MT-Blacklist Bug Alert

Thought I'd help spread the word about this...if you are running a 2.0x version of MT-Blacklist, don't delete any weblogs!

Very Light Blogging Ahead

For a number of reasons, I won't have time to blog or comment much for the time being. I will post something when I can, or if I feel particularly inspired. Otherwise, I have been (and will continue to be) too busy and/or tired to post as often as I used to. Not to mention that I'm really behind on my blog reading, so I don't even know what's going on for the most part.

So, bear with me. I'm not quitting and I'm not even on hiatus. I've just slowed things down a bit.

Opacity Effects and CSS Standards

In the newest skin, I get the opacity effect in the content and sidebar areas by using a PNG file with alpha transparency for the background image. Alpha transparency simply means that the file has areas that are partially transparent. Only PNG files support this kind of transparency. (GIF files can have areas that are completely transparent, but not partially transparent.) Unfortunately, Internet Explorer does not support PNG files with alpha transparency, so the skin will look a little different in IE.

Actually, this now applies not only to the latest skin but also to two other skins that use the opacity effect ("Strawberry Letter 2003" and "Lost My Marbles"). I used to use non-standard CSS hacks to get this effect in these skins, but I have changed them so that they use PNG files instead.

Why did change these skins to use PNG files instead of using the hacks to get the same opacity effect? Because I wanted all the stylesheets to validate.

When I used IE as my primary browser, I would go by how IE rendered things when creating layouts. Then, I would get upset if I had to change things to accommodate other browsers. Now, I realize the problem was with IE and not all the other browsers. I also now understand why standards are important. Proper support for standards is yet another reason to switch to browsers like Firefox or Opera. If Microsoft wants Internet Explorer to be competitive, they need to add PNG alpha transparency support and better CSS standards support to future versions of their browser.

New Christmas Skin

I have created a new Christmas skin for this year and it will be the default skin for this site until after Christmas. It is in the drop-down list on the sidebar as "Christmas 2004". I will add it to the gallery shortly. This new skin uses an opacity effect in the content and sidebar areas, but this effect does not work in Internet Explorer. I'll explain why in the next post (since not everyone may be interested in all the technical stuff).

Make mine with cornbread, please!

You Are the Stuffing

You're complicated and complex, yet all your pieces fit together. People miss you if you're gone - but they're not sure why.

Via Jen Speaks.

Better stuff than you'll find here...

Just read these:

• Josh at ITA reminds me about this tribute on Thinklings to a "Jack" who died on this day in 1963. No, not JFK...C.S. Lewis.
• Steve H. at Hog on Ice has a great post that sums up my own thoughts on the Marine shooting in Fallujah and supporting the troops.
• Protein Wisdom on momentum. (I could refer to this as either "Why the Democrats Lost - Part 4" or "Why the Republicans Won - Part 1".)
• La Shawn Barber posts about some action that the Republican Congress is taking to make sure that health care providers are not forced to go against their beliefs and provide abortions.

Update: The Thinklings have an updated version of the Lewis post for this year, so I changed the link to go to the new post.

Ban This Spammer IP!

That IP would be 67.173.130.77. MT-Blacklist has been blocking numerous attempts from this IP for the past couple of days. However, a few spam comments from this same IP were able to sneak through this morning. All comments are emailed to me, and MT-Blacklist provides a handy link you can click in the email messages that will remove the spam, add the URL to the blacklist and report the URL to the MT-Blacklist Clearinghouse. Since the above IP has made so many attempts with so many different URLs, I decided to ban it altogether.

It seems like everybody is getting hit especially hard by comment spam lately. MT-Blacklist v2.01b* is doing a great job keeping it off my site, and what little bit that gets through is easily removed. Another thing that helps is that once a week, I close off comments on posts older than three-weeks old.

*This version is only compatible with MT 3.1 and up. It automatically updates and is integrated into the main MT interface.

Where is my mind?

