Oops

I accidentally just deleted a heap of comments and can’t ‘undelete’ them.  Sorry, I was trying to clear up another blog and didn’t realize I was logged into this one.  My bad.  Sorry.

Lurker Day

I was reading Saskboy’s blog – and not leaving comments – and saw that he had a post asking all his readers to identify themselves.That’s a good idea.  So, after much research, I put together this comprehensive reader survey:

1. Who are you?
2. Where are you from?
3. Do you have a blog?
4. What’re your politics?
5. How did you find this blog?
6. Do you visit regularly?

Please leave your answers in the comments section of this post.  If you are the Robert James Jago from Australia, please send me an email at rjjago [at] gmail [dot] com – I’m getting your stalkers.Cheers,- Robert Jago [the 'Dime a Dozen' blog webmaster]   

I’ve weasled my way into Maclean’s

I was reading an article on the Maclean’s site about the reaction to their ‘Bush is Hitler Saddam’ cover and noticed an unattributed quote from myself via Michelle Malkin’s site.  That brings to about half a dozen the number of major media outlets I’ve got some space and NO CREDIT on.  [Screw you CBC!]  Anyhow, the cover in question is here:

I think Malkin et al were being reactionary with their claims of moonbattery.  They had claimed that Maclean’s was a leftist rag – the magazine of  Mark Steyn and Barbara Amiel – leftist.  Rubbish, that.

Canada’s Top 25 Blogs

I read a post on a site called Paulitics where he listed Canada’s top 100 political blogs. After looking through the list I noticed a problem with methodology – namely that he only used Alexa rankings. These are ok if you’re just gathering raw traffic data – but they don’t tell you anything about influence.

For example, everyone I know that works in politics reads Cherniak – yeah a lot of normal people don’t but his blog is important. On the Paulitics list he was number 53. That just can’t be right.

Another measure of success and influence for a blog or any website is it’s Google ranking. The Google ranking takes into account the number and QUALITY of in-bound links as well as things like feeds and bookmarking which Alexa doesn’t measure.

So anyhow, taking this into consideration, I’ve put together a list of Canada’s Top 25 Political Blogs [I'll keep this in the sidebar and update it monthly]. The Page rank is listed above, the numbers are their global Alexa Ranking:

Google Page Rank 6

1. Paul Wells – 67,235*
2. Small Dead Animals 190,608
3. Matthew Good – 202,266
4. Canadian Cynic – 623,263
5. Damian Penny – 742,055
6. Colby Cosh -1,151,633
7. The Galloping Beaver – 1,176,251

Google Page Rank 5

8. Relapsed Catholic – 221,006
9. Le Blogue du Québec – 279,645
10. The Politic – 314,854
11. Vive le Canada – 375,587
12. Steve Janke – 441,604
13. Abandoned Stuff – 491,407
14. Proud to Be Canadian -573,282
15. CalgaryGrit – 663,736
16. Gen X at 40 – 678,641
17. Warren Kinsella – 792,128
18. Red Tory – 811,583
19. Dust my Broom – 839,338
20. democraticSPACE.com – 921,740
21. Jason Cherniak – 1,020,269
22. Stephen Taylor – 1,091,547
23. Andrew Coyne – 1,099,622
24. Daveberta – 1,194,029
25. La Revue Gauche – 1,230,344

* Paul Wells’ page rank and Alexa rank are indistinguishable from Macleans magazine.  So basically you could say that any of the blogs hosted on Macleans would be tied for first place.  So why just have Wells there and not Megapundit?  What about Radwanski and his Globe and mail blog?   This whole thing is something of a pain.  For the November list I’ll need to figure out a way to rank these MSM-hosted blogs.
FYI: This Blog would be number 72 on that other list, but on this one, it’s about 90. Which does seem sensible, I’d say that Adam Daifallah has a little bit more authority than me. For now.

NB: I do not endorse any of these blogs and find several of them reprehensible and libelous.

I support buttons

If you look on the right side of my blog you’ll see a button that says “I support Stephen Harper”. I’ve got that there so that readers know this blog’s bias. But that’s pretty much the only “I Support” button I have. Most blogs – it seems – have many more. Anything from “I Support Free Speech” to “I Support the Magna Carta”.

