July 18, 2006
Comments and Trackbacks
If you leave a comment or trackback and receive a "server error" message, please do not post your comment again, because it will show up, I just have to approve it. I realize I'm having a problem with the blog and am in the process of trying to get it fixed. My apologies for the problem.
Posted by Tom at 8:00 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
June 28, 2006
Need a Moveable Type Developer / Web Expert
I am currently experiencing trouble with this blog, and get all sorts of errors when attempting to post or do much of anything in the management tool.
I'm not sure whether the problem is at hosting company or the MT software, or some combination. I have put in tickets with both and they have been providing suggestions. Unfortunately it is all over my head, and so I am at the point where I will pay someone who has expertise in these matters, to help resolve the issue.
If you know Moveable Type, or can recommend someone (or a web development company) who does, please leave a comment or send me an email. In the meantime I'll be shopping companies myself to see what I can come up with.
All this means that I will not be posting here for awhile. However, I will be posting at Conserva-Puppies and Love America First. Links to those sites are at right.
Posted by Tom at 9:14 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 22, 2006
Calling all Washington DC Area Bloggers
Sunday evening I went out for a beer with the author of Rule308, a popular blog that concentrates on, well a lot of things, from the War on Terror to daily news events.
As you might imagine we had a great time discussing everything from the War in Iraq to the fickleness of our Republican congress.
Other than the people I meet every Friday or so outside of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, I think he's the only blogger I've actually met.
But since I have to think that many of us live in the Washington DC area, maybe we can arrange some sort of after-work get-together once in a while. If you're in the area and interested, send me an email. Whether you're a blogger, like to comment, or just like reading blogs doesn't really matter.
Posted by Tom at 9:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 8, 2006
Tagged by Landry Fan
I'm it. Landry Fan has tagged me. It's a list of fours, and here are mine (none of the answers are necessarily in order)
1 Jobs I Have Held In My Life
1. Sales
2. Public School Teacheer
3. Corporate Trainer
4. Consumer Electronics data classification
2 Places I Have Lived:
1. Virginia
2. Missouri
3. Virginia again
4. Kansas
3 TV Shows I Love To Watch:
1. Whatever is on the History Channel
2. Whatever is on any of the Discovery Channels
3. Whatever is on Fox News
4. Uh...whatever else looks interesting when I channel scan. My TV watching can be measured in minutes per week, actually.
4 Places I Have Been On Vacation:
1. Orlando
2. Ireland
3. Greece
4. Russia
5 Websites I Visit Daily:
1. Free Republic
2. Strategy Page
3. Belmont Club
4. National Review
6 Favorite Foods:
1. Fruit
2. Vegetables
3. Cheeze and crackers
4. dunno....granola bars?
Ok! OK! I admit it, I'm one of those fitness and health nuts.
7 Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. Home works for me
2. Walter Reed
3. Counter-protesting lefties anywhere
4. Vacation in Europe or some exotic location
Posted by Tom at 8:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 30, 2006
Trackback Seems to be working now
Well what do you know. A few minutes ago I sent myself a trackback and it worked. The weird thing is that I haven't made any changes recently. The gremlins must be asleap now.
However, please send me an email if you send me a trackback and it gets rejected. My sincere thanks to those who have done so these past few days.
Posted by Tom at 9:00 AM
January 11, 2006
"Person of the Year...."
Over at Down East Blog, Michael has awarded his Person of the Year award to...
The American Soldier.
To me the Most Outstanding Person Of 2005 is still The American Soldier, whether Army or USMC. I don’t doubt the professionalism and courage of airmen and sailors alike, but I think it is clear that in this conflict the foot soldier bears the brunt of the fighting.
Did I tell you Michael is Belgiun?
Perhaps being from Europe gives him perspective that some Americans do not have. All too many nowadays want to quit Iraq since things didn't turn out all rosy immediately. Michael, however, knows that democracy doesn't take root easily. After pointing out that Iraq has not only never known a pluralistic form of government but just emerged from fifty years of Ba'athist hell, he asks us not to lose heart:
Therefore I would urge our American readers, who are all too aware of the blood, sweat and tears shed by your troops and their relatives, not to lose heart. For rule of law and democratic representation to take hold and blossom is in fact a very quaint and tough, if not unlikely event.
