Daily Brief contributor Kevin Connors has resigned, as of this week. We remain grateful for his contributions over the years, and wish him success in his future projects, blogging and otherwise.
That is all— carry on.
I’ve gotten emails from a couple of readers about this before. But now it’s happened to me:
Sorry, you’ve banned from commenting on this blog.
Either your comment content was found to contain spam, or
your IP address (or a subnet of your IP address) has spammed this blog before.If you think you got this page in error, your entered name might be too short.
Strike count: 5
Banned from commenting on my own g-damn blog – if that don’t beat all! LOL
Update: Well, I just did some interesting gymnastics to get this comment to post. (enter dummy comment, log out/in as “admin”, edit comment – replacing dummy with intended content). There’s something about that comment (and it’s not the word “shit”) that the system doesn’t like. Any ideas?
At least my own blogging. But I’m sure the rest of the team has plenty to say.
I have an Administrative Law Judge hearing on my Social Security Disability claim Wednesday morning. This is the second rung up the appeal ladder. I am going pro per; and, while I know quite a lot about certain fields of the law – for a layman, this ain’t one of ’em. I really should have retained an attorney, but the information I received from the SSA really gave me a false impression about how complex preparing a proper and convincing case is.
Fortunately, the ALJ has agreed to look at what I have on Wednesday, and give me time to get an attorney, if he thinks I’m in over my head. This gives me lots of reason to be hopeful, as though he’s looked at what they have in their files already, and thinks my claim has absolutely no merit (HIGHLY unlikely), or it’s such a slam-dunk, an attorney would be a waste of money (they get 25% of your back payments, plus expenses). Even if it’s not a slam-dunk (and not without merit), I don’t see how he would deny my appeal at this point, without giving me a chance to get lawyer.
But, in any event, I intend to present the best case I can. Wish me luck.
Update: I’ve just returned from the library with Nolo’s Guide to Social Security Disability: Getting & Keeping Your Benefits by David A. Morton III, M.D. (ISBN: 0-87337-914-4). Nolo has a really good reputation for lay legal manuals. And this appears to be no exception. Still, if any of you out there are attorneys or doctors, with disability appeal experience, and care to render some advice, or if any of you can point me towards some more resources, it would be most welcome, thanks.
I believe that I have mentioned before that Sgt. Mom and I are seeking promising new solo milbloggers that might want to join our team here. To this point, in my case at least, the search has been pretty haphazard. But I’m starting to get a bit more methodical about this. I currently have this tabulation of new blogs, and this one, But we are specifically looking for milbloggers, and culling the wheat from the chaff in these general lists is a daunting task.
In any event, if you have any recommendations, please pass them along. As always, we are looking for current or former military people, although we have discussed widening the qualifications to include civilian employees of DoD, PMCs, military-related think tanks, and the like. But what we are most interested in at this time are writers currently on active duty, and preferably deployed overseas.
Comments are closed. Please email Sgt. Mom or myself with your recommendations. I would like to keep this confidential for a number of reasons – not the least of which is not wanting to offend those that might be referred to us, but we decide to pass on.
I’ve just received this email frome “Nurse” Jenny Comer:
Just want to let all of you know that Joe passed away at around 10:00 this morning. One of his favorite things to do was write posts for the Daily brief. Thank you for all the kind comments earlier.
I’m sorry – I had some other posts I wanted to do tonight. But I just don’t think I can bring myself to it.
Nurse Jenny has just informed me that our own dear Joe Comer, HerkyBirdMan, has suffered a massive stroke, and is now in hospice care. His prognosis is not good. Please join me in keeping Joe, Jenny, and their family in your thoughts and prayers.
Well, folks: It’s been a long run: About two years or so, since I last put this system up.
And that’s surely a long run: Previously – before I installed this new hardware, I was lucky to get three months on a system.
But now, what has come to pass, has passed. I have been limping along for months here. And now, among all the other bugs, I can’t even read PDF files. And I don’t know how to fix it.
No – it’s time to wipe the disk, and start from scratch. And of course, I will preserve precious data – and cache everything important elsewhere. But I really don’t know WTF I’m doing. So important stuff is likely to be lost.
So. before I go do strange and exotic things to my hard disk, any words of wisdom would be appreciated..
I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again. If I see a comment that has nothing to do with the post it’s attached to on MY posts, I delete them. I understand if the conversation evolves somehow from one point to another, but for goshsakes, don’t hijack one of our posts for one of your own rants or positions. Wait until we talk about it, or, better yet, get your own blog.
