Dare to push the envelope, to taste the forbidden fruit, to cast aside the shackles of political correctness, to stop and smell the roses, to bloviate to your heart's content -- to venture even (gasp) BEYOND RHETORIC!
Occasional commentaries by over-the-hill-but-still-prolific politically-reactive, independent-thinking, sexagenarian poker-playing buds 'n buddettes ....
Thanks for calling (business). We're located in THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Press "1" for English. Press "2" to disconnect until you learn to speak English.
And remember -- other than Jesus Christ (if you happen to be of the Christian faith) -- only one other defining force has everoffered to die for you and that was the American Soldier.
Lawyers Tell Employers how to Cheat Americans and Hire Immigrants
These scumbags make THEIR money telling businesses how to crawl through loopholes in existing immigration and employment laws to AVOID hiring American workers.
No wonder it's getting more and more difficult to surf safely. Thanks for the clarification, BB.
TimesDaily.com has an interesting article that says cyberspace is becoming littered with dead blogs.
Dead blogs litter the Internet like squashed bugs on a windscreen during a warm Southern evening. Since their christening in 1999, millions of people like Haddock have dabbled with blogs only to abandon them after a few months.
"I think a lot of people started blogs because they got excited; the hype was there, but they really didn't have a purpose," said futurist Jim Carroll, whose clients include the Walt Disney Corp., Nestle and the BBC. "There's only so much you can read about somebody else's life before you get bored with it," he said.
The blog rush has slowed down from 175,000 new blogs posted per day in July 2006 to 120,000 new blogs per day as of March, according to Technorati, a blog tracking company.
Blogs with staying power, Endgaget's techno-blog and Boing Boing's curios-blog, stick around because they have a direct purpose, Carroll says. That, plus paid staff and advertising dollars.
120,000 new blogs per day is still impressive but there is no denying that there are lots of dead blogs out there and there is no denying the number of new blogs per day is starting to slow. However, there are always going to be new bloggers just like there have always been new writers.
What's also being overlooked is that other forms of social media are continuing to grow rapidly. Social network profiles and microblogging tools are replacing personal blogs for some. Everything always comes back to the definition of what a blog is. It seems like profiles and microblogs are being excluded from the definition of a blog but it isn't crystal clear.
What's clear is that professional blogging has emerged as a new medium that is rapidly being adapted by the mainstream media. Online media companies are using blogs as a way to provide information and grow traffic online. Newspapers still seem to be launching new blogs daily. At the same time popular online blogs have been expanding into networks and hiring more bloggers so they are even more competitive with established media outlets. The number of professional blogs will probably continue to grow even as the overall blog growth rate slows. Media companies and bloggers recognize that the format is one that works very well online. It also helps that readers appreciate the layout and structure of blogs.
Citing a Gartner study the TimesDaily.com article says that eventually "200 million people call themselves ex-bloggers." That's a ton of dead blogs but it won't matter to most blog readers. Many readers may never even notice the dead blogs because sites like Digg will guide them to new sources. Search engines like Technorati will show them the new content from active blogs first. Readers will just move on to the blogs that are continuing to publish new content and new information. People will continue to want to find out what's new and that's just what bloggers will continue to provide.
Wonder how the danger of traveling thru the Internet compares with, say .... the odds of encountering debris in space travel or an impaired celebrity driving on a California freeway?
I always thought of net debris as porn -- not defunct blogs.
McCain and Ted Kennedy tried to reform the immigration system last year. They failed. Their project became the basis of what the Senate will begin debating tomorrow. Only this time, it was the President who joined Kennedy in crafting what they labeled a "bipartisan" reform bill.
What's at stake? If it passes in its original form, George Bush and the GOP will get their guest-worker program with Mexico's "approval" while dems get "credit" for amnesty from a new and appreciative voter group. Oh, yeah -- Bush conceded repayment of back taxes.
The only legitimate conservative presidential contender who opposes the current reform bill is Mitt Romney. This issue alone may carry him to the top of the ticket for the remainder of the year. McCain favors the bill; so does Rudy. Both non-contenders Fred! and Newt supported reforms in their former stints in Congress.
Over-the-Hill bloggers have called for defeat of the existing bill unanimously. Gull offers a few "acceptable" options. Humbug is not a happy camper. Rhet suggests back-taxes be "forgiven" for everyone. Whim sees the current scenario as a boon for Mitt Romney. Rev calls McCain, Rudy and the two non-contenders to task. Mydawg distinguishes myths, from facts and mythical facts ....
And we (the O-t-H group) are but small apples in the blogosphere fruitbowl. The top bananas are critical to mixing this stuff up and organizing a defeat for this bill.
