snoop dogg was on. old school was on. a girl who sorta looked like a younger gabrielle reece if you know who she is had just left behind something smoking in the ashtray and i had just picked it up to see what it was for the odor was seductively curious. i was just about to touch it when a little tap at the front door startled me.

this one looked like an older marisa tomei, but taller. i dont know if ive ever told you this but ive always liked tall girls.

her name was gretchen she lived across the street. little purse little socks tall shoes big hair. her dress sparkled from thousands of sparkley sparklies as she shivered next to my satellite dish.

its funny how sometimes you think a bad date is just that.

she was drunk. hot. sloppy. pale.

someone wrote in one of my posts this week that he didnt believe the story i was telling.

duh.

nothing

real tits

in here

totally shaved

is

pierced nips

true.

woke up this morning still on the couch with her.

got up

pissed

brushed my teeth

took my socks off

gave each of my feet a generous spray of desenex

put two clean white socks on

fixed up some scrambled eggs

stirred a griddle of bacon around

boiled some grits

toast popped up right when i had poured two glasses of apple juice.

turned on the tv

and i hadnt realized that bitch had knocked my dish out of alignment last night when she waited for me to answer the door.

she woke up next to a vase of fresh snapdragons rubbing her good eye and noticing me flipping through the tivo deleting the shows that had only recorded a black screen that said “searching for satellite signal”.

and then i knew who was gonna get the slice of toast that

briefly

had fallen on the kitchen floor.

the all-girl band Rocket (pictured) plays tonight (1/30/05) at 10:30p at the Viper Room! Free!

of which i have more than a few.

i believe this is the year of the dog, which i love because dogs have all the answers and it could be because they can lick their own nuts but it might also be because their stomachs are far more advanced and once youve licked your nuts a few times im sure it loses its charm especially if you sleep in the dirt with your sweaty dog balls.

i say their stomachs are far more advanced because dogs can drink gutter water and alls cool in the school. they can literally eat shit and everythings fine.

but the best lessons that ive learned from dogs have been not from their scholarship of what i like to call the Polite Piss but how it seems that their feelings are never hurt.

now matt and jenny will disagree with me on this but thats because theyre pretty much canine crazy and think their dogs are people, and dont get me wrong i love thier dogs. lets see if i can even remember their names, weve got pete, benjy and shit shit whats that little ones name fred? wilma? im not gonna cheat. obviously ive forgotten the little one who i love because hes so good about playing fetch with his little half raquetball ball. fuckr fetch that thing alllllll night long and never tire. love that.

itll come to me.

maurice?

so yeah dogs have personalities and likes and dislikes but theyre not human theyre better. and their feelings dont get hurt, im sorry quit projecting. they get hurt like physically and emotionally but if for example lets say that benji is at the dog park and hes sniffin around and sniffs some little poodles ass and she snaps at him hes not gonna mope about it all day. hes not gonna smell under his pits or stare at the mirror when he gets home and ask himself if hes looking old. hes gonna sniff some other bitches ass and move on with his day.

spanky? fuck!

in that sense dogs have it over people by like a lot. now of course theres disadvantages for being dogs. like theyre short for the most part. you dont see dogs at too many concerts unless they have super great seats like in the balcony or backstage cuz even on their hind legs they cant see shit so why bother.

paulie? no.

im not a cheater and im not a liar. i know ive written these dogs names when i visted the goods and i know jennys blog has their names but im not gonna cheat and look. hot chicks i went out with this weekend if youre reading this know that im a good man and i dont cheat or lie, i mean the blog – this blog – you shouldnt really trust but thats only because its the interweb and you really shouldnt trust anything on here but in real life im not a bullshitter, in real life trust is everything. and if you cant trust me in real life you cant trust anyone.

