Category: Blogs & Blogging

Catherine Seipp —

My 14-year-old blogger daughter got Instalanched last week, after she wrote about how her English teacher had ridiculed her in front of the class for writing an un-p.c. paper. I’ve heard what happens when the mighty Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds links you but never seen it up close, and it really is amazing: From 100 hits a day (typical for a teenager’s blog) to 100 an hour, with links to dozens of other blogs and almost 200 posted comments from Edinburgh to Auckland.

A new blog from Dan Froomkin at washingtonpost.com bears watching if the current first line is any indication: “Dental records are typically used to identify the dead.”

Thanks to Jas for the link.

CJR Campaign Desk, a fine group blog from Columbia Journalism Review, today launched “a brief, daily summary of notable commentary from the political blogosphere.” NewMexiKen provides the debut post in full.

The president’s Sunday interview with Tim Russert on NBC’s “Meet the Press” is the big issue in the blogosphere, and no one seems overly impressed with either participant.

Josh Marshall excoriates Tim Russert for not following up when the president declared that he had released all of his military records in 2000. It’s fair to say Marshall wasn’t blown away by the president’s performance.

Andrew Sullivan comments charitably on the administration’s “simple exhaustion factor. They’ve been thru an awful lot; they’re tired out; and it’s beginning to show.” Makes you wonder what the president would look like if he hadn’t grabbed some zzzz’s (google cached page) during the Superbowl halftime show.

David Adesnik on Oxblog points out that Russert’s questions, “while relatively tough … [were] also relatively predictable. How much you wanna bet that Bush’s prep team asked him almost exactly the same questions in their rehearsals for the Russert interview?”

Matthew Iglesias has got the goods on the questions Russert should have asked. And Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler asks, “What became of Bulldog Tim? That ‘dog’ didn’t bark, hunt or slobber.”

Calpundit has a document purporting to show that Bush was transferred to a Colorado-based National Guard unit in 1972 as a disciplinary action. Unsurprisingly, it raises more questions than it answers.

On the Kerry beat, Mickey Kaus continues to cling to the hope that the Massachusetts senator will lose. There’s “still plenty of time for feet to cool” on Kerry, he tells us, but even Kaus seems to have trouble buying his own arguments.

And Ryan Lizza, writing on his New Republic weblog Campaign Journal, convincingly dispels the notion that Edwards hasn’t gone negative on Kerry because he doesn’t want to damage his chances for the Number 2 spot. Rather, says Lizza, it’s because Edwards first needs to knock Clark and Dean out of the race and set up a head-to-head with Kerry. Then he’ll come out swinging.

—Zachary Roth

Jimmy Carter writes about his trip to Africa.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are traveling in West Africa Feb. 2-7, 2004, on behalf of The Carter Center. The purpose of their trip is two-fold: to call international attention to the need to eliminate the last 1 percent of Guinea worm disease remaining in the world and to launch the Development and Cooperation Initiative, a multiyear effort to help reduce poverty in Mali.

Members of the general public can accompany President Carter virtually as President Carter “blogs,” or publishes regular journal entries from the field. Reports will be posted as they are received from President Carter, who will share his thoughts and feelings during his journey in West Africa.

had 52 visits Saturday.

NewMexiKen has gone commercial. Purchases made at Amazon.com through the link on this web site will result in a small payment to me.

Thank you for your support.

NewMexiKen has had visitors from 10 11 different time zones today.

Nominated as best-designed weblogs for 2004 are:

• Brookelyn.org
• Sixfruit6: Daily Servings
• Kitta.Net
• What Do I Know
• SimpleBits

NewMexiKen would be interested in comments on these designs.

2004 marks the Fourth Annual Weblog Awards and the nominees were announced yesterday. If you don’t have time to visit the site, don’t worry. NewMexiKen will glean all the highlights for you starting with the nominees for best weblog tagline:

• Mighty Girl: “Famous among dozens”
• The Art of Rhysisms: “Stealing traffic cones from the Information Superhighway since 2002”
• C:\PIRILLO.EXE: “Getting screwed while everybody else is getting laid”
• Sabrina Faire: “All the fun of a saucy wench, none of the overpriced beer”
• Tenth-Muse.com: “Fabulous since 1973, blogging since 2003, drinking since noon”

NewMexiKen is thinking “Half Wisdom, Half Whimsy, Half Wit” wasn’t half bad.

