Funmurphys: the Blog

Is That Much Straw A Fire Hazard?

Tom Maguire is a joy to read, not just for his insight, but for his language as well. When I came across another instant classic of his I just had to check, and sure enough, he's the only one who shows up for the quip "Is that much straw a fire hazard?" - at least until this post does. And yes, the whole post is as good as the quip.

I think I'll start pushing the Liberal:Conservative as Woman:Man analogy after Tom documented how a liberal woman reading a conservative man's writing simply didn't understand him. At all. And neither Tom or I had any trouble understanding him.

A Great Leap Backwards

The upgrade to MT4.1 has not gone smoothly. My sidebars have dropped into the basement for some reason. Comments don't show up - I have tried to make several of my own, I get an acknowledgement, but nothing in the pending comments or the blog. How much time and aggrevation do I want to spend on a hobby? I'd rather spend money, since I have too little time and too much aggrevation already.

Snubbed Again

At last I have something in common with Tom Maguire - neither of us were included in the Village Voices Top 10 Conservative blogs. Tom's not sure if it were an honor to be lambasted by them, but with a subheader of "A confederacy of Dunces" and a stupid/evil rating for each one, I can clearly state it would have been an honor to be so singled out by such an unworthy institution (only good article was by Mamet BTW). However, we here at funmurphys.com fully appreciate the importance of size (let me say I'm much bigger in real life than my internet presence) and so we are neither shocked or dismayed that we were once again snubbed, although I will allow to a smidgeon of disappointment.

Funmurphys 3.0

Hope you like the new look, I'd like to do some tweaking of the colors and sidebars and save my really old animated "humor enabled browser" gif. Time is always a problem, and after the heroic effort it took to get a blogroll back and the horrible Six Apart documentation, I'm not sure I'll ever get around to it. In many ways my favorite blog platform was the one I started with - Greymatter. I'm not a power blogger, I'm just a casual blogger who wants to do a few simple things easily. Movable Type seems to evolve with each incarnation towards dedicated IT support and away from me. I'm so hopelessly antediluvian that I can't figure out tags vs. Categories vs. Keywords.

Here's how I feel about the experience of upgrading from MT2.6 to MT4.1:

That would be me in the middle and my fellow bloggers Sean and Carl on either side of me with the MT serpent coiled about us.

Posted by Kevin Murphy at 4:01 PM | Comments (0) | Inside Bloging

Situation Normal, All In Flux

Back when the family was away and I had more time, I started the upgrade to MT4.1. Between poor documentation and outdated documentation on the part of MT and my web host, I had the wrong idea about what my problems were with the upgrade. Once I got current information from my web host, all I had to do was remember how I got MT2.x running manny moons ago when I switched from Greymatter to MT. So I finished the upgrade when I don't have a lot of time to get everything squared away. I hope to have it all squared away soon, time permitting, so please bear with the ongoing state of flux.

Five Years of Blogging

I suppose I could have titled this post 5 years down the drain, but I didn't. I didn't because I've enjoyed a lot of the minutes I've spent blogging. Oct 3, 2002 I joined the blogosphere with 3 posts and a design that's changed very little over the years. 1420 posts, 629 comments, and a switch from Greymatter to Movable Type later, I'm still writing. Along the way over 110,000 different people have visited (according to eXTReMe Trackgin) and I've picked up two too infrequent co-authors. Eric Olsen at Blogcritics got me started in blogging, with a short run as a reviewer there. So again, thank you Eric, and may my reader(s) forgive you.

I've had a webpage for almost 11 years now; I started out in AOL Hometown when I put a family newsletter online, and then branched out shortly thereafter into a bloglike creation I called Stimulus and Response. In those days, I did most of my writing at the Fruit of the Murphy Loins various practices or waiting before events (for you non-parents out there, you have to get to things like concerts and dance receitals long before the scheduled start time when your little darling is in them). I continued to branch out under the umbrella of Funmurphys.com, but once the blog got going, all the rest has fallen by the wayside. In internet years, I'm so old the blog should be called Kevin 5.0.

Thanks for reading, 100 years ago I couldn't have hoped my writing would reach over 100,000 people all over the world.

Department of Weird Coincidences

So I'm reading Instapundit who links Orin Kerr at Volokh Conspiracy about Clarence Thomas and just how prestigious Assistant Missouri Attorney General is, in the course of which he links to a bunch of people who served as Assistant Missouri Attorney General. One of the names, Ottenad, was familiar and so I followed the link to John Ottenad's Missouri Bar bio. Judge Ottenad is the OA advisor for New Horizons district, and I saw plenty of him at the OA Fall Reunion, which I actually blogged about.

And there you have this years odd coincidence.

We'll always have No Way Out

Maybe I was too harsh on Waterworld.

Pathfinder

Brian Noggle must be made of stronger stuff than I, because he titled a post "I Can't Wait For Joe Williams' Review". What's next, "I can't wait to be smacked repeatedly by a large mackerel", or "I can't wait to have a bucket of bricks dumped on my head" or "I would really like to have my toenails pulled out one by one".

I have to say, I saw the same trailer while I waited to see "300" the other day, and at first I was intrigued - nothing gets my intrigue up like seeing helms with lots of horns, wings, and assorted dodads and swords of destiny - but when it was clear that the movie was going to be a post-modern morality play dressed up in ornate plate armor I lost most of my interest. Yes, ornate plate armor is just that irresistable.

I'm Daniel Drezner's Doppleganger

So I took the same quiz as Daniel Drezner and got the same result - I'm an enterpriser, which means that I'm a rabid Republican but don't realize it. I'm an enterpriser because I t think that big companies aren't as big a danger as Islamic exteremists and that just saying "Nice Doggie" without holding a big stick isn't the best strategy. Or something. Well, that's about as good analogy as the quiz, which isn't a surprise since it's just another lousy online collection of simplistic questions.

I then went on to get 8 out of 8 at the ABC online Shia-Sunni quiz -- just like Mr Drezner. So Mr Drezner, you're not alone.

Hmm, could it be that people who can answer 8 questions about who's Sunni and who's Shia are enterprisers?

Blogger Council or Nannies for Bloggers?

Ann Althouse reports that Eric Alterman floated the idea of a blogger council that can condemn bloggers to being disbelieved:

"I think it would be valuable if we had... uh... I mean, there's some sense where blogs correct themselves if you read enough of them, but I still I think it would be good if we had some sort of, you know, blogging -- you know -- council, where we could condemn people. Sort of... responsible body. You could still blog if you want. Nobody's going to stop you. But we're going to... everybody's gonna know that you're not to be trusted... unless you can sort of apologize or answer for yourself."

Apparently I can vote, drink, drive a car, raise children, fight in a war (well, I may be too old (and out of shape) for that) but I can't figure out when a blogger isn't to be trusted? Perhaps Mr. Alterman hasn't really figured out this whole blogging thing after all. Or perhaps he is jealous of the Watchers of Weasels Council (which should be noted doesn't condemn, but instead elevates worthy posts).

"Responsible body", "condemn people"? Eric, what are you thinking? Have you missed the whole point of the re-democratization of communications? Here's how it works - you can gather together a group of like minded people, give yourselves a snazzy title (I prefer the blogging nannies), and publish lists of bloggers that you think should be condemned for their blogging sins and ask them to foreswear blogging until they grovel abjectly at your feet. You can even call this condemnation excommunication, wear funny hats and force them to kiss your ring in order to be recommunicated if you so desire. Just don't ask me to ever take you seriously again, or for that matter trust you. Because in the Book of Kevin, you've just condemned yourself to perpetual untrust, no matter if you make an actual, real apology and answer for your clear lack of understanding.

And speaking of people who puff themselves up beyond all recognition, who is Jonathan Chait to sit in judgement of Rudy Guiliani? Mayor Guiliani isn't my ideal presidential candidate (we can't dig up Ronnie just to have him run again, can we?), but I'm tired of people who have done bupkis tell me what to think of people who have actually done a few things in their life.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

There are scandals, and then there are scandals (not to be confused with what passes for celebrity scandals).

Microsoft handed out a whole bunch of really nice laptops to a whole bunch of bloggers. Take that, anti-blogger triumphalists. Needless to say, hilarity ensued as words like "bribe" and "sellout" and "unethical" and "PR disaster" were thrown about.

My take - if you expect rigorous standards, go to Consumer Reports. Otherwise, caveat emptor applies, as always -- even for freebies.

What were people thinking: Gee, I really trusted blogger x when I didn't know anything about him/her, but now that I know they are another human with all the same frailties as me, I can't fully trust them to deliver those Olympian pronouncements to live my life by anymore. I mean, what's next, companies creating fake blogs?

Full disclosure -- I'm still waiting to make my unethical sell out. And I still don't have a big plasma HDTV. (And yes, I have read Bug Jack Barron: The saddest day of your life isn't when you decide to sell out. The saddest day of your life is when you decide to sell out and nobody wants to buy.

