Welcome Chris Taylor to the ever growing Canadian blogosphere.
Good stuff, Chris. Now, link me, bitch.

On days like yesterday and today, I really have come to appreciate my blog.
I have larengitis. I cannot speak at all above a whisper, and I avoid it, because it makes me cough. The dogs are sort of weirded out over it all – nobody has yelled at them in over 48 hours. Luckily, I’ve had only a couple of phone calls to deal with and some quiet work here at home. But if my posting frequency increases, that’s why. It’s the only communication I’m capable of at the moment.

Looking at my sitemeter and current traffic levels, there’s a good chance SDA will see the 50,000 visit sometime today.
Due, in no small part to “Flames Girls”.
I suppose this means I should mark the event by flashing a little skin of my own.
On the other hand, I do want people to come back.

British Columbia blog, “Peaktalk”, is back.

The Commissar interviews the blogosphere’s one trick pony, Wonkette.

Pretty busy with work today. Plus, I mowed my lawn – again! Last year I mowed the lawn twice over the entire duration of the summer, due to the drought.
So a roundup of good links, from a variety of sources….
Bill Cosby and the Blogosphere – a good overview of how the media shuffled its feet and looked about nervously with hands in pockets, in response to Bill Cosby’s pointed remarks at an NAACP gala, and how the blogosphere has helped to keep it alive.
In response to a NYT op-ed Dr. Joyner deconstructs, yet again, the myth that there were no ties to terrorism in Saddam’s Iraq, and for a bonus, points out that the Saudis are slowly coming around to realize that they are in the white hot cross hairs of Al Qaeda.
New Jersey’s Division on Civil Rights privdes compelling evidence that Einstein’s theory of Stupidity was correct.
And if you only have time for one of these links, make it this one: America’s “Irresponsible” President Is the “Chief Culprit of this War”

In the long blogosphere tradition of stealing Jeff Goldstein’s best stuff;

Hickery, dickery, dock!
The mouse ran up the clock:
The clock struck one,
the mouse ran down…
Hickery, dickery, John Kerry is an opportunistic scumfingerer.

Mary had a little lamb,
little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as the guest list at a John Kerry cocktail party. And snow.

… and considering the current election campaign atmosphere, I think we should launch the Canadian version of “Super Partisan Nursery Rhymes”.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king’s horses, And all the king’s men,
Couldn’t undo the royal screwing-over he got from that little prickstain from Shawinigan

Feel free to use the comments section to express your creativity. The Americans won’t get it, but that’s even funner. In a sad, self-important Rick Mercer-ish sort of way.

Carnival of the Canucks is up. This week everyone gets a ride, free, on Antonia Zerbisias.
Oh. That may not have come out the way I intended it.

Someone wrote in my comments:

For every American killed in Iraq, 100 Iraqi wemon [sic] and children should publicly be beheaded. Kill them all.”

Yeah, I have to admit, that there are days when I think of a future in which we sit around on a Saturday evening, drinking wine coolers, thinking of the soft green glow far beyond the eastern horizon and the “Seven Minute War”…
“Darn. Maybe that was overkill.. oh well, no time for second guessing… who knew President Kerry had it in him?…”
Then, I go read Zayed and Alaa and I change my mind.

I’ve been watching my site meter this evening with puzzlement. There are an unusually high number of hits coming in on the “We Wait” post below. High for this site, at least – over 100 an hour.
I checked to see if it had been Instalanched, I’ve checked Technorati. No clues. I had linked it to a Wizbang page, where it shares space with many, many other trackbacks, and it was trackbacked by only two sites. One of them Backcountry Conservative. Jeff Quinton mentions the traffic the link is generating – out of curiousity I clicked his site meter. He’s had 29,475 visitors in the past hour.
Wow.
update – Check the trackbacks. A lot of people are having tsunamis. Glenn Reynolds had 200,000 page views yesterday.
another update – the dead tree folks are hearing from them, too.
And Jeff Jarvis weighs in.
Wizbang has been hosting the video, and providing links to other sites that are doing the same. (The original Arab site was pulled down) – he’s reporting ” 237,000 visitors today, and the day is only half over”.
If anyone has hosting space that can help share the load, he’s asking for help. Some of these bloggers are going to get hit with very high hosting fees this month.

My top referrer for the month so far is The International Atomic Energy Agency?

An interesting discussion going on in Mrs. Du Toit’s comments section.
I’m rather inclined towards genetic engineering for this one. We could cross Den Beste with Jeff Goldstein.
Then, run like hell.