Iraq is difficult, yes, and much hard work remains to be done. Success is not assured, either.
But, as he reminds us, success in post-war Germany was not seen as a sure thing at the time, either. Headlines of the day warned of failure.
Yet Americans believed. With what now seems sheer improbable good will and vast amounts of that unique American "can-do" spirit, they took to the task of implementing democratic rule in Germany, when in 1946 nearby Czechoslowakia passed the so-called Benes-Decree, named after its president, which effectively ruled the deportation of a couple of million ethnic Germans, and which was thought of by the free world as a non-issue, or rather as something deserved.Yet Americans believed.
Thank you, Michael. Despite the naysayers that get all of the news, most Americans do still believe.
Go read the whole thing.
Posted by Tom at 8:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 3, 2006
Cat Blogging
My cats are over at Landry's Life. Check them out.
BTW, they are happy with the photos and consider Landry-fan a friend for life. That Lanry-fan is a fellow participant at our regular pro-troops anti-Code Pink rallies outside Walter Reed every Friday night makes all of us happy.
Posted by Tom at 9:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 9, 2005
Bloggers in the Senate
Bill Roggio, author of the must-read war blog The Fourth Rail, has an excellent article today - posted on National Review! Congratulations, Bill.
In addition, Senator Rick Santorum hosted four bloggers in a press conference this morning, one of them Bill Roggio:
Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, will hold a press conference to highlight the individual efforts of our men and women in uniform serving in Iraq. Four independent civilian military bloggers will share firsthand accounts of the efforts of our Armed Forces in fighting the Global War on Terror and protecting the homeland.Senator Santorum will also give a brief presentation of unique Senate features available on the Senate Republican Conference’s website http://src.senate.gov that will highlight stories and narratives of our men and women in uniform serving in Iraq.
WHO: Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)Michael Yon, independent civilian military blogger,
Bill Roggio, independent civilian military blogger,
Steve Schippert, independent civilian military blogger,
Andi Carol, independent civilian military blogger,
WHAT: Press Conference
WHERE: SC-4, U.S. Capitol
WHEN: TOMORROW – Wednesday, November 9, 2005 -- 9:45 a.m.
Congratulations, all! BTY, Andi is a regular at our weekly pro-troops rally outside Walter Reed. Her husband is in the military on deployment, so you can believe she's not thrilled with the antics of Code Pink.
I'm familiar with all of the bloggers except for Steve Schippert. Either way, I'm sure all of them will have accounts of the press conference on their sites.
Posted by Tom at 10:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 30, 2005
A Line in the Sand
What am amazing and busy week I have had. Sorry for the lack of posting but as you read this I think you'll understand.
This past Thursday evening I was honored to host Chris Missick, author of the A Line in the Sand blog, and two of his friends; Kyle Rodgers and Ryan Albaugh. Ryan served with Chris in Iraq, while Kyle is acting as videographer and technical advisor (they're live-blogging the tour, as well as recording much of it).
Chris served in Iraq from March 2004-March 2005 as part of 319th Signal Battalion. While in-theater, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant, and was the "2004 Soldier of the Year". Now in the reserves, he starts law school next month. He is, I believe, 24 years old or thereabouts.