To be perfectly honest, a lot of I support buttons are silly. But I’ve been looking at a lot of blogs lately (for ideas) and it seems like this ‘I support’ thing is something I should get in on. Accordingly I have made my own ‘I support’ buttons.

The first one is something with Fidel Castro. I’m having trouble with the caption though. What should “I Support” here? I support…the Reaper? Pancreatic Cancer? (way bad taste – I know)

Next, this button was inspired by a quote from Canadian Green Party leader, Elizabeth May:

We have a moral obligation to our Lord and Father to ensure we don’t destroy the creation that was given to us. Through the power of our Lord and Jesus Christ, we can meet this moral obligation. [source]

As an atheist, that quote worries me. I don’t trust anyone that says things like that, especially one who wants to control every aspect of my daily life like the Greens seem to want. So from that I have this:

I’ve put a button on there to click on, but bugger if I know where to send it. No one ever publishes full speeches any more, so all I have to link to are heavily edited things which I don’t entirely trust. I’m open to suggestions for that as well.

But, as I said before, many blog buttons are silly so if I’m going to do this, I should do this right. I need some silly ones to go with the credible ones. Hence these:

Atheism on-line

I’ve recently joined the atheist blogroll. This was recommended to me by a certain Godless, swine-eating member of a certain chosen people. I tend to avoid group blogrolls as they encourage a lot of self-censorship. But I think this one is fine, because we all only agree on one thing – that there is no God. Which is about as controversial as saying there is gravity, or there are Doritos in the world. It’s pretty easy to not-censor yourself if you are only conforming to one basic issue. On every other issue, I disagree with 2/3 of the people on the Blogroll.

There are a lot of American atheists on the blogroll and they do seem to be a left-ish bunch. Which is funny isn’t it? My favourite atheists all live in America: Ayan Hirsi Ali, Christopher Hitchins, Michael Schermer, James Randi, Penn & Teller, Alan Greenspan (PBUH) and Michael Crichton – and most of them are right of centre.

But anyhow, there are some very good sites on there. One that I’d recommend right now is: The Midwest Atheist (lots of audio and video). For more of them click on the ‘atheist blogroll‘ at the top of this page. If you are a kufar and looking for a home, you can join the blogroll here.

What’s atheist for ‘fatwa’?

I was reading the ‘Radical Muslim’ blog as I often do, and noticed that he had a list of ‘fatwa-worthy’ sites. Mine wasn’t listed there – though I wish it were. I was listed in recommended sites, which makes me think he hasn’t read this blog too carefully.

Right so what kinds of sites are ‘fatwa-worthy’?

[from Radical Muslim]…We must stop these sites that contain writings that slander Islam, to detail and criticise national and global conflict, poverty, injustice, oppression, the Far Right and the BNP, Zionism, the War on Terror, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the illegal occupation and oppression of Palestine, the slaughter in Sudan and the persecution of Muslims and the current war on Islam.

Therefore I call on all transgressors to stop publishing anti-Islamic pictures, articles and blasphemous publications against Allah (SWT) and His prophet, Muhammad (SAW).

Two can play at this game. We atheists need a term of some kind, equivalent to ‘fatwa’. I don’t want to just call it ‘atheist fatwa’ that’s derivative. How about fatuus. It’s the Latin root for fatuous – i.e. ’supid’ or ‘insane’. The direct translation would be foolish or insipid. Fatuus can be used to deliniate sites that are balls-out, bat-shit insane.

So, what should we call a fatuus on? Let me borrow a little here:

We must stop these sites that contain writings that slander Atheism and Secularism, to detail and criticise national and global conflict, poverty, injustice, oppression, Crypto-Fascists of the Left and Right, Islamism, the War on Freedom in Europe, the 2001 Declaration of War on the West, the illegal occupation and oppression of people everywhere, including in the Western Sahara and Kurdistan, the slaughter in Sudan and the persecution of atheists, apostates, freethinkers and gays.

Therefore I call on all transgressors to stop publishing anti-Atheist or anti-Secularist pictures, articles and to stop publishing irrational publications.

So – who’s first?

