Something New Has Been Added

I hope everyone is seeing the 5 little stars at the bottom of each post... that's a new rating system I installed, thanks to the nice folks at HaloScan, who also handle my commenting and trackbacks.

Feel free to use it, that's what it's there for. Of course, we all know that lefties will try spamming it, but we won't let them spoil things.

Time for a Change

Do not adjust your computer monitor. I changed the look of the blog. To be honest, I kinda got tired of the light-text-on-dark-background thing, and I do like red, so here we go. :)

Some posts with color highlighting may be hard to read... if you spot one that is particularly difficult, I'd appreciate if you'd drop me a line, or comment on it.

Comments Now Moderated

Because of the actions of one particular troll, who shall remain nameless but who doubtless knows who he is, I am left with two options if I wish to run a "tight ship" as one friend put it:

1. Ban the entire IP range of the troll's ISP, which is a large one.
2. Moderate and approve all comments before they appear.

Rather than ban a large segment of the population because of the actions of one person, I've chosen #2. Therefore, it may take some time before comments appear on the blog. However, being a geek, I do have a smartphone, and have verified that I can approve or delete comments using its web browser, so I can take care of it from work as well as from home.

Hopefully the troll will get the message that he is not welcome here and we can remove moderation at some point in the future.

Project Valour-IT

There's a new widget on the sidebar for donations to Project Valour-IT. This program purchases voice-activated laptops for severely injured service members... a very worthwhile effort, I think.

In honor of my late father, a Navy veteran, I've joined the "Navy" team, but all donations go into a single fund for members of any branch, so don't worry about that--the teams are just for a friendly competition.

Please donate what you can.

UPDATE and BUMP: For more on what Project Valour-IT does, see this excellent article from National Review Online.

Open Suggestion Thread

Gonna try a little experiment here.

This thread is for any or all of our readers to suggest things you'd like us to write about, changes to the blog, or just shooting the breeze, if you want.

Please note, suggestions that we change to a lefty viewpoint, either on a certain issue or in toto, will be ignored. All other serious suggestions, however, will be considered. Obviously, neither John nor I can guarantee to do everything everyone asks, but we'll consider your suggestions.

200!

This is officially our 200th post on this blog, and I wanna take a moment to thank all the readers (yes, even you lefties) and the commenters (what few there have been--come on, folks) for checking us out.

And, sadly for the lefties, neither John nor I have any intention of quitting. So here's to starting the next set of 200 posts...

John adds: Two more right wingnuts in the righty blogosphere, here to stay.

Something New Has Been Added!

Since I am one who enjoys the back-and-forth of political discussions, I've opened a free web forum specifically for discussing conservative ideas... and for conservatives to just get together and shoot the breeze as well. It's called RightForum and is linked above in the title (as usual), and also above in the name.

Some topics from here will be cross-posted there, and vice-versa, but not all of them. Since it's free to join RightForum, why don't you take a moment and do it?

Changes to Comments

Because there is a service out there that basically spams blogs, I've decided to move from the regular old Blogger comment section to Haloscan. As an unfortunate side-effect, the old comments have been buried (they're still there, just not visible anymore).

I believe that the added security is well worth the small inconvenience of the old comments being buried, however.

However, any comments after this will hang around just fine, since I don't intend to move from Haloscan in the forseeable future, since they work with many blogging platforms.

Other than that, carry on!

Comment Guidelines

The following is a list of guidelines for comments. The blog owner (that's me) is the final arbiter of these guidelines and it is solely my decision how strictly they will be enforced. If you do not agree to be bound by these guidelines, do not post comments here.

1. Each person, including blogger(s), is considered solely responsible for his/her words. Attempts to shift responsibility to another will not be considered nor tolerated.
2. While an occasional "dig" at someone else will be tolerated if it is in a post which makes or attempts to make a point, posts which are nothing but insults, or contain items that are beyond the pale may be edited or deleted. Examples of beyond the pale comments include, but are not limited to, personal threats; comparing a person to a Nazi, KKK member, Islamoterrorist, or other comparison designed to inflame; or any other comment designed to inflame.
3. Spam is absolutely forbidden.
4. If you have a long comment, it is recommended that you post it on your own blog and then simply place a link in the comments. HTML links do work in comments.
5. Sock-puppeting is not tolerated.
6. The email addresses used in the comment area may be verified at any time. If a false email is found, the user is subject to banning. Email addresses entered here are never sold to any third party.
   
7. Commenters who have been banned are not permitted to return with another name except with the express, written permission of the site owner. And that won't be easy to get.
8. Any comment deemed to be too far off topic, disruptive, or otherwise undesirable shall be removed.
9. The site owner reserves the right to edit and/or delete any comment at any time for any reason.
10. Remember, this blog is in effect an extension of my home into cyberspace. Please treat it with the respect that you would show the owner of a home you are a guest in.

In exchange, I promise to treat my guests as guests, unless and until they show that they are not worthy of that respect. If a person abuses my hospitality, however, it is quite likely that you will be treated as a gate-crasher.