All Things Must Come to an End

This blog has been on indefinite hiatus for about six months now. I think I will make it official and close LilacRose because I think it has run its course.

However, I am not going away...no you're stuck with me. You can find me on Twitter as LilacSusan. Some days I "tweet" a lot, other days I'm quiet. But that's where you will find me.

I'm not going to rule out starting another blog in the future. If I do, I may call it something else or I may just call it LilacRose 2.0. If I do blog again, I will probably do a fresh design or an update of a previous design. And I think I will use another platform. Movable Type seems too cumbersome anymore. It may be just this blog because it has many years of entries. But posting to and maintaining this blog has become too sluggish and a pain in the butt.

I will leave the archives up indefinitely and I may even open them up to search engines again. The comments are closed, so I don't have to worry about trolls and spammers anymore. If I start another blog, I'll post a link here, of course. Until then, you can find me on Twitter or in the comments on other blogs. I also have a neglected Live 365 station you can listen to and a neglected Tumblr as well. You can find the links on the sidebar.

In addition to Twitter, I will be lurking around The People's Cube. Unfortunately, it's banned at work, but I do like to lurk around there when home. It's a perfect satire site for Obama's America. Also, I would like to add that Little Green Footballs sucks. Any site that bans a long-time, mostly lurking member simply because she down-dings a post is a petty little cult.

That is all for now. I'll see you when I see you...

Rave On!

I have to post about this because it is so awesome. But yet not totally unexpected...

Via this post by Dawn Eden, I found out that the Raving Atheist has been reborn as the Raving Theist. Like I said, call it intuition, but I somehow knew this would happen eventually. This news has made me feel joyful all day, even though things are difficult for me right now.

Of course, his atheist readers are reacting with ridicule, outrage and incredulity. Jesus Himself has the appropriate response to that (Matthew 5:10-12):

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

Canada: No Free Speech Zone

I am a regular reader of Kathy Shaidle's Five Feet of Fury. Many times I agree with her, sometimes I don't, but she is always compelling. She has a wonderful way of packing a lot of meaning into few words. I've always admired people who can do that...it's a talent I wish I had.

Kathy and numerous other prominent conservative Canadian bloggers are being sued by one Richard Warman, a man who -- on a habitual basis -- actually sues people for offending his delicate sensibilities and wins. No he is not laughed out of court, he wins. Another one of the defendants, Ezra Levant, explains the lawsuit and Warman's background. Warman is a former employee of the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which is some sort of Orwellian star chamber used to regulate and punish people for saying the "wrong" things and having the "wrong" opinions. Like so many things in government, it started out as something to help protect the rights of the weak, but is now being used by those with a sense of entitlement to bully others.

Kathy and her fellow Canadian bloggers will need help fighting this lawsuit:

We can only fight this man's attempt to silence conservative opinion if we have international support: both moral and financial.

This lawsuit will cost me at least $30,000 to fight.

And fight it I will.

Richard Warman's friends at the Canadian Human Rights Commission say "freedom of speech is an American concept" they refuse to recognize.

Well, some Canadians DO believe in freedom of speech.

Please help Kathy if you are able. If the Canadian bloggers who are being sued win this lawsuit, it will be a tremendous step forward towards true free speech in Canada. If Warman wins, the enemies of free speech will become further entrenched.

Lutheran Carnival at Barb's

The evil genius herself is hosting a Thanksgiving-themed 63rd edition of the Lutheran Carnival. Go there and enjoy the best of Lutheran blogdom!

Stream of Conscious Blogging

I've been playing around with something that I'm ready to unveil. I created a tumblelog called Peace, Love, Flowers, Bullets.

I signed up at Tumblr some time ago, but didn't really do anything with it until recently. If I find a good quote, a funny or interesting video/photo or a good link and don't want to comment on it much, if at all, I will just post it there. I will also post brief intemperate outbursts there that I probably would not post here.

There aren't many themes available for tumblelogs right now, but I like the one I'm using currently. I would like to make one of my own eventually when I get a real computer again. As for the name...I always thought that would be a good name for a band or something and I've had it in my head for years. So, I decided to give my tumblelog that name and I bought the domain.

I'm still just experimenting with it right now. If I like it, I'll keep it and maybe put an RSS feed from it on the sidebar here as an additional mini-blog.

Lutheran Carnival!

This week, my good friend Barb is hosting the 53rd edition of the Lutheran Carnival. Go over there and take a look...lots of yummy Lutheran goodness!

Some people need offending...

You know, I've gone through a lot of my life being nice, being polite, keeping my mouth shut when someone says something that makes me want to slap the taste out of their mouth. When I re-embraced Christianity and became Lutheran in the early 1990s, I made even more of an effort to be this way. (Although, if you do some reading on Luther, you find out he was hardly a man to mince words.) I spent many years on various Internet mailing lists being the nice, helpful one who never had a bad word for anybody. Even when people said stupid, nasty and ignorant things, I said nothing. And in many cases, I should have said something.

I have since tried to leave the repression of my true feelings behind...especially since starting this blog. (One thing I don't do is use swear words, even though sometimes I'm angry enough to do so. I would like to retain some boundaries, after all.) I have "spiked" certain angry blog posts for various reasons. Some such reasons included not feeling like I was emotionally up to starting a blog-fight with someone or realizing I overreacted to a situation.

Anyway, I vented about something on another blog yesterday and called yet another blogger a name. I notice this morning that this blogger was offended at some of the responses he got, including mine. But guess what?

I am not sorry! I said it and I meant it! And although he implies my response was mindless, I assure him it was not. I've run across his type online before and I can't express how much I despise them. Yes, I called him a name and I'm glad.

I once spiked a major angry post about a liberal Lutheran who used to blog. (I don't know if she still does, nor do I care.) Her post was about how horrible and evil America was and how she wished she lived in Canada. My blog post, to sum up, basically said, "Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya, b***h!" But I decided to not post my angry rant because I didn't feel up to a blog-fight. However, it was cathartic just to write the post. Still, it would have been nice if I could have told this woman off.

So that's why I refuse to be sorry for being "mean" to certain people. I may have to take crap from people in real life, but not here. And if somebody is offended, tough!

Misbehavin'

Notable new blog: The House of Apostasy. It is a blog by ex-Muslims. Their tagline is: "We Aim to Misbehave." From their About page:

Ex-Muslims have a bad rep. In Muslim circles, those ad hominems fly thick and fast when even mere mention is made of their existence. For example, there are numerous "progressive" Muslim blogs that, while having achieved much respect across the blogosphere, happily take up this more regressive attitude when discussing former Muslims. Alas, many conspiratorial Muslims generally demonise their "fallen" brothers and sisters both in public and in private, as if they were secret agents constantly scheming and plotting away, with each and every one briefed and sent by the devil himself.

But ex-Muslims are people. And most of them are very good, caring people. Many of them have families and friends who remain Muslims, but, of course, still care just as much about them, if not more. And one big reason for ex-Muslims' even deeper empathy with their Muslim families and friends is their worry about what manner of dark alleys the faith will lead them to. Many things can be said about ex-Muslims but at the end of the day, while they may have enduring disputes with central aspects of Islam itself, they are as pro-Muslim as one can get.

Emphasis mine.

This is quite true. When a piece written by one of the contributors to this blog was brought up in a thread at a certain site where a certain Muslim continues to abuse other commenters with impunity, she (this certain ill-mannered, grammatically-challenged Muslim) dismissed the author as, "another apostate flogging a book*".

*As an aside, why is it whenever someone writes a book about their negative experiences with something (like Islam, or in Dawn Eden's case, promiscuity/pre-marital sex), people who disagree think they are somehow discrediting the author by saying, "Oh, you're just trying to make a buck off your book"? As if there is something wrong with wanting to actually sell books! Why shouldn't an author make money from selling their books? It smacks of jealousy that someone would hold that against them.

A Message for Matoko and Dean Esmay

As you may or may not know, all hell has broken loose over at Dean's World. I knew this was going to happen eventually. Dean has laid down the law on acceptable ways for Islam to be discussed. I have no problem with this. It is his blog. I started staying away from the Islam threads a long time ago and I don't participate as much there as I used to anyway.

Then I read some of the comments in this thread and let myself do something I should not do...comment when I'm angry.

Dean accuses me of "playing the martyr" for observing a double standard. Then Matoko chimes in in her rather...unique style:

So matoko-chan can say Christianity is a false religion

never said that, liar
all religions are CSSs [cuturally stable strategies]
christianity is a perfectly valid religion IMH0

Well, you know, I don't take too kindly to being called a liar because I'm not as relativistic about things as she is. So I responded with my final comment ever at Dean's World.

And Matoko called me a liar again, as I knew she would. She must always get the last word and arrogance is as natural to her as breathing.

Well, here, this is my world and I get the last word.

To Matoko:

It all boils down to what Pilate said: "What is truth?"

If one believes the tenets of Christianity are true, one cannot also believe the tenants of Islam are true. They directly contradict each other. This is not emotion...it is logic.

I'm sorry, but relativistic BS like saying that Christianity is a "valid" religion because it is a "culturally stable strategy" is not the same as saying it is true.

I believe in the Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed. As a Muslim, you do not.

You believe Mohammad was a prophet of God and you believe the Quran is the final revelation from God. As a Christian, I do not.

You can't say both are true.

You can scream "LIAR" at me all day long, but the only one lying is you...you are lying to yourself.

BTW, when are you going to scream "LIAR" at Dean? Because in this thread he made the same point I did in reference to your statements: "Then later on, a Muslim declares Christianity false."

Dean takes a few shots sort of directed at me and I would like to respond.

• I am not an "Evangelical" in the sense I think you mean it. I'm a Confessional Lutheran. I don't believe in the "Left Behind" version of the second coming nor do I have literalist take on the creation account in Genesis. Just so you know.
• I explicitly said I accept it if a Muslim or anyone else thinks Christianity is false. They have free will and that is their choice. There was no "playing the martyr" in that instance. All I asked is that they not be a jerk about it.
• I am not playing the martyr in any manner that I can see. I just know when I'm not welcome.
• Your friend has repeatedly called me a liar for saying the same thing you said. Do you think that's fair?

