Blue Crab Boulevard

Donald Sensing has a couple of post up, both at his One hand Clapping site and at Winds of Change that discuss his views on blogging and where it is heading. Frankly, the post paint a depressing picture, especially to a new blogger. Essentially, Sensing says we're doomed.

– Single-author blogs of national-interest topics such as the GWOT, politics, religion, etc., will find it increasingly difficult to gain and maintain significant readership numbers. Team blogs, such as WOC, will come to predominate simply because of the labor intensity high-readership blogging requires. A solo writer trying to keep a site refreshed and original enough to keep two thousand or more reader interested every day faces a terrific burden. I know, I did it for a few years. Team blogs spread the labor and therefore can offer more content of higher quality.

Which tends to make a new blogger trying to gain some readership a bit nervous. Obviously, I've put a lot of time into this blog and I hate to hear it's DOA.

On the other hand, the way I approach blogging and the way Sensing approaches it are fundamentally different. I read One Hand Clapping quite a lot when I was first made aware of blogs. Sensing is a good writer and his posts were always informative, well reasoned and fairly long. In other words, he's a writer. I tend to approach this as more of a linker and a finder of interesting things. I also write, but not anywhere nearly as extensively as Sensing.

So, the question is, is his type of blogging, with long, carefully written pieces headed toward the group blog model? Maybe yes, I don't know. Is the faster paced, less writing intensive blogging still viable? I rather hope so,

Of course, there's also a middle ground where like minded individuals form a sort of consortium. That way the individual bloggers maintain their single voice while being part of a bigger whole. I suspect that may be closer to the future than Sensing's vision.

And the lack thereof. Reader IAm at Done with Mirrors has a post up about the neighbors in Hirsi Ali's apartment building using Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights to sue to have her evicted. The neighbors have won the suit.

Hirsi Ali has been a staunch supporter of human rights and the rights of women oppressed under extremist Islamic governments. She has been under protection because of her stand. But the neighbors, fearing Muslim violence, want her out.

So it comes down to this: Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s history of moral courage in defending and demanding the rights of women, free speech and more is rewarded by the cowardice of her neighbors, validated and encouraged by an EU court. I can understand that not everyone—-indeed most of us—-are not and cannot be a Hirsi Ali. Greatness is reserved for the few, after all. But at a bare minimum, each and every one of us has some sort of ethical responsibility to support the Hirsi Ali’s of the world, and fear—-while understandable—-is no justification for falling down on that job.

How far has Western civilization fallen when we can not stand together with someone with this much courage? Reader IAm thinks it is a failure of moral courage. So do I.

Meanwhile, there is Hirsi Ali, who's definitively further along the path to enlightened moral courage than most of us, a subset of whom reject her very physical presence among them, out of fear and because of their narrow imaginations about the bigger picture. On May 4, she is slated to receive the AJC Moral Courage Award, which I was interested to discover is on the 'net largely in press release form. I'm not seeing where this was covered in major media outlets, but perhaps I'm missing something. Nor does it appear to have been picked up widely in the blogosphere, though I see that Booker Rising caught it.

Giving in to the thugs, giving up one who stands against them out of fear, surrendering to the extremists is the path to destruction. Done with all the best intentions, this attempt to cast out a person this brave leads only to one place.

Where the road paved with good intentions always leads.

Well, the effort to unseat Joe Lieberman continues. Not by a person from the other party. People in Lieberman's own party are trying to replace him. Led by Screamin' Howie Dean's own brother, no less.

Here's a great idea. Take a senior Senator who is ultra reliable on every, single position of the Democratic party except one the far left does not like. And bump him off. That is some kind of strategic thinking. Even more telling, it's not people in Connecticut that are driving this whole effort:

But in the space of six weeks, the newcomer has come on strong. Lamont raised $344,111 from 4,337 online donors and added $371,500 of his own money. He hired a staff of seasoned professionals and signed up several thousand volunteers. The 52-year-old cable television entrepreneur is blitzing the state, hitting as many as three events per evening. (emphasis added)

So welcome, citizens of Connecticut to the brave new world where people from outside your state dictate who you can have representing you in the Congress. Because you can bet the bulk of those online donors aren't from your state. So vote for Lamont, lose a three term Senator over one issue the left can't swallow.