Weblog Awards

Once again Funmurphys the Blog has been inexplicably passed over for the Weblog Awards. Perhaps it's because I've been locked out of the TTLB ecosystem. Perhaps I offended Kevin Aylward. But whatever the case, I hold no animosity towards anyone involved.

I did notice that they are missing a few categories. Rather than go through that whole expensive and time consuming process of setting up a special website, soliciting votes, and counting the votes, I decided I would just award a my own award, the Koveted Kevy, to those websites I deem worthy.

So it brings me great pleasure and distinct pleasure to present the 2006 winners:

Best St. Louis Blog: Musings From Brian J Noggle

Best Missouri Blog: John Combest

Best Illinois Blog: Arch Pundit

Best Blog By A Bunch Of Guys In Indiana: In The Agora

Best Episcopal Blog: Midwest Conservative Journal

Best Family Blog: Busy Mom

Best Blog A Brother Could Have: SKMurphy

Best Blog With A Japanese Word As Its Title: Kaedrin

Best Blog Written On One Of My Ancestral Sods: Rainy Day

Best Blog Written By A Couple In Arkansas: Overtaken By Events

Best Blog On Those Rare Occasions When Charles Is Actually Blogging: Sine Qua Non Pundit

Best Hasn't Lost The Wonder Of Childhood Despite Being A Grown Up Blog: Tom McMahon

Best Blog By IT By Day, Ballroom Dancer By Night: No Watermelons Allowed

Best Recruiting Blog By Someone I've Networked With: STLRecruiting

Best Blog That More People Should Read, And Not Just About Amway: Random Observations

Best Blog That Captures Her Range Of Interests But Should Have More Of Her Great Photos: Planet Shelley

Best Blog That is Updated Even Less Frequently Than Sine Qua Non Pundit: Regions Of Mind

Best Blog That Keeps Changing Focus, Direction, and Appearance: Accidental Nomad

Best Blog In the Holler By A Feller Who's In Love: Think Sink

Best Blog That Marries Outstanding Writing With Superior Analysis While Obsessing On Particular Topics: Just One Minute

Best Blog That Demonstrates Critical Thinking And An Unswerving Dedication To The Facts Except When It Comes To Al Gore: The Daily Howler

Best Blog Across Time and Space, Always and Forever: Wizbang! (How's that for sucking up? C'mon Kevin, next year is MY year!)

Deb Frisch: Wanted Woman

Deb Frisch is back in the news -- now an arrest warrant has been issued for in her in Colorado for contempt of court after Jeff Goldstein accused her of violating a restraining order he obtained against her. As Jeralyn Merritt says:

Moral of the story: Derogatory posting on the internet carries consequences. So does violating a court order directing you to personally appear in court.

Although it was more than derogatory posting, it was threatening posting. Against a 2 year old. That's far more than just pathetic.

Political Strategist Straw Poll

I'm holding a referendum on Tom Maguire:

Is Tom Maguire

[ ] Not Smart Enough to be a strategist for the Democrats, or

[ ] Too Smart to be a strategist for the Democrats.

I don't want to bias the results by proclaiming my opinion, but let me just say that if Tom were to become a strategist for the Democrats the age of signs and wonders would clearly be upon us.

Of course he's too smart to be a strategist for the Democrats; he's too smart to be a strategist for the Republicans too. I could become President if Tom became my brain like a certain other, better known team (that actually is a team).

How To Take A Vacation

I go on vacation for two weeks and the place goes dark, even though I asked my two fellow contributors, whose contributions I look forward to eagerly, to please please post while I was unable to (I'm sorry, but when I'm paying large sums of money to enjoy Europe, I'm not going to be spending my time at an internet cafe writing about it). Tom Maguire goes on vacation, and he cleverly has a new post every day via Typepad delayed postings that are just open threads, and a week later he has 305 comments on a single post, and they aren't of the "Bush Sucks" caliber either. Yikes, thats more than half of the total comments for this blog. Still, I'm hoping that I had a better vacation -- I rate mine as wonderful.

Glenn Greenwald, Sock Puppet?

I feel special, since the latest two blog two blog kerfuffles involved two people who have commented here, Deb Frisch and Glenn Greenwald. Given how few people comment here, I'm just pleased as punch that a couple of titans of the left side of the blogosphere commented here. Or it could be that those two just leave a lot of comments - one used to stalk Professor Bainbridge whom I linked to, and the other seems to keep an eagle eye on links to his site or mentions of his name and responded to those from my site.

While Ms. Frisch made comments that clearly crossed the line of acceptability, Mr. Greenwald is accused of sock puppetry, which I don't think is all that big a deal - just kind of sad, really. While some bloggers are absolutely convinced, I'm not so sure, for a couple of reasons.

While the IP address Mr. Greenwald used here was from Brazil, it isn't the same as the one I've seen at Ace of Spades. So does that mean the Real Mr. Greenwald didn't comment here? Or could it be that Kevin Aylward is correct, and anybody commenting from Brazil runs the risk of being though of as a Greenwald sockpuppet? If IP addresses really were like fingerprints, how easy would my job of eliminating comment and trackback spam be!

The other reason is that this seems out of character for Mr. Greenwald who seems to have no trouble speaking his mind under his own name. I could well be wrong, but it does sound more like friends arguing from authority than Mr. Greenwald himself.

I don't agree with many of Glenn Greenwald's views on politics, but when he did comment here we were in agreement on the idea of federalism, and he expressed himself clearly and civilly. What blogs need is more of that, and less ad hominem, which is really what the sock puppet charge amounts to -- an attempt to make Mr. Greenwald lose all the arguments because he's a pathetic loser sock puppeter.

Blogging Part of American Life

According to the latest Pew study of American Life and the Internet, I'm only somewhat anomolous. It isn't my age, but my traffic - if there are 12 million bloggers, and 57 million people who read blogs, I should expect about 5 visitors per however often those 57 million people read a blog. Since I average somewhere between 10 to 20 times that daily, I feel pretty good. Maybe I'll keep this up, at least once I get back from my real vacation.

More Than A Food Fight

I'm always on the edge, never in the middle.

Jeff Goldstein is having a bit of a dust up with one Prof. Debbie Frisch, who used to hound Prof. Bainbridge (what is it with professors and blogging). I linked to a Bainbridge post about a readibility test, and Prof. Frisch popped in here to slag us both. Since she only slagged me, and not my children, I was quite civil in reply, and so was she in turn (she actually apologized). Sadly, I think her remarks to Jeff go way beyond acceptable insult, and indicate, well, insanity.

Get help, Deb.

Referer Logs

I assume most bloggers are like me: Forty, Fat, wait, no, that's the start of who's at risk for gallbladder problems, let's try this again: check our traffic and referrer logs obsessively. It's not all vanity, it's a way of figuring out what people find interesting and finding new blogs, as well has how many people actually come here (so to speak). The Danish cartoons brought me my largest traffic, and the Duke Lacross team is still interesting to a lot of people. Women in various states of undress are perennial favorites. I even had three people come here in the last 24 hours looking for "Monday Humor". And I discovered a brand spanking new blog Bridget's Random Thoughts.

I Shall Return (In a Little While)

I'm still alive, just busier than usual, which means I don't have time for a reflective, in depth post. I'm also unexcited by the topics of the day (who cares if a comedian bombed or not, and how do I even communicate with someone who thinks Colbert was devasting but the media is in bed with Bush other than to say he did and they aren't), so that means I haven't been posting. And the forecast is busy for a while, so the gruel will be thin for a while yet.

Your Favorites From Funmurphys

I've taken the ruminations of Mark at Kaedrin blog about Weblog usability to heart. I've already made some changes before I read it, but I could do more. To that end, I'd like to have a Best of Funmurphys in the side bar with links to my best stuff. I have a few ideas, but it would be nice if we few, we happy few, we band of brothers who actually read this blog on a somewhat regular basis (i.e. more than once) would let me know what you think as well. So go ahead, and pick your favorite posts in the comments.

Thanks for your help.

And please, please, don't leave me hanging with nobody leaving comments. Because then I would have to destroy all evidence that this post ever existed.

Sockpuppets Of The World, Unite!

Today's subject is all about blogging. It started when I read Daniel Henninger's column in the Wall Street Journal: Disinhibition Nation. The short version is simply Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. And O'Toole's commentary applies to Sturgeon as much as Murphy: Sturgeon was an optimist. But Mr. Henninger is right in my experience: people are far less inhibited on the internet than real life (or what they should be. Please, don't let it all hang out).

And now we turn to sockpuppets. Michael Hiltzik was caught employing sockpuppets by Patrick Frey, AKA Patterico, and had his LA Times blog suspended while the paper investigates. Of course, he's not the only person caught with his hands in a couple of socks: John Lott (AKA Mary Radosh) comes to mind. The lure of disinhibition is hard to resist for people who must maintain a certain decorum because we (that's an internet we, not a royal we) know who they are when what they'd really like is the freedom to let loose with their real feelings. What stands out about Mr. Hiltzick is his utter lack of class or shame when caught. Of course, Patterico is all over that sorry excuse of reasoning and ties it into the larger trend we see in the media - they lie every day and have no shame about it either.

