do you see something similar about the two maps? Right! Many European nations are the size of American states! Why, if you're German and you want to vacation in...
November 12, 2003
Dead Ends has the new Carnival of the Vanities up and running, with a distinct Georgetown flavor: HOYA SAXA CARNIVAL! My entry on the overwhelming police response to raid a swinger's party is posted there, although I put my real name to it, instead of the blog name. I'll update this post later tonight on my faves from this week. UPDATE: As promised, here are my votes for the Carnival winners: Mark Pierce at Earthly Passions fisks it up on Newsweek's article on Dick Cheney. (He's on my blogroll now!) Porphyrogenitus has a lengthy, detailed deconstruction of the Clark plan on Iraq, and how it flies in the face of historical precedent and common sense. Blackfive posts a letter describing the inspiring events surrounding the memorial and burial of American heroes lost in battle. Bring a Kleenex. Outside the Beltway discusses why we all can't get along, refuting Matthew Yglesias,...
November 14, 2003
In honor of Venomous Kate's declaring today G-day, here are a few Gs for you:
November 15, 2003
A few thank-yous to some very nice people in the blogosphere today ... First off, thank you to Venomous Kate at Electric Venom (a daily read for me) for including me on both the Snark Hunt and The Letter Of The Day Is H Big Trunk over at Power Line included me in today's excellent posts by linking back to my comments about Zell Miller and the end of the civil-rights movement. Merde in France has been sending readers over to me all day long. If you want a window on Europe, especially France, MiF is a stylish must-read. Sometimes I try reading the posts in French, but my high-school French hasn't been able to keep up ... Thanks again, folks!...
November 16, 2003
The Commissar announces the results of a series of investigations of blogosphere denizens. Lucky for me, I've only been demoted (to Corporal? Bleah), and dishonorably discharged. I could have been purged in a more Stalinist manner, like a few others at the Politburo Diktat. Go visit the Commissar and be sure to have your confessions ready....
November 19, 2003
Random sightings while taking a stroll through the blogosphere this evening ...
November 20, 2003
I noticed that I have moved up the food chain again, going from Flappy Bird to Adorable Little Rodent in the TTLB Ecosystem. Captain's Quarters is currently ranked in the mid-700s, and we're averaging about 300 hits a day. (At that rate, I'll need 28 months to hit Venomous Kate's latest milestone, and she did it in 8 months!! Way to go, Kate!) Thanks to everyone who's blogrolled me, or has been linking to my posts!...
November 23, 2003
Congratulations to Big Trunk, Hindrocket, and Deacon for going over 1,000,000 hits! Power Line is one of the best blogs on line, and is definitely among my daily must-reads. They've been kind enough to mention me on more than one occasion, for which I am very grateful. Gracious, intelligent, and powerfully good writers -- small wonder they've been as successful as they are. Congratulations, guys, and I'll bet your next million comes in half the time....
For those of you who may be new to blogging, or are considering starting your own blog but aren't sure how to build a readership beyond your own family, here's some good advice from the Commissar at the Politburo Diktat: As great Revolutionary Ringo Starr sang "You gotta pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues, And you know it don't come easy." You must work to build Revolution. Seek out intelligentsia. Exchange Blogrolls. Comment on posts. Trackback to posts. ... Find "comrades." (No, not in hackneyed, satiric sense of Commissar, in real sense.) A network of blogger/readers. Blogrolling? That only first step. Many have 100, 200 blogs on Blogroll; not all of them are comrades. "Comrades" are bloggers, maybe of roughly same size, who read your blog, maybe comment now and then, mention/link to your blog in posts, and maybe exchange emails. This advice is easy if you...
November 24, 2003
George Bush freed almost 50 million people in two years and deposed two of the worst totalitarian regimes in recent decades. Ted Rall advocates the political system which resulted in the oppression of hundreds of millions, the slaughter of millions, and Dean wants us to know that he's proud Ted Rall supports him. That's enough for me.
For all of you cheese lovers out there, I'd like to introduce a new addition to the CQ blogroll: The Cheese Stands Alone. It's well-written, funny, incisive (I guess that means it has fangs), and most of all, it links back to me. Although it lists me in the Brie category, which implies some sort of French connection, and I don't think it's the cool one with Gene Hackman and nifty car chases with drug dealers. Perhaps it has something to do with my blog being like fine champagne, and as the Cheese says, there is no sex in the Champgne Room, and not much of it here either. Since there's no sex, and in honor of the newest blogroll addition, here's a list of my Top 10 Cheese of All Time: 10. Fonzie jumps the shark, and Happy Days bites the dust. 9. David Soul sings "Don't Give Up...
November 25, 2003
If you think you're noticing some changes in the blogroll, you are correct. I am changing the blogroll to categorize the listings a little better. My blogroll has grown so large that it's difficult sometimes for people to understand what their relationships are to my blog. As soon as I figure out completely what the new system will be, I'll post an explanation....
November 26, 2003
This may seem a bit cruel once you read Martin's entire post, but he does raise an interesting point of blog etiquette: What is the etiquette for ending a blog? And not just a cessation of posts either, I mean taking it down completely. If this blog disappears, and all links lead to 404 errors (or even a message from me apologizing), is that some sort of Stalinist re-writing of history? It's not like a million people have linked to this site. I got one link from Instapundit, one from Serenity's Journal, a bunch from Frozen In Montreal, two from Sneakeasy’s, and a couple from Debbye in Toronto. Seriously, in seven months of blogging, that’s it. So no one will be crushed. But do I have some obligation to keep the content online? Read the entire post. I admit that the thought has occurred to me in a theoretical sense,...
November 27, 2003
Here are a few good posts this Thanksgiving holiday: Power Line has George Washington's original Thanksgiving proclamation. Definitely a good read today. They also link to a story in today's Strib that I read last night, about George H.W. Bush's Thanksgiving letter back home to his parents when he was stationed in Minneapolis in 1942. The Sophorist continues the historical perspective with a proclamation from Abraham Lincoln making Thanksgiving official, in 1863. Jon at QandO gives thanks for capitalism and its ability to produce freedom. Lileks, who is about to pull a disappearing act in December [sob], has a small thought for today. Venomous Kate's baking all day. My blood sugar went out of control just looking at her menu. Guess who Matt Margolis is thankful for! (Me, too.) Lastly, while we're at home with our families giving thanks, there's one family in the Upper Midwest that will be praying...
Today, I'm adding a couple of blogs to my blogroll. First, I'm adding Blog Iran, a blog dedicated to freeing Iranians and establishing a true democracy in Iran, free of the control of the mullahs. Today I received an e-mail from Haleh at ActivistChat.com: The news site provides pro-freedom and pro-democracy news - specifically in regards to Iran, and BLOG-IRAN is a Grassroots Campaign that is uniting Bloggers from around the world who support the Iranian struggle for freedom & democracy. The goal of each is to provide much needed awareness of the struggle for democracy in Iran as well as support America's/Bush's vision of aiding people of the region and throughout the world in their battle for freedom. Here's a telling quote regarding Bush's commitment to spreading democracy, and our willingness to support that policy: Food for thought: - Bush has greater support in Iran among the Iranian population...
November 28, 2003
Comrade Commissar is not just good political enforcer -- he is Glorious Revolutionary Cartographer as well. If you click on just one link today, you must click on this one, Comrades. I notice that KaptainEdsk is located in South-Central Reynoldssia, which suits me just fine. Nice place for good weather and a nice little dacha near the Volga, da? This is your one-stop blogroll; simply click where you want to travel, and faster than Glorious Revolution, you are transported to the blog of your choice. (Da, I know, Comrades, choice is counterrevolutionary plot, but we must peacefully co-exist for the moment ...)...
November 30, 2003
Last night, after we got home, I fired up the laptop and took a quick look around some of my favorite blogs before hitting the sack. I was hoping to come up with a blogosphere theme for my 500th post, and the Commissar at the Politburo Diktat did not disappoint -- although certainly other bloggers have been behaving in a most disappointing manner: The Politburo authorizes me to extend its congratulations to the LOL on its highly successful advancement of Party members within the TTLB Ecosystem, maintained by the "Dumber Than the Average Bear" NZ Bear. With your commendable and Revolutionary use of two tactics, you have propelled many LOL members to high ranking in the Ecosystem rankings, even while the Ecosystem is maintained by that reactionary wingnut, NZ Bear. The Commissar discovered that some League of Liberals bloggers have been using two different methods of artificially inflating their stats...
No, this is not a reference to Notre Dame's spanking of Stanford yesterday. Power Line posts about the poetry and beauty of Ireland, a subject which always has my interest, as you well know. And in this instance, Hindrocket has plenty of evidence of both!...
December 1, 2003
Wizbang has announced the nomination process for the 2003 Weblog Awards, which I found via Power Line this morning. Wizbang has done a nice job in setting up categories and processing nominations. Take a look and add those blogs you think deserve some recognition. In my case, I've nominated Power Line for both Best Overall Blog and Best Group Blog. Not only does Power Line consistently deliver thoughtful and timely commentary (even on rare occasions where I disagree), but they also maintain a unified voice, which is difficult to do when group blogging. Also, for complete disclosure, Power Line has linked to CQ on a number of occasions, even if I have been a bit of an e-mail pest from time to time, and have been very encouraging to me as I've started blogging. I also took the initiative to nominate myself in the Best New Blog category. I don't...
December 2, 2003
I noticed that I've crossed the 10,000-visit threshold today on the Sitemeter, thanks to a big assist from Power Line and Steven den Beste. A big thank you to everyone who's stopped by Captain's Quarters over the past two months!...
I had the audacity to ask Hugh Hewitt, the Lord High Commissioner of the Blogosphere, to induct me into the Society of the Minnesota Master of the Horse (seeing as I'm in Minnesota, and I've been compared to at least one end of the horse on many occasions). Hugh kindly wrote me back and explained that there are three tests a blogger must pass in order to be inducted into Society, the first of which is to denounce the folks at FratersLibertas in a particularly shameful way. The first step I could take in that regard would be to blogroll them here. I should have done it earlier, of course, but I've been hitting their site through Power Line, being the lazy Captain that I am. But now I've added them to the Northern Fleet, and you can almost hear the lustre fading away from them. Besides, as Tim Robbins'...
