New Blog

Ok, people. Today, I'm forcing you to go over to the new blog if you want to read what I'm writing.

MelissaClouthier.com will get you there.

Newness

Hey patriotic peeps, welcome back to work. Over the past month or more, I've been working with Daniel Summers putting together a new blog. Why has it taken so long? Because I have big ideas and he has a full-time job and that job doesn't happen to be technical director for Melissa Clouthier. Blogging doesn't pay that well.

Anyway, today is going to be my first day over at the new blog MelissaClouthier.com. I will be experimenting around with it during this very busy week, so things might be weird here and there. You can always check back here. And, of course, I'll be putting up two blog entries over at Right Wing News daily, too.

For those who couldn't navigate back to the front page of the new blog, just click anywhere in the header on my name, Voila! You'll be back. You're welcome to give me feedback and ideas. I appreciate your patience while things are being put back together.

Help Me

Okay guys.... I need your help. The new blog is almost ready, but still needs a little work. I'm going to have a featured article. The blog, where you can click on a post and then related posts will pop up. And then, in the right-hand column, I'll have links to posts that are good, but I don't have the time or inclination to blog about.

So, go check it out. Do you like it? What would make it better? Mind you, it's my blog and if it sucks, but I like it, oh well. But your feedback would be appreciated.

It is: MelissaClouthier.com

What Up?

This weekend I've been working on the new blog. It is going to be so cool when it's done, but we're a little way away from finishing it up. The guy working on it, Daniel, is a saint. When it's finished, I'm going to write and tell you what I put him through and how he has surpassed all expectations. Truly, if you need your blog or website worked on, Dan is The Man.

FYI, I'm moving over to WordPress and using Hosting Matters and so far, I love both. I use MoveableType with John Hawkin's blog Right Wing News and don't like it as much. Of course, I'm not a programming guru. No one uses Basic anymore. So, take my opinion for what it's worth and it aint' worth much. Thanks for the push Rachel and Cassy! (Dan did Cassy's work, too, that's how I found him.)

Get The Girl With Blogging

Hey, it'd work for me!

Why Blog?

I dunno.....'cuz I wanna?

Well, TigerHawk talks about the friends he's made and I agree. Perhaps the most amazing thing to happen through blogging has been making friends with some of the smartest, kindest, funniest, and most interesting people. It's like being in college and enjoying all the diverse people, minus the buttheads (check that, there's buttheads in the blogosphere, I just don't have to smell them--wait, that sounds really bad) and roommates (actually, I had good roommates, so I can't complain), so it's way better.

Also, I like sharing ideas and honing them, too. People smarter than me correct my stinkin' thinkin' and that makes me smarter--well, a little.

The money generally sucks, but I make my own hours and can work with a toddler sitting on my head which is a bonus.

Best Emails Yet

I know I'm not the lone blogger receiving crazy emails. It's part of the territory. The funniest have been from Nazmul. Yesterday, he sent me this request:

Dear Melissa,

Would you please tell me about clothe free or nude society?

Last week he sent this:

Dear Melissa,

My name is Nazmul, I am 19 years old, right now studying Economics in university and I live in Bangladesh (Bangladesh is located in South Asia).Lately I have learned how operate computer as well as internet. I have gotten your e-mail number through searching internet.I shall write some thing to you honestly. When i was in school,the main topic of our conversation among friends was girls,prostitution,nude,pornography.Since my childhood i have been dreaming to go to America.But now it is impossible to visit USA for a boy of third world country.As a doctor would you please tell me about prostitution,pornography,nude society,child pornography illicit relationship between boys and girls?Hope you will reply to my e-mail.g. Good bye.

I didn't respond to these emails. But I'm tempted to say that in America, people don't wear clothes. People have sex all the time. The only reason for the internet is really good porn. Prostitution is a right confirmed by the constitution. And boys and girls get their sexual education from public school teachers.

Come to America, Nazmul. You'll love our nude society. I would say he has a skewed perspective of America, but, really, who are we kidding?

Hangin' With The Locals

So, yesterday afternoon, I joined some Houston bloggers at a bar downtown. I have pictures and when I download them, I'll add them later. In the mean time, find out what's up with Houston (I live here and don't have much of a clue, which is kinda pathetic).

Kevin Whited blogs at blogHOUSTON and his lovely wife Callie Markantonis was with him.

An anonymous guy (who I actually met and know his name, I could tell you but, well, you know...) blogs at Red Ink: Texas.

And Cory Crow who is exactly middle of the road politically blogs at Lose an Eye. I didn't tell him that's the best place to get hit, but he seemed healthy enough.

I missed Mike Bramanti of Lonestar Times, but hopefully I will see him next time.

The wine was great and so was the whine!

Moonbattery: "Object Marriage"

A woman in Germany married the Berlin Wall and was distraught at her "husband's" destruction. There is no such thing as a slippery slope. No. Such. Thing.