And if you need to complain about ads or a techie issues, simply email one of us, preferably Kevin since he likes people more than I do, most of the time, if he’s had his meds, otherwise… It should be as simple as clicking on one of our names.
And if you’re not using the Firefox Browser then I probably can’t help you anyway because my first answer is going to be, get Firefox and most of your browser problems will solve themselves.
mmmm’k?
Thanks.
Hey. Jeff Harrell has a featured column over at Wizbang that’s worth your time. He’s got a good wrapup of all the shots fired at us before we fought back in the war on terror.
Don’t know how long but at least until the middle of next week, probably longer. I’m bored.
Received this email from Spirit of America today:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SPIRIT OF AMERICA RELEASES ANONYMOUS BLOGGING GUIDES IN ENGLISH,
ARABIC, CHINESE, AND PERSIANSpirit of America has launched the BlogSafer wiki, available at http://www.blogsafer.org. BlogSafer contains a series of guides on how to blog under difficult conditions in countries that discourage free speech.
LOS ANGELES, California – January 7, 2006 – Spirit of America’s
BlogSafer wiki hosts a series of targeted guides to anonymous
blogging, each of which outline steps a blogger in a repressive regime
can take, and tools to use, to avoid identification and arrest. These
range from common sense actions such as not providing identifying
details on a blog to the technical, such as the use of proxy servers.
More »
I just removed this comment (and stripped the link) from the thread of another post
JESUS CHRIST HAS REMOVED HIS BLESSING FROM AMERICA BECAUSE OF HOW
CORRUPT THE CONFUSATIVES HAVE MADE THIS COUNTRY. CAN’T YOU TELL?
DON’T BE A CENSORING COMMIE; BE MAN ENOUGH TO KEEP THIS POST UP.
Your comment has been deleted because it is non sequitur spam The fact that you think anyone on this blog is a “commie”, most particularly myself, just shows what a fucking barking moonbat you are.
Merry Christmas.
As most of you know, Sgt. Mom and Cpl. Blondie are traveling here to SoCal. Sgt. Mom and I plan to get together then.
Well, besides a meeting of old friends – with its pomp, regalia, and comradery, this is also to be a “business building” meeting, about the future of the blog.
I will be largely engaged, for the next few days, in structuring an agenda for this meeting. Much of it will involve technical, structural, and business-building matters. But the most important part, in my view, is our public presence; how do we make this a better blog for you?
So, here is your chance to be a part. And please, afford us no quarter; something you may think is trivial might be quite important to another who has no chance to comment in the next few days.
Thanks to you all. — Kevin
May the new persona fit you well.
Let’s not be mistaken here: my untapped knowledge of movie trivia is still rather encyclopedic. The problem is that it is mostly, well, rather trivial – at least to those outside Hollywood.
I’ve tried to set a guidepost, in all my movie trivia puzzles, things that were of particular impact to the industry, or had impact on a broader scale. In short – things that weren’t really so trivial. I think that has a great deal to do with the series’ popularity on this blog.
But now, I’m feeling a bit taxed. I’m sure I could dredge-up many more goodies – but real life intrudes. So, in order to keep up the momentum, I call upon you – my dear readers – for inspiration. Please e-mail me your movie trivia ideas. I will follow up on them. And, if I think I have something good to offer, do a post.
If I use your idea, I will notify you, via email reply, as such. As well, I will give you a Hat Tip at the close. But PLEASE – don’t answer the puzzle yourself (for obvious reasons). And, please, don’t be offended if I don’t use your idea – you don’t know how many of my own boners I have run through my head since I started this thing – only to reject.
Oh, and please don’t overestimate my feeble intelligence, thinking I should just know why your idea has merit – sell it to me. 🙂
1.) Are you done with the name changes yet?
2.) Why shouldn’t we believe Dennis the Peasant?
And if you’re involved or think you’re involved with Pajamas Media, you may want to read his entire site. I have no idea if he’s just a looney (Monty Python Lives!) or not, but ya gotta ask yourself who are you going into business with?
I posted the second question on Baldilock’s site too since she’s now the HMFIC of Blogger Relations.
Hat Tip to Stryker.
Update: I guess I should have looked on Roger Simon’s Blog for his repsonse first. Silly me, I’ve been trying to find something at Pajamas Media, OSM, Pajama’s Media. I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know I wouldn’t play cards with these guys. I don’t like the way they treat their friends.
The following appeared in my hotmail inbox this afternoon; there is a zip-file attached, who among you thinks I am fool enough to open it?