December 3, 2003
As part of my trial for acceptance into the Society of the Minnesota Master of the Horse, the second task given by Hugh Hewitt was to write an epic poem, mentioning at least ten blogs, including that of the Lord High Commissioner himself, as well as taking swipes at FratersLibertas and the Elder, and one at James Lileks, too. I decided to proceed, despite the inherent dangers of taking on so many veteran bloggers, by writing an epic poem based on the Gaelic poem Cúirt an Mheán-OÃche (The Midnight Court). This poem can be found in both English and Irish here, for those who want to see how poorly I satirize fine literature. The poem is a great example of an aisling, a dream-vision poem, and in fact is one of the classics in Irish literature. For my purposes here, I took out most of the 1000 lines or so,...
Continue reading "The Midnight Blog Court: An Epic Poem" »
Hey, I won a contest! The Sophorist announced a little while ago that I won his latest photo-caption contest. Yay!! You can see the photo here, and the winning caption was: "I'm NOT doing a Ross Perot imitation, dammit! You and you -- boost me up!" The Sophorist was even kind enough to link back to my "epic" poem; aficianados of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series may detect a strong resemblance to Vogon poetry here ......
December 6, 2003
I got a nice e-mail from the California Yankee for adding him to the blogroll, an act of politeness that I haven't yet seen, or even actually performed myself (blush blush). He even posted a nice comment on his blog today. Make sure you get a chance to take a good look at the California Yankee. (Maybe I should call myself the Minnesota Dodger ... yeah, I know, that's not the reference, but I sure do miss Dodger Stadium.)...
I received a nice e-mail from Patterico's Pontifications, a fellow Marauding Marsupial, letting me know that he enjoys Captain's Quarters and has blogrolled me, so I'm returning the favor. Make sure you take a look at Patterico's Pomtifications!...
Kevin at Wizbang has relented to the hue and cry from all of us who have been left off of the lists of finalists in the 2003 Weblog Awards (can you imagine? Four million blogs and I didn't make the cut?)-- he will create a new category, Most Egregious Omission. I would hardly describe overlooking CQ as egregious; there's a lot of really good blogs on Kevin's list. But if you feel like arguing my case, you can leave a comment on Kevin's post and see if it makes a difference. If not, just tell your friends about Captain's Quarters. I tooted my own horn -- sort of -- but I also put in a good word for QandO and Twilight Cafe, who has a subtle holiday change to her logo, if you can spot it. In other awards news, Kevin's dealing with some people who just can't handle an...
December 8, 2003
I just took a quick peek at the comments Wizbang's new awards category, Most Egregious Omission, and I see that Patterrico and DC have put in a good word for me! Thanks to both -- I think the category goes on line tonight, so we'll see if I'm included. If not, I'm sure that we'll get a chance to see a number of good blogs who got left out the last time. (Jon at QandO should be among them!) Thanks again! Hmmm .... maybe I should buy a Karl Marx lunchbox for both of them ......
December 9, 2003
Wizbang has the 2003 Weblog Awards polls open, and now's the time to get in (while the lines are short!). I'm not amongst the finalists, is mór an trua é, but I've only been blogging for two months now, too. I'm using the awards to take a look at some blogs I haven't yet seen yet, and so far I'm pretty impressed. What was it that Groucho said about not belonging to a club that would have him as a member? I think I'm understanding that now. I'll post my selections for each of the categories below. As not all polls are yet open on the Wizbang site, I'll probably do a few at a time, and then update this one post as I go along. I'll move it to the top of the blog every time I update. Feel free to leave me comments about my selections, especially about...
Continue reading "Wizbang Weblog Awards: My Ballot" »
Patterico's Pontifications alerted me overnight that the 2003 Awards at Wizbang have added Captain's Quarters to their newest and last category, Most Egregious Blogs -- er, no, sorry, that's Most Egregious Omission! This category recognizes those blogs that were overlooked in the initial nomination process. Nor does the good news end there. The nominees include a number of CQ friends, including QandO, Twilight Cafe, Molotov Cocktail Frank, Jennifer's History and Stuff, and a bunch of other good blogs as well. A big thanks to those who put in a good word, especially DC at Brainstorming. Vote early, vote often!...
Another of those linkfests for when I only have a few minutes at lunchtime .... First off, I've blogrolled Fresh Bed Goodness, another fine Minnesota blog. She recently linked over to my post abound abandoned infants, and she also has some thoughts on the same subject. Check her out. Hugh Hewitt sent me an e-mail earlier informing me that my third task is to have my picture taken while giving a Hummel to James Lileks. Hmmm. I'm thinking that James is probably already on red alert, looking for lunatics holding Hummels. This will take some thought and cunning, which is difficult for a jack-booted thug. (I'm sure you understand.) More on this later, but on his blog, Hugh wonders if the Democrats will make Dean apologize for his outrageous accusation that Bush had advance knowledge about 9/11 and failed to act. I somehow doubt that such a request would come...
December 10, 2003
The new Carnival of the Vanities is up at Signal + Noise, and this time I remembered to send something in! The host blogger usually comes up with a new way of organizing the entries, and Chris is no exception. He has creatively used the insect world to assign categories to posts. My post, I Am Angry, is listed under the "pugnacious North American hornet" category ... cooooool! I'll post more about the various entries and link back to them later on ......
I'm honored and somewhat stunned to note that Captain's Quarters has been added to Hugh Hewitt's Northern Alliance blogroll in his latest reorganization. As you probably know, I am a long-time fan of Hugh's columns and his radio show, especially when I get caught in scenic drives on the way home from work, like I did last night. I don't listen to a lot of talk radio because I find that a great deal of it is shrill and annoying, and even when people don't make a habit of screaming into a microphone, they still tend to get childish and demeaning. Hugh keeps his focus on facts, which is no surprise if you read him in the Weekly Standard, and at the same time makes his show very entertaining. Hugh has a great sense of humor, which is more than people can say about so-called comedians on the left these...
Hugh Hewitt has invited me to comment on last night's Gaffney-Norquist debate tonight on his show. I'll be joining other noteworthy bloggers giving commentary and perspective on this issue. Make sure you tune in to hear what I sound like (and try not to be too disappointed when I don't sound like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, OK?). If you don't know where to find Hugh's show, here's a roster of stations nationwide that carry it. UPDATE: I had a blast on Hugh's show. If you didn't get a chance to hear me, the show may be replayed later, but I can't find anything on that so far. (If you're in the LA area, KRLA will replay at 8 PM PST.) My impressions of my first time on the air as a featured guest ... My experience started with Scott Johnson, the Big Trunk at Power Line, e-mailed...
December 11, 2003
Go wish Mitch Berg at A Shot in the Dark a happy birthday. He's apparently four months older than me, which means he's ancient....
December 13, 2003
Tonight I'm having trouble blogging on anything specific, but a number of good bloggers don't seem to be having my problem. Here are a few blogs you should read tonight if you want something significant to ponder ... For instance, Strange Women Lying in Ponds discusses an article by Leonard Pitts that decries the current generation gap amongst African-Americans. Pitts notes that the current generation of African-American young adults seem to have "no tether to the sacrifices that made their lives possible," and Brant goes Pitts one further, arguing that this applies to this entire generation: The irony is that because America has essentially achieved nearly every goal of human history -- generations free from want, free from disease, but also FREE FROM STRUGGLE -- young people have been alienated from the very things that make up the stuff of life itself. People have an inherent need to struggle, to...
December 17, 2003
I'm taking today off to spend a little bit of time with my granddaughter, the Little Admiral, before I go off to see The Return of the King with a couple of other goldbricking friends of mine. I may not get too much opportunity to blog today, especially during the day. In the meantime, may I suggest the following excellent sites for debate and entertainment? Power Line - Big Trunk writes about a shameful event in recent American history, and Hindrocket writes an addendum to the post with which I absolutely agree. Strange Women Lying in Ponds - Brant writes about the twin religions of environmentalism and internationalism and how both have been removed from rational thought. QandO - You can pick almost anything Jon writes, but take a look at today's post on Howard Dean. Fraters Libertas - I meant to link to this yesterday and write some of...
December 18, 2003
The Northern Alliance likes to have a lot of fun, teasing each other and writing really bad and insulting poetry -- oh, wait, that's just me -- but the Elder has a serious project for us this Christmas: Last year a coworker and I organized a drive at work to collect toys and winter clothes (Chihuahua is in the Sierra Madres) for an orphanage just outside the city. We were able to collect four very large boxes of goods which were eventually shipped to the orphanage. But it was a logistical nightmare. This year we contacted the orphanage and asked what their most pressing needs were. Basic medical supplies were among the items high on the list. In order to make the process easier, more efficient, and most importantly get the supplies to the orphanage in the shortest amount of time, we decided to raise money here at our two...
December 20, 2003
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune puts its paper "to bed" in the late evening prior to publication, so if one is inclined to be surfing the Internet (read: addicted to it) at that time, getting a sneak peak at the next day's edition is easy. While I was doing that today, I noticed a familiar name in the Op-Ed section -- Scott W. Johnson, the Big Trunk at Power Line. Big Trunk's post on Walter Mondale will be published in tomorrow's edition: Those of us who lived as adults through the four years of the Carter administration in which Walter Mondale last served as an important public official may find Mondale's statements especially strange. We recall how President Jimmy Carter proudly announced that the United States had overcome its "inordinate fear of communism," famously planted a kiss on the cheek of Leonid Brezhnev, and then reacted with shock when the Soviet Union...
December 21, 2003
Fraters Libertas has a stunning announcement: Atomizer has become engaged to his lovely girlfriend (now fiancee) Atomizerette! You'll have to read his announcement to get the low-down on Atmoizer's devastating technique, but you could say that he displayed a certain amount of horse sense in making hay while the sun shines. However, Atomizer obviously never played trumpet in a marching band, or at least never had to follow the local 4-H in a parade, or else he'd have anticipated the inevitable result of his creativity. In honor of Atomizer's big announcement, I'd like to relate a story from a while back, when I threw a bachelor party for a friend of mine. The men started discussing the economics of being a married man -- meaning you never ever had cash in your wallet -- and my friend and I both scoffed (I was a single Captain at that time). We...
December 22, 2003
Just a reminder to all of you about the Northern Alliance charity project at Fraters Libertas, which I posted about last week. The Elder will respond to e-mail inquiries from those who do not have a PayPal account for the donation, so don't let that stop you from participating! Let's do our best to make some children happy at Christmas this year....
December 23, 2003
What Classic Movie Are You? (via The Cheese Stands Alone, whose results I find vaguely frightening)...
