GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Slower Blogging/New “Schedule”

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Since our traffic increased significantly last summer (about the time of the GOP convention), I have been trying to write a few posts every night before I go to bed on the West Coast so y’all can have fresh content when y’all check the blog first thing in the morning.  But, I find that when I blog on night, not only do I sleep in, but I also check the blog myself in the morning.  And that cuts into the time I devote to my dissertation research (and writing).  (I found mornings work best for such reading.)

So, at least for the rest of the summer, I plan on blogging a lot less in the evenings, will still try (as best I can) to schedule one new post for your morning reads, but will return to the past practice of doing the bulk of my blogging in the afternoon PST (late afternoon/early evening EST).

Also, I don’t know that I’ll be jumping into the comment threads as much as I have in the past.  In the early days of the blog, I almost never checked the threads, only to be upbraided by a reader who encouraged to me to jump in.  I may also try to do a kind of “random thoughts” post (like Jennifer Rubin’s Flotsman & Jetsam at Commentary Contentions where I offer cursory commentary on the news of the day or on life in general.

The long and short of it is that I have fallen way behind on my dissertation–and want to complete that in a timely manner, so need to adjust my blogging to give myself adequate time to devote to my scholarship.

Hopefully, with Nick blogging more regularly, we should be providing you just as much reading material as we have in the past.  And maybe Bruce will find a bit more free time in his day as well.  🙂

—B. Daniel Blatt.

Comments

  2. Go for it! I am starting on my PhD this fall, and the only thing that scares me is comps. I teach on the college level with a Masters, but all the fun jobs require a doc. I wish you all the best, and I get to read blogs mostly at night, so your new schedule won’t bother me.

  5. This is why politicians drive me crazy!! They can go for years doing terrible things, then every so often one or two of them actually return to their original promises and follow through.

  6. I think I might be a Blue Dog Democrat. I’m a Democrat with conservative values. I’m not capitalist enough to be a Republican. I’m going to learn more about this coalition which is causing so many wonderful problems for Obama.

  7. Daniel, work on the dissertation. There were three things that prompted me to finish mine in the darkest hours (well, three things and a wife and baby):
    – my mother told my that my dead mentor would roll over in her grave if I didn’t complete it;
    – one advisor put his arm around me and said loudly enough for the other to hear it, “My man Mike here has gotten people with the intelligence of that table through this program. What’s your problem?” I immediately thought of a certain colleague who had finished a year before. (yes, I know, it took two of them to get me through); and finally,
    – people kept telling me that when I died, they would carve ABD on my gravestone and my friends would all stop by and laugh.

    So, get it done and then get back to us. Your voice is too important to be missing for long.

    best,

    Mark

  8. No surprise. Actually, Ash, given that your support for the conceptual centerpiece of Obammunism – the idea of having the federal government complete its decades-long, slow-motion of health care, 1/7 of the economy – I’m a bit surprised that you claim to be a conservative and to dislike Obama.

  10. Again, the Pope. Read the Pope. I don’t think the Pope likes Obama much either, but the Pope supports affordable health care. I believe a consistent life ethic is more conservative than liberal, but there are liberal elements. Oh, and read about the Episcopal Church this week for a new, non-Stonewall way to be gay.

  11. Again, the Pope. Read the Pope.

    Again: Stop expecting me to care about the Pope on this, or to be remotely impressed. Stop citing believers in tribal and medieval economics as a fig leaf for your basic leftism. Stop expecting me to not see right through it. I do see through it.

    the Pope supports affordable health care.

    No, he doesn’t. Oh, I am aware that he says he does. But, among responsible grown-ups, part of of the price tag of being able to say you “support” something is that you want to achieve it **in reality**. Your notions about how to get there are grounded in reality, or capable of working in reality. Real supporters of affordable health care are those who understand that we must return to a free market (which we already DON’T have, in America) because the free market is the only method of getting there that can work in reality. Government national-socialized “health care” is cruelly over-rationed, degraded health care, on its way to becoming no health care at all, as has been shown by the experience of nation after nation. The road that starts with British health care (already a step down from American) ends, logically and practically, in Cuban or North Korean “health care”.

  12. Now for what I actually came back to say: HotAir has several recent posts on health care. Senator DeMint making an excellent argument against ObamaCare: http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/20/demint-to-obama-on-health-care-hows-that-stimulus-working-out-champ/

    A brief lesson on markets and rationing:
    http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/21/a-brief-lesson-on-markets-and-rationing/

    A cartoon that sums up the situation beautifully:
    http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/21/ramirez-the-man-behind-health-care-reform/

  15. If someone could promise the Pope, convincingly, that a given set of free market reforms would make quality health care more affordable to the working poor and more available (via charity) to the non-working poor, say after 5 years’ time: I’d bet that the Pope would still turn it down, on the grounds that it doesn’t involve enough egalitarian “sacrifice” (i.e., socialism). And I’d bet Ash would turn it down, too.

    It’s fair to reverse the thought-experiment onto me. In the extremely unlikely event you could show me, convincingly, that national-socialization of the health care sector would make quality care more affordable and available after 5 years: I would still turn it down. Because the issue is, in the end, a moral one. The use of government force to compel people (other than duly tried and convicted criminals) to do things, or to seize the product of people’s work and initiative, is simply immoral. It is the enslavement of human beings.

    I’m not shocked to see some Popes and their sympathizers on the wrong side of the moral issue here; because some of them (or more accurately, many of their predecessors) have favored slavery and governmental oppression before. But because national-socialization of ordinary or “civilian” services is so immoral, it is also very impractical, always backfiring. So the practical argument is also on the side of free markets (i.e., human freedom). Of the two arguments, the moral argument is more important – but I’ll make them both. The refusal of some people to acknowledge the practical effectiveness of free markets in human services shows you where their deep moral commitments are. (I.e., sadly on the wrong side, in this instance)

  17. Good review of Benedict’s latest encylical:
    http://www.american.com/archive/2009/july/morals-markets-and-the-pope

    A small sample:

    The encyclical… calls for “a worldwide redistribution of energy resources.” It envisions the “large-scale redistribution of wealth on a worldwide scale.” How do Biblical teachings on justice and charity support these goals? Does political prudence suggest they should be attempted? We are not told. Neither is there enough attention to the great obstacles to economic development—political oppression, corruption, bad governance, illiteracy, disease, and war. All told, the redistribution of wealth gets far more papal ink than the creation of wealth.

    I’ll say this: the Pope is about to get his wish on redistribution of energy resources. Oil is calm right now, it’s in contango which tends to keep the price down… but that won’t last. The dollar is still relatively high right now… and that won’t last (thank you Obammunism). Talk to me in a year or two and see if a dollar collapse hasn’t massively re-distributed energy resources… to India and China.

  18. I followed your link. That’s a good perspective on the encyclical. Not the most glowing, but fair.

    I still agree with the Pope on this one. And I think conservatives should listen to what he has to offer, even if they end up disagreeing with it.

  19. So why doesn’t the Pope put some of those Vatican treasures on eBay? I’m sure they’ve got enough money there to pay for health care for an ass load of people.

  20. Since I’ve seen a Rembrant in a small church in SE Ohio (yes, I’ve touched a real Rembrandt) and the same chuch had a pricessless chalice stolen, I’m prone to agree.