dogs also have it made because they dont have to worry about taxes or shoes or landlords fucking with em. a homeless dog is actually a happier dog as far as ive seen. back in isla vista the frat boys would buy labrador puppies to impress the bimbos and in the summer when theyd go back home to san diego theyd let Kegger just roam the streets of IV with the packs of other orphaned dogs and sometimes youd be blazing on some really good liquid acid and youd see 25 random dogs jogging down del playa with their tounges hanging out and their tails wagging and youd think where the fuck are those dogs going and if your skateboard was nearby you might follow them for a block or two but back then there was a keg at every corner and a girl with a bikini top on every balcony and the acid would fade out for a sec and youd realize that your priorities were all fuct and youd kick yr skate into your hand and ask a hottie what she was reading and you were back

and only later when the sun was rising as you were sitting on the cliffs with her in between little kisses would you ask yourself hey wait i wonder where the fuck those dogs were headed i mean they looked like they had just found out there was a keg on sabado or a kicked over pizza on the streets of trigo or something.

and im not gonna stop writing until that dogs name comes to me. i lvoe that fucking dog. merle? manny? franny? zooey? im not gonna cheat. im not gonna cheat.

im listening to the strokes new record and its pretty good now that ive heard it a zillion times. which is another thing dogs sorta miss out on. its hard to download music when youre a dog.

CASEY!

… cheated

ten bucks this isnt matts last design of even the winter + jen the photographer + wienerdog rescue

some people think im their monkey.

some people think this blog is theres and or its something more than my two cents presented for the world to see.

some people think that when an old man dies youre supposed to all of a sudden say nice things about him even if you never really said anything nice about him. fuck those people and fuck the dead man too.

some people think that you shouldnt be honest about the recently dead because being dead means something different than being alive. it means you should be reverent, respectful, solemn, generous.

why? i thought this was Jesusland. i thought we all agreed that when you die, if youre a good person you go to Heaven. if youre in Heaven who the fuck cares about what theyre saying about you on the sleaziest of all bathroom walls, the blogosphere?

people originally didnt speak ill of the dead because they were pagans fearful of the ghost of the dead person haunting them and causing them lack of sleep. Christians shouldnt have that phobia because a dead soul either rises or falls, it doesnt loiter around terra firma waiting to scare some cocksucker who just typed some shit about them. so grow up.

the pope ran an operation where on one hand they said the only way to the Father was through the Son, and on the other hand they presented the baseless idea that the Pope had a direct link to God and was the head shepard in charge of the worldly flock.

the catholic church also made up non-biblical rules that prevented their priests from getting married or having sex, and the catholics were given rules against abortions, masturbation, and birth control. even the pontiff himself went to africa and told the people overwhelmed with overpopulation and AIDS that condom use was a sin – despite the fact that there was nothing in the bible to back it up.

and recently the lovable pope gave safe haven to an american cardinal who was deemed ultimately responsible and negligent as thousands of kids were being molested by Massachusetts priests.

an independent group of a dozen lay Massachusetts citizens were picked by the catholic bishops of the us in 2002. that group was called the National Review Board. the board released two studies examining the claims that 4,392 priests allegedly abused 10,667 minors. and they wrote a report condemning the church, calling them shameful, and criticized boston cardinal bernard law which led to his resignation.

the Board is deeply disturbed by the situation in Boston. The picture that emerged was that of a diocese with a cadre of predator priests and a hierarchy that simply refused to confront them and stop them.

It is clear from the Review Board’s examination of the Boston Archdiocese that Cardinal Law paid insufficient personal attention to the problem of sexual abuse of minors by priests under his authority and that the clerics to whom he delegated responsibility for this issue often failed in their handling of it,”

Nor did Cardinal Law properly supervise those to whom he delegated authority, essentially abdicating responsibility for a matter of paramount importance to the integrity of the Church. As one bishop said of Cardinal Law, `I think he wasn’t even paying attention,’ – boston globe

what did the pope do? he hired him. he brought him to rome. he made room by asking an 82 year old italian cardinal to retire. and whats one of cardinal law’s new duties?

picking new popes.

so wait, oversee one of the most heinous crimes on american soil – the sexual abuse of children – and you get a plush gig in rome

and i’m supposed to be cool with that?

christopher hitchens, who is rarely cool with anything, isnt havin it either

A few years ago, it seemed quite probable that Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston would have to face trial for his appalling collusion in the child-rape racket that his diocese had been running. The man had knowingly reassigned dangerous and sadistic criminals to positions where they would be able to exploit the defenseless. He had withheld evidence and made himself an accomplice, before and after the fact, in the one offense that people of all faiths and of none have most united in condemning. (Since I have more than once criticized Maureen Dowd in this space, I should say now that I think she put it best of all. A church that has allowed no latitude in its teachings on masturbation, premarital sex, birth control, and divorce suddenly asks for understanding and “wiggle room” for the most revolting crime on the books.)