But I will listen to any amusing guesses as to what these idjits were after.
Dear Sir/Madam,
we have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.
Important:
Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.
Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison
*** Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-
*** 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 3220
*** Washington, DC 20535
*** phone: (202) 324-3000
Due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday creep— you know, how it used to be just a Thursday off, but then everyone started taking Friday, and then Wednesday, and now the entire week is shot, for meaningful working purposes— the chances of me getting any paying temp assignments this week are pretty close to nil. Ditto any promising interviews…. which leaves me sitting at home, looking at a computer and waiting for the phone to ring.
And I have my property tax due date coming up after the first of the month, which motivates me to throw out an offer to write… well, whatever. For an fee of $13.00 USD hourly, of course. Essays, articles, letters to the editor, comic monologues, your family Christmas letter… I will even ghost-write blog posts. (I will not do school term papers or doctoral dissertations; one does have to set limits!) I will assign all rights to whomever has paid me to write a specific piece, and you can do whatever you like with it.
Paypal is fine, and tips for superior work will be graciously welcomed. Just let me know how many words, the topic and format preferred, and I will work up a quote based on about how long I think it will take me to write it.
Questions? Comment below, or email by clicking on my name at the top of the post.
Just hoping you get this via a trackback.
Duuuuude! For the past half-hour, I have been trying to deliver a simple, personal reply to your comment on my post here. And this has been maddening! I mean, the email addy you supply with the comment is bad (were it anyone else, I would have just deleted the comment at this point). And, when I try to contact you via your site’s “contact” function, it tells me I must first “register” – what a fucking pain in the ass!
I know spam is a huge problem. Sgt. Mom and I likely spend a man-hour or so a day between us to contain it, despite our filter. And that doesn’t include the email spam I get on the addy I use here. But dude, there’s an “over the top” point – and I think you’ve surpassed it. I mean, I hate this fucking spam thing; but I still want to be accessible to my readers. And, I want to be even more accessible to my co-blogging associates.
Something certainly needs to be done here. I have heard talk of all us OSM people being linked together on a private IM network. I hope this is true; we had this at Samizdata, and it worked really well.
Anyway, here’s the original email I was trying to send you:
Actually Jeff, in the few times I have visited your blog in the past, I have quite liked your work too. But I’m sorry to say that this wasn’t among those. Perhaps pure fiction just isn’t your thing. Or perhaps I just had a wild hair up my ass. C’est la vie. 🙂
— Kevin
Ann Althouse is blogging about the new OSM site:
Would you drink a fluid out of something that said “Bloggers Do It In Their Pajamas”? I think of bodily fluids. But no matter, now the bloggers can do it in their Open Source Media. Or as somebody already quipped: Open Sores Media. Swapping semen for pus, bodily fluids-wise.
I don’t find that particularly clever (or original, it seems), but I disagree with Charles Johnson, who feels that it is particularly tasteless. A quick scan of the almost 400 comments to his post reveals quite a few which are truly tasteless. But whatever; I’ve always maintained that good taste was something best rendered by fine food and drink, not good blogging.
But I have to agree with Ann on some of her other criticisms as well. I find it quite curious that our first featured post would be a fictional “live-blogging” (by Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom) of the New York roll-out – especially since it isn’t really that great a post. And the Gaza border deal (“Compiled by OSM Staff in Barcelona”) story isn’t very well written. Some clumsy prose in a blog post can be forgiven, but feature articles should have more polish.
There are some other things I’m pretty unimpressed with: The Blogjam debate premised “WHY WE FIGHT: Is Washington really growing more partisan day by day?” between illustrious bloggers Austin Bay, Brad Friedman, Max Sawicky, and Sgt. Mom (who some of you might be familiar with 🙂 ) wasn’t very enlightening (sorry dear).
What particularly caught my attention was that no-one challenged lefty Max Sawicky’s (MaxSpeak) initial assertion that “[I]t prevents important things from getting done.” Most of what I’m sure he sees as “important things” is just mischief – as most of what government does these days is. As such, political gridlock is a good thing.
And then I have numerous nit-picks. For instance: what is Michelle Malkin’s logo doing just floating around out there on the homepage, with no link even attached to it? She’s a contributor, not an advertiser. Strange. (Update: Now it’s been replaced with “Kudlow’s Money Politics”)
Anyway, while it would have been nice to see something a bit more impressive while all eyes are upon us, I remain philosophical, and hopeful: It’s common for start-up operations to have some kinks that require ironing out.