Chris set up a special website, Web of Support, where you can follow the tour day-by-day. From the site:
Returning home in March of 2005, I have set my heart on beginning an extensive road-trip through our country to personally thank the individuals I formed the deepest relationships with through the blog. The supporters I have selected offer a broad regional and demographic sample, and offer unique insight and stories that will prove to be inspiring and insightful. In a drastically new approach to a soldier’s memoir, Web of Support: How A Soldier’s Blog Connected Him With American Patriots opens a window into the life of a deployed American soldier who blogged his experiences. Perhaps even more importantly, it provides an inspiring look at what some individuals around the country are doing to display their patriotism in a time of war. This book will be a link between the experiences of what soldier blogs broadcast on their websites and the personal impacts blogging has on a soldier while they are at war and when they return home. It will blend the elements of a soldier memoir with the emotional impacts of Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Chris is an amazing guy, as you'll soon discover. I felt quite honored to meet him. The Web of Support tour has generated no small amount of media attention as well. Check out the Web of Support site (click on Media info) for the full list, but the latest is a mention by Oliver North in his most recent editorial. Ollie starts out by blasting Jane Fonda for her announcement that she's going on an "anti-war" bus tour of the US, and concludes:
Hopefully at some point during your Jihadist journey, you will bump into Sgt. Christopher Missick of the 319th Signal Battalion. While in Iraq, Missick met hundreds of good Americans through his blog, "A Line in the Sand." Home now, he and a fellow veteran are driving around the country -- fueled by conventional gasoline -- to meet some of the patriots -- his "web of support" -- who sent letters, packages and prayers. He wants to personally thank them and "meet the heart of America."That's the kind of support the troops appreciate, not your caravan of craven critics.
Exactly right.
Chris was also one of the "Milbloggers" profiled in the most recent edition of Wired Magazine. You can read the story when it appears in their on-line edition August 4 here. Right now you can pick up the hard-copy at a magazine or news stand.
Of all the the people Chris met through the Internet while serving in Iraq, I am honored that I am one of the few dozen that he and his buddies were able to stop by and visit.
As I mentioned, they are taking a cross-country tour, starting in Carson City NV and ending in Sacramento CA. They've already put over 4,500 miles on their vehicle, and my guess is that will be doubled by the time they're done.
But despite the seeming inefficiency, it really is the best way to see America. Certainly when one does business travel, flying is the way to go. When I was a kid, every summer my folks piled everyone into the family station wagon for the annual trek to see the relatives in Kansas and Colorado. From where we live in the Washington DC suburbs to there is a good 2 - 3 day car ride. On one level it seems like a hopeless time waster, and of course at the time I did not appreciate the lengths my mother went to in preventing all-out war between myself, my brother, and sister.
But the fact remains that if you really want to see this great country of ours, you've just got to do it by car, and take your time at that. On each trip we would stop at one or another sites along the way; the great Arch in St Louis to the Truman Library and Museum, to Mark Twain's birthplace are some of the places that I remember. There are so many things to see along the way; the birthplace of an important person, a museum, a natural beauty, whatever you care for, this country has it.
After they arrived I took them out to dinner, as I figured it was the least I could to to treat them at one of Leesburg's finest. Later we ended the evening on my deck in what turned out to be beautiful weather. The Washington DC area can be hot and incredibly humid during the summer, and we've had some pretty bad weather of late (you out west only think you know what humidity is). But providence smiled on us this past Thursday, with a light cloud cover to shield the sun, and relatively low temps and humidity.
At some point after dinner, Chris got a call from one of his friends that the new issue of Wired Magazine was on the stands, and that he was profiled in one of the stories. We hurried out to the local Rite-Aid and picked up several copies.
Over the course of the evening the four of us talked about everything, politices, the war, history, our personal lives, and, of course, blogging, for that is what brought us together in the first place.
As you may imagine there was plenty to discuss. Besides his military experience, Chris has been involved in politics since (and during) his college days. During the 2000 presidential campaign, he was Director for Youth Outreach for Northern California for the Bush-Cheney effort, and in early June of 2000, was promoted to Deputy Director for the Northern California campaign. He even got to go to the Republican National Convention.
Photos
Here's Chris and me, I'm the guy on the left. Chris is holding the copy of Wired Magazine opened to the article in which he and other Milbloggers were profiled.
Chris, me, and Kyle in my Townhouse
Ryan, Chris, and Kyle at the restaurant
The travelers are posting photos from each of their stops on the Web of Support website, so be sure and check those out too.
