Monday, October 23, 2023
Is Gaza The World's Largest Open Air Prison?
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Alternatives To DuckDuck Go
Alas, the censoring disease has infected DuckDuck Go. I liked this search engine for the very fact that they WEREN'T shadow banning, censoring, or down ranking information based on mercurial criteria such as "disinformation." I'm old enough. I can find out news for myself.
And so I depart. My next port-of-call will probably be Brave. But alternative browser/search engines are available:
Brave https://brave.com/, Startpage https://www.startpage.com/, GIBIRU https://tinyurl.com/ymu4hrwb, Swisscows https://swisscows.com/?culture=en, Bitclave https://www.bitclave.com/, Qwant https://www.qwant.com/, Descrete Search https://www.discretesearch.com/.
For a comprehensive list, try this master site.
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Editing Diversity Pleases Chi Com Censors
Money talks and the LGBTQ walk as comic Ryan Long exposes Hollywood hypocrisy.
Thursday, October 01, 2020
Publishing . . . and Other Forms of Insanity and the Public Square
Erica Verrillo puts out a blog called Publishing. . . and Other Forms of Insanity. I like this blog. I look forward to it every month. As a writer, I appreciate this trove of writing and publishing information, updated regularly. I sold a short story last year thanks to a tip on Erica's blog.
But this month on page one, instead of publishers seeking unagented manuscripts or best places to have a crime novel reviewed, Erica chose to editorialize. (And why not? It's her blog.) As Erica prefaced in "Art Does Not Apologize . . . And Neither Do I":
Over the past three and a half years, I have gotten a number of comments regarding my critical stance on Trump, expressed mildly at the top of my blog with the statement: ". . . in the interest of protecting the 1st Amendment, she did not vote for Trump." I've been repeatedly admonished, sometimes with a great deal of anger, to "just stick to writing." Politics, I have been told, should have no place on my blog.
Erica chose to believe she was being told to mind her own business and not speak out. Erica then proceeded to speak out.
I think she may've missed the point her readers were making.
The cobbler who repairs your shoes under a banner proclaiming his political opinions is inviting comment. The sign outside might say, "Cobbler Shop. Shoes Fixed." It probably doesn't say, "Cobbler Shop. Shoes Fixed. Plus Free Political Opinions." You want your footwear resoled. The political opinion, then, feels gratuitous, since you entered the shop for one reason and found yourself subjected to question-begging statements that had nothing to do with your original business.
George Orwell wrote, "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
Erica is free to editorialize politically on a publishing blog.
Her readers are free to present their thoughts on such a mash-up.
If liberty is to mean anything at all.
Thursday, June 25, 2020
Cancel Culture Finally Explained
(Language warning.)
Featured Post
John P. McCann Sizzle Page
'Twas suggested I post a few episodes of my work in a pleasant spot. I've chosen here. Sadly, not everything I've written has y...
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Twice in the last eight years I've run the Santa Clarita 5k on Independence Day. Back in 2007 it was sizzling hot. Three years late...
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More memories from the boxes . Here's my life at Warner Bros. that year. Cleaned up my office after the Northridge earthquake rearranged...