Anyway, Cardinal Law isn’t going to face a court, now. He has fled the jurisdiction and lives in Rome, where a sinecure at the Vatican has been found for him. (Actually not that much of a sinecure: As archpriest of the Rome Basilica of St. Mary Major, he also sits on two boards supervising priestly discipline-yes!-and the appointment of diocesan bishops.) Even before this, he visited Rome on at least one occasion to discuss whether or not the church should obey American law. And it has been conclusively established that the Vatican itself -including his holiness -was a part of the coverup and obstruction of justice that allowed the child-rape scandal to continue for so long.

…

But we cannot possibly let the case of Cardinal Law slide. And here the remedy is in the hands of American Catholics. They have had the guts to defy the papacy, in essence, when it comes to birth control. If they don’t want to be thought compromised, they can protest at the sheltering of this vile man by the Holy See. But when did you last read of a protest like that? Will any obituary in this week of piety even allude to the situation? Of course not. – slate

someone in my comments accused me of insulting the billion catholics who weep this weekend for their fallen leader.

if by catholics, the commenter meant people who stood outside the vatican praying and crying over the imminent death of an 84 year old man who had all the power

a pope

could have in this time where the line between church and state blurs more with each day id ask these catholics

and with that power he did what?

did he change the environment that bred and fostered such disgustingly vile and almost unforgivable behavior, or did he make it worse by promoting americas most despised cardinal and putting him in a position of hiring more in his image?

i dont know of another group who could rape molest and fondle 11,000 kids over 50 years and think that everything is cool

particularity in regards to reflecting on the leadership of their ceo who presided over them for nearly half of that dark era.

to be a Christian means you believe in Jesus Christ, who said the only way to the Father is through the Son

and this pope business is probably one reason why

paige + goldenfiddle + leah + buzzmachine

orry but im a little timpsy im spendint a fortune on cabs but its cool cuz thes e girls are incredible; and thank god ive been gettinf interviwed by ppl becuase its great practice for these dates.

whats been interesting is these last two ahave ben with girls wwho dont blog and dont really know the blogashper. this iss what you call a Stretch cuz i have to answer a lot more questions when im first meeting someone who has never read my shit,. i have to explain why i didnt have a car for five years i have to explain why i blog every day what blogging is “who” i am all that and i have to try to make it not sound like im vicepresident of the fucking burbank anime club.

prehaps some of you know what im talking about.

anyways tonight i met this cool young woman who was all “i like to write but sometimes i worry that im saying ‘I’ too much, how do you handle that?”

and it was a hel of wuestion and i said the best thing about blogging bexisdes the xvool peopel you mweet is you get to practice your writing and if you wanna try to go a week without making the post about your then you can try. if you want to just write i ii i i i i i like mad then nobodies gonna say shit because 1)most people arent gonna read everythinmg that you witn and wont notic 2)99 opercent of what is in a blog is someone saying “i just made the best cake” or “god i khate the customers at my mcdonalds” or other versions of iiiii whichis sorta the point of diaries or onliune diars and nwo blogs.

so i said for her to go for it.

and then we square danced.

i fucking dominate at aquare dancing.

i can alimand left like nobodies business.

of course we were at hollywood bar that was playing snoop dogg but when the girl your with is trying to outdo you you must win at all cost.

sadly you have to pick yuour battles and even though i won that one someone blew me off tonight with the prefect line

she said i really like you and im afraid that if i dont go home right now im going to have sex with you.

remember that one ladies.

now i dont know if she really nmeant it or if she was just adept at the changeup but it was pretty smooth.