December 25, 2003
I'll be doing very little blogging today; maybe this evening I will post a couple of thoughts, but I'm going to concentrate on family and friends until then. Speaking of which, I'd like to send out a very Merry Christmas to all of my blogosphere friends. I'm going to mention a few who made my first few blog-months special (if I don't mention you, it's because I'm under the evil influence of Christmas carols): * Alicia at Twilight Café started blogging at the same time as I did, left the first comment and linked to me first, and designed my logo. She's a special blog friend, and I hope you all take the time to check out her blog over the holidays. * Hugh Hewitt gave me a tremendous boost in readership and in confidence in what I've been doing, and I can't express how much I appreciate it. Appearing...
December 29, 2003
Just got a ping from DC over at Brainstorming, which means she is back on line and blogging away. In fact, she tells us that she misses us, which means she didn't improve her taste any on her sabbatical. Anyway, check out the new layout at Brainstorming (of which I am a tad bit jealous!) and her new tag line from Einstein. Mostly, read through her posts; DC always is a great read. And for the record, we missed you too. Welcome back!...
It took some time, some detective work, and a lot of patience, but I have defied the predictions of the gang over at Fraters Libertas and fulfilled Hugh Hewitt's final task for my entry into the Society of the Master of the Horse. As you may recall, I had to pass three arduous tasks: 1. Write a post that denounced the guys at Fraters Libertas in a particularly shameful way. 2. Create an epic poem that mentioned at least ten blogs ... and also denounced Fraters Libertas and James Lileks. 3. Lastly, get a picture of me giving James Lileks a Hummel. The third task has taken me almost four weeks to strategize. After all, James Lileks is a world-renowned figure, a man who would not be surprised easily, especially after being tipped off to my plans. However, I finally managed to catch up with James at an event I...
January 1, 2004
No, thank Goodness, Mitch doesn't go the Bill McAuliffe route and wax poetic in his EOY post, but instead Mitch focuses on what didn't happen, contrary to all predictions from the left: The Battle of Baghdad didn't turn into Stalingrad. Lack of UN support didn't render the liberation untenable. Hussein didn't nuke or gas Israel when he was up against the wall (hee hee. Remember when that was the left's big bleat?) Tens of thousands of Iraqis did not die. Mitch also was kind enough to add me to his blogroll and he recommends to the Northen Alliance that we look at Jay Reding. Jay posted a thoughtul piece yesterday as to why he thinks Dean is unstoppable, despite his tendency to be his own worst enemy: My guess that Dean has the nomination is based on my own experiences as a political footsoldier. As a former Republican campaign strategist...
January 2, 2004
A bit of minor blog construction going on ... First, I'm adding a great blog that I've previously just accessed through other blogrolls. (The Captain is a lazy guy.) Evangelical Outpost, one of the new outstanding blogs, regularly writes with authority and conviction on matters of religion, politics, culture, blogging ... in fact, on almost any topic imaginable. Hugh Hewitt recommends EO as daily reading -- and what better recommendation could there be? And thanks, JP, for the kind words about this blog. Thanks to the Northern Alliance bloggers, I've added two neighbors to the Northern Fleet: Jay Reding and Spitbull. I've mentioned them earlier, but I just wanted to mention them once again and recommend you give them a read. Finally, I'd like to thank a couple of Northern Alliance bloggers for adding CQ to their rolls. Mitch Berg added me a few days back and I haven't had...
Scott Johnson, the Big Trunk of Power Line is appearing on the radio locally in Minneapolis tonight on a fascinating topic, that of the requirement of continuing legal education for lawyers in bias sensitivity, and one lawyer, Elliot Rothenberg, who is risking his license to challenge this requirement. Minnesota lawyers, like many other professions, are required to take coursework on a regular basis in order to keep up to date in changes and advancements. However, the "elimination of bias" requirement has nothing to do with the practice of law, as the qualifying classes themselves demonstrate: • A 'rally for credit' for attorney Lynne Stewart, who is under federal indictment on charges of supporting terrorist activities. • At least 20 courses beginning in April 2002 with titles like 'Understanding Islam,' which Rothenberg says promotes one religion. • A course opposing military action against terrorists. • A course condemning capital punishment as...
Venomous Kate dropped me a note letting me know that she's back from her injury-induced hiatus and has a fresh Snark Hunt for the readers of Electric Venom. Not only that, but this week's snark includes an entry from CQ, the "epic" poem, The Midnight Blog-Court. She notes, with a hiss, that I didn't mention her in it. At the time, I thought I was doing her a favor ... Make sure you drop by Electric Venom to check out the snark, and all of the other great stuff that Kate posts!...
January 3, 2004
Steven at Poliblog has a funny and informative running series on the presidential election called the Toast-O-Meter, designed to predict which candidate is fresh bread goodness, and which are toast in the primaries. Check out the Toast-O-Meter and the plethora of links PoliBlog provides. Obviously, Dean's listed as the freshest bread in the bakery, while candidates like Dennis Kucinich and Carol Moseley-Braun, uh, crumble under the analysis. Steven's added Veep Toast as well, although I disagree with him on his assessment of John Edwards, both as a candidate in general and on his Veep potential. (However, the Quayle analogy crossed my mind as well.) I've also added PoliBlog to the blogroll, if for no other reason than to keep it one step ahead of Kicking Ass. Check it out!...
It seems that the blogosphere loves contests and awards only slightly less than Hollywood, and Pete and Manny have come up with a fun new contest for fans of such things called Blog Madness. They're serious about it, too -- they've even got a specific domain name for it! The idea is to select one post from 2003 that you feel best represents your blog and register it for the contest. Pete and Manny intend to use a bracket system, just like the NCAA basketball tournament, with voting to determine the winners at each stage. My entry for the contest is my "epic" poem, The Midnight Blog-Court, which I wrote in November. We'll see how far it goes in the tournament, but I think it was written in the same spirit as the contest itself -- fun, not taking things too seriously, and all about the blogging. If you want...
January 4, 2004
The guys at Power Line are working hard on Sunday, posting on a variety of interesting topics. Hindrocket starts out with a look at Howard Dean's newfound evangelism on the stump, so far highlighted by misidentifying the location of the Book of Job and complaining about the ending. Deacon notes an article in National Review by Lawrence Kaplan that proposes that Dean will move to what he thinks is the center, but in reality will wind up with a McGovern-Mondale type of campaign, with similar results. Big Trunk reviews two articles today, the new Mark Steyn column about the lack of consensus on reality between the Deaniacs and just about everyone else, and an excellent overview of Bush's national security strategy and how it hearkens to the Grand Strategies of the previous century. Make sure you read everything they've got today....
January 7, 2004
Sailing, sailing, over the bounding Main... Patterico proudly informs his readers that he's cutting back on his blogging by not increasing his time as much as he wanted. If you are as confused about that as his wife, then you don't read the Los Angeles Times. Read about "The Jump" and make sure you check back often with Patterico on media-bias topics especially ... Jon at QandO dissects the latest David Brooks column on the hidden anti-Semitism in the term neo-con, and wonders why other bloggers can't give Brooks credit for seeing some truth in his column ... If you've got the bandwidth, Allah's got the pictures. Again. How does he get this great background stuff on the candidates? Oh, yeah, I forgot -- he's Allah ... DC at Brainstorming has, with the help of NASA, solved one of our most enduring mysteries. If mine are nearby, then perhaps there...
January 10, 2004
Venomous Kate, always on the prowl for prime snark, has posted a treasure trove of it just in time for the weekend. She links to my story about Nazi-analogy-spouting Brazilian judges, too, and if you read it make sure you catch the comments as well. While you're at Kate's, check out these posts on the new non-smoking policy in Riverside County, and a practical joke that took a lot of time and effort, as well as depriving the Tinfoil Hat Brigade of its primary mineral resource....
January 11, 2004
Comrade Commissar at the Politburo Diktat has a transcript from an underground video that may prove rather popular once it makes its way onto the Internet. In fact, it gives a new meaning to the phrase, "Move On": Iowa Hilton: Ahhh. Ahhh. Some Stud: Ohhh. Vohhh. Your votes. I want your votes. IH: (looking at network news cameras): Hi [giggles]. SS: What do you say? I can save you. Come here. Caucus with me for eight hours. IH: I don't wanna vote this way. I got to work for a living, and I've got kids. SS: How do you wanna vote? It'll only take 15 minutes. IH: This way. SS: You're not gonna be able to hear my opinion good from there. IH: Yeah I can. SS: Here. Read the rest, but be aware that it contains certain bourgeois expletives and decadent references to body parts that Young Communists should...
January 13, 2004
Hugh Hewitt had a fun time on his show tonight discussing the source of all the Dean rage after reading this article in the Los Angeles Times today: Dean bristled at those who questioned his motives. He had long had a habit of popping off in public, but until he became governor, no one paid much attention. Now they did. Wisecracks lightened the mood during Dean's drawn-out news conferences, but on occasion, his flippancy curdled. An avid radio listener, he would phone talk show hosts from his state-issue car, raining instant responses on surprised critics. He traded barbs with a welfare mother who had called in to complain about his policies, Hogan recalled. When a station in the town of Waterbury ran a Republican legislator's rebuke of a visit by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Dean called in, angrily comparing him to a barnyard animal, recalled the offended politician, J. Dennis Delaney....
Since I'm not feeling too much like doing any original writing so far this evening, I'll point you to some good work being done by others with more to say ... Power Line gets to be the first port in the storm, with a terrific series of posts on Paul O'Neill and Ron Susking, and their new book and interview tour. Hindrocket broke the story about the true nature of the documentation used by the pair in asserting a conspiracy to invade Iraq -- documents which turned out to be normal energy-policy data. Today, the Big Trunk posts the entire transcript of Katie Couric's interview with O'Neill (primarily) in full retreat: O'NEILL: Yeah, and the other thing that's good, today the book is going to be available, and this red meat frenzy that's occurred when people didn't have anything except snippets -- as an example, you know, people are trying...
January 15, 2004
First, let me apologize for being late. If I am the Navy of the Northern Alliance, as the good folks at SCSU Scholars say, then perhaps I am the French Navy at Yorktown -- arriving just in time to celebrate the victory, but not much else. Yesterday, City Pages published a bizarre attack on James Lileks for daring to express his actual opinions on his own blog: Lileks wasn't as bad as some of the keyboard warriors I'd read, but there was that gloat and strut, as if Lileks had personally captured Saddam. (Lileks has written of dreams and fantasies where he kicks terrorist ass, and I was somewhat let down that he didn't sketch out a scenario where he grabbed Saddam by the beard and gave the Beast an Adam West Batman thrashing: "All right, you Mesopotamian ruffian, where are the WMD!?" SOCK! POW! "C'mon! Out with it, desert...
