Archive for the 'Blogs' Category

I have heard it said that blogging is an exercise in pride.  Maybe, maybe not.  If you’re engaged in advocacy journalism and analysis, it makes no sense to do it without traffic to your site.

It is possible that this is a justified endeavor for cathartic purposes, but it seems to me that this effect would soon wear off.  If it doesn’t maybe you have deeper problems that blogging cannot fix.

At any rate, this only makes sense to me if you can engage in persuasion.  Persuading others to think like you do, and challenging those who don’t, is the reason I do this.

I won’t list all of the other web sites which have linked my articles over the last year because it’s too many to cite and I’m afraid that I would leave out some.  So I’ll just say thank you for your attention.

Most of all, thanks to my readers who faithfully keep coming back every day.  I especially enjoy the comments.  I read every one of them, even if I don’t respond.

Again, to all, thank you for your patronage.

The web site got badly out of date, and we had to go through an update of several versions of WordPress.  In the process, several comments were completely lost.  Several of them were very astute comments too.  To my readers who had comments lost, I’m sorry for the loss of your work.  It wasn’t intentional.

The “About” page needs to be updated, and it is still possible that there are holdover problems.  For example, if you are signed up for e-mail notifications or feedburner notifications and are not receiving them, please send me a note and I’ll look into it.

In the mean time, thanks for your patience.  I sincerely do appreciate all of my readers, and I value your patronage.  I also find some of the comments amusing.  For example, this one got my attention.

Author : Johnny America (IP: 68.228.180.175)

E-mail : johnnyamerica110@hotmail.com
URI    :
Whois  : [deleted]
Comment:
You are one of the stupidest assholes on the Internet, and Jim Hoft
and Bob Owens are on the Internet.

So I sent Bob Owens a note and told him I was a bigger asshole than he was.  It was time to step up his game.  Bob and I came to a mutual understanding.  The interwebz is big enough for all of us to be the best assholes we can be.

I appreciate Bob’s working with me on this.

Regarding U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Patrolling with no Rounds Chambered in Weapons, and also Followup on Patrolling Without Rounds Chambered in Weapons, I received this communication:

I approved a frontrunner on this written by my associate editor who had seen Michael post about it on his dispatch thread on Facebook.

As a journalist who has earned a living for many years as an indie, I’d like to let you know I vetted this story via Michael, via a soldier who had to by necessity remain anonymous, and by doing exhaustive searches on military message boards wherein the claim was documented.

My editor and I had multiple phone conversations about everything from the title (I insisted on specificity) to the exact claims, one reason I parsed the title as “Some soldiers in Afghanistan may patrol with no rounds chambered in weapons.”

In the end we ran the story because not for the first time we felt concern about the politics affecting the prosecution of this war. My own concern involved the wellbeing of our men and women in the war zone.

What dismayed me, aside from some rather unpleasant comments, was the inaccuracy of some in the media who memed the story, yet failed to hold the line on the claims. Some simply did not even read the story accurately and I believe we were careful and truthful in our claims.

I do not know the writer Cassandra. I do know that, having glanced at her compositions, she would be better served by working in a fast food restaurant. I am assuming she really is a she. Those who do not fully identify themselves leave the door open as to their actual identity.

I stand by the story we ran. It is accurate. I have worked for wire services and written for Pulitzer prize winning publications as an independent for more than two decades.

There is not a editor in the land who would not have approved our original story because it was true.

I’d also like to say that of all the journalists and war correspondents I interact with and there are many, Michael Yon has my utmost respect.

I just wanted you to  know that.

best regards,
Kay B. Day, editor
The US Report

Cassandra should take notice.  In never pays to compose prose in a hysterical rant.  It also pays to assume that you know nothing when you must assume that you know something.  Just because Cassandra didn’t know that this report was vetted doesn’t mean that it wasn’t.  Not all writers call her for approval before running a report.

Abu Muqawama believes that he has found the greatest blog ever.  We aren’t quite so sure.  This blog links TCJ, and surely must be able to lay some claim to being the greater than the greatest blog ever.  The greatest-est blog.