John Gormley of 650 CKOM’s “John Gormley Live” just mentioned he’s having a local blogger as a guest coming up after the news break. (John, you need a blog. Hell, you need a website).
I’ll be live blogging, without his knowledge, to give listeners (who he had better send here if he knows what’s good for him) a demonstration as to how fast this medium can cover an event. [ after the show started I emailed him the link.]
(I hereby pledge to be fair and balanced, despite the fact that the SOB esteemed radio host didn’t ask ME to be his guest.)
First off, he’s announcing the RCMP have charged Chuck Guite and Jean Brault as a result of investigation into ADSCAM. Among the details, they allege bogus contracts involving Group Action regarding the Gun Registry, of all things.
He’s spelling “blog” for the listeners… and describing what they are. He’s mentioning that …. ME!!!!! “Very interesting, very political”
John’s guest is Theresa Zolmer of Heart Of Canada from Saskatoon. (Theresa is much nicer than I am. Probably a safe choice.) He’s covering her posts – describing her varied format, and asks her if this is typical…. discussing the fact that readers can leave comments.
Some recommendations: Small Dead Animals… heh. Grrrrrl Meets World” (I’ll update the links later)… Blogs Canada and their current spat with the Treasury Board over the parody of the Gov’t of Canada logo. and how others are coming to his defense… not a good idea to tick off the blogosphere…. [ask the New York Times about that…] PaulMartinTimes and their parody of Paul Martin’s site gets an honourable mention.
They’re taking calls. (I’m going to resist…. ) Theyr’e talking about Belinda Stronich’s blog – “boring”. The importance of good writing, and being concise…. the phenomenon of linkage and blog communities of like-minded people. Personal safety? Oh dear. “You don’t know other bloggers”… I suppose if you’re hitting the personal sites. Most of the prominant bloggers have been pretty straightforward about who they are.
Good stuff about the role of the “wild card” in democracy and how they can make “politicans cringe”. Missed an opportunity to get in the role the blogosphere played in keeping the Trent Lott story alive. Oh well, that’s forgivable… time is tight. Going on to celebrity blogs…. academic blogs, other special interests.
Calls are up next. (OK, John, you’re forgiven. I think that’s 4 free plugs… )
… No calls at the moment. Mention of the right – left nature of the blogosphere, Colby Cosh comes up – good choice … photoblogs, political satire … Andrew Sullivan. Maybe bloggers are “people with too much time on their hands.” (Yup.)
ok. I can’t take it anymore….
JOHN… INSTAPUNDIT!!!
No mention of the blogosphere is complete without a mention of Glenn Reynolds.
….
OK. So I broke down and phoned in. Filled in the gaps, admitted that we’re all about the traffic, and that we’re just attention seekers… and how half the fun is drawing the tin foil crowd into the comments section.
Got the plugs in for Instapundit, Outside The Beltway, Scrappleface and Best Of The Web. That should pretty much get anyone hooked and onto to the rest of the good ones. (Shoot – forgot Lileks). Mentioned the fact checking aspect of the blogosphere… Gave a lame answer about the blog title, which really doesn’t have much of a story behind it.. admitted that the gopher is one of my personal kills.
And I forgave John. On air. The whole segment ended up being a Small Dead Animals infomercial.

(moving this back to the top for the final day)
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ll know about the fund raising effort at Spirit Of America.

Continue reading →

For those of you wondering how you can show your appreciation for the work I do to entertain and educate … today I’ve begun my wish list.
Starting with this.
Don’t worry about shipping – I’ll go pick it up. (It’s in Ontario.)
Hat tip: Rick’s Miscellany

At Occam’s Carbuncle:

In an unimpeachably impartial and fair newly released poll (of Canadians wearing “I hate Bush” t-shirts?), only 14 per cent of those surveyed said they believe George Bush understands or cares about Canada.
In a poll fabricated on the same day, George Bush unanimously affirmed that he doesn’t understand or give a crap about Canada.

I’m going to be rather busy over the next 3 days, so blogging will be infrequent.
But there’s lots on the sidebar to keep you entertained. Check out our underappreciated Canadian bloggers, and don’t miss the Iraqis, either. Here’s a roundup at “Carnival Of The Liberated”.
Be sure to visit the auction, though. At time of writing, someone has a very good deal on a pet portrait. (Proceeds to Spirit Of America. )

For reasons unknown, Jeff Goldstein has announced he’s overhauling his blog. He’s made an open call for submission of logo designs. First prize is the privilage of saying you designed the Protein Wisdom logo. The type of opportunity professional designers lie awake at night hoping for….

You get what you pay for, Jeff.

I’m off to Brazil tomorrow morning, so blogging here will resume in a week’s time.
You kids in the comments section down there – play nice while I’m gone.

Kevin Aylward noticed thatthe John Kerry Campaign had a nifty idea – hosting free webpages for those who want to endorse his campaign!

Scott Boone got busy capturing screenshots. It was over 4 hours before someone noticed and pulled them down.