A Line in the Sand
If you've never read any of the Milblogs, start. Estimates are that there are maybe two hundred, but of course nobody really knows. If you're not familiar with any of them, The Mudville Gazette is a good place to start, as it links to many of the milblogs.
Chris posted his experiences in Iraq on the "Old War Blog" section of A Line in the Sand Like me, I think you'll be impressed by the quality of writing and depth of thought.
Helping the Troops: No Effort is Too Small
One point Chris made about helping the troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere (let's not forget about the ones in Bosnia) is that you shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. He said that he'd found that sometimes people thought that if they didn't get involved in some big support program, nothing was worth doing. Or, because not everyone has the time to commit themselves to a full blown pen pal program that involves a committment to writing a letter a week, they didn't think that anything was worth doing, or just never got around to it.
Troops, Chris said, appreciate anything and everything. Many of you probably know this already because you've read it on a web site or another, but I think it a point worth stressing again. On my sidebar are links to a number of organizations the provide opportunities to help troops. Most, such as Adopt-a-Platoon, offer a number of ways, from adopting a full platoon of soldiers or marines, to one-time packages or letters. And, of course, there are dozens of such organizations, as a quick look at other blogs will reveal.
I wish them well on their journey across this great country of ours, and am honored that I was able to meet them.
Posted by Tom at 3:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 10, 2005
Love America First
A lovely name for a blog, don't you think? It seems entirely appropriate, given our current war.
It's also the name of my latest blog site, where I'll be contributing articles from time to time. I just posted my first, and it seemed only appropriate to reprint "A Cold Warrior", which you can find here under "If You're Curious" on the sidebar. My addition will make fourteen contributors to Love America First.
So take a look. You'll find excellent writing and sharp analysis.
Posted by Tom at 9:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Wretchard's Revelation
As most of you probably know by now, "Wretchard", author of the Belmont Club blog, has revealed who he is, and where "Wretchard" and "Belmont Club" come from.
I won't give it away, so if you haven't seen go there and read it. All I'll say is that he has the personality of house cats nailed. I've got two of them, so I should know.
Wretchard, whose specialty is the War on Terror and all related aspects, is one of the best and most influential writers around. His blog puts the major media to shame. If it's not on your "must read" list, put it there.
Posted by Tom at 8:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 7, 2005
We've Lost a Fellow Blogger
Bunker Mulligan passed away suddenly last Friday from a heart attack.
Michael James Reed, 1953-2005
Mike and the Reed family are in my prayers. You will be sorely missed.
Posted by Tom at 8:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 6, 2005
Who is The Redhunter?
"Who is the Redhunter?" first appeared on Warm n'Fuzzy Conserva-Puppies, which is my other blog site. As I've moved to a new website, it seemed appropriate to repost it.
A Cold Warrior
I remember the exact moment it happened. I believe I was a junior in high school, which would place the event in the 1976/77 school year. Our English classes were set up so that just as in college, students had a series of classes to choose from each quarter. As I recall, most of the classes were literature. The class I chose for that fateful class was centered on totalitarianism. We read two or three books that quarter, but there was one that made a profound impact on me.
That book was "1984" by George Orwell. To this day I remember how profoundly I was struck by this work. Like everyone else who reads it, I was rooting for Winston Smith throughout the book. When he was utterly defeated by the overpowering might of the totalitarian state, I was devastated. It was not just that they had imprisoned him, or tortured him, that hit me. It was the success of their effort at mind control. By the end, Smith is not merely forced to cooperate, he willingly converts to the belief that Big Brother is good. He becomes a total convert to Ingsoc, the state ideology. It was this, then, that hit me the hardest.
As I said, I remember the exact moment that I finished the book. Before this event, politics, and especially the Cold War struggle against the Soviet Union, were abstractions. No more. "The Soviet Union must be destroyed" went through my mind again and again.
