I know, the exact opposite of what we push day-in and day-out.

For a good reason: Blogivists is moving from one server to another, and, as is the case with server-moves, there is the potentiality of data loss if users attempt to blog during the transition. Meaning… that 1am post you’ll spend the better part of your Friday night putting up? – gone, for naught.

So, why the server-move, right? Good question. Consider it a major tune-up. It’ll increase the stability and accessibility of the site. And that’s a good, no – great thing!

So the short end of it is: DON’T BLOG at any point during the move, beginning Friday (1/23) at 10pm CST and ending Saturday (1/24) at 10pm CST.

Yes, a full 24 hours. Instead, watch a movie, read a book, or go out with your friends.

We’ll see you back here Saturday night!

If you use Internet Explorer, you are probably aware that video does not show up properly on your blog. Even if you don’t use it though, your readers using IE still can’t see the embedded video.

After weeks and weeks of intensive troubleshooting, The Blogivists Team has figured out how to make video appear on the Internet Explorer browser. Finally!

So let’s begin…

On step 5 of the original tutorial, I mention that one can revert back to the “Visual” viewer after embedding in “HTML”. While, of course, you have the ability to do so, you should not. Not if you want your readers using Internet Explorer to be able to see your video.

For some reason, Internet Explorer will not display video properly if, after embedding video, you switch back to the “Visual” viewer. The very act, that of switching viewers, corrupts the code for Internet Explorer. So instead of seeing video, anyone using Internet Explorer sees a blank, white box. Strange, I know.

Note: this is not a problem for anyone using Firefox (or any other browser, besides IE). These people will see video properly no matter how the author embeds code. However, given that a large percentage of the population still uses IE, it’s probably smart to always make adding-video your last step.

Here’s the step by step:

• Complete all work on your post.
• Embed the video and then click “Save” or “Publish”.
  
• If for any reason you need to go back and edit features of an old post, copy first and then cut the video code, re-pasting it into its previous position after all editing work is complete.

There you go! Here’s a video tutorial to demonstrate getting past the IE conundrum:

Now I don’t buy into the relativistic claim but, as it turns out, blogivists.com is ideologically diverse! I mean, don’t get me wrong – everyone here believes that government is, more often than not, the anti-solution but even so, there’s quite a bit of variety here when it comes down to the specifics.

To demonstrate, let’s look at the past couple months. I’ll name a few issues and give you a couple pro and con posts from within the Blogivists community. Hot dawg!

(Man-made) Global Warming

Pro:

• projectpetition is pure HORSESHIT! – The Midnight Rider (7/10)
• Breaking Down the Global Warming “Debate – The Midnight Rider (8/06)

Con:

• Man-made Global Warming Consensus Disintegrating – Principle Over Party (7/17)
• Change the Climate Change Debate: Reality is not a Democracy – Extremism in Defense of Liberty (8/08)

Open Borders

Pro:

• GET THEM OUT: Border Jumpers Ruining Our Economy – Liberty is for me (7/7)

Con:

• Hispanosupremacists Infiltrate Evangelical Movement – The Epistolizer (7/12)
• Libot Media, Always On The Side of Illegals – Malignant Liberal Idiocy (8/17)

English as the National Language

Pro:

• Does Anyone Speak English Anymore – In my right mind (7/9)

Con:

• On Liberty, Ideology, and some R-E-S-P-E-C-T – Pragmatically Political (7/10)

Bob Barr

Pro:

• Bob Barr is my homeboy – Nicky Cheese (5/26)
• “McCain fundraiser” – Standard of Living (6/27)

Con:

• Why Bob Barr is NOT your homeboy – Pragmatically Political (6/29)

The Republican Party

Pro:

• The Republican Brand is not Dead – Free Thought for Self-Restrained Minds (7/17)

Con:

• GOP collapse: Should we groan or cheer? – Eric O’Keefe (5/19)
• Limited government no more – The Silent Majority (6/18)
• More signs that Republicans still suck – Eric Odom (7/29)

There you go. And that’s just off the top of my head. Really! So, what I’m getting at here is: with a more thorough internal investigation, we could probably apply for some kind of government subsidy…

Haha. Just kidding! I think that’s one specific we’re unanimously against.

Cheers…to truth and liberty!

What do I mean? Folks, we’re getting press. Exposure. Publicity.

Quite a bit came from the promotional work the Blogivists Team did at last weekend’s RightOnline. (While I’m on the subject, check out Eric Odom’s write-up of the event). The team must have really come out swinging because blogivists.com got mentions here, here, here and here. And that last one? The New York Times political blog. Zing!

Yes, and not only did we get some good press, we got some new Blogivists on board too. Arguably the most enthusiastic? The Militiaman, who wrote 7 posts in just 3 days.

Of course, it’s not just a one-way street. You guys are procuring publicity too.

The Illinois chapter of Americans For Prosperity sent out some snail mail, an e-newsletter, and – if that weren’t enough – a press release regarding The Pork Report and its “Pork Project A Day”.

And, unequivocally the most exciting news yet, the following post by E!! True Conservative got picked up by Politico! Check it out (third paragraph for the mention) and give E!! some made props:

As newspapers everywhere bemoan the loss of advertising revenue, campaigns know where recent college graduates looking for jobs head first. Click on nonprofit job listings on Craigslist in virtually any swing state and you’ll be assaulted with appeals for paid canvassers.

The only catch: If you care for a job in Republican politics, you may have to look elsewhere.

As first noticed by the Nevada-based E!! blog, Democratic campaigns are going out of their way to find new staffers. Recent Craigslist postings in the Silver State, from the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org under the headline “Field Organizers and Campaign Staff Needed to Beat McCain!”, sit alongside advertisements in the Las Vegas Review-Journal seeking canvassers for the Nevada State Democratic Party…

Well alright! Now whoever said that blogging was a pointless activity?

Counterpoint. Checkmate. QED!

Let’s examine…

Firstly, the obvious. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court affirmed an individual’s (as opposed to just the collective) right to keep and bear arms. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Defense Mechanism, the point person for all-things-2nd Amendment, was first on the scene. Of course, I have to give it up to The Midnight Ride, who had a comprehensive four part series – yes: 1, 2, 3, 4 – on the matter. Check ‘em out.

Secondly, the “millionaire’s amendment” – a campaign-finance loophole that gives candidates running against self-funding millionaires the ability to raise more money – was invalidated by SCOTUS. In Campaign Finance Laws Suck, The Midnight Ride recognizes the goodness of said decision. But hey – you know it, I know it, he knows it – the battle doesn’t end there:

What SHOULD happen is we should just eliminate all campaign finance laws and let people give however much they want to whoever they want. I mean really this country was founded on principles of liberty, why shouldn’t people be free to give what they want to who they want?

Thirdly, there exists A Powerful, Freethinking Woman-Unlike Hillary Clinton! Any guesses on who the woman in question is? Anyone, anyone? Standard of Living gives us the answer: Alaskan governor Sarah Palin. Yes, a surprisingly vocal grassroots campaign to get a McCain/Palin ticket has erupted on the internet and, as I’ve come to learn, Blogivists is not the exception. Many of you guys, in fact, are actively producing the buzz. The Midnight Ride even changed his tagline to read “Sarah Palin: Yes She Can”. Bordering on the mildly obsessive if you ask me…be sure to ask him when the release date for “I Got a Crush…On Palin” is.

Granted, not all news can be good news. The Illinois-centric Pork Report, with their daily Pork Barrel Project of the Day thread, has plenty of headache-inducing, non-good news.

But, allow me, for one day, to willfully ignore the bad and celebrate the good. You do know what qualifies as good and what as evil, correct?