Category Archives: Blogosphere

Commenter missed

As inconvenient as it apparently has been for some of my rare but appreciated readers who have not noticeably returned, the TypeKey comment security system has done wonders for my productivity. I no longer have to waste time deleting scores of comment spam which were steadily rising into the hundreds every day. I gave up on trackbacks last year for the same reason, though I wasn’t getting any trackbacks, anyhow. But Tom is one rare reader whose vanished comments I especially miss. A fellow OC-504er, who spent his time in Vietnam with the 1st Cav and now commands his local VFW, he was clever enough to track down my sister-in-law’s funeral Aug. 6 in Indiana and surprise us by showing up, an hour or so away from his own Ohio River town. Hope you can eventually figure out how to make the registery work, Tom. I’d like to have you back.

Firefox blocked

Clicking on the "I Stand With Israel" banner in the upper left-hand corner of our main page, using the Firefox browser, now only gets a blocked page explanation, instead of Jack Lewis’s banner page, which you can still get using Explorer or some other browser such as Opera. It seems he’s only warring against Firefox, because some users have installed Ad Blocker, which his block page suggests how to defeat. But his pique is not unique. I had already noticed that blogger won’t allow me to comment at a blog using the most popular version of their comment-verification software if I arrive with Firefox. Explorer is not a problem. I’m used to Firefox, after many moons of use, but this campaign against it may force me to use Explorer as my default browser again. Opera is too clumsy for my taste.

Another country

The past, as the Archenemy blog says, really is another country, and here’s a new blog that will take you visiting for as long as you like. You won’t get far beyond the haunting portraits of the victims of child labor. Be sure to click on Shorpy’s Page for the poignant story of a child laborer at an Alabama coal mine.

UPDATE: Alas, it isn’t only the past: There are child miners in Kyrgyz, a former Soviet republic on China’s northwestern border, today.

Miss Cellania

Miss Cellania is two, after escaping blogger. As blogiversaries (blogaversaries?) go, this one is an event.

Top Ten Newspaper Web Sites

The daily made the cut, coming in at No. 8, even getting praise for letting anyone blog on its site. Despite still using what Instapundit calls "a lame and buggy registration scheme." Who knows, maybe they’ll drop it, like I’s Knoxville News Sentinal (also on the list at No. 6) did.

Off to Port A

Leaving tomorrow on our annual trek to the beach at Port Aransas, so no posts until we return on Friday. Only glitch might be the storm brewing in the western Caribbean, which  Accuweather’s Joe Bastardi, among other meteorologists, forsees sweeping into the Gulf of Mexico later in the week, possibly as a tropical storm. Maybe Dean unless an Atlantic one gets the name first. But he sees the chances of landfall as better for Mexico than the Texas coast. More tropical storm/hurricane argument here on what has been a quiet season so far. We will keep our fingers crossed that Bastardi’s right. Not like in 2004 when Ivan, crashing into western Florida and Alabama, sent huge waves across the Gulf to hit and close the beaches at Port A. I remember one almost washed away a family from West Texas who had incautiously spread out their blanket on the sand. They were awash in an instant and struggled up a dune with what remained of their stuff to escape the water.

UPDATE  It looks like the name Dean may go to another storm, first, making the Gulf one (if there is a Gulf one) Erin. Unless Dean goes into the Gulf first. Which might not occur before we are back in Central Texas, which would be good. We shall see.

Swiss Afghanistan

Imagine Afghanistan as brown and tan and rubble-strewn? Some of it is, certainly, but not the Switzerland-like 10,000-foot "foothills" of the Hindu Kush in these beautiful photos put up by Blackfive of a 91st Cav air assault. Clean out the jihadis, build some hotels and tourism could really take off.