While you're waiting for Dean's World to transfer to its new server (remember, things will be weird for a day or two, some of you will see the new site and some won't during the transition), you may want t check out this very cool patriotic video. I'll have one last posting here on the old system, then that'll be it.

Anyway, Happy Independence Day, my fellow Americans!

(And thanks to Dani for the link.)

There couldn't be any connection, could there?

Am shutting down comments now on all threads except those posted today. Transition begins in a few hours. See you all on the other side....

His ordeal, grace, courage and written thoughts will never be out of our mind. This week the world paid their final goodbye.

Saddam plays Rock Paper Scissors. Pretty damn funny.

Also a lot of work to put together. I'm impressed.

(Via Michele.)

This time kids are going to suffer.

We showed you one a few weeks ago that we realized wasn't the real portrait. We are told this is the UNEDITED Clinton White House portrait.

In preparation for the big move tonight, I'm closing comments on all threads more than a day or so old. We'll pick things up to more normal levels in the next few days as the transition is made.

Patience, all.

Some politicos and experts believe it'll be tough (or impossible) given the intense polarization. And some also see problems simmering within the parties themselves.

Hey, remember Ayn Clouter? Well guess what? I believe I've discovered Ayn Clouter's boyfriend.

Who said the internet can't find matches made in Heaven?

(Via Andrea.)

The Moderate Voice is SHOCKED! He didn't know they were so ruthlessly competitive...

Have you met Penny Wit? Now that's the finest new left-leaning weblog I've come across in quite some time. Definite blogroll material.

Woo-hoo! Envy me, my fellow webloggers: I have now had not one, not two, but three, count 'em, three lawsuit threats since opening up Dean's World barely two and a half years ago. Because of this I now propose the Esmay Standard of Blogging: You're not really important until you've received your first death threat and you first lawsuit threat.

Anyway, I could use some pro bono legal advice. Since I know there are several attorneys who read Dean's World, I figure one of you might be willing to opine for me. Here's the story:

Some Tapioca-Brained Schmuck (henceforth referred to as TBS) here in the Dean's World comments snottily implied that another commenter (hereafter referred to as Barking Moonbat Attorney, or BMA), was a child molester. The reference by TBS was obviously intended to be sarcastic and not serious, but of course that's a horrible thing to say about someone even in jest. Under normal circumstances, I'd instantly delete such a comment as soon as I saw it, and ban TBS for making the crack.

But the target of the inappropriate remark, BMA, instead of just drawing my attention to the inappropriate comment, is threatening to sue me if I don't remove the comment. He is giving me a 72 hour deadline to comply in order to avoid said lawsuit. He says he's an attorney, and he says he's serious.

Now I feel bullied. I don't react well to that. It makes me cranky. Gets my testosterone flowing, my adrenaline pumping, and makes the hairs on my back poof up like an angry tomcat. Normal people, they have what's called a "fight or flight" mechanism, but due to a tough childhood I lost the "flight" instinct a long time ago. With me it's more of a "fight or fight harder" instinct. Kind of ugly I know, but I work on it.

But, you know, I once broke my back in a skydiving accident and, instead of quitting jumping, I made sure to start jumping again after that just to prove to myself that I would never quit something out of fear.

And the nature of this threat has me wondering if I have a wider responsibility to the weblogging community. If I give in to bullying and intimidation tactics, am I making it easier for harassment-by-attorney to be used against other webloggers? Should I disclaim responsibility for the remark, but let it stand on free speech grounds? Refuse to accept liability, and just let myself get sued?

See, the thing is, I'm not afraid of lawsuits. For several reasons, but the biggest being I'm so goddamned broke that you might as well sue a turnip for all the cash you'll squeeze out of me. I opened my checkbook recently and moths came out if it, if you know what I mean. I'm a full-time student, a full-time wage earner, and still worried about making my bills next month. I'm so damn broke I can't even pay attention.

So you know, would it be worth letting myself be sued just so we can establish some sort of precedent that webloggers can't and shouldn't be bullied by people in the legal profession?

What do you guys think? And remember, Barking Moonbat Attorney is probably reading.