I was never taken in by those leftists who insist on seeing Orwell's work as an attack on the west, and in particular the United States. To be sure, we can see "Orwellian" speech in our daily lives, and we sometimes say that "Big Brother" is doing this or that in our country. But there was never any doubt in my mind that Orwell's masterpiece was primarily an attack on the totalitarian mind-control ideologies of his day; Soviet communism and German Nazism. We had defeated the latter, but the former remained a significant threat.
This began a life-long study of the world around me. Over the past twenty-five or so years I have read dozens if not hundreds of books on a variety of subjects. Initially my primary reading centered around military history and totalitarian ideologies, and indeed books on these subjects still make up the majority of my library.
It always seemed natural for me to be a political conservative. My parents were Republicans, and not being a rebellious type it was natural for me to follow in their footsteps. This, coupled with my anti-Soviet crusade, led me to the right.
I suppose if I had been born twenty years earlier the chances of my going to either party were about equal. Up until the late '60s the Democrats were as anti-Soviet as the Republicans. The sea change that occurred at the end of the Vietnam war squelched any chance of my becoming a Democrat.
My beliefs have not changed that much over the years. If anything, perhaps I have become more libertarian. As I have grown more as a Christian, I have been less impressed by the "religious right"; something of a paradox, perhaps.
I then grew up as a dedicated Cold Warrior. If you check out my personal blog, you'll see that it's got a Cold War name. The story there is simple; when thinking of a title, I started looking at my book collection for inspiration. I came across William F Buckley's The Redhunter. This book tells the story of Senator Joe McCarthy in novel form. Buckley's theme is that while McCarthy and his minon Roy Cohn were scoundrels, the cause of anti-communism is noble and just. It is a theme with which I agree wholeheartedly. I therefore chose it as the title of my blog.
I therefore see our current war against the Islamofascists as in the same mold as the great twentieth-century struggles against Nazism and Communism. Different in many ways, but also quite similar. Whether we win or seek accommodation depends on our willpower. Despite occasional missteps, we prevailed against the old totalitarians. We can do so again.
Posted by Tom at 10:00 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
June 3, 2005
Redhunter Update
If you're reading this then you've found my new website. Thank you very much for visiting. I know I've been talking about this for a few weeks, and it took longer than expected to set this up and migrate from blogger.
Thank you to Marvin Hutchins of Little Red Blog, for his invaluable assistance in explaining the mysteries of Moveable Type to me. Please also take a minute and visit his site. He did most of the work in getting this site set up and migrating the old blogger files, so my hat's off to him. I've always been a hardware guy so software doesn't come naturally. But I'm actually catching on to this.
I've been rather busy of late, and between this and working on getting Threats Watch ready for launch, posts have been light recently. Oh, and that day job thing keeps getting in the way too. Not to mention my part-time job, but I'll be cutting back on that after next week.
I'm going to keep the blogger site as an emergency backup, so if in future this site doesn't seem to work go there for an explanation.
In short, I apologize for the lack of posts these past few weeks. But that will change shortly, so stay tuned.
You'll also want to check back periodically because shortly I'll post a launch date for Threats Watch. I think you'll rather like it. You can go there now to view the beta site, and as it is it's full of information and links that I think will be very helpful to anyone doing research on countries such as China, Sudan, Afghanistan, etc. Three of us are editors, and every day we go through news sites and find articles about the threats our country faces. We link to them in the relevant sections of Threats Watch. We've also got links to other informational sites. Go take a look and let me know what you think.
Posted by Tom at 9:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 14, 2005
Redhunter update
Note: This update post will stay at the top until my new site is completed. New posts on this blog will continue to be posted below
I'm working on two projects, so blogging will be light for a short bit.
One is moving to a new hosting provider. I'm working on the template and when it's done and I'm comfortable with the software I'll make the switch. Thank you to Marvin Hutchins for his invaluable technical help with this project.
The second is called Threats Watch. This is a collaborative project between Marvin, Bill Rice, and myself. It is not completely done yet but the basic outline is up. If you have a minute take a look and let us know what you think.
