It happened again not 15 minutes ago. My wife and I were watching the “Tonight Show” with Leno when Vince Neil of Motley Crue, while singing their hit song, “Girls, Girls, Girls” shouted, “Happy f*&$%@g new year!”

My eyes just about popped out of my head (which, by the way hurts!), my jaw fell open, and I looked over at my wife on the couch and said, “did that guy just use the “f” word?” “Yes he did!” she replied.

At which point I chuckled. NBC had just let Vince Neil of Motley Crue shout the “f” word out to a national audience that ranks in the millions of viewers!

This is, no doubt, a developing story…

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

Viewpointjournal.com service transition!

In case you haven’t noticed, my site looks a bit different right now. And I’m very excited about it.

Through Blogcritics.org, a blogger’s forum where I post on a fairly regular basis, I learned of a new service called Elegant Webscapes, a service that works with bloggers like myself to design and/or redesign websites in general and blogs in particular. I have been seeking a good design service for a while and so, after doing some research on the service and their clients, I felt I had finally hit upon the right service.

Not only that, Elegant Webscapes is affiliated with a hosting service, Blogs About Hosting, which I chose to go with as well. So, as you can see, I’ve already begun my transition. The new site design will take 5-7 business days, but I’ll continue to post as normal before, during, and after the new look is applied.

If you read back through some of my old posts, all of which were transferred to my new service at no extra cost, you’ll see some of the links and text are showing their tags. That’s because my old blogging system, pMachine, has the annoying habit of creating non-standard HTML tags. My new service uses WordPress, which, thank goodness, sticks to the tried and true HTML language.

So, please pardon the dust as construction continues on my new site. I’ve been incredibly impressed with the service provided by both Elegant Webscapes and Blogs About Hosting and I think you’ll like the new look and feel, as well as the new features once everything is complete. Once everything is complete, I’ll post a message on the whole experience which, at this point, has been a breeze.

Thanks for your patience and I look forward to hearing your comments on the redesign once it is complete.

Regards,

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

Okay, so, as usual, I was reading the Opinionjournal.com’s Best of The Web Today, edited by columnist and author James Taranto, and I happened upon this story:

Jeff Morrissette, an “organizer” for the far-left group MoveOn.org’s California chapter, claims to have discovered the Roe effect before we did. In an article titled “Red Babies, Blue Babies, Liberals Need to F— More” (the link, which uses the actual obscenity in the headline–so be warned–is here), Morrissette says that “in casual conversation over the last decade or so I have been putting forth the theory that domination by cultural and religious conservatives is going to increase in coming generations simply by the fact that they are breeding faster”

After reading this blurb, I decided to follow the link and read the whole article. I noticed that the site Moveoncalifornia.com is calling Morrissette’s article “satire.” Here is how Dictonary.com defines the word “satire”:

sat�ire Audio pronunciation of “satire” ( P ) Pronunciation Key (str)
n.

1. A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.
2. The branch of literature constituting such works. See Synonyms at caricature.
2. Irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity.

Alright, that works for me, but I’m just not sure what Morrissette is satirizing; the fact that conservatives have more babies, or that liberals have less? Is it “folly,” “vice,” or “stupidity” to value family in general and children in particular, or is he referring to his fellow liberals who seem to be selecting themselves for exctinction?

Don’t know about you, but I know which side I would rather fall on.

Personally, I think Morrissette’s article proves two key points that conservatives have been emphasizing in recent months:

1. Democratic leaders and hard-line liberals in general are completely clueless on the subject of values.

2. Liberals like Morrissette have no idea of what a family is all about.

Here’s a clue, it’s not about f—–g! Creating and nuturing a family is about love, committment, and selflessness. First of all, the whole process of pregnancy is miraculous, and a journey unto itself. After your children are born, life changes completely.

And not just because your kids demand your full-time attention, but also because you love them with a deep and abiding love that motivates you to try and make the world a better place for them. I was talking to my new boss today (who used to be my old boss, but that’s a different story), and she was telling me how much she was loving being a grandmother. She said to me, “they just give me so much joy!” I nodded my head in complete understanding and I didn’t have to say a word; we both knew.

This past October, my mother passed away. During the weeks before her death in the hospital, she was surrounded by family. Her children, my father, her children’s spouses, even one of her grandchildren (though, technically, that was prohibited).