January 17, 2004
Venomous Kate at Electric Venom has posted her weekly Snark Hunt, and once again I have engaged in shameless self-promotion. Kate was kind enough to include this post about the man who sued his church for spending his donation, a man to whom Kate accurately refers as "asshat." Make sure you check out all of the snark for this week!...
January 20, 2004
I noted earlier today that Captain's Quarters has just exceeded 50,000 visitors one week shy of four months after I began. Almost 35,000 visitors have come in the last month! I've had an absolute blast, still can't believe I get all the great visitors I do, and I'm lucky enough to receive some of the brightest commentary in response as anyone else's blog I've read. (The readers are smarter than I am!) I wanted to come up with a way to express how I feel about the wonderful experiences I've had with CQ and interacting with all of you. I think this expresses my outlook and my future plans better than anything. (You may think I need medication after you hear it, though ...) Note: QandO, which has helped me out tremendously, has recently switched to Movable Type and has its own domain now: http://www.qando.net/blog/. If you haven't blogrolled or...
January 22, 2004
I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by the readers of Jennifer's History and Stuff, an excellent blog. Jennifer also notes that we both love Bayfield, Wisconsin -- cool coincidence! Make sure you check out the interview and everything else at Jennifer's....
January 25, 2004
I'm entered in a new blog contest -- this one called BlogMadness 2003, designed to emulate the March Madness NCAA basketball tournament. It consists of rounds of single-elimination, head-to-head contests, where a blogger wins by getting the most votes and moving into the next bracket. BlogMadness explains: A few weeks ago Manny and I stumbled upon a little idea: what would happen if you combined the fun and excitement of March Madness with the writing (brilliant and otherwise) which abounds in the blogosphere? The result of our discussion was the creation of a Blog Tournament. Everyone would go through their 2003 archives (which is fun in and of itself), pull out their very best post, and enter it in the tournament. We'll throw together a bracket, everyone will vote, and in the end the winners will be crowned King or Queen of some small portion of Blogland. Hopefully, along the...
January 26, 2004
Lt. Smash -- now Citizen Smash after courageously serving his country -- asks a good question in today's Open Thread: what is terrorism? I've included my answer in the comments. It just got started, but I will bet that this will become a very interesting debate. Check it out and leave your own thoughts on terrorism....
January 28, 2004
Thanks to a boost from Hugh Hewitt, the Lord High Commissioner of the blogosphere, I'm ahead in the first round of the BlogMadness contest, 24-11, with 8 hours left to go. If you haven't been by there yet, please visit the bracket and cast your vote. Other CQ brethren need some attention as well: California Yankee is down 9-6. Patterico's Pontifications is behind 17-12 against terrific competition from The American Mind. King of Fools, Evangelical Outpost, and Wizbang are all ahead, but vote for them for insurance -- standings can change fast!...
January 29, 2004
The voting is over for Round 1 in the BlogMadness tourney, and Captain's Quarters is moving onto the next round, thanks to all of you who voted for me. My "epic" poem, The Midnight Blog-Court, topped d-42's entry on pornography. California Yankee also won in my bracket. Next up, round 2, where voting starts tonight at 11PM EST. I'm up against some pretty stiff competition this time: a grandmother writing about her grandchild's birth and difficult first few days (an excellent post, really). Hope you'll all continue to participate!...
I will not be doing too much blogging today, as the First Mate and I will be attending the Patriot Forum tonight in St. Paul, featuring Hugh Hewitt as guest speaker. Hugh and Duane will be visiting us just in time to see the physical proof of Al Gore's theory of global warming; as I write this, it is 15 degrees below zero. (I'm actually surprised the former Vice President isn't speaking in the Twin Cities this week to continue his "Bitter Cold of Global Warming" series of lectures. We could use the hot air.) We'll be dining with our fellow bloggers of the Northern Alliance, such as the gang at Fraters Libertas, Mitch Berg at Shot In The Dark, Big Trunk at Power Line, and many more. If you are a listener of Hugh's show, James Lileks will be guest-hosting live from our own Patriot station here in town,...
I am so pissed -- at no one in particular, but I'm still pissed. As I blogged earlier, my wife and I planned on going to the Patriot Forum, a dinner and discussion with Hugh Hewitt, an event I have been looking forward to attending for over a month. I got stuck in a meeting at work and couldn't escape until 4:45, although I made it home in a half-hour, something of a record for this time of year. I had originally planned to leave the house about that time, but I got ready as quickly as I could and started to head out the door. I asked the First Mate to check with the hotel to see if they had valet parking, for which I would gladly pay a small fortune on a -15-degree night. (There are other reasons, which will come into play later.) The hotel confirmed that...
January 31, 2004
Fortunately for me, after the debacle of my attempt to attend the Patriot Forum on Thursday, I received an invitation to have lunch with Hugh Hewitt and the bloggers of the Northern Alliance. As guests of The Patriot in the Twin Cities, we all met for lunch at Billy's Lighthouse in Long Lake, a terrific restaurant owned by a fan of Hugh's. It was the first chance I'd had to meet most of the Northern Alliance bloggers, as well as Hugh and the Generalissimo, Duane. I think I can speak for the group (although you can check out their blogs, as I'm sure they'll be posting on this) when I say what a blast we all had. Hugh is every bit as gracious and friendly as you'd imagine from his show and his writing, and funny as well. We all talked about Minnesota, blogging, politics ... I don't remember the...
Continue reading "My Lunch With Hugh and the Northern Alliance" »
February 1, 2004
February, the month of love ... St. Valentine's Day, Cupid, and the like ... and so it's time to spread the link-love around the blogosphere a bit. The Commissar has discovered a new initiative from the Left: a deck of cards with the 52 most dangerous bloggers. Captain's Quarters has been assigned the ten of diamonds (I would have expected the two of clubs, myself). Every card is a clickable link to a dangerous right-wing blogger. I may ask the Commissar to send me over the graphic for my card, and I'll include it on my blogroll. Comrade Commissar continues to outdo himself ... Power Line has a great post on Churchill, one of my favorite historical figures as much for his failures as for his successes. Big Trunk notes the relationship between the BBC and Churchill and shows how the BBC has always taken the side of totalitarians in...
February 3, 2004
I have learned an interesting lesson in cultural blogging today -- if you write about a really hot topic, especially involving sex, then you can expect to get a whole bunch of new readers via search engines. Captain's Quarters has recently been averaging between 50-70 page views an hour during prime time (around 40 unique visitors). Today, however, after writing about the Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake Boober Bowl halftime show, I have been receiving over 300 page views an hour from referrals from search engines. Don't get me wrong; I like getting new readers, and I hope that all of them take a longer look around the blog to see if they find any other interests here than a grainy picture of a 37-year-old's right breast (which is not posted on this site, but you can go here and tell them I said hello). I'd just hate to have...
February 8, 2004
Continuing my Sunday tours through the blogosphere in honor of Valentine's Day (it's next Saturday -- start making those arrangements!), let's see what's happening on some of my blogroll friends ... Starting with the Northern Alliance, Saint Paul at Fraters Libertas notes the success of the two local dailies despite their lack of customer service, and draws the only logical conclusion: it's time to get more rude with readers. Hindrocket at Power Line gives some background on Herb Brooks now that the movie Miracle has been released; be sure to read it. King at SCSU Scholars reviews a piece by Mark Steyn and relates it to his own well-documented work in improving educational standards in Minnesota. The Warrior Monk at Spitbull rails against the suburban machine. And Mitch at Shot In The Dark notes his change of heart on capital punishment. Sailing further along the coasts of the blogosphere, Electric...
February 9, 2004
The Elder at Fraters Libertas has immortalized the Northern Alliance in song ... the Billy Joel song "Piano Man," to be specific. An "homage" like this deserves a response -- and one will be coming soon, I'm sure. Now where did my Jim Croce songbook go? Hmmmm .......
Just a note thanking all of my readers who have pushed me past 75,000 visitors. Big thanks to all of you who've blogrolled me and linked back to me, and special thanks to my friends in the Northern Alliance. In celebration, I'm announcing that I will be moving Captain's Quarters to a new hosting service as soon as a new design is in place. The traffic on the site has increased to the point where upgrading to full hosting services makes economic sense, and the folks at Hosting Matters make it pretty attractive to do so. Hosting Matters already supports some of the most well-known blogs, such as Instapundit, Little Green Footballs, and Power Line, so I feel like CQ will be in good hands. I've already set up a new domain -- www.captainsquartersblog.com -- which you can start using immediately, as it's temporarily redirecting back to this site. I'm...
February 10, 2004
The Northern Alliance of Blogs has a very exciting announcement -- we will be starting our own radio talk show in the Twin Cities on March 6th! Thanks to our good friend and Lord High Commissioner, Hugh Hewitt, an opportunity arose for us to create a live show for our local Salem Communications Network affiliate, AM 1280 The Patriot. Up until recently, AM 1280 The Patriot had mostly repeats of their weekly shows airing all day Saturday and Sunday, but while Hugh was out here for The Patriot Forum, he suggested that we could create live programming in order to boost their audience. The station was delighted to meet with us, and today Mitch Berg (from Shot In The Dark) and I met with station management to finalize the arrangements. Starting on March 6th, we will have a three-hour live show aired in the Twin Cities. Eventually, if we don't...
February 13, 2004
I completely missed the opportunity to link back to Venomous Kate yesterday in the rush of work and visiting friends, but Electric Venom included me in yesterday's Word of the Day for my post on Osama'a Navy. Lots of other good stuff in there too, so be sure to check it out, and while you're at it you should go through today's collection as well. Don't forget to congratulate Kate on her link from uberblogger Andrew Sullivan, too!...
February 14, 2004
Here's an update from the construction site at the new Captain's Quarters -- it's coming together really nicely, thanks to Mel at Skinny Dippin' Designs. We're not quite ready for visitors, but we're getting close. I think we may actually launch by Monday, if not earlier. Don't forget that the new URL will be http://www.captainsquartersblog.com. (If you click it and come back here, we're not under way yet.) If you want a creative and responsive designer for your MT blog, make sure you stop by Skinny-Dippin' Designs. Mel's been terrific so far and I think you will love the new layout....
