Question of the Day: If You Had The Only Blog In The World....

...what would you post?

Blogger's Block

I've got it, bad...



Will your comments inspire me to return this blog to its former greatness? Give me your best shot or Nikk may stay silent forever (or just post videos for the remaining life of Skeptical Eye)...




If you do comment (and I'm not expecting much, frankly) I will respond with whatever comes to mind. My posting ideas are there, but I don't have the energy anymore to execute them or infuse then with even a reasonable readability.


Maybe I should just go sloppy and unpolished and say to hell with it. Or write without any thought to logic and coherent argument, like Bret Ginx Alan.

WTF Blogging Moment

How does a post like this get 29 (as of this moment) comments? What the fuck am I doing wrong? I can't get 3 comments on most of the posts here at Skeptical Eye!

Nikk's Guide To Better Blogging #1

A picture is worth a thousand words (they say), and sometimes, dammit, "they" are right. Whenever possible, therefore, add some visual enhancement to your blog posts by including pictures. Often, this won't really add any relevant information for your readers, but the fools will still think it's pretty and perhaps stick around a little longer like the moronic idiots they are ("Haha, lookie here, a picture of something...me like..me going to keep looking at this blog! Duh, yeah, pretty blog!").

However, before I dismiss illustrations as mere superficial distractions for a brain damaged population, I should also make clear that a few relevant photos can make or break many of your lesser posts, and for some posts, actually become more important than the words you've written to accompany them.

Let me give you a couple of examples. Here's a post by our friend T.C., who blogs at a strange place called The Commentator:

We just came back from a Brazilian restaurant earlier. All you can eat succulent meats (including sausages), pork, and poultry, sweet potatoes, rice, salad, mushrooms, and spiced pineapple. It was our first time and it was deeee-lishus.-All You Can Eat Brazilian Meat

Believe it or not, that's not an excerpt from the post, that is the post. Now ask yourself, what the hell is missing? This is a case where a few digital snapshots would have added immensely to the post. In fact, they would have made the post, creating a visual delight to spark interest and actually illustrate that deee-lishusness in a way those poor, pedestrian words cannot. For God's sake, take a camera with you when you go out to eat! How hard is that?


Give us a picture of some sausage, at least!

image by Rick Abruzzo
under Creative Commons

Feel free to include yourself in the photos you take for a restaurant post, but don't feel obligated to. People really want to look at the food you're talking about, and don't really care if they see an example of your eating habits (a whole sausage in your mouth) or the sausage juice dripping down your chin.


Here's another example before I let this all sink in to your amateur blogging mind:

I saw a chicken.

Okay, so you saw a damn chicken, so what? Who is going to stick around and stay at a blog with posts like that?




However, how about this:

I saw a chicken.

image by xxxtoff under Creative Commons


Now that's what I call real blogging!

Unite or Die?

The Internet is by far the greatest weapon of truth out there. There is a bull market in freedom and anybody can get a website up to start telling their truth. The reality is, that very few will get the attention since the Elite’s Mainstream Media dominates the web traffic. These sites get millions of unique visitors every month. These sites tow the company line of the Elite and serve to either distract or disinform their viewers. Sites like CNN and Huffington Post get something like 20 million unique visitors to their site every month. These corporate mockingbirds are a major reason why the average American does not ‘get it.’ Even the very successful Drudge Report, only gets like 2 million unique visitors a month. He does a better job of exposing what is really going on, but for the most part, links to only Mainstream Media articles.

Then there are these 50 or so guys who are doing excellent work on their individual blogs. They might only get 20,000 to 200,000 unique viewers to their site. This is where I feel the real truth comes from. These bloggers are unconcerned with some corporate boss or large business. These opinion makers call it as they see it,and most often, it flies in the face of the Elite’s conventional wisdom. These bloggers might have found some success with either advertising, newsletters, or member sites, but at the end of the day they are in a rat race. If they stop writing,their business dies. Corporate media does not care if their writers stop, they will find another because they have the viewers.