Finally, I have no animosity towards Dean and I think he's a good guy who I really disagree with on some things. I'm just very disappointed in how all this has turned out. Instead of saying anything, I should have quietly turned my back and left without saying a word.

I have left the comments open, but let me warn anyone who may want to comment here, I will not tolerate any name-calling directed towards myself or my friends who also comment here. Your arrogant little games will not be allowed here. After all, this is my world.

A little side blogging...

Although I'm not blogging much right now, I am still adding things to my Furl archive. Sometimes I will add a comment or include a clipping from the item. I think of it as sort of a side blog. The last 10 public items added can be seen on the sidebar. After the jump, I will show the last 15 public items along with any comments or clippings. My comments are in bold. I would particularly like to point out the item that's currently fourth seventh in my archive from the American Daughter Media Center (which was found via the 910 Group blog, which is highly recommended for those who are interested in reality). This is very important stuff.

Just so you know I'm not completely disengaged from everything...

The Evil Genius Meets Dawn Eden

One of my best blogfriends, Barb the Evil Genius (who really isn't evil at all), got to meet Dawn Eden when Dawn visited Cleveland to give a talk about her new book. She also got meet Saint Kansas, another Cleveland-area blogger and Dawn Patrol regular.

Thank you to Barb for the shout-out! I hope that someday I can meet Barb, Dawn and Saint Kansas in person as well. :-)

The Breath of the Beast

Until I'm ready to start posting again (and I am still working on that long post I mentioned about a month ago), here's a new blog you might find interesting: Breath of the Beast. I would suggest starting with the blog's opening post and going forward. Fortunately, I have never encountered the beast this blog speaks of first hand. However, I did watch with horror what it could do on 9/11/2001.

Random Ill-Tempered Thoughts on Feminists and Masculinists

After stumbling across a couple of internet pestholes last night, I've come to the conclusion that I really, really loathe both feminists and masculinists (which is just a fancy word for "misogynist"). A pox on both of them...they are the flip sides of the same sorry coin.

You have the smug, snide, sneering bitchy feminists that are oh-so-ready and willing to tear down and ridicule women who dare oppose their ideology. If you oppose abortion, take your religious beliefs seriously, are modest or practice chastity, they will rake you over the hot coals of their burning hatred. Unlike many non-feminists, I'm not a turn-the-other-cheek kind of person. So, if any feminist bloggers ever try and link me in order to ridicule me, I will make sure they get a very nasty surprise.

Then on the other side of the coin are the hardcore masculinists...the true misogynists. Last night, I ran across a blog by a guy that makes Tucker Max look like Gloria Steinem. This blogger is not only anti-feminist (which would be understandable) but he just plain hates all women. According to this blogger, all women -- without exception -- are stupid greedy whores. They can't use computers and live for getting attention from men (which is why they are all whores, even if they're married). (Those last two accusations really make me laugh, since I'm an IT professional and, being introverted and modest, go out of my way not to draw attention to myself.) I wonder, does he hold these hateful opinions about his mother? His grandmother? Mother Teresa? Women like these? Or these? I would like to think the site in question (which I will not link) is an outrageous parody done by a radical feminist, but I have a sick feeling this guy is serious. Since he thinks women are such horrid, subhuman, worthless creatures, I hope that he's gay so that he can at least find some happiness. Oh, and if anyone like this ever tries to link me, he too will get a nasty surprise.

Anyway, I just had to get this off my chest. The human race just disgusts me sometimes.

Annoying, Vapid Bimbo Gets Her Clock Cleaned

Beth - 1, Tacky Jackie - 0.

Update: More fun facts about JMPP here and here in the comments on Mark Shea's blog. The former comment was posted to the wrong post. (Via Relapsed Catholic.)

2,996 -- The 9/11 Tribute Project

At this writing (8/21/06 at 10:40am), 71% (2,134 out of 2,996) of the 9/11 victims now have a blog to do a tribute to them on 9/11/06. You can find out more about the 2,996 Project here. To participate, all you have to do is sign up and you are assigned the name of a 9/11 victim. You are also provided with some basic information about the person and links to more information. The goal is to simply post a little about that person. It doesn't have to be long or fancy...just something to show that this was a real person who deserves to be remembered and honored. When doing the tribute, do not mention this person's murderers and do not get on a political soapbox. That's not what this is about and you can do that any other time. The post should simply be a tribute to the special and unique life lost on that awful day.

To participate, you can sign up here. The goal is to make sure each 9/11 victim will have a blog tribute on the 5th anniversary of 9/11.

I'm still on hiatus, but if I make any other posts, they will remain below this post until the goal is reached.

Update (8/22/06 - 12:25pm): They are now up to 74% (2,227 out of 2,996).

Update (8/23/06 - 12:15pm): Now it's up to 77% (2,295 out of 2,996).

Update (8/24/06 - 12:20pm): There's been a huge jump since yesterday caused by a link from Michelle Malkin. The project now stands at 88% (2,626 out of 2,996).

Update (8/25/06 - 9:05pm): It now stands at 94% (2,810 out of 2,996).

Update (8/26/06 - 7:10pm): Now at 95% (2,857 out of 2,996).

Update (8/27/06 - 4:10pm): Now at 97% (2,912 out of 2,996). They are getting very close now!

Update (8/28/06 - 10:30am): Now at 99% with just 43 names to go. If you want to participate in this tribute, you had better hurry!

Update (8/29/06): All 2,996 9/11 victims will now at least have one tribute by a blogger on 9/11/06. They are still taking signups so that a second blogger can post a tribute for someone. I think this is a great idea!

Some Suggested Reading

Even though my blog is on hiatus, I'm not completely disengaged from blogdom. When I find interesting things on the few blogs I visit regularly right now, I find myself adding them to my Furl archive. The latest additions are displayed on the sidebar, of course, but I just thought I would draw your attention to my archive because I've added a lot of stuff lately. I also sometimes excerpt part of the article in the clippings section or post my own thoughts in the comments. So, take a look...there's some good stuff there.

Anti-Kook Link of the Day

I've been really busy lately, so I'll just post a really quick link to an anti-9/11-conspiracy site: Screw Loose Change Video. I found the link via Dean's World. I haven't had a chance to view the video yet, but I look forward to doing so when I get some time. I'm just happy to see that there are people out there slapping down this idiocy. The people who are pushing this garbage are probably more venal than stupid. They probably know this crap is, well...crap. They're just trying to make money, get attention or score points against their political enemies. The true believers are just useful idiots, suckers and kooks.

Update: BTW, there is a Screw Loose Change blog as well. Don't miss this satirical poster, which nails these moronic scumbags to the wall.

On Various Items in the News

• In case you are wondering what I think of the war between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and those who would condemn Israel for defending itself, Darleen Click has it covered in this post.
• On the horrible terrorist shootings in Seattle, this post by Steve H. is a must-read. He may remove the post, so catch it while you can.
• Finally, on the sad and very disappointing incident involving a drunken Mel Gibson making vile anti-Semitic remarks, I concur with Jonah Goldberg (via Kathy Shaidle).

  In addition, I would like to add that I have had the misfortune of having to deal with very mean, very angry drunks. Sometimes what the say reveals what they really think, but other times they are just trying to find the most hurtful thing they can think of to say. I've never been drunk, but I myself have been so angry that I've said completely horrible things to someone I'm angry with just to hurt them as much as possible. I'm not proud of this and I'm not saying that's necessarily what's going on with Gibson. I'm just saying that sometimes people don't mean what they say when they are very angry.

  I would say that two demons have come back to haunt Gibson -- alcoholism and anti-Semitism, which probably comes from his father's influence. I think the best thing to do for Gibson is to pray for him so that he can overcome both demons.

Disinformation

The Anchoress links to this very interesting post at Classical Values that picks apart what looks like a deliberate attempt to spread malicious lies and disinformation. Classical Values has more here, here, here and here.

An interesting aside...I used to post at various conservative forums a long time ago (long before this blog) along with some other conservative Internet friends. One of them I was registered at was Capitol Hill Blue Reader Rant. I remember a few years ago, there was a massive exodus of members from the CHB forum because of the increasing anti-Bush sentiments and general kookery that became prominent at the site. Those members founded the Annoyed Army forum, of which I'm a member. (Although I don't stop by as often as I should.)

More about those fake blogs...

If you'll remember, I brought up my problems with this kind of spam a while back. I didn't realize this, but there is actually a name for these "blogs": splogs. There are also websites where you can report these splogs, like the site I just linked and this site: Splog Reporter.

Thanks to Beth for pointing these sites out to me.

Blog Collage

I think this is a neat idea: Blogs with a Face. It's basically a collage with 50x50 squares that represent each blogger. I'm on there. You can find my lilac rose picture on row 7, column 6.

Correction: Yikes! It's only on row 7, column 6 if you're using whatever weird resolution it is I'm using on my main PC's LCD flat screen monitor. On the standard 1024x768 resolution, I'm on row 9, column 14. Sorry if I confused anyone!

Things get to me sometimes...

...and I keep it in. Usually to be polite and sometimes because I don't have time to post about it. But sometimes another blogger will write a post that will cause me to "let it all out" in their comments. Rather than repeat myself here, I'll just link to the posts and comments I'm talking about.

• Mark Shea posts about petulant, self-defeating religious conservatives. Of course he agrees with them. Being the pragmatist I am, I don't.
• Andrea Harris posts about bloggers (some of whom I happen to like, BTW) who let their jerk-flags fly. I rant in agreement with Andrea.

I feel a lot better now...

Update: Eh...for the sake of convenience...or something, I'll go ahead and duplicate the above linked comments in the extended entry.

My comment to Mark Shea:

I understand the frustration that religious conservatives have -- after all, I'm one too. However, as another blogger stated, the President is the President of the whole country, not just the base and -- I would add -- not just religious conservatives.

Since I'm also a realist, I hardly see how pitching a petulant fit and sitting out the elections to "teach the GOP a lesson" will accomplish anything positive for our side. It's been tried before and it gave us eight years of Clinton.

