State of the weblog

I've been your webmaster for two weeks now and I thought I'd give y'all a little report from my standpoint.

Comments

Comments are going very well. We reached 150 (published) comments last night. The person with the most comments is... myself. But that doesn't really count since it's literally my job, so the honor should really go to TM Lutas. Thanks, TM for all of your thoughtful comments and content. (Not to mention the fact that his comments add much more to the conversation than my more 'social' comments.)

When I originally opened comments up, Bill L asked me to report in a couple of weeks on how many commenters I've had to ban. The answer is: no one who's not a spam-bot. So thanks, everyone for playing nice. We've had some disagreements, but that's obviously part of worthwhile dialogue. In fact, we could stand to have more civil disagreements.

Amazon Connect

Tom's Plog launched at Amazon Connect this week. The way I understand it, if you've purchased PNM or BFA from Amazon, you'll get Tom's Plog posts on your Amazon home page by default. Otherwise you have to change your settings to get them automatically. Beyond that, you have to view Tom's books or profile to find his Plog. I've been crossposting one post per day over there with links back here. 106 people have taken the trouble to vote on whether or not they like the post. That's more interaction with the material (albeit on a low level), than I figured we'd get.

Statistics

We average more than 6300 sessions per day with an average of over 9 minutes. That's pretty sticky, from what I've seen in the weblogging world.

Comments

[Jonathan]

Tom,
I happened to see a rebroadcast of your talk at the Coast Guard Academy this morning around 4:30AM because one of our children couldn't sleep.

I caught maybe the last 20 minutes of your talk. Even that small part has caused me to reconsider my pessimism about Iranian options in the near term and China in the longer term.

With Iran my supposition has been that the Iranians had to be prevented from getting a nuclear weapon at all costs. I figured that an Iranian bomb would be quickly followed by a Saudi bomb and problematic proliferation would follow. The military options I envisioned were all less than satisfactory with no guarantees they would be successful. These included, I assumed, at least a gigantic air campaign with hundreds of aim points and (least palatably) ground forces doing something crazy like seizing their oil-fields. As a National Guardsman who has already done a year in Iraq I don't relish the worst case scenario which would have me speaking Farsi by the end of the year (or Arabic again in Khuzestan). You've challenged my view that Iran with a nuclear capability is the worst thing that can happen in the long run.

Your arguments about China are very compelling and give me a bit of hope that we are not moving slowly, yet uncontrollably toward confrontation.

Again, thanks for your insight. I plan to be a regular reader of your blog. I'll thank my daughter for waking me up so I could watch you on TV.

Jonathan

[TM Lutas]

Thanks for getting comments back up here and keeping them manageable. I'm currently in a state where I feel more like commenting on other's blogs more than on my own so having a spot here to do it is a real plus for me.

[danflies]

On the technical side, if you want to cut down on the spam bots you may want to think about using a CAPTCHA plug-in.

TypeKey uses it to distinguish between humans and bots, but signing up and getting an activation code is kind of a pain in the butt. If it was for any other blog I probably wouldn't even bother to register.

CAPTCHA's are a really great tool that will cut down on your work and hopefully make it easier for more people to comment.

Thanks,

dan

[Richard M. Connelly]

Recently I previewed your article posted in Defense Strategy Review. In particular it was the one titled: Global Transaction Strategy. Many of the ideas were greatly disturbing. Without going into minute details some of these must be pointed out. Firstly, the flippant attitude of "basically trading pieces of paper for actual goods" in the Gap nations which you obviously see as rogue, backward, inflexible enemy nations to be brought into the security blanket of the Gap nations.(A pretty picture of avoiding the graphic use of tanks, fighters and shock troops to bring them into your sick "ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT", but of course you now term it with that beautiful word, that flows like honey from the tip of your tongue....Globalization.........with emphasis on Global as if synonymous with Glow as if it were some harmonious, heavenly body.) Secondly, it goes to prove all along what Congressman Ron Paul of Texas has said about the Federal Reserve Bank and their issuance of counterfeit money in the form of fiat currency. Thank you for finally proving what we have been saying about currency unbacked by precious metals such as gold and silver and how you help direct obscene trade policies with nations struggling to advance unless they become part of the "Core". Thirdly, we also now know why the emmigration policy of Bush and past president's has failed to address the problem of illegal immigration into the United States and other "Core" nations of western europe. Basically, instead of addressing the problem of allowing "core" nations to increase their child bearing we will dispossess them of their nations and cultures by allowing human waves from "Gap" nations. I guess as they emmigrate and change our bed pans in the nursing homes and remove our adult diapers in old age then it is acceptable and desirable. Lastly, it is clear to see that our foreign and no doubt our domestic policy has been "hijacked" by you Neo-con traitors to the Republic. It is obvious that you do not trust "We The People", nor the document called the US Constitution which limits the use of our armed forces in undeclared wars. But alas, the War Powers Act was passed to circumvent the true intent of our Constitution to prevent abuse of power. I am a Patriot, descendant of American Revolutionary Patriots, the son, brother and cousin to Academy graduates some of whom perished and all who were wounded in the line of duty. Some of us have now begun to organize into the Constitution Party. We have resolved ourselves into bringing the word to the American people one person and one household at a time if need be. Of course we don't control the major newspapers, magazines, network tv outlets, the large corporations and the finances via the Federal Reserve Bank nor do we have quasi-government organizations to hire a bunch of cronies to write articles and policy papers for the likes of the CFR. No, but we do have our principles and the resolve of our ancestors to win over the hearts and minds of the American people. You will laugh at such bravado. But let me remind you that during the American Revolution a rag-tag, determined bunch of dedicated Patriots won their freedom in the face of the greatest Empire of the day. Also, we will remind our troops of the oath they took as enlisted soldiers and officers to uphold the Constitution and to defend it from enemies both foreign and DOMESTIC. Like the soldiers of Soviet Russia when they were ordered to fire on their people they refused! God Bless America! God Bless the Republic!!!

[Sean Hackbarth]

9 minutes! That's an eternity on a weblog. But with so much intellectual candy I'm not surprised.