When she finally passed, we were all there, a cloud of loved ones. I held her hand as she moved from this life to the next, finally leaving behind the pain and suffering she had endured for so long.

And I realized then that, if I’m fortunate, someday I’ll have the same opportunty; to die with my loving family around me… Grateful for my life, sorrowful over my coming death, but ready and able to carry on in nurturing the next generation.

Here is the poem my family chose as part of the memorial service for my mom. We chose it because it so perfectly fit her view of life:
————————–

AFTERGLOW

I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one.
I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when day is gone.
I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy times, and bright sunny days.
I’d like the tears of those who grieve to dry before the sun, of happy memories that I leave when life is done.

—————————
My mom lived a life of incredible strength, and though she has passed on to her next life with her Lord, she left a host of loving children and grandchildren behind to carry on in her place. And for all you clueless liberals out there (of which Mr. Morrissette seems to be the self-nominated poster child), THAT is family!

With that said, it’s time for me to go and make sure my children are all tucked safely, securely, and warmly in their beds. Goodnight and God bless.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com

First of all, it’s so wonderful to see Ms. Noonan writing her syndicated column again! I love viewing the world through her words and appreciate the insight she brings with every article she publishes.

Ms. Noonan scored yet another direct hit in her most recent article, It’s Policy, Not Poetry, published yesterday on Opinionjournal.com. She aptly addresses an issue that seemed to confound so many Democratic leaders during this last election; the issue of faith and religious values.

Many (not all) DNC leaders have spent the past several weeks expressing their confusion over this issue of “values.” The irony is, when you hear them speak on the topic, you can literally hear the quotation marks around that word. Here is their great mistake — which Ms. Noonan so aptly points out — while they do seem open to the “faith and religion” thing, they are not enthusiastic about it. When asked about issues of faith, morality, and values in general, their reply seems to be more along the lines of “whatever.”

President Bush, on the other hand, loves God. He doesn’t love his faith, or the idea of faith, he loves God. And to those of us who also love God, whether Jew, or Christian, or Muslim, we hear the sincerity of his words when he tells us that our prayers “uplift him,” and strengthen him.

When Senator Kerry spoke on this issue, he constantly reiterated that it was not for him to “impose” his moral values on anyone else. He might just as well have said, “yeah, whatever,” when asked about issues of faith and religion.

We are not asking elected officials to “impose” any given set of values on America, we are asking them to help prevent secularists from imposing THEIR values on America. We are asking them to uphold the principles of the Constitution, not undermine them in the name of political correctness.

At the very least, stop watching from the sidelines while liberal judges reinterpret the Constitution in an effort to sterilize society from all religion and faith. Stop defending the rights of the few to impose their secular faith upon the vast majority of Americans. We Americans treasure our freedom of religion and expression and we have no intention of confining our beliefs to a dark closet somewhere in our homes.

To those with whom faith and religion are important, this is a no-brainer. To many (not all) leaders within the Democratic Party, however, it seems as obscure and symbolic a language as ancient Egyptian Heiroglyphics… Yeah, whatever!

John Fund, of [url=http://www.wsj.com]The Wall Street Journal[/url] and author of [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1594030618/qid=1102979154/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-3658914-8404038?v=glance&s=books&n=507846]Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy[/url] wrote an [url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110006018]insightful article today[/url] regarding the growing influence of the blogosphere and its effects on the November elections. I think it meshes nicely with my concept of the blogosphere as being a type of [url=http://www.viewpointjournal.com/comments2.php?id=P122_0_1_0_C]Open Source Media[/url]. Fund’s comments echo my own thoughts regarding the blogosphere, mainly that this new OSM can become more influential and interactive with the mainstream and new medias and can serve as a “watchdog for the watchdog:”

South Dakota Republicans decided that the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, which dominates the state’s media since it’s the only paper with a statewide circulation, was hopelessly biased in favor of Mr. Daschle. “The ability to use the Internet to circumvent concentrated media power became a 21st-century updating of 19th-century Dakota populism,” says John Lauck, a history professor at the University of South Dakota who was allied with Mr. Thune. Mr. Lauck and several of his friends collaborated on blogs that constantly reminded voters of contradictions between Mr. Daschle’s voting record and his statements in South Dakota, as well as the Argus Leader’s refusal to acknowledge them.

Thanks to Opinionjournal.com for [url=http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/responses.html?article_id=110006018]publishing my response[/url] to Fund’s insightful article.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com