So have I ever used a sockpuppet? No, I've always posted under my own name in blogs and on forums. Sometimes I've come late to a conversation and discovered another Kevin Murphy there, in which case I called my self Kevin "the other" Murphy. Isn't the true test of character what you do when you think nobody is looking? Sure it would be nice to anonymously blast people and say everything I think, but then isn't that a test on what and how you should say things? So I aways try to talk and write as if my name were attached, and the easiest way to do that is to actually attach my name. I understand that for certain people in certain situations that isn't possible, but I'm not in that kind of situation.

And yes, I think I have had a couple of commenters here use sock puppets based on IP addresses and quality of the remarks. I understand that IP address isn't enough alone because if you dial up into a large provider like AOL you get whatever IP address they have available. Will I out you? Hey this is my place, so if I think I should I will. Generally, I don't care.

Back to John Lott for a minute. His sock puppetry was exposed by an aussie named Tim Lambert who is obsessed with sockpuppetry, seeing them on the hand of anyone who disagrees with him. He may even have a couple of socks on his own hands.

I can actually see a valid reason for sockpuppets - if you want your ideas considered for themselves and not dissmiss or accepted because you are well known to the community. But in this case, I think when the dust settles it would be best to reveal your deception. Otherwise, it's just lying by another name, because you are trying to deceive people Unlike simply saying something inaccurate, the point of lying is deception.

Just remember, be careful out there.

What A Blog Needs Is A Good Pointless Food Fight

I often wonder if I would get more readers if I got into more food fights. I don't get into pissing contests with other bloggers, I try to be calm and reasonable when I write, though there are some exceptions. I always ask myself, but what if I'm wrong? I gave up posting on big name lefty sites for the same reason I suspect a lot of lefties gave up posting on big name righty sites - there is not interest in dialogue or understanding, just serial abuse of the heretic.

(How do you explain the popularity of Instapundit then? Because you know there will always be fresh post when you go there. I can only surmise that the professor has hordes of grad students posting since no human being can post that frequently and retain a job, stay married and be a father. Oh, scratch the job thing, he's a professor.)

I'm not a big fan of Michelle Malkin because I think she often goes overboard (though less so than Ann Coulter). On the other hand, she provokes an even greater overreaction on the part of lefty readers. Hey, posting contact information to the internet that is provided "for immediate release" in a press release is not an offense. Making death threats (which she didn't do) is. To all those chewing the scenery over Michelle, when she is the calm, reasonable one, it's time to stop throwning the food and start eating it while hoping you got more traffic out of it than she did.

Hello, I Must Be Going

As you may have noticed, or more likely, will notice sometime in the future when you get around to visiting this blog, I have been slacking off here lately. No, I am not too busy with new love, I am not prone to hiatus, nor am I off doing fine reporting in dangerous but important parts. I am in fact busier than usual, and forecast that state to last a while longer.

I Love Wal-Mart

Yessir, I love everything about Wal-Mart. I'd especially love one of those wall mounted plasma HDTVs from the electronics department. I'm sure with one of those in my possession, I would be able to rhapsodize at great length about Wal-Mart, it's ability to deliver quality products at a low cost, the unfairness of the union smear campaign against it, the unfairness of Maryland singling Wal-Mart out over employee healthcare. Of course, I could learn to love Best Buy, Comp USA, Target, or another store that sells plasma HDTVs if it somehow managed to come into my possession.

Because as a blogger, I have no code of ethics, ergo I must not have any ethics (or plasma HDTV).

Of course, I could do a review of one, and somehow never return it. Because it's not like companies never send freebees hoping to get a (good) review. And believe me, I'd love a plasma HDTV (as long as it's widescreen and has a 3D YC comb filter).

The Silver Age Of Funmurphys

I used to do the forum thing, but The Fishbowl explains why I don't anymore. Hey, I can scientifically prove it's utter crap now. Entry 549,293,948 in I wish I'd written that list. Via The Listless Laywer.

Good News

Good News, I guess -- Vicky is out of the hospital. I've only visited one, but I can only imagine you have to feel better in your own, quiet house than in the hospital. I'm praying for a swift and full recovery.

Your Help Requested

I met Vicky Drachenberg at Midwest Blog Bash IV (see Chris Johnson if you want a T-Shirt). Unfortunately, I didn't have too much time to talk with her as I was trying to eat and leave as she and her husband Matt were arriving. Now she's really sick, and after 8 days in the hospital, they think she has endocarditis -- an infection of the heart. So please pray for her and drop her an email. You can find out all the details at her husband Matt's blog, overtaken by events.

No Sympathy Here

Excuse me if I can't muster any sympathy for Glenn Reynolds and his return to work. I was back to work yesterday, and I get up at 5:30; and I don't have time to make 100 posts a day. Please don't tell me how hard it is to be a college professor.

Oh The Line Forms On The Right, Babe

Charles Austin is back -- and I loved his take on Ms. Sheehan in Spain. Once a blogger, always a blogger. I'm tempted to set up a category to cover bloggers who've come back from hiatus. Now we just need Dodd Harris to return (or at least give me a clue if he already is).

I Will Not Serve

Needless to say, once again I'm not nominated for the Weblog Awards. I only know there is such a contest because I keep seeing posts at my favorite blogs saying "Go vote for me!". I could say I was left out because the TTLB Ecosystem has managed to not show my blog by also not let me add it back in because it says I'm already in the system. But that wouldn't be the case. What can I say, I'm not popular.

So what is the point of holding such awards? Haven't we moved beyond popularity? There's a gazillion blogs out there that cover more than a gazillion topics, so why worry about what everybody else is reading? Isn't that the whole point of the internet information revolution? Prosumerism? Will we eternally be stuck in Junior High (middle school to all you youngsters out there)? The only point I see isn't in crushing your enemies and hearing the lamentations of their women, but in finding other blogs you'd like to read. And I don't know if an award contest is really the best way to do it. Given how many blog, how little time, I'm not even sure I want to find other blogs to read.

Anyway, I've voted. It's not like democracy in Iraq or anything - more like democracy in Venezuala these days.

Congratulations!

I'm way behind on my blog reading, so I'm a little late, but congratulations Jim and Franki. As me ancestors would say:

May your mornings bring joy and your evenings bring peace.
May your troubles grow few as your blessings increase.
May the saddest day of your future
Be no worse than the happiest day of your past.
May your hands be forever clasped in friendship
And your hearts joined forever in love.
Your lives are very special,
God has touched you in many ways.
May his blessings rest upon you
And fill all your coming days.

All's Well

I've been busy, and had a hiccup with the site, so I haven't posted in a week. And per usual, my hits have gone up when I don't post. But as I'm all about giving my readers what they don't want, here's a post. Although considering how misinformed you are if you read the first draft of history, perhaps I should simply post with a weeks delay. Not that there's anything wrong with Delay, but I don't want to give the impression that I'm covering anything up.

Few things get me steamed like other drivers, and today was worse than usual. I had to pick up my son from school so we could go see my daughter's water polo game, and meetup with my wife along the way. Normally not a problem, but it rained today, and rain seems to suck the ability out of drivers. When my son reported that I'd yelled at four other drivers on the way, my thought was "is that all?", but I said out loud "they all deserved it" -- which they did. The truck that decided that he was in the wrong lane and just moved over forcing me to change lanes; the pickup that made a right turn without slowing at a red light in front of me deserved both the yelling and the horn blowing; the people who stopped in a middle of a right turn because the cars going straight were splashing water on their cars (yes, I said people because about 3 people in front of me did that exact same thing and no, I didn't stop when I made my turn and my car got splashed with water because I actually know how to drive a car); the car with headlights off coming at me over the centerline and into my lane all deserved to be yelled at and worse, but all they got was the yelling. Needless to say, yet still spoken, I didn't get yelled at once all night. Not even by my teenage daughter.

Always Room For One More

Tom McMahon has a fun blog, but he has this bad habit of going to blogs and getting banned. First it was Electrolite. OK, he wasn't banned, he just had all the vowels removed from comments the Haydens didn't care for. Then it was Cynical-C blog where the proprietor banned him from commenting. But that was just the warm up, because when he was banned at NoodleFood, he wasn't just banned, he was condemned to hell along with it. I kid you not. The craziest thing about it is that Tom is such a mild commenter - calm, patient, insult free - which seems to drive wackos nuts. I mean, what set off Diana at NoodleFood off was that he, brace yourself, quoted a line from Amazing Grace which caused huge foaming at the mouth, and when she discovered that he had a link, a link mind you, to National Review, which periodically runs a negative review of Atlas Shrugged, that's when she fell over backwards, and not only banned Tom from her site, but in full atheist majesty flung him straight into the pit of hell with Whittaker Chambers. As Dave Berry would say, you can't make this stuff up.