I had a couple of posts I wanted to write this week (on the death penalty and on the concept of Purgatory - incendiary stuff to be sure) but I just don't have the mental energy to give them the treatment they deserve. I've been especially busy at work this week (and will continue to be for some time), so by the evening, my left brain just doesn't want to work anymore.

So, instead, I think I'll engage my right brain by working on a new Christmas skin for the site, among other things.

New Group Blog

Before I get too busy, I want to mention something...

The bad news: Joshua Claybourn will be closing his blog.

The good news: He is now part of the new group blog In the Agora. Check it out!

On the Morality of Contraception

A few days ago, Dawn Eden announced that she has come to the conclusion that all contraception is wrong. In a later post, she elaborated on why she has come to this conclusion.

I've pondered this subject on this blog a couple of times. While I'm still on the fence on this issue, I think Dawn's post has pushed me a little farther to the anti-contraception side.

It seems to me that more and more Protestants are returning to the belief that contraception is wrong. I say returning because opposition to birth control didn't used to be just a "Catholic thing". From what I understand, all Protestant churches were opposed to contraception until the latter half of the 20th century.

Why did the Protestant churches abandon their opposition? I really don't know, unless it was to adapt to changing mores (instead of standing fast against them).

I think a lot of what is motivating the growing anti-contraception beliefs among Protestants is the fact that many birth control methods (like the Pill) can act as an abortifacient. But the reasons Dawn gives for believing contraception is wrong are more far-reaching than that. So are Catholic teachings (as I understand them, not being Catholic) on this subject.

Maybe someday I'll get off the fence when it comes to the morality of contraception. I guess, for me, the barrier is this: I have a hard time criticizing loving, married couples because they use non-abortifacient birth control.

I'm sure this post reflects every bit of the ambivalence I have when it comes to this subject.

A Study in Contrasts

Contrast this following photo from this sorry website:

Click for larger size.

With this one of blogger Risawn from this not-sorry website:

Click for larger size.

Quite a difference, isn't it?

Since I've been out...

I didn't intend to go on hiatus for almost a week...it kind of just happened. So here are a few quick comments on the news of the week.

• Yasser Arafat, the world's oldest terrorist, finally died. Good. His high-living widow will get $22 million a year of his ill-gotten gains from the Palestinian Authority while the Palestinian people continue to live in squalor. Not good. (Oh, and don't miss the first link and its comments in that Power Line post. It's very entertaining. I'll sum it up this way: Why the Democrats Lost - Part 3.)
• Scott Peterson was found guilty of murdering his wife and unborn son. Good. He could get the death penalty, but I doubt that he will since, unfortunately, California rarely (if ever) uses their death penalty. (I may post further about what I think of the death penalty later. I'm sure you have already guessed that I'm for it in certain situations.)
• Fallujah is taken. Good.
• Ashcroft has resigned. Do you remember when he had some nude statues covered up? Well, actually, it never happened.

Site Downtime and Rethinking the Blogroll

The past couple of months, my host has been moving the mySQL databases on their servers to dedicated mySQL servers. Tomorrow evening, my database will be moved. I'm glad about this because I have noticed that MT has been getting slower and slower lately when I do anything that accesses the database. The move will probably cause some downtime. After the move, I will have to make a change to the MT configuration file to get things working again. So if you try to access the site tomorrow evening and have problems, that's why.

Also, I'm thinking about rearranging my blogroll. Here's my problem...I'm tired of trying to keep up the reciprocal roll. I have felt this way for some time now.

Don't get me wrong -- I really appreciate it when people blogroll me, which is why I started a reciprocal roll in the first place. But it has gotten very long and difficult to keep up-to-date. Plus, I feel obligated to read every blog I blogroll and I just can't -- I don't have enough time.

So, I will move the reciprocal roll off the main page to another page and I will stop adding any additional blogs to that roll. I will probably have just one main blogroll. Some of the reciprocal links will be added to that roll (these will most likely be the ones I was linking to anyway before they linked back to me). I will probably get rid of some of the links on the main roll.

