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Malkin to the defense!

What a lady! Michelle Malkin responds to Kathleen Parker and others in their criticism of bloggers:

Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker’s description of bloggers as “creepy” wired squatters who are “untempered by restraint and accountability” and “insidious enemies of decency, humanity and civility - the angry offspring of narcissism’s quickie marriage to instant gratification.” MSM outlets, by contrast, “are filled with carpal-tunneled wretches, overworked and underpaid, who suffer near-pathological allegiance to getting it right.” You know, those poor, truth-telling, underpaid ink-stained wretches like Jayson Blair, Mitch Albom, Stephen Glass, Eric Slater, Janet Cooke, Barbara Stewart, Patricia Smith, Mike Barnicle, and Jack Kelley.

She makes her comments in the form of 2005 in review. I’ve added her to my daily read roll.


‘2005 IN REVIEW: THE WAR ON BLOGS’ from Michelle Malkin.

Terrible Swede:Cooking site for engineers

Cooking for Engineers

Who knew??? This site is awesome! I’ve never been one of those intuitive female chefs. The analytical approach will be helpful to me. Finally, cooking in plain English. Or plain German.

In reading through the site, I am even more intrigued:


About the name: Cooking For Engineers
Michael selected the name “Cooking For Engineers” on a whim. He has no idea if it means “To cook for the purposes of providing engineers with food” or “To instruct engineers in the science and art of cooking”. He likes the ambiguity, and other people seem to find the name intriguing and even interesting. He regrets that the name can be misread (when in a rush) to be “Cooking Foreigners”.

About Michael Chu
Michael Chu lives in the heart of Silicon Valley near the San Francisco, California in the United States. He currently works as a hardware application engineer for a major semiconductor manufacturer. Michael holds a Bachelor of Science from the College of Engineering at University of California, Berkeley in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Besides cooking and dining, Michael enjoys photography, indoor rock climbing, and gaming (video, computer, and board - not gambling).

Supporting Cooking For Engineers
Cooking For Engineers generates a significant amount of traffic and the large volume of photographs served requires lots of bandwidth (over 200 GB per month in September 2005). In addition to the server costs, a lot of food is “wasted” as recipes and experiments go awry. Most of the money used to support and grow the website are generated through private donations, Amazon.com, MetroKitchen, and Google AdSense.

Thanks, Terrible Swede!

Beggars All: Some Required Viewing & Reading

Beggars All: Some Required Viewing & Reading

Beggars All: Some Required Viewing & Reading

Beggars All: Some Required Viewing & Reading

And through His wounds we were healed…

Pajamas Media has a wonderful Best of the Blogs feature. Through it I’ve found some interesting posts, including this one: False Prophet Fred Phelps. Randy Thomas, Membership Director for Exodus International, and keeper of the blog, Everyday Thoughts Collected , writes:

For those of you who don’t know…I met Fred Phelps in 1999. He has also protested about a half dozen other events I have been a part of or attended. When I met him outside of Falwell’s church (’99) it wasn’t a pleasant experience. He said I should be ashamed of myself and anyone who *ever* participated in homosexuality was going to hell. Phelps said I should just “shut up” and be quiet. He said that my story brought shame to the name of Christ.

Well, my Jesus knows I used to sleep with men and it didn’t stop Him from dying on the Cross for me. He saw every thing I ever did. ..in my sinful past, present and future . He saw ALLLLL of that and still chose to call me by name into faith, relationship, atonement, redemption and sanctification(emphasis added).

Homosexuality is only one of many issues I had to bring to Him. If He isn’t ashamed of me to the point of dying on my behalf, I am not going to let some demonized crackpot of a false prophet shame me into silence. My Lord is worthy of praise and released me from the true closet … the bondage of shame.

I don’t know Randy, but I certainly can agree with his post. Randy rightly proclaims that God’s grace is for all! There is no one sin too great for Christ to have died for. He took them all on to His body. He died for all sin. It is already done! God’s Holy Spirit loving and relentlessly sought out Randy through the proclamation of His Word and brought Randy to repentance. Randy now rightly lives confidently in God’s grace. I’m glad to have met this fellow sinner saved by grace. My sins are no different from his in God’s eyes. Be sure to stop by his blog and give him some encouragement as he publically give the reason for the joy that is in his heart.

“…and through His Wounds we were healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)

Another journalist implodes…


Atomizer of Fraters Libertas posts Good Lovin’ Gone Bad on journalist Kathleen Parker’s love-hate-loathing relationship with the blogosphere. He writes:

Just what is it about us bloggers that has the mainstream media practically wetting their underpants in recent days? When even syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, a self-described fan of blogging since at least 2003, has turned on us, you know something has gone terribly wrong. Read his post…

That Ms. Parker has gone to such great lengths (ie. writing an article, Lord of the Blogs, about how she detests bloggers, comparing them to Lord of the Flies children abandoned by adults) tells me that she isn’t completely discrediting the blogosphere. She writes:

We can’t silence them, but for civilization’s sake - and the integrity of information by which we all live or die - we can and should ignore them.

I can’t believe a respected journalist writing such an irresponsible thing. I suppose she writes out of frustration, along with other journalists, newspaper editors and even radio station managers, that people have traveled up that big mountain of “crediblity” formerly reserved for credentialed media professionals. We’ve seen the top of their mountain and we’ve got a look at the beautiful valley on the other side of their mountain top. In that valley, citizens are free to decide for themselves which stories they wish to read and share, which professional journalists to depend on for honest reporting and, on a very lucky day, which stories to break. We don’t want to get rid of professional journalists, just the ones who seem to obsess about bloggers.

Be sure to read her article at Townhall.com and the excellent comments following the article.