February 15, 2004
Welcome to the new Captain's Quarters, with a spiffy new layout from Skinny Dippin' Designs! After a little over four months on Typepad, we outgrew the traffic limitations and so I've set up shop at Hosting Matters. Now I'll be able to customize the site (with Mel's invaluable help) and allow you to do the same. In the next couple of days, Mel will have another "skin" available for you to use. I think you'll like what you'll see. In fact, if you need some web design done, you should give Mel a try ... you won't be disappointed. A few housekeeping notes: * The Now Hear This links still connect back to the old site. I will be updating those as we go, but eventually they will all link back to this site. * I won't be terminating my Typepad service for a while at least, so if...
February 16, 2004
It's a little late for Valentine's Day, but it's never too late for a little link-love ... The Cheese Stands Alone has a new caption contest. Just think of it as a public service for the election ... Evangelical Outpost would like to know what the Left's problem with the Day of Purity promoting abstinence among teenagers. Since when do we root for teenagers to go out and have sex? Read on for Joe's daed-on interpretation ... PoliBlogger's given his site an update for his one-year anniversary. Let him know what you think -- it's good, but I think I liked the old scheme a bit better ... DC at Brainstorming is a Monopoly -- er, Blogopoly -- game piece ... Fresh Bed Goodness plots her stalking strategies in advance of the new Northern Alliance radio show debut on March 6th. But unbeknownst to her, I know exactly where that...
February 17, 2004
Rammer takes Venomous Kate's duties over for a day and puts up the Letter of the Day. After horsing around with this post, I hastily hopped over and had a hoot with Rammer's picks. One of the selections today was my earlier post, Shot in the Ash, but there's plenty of other good stuff at Electric Venom -- go check it out!...
Patterico's Pontifications, which has been at the forefront of the effort to hold the Los Angeles Times accountable for its dreadful editorial bias, celebrates its first anniversary today. Patterico always has something interesting to say, although I see that I forgot to include something in yesterday's link-love effort. Make sure you check it out and drop him a congratulations while you're there....
February 18, 2004
Man, I tell you -- here I go to all the trouble to move off of Typepad, get direct hosting for Captain's Quarters, and have Mel at Skinny Dippin' Designs whip up this excellent look, and I find out that the premier blogger, Instapundit, has started his own Typepad blog. Glenn actually agreed to start this blog as a test of Typepad, and in his brief series of posts today comes to the same conclusion I did: it's a great service for personal and lower-traffic blogs and any kind of start-up, but if you exceed traffic limits for any significant period or you want a highly customized look, you're better off moving to direct hosting and a self-contained system like Movable Type. I loved my time there, but I'm glad to have a home of my own....
The Watcher's Council at the Watcher of Weasels blog has their weekly nominations posted for their Council vote, and my post on Mel Gibson's interview with Diane Sawyer is on the list of non-Council entries. Make sure you read the rest of the entries while you're there. UPDATE: As the Watcher himself points out in a comment, I've had two posts nominated, the second one being this post about Arafat and PA corruption. Wow! Quite an honor, and thank you. I guess I should have read the list a wee bit more carefully ... UPDATE II: The results are in -- and my review of Gibson's interview finished a very respectable second, thank you very much! The Council winner was Jihad on Frisco by Damnum Absque Injuria, and the non-Council winner who topped me was What to Write, What to Write by Inn of the Last Home....
February 19, 2004
Thanks to a tip from Sean at Everything I Know Is Wrong, I found a nice compliment and a new blogroll addition. Amy Ridenour at the National Center for Public Policy Research -- whose newsletters I receive by e-mail, and you should as well -- has her personal blog on the site, and paid CQ a huge compliment: ... that's the most gorgeous blog I have ever seen. The articles are thought-provoking, too. Thanks, Amy! I'd love to take full credit (I will for the articles!), but if you want to know who's responsible for the design, check out Mel at Skinny-Dippin' Designs. In fact, Mel has a surprise for all of you coming very soon -- a new skin for Captain's Quarters will soon be available for your selection. This skin will be "War" and the new one will be "Peace". Let me know which one you like!...
February 20, 2004
Just in time for my 1,000th post, Mel at Skinny Dippin' Design has the second skin ready for Captain's Quarters. If you look at the left sidebar just below my e-mail, you'll see a new link titled, "Skin the Site". If you click it, you will be given the option of choosing between two 'skins' for the site. The first, which is the one you're likely using right now, is called "War", and that's the one with the azure background and the stunning graphic of a ship sailing into battle. The second skin is called "Peace" and features a softer look, different fonts, and a completely new graphic. As long as your browser is cookie-enabled, you should be able to choose which skin you get whenever you come back to CQ -- which you should do often, of course. I have received a lot of great feedback on the site,...
February 21, 2004
The fine Minnesota blog Everything I Know Is Wrong has moved up to a new Typepad site, and Sean has done a great job making it look good. He also has an excellent post challenging the Democrats to quit attacking Bush and start talking about their plans for prosecuting the war on terror. Make sure you update the blogrolls and take a look!...
February 22, 2004
Another Sunday-night tour through the blogosphere, looking for link-love in all the right places ... The Mudville Gazette, who's sending lots of people over for my caption contest, also has a great post on a young man who styles himself a conscientious objector -- who volunteered for the regular Army, for Pete's sake! Greyhawk calls it desertion, and I agree ... Tim Blair notes that Islamic Jihad is griping about the evil Zionists who hacked into their web site. Of course, the Jihadists prefer an entirely different kind of hacking ... My friend and colleague-to-be, the Big Trunk at Power Line, recounts his experiences bringing Winston Churchill to life in front of an enthusiastic audience at St. Olaf. Since Churchill is perhaps my favorite historical figure, I'll have to buy Trunk a cafe latte when I bring one for Hindrocket and pick his brain during commercial breaks ... Michael Kantor...
February 23, 2004
There appears to be a problem with Blogrolling.com this morning, which is keeping the blog from loading quickly. I assume that Blogrolling will get the problem solved quickly. Sorry for the inconvenience! UPDATE: The problem seems to be resolved now ......
February 24, 2004
Venomous Kate is back at Electric Venom -- and a mere three weeks from her first blogiversary, too -- and she shares with her readers a poignant and pointed Dear John letter she has sent to her significant other: When we first got together, I adored the way you made me feel: giddy, energized. You thrilled me. The mere sight of you sent my pulse racing. When we were apart, I held just one thought: when could we be together again? There were times when I shrugged off sleep, lost interest in food, all because I only wanted more of you. But that was years ago. You've long since lost your ability to make me shiver. You no longer make me feel special or important. I don't remember what I ever saw in you. Go pay Kate a visit and give her your support ... believe me, once you read...
February 25, 2004
Once again, I have been honored with a nomination in the weekly Watcher of Weasels' Watchers Council contest, this time for my post on the LA Times poll and its meaning for Kerry, Edwards, and Schwarzenegger. They've selected a lot of good posts this week. In fact, as I commented on their site, I look around and get an idea of what it's like to be Dennis Kucinich. [shudder] Oh, let's not do that again ......
Da Goddess hosts this week's Carnival of the Vanities, and the blogosphere turned out in force! Goddess' Carnival definitely lifts and supports all of us who entered, including my entry on the jealousy of Jacques Chirac. Make sure you visit Joanie's artistic presentation -- and certainly it will keep you abreast of the best in the blogosphere ... Next week's host: American Digest....
Aaron's Rantblog has started a wildfire in the blogosphere with his Blogopoly game, and he's kind enough to cut Captain's Quarters in on the action. Any relation between the Captain and the rapper 50 Cent is strictly coincidental, of course ......
February 27, 2004
Via Buzz Machine and Hoder, Yahoo now offers an RSS reader for members to display the latest headlines on their My Yahoo page. All that is required is a Yahoo membership (free) and an RSS feed from your favorite blogs. Users can set up the function to display up to 10 posts as far back as a week, and it will display either the headlines or an excerpt of each post, along with the timestamp of the last update. How does this help you? For one thing, rather than loading up each blog individually, you can just check a single site to determine if anything has been updated. You can also check to see if you'd be interested in the new posts. If you're working with access restrictions, My Yahoo at least gives you an idea of what's going on with your favorite blogs. I've already set my Yahoo membership...
February 29, 2004
No, this isn't a new Fox entertainment special, although the thought of, say, Lt. Smash pre-emptively striking Atrios does have its charms. [Would it look like the "Crimson Permanent Assurance" segment of Monty Python's Meaning of Life? Probably, except that Smash would have a younger crew and an armor-plated building with night scopes -- Ed.] Yesterday, I wrote a post about the Iranian Pashtun-service radio report that claimed Osama bin Laden had been captured by American troops "a long time ago" and that he was being held secretly until the election. To me, this ludicrous piece of propaganda -- even their one named source claimed he'd been misquoted -- was yet another example of a clumsy attempt by Iranian hard-liners to influence an American presidential election. They had tried in 1980 to claim that they would never negotiate with a Reagan administration, to no effect; and a couple of weeks...
March 3, 2004
Once again, I have been honored with a nomination in the weekly Watchers Council contest for this week. The Council has nominated my extensive post on my opposition of John Kerry and support for George Bush, which makes me feel pretty good; normally, I write posts quickly, but I struggled for hours over that one. As always, the Council has gathered a serious collection of excellent posts from around the blogosphere. Be sure to check them all out....
For those of you who are inclined to notice such things, Captain's Quarters passed 100,000 visitors this afternoon. Thank you to all of you who visit, who comment, and who blogroll me. I certainly appreciate your presence, and I'll prove it by finishing this post and blogging on something more substantial now ......
March 4, 2004
The Watcher's Council has made their selections for the week's best entries. My post on my opposition to Kerry came in an honorable second place in the non-Council entries, behind Kim du Toit's great post, Never Again. Congrats to Spiced Sass and King of Fools, who provided the one-two punch for the Council entries. Big thanks to the Council for the nomination and the votes!...
March 6, 2004
The Commissar at the Politburo Diktat posts today about a new Internet gizmo that you might find interesting. The link below will let you see the nearest bloggers to me, or at least those who have signed into this service. Just click the link below: Sign yourself up for this free, fun service, and find out who's closest to you!...
