COMMENTS TEMPORARILY CLOSED - MIGRATING FROM HALOSCAN/ECHO TO DISQUS
Old comments migrated to Disqus, currently working outtechnical issues
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
New To The Blogroll
Old comments migrated to Disqus, currently working outtechnical issues
Riehl World View Dan Riehl reminds us what non-Republican senators are up for reelection, and offers this theory behind Dread Justice Roberts' vote,
Labels: Blogs
Saturday, February 11, 2012
The Envelope, Please III
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
YouLibel
For a long time I've wondered how libel laws can still exist in a country where people can accuse President Bush of engineering the WTC collapse and not get thrown into jail. Prove to me those laws still exist.
Monday, August 08, 2011
Blogiversary
At Rand's I suggested that Google should have made one of its cute little graphics for the occasion.
Labels: Blogs
Friday, July 29, 2011
Rest In Peace
Labels: Blogs, Obituaries
Monday, April 04, 2011
New Blogrollage - Law Blogging Edition
Ann Althouse Quoting Wikipedia, she teaches "federal jurisdiction, civil procedure, and constitutional law at the University of Wisconsin Law School," having gained her tenure in 1989, the same year a lot of Eastern European politicians lost theirs. Recent posts explore the religious liberties of crass redneck pastors and euthanasia for dogs because they look scary.
Overlawyered "Chronicling the high cost of our legal system." Hosted by Cato scholar Walter Olson, with frequent contributions from American Enterprise Institute scholar Ted Frank, who is also founder and directs the Center for Class Action Fairness. Here's one recent gem: a suit to require stadiums to caption the songs they play for the benefit of the deaf. Commenter Jerryskids writes: "What about the rights of the blind to fully experience the cheerleaders? Will they be allowed down onto the field to feel the cheerleaders?"
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Birthday And Blogiversary
At such a milestone, one might expect me to have something poignant to say. Nothing comes to mind.
Over the past year I've had a lot of personal distractions. I hope to start putting more effort into this blog and the Henderson Prize soon.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
More Thoughts On PayPal vs. Atlas Shrugs
Also, a lot of folks out there can't tell the difference between hate and criticism, or between political disagreement and hate. Maybe there could be competing PayLeft, PayRight, PayLibertarian, PayAlexJones, etc. services to fill all the gaps. Would this kind of ideological discrimination pass constitutional muster?
On another note, if anyone sends an email saying you've violated an Acceptable Use policy, that email had better cite explicit examples of use violations. PayPal's letter to Geller does no such thing. You don't tell someone you're doing something wrong without telling her what you think they're doing wrong.
IIRC, this is the first time Islamists lobbied PayPal to yank someone's account for insulting their religion. They didn't pull that stunt during the years that this and other websites reported jihadi activities. They did it when you worked with an organization that assists people seeking to get out of Islam.
Suggesting that Islam has a disproportionate number of violent folks is one thing, but if you actively help people to convert from Islam to something else, now that's really insulting!
Labels: Blogs, Media, Religion, War on Terror
Monday, June 14, 2010
Blogosphere 1, Islamists 0
Here is the original story, chock full of links.
Paypal caved. Read the whole thing, including the eBay listing for a pro-jihadi DVD set - the vendor has a PayPal account, and her reportage of CAIR's cheers over the original decision.
In comments to the post linked above, I threw out this idea, tongue firmly in cheek:
Maybe there's a way for PayPal to cancel your account and still have a consistent policy: prohibit accounts to anyone who directly offends a religion. Philip Pullman fansite? No PayPal for you! Southern Poverty Law Center and ADL, both of which badmouth Nation of Islam? No PayPal for you! Vatican-bashing Andrew Sullivan? No PayPal for you! Christopher Hitchens? No PayPal for you! Charles Johnson (re Item 3)? No PayPal for you!
Labels: Blogs, Media, Religion, War on Terror
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Longstanding Blogger Issue Solved
http://alankhenderson.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html#7151850179023733497
The following code embeds the hyperlink in a text field (text field "Link" used as an example):
<a href="<$BlogItemArchiveFileName$>#<$BlogItemNumber$>">Link</a>
At least that's the way it used to be.
Through trial and error, I discovered that Blogger changed the value of the $BlogItemArchiveFileName$ variable. Originally, it contained everything to the left of the pound sign - now it includes the pound sign and the $BlogItemNumber$ value. And Blogger/Google didn't tell anyone.
I reported the issue THREE TIMES and nobody had an answer. Blogger tech support is about as unresponsive as the Vogon Constructor Fleet.
Labels: Blogs
Monday, November 02, 2009
Today's Blogger Quiz
GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava has bowed out of the NY-23 race, leaving religious right/tea party candidate Doug Hoffman nearly tied with Democrat Bill Owens.
The far right (led by James Dobson, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, etc.) is testing its grip on the Republican Party with Hoffman’s candidacy. At this point it looks like a death grip.
And which one said this?
One thing is for certain - the impact of the NY-23 saga on the fate of the GOP will have far more long-reaching effects than the simple question of who wins on Tuesday. The Republican establishment that at least pretended to speak to all Americans is deeply, deeply wounded, and a wild-eyed, exclusionist, birther religio-beast is taking its place.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Blogiversary
Labels: Blogs
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Andrew Sullivan Is Unhinged, Too
Sully quotes a grammatically-impaired reader:
That quote by Michelle Malkin that you posted describing the killing of Tiller as "terrorism" wasn't by Michelle. It was a quote from a post on some other blog and she linked to Google. She didn't call it terrorism. In fact, she was basically pulling the "oh NOW the left uses the word 'terrorism'" card. Just didn't want you giving her credit for something she didn't actually do.
