Good Sense: 600 posts

Good Sense has reached a milestone. We have reached 600 posts plus. Thank you to all the readers and friends.

I love this guys thinking…

My good friend Jim Bowden has a short, sweet and honest appeal that ought to ring loudly in the ears of American patriots. Welcome back JAB from across the pond. By the way, his post “Another English Baptist Church and More Questions than Answers.”  is another great read!!!

Good Sense – at a crossroads

For all my friends at the ODBA, I’ve always enjoyed our dialogue, even when the subject matter was pretty confrontational. I’ve never been one to back away when my principles are at stake. I have been extremely busy with matters not related to the blog, politics, or even blogging in general.

I’m currently on a sort of sabbatical right now. Attending to things that are important even before this election and current events. I’m NOT quitting, and probably will be back soon. I’ve discovered as much as I am passionate about Constitutional government, I’m even more passionate for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and my call to vocational ministry. To this end, I’m my pastor’s ministry intern at church.

I will return and I will have definite opinions about new goings on.

A plug for a friend

Ms. Leslie Carbone, a blogging friend and writer extraordinaire, will be releasing her book, Slaying Leviathan: The Moral Case for Tax Reform this month. I will be placing my order soon and I’d recommend that you, dear reader, do so as well. She’s one of the conservative movements rising stars and one of Virginia’s best bloggers. Go help her out and buy her book. You’ll benefit from the experience. That is all.

Obama – The Next Stalin?

H/T to the Examiner:

According to this post on the OFFICIAL White House website blog, he could be. Speech seeking to influence direction of the Administration and others on the so-called Recovery Act will be subject to new restrictions.

Following OMB’s review, the Administration has decided to make a number of changes to the rules that we think make them even tougher on special interests and more focused on merits-based decision making.

First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists.  For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process.  We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.

If you are opposed to the Recovery act and you are a citizen, your First Amendment rights are being curtailed by Executive Fiat. In other words, he’s being a little baby about this. Too much opposition?  “I’ll just change the rules.”  This man is dangerous and makes no bones about it, he’ll not be satisfied until the Constitution is in shreds and he can make the government “in his own image.” 

NOTE: FBI, DHS, and whatever other law enforcement agency who reads this site, take NOTE: I WILL NOT SIT DOWN, I WILL NOT SHUT UP, I WILL NOT BACK OFF AND I WILL NOT LET ONE MAN TELL ME WHAT I CAN TALK ABOUT.

I will bloody well write about what I want to write about. Let’s see them come stop me.

Kilo – The philosopher

Quoting Pericles, Kilo makes an appropriate post on Memorial Day.

Memorial Day

Before I go any further with this post, I wish to clarify that Memorial Day is not about D’s and R’s, it is about A’s as in Americans. Neither side has monopoly on remembrance and men who were D’s and men who were R’s all made sacrifices on battlefields around the world.

That said, it’s good to see Kilo posting again. Missed ya bro!!! You might find this story interesting. Go check his post and the underlying story.

Another helpful tool

While I mostly use Mozilla related utilities (Firefox, Thunderbird, etc.), I do have a Microsoft product that I really like to use. It is Windows Live Writer. Writer is a blog editor tool that allows you to post updates about websites, pages and other general stuff without having to log in to your service in your web browser. You can embed videos with two clicks and it allows you to determine your own labels for your posts. All in all,  I like this tool and recommend it.

A useful Firefox Tool

For those who don’t use Firefox, you’re missing out on a great browser.  If you Twitter, Firefox has a great add-on called TwitterFox.  Here’s a short description.

 

TwitterFox is a Firefox extension that notifies you of your friends' tweets on Twitter.

This extension adds a tiny icon on the status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets. Also it has a small text input field to update your tweets.

I highly recommend this to anyone. Give it whirl. For those who get irritated at the pop ups, you can customize the length of time to check for tweets.

Leslie Carbone: Slaying Leviathan

  My favorite conservative diva, Ms. Leslie Carbone, will become a published author in May 2009.  Please drop by and offer your congratulations.

Leslie Carbone: Slaying Leviathan

Trent Lott: Man with a Short Memory

Before beginning this post in detail, I have to confess that I have a poor impression of Mr. Lott that stems from an issue between his office and an organization I worked for several years ago. I want the reader to be aware of this as it adds a bias to my post.

Much has been made of the remarks made by Senator Trent Lott regarding talk radio and blogs. With the advent of the so-called "new media", politics has become even more focused on communication. As recently as 28 years ago, the television was only beginning to realize its potential as a political tool. Of course, I'm referring to the election of 1980 that brought the Great Communicator into office.  President Reagan's ability to bring his case to the American people can be tied to his abilities to communicate effectively and with grace on television.

In the past five years or so, the advent of blogs, podcasts, video podcasts and other digital media has brought a sharpening of issues with attention to detail not seen in Presidential elections before.  The use of blogs in defeating the "Shamnesty Bill" brought to bear the power of the grassroots as never before. Attention to obscure votes made by a Senator, reference to far removed bills signed by a former Governor, and the immediate communication of adverse action by our Governing bodies are all attributable to the use and perfection of digital "new" media.

I have went through this tirade to come the following point. Mr. Lott is seeing the results of a grassroots effort that has come a long way from the one that put Ronald Reagan in the White House. Mr. Lott is resenting the fact that he himself was a victim of the immediacy of reporting regarding his remarks about the late Strom Thurmond. Mr. Lott should bear in mind that the 21st century grassroots is as likely to be computer fluent as they are to be politically astute. Mr. Lott is entitled to his opinion, as every American citizen is. I would point out that opinions are more widely disseminated now than ever before. A wise local GOP activist once told me that "You better watch what you're saying at all times." This holds true in life AND politics. Mr. Lott (in my view) has been hostile to genuine conservatives after being swept into majority in 1994.

Will blogs ever totally influence elections? No. Unless you're a behemoth like Glenn Reynolds or Michelle Malkin or Ed Morrisey (sic). Will blogs ever replace the old fashioned art of the stump speech? In my opinion, no. People still love to be fired up,  informed and given their marching orders.  Blogs (and the Internet as a whole) will, however, enable the grassroots to be more effective in holding our elected officials to fire in their votes.

Leslie Carbone: Ladies of the Night and Leaders of the News

I've never been disappointed in Ms. Carbone's posts at her blog. However, I must admit that this particular post is truly a work in subtlety.  I had no vested interest in the Sayre/Hanger primary race save that which benefits all conservatives to elect genuine conservative leaders. Ms. Carbone, as always, fine work.

Leslie Carbone: Ladies of the Night and Leaders of the News

Live Writer

As Scott suggested, I'm giving Windows Live Writer a go to see how I will like it, this post is a test.

Upcoming Agenda

Friends,

I've been debating some changes to Good Sense that would allow greater flexibility. However, I wanted to inform you of the upcoming agenda here.

1.) I will continue to reveal different planks in a "Back to the Future" platform for the GOP. These planks include: Social Issues, Defense, Intelligence and The War on Terror, Economy.

2.) In keeping with Ben's excellent posts regarding State Senate districts, I'll be examining Washington County and trends in voting there. It's pretty obvious to those of use who live here, but others might find it interesting.

3.) This project is something I intended to start last year, but my forced hiatus dictated other wise. I intend on examining some of the Federalist Papers. This is just for civic purposes!
There you have it. Good Sense will try to be a blog that is interesting, conservative and informative.