Weblog Awards

I was nominated for Best Individual Blogger. There are some other blogs that I consider favorites on the list. Unfortunately, two of my favorites are nominated with me. You’ll know when you go. They get linked a lot.

I’ll pick my other favorites from other categories tomorrow.

P.S. By the way, yes, this means that I’m at home and back to blogging about really important stuff like the Israel-Hamas War and Chicago politics. Oh! And I’ll also be starting a series about why people are fat. That should be fun and informative. It’s something I’ve meant to do for a while.

Posted in Nerd Stuff | 2 Comments »

Is Twitter Evil, Too?

We tend to think that those who run online systems like Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and the grand poo-bah Google make them passive robot-like vehicles for democratic action. That’s not exactly true. At the very least someone wrote the code in a certain way to achieve a certain outcome. It doesn’t have to be a nefarious plot to inadvertently cause harm.

Still, there are living, breathing people behind these companies who watch their technology grow and develop and make money. These people have ideologies and philosophies and the ability to manipulate their domain either very specifically or generally. Imagine a developer constructing a neighborhood. He can mess things up passively–use the wrong kind of pipe fittings that causes leaks in all the homes. Or he can mess things up specifically–hang the cabinets wrong, “forget” some special hardware, order the wrong tile for a customer he doesn’t particularly like. Software developers can do the same thing. Heck, hardware developers can too. Sony was found to have put a chip in their machines to collect data.

A couple years ago, there was a big internet stink over a psycho lefty who was harassing and threatening a conservative blogger (Jeff Goldstein). I was watching and writing about the episode. The conservative blogger ended up with a denial of service attack. Around the same time, a DOS attack happened to my blog. And then, my blog just disappeared. Whoosh! At the time, I was using Blogger (hosted by Google). Another conservative blogger, Betsy Newmark, had her blogger domain name taken and given to someone else. Blogger just “lost” her whole archive of blog posts. This is Google we’re talking about. They lose nothing. After two weeks of wrangling, Google “found” her domain and archives and restored them.

So now, a conservative Twitterer is wondering if the same sort of manipulation is happening to him. Remember the Motrin Moms? I barely blogged about it because it seemed like another tempest in a D-cup, typical feminist fare. The women got worked up because they were offended by a stupid (and it was stupid) Motrin commercial. Well, a conservative Tech blogger in California, Brooksbayne shares his story:

It’s purely coincidental that my last post in the public timeline was regarding #motrinmoms, right? Although, theoretically, it wouldn’t be difficult for the devs to create another Bit column in Twitter’s database and keep people’s posts from hitting the public timeline and search by marking them hidden behind the scenes, but that would be censorship. Is @brooksbayne being censored by a liberal at Twitter who is sympathetic to the #motrinmoms? I have a feeling we’re about to find out.

Here’s the thing. It IS possible for these companies to censor and manipulate and they can do it all behind a technological shroud. I’m not for being a conspiracy theorist, but I do think that it’s wise to realize that the internet and it’s businesses are a sea of people driving technology, not the other way around.

It is in everyone’s interest to keep these operators honest.

Cross-posted at RightWingNews

Posted in Nerd Stuff | 2 Comments »

Google IS Evil–UPDATED

My Tweet bud Lagomorph, pointed me to this UK Register article about Google:

Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It’s a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance.

Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that:

The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.

A few years ago, Google’s apparently unimpeachable objectivity got some people very excited, and technology utopians began to herald Google as the conduit for a new form of democracy. Google was only too pleased to encourage this view. It explained that its algorithm “relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. “

Turns out that humans at Google choose what makes Google News. I wondered how hair-brained Huffington Post articles got headlined as actual news. Now we know. Evidently, this isn’t new news. I can’t say that I’m surprised, but I am alarmed.

As more and more people find their news via the web, it is disturbing that it’s not some impartial robot program deciding what’s news, but that it’s a few Dan Rathers sitting in a room deciding what you should know and not know. How is that different than the old media? How is it democratic? Answer: It’s not.

Google is evil. Beware the keepers of the information. They tend to morph into the deciders of what information you should know.

UPDATED:

The Gadfly has more on Evil Google.

Posted in Nerd Stuff, Political Animals, Show Me The Money | 12 Comments »

Twitter Me, Baby!–UPDATED

Hey guys, I’ve talked about Twitter before and I just wanted to remind you that you need to sign up and follow me. In Twitter, there will be feeds, links to stuff I like and the banter that goes with being around a bunch of like-minded folks. You would know, for example, that I really like pomegranate martinis and that I butchered my sister’s bangs. That’s important stuff you just don’t get here.

