Category: Blogs

Today begins holiday time, which means rather than blogging according to any given schedule, I blog when I feel like it. Happy Holidays everyone.

I think this might be a consequence of winning: gun blogging is getting harder. As the idea that the Second Amendment is an individual right is percolating into the body politic, there seems to be less and less Second Amendment related news out there. Interestingly, I’ve noticed a significant uptick in positive shooting sports coverage from the media, which I don’t write about much here because it is either of local interest, or a bit off topic for what we generally talk about here. I prefer to comment on policy issues rather than do shooting sports news.

That’s not to say the controversy is over, but the media doesn’t seem to be as interested in it anymore. Overall that’s bad for gun blogging, but not nearly as bad as it is for our opponents, because I believe the reason coverage of this issue is down is because no one gives a crap about pushing gun control anymore, even the media. I suspect the reason isn’t necessarily that reporters are coming around, so much as they are tiring of the issue, and it’s one that’s not likely to go anywhere.

So if media acquiescence, and perhaps to some degree surrender, on the gun issue makes blogging harder, so be it. In the mean time hopefully things will get easier when we begin pushing our legislative agenda when all the various legislative bodies come back from their recesses or begin new sessions.

Before I mentioned Michael Bane is going for a Golden Moose this year for “Fan Favorite Host”. For those of you who voted, Thank You. Now it seems Tam has a gig with SWAT Magazine, and is asking folks to vote for SWAT Magazine TV as “Fan Favorite New Series in 2010” on the Outdoor Channel If you voted for Michael, I’m sure Tam would appreciate your vote for SWAT Magazine TV. Even if you didn’t vote for Michael, I’m sure Tam would appreciate it.

Looks like we’re talking about trolls on the blogsphere today. Does talking about trolls count as feeding them? I’m not sure. It’s been amazing to me the amount of time people will spend battling off the troll, when passing over the bridge quickly is probably the most prudent course of action. The troll revels in conflict. It is his purpose.

I just realized my blog e-mail has been broken for several days because I had the wrong machine in my MX record. If you sent me an e-mail to which I did not respond, I apologize. Of course, I’m terrible about responding to e-mail to begin with.

For those who follow this blog on Twitter, I have finally gotten around to updating the plugin so it works again. Generally speaking I won’t tweet every post, but try to do about three or so a day, in addition to any other things that might come up that I don’t think warrant a whole blog post. If you’d like to follow us on Twitter, the link is on the sidebar.

Michael Bane is trying to get a Golden Moose award. Who wouldn’t want a gold moose? It can appeal to both your inner hunter and inner survivalist both at the same time. Go vote here.

There is an entire aviation blogging community out there, much like we are in the gun blogging community here. Well, except they don’t have quite the circle-the-wagons mentality we have here in the gun blogging community. That’s probably because the FAA doesn’t do felony busts because a pilot put the wrong kind of carburetor in his Lycoming. You’re not likely to do ten in the pen because you lent your Cessna to a friend to take to Maine for a weekend. Hysterical people who’s loved ones died in plane crashes don’t protest the evils of aviation, and try to stamp out flying. Aviation is certainly very regulated, but the penalties typically involve suspensions of licenses and civil penalties, rather than five to ten in federal prison. When it comes to transportation, we always seem to have a better sense of perspective, even when, such as the case with general aviation, it can also be for recreation and hobby.

Anyway, some good aviation blogs. Flight Level 390 is a blog by an airline captain. Very well written and one I really enjoy reading. You want to have a good idea what’s going on behind closed doors at the front of the plane, this is the blog for you. Another one is a flight attendant’s blog, called The Flying Pinto. Take this post, for instance, on flying with children, where she seems to take the position that she’s willing to tolerate crying kids, if the parents would please refrain from changing their kids on the tray tables other people have to eat on. Think about that your next in-flight meal! You’re welcome. Also recommended, but not really an aviation blog strictly, is the blog of the guy that writes the rendering engine for X-Plane. He hasn’t been prolific as recently, due to the tight schedule for shipping X-Plane v.10, but it’s an interesting look into the aviation gaming world.

One thing blogging quickly does is change the way you read blogs. You stop reading blogs because you like them and read them because you’re looking for material for you own. This means you read faster and with less attention to details because of the sheer volume of material you need to get through. Lately I’ve wanted to read blogs for fun again, and since I don’t blog on aviation topics, I figure I wouldn’t be tempted to move through those at breakneck speed, looking for link material. But I wanted to highlight some here, just in case anyone else might share the interest.