Squiggler

Maybe ... SOME people will get the message . The world does Not owe you a living.

Bill Quick's The Daily Pundit, has a reputation for being a no holds barred libertarian blog where loyalties to the libertarian principles supercedes everything else. Today, Bill lifted a comment posted and moved it to the front page into its own post. The writer, Leo W. says he hopes his comments get passed on and we agree they need to be given a wider audience. We agree completely with Leo W.:

THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MOMENT

North Dakota News

This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota state after the recent snow storm.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

George Bush did not come
FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.

No one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse
Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayor's ! did not blame Bush or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else either

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snow storm nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.

No one looted.

Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything either.

No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Sean Penn, No Barbara Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

And

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.
Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.

Local restaurants made food, and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snow bound families.

Families
took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We Fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.

We put on an extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one ! gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."

It does seem that way, at least to me.

I hope this gets passed on..

Maybe ... SOME people will get the message . The world does Not owe you a living.

We have a media says the President

President Bush was asked today during a speech at Capitol Music Hall, Wheeling, West Virginia how he can get his message out when the mainstream media either ignores the message or distorts it in their coverage ... guess how! [emphasis added]

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I appreciate that. (Applause.) No, it -- that's why I come out and speak. I spoke in Cleveland, gave a press conference yesterday -- spoke in Cleveland Monday, press conference, here today. I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing to try to make sure people can hear there's -- why I make decisions, and as best as I can, explain why I'm optimistic we can succeed.

One of the things that we've got to value is the fact that we do have a media, free media, that's able to do what they want to do. And I'm not going to -- you're asking me to say something in front of all the cameras here. (Laughter.) Help over there, will you? (Laughter.)

I just got to keep talking. And one of the -- there's word of mouth, there's blogs, there's Internet, there's all kinds of ways to communicate which is literally changing the way people are getting their information. And so if you're concerned, I would suggest that you reach out to some of the groups that are supporting the troops, that have got Internet sites, and just keep the word -- keep the word moving. And that's one way to deal with an issue without suppressing a free press. We will never do that in America. I mean, the minute we start trying to suppress our press, we look like the Taliban. The minute we start telling people how to worship, we look like the Taliban. And we're not interested in that in America. We're the opposite. We believe in freedom. And we believe in freedom in all its forms. And obviously, I know you're frustrated with what you're seeing, but there are ways in this new kind of age, being able to communicate, that you'll be able to spread the message that you want to spread.

Thank you for your concerns, and thank you for your prayer. I want to tell you something interesting about the job of President, and, frankly, I didn't anticipate this part of the presidency, but it's an amazing part of my job to know that millions of people pray for me. It's a -- (applause.) It really is. It's -- think about that. Strangers stand up and say, in front of a couple thousand people, I'm praying for you. And it helps. And I appreciate it, and I want to thank you for your prayers. It helps do the job, it helps keep perspective.

Yes, sir. 

For VIDEO, click HERE

Condemn the censorship of blogs in Pakistan

You can support this effort too:

Joining hands to Condemn Censorship of
Blogs in Pakistan

LAUNCHED BY THE ALVI-E TEAM (Awab Alvi & Omer Alvie) on March 3rd 2006, this is an online campaign to support free speech of Pakistani bloggers and internet free speech in general. Support our cause by copying the banner code (below) to your web site.

Since 28th February (2006), Pakistani Bloggers’ Freedom of Speech has been under attack by some, if not all, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who has chosen to block all blogs hosted on the blogspot.com domain. Political pressure groups have protested to the government to block those web sites displaying the controversial cartoon images of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) that were hosted on the net. But instead of blocking specific sites, ISPs have simply blacklisted the entire domain, causing thousands of blogs to be inaccessible for viewing in Pakistan.

It is our point of view, that any censorship of blogs is unacceptable, be it a few offensive sites inciting a hateful stereotype, or hundreds of blogs protesting controversial caricatures or even the thousands of sites that remain indifferent to the issue.

Sign the Petetion - No Internet Censorship in Pakistan
DIGG the story at Digg.com - Blogspot.com Censored in Pakistan

News Reports Appearing Globally Fighting for the Cause

Washington Post - Jefferson Morley
The News - (Ethan Casey - www.ethancasey.com)
Reporters Without Borders
Global Voices Online
International Freedom of Expression eXchange

We as Pakstani Bloggers object to this action and would like to request you to join in our cause and display either one of the banners condemning this action and appealing for an immediate change.

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Help-Pakistan.com Rebuilding Pakistan one pebble at a time

Hat tip: Malkin

 

Blog Ad Swap

 

The Squiggler has joined Blog Ad Swap. You can see the ads in the upper left sidebar under "Blogger News." Please visit the blogs highlighted and join Blog Ad Swap too. Your ad will be shown once for every 2 ads shown on your blog and they give you 500  to start. Spread the word. Our ad will look like this (there is a 10K limit on size):

Like their style!