Podcasting

Awhile back, Scottius Maximus posed the thought of podcasting (can’t find the post right now). I was intrigued by the idea, but I knew I did not need yet another hobby. Recent negative developments at my favorite radio station have brought me back to the idea. Surely, it is possible to have an entertaining show that doesn’t degrade men or women, encourages all to live and think smartly and yet talks about the best and worst of our modern American culture. Why do I have to limit myself to listening to local fare that insults me? The next best thing to my own podcast would be for The Patriot to hire me for a local morning show, but I don’t think they are looking to replace Bill Bennett or Laura Ingraham.

Therefore, I’ll start my own show. It will feature my take on daily life, pop culture, interviews with people I think are interesting and that all important take on teenager’s life. Will I ever get the nerve to broadcast my voice? That remains to be seen.

There is a wealth of posts on the book Podcasting by Todd Cochrane for me to read through this weekend. I also need to get one of these, I think…

The robber father

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - A family man once regarded as a pillar of his community was sentenced to 40 years in prison Thursday for a string of bank robberies after being turned in by his own sons, who had recognized him from a surveillance photo. The judge issued the minimum sentence for William Alfred “Al” Ginglen, who at 64 likely will serve the rest of his life behind bars.

Ginglen, who was convicted on seven counts of armed bank robbery and two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence, also was ordered to pay $56,382 in restitution. The money he stole, authorities said, went to support a girlfriend, a crack cocaine habit and visits to prostitutes.But before he lost two jobs in 2001 and the bank robberies began in 2003, Scott noted that Ginglen had spent the bulk of his life as a civic leader and married father of four.

“You pose a dilemma in trying to figure out what in the world happened to you,” Scott said. “I, too, have struggled with that. For over 60 years of your life, you lived an exemplary life.” Given the chance to speak before receiving the sentence, Ginglen started to address the court, stopped for 90 seconds to compose himself, and then said, “I’d like to apologize to everyone.” Read on.

After gulping hard at the reminder of our sinful nature, I also realized that this father must have done something right with his sons for them to be able to make such a painfully correct decision to turn in their own father.

Peggy Noonan’s predictions…

America’s national treasure, Peggy Noonan

Peggy Noonan’s year-end summary, ’05’s Big Five: The biggest stories of the year just past, plus a look ahead to ‘06, is out and is a must-read. She also includes some humorous predictions for the months and years to come. I proved I am no media insider: I had to look up the Judy Miller reference.

List of most blogged about books for 2005

The New York Times recently featured an interesting list - the top books blogged about in 2005. The list is shamelessly copied below, but the links merely return you to the NYT online. I’ve read the following:

1984
The Chronicles of Narnia.

I’ve been meaning to read Blog, but haven’t yet. I feel that I’ve lived Blog and therefore don’t need to read it, but I could be wrong. Any recommendations? Also, be sure to read Pamela Paul’s essay about book blogs.

1 FREAKONOMICS: A ROGUE ECONOMIST EXPLORES THE HIDDEN SIDE OF EVERYTHING
By Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner (William Morrow, April 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book
2 HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE (BOOK 6)
By J. K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine Books, July 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book
3 BLINK: THE POWER OF THINKING WITHOUT THINKING
By Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown, January 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book
4 THE WORLD IS FLAT: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
By Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book
5 GETTING THINGS DONE: THE ART OF STRESS-FREE PRODUCTIVITY
By David Allen (Penguin Books, January 2003)
Blog Posts About This Book
6 COLLAPSE: HOW SOCIETIES CHOOSE TO FAIL OR SUCCEED
By Jared Diamond (Viking, December 2004)
Blog Posts About This Book
7 BLOG: UNDERSTANDING THE INFORMATION REFORMATION THAT’S CHANGING YOUR WORLD
By Hugh Hewitt (Nelson Books, January 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book
8 GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL: THE FATES OF HUMAN SOCIETIES
By Jared Diamond (W. W. Norton & Company, April 1999)
Blog Posts About This Book
9 THE TIPPING POINT: HOW LITTLE THINGS CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE
By Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books, January 2002)
Blog Posts About This Book
10 THE DA VINCI CODE
By Dan Brown (Doubleday, March 2003)
Blog Posts About This Book
11 STATE OF FEAR
By Michael Crichton (HarperCollins, December 2004)
Blog Posts About This Book
12 THE WISDOM OF CROWDS: WHY THE MANY ARE SMARTER THAN THE FEW AND HOW COLLECTIVE WISDOM SHAPES BUSINESS, ECONOMIES, SOCIETIES AND NATIONS
By James Surowiecki (Doubleday, May 2004)
Blog Posts About This Book
13 THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR: WHEN HUMANS TRANSCEND BIOLOGY
By Ray Kurzweil (Viking, September 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book
14 1984
By George Orwell (Signet)
Blog Posts About This Book
15 THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
By C. S. Lewis (HarperTrophy)
Blog Posts About This Book
16 UNHINGED: EXPOSING LIBERALS GONE WILD
By Michelle Malkin (Regnery, October 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book
17 WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?: HOW CONSERVATIVES WON THE HEART OF AMERICA
By Thomas Frank (Metropolitan Books, June 2004)
Blog Posts About This Book
18 HELP! MOM! THERE ARE LIBERALS UNDER MY BED
By Katharine DeBrecht (Kids Ahead, September 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book
19 PODCASTING: THE DO IT YOURSELF GUIDE
By Todd Cochrane (Wiley, August 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book
20 THE FAIRTAX BOOK
By Neil Bortz and Jon Lender (Regan, August 2005)
Blog Posts About This Book

Hat tip to LaShawn Barber, whose blog I am checking more and more often. She also links to a very interesting article, When Blogs Go Bad, from Inc.com.