Duane Lester wrote a great blog post listing all the best people to follow on Twitter on the Right. It is comprehensive and excellent. I used it to round out my follows.

Want to know something before everyone else? Use Twitter!

UPDATED:

I don’t think I’m this bad, yet:

Posted in Nerd Stuff | 3 Comments »

Rachel Said If Obama Won She Was Leaving The Country

Well, Rachel kinda said that. And she’s moving to formerly Great Britain. Well. Now, she can blog the crazy from up close and personal. For some reason, her moving makes me sad. Just knowing that she’s in Texas is comforting even though we haven’t managed to actually meet face to face yet. Isn’t the internet weird?

Posted in Nerd Stuff, Not America | 6 Comments »

My Favorite Bloggers

I haven’t done a post like this for a while. With all the new readers and the election past, it’s time to highlight the work of the online intellectuals (yes, we have them on the Right):

Patrick Ruffini–Patrick gives me hope for the conservative movement.

Jon Henke–Another guy from TheNextRight who I like.

Jim Hoft aka Gateway Pundit. I swear, there are really three of this guy walking around. He’s that prolific.

Ace of Spades. Funny and makes a point.

Rachel Lucas. I’m not going to say anything. I’m going to quote her post on Trolls and then you’ll see why I love her:

Here’s what happens: You start a blog. You write your admittedly biased opinions about, say, politics. You reach a certain level of traffic. People who disagree with your political opinions decide you’re worth their time and attention because after all, you asked for it when you put your thoughts on the internet, and you need to be taken down a notch, and most of all, they are miserable shits who get a kick out of being assholes to strangers on the internet.

It’s so inevitable that it should be a law of quantum physics by now.

The Anchoress. I always find myself wondering what she thinks on a subject.

Glenn Reynolds. He teaches. He writes. He scuba dives. He plays in a band. He blogs. He says he’s human. I don’t believe him.

Iowahawk. He has been rocking and rolling. I’d almost be okay with a Democrat as President if I could be guaranteed Iowahawk satire. There will be some small comfort for the next four years.

Jeff Goldstein is grumpy. And that’s the way I like him: grumpy with a side of snark. The press bias has him apoplectic and the moderates have him mad. It makes for very good reading.

Jim Treacher is also thriving in the pain.

MaxedOutMama. She makes me miserable. Every time I read her, I think, please, just make her be a hard-core pessimist and wrong. But nope. She’s right. That’s why I read her.

Newsbusters. All of ‘em. I get chronically pissed off when I read their site, but what can I say? They have job security these days.

John Hawkins. Yes, I co-blog with him at Right Wing News. He is doing great work, though, and it is worth noting.

Posted in Nerd Stuff | 4 Comments »

More On Rebuilding The Rightroots: Part III

My co-blogger at Right Wing News, John Hawkns, wrote a very thoughtful and comprehensive article on what the Right needs to do online. He mentions that political DC insiders on the right don’t get it, essentially, about the blogosphere. I’ve heard that from other bloggers who’ve worked on campaigns.

From a systemic perspective, this is what I see:

The Rightosphere doesn’t exist. There are individual organisms but no cohesive ecosphere. So, while Markos Moulitas and Arianna Huffington presides, to an extent over the Left-leaning blogosphere, there is no grand-daddy or grand-mama on the Right. Sure, we have Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin, but neither has shown an interest in coordinating a movement to stand in solidarity to force a sea-change in politics.

There is not a Yearly “Get it Right” Convention, for example. Part of the issue is simply meeting one another. Because we all have jobs, or most of us do, we fit blogging in. But I assure you, just speaking for myself here, I’ll be making more time for activism–if I can make it pay for itself. John’s idea about wealthy donors getting with the program is important here. Plane flights and conferences cost money and time.

It would be nice for the blogosphere on the Right to put together a sort of platform, invite politicians and MSM journalists and make an impression. The guys at the top of the Republican movement might be surprised who they see at a convention like that.

There is CPAC, the CLC, the AFP and Samshere, etc, but do any of them specifically represent the blogosphere? I don’t know.

Gotta run, but there will be more thoughts later.

Posted in Nerd Stuff, Political Animals | 2 Comments »

Bloggy Information

Hi guys!

