From the category archives:
I don’t have time to blog it now, but I have a BIG post planned about this. (More stories)
I intend to make a serious confession, and I hope that you, my friends of over two years, will understand. Watch this space for updates.
Fakery blogging, etc.: Michelle Malkin (and here), Overlawyered, Fear the Reaper! (excellent journalism)…
Unrelated Update: While you’re waiting for my paradigm-shifting confession, give me your lists. Perfect for fans who’re bored at work.
I said I wouldn’t update the blog until tomorrow, but what do I know?
It’s ironic that I’m in the city of philia, a city I had no love for when I spent three years here as a broke, drunk, underachieving law student. Seems like another lifetime.
The only bright spot was clerking during the summers for a hilariously nasty, old-school, prosecution-leaning criminal court judge. I loved when he’d yell at grown men who dared enter his courtroom wearing a hat, with his booming voice ricocheting against the walls. I don’t care how “street” or sophisticated the men were. They were all humbly embarrassed.
I’m in a hotel across from the gothic City Hall building that houses that courtroom. While I was there, I could pretend to be a serious law student in my little suits, sitting at a desk near the judge. Then came graduation, failed bar exams, running home to mother, and more drinking. By the grace of God, I didn’t hit “bottom” or continue drinking too many years beyond that. I’ll be sober nine years this March. (See A Sobering Truth)
Philadelphia is not a bad place; I just have a bad association with it. And the southerner in me finds it too big, too tall, and too dirty. Washington, D.C., with its southern flavor and building height limit, is just enough city for me. Thanks for reading this stream-of-consciousness post. Do you realize some people blog like this all the time? 
Other Justice Sunday III bloggers: Charmaine Yoest, Ed Morrissey, Stacy Harp, and RightWingSparkle.
Update: Read about the conference and view photos.
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Muslim Scholars denounces accusations against Syria
uh, am I crazy or is muslim scholar an oxymoron
Woman in France Receives World’s First Face Transplant
now if they could only master the "soul" transplant, then we’d be getting somewhere
Hamas Leader Says His Group Won’t Renew Truce After Palestinian Elections: Attacks
Must Accompany Political Process -
uh, what’s a truce?
Teddy"I can swim she can’t" Kennedy’s Spirited moment
Kerry’s comeback
The New ‘Fake but Accurate’
"Some climate experts have said the potential cooling of Europe was paradoxically consistent with global warming caused by the accumulation of heat-trapping ‘greenhouse’ emissions."–New York Times,
Dec. 1
‘It Is Unclear Whether the Anonymous Quotes Are Authentic’
"As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq," claims a story in the Los Angeles Times. More here
Direct contradiction by the global warming crowd inside of 24 hours on whether Europe is going to freeze or melt… and who cares anyway if the Islamofascists have the run of the place? See: "100% Chance of We Don’t Know"
A new American credit card allows holders to donate money to Israeli causes with every purchase. Where do I sign?
Photo credit: Corante
hmmmmmmmm, Pamela aka Atlas
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Last Saturday marked the second year I’ve been blogging. I was too busy with my 20th high school reunion to notice. What can I say? It’s been a great ride.
While I consider myself a pure blogger, one who enjoys (and in my case, craves) the act of blogging itself, I must say that I’m happy with LBC’s success, including the writing and speaking opportunities that resulted from the time and energy I’ve put into maintaining this site.
My first post, an op-ed called Life on the Old Plantation, got the ball rolling. Pretty soon the column-writing took a backseat to the blog. There was a time I actually felt guilty for “neglecting” my column and “playing” around with this blogging thing. Since then, LBC has generated readers (and new friends!), money, and benefits I’d never imagined. To name a few:
— Conference speaking (BlogNashville, Young America’s Foundation, GodBlogCon, etc.)
— Radio Interviews (and TV)
— TV appearances (first MSNBC appearance – nervous!)
— Senior Contributor for Pajamas Media
You can read more on the About and Writings pages. I’ve written so many posts I’m proud of, so it would be difficult to highlight certain ones. If you have the time, browse the Faith, Race Preferences, Child Killing, and Media Bias categories.
I’m hard at work today on a project, and LBC is the reason. That means I’m working and celebrating at the same time. 
Thanks for reading LBC!
Related posts:
Update (11/9): The Commissar celebrates, too.
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Finally, after a year and nine months of blogging, I’ve received over 1,000,000 unique visitors. (Does this mean I can stop now?)
Actually, I signed up with Site Meter a year and three months ago, so that’s over 1,000,000 unique visitors in the past year and three months. Not bad. Thanks, readers! Let’s try for 1,000,000 more!
There are greater, there are lesser, but I’m grateful to you for the daily/weekly/monthly visits and the time you spend at LBC. According to my blog stats, there are 1,118 posts and 33,602 comments. That’s a lot of blogging and discussing.
Related:
(PS: The post title is from a song by which band?)