and we were drunk and im a gentlemen and gentlemen dont bang drunk chicks

on the first datte

and at that point i wanted to tell her my real age because i think – which she had been asking for all night – becuas i think that if she kenew that i was realy 113 shed no that all i really wanted to do was just sorrta make out for a little while and just cuddle with her cuz this chick was hot america and soinmetimes its nice jsut to hold a hot chick for temn mintues before you pass your durnk ass out. and sometimes igts nice to wake up with a hot chick and taker to that huge pancake palece on sunset

but i guess that would be awkwatnrd if you dont really know the girl and like i said we dint really know iech other and bla balah bla im so tired of looking at this csreen anyways i hoipe she meant she really wanted to have sex and not omg you suck ejct ecjt eject

and now i know sorta what su0prjux is talking about when she talks about her dates xcoet she always has bad ones and mine are pretty much always fucking rad. but maybne its cuz i normally og out with girls who love the busblog and get naked minutes after coming in to my house and i know nothing in here is true but

i recommend that you do it.

he understands that sometimes peoples best work isnt done between the hours of 9-5, or in offices, or in conventional ways.

as the buzznet offices get made over this week and next ive been working from home, which for someone who does most of his work through a computer and email isnt that big of an adjustment. and to be honest, i think im more productive and more willing to get shit done from 9am-2am when im given the respect not to be micromanaged.

what marc and i do is chat via email so i can tell him what im working on and he gives me updates on assignments he wants me to knock out and sometimes a phone is used, but mostly he gives me big tasks and i complete them.

yesterday i told him that i wouldnt be around after noon because i had to meet with karisa for lunch and then with my lawyers on the wesssside and everyone knows that simply driving from santa monica to hollywood during the late afternoon on a friday can take hours.

the good mc knew that i would make up for it by either working at night or over the weekend. we’re a small company so we are constantly working not because we have to but because we want to. but also because if we dont do it no one else will.

as i was making my way through beverly hills i got a phone call from a young lady who i had met who asked me if i wanted to join her for happy hour at the shortstop, a really fun bar in echo park.

its fun because its sorta a divey bar but not in a pretentious way. its got a great vibe and pbr on tap and pool table in the back.

happy hour isnt really a term im that familiar with because at Buzznet we dont really go out drinking after work. not because we dont like to drink – its just something that doesnt happen. so i had to ask this woman when happy hour was.

she laughed and said 5-8. buck pbrs.

because i had some other business to attend to i agreed to meet her at 6pm and boy am i glad i did because we ended up closing down the place.

at 6 the bar had a few people at it, then a few more wandered in and started playing pool as she and i talked in the quiet of the back room.

after a few rounds of drinks i adjourned to the mens room and when i came back i saw some dude talking with my date – if you wanna call her that. which if you saw her you definately would. my basic rule of thumb is you know youre with a hot chick if when you leave her to do something theres another dude hitting on her.

when i came back she introduced me to her and he went back to shooting pool. and she told me, “he just said that heather graham is going to close the bar in a few hours so she can have her birthday party here.”

and sure enough in a few hours there was heather with her assistant who had a three page guest list and a handstamp. apparently if you had a stamp the tab was being paid for by whoever was throwing the bash for rollergirl.

soon after heather arrived in came friends star matthew perry, chris katan from snl, and probably more stars but seriously after 6 hours of nonstop drinking even the bartender asked me if i had had enough. i pointed to the clock that read 12:15am and said i did a lot of drinking yesterday but i have yet to have a sip today.

that earned me one more shot of rum and pabst chaser but when i returned later he cut me off. first time thats ever happened to me. ever. and im old. but he was cool about it and i gotta give him props for that.

so me and the girl danced and drank and danced and she text messaged her friends to tell them that she was cooler than them. and when she went to the little girls room i walked over to heather and got a picture with her. and friends, she couldnt have been nicer. not just to me, but its not that huge of a bar and just watching her with everyone was really a lesson to celebs everywhere as to how you should act – normal.

then the cobrasnake showed up and i knew i was in the right place. he even took a picture of me when i said i knew marc brown and today he put it and the party up on his site.

i took a cab home, put the garbage can next to my bed as the room was spinning, and this morning i was not hung over very much. why? because the Lord loves me and the feeling is mutual.

the fencepost + the halifax redemption + estrojenn + phillipe

on fridays we talk about Lost. but im so busy today you dont even know.