Read More: The Game Changer- Unite or Die

Question of the Night: Should I Watch Netflix or Blog?

Frankly, I get kinda tired of blogging. It has very few rewards. Yeah, I get to write and have a handful of people read my words, but I was writing long before I was blogging, and that was actually much more satisfying to me. I'm not sure why, but it was. I wrote short stories (and had a few published in small magazines), children's books and whole novels. My focus was on fiction, so maybe that's part of it. I'd rather create my own worlds than write about mundane reality (even though I'll admit that right now we are living in interesting times).

So tonight, I have a choice. I can watch episodes of my favorites (shows like The Rockford Files, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Twilight Zone) on Netflix, or, I can spend my few remaining evening hours before bed posting things that no one seems to give a damn about anyway.

I think I know which one I'll choose. What do you think?

Why I Post Videos

One could ask, why post anything at all? but then again, that's another story, kind of like asking why get out of bed in the morning? "Oh, but you've got to bet out of bed in the morning, you have no choice!" Don't you? Believe me, some people refuse to get out of bed. What happens to them? Suddenly they find themselves being yanked from out of their warm, cozy blanket cocoon by the strong arms of their angry mothers. "Get up and get ready ready for school! I'm not dealing with your crap today!" Oh, weren't we trained from an early age by the school system to be good little sheep who get up every morning to the sound of an alarm clock five days a week to go somewhere we hate because that's just the way it is, always has been and always will be? Do you think the capitalist bosses hate the public school system (where most children get brainwashed schooled) when it creates their compliant workforce for them?

So, why must I blog? I don't have to, and if you been watching the last few days or more, you'll see I've done less of it than usual. That's because I've been toiling away for MY bosses (the real bigwigs of the company), who drive around (literally, I'm not making this up) in brand new Audis, Porsches, Jaguars and Mercedes, while I have to get to work in an 11 year old Toyota, working overtime just to pay the bills. I must blog, frankly, just to keep from going crazy and deciding to staying in bed all day (as if how I'm living now isn't crazy).

So, to keep from going insane, I use this blog as an outlet, and I post, but not having as much time as I'd like to write and post "original" (a misnomer if ever there was one) material, I often just go for a video I like. That's one reason anyway, but how about some more?


I post videos because they're easy to post. Just grab that embed code and go for it.

I post videos because sometimes a video can get a message across more effectively than the written word. Like a picture being worth a thousand words, a video can state something more dramatically or in a more interesting manner, than a long article.

I post videos because words often can't describe things so as to get the true events in someone's mind. If a cop is beating someone to a pulp, a video gets the point of police brutality across much better than writing about what happened. Some fool might even say the writer might be exaggerating because they just hate cops, but a video can shine the light on the clown-costumed thugs behavior for all the world to see firsthand, with no interpreter.

I post videos because we almost live in a post-literate age. The percentage of the population that actually read books is shockingly small. Even online, these people are more likely to watch a video than they are to read a long post.

I post videos because YOU may not have seen them before or anywhere else. Yes, obviously the video is out there and available somewhere, but DID YOU see it before, or would you have found it on your own? I sometimes discover blogs that are all videos, nothing else. I mean, every post is just a video. I usually find those blogs boring (and so I understand the criticism of those who think it's an easy way out of really blogging), unless, of course, they're posting really good videos I didn't know existed. I have found blogs like that, and while I might wish for more from them other than videos, I have to thank them for posting good ones.

So, I'm going to keep posting videos here, because I like doing so, but mostly because I'm a tired, overworked wage slave and this very post has sapped all my remaining energy from me. If I don't stop writing now, I might just be tempted to get back into bed and call it a day.

Question of the Day: Have You Ever Thought About Giving Up Blogging?

This question can only be answered by those who actually blog, but since many of the readers of this blog are also bloggers, well...

I just lost a whole post I wrote about using a cell phone while driving (I'm in favor of it, if you must know). It's because of that goddamned AutoSave feature in the Blogger post editor. There is no way to simply turn it off, so here's what happens if you make a major mistake and accidentally highlight your post while writing, then type something else and in less than a second, BOOM!, that blasted motherfucking AutoSave saves the post with the new "changes", permanently deleting all your hard work.