Update: Silly me. I’m on my second Site Meter account. In May 2004, a server crashed, and I lost about 8,000 stats. I made a note on the account so I’d remember. That means since I started blogging (or thereabouts), I’ve had over 1,008,000 unique visitors. I hit the milestone maybe a week-and-a-half ago. Oh, well.
Not that I care about mere numbers, of course…
Update (8/17): Wonderful comments, everyone. You’re the tops!
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This weekend I added/deleted/rearranged a few things on the site. Updated pages (you guys are great proofreaders):
I added a site navigation section to the left sidebar to include comment and e-mail policies. Very important for new readers. I’m also working on a “favorite posts” page that will provide links to 20 or so posts arranged by topic. I’ve covered a wide variety of topics more than once, and I don’t like to reinvent the microchip every time someone finds my site through a Google search and/or asks my opinion on an issue I’ve blogged ad nauseam.
The archives go back to November 2003, but new readers (and some long-time readers) don’t have the time or interest to read old posts or at least do a search to find out if I’ve blogged about an issue before. Having to repeat myself is a pet peeve.
So don’t make me repeat myself. It’s a pet peeve.
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Every now and then I have to deal with a barrage of criticism over something I’ve written. During these times, my Ecosystem ranking increases, and traffic spikes. I find it slightly irritating yet fascinatingly fun that I can generate such blogospheric heat with a few strokes of the keyboard. Check Technorati and you’ll find new blog posts complaining about the same old stuff. It comes in waves.
I’m presently in the middle of wave brought on by the Koran post. Once people understand that no matter what they say or write, I’ll continue blogging the way I want and won’t tone down the message, they usually go away in a few days.
Sometimes a high-profile liberal blogger will link to a post, castigating me personally, and on occasion, the actual arguments in the post, and their minions scurry out of the woodwork to tug on my cape. Consequently, I have to deal with trolls and various bloggers and their trite ad hominem. It’s boring and predictable.
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Over three weeks ago, I quit the day job. I wanted to give you a quick update on what I’m doing. During the first two weeks of self-employment, I had to prepare for two speaking engagements. One was for monetary compensation, but both paid in Christian fellowship, personal and professional contacts, and confirmation that risk-taking and adventure-seeking are worth the effort. Blogging has become a big part of my professional and personal life, and it’s a blessing to be paid to talk about something I enjoy.
Two days after returning from BlogNashville, I began clocking blog consulting hours. I consult for someone who helps business owners build better web sites and improve marketing strategies. One of the ways to do this is through the implementation of blogs. Business blogging is all the rage now.
I’m also doing some editing work at home, and believe it or not, I’m still not finished with the business web site. The blog consulting gig was an unexpected venture that’s turning out to be a very smart move, and I anticipate it will eventfully take up most of my time when I’m not blogging.
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(5/6) — Thank you for the birthday wishes, everybody!
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(Photos courtesy of Lucasfilm)
A long time ago, in a theater far, far away, an impressionable ten-year-old stared up at a movie screen filled with images of flying space machines and swords of light.
She was introduced to places she’d never seen before and not likely to see in real life, but she knew even at that age how awesome special effects of movie-making could lift her from the mundane world she inhabited to a faraway galaxy where Luke Skywalker and Han Solo would protect her from the evil Darth Vader and his minions.
When Star Wars came out in 1977, I saw it so many times, I’ve lost count. I don’t remember which friends were with me, but I know my two sisters were there. My “baby” brother was still in diapers, I think. It doesn’t matter. All I remember is the movie and how much I wished I lived in that exciting universe. I had crushes on Mark Hamill (who is still married to the wife of his youth) and Harrison Ford, and when The Empire Strikes Back came out, my crush on Billy Dee Williams was renewed.
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Last month I applied for a Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship. I was fed up with the 9-5, so I figured I’d take a chance and compete with professionals for a career-making fellowship that would support me while I wrote a book and added credibility to my role as a blogger aspiring to be a full time writer.
I was confident but realistic. When the rejection letter came, it wasn’t a big disappointment. I was a semifinalist, which is some consolation, considering I was up against actual journalists with years of professional experience.
I haven’t had time to dwell on it because for the next two-and-a-half weeks, my schedule is full. This week I’m working on a presentation for the World Journalism Institute conference in Atlanta this weekend. I’ll be speaking to a group of college students and journalists about Christians, journalism and blogging. Most of the other speakers are professional journalists, so I was honored to be invited.
The following weekend I’ll be in Nashville leading a faith-blogging session at BlogNashville, which is modeled after BloggerCon. I’m still thinking about the set-up, but I anticipate that it will be a roundtable discussion. Two days after that, I’m speaking at a blog consulting workshop about…you guessed it: blogging! At the same time, I’m running my editing business. Without advertising I managed to snag a client (who’s keeping me busy). Later this month I’ll work on the web site and start advertising for more clients.
I’m self-employed now. 
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Last month I blogged about quitting my day job, and I said my last day was sometime in April. This is the day! I’ve been working half days for about three weeks to help with the transition, and now I’m done. I’ll blog about it later.