While I doubt Lieberman and I would see eye to eye on a lot of subjects (and would agree on others), he's a staunch supporter of the troops. He's also able to see beyond partisanship and look to the good of the country. That makes him a better person than the people trying to unseat him right now.

Michael Totten is a really talented writer, he can make you see the pictures his words convey. Which is one reason this story about his trip to the Lebanese border, from both sides is so frightening.

“Do you think they’re watching us?” Lisa said.

“They are watching you right at this second,” the lieutenant said. “You are definitely being photographed. It’s possible you’re being watched through a sniper rifle.”

To say I felt naked and exposed at that moment would be a real understatement. I felt like my skin was invisible, that psychopaths were boring holes with their eyes straight to the core of my being. At the same time, I knew they did not see me as a person. They saw me as a potential massacre target.

I know Hezbollah wouldn’t hurt me in Lebanon, even though they did call me on my cell phone and threaten me with physical violence. All bets are off while standing next to IDF soldiers in Israel, though. Whoever was watching me surely dehumanized me as a Jew (even though I'm a non-religious "Christian") who belonged to the little Satanic fit-for-destruction Zionist Entity.

I wouldn’t say I felt scared. But I certainly didn’t feel comfortable. The earth seemed slightly tilted. Lebanon feels unhinged and psychotic from the Israeli side of the line. At least it did on that day. I kept having to remind myself that the country I love and lived in is not at all represented by the nutcases with guns in the hills who like to pick off Jews on the border.

The title of the piece comes from this quote:

“I say this to my guys every morning: Everything could explode at any moment. Just after I said it this morning a bus load of pensioners showed up on a field trip. An old woman brought us some food. It’s crazy. They shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be here.”

Read the whole thing.

This story will make you furious. A Colorado mayor/funeral home director who received money accidentally after the death of a Marine has refused to return the money. Even after a court ruled he had no right to the money and ordered it paid back.

Flopping Aces has the story.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced his resignation today after losing a key parliamentary battle.

Berlusconi, the narrow loser in the April 9-10 general election, said he would hold his last cabinet meeting on Tuesday at 12:30 pm (1030 GMT) and immediately afterwards hand in his resignation to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

Ciampi, whose presidential term expires on May 18, must decide whether formally to ask Prodi to form the new government or whether he will leave the duty to his successor as head of state.

Sad to see Berlusconi go. He was extremely entertaining. Also a darned good friend to the US.

The Chinese delegation to a workshop on exploration sponsored by NASA left the event after only one day. The workshop lasted four days. There was no explanation.

Among them were 60 international participants representing 12 countries. But none of the half-dozen China National Space Administration officials that NASA invited stayed past the workshop's opening day, according to participants. "Apparently they were not at the individual breakout sessions," NASA Administrator Shana Dale said. "I don't know the reasons why. It was nothing on our part."

I'm not liking a lot of the recent news where China's name is getting mentioned.

Beth over at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy has a LOT of contact information for politicians. Please, please, please take some time and send some emails off. As always be very, very civil. We're asking these people to help.

Mudville Gazette has the very latest news. It looks like Hilton may have just hurt itself very badly indeed. Greyhawk reports Hilton has had to shut down it's email due to the volume of complaints (I'll test that right after I finish this post). I hope O'Brien's can pull a rabbit out of their hat and keep the dinners up somehow.

I for one will not do any business with Hilton or any of it's other brands of hotels at all. I expect there will be some others who will feel the same way. Hilton may have just really hurt itself with this one.

Andi over at Andi's World mentions some sort of stunt someone is pulling. I have no idea what it might be.

So a group of about 200 anti-war protesters change the original route of a planned march and head to a military recruiting station. One jerk, wearing a mask - my, what a brave act - throws paint on the storefront. The mask didn't help, though, the police arrested the budding thug. I think anyone who has read this blog knows I stand pretty firmly for free speech. Let me repeat what I've said before: vandalism is not free speech. Attempting to silence people you disagree with is not free speech, either. It's thuggery. And those that march with thugs are tainted by the association.

So there we have a group of losers. But there were winners, too. When military personnel set about cleaning up the mess, about a half a dozen students stepped up to help. Spontaneously. Not a planned act, not a demonstration organized by activists. Just average people who were embarrassed by the actions of the thugs.

Those are the winners in my book.