Nicholas Kristof

Of the NYTimes writes a bit on factory farming.

Livestock rights are already enshrined in the law in Florida, Arizona, Colorado and here in Oregon, but California’s referendum would go further and would be a major gain for the animal rights movement. And it’s part of a broader trend. Burger King announced last year that it would give preference to suppliers that treat animals better, and when a hamburger empire expostulates tenderly about the living conditions of cattle, you know public attitudes are changing.

It’s a good trend. As long as we’re going to eat these guys we can at least let them live decently until then.

Let the Advice Giving Begin

Personally, I’d like to see John McCain create more ads about himself as I think that Obama’s celebrity wears thin. I’d like to see a woman or a minority man chosen as his VP choice, yet this person should have secure conservative credentials.

David Ignatius wants McCain to become his maverick self again.

McCain’s triumph, finally, was that he got over Vietnam. He didn’t fulminate against antiwar activists. (“I have made far too many mistakes in my own life to forever disparage people.”) He accepted the ways America had changed in his absence. He didn’t bear grudges. He had finally grown up. McCain wrote in a magazine article soon after his homecoming in March 1973: “Now that I’m back, I find a lot of hand-wringing about this country. I don’t buy that. I think America today is a better country than the one I left nearly six years ago.”

That healing gift is what McCain, at his best, brings to the presidential race — not the brass marching band of military valor but the tolerance of someone who has truly suffered.

He sees the man described above as spinning his wheels trying to please other people. I don’t disagree.

In this LATimes blog the author asks where Obama’s mojo has gone. He lists a number of the reasons given (racism) before getting to what is probably the crux and suggests that Obama announce his VP candidate for another little boost.

Read them both, it’s just a very sharp contrast between the two men.

Also, this column by Henry A. Kissinger. He’s a promoter of no time tables, but check this out.

Of course, we cannot tell now whether these changes are permanent or whether, and to what extent, they reflect a decision by our adversaries, including Iran, to husband their forces for the aftermath of the Bush administration.

Hmmm, now why would anyone feel they needed to “husband their forces” after the Bush administration?? Perhaps because Bush is a leader not to be reckoned with?? (update to clarify – a leader who will whoop their collective arses) Hmmm?? I believe President Bush will go down in history (eventually) as one of the great ones.

That line from Kissinger says a lot.

Particularly as the leader of al Qaeda leaves Iraq to go crouch in the safety of the hills of Pakistan (ala Sadr and Iran) right when a good strong leader would (shall we say) “stay the course”.

My advice to you al-Masri is to stay gone.

That dang flag pin again

I don’t give a rip about the pin, but this post by Michael Novak had an ending that is exactly how I feel about putting the flag out in front of my house. Every time I start rushing around, late for work and don’t want to bother I go through these exact 2 justifications for why I need to ‘bother’.

As for me, I have been wearing a flag in my lapel since September 11, 2001, and with special care ever since American forces took the war to the place whence it emanated, Afghanistan. As long as brave Americans were willing to accept, if necessary, wounds or death on our behalf, I felt a duty to be faithful to them: “This flag’s for them!” And will stay in my lapel until they are out of harm’s way.

Everyone knows silly bravado when he sees it. So let me lay some out. Since Osama bin Laden is out to harm Americans all he can, it seems only right that we should wear a flag to make it easy for him to find us. It would be disgraceful to cower.

Links

The CIA confronts Pakistan.

The C.I.A. emissary presented evidence showing that members of the spy service had deepened their ties with some militant groups that were responsible for a surge of violence in Afghanistan, possibly including the suicide bombing this month of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, the officials said.

………………….
Oh really…?

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, “This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,” adding: “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.”

………………

Something is going on with the Ramos and Campean cases. It sounds fishy.

. I’m not sure that’s quite true anymore. I don’t believe Ramos and Compean are in prison in order to protect the public safety. Quite the contrary. These men are in prison because they refused to go along with the “see no evil, hear no evil” game plan. They are there to send a message.

That’s exactly what it sounds like.
………………………..
People are starting to worry that the US may become a bit more isolationist in the coming years.

The Poor – they must also be babies. Why else do they need such close supervision?

Why else would an entire city decide that they can no longer open up businesses that might actually succeed?