There are a couple changes that I’ve bugged my poor, beleaguered IT guy to incorporate into the blog. If you need a blog created or want someone who will work until the perfect code is found to do an exact function, Daniel Summers is your guy. Plus, he’s just really, really nice. You can find his information on my Frequently Asked Questions page. He’s teh bomb!

Anyway, I’ve wanted a way for people to comment on the “read this” links. I might not have much to say about the topic (I know, shocking), but found the topic interesting. So, if you want to go read the article and come back to discuss it, feel free.

Also, let me know if you can think of ways to improve the blog. Daniel will groan when he reads this. But really, I’m always looking for ways to improve and get better. Let me know.

Posted in Nerd Stuff | 1 Comment »

Why Aren’t There More Women Bloggers? Really, Why Do Women Bloggers Complain About The Lack of Competition?

The first question IS a charged question for the reasons Ann mentions–which include family considerations:

I’m no expert on marriage, though I was married long ago, but I can imagine what a husband would say if he was witnessing my writing habits. I picture him telling me it’s absurd to live like this. It’s unhealthy. It’s insane.

I’m just going to leave that statement as written.

Ann chastises women for not “claiming time as their own”. There is something to that. Whether it be sports or fiddling with an engine or whatever a man’s hobby ends up being, it’s understood that he will carve time out to fill his needs. A woman is more likely to be “guilt tripped” about the time it takes to do something like blogging. A woman needs to be strong both in her personal life and professionally to blog.

She needs to be strong and have skin of steel, too. The internet can be unkind to women. I have published here some of the more creative ways lefties have suggested I off myself. Meh. Generally, the nonsense doesn’t faze me. In person, these same tough guys and gals wouldn’t likely be so vicious or brave. For example commenter “Belinda” just left this insight on my blog tonight:

Reich wing nut case site. Your party is so unpopular. Look at the statistics. You lying gangster thugs have lost the youth and educated vote. Sure elections were stolen in 200 and 2004 just as the right wing HAS TO STEAL elections around the world as your party is the party of the wealthy few. You only get common people to vote against their interests with lies. US installs right wing dictatorships around the world against the inhabitants wishes. You think they are suddenly ethical here at home. You reich wing lying filth make me ill.

I especially like the “reich wing lying filth” part.

Time management and family demands, psycho readers and bloggers, and then, there’s the whole blogger personality-type which, I think skews toward men. I’ve blogged about this before. And I think Glenn Reynolds is right about this:

In that spirit, here’s my own hypothesis: Men are genetically programmed to try to stand out through action, in the hopes of attracting women. It’s true, of course that blogging is a relatively ineffective way of doing that — but so are many other ways this urge manifests itself, like extreme Star Trek fandom. The point is the genetically programmed urge, which isn’t programmed into women in the same manner. Is this true? Beats me, but it’s amusing.

There is a related trait about men: the guy who gets the laughs and wins the argument gets the girl and the respect. So, in a group of men, the alpha male is the guy who “holds court”. Bloggers with big audiences are holding court–some, like Glenn, have very big courts.

Women are just not usually programmed this way. In fact, my own blog subtitle is “information pollination”. My motivation is to share ideas. Do guys feel the same way? Do they have the communal impulse? I don’t know.

I do know this: I’m not a normal girl. What I mean is this: I’m interested in science fiction and read fantasy. I follow politics and care little for shoe shopping. I value solitude and while very social in groups, am very selectively social–as in, you’re not going to find me at a mother’s group talking about potty-training. I enjoy being by myself and thinking and reading.

These traits make motherhood challenging and blogging relatively easy. Mothering is social. A mom is constantly interrupted whether she is doing the dishes and laundry or whether she is blogging. When I’m at the office seeing patients, I get the peace of focusing on the patient. Because I blog at home, the only time I get that luxury is after the kids are in bed and that cuts into spousal social time. Or, it can. When there’s a political debate, all bets are off–my blog is my job. Tough bananas around here.

When I’ve gotten together socially either online or in person with women bloggers, they have all expressed that it has been difficult wish spouses or boyfriends–and not necessarily because they’re being hassled (although that’s the case sometimes), but because it does take a lot of time away from other things a person can be doing.

I just think women bloggers are a small segment of the population–especially women political bloggers. No offense, Ann, but we’re weird. Okay, maybe not weird, but certainly not typical. The lawyer woman complaining needs to either get more interesting or more link-social, I still maintain that women bloggers who write worthy blogs rise to the top. There is just so much competition.

Still, and ultimately, anyone who blogs has to blog because it’s fun and he likes it. The pay isn’t great and there are few perks. Making friends with incredibly smart and interesting people is one of the perks.

