Ahmadinejad’s Response to Columbia University

He said Bollinger’s comments included “insults” and false claims, and flew in the face of an environment that’s supposed to let people speak their minds.

This was Ahmadinejad’s response to the introduction given by Columbia University’s President, Lee Bollinger, where he also called Ahmadinejad a “petty, cruel dictator”.

Ahmadinejad is dead wrong, and his response shows exactly why it is ridiculous to try to build democracies constitutional republics in the Middle East where ideas of tolerance of opposing opinions and free speech can’t be comprehended. This is exactly what free speech is all about–I call you a lowdown dirty scoundrel and have facts to back up my claims. You then respond with a defense or retaliate with facts that show otherwise.

These ass clowns are under the illusion that they can come here and exploit our tolerance for free speech (they have no such tolerance) to get their message across without question. They have no inkling that it flows both ways. That’s why I don’t have a problem allowing him/them/anyone else I disagree with have their say.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–the best way to confirm that someone is an idiot/jerk/ruthless dictator is to give them an opportunity to prove it in their own words.

Can’t wait to check out the entire video. I’ll be watching cnn.com for more info this afternoon.

Did Columbia University Trap Ahmadinejad?

I’m in wait and see mode on this one, but I’m a little surprised at what I just saw.

I’m at work and don’t have a chance to watch the coverage, but I just returned from getting a cup of coffee and got to catch a glimpse of Columbia’s President evidently ripping Ahmadinejad a new one on Iran’s violation of civil rights, free speech, etc. and challenging him to address them.

It will be interesting to see how this one pans out.

Some Interesting Tips and Tricks

One of the sites I check out pretty regularly, Daily Blog Tips, has a post writing contest going on right now. The topic is “Tips and Tricks”. Of course, there were several “how to get more traffic” and technical posts listed there, but I liked the ones that were a little “off” the best–tips and tricks on things that you may not even realize you need to read tips and tricks on.

Here are the five that I liked the most:
How to Keep Your Marriage, Despite Your Heavy Metal Addiction
Surviving Your Short Stay in Jail
How to Talk Like a Pirate
Find Out a Name You’ve Forgotten
Taking Photos at Concerts

Creating a Custom Feed For BlogRush

Taylor wasn’t sure about how to create a separate feed for using BlogRush. The reason you may want to make a feed just for BlogRush is if you want to control the exact article and headline from your blog that you’d like to have featured on the BlogRush network.

It’s pretty simple to make a new feed. Just copy the code below (change it to reflect your blog and your target post) and upload it to your site. Then go to your BlogRush account and add a new blog and point to this new feed. Mine is now located at http://54.224.128.86/blogrush.rss

<rss version=”2.0″>
<channel>
<title>Hear It From Us</title>
<link>http://54.224.128.86</link>
<description>Libertarian leaning commentary on everything you could possibly not care about</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<item>
<category>BlogRush</category>
<title>Hear It From Us</title>
<link>http://54.224.128.86</link>
<description>
Doesn’t really matter…BlogRush doesn’t use descriptions.
</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

Unfortunately, you aren’t able to change the feed address of any of you existing blogs, so you’ll have to add the same blog again using the new feed. The headlines for this blog will be split between your existing feed and this new one. If you are adding a brand new blog or just signing up for BlogRush, you are set. You’ll have complete control over the exact headline that will be featured on the network.

In my case, I waited to create the new feed, so the headlines will be split. I’m actually ok with that since I like having both an anchor article being displayed along with posts that involve current events.

There is another solution I found that is a little more involved, but comes out very clean and more manageable for changing your feature article in WordPress later. The solution I presented here is the same one recommended by John Chow. If you ever want to change your feature article, you’ll have to edit the RSS file we created here and upload it again, but that’s not a big deal to me.

Hope this helps!

Blogrush Update and Some Usability Tips

I was asked to post some updates of the results of Blogrush for those who aren’t sure how legit it is. I have to say that I’m pretty pleased with the results so far.

The CTR isn’t all that great–I’m getting a visitor for every 500 impressions. But…as of today my referral network (you’re dying to be a part of it, aren’t you) is pulling me about 10x the credits I’m earning through this site. That means that for every 50 pages I load on this site I’m getting a visitor. That’s an awesome ROI, especially considering my network is pretty small and only two deep!

Here’s what is new and what I’m planning…

Blogrush announced today that they’ll be releasing different flavors (colors) soon to help their widget fit in with your site better.

They are actually working on making the channels better as well. This should help you target your site/posts to the correct audience much more easily.

This weekend I plan to get a separate feed set up just to send to BlogRush. This should help because it will allow me to keep a targeted, catching headline post up on the network longer instead of just the latest thing that happened to get blogged because it popped into my head.

Canuck Buck Catches Up

Well, the Looney has finally caught up to the dollar. What should we expect from this? What is the most likely outcome–pandemonium or bedlam? Sorry, I just like using the same phrases as wrestling announcers. Surely we should be in a panic. I mean, Canada’s dollar just caught up to ours. Before today, they were a third world country, right?

This whole situation makes me glad that I took trips to Canadia with Billymac, Halfacre, and the Shippensburg Old Boys while the dollar was still riding high. Ottawa, and The Bare Fax especially, would have been a lot more expensive with today’s exchange rate. Yet somehow, it’d still be worth every penny.

A Possible Book Ban?

SomeONE apparently didn’t like a couple of paragraphs of Lee Smith’s “Fair and Tender Ladies”, and wants the book banned from Washington County Schools.

Makes sense. High school kids these days really aren’t prepared for that kind of language, mostly because they’ve been failed by our school systems. Back in my day, we could to hande the “F” word and anything else a book could fire our way because we’d already learned all about that stuff in middle school–on the bus.

Seriously, be glad if your high schooler is reading a book at all. Didn’t book banning go out of style some time in the 70s or 80s? Weren’t all of these kids running around named Holden and Pheobe named so in commemoration of its death?

via Michael Silence

Now THIS is Funny

SVD at KTownLowDown has a hilarious list of insurance policies we could all use. I think he is actually outlining the talking points for the 2012 Democratic Presidential Campaign.

Ugly Insurance. There’s nothing worse than standing in the Food Insurance Card Issue line and having to look at a bunch of ugly people. If we have abortion on demand, we should have Botox on demand…they may already have this in CA

Life Insurance. This is not typical life insurance, where if you die your benefactors get some money, no this is ‘I Screwed-Up My Life and I Need the Government to Bail Me Out Insurance.’ By far it has the longest title, but is the most self explanatory.