All I can say is, don't come crying to me when sitting out the elections gives us a Democrat controlled Congress. While the Republicans may not cater to our every whim, at least they won't do worse.

It helps if you think of Republicans as cobelligerents rather than allies.

My comment to Andrea Harris:

Yeah, I kind of have a hard time getting upset about the “pre-pregnant” stuff when there are things like this going on. I mean, really, priorities people.

And yes, the allergies/asthma is a “character flaw” stuff disgusts me as well. Gosh, do they think people want to go into anaphylactic shock and perhaps die after ingesting certain substances? I sure do wish I could take penicillin or NSAIDs without having frightening allergic reactions — it would make life a lot easier — but I can’t. My mother had asthma as a child but it went away when she got older. Did she have some character flaw as a child that she doesn’t have now?

Also, I had to shake my head at the commenter in one of those threads that said this: “I think that an allegic reaction can be much worse for the people seeing it than the people having it.” Uh, no it isn’t, dude. It’s pretty damn scary to be the person having an allergic reaction. Trust me on this.

Sorry for ranting, but this stuff has been getting to me, too.

Miscellaneous Stuff Worth Reading

I've been too distracted to blog lately, but I've done some reading. Here are some things that I would like to discuss, but I either don't have the time or I can't muster the attention span to do so.

• First of all, you can check my Furl archives for items that have caught my attention. I'm going to try to get around to adding a Furl feed to my sidebar.
• Regarding the Mary McCarthy leak scandal, here is a primer on the whole story. I agree with Dean Esmay -- I think she is a traitor who has put politics over national security. (If she disagreed with the policy, there are plenty of legitimate ways she could have protested it.) Unfortunately, there are those who should know better who are rationalizing this act of treason.
• There's a lot of BS floating around about the Duke rape case. Steve H. at Hog on Ice cuts through it all.
• Dawn Eden has completed her conversion to Catholicism. Of course, during Holy Week and in the wake of her conversion, the feminists came after her with a vengeance. Ah, sisterhood...
• There is a new case in Texas similar to the Terri Schiavo case. However, there are two important differences: Andrea Clarke is not in a coma and she has made it clear that she wants to live. I knew things like this would start happening. Those who have spoken out against the Culture of Death are proven right again. But remember, we're the fanatics... /sarcasm

That's all for now. I'll try to check in again later.

Addressing Recent Topics

Just doing some catching up here:

• Thank God Abdul Rahman is finally safe and out of the clutches of the Muslims. May God keep him and other Christian converts from the "peaceful" religion of Islam safe.
• Regarding the Christian "Peacemakers" -- what Jeff said. Also, via the Anchoress, Dr. Sanity has a good analysis of the psychology behind ingratitude. I have noticed this about many people -- the more you help them, the more they hate and resent you. But yet they continue to expect your help, as if they're entitled to it.

  While on the subject of Christianity and peacemaking, I would say this saint did a lot more for the cause than these CPT guys. (Via Relapsed Catholic.)

• A word about the Ben Domenech plagiarism scandal...I'll repeat here what I've said elsewhere:

  I was very shocked and dismayed to find this out about Ben Domenech. He is one of the last people I would have expected something like this from -- he seemed like a smart guy with a lot of integrity. When he used to blog, I used to stop by pretty regularly and I had him on my blogroll. I linked to his posts quite a few times. Now I wonder if he really wrote the stuff I linked. Plagiarism is not only wrong, but it is really, really stupid in the Internet age. It’s so easy to get caught. The left, being the bloodthirsty morlocks they are, wanted their pound of flesh, and it was handed to them on a silver platter by Domenech himself.

  I also hate the way some of his friends turned on people like Michelle Malkin. Was she supposed to ignore the obvious and stick up for him just because they are on the same side politically? To me, a real friend will encourage him to come clean and make amends, rather than make excuses for him and cover for him. That is enabling, not friendship. I truly hope that Ben Domenech will be able to rehabilitate himself and rebuild his career.

• Ilyka wraps up her series about strawfeminists. I have a couple of things to add. While Ilyka did an excellent job tearing apart the strawfeminist, the fact remains that there is a feminist "orthodoxy". Anything that goes against this orthodoxy is heresy, for which many feminists (but not all) will burn you at the stake (figuratively, of course). For example, I'm pro-life, which is a major offense against feminist orthodoxy. And while I acknowledge that sexism is a problem, and while I believe in women's equality, I don't think there's some "patriarchy" out to get me. I am also a Christian, and I've noticed more than a little bigotry and hatred towards Christians on some feminist sites. (For example, one constantly uses the hate word "godbag" to refer to Christians.) I don't know if I could be considered a feminist or not, but if I am one, I am a heterodox one. The fact is, most feminists would consider me a heretic and an apostate. There is no room for the likes of me in their tent, and you know, I'm perfectly okay with that. I don't go where I'm not wanted.
• The crunchy cons are wrapping things up this week, and I assume the Contra Crunchy Blog will be doing likewise. I recommend giving the Contra Crunchies a read...not just the posts but the comments, too. The posts are funny, but the comments go beyond the humor and get into some good discussions -- better than any found at NRO's crunchy blog. (Here is the latest of those discussions.) Also, a few pro-crunchies showed up and did not acquit themselves very well. This, of course, is nothing new.

Blog Against Strawconservatives

Ilyka Damen* has a series of posts this week called "Blog Against the Strawfeminist". Her point is that we conservatives unfairly lump all feminsts together as a monolith and argue against cliches and stereotypes of what feminists are.

Okay, I'll admit to being guilty of doing that. But while I remove the speck of sawdust from my eye, perhaps certain feminists should remove the planks from their eyes as well. Because I've seen more than a few instances of feminists going ten rounds with strawconservatives, strawprolifers and strawChristians.

Here is an example of a feminist blogger doing just that. (She also seems to have the idea that conservatives don't believe in women's equality.) There are many more examples, of course. So forgive me if I'm a little unsympathetic to feminist complaints about how all we conservatives do is attack strawfeminists.

The argument is that conservatives argue against strawfeminists and don't listen to real feminists, who differ on various issues. Fine. Then perhaps feminists need to listen to real conservatives, real Christians and real pro-lifers as well. And I mean really listen, instead of making knee-jerk assumptions.

*If you go to Ilyka's main page, she has a humorous intro to her series of posts, so don't miss it.

Another Good Link -- Bashing the Crunchies

I'm sure regular readers of this blog know what I think about so-called "Crunchy Conservatism". Most of what I have to say about this I said in this entry and in this comment over at Andrea's place.

NRO's Crunchy Con blog is almost beyond parody, but someone has put up a parody site that is wickedly funny: The Contra-Crunchy Conservative. There are also some good discussions in the comments.

Okay, actually I do have a little more to say about this subject...

Crunchy-cons are the would-be omnipotent moral busybodies C.S. Lewis warned us about. Here's what really chaps my butt: If you don't fret about shopping at regular grocery stores as opposed to organic co-ops, using chainsaws, buying coffee beans, buying chicken, buying things wrapped in plastic, buying things period, etc., you are some shallow, nonspiritual person who is not interested in the Permanent Things, who is materialistic and lives a sterile existence, and who is "not quite human". The whole thing is very off-putting because these people are so pumped up with pride at how much better they are than the rest of us. Here are some words of wisdom for the crunchy-cons, who seem so hung up on measuring their spirituality with material things:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

The thing is, if they stopped buying things, dropped out of the so-called "consumerist" culture and decided to make everything themselves in their little crunchy utopias, they would not even have the computers to update their stupid blog with. What are they going to to? Hand-carve the motherboards, hard drives and keyboards from wood?

Here is what the crunchies need to understand: People are not all the mindless automatons Dreher and company think they are. The rest of us are just trying to get by and do the best we can in life. Not everyone has the time or inclination to sew their own clothes and grow their own food. There is nothing in the world wrong with that. And we don't take to kindly at being judged by the likes of these privileged crunchy-cons.

I mean, these crunchy-cons are obviously financially well off enough and have enough leisure time that they can sit back and pontificate on how awful the rest of us are because we shop at regular grocery stores, rent movies from Netflix and buy clothes rather than sew them ourselves. My response to them: Bite me. It may not be charitable, but they are just as uncharitable, if not more.

The sad thing is, I used to rather like some of these people (such as Dreher and Mathewes-Green). Now I think they are nutty at best or arrogant and conceited at worst.

Update: Kathy Shaidle comments on the crunchy-cons and links to yours truly. (Thanks Kathy!) I have to second her point about hating hippies and ugly hippie culture. Also, she's right about there being beauty in the synthetic. Right now, my wallpaper on my PC is an abstract image that comes from this site: Visual Paradox. The site has some really beautiful 3D art of both abstract objects and natural objects. Other times, I have used photos of flowers and nature scenes for my wallpaper. Both are beautiful to me.

Update 2: To all those coming from Mr. Shea's blog, please see my response. Also, I invite you to take a look around at my site so that you will not take Mr. Shea's assessment of me at face value.

Headache Blogging

I've thought about blogging a couple of things lately, but the very thought of writing much of anything makes my head hurt. I've had a tension headache for the past few days...it's a bit better today, although it feels like it may start up again any minute now. Also, my internet connection has been less-than-reliable lately, which adds to my headaches. I think I will just link a few things I have found interesting:

• I'm sure you have heard about how the Islamists are rampaging through France and other places in Europe right now. Of course, the politically correct media -- if they bother to mention the riots at all -- make sure that they studiously ignore the Muslim angle. Anyway, the Anchoress posts an email from a French woman which gives a whole new perspective on this story.
• While on the subject of the riots in France...Discoshaman (who is finally blogging again) refutes the fuzzy logic of a left-wing blogger.
• This post by Steve H. should be used in every sex education or abstinence education class there is. He also has a great follow-up wherein he says something that I've always been reluctant to say, lest people think I'm anti-man: That men are pro-choice not because they respect women but because it makes being promiscuous easier.
• Sean Gleason has come up with The "Bush Lied" Flow Chart. (Via Dustbury.)

