I fully agree
- jimlouis 4-15-2003 6:45 am

Thanks to all of you for keeping me informed these days. Now if only I could wake up from this nightmare....
- steve 4-15-2003 9:37 am

i agree with steve on both points...
- Skinny 4-15-2003 5:11 pm

i agree w/ skinny on both points...
- bill 4-15-2003 5:40 pm

Thanks, Jim. I've learned a lot about blogging from reading and writing at dmt. And Dave's given me some great links and sidelinks to help round out the new page.

Is posting turned on for my WoWwS page? On editpage I set the flag to allow posting. When I come in as anon, post is not on the bottom menu. Is it on for people with accounts?

The cast-o-characters side-link-bar could turn into a major project by itself. I'm thinking about ways to make it easily extensible by multiple contributors, but I haven't come up with anything brilliant yet. Linked sub-pages with promiscuous posting might work, but I don't know how to reflect "new" status when content is added to a subpage. Ya gotta have a program to follow the game!

In a fantasy blog land, I would cross index the cast-o-characters to attributions in linked articles, so that a reader could find what Cheney or Rice or Bolton had to say at various times. But that would be hard.

The idea of a "Fear and Blogging On the Campaign Trail '04" page is very cool. There was a lot of shit that flew in under the radar in the summer of '00 that would serve as a good foundation for '04. The follow-the-dancing-objective story is ever more convoluted around the economy.
- mark 4-16-2003 12:45 pm

previous message deleted for review:>):>)
- Skinny 4-16-2003 3:30 pm

Props are also due to Big Jimmy for making smart and articulate arguments on the issue(s) we've been discussing here.

Mark, I added WoW to my front page in [subscriptions]; other tree-ers would presumably need to do the same. Also, you might take a look at that page in Netscape. I noticed some indentation issues in the left column that might show up in non-IE browsers (this is something I do periodically with my own page.)
- tom moody 4-16-2003 7:05 pm

Gag me utterly! Do you guys ever even look out the window? Excuse me, but all this crap can be found on at least a thousand other blogs. Rachael & Mr Wilson & Tom G & Jim Louis blow this second hand news rumination out the very window you should be looking. I think you all need a big dose of Syrian Rue in yer coffee. Sorry guys, but I get cruel in April. I wish the South had won the Civil War.
- frank 4-16-2003 7:25 pm

Mr Wilson is ALL-WAYS #1
- Skinny 4-16-2003 8:12 pm

We don't mind the cruelty, we'd just like some production occasionally. What can we put in your coffee?
- jim 4-16-2003 8:17 pm

Posting is on for everyone, but you're right, [post] doesn't show up at the bottom of the page. I never changed that code after I made it possible to open up posting like this. I'll fix that now.

Multiple editors of the side bar has come up before. I'm not sure what to do about this. I could make it happen, but there would be a potential problem in terms of versioning control. I avoided this by just not letting multiple people have access to the same [editpage] controls. Not sure what to do about this, but I'm thinking.

If we went with your idea of linked sub pages with promiscuous posting (I love that term) then maybe we'd need a mini version of the front page in the main War of Words left hand column. (You'd list all the sub pages in the left hand column, and those listings would get the [n new posts] indicator next to them. Hmmm....)

And for the cast-of-characters cross index, you could maybe use the search feature to make a crude version. Search queries use the GET method for just this reason - to produce linkable URLs. For example, this URL:

http://www.digitalmediatree.com/onelap/warofwords/?search=Condoleezza+Rice

calls up a page with every post mentioning Condoleezza Rice.

Definitely keep telling me your fantasy blog land ideas.
- jim 4-16-2003 9:02 pm

apparently he is gagged so it might not do him much good. maybe a flagon of bilge wine would get the crow in his nest.
- dave 4-16-2003 9:06 pm

Craw craw. Just call me Flamy the Flaneur!
- frank 4-16-2003 9:53 pm

just trying to support the tree, sort or rah rah rah style....
trust me i know my shit deserves nada....
- Skinny 4-16-2003 11:36 pm

Are you kidding, yer our shaman dude. I really miss yer old name: thing that connects to axel. I would post more on sustenance but all I do after a great meal is loll about. Get out here so we can fry some elk & pick morrels. :))
- frank 4-17-2003 1:14 am

Okay, I swear, I'll go outside. Soon.

Although there are lots of blogs out there, I've learned quite a bit reading at and following links from dmt. The SJ Mercury News and SF Chronical provide original coverage across about 10 counties. Beyond that, they're just clip services, and not very good ones. "Link blogs" represent a new method of indexing the sum total of human knowledge.
- mark 4-17-2003 1:24 am

Yesss, fantasy blog ideas....
- steve 4-17-2003 5:38 am

Took the day off; forget blogging, I go look at birds...
- alex 4-17-2003 5:54 am

i played lazer tag; and i was it. who needs the sun when you have pinpoint fiber optics?
- dave 4-17-2003 6:15 am

Thanks for the tip on the left column. Netscape didn't like my defined-list usage. Wierd.
- mark 4-17-2003 10:36 am

Nice work on the Eastern Towhee.
- steve 4-17-2003 6:17 pm

I think Frank's got a point, but the web has saved me from the mainstream war coverage, and maybe it's necessary for us to have our own local version, the way that everyone is a person, but someone actually has to be you.
I've read all the posts, and followed a lot of links, and I've learned a lot that I might just as soon have ignored. So I'm thanking those who've been so moved as to pay the attention bills that have been piling up. But do be careful, this stuff is poisonous. Make sure to disinfect after handling hazardous materials.