Women have to deal with a lot to blog, but for those who love it, there’s no excuses. They sacrifice other activities and time and do what they want–blogging.

Posted in Mind, Nerd Stuff | 3 Comments »

Fight Media Bias: Support Alternative Voices–Like Me!

Most bloggers I know, myself included, don’t ask to be paid. We hope you’ll advertise or click on our advertising and we’ll get residual income. Or, we hope that you’ll buy something at Amazon and go through our website to buy so we get a commission (that’s how that works, by the way).

Meanwhile, most readers watch the evening news, read media that’s in the tank for Obama (hello Gwen Ifill) and the Democratic nominees, and tacitly show their approval of these forms of “news”. But many honest people are sick of it. They are sick of the media, the bias, the lack of fairness, the fawning adoration, the complete and total lack of objectivity. What to do? Glenn Reynolds has a suggestion:

If you want to have a media environment that isn’t dominated by the Gwen Ifills and Keith Olbermanns of the world, you need to ensure that other kinds of voices flourish. That means supporting the alternatives with your eyeballs, your subscriptions, your advertiser-patronage (and you could write those advertisers and tell them you’re happy that they’re supporting that kind of programming, too — they probably don’t get many letters like that, so they’ll be noticed) — basically, your money. Businesses need money to flourish. There’s a vast underserved population out there, for news, entertainment, movies, etc., and if people start serving it, the current “mainstream” media won’t be so mainstream anymore. So if you’re unhappy with current offerings, put your money where your mouth is.

And if you’re one of the people with creative interests, start making alternative stuff. Not just news and punditry, but entertainment, documentaries, etc. If An American Carol does well this weekend, it’ll make it a lot easier for the next film of its type to be made. If Evan Coyne Maloney’s documentary work does well, it’ll encourage a lot more of that kind of work.

Think of it like cultivating a garden: Starve the weeds, feed the flowers. Like gardening, it’s work. But like gardening, if you do the work you’ll see results.

At first, I was going to joke about this, but it’s the truth. It is also something I argued with a friend about. He said he didn’t trust what I wrote because I was a partisan “interpreting” facts. And I told him that absolutely, I’m partisan. I don’t hide it. My bent is conservative-libertarian. Period.

However, if I have an opinion, or even present a story, I do my best to link it to facts so that a person can decide whether I’m full of shit or not. And my readers, bless them, call me on the times they think I’m full of it. Blogging has a lovely feedback loop. A person who presents lies won’t last long and will lose credibility–unless they blog over at Kos. But for those on the right, the readers are smart and rigorous and opinionated.

I don’t like this post-modern notion that there is no truth–only opinion and interpretation. What utter bull. The fact is there IS fact. The Senate voted a certain way. That is fact. Why they voted in a certain manner is up for interpretation.

So, while I spout my opinion, an endless stream of them if you ask my friends and family, I make it clear that it’s my opinion. Those in the media go wrong because they pretend at objectivity while being shamefully biased, and they also do this, as Glenn Reynolds continues:

I promised some thoughts on what to do about the news media’s outright campaigning for Obama. (And that’s what it is. Media bias used to mean that they would slow-walk stories that reflected badly on their candidate; now they just flat out ignore them, or even try to shoot them down. They’re not just in the tank, they’re functioning as arms of the campaign, and Obama’s strategy shows that he knows that and is relying on it.)

What is NOT being reported, what is not being said will kill you. Suppression of information leads to wrong conclusions. It is an abomination. A patient can lie to his doctor or omit important facts (and many people do) and the doctor will come to a wrong conclusion. Perhaps harm will come to the patient–but he is only hurting himself. When the media omits important facts, readers and watchers, news consumers come to erroneous conclusions. The consequences are profound. The consequences can sway elections. And that is exactly what the media counts upon.

The success of alternative media indicates that people are eager for more solid facts and more fair interpretations of them. But to “feed and water” the alternatives, money helps. Time is money and honestly, I have a day job that funds this job. It’s just the way it is. But some on the right, and I don’t know if I am or will end up being one of them, deserve for their writing to be a full-time gig. They are that good. If you appreciate someone’s hit the tip jar; hit the Paypal; buy from Amazon. Every bit helps.

If you don’t think an individual contribution makes a difference, remember this: the guy driving slowly in the passing lane affects the lives of many for many a mile. One person actions can influence the lives of many.

Posted in Entertain Me, Nerd Stuff, Political Animals | 1 Comment »