The word from Typepad is that I need to help “train” their new spam filter, by which they mean using their new tool that allows me to surf through everything the filter flags as spam, selecting all of the legitimate comments and republishing them while confirming the spamminess of all the actual spam and deleting those comments, screen by screen. TypePad also reminded me that TPS reports now need to use the standard cover sheet. Apparently there was a memo.... Read more
The Good News: Typepad has revamped it’s spam filters for comments. The Bad News: It’s now classifying lots of legitimate comments as spam — sort of the spam-filter equivalent of lupus. I’m trying to figure out what I can do to tweak this. They’ve changed the comment-editing interface (unannounced and without instructions), so I’ll see if I can navigate that to make this work better. My apologies for the infuriating inconvenience (particularly to those of you whom Typepad seems especially... Read more
To fully appreciate the perspective, values and standards of “Movieguide,” consider this: They present an annual award called the Faith & Values Crystal Teddy Bear Award for Dedication to Redeeming the Values of the Mass Media of Entertainment. Last year, a Special Lifetime Faith & Values Crystal Teddy Bear Award for Dedication to Redeeming the Values of the Mass Media of Entertainment was given to Pat Boone. I don’t know if they refer to this as the F&VCTBADRVMME for short,... Read more
Steve S. e-mails this nugget from Zev Chafets’ New York Times Magazine profile of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee: The governor was especially happy that morning about an impending endorsement he expected (and received the following day) from Tim LaHaye, the author of the apocalyptic Left Behind series of novels. Left Behind is wildly popular among evangelicals, who have bought more than 65 million copies, making LaHaye a very rich man and one of the few writers who is also... Read more
Left Behind, pp. 367-377 Rayford Steele has taken Hattie Durham aside for a lecture about sex, sin, God and the end of the world. This will not be an argument or a dialogue or even a conversation, he explains. He will do the talking and she will do the listening. Once he’s done talking, he will allow her to speak, but only once he’s done. One of my repeated complaints about this book is that it is not creepy enough.... Read more
A Christmas tradition: If you’re looking to download some good, free and legal holiday music follow this link any time between 12:01 a.m. Saturday and midnight Sunday to get your copy of “Seriously West Coast Vol. 2, Happy Holidays” from Nettwerk Music Group and The Vancouver Sun. It features Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies and plenty of other quality Can Con. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” Hem “Magic Snow Music,” Christophe Beck “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings,” Barenaked... Read more
Project Angel Tree is a Good Thing. Or it would be a Good Thing if the people running it would just get out of the way. The program, part of Charles Colson’s Prison Fellowship, collects and distributes Christmas presents for the children of prisoners. This is heartwarming and noncontroversial. It’s also a fine example of Matthew 25-style Christianity in action: “I was in prison and you came to visit me.” What’s not to like? Well, it turns out there’s a... Read more
Todd Pratt, Paul LoDuca and Todd Hundley (no surprise), but not Mike Piazza. Roger Clemens, the guy who threw a broken bat at Piazza during the 2000 World Series, was one of the 80+ players named in Sen. George Mitchell’s report on “The Illegal Use of Steroids and Other Performance Enhancing Substances by Players in Major League Baseball.” That list of names, Josh Peter writes, includes “an All-Star at every position.” Peters notes that a second investigation may produce additional... Read more
“Concern trolling” predates the Internet. Consider, for example, the “lifelong” letter to the editor. I’m sure if we dug through 19th-century newspaper archives, we’d find letters to the editor that begin, “As a lifelong member of the Whig Party …” and go on from there to express concern about and disapproval of all things Whiggish. This bit of duplicitous dirty-trickery probably dates back to Roman times. It wouldn’t surprise me if archaeologists found the first-century equivalent of a letter to... Read more
One more Romney-related post before moving on … I said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region? Or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879? Or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die heretic!” And I pushed him off the... Read more
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