While you wait, check out the Carnival of the Vanities and Carnival of Education.
By the way, the two Steves (Levitt and Sailer) graced my blog with their presence. They both left comments on the post “Steven Levitt Says Child Killing Reduces Crime” starting here.
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One of my “fans” e-mailed the other day to say I talked about myself too much. I was very proud of myself for not sending him a sarcastic answer. I hope he’s not reading this post because since I’m so me-oriented, I’m going to talk about myself some more.
Now about me. Real life, life offline, is kicking me in the pants. I’m working only half days at my day job, but the extra time I thought I’d have is quickly filling up. Blogging has taken a back seat, I’m sad to say. That will change in the next couple of weeks, I anticipate. I don’t know what happened over my 2-day blogging break, but the desire to keep up with everyone else, chase the link and obsess over traffic has dissipated somewhat. It’s probably just a phase, but I have a confession: I like the feeling.
I have a big Minuteman Project update post planned, as well as other happenings in the illegal alien arena. For instance, VA Governor Mark Warner just signed legislation denying public benefits, welfare, to illegal aliens. The post will also include links to other bloggers, so e-mail me if you’re blogging about this topic.
To my loyal readers and friends, thanks for hanging in there with me. Regular blogging will resume shortly.
Update: I think having photos of myself on the blog gives people a false sense of intimacy and familiarity. People begin to feel that they know me and can say anything to me. Positive comments are fine, but negative ones tend to cross the you-don’t-know-me-like-that line. I may remove them, experimentally at first, to see if anything changes.
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Update (3/24): This decision is a little scary. I thought I should mention that.
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I may as well let this cat out of the bag.
I’m working part time at my day job now, transitioning to no day job. I decided to give full time freelance writing and speaking another try. The first time I quit a job, I had no writing or public speaking experience and no idea what to expect, but I managed to sell a few pieces. Now I have numerous published clips, several I’m really proud of, and experience speaking to large groups (for money!). I’ve made editorial contacts, done radio, and I’m a “blogosphere reporter” for MSNBC.
I feel strongly that I need to strike while the iron is hot. I’ll be 38 years old in May (no spring chicken), and time is of the essence. Working full time, especially doing something you care little about, sucks up precious time and much-needed energy.
To keep my stress level low and maintain a little decorum, I won’t blog about my employer (not the DC government). The nature of the place is such that I’ve had to refrain from skewering D.C. government officials (clients of my employer, so to speak), something I’m itching to do. My last day will be sometime next month. After that, it’s no holds barred, baby. I’ve got over two years worth of pent-up frustration to release.
Sorry to have kept you interested readers waiting, but I’m still not ready to reveal the name of my home-based business because the web site’s not ready yet. Soon. I even have a client. I’ll also be doing some consulting work with a very enterprising young blogger.
Thanks to my half-day schedule, I’m on my way out the door. When I arrive home, I really should make the most of the time and blog, research or develop an article or two. But not today. Instead, I’ll spend this dark and rainy afternoon watching one of my favorite old movies, Mildred Pierce.
Related post: Help Me Name My Business
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Check out these blog showcases: The Carnival of Education, Carnival of the Vanities, Christian Carnival and as always, please visit Blogs for Terri…
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A writer at the American Prospect briefly mentioned me in her tirade against conservative bloggers. I was less concerned about what she said and more about the fact she didn’t link to my blog. After I e-mailed her, pointing out the oversight, she rectified the matter. I encouraged her to write about me as often as she liked because her readers need to know that outspoken conservative Christians, who happen to be black, exist.
I have only two requests: Don’t libel me and do link to me. I have no substantive commentary on Blogged Down, but if you do, by all means share it with us. Michelle Malkin links to reactions from others. Kevin Drum agrees with the article: conservative bloggers are bad. (Blackfive was interviewed for the article.)
I’m excited about blogging at the high traffic Vodkapundit next week. Stephen Green asked me to guest-blog while he’s on holiday with his lovely wife. Did I mention that Stephen was cool?
Note: If you’ve sent e-mail in the past few days, I will try my best to respond. In light of the new e-mail policy, many readers won’t hear from me, I’m sad to say. Too many e-mails and obligations, and too little time.
Update (9:46 p.m.): But I read every e-mail I receive!
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I knew I’d end up in Wikipedia one day. Unbelievable. And they spelled my name wrong. And they called me “African American,” which I’m not. I’m an American. Well, since it’s “open source,” I suppose I can make changes I don’t like. Strange to show up there, though.
Unrelated Update (8:08 p.m.): If you’re not tired of looking at me yet, tomorrow and Monday I’ll post pictures I took with Matt Margolis, Kevin McCullough, Deroy Murdock, Mike S. Adams and others mentioned in this post.
Update II (2/20): Did I fail to mention that I don’t want to be in the Wikipedia? That’s important to know. I appreciate you guys voting to keep my entry, but I’d prefer it be removed.
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