Again. (Sigh.)

My dear wife, the lovely Rosemary, is looking for work opportunities. She's a stay-at-home mom who's pretty desperately looking for something that'll allow her to stay at home during the evenings while I'm at work (I work third shift).

She's an excellent typist, proofreader, and quite competent writer.

Anyone know of anything she could do?

Please though, no "well you might want to try..." suggestions. We're looking for any really solid leads on work doing transcription or anything like that. Or really, any decent opportunity that will let her stay at home.

One of the blogosphere's best-kept secrets is back. Check out the latest from Tony Woodlief.

Dean's World will be switching to a new hosting provider on Saturday night. There may be a brief confusing period for a day or two where in some of you will still see the old Dean's World and some will see the new one because of the way that internet domain names work--when there's a switch, some people get the new location information sooner than others.

You'll know you're seeing the new Dean's World when you see that the format of the blog has changed somewhat (we're going to a three-column layout) and when you find that you have to register for an account before you can leave comments.

Yes, we're going to start requing registration before you're allowed to comment. Sorry about that, but we've had too many jerks and trolls and spammers to keep things open anymore. The good news will be that I think the signal-to-noise ratio in the comments will improve significantly once we implement that.

Bill Hobbs has an interesting suggestion: if you want to see Michael Moore's hatemongering propaganda movie "Fahrenheit 911" but don't want to put money in his pocket--money that will eventually wind up in the hands of the hate-groups that are destroying the Democratic Party like "MoveOn.org"--you could buy a ticket to a different movie, and walk in to Fahrenheit 911 instead.

It's an interesting thought. Personally I wouldn't do that. Since enough honorable, decent people of the left and right have pointed out the string of clear and undeniable falsehoods and intentional deceptions in Moore's work, both in this movie and previous efforts, I would have no more interest in seeing it than I would in reading one of Ann Coulter's trash books where she calls everyone who disagrees with her a traitor and a fool. No thank you.

I must say that Michael Moore's latest movie has done one thing for me: it's separated out honorable, honest Democrats from the people who defend the indefensible simply because it's politically useful to them. It's made me lose respect for some people I once had respect for, but it's always good to know where people really stand.

Nathan would like people to know that his Brain Fertilizer weblog is on forced hiatus. He's been deployed by the Air Force again and is stationed in a place where access to his site's been blocked.

He says he'll be back in 2-3 weeks.

My 6.5 year old son just sent his virst Instant Message, and his first email. All in the same day.

And he sent both of them to me.

Don't you wish you were me? I know I do!

Have you checked out Lucifer's Condiments yet?

They're wacky, weird, and insightful, all at once.

My buddy Val's having his one-year blogiversary today, and says all sorts of nice things about his blogfather. I blush, but I'm proud. :-)

Glittering Eye is attempting a Taxonomy of positions on the War on Terror, and he has a further expansion here. Good luck to him.

My own take: I do not care who is in charge, Democrat or Republican. I do not care which party holds the Congress, Democrat or Republican. If Bush wins I will support him, as I always have. If Kerry wins, I will support him as best I can, with cogent, specific criticisms and always under the assumption that he is doing his very best for the nation even if I sometimes think I'd do things differently if I were in charge. I will assume I don't know everything, and that he's doing his best and, even if I campaign against him, will assume that he is an honorable man, and that he is not a "liar" simply because I might sometimes disagree wtih him.

And when I want him to do something differently, I will be very specific about what I think that is. For that's what patriots do in times of war.

And what do I want? An expansion of human rights around the world, of democracy around the world, and of freedom around the world. I believe an activist, interventionist foreign policy is at this point in human history the only way to accomplish that--and that if we don't do it, far more people will die in America, in the West, and in the world in general than they will otherwise.

Our friend Leslie, who used to be at 3375537.com has moved to new digs at TypePad. Update your blogrolls!

A while back I asked for volunteers to help take over webmastering duties on the Operation Give web page. I had a guy who said he could do it but he vanished like smoke on me.

Is anyone up for taking over the webmastering on this site for us? We need someone who's very serious about it. It shouldn't require a ton of time but we need someone who's committed to doing it. We're still shipping toys over there on a regular basis so we need someone who'll really help!