As has been noted here before, on the weekends we like to surf Blog Explosion in order to find new and different blogs and to get an idea what those on the other side, or even better, on no side of the political spectrum, are writing about. Today we found a new blog. Well, it isn't really all that new as their archives indicate they've been around at least a year, but new to us, nonetheless. We haven't had time to read through some of the older posts, but what we've read so far made us laugh out loud and that's the criteria we look for when surfing to pass the time.

Shaking accepted nutritional orthodoxy to its very foundations, it was reported this week in the journal Pediatrics that if you consume fewer calories, you can lose weight.

You read that right. When you cut back on your caloric intake, a strange and as yet unidentified process takes place (perhaps magical in nature) in which weight can in fact be “lost.”

Heralded as a possible breakthrough in the battle against childhood obesity, a study conducted through the Children’s Hospital in Boston arranged to have diet drinks delivered right to participant’s doorsteps. The volunteers were then asked to drink the free diet beverages rather than go out and buy sugar-laden ones during the 25-week period of the trial.

"The study illustrates that if you make alternatives available to kids they will drink them," observed Dr. David Ludwig, one of the authors of the study. And by “make alternatives available” he means, “promise them a $100 gift certificate at the local mall, too.”  (This sheds new light on the Jack Abramoff scandal suggesting that his donations to Congressmen could be viewed as not so much “bribes” as merely clinically based “incentives” to  encourage behavioral changes more in concert with a healthy lifestyle one facet of which is approving Indian casino licenses

Go check them out at Planet Moron. You gotta love the name, if nothing else.

The Squiggler

The visitor traffic for The Squiggler has been on a steady rise the past month and a half. Since I haven't been doing anything much different than I've done all along, I decided today to investigate and see if I could find out why we are getting more visitors. What I found was soooooooo discouraging, I have to wonder why I even bother to post a thing.

It turns out that the only things we've posted in the last 7 weeks that anyone cared a rat's a$$ about were posts on the Dubai Ports World deal and the shooting of Airman Carrion by a San Bernardino County sheriff. The former being a subject we are sick and tired of hearing about and the latter being something we care so deeply about it is hard for us to write about it with any sense of objectivity. We just can not be objective about this out of control department and we have to be somewhat careful about what we say since we have our own federal and state court cases pending against them.

So, what does this mean for the future of The Squiggler? Probably not much other than to say that only a masochist would continue. I'm not a masochist, but I do enjoy the outlet the blog format gives me and the sense that I am contributing, as false as that sense might be in the real world.

When I first started this blog, I was asked by a friend, "do you think you have a thick enough skin to take the junk that will be thrown at you?" Of course, my answer was, "yes." But, it was said with some trepidation. I knew going in that my strengths didn't lie in being the maven of the quick comeback or the witty off the cuff reply. I guess I should be grateful that I've never been put to that particular test. What I was not prepared for was the realization, the brutal realization, that absolutely no one cares what I have to say or what I think.

Blog Explosion for sale

If there was ever a time when I wish I had some big bucks. I would love to be the buyer here. Let's just hope whoever comes in, they do as good a job or better. I realize not all aspects of this program are perfect, but I really enjoy surfing Blog Explosion once in awhile in order to clear my head of politics and get a grasp on what the rest of the world is thinking and/or talking about.

Via Email:

1. BlogExplosion is Up for Sale!

With very heavy hearts we are announcing that BlogExplosion is going up for sale. After much internal debate we felt that a larger company can take BE to the next level. We want to see BlogExplosion grow even bigger and be more successful in the future.

You can read all about the upcoming sale here

http://www.helpmeblog.com/index.php/blog/blogexplosion_is_up_for_sale/

We have already received dozens of warm and encouraging email from members thanking us for providing such a quality service. We appreciate hearing from all of you which makes it all the more worthwhile for us. We have always maintained that BlogExplosion members are the best and we have been very fortunate to have such wonderful members since we launched the site.

Some people have also wrote in and said nasty things including being scared of upcoming competition. We can tell you definitely that is NOT the case. BE still has the best traffic exchange scripts (cannot be cheated), has the best in terms of QUALITY of traffic, and the most feature-rich options available to members. Demand excellence no matter what site you use!

For that reason BlogExplosion is a difficult site to manage. There have been lots of negative things said about us just because people have nothing better to do than to be negative or because we have kept spammers, cheaters and people with nothing good to say off of BE. When using competitive sites make sure they provide full stats (not just counters) and make sure they provide quality traffic for your time on the site.