An addiction is an addiction. NewMexiKen will play it by ear while in recovery.

Can’t decide whether or how to do NewMexiKen differently — or whether to continue doing it at all.

Perhaps it’s just necessary to take a week or two break every 2-3 months. I don’t know.

But until the muse returns, NewMexiKen will be on sabbatical.

Suggestions, ideas, etc. all welcome.

Lileks has a good read today — his family in Scottsdale.

The Truth Laid Bear posted Weblog Traffic Rankings this morning. Below are the top 25 (1,821 sites are listed).

Traffic statistics via SiteMeter
Ecosystem ranking is provided in ()

1) Instapundit 88612 visits/day (1)
2) Daily Kos / Political State Report 49949 visits/day (5)
3) Eschaton (Atrios) 47584 visits/day (3)
4) Gizmodo : The Gadgets Weblog 39759 visits/day (226)
5) Blog for America 33746 visits/day (41)
6) Smirking Chimp 26324 visits/day (186)
7) CalPundit 17699 visits/day (8)
8) The Volokh Conspiracy 10840 visits/day (10)
9) filchyboy 10391 visits/day (4482)
10) Tom Tomorrow 8342 visits/day (27)
11) Dave Barry’s Blog 7910 visits/day (70)
12) Talk Left 6987 visits/day (21)
13) Pandagon 6602 visits/day (48)
14) Wizbang 6572 visits/day (11)
15) Scrappleface 6167 visits/day (31)
16) The Scrolldown 5976 visits/day (2332)
17) Blogcritics 5736 visits/day (68)
18) BuzzMachine 5645 visits/day (33)
19) Kim du Toit 5265 visits/day (67)
20) ZuDfunck’s BloG 5242 visits/day (4372)
21) Brad DeLong 4810 visits/day (30)
22) Citizen Smash 4708 visits/day (53)
23) Stone 4537 visits/day (1580)
24) TBogg 4240 visits/day (71)
25) Anti-Idiotarian Rotweiler 4135 visits/day (29)

It appears by the way, that NewMexiKen would be around 1,200th with 23 visits/day currently.

is looking for recommendations for web sites you think other readers of this site might enjoy or otherwise find interesting or useful. Please make your suggestions in Comment(s).

Mickey Kaus: “Caen wrote a long column six days a week–i.e., he was practically doing it 24/7, just like a blogger. … Caen’s product looked like a blog. It mixed personal tidbits with gossip with serious politics, like a blog. It just came on paper. … Sometimes it even had on-rushing velocity!”

10. Cubic grandchildren take three times more maintenance than regular flat ones.

9. Now that he’s retired he can’t afford a Halloween costume so he has to make his own.

8. Secretly working on Tuesday Morning Quarterback submissions.

7. Now that New Mexico is back on Standard Time he has one hour less daylight to work with every day.

6. He fell into a Memory Hole and can’t get back out.

5. Absent-mindedly missed one answer during a millisecond he was thinking about getting a dog.

4. He was out buying clothes pegs to attempt a new world record.

3. Too busy sweeping up clay kitten shards in backyard.

2. iTunes!

And the number one reason NewMexiKen scored below his Impressive average on the latest edition of The Week Quiz; actually all of his answers were correct but the solar flares corrupted them before they could be submitted.

Thanks to — you guessed it — Lee.

“I really enjoy the very eclectic nature of your site. One never knows what one will find there.”

— Lee

Yeah, but is NewMexiKen fair and balanced?

Just in case you haven’t figured it out. It’s New MexiKen, like New Mexican, only with a pun using my name, Ken.

Amazing. Yesterday’s fine September 11 piece by James Lileks was simply something he came up with after he accidentally deleted an earlier effort.

And I had nothing. I just looked at the screen for fifteen minutes. This never happens to me. I can always write something. Doesn’t mean it’s good – but as I’ve said, in this trade you have to write when called upon to do so; it’s how you pay the rent. But I wasn’t being called upon. There wasn’t any deadline. No editor would be annoyed if I didn’t write anything, no paycheck would be cast in jeopardy. I wrote a 9/11 column for Newhouse last week, and wrote about the subject earlier this week. The spleen had been vented. For a few minutes I thought, great: September 11 is turning into an essay-writing contest. Well, count me out.

I had a drink, smoked a third of the tiny evil cigars I favor, then wrote what I posted yesterday. I’m glad I put the piece up, as some folks seemed to like it.

Read the result here. Read today’s essay here.