I just wonder sometimes why I do this. It certainly isn't for money or fame, and I'm under no illusion that I'm changing the world with anything I write or post. Four years of blogging and all I get is heartache. That's right, you unfollowing jerks! I would have well over 500 "followers" by now if no one stopped following, but I've lost the majority of those because of something published here that some statist asshole (of the left or the right; you assholes are all the same to me, and I want no part of your stupid, phony left vs. right games) found "offensive".

Anyway, I'm tired most of the time from working and lack of sleep, and just don't have the energy to blog most of the time. I've got original posts I'm working on or planning, but it takes time and effort to write them, and with very little reward or return (hell, we can't even get many of you useless jerks to post a comment) I don't know anymore why I should continue to bother.


I'm still here for now, but unless something changes soon, like people really appreciating what we do here, I'm seriously considering throwing in the towel. How about you? A blogger's strike?


Now, if you want me to start saying what I really feel, like how I don't shed any tears when the agents of the state (my oppressors, including congresswomen and Federal judges) meet their demise (though I still feel it's wrong to do any violence against them), I will. You won't like it, but at least maybe I'll get a little more notice than usual.

If You Can Reach One Person...

I have a habit (a good one for a change) of taking a little walk at lunchtime. I've been frustrated the last few weeks because I've been forced to do other things at lunch, like eat, because I had a problem with my foot, but it's pretty much better now and I'm relieved I can take walks again. I not only love getting out into the fresh air and sunshine (I also like getting out into the clouds and the rain, but then, I'm a fresh air fanatic), I also enjoy the light exercise of a short walk. I take long walks, too, when I can, but of course not at work, where we only have a half-hour lunch.

At my previous job I had an hour lunch, and almost every day I would take at least a thirty minute walk around the long block we were on. It was in a pretty quiet industrial area with lots of trees and I usually had the wide sidewalks to myself. I really enjoyed that walk. I didn't know when I started my current job if there would be anything similar for walking, but I soon discovered a street around the corner that I found was actually a cul-de-sac. It also has lots of trees and well maintained foliage (in fact, I often see the landscapers doing their thing) and almost brand new industrial/office buildings, but in this case they are spaced far apart and set well back from the street. There is quite a steep hill to climb to get to the top before you turn around to come back, but once you get used to it, it's not that bad. I took to calling my daily adventure "walking the loop".

So, one day recently, I met a co-worker, Mike, crossing the parking lot to get into his car and make a run to McDonalds. He saw me coming back up the drive and asked what I was doing. I told him I'd just "walked the loop", so we started talking and he said maybe he'd try it some time. Yeah, right, I thought. People are always saying things like that. Plus, Mike is a rather large fellow, and while I wouldn't call him obese, he is heavy.

So, yesterday, as I came back from my walk, who did I see starting down the drive? Mike! We passed and he said he was going to "walk the loop". "I'm learning from the master," he told me.

We sometimes think we don't have any real effect on other people, or that our off-hand comments or actions won't influence anyone else, but obviously that notion is wrong. You have opportunities all day long to do so, so when you can, use that small power in a positive way. Make someone smile, give them hope, tell them a secret you have of improving your life in tiny ways. Who knows, they might just really be listening. This goes for talking about liberty, too. Mention Ron Paul and End the Fed when the economy and the Federal Reserve's actions enter the discussion, or just slip in a pro-freedom comment now and then. You don't want to be pushing your ideas at work like you're some kind of fanatic (that turns people off, anyway), but you can plant little pro-liberty seeds from time to time when you have the chance.

Which brings me to blogging, where you do have the freedom to look like an obsessed nut. We had such a nut here recently, our former contributor Bret "Ginx" Alan, who acknowledged his obsession with attacking anarchism and anarchists. It was sad, really, but YOU don't have to fall into that same trap. You can instead be reasonable and well-balanced like me. I have often wondered if blogging is anything but a hobby and a therapeutic outlet, but you never know who you may reach, or what life you may change, with even one little post that you send out into the blogosphere and the wider Internet.