and sadly i cant even talk about half of things that are making me busy today and the other half are so dumb like laundry that you dont really want me to talk about them.

so lets see if i can write about Lost for 15 minutes and because i might not get to the computer for the rest of the day im going to have to count on you, the reader, to fill up the comments with Losttalk until i can get back.

ok and for those of you who havent yet finished the first season what can i tell you? they reran the first season like four times on tv. the dvd has been out since fall, and every critic, viewer, and media outlet has been telling you since day one that this is the shit so sorry i cant wait for your asses any longer.

i feel that the busblog policy of not talking about this season until 36 hours after it aired is plenty of time to watch it on tivo or ipod or vhs or beta that you’re either in or out, so get into it. and if you havent seen this weeks episode now is the time for you to flee… may i recommend catching up on the wonderful blog of erin the oakparkmastermind

ok this weeks episode centered around chah-leee the elf the musician the junkie who nobody understands.

in a very sweet and tortured hour charlie is having bad dreams and he gets misunderstood when he tries to get rid of his stash and suddenly nobody trusts him.

but what really is interesting about this episode is locke and how suddenly we’re supposed to have suspicions about him. am i right about that? are we supposed to believe that hes the baby stealer? or are we supposed to believe that hes got the hots for blondie? im confused and im hoping its just a curveball.

one of the problems i had with this episode is something i learned in college. you cannot make your characters flat. meaning, they cant be all-good or all-bad. in wednesdays hour we see charlie supporting his brother, saving his family with his pianoplaying and songs, and then trying to save little aaron on the island. hes so 100% good that its literally unbelievable.

yes he has that flaw that hes a junkie but even when he was in that ridiculous band Driveshaft he was the perfect junkie, it seems, who could always handle it, whereas it was his brother who was the getting sick selling shit loser junkie.

meaning charlie is so good that even dipping into the candy store doesnt really affect his angelic personality and boyish desire to save the world.

then somewhere the idea of baptism came up and hopefully it will work its way through future episodes because i thought it was pretty damn cheesy here and was merely a device to allow abadeezay a chance to prove that he is really truly a preacher and that wasnt something that he did just to smuggle dope.

but the biggest problem i had with the episode, which, believe it or not i liked, was charlie’s guitar. particularily his strings. when he was tuning his guitar on the rocks right next to the beach i wanted one of those strings to break. in the damp moisture of this tropical isle where in season one it would downpour without warning (unless you had the spidey senses of Locke) how is it that this guitar isnt warped and all of the strings work perfectly?

details myfriends details are what make good stories great stories and Lost is so close to being great that i would like some of these easilly fixable things to work their way out. for example, have charlie break a string and be forced to write a song without the high e string and make it a deep low somber song.

that to me would make this all believable. or in my case, more believable.

next to the girls inviting me to spend the night, requests for interviews are the most flattering… uh… flattery i could imagine.

lately a rash of college kids have asked me for interviews for their term papers.

im always curious how their professors feel about them writing papers about topics that the teachers probably dont know very much about.

be it for magazines, newspapers, or term papers, i try to keep it as real as i can.

rarely do i ever get to see the end result – the actual essay or paper, but Peter of the pgBlog posted his essay today as well as our unedited interview. go here for Peter’s essay and below you will see our interview.

1) How did you get into blogging? How did you even find out about it?

i was editing the closed captions at e! entertainment television networks in hollywood. an incredibly boring job. but one of the tools of the trade was a computer and the internet.

so during my two, 15 minute breaks, and during my hour lunch, many times i would write quickie little fantasy stories, or comment about something i heard in the hall or on tv. since most people were only writing maybe one thing a day – if that – i figured if i could knock out two or three things in a day then i was that much more worthwhile of a blog.

2) What made you choose Blogger over any other blogging website?

at the time (August, 2001) they were the only free one that all the other big people used. later they moved to moveable type and then wordpress, but im a loyal person and ive always had a very good relationship with the actual employees of Blogger. they read the busblog, link to it, and ive met a bunch of them at various events.

i also wanted to stay with Blogger to show people that you dont need anything fancy to have a halfway decent blog.