As an aside, VanHelsing at Moonbattery blogs over at Right Wing News with me. His blog is awesome, has loads of information, plus, there's pictures. I know how you guys love pictures. I've added him to the blog roll. Go check him out.

Someday.....

.......when I make it big, I'm gonna get to post a post like this. Just. Wow.

Announcement

Starting today, I'll be blogging over Right Wing News Monday through Friday. The posts will be cross-posted here, too. John Hawkins is growing his blog and moving the blog toward a team effort is part of it.

I'm excited about this new opportunity. This blog will also be going through a redesign. If you have any features that you'd like me to add and/or modify, let me know.

Here's to an exciting week!

It Is Beautiful Outside

What are you doing sitting here reading this? Wait a minute......

Commenting Again: Don't Be An Ass Hat

A couple weeks ago, some of my posts incited ire. The resulting comments were predictably vicious, dull-witted and random. So, I turned off anonymously commenting. Unfortunately, that choice eliminates people who would otherwise comment and share thoughtful ideas but who wish to carouse about a bit rather than live out and proud on the internet. Ah well, such is life.

Tonight, over at Principled Discovery, I came across this awesome graphic about commenting. See for yourself. Modeled after Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the graphic called Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement demonstrates levels of debate:



The vociferous nature of blogs appeals to me. I like the debate. I like disagreement. Sometimes, I'll adopt a strong stance, not sure if it's right just to see who will prove me wrong and maybe have a better idea. So disagreement, even if a little rough around the edges is totally cool and welcomed.

Here's a nice commenter code of ethics. However, since most ass hat commenters and trolls seem averse to reading beyond the first sentence, this might be a stretch. Many people act like drunks on the internet. They bloviate and throw up on your shoes in your house. Anonymity and distance embolden people.

One rule: Just be decent and treat others the way you'd like to be treated.

Conservative Grapevine

There are a couple conservative portals that I visit every day. Conservative Grapevine is one of them. John Hawkins does the tough work of finding links to important stories for you. What more could you want? So go check out CG today and see what's up. And make his site a habit.

Anonymity

So, I'm wondering today why there are so few comments and then it dawns on me: Of course! Yesterday, I changed my settings so that anonymous commenters would have to register their name. Well, that ended the fun.

I don't like banning anonymous posting. I really don't. Some of you anonymous posters have added so much to the discussion. Alas, people are unimaginative dimwits who can't argue a point and instead attack people.

So please register and please comment! Civility is appreciated.

Welcome to the Frakking Dark Side, Wachel

You guys have known, for some time, that my blog husband is Brendan Loy. Yes, yes, we've discussed the minor detail that he's married and spawned a cute little turnip with his wife, Becky. But whatever! Oh, and there's the small issue that he's jones'n for Obama. And oh yeah, he likes some Catholic team that sucks...can't. place. the. team. Ah well, we have our minor differences and I ignore them, because, otherwise, Brendan is super fantastic and shares so many of my arcane interests it's like we're twins, but then, we couldn't be blog married. That would just be nasty.

Watch out, Brendan, you have competition. I'm officially in love with Rachel Lucas. I'm shocked, too. Men have always been my thing, but sometimes, you just are caught unawares. You guys saw it coming, probably. The crash helmets for safety. The ebullient use of the word "fuck". The insightful opinions on everything political. The crush became too much to hide when she made it first on my list of lady bloggers. Rachel is so much more than a super awesome blogger: she's a super awesome TV watcher. She binge watches TV. She hears about good shows, ignores them and then gulps them down in a spasm of gluttony. All my life, I've traversed this little blue marble thinking I was the only, only one. And today I found my TV soul sister and I just feel....complete somehow.

I've binged watched TV shows multiple times. Only one show gave me gastronomic distress: Sex and the City. Like chocolates, the SATC episodes are meant to be taken one at a time over time. Watching them altogether made me physically ill, killed some IQ points and basically turned me into a cynic about all things women and single, but I digress. Back to Rachel and her awesomeness. She has finally decided to imbibe in the perfection that is Serenity and Firefly. She knows now, like Adam knew Eve, the sublime, frakking fantasticalness of Battlestar Galactica. And yes, she learned the way it's best to learn (the way I learned, so of course it's the best), by gulping them down whole. Here's what she says:

So I decided to post about it, because I know some of you nerds watch that show and maybe sometimes you want a nice, safe place to go to where you can talk about Cylons and Lords of Kobol and frack and how intriguingly sexy President Roslin is. So here you go. You’re welcome.

UPDATE: I can’t believe I forgot to mention this, but guess what is driving me completely fucking bonkers? Check it out. About a year ago, I watched one episode of Firefly. Loved it, then got busy. At birthday time last week, I remembered it and how bad I NEED to see the whole series (one season! it’s a travesty!) and the Serenity movie, so I put them both on my Amazon Wish List. Both were bought (thank you, givers - you will be getting a personal card in the mail), and the Serenity disc has arrived, but not the Firefly disc!