So, happy and influential blogging (and walking) to you all!

Got a blog? Pay up!

If a private group attempted anything similar it would be rightly seen as extortion, which only proves once again that ALL government is nothing more than organized "legal" crime.

For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she's made about $50. To Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it's a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.

In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.

Got a blog that makes no money? The city wants $300, thank you very much.



Of course, most blogs will never make any serious money, but then, most people who start a blog aren't in it for money. But think of all the other ways you might be able to earn an income (and having such options will become critical as this economic depression widens and deepens) if not for all the roadblocks (such as licensing laws) that the state puts up to make it difficult if not impossible.

The Mainstream Media Will Save Us!

These two CNN pro-state shills (Kyra Phillips and John Roberts) discuss the Internet's "wild west" Dark Side (Ooooh Scary!) "all the time". And no wonder they do, because the freedom of the Internet threatens the very foundations of the State that supports the Statist media that has provided such shills with such a good living for so long. No mention of the "dark side" of the regime "news" organizations, though, like spreading the State's lies about the need for an attack and invasion of Iraq (that led to the death of tens of thousands of civilians).

And Kyra sure is a supporter of the State and all its glorious wars of "liberation". As Glenn Greenwald writes:

...this is the same Kyra Phillips responsible for one of the more disgusting television moments of the last decade. In April, 2003, she interviewed the doctor treating Ali Abbas, a 12-year-old Iraqi boy who had just lost 15 relatives, including his father, pregnant mother and three siblings, as well as both of his arms, in an errant American missile strike on the Baghdad suburb where he lived. While this child had burns all over his body, some of them infected, putting him in constant pain, Phillips asked his doctor this question:

Doctor, does he understand why this war took place? Has he talked about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the meaning? Does he understand it?

As Joan Walsh put it at the time: Phillips asked this "question" after the doctor explained that Ali said he hopes no other "children in the war will suffer like what he suffered"; "Phillips seemed shocked by Ali's apparent inability to understand we were only trying to help him."

As Greenwald also points out, the two CNN anchors are concerned about the anonymity the Internet provides, even though the case in question (Shirley Sherrod) didn't involve an anonymous blogger at all. He also amusingly shows the hypocrisy of the media's highly paid professional "journalists" when it comes to "anonymity", as so much of their "reporting" is the spreading of rumors and opinions from "anonymous sources".-CNN anchors attack the scourge of anonymity


In the video below, Andrew Keene (Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture), is featured, praising the Mainstream Media for coming "to the rescue" to straighten it all out.

On bloggers, Kyra Phillips then said "something is going to have to be done legally. . . . these people have to be held accountable, they're a bunch of cowards." Yes, "legally", so we get the Mainstream Media's friend and supporter the State involved.

“How about all these bloggers that blog anonymously. They say rotten things about people and they're actually given credibility, which is crazy”.-Kyra Phillips

Phillips and Roberts then talk about a “gatekeeper” (it should be the media, surprise!). Roberts thinks people should “put their name to it” when they make statements about others. Of course, the Mainstream Media doesn't force their anonymous sources to "put their name to it" when they report what those sources say about others.


From Greenwald again The catty, harmful insults in the 2004 campaign that John Kerry "looks French" and John Edwards is the "Breck Girl" were introduced to the public by The New York Times' Adam Nagourney, quoting an anonymous Bush aide.

Yes, it's "crazy" to give credibility to bloggers, but not journalists like former National Public Radio producer Sarah Spitz, who said of Rush Limbaugh that she would "Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out" while watching him die and that she "never knew I had this much hate in me. But he deserves it."

I guess we can trust her and other mainstream media figures to give us honest, objective reporting, unlike the world of bloggers where, in the words of Roberts "anyone's enemy can take something nasty and post it".




Video via LRC Blog

Go Ahead, Make My Day!