It sounded like so much fun, I linked to my negative review of Atlas Shrugged (which the online version of National Review ran seven years ago - my how time flies) in his comments. So Tom graciously has reprinted my review of Atlas Shrugged so that I too can go straight to hell with him and Whittaker. Since I knew it was coming, I made pitcher of ice water to take with me for Tom and Whittaker. And if you want to join us there, you can let Tom know of your negative review of Atlas Shrugged.

The 800 Pound Gorilla

Watch out, Technorati, here comes Google Blog Search. I guess that means that blogs really have hit the big time. I'm just hoping it doesn't mean more spam.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Sean, and congratulations on your near half-century dedication to the pursuit of excellence.

Don't Let A Good Man Down

Charles Austin needs your help. It seems he's been locked up and needs to make bail and he needs your money to do so. As Latigo Smith would say, you have to give til it hurts.

That Will Help The Image

Just wait until Gary Trudeau reads this article: Suspected Kidnapper in Idaho Kept Blog. No mention of cat food, though.

Movin' On

Has Charles Austin run away with Dodd Harris? Having met both Charles and Dodd I can confidently state they aren't ones to run away. But they have both abruptly stopped blogging with cryptic farewell messages. If I were Normal Vincent Peal I'd be happy that I could now read a few more blogs, but I'm not so I'm going to miss them.

Maybe they should do a group blog with the evanescent Juan Gato.

Is Dodd related to Andrea Harris? I never thought to ask until just now for some reason.

Dodd, if you're ever looking for a place to hang out an anonymous shingle, you can always do so here at Funmurphys. And with my traffic, you can use your own name and still remain anonymous. Same offer applies to Charles too.

Too Much To Hope For

I hate to even mention it, but is comment spam a thing of the past? I used to get it regularly which made me install MT-Blacklist and MT-Close. That really cut down on it, but I'd have to update my Blacklist and run MT-Close frequently. I could see the spammers being denied on my activity log, so even though they weren't showing up, they weren't getting in. But I haven't even seen a denial in the log in a while. Have the spammer given up, or are they retooling, or are they leaving the little guys alone?

Turn And Face The Change

I've made a few changes around here. I added to the blogroll (make sure you check out two new St. Louis area bloggers The Listless Lawyer and Steve Priest, along with new favorites Jeff Harrell at The Shape of Days, the reportage of Michael Yon from Iraq, the left/right discussion at Debate Space, and the writings of Paul Graham thanks to Mark).

I finally corrected the link to the Belmont Club (finally!) - I'm hoping wretchard doesn't get his hosting problems fixed because it will be a while before I'll get around to updating the link. Sadly I dropped a couple (Good Luck Brad!) from the blogroll which I only do (except for rare circumstances) because the blogger announces an end or long hiatus, or simply stops posting for many months.

And I've started category archives, so you can peruse what my fellow authors (Sean and Carl) have written in the past by subject. I have probably half the posts categorized and will get to the rest at flank speed.

We work overtime here at Funmurphys just to satisfy our readers. Please leave any other ideas right here in the comment section to this post.

The Vikings Are Coming!

The last couple of days I've been getting a lot of hits (for me, anyway) from Norway and I haven't a clue why. If I'd finally gotten around to writing the monster post about Njal's Saga and culture I've been meaning to do for the last 3 years I could understand (and yes, Skarp-Hedin is my favorite character in the book), but it's been the same old same old around here. Technorati and Google haven't been any help in figuring out why they are coming and the two trackers I use show them coming but no link. So if you're reading this in Norway, please leave a comment telling me how you found out about this site.

Are All Links Equal?

Shelley Powers at Burningbird has been discussing >gender and racial inequalities in linking in the blogosphere and has often been met with defensiveness and rudeness for doing so. What strikes me about the discussion is how it mirrors the discussion of Affirmative Action in the US. Shelley isn't calling for quotas, but a lot of bloggers she discusses with take it that way. And they don't like it one bit. I think much of the defensiveness is just people natural dislike of even the whiff of criticism. But some of it reflects the reality that if the observation is true, then for many people the solution follows naturally from the problem - a requirement to link to more women, to in fact achieve link parity. The ironic thing is, most of this discussion is taking place amongst good liberals and progessives, and the other ironic thing is that who you link to matters far less to a blog's quality (the effect is pretty much zero) than who a business hires matters to the fortunes of the firm. But I'm struck by how much the discussion follows the lines of discussion over AA.

But that's not the full scope of Shelley's dissatisfaction - her observations on gender extends to far more than just link patters in the blogosphere, and her observations on linking are far more than just gender/race equality. I'm not always in agreement with her, but she certainly sets a thoughtful and civil tone in her discussions and her points are always worth consideration.

Full disclosure - Funmurphys links to more women than men, more whites than minorities -- at least in the case where I know the gender and race. This is not policy, this just is. When it was just an ordinary website called the Murphy Nexus, which focused much more on just family stuff, my links to and from were in fact mostly to women because they ran similar sites. Should I make more of an effort to link to more women and minorities, or should I try to make more of an effort to link to better bloggers, or should I give up the blogroll altogether? Well, I wish I had more time to do more blog exploring, and the blogroll is really there for me - I use it in my blog readings. So it's not going away, and if you think there is a blog out there I should be reading, please let me know.

The Undiscovered Country

Powerline has reprinted the best piece on the relationship of blogging to newspapers I've read yet. Here's a taste of what Phil Boas had to say:

Here’s what newspaper editors and writers should know about this new Internet phenomenon. Bloggers don’t have much respect for you. You are the "legacy media," the MSM. You’re the Roman Catholic Church to their Martin Luther and his new high-speed cable modem. To Hugh Hewitt (hughhewitt.com), the blogosphere’s leading cheerleader and one of its most polished practitioners, you are Stalingrad in 1944. Your institutions are hollowed out and your walls are scorched.

But of course, Stalingrad held, didn’t it. And that gets me to the second definition of bloggers. They are your light in the tunnel. The newspaper industry has known for a long time that eventually wood pulp would give way to microprocessors. That long-awaited paradigm shift now seems imminent. We may very soon be predominately an electronic medium and that has many print executives on edge.

...

We are headed to the Web in a big way and our readers, especially our most engaged readers – the bloggers - are going with us. They are giving us a taste now of what our new environment will be like. They will challenge and cajole us to confront our biases and our mistakes. And if we don’t confront them, they’ll clean our clocks.

McMahon's Law

Tom McMahon has posted his very own law:

Whenever a blogger posts at length about a hateful e-mail he has received instead of responding to the legitimate arguments advanced by the other side, that blogger has lost the debate.

Wow, That's Real Money

Something to boggle the mind: Somebody is paying 1.85 billion dollars for Ask Jeeves. Yes, that's right, I said billion. Of course, they aren't actually paying cash, they are swapping their stock for Ask Jeeves stock, and the stock market valued Ask Jeeves at 1.43 billion dollars Friday at close, so maybe the deal isn't as crazy as it sounds at first blush. And when you consider that the market values Google at just under 50 billion dollars, maybe it's me that's crazy. Here I talk about convergence last week, and I'm astonished when the market has already priced it in.

And Yahoo bought Flickrfor "undisclosed terms" -- well, to be disclosed later.

All this makes me wonder what my little internet company is worth -- OK, it's not really a company, but if people are prepared to provide me with real legal tender for it, it could become one real quick. Here that, Barry Diller?

My Name Is Wanda

It would seem that Steven Levy has forgotten the famous cartoon punchline, on the Internet, nobody know's you're a dog. Mr. Levy thinks the top ranks of Bloggerdom isn't sufficiently representative of the rainbow of America. Well, McQ applies his usual reality check, and I'll supply mine.

Back when I started The Murphy Nexus, which was an online family newsletter with a difference, most of the people I linked to and was linked by were women. Another woman who I knew from posting at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Forums once asked my why that was, almost as if it were a bad thing. I had to consider that because I hadn't ever examined my linkeragy based on gender, race, etc. My answer was that what I found interesting in connection with a family newsletter was mostly being written by women, and the people who found my little corner of cyber-space link worthy were women.

If you were to examine my list of links from this here blog, you'll find that there are more men then women. Again, not that I've paid attention or tried to link to more men, but that's just who I've found I wanted to link to. I have never linked to anyone or not linked to anyone because of their gender, race, etc. I have linked to people simply because I like to read them. Some I have found because they linked to me first and so showed up in referrer logs. Most I have found the old fashioned way - somebody else linked to them. I try to link to people who make me think, or make me laugh, (hopefully both). I don't link to only people I agree with. Generally I don't even notice the person's name until I go to link them and I look for it as I try to list people by name and not by blog name. Now, that doesn't always mean much -- for example if you can't figure out that Busymom is written by a woman, you're not heteronormative enough.

