Category: Business

— The Texan girl with the weird name lives, and she’s updating dropscan digest again:

HELLO, I’M STILL ALIVE!
But barely. Been working like a dog on the very large paper. At last my labor has borne fruit and I sent off a couple of meaty chapters to the Reader last night. So why not blog?

Born-again bloggers are a large group now: Dan Hartung, Moira Breen, and now Shiloh Bucher. The latter has a nice little piece of on-the-spot reporting from one of Austin’s outdoor torture centers.

But what the hell’s happeing with Ken Layne, off-line for days now. I hope he’s just making deals in smoke-filled rooms and not sick or something.

— The Frisco Comical carries pro and con opinion columns on the media’s liberal bias today. The bias denier is Stephanie Salter, the Bay Area’s leading narcissist, who relies heavily in emotion, anecdote, and the discredited Nunberg study to make her point (that the media are servants of their capitalist masters,) while liberal bias critic Debra Saunders, the Bay Area’s Token Conservative (really more a libertarian than a conservative,) lays out an argument based on fact, evidence, and logic.

— This JD Lasica character has got some negative feedback on Wired West.

Getting some very interesting feedback on my article that posted yesterday on OJR: Why the Wired West still matters. The vast majority have been kudos, but those aren’t the interesting ones, so I’ll print the critics’ views here.

If you care about all the East v. West, Blog v. Media stuff, this is for you, but it’s pretty lame — JD’s a Wellbert.

— Why a Sullivan, of course. Check What Blogging Archetype Are You Most Like? Find out with GAZM.org!.

You are an Andrew Sullivan.
You are not afraid to share your political views with everyone in candid and clear ways.
You may also be making some money… one day.
Take the What Blogging Archetype Are You test at GAZM.org

Most of the blog archetypes who’ve taken the test, like Searls and AKMA, are somebody else.

— The Conservative Underground says:

The Conservative Underground is currently looking for contributing writers who share our progressive philosophy of no holds bar, in-you-face, take-no-prisoners, cultural crusade conservatism. Do you think that you’re good enough to carry the insignia of a cultural warrior?

I don’t know what it pays, but here’s an example of their work:

Dear Oubai
Solace and Compassion for Lefty Losers
Dear Oubai:
Ever since Le Pen defeated the socialist candidate for Prime Minister, I?ve been suffering unusual anxiety attacks and a terrible case of back acne. I mean, where am I gonna threaten to move to now if Bush wins re-election ?!

Power to the (non-white) People,

Balec Aldwin

Dear Balec:

There?s always Austria?no wait?Holland? nope taken too? lets see? Italy ? nope, taken? umm?. How ?bout Russia? nope?Flat tax and all? wait, wait? I got it: Hell! How would hell do ? Great in the winter time, besides Marx and Stalin usually make for great party conversations.

O.

— Ken Layne’s been saying nice things about me lately, so that bribe really paid off. Now go and subscribe to his newspaper.

— Peter Pribik kicks ass, on a variety of subjects. Get over there and check it out.

— leaning to the right is a new blog by a California Republican momma who bashes Gray Davis and the lack of patriotic assimilation by immigrants, and praises the Opinion Journal feature boosting Western Civilization. I’d say she’s off to a good start.

— Once you fall prey to a group with a death wish, like California Republicans, you know one when you see one, and Dick Riordan sees one at the L. A. Times:

“I don’t think any paper should have a monopoly, and The Times has a death wish for Los Angeles,” he said. “It would like to see the city destroyed, and 99% of the local news it prints is negative, and that hurts the city. “I’m not suggesting that The Times ought to engage in boosterism or dishonest reporting,” said the lawyer and venture capitalist, whose personal worth is thought to exceed $100 million. “I’m just against the paper’s intellectual dishonesty and political correctness.”

The Times must be worried, given the belated and snarky nature of their coverage of the biggest media story to hit LA since the Chicago Tribune bought the Times. And that’s good; the Times is the closest thing we have to a real newspaper in California, and it’s not near close enough. They’ve been skating by for years thanks to a monopoly in the local market and no serious competition at the state level. There are some good regional papers here — the San Diego Union-Trib and the Sac Bee (on state politics,) but they aren’t read outside their local market. Nothing builds a fire under the ass of a fat. sloppy monopoly like a little competition.

— This new blog shows promise. He’s a former legislative aide and long-time newspaperman, with interesting insights an impeccable taste in blogs.