Blogging

Once there was a blogger who inherited a parrot from a relative who had been a college professor. The executor sent along a note saying, “The parrot’s name is Tenure. He does not talk but if you do not watch him, he will post rude comments on blogs!”

Now the blogger thought a posting parrot unlikely so he sat the parrot down on his desk near the keyboard to see what it would do. The parrot immediately hopped over to the keyboard and began to peck out a comment on a blog. At first, the blogger felt amazed and amused until he leaned over and read what the parrot wrote.

Thanx for replying, Jeff. I’d rather shoot you too - as I said elsewhere, if I woke up tomorrow and learned that someone else had shot you and your “tyke” it wouldn’t slow me down one iota. You aren’t “human” to me. [ Link ]

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Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit likes to say that he isn’t a public utility and that he posts whenever and whatever he wants. Yet in reality, he posts on such a reliable basis that when he goes for most the day without posting something you know something is up.

I thought that today as I kept checking Instapundit. He didn’t update all day, not even a post saying he wouldn’t be posting. I knew something had happened. Turns out his grandmother had passed away at the age of 91 and he had spent the day dealing with that. Yet come the evening, he posted an update telling us what happened.

I am reminded that it is by the quiet competence of people like Glenn Reynolds that the world actually runs. The most important people are those who are THERE everyday doing what needs to be done without a lot of flash. I can only wish that my public utilities were as reliable and productive as Glenn.

Our condolences to Glenn and his family.

Shannon’s The Party for America Suckers is quoted in “Blog Bits,” a feature within “What Others Are Saying” in the editorial section of today’s Kansas City Star; it appears on page B 7 of the dead-tree edition. The only other Blog Bit this week is something from Richard Posner at becker-posner-blog.com.

Right now, the blogosphere is the wild & wooly West. It is open to anyone who wants to talk about anything. Guys with guns move through our territory, but it remains an inviting & pleasant place: this is cause for celebration. It doesn’t pay. (A topic being discussed now by Anchoress, Riehl, & Instapundit) But it isn’t very risky: it may waste time but it doesn’t waste much money. For this moment anyone who wants a soapbox can have one.

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Geitner Simmons posts erratically & so often slips off my radar. But his curiosity takes him to interesting places; clearly his lack of posting isn’t because he isn’t thinking. (The dilemma: does posting make us think or distract us? And what about reading blogs?)

Over the last month or so, Simmons has posted about Kaplan’s two interviews (with AEI & Hewitt) in “Foreign policy directed by majors and lieutenants.” He also notes how differently massacres of innocents were viewed in 1957 & now in “Intellectuals and Massacres.” On a more regional note, he looks at “Buffalo Bones Along the Trail”, discussing the strange (but telling) rumors & fears of those taking the often dangerous Platte routes West. And, reaching California, he contrasts the garish & assertive post Gold Rush architecture with the more “humble” 1840’s.

Simmons discussed Marsden’s wonderful Jonathan Edwards a few years ago, for which I have been long thankful and he pushes Nebraska press books with the fervency of a transplant. He may be MSM but his sympathies are not easily pigeonholed.