I'm curious as to what the solution is to achieve sexual and racial parity of hits on blogs. If you're links don't match the sexual and racial distribution of ... what, you're county, state, nation, the world? you won't be linked to by ... like minded people? I suppose that's the beauty of blogging - there is no top down control. There is no way to impose solutions from the top -- they have to come from the bottom up. You can't make bloggers link a certain way, but you can persuade them.

UPDATE:

Jeff Jarvis has a lengthy entry on this subject which I substantially agree with.

Shelley Powers has a lengthy post too with a lot of good points and insight. I have to say even though I don't agree politically with her and understand half of what she says when she goes all technical, I love her blog. It's a treat to read her and an honor to link to her.

Don't Spam In Texas

I have to applaud Texas prosecuting a spammer. Now if they would just live up to their reputation and execute these guys, I'd feel even better.

It's The Other Side's Fault

I used to post frequently on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch forums in their various incarnations (my user name was, oddly enough, kevin murphy) but got tired of it for various reasons - one of which was the polarization of the debate. Where once there was a group of people discussing various issues (endlessly without conclusion), there became two sides locked in a life and death struggle to show that the other side was evil root and branch. Mark at Kaedrin has noticed the same thing and has decided to try a new approach suggested by Benjamin Franklin. I'm hoping he'll let us know how it turns out.

Not Dead Yet

When I've had the time, I haven't had the inclination, and when I've had the inclination, I haven't had the time to post to the blog. Seeing as how this is the Christmas season which is the most stressful time of the year, well, no doubt I'll be posting up a storm.

On a blog related note, I didn't have to change my colors to show my solidarity with Ukrainian Freedom and Democracy, I've always been orange. It's the Scotch-Irish in me (along with a like of the blue/orange color scheme that dates back into childhood). I wonder how my college chum Modest Osadsa, who used to verbally berate the communists when they tried to talk/leaflet at meals, feels about it.

A Foot Without A Sock

It's time for that old inside blogging standby, a stroll through the referrer logs. Yes, I check them like my dog checks his food dish - reguarly, optimistically, but always the same old same old. Well, not only do I still get people looking for hairy female armpits (with optional sweat), I am now a prime desitination for variations on "Maureen Dowd Sexy". I have to admit, her current picture is flattering, but then it ought to be. It's not like they run candid photos of columnists. But the number one google hit for that search will put you off even thinking about the question ever again.

Speaking of sexy, I laugh everytime I see one of those Victoria Secret ads (sorry, policy prohibits the link) that asks "What's Sexy?" like there is some question, and then answers it by parading around nearly naked women whose bodies are so spectacularly rare that they earn millions of dollars just for having them. If wearing their products made the average women look as spectacular as their models, Victoria Secret would be worth much more than Microsoft and much more popular. The crazy thing is, the average women is capable of being far more sexy than some airhead model with a pneumatic figure parading around in almost nothing.

My Hometown Paper

Imagine my joy when I opened up my paper over the weekend and read an op-ed by Joanne Jacobs about blogging. Finally, something written on blogging by somebody who knows what they are talking about. But I immediately noticed that they had the URL for Powerline instead of Free Republic. I checked Joanne's blog, and it turns out she sold it the the SF Chronicle as well, where they have the correct URL. There's an embarrassing comparison - the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, worse than the Chron.

Conrad Does Sully (And More)

The multi-talented Conrad reveals Andrew Sullivan's gaycentricity [is that a word? It is now]. He also shines the light on Laos and it's treatment of the Hmong. Above my fireplace hangs a piece of Hmong artwork given to me by a friend (yes, they do exist). Their story illustrates that there is rarely any justice in this world.

Andrew Agonistes

If I were Andrew Sullivan, I'd ask for the money back he spent on his month long vacation. I don't know about you, but one of the things I look forward to about my summer vacation is returning rested and relaxed from it, ready to put the concerns of the world in their proper perspective. Andrew seems to have returned completely stressed out, which is a darn shame.

UPDATE: Ace of Spade's thinks Andrew is an emotional rock of Gibralter. He sure convinced me with all the evidence he piled up.

Chuckle Of The Day

I got a chuckle today at Crooked Timber, a blog I don't usually associate with humor.

First I read this post by Ted Barlow taking Christopher Hitchens to task for misdirecting his readers about the substance of Seymour Hersh's allegations. Now my opinion of Hitchens is that he's a gifted jerk who's occasionally right -- but pretty much always a jerk Hmm, I think the same thing about Hersh, except for the gifted part.

Then I scrolled down to the prior post by Kieran Healy that misdirects his readers about the substance of Glenn Reynolds remarks about The Day After Tommorrow. Glenn doesn't lampoon movie accuracy, he lampoons people who think movie science is accurate. Think Ted will write a post about Kieran?

TANSTAAFL!

Movable Type 3.0 will cost money if you want to have more than a single author or two blogs. This is causing some consternation, but Tanya explains it all, and by the way make sure you read the comments because she has something nice to say about yours truly (and there are some other good comments).

I recently switched to Moveable Type from Greymatter, and have no regrets. Except I never got comment spam with Greymatter, and I got a ton of it with MT until I used Jay Allen's Blacklist.

Just A Spring Clean For The May Queen

I've done a little spring cleaning around here. I've had to remove some dead links, update some that moved, and add some new ones. I hate dead link removal - it means that someone I once enjoyed reading doesn't write for me anymore. That's the only reason I de-link: the blog is inactive. Some give you warning - Jurjen wrote so infrequently it was hard to say exactly when he stopped. Others just blink out of existance - the sophorist just stopped being resolvable by the DNS servers one day, but whois says the domain isn't available. If there was a warning, I sure missed it.

But I did add a new St. Louis blog - Life in St. Louis plus four other blogs: Craig Henry's Lead and Gold, Brian Tiemann's Peeve Farm, a fine group of writers at Crooked Timber, and Brad Rolf's Into the Sunset.

I also tried to fix the problem with the left border being a bottom border on Explorer. I remember years ago when the whole Navigator/Explorer fight was going on, and people were telling me they didn't see a problem with getting Explorer for free. I hope you people see the problem now - complete stagnation. Hey, but it's free stagnation. Let me just say that this site looks better in Firefox and Safari.

Great Minds part deux

Does James Taranto read Sine Qua Non Pundit? Well, Charles has been running contests where he provides a snippet of the lyrics from a 70's song and you have to name the song and artist. So yesterday, Taranto had an item about John Kerry he titled "Sad Preacher Nailed Upon the Colored Door of Time" which comes from that quintessential 70s progressive rock group Yes from their song And You And I. Coincidence? You make the call.

Last Chance

Today is the last day to donate to the Spirit of America Challange. You can of course donate to the Spirt of America aftwards, but it wouldn't be as much fun. And yes, I did donate under the Victory Coalition banner.

I'm Back

There I was minding my own business last Monday, when my boss sticks his head in my cube and tells me I'm going to Huntsville for a couple of days --leaving today. So I make travel arrangements, go home, pack, and get to the airport to get on the plane. Then two days of all day meetings - from 8 AM to 8:30PM day 1, then 7:30AM to 10PM the next day, and on Thursday we put in a couple of hours before I went to Memphis to get picked up by the wife and kids and start our spring break vacation. Had a great time, but on Sunday morning I woke up with a bad cold and here it is Wednesday before I can blog again.

So in the mean time, its either the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end in Iraq. I think its the end of the beginning, but then I'm an optimist.

Don Luskin wonders something I've been wondering myself lately -- what would happen if someone filed a product liability suit (not slander) against a media outlet that got its facts wrong?

And since the blogosphere moves at internet speeds, the whole Kos Kerfuffle has gone from beginning to end before I even was aware of it.

I've been out of the loop, but I know where I can go to get up to speed.

Oh yeah, Sir Charles has resumed blogging as well as changed jobs.

Those who can, do; those who can't, link.

We Check References

Going through the referrer logs, I came across somebody who searched on Altavista for "controversial superbowl halftime show" and got me. Nothing to write home about, but what made me hoot with laughter is that Altavist offered up did you mean "controversial superb owl halftime show" -- see it here. Needless to say, Altavista couldn't actually come up with any superb owl halftime shows, let alone controversial ones, but that didn't stop them from offering.

Beyond Cool

As you can probably figure out from my own blog, I'm not one to put much stock in a lot of fancy gee-whiz stuff on a web page. But I have to make an exception for the redesigned Dust in the Light. Justin Katz has provided a visual treat to go with his verbal one. The site is so far beyond the ordinary, it requires a new URL.

Tanya's Back

I've been remiss, but I'll let you know that Tanya's back, reminding us of why we missed her when she was AWOL.

Bombs Away!