Looks like I blew it. I thought I could get passes into the Democratic National Convention but it turns out I can't; I missed the official deadline and no one seems to know a way to get passes anyway.

I did just get off the phone with the Republicans and they think they can work with us, so those of you who thought you'd like to attend the RNC for us, stay tuned and I'll be getting back to you.

Sorry for the screwup on my part. Although if anyone's got an "in" with the DNC please let me know. Dean's World currently bounces between #11 and #20 on a daily basis in the ecosystem and got 1,605,718 hits last month, 1,423,392 so far in June, and we intend to take this seriously and not as a hack job or joke.

And so, another Guest Blogger stint comes to an end and I say "Strychnine" -- which is "Good-bye," in any language.

Do visit us at our regular blog The Moderate Voice during the week for the same kind of crap...I mean posts...that I've done here for the past two days.

You see find them here and here.

...with grosses like this. (Now, with all the $$ he'll make, can he afford to buy a razor that works?)

A blogger's high school friend is killed in Afghanistan and you can read about it here.

I can't get the photo of the fallen soldier's little boy (above link) out of my mind.

So now the blogger wants to do something about it as he shares his memories of him with us.

On the flap over the unrepentant (and quite proud of it) Veep's use of the f-word in an exchange with another Senator The Staunch Moderate (adult language in link) writes:

"Personally, I trust men more if they're willing to use strong language from time to time. Good for Cheney and Kerry."

THAT is consistency -- the same rule applied to both sides. We say: Bravo (or as the Veep and Kerry would say *&!^%A$@!$%!!").

When he walked in the door the 105-year-old Walmart greeter probably said, "Hi! Welcome to Walmart!! Can I help you?!" but then for some strange reason they got suspcious...

Just when you thought it was safe to order online, the Washington Post reports this:

A new Internet virus has surfaced that allows hackers to steal passwords, credit card numbers and other personal information when someone merely visits an infected Web site, government computer security experts warned this week.

Hundreds of Web sites have been targeted by the virus, which exploits flaws in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Internet software, according to an alert issued Thursday by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

Infected sites were programmed to connect people using the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser to a Web site that contains code allowing hackers to record what users type, such as passwords and credit card and Social Security numbers. The code then e-mails that information to the anonymous attackers.

Government officials would not identify the infected sites; computer security vendors said many have taken steps to fix the problem. In addition, most large Internet service providers have stopped forwarding Web traffic to the Russian Web site that apparently hosts the software that records what is typed, minimizing the theft of data, officials said.

Among the several Web sites hit by the virus, dubbed "js.scob.trojan" by one antivirus vendor, were the Web sites of the Kelley Blue Book automobile pricing guide and MinervaHealth Inc., a Jackson, Wyo., company that provides online financial services for hospitals and health care businesses.

A fascinating story in pictures....a mystery....a theory....a beginning...a middle...and an inexorable end.

FOOTNOTE: This is from here in San Diego and my nephew Greg said he sat next to the judge in this case at a recent Padre's ballgame. As soon as I showed him these pictures 12-year-old Greg knew this case.

It's called Blue Bell and it's the pride of Texas. When The Moderate Voice does shows in Texas in his non-blogger incarnation Blue Bell is why he comes back "of size." Behind the ice cream is the story of a family and company that doesn't compromise on what made it popular.

Look for it in September in Dallas and Michael Moore may not like some of its content...

Some people are truly vile.

True-story Smoking Gun document on attempt to remove a judge. (Adult oriented.) The bright side: he wasn't burnt out on his work; he was getting pumped up.

Really. And we're not kidding (The Moderate Voice is a pet owner, a Californian proudly voted for Arnold and will be sending him a highly expressive email, a letter and will leave a message at his office.) Not smart. Even if it makes business sense. We are outraged. Not happy. Not pleased.

UPDATE: Superb coverage of this political and (we feel) overall stupidity can be found here...as well as links to what you can do about it (either in opposition or support of it).