- alex 4-17-2003 6:29 pm

i think someone got up on the wrong side of the root-cellar.
- bill 4-17-2003 6:44 pm

No Bill, I'm actually that big of a curmudgeon... usually just lazy enough to keep it to myself.
- frank 4-18-2003 7:22 pm

w(ow)ws has a new style sheet to make it easier to skim through the deluge. I'm thinking about a way to highlight key stories with persistent side links so that they aren't buried.
- mark 4-20-2003 7:54 am

Frank's "look outside your window" complaint touched a nerve at dmtree, I think because it's so unfair. It reminds me of this sentiment from Laurie Garrett, who was mad because a bunch of bloggers circulated and hyperanalyzed a dumb personal email she wrote from the Davos "rich and powerful" forum:

I beg of all of you—the Internet addicts of the world—to turn off your TVs and computers now and then and engage the world. Go have actual eye-to-eye conversations with your family, friends and neighbors. Read a great book. Argue politics over dinner with friends. Go to a City Council meeting. Raise money for your local public library. Teach your 12-year-old algebra. Climb a mountain. Execute a dream. Be a citizen of the real world.

Also, the "thousand other blogs" Frank mentions are a very small number when compared to the propaganda power of cable, radio, and newspapers: the internet was a good, up-to-the-minute source of oppositional facts and viewpoints regarding an insane war. Also, many bloggers also marched, wrote letters, etc. One person's "second hand news rumination" is another's search for truth in a pervasive climate of lies.

- tom moody 4-24-2003 8:52 pm

i think franks point was (hear me roar) that there was nothing unique to our brand of anti-war blogging whereas the "writers and artists" among us offered unique content. im sure it wouldnt be wrong to say that there are likely many weblogs producing art and personal vignettes to rival our own. but i think the main point is, as alex alluded to, that it is our own little corner of the universe that we are preaching to. i think we are all well aware about whats going on outside our window but i usually converse with people sitting next to me, not someone down the street.


- dave 4-24-2003 9:22 pm

Sorry Tom, but now I'm going to have to trounce you ! Unfair ? Ever heard of a dramatic monologue? That's my Last Duchess hanging on the wall which Klaus of Innsbruck caste in bronze for me ! What I object to most is self acclaimed sanctity & righteousness. I probably agree with your politics more than anyone else on the tree. Yes, you are right but you have no right. Your indignation is your weakest point. The left needs to lighten up in the biggest way. Besides, there's a war raging in SouthAmerica but it doesn't seem to rate in your Judeo-Christian-centric whiteboy geeohpolitical diatribe. The sun never sets on Custer's last Budweisser. More power to you Brother Tom. I only suggest that you apply a little hypocrisy proofer to the essentially comic figure of the blowhard, tone it down to buffoon & you are much more likely to get your point across. As far as the search for truth goes, I still say look out the window & describe to me what you see & it will contain more truth than them thousand other blogs. Look inside & well...we'll have to hug! Ughhhh!
- frank 4-24-2003 11:38 pm

Jim looking out the window: "Hey, this monitor has really high resolution!"
- jim 4-25-2003 12:04 am

Agreed that "lightening up" can be a more effective way to argue, but sometimes you just have to shout. Like when someone's about to pull the trigger and all you can think about is stopping it. That's passion, not hypocrisy; sorry if it comes off as shrill. Also, agreed that the "drug war" in South America has been neglected (along with the worsening economy, corporate crime, etc) while we took that fatal step to out-and-out aggressor status in Iraq. Any postings on that subject here will be read with interest!
- tom moody 4-25-2003 12:18 am

Syrian Rue

Offing Custer
- frank 4-25-2003 12:40 am

Tom Tom Tom, I'm sorry, but apparently I'm going to have to trounce you some more. We?! What do you mean we. Please, not me. I took no fatal step to out & out nothing in Iraq. Besides, fatal step
sounds mighty millenarian to me. I mean did these bastards ever stop bombing Iraq long enough to claim they started again? Sacking Bahgdad has been the passion of empires for at least five thousand years.
The Empire Never Ended. Religious sons of bitches, exterminate them all I say. Exterminate them by ceasing to assume human truths are anything other than human. Name no gods. Erect no idols. Hit the ground of universal human truth itself : our words to each other on Earth, not polemics out to nowhereland. Look, I'll just come clean. I love Dave. I love his blog. I love its totalitarian watch-very-carefully-what-you-say
kind of assbackwardness. He fucks with the news like you glueing cereal boxes to the wall. Don't respew, make it new. Otherwise go read Ethel & see how the big boys do it.Hey check me out, I embedded links!

- frank 4-25-2003 10:49 am

wheel loves frank, skinny loves tom, both of us us love love
- Skinny 4-25-2003 3:49 pm

I'm not finding this thread particularly interesting anymore.
- jim 4-25-2003 5:46 pm

Wait, we haven't mentioned Nazis yet!
- tom moody 4-25-2003 6:08 pm

Dave! You totally misread my post. While I was out it started dawning on me. I could not figure out why Jim was bummed. Then I realized you must've thought I was dissing you & I was not. I was trying some toatally convoluted entertainmantpoetry & it obviously misfired. I do love you & do love yer work. My inversions & choices of words were meant as compliments but clearly miscued. The secret spam email about duplicity &randomness hit me like a rock. I heard you roar & was honored to have you back me up. The critique of Tom was a little different because I just wanted him to go back to being an accomplished artist. If I messed with your day I can only say I am truly sorry & meant for the opposite to happen. I know how sensitive you guys are & how inscrutable I can be. From now on Frank the blowhardest will make sure he minces no words in regards to his dear treehouse brothers. Mark , Bruno , Tom : same goes. I appreciate all the work that goes into what you do. Sorry if my rants caused hurts of any kind. I really mean it. Req in pace.

- frank 4-26-2003 2:54 am

i dont know what you are talking about as far as spam emails go, i didnt send you anything. but inscrutable you surely can be and your message can get lost