Unlike Max at Rotten Miracles, I can remember the Carter administration, so I'm joining in the counter Google Bomb (AKA CGB):

Miserable Failure

I'm Walking on Sunshine

Some days are better than others. Yesterday, I read a post by Geitner Simmons (Cosmic injustice: we in St. Louis have Christine Bertelson, and Omaha has Geitner Simmons) about CBS pulling the hatchet from the back of a still alive yet not with us Ronald Reagan that linked to an Alan Henderson post on the same subject that linked to an article by Steven Cox about moral choice and risk assessment. The article is great, and you should go read it.

Alan Henderson linked to it because it points out how some myths from the sinking of the Titanic are included in every movie ever made about it. I think it does an even better job about talking about moral choice and risk assessment. I think we need to celebrate people who do the right thing more than we do because its hard to do. All too often, we like to talk about how good we would have been -- a cheap and easy pasttime -- rather than do anything about what confronts us in the here and now. I'd like to think I'd always do the right thing in a difficult circumstance, but I'm fully aware I can't know for sure until I'm confronted with the choice.

The reason for my title is that Gietner updated the post to include my comment about reading the Cox article, and then I noticed he blogrolled me. Wow! OK, I'm sandwiched by Max Sawicky and Leonard Pitts, but still that's an ego boost.

An Important Note

I"ve mentioned in the past that there are other Kevin Murphys with blogs. Well, not only do we have blogs, but we comment. It was a shock the first time I saw a comment signed "Kevin Murphy" and I didn't write it, and the shock hasn't worn off. I realize that there a bunch of much more famous Kevin Murphys: the author, the economist, the other economist, the doctor, the actor/humorist, the politician, the journalist, etc. After first rejecting the idea that all of us Kevin Murphys get together and take over a small country like Luxemberg or Andorra -- peacefully, like the Libertarians want to do with New Hampshire, I've decided instead just to sign all my comment entries Kevin "fun" Murphy, since it fits in with the name of the site, and can be typed faster than Kevin "death from above" Murphy.

And Another One Bites The Dust

What's going on? I hit Charles Austin's blog, and he's gone on hiatus for the rest of the month. Then I hit Tanya's Blog, and she's calling it quits. Archpundit went on a brief hiatus, and has now extended it. I know, I just don't show up for weeks without explanation, which shows the difference between these quality bloggers and yours truly. Unlike John Waite, I can admit that I'm missing you guys.

Poor and Stupid Atrios

The law intrudes on the blogosphere again, although most of us, even the law professors, want to keep it out. OK, I'm talking about Don Luskin going after Atrios, I mean Don Luskin's lawyer going after Atrios. I have no idea about the case's merits, because I learned long ago (if I were a lawyer, I'd be a third generation one) the law has nothing to do with common sense, and little to do with the statute as written. While I don't agree with Mr. Luskin's approach, I'm not outraged by it. He's making use of the biggest weapon available to him in a fight, so my problem isn't so much with Luskin, but with the law.

Either Luskin has a case in which case Atrios will have to hire a lawyer, slog it out, and ultimately comply; or Luskin doesn't have a case, in which case Atrios will have to hire a lawyer, slog it out, and utlimately not comply. The cost, time, and effort will be about the same in either case. Of course, the meter is running for Luskin too, so this isn't cost free for him, either. And this is why most of us would prefer to keep the blogosphere free from legal entanglements. We like being able to say anything and not have to worry about consequences.

I'd have more symphathy for Atrios but I couldn't find where he had any sympathy for those who are normally targeted in the "real world" - those with deep pockets. The civil justice system is broke in this country, and while I don't think any of the proposals I've seen so far have been sufficient to really fix its problems - the most significant of which is that it is a system of legal extortion and coercion. Further disclosure: the Other Fearless Leader is an insurance claims adjuster (and I'll really put up some traffic numbers when I start telling her stories) and I have a somewhat different take on a lot of the civil suits out there (a word to the wise - move any relatives in nursing homes to Florida because when they die (yes, Virginia, its inevitable, despite what most people think) they'll be worth a lot of money to their heirs regardless of why they died). Sometimes, the little guy is the ass, because he has the law on his side.

While I was there, I found the Krugman Cat Altitude Index to be very funny (full disclosure: I'm allergic to cats, so I find the KCAI much funnier than I would the KDAI).

I also found A.W.'s throwdown with Brad DeLong to be both interesting and revealing.

UPDATE: Luskin and Atrios have issued a joint statement that ends Luskin's threat to file suit. And while there was much rejoicing, inquiring minds wonder if Atrios had to remove any comments and/or agree to remove comments of a particular nature in the future.

A Regular

Blogging is weird. You sit and write and hope people connect, but it's hard to tell if anyone does. Sometimes, people vote on what I now call "quality", which was originally called "karma"; but it's really hard to tell what those votes mean. Rarely, someone leaves a comment, and you say to yourself, "yes! I am not alone in the void!"

I'm not complaining - believe me, you'll know when I'm complaining. I check my referrer logs all the time trying to see if anyone is linking and how people get here. Since almost the very start, LEWISCOR.umsl.edu has been coming here. I don't know who they are - if they've ever voted, if they've ever commented, but they keep coming back. Sometimes I won't see them in the logs for a while, and I worry that I've been rejected - odd when you consider I have no idea who this person is that it should matter if they "reject" me. But then there they are and I'm happy - I have someone who chooses to come here knowing what they're in for when they get here.

My Fellow Kevin Murphys

I have no desire to recreate the moxie nu vs. moxie pop fight. Perhaps it's because it really is my name, and not a "handle." I think it's amazing that there are at least three - yes, you heard right - three Kevin Murphys with blogs. First, there's me (although this is not a claim to primacy, but when I'm writing, I'm always the party of the first part), Kevin "funmurphys" Murphy. Then, in no particular order, there's Kevin "Interociter" Murphy. And still in no particular order, there's Kevin "All is True" Murphy. Now that we have the The Blogging Kevins (or if you prefer the Kevin Collective (the only libertarian supported collective)), perhaps the three of us can form our own sub-class deriving both from Kevin and from Murphy (maybe we need an Axis of Murphys first?).

Anyway, there may be only one instapundit, but there are three blogging Kevin Murphys. I say Blog On, fellow Kevin Murphys and may all of our traffic increase.

Tolerence For Me, But Not For Thee

Funmurphys reader and blog proprietor in his own right Tom McMahon was banned from commenting at Daily Kos because of a comment he made about Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick in response to a post about Rep. Janklow. Maybe it was over the top (I couldn't find it); and blogs can ban whoever they want for any reason they want. But it does seem out of character for the tolerant, loving left to ban commentators who they simply disagree with, or worse, provide uncomfortable and inconvient facts. Oh Well. One fact that has been brought home to me repeatedly while reading blogs is that there are a lot of crazy people out there - left, right, and center - who comment on blogs. Another fact is that there are lot of smart people out there - left, right, and center - who comment on blogs.

In another time and place, I once proposed a Gresham's Law of Forums: namely, that bad posters/commentors drive out good ones. I haven't seen anything in the years since to change my mind.

Lightness Ahead (and Behind)

Blogging will be (and has been) light as I am in class. I know I should really just alert you when the blogging is more than merely sporadic, but at least this way I get to generate a post.

I Got In On The Ground Floor

Join the celebration over at Blogcritics for its (our?) first anniversary. Despite the hype, it isn't a sinister cabal, although I won't argue with Eric that we are superior bloggers.

Midwest BlogBash VI

Saturday a good time was had by all, well at least Sean (Sara's Good Time Man) who got a volume discount on his Bass Ale. We missed J Bowen who has left for greener pastures (and for some strange reason Indianapolis), but we were heartened to pick up a bunch of new people - clever Ben AKA Mr. bloghorn; Tanya, one good looking redhead (what redhead isn't goodlooking? A dye job); the inimitable C. Dodd Harris (was it just me, or were the sparks flying between C. and Tanya that night?); the Yetiette (Jim's younger and prettier sister); and some woman who talked with the heretofore mentioned (hey, I sat next to lawyer Harris) Sara and who seemed to know Marc, who was his usually ebullient self. Rounding out the lineup was Charles (with whom I celebrated my $800 refund by not buying anything for anybody), and Chris (who was so excited by the prospect of attending another Blog Bash he fell asleep in his barcalounger and arrived late).

I spent much of the night talking to a couple of third year med students from Washington University whose names have escaped me; a gal from Louisiana and a guy from Florida. The gal was a blogger, and after a search on St. Louis Bloggers for live journal bloggers, I couldn't find her. Her friend wasn't, and when he arrived was "how do you know all of these people?" incredulous. Don't underestimate the power of blogging - bringing people together really and virtually in one great meta conversation.

UPDATE: Pooja is the med student blogger I talked with, and Justin is her friend. Thanks Pooja for stopping by and setting me straight. Stop by anytime, I can use plenty of straightening up.

