Category: Blogs

What Would John Wayne Do is moving to a new site.    One of the major rules of blogging is to not stay on blogger any longer than you have to.   Blogger is a great way to find out whether blogging is for you, but once you realize you like it, get off as quickly as you can.  WordPress has much better comment and pingback code.

Either way, I hope you will all visit him at his new site.

I’ve noticed that it looking like Tom King is censoring some posts by anti-gun folks over on his blog. I should note that I have no problem with bloggers deleting posts that are threatening or just plain trolling, and banning commenters on that basis, but the prejudice against doing that should be very high. I am worried specifically about this:

For the record, Tom King censored a link to VPC which discussed FOPA and how the NRA was trying to reinstitute its provisions.

Tom King thinks the link is suspect even though the NRA fully admits to sponsoring FOPA or the McClure/Volkmer bill.

Tom then posts again clarifying:

I intend to run this as an open forum with all views allowed as long as they are coherent, tasteful and based in fact. If you post a statement or statistic that is suspect, I’ll ask for verification before posting it. I will not deal in innuendo, hysterics or cliche. Those are the rules on this blog follow them or leave.

Emphasis mine. Now, I will say that it’s Tom’s sandbox, and he can definitely set any rules he wants for his blog. But we don’t do things like this in the gun blogosphere. Let them post their hysterics, cliches, and faulty data, an let our people tear it apart. That’s how it works. If Tom wants to be taken seriously as a gun blogger, you have two choices really; allow a free comment section with a very very strong prejudice against censorship, or close comments. I would recommend against the latter.

I’m afraid of Tom keeps censoring anti-gun views, even if, in his view, their facts are wrong (I would hardly disagree), I’m going to have to suggest to all my readers and fellow bloggers that we ignore him.

We’ve spent a lot of time, here in the pro-gun blogosphere, trying to build a reputation of being willing to debate the anti-gun people on the merits of their arguments, and they’ve lost every time. By censoring links because you don’t like the data, you undermine what the rest of us are trying to accomplish, and lower us to the level of the anti-gunners, and I simply can’t abide by that.

UPDATE: Tom King responds to our posts. Like I said, your blog, you’re rules. I don’t argue with that. But I still think letting them be boneheads, out in public for all to see, is the best policy.

UPDATE: Left rudder thinks it’s proof that we’re not interesting in Reasoned Discourse^TM. If that’s the case, why am I, and one of the top gun blogs, criticizing Tom for it then?

To SayUncle.  Five years is a long time.

Snowflakes in Hell is now running on a new server.  I am in the process of consolidating down to a single machine running 24/7 in my house.  You will notice there was no down time involved in the switch over.  That is because, unlike the Pennsylvania State Police, I know how to upgrade a database without disruption.

The Gun Organizations is a new blog category.  These are the ones I’m either a member of, or have had significant noteworthy legislative accomplishments.

I’ve turned on the subscribe to comments feature.  If anyone wants to use it, it’s there.  If not, no biggie.  I find it useful when I comment on other blogs, because I don’t have time to spend all day revisiting.  This will probably drive my hit count down, which upsets my inner traffic whore, but oh well.  I think it’s a nice feature.  Let me know if you notice any problems with it.

I really like the subscribe to comments feature, so I’m going to work on getting that added.  My system isn’t set up to send e-mail, so it complicates things a little bit, as I have to get postfix set up and working.  I got part way through it last night, but still have a bit to do.  I’ll announce when it’s finished.

Keyboard and a .45 is a year old today.  Congratulations.

The new Bitch Girl, Legal Bitch, has her inaugural post up. Go pay a visit and say hi. I have not met Legal Bitch yet, but I’m sure I will soon. It’s always good to have more than one Bitch Girl!

UPDATE: She’s got quite a conversation going in the comments, which is always a good way to start out.