Games and puzzles are cute but do send you quality traffic? Do they offer all of the features that BE does? Can you surf by category? Can you flag sites for profanity or mature content? Can they be cheated or allow auto-clicking programs to work? Do they display all of their traffic numbers on the site and tell you the whole truth? Are they still in perpetual BETA?

Keep track of your blog stats. See where that traffic is actually coming from. Keep track of unique percentages, time per blog visit. Demand the best return for your surfing time. Ratios dont mean a thing if the quality of traffic is not there. Stats never lie and you should always keep them for your blog.

I think we have taken BE as far as we can and want new blood to come in and take over where we left off. We will be looking for a company with the same fiery determination to make BlogExplosion that much better. We are the biggest and the best and we want a company to take over and keep it that way.

There are already 3 parties interested in buying BlogExplosion. They are all companies with definite and sizable -internet assets- which means that the company that does eventually purchase BE will have lots of firepower to grow BE much faster than we ever could. This is great news for BE members as a larger company can build the memberbase quicker, have more marketing and promotion resources and have the ability to build smarter features.

What happens next?

We will be sending out a PR by the end of the week that announces the sale of BlogExplosion. From there we will have a two week window period to find a potential buyer.

Again you can get all of the details surrounding the sale of BlogExplosion here

http://www.helpmeblog.com/index.php/blog/blogexplosion_is_up_for_sale/

Hopefully 10 years from now we can show our children what we built and be proud of our work on BlogExplosion. We have given it our all and we have done our best to make BE the best it can be for members.

Thank you members of BlogExplosion for your support of what we tried to accomplish here. We have made many good friends here and these are very difficult days here realizing we will be walking away. We know a bigger company will have the resources to make BE that much better and to keep the BE legacy alive!

Warning!

For the second time in a week, we seem to be under a porn trackback attack here at The Squiggler. We are doing our best to remove and report the offending trackbacks as they occur. 

Rumsfield touts blogging

In remarks by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield at an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations, he made the following statements:

[G]overnment public affairs and public diplomacy efforts must reorient staffing, schedules and culture to engage the full range of media that are having such an impact today. Our U.S. Central Command, for example, has launched an online communications effort that includes electronic news updates and a links campaign that has resulted in several hundred blogs receiving and publishing CENTCOM content. - AND -

I believe with every bone in my body that free people, exposed to sufficient information, will, over time, find their way to right decisions. Throughout the world, advances in technology are forcing a massive information flow that dictatorships and extremists ultimately will not be able to control. Blogs are rapidly appearing even in countries where the press is still government-controlled.

I don't think that anyone five years ago could have predicted the power of the blog, but since then it can not be denied. With each successive election, the blog has become more of a player and more influential. The influence isn't always overt. Small bloggers, A-list bloggers, or part time bloggers all have some influence. If something is read here by only one person and that one person is motivated to send an email to a friend or write a letter to an editor or mention it around the water cooler, the information is spread exponentially and ends up affecting future discourse and ultimately decision making.

Secretary Rumsfield is recognizing the value of the new media and the power of the electronics age.

Following up on these remarks, Rumsfield was a guest on the Charlie Rose show on PBS tonight. He repeated the above sentiments and told Charlie - I don't have the answers, I'm asking the questions - how do we position ourselves to be competitive with an enemy (al-Queda) who is way ahead of the U.S. on the communications front and that 21st century war is a more a "War of Wills" than a war of armies, navies, air force and marines. He stopped short of openly criticizing today's mainstream media, but it is quite clear that he doesn't think they are doing the job. When al-Queda has committee planning meetings on how to manipulate the U.S. press and define the story in their terms and we are light years behind in countering their efforts with new methods of our own, we continue to be at much greater risk.

The Council on Foreign Relations website continues the discussion:

The internet is an increasingly useful tool for terrorists, whose online activities include information-sharing, propaganda, and possibly, cyberterrorism. Over the last ten years, the number of terrorist sites has jumped from less than 100 to as many as 4,000. "This has particularly taken off since the war in Iraq, as many of the insurgency groups there have many sites and message boards to help their network," says SITE Institute, a Washington DC-based terrorist-tracking group. "The greatest advantage [of the internet] is stealth," says John Arquilla, professor of defense analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School. "[Terrorists] swim in an ocean of bits and bytes." But the same anonymity that draws terrorists into the cyber world may also enable law-enforcement officials to spy on them undetected. [CONT'D. HERE]

Our new look

You may have noticed that over this past month, The Squiggler has been going through some cosmetic changes. The background is now red, not the original blue. And the overalll format of posts, especially quotes, has been changed, hopefully to make the site both more appealling visually, but easier to read as well. Hopefully our readers will agree that the changes are an improvement.