Update: Jon Henke at QandO Blog and James Joyner at Outside the Beltway have roundups of the mixed reactions, both inside and outside of the OSM organization, to the roll-out, as well as the site itself. And John Burke at The Editor’s Weblog is highly skeptical:
Despite the fact that bloggers and mainstream media are under one roof on the site, as of now there is no synergy between the two. To make OSM a successful project, the news stories it cites should be linked to the bloggers that comment on the same subject, thus creating an easily navigable package that combines the original reporting with blogger opinion.
The problem with this is that this has already been done to some extent. GoogleNews and YahooNews combine mainstream media stories with blogs on their aggregators so that the reader knows which blogs are commenting on the news. With the present OSM model, readers would have to search out for themselves the blogs with the commentary they’re looking for.
An additional feature on OSM is a “Blogjam“, essentially a debate between a few of the bloggers on the OSM blogs list. It starts off with each quickly stating (typing) their opinion on the matter in question and then they defend their position with subsequent postings.
The idea has potential and the underlying point is that now, with new media, anyone’s voice can be heard. But it’s like a radio or television talk show debate, except not as interesting. You actually have to read what they think and the postings aren’t necessarily in order; you sometimes have to scroll down the page to see what one blogger said about what another had said four or five postings previous.
Well: I wasn’t able to make it to New York, so I’m just following the reports from our Pajamas Media rollout.
I must first confess: I really liked the PJM moniker – it was distinctive and socially significant. On the other hand, our new name: Open Source Media is its exact antithesis:
All I have to say is: boring! If this is the apogee of creative thought we have at the top, we are doomed!
…It seems that some liberals don’t understand us, and can’t see how we can succeed:
Pajamas, as I understand it, wanted to be an ad network. I don’t see huge advertiser demand for a bunch of mostly conservative political bloggers. At one time, they wanted to be some sort of syndicate but I said nobody would buy content. It seems they now want to be some sort of blog central thing — antimatter to the Huffingtonpost’s matter, I suppose — but the difference is that most of her people don’t blog while most of these people already do blog so I don’t know why I need to see a collection of them. And they keep saying they’re going to change their name but they have their gala introduction still using the silly name they have. The invite to the gala intro I just got says:
Meanwhile, we’ve just got $3.5 million in initial capitalization. It seems that some smart businesspeople understand that, despite their celebrity, there are plenty of readers out there who value the observations, opinions, and general musings, of folks like us, and the rest of the network, than those of the likes of Alec Baldwin and Ron Reagan.
The Shape of Days’ Jeff Harrell is off hiatus and his blog has a bold new look. Kind of artsey and will prolly take forever to get through the firewall at work, but kinda cool. Besides, he hasn’t lost his edge.
Via Jay Tea.
Please go here and vote for us. Aaron is putting together a deck of blogger cards. Someone already voted for us and it wasn’t me, I swear.
Please note that this post ushers in a new category: Eat, Drink and be Merry: Foods, Beverages and the Joy of Breaking Bread. I think this is in order; we’ve done many posts on the subject to date. And, while it may just be the season, we seem to be doing more all the time.
I have just watched (with several interruptions) The Cultivated Life: Thomas Jefferson and Wine, on my local PBS station. To any lover of wine, or of history (and most know I am both), this should be considered a must see.
It is almost cliche that, here in California, wine is central to our culture. But, as I was reminded of with this comment from my dear friend, Jude, the same is true, to one degree or another, of many other regions of America. Indeed, wine grapes are grown in every state of the Union, save for Alaska and Wyoming.
But it wasn’t always that way. Grapes are not native to North America. Historians believe that what Leif Eriksson actually saw, when making landfall in Newfoundland, were cranberries – not grapes. And the early colonists found their attempts to introduce grapes quite frustrating. While Jefferson was a great lover of wine, and became quite the connoisseur during his time in France, he was never successful in his attempts to grow grapes at Monticello. I have been aware of the basics of this for some time, but I found the detail and color offered by this program quite enriching.