March 7, 2004
If you had troubles reaching Captain's Quarters this morning, it's because my excellent hosting service, Hosting Matters, performed planned maintenance -- moving their equipment into more secure facilities. This affected both web and e-mail service, so if you sent me something and it bounced back, that's why. Everything seems good now -- the site is back up and my e-mail service is working. Instapundit, Power Line, Little Green Footballs, and others were similarly affected. I posted a notice at my backup site of the maintenance as soon as it began. If you don't have that bookmarked, you may want to add it now. I plan on using the old site for extended down times if they occur....
March 9, 2004
Mel at Skinny Dippin' Designs has finished the third and final (for now) skin for Captain's Quarters, and we're calling it Buccaneer. It's a new, two-column look for the blog, and uses a more basic color scheme of black-on-white text, for those of you who were having a difficult time using the color schemes of the first two skins. I asked the lovely and talented Mel to come up with a more basic look after getting some feedback along those lines, and she's done that while still maintaining an artistic flair. It's another reason that you should be checking with Mel if you need any website design done! I'll be adding a poll later on so that everyone can vote on their favorite skin. In the meantime, be sure to try them all out. Even the Captain can't make up his own mind about which one he'll be usin'! Arrrr......
March 10, 2004
One last quick note before I head out for the night -- I notice that I get a lot of traffic from military servers, especially from a central access server called NIPR. I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your readership and your service in keeping our nation and my family safe. I hope you remain safe and well, and keep coming back to Captain's Quarters. And if anyone else wants to chime in, feel free to leave a message for our men and women in uniform in the comments section of this post....
March 17, 2004
The weekly Watcher's Council list of outstanding blog entries has been posted -- and once again, Captain's Quarters has been selected as one of the entries, this time for The Invisible Poll. Be sure to read some of the other oustanding entries on the list as well. The Watcher of Weasels, the permanent host of the contest, is also an outstanding blog; be sure to read some of Watcher's own fine posts while you're there. The judging in the Caption Contest has been going slow -- too many great entries, and just one guy to go through all of them! We'll have an announcement this morning on the winner....
March 25, 2004
I'm late posting this -- at least a day late, in fact -- but the Watcher's Council has posted its list of nominations for the best in the blogosphere over the past week ... and Captain's Quarters has been nominated again, this time for my post on the failure of gun control in Commonwealth countries. As always, the Council has chosen two lists, one for Council members and one for non-members. Make sure you take some time to review all of the excellent entries on this week's list. And next time, the Captain will make sure his ship stays on schedule ......
March 27, 2004
The Watcher's Council has spoken ... and Captain's Quarters has come in at #2 for the week, on my post about the failure of gun control in Commonwealth countries. As part of my duties as runner-up, I promise to be available if the winner is unable or unwilling to fulfill her duties ... or poses naked in a men's magazine. That sort of thing reflects poorly on all of us, you know. The winners were Citizen Smash for Down the Rabbit Hole (non-Council) and the SmarterCop for 20 Questions I'd Like To Ask John F*** Kerry (Council). Keep an eye out for the Watcher's next Council vote!...
March 30, 2004
Comrade Commissar at the Politburo Diktat has crafted another of his ingenious maps of Bloggahland. With accuracy guaranteed (all disputes will be settled by the Party, so Trotskyites be warned!), the Commissar shows how the alliance of the Vast Right Warlike Confederation has the Moonbat Colony of Leftieland surrounded. The map itself provides links to many different bloggers, arranged as only the Commissar can do. Definitely a must-see!...
April 1, 2004
First off, I love running this blog. Although it takes a lot of effort to maintain, Captain's Quarters has allowed me to interact with some terrific people throughout the political spectrum -- and I find that the regular readers of this blog are almost intimidating in their intelligence. Friends and family ask whether I'm preaching to the converts, but I have been challenged many times on my positions, which just makes me better at defending my positions or, as happens on occasions, rethink those positions entirely. Some of you bypass the comments and e-mail me directly, which is fun to read. Lately, I have been receiving suggestions for posts, which is new for me. I do read each of them, even if I don't respond, so feel free to keep sending them to me. If you don't see a post, it's just because I either have decided to focus on...
April 2, 2004
As you may have noticed, I played an April Fools joke on you all yesterday ...er, by not playing one. Ha ha! Bet I had you all fooled, right? Okay. However, if I had played one, maybe it would have been like this post at Fraters Libertas. The Elder thought through what a number of bloggers should have done to celebrate yesterday -- and none of us did. Thank goodness for The Elder. But Glenn, if you're reading this ... it's all lies. I swear....
April 5, 2004
Up to now, I have studiously avoided the Kos controversy for a number of reasons. One, I thought that other bloggers already had a good handle on the situation, and I didn't think that a me-tooism would be much of an addition. For another, I wanted to see how the situation developed before writing about it. Lastly, and most importantly, I have a friend working for a security contractor in Iraq and didn't think I could write dispassionately enough about my reaction to Kos' post. For the three of you in the blogosphere who haven't heard, Markos Zuniga -- the blogger who runs the phenomenally successful left-wing blog, The Daily Kos -- posted his reaction to the horrific deaths and disgusting aftermath of four Blackwater Security contractors in Falluja last week. Scorning the men as mercenaries, Kos said: "Screw them." He figured they got what they deserved. The blogosphere blew...
April 16, 2004
Has anyone else noticed that Blogspot blogs seem to be crashing this morning? I went to check out my Northern Alliance colleagues at Spitbull and wound up with a screenful of garbage. But hey, I've miscoded more than a couple of times myself, so I thought nothing much of it. I went to check out Miller's Time, though, and the same problems seem to be occurring there. Fortunately, SCSU Scholars seems unaffected, and that's great news because King just posted an excellent analysis of John Kerry's "misery index". King will be discussing this tomorrow on our Northern Alliance Radio Network show, too....
April 17, 2004
Feature stories on the blogosphere in the mainstream news media always generate quite a bit of interest. Tomorrow's edition of the Gray Lady herself reports on Wonkette, a blogger who's made a name for herself by covering the more gossipy side of Washington: With her gossipy, raunchy, potty-mouthed blog, Ms. Cox, a 31-year-old self-described failed journalist, has grabbed the attention of staid Washington, where gossip columns usually amount to little more than records of Capitol Hill staff changes and James Carville sightings. As she puts it, her mission for her blog is to write "a blend of gossip and satire and things I make up." It supports no party line, mixing gossip items from newspapers and Web sites with tips e-mailed from readers, which could be anything from guesses about which members of the Bush administration are gay to blind items on Washington luminaries. " `Famous for D.C.' should be...
April 21, 2004
Based on encouragement from Lord High Commissioner Hugh Hewitt, "Whiskey", an active-duty attorney for the Judge Advocate Generals Corps in the Air Force, has begun her own blog, JAG Wire. I heard about it from ol' whats-his-name at Power Line. It's a nicely designed Typepad site, and based on one whole day of blogging, looks to be well-written and insightful as well. (She's got the late-night blogging ritual down pat, so far.) Her first substantive post debunks the current meme on the need for a draft: So let me get this straight . . . we are going to stop offering incentives to volunteer and instead draft spoiled rich kids just to make sure all “classes” are represented? It’s like some kind of twisted affirmative action program. And why does any of this matter when so many so-called “upper class” gentlemen (Bill Clinton, Howard Dean, I could go on ....
If you are interested in following the burgeoning oil-for-food scam that the UN manipulated into multi-billion-dollar payoffs to Saddam Hussein and its own management, then you must add Friends of Saddam to your blogroll. Run by the Commissar but outside of his alter ego, Friends of Saddam will definitely be the central information resource for all UNSCAM developments. His latest post reviews an article from The Scotsman (UK), which details the efforts of Claude Hankes-Drielsma, the British investigator leading the corruption probe at the moment: Mr Hankes-Drielsma, an adviser to the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) who is overseeing an investigation by the forensic accountants KPMG, said: "From the evidence I have so far, the report will produce some of the most disturbing information that you have ever seen. "There is no question that where the evidence is beyond doubt, the US will take action to put people who defrauded the...
April 22, 2004
It's that time of the week again -- and the Watchers' Council has made their selections for the best posts around the blogosphere. Captain's Quarters received a nomination in the non-council category for my post on Bob Woodward's refutation of the Democrats' allegations of gasoline price-fixing conspiracies by the Bush Administration. Just to remind everyone, John Kerry has been expressing his "disgust" at this supposed secret deal that he claims Woodward described in his new book -- while Woodward denies saying anything like that. Make sure you get a chance to read the other nominated posts. By Friday, the winners will be announced after the Council vote. Hopefully, CQ comes out with a couple of "ayes"! UPDATE: Actually, I got 2 1/3 "ayes" and was selected the non-Council winner of this week's Watchers Council contest ... pretty cool! Patterico won the Council category with his post, Your Political Correctness or...
April 29, 2004
I've received e-mail regarding the sudden disappearance of JAG Wire, a fresh new blog by Whiskey, an active-duty officer serving overseas for her country. I can tell you that Whiskey herself is just fine and that she will soon be back to blogging, although under different circumstances, probably in a week or so. I will post an announcement as soon as she's okayed it. Stay tuned!...
The Watchers Council has spoken again this week, and the winners are King of Fools in the Council category for his post on creating terrorists, and Kim du Toit in the non-Council category for his weekly rant on Dubya the "dummy". My post on Kerry's prime-time paranoid waffling about WMD got an honorable mention ... and one-third of a vote. Lo, have the mighty fallen! It's an honor just to be nominated, of course. The Watcher also announced that the Council has an open seat due to the resignation of the Hawken Blog, who has an acute case of life and needs to reduce his blog load. I'd volunteer, but with the workload I already have, it's just not possible. Be sure to read the rules and let the Watcher know if you'd like to join up. It looks like tremendous fun!...
May 2, 2004
I'm not even going to comment on this, as Michele Catalano does far too good a job on it. However, the gist of this is that a leftie anti-war blogger has apparently lied for years about his military experience. He did it to argue his props for his anti-war position. He did it to ridicule those who opposed him. He did it to gain notoriety, coming in the form of mainstream media interviews and the like. And once found out, blamed everyone else for not figuring it out earlier. I've decided that this species of human effluvia needs a name: rubberdove sounds about right. What do you think? (via Instapundit) UPDATE: Greyhawk has a great and (especially under the circumstances) reasoned post about Micah Wright at the always-terrific Mudville Gazette. More also at Jim Treacher's blog. Kurt Vonnegut, who has to be one of the most overrated authors of the...