THIS JUST IN: Arnold tells the AP it was a mistake and he's sticking to the old rule:

SACRAMENTO – Saying he made a mistake months ago that would have made it easier for shelters to kill stray dogs and cats, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday he has reinstated the state's six-day waiting period before lost animals could be killed.

As part of his budget proposal that was first drafted in December, the governor had asked the Legislature to repeal a 1998 law that requires the shelters to hold animals up to six days before destroying them. The governor wanted to save money by cutting the waiting period in half.

But after a nationwide storm of protest, the governor hastily organized a press conference outside his Capitol office and told reporters of his error.

"I realized last night that there was a mistake that I made on the budget," he explained, noting he only had a few weeks to put his proposed budget together between his inauguration in November and when the document went to the printers in December to meet the Jan. 10 deadline for delivery a spending plan to the Legislature.

The idea to cut the waiting period would have saved local governments that operate the shelters $14 million, according to the governor's office.....

(JG NOTE: The AP picked this up from an earlier version of their story) Despite Schwarzenegger's huge popularity, some political observers think he is stepping in the cat litter.

"There is no organized constituency of cats and dogs, but certainly the pet owners of America will find this reprehensible," said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at California State University, Sacramento. "Cats and dogs are like mom and apple pie," she said. "Don't mess with the pets. Most people prefer them to other people."

and somehow he seemed so much older -- and wiser.

Nipples for charity!

Here's a cool photo of our new kitten. Ain't she purty?

And here's what Ara did to the kitty.

I can't decide which image I like better!

It's me again...Joe Gandelman, the swift pain in the...I mean, AKA, The Moderate Voice...back as your Guest Blogger. We'll be in and out today a lot but we'll be posting......Stay tuned......

This young man has as fine a business plan as I've ever seen and, honestly, if this were 1998, I'm sure he'd have no problem at all getting tens of millions in funding. Now that the economy's turned around, maybe there's hope?

CNN has what may be the most depressing headline of the week.

Bastards.

(Via Frank.)

Have you met Athena? Interesting lady. A woman after my own heart, at least when she says this:

I generally refer to myself as a neo-liberal with a touch of realism. I believe in the power and rationale of capitalism, market integration and collective cooperation. However, I do not believe that a nation should sacrifice its sovereignty and security for the sake of multilateralism. I believe that international institutions can help with solving world problems, but I’m not a fan of the United Nations. The UN lends too much credibility to tyrannical dictators and I believe it is an inefficient collective security apparatus.

Too often, I think we all take democracy and freedom for granted in the West. Freedom cannot always be a bottom-up movement because it cannot be realized without context. “Imposition of freedom” sounds like an oxymoron, but we must focus not on the rhetorical, but look at the real results.

Check out her new weblog, which is now on our blogroll here. Let's just hope the other Athena isn't too jealous!

If you run a weblog, may I suggest that you put the New Weblog Showcase in your blogroll?

I'm sure we all know what it's like to start our own blog and hope to find traffic. This is one way you could help new bloggers who are just starting out like you once were. I've added it to mine!

It's a scientific fact!

Dude. Do not mess with this chick.

INDC Journal continues its ongoing scientific discovery and documentation of the wild moonbat. In his most poignant and poetic work to date, he gives us: Moonbats In The Mist.

I really hope this doesn't mean Bill gets killed with a machete in the end.

I got an email recently from a guy who demanded that I "put up or shut up" on my claim that Michael Moore isn't just opinionated, but that he openly and knowingly lies for a living. Then he told me not to bother providing any links to sites that criticized Moore because he'd read them all already and knew they were all false.

That's a pretty neat trick, isn't it? "Prove it, but don't bother giving me any evidence!"

Heh.

Slate, a respectable left-wing publication, has documented Moore's most recent string of lies, and neither does the proudly left-leaning Spinsanity, which has documented Moore's numerous lies here and here and here, amongst other places.

These lies aren't matters of opinion.

The man is a vile whore, and playing little moral equivalency games (as so many people tried to do in my earlier thread on this topic) is just a way to dodge the issue. Michael Moore fabricates his data, and has made himself a multi-millionaire doing it.