Update: As my readers have pointed out, I was incorrect in my statement that grapes are not native to North America. However, early Americans – on the east coast at least – did have difficulties growing wine grapes (PDF – 55 pgs.):
British settlers first attempted to plant Vitis vinifera in the U.S. in 1619, but were faced with difficult conditions and low yields. The poor growing climate of the east coast even prevented accomplished European growers brought over by the colonists from establishing any sort of sustainable venture. It was not until 1818 in York, Pennsylvania, that Thomas Eichelberger was able to become the first commercially successful grower. Still, production was rather small and wine drinkers had to rely mainly on European imports.229 The first permanent and extensive wine production came later in the 1830s with the establishment of Nicholas Longworth near Cincinnati, Ohio.230
At the same time, unbeknownst to the isolated east coast, a separate wine industry began to take root in the west. Jesuits from Spain moved north from Mexico around 1700 and began setting up missions throughout California. Father Juniper Serra set up twenty-one such missions, all of which had vineyards. Wine served a sacramental purpose for the missionaries, but had little outside use at the time. Thus, when the missions began to diminish in importance later in the century, the vineyards also fell into disrepair without any interested parties to care for them.231
The California wine industry remained on the fringe until the influx of settlers from the Gold Rush arrived in the mid-1800s. Finding mainly missionary grapes, the settlers called for something better. In 1860, Hungarian immigrant Agoston Haraszthy helped create the Viticultural Commission to oversee the development of the wine industry in California. Haraszthy brought back many vines from his travels in Europe and distributed them throughout California. When phylloxera swept through the world in the late 1800s, it was discovered that indigenous vines from the eastern U.S. were not susceptible to the disease. This led producers around the world to begin grafting western and European vines onto the roots of the eastern vines in hopes of preventing future outbreaks. Slowly producers and consumers alike began pushing for higher standards of quality, which led to the creation of the Board of Viticultural Commissioners and the State Agricultural Experiment Station to control the artistic, scientfic, and business aspects of the industry.232
Disaster struck the U.S. wine industry when the 18th Amendment was ratified in 1919 instituting Prohibition. Many vineyards were either abandoned or forced to survive on government permits to produce small amounts of medicinal, sacramental, or cooking wine.233 Other vineyards were torn up and planted with inferior grapes that were used for unfermented juices, jams, and jellies. Some wine production did go underground, however. Such homemade wines were often heavier and were fortified to have higher alcohol contents. In fact, after Prohibition ended, two-thirds of wine produced was over 20 alcohol.234 When Prohibition came to an end in 1933, the industry was in shambles. An estimated 1000 commercial wineries had been reduced to 150, many of those only having survived as a result of the government permits.
Producers also refused to replace the inferior vines that they had planted during Prohibition, claiming that replanting was too expensive and that their products had been selling adequately before.235 In 1935, the Wine Institute was created to oversee, stabilize, and monitor the regrowth of the industry.236 The Wine Institute also served as a government lobby and a publicity board for the fragmented industry, although it failed in its campaign to make Americans realize that wine should be drunk with food and not merely for intoxicating purposes. In fact, consumer preference for a higher alcohol content remained through World War II, when 75% of wine made in the U.S. was fortified. It was also around the time of World War II that the wine industry finally started to rebound.237
The 1940s marked a period of consolidation as large distillers began to buy up vineyards. Four companies Schenley, Hiram Walker, Seagram, and National, owned almost half the industry at the time. Consolidation also allowed for vast improvements in consistency and quality. By the 1970s, the rise of wine had begun, as many discovered table wine as an alternative to fortified wines. Finally, the 1980s marked another resurgence where wine became viewed as part of a healthy, civilized lifestyle, rather than a source of inebriation.238.
____________________________________________________229 Richard McGowan, Government Regulation of the Alcohol Industry 37 (1997).
230 Oxford Companion to Wine, supra note 10, at 726.
231 McGowan, supra note 229, at 37. California now accounts for 90% of U.S. wine production. Id at 99.
232 Id at 43-44.
233 Id at 49.
234 Paul Lukacs, American Vintage: The Rise of American Wine 100-02 (2000).
235 Id at 103-04.
236 McGowan, supra note 229, at 49.
237 Lukacs, supra note 234, at 103, 108.
238 Id at 110, 128, 188. Ironically, per capita wine consumption in the U.S. peaked at 2.43 gallons in 1985. The current level
is around 2.0 gallons. Id at 188.
Interestingly though, the area around Monticello is now a hub for winemaking.
We’re going to be updating and making some changes as we transfer over to Pajamas Media. If we don’t have you blogrolled on the Links Page or if your link has changed, drop me a line or put something in the comments so we can fix that.
Don’t panic if we disappear entirely, that just means I’ve managed to melt things down and haven’t been able to wake up Stryker or Sparkey in the middle of the night.
Update: No major cosmetic changes will be made with the exception of the Pajamas Media ads taking hold. I’m mostly going to be updating links since some of them are so old they’re actually broken. I’m not sure if we’re ready for a face-lift yet…what say you all?
Looks like Smash and his Missus have started a new blog place.