A few of the reciprocal links are for those who wrote me and asked to exchange links. Since I will no longer be updating the reciprocal roll, I will no longer exchange links with those who email asking me to do so.

I'm sorry about all this...I hope nobody takes this personally or gets their feelings hurt. If you choose to delink me because of this change, I will understand. I'm just trying to get my links (and reading list) back to a manageable level again.

I'm kind of proud of this...

Some time ago, I decided to block search engines from spidering my archives because I was getting too many pr0n searchers and I was getting tired of seeing their disgusting referrals in my Sitemeter logs. However, the search bots can still access my main page.

So, imagine how amused I was when I saw this search in my referrals a few days ago. Because of this post in which I mentioned that Maureen Dowd is a shallow hack, my site is fifth in the current Google results (I think it was second a few days ago). But look at what's number one -- the American Spectator article I linked to with that post.

Well, the post of mine that accomplished this has now scrolled off my main page. However, I want the world to know that Maureen Dowd is a shallow hack. So pardon me while I give the shallow hack Maureen Dowd exactly what she deserves.

You know, this is almost enough to make me consider allowing the search engines to spider my archives again.

One last thing...did I mention that Maureen Dowd is a shallow hack?

Why the Democrats Lost - Part 2

Someone calling herself "A Very Sad American" has an open letter to the Democrats: How You Could Have Had My Vote:

Lastly, and I hope this doesn't hurt anyone feelings, because my objective is to make you think, not emote: I don't think you really want my vote. I actively sought out your perspective. I tuned in regularly, for months, to your biggest media project, your serious effort to get your message out: Air America Radio. I listened all day on Good Friday as host after host mocked people like me for believing in Jesus's life, death, and resurrection. I listened as Janeane Garofalo, who was one of my favorite comedians for years, expressed hatred and disgust for Bush voters so vile that I ended my live stream feeling assaulted, as if I'd been vomited on. I listened the night that Mike Malloy told a young Republican to hang up the phone and go open a vein. I listened to pure, unadulterated venom that was so intense I sometimes cut the stream and cried. Tonight, your spokespeople on AAR have been calling people like me "snake-handling evangelicals," and that was about the kindest thing I heard. Um…y'all? I've lived in the South my entire life and have never met a single snake-handler.

Neither have I. So, here is a voter who is perhaps a bit left of center and who describes herself as "not extremely religious". However, the Democrats managed to alienate her so much that she reluctantly voted for Bush. As always, RTWT. (Link via Twisted Spinster.)

Incidentally, the part I've excerpted makes note of the open hostility that many on the left have towards people of faith. Now, I realize that there are orthodox, serious Christians who are not at all politically conservative. I'm curious as to how left-leaning Christians feel about their political allies having such disdain for their deeply held beliefs.

Then, there's the Michael Moore factor. I remember Hugh Hewitt predicting that Moore would be to the Dems this year what Pat Buchanan was to the GOP in 1992. It looks like Jeff Jarvis, who supported Kerry, would agree with that. (Via Joe Gandelman posting at Dean's World.)

Why the Democrats Lost - Part 1

Discoshaman has a great movie montage of pictures and quotes from left-wing kooks (also known as "moonbats"). The Democrats should take a hard look at some of the people supporting them. I don't see much hope of that happening as long as they keep calling Bush voters stupid and using the mentally handicapped to bash the President and his supporters.

(Thanks TulipGirl for the tip!)

Also overlooked...

Dutch documentary filmmaker Theo van Gogh was assassinated on Tuesday by a radical Muslim. He had made a controversial film about the treatment of women in Islamic cultures. Here's more from Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. Check out both Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch for updates on this story.

Something that got overlooked in all the election talk...

Some good news in the Terri Schiavo case. (Via Mark Shea.)

Another bad movie tie-in...

...to the election aftermath. This time inspired by Plan 9 from Outer Space:

"You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!"