3) What do you think makes a good blog?

honesty isnt enough. you need style too. if i go to a blog and the person is super honest and has some sort of personality attatched to it then i’ll read on. a good blog also has to update every day, have pictures, be funny, be unique, and show the world their little zip code.

and if a blog cant do that, then somebody needs to get naked or set something on fire.

4) What’s your opinion on political comentary blogging compared to the journal type?

i read a lot of poltical blogs and journal types. i think that most political blogs are disingenious because they either show only one side “theyre bad – look how bad they are!” or they’ll pretend that their side has never done anything bad.

theyre also not very creative and when they do have pictures theyre dumb.

journal type are usually written by younger people and i like theirs better because theyre more honest and theres more freedom to change subjects or visual appearance, most of the time youre literaly in their bedrooms. political blogs dont have that sort of courage.

5) Why do you think blogging has become so popular?

– because people are naturally interested in other people
– because its so easy to get a blog up and running
– because everyone has a few friends
– because there are lots of people who can potentially get to your brilliance

6) Where do you see the future of blogging going?

more video
nakeder chicks
mo money mo money mo money

7) How do you think blogging has impacted the world?

blogging has become the real 4th Estate, and its just in time. my friend ken layne, whose former apartment i currently live in, warned, “this is the Internet, we can fact check your ass.”

it’s also shown how small this planet is. i never knew anything about canada until blogging, and i read you guys’s blogs and it made me believe that canada wasnt that different than the usa, and suddenly i wanted to visit to see the differences. without blogging i seriously doubt i would have ever gone there.

8) Are there any places you feel blogging has advanced too far?

in a way id say that it grew too fast for the average person, and definately faster than the average company. because it grew so fast it frightened Human Resource department heads and thats why you see all these bloggers getting fired for blogging. the bloggers knew they were just showing the world their private journal, but the HR depts didnt understand it and couldnt conceive why anyone would blog anything good – namely their real life.

9) Why do you think has been the cause of bloggins huge explosion in the
last few years?

– inexpensive computers
– free blogging software
– inexpensive high speed internet access
– the beauty of the human spirit
– inexpensive digital cameras
– 9/11 which spurred the “war bloggers” which have been the most publicized sector of the blogosphere.

it would have been interesting to see how much more blogging could have been if places like myspace hadnt shown up for people to say “here i am here i am” through pictures and stupid songs but what can you do.

oh canada + ryan_r + little kitchen

In attendence were bloggers who included Jeff Jarvis of the Buzzmachine, Jay Rosen of Press Think, and Glenn Reynolds of the Instapundit.

Because Professor Reynolds does not have comments on his very successful and popular blog, he had to repeatedly answer why he chooses not to have them.

His reasoning was threefold.

1. Very popular blogs will get so many comments that in order to keep them from being boring shoutmatches and flamewars you need to have them moderated. Moderation either takes time or money. Neither of which Glenn chooses to allocate to comments since if people have a differring opinoin they can go start their own blog.

2. He’s fearful that the Liberal Press might inaccurately attribute a statement in his comments to him. He’s also nervous that he might be held legally accountable for impropriety in the comments like libel or slander (although ive never heard of that happening to a blogger).

3. He believes that oftentimes a blogger can be influenced in a bad way by his commentors. If they cheer him on for something, Glenn fears that he might give them more of what they praise.

because i may have misunderstood his take, here are some of the exchanges that took place–

Glenn Reynolds: Some examples of good user communities are Slate’s “The Fray” (where I started) and Slashdot. Both, however, are moderated.

My own sense is that it’s very hard to preserve civility — or even a good ratio of interestingness to flaming — on sites that have high traffic without a fair degree moderation. There’s some sort of a threshold after which things tend to break down into USENET-style flamewars, which some people like, but which I’m tired of. I find the comments on Atrios, Kos, or for that matter Little Green Footballs, to be tiresome.

Jeff Jarvis: Glenn: I agree with your assessment of those particular sites. I wonder whether that is a function of size or topic or host’s tone.

—

[Question from] Washington, D.C.: Hi, my question is for Glenn and then maybe Jane would like to comment.

Why is it that most of the high traffic right-wing blogs don’t take comments, while most of the left-wing blogs do?

