Life's little mysteries

Apparently I have a Sulia page which I only discovered because someone I don't follow and who doesn't follow me posted it to the twitter. The page that comes up at the link looks like Facebook. Not sure how that happened. I'm certain I didn't sign up for it myself. I still haven't figured out what the point is with Sulia and I can't keep up with the social nets I'm already active on. I haven't even joined Tumblr or Pinterest, which I'm told is mandatory these days.

Not complaining. Often stumble across various sites that post my work. They don't steal it outright, just a blurb and a link. Rarely seems to generate much traffic but always happy to see my message get wider exposure. But still, I am truly mystified.

She's got a way about her

I've never understood the pininterest thing. I click on their links and the whole page doesn't scroll on my screen and often they don't give you a link with the picture. So I haven't spent any time there. Thus, I have no idea who Jane Wang is but I clicked on her name to find out and found her main page. The pininterest concept suddenly makes more sense to me in that context.

This comes up because Jane apparently pinned me and I noticed the traffic spike she generated. Which was very cool. Thanks so much Jane. And she also has a fabulous collection of images over there. Including a category for hats. Like this one.

I'm all about interesting images these days and there thousands more at Jane's link. Looking forward to getting lost there for hours someday soon.

When pigs fly away

A sad moment for me. Newshoggers is shutting down. I blogged there for a couple of years. My most viral posts were published there. I came to love my co-bloggers like family. It was a special place and hosted some of the best foreign policy analysis ever.

But times change. Everyone has now moved on to other ventures so they've archived the blog. Newshoggers isn't dead, but will join so many others in a sort of eternal rest. May it live in memory (and on google) forever.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

When the party's over

DougJ is home so my guest gig at Balloon Juice is done. Glad it came up when I had time to fully enjoy the community of like minded people. Kind of the opposite of my life at the Detroit News. Not to say that both aren't good in their own ways.

Meanwhile, I never expected to say, "Damn, but I'm proud of Harry Reid."

Didn't think he had it in him to stand up to the GOP onslaught. Even better, Nancy Pelosi stood up for Harry today with the perfect response. Harry Reid is telling the truth. Someone did tell Harry Reid that Mitt didn't pay any taxes. The burden of proof under the current rules of political discourse, invented by the GOP themselves, is now on the Mittster. He could prove them wrong in a New York minute by releasing the tax returns. Raising the question -- again -- why won't he just do it?

Judging from the mass hurling onto the fainting couches in The Village, it looks like a brilliant move on the eleventy level chessboard to me. Happy to see the Democratic party playing the game well for a change.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

The Mormon rapid response team

In all the years I've been blogging at Detroit News, I posted about Mormons for the first time just this weekend. Since then I've been deluged with emails from Mormons. Really long emails. With multiple links. They're apparently very sensitive about how their charitable contributions are calculated.

I read all the way through every one of them because, I know nothing about Mormons. Never even met one in real life. They tell me they are not an organized group. They don't speak on behalf of the church. Yet their emails are nearly identical. Except for this one stray phrase which caught my interest:

There is a book out on the Mormon way of doing business. We are trained from a young age to learn skills that can be transferred to the business world.

I want to read this book. I wonder if I can buy it without joining.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Who knows where the time goes

I'm terrible at Mondays. Somehow lost this one on the internets today. DougJ slipped me the spare key when he left on vacation, so I'm guesting at Balloon Juice for a few days. Which means I'm also hanging out in the comment section instead of blogging. And my last couple of posts at Detroit News generated a record breaking deluge of email. To my private address. Much of which needed to be answered.

DetNews edited one of the post titles. A new first. On the bright side it was a good edit. So there's that...

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Name checked

Yes, it's a Politico piece that flags a throwaway post but still, I'm such a geek. Never get tired of being name checked and quoted by a major news org. Thanks Tim.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Ask me no more questions, tell me no more lies

Well, campaign season just officially opened for me. Failed presidental contender and sporadic co-blogger Congressman Thad McCotter is posting to my blog. And when I say my blog, I mean the blog I virtually built at Detroit News, but don't own in any way. Nonetheless, when I started eight years ago, it was the only blog on the site and at this point -- I've been there much longer than most of the people who are now in charge. But I digress...

Thad posted about his Codel to Taiwan. An interesting and well written post actually, but nonetheless, irritated me because his long history of deficit alarmism is still ringing in my ears. So I commented:

I'm wondering why an in person meeting was necessary. This is 2012. Video teleconferencing is widely available. What with the Congressman's great concern about our deficit, would love to know how much this little junket cost the taxpayers.

