Blogging News And Notes

Just a few items that need to be tied up before I go. Yup, that's right, I'm taking full advantage of some vacation time (while I still have some) and doing my part by taking some furlough days and heading up to the castle for a couple, three days.

I have a couple three short things posted to keep you entertained over the weekend.  And even more exciting is that I have finally thrown down the draw bridge to this here castle and invited some new authors to share their unique form of cognitive dissidence. Don't know when they'll blog, so make sure you keep checking.

Also, if you weren't already aware, Zach Wisniewski broke his corner of the Intertubes with his breaking news of Senator "Randy" Randy "Bed" Hopper.  While the blue blogging elves try to patch things up there, you can find Zach in his temporary home at Blogging Blue, the Blogger Version.

In more exciting news, the long lost prodigal blogger, Other Side, has started to shows signs of life and has gotten The Other Side Of My Mouth up and running, although it appears he is still a little rusty at getting them up as often as we would like.

Enjoy your St. Paddy's Day, and remember, if you choose to drink, don't drive.

They're All Liberals

Tim Rock has the goods.

Best Line of the Day

Comes from a comment by my friend Tim, which he left at Wiggy's place:

How many conservatives does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

None. Conservatives only screw the poor and complain afterword how unfair everyone is to conservatives.

Another Sad Day For Blogging

When I was first unleashed on the Cheddarsphere by Jay Bullock at folkbum's rambles and rants, one of the first bloggers that stood by my cyberside was Tim Rock, of The Other Side of my Mouth.
Ever since then, I became more confident, knowing that I had a "big brother" out there in the Sphere.

So it saddens me to say that like our mutual friend, Billiam, Tim has decided to hang up the keyboard to some degree. Tim has shut down his blog and has told me that he is done blogging, at least for now. I know Tim is a major baseball fan, and the one ray of hope is that he has left his baseball related blog still up.

I do sincerely hope he still comes to visit, for I will miss his witticism and biting sarcasm.

On the other end of the sphere, Ol' Broad is going into what could best be described as semi-retirement. She hasn't ruled out blogging completely, but has said that she will be devoting more of her time to other directions.

Now, Ol' Broad is normally wrong about most things. She is one of the right wing bloggers that is taking the Obama presidency to irrational extremes, and she can often get quite offensive in her postings. She is a Bible-thumping, gun-loving, equality-hating right winger, but she is also a friend. We have more than our share of verbal tussles and spitting matches, but I can't think of one occasion that our disagreements crossed the line of civility and mutual respect.

That is something that is lacking in large parts of the Sphere, from both sides, and something else I will be missing.

I wish both of these friends the best in what they do and where their lives may take them. And I hope that they know they are always welcome at any of my castles. (There are more than you know.)

Until such time that Tim comes back, I will do my best to try to pick up the slack. And until Kate (Ol' Broad) comes back, well, the right isn't safe from me.

Protecting Us From Toilets And Other Thugs

At the blog, Other Side of My Mouth, there is a site sharing the story of former Dallas Cowboys star and his encounter with a gun toting person. OS ends it with this conclusion:

This is exactly why conceal and carry should not be passed here in Wisconsin. For every responsible gunowner there is a dipshit (a number of local bloggers would be included in this description) who thinks what happened to Michael Irvin is funny. Unfortunately, what those who rally for conceal and carry forget is even one incident like this is too much.

After reading that, I noticed the story from the AP, via JSOnline (emphasis mine):

The man escaped with a few cuts to his arm, but the toilet made out much worse. Police say a man's gun fell out of its holster while he pulled up his pants after using the bathroom at a Carl's Jr. restaurant Tuesday. The gun fired when it hit the floor and shattered the commode.

A few shards of porcelain cut the man's arm, and a woman in an adjacent restroom who was frightened by the noise reported she was having chest pain. Both people were checked at the scene and released.

Police say they confiscated the 26-year-old man's firearm while they review the incident. The man had a concealed weapons permit. No charges are being filed.

That kind of confirms OS's point. I know that accidents happen, but this was a guy that was supposed to have gone through all the safety courses. And an accident with a gun has a greater chance of seriously hurting, if not killing, someone than almost anything else.

But where I differ from OS, is that I am equally, if not more, afraid of the would be Dirty Harry's or John Wayne's out there, as I am of the actual bad guys.