Ridin' Herd on the Blogosphere

I had to remark to my friend Karl yesterday that being a room full of bloggers as they blogged about being at a conference of bloggers as they interviewed bloggers about blogging was just about like being in geek heaven. The fact that they had synchronous chat displayed behind the panel only made it that much geeker - but it did give people an outlet. Not much talking, but the tik-tik-tik of laptop keyboards was almost deafening.

Onward, buckaroos...


Empirical Friend has a great post about how war changes people. No one wants peace more than a soldier.

Wonder what Hell would be like on Halloween? Ok, this isn't exactly the same, but Spiritual Diablog did make me think a bit. It's all about the "poor bastard" of the Bible - Job. Someone tell Howard Dean - he claims that's his favorite book in the New Testament.

Double-dipping from Three Way News I found this post about the Iraq war. Poignant.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court is busy deciding what to do about wine sales. Wow. Good thing we have a government to protect our right to have booze shipped directly to our house.

Bad Methodist has a number of good posts. Two are concerning anti-gay marriage initiatives in Arizona and Nebraska. The other is concerning judges, Bush, and Christ - can you pick out which one is really part of the Trinity?

Curtis over at Beyond Visual Range hasn't put up anything new yet, and this is my way to nudge him. Plus, he listened to me and turn on his comments feature - despite what everyone at the Personal Democracy Forum said about that being bad.

Blue Wave NJ is making it TOO easy to contact your Senators to oppose the judicial nominations of right-wing wackos. I say, click it a few dozen times.

Toleration is the subject of Body and Soul's post.

Here's a story that is going to make every politician in Jersey mad they didn't think of it first (someone check on Mike Ferguson). We now have proof of a connection between the Anti-Religious Right and the KKK. Why isn't this the lead for CBS News tonight?

The Bull Moose has taken leave of his senses. He claims the fillibuster should used rarely - seven out of a few hundred is not rare?

The Chris Bell campaign is pointing out that Rick Perry's personal friendship with the President didn't do any good in keeping military bases open. Good thing President Bush doesn't hate Perry, he might make him look bad. Of course, he doesn't need any help doing that.

Christian Dissent takes blogging to the audio age. As he says, listening to people in the background is really interesting.

From two sources, we take up the Dr. W. David Hager story. Thanks to Dora and Churchgal.

For those of you who love a good gay whore story, Coffegrounds tells us about Jeff Gannon (if the name's familiar, look here to wonder why he's disgraced and still "supporting" Tom DeLay) and his trips to the White House when there was no press conference scheduled. Maybe we should find out who in the White House communications department was at the DeLay dinner. I think we should all email Tucker Eskew for an official denial.

Jon Corzine joins the Princeton students mock fillibuster Way to go, Jon.

Dan Skinner notes the breakdown on nuclear talks. That phrase had so much more meaning back in the heady 1980s. He also notes that not all Skinners are created equal - or at least not billed that way. That's okay, Dan, at least you're still a liberal elitist. Now go drink your latte.

Following on the heals of Mr. Skinner, the cunning linguist of the left, we go to DumpMike to learn of New Jersey's most linguistically twisted Congressman. Man, this guy can lie!

In my ongoing "don't look now but the fox is in the henhouse" campaign, Economist's View notes that Cheney and Greenspan could be conspiring to get another Objectivist in charge of the country. Okay, he doesn't say "Objectivist" but that's my opinion.

Faithful Progressive continues interviewing Christian bloggers from the left. Don't worry. I'm not offended that I haven't been asked yet. I hope "yet" is the proper word, though. (imagine whimpering puppy sounds)

The Marsh4Mayor campaign (which is, for some unknown reason, listed as "Home Page" in my blogroll) wants to let Hobokenites know where Mayor Roberts' bread is buttered. Guess what? It isn't from Hoboken residents at all.

Tod over at "It Takes a Church" keeps us hanging. Hopefully, we'll hear the rest of the story soon.

More about George Galloway from James Wolcott. You know, I really am starting to like British politicans more than American ones. Can we import some of these people - at least the honest ones?

As a former sailor, I have to agree with Lawyers, Guns, and Money about this one. It's all about projection of force and knowing that losing a nuclear powered carrier just off the coast of China would really screw us.

Since I studied energy policy and tend to get exasperated when someone brings up the "peak oil" hysteria, I have to thank Majikthise for a well-thought post on the subject. I don't think we are anywhere near "peak oil". However, it would be kind of stupid to wait until then to examine alternatives, no?

New Donkey notes, as I have been saying for quite sometime, that there are NO conservative Republicans anymore. I'm still deciding how good that may or may not be.

I'm keeping the mutual appreciation thing going with Motherlode over at No More Apples. Just to keep with the spirit, I also tip my hat, via Apples, to Public Christian. I also added them to the Blogroll.

Old Town Review Chronicles wonders about the Bush Doctrine in Uzbekistan.

Pandragon earns a spot by quoting Molly Ivins. Pass along link to Skippy at American Street.

Jason Byassee is trying to make enemies from his spot at Sojourner's by pointing out that it is Revelation as a singular thing and many other things that are sooooo wrong with the portrayal of the last days of earth.

Reverend Mother and Songbird both go to threes to remind us they are really people behind the bloggishness of the internet. Also of the Trinity - you know the one without anyone named Bush.

One more addition to the "What would Jesus....?" litany comes from The Manicheist.

Think Progress joins the chorus in saying that there is more that a Newsweek story behind the rioting in Afghanistan. Mainstreet Baptist picks up on the same thread. As my brother said last night, "Anyone with a brain would have figured out that toilets aren't big enough to flush books."

Joe has a nice children's story from "the Arab world" about not making yourself into what everyone else thinks you should be.

Father Jake takes on the lie that any American family resembles a Biblical one at all.

Just so we can finish on an up note (everyone hum a B flat): Our congratulations to the Spero family from over at Santificarnos for the new baby.