Not even all that much down — but it is remarkable how much. Instapundit, that is.
If you need to know what’s going on and, of course, exactly what to think about it, the Instabackup site is here.
Archive for the ‘Social networking’ Category
Support Scott Ott!
Posted by Ron Coleman on July 5, 2009
My fellow blogger Scott Ott, the man behind the inimitable “Scrappleface” but in real life the executive director of a non-profit organization serving children, is seeking to become the next Lehigh County, Pennsylvania Executive. His campaign is premised on the idea that his years of business experience have prepared him to take bold action to reduce taxes, cut spending and lead to what he calls “a customer service revolution in county government.” Without knowing more, most of us agree that almost any disemployment of any incumbent is good for American these days.
Scott makes his case in much more detail on his site. Like you, I haven’t been to Lehigh County too much lately. But I do know Scott and his work and his view of things, and I think this moment presents a great opportunity to see what the righty-side blogosphere can do for one of its own and for the common weal. In the process we can also make a little history by demonstrating what bloggers and their readers — whether we think of ourselves as “citizen journalists,” soldiers in an “army of Davids,” or just mainly a bunch of wiseguys — can actually do politically, in a focused and local way, and perhaps take us to the next step of initiating real change from the very grass roots up.
I’m involved in this because Scott and I have been shmoozing about his campaign (we met while on Pajamas TV duty ever so briefly) and I was amazed he didn’t have a blog-support strategy mapped out. Well, maybe now we do. It’s not fancy. He needs buzz, he needs moral support, but guess what — most of all he needs money. So:
There are essentially three ways that a blogger can participate in this campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Blogophilia, Gelt, Politics and Poker, Social networking | 1 Comment »
License to marry someone really stupid
Posted by Ron Coleman on July 4, 2009
Shaken, not stupid
My wife is smarter than I am and thinks social networking is mostly a stupid distraction. Other wives think social networking is the greatest thing ever — and in terms of brains? Don’t ask!:
The wife of the new head of Britain’s spy agency has posted pictures of her husband, family and friends on Internet networking site Facebook, details which could compromise security, a newspaper said on Sunday.
Sir John Sawers is due to take over as head of the Secret Intelligence Service in November. The SIS, popularly known as MI6, is Britain’s global intelligence-gathering organization.
In what the Mail on Sunday called an “extraordinary lapse,” the new spy chief’s wife, Lady Shelley Sawers, posted family pictures and exposed details of where the couple live and take their holidays and who their friends and relatives are.
This is in the category of check-the-date-and-make-sure-it”s-not-an-April-Fools-story. (You have that category, don’t you?) It’s brought to you by the people who gave you Kim Philby and all that lot, in which the movie MI6 looks and performs immensely smarter than the real world one.
The “intelligence” community (yes, apt, isn’t it?) should be grateful Lady Shelley was flushed out before she could drag the free world down with her husband’s career!
Posted in Blogophilia, Euroids, Social networking | 1 Comment »
Out, damned blog!
Posted by Ron Coleman on June 7, 2009
On one of my favorite topics, anonymous blogging — James Joyner (via Glenn) is unhappy with one particular bit of outage:
While I generally find the practice of revealing people’s secrets to the public distasteful, there are times when it’s appropriate. Public officials who are abusing their power is the most obvious case. Here, however, there is no public benefit achieved. Whelan is simply annoyed that Publius had been “biting at my ankles in recent months” and critiquing his blog posts.
Jeopardizing a man’s career and family relationships over something so petty is simply shameful. Anonymous Liberal (which, I’m given to understand, is not his given name) hits the nail on the head:
It’s really difficult to put into words just how despicable and childish this behavior is. This is a man who was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General. He’s currently the President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. And he’s acting like a six-year-old.
[…]
The reality is that if you don’t think your work product can withstand the scrutiny of a few anonymous bloggers, than you have no business publishing it. And if your ego can’t withstand being criticized by people who write under pseudonyms, then you’re far too insecure to be blogging for a living.
Well, I’d say something different: If your career, life or whatever can’t stand the pressure of being held responsible for your words, then you’re far too insecure — literally — to publish them on line, especially when they’re at someone else’s expense.
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time
There’s no “public interest” test for outing an anonymous blogger. There is only the test of how far you can go before you show your hand, and the test of accountability in the public sphere. And I say if you’re prepared to shoot out someone else’s lights, whether or not he is “blogging for a living,” then be prepared to have your’n popped, too.
Accountability. In a free society, if you can’t stand behind it, I see no reason why you should be allowed to get a pass on saying it. Put differently, you’ve got every right to say it, and every right to pay for it.
Posted in Blogophilia, O Mores!, Oppression, Social networking | 9 Comments »
Not in the spirit
Posted by Ron Coleman on April 24, 2009
A little too friendly
This makes sense to me. Via Above the Law I found this item on something called “Facebook ghosting”:
One popular Facebook “ghost” was a blond female temptress, the site reports.
The team allegedly would use these fake profiles to get friend-level access to recruits’ information on the site. The thinking there is that if a team official spots a player in Facebook photos smoking dope or partying hard, the team might avoid a bad draft pick and a potential public relations problem.
The fake profiles are called “ghosts” because they disappear soon after they surface.
I wonder if this technique exists in other spheres of recruiting? At law firms? At banks? In other sports?
There’s no hard evidence the NFL ghost-profile incident is part of a trend, said Justin Smith, editor of the blog Inside Facebook, which tracks the social networking site.
It’s not only going on with athletes and prospective employees. I’m 99% sure that the rash of friend requests that I have recently received from essentially unconnected, untraceable young women claiming to be Christians but looking decidedly, um, different in their mode of dress is part of some attempt to get conservative bloggers of a certain level of prominence (like somewhere above the C-list, I guess) to do and say stupid things for later use.
Quite the dirty trick. Lucky for me I — well, no, it has nothing to do with luck. I’m just not stupid.
Careful out there, boys and girls.
UPDATE: A famous blogger friend passes along this link — all that “principles are for everyone” stuff is for political consumption, don’t you know. Duping righties is completely cool. It all depends on the ends!
Posted in Nuvo-Techno, O Mores!, Social networking | Leave a Comment »
