Blue Crab Boulevard

I found this by accident when something from Curt at Flopping Aces popped on Memeorandum. Apparently, the Crabitat is ranked in the top 297 political blogs by this site. (As is Flopping Aces and a bunch of other well known sites. Curt got it from Hot Air who got it from Protein Wisdom.)

There are a lot of sites I respect on the map. Blue Crab Boulevard may or may not belong with the rest of them. But thanks for the place on the map.

My sincere thanks to Rich Horton for posting here at the Crabitat. Between long hours and some really bad luck, it has grown increasingly difficult to get a post up here. Rich is keeping Blue Crab Boulevard alive right now. Thank you, Rich.

About that luck thing. Last night I fully intended to post after fixing my modem problems, but I got home, cooked a fast dinner and the lights went out. We finally got power back a few hours later when it was almost time to go to bed. Tonight I have some plans with my wife, so cross fingers that I will get back posting here tomorrow.

Gaius

Sorry for the light to nonexistent posting of late. My schedule has me working as much as 14 hours a day (including two-hour commute) and blogging time is very short, indeed.

Case in point today from the Daily Kos:

With a handful of exceptions, many members of the press refuse to hold McCain to the standards against which the Democratic candidates are being measured.  Accordingly, McCain has galloped by stumbles that may have doomed any other candidate: confusing Shiite (Iran) and Sunni (al Qaeda), not knowing whether contraceptives prevent the spread of HIV ("you've stumped me"), etc.  

The usual leftosphere meme…but I first read this in my Bloglines reader which saved the original version of this story for posterity.

How's that irony working out for ya?

Regular readers here at Blue Crab Boulevard will remember that I asked Rich Horton from The Iconic Midwest to guest post here when I accompanied my wife on a business trip she had to make. Recently, Rich took me at my word and posted a few things (I had told him he was welcome to and meant it). Now, Rich has signed on - if that is the correct term - as a full-fledged adjunct blogger here at the Crabitat. Adjunct blogger is the term Rich suggested, by the way - I like it. He'll post when he can and about whatever he wants. I look forward to his input here. I expect that we will not always agree, but I also expect that I will find his posts interesting and thought provoking.

Rich has the run of the place except for the back room where the monkeys are working on cracking the Shakespeare Code. That's off limits to everyone except me and Uncle Guido. Sorry, Rich. (Really, it's just as well. They are mean little suckers.)

Please join me in welcoming Rich to Blue Crab Boulevard.

Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post tried an experiment recently. He spent 24 hours in a room surrounded by televisions, two radios and a laptop set up to cycle through a selection of blogs and news sources. It was all in the interest of science - to see what living in total information overload was like. Welcome to the blogosphere, Gene.

THE CRUDDIEST MOMENT OF THE CRAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE ON EARTH happened as I found myself watching five televisions simultaneously, each containing a different political pundit opining on the same subject. When I looked down toward my computer screen to see what the bloggers were saying about it, I noticed that a button on my shirt had come undone.

There I was, literally contemplating my own navel. But I didn't even crack a smile because, in the relentless drone of insipid opinion, irony no longer held any meaning.

I knew then that this whole thing had been a very poor idea, one from which I would not return undamaged. Because the clock on the wall said I still had 14 hours to go.

Weingarten takes more than a few swipes at the folks who practice surfing in this sea of information that beats mercilessly these days. But there is a certain amount of truth in his dark humor about the overload of news, semi-news, punditry and analysis (both paid and freelance) that inundates us these days. Especially those of us who choose to do this on a daily basis. There is so much out there to read and absorb and talk about. It is, indeed, like drinking from a fire hose. I'll let you read the long piece and figure out where the title of this post comes from.

Just doing my bit, Gene. Even if you didn't mention the Crabitat in all your blog name dropping!

This is overdue. Tim Blair has started blogging again following his cancer surgery. In typical Blair style, he is cracking jokes about his experiences as he recovers.