May 7, 2004
As I alluded earlier, Captain's Quarters will be making a big change. When I started the blog in October of last year, I envisioned this as a solo effort -- one that probably wouldn't attract a lot of notice. Well, thanks to some terrific readers and big assists from people like the Power Line guys, Hugh Hewitt, and all of the Northern Alliance and many others, Captain's Quarters has had much more success than I ever would have imagined. So much so, in fact, that it's time to bring on a partner to expand boundaries of the blog beyond my own experiences. So I'd like to introduce my new partner, Whiskey, who will start posting tonight. She's an American attorney, a graduate of Cornell Law School, living in East Asia, who has had military experience and so can speak to those issues from a more personal perspective when she desires....
May 12, 2004
The Watcher's Council has made its weekly selection of the best posts around the blogosphere, and the Council has kindly nominated my post on the latest UNSCAM developments for the non-Council contest. Be sure to read all of the great posts at Watcher of Weasels ......
May 14, 2004
Bill from INDC Journal scored a major blogosphere "get" by having Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit, answer a few questions at Bill's blog. This may be the funniest thing you'll read in the blogosphere all week. Indeed. Heh. Read the whole thing....
If you're having trouble loading my site ... well, so am I. Not sure why yet, but I will put in a trouble ticket with my hosting service and see if I can find out why. Hopefully, this is all just a momentary glitch. UPDATE: Well, we found out what the problem was -- someone on the same server as us got extremely popular very quickly. Apparently, another Hosting Matters client serves as an aggregator for news from Iraq, and with the news over the past couple of days, they've been flooded with traffic. HM is moving the client to a separate server. 5/13 UPDATE: Still having problems, so if you've had bad luck connecting to me today, you're not alone. This time, a power failure in one cabinet led to a cascade of failures at HM's servers. Not related to what happened yesterday, so it really was just bum...
May 15, 2004
E-Mail You'll find my e-mail address at the top of the left sidebar. When I receive e-mail, I assume that I can quote any or all of e-mails in the blog unless you specify that you do not want it republished, which I would honor, of course. Due to the overwhelming amount of e-mail I receive, I may not answer every one. However, I do read them all and try to respond when I can. I've had readers ask if they can post messages to this blog. I'm inclined to say no, but if an e-mail is well-written and I'm interested in the subject, I'll occasionally post it myself with appropriate credit. I encourage anyone who thinks they'd like to write posts from time to time to start their own blogs. Blogspot and Blogger have free blog programs (they sell banner advertising for revenue), and Typepad allows a more professional...
May 18, 2004
I noticed yesterday that the hit counter finally tripped 250,000 visitors sometime in the afternoon -- and I wanted to thank everyone again who makes Captain's Quarters a regular read. When I started the blog less than eight months ago, I couldn't imagine that CQ would be reaching as many people as it does, and I count myself as incredibly fortunate to have as many regular readers and commenters as CQ does. Thinking about all of the friends I've made in the blogosphere reminded me that CQ hasn't passed around link-love in too long a time -- so, here's what's happening at the blogs that gave me a tremendous help along the way. First, starting with my colleagues in the Northern Alliance: Hugh Hewitt wants to know why the Los Angeles Times keeps burying the lede when it comes to WMD, sarin and mustard gas. (Hugh has been tremendously gracious...
May 20, 2004
The Truth Laid Bare Ecosystem, in which many blogs voluntarily participate in order to determine their relative ranking, just went through an update after a week of status quo. When the dust settled, Captain's Quarters evolved from Large Mammal to Playful Primate and made it to the top 100 blogs for the first time. We're now ranked at #89. (And on a slow blogging day, no less, although I'll pick up the reins later on today.) NZ Bear uses a complicated methodology to calculate inbound and outbound blogroll links from each registered blog and then ranks the results based on inbound links. CQ has 395 unique inbound links, so to everyone who's been kind enough to blogroll me, I appreciate it! If you haven't yet blogrolled me, I hope you will sometime in the future, but more importantly, I hope you come back here to read and debate the posts...
May 21, 2004
I want to offer my congratulations to my long-distance Northern Alliance colleague, Deacon from Power Line, and his wife Yvonne on her naturalization as an American citizen today, in Baltimore. Yvonne originially came from France. As Deacon states, Yvonne was joined by what would appear to be a UN coalition for today's ceremony: America became even more diverse today as a new batch of citizens was sworn-in in Baltimore (and presumably elsewhere). One of these new citizens is my wife. Her group of about 50 was, as one would expect, quite a melange. It contained a few Anglos, at least one Frenchwoman (my wife), a handful of Eastern Europeans (mostly Russian), many Latino[a]s, many Africans, and some Asians, a few from the near east and a few from the far. There may even have been a couple of Bush voters in the group. Deacon noted a jarring, discordant note prior...
The Watcher of Weasels informs me on a quick break from his patrol that the Watcher's Council has another opening available. Those fortunate few members select the best of the blogosphere every week and vote on the nominated posts. Plus, you get to claim membership in a murky and vaguely menacing-sounding fraternity! What could be better? I wish I could commit to it, but unfortunately I don't have the time. I encourage one of you intrepid bloggers to contact the Watcher ASAP, if for no other reason than to ensure CQ posts continue to get nominated. [Yes, everything's all about me. I admit it - Ed.] It looks like a lot of fun!...
May 22, 2004
The Commissar has long been known as the official cartographer of the Blogosphere, and regularly produces vivid active-link maps to navigate through the blog universe. He's created a new, Party-approved map of Kablogh that you must check out (or the KGBlog agents will get you, Comrades!): The monuments of Kablogh, notably the now-empty House of Allah Mosque, have seen fierce fighting in recent weeks. The righteous Ri'ightes pray to the House of Allah mosque five times daily, hoping for the imminent return of its rightful occupant. Other Ri'ight strongholds include the LFG Embassy, the Captain's Quarter, the Canadian Embassy, and the Barking Moonbat Airport. Be sure to report promptly to the Commissar, and check out all of the great spots on the map. Don't forget to visit the eerily quiet House of Allah while you're there....
May 26, 2004
I've mostly avoided the entire Washingtoniette fracas that erupted on Wonkette's blog because I don't normally comment on sex blogs (and don't make a habit of reading them, either). Regardless of whether the interpersonal relations are located in the halls of power in Washington DC or in the cornfields of Nebraska, does it really shock us in this age that people get promiscuous, both in their sexual habits and their inability to remain discreet about it? I blog on politics for the most part, but blogs exist to talk about whatever interests the writer. For Jessica Cutler, what interested her was her numerous and concurrent sexual flings with co-workers, including the cash "gifts" received for a few of these encounters. However, Michelle Malkin -- a real journalist, as opposed to Cutler -- wrote a terrific piece for today's Townhall edition, explaining why this episode in the blogosphere damages the credibility...
May 28, 2004
John Hawkins' excellent web site, Right Wing News, is a must-read for conservatives and libertarians on the internet. John has great links, terrific posts, and uses a lot of humor to score points off the left. I discovered this morning that John has made Captain's Quarters the RWN Website of the Day! Thanks, John, and I hope that all your readers enjoy their visit today. If you like what you see, be sure to blogroll or bookmark CQ and come back often!...
May 30, 2004
I'm making a small change to Captain's Quarters. I've received feedback especially from dial-up readers that the load time for CQ is pretty darned slow. Up to now, I've kept four days active on the page in order to allow readers to scroll through several posts at a time. However, due to the length of the posts we typically write and the sheer number of posts, I've decided to cut the active days to two. Archives are always accessible through the calendar on the left or through the weekly and monthly archives, using the drop-down boxes. Hopefully, these changes will work out for everyone. Please feel free to comment on this post or to drop me an e-mail with your feedback on the modification. Thanks! UPDATE: Still working on it .... and screwing things up, as usual. Bear with us for a little while on this. Right now, I've managed...
June 2, 2004
I think all of us in the blogosphere wanted to do something special for the veterans, both living and those who gave the last, full measure, for this Memorial Day. Quite a few posted touching stories, and of course I put the story of Captain Ben Salomon on my site, who died saving dozens of wounded Americans on Saipan. However, I think one of the best I've seen are at INDC Journal, where Bill went out with his digital camera and got wonderful pictures and stories from the veterans themselves. Bill's post turned out to be so large that he had to break it into two parts. Make sure you read them both. Bill has a personal story to tell in the second part, so make sure you read it all the way through. I dare you to do it without tears....
June 4, 2004
If you had problems accessing the site this morning, you weren't the only ones -- it looks like all of Hosting Matters' sites went down for about a half-hour or so. No word yet on the cause. Unfortunately, I'm out of time for blogging the rest of the morning, so I will catch up at lunchtime if I get the chance....
June 16, 2004
The Commissar at the Politburo Diktat just received a bit of bad news from his hosting service -- they apparently dislike the Movable Type system and now want to hike his rates to keep his sites going: The Commissar has become embroiled in Revolutionary Struggle with his hosting company, Lunarpages. Greedy Capitalist Lunarpages host now want to charge $40 per month. In a sudden, emergency action yesterday, they moved me from one server to another and seem to have lost several hours worth of updates and Comments. (In response to Comments, I had done some nifty updates to the 'Forget the Swoosh' piece. Gone for now.) The Commissar is looking into a new hosting service, including CQ's provider Hosting Matters. He's keeping the domain name but may have the site down for short periods of time while deciding and/or moving, so don't get discouraged if you see a 404 once...
June 22, 2004
My Northern Alliance colleague and all-around great guy, John "Rocket Man" Hinderaker, has agreed to appear in a new documentary on Minnesota bloggers, along with Scott "Big Trunk" Johnson. The documentarian is a blogger himself at the left-wing site Blogumentary, and he has already announced the interview on his site, sounding a bit nervous: I reassured him that I'm no Michael Moore, and I'm not out to make anyone look bad. Conservative blogs represent a huge chunk of the blogosphere, and I would be remiss not to include them and their perspective. I'm fortunate (err, as a blog filmmaker) to live in a state chock full of prominent right-wing blogs: The Northern Alliance of Blogs. Wish me luck. Come on, man, we don't bite! (They're lawyers. They sue. It's worse.) I suspect he may be more nervous about the response from his regular readers, though. I noticed that this was...