Sweaty Female Armpits

I get a lot (for me, anyway) of people coming here looking for sweaty female armpits, or various combinations thereof. Why? Is it a fetish? Is it scientific research? If you come here looking for sweaty female armpits, could you please leave a (family friendly) comment about why you are looking for sweaty female armpits? I feel like Lewis Black and his reaction to overhearing the remark, "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college." So please, let me know why you are looking, so I don't get a brain aneurysm.

It's All About Collaboration

I've written before that some people don't like blogs and really don't like how highly they rate with Google. Well, Tim O'Reilly (of O'Reilly the computer book publisher) writes approvingly:

"Robert Scoble just told a great story that vividly explains how users help to build Google's product. He describes discovering a new Iranian restaurant in Redmond, WA, and linking to their website. He notes that the site doesn't now show up in google, but that, because of his weblog, it will now: "Oh, did you just realize that this weblog is nothing more than metadata for Google to use? Yeah, you'd be right. Google figured out how to get people like me to go around and look at websites and add meta data about those websites. How did Google do that? By giving us power. Think about it. That's how Google pays us back for the work we're doing to improve its index."

There's a dark side to this story. Scoble told it in the context of rumors that advertisers are lobbying Google to de-emphasize blogs in calculating its page ranks. I trust Google to do the right thing because of their relentless focus on the user. If they adjust the impact of blogs, it will be to get a truer result for users rather than for advertisers. But you can't underestimate the short-sightedness of many big players. Asking Google to take blogs out of the input is like asking EBay to stop taking product from small players and only take it from an approved vendor list, or asking Amazon to take reviews only from publishers and approved journalists! It's the essence of the new paradigm that users help to build the product. "

So maybe it's not love, but at least it puts the whole shebang into perspective. As a blogger, I'm not engaged in a selfish narcisistic hobby, I'm engaged in a giant collaborative venture that brings value to others. Yeah baby, how very yeah!

When Is A Choice Not A Choice?

One of my gripes about old time feminists is that they talk a lot about choice, but they don't really mean it. Abortion should be a choice they say, but when it comes right down to it, they pretty much think that abortion is the only right choice for any "unplanned" pregnancy. What a women does with her life should be up to her they say (and I wholeheartedly agree), but they can't stop criticising women who choose family over career. I've noted before that a lot of my female college classmates made that exact choice - leaving very successful careers to stay at home with the kids. Maureen Dowd has gotten around to noticing the same trend and instead of being surprised like moi, she's pissed. For her its like a multiple choice test - when given a choice, there's only one right answer.

How Did You Get Here?

Since I get so few hits, I'm able to track how each and every visitor got here. My favorites are the seach engine queries. I can answer Kojak's question, "Who loves ya, baby?" with Google loves me - it's made over forty percent of the referrals here.

Somebody asked Google "are frogs nearsighted or farsighted" and came here not just once, but twice. Google obviously confused me with J Bowen who's the sort to answer that question out of the clear blue. But to answer your question, since I've never seen a frog wearing glasses, I'm going to guess neither.

I get a lot of people coming here looking for JLo's (JayLo, J. Lo) booty - not a day goes by without a hit based on that query. People, she's got a dancer's butt - larger and more muscular than the average, but it isn't near as big as the jokes about it. And why is it always referred to as her booty - not her butt, not her derriere, not her heine, or even bottom (I think I've heard backside a couple of times)? And why such fascination with a just a body part, when the real interesting thing is how someone with modest dancing, singing, and acting ability made it so big in all three fields? It's amazing how far oozing sex appeal and shameless self promotion will take you.

Doug Wilson's (from Trading Spaces) orientation is another perennial favorite. I have no idea what he finds attractive beyond the color blue and venetian plaster. And I don't care. I'm of the we're all sinners school of theology, and as long as he sticks to interior design, I'll stick with him. A few things have bumped him up in my estimation - I think he designs some pretty neat rooms, even if some are over the top; in a local radio interview I blogged about he made it pretty clear he plays a character on the show (e.g. he isn't really lazy like he pretends to be); and on the episode at Scott AFB where he did the little boys room by adding half of two real cars, we met some of his good ole boy truck firm family and found out that he comes from a small Illinois town near Champaigne (which isn't too big itself). Of course, after the kiss with Hildi on the Las Vegas live reveal show, I'd be surprised if he married any time soon.

Then there are the "what were they thinking" inquiries. Needless to say, they didn't find what they were looking for here. Nobody does. "Picture of sweaty female armpits": sorry, this isn't a fetish site. "Nuns in a catfight": again, this isn't a fetish site, but the way things are going, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding "bishops in a catfight." I could see why google picked me for the ones above as I have something close in my eclectic oeuvre, but "Topless women on holiday" shouldn't have found me. What's really intriguing is the "on holiday" part, but sorry fellas, this isn't a travel site.

Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee

Bill O'Reilly wrote a wrongheaded "Talking Points Memo" that claims the internet has become "a sewer of slander and libel, an unpatrolled waterway, where just about anything goes." and concludes with "So which is the bigger threat to America? The big companies or the criminals at the computer?" That criminal would be me (and you if you are a fellow blogger, or chatter, or forum poster). I supplied my answer to my local paper's similar compaint five years ago -- that Solomon guy was on to something when he wrote there isn't anything new under the sun -- in a letter they actually published. Rand Simberg has fashioned his own satirical reply to Mr. O'Reilly and it's a doozy. This was my comment at his site:

The best defense of the internet is a clear demonstration of its worth, and you have done so. You have achieved a rarity - three birds with one stone: people who want to curtail second amendment rights, people who want ot curtail first amendment rights, and Bill O'Reilly. Okay, Bill's a soft target, but it's still an impressive achievement.

You've also raised a knotty question for the EU's enforcement of internet equal time (though I doubt they've thought of it): Who gets equal time after satire? Here, the form would say first amendment supporters, yet the meaning would say Bill O'Reilly and second amendment suppressors. Only the lawyers will profit from such a requirement.

A Clash Of Titans

The whole blogosphere has quaked to the battle of a couple of titans arguing over who's the real moxie. The odd thing to me is that neither is actually named moxie - they just use that moniker online. Just think if all the "Kevins" decided to get in a flame war -- the internet itself would slow to a crawl as the legion of Kevins and their supporters sucked up bandwidth. Hey, that would be a real traffic booster!

I'm hereby laying down the gauntlent to all those other bloggers who use Kevin in their name - it's mine, all mine. I'm older than most Kevins out there - 41. I've been on the net since 1997. And I have an Irish family name to go with it. Ha! Take that, you other Kevins! I think that entitles me to be King of the Kevins, the one true Kevin, the Keviniest Kevin of them all. So all of my regulars, both of you, go out and tell all the other Kevin bloggers that they are ripping me off. That goes for:

Kevin Drum,

Kevin Aylward,

Kevin's Blog,

Kevin Donohue,

Kevin Marks,

Kevin Werblach,

Kevin Sites,

Kevin Altis,

Kevin Rains,

Kevin Basil,

Kevin Devin,

Kevin Chang,

Kevin Brooks,

Kevin Miller,

Kevin Fox,

Kevin Steel,

Kevin Hillabolt,

Kevin Gregorious,

Kevin Parrot,

Kevin Pierpont,

Kevin who leans left,

Kevin Deniham,

Kevin whe definately isn't Irish,

Kevin Heller,

Kevin Lynch,

Kevin Batcho,

Kevin McGehee,

Kevin Nguyen,

Kevin Moore

and any other blogging Kevins.

Okay, the taunting was pretty lame -- my heart wasn't in it. I'd rather form the League of Kevins than get in some stupid fight about who was here first. Still, I can't deny I would like the traffic.

Oh yeah, Kevin Drum did link to a bunch of Kevins, and Kevin Aylward liked the idea enough to do it again and send a nice email, but the League of Kevins is my idea!

Say It Ain't So: Some People Don't Like Blogs

As this Register article makes clear, some people don't like blogs, and really don't like the fact that blogs rank high in Google searches. They feel that we only clutter up the information stream with a bunch of narcissitic rambling. I didn't realize that so many people read my blog; I figured they all read the informative ones I link to over there on the left.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that soon we will be celebrating another Midwest Blogbash (maybe this time I'll shell out for a Commemorative Christopher Johnson T-Shirt). For all bloggers and their groupies, mark May Ninth on your calenders in big bold red letters cause J Bowen is hosting at Two Nice Guys in Kirkwood again and I should be free of all cubscout entanglements.

The bad news is J is leaving us, St. Louis that is. Characteristically J is silent about why, but I'm sure we'll find out at the blogbash. It's a sad day for St. Louis, but hopefully a happy day for J.

I Have the Best Readers

My old physics buddy Carl Drews sent me the following email:

It's April 23, and your last blog entry is April 11.  In that time interval: Iraq has finished falling to the American-led coalition, the Shiites have made their first pilgrimage in a generation to Karbala, the SARS virus has spread, Scott Peterson has been indicted for the murder of his wife and unborn son, Holy Week has come and gone, and my daughter Isabel has lost her first front tooth.  People need to know your opinion on these things!  Interested readers are clicking on Refresh again and again, hoping to read Kevin's latest thoughts.  So won't you please please please comment on something?  Anything!