Well, I feel that headache coming on again, so I guess that's enough for now...

New Blog about Writing

Roy Jacobsen of Dispatches from Outland has launched a new blog called Writing, Clear and Simple. Roy discusses the purpose of this blog:

The ability to use words well, to communicate with clarity and force, is rare, but it is a skill that anyone can learn. If you want to develop your ability with words, to learn to use them clearly and concisely, with power and precision, then this website is for you. The focus will be primarily on writing, but the things you learn will carry over to speaking as well, whether it's conversations around the water cooler or formal presentations before large audiences.

Each week, I'll present a short, simple lesson or tip about using words that you can put into action immediately. I'll link to and comment on articles about the art and craft of writing well, and spend some time looking at examples of writing captured in the wild--the good, the bad, and the ridiculous. On top of it all, we’re going to have fun.

One thing that I hope has happened since I've started this blog is that my writing has improved. I can write off the top of my head much better than I used to. However, I can still make some cringeworthy mistakes -- especially if it's early and the caffeine hasn't hit my system yet. :-)

Roy's new blog looks very promising and it is something that is much needed. Whether you blog, write papers, documentation or even just email messages, improving your writing skills is essential.

It's Alive!

A new and improved blogs4God has risen from the dead!

News Flash!

Mark Shea throws fresh meat to the blame-Bush crowd, is surprised when they run naked and screaming through his comments and trash the place!

Shea is like Neal Boortz* in that sometimes he infuriates me and sometimes he hits the nail on the head. I'm glad he's back, but I refuse to read his commenters. There are too many anti-American, Buchananite freakazoids (who never get slapped down by Shea) and too many pacifist goofballs (who sometimes get slapped down). Now apparently a bunch of lefties have been added to the mix.

*Actually, they are mirror opposites of each other -- Shea is the anti-Boortz (or perhaps Boortz is the anti-Shea).

Blogathon for Hurricane Katrina Relief

I found out from Kathy Shaidle at Relapsed Catholic that Thursday, September 1 is the day that blogs all over the world will be having a "blogburst" to encourage donations for Hurricane Katrina relief. InstaPundit* has a whole list of links to agencies that need donations.

Two charities that I recommend are Mercy Corps and Operation Blessing. Also, Amazon.com is collecting donations for the American Red Cross.

I'm going to forward-date this post for September 1 and it will stay at the top of the blog all through that day.

Update: More good charities to give to: LCMS World Relief and the Salvation Army.

*I know I've said some mean things about InstaPundit in the past, but I really appreciate that he's doing this.

Cool stuff at the Dawn Patrol...

Yes, I know it's been too quite here lately, but I've been enjoying my break and I have been pretty busy. In the meantime, Dawn Eden has lots of interesting stuff on her blog:

• Did you know that Dawn's mother once chewed out Paris Hilton? Cool story! BTW, Dawn's mother has not been feeling well. Say a prayer for her speedy recovery, won't you?
• Dawn comments on the sad situation in Israel with Jewish settlers being thrown out of their homes in Gaza. My opinion -- appeasement never works and all this will do is bring about more violence. The message that is sent by the situation in Gaza is this: terrorism works.
• Pro-life atheists? Yes, there is at least one, and a raving one at that. The Raving Atheist has a guest post at the Dawn Patrol.
• Joel from Chez Joel also guest blogs about the "remix" he did of the infamous, repulsive, but yet dorky Planned Parenthood cartoon. He discusses the fact that sometimes profanity has its uses. As he puts it:

  My point here...is that words are useful; even, betimes, vulgar words are useful. To forswear the use of vulgar words altogether is to promise silence in advance of a time when only vulgar words will suit the subject matter.

Continue to enjoy the silence...

I'm still mostly on hiatus, but I wanted to point out this very wise post from the Anchoress about the degeneration of political discourse in this country. Now, I admit that I'm as guilty as anyone of falling into the "Grunting Philosophy". But there is something about constant rage and outrage that ends up making you feel tired and burned out. This is pretty much how I feel, which is why I don't like to talk about politics anymore.

I know it's a cliche to say, "read the whole thing", but I'm saying it anyway. ;-)

Update: Another very wise and sensible post by Varifrank about Cindy Sheehan (via the Anchoress). I completely understand what he is saying about what grief can do to a person, because I've seen it in my own family. You want to blame someone. You want revenge on people who you blame (justly or not) for the loved one's death. Or you blame yourself. You torture yourself with "if onlys". Some people work through the grief. And some spend the rest of their lives mired down in it and spinning their wheels. Unlike the mother in this Buddhist parable, they spend the rest of their lives clutching their dead child and looking for those mustard seeds. (Parable link via Relapsed Catholic.)

Buzzzz!

Elena tagged me for this pollinating meme. Here's how it works:

What we're supposed to do in this exercise is act like journaling bees pollinating the literary flowers of the Internet. So remove the blog at #1 from the following list and bump every one up one place. Then add your blogs name in the #5 spot and link to each of the other blogs for the desired cross-pollination effect.

MOT -- http://motheroftwins.blogspot.com/
Indigo Girl -- http://indigogirl.typepad.com/linda/
Jamie -- http://selkie.typepad.com/selkie/
Elena -- http://mydomesticchurch.blogspot.com/
Susan B. -- http://lilacrose.nu/

New bees for the hive!
Tulip Girl
Such Small Hands
Princess Jami
Peppermint Patty
Miss O'Hara

Update on Lee Anne

She's doing much better.

Thank God.

Update (7/16/05): Lee Anne is home from the hospital!

Lutheran Blog Directory

There is now a blog list just for Lutherans. If you are a Lutheran and you blog, you can join right here. I joined the list, of course. Thanks to Bunnie Diehl for posting about this.

InstaSlap

Heh. Indeed.

Update: It's not like there's a war on, or anything.

That'll leave a mark!

Bryan Preston smacks InstaPilate around real good:

If you do want our support the next time you have a pet political issue like this, consider wireless hospice-blogging, get some hot able-bodied protester chicks (those disabled ones you've got outside that hospice give us all the creeps!) and send the pics to Instapundit.com. You're in Florida, so that shouldn't be too difficult. Miami Beach is right in your back yard. Get some "Thongs for Terri" and you'll have instasupport in the blogosphere.[...]

And whatever you do, drop the old Christianity crap. It just doesn't go with our hip, modern libertarian coffee-house vibe. Keep up the Jesus stuff and we'll assume she doesn't mind going "home" a little early to meet her God. That's what all you people want, right? We're working on a way to get rid of the rest of you too (just from the political scene of course--see Andrew Sullivan and Jeff Jarvis for a first look at our "theocrats" campaign), so you might want to check out becoming trendy humanists. It's really all for your own good.

Yes, it's harsh, but Reynolds and his fellow bloodless libertoids had it coming. Reading it was very cathartic. And it made Reynolds pout.

Worthwhile Reads

In the spirit of Ilyka Damen's Estrogen Week, here are a few blog posts I've read lately that I think are really excellent. And they just so happen to be written by those scarce, hard-to-find female bloggers:

• Ambra Nykol - The Call to Purity, Part One:

  Curbing enthusiasm requires that some aspect of your own will be put to death. Any pious attitude or ego acquired by those who somehow feel morally superior for remaining abstinent will eventually have the crap beat out of it by the humility necessary to carry out the decision until the end (or rather, the beginning). It ain't easy. The longer you wait, the more humble you become. Just ask A.C. Green; he could write the book.

• Dawn Eden - First-Person Singular:

  A single bases her actions on how they will or won't affect her single, lacking state. She goes to parties based on whether or not there will be new men to meet. She chooses friends who are also single and lacking—again, think Carrie's gang in "Sex and the City"—who will reinforce her own cynicism.

  A singular bases her actions on how they will enable her to be the person whom she believes God wants her to be. She trusts that God has a plan for her and that—assuming she longs to be married—a husband is only part of that plan. Moreover, she trusts that God will provide a husband for her if she follows His will for her life, making the best use of the gifts that He has given her.



• Kathy Shaidle - Gidget vs. Gonzo
  

  In the wake of real suffering, one woman fixes her hair, touches up her lipstick and lands a Fantasy Island gig. Faced with the unbearable prospect of being an intelligent, able bodied white man in the United States of America in the middle of the 20th century, one man dedicates himself to masturbatory small scale violence and irresponsibility.



• Rightwingsparkle - Thanksgiving
  

  What my father taught me most of all is that life is a decision you make. Every day you decide whether you will be happy or not. My dad had nothing but rage fueling him growing up. He could have let that rage ruin it all and he almost did. But that fateful night he decided to turn it all around. He decided to be a wonderful husband, father, friend, and public servant.

  He chose love over hate.

  (Via Beautiful Atrocities.)

Spirit of America Bloggers' Challenge

I have been woefully remiss in mentioning this...The Spirit of America Bloggers' Challenge is going on. It will soon be over...I think it ends tonight. Chuck Simmins explains what it's all about. As this post found via LGF points out, you don't have to support the war, like President Bush or be a conservative to support what Spirit of America is doing.

Again, I apologize for not mentioning this sooner. Please consider supporting this worthy cause.

Post Something!

I know, I know...I wasn't supposed to be on hiatus. I was just supposed to post less frequently. But almost a week qualifies as a hiatus, I think. Anyway, let me link a few things before I succumb to the Excedrin PM:

• There's been lots of talk about this United Church of Christ ad lately. Many of Bene's readers have no problem with it. I think it's a dishonest ad. This post by Andrea Harris* (which has a great title, BTW) explains why it's dishonest better than I could. (*Contains some strong language.)
• There has been much crowing from libertarians and liberals over this article about abstinence education. But...not so fast...
• You know, things are really getting silly when browser choices are politicized. Well, I'm conservative. I use IE at work because I have to. At home, I use Firefox on my main PC and Safari on my iBook.

Well, I'm starting to feel the Excedrin PM now. I'll try to post some more tomorrow.

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.

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!