June 23, 2004
If you haven't yet read INDC Journal's new post, Moonbats In The Mist, you have to check it out now. Bill does an anthropological study of anti-war protesters, bringing along a couple of (virtual) partners, and the results are hilarious: Reminder: This INDC Science Series is best appreciated if my portions of the narration are read aloud with an Australian or Queen's English accent. Thank you. Good day, my fellow moonbat watchers and amateur scientists! The Spring and Summer moonbat season has really got into full swing here in Washington, DC, and I recently had an opportunity to witness a significant gathering of countercultural species in Lafayette Park, a popular moonbat greenspace located directly across from the White House. Like any good anthropologist, Bill took plenty of pictures, so you can understand the narrative that much better. Be sure to check out this excellent, National-Geographic level analysis of tribal life;...
June 27, 2004
... because I'll be upgrading the blog to Movable Type 3.0 today. Longtime CQ readers know what a Captain Ed-quartebacked upgrade means ... usually, a blog that resembles Picasso on peyote. UPDATE: Upgrade successful! However, there are a few changes, which I will write in another post....
As I mentioned in my previous post, I upgraded Captain's Quarters underlying program, Movable Type, from its original version (2.661) to the new 3.0 version. Most of the changes will be transparent to you, thanks to the outstanding programming of CQ's designer, Mel from Moxie Design Studios. Unlike 2.661, 3.0 actually costs money, although I got a discount thanks to a donation I had made earlier to MT. So why do it? The main reason is that the author interface is more elegant, and especially that the folks at MT improved the Java scripts to work within Mozilla. Until now, I've used IE to do most of my authoring, and while I have no particular problem with Microsoft -- I love their Office applications -- the security holes in IE and their mail clients drive me batty. The other reason, and the one that affects you the most, is that...
June 29, 2004
As I wrote this weekend, I have upgraded to Movable Type 3.0 for a number of reasons, but one of the main reasons was to enable comment moderation to combat spam. A significant amount of my blog time has been spent in updating my MT-Blacklist profile and in deleting comment spam attacks as they come in different forms. I'd much rather spend my time writing and responding to real comments and e-mails from CQ's readers. In order to accomplish this, I need your help in maintaining some semblance of order around here. Movable Type 3.0 integrates with Typekey, a validation service that allows blogs to identify commenters and allow them automatic, immediate posting of comments. It's free and only requires a username and a valid e-mail address, and you can even specify that the e-mail address does not get passed to the blog when you comment. I get no other...
July 2, 2004
Someone has hacked into the Lord High Commissioner's site and replaced the index file on his server. Fortunately, they didn't do much except insert a new file that your browser hits before his index file. For the time being, use this URL to access his site: http://www.hughhewitt.com/index.htm If you just use the domain name, you will get the hacked page, which is stunning in its lack of imagination. I will make sure to keep you informed as updates occur. UPDATE: Hugh Hewitt fan Richard Shuford went the extra mile to get the problem fixed: I called the iPowerWeb technical-support line 888-511-4678 (which is claimed to be answered 24 hours a day), and after about 8 minutes of being on hold, I got to talk to a human. This support guy was able to restore the home page while I was still on the line. I asked him to have a...
July 3, 2004
Thanks to the extra efforts of Hugh Hewitt fan Richard Shuford, Hugh's site is back on line. Read my updated post for the explanation!...
July 9, 2004
As you'll see by the time on this post, I'm getting back to my room at a pretty late hour -- and I discovered I'm buried in e-mail. I can read everything people send me, but for some really strange reason, I cannot send outbound e-mail. If you've sent me e-mail and haven't heard back, that's why. (Kenneth -- LOL!) The Irish language workshop is terrific, the poitín is tremendous (Irish moonshine, and I ain't kidding), and the people are all having a blast. If you're curious about the Irish language, our organization's website is a good place to read a bit about it, and we have links to plenty of other resources. I have missed most of today's news, but I plan on posting a couple of items in the early morning tomorrow. A couple of items to note tonight: * Hugh Hewitt is celebrating 22 years of marriage...
July 20, 2004
In case you're wondering, the back is still very much out, and it's all I can do to get out of bed. Right now I'm sitting up in a recliner, doing some stretching exercises at regular intervals, and trying to get well enough to go back to work tomorrow. In the meantime, I can use my laptop and wireless connection to keep up with things. Like I said ... in case you're wondering. Thanks for the get-well messages some of you have sent -- I hope I do, and soon!...
July 21, 2004
This morning, I received an e-mail from a fairly new blogger (archives only going back a few weeks) who claims to be offering $200 for any proof that Joe Wilson lied. I won't link to him, nor will I excerpt anything from his site, but his top post expressed frustration that he had been sent nothing but unsupported assertions from other bloggers about Wilson, and that his $200 appeared safe. Scrolling down, I read his 'rules' for the contest, which insisted that anyone applying for the cash had to supply URLs from testimony under oath showing Wilson committed perjury. Nothing like moving the ol' goalposts, eh? Here's my reply: This is the weakest blog promotion I've seen yet. You want definitive proof of perjury. Great. I expect that you, then, fully supported Bill Clinton's impeachment and removal from office, since you seem to consider perjury the gold standard of disqualification....
July 23, 2004
The Watcher's Council has spoken this week ... and they've selected my post, Gray Lady Spins It Hard For Kerry, Berger as the non-Council post of the week! I was up against some tough competition from Allah and Michelle Malkin (in fact, how the heck does anyone top those two?), among other great selections. The Council winner was Smarter Cop for Government Health Hell Care, which edged out entries by Patterico and Four Right-Wing Wackos. Make sure you check out all of the nominated posts at the Watcher of Weasels ......
July 25, 2004
I just received a hot news flash from my partner, Whiskey -- she will be outside of the reach of the Internet most of the next month or so. When she returns to normalcy, she will make the Internet access her first priority (so she says) and will start posting again. In the meantime, you're all stuck with the Captain. All right, all right, pipe down ... I said she's coming back. I'm not at liberty to explain her absence in detail, but she will be traveling most of this period, and through some fabulous areas. I, on the other hand, will be ... here....
July 27, 2004
I am thrilled to announce that I received an invitation from the Republican National Convention to represent the blogging community when George Bush is nominated for a second term! The Committee on Arrangements sent out the invitations this evening: For the first time, bloggers will hold an on-site presence at the Republican National Convention called "Bloggers Corner." Positioned near Radio Row, credentialed bloggers will have the opportunity to connect with delegates, guests and other surrogates for interviews, and to provide original content, including multimedia, to their audiences. Through this behind-the-scenes look at the convention's proceedings and events, bloggers will play an important role in telling the story of the 2004 Republican Convention. Bloggers Corner will be located in Madison Square Garden's Theater Lobby in the corridor adjacent to Radio Row. Electrical outlets, tabled work stations and necessary hook-ups for laptop and other portable computers will be available for high-speed Internet...
July 28, 2004
First things first -- I will be rearranging my work schedule for the next two weeks in order to free up my days to get the First Mate back and forth to the hospital for some treatments. I'll be working swing shifts, which may mean a bit less blogging, although I had curtailed some of the nighttime blogging of late anyway. The FM has experienced some temporary reduction in kidney function, and the doctors want to have her in for outpatient treatment for several days. We started it today, and we'll go every other weekday for the next week or so. At any rate, I'll still be blogging, but the number of posts might be a bit lower while I work swing shift. In a more enjoyable development, the Washington Post jumped on the blogging bandwagon by taking nominations for a blog contest. INDC Journal has directed his readers to...
July 29, 2004
I apologize for the significant downtime today. Big issues, hardware changes, and other things (not health related). May do some blogging later, but am definitely watching the convention on C-SPAN. Be sure to keep up with Power Line tonight for great convention coverage. Hope to be back with you later....
August 8, 2004
I was hoping to have posted something significant this morning, but unfortunately I have spent the first hour cleaning up after a scum-sucking spammer who has been leaving spam comments all over Captain's Quarters. The site referral redirects to www.rxsexualhealth.com, which is a Viagra reseller. If you would like to make your displeasure known to the fine folks at RxSexualHealth, please e-mail them at admin@rxsexualhealth.com. In fact, if you have any political views you'd like to share, send them to admin@rxsexualhealth.com. If you have pictures of your vacation that you think would interest the folks at RxSexualHealt, send them off to admin@rxsexualhealth.com. If you have a blog, feel free to link back to this post and encourage others to send lots of mail to the fine people at admin@rxsexualhealth.com. Just don't forget to use the subject line, "Quit Spamming Blog Sites!" on every piece of e-mail you send. Thank you,...
August 9, 2004
My random collection of thoughts on a Monday afternoon ... * Again this week, I will be working evenings in order to take care of some work issues and take the First Mate to some doctor's appointments. My productivity may be lower than normal, but hopefully the quality will remain high. * I didn't mention it when it happened, but Captain's Quarters passed its 500,000th visit late last month, approximately 10 months after I launched the blog. I have a lot of people to thank for this -- notably Hugh Hewitt, the Lord High Commissioner for the Blogosphere and the father of the Northern Alliance. The guys at Power Line gave me a big lift right near the beginning, too, linking back to me several times and allowing my site to get great early exposure, and the rest of the Northern Alliance guys, too -- King at SCSU Scholars, the...
August 11, 2004
Time out for a bit of fun! Rusty, who's filling in for the Commissar over at the Politburo Diktat while the Commissar takes a bourgeois vacation, keeps up the spirit of the P.D. with a new series of blogstamps. Captain's Quarters is among those blogs honored with its own issue: Check them all out -- collect the entire set! And don't forget to visit Rusty's fine Munuvian blog, My Pet Jawa, while you're at it....
August 15, 2004
The troll that has recently begun posting as both Anjin-San and Swifty has been banned and his comments -- all of them -- have been deleted. People who try to post non-sequiturs under multiple pseudonyms will be assumed to be trolls, especially when the brain surgeons in question all come from the same IP address. Really, really, really smart....
August 19, 2004
Okay, now that I have a full-scale battle going on in the varoius comment sections, along with hints of mutiny ("Mr. Christian!"), it's time that we had a discussion about the bounds of propriety on Captain's Quarters. I had wanted to write a post about the fantastic time I had at the George Bush rally first, but I think I need to address this issue immediately, and I'd like to keep the Bush review on top. Here's what I wrote in the CQ Comments Policy on May 15 of this year: When I began my blog, I was advised to disable comments as some blogs have experienced many problems with "trolls", but I think that the comments are in some ways the best part of CQ. In my definition, a troll is a commenter whose comments are off-topic and designed to insult other readers or us or to start silly...
August 20, 2004
I discovered when going through my e-mail ... belatedly ... that I won the Watchers Council contest f