• Overconfident, a few days ago I attempted to take a bath. Unable to haul myself out - no exit strategy - I was forced to call on the only other person in the house: my dear old mother. During an intensely awkward bath-extraction pas de deux, it was silently agreed that we must never speak of this again.

• The level of cancer with which I was diagnosed: T3. Not the worst.

• Weight before surgery: 82 kilograms (180 pounds). Present weight, after several days on solid food: 75 kilograms (165 pounds).

• I’m informally banned from driving lest sudden braking cause sudden breakage of slow-mending abdominal wounds and subsequent hilarious organ spillage. My mother - a former nurse - once saw this happen.

Hilarious organ spillage is a classic. Welcome back, Tim. Get well soon.  

A lecture on how not to run the New York Times comes today from Daniel Finkelstein, the op-ed editor for the Times of London. Not that the NYT will take any notice, but it a lesson on how to run an op-ed section that the NYT - and especially the NYT 'public editor' -would be smart to listen to. Finkelstein addresses his comments as an open letter to the readership of the New York Times:

Dear Friends,

I understand that your newspaper of choice has asked William Kristol, the conservative commentator, to provide an opinion column for the paper.

Since I am the op-ed editor of what you Americans call The Times of London, I have followed the controversy that the appointment has caused with great interest.

And with my mouth wide open.

Apparently many of you are outraged to hear of this new columnist. You have been writing in. And the Public Editor has written a column criticising the appointment.

Excuse me, but what on earth is going on?

A quality newspaper should have columns reflecting a wide variety of opinions, even those uncongenial to the majority of its readers. While the bulk of a paper's columnists may reflect the publication's character and view, there must always be space for an alternative opinion.

Thus, for instance, while my paper supported the decision to invade Iraq (which happened to be my view too), many of our columnists (in fact probably a majority) did not concur.

It would never occur to me when selecting an individual columnist to be concerned that some readers might not agree with some of his positions.

And considering that Kristol represents a large strand of American opinion (even if it is a smaller strand of NYT reader opinion) it is entirely unremarkable that his columns should be commissioned.

Finkelstein heaps even more scorn on public editor (or ombudsman) Clark Hoyt, especially for this charming gem of American journalism:

And as for Hoyt's statement that:

This is not a person I would have rewarded with a regular spot in front of arguably the most elite audience in the nation.

Isn't this the most pompous sentence you have ever read in your life?

Yeah, that one is pretty bad. It has it all, pompousness and smarmy sucking up to the rapidly declining readership of the NYT. The left popped numerous blood vessels when Kristol was announced by the NYT - which is amusing in the extreme. The same group that screeches that they are being suppressed on nationwide television are the first to actually try to shut down opinions they don't want to hear.

If you're a praying person, please say a prayer for Tim Blair. If you're not a praying person, please send him your positive thoughts. Tim will be undergoing cancer surgery next week.

Feeling poorly for some time. Saw a doctor a few weeks ago, who sent me to a specialist, who booked me into hospital for tests.

It’s cancer.

Major abdominal surgery next week. If all goes well, the remaining non-cancerous section of me will be home by early-mid February. No idea yet how long a full recovery might take beyond then. Medical advice is very positive, but that wouldn’t count for much in the absence of care and love from family and friends. I’ve been overwhelmed. I’m lucky.

Say a prayer for his family and friends as well. They will have to be strong for him - and this is a disease that impacts more than just the one diagnosed with it.

Best of luck, Tim. Get well soon.

I should probably pay more attention to things like this - as Jim Lynch does. Today is the Crabitat's second anniversary. Yes, I know that for some of you it seems like much, much longer. But yes, Blue Crab Boulevard turned two today. Thanks to everyone who stops by to visit my little slice of the blogosphere. Thanks for all the tips and encouragement. Thanks for helping make all this worthwhile.

I thought it appropriate to set the flaming penguins out.