From my perspective, it looks like the conservatives can dish it out, but can’t take it, that they are uncomfortable subjecting their ideas to scrutiny on their own Web sites.

Jeff Jarvis: Heh.

Glenn Reynolds: I think that one reason has to do with media treatment. Charles Johnson, for example — who does have comments — has repeatedly faced media stories about his site in which comments made by his readers are directly attributed to him, as if he had written them. I certainly worry about that sort of thing, too. I think that lefty sites expect, and get, less of that kind of mistreatment.

I’ve never had comments. I get about 1000 emails a day, and I don’t have time to look at those, post on my blog, AND moderate comments. And unmoderated comments raise a risk of the kind of thing I mention above, as well as possible libel and copyright issues. I’ve actually considered bringing someone in to do that, but that seems too impersonal.

—

Glenn Reynolds: To add to this, I think that although people often act as if bloggers avoid comments with which they disagree, I think that the real danger to bloggers comes from the commenters with whom they agree. I’ve seen a number of bloggers pushed toward more extreme views by their comment section. It’s seductive, I imagine — all these people talking about *your* ideas — and it seems to exert a pull.

Jeff Jarvis: I think you’re quite right that anyone can have a blog and link and comment and, in many ways, that yields richer conversation. Still, there are times when I have something to add to a conversation and don’t want to use my own blog for that. I appreciate the blogs who allow that. Entitlement? No, I’d call it enlightenment.

—

[Question from] Ann Arbor, Mich.: Some of you have comments on your weblog, and some don’t–notably Glenn Reyholds and, now, parts of the Washington Post. We know about the Washington Post situation. Would Glenn Reynolds explain about his decision not to have comments?

Glenn Reynolds: I’ve already done this in one of the other posts. Basically it boils down to time, and my fear that comments by trolls would be attributed unfairly to me, as has happened to others. Plus, it’s not like it’s hard for people to get their own blogs.

Jay Rosen: I must say I have never heard of that concern before: “media reports would attribute comment trolls to me, so I don’t have them.”

I have comments at my blog, and they are completely open. I not only monitor them carefully, I’m an

active presence

in comment threads and I argue a lot with readers. I get mad at them too. A great many users have told me that while I write good posts, what they really like is the range of reactions from others in comments. For some, that discussion is a primary, not a second-order good on offer at PressThink.

Glenn Reynolds: It happened to Charles Johnson and he was quite upset. Perhaps the press would be more sensitive where you’re concerned, Jay.

as they say read the whole thing but i think in the future the good professor and the others of the right wing blogosphere who choose not to have comments should just be transparent and tell the truth: “we like to talk shit about others, we like to point fingers at others, and we know people like to talk shit and point fingers at us but damned if we’re going to provide a place to do that in our very own blogs… even though thats pretty much what blogging is about, you know, dialogue.”

as for me, tony pierce, i dont like it when people disagree with me, but sometimes im wrong about something, or sometimes i know people are going to take an opposing view. the comments allows the readers their shot at either correcting me or providing their point of view as a sort of check or balance. i know the righties pretty much hate checks and balances in government so it doesnt surprise me that theyd be against them on their own blogs,

but what is often shocking to me is when i write something that im afraid many will disagree with me about, oftentimes they dont. not because they omg love me so much but because i was just being paranoid that i was being this big punk rock rebel who would be misunderstood.

now of course i dont spread as much bullshit as most of the righty blogs do, despite my tagline, but i dont usually say the popular line either. if you recall i once said that i was glad when ronald reagan died and i berated Catholics for mourning the previous Pope’s death. virtual pissing on peoples graves dont usually bring about a chorus of amens from the peanut gallery, but if i am going to accept their praise on topic a, then its only fair that i allow them to say their peace on topic b.

and on the day that the busblog gets so many feaking comments that it needs a moderator, im pretty sure that i could either 1)find someone willing to intern for free or a very low wage to moderate a top 5 blog or 2)find a sponsor who would put ads in those popular comments that would pay for the professional moderator who would delete patently offensive comments or slightly edit comments so that they are not slanderous or libelous.

however it is curious how big time left wing blogs dont seem to have a problem letting readers of both sides comment on their posts.