Any serious-minded liberal would find this upsetting, embarassing, something worthy of shame and rebuke. I saw conservatives by the score call for Trent Lott to step down. I've seen many conservatives, and known personally many conservatives, who have both publicly and privately condemned the likes of Ann Coulter and Michael Savage.

The left needs to clean its house, and the biggest stinking turd in the whole house is Moore. Decent people should not make excuses for this man.

Dowingba gets it, anyway.

International Talk Like A Pirate Day is only 87 days away.

Can you feel the excitement in the air?

By the way, don't forget to take the test, in case you need to sharpen your skills in time to properly celebrate this woldwide festival.

I have announced twice here on Dean's World, and once in another forum, that I would be happy to give a free Gmail account to any member of the service currently serving in combat or combat-support operations overseas, or scheduled to go soon. So far, not a single one has taken me up on that offer. None.

I thus have to assume there's no interest. So, as it happens, I have a half-dozen to give away. Anyone want one?

* Update * Please give me your first and last names if you're going to ask for one of these things!

Well, this makes sense.

(Thanks to Tim for the link.)

A good friend pointed me to an interesting "conservative" weblogger that some of you will probably enjoy and others will likely find instructive: Ayn Clouter.

I have several conflicting opinions at once about Clouter:

1: She writes well.
2: "She" is probably a man or, more likely, two or more people. Just look to her blogroll, it'll probably be one or more of those fellows.
3: She is a pretty good satirist, although with a pretty easily spotted formula, and,
4: She is hardly less formulaic than the worst of the right-wingers she skewers.

Her basic schtick is obvious: take the left's grossest, meanest accusations about the Bush administration and treat them as if they are all completely true. Now, in a style that's a mishmash of Ann Coulter, Dr. Laura, and one of Ayn Rand's legion of humorless robotroid fans, act like the Bush administration is justified anyway. So, for example, Ayn Clouter might try to say that the Bush administration intentionally outed a CIA spook for political revenge reasons that were justifiable but a miscalculation. Or, she might take the position that corporations should pay less taxes, but based on the notion that corporations are innately superior to human beings.

If it's all a little obvious, most good satire is. The style's subtle enough to trip up and confuse a few people, and the writing's clever enough to warrant a chuckle. And I'm afraid the right has been asking for this: their tendency to warmly embrace simpletons like Cal Thomas, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter was going to backfire sooner or later, becuase those people are not the least bit difficult to parody. They are, after all, virtual walking cartoons all by themselves. She could definitely do a number on a few of the conservative commenters here on Dean's World.

I'll say this much, too: the guys doing Ms. Clouter (or, really, shouldn't it be "Miss?" I'm sure "she" must be an old maid who dislikes the term "Ms.") are a hell of a lot funnier than dried up and predictable hacks like Maureen Dowd, Molly Ivins, or Al Franken.

What I can't decide is whether this is just a further coursening of political rhetoric, or a sign that the left's actually learning a sense of humor again. They haven't had much of one for a long time. Although I frankly think the right parodies itself better much of the time, this at least is a start.

I predict that these "Ayn Clouter" folks will have a promising career, and wish them luck.

Hey, check it out, Garrett Moritz has a great Father's Day link roundup.

Hope all you dads are having a great day!

Only political geeks will get this, but for those who do, it's a riot: Fred Barnes & Mort Kondracke go to a strip club.

Heh. Yeah.

So I've been playing with Gmail for two days, and I must say that so far I'm quite underwhelmed. I can't even figure out how to sort my inbox. I guess they must theorize that their service is so advanced you don't need that, but I feel I do.

I do have a little button marked "invite" so I guess I can send someone an invitation to join, if anyone wants it. I'm trying to list some of my blog-pals but there are so many. But I'll invite anyone to Google's Orkut community who wants it. Just say the word....

* Update * I have given out a couple of Gmail invites, but I hereby withdraw the public offer. I just found out about the Gmail for the Troops project, and now will give any Gmail invites I get to those folks. If anyone out there has some spare Gmail invites, I urge you to do the same!

I'll still invite anyone to Orkut who wants it though. Just let me know.