Not expecting an answer. Half expecting to get deleted for daring to ask the question.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Life's little milestones

Not one who likes to boast, but I've been toiling away in varying degrees of total obscurity at this blogging thing for nine years and counting now. And I'm still not so jaded that a link in an establishment news site doesn't still give a me a little thrill. Discovered quite by accident yesterday that an old Detroit News post of mine was linked in both the WaPo and the WSJ.

No name check, just a bare link, but still it's encouraging to see my work spread even just a little beyond my usual venues. Jamelle, sitting in for Greg at The Plum Line linked me in at this sentence:

Instead, Gingrich argued in a news conference in January, Romney was a “vulture capitalist” who did more to extract wealth than create it:

Then that post was quoted in this WSJ blog along with the link. Pretty sure I've never been linked in either before so thanks Jamelle, fun to get two firsts in one day. Encourages me to keep this little hobby going.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Happy Blogiversary to me

Speaking of Blogiversaries, just realized that yesterday was mine. Nine years ago, I published my very first post. It was about an anti-war demonstration I stumbled into in lovely downtown Northampton. Haven't, despite many requests, shut up since. Figure I must have billions of words floating through the intertoobz by now.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Just so you know

I don't usually blog about feminist or LGBT issues because there are so many other people out there who cover it so comprehensively already and well, you can't follow everything. Which is not to say I don't read about it, but I don't generally have anything new to add. Also, too, I have three active blogs so it's always a bit of struggle to decide what to post where on the issues about which I have something worth saying.

That being said, yeah for the Ninth Circuit court who ruled against Prop 8 today, sending it on its way to some kind of final determination at SCOTUS. Rooting for equal rights for my LGBT friends. And so long to the odious Karen Handel of Komen for the Cure fame, who resigned today. Can't say I'll be missing her since she's already on the bobblehead circuit whining about her victimization at the hands of us thuggish defenders of poor people in need of reproductive health services. Can't wait for her fifteen minutes to be over.

My blogging is an evolving process. Where it stands lately is I'm mostly posting on the hottest election issues at Detroit News, where I have the best chance of influencing voters who might be swayed to sanity. Been doing Hoekstra this week and GOP primary stuff there generally. My other personal blog, Last One Speaks, had mellowed into a sort of daily correspondence with friends and family about the small doings in my private life. Lately it hasn't even had much of that, since my life isn't that exciting. Post a lot of odd links to weird arty stuff I pick up on my travels around the social nets. It's the place to go if you need a mental health break.

Meanwhile, this blog is becoming my private refuge where I can vent without worrying about being G-rated, dropping the occasional profanity when I'm pissed off, archiving links I'll want again and talking about the issues that don't quite fit in anywhere else. I'd probably be a much more successful blogger if I focused all my energy in one place, but that's just not my style. Never cared about money and status. I've always cut a wide swath through all the social strata, in my offline and online life. Always hung with everyone from street people to millionaires. Slept in palaces and slept on the streets. Love it all.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Jon Swift: Gone but not forgotten

There have been many times since his sudden death that I wished Al Weisel, a/k/a Jon Swift, was still with us to decipher the conservative narratives with his inimitable brand of gentle satire. In a world where gut-busting snark now rules the internets, I miss Al's subtle and oh so polite evisceration of Wingnuttia; so skillfully rendered that first time readers often thought he was a sovereign citizen of Wingnutistan himself.

But Al under his Swiftian persona was a real liberal and a true friend to the small bloggers of what was then known as Leftopia. His kind encouragement and generous linking policy inspired many B-Z listers to keep posting. Myself included.

Every year at this time he would undertake the Herculean task of publishing a huge "best post of the year list." He invited everyone to contribute. Sure you had to pick your own best post, but he assembled the list, embedded the links and promoted the post, sending much appreciated traffic spikes to those who rarely saw them.

But while Al Weisel is sadly lost to us, a million thanks to Batocchio, the Vagabond Scholar for keeping the spirit of our dear friend alive by continuing the tradition with the Jon Swift Memorial Round-up. I, for reasons too complicated to explain, unfortunately missed the deadline, but there's a wealth of fabulous posts at the link. Some names you'll recognize, and some you probably won't. But read them all. Jon would have wanted it that way.

Via the incomparable Lance Mannion who got inside my head this week. This virtual world, that was once called the blogosphere has changed so much since the days we started this crazy blogging thing. His thoughts on twitter fatigue mirror my own. Everything changes. [graphic credit]

It's always the throwaway posts

You know, I'm not given to long posts, but sometimes I do spend hours researching and thinking about what I want to say in a really thoughtful post. Nobody ever quotes those. But do a throw away post on the scandal du jour, and I get quoted.

By Yahoo News and their magazine This Week. And now this afternoon by the New York Daily News.