Some asswipe from Germany stopped following Skeptical Eye today. I don't mind when people stop following this blog, but as I usually return the favor and follow them (if they have a blog of their own) most followers here also have me as a follower. Sometimes I've followed them first and then they follow in return (thank you to you all!) but more often they've followed first and I've reciprocated. In the blogging world it just seems like good manners, and I still find things of interest in what may seem like very mundane blogs (such as this one) so when you insult me by deciding Skeptical Eye ain't worthy of your following, I don't hesitate; I retaliate, tit for tat, and stop following you!

The same goes for assholes, like this former contributor (and fake anarchist) who stop linking here even when we've still got their blog on our blogrolls, even when they've received new and permanent readers because of this blog. I "unlink" them and remove them from the rolls. That doesn't mean that sites and blogs linked here have to link to Skeptical Eye (the overwhelming majority do not) but it does mean that if you do link and I've returned the favor by including you here, if you stop linking, again, I'll retaliate.

So go ahead, it doesn't bother me at all, it actually makes my day!

Dear Mr. Skeptical (episode 2)

Good evening...we get questions here at Skeptical eye, and when we accumulate a few, we go mad...the questions, make them stop! But every now and then, like now, and then, we post them and our answers here.

One word of caution...oh never mind, we can't caution you with just one word, except maybe...DON'T.

Dear Mr. Skeptical,

isn't "don't" two words?

signed

Billy Tattler

Dear Billy,

Isn't the first letter of the first word of a sentence capitalized?

But no, don't is a contraction of "do not", so when you put 'em together like that they become one, like a man and woman in marriage. Don't you get it? Why don't you understand that? Don't you know you're just wasting my time and my blog's time with your silly inquiries? Why don't you go away and make some more mud pies, Billy?

Dear Skep,

Wouldn't it be Dear Mr. Eye?

Signed

Bret the Blogger

Dear Bret,

No, it wouldn't, not unless we were giving out eye doctoring answers (which we should be able to, by the way, though you'd be taking our advice in that area at grave risk to your sight). We just ain't ophthalmologists, get it, Bret?

No, Mr. Skeptical is the name because we answer any question that could, by a stretch of the old imagination, fall under the "skeptical" category, and because any other idiot is just as capable as we are to provide the answers, we feel we're qualified.

Dear Mr. SE,

Is the Tea Party racist?

Signed,

Thinking about joining but I'm black...

Dear Thinking,

Of course the Tea Party is racist,

Did you ever see any African American dolls sitting around that little table with the all the stuffed animals?

My advice is to start your own Tea Party and don't invite any white people. Maybe you can call it the NAACTP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored Tea Parties).

And remember, there's nothing racist about starting an organization that only wants to advance people of a certain color, unless white people do it.




Send your questions to Skeptical Eye. They might be answered (though we doubt it) in the next startling episode!

Now More Like...Gerald Celente

Okay, if the whole Commentator thing doesn't work out, we're just gonna wing it.

Maybe just post Gerald Celente videos.


Gerald Celente interview with www.MiningStockTalk.com

Now More Like The Commentator!

Yes, this is the new and improved Skeptical Eye! Obviously the excessive linking with little or no original commentary (except when Bret "Ginx" Alan comments) isn't working. Time for something new and different...that's what the people go for...but we won't be renaming this blog Kranmar's Delicious Mystery Blog. There is a limit to change, after all.

So, being inspired by The Commentator's minimalist but original approach, we're taking this blog on a fantastic ride into the second decade of the 21st Century. Hopefully it will all be more successful than Disneyland's short-lived Rocket Rods replacement for the outdated PeopleMover ride.

Well, are you ready to blast off?