In LA they’ve passed a law that says new fast food outlets are banned for a year in South Central LA.
And in NYC they’ve passed a law that says chain restaurants (you know, the ones that poorer people go to) must note how many calories are in each meal.

Every fast food outlet I’ve gone to has alternatives to 1000 calorie meals on their menus. Why does LA think that having a new fast food restaurant in South Central LA will be bad for the health of the folks living there? How about if the fast food restaurant offers tons of jobs and is owned by a local? Wouldn’t that be healthy?

“Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods,” City Councilman Bernard Parks said.

This moratorium is supposed to attract other restaurants. Those that serve better foods. Maybe say like some French restaurant loaded with creams. Or a Chinese sit down restaurant and all their salt. Or maybe Mexican and their free chips. Or ?? Oh – he’s talking about a new tofu/veggie/wrap restaurant. Yes, “if you empty it (of fast food), they (vegetarians) will come”.

The Olympics and Iraq

I’m the WSJ on this.

How is the political appt of Iraq’s team this year worse than how Saddam used to come up with his team?

The country’s sin, as described by the IOC, is to have changed the members of its national Olympic committee, awarding posts based on local political loyalties. This is an interesting accusation — given that the previous chief of Iraq’s Olympic effort was Uday Hussein, the son of Iraq’s former dictator.

If Uday Hussein was acceptable to the IOC, why is the committee up in arms about the Iraqi government’s decision to reshuffle its Olympic management team? The answer is that Iraq’s new Olympic managers have not yet been accredited by the IOC. What will it take to get them accredited? Will they have to start torturing their athletes the way Uday used to do, when they failed to perform to his liking?

Who do you read? And is it because they’re men or women? or for an actual good reason?

The Anchoress
Maggie’s Farm
Aunt Aggie
Megan McCardle
LaShawn Barber
Terri Goon (of course!)
etc

Plus a bunch of men.
Three Sources
Environmental Republican
Glenn (of course)
Ed Morrissey (Hot Air)
Powerline
etc

What does it mean? Therein lies our/my taste. Clearly I’m mostly interested in political stuff when online, clearly leaning right and clearly a person who believe women should not be taken seriously ? huh?

From the NYTimes:

Yet, when Techcult, a technology Web site, recently listed its top 100 Web celebrities, only 11 of them were women. Last year, Forbes.com ran a similar list, naming 4 women on its list of 25.

“It’s disheartening and frustrating,” said Allison Blass, a BlogHer attendee whose personal blog at www.lemonade-life.com is about living with Type 1 diabetes.

At the seminar “How to Take Names and Be Taken Seriously as a Political Blogger,” many women said that their male colleagues and major media groups tended to ignore them, and to link to them less often (unless they are Arianna Huffington).

You’re right Allison. I don’t take you seriously and I don’t give a rip about your diabetes. Cry me a river.

What else is in the article entitled “Blogging’s Glass Ceiling”. How about this gem:

Ms. Dimont had just attended a panel called “Taking Care of Business.” Her blog about products and design “went from a hobby to a business so fast,” she said, echoing a common sentiment. She said that companies like Target and Hewlett-Packard regularly furnish products for her to give away to her readers. Chevrolet had provided her with a Malibu Hybrid for the week of the conference, in return for writing about the event on BlogHer.

“I think they knew I’d love the car so much I’d want to write about it, too, on my blog,” Ms. Dimont said. Still, she added, “I’m not making any money off of it.”

“I’m not making any money off of it”, though somehow it’s a business and somehow I got the value of an actual car for an entire week. hmmmm?

Ms. Klein’s popular blog, Greek Tragedy, chronicles her personal life and helped her earn six-figure book deal, while Ms. Armstrong’s snarky mommy blog, Dooce.com, is so successful that her husband quit his job to help her manage it full time.

How many male bloggers can say the same thing? And why would I want to read about Ms Klein’s personal life while I’m looking for news? And why would I want to read about parenting?

The blogosphere is an equal opportunity business. Megan McCardle notes that

“Women get dismissed in ways that men don’t,”

And so? Everyone gets dismissed for something. Megan thinks that women aren’t aggressive enough yet I can say honestly I took Michelle Malkin off of my must reads because she is irritatingly aggressive. Same with the JAWA report and the AntiIdiotarian. (who’s cussing started bugging me – and I’m not opposed to cussing. It was the over do of it.)