Not complaining. I appreciate the encouragement. Just sayin' you never know what post is going to get attention. And, it's never the one you expect.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Giddy as a school girl

When I first started blogging, back in the stone age of the medium, I used to obsessively check my referrals about every hour or so. I followed every single one to see where it came from. I was awestruck by the realization that complete strangers were reading me. Of course, I only had one blog and more time then.

These days, I rarely check but last night I took a peek and discovered to my everlasting joy, Charles P. Pierce put us on his blogroll. I'm not one to boast about such things, but I was so flushed with excitement, I immediately posted it on Facebook. I mean, our little obscure blog, listed up there with a bunch of big, important bloggers. On Charles P. Pierce's blog. At Esquire. Just wow.

Hoping it's because he likes my odd style, but thinking he may have added us because he appreciates Fogg's eloquence as much as I do. But for whatever reason, it was nice to feel that old thrill again, so if you're really reading us Mr. Pierce. Thanks. Appreciate the encouragement.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Fan mail

Been a while since I've received an amusing fan mail from a DetNews reader who cared enough to track down my email addy. Rather like this one.

Maam,

I must admit that your columns are among the dumbest things that I've ever read in a "major" newspaper. Will you kindly grow up?

That may be the most polite insult I've ever received. Love it.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]

Back to Obscurity

Well, my Balloon Juice guest stint is done. It was a fun gig. A bit stressful since I was on the road for the most of the week and had almost no time to post and barely enough energy to form coherent sentences when I did have time. Still, it was very cool to be front paged at such a very important blog that I've read and loved for so many years. My only regret is I didn't have time to link to more of my friends with smaller blogs like this little place.

But it's good to be home and it being Sunday, I'm going to start with some easy links I've been accumulating for way too long.

This one is fresh. Great Doonesbury on creationism in the classroom.

Haven't actually looked at this one yet. Not sure I'll even be able to see it because my flash player needs updating and I don't have time to do it, but definitely want to archive Peter Jackson’s Second Hobbit Vlog. If Honey Bear Kelly retweeted it, figure it's got to be really good.

Haven't looked at this one yet either. Not sure if this link is rotted yet, they don't last long at DetNews, but a time-lapse of a mural being painted downtown does sound very cool.

This photo is really old but really worth the click. Dramatic lightning strike during a fast, furious NYC storm.

My favorite geek Mark Knoller provides the big squee. Photo of 3-week-old two-pound cheetah cub at the National Zoo.

Another unseen link I want to check out. AnnieLowrey posts Awesome postcards from France in 1910 about life in the year 2000. I love this kind of stuff.

My tweep Hudsonette has a keen eye for great photos to retweet. The heron looked angelic.

Jamison Foser found these very cool photos. They're stills but they have one element in the frame that's animated.

And finally, also really old, but I bet you missed it and I loved this story. Legoland staff plays a joke on their boss. They replaced his car with a full scale Volvo made of Legos.

Blogging elsewhere

I know I've been neglecting the blog this week. My internet time has been really limited, so I've been posting at Balloon Juice while I have the chance. Happy to report the BJ commenters have been very kind to me. In all the years I've been blogging, and I guest posted at so many blogs I can't remember them all, I've never so many comments on every post. I only wish I had more time to hang out and chat with them.

The irony is, I had a choice of three different weeks when I was invited to do this and with my usual impeccable timing, chose the wrong one. But in any event, the gig will end on Saturday or maybe Sunday, so I'll be back here again soon.

Guest posting

Guess I forgot to mention, I'm guest posting at Balloon Juice this week. Couldn't have come at a worse time since I'm traveling but how cool is it that they so kindly invited me to fill in for Doug J while he's away?

Feel like I won a Pulitizer

Wow. I've been blogging politics for eons in blog years, so it's fair to say I'm pretty jaded. But some things still excite me like a teenager who just got asked to the prom by the most popular guy in school and this is one of them. I just figured out that a long time dream of mine has been realized. I'm now on the Balloon Juice blogroll.

I suspect the relentlessly kind and generous Doug J had something to do with this, but whoever is responsible for this impossible honor -- thanks so much. Really appreciate the encouragement.

Somebody at the NYT likes me

Or maybe it's somebody at Blogrunner. I find my little blog in the NYT's Blogrunner links sidebar all the time. Usually it's at the NYT's own blogs, but today I found it attached to an actual article. I don't know how long
this page lasts but even after all the years I've been blogging, I get a thrill when I see my name and little blog listed with all the big guys like Josh Marshall and Ezra Klein.

I don't know why I get picked up on this feed, but I really appreciate the encouragement. So thanks, to whoever is responsible for this occasional heartwarming miracle. [Graphic via webresourcesdepot.]

[Big thanks to Doug Harlan J at Balloon Juice for so kindly linking in.]