Sullivan had given her an Yglesias Award nomination for this:
"Late-term abortion doctor George Tiller was gunned down at his church in Kansas Sunday morning in a thoroughly evil, cold-blooded act of domestic terrorism. Yes, terrorism. Not 'extremism,'"
The Malkin article in question is here. What threw off the reader - and Sully - was the sentence immediately following that excerpted in the Dish:
Interesting how the t-word has been rediscovered.
First, the reader is misrepresenting facts about the origins of her quote. I did a Google search on the exact phrase "thoroughly evil, cold-blooded act of domestic terrorism." The results clearly show that Malkin is the originator of the quote.
Second, one like Malkin can both believe that the Tiller shooting was terrorism AND note the resurgence of the word "terrorism" in the media.
Third, please take note of the definition of the Yglesias Award: its purpose is (emphasis added)...
"for writers, politicians, columnists or pundits who actually criticize their own side, make enemies among political allies, and generally risk something for the sake of saying what they believe."
Andrew Sullivan insinuates that a guy who murders an abortionist is representative of the conservative majority. Sully should win his own Moore Award.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Frustration With Blogger
http://alankhenderson.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html#8364007883149853217
However, since the Google acquisition the direct links have been double-inserting the unique identifier, like this:
http://alankhenderson.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html#8364007883149853217#8364007883149853217
Click that faulty link and it simply takes you to the top of the blog, not to the nonexistent URL.
I can't get a reply from the Blogger Help Group, and Blogger itself has no technical support contact info.
Labels: Blogs
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Envelope, Please VI
Labels: Blogs
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Uh Oh
Posted by Alan at 10:55 AM |
Monday, May 12, 2008
Blogroll Tweakage
Labels: Blogs
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
The Envelope, Please IV
I didn't realize that Linda Chavez was such a political bigot:
Some people just don't like Mexicans -- or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans.
No amount of hard, empirical evidence to the contrary, and no amount of reasoned argument or appeals to decency and fairness, will convince this small group of Americans -- fewer than 10 percent of the general population, at most -- otherwise. Unfortunately, among this group is a fair number of Republican members of Congress, almost all influential conservative talk radio hosts, some cable news anchors -- most prominently, Lou Dobbs -- and a handful of public policy "experts" at organizations such as the Center for Immigration Studies, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, NumbersUSA, in addition to fringe groups like the Minuteman Project.
Stripped bare, this is what the current debate on immigration reform is all about.
Out of curiosity, I checked to see how many of the quotes were nominees for Andrew Sullivan's Malkin and Moore awards for right- and left-wing histrionics, respectively. Keith Olberman is the only Moore Award nominee (the winner, in fact) who made Hawkins' list(16). Sully's other nominees are Internet trolls, a Kos columnist, an Australian professor, and Eric Alterman - that last one really should have made Hawkins' Top 40:
"Bush's preference for allowing poor kids to get sick and die for his own ideological obsession is a fundamental fact of his presidency and of the Republican Party's guiding ideology," - Eric Alterman, Media Matters.
Not a single Malkin nominee made the list. Not even Michael Savage. One conservative other than Chavez made the Top 40 - and deservingly so:
39) "I'd say something about John Edwards, but if you use the word 'f*ggot', you have to go to rehab." -- Ann Coulter
(I blogged on her quote here.)
One quote (28) played the fascist card, and three (15, 20 21) played the Nazi card.
Check 'em all out. Mach schnell!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
The Envelope, Please III
I predict that the multitudinous predictions of recession will merit Von Hoffmann nominations next year.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
The Upcoming Daily Dish Awards
The Yglesias Award is for writers, politicians, columnists or pundits who actually criticize their own side, make enemies among political allies, and generally risk something for the sake of saying what they believe.
The operative word is risk - the statement has to entail political risk. That right there should disqualify Michelle Malkin, nominated for her post titled The warrantless wiretap retreat:
Bush administration = Lucy. Bush administration defenders = Charlie Brown.
(Actually, that remark could apply to Bush's amnesty-for-illegals program.)
If this had been said by an actual member of the Bush administration, then this statement would definitely entail political risk. But Malkin is a pundit, so if any risk is being taken it's among her peers - her fellow conservative pundits. They seem to be pretty divided over the issue, if the Captain's Quarters post on the issue is any indication.
Fred Barnes qualifies even less:
The recipe for Republicans is to stop acting like, well, Republicans--that is, Republicans of recent vintage. In Congress, they've been soft on earmarks, the source of so much corruption. They practically invited Democrats to trump them on ethics and lobbying reform. And they've allowed their obsession with illegal immigrants to get out of hand. This drives away Hispanic voters and leaves the impression that Republicans are small-minded, ungenerous and nasty. The worst offenders are the presidential candidates, who would be wise to tone down their rhetoric on immigration,
Barnes is editor of The Weekly Standard. The conservative media (and conservatives in general) are even more in line with this remark than woth the Malkinator's.
I wouldn't vote for Christian Broadcasting Network journalist David Brody, either - his dissing of people for "demoniz[ing]" Hillary would carry some weight if he'd provided at least one specific example.
Paul Jenkins is one of the stronger contenders - criticizing the Clintons is the Kiss of Death ™ in most of the leftysphere. Matt Taibbi is another - I wonder if he gets many invites to those Upper West Side cocktail parties...
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