Posting Delayed? or, The Cap'n's Revenge

Severe intestinal distress...call out sick kind of pain and discomfort...but I can't call out sick...I just did...hoping to get my ten posts for the day in...trying to stay seated in my blogging chair...frequent trips to bathroom necessary...had so many great posts planned for today...insides making funny noises...shouldn't of ate three heaping bowls of Cap'n Crunch with milk right before going to bed...lactose intolerance making me sick...need help...must stop doing this to myself...don't need to attend Cereal Addicts Anonymous meetings...I promise I won't do this again...I can stop anytime I want...Cap'n Crunch stop laughing at me from the front of your demon corn, sugar and oats with coconut oil box!

Reminds me...I need to go buy more Peanut Butter Crunch...Crunch Berry also running low...

Dear Mr. Skeptical

Dear "SE", or whoever you really are, are you for real? I need to know! Is this blog a joke or something? What's so "skeptical" about it anyway? Oh, and are you ever going to reveal your real name?

signed,

Need to know now

Dear Need To Know,

Why do you need to know now? Can you know later and still manage?

My real name? What's a "real" name? The name some unelected parents gave you? And then, what if your biological parental units called you a common name but decided to be "original" and spell it funny? We have a strange modern fetish for how words are spelled, something completely alien to our ancestors. This is why some parents think their idiot child will stand out if their common name is spelled like a moron wrote it. Isn't that right, Jessycka?

So, you prompt me to make a decision here, one that may disorient our regular readers. No longer will I call myself "SE". From now on let the blogging world refer to me as "Nikkolas Jakson" (the two names together have three K's in them, something that will give Ginx a field day whenever I post pro-Confederate stuff).

Is the blog a joke? Isn't everything?

What's so skeptical about Skeptical Eye, you ask? We're so skeptical that we refuse to believe you actually wrote that!

Dear Skeptical Eye

What is butter good for?

Signed,

Up Yours

Dear Up,

Shove it where the Sun don't shine.

Dear SE,

My daddy shot and killed a Bigfoot, but when he got it home, he discovered it was a DEA agent dressed in a costume who was out in the woods looking for pot growers.

What should daddy do?

Signed

Son of Bigfoot Hunter

Dear Son,

Tell your daddy to find another line of work, as I don't see how Bigfoot hunting can bring home the bacon, unless he turns it into a reality show on the Syfy Channel. That way, he can "hunt" Bigfoot and never have to actually find one.

Just be thankful he didn't kill a human being. He might not be so lucky next time.




Send your skeptical questions to Nikkolas Jakson, hunter of the most dangerous monster of them all, The State!

No More Mr. Nice Guy?

That's right. If I have to get mean and nasty to get you people to start leaving comments here, I'm gonna do it. That means posts where I no longer pull my punches, where I stop being so gentle and considerate, where I START getting really angry and exposing my enemies for the scum they are (you hear that Roger "I kiss bankster butt" Young?).

So what's it gonna be?

You talkin' to me?

What's Your Pleasure?

Really, tell us, because we'd all like to know! But that's not the actual subject of this post. The real topic is, what kind of blog posts do you prefer? Personal ones? Funny, super humorous ones? Non-spellchecked ones? Political posts? Posts about religion and atheism?

How about embeded videos? Do those strike your fancy ketchup? Or links to other posts and articles? If you say you love videos and links, by the way, you certainly make our bogging life easier, because the lazy way to blog is our favorite.

Any votes may be left in the comments.

Thank you.

Conservative Blogger Tells PayPal To Go To Hell

Pamela Geller informs that under their "Acceptable Use" policy, "PayPal may not be used to send or receive payments for items that promote hate, violence, racial intolerance or the financial exploitation of a crime". They have so labeled Ms. Geller's activities. While I am not a conservative and disagree with much of her apparent agenda, I find nothing "hateful" (that I could discover) in anything she's doing (or at least no more hateful than what others still in good standing with PayPal are promoting).

Paypal is calling Atlas a "hate" site and will close my account if I do not remove the paypal option from my website. Accurate reporting and news is hate.

Truth is the new hate speech:

Please email or call paypal and let them know Atlas Shrugs is a news site and political blog. I am not responsible for the bad news in the world. I just report.

Paypal Cuts Off Atlas: Truth is the New Hate Speech

h/t Iliocentrism