OK, our Mesoptamian campaign confounded all the pessimists; religious freedom is great; I'm not sure how much SARS has spread versus how much China has fessed up to how widespread it already was; while a terrible crime, I'm not sure why the Petersons get so much attention when too many others get none; Praise the Lord; a mixture of "I hope Isabel didn't freak out at the loss of her tooth" and "aww, how cute". In four years my daughter will be driving, the thought of which freaks me out.

I'm still as busy as a one armed cashier at Wal-Mart at my place of employment. After more physical labor than I'm accustomed to, my back yard is now a third re-graded but still a sea of mud. I just got the requirements for getting a building permit for a new deck and the fact that it requires six copies of the plans gives you an idea of the hassle that looks to be. Baseball season has started for my son and technically construction continues on our room annex (six months and counting). And that's only part of the stuff that fills my time - not only do I not have any time to write my blog, I have too little time to read other people's blogs. But who's complaining?

Random Observations

Okay, that's the name of a great blog by local boy Tim (boy in this case is just an expression). He covers the philosophical inconsistancies of the left, a topic sparked by a comment by yours truly (philosophical inconsistancies of the right are left as an excercise for the reader); a BBC correspondent furious at the bias of his organization (maybe he's a dedicatedLilek's reader); and he asks the important question, Do Iraqi's hate their government? He notes that some peace protesters here hate their's with far less repression (last time I checked, we haven't hanged anyone for waving to enemy troops like they did in Iraq.

A Good Guy

I comment a lot (time permitting) over at Archpundit. While we disagree on a lot of subjects, I think we have intellegent discussion, not a serial contradiction with insult as happens too often on the web. So if you're looking for more of me, or even better, a different view than mine, head over and check it out.

On A Lighter Note

Amidst all the war talk and worry, life goes on. The daffodils are blooming, the pears are budding, and somebody came here searching for Donny Osmond Armpit. Google is a powerful tool, allowing anyone to track down specific information on the internet; sometimes though, that power can simply be abused and this is a classic case. For the love of pete, why would anybody in their right mind do that? If whoever ran that search is reading, get help. And hurry.

I'm Unique

Somebody found my blog the other day by searching for Tropico Wicker Ceiling Fan. And the amazing thing is (no, not that they mispelled Tropical and wound up here), but I'm the only result on Google or Yahoo when you search for those four words. I'm the only webpage in the known universe with those four words together.

PS yes, they do make wicker ceiling fans.

I Am An Insignificant Microbe

At least, in the Blogoshere Ecosystem. Given the focus this blog has put on intestinal bacteria, and it's important and beneficial role in the human gut (another subject I'm over acquainted with), that's not all bad. Still, I aspire to be a significant microbe, so I have my work cut out for me.

Link via that playful primate, Charles Austin.

Midwest BlogBash IV

I attended the blogbash last night. It was held in Kirkwood, where I was born and raised (I spent my formative years in California) at Two Nice Guys, which is a required dinner stop when my brother comes to town. I arrived early to a bar with three people in it. After asking one guy if he was Juan Gato and getting a funny look, I decided to just enjoy my Bass and wait for Juan to make the first move. Mr. Gato thoughtfully waited for me to get interested in Walker, Texas Ranger before asking me "Did you ask that guy if he was Juan Gato?" When I tore my eyes from Chuck Norris, he added "I'm Juan Gato, and I'm wearing shorts". I half expected the other patrons to stand and say "I'm Juan Gato", including the barmaid wearing the slinky top, but my Stanley Kubrick moment quickly passed and Mr. Gato and I began talking about the joys and sorrows of computer programming and then scoping out the fire exits. I don't know how long Juan had been there before me, but as there was but one empty glass at his table it was either five minutes or the barmaid was far more efficient than she looked. This was the highpoint of the evening, as I had this celebrity all to myself, and I was able to get him to expand on his truly revolutionary plan for mideast peace, but just as he was about to reveal all, all he could get out was "flowers, hugs, and most importantly" before he was cut off by the arrival of Charles Austin.

This was the highpoint of the evening, as I now had the undivided attention (Walker, Texas Rangerwas over and JAG was on) of the two most famous St. Louis bloggers all to myself. I was truly shocked as Charles didn't mention the name Richard Cohen all evening. But the evening wasn't over yet, and before Charles new beard could be fully commented on, J Bowen arrived bringing the highpoint of the evening along with a 2x4. J is a quiet man in person, but then so was E.F. Hutton. Subdued by such an august assemblage, I was only able to blurt out about Nan Wyatt's concurrent visitation down the street and my truly, deeply funny story about my father and Phillips furniture (a local Kirkwood institution) was left untold.

But then the highpoint of the evening occured when ozman Richard Fennessy showed up. He had just happened to read Tim Blair that day about a party in Kirkwood, and as all good ozmen do, he figured he should go to any party if he could find it. Mr. Fennessy and I got along famously as we are both Mac people (he's president of the Gateway Area Macintosh Users Group) and we both were involved in the Oberon and Collins submarines. International man of mystery Jim X showed up -- I'm not allowed to divulge any details beyond he used to have two blogs and he wants to start another, but has to wait until he can *wink* *wink*. Next came Jeffersonian, a man known to me via the Current Affairs forum on StlToday.com, but only virtually until now. He was followed by Christopher Johnson who was modeling his latest creation, the Midwest BlogBash IV T-shirt "Gato's Revenge" in tasteful ecru. Here at last was the highpoint of the evening, as a diverse range of insightful men firmly seated on their barstools debated the topics of the day.

Alas, nothing is permanent and my hour of departure crept up on me (no little cat feet were involved, as I am a dog person). Events were to rapidly overtake me with the arrival of Matt and his delectable wife Vicky, the highpoint to any evening. My participation in the conversation was somewhat limited as I was trying to eat my hamburger as quickly as possible so that I could do the thing I least wanted to do. Now things were really getting crazy, as Charles and Juan had wandered off to try to call Tim Blair. A search of the premesis, interior and exterior, revealed nothing, nor was Jim X able to shed any light on their disapperance. A clean cut Ryan Olson arrived at this juncture to be warned from Charles' seat. Sadly, I had to leave to help set up for my Pack's Blue and Gold banquet, but not before another couple (note: second woman) arrived whose names I didn't catch. Now, just as things were getting interesting, I had to leave. Saying my fond farewells, and before any pictures were taken, I marched boldy forth into the night, leaving the revelers behind, and Midwest BlogBash IV while continuing came to an end for me.

Why Do I Bother

I can't compete: Barney, the White House dog, drew millions of viewers to the White House website for his Holiday Webcam show (warning: direct link), according to CNN (Warning: terrible puns).

Lileks can compete with gnat-cam; but if people turned into Trooper-cam (my dog), all they'd see is either close-ups of spots where other dogs have done their business (lots and lots of tree trunks) while he's on a walk; the view out our front picture window as he keeps vigil; and the view of his tail while he's curled up under our bed or on the couch while he's sleeping.

I Suck Up, Big Time

Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit ran a selection of his email today, and by the looks of the small excerpt he provided, he could run one of the best blogs around just by running reader email. I guess it just goes to show you, those that have, get. It also demonstrates to me what a genuinely nice guy he is based on the his replies to the couple of dopey (compared to the one's he published) emails I've sent him.

James Lileks publishes a bleat every weekday that should be read by every man, woman, and child in the world. He consistantly delivers great humor, insight, and interest; often his work is outstanding. How he does it should be under intense scrutiny by all the J-schools. Instead, the profession is too busy scratching it's head over why people are getting less of their news from the news media and more from late night comics. People, its not hard - your product is lousy. The editor of USA Today commisioned a study and discovered that half their stories contained at least one error -- and those were factual errors that could be easily discovered. A writer for AP was canned when it was discovered he made up quotes from made up academics relentlessly in his stories. And it's downhill from there. You want more readership - syndicate Lileks in every newspaper, and watch your sales go up.

I was embarrassed to discover that I hadn't linked to Susanna Cornett in my permanent links after she so kindly linked to me in her blog after I gave her a heads up on story she's covered in her blog. So sorry Susanna, and I've taken care of the problem. I didn't want to leave such a fine, must read blog off my list.

Bloggers Are The Nicest People

I received the nicest email from J Bowen at No Watermellons Allowed after he wandered into the blog here and discovered we share geography. When I compare the email responses I've received from bloggers to big media people, the bloggers come out w a y ahead. So I'm adding a special St. Louis Blogs section to my links on the right, with J at the top of the list.

Welcome

Welcome to funmurphys, the Blog. I plan to write about whatever strikes my fancy, and I hope it might strike yours too. Adding another blog to the already huge blogosphere, especially when there are already so many good ones out there, is a daunting task. But I'm brewing my own heady mix of wit and wisdom, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.