Blogospherics
*Darth v. a 'fascist'
A conflict arose between Lawrence Lessig and Richard 'Darth' Bennett this week. Bennett believed a comment he left on Lessig's blog had been purposely deleted. He responded aggressively.
Latent fascism
Oftentimes, the folks who scream the loudest about commercial interests trampling their free speech don't respect the concept when it applies to those with whom they disagree. Lessig proved himself to be one such person. Of course, the boy has no obligation to let me disagree with him on his blog, but if he wants to be taken seriously as a First Amendment champion he should at least try and confine his rants to the general neighborhood of the facts.
Lessig denies having deleted Bennett's comments or anyone else's.
Mr. Richard Bennett accuses me of "latent fascism" for deleting a comment from a post. In fact, I have never deleted any comment from any post, his included. I should think, rather than calling someone a fascist, the decent thing to do when one suspects such a thing is to simply ask.
After reconsidering the situation, Bennett has apologized.
I was wrong
A couple of days ago, I claimed Lawrence Lessig had censored a comment I left on his blog. He protested that he'd done no such thing, and in fact allowed me to leave the comment. So I do believe Prof. Lessig is telling the truth and I misconstrued a software or network problem as censorship.
I was wrong to impugn Prof. Lessig's honor, and I apologize.
Some of us liberals find little flattering to say about 'Darth'. However, considering the perverse proclivities of so many in the Right blogosphere, I don't consider him all that bad. Many of them would have refused to issue a deserved apology.
*An ass and advertising
Eschaton, Jr. has been thinking about advertising, specifically bloggers who
advertise on other bloggers' sites.
In the "look at me!" category, by way of paid advertising for a blog, Marduk's Babylonian Musings is by far the biggest offender. Not only by just his sheer inability to stop himself from buying adspace on other blogs (9, count 'em, 9), but also the content of his site is quite contrary to some of those who he pays for ad space. . .
First, the price of the ad space alone. Here's a list of the blogs he advertises on, and how much they cost per month...shall we?
BlogCritics -- $60/month
Jane Galt -- $30/month
The Truth Laid Bear -- $25/month
Daily Pundit -- $30/month
Ken Layne -- $40/month
Amish Tech Support -- $36/month
Matt Welch -- $40/month
Cold Fury -- $15/month
and of course... Eschaton -- $100/month
Now, that comes to $376 a month for paid advertising for a blog. Granted, some of the prices may have gone up slightly since he signed up (I know big daddy Atrios' have almost doubled since the start), but this is nothing short of overkill.
If I had any money to spare, which I do not, my first priority would be to upgrade Mac-a-ro-nies to Blogger Pro or move it to another, more reliable weblogs provider. If I had the kind of bling bling a certain cretin does, which I do not, I would buy myself a new laptop. Spending $376 per month on advertising a blog, especially a sorry ass excuse for a blog, seems just plain wasteful to me.
Update
Eschaton, Jr. points out either my headline or my use of subjects and direct objects is confusing in the entry above. To clarify, it is the creature trying to buy his way into the blogosphere whom I consider an ass, not E.Jr.
And, no, I don't know who Eschaton, Jr., is, though he could be Sidney Blumenthal.
*My poor fingers
A perennial problem for bloggers who prefer Macintoshes is finding API clients to use with them. API clients automate the blogging process by providing key stroke short-cuts for formatting, creating links and uploading to the blog's home. For eight of the nine weeks Mac-a-ro-nies has existed, I have laboriously typed and formatted every single character you've seen on it. I had a week's reprieve from that process when I discovered Chronicle Lite v1.1. It is an API client that works on all platforms, including Mac OS 9 and Jaguar (OS X).
But, Chronicle stopped working over the holiday weekend. I don't know why. It could have been something wrong with the program, something wrong with my
TiBook or, most likely, something wrong with Blogger Basic. Chronicle began working again yesterday. Again, I don't know why. In the interim I upgraded Jaguar, including Java, to the very cutting edge, FSCKed and reinstalled a couple problem applications. But, I can't say with certainty that is why Chronicle is working now.
Lago at Errant has compiled a fairly comprehensive list of API clients that may work with a Macintosh. 'May' because some have additional requirements, such as specific blogging software. His list includes Lifli's iBlog (there is a second product with the same name from SoapDog Productions), Kung-Log, Archipelago and others. (The two I noticed he missed are Chronicle and the fore-mentioned second iBlog client.)
I will review the API clients I've tried in a future entry. Other bloggers are invited to comment on the topic, as well.
*How far Right?
I've said before that the blogosphere's conservatives are more conservative than I believe the average conservative to be. Examples of why I think that include their positions on choice, gun control and race relations. A discussion of about to be born fetuses can lead a blogosphere conservative into a gory description of late term abortions, which are almost always second trimester, not third. The Right blogosphere even has its defenders of Charles Pickering of Mississippi, the Lying Judge. Read about these people and their positions at Silver Rights.