Do you see my agonizing dilemma? It takes ALL MY WILL not to go ahead and watch the Serenity movie just to get my fill of Nathan Fillion and Summer Glau and Jewel Staite (I have serious borderline lesbionic crushes on those last two). But I know it will be better if I wait and watch Firefly first. So I am waiting, and it hurts. Hurts so bad.

You know, Rupert, I don't want to frighten you, but you really picked a horrible time to decide to be called up by Uncle Sam and go serve in Iraq. I hear that you get a long weekend with Rachel coming up. You better make it count, buddy. I hope it's comforting, to know that she'll be well cared for--at least in cyber fantasy land.

Hey, don't judge the love.

Plus, just to remind you guys of my dork cred:

Tigerhawk asks, "Is John McCain a cylon?" My only thing is this: Why'd they go and make a cylon with a faulty arm? Does it have some special fighting capability? Is the arm actually weaponized? That's my theory. It's not just an arm, it's a diversion and a weapon. Makes him look old, but he could kill you. I believe that anyway. McCain scares me.

And there's this about Joss Whedon's possible misogyny. And if you're not a big enough nerd to know who Whedon is, I guess I'll just have to tell you. He's the writer/director of Firefly and also of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I'm sorry, mom. I really am sorry. Why couldn't I be like other girls and watch Desperate Housewives? It's a relief to be out of the closet.

Bloggers Are People Too!

Even as a blogger, I tend to view them as mythical creatures. Bloggers are these special species of humans that think deeper thoughts, know more knowledge, and have secret access to cryptic information.

Today I met a real. live. blogger. Turns out that we live near one another, have very similar political philosophies and feel the same way about Jeremiah Wright. Of course, at this point, I'm pretty sure Barack Obama feels the same way about Jeremiah Wright as I do.

Will Obama's backpedaling work? Kathleen says yes. Regrettably, after that delightful lunch, I'd like to agree with Ms. Sparkle, but I just can't. Obama's tap dancing is a little too little too late. Jeremiah Wright damaged him before and he hung in. Now, Wright has taken his narcissistic, hate-filled rants and pointed them at Obama. Obama can throw the "crazy uncle" under the bus, but it's too late. Crazy Uncle did some major damage. It won't hurt Obama in the primary. It will hurt him in the general.

By the way, do you think Hillary is paying Jeremiah Wright?

Shameless Plug and Organic Stuff

Just a quick note, here. Have you noticed that I have an advertiser right now? That big block with natural skin care products is paying me actual money to advertise here. How cool is that?

A reader asked if I had used their products. The answer is no, I have not. That being said, I will talk about buying organic, natural products for a minute. This is something that I try to do anyway--but organic. Even my dog gets organic food even and he deserves a swift kick in the ribs not the super excellent dog food. I'm still irritated over his apparent passive-aggression. This morning, the cute fluffy white cotton ball of a dog jumped up on our bed and peed in the middle of it. Not a little spot mind you. Oh no! He emptied his pint-sized bladder on the white comforter cover. And yes, he'd been let out already. And yes, he's now generally potty-trained. It was purposeful.

For those who believe that dogs and cats don't have free will, I'm here to tell you, you're wrong. My friend's big, fat, irritating cat pees and poops on her pillow whenever he's mad at her for not giving him enough attention. If she goes out of town, the pillow gets it. For some reason, she thinks it's funny. I, on the other hand, do not find any sort of pet excrement on my bed amusing.

So even this rage inducing canine gets organic food and I'm here to tell you he doesn't deserve it. But my kids do. Now, I'm not super mega anal about the organic thing, but I try, as much as possible to buy organic food. Certain things seem to make a huge difference when they're organic, taste wise. Chicken is the most dramatic. I don't know, nor do I want to know, what happens to regular chickens, but the difference with organic chicken is so obvious it's a tad disturbing. Other things like fruits and veggies make a difference when fresh and organic. There is even an organic vodka I like called Rain. Good stuff. Great packaging.

Anyway, I do think it is valuable, when at all possible, to buy organic. It is just one more way to minimize your intake of antibiotics and if the animals and ground are treated better, that's a bonus, too.

So, take a look at NaturOli's products and buy some, too! You'll be supporting me and you'll also be buying some products that are natural and plant based. They look really good. Also, if you would like to advertise here, let me know. You guys know you're smart and there's more of you reading this than I ever imagined would care about what I have to say, which actually calls into question the first assertion. Nah, I stick by it. You're smart.

The End Is Nigh

Jeff Goldstein laments the state of the world: Amanda Marcotte wins a book deal and is on a book tour? The Apocalypse is upon us.

Ever Just Want To Start Over?

Some people want to, and then do it.