May 11 Update
(Original post May 4)
Not to worry, I'm still here, just working hard on Threats Watch and the new Redhunter sites. Take a look over at Conserva-puppies for my post on "Neutrality vs Objectivity in News Reporting" and let me know what you think.
Posted by Tom at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 14, 2005
One Year Blogging Anniversary (almost, anyway), and
Thoughts on Blogging
This week's Homespun Bloggers Symposium question comes from patterico:
How has blogging affected your life?
By an accident of timing this question comes almost exactly one year after I started blogging. My first post was April 28, 2004. I started out hoping I would be able to stick with it, which in retrospect should have been the least of my concerns. I've been planning a one-year anniversary post anyway, so I may as well use patterico's question as my lead.
The short answer to patterico's question is that I have become almost completely addicted to it. So much so, in fact, that I am now in the process of moving off of Blogger, a free service to a paid service.
A bit of background
I started blogging with a few objectives in mind:
- To help me organize and consolidate my thoughts on the issues of the day
- To make me a better writer. For years I've read books by the cartload, and had innumerable discussions with people. But it's one thing to toss an idea around in your head, and quite another to put it down on paper.
- I wanted to receive feedback and critique, which in turn would give me an opportunity to reevaluate my ideas.
- It forces me to think things through and, hopefully, make sure that my arguments are logical.
- Writing makes me a better debater. By that I don't necessarily mean "argue", although sometimes it comes down to that. Rather I've noticed that when engaged in discussion I can explain an idea better now that I've written about it.
If you're like me then you don't go around talking politics to everyone you meet. Certainly at work, where it seems we spend so much of our lives, I don't talk politics except perhaps with a - very - few trusted associates. And in daily life it's not something that get's discussed much, and when I do it's not in depth. Politics being as divisive as it is, and myself being so passionate about it, the last thing I want to do is to create unnecessary divisions and hard feelings.
Oh sure, there is always the occasional exception. But in general my intellectual experience has been confined to reading books and talking about them only occasionally with a few people.
With my family it's an entirely different matter. We talk politics almost everytime we meet. Everyone is a conservative, so any disagreement is usually over things like "how great a danger is Hillary?" or something like that. We're a pretty loud bunch, with everyone talking at once, kids running around, the whole bit. But we don't get together but once every month or so.
I've Found Them
So I don't talk politics or history with most people, but intellectually I know they're out there. After all, someone else must subscribe to National Review. Someone else must be buying Tom Sowell's books.
Sure, I read the Internet magazines like National Review Online and Frontpagemag. But when you can't really interact with the authors, it's all...distant. I don't want to say it's not real, but it's certainly not personal.
Blogging has allowed this interaction in a way I did not forsee when I started this project. The only blog I read when I started this was Andrew Sullivan and National Review's The Corner. Neither of these post comments, although you can send the author email. The level of interaction between bloggers and other people who simply comment was something that I did not anticipate at all and is the most rewarding part of the entire experience.
Finally, I've been able to meet people who share my beliefs - or most of them anyway - and interact with them in a way that I've long hoped for but was never able to realize. I've "met" some very interesting and smart people, and am much the better for it. I won't list names for fear of exclusion, but you know who you are.
My biggest problem now is finding time to do everything on the Internet that I want to do. I even co-blog on another site, Warm 'n Fuzzy Conserva-Puppies. I've accepted an invitation from Marvin Hutchens to co-author a "Threat Assessment" index in which we rank, track, and provide information about threats to our country.
I'd also be dishonest if I didn't just come right out and say that I'm darn proud of the work that I have done on my site. This thing has grown and changed in ways that I hoped it would and in ways I did not ancipate, but all of it has been good. I know it's not the best writing or analysis out there, but it's more than I've ever done before, and if I may say, some of it is pretty good. So there.
Thank you
Lastly, I want to thank all of you who are reading this now, and those of you who are regular readers. Thank you for stopping by and I hope to see you again.
Posted by Tom at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 13, 2004
A Cold Warrior
Ever wonder about the title of this blog? Or about the political journey of it's author? Wonder no more.
Posted by Tom at 11:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