Let me warn you, the linked article is just dripping with smug. Here's just a sample:

I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not. (Well, almost 58 million—my relatives are not ignorant, they are just greedy and full of classic Republican feelings of superiority.)

I'm sure your family loves you too, dear. And even though you're not a Republican, you've obviously taken after your relatives in some respects -- you've got that "feelings of superiority" thing down pat.

Unteachable ignorance? How about unteachable arrogance? You're soaking in it, Ms. Smiley.

Via Mark Shea, who also absolutely nails it with this post about intellectual pride.

Seeing Red

Check out this county-level electorial map.

The Incredibly Strange Liberals Who Stopped Thinking and Became Mixed-Up Moonbats*

While Senator Kerry is being a gracious loser, the same cannot be said of some of his supporters. Various bloggers, like Discoshaman, have ventured into the lefty pestholes of the web and found all kinds of craziness from disappointed Kerry supporters. (Well, I don't think a lot of these people really supported Kerry...they just voted for him because they hate Bush.) LGF also has a running thread of "moonbat quotes".

Many of these folks have expressed a desire to move to Canada. That's fine with me...as saying goes, "don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya". However, they should keep in mind that they're in for a long wait.

Finally, via MCJ, we find out what's next for George Soros:

When asked what he planned to do if Kerry lost the election, Soros said that he plans to enter a monastery for a time because he will need to contemplate what is wrong with the people of this country.

Way to be humble there, George.

*What can I say? I watched the MST3K version of this movie recently and I thought the title was fitting.

Update: More lefty nuttiness abounds: here, here, here (Warning: bad language) and here. (Third link via this post on Dean's World.)

Update 2: November 3, 2004 worse than Septemper 11, 2001? Good Lord! This is not even funny anymore...

The Bush Victory

I don't have much time right now to post, but I wanted to say a few things about the reelection of President Bush.

When I quickly read some blogs during lunch, I noticed that many were saying that concern about social issues played as big of a role in Bush's win as defense issues. I supported Bush primarily because of both issues. I also wanted to mention that my Mom, who had never voted before, registered this year so that she could vote for Bush (via absentee ballot). Again, the reasons she supported Bush were social and defense issues. I'm very proud of my Mom and I would be proud of her no matter who she voted for.

And I want to say that I'm very impressed with the way Senator Kerry has handled this. Unlike Gore, he has accepted his defeat with dignity. I don't think he'll end up embittered and angry like Gore.

I Voted

I've done my part...the rest is in God's hands.

The turnout was heavy at my precinct but the process was quick and orderly. Check out this post of mine from two years ago to see how the process works in Escambia County, Florida.

Update: Florida goes to Bush...and I haylped!

Election Eve

I could write a long-winded post about tomorrow's election, but I don't think it's necessary and I don't have the mental energy for it this evening. I don't have any predictions, except that whoever wins, it will be close. And if Bush wins, we will be subjected to four more years of "Bush stole the election" crapola from the moonbat left. I don't know if I'll even watch the returns. After I vote tomorrow, I may just block the whole thing out until Wednesday morning. I hope and pray this won't be like 2000.

Anyway, here's just a few links to give you something to think about:

• Mark Byron lists some good reasons not to cast a right-wing protest vote.
• Peppermint Patty links to American Digest's 50 reasons for choosing Bush. Patty also has some advice for the disgruntled.
• Mean Dean at blogs4God gets controversial and explains why all Christians should vote for Bush.
• Dawn Eden reminds us who Planned Parenthood is supporting.
• LGF links to the full Bin Laden tape transcript wherein OBL "threatens attacks unless the US elects John Kerry, explicitly saying that US states voting against Bush will be protected."
• Kathy Shaidle, a Canadian, offers Americans this advice: "Vote Bush, guys. 'Cause everyone who hates your country wants you to vote for Kerry."
• La Shawn Barber has a great reminder for all of us, no matter what happens tomorrow.