I’m in Vancouver, so let me start at home. That picture is from a site run by a woman in West Vancouver named Bev Kennedy. It’s a hate site called Jihad Unspun. Among other things, it features slide shows that glorify terrorists and glorify the killing of the ‘kuffar’. The ‘kuffar’ is translated as ‘deniers’ or in other words, ‘atheists’.

I declare fatuus on Bev Kennedy, Jihad Unspun and on Google News for choosing Jihad Unspun as one of the sites they index for “News”.

I may also declare a fatuus on myself for being a hypocrite and looking into filling a hate speech complaint against the site.

Any other sites fatuus-worthy? Or any other BC Atheists interested in joining me in filling the complaint against Bev Kennedy?

Again? Mooching hippies…

From a Rabble email:

Dear Friend:

We urgently need your help. Our rouse re-launch campaign drive will be
ending soon, but we have decided to extend it by one more week, with the
draw of our fabulous prizes being held on Wednesday July 17th (though of
course we will always accept the generous support of our visitors). We
still need to raise approximately $12,000 dollars to meet our on-line
fundraising goal and to move significantly forward in bringing more
voices, views and interaction to rabble.ca. You can contribute right now
by making a secure donation at www.rabble.ca/donate.

I can dize alone?

I can has cheezburger, I can has cheezburger, I can has cheezburger, I HATE I can has cheezburger…

All business

Someone gave me a brilliant business idea last week involving the Middle East and sacks of cash.  I’ve been working on that a lot and so not blogging much.  I’m going to be doing some more of that the next few days – contacting people in Saudi, Kuwait, Dubai etc… – to see if this is workable.  If so, then it’d be an income boost of about $100,000 per year.

I have experience in the Middle East, pre 9-11 I lived and worked in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis.  After that I spent a few months in the Sinai.  I looked into going to Alexandria post 9-11, but decided it was mental.  In my last job in Toronto I did a lot of business with the Middle East and was able to build a few good, relevant contacts with Saudi Aramco – the owner of all of Saudi Arabia’s oil.

$100,000 per year extra would mean that I could spend much more time in Central Canada and Europe.  I also used to live in Milan, and I love the city of Como, on the Swiss border.  That money would mean that I could take a flat there for a month or so each year.

As far as I can tell, blogging doesn’t pay much – and it certainly doesn’t pay for an Italian villa.  So you’ll excuse me for a mo’.

Just posting links for the moment.

I’m a stupid head

I take a lot of grief. Just look at the comments on this blog – about 50% are people calling me an ass, or a racist, or an anti-semite, a fundamentalist etc… It’s nothing compared to the emails I get. There are even a few places where people are threatening me. Super.

My goal is to get a nice fatwa against me by some nutter cleric in Pakistan or the Sudan – that’d be fantastic. Until that day comes, I’ll rest with this one – it’s representative of the quality of criticism I take right now. It’s from my atheism wish on the CBC Facebook Page. I’ve since abandoned the group and unambiuopusly dissasociate myself from it and especially its supporters. But nevertheless, I like this one:

“Patrick Mott (Toronto, ON) wrote

at 6:57pm on June 21st, 2007

Shut up whoever made this wall, you may have your religouis views but do NOT try to make people atheist beacause your accomplishings nothing, wait you accomplished you……. are……..a……. STUPID IDOIT!!!!!!
Thank you I rest my case!!!!”

Put me in my place. Quality burn that is.

MILF’s bring Philippinos to their knees

Just posting links for now … doing research and interviewing a few people for a longer piece that I’m submitting to a journal.

For now:

Take a look at the fruits of negotiation, compromise and taking a law and order approach to terrorism: the government of the Philippines is preparing to surrender more territory to MILF. What’s MILF? Mujahideen I’d Like to Fu… oh what, sorry, no, it’s Moro Islamic Liberation Front:

The MILF was founded by Salamat Hashim, who advocated a conservative, Wahhabist-influenced brand of Islam developed during his time as a student in Saudi Arabia and Cairo. Salamat, like many in the MILF, adapted the words of Qutb to call for “jihad in the Moroland” against “the colonial Philippine occupation armies” who he accused of crimes against Muslims in the region. Salamat died in July 2003, and was replaced as Chairman of the MILF by Al Haj Murad Ebrahim.

More on MILF

Read more on the surrender here