oliver willis + huffington post + atrios + matthew good + daily kos

nearly three years ago today on the busblog

tony pierce?

yes?

hi, we’re a major newspaper or magazine.

oh hi. Hi!

yes, we would like to hire you.

praise Jesus.

we wont pay you much.

thats ok.

you wont get to write anything good right away.

thats fine.

we’ll make you write in our patented style.

thats cool.

you wont get a very nice desk or window.

who cares?

we’ll call you nigger boy.

ive been called worse.

you probably wont get promoted for a while.

thats nothing new.

we wont give you any coffee.

i dont like coffee.

and no smoke breaks.

i dont smoke either.

do you think this is some sort of joke or something?

nope.

i dont like your attitude.

but i dont have an attitude.

yes you do, its a positive attitude.

trust me, it’s fake.

do you really date all those girls?

what girls? oh, yes.

and you really have all those friends?

i actually have way more.

and youre saying you dont have a positive attitude?

im saying its a fake positive attitude.

so youre lying all day?

sometimes if youre bummed and you start seeing things as bummed then that can spiral into even more bummed. same goes if youre happy. if you fake being happy, sometimes nice things happen to you for no good reason.

you would never fit in here.

i know… i know.

i experienced equal parts relief and anger, but my friends and readers were so supportive it turned into a really beautiful summer.

about a month into the vacation i realized that it might be the right time to experiment with ads on the blog.

i was petrified that it would change me as a blogger and that some of my readers might think less of me.

i was afraid that it would change me in that i might suck up to bloggers who were capable of giving me more hits. or i might not criticize those who could one day help me get ads or spikes in my visits.

so what i did was i tripled the ad rate that i probably should get that way even if i did get a few spikes throughout the year (a normal occurance for any blog) then it would still not be justification to raise the rate due to the link(s) from the patron.

here we are now seven months later and not only have i had a very successful relationship with blogads, whom i highly recommend, but i believe out of hundreds of thousands of visitors ive only received one negative reaction to having ads on my blog. i’ll take it.

its been so successful that i have recently considered raising my rates in the near future. not out of greed, but to get one step closer to my ultimate dream of being a full time blogger with no boss other than myself.

currently im gainfully employed, as you probably know, at Buzznet where i am very nicely taken care of, and i have no intention of leaving any time soon, but still, it would be nice to fall back on the busblog’s ad revenues if four years down the road i hit another icy patch.

late last week i received an email from one of the good people at blogads asking if i would be interested in participating in a program with an exclusive group of bloggers who have blogads to go to amsterdam for five nights. five star hotel, airfare, and a few other incidentals comped.

they said i wouldnt even have to blog about it.

all id have to do is let holland.com have a slot in my premiere ad space for a month and put a button on the side of my blog for a year.

as i generally do when i find myself indian-wrestling with a new runway model, or front row at a secret rock show, or in the midst of my amazing friends, i pinched myself to see if i was dreaming.

amsterdam? my third favorite city in the world? (isla vista, los angeles…) free?

i couldnt say yes fast enough.

so last night when the blog about the program was put up and i saw the list of the other bloggers who had also accepted i felt extremely grateful because theyre all insanely talented bloggers of whom anyone would feel lucky to be included with

101 Cookbooks, AMERICAblog, Blurbomat, Brian Flemming, Celebrity Baby Blog, Chromewaves, Cityrag, Coolfer, Culturekitchen, Dooce, Ezra Klein, Finslippy, Jossip, Majikthise, Oh la la Paris, Oliver Willis, Outside the Beltway, Perez Hilton, Pink is the new Blog, Scenestars, Slice NY, Suburban Bliss, and TalkLeft

in order to stabilze the balance of the blogosphere, we are not all going there at the same time or on the same airplanes. i wont be going until february 21, and even though i am looking forward to finally seeing the anne frank house, and revisiting the van gogh museum, i really hope i get to meet trent from pink is the new blog. dude fucking rules. no disrespect to the others.

and i get to finally meet JaG!

so there you have it. either it pays to sell out, or what they say about one door opens after another closes is totally true. so thank you blogads for considering me and thank you e! for letting me go cuz theres no way i woulda had ads if i still worked there.