Goodies from My Bloglines Clippings Folder

If you're not familiar with Bloglines, it's a really great service that allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds and read them in your browser (as opposed to using a standalone aggregator program). Bloglines also has a neat feature called a Clippings folder, where you can save links to posts for future reference. I use the Clippings folder to save posts that I may want to blog on later. Well, since I haven't had a lot of time to blog lately, these posts got neglected, until now. So, here are a few noteworthy posts that have accumulated in my Clippings folder over the past month or so:

• Dean Esmay explains why he is now convinced that "neocon" is a bigoted term.
• Intellectual Defenestration has a good post about why Pentecostalism is so vulnerable to scandal.
• Life Matters posts a column that originally appeared in the Toronto Star that questions the whole concept of "mercy killing".
• If you are considering voting for Michael Peroutka, the Constitution Party candidate for President, Tulip Girl links to some posts that will give you some good reasons not to do so.
• Havdala posts on ostentatious modesty and how it defeats the whole purpose of true modesty.

Not really "back" yet...

However, I do want to link a few quick things until I feel like doing some proper posting again:

• Stuff like this brings out my inner Neal Boortz...it really does. See this post if you want to know where I stand.
• Times Against Humanity is blogging about the RNC. Here's the first report. Also, here's an earlier important piece from Times about those "progressive" new family structures: When Parents Play, Children Pay.
• Thunderstruck has tons of "rock 'n' roll Republican" links. Just start at the top and scroll down.
• While on this subject, I spied this while reading the latest on the Dave Matthews dumpage story: Some "art student" wants to protect the memory of Johnny Cash from those eee-vil Republicans. Apparently, if you hold the wrong political views, you are not allowed to listen to his music or pay respects to his memory.
• "Neocon" and "fundamentalist" -- two completely worthless words.
• Finally, I love this description of the protesters by Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom: "...stream by like a river of colorful sewage."

That's all for now...

New Conservative Blog

Check out RedState.org. Here is their mission statement.

(Via Ben Domenech, who is one of the contributors.)

Good Stuff to Read

In no particular order, here are some posts worth reading. Some of these are from around the time I went on hiatus.

• Joe Carter on what a "blob of cells" really looks like.


• Aaron's Rantblog on "thou shalt not kill" vs. "thou shalt not murder".


• Ben Domenech on Romania's ban on international adoptions.


• Theosebes on William F. Buckley, Jr.


• Steve H. on his new theory about women.


• Dawn Eden on chastity and unchastity. (Kind of goes well with the link just above...)


• Ilyka Damen on terrorism and hatred.


• Michele quotes several Iraqi bloggers regarding the handover of their country.


• Deb at Accidental Verbosity on the increasing ugliness of politics and how some are losing sight of what's at stake.


• William Luse excerpts an intriguing passage from a novel.

For Christians Only...

Bene Diction links to this survey for Christians. If you're a Christian and have a few minutes to spare, go take it. It's pretty interesting.

Somebody emailed me a different survey on a similar subject a couple of months ago. I never had the time to respond and then I forgot about it. I need to fill out that one, too, if it's still available.

Movable Type Annoyance

While I'm on the subject of MT, allow me a moment to complain about something I find very annoying.

MT has "Trackback Auto-Discovery", where it automatically finds trackback links for the links in your post. It works with MT blogs, of course. It also works with WordPress blogs. Most other types of blogs require that you cut and paste the trackback link.

Here's the annoying part. Sometimes you will get an error on a ping, but yet it shows up on the other blog. However, MT thinks that it's still an outstanding trackback. So, when you update a post, you keep adding excess pings to the other blog's post.

The only way to stop this is to turn auto-discovery off, and then clear the "URLs to Ping" box before updating a post. But what if you add more links that need pinging to the post? Either you have to cut and paste all the new trackback URLs, or you have to turn auto-discovery back on. The problem with turning auto-discovery back on is that it "rediscovers" those previous links that came back with an error and pings them yet again.

This is something that I hope MT 3.0 will fix, or at least make easier to manage. For example, it could allow you to remove URLs that you know you already pinged without "rediscovering" them upon saving the post. It also could let you turn off auto-discovery on the posting page. I'm not going to get my hopes up, though.

My apologies to anyone who gets multiple pings from me on a post. Feel free to delete the excess pings.

Exodus from Movable Type?

I've noticed a lot of former MT users have recently switched to WordPress and other products. Now it looks like there may be even more who are going to do so in the future, since there's now a bit of a controversy over MT 3.0's pricing. I have to agree with some of the complaints -- for example, I think it's a bit severe for the free version to only allow one author.

I don't see myself switching to another package anytime soon. However, I'm going to wait a bit before upgrading to 3.0. I want to see what others think of it, first.

Update: Fritz has some additional thoughts in my comments. Dean Peters also has a good post on this subject. Both Fritz and Dean are saying that Six Apart needs to understand their user-base better -- they need to understand how their customers use their product. I agree with this assessment. Here is yet another example that makes this point.

Also, Six Apart has modified their pricing scheme some since I initially posted this. They have posted a clarification in an attempt to quell the furor.

In the meantime, Kevin McGehee has had a very regrettable experience with upgrading to MT 3.0.

Wow!

Rachel Lucas is back! I'm looking forward to reading her "Ranty McRants" again.

(Via Accidental Verbosity.)

Mocking a Mocker

Dale Price takes on the now infamous Rene Gonzalez.

(Via MCJ.)

Great Causes

• Help print bibles in Iraq. (Via J.F. Karr's post on Joshua Claybourn's blog.)
• Give to the Spirit of America using this handy Liberty Alliance link. (Via Dean's World).

Time is short...if you decide to give to either of these, do so as quickly as possible.

Haiku Meme

King's Kid has kicked off a haiku meme by writing a haiku about this humble blog. How cool is that?

So, let me return the favor:

Some lefty says there's
no freedom for Iraqis.
Who is "John Ashbrook"?

"Sorry I'm not your cup o' tea..."*

Ilyka Damen looks at the way women bloggers are judged as being "worthy". I was honored to be included on her list of readable right-of-center women bloggers. Her list was in response to John Hawkins' contention that there weren't "35 readable blogs written by women on the right side of the blogosphere."

In reaction to Ilyka's list, Hawkins has the following response:

I will also be nice enough not to point out how many of the blogs on that list didn't even bother to update YESTERDAY. Trust me, if you're not even bothering to post every day M-F, you're not a "quality blog"...

Hmmm...well, I was one of those who didn't update yesterday (April 21). You know what? I'm not "on" all the time. Sometimes I'm tired. Sometimes I don't feel well. Sometimes I have "real life" things that are actually more important. Sometimes I just don't have anything to say. (Actually, I spent much of yesterday evening working on a new site skin.)

I'm sorry, but I've never been the flirtatious, game-playing type. (I don't consider myself a feminist at all...I've just always thought that stuff was phony and a waste of time.) I'm not going to talk about b00bs. I'm not going to bat my eyelashes at anyone in the hopes that they'll like me and link me. I will post what I want when I feel like it. I may post a bunch of stuff one day and then go three days without posting. I've gotta be me...if you don't like it, tough!

I do this blog for me. It is an outlet for me. If my blog sucks because I don't post every day, so be it! If I'm a crappy writer, all I can say is I'm doing my best, and I think I've improved a little over the past two years. I also like tinkering around with web design stuff, and this blog gives me the opportunity to do that. I don't really care if I'm "successful" at this. The fact that I ever got up the nerve to even start a blog is something that still amazes me. I would never have had the gumption to do something like this, say, five years ago.

If people like to read this thing, that's fine with me...in fact, I'm delighted! But if you don't, just hit the back button on your browser and move on.

*From this song, which is sort of fitting, I think.

Buy A Gun Day II

I just wanted to remind you, tomorrow (April 15) is the second annual Buy a Gun Day, which was started by Aaron's Rantblog. Then, it was called Buy a Gun to Spite Michael Moore Day, but it's been shortened. I won't be able to buy a gun this year. I already have one, and I would be grateful to simply be able to find a nearby range so I can practice shooting again. (I really miss going to the range...it was fun.) However, I will once again renew my NRA membership to commemorate Buy a Gun Day II.

Another Blog Move

Lawren Mills has moved from Blogspot to Munuvia. Update your bookmarks!

Update (4/15/04): Ben's World has also moved off Blogspot!

Googlebombs Away!

Jew!*

Waffles!**

*Explanation here.

**Explanation here.

"Don't link me!"

Steve at Rodent Regatta posted a link to an article almost two years ago. The writer of that article recently commented on that post. She said he was violating her copyright and asked him to remove the link.

First of all, what's this about a link being a "copyright violation"? That's downright silly.

Secondly, even if the post had a brief excerpt from the article, that would be well within Fair Use rights, would it not?

Finally, this writer must not want her work to be read if she's going around telling people not to link her. I certainly hope Google and other search engines haven't indexed her article or even (**gasp**) cached it.

It's too bad that this blog is defunct.

Blog Moves

Dispatches from Outland has moved off Blogspot. And Jay Solo has joined forces with his wife and they are both now blogging at Accidental Verbosity. Update your bookmarks!

And there was much rejoicing whining...

Joshua Claybourn noted the striking resemblance of the late Hamas "spiritual leader" Sheikh Yassin to Saruman. This caused a couple of bloggers to get their shorts in a bunch. They accused Josh of "rejoicing" over this terrorist's death. More disturbingly, they seem to be engaging in moral equivalency, saying that the Israelis taking out a terrorist is just as bad as Palestinians blowing up innocent people in cafes and buses. I just hope neither one of those bloggers ever reads this post over at Little Tiny Lies...they might faint!

Blog News

Times Against Humanity has moved to a spiffy new location. Update your bookmarks.

For those who use Blogger/Blogspot: Did you know that you can now get an Atom feed for your blog? I noticed that some of the Blogger blogs have already discovered this and have turned it on. Others do not yet have a feed. Go here for instructions on how to turn on your feed. Then I can put your blog feed in my aggregator and read you more often.

Almost back...

