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Category: Blogs
Gun Blogger Glossary
Thanks to SayUncle for pointing out this Gun Blogger Glossary. A handy guide for the gun blogger newbie.
The Stitch in Time that Saved Two
I’m very glad that Caleb, getting home, was eager to send me a picture of his shorts to prove that when he was hanging out on the patio in the History Channel’s Top Shot reality shooting series, he wasn’t in danger of literally hanging out on the patio. I’ve always wanted a picture of Caleb’s shorts, and now my long time dream has been fulfilled:
I call them as I see them. It sure did look like a hole, and I’m not one to pass up a good ribbing on Caleb. So for now I will close this amusing chapter in the Top Shot drama. Well, maybe after his radio call-in show tonight I’ll close it.
Giving Bloggers a Bad Name
If you haven’t followed the scandal down in South Carolina involving a blogger and a lawmaker, then be happy. The level of asshole-itude is incalculable. Bloggers actively trying to break up marriages with public announcements or meetings is never a pretty sight to see.
Short version: A political blogger known for being sharp tongued and full of attitude (not that there’s anything wrong with that, per se) announced on Monday that he had an affair with a married lawmaker who just happens to be the leading gubernatorial candidate in the Republican primary next month. He claimed the press was hot on the story and he was just coming out ahead of it. Funny about that since they don’t appear to have been at all. There were rumors, and one outlet may have looked into them, but no one was slated to publish anything as far as I’ve seen. The lawmaker gave an absolute denial that leaves no doubt her position is that she’s never had a physical relationship with any other man than her husband in their decade plus marriage.
Where it gets interesting: Erick from RedState has done some digging with South Carolina political folks and learned a few things. It seems that a competing campaign has been the source of the rumors that were floated, and all of “evidence” produced by the blogger – communication with the supposedly guilty campaign – actually says nothing of an affair, but really illustrates an effort to figure out more about the rumors. Even more interesting, RedState claims they will name the Republican campaign that paid the blogger to make these claims to destroy the other candidate.
Why this relates to this blog: First, if there are candidates out there who don’t wade into new media efforts very much, then there’s a black eye effect that could hurt other bloggers who try to reach out to campaigns. Second, I had my own – non-physical – encounter with this guy just before Charlotte that illustrates just how much of an asshole he is, and what a blowhard he is if he thinks he is getting attention.
I reached out to him about the Blog Bash since he seemed to be just a spirited blogger. (Unless you knew him through SC GOP politics, apparently his asshole factor wasn’t on full display.) He snapped back at me with some rant about the evils of the NRA because of a single grade issued like 10 years ago. He made sure to include cohorts on the email so he could brag that he told Fairfax to fuck off. Except, he didn’t know that I have my own version of “spirit,” shall we say. I wrote back to them all – staying sweet as pie (because that’s what a Southern woman does when she’s being evil) – pointing out that if he read even the first paragraph he would know that none of his complaints were remotely relevant to my email.
Getting publicly called out is a funny thing. Suddenly there was an apology email that didn’t include cohorts, but still declined, pointing out that he doesn’t consider himself to be a blogger, but a news outlet. So I dropped names of much bigger, national actual news outlets coming down to the events, and that really shut him up. I never made any effort, in the sweetness that would send most people into sugar shock, to invite him again.
It’s rather shocking to find out just how dirty South Carolina politics really is, when Mark Sanford’s “Appalachian hike” wasn’t anywhere near the worst of it.
When the news broke, I made the comment to Sebastian about how happy I was we got a glimpse of him before this happened. Since, after all, I like to keep the number of people who lie and cheat while breaking up marriages to a minimum at the Blog Bash.
It’s Wyatt Palooza Day!
Today is the Philly blog meet known as Wyatt Palooza, which will naturally mean several fruity drinks at Cheeseburger in Paradise. I’m not really much of a fruity drink person, but I will at least have a Mojito in the spirit of the place. When it comes to drinks, I tend to like ones with more booze than sugar. The Mojito, done right, is a good drink. It’s hard to find a place that doesn’t under booze and over sugar, however.
Margaritas done properly, using Cointreau rather than Triple Sec, are also an entirely acceptable drink for spring and summer. Done right means not frozen. A good margarita has too much booze in it to freeze properly. Last weekend Bitter and I made mint juleps, which I also find to be an entirely acceptable and thoroughly alcoholic drink, despite the presence of sugar. Appletinis, or various other martini drinks made with sugar or frozen are blasphemous, and not martinis. You can’t take a chick drink, put it in an martini glass, and call it a martini. A proper martini is a liquor drink with only gin and vermouth. The only acceptable fruit in a martini is a lemon peel. Vodka is also acceptable if you don’t like gin. I’m neutral on the matter of olives vs. lemon peels.
Now that I’ve had my rant about fruity drinks vs. proper drinks, it is time to go prepare for the Palooza!
UPDATE: And who could forget this classic, thinking about Cheeseburger in Paradise:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GW22sAElpE[/youtube]
Lack of Posting
Sorry for the short on posts today. Still dealing with fall out from last week’s culling at work. Going to be busy for a while, but most of the time that shouldn’t impact the blogging schedule too much. But it does mean I’ll be in front of a computer from the time I wake up until I go to sleep. At least until Annual Meeting in Charlotte comes around.
Postings
Came back to work today to find a significant staff reduction had occurred while I was away in Harrisburg. Fortunately, I was not among them. Having exhausted my queue from being away from the computer all day yesterday, and most of Monday, I had nothing for this morning. Posts will be coming shortly.
Top Shot
New History Channel show that may or may not feature a blogger we all know. Well, OK, it does. But what I really want to know is how well Caleb can shoot a bow. It looks like we’ll find out!
Southeast PA Bloggers Gather Again
Amazingly, the world did not come to an end the last time the Philadelphia-area bloggers (plus one we convinced to come from Jersey City) gathered for drinks and snacks. And so, we do it again.
Gun Blogging Highlighted on Guns America
Steve from The Firearm Blog did a piece on gun blogging for Guns America that interviewed Caleb and me. It’s an excellent introduction to the gun blogosphere, and our interview covers the state of the gun blogosphere today.Read what I say in the interview, but overall, I would have to say the state of the gun blogosphere has declined in terms of health in the past five years. I don’t think we’re as vibrant a community anymore. Much of that is just that blogging trends have generally been toward consolidation, with traffic circulating more and more among top blogs, and not making its way down nearly as much as it used to. The other reason is that the gun issue just isn’t as much in the public mind these days, and virtually nothing is happening in Congress right now. It hasn’t been as good for the community. The past couple of months have been a tough time for covering Second Amendment politics, save for a few days where we had McDonald, and a few other things. Right now everyone is pissed off about HCR and other fiscal issues.