Vox Popoli comes up with rules for women who want to be taken seriously. My comments are in the brackets below.:

1. Have at least half a brain and demonstrate that it actually functions by not writing egregiously stupid stuff. [that sounds like a good plan for both men and women]

2. At least 75 percent of your posts should have nothing to do with you or your life.
[This all depends on what's making you famous Vox. Waiter Rant would be hard pressed to keep his 2million hits if he started talking about the food]

3. Don’t post a picture or talk about your romantic life, your children or your pets.
[Frankly I think we all like a little insight. Ed Morriseys' "Little Captain" (I have no idea how to link to the defunct Captain's Quarters), Ace o Spades lack of a love life, Lilek's Gnat, and Rachel Lucas's dogs.]

4. Don’t threaten to quit blogging every time anyone criticizes you.
[I'll agree with this one]

5. Learn how to defend your positions with facts and logic instead of passive-aggressive parthian shots fired off as you run away. [I'll agree with this one]

Vox does give the Lucas Exception

which states that “if a female blogger can be confirmed to be as amusingly bloody-minded as Rachel Lucas, she may post about her dogs or other non-feline pets, so long as such posts are not made more than thrice per week. Kids and cats are still right out.”

Frankly if Rachel Lucas got herself a cat and did not post a picture of it wearing at least a pashmina I would probably have to call her a pussy for following so closely to some dude’s ideas of “the rules”.

And then I’d have to drop her. Because if she’s going to follow said rules, she’s not worth my time anymore. And therein lies the crux.

We have X hours in every day. Glenn Reynolds is popular because his posts are always short, he always updates and he’s usually got something we want to read about. Same with Drudge if you want to call him a blog.
I used to read the NeoNeoCon all the time, but I just don’t have time. So it’s back to Scott and JK and Vodkapundit etc, etc. If they be guys, so be it.

Even this post is too long to bother with. If you’ve made it this far……Welcome to a “girl’s blog” you rebel you!

UPDATE: A link concerning a man’s POV from a dude who blogs about his life.

Every time I saw a female blogger write the expression “male blogger” this weekend, it was a code name for “tech” or “political” bloggers like Techcrunch or Daily Kos. It was as if these female bloggers had the exact same viewpoint about male blogging as the New York Times. While “Female Blogging” represented a wide range of views, from writing about shoes, knitting, to talking politics, “male blogging” was still dressed in a suit and tie. I read the term “male bloggers” countless times, not once described in a way that includes me.

Yeah. What he said.

UPDATE: Based on the comments below I think I must not have been clear. If you’re female and you’re blog isn’t getting enough hits to satisfy you, you either a) haven’t promoted yourself b) it isn’t that good comparatively c) you haven’t established any regularity/loyalty from readers or d) like b it just isn’t that entertaining.
That’s it. It’s not because you’re female. You can test this theory by starting a 2nd blog that is a copy of the first only with a man’s name. Yes – it’s that easy.

Friday Calf Blog

Chip is still cute!!

Photos of Last night’s sky

It really was pretty.
To the west:

To the north:

And you’ll have to visit my animal blog for one of a hawk on one of those towers.

You don’t mind if we actually vote first, do you?

From Gerhard Spörl of Der Spiegel:

Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin’s Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States.

and

Europe is witnessing the 44th president of the United States during this trip.

gagamaggot

You don’t mind if we actually vote first, do you??

UPDATE: The Anchoress gets it right in a small little segment. Read the whole thing.

Obama essentially said: “here is a list of everything that’s wrong in the world, and (once I’m president) we’ll fix all of it, with sacrifice and brotherly love.”

Ho-kay! Spoken to a people accustomed to the 35 hour work week, the six weeks holiday, and no desire to form the sort of military that would actually be needed to contribute to all of that world-fixing, because – as we have seen – UN forces, left alone, have proved rather spectacularly ineffective. What exactly will be sacrificed by the beer and bratwust-fed audience Obama addressed today? We don’t know. All we know is that this was the “moment” that they were called on to assist in the quest for hope and change. Or something.