I'll be posting regularly again soon. In the meantime, look who's posting again:

• Cut on the Bias


• Sand in the Gears


• Anne Wilson

Two More Passion Reviews

• From MCJ's Christopher Johnson:

  But if you know that you are a sinner and that what Christ did for you on the Cross is the only chance you have for life, then if you can see it(and I judge no one's faith based on whether they can watch The Passion or not), this will be the most terrible and most beautiful movie you will ever see. The Passion is the single greatest piece of Christian visual art anybody has ever made. Or is ever likely to make.

• From Mark Shea:
  

  First: Thanks, Mel, for having the great courage to make this film. It was a profoundly *manly* thing to do and has given us a portrayal of Jesus that is, in the very best sense of the word, the most masculine Jesus ever committed to celluloid. Interestingly, several men I have talked to have spoken of the film in that way as well. The sense of sheer *warfare* that permeates the film is overwhelming. And it is deeply and profoundly warfare with powers and principalities, not with flesh and blood. Jesus has no enmity to his human adversaries. He prays for them repeatedly. But his hostility to the devil is implacable, utter, and steely. Indeed, if I were the devil, I would quail in terror at what is, for Lucifer, the single most frightening moment in the film: the look of Resolve on the face of the Risen Christ in the final moments of the film. Satan has done his worst. Now it's Time to wrest the entire cosmos away from him.

Passion - Others' Thoughts

I'm still trying to think of what I want to say about The Passion of the Christ. I find myself completely inept at expressing my thoughts on this film. There are so many things swimming through my head, that every time I try to write it, it just comes out wrong. So I'm going to link to some other folks who are much better at this sort of thing.

• Jared at Thinklings has an excellent review with some additional thoughts on his solo blog. From his review:

  One question that may get lost in the Church's frenzy to virtually canonize this work is whether it is a good movie or not. Will we be swayed so much so by a reverent and faithful re-enactment of our Lord's sacrifice that we will ignore any of the film's artistic deficiencies? We probably would, but there's no need to worry -- there are few deficiencies of any kind in this film (although I will posit a few in a moment). Sacred story aside, this is an astounding artistic achievement, and Mel Gibson ought to honored as a true visionary and masterful director. (Not to mention that Jim Caviezel's somewhat necessarily understated performance is incredible in itself. It is as if he knows The Story needs no help from his trained actor's eloquence. He plays Jesus with a subtlety that proclaims loudly the humility and holiness of the Suffering Servant.)

• Ben Domenech reflects on how this film brings us back to Pilate's question: "What is truth?"

  In the end, the viewer is left in a position much like that of Pontius Pilate. Do we recognize the truth in what we've seen, or do we ignore it, wash our hands of it, move on? Pilate's question is asked legitimately and honestly in the film, without pride or intellectual sarcasm. "What is truth?" he asks - but he does not pause to see Christ's implicit answer - "I am."

• Joshua Claybourn contemplates Jesus' loneliness on the cross:

  Jesus could take the beatings, and as a viewer of The Passion, I could stand to watch it. Sure, I cringed and winced each time he was hit and spat on. But I was prepared for it all. Indeed, it was just as I had imagined. And although the wail, "My God!" was also as I had imagined, I still couldn't stand to watch it. At that moment Jesus was once again alone, just as He was in the garden, but this time the weight of all of humanity's sin was on his shoulders....alone. He was separated from God spiritually and physically. I hesitate to even type that out; it doesn't really do the notion justice. Out of this silent loneliness - an unfathomable loneliness - He cries, "Why? Why did you foresake me?"

• Peppermint Patty on wanting to turn away:

  I stayed, even when I felt I couldn't breathe, even when I felt sick, when I just closed my eyes and wept at the brutality. I stayed because Mary stayed. Through her eyes, through her love, through her strength, I could bear to stay and watch.

Update: I've been remiss in linking another Thinkling's thoughts on this movie. (Sorry about that!) Eric says the film is "A Somber Masterpiece":

The film was, admittedly, violent. I’d certainly say that it’s the most person-on-person violence I’ve ever seen in a film. I did, however, get the feeling that the violence was a bit overplayed in the media. I went in to the film expecting the absolute worst, and I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to move beyond the brutality, and concentrate on the divine sacrifice being played out before my watery eyes. One Thinkling I talked to -- who had seen the film before me -- said he thought the movie was like a two-hour episode of the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan. After viewing the film for myself, I’d say that comment was hyperbolic. Indeed, the movie is about The Passion of Jesus, and, as Roger Ebert said, it was rightfully named. Nevertheless, I thought the extra-biblical dialogue, flashbacks, and developments offered a refreshing break from the visual of Jesus’ suffering, while simultaneously offering fundamental background information.

Mel Gibson and His Father

Two completely different views:

• From Dale Price (via Mark Shea).
• From Steve H. at Little Tiny Lies.

My opinion: I have to go with Dale on this one. As I said earlier, you can't judge what someone thinks about things by what his parents think.

Blogging Mars

Unlike a lot of people, I still have a sense of wonder about space exploration, and I think we should do more of it. I just happened to stumble upon this: Mars Rover Blog.

Also, Daniel Morris has done lots of blogging on the Mars exploration lately (and about space in general). In this post, he explains why a certain picture from Mars gives him shivers. That's a pretty awesome thing; it would give me shivers too...

Congratulations are in Order

Joel and Amy Fuhrmann have a beautiful new daughter named Rebecca!

New Years Eve Linkage

One more bulleted linky post for 2003:

• Both Cam Edwards and Josh Claybourn believe that reality TV has finally hit bottom. While, I agree that it has hit bottom, I'm afraid it will start digging.


• Some Christians could learn a lot from Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. (Via Relapsed Catholic.)


• Speaking of Kathy Shaidle, check out her Dallas Morning News op-ed column: I used to sneer at you.


• William Luse has a Christmas poem which I think makes a fitting end for this year.

Well, this sucks...

It looks like Andrea Harris is hanging up blogging. I hope she changes her mind. But if she doesn't, I understand her reasons.

Update: I should have known...she's back with a new blog, Twisted Spinster. Very cool!

Weekend Link-O-Rama

Yes, this is another one of those bulleted posts I love to do...

• First some sad news: Right We Are has closed up shop.


• Now some happy news: After a long absence, there are new posts from Peppermint Patty and Tony Woodlief.


• Lisa has a very moving post about her recent visit to Ground Zero.


• Suzi has started a new spyware information blog: Spyware Warrior.


• Fr. Bryce Sibley posts on PETA's latest stunt. Every time I think they can't sink any lower, they prove me wrong.


• Mac has no use for "reality" TV shows. Neither do I.


• I always wondered whatever happened to the guy who did this song. Thanks to Kathryn, now I know.


• Rodent Regatta posts a Peggy Noonan quote that I found very convicting.


• Susanna a few things to say about the new "Babes Bimbos Against Bush" calendar.


• I agree with Dodd about who the miserable failure really is.


• Hillary Clinton thinks Bush is undoing the New Deal. Joshua Claybourn wonders if she's living in a cave.


• I understand the way Lysander feels in this post. I've been there myself, before.


• Joel Fuhrmann is doing some special blogging for Advent: Praying the Psalms.


• Rosemary makes an excellent point when she asks, "What Is Secular Anyway?"


• Lee Anne Millinger points out that everybody worships. It's what you are worshipping that you should pay attention to.

Goodbye BlogSpot

Lee Anne Millinger has moved to a sparkling new Typepad blog. Go check it out!

Fake Blogs

First comment spam, now this.

(Via Bene Diction.)

The Carnival of the Capitalists #2

The latest Carnival of the Capitalists is at Jay Solo's. Show your support for free enterprise and go check it out!

Carnival of the Capitalists #1

The Carnival of Capitalists has made its debut at BusinessPundit. Check it out!

Blog World Announcements

Here are a few blog-related items I'd like to pass along:

• In my previous post, Haleh of BLOG-IRAN has brought that site to my attention. I have put a link to them on my sidebar. Please check them out.
• Jay Solo has brought the Carnival of the Capitalists to my attention. This new carnival will debut next week and will focus on posts about business, economics and similar subjects.
• And finally, I have been remiss in mentioning the Chief Wiggles' campaign to give toys to Iraqi children. Well, I'm mentioning it now, along with a new website for the campaign, Operation Give. Thanks to Dean and Michele for getting Operation Give online. I'm putting a button with a link on the sidebar. Now, go check it out!

If my blog were a band...

According to Lynn, my blog name would be a "girl band. Or, on second thought, maybe one of those bands where you can't tell the gender of most of the members."

You mean like one of those early-80s New Wave bands with big, pouffy, moussed-up hair and tons of make-up? Sounds about right...

Is blogdom like high school?

Sharon sees some similarities. Jay Solo has some additional thoughts. Here are the comments I made on Sharon's post:

I don't cuss on my blog, because...well...it just feels wrong to me. I cuss in real life when I'm angry. I'm not proud of that and I try not to do it. I like to try and keep my worst instincts under (some) control on my blog.

I know how to shoot a gun, and I have no problems with guns. But I'm no Annie Oakley. :-) I used to enjoy going to the range, but I haven't been in a couple of years because the closest range to where I live went out of business. People who get all prissy and scared about guns annoy me.

And I was a geek-girl in high school as well. I usually sat on the breeze-way during lunch, eating some kind of junk-food and drinking a Coke while frantically trying to get some last-minute homework done.

Personally, I don't care if the "in" crowd in blogdom likes me or not. I try to be nice to people (for the most part) and if they return the kindness, that's wonderful. If not, I'll just write them off as jerks and forget them.

So there you have it. I'm still a misfit after all these years. Except now, I don't care that I am...

Must-Reads for the Weekend

Here's a couple of "must read" items for the weekend...

• Tilly is someone who worked in the World Trade Center and managed to survive the 9/11 attacks. I urge you to read her story over at LGF.
• Joshua Claybourn has a thoughtful post contemplating life, death and legacies.

Sanitizing 9/11

This whole subject is sort of in the same vein as this earlier post. InstaPundit had the picture of The Falling Man on the top of his page yesterday. Today, he is being criticized for posting the photo. Bryan Preston responds to InstaPundit's critics. Andrea Harris also has a couple of responses.

Nothing New Under the Sun

What they said.

A Little List O' Links!

• Little Tiny Lies on the gay bishop: "I Don't get it". A couple of favorite parts:

  These days, you can find clerics who don't believe in the immaculate conception or heaven or hell. They will even tell you there is no such thing is sin. My question for them is, "What exactly is it that leads you to conclude that you're a Christian?" And Jesus was no pacifist, anyway. Pacifists don't beat moneychangers with whips.

  With each "progressive" step away from the text of the Bible, a church loses a portion of the justification for its existence. We don't need God or Jesus in the picture if all we want are lessons on being nice. You can get that from Dale Carnegie.

• Dean, you make a good point. Let me just say, "Thank you!"
• California's upcoming gubernatorial recall election is shaping up to be a real circus...or as On the Fritz calls it, "The California Cavalcade of Shame". Be sure to check in with Fritz and Frank regularly, because I'm sure they will give the various candidates all the respect they deserve.
• Amy Welborn links to this piece by Rich Lowry, which accuses Bush of being a pacifist...when it comes to the culture war.

A Move to Typepad

Amy Welborn has moved off Blogspot and now has a very nice new Typepad-powered blog. This is the first well-known blogger that I know of who has moved to Typepad.

Another Blogger Gets Hassled

On the Fritz (a very funny blog, BTW) is getting threatened by some pr0n peddler because of this satirical post.

This seems to be happening a lot lately. Just a couple of weeks ago, I posted about Theologian Guy getting hassled for calling himself "Bible Geek".

We interrupt this hiatus with the following...

It seems the blogger formerly known as "Bible Geek" has changed his moniker to "Theologian Guy" because another "Bible Geek" has a trademark on that particular phrase and threatened to sue. What a load of BS! I seriously doubt that anyone was confusing these guys with each other. However, TG decided to be classy about this and I probably would have done the same. It still makes me mad, though.

I often wonder if I'll ever have the same problem as TG. LilacRose originates from a screen name I used on a couple of political forums. As it turns out, "LilacRose" (and its slight variations) is a little more common than I initially thought. (Not that I thought it was totally original in the first place.) And there is at least one other web entity that uses the name, but it's not a blog and would not in any way be confused with me. However, in light of TG's situation (not to mention the whole Moxie debacle), I've been wondering if I should change the name of my blog to something else. Not necessarily the URL, just the blog name. But I can't think of anything to change it to. And changing all my skins would be a real pain.

This is something I will ponder during my hiatus, which will resume...now.

A little reminder...

For all the folks who have recently moved to MT, please be sure to turn on your option to ping Weblogs.com and Blo.gs. BlogRolling uses pings to Weblogs.com to determine if your site has been recently updated.

To do this, in your MT control panel select Weblog Config | Preferences | Publicity / Remote Interfaces / TrackBack. Then check both blo.gs and weblogs.com. Then click Save.

Blog Watching the Easy, Modern Way

This is probably nothing new to most folks, but it's new to me. After reading about RSS aggregators on Rodent Regatta, I decided to give SharpReader a try. I added all of the blogs on my blogroll with feeds to it, and it looks like it's going to make keeping up with things a lot easier.

A few quick links...

Here are a few quick links to some great posts:

• Ben Domenech has a few words for the Class of 2003. He dispenses with the feel-good platitudes that most commencement speakers use and tells the truth with a combination of causticity and grace.
• Eve Tushnet doesn't think much of the wedding industry (and I agree). She also has an extensive pro-life reading list. One of her suggestions is Enemies of Eros by Maggie Gallagher. I have this book and have skimmed over it, but I've never gotten a chance to read it.
• Susanna Cornett takes on an increasingly embittered Maureen Dowd.
• C.G. Hill and Rachel Lucas both post about how the Council of Europe is about to adopt a proposal that will demand "right of reply" for any person or organization criticized on the Internet. While this would only apply to Europe, it's pretty alarming that something like this would be passed.
• Andrea Harris takes a look at TV news and the things they don't tell you.

Another one leaves Blogspot...

Joel Fuhrmann's Right Left Whatever has made the move off Blogspot and on to MT. Welcome to the MT army, Joel!

"Movin' on Up" Watch

The Brazos de Dios Cantina has moved to a sparkling new MT site. Drop in and say hello!

Update: Common Sense & Wonder has made the move, too!

Blog Posts of Note

Here are some miscellaneous notable posts I've run across the past couple of days:

• Lee Anne Millinger has a teen sex rant that is well worth reading.
• Lynn S. fisks Amnesty International's statements that fighting terrorists somehow makes the world more dangerous. (Yes, by all means, let's leave the terrorists alone. That will make the world much safer! [/sarcasm]).
• Joshua Claybourn posts about WMDs found right here in America. I agree with him that this looks bad and gives ammunition to the America-is-evil crowd (although these weapons programs were abandoned long ago). However, I do have to disagree with his contention that evidence of WMDs has yet to be found in Iraq. What about these mobile bioweapons labs?
• Steve at Little Tiny Lies defends sexism. No, it's not what you think. It's about recognizing what being a good woman really means.
• Ben Domenech has an interesting post about the Millennial Generation and their growing influence.
• Patty questions the wisdom of hormone replacement therapy. I agree with her -- why not just let nature take its course rather than taking a bunch of possibly dangerous hormones?

BTW, I'm sorry I've been so scarce this week. It's been a rough week and I feel like a deflated balloon.

Another Blogspot Escapee

Mac Swift is the latest blogger to escape from Blogger/Blogspot. Here's Vessel of Honour - Reloaded!

Update: Bloggers seem to be leaving Blogspot in droves lately. Wizbang is compiling a running list of Blogspot defectors. (Via Jay Solo.)

He's Escaped!

Damian Penny has escaped from Blogspot and now has his own domain with MT. And don't miss his referral page -- it's a hoot!

Uninspired

I'm sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been suffering from a bit of burn out lately, especially when it comes to news and current events. I just haven't felt like posting much of anything the past few days. I'm sure this phase will pass and I'll be posting again soon.

Referrals

I get enough hits on this blog now to check the site meter every day. It's always interesting to see what things people are searching for. Right now, I'm getting a very large amount of "William Bennett gambling" searches. And here I thought that story had already run its course...

I'm also getting tons of "round-heeled woman" searches because of this post. (In fact, I got a comment on that post today from someone who thinks I'm a big meanie.)

For months, I've been getting several searches a day looking for a "muppet quiz."

Sometimes people will search for things that are not on my site, but yet are things I would be very interested in reading about. One such search is for a C.S. Lewis essay called "Why I'm Not a Pacifist."

I can't believe people actually search for "p0rn." I mean the obfuscated word for it, not the actual word. Why would somebody do that? I mean the whole reason you obfuscate the word is because you don't have it and don't want searches for it to lead to your site.

And the ickiest search I've gotten lately: "senior granny sex." Ewwww!

One Year

One year ago today, I started this blog. It had a couple of other names before I settled on LilacRose (which is a screenname I used in a couple of political forums). It started out as a Blogger blog on my ISP webspace. Then, on New Year's Eve, I moved to my own domain and server space and started using Movable Type. In the past four months I've posted more than I did the entire first eight months of this blog.

I've learned a lot about HTML, style sheets and how to add skins to my site. I also think that my writing has improved some since I started out (which isn't saying much).

Anyway, I've had a lot of fun with this blog the past year, and I want to thank everyone who reads and has linked to this site. I really do appreciate it!

New Stuff for Bloggers

Two major blogging tools are introducing new services that should make blogging just a little easier:

• Six Apart, the folks who created Movable Type, are announcing a new, soon-to-be-launched service called TypePad. TypePad is a hosted service for weblogs that will be based on the Movable Type system.
• Blogger is rolling out an improved blogging interface called Dano. Eventually, all Blogger blogs will be migrated to Dano. According to the FAQ, all those archive bugs should be a thing of the past.

(First item via InstaPundit, second via Bene Diction.)

A Blogger Returns

Mark Shea is back after his Lenten hiatus.

The Future of Warblogs

Fulton Chain has this post which examines the possible future of four well-know warblogs. I think what the writer has to say about LGF is more than a little unfair. LGF has done a great job examining one of the true "root causes" of terrorism -- radical, fundamentalist Islam. Some of the commenters do get out of hand, but I don't think it's fair to judge LGF on the basis of that.

(Via Bene Diction).

Just a Reminder

April 15th is "Buy a Gun For to Spite Michael Moore Day."

I may not be able to buy a gun myself by then, but I'll at least renew my lapsed NRA membership in "honor" of SpongeMike Sweatpants.

Shameless Capitalism

It seems that everybody has been talking about this new Blogshares thing. It's a fantasy stock market for weblogs. Even this humble blog has been listed. I was surprised to find that someone has already bought some LilacRose shares! (Thanks!)

Okay, I admit that I don't know much about the stock market. In fact, any knowledge I have comes from playing the Stock Market board game. And I would usually lose because I would end up with a bunch of shares of International Shoe, with the value sinking like a stone.

I'll check out Blogshares more thoroughly when I get some time. It looks like it could be fun, and it may even serve as a learning tool for stock market know-nothings like myself.

I like this idea...

Brought to my attention by Aaron's Rantblog:

BUY A GUN FOR (TO SPITE) MICHAEL MOORE DAY, APRIL 15

I already own a gun, but I haven't been able to go to a shooting range and practice in a couple of years. The range here in town I used to go to closed down. The closest ranges that I know of are about 45 minutes away. I recently found out about a private pistol club here in town. This might be a good time to look into joining it. Maybe I could buy a smaller pistol appropriate for concealed carry and take classes to get a concealed carry permit. I let my NRA membership lapse some time ago; perhaps I should consider renewing it. Annoying Michael Moore...all the more reason to do these things!

The Command Post Has Moved...

It is now located here: http://216.134.209.67/~command/

The Command Post is absolutely indispensable. Check it often!

Update: The permanent URL is www.command-post.org.

War Blogging

For continuously updated war news, check out Blogs of War and The Command Post. I have added both to the blogroll.

Nothing like the smell of self-righteousness in the morning...

Joshua Claybourn and other Christians who are pro-defense are being equated with the Christians of Nazi Germany. Nice.

To avoid responding with bitter sarcasm (which I want to do very much), I will simply link to a past post and ask them to read the post from Cut on the Bias linked therein: Jesus and War

New Bloggage

I try not to let my blogroll get too crowded, but these two simply must be linked:

• L.T. SMASH -- This is a blog by someone serving in the U.S. Military, somewhere in the Middle East -- highly recommended reading.
• Dumb Celebs - This is a very entertaining blog dedicated to exposing and ridiculing celebrity goofballism.

Advice for Google/Blogger

Now that Google has purchased Blogger, I have a humble suggestion that would add value to their service. Perhaps they could add a built-in commenting system that works. If they can't do it for everyone on Blogger, at least they could do it for the Blogger Pro users.

Taking a breather...

Sorry I haven't posted much; I've been feeling even more introverted than usual lately. I've been doing some things behind the scenes, though. If you had trouble accessing the archives for a while this evening...oops, sorry about that.

Just wanted to mention a couple of things...First of all, it seems that Amy Welborn hasn't left the blogging scene completely. On Mondays, she will be offering weekly updates on her columns and other writings.

And the second thing: Dodd for President!

Sad News

Amy Welborn is shutting down her blog. Although well-known as a Catholic blogger, you didn't have to be Catholic to enjoy her blog; In Between Naps was a daily stop for this Lutheran. I understand her reasons, but she will be greatly missed.

Blog News

The blog formerly known as Wilde has a new name, a new home and a great new look: American Empire. Check it out, won't you?

Messed Up

So, Taliban thugs are allowed in Britain, but certain bloggers are kept out? Unbelievable!

Blogging Controversies

There are a couple of blogging-related topics that everyone seems to be talking about today...

First, Iain Murray of The Edge of England's Sword has been fired for blogging. I think it's really lame to up and fire somebody with no warning over blogging.

The other controversy involves comments on blogs. The whole controversy seems to have started with this post by Josh Sargent. In a later post, he invites other bloggers to post their opinions about comments on their own blogs. That I can do...

I think comments are a nice addition to a blog, but are not essential. I certainly don't hold it against a blog if it doesn't have comments. When this blog was maintained by Blogger, I never bothered with comments. When I started using Movable Type, I turned comments off by default because I didn't want them on every post. I decide if a post is going to have comments by checking the "Allow Comments" box in MT. Sometimes I look at the box and think, "Nah...no comments for this post." Other times I think, "Yeah...why not?" It all depends on the post and my current mood.

I've noticed lately that I'm checking that box more often than I ever thought I would. Not that I ever get any comments...

Priorities and Blogging

Lately, lots of bloggers are resolving to blog with less frequency or to quit altogether. One who, thankfully, is not quitting but is just cutting back is Joel Fuhrmann at Religious Left Watch. I agree with him that other things have to come first. Like I've said before, I just blog when I feel like it and I don't feel any obligation to post every day. I also don't feel pressure to increase my hits or compete with anyone else. Every hit and every link is an unexpected blessing as far as I'm concerned.

So my blogging philosophy is: Post when you feel inspired and have time. Don't worry about hits or how much you post. Just let it be a little outlet for you. This might not work for everybody, but it works for me.

Predictions

Anne Wilson has some predictions for the new year. Right Wing News also has predictions from several well-known bloggers.

No predictions from me. Any I make would either be really obvious or really wrong.

If anyone else wants to venture any predictions for 2003, you may do so in the comments section. Keep it clean, though.

Blogging News

Bene Diction has a new home!

Great News!

Anne Wilson is back!

Christian Political Correctness

To see a good example of this, check out some of the comments to this post by Jordon Cooper. Apparently, some people think he's a bad Christian because he links to Andrew Sullivan.

Of course, we must only link to those who totally agree with us on every issue. Sure, that will end up meaning that we won't link to anyone, but if that's what it takes to keep us safe in our ghetto, so be it. [/sarcasm]

I'm going to be updating my blogroll in the next day or two. When I do, I think I'll add Jordon Cooper.

(Via Bene Diction.)

Ceremonial Delinking

The latest controversy in blogdom is bloggers publicly delinking other bloggers for either disagreeing with them or for linking to blogs that they don’t like.

This whole thing is so high-school. If I refused to link to any bloggers who linked to blogs I don’t like, I’d probably have nobody in my blogroll. And I don’t by any means agree 100 percent of the time with those I link to.

I have dropped links in the past, but only because they had become dormant. If I ever drop anyone for any other reason, I certainly won’t state that reason publicly. There’s no point in that, except to be petty and attempt to embarrass the delinked blogger.

I wish some of these bloggers would get their egos under control and grow up a little bit.

New to the Blogroll

I have noticed that Joel Fuhrmann of Religious Left Watch has added me to his blogroll. I have added his excellent blog to my sidebar as well. I really like the premise behind Joel's blog. For all the talk there is about the "Religious Right", people forget that there's also a "Religious Left". And it seems to me that the latter group complains about the former group louder than anyone else.

Defending Falwell

First of all, let me say, I'm no fan of Jerry Falwell. Although I'm a conservative Christian, I do not consider myself part of the "Religious Right" (a term I really hate, BTW). Falwell has always seemed too smug for his own good.

But I have to agree with this opinion piece in The American Prowler. I was disappointed in some bloggers for their knee-jerk condemnations of Falwell's remarks about Islam. Especially when many of them have said pretty much the same things themselves. It seems that they wanted to disagree with Falwell just because he's Falwell.

(Link via Joshua Claybourn.)

Update: Corrected for bad sentence structure.

I Need to Check My Referral Logs More Often

I would like to thank Lynn Sislo for her very kind words about my blog and for adding me to her blogroll. I have also added her excellent blog to my blogroll.

Another Thank You

Thanks to Joshua Claybourn for adding me to your blogroll!

A Thank You

Thanks to Christopher Johnson of Midwest Conservative Journal for adding me to your blog roll!

Pay Per Blog?

Some blogs are starting to have content that you have to pay to read. I believe in free enterprise -- if you want to charge for your blog, or pay to read blogs, have at it. While I have dropped some money in the tip jars of a couple of blogs, I don't see myself subscribing to read content anytime soon. As for this blog, I don't sink any money into it and I don't want any in return. LilacRose Blog is free...and worth every cent!

A Christian Blogging Manifesto?

There has been much controversy over this manifesto for Christian bloggers by JesusJournal.com. I’d like to throw in my $0.02 about this. First of all, I want to say that I believe JesusJournal.com means well. This is why I wanted to make sure I could respond without the irritation I felt when I first read the manifesto.

Why was I irritated? The whole idea of forming committees and enforcing a “Code of Conduct” rubs me the wrong way. Blogs are just individuals expressing their thoughts and opinions. Why should bloggers who are Christians be subjected to this regulation?

Unfortunately, this is the downside of the word “Christian” being used as an adjective...”Christian Music”, “Christian TV”, “Christian Books” and now “Christian Blogs”. Christians end up being relegated to some sort of ghetto. Christians end up being put in a box and separated from the “secular” world. And when that happens, Christians stop being relevant to the world.

Look at what has happened with Christian music. It became its own industry. It also became ghettoized and thought of as a “clean” alternative to all that dirty “secular” music. Now, there are musicians who are Christians who go out of their way to avoid getting trapped in the whole CCM thing (or desperately try to get out of that trap). They just want to be artists whose art is put out there for anyone to enjoy. They don’t want to be marginalized and just preach to the choir (or preach at all, for that matter).

I don’t want to see this happen to Christian bloggers.

I believe that blogs4God is a wonderful resource because it allows you to find blogs of people who share your faith. They have not sought to try to control a diverse group of bloggers. They have not tried to regulate or marginalize us.

I think the JesusJournal.com weblogger manifesto, while it means well, is an attempt to do just that.

Some "Thank Yous"

First, I've been remiss in thanking Joshua Claybourn for mentioning my post about some of his posts the other day. I thanked him in his comments, but I realized I should do so here as well.

Also, I'd like to thank Dean Peters of HealYourChurchWebSite.com and blogs4God.com for his Anti-Spam E-Mail Obfuscator. Thanks to this handy tool, I now have an email link in my sidebar. Before, I had the email address in text only to keep from getting spam.

New Blog

Bene Diction from Martin Roth Online now has his own blog. Also, Martin Roth's Christian Blog List will be moving to a new location.

Blogwatching

Midwest Conservative Journal takes Cal Thomas to task for a surprisingly dumb and offensive statement he made in a recent column.

Andrea Harris and Glenn Reynolds take down that pharisaical Christian pacifist Stanley Hauerwas. People like him and Jerry Falwell are just flip sides of the same sorry coin. Also, I like Reynolds' prayer in response to Hauerwas' prayer for America to be smited.

JunkYard Blog also has something to say about terrorist-coddling "Christians".

Megan McArdle has a funny post about why some people prefer communism.

Many Thanks!

I would like to thank Martin Roth for adding me to his Christian Blog List.

Blogwatching

Interesting item from The Corner's Rod Dreher. Troubled people who want answers will look elsewhere when liberal theologians water down Christianity until it's just a bunch of relativist, feel-good nonsense.

Lileks ridicules "edgy" profanity-packed TV shows and John Cougar Mellencamp. What more could you ask for?

Links to Other Blogs

Hopefully, sometime this weekend I'll be able to get around to adding some links along the side to my favorite blogs. Off the top of my head, three of my favorites are JunkYardBlog, Anne Wilson and Croooow Blog (a fellow MSTie). Check them out!

Christian Blogs

I was looking for some blogs by Christians when I first started surfing blogs. There are a bunch of links at Martin Roth Online. I haven't had a chance to explore all these blogs yet, so I don't know if any of them are by fellow Lutherans. Maybe I'll submit this blog to Martin Roth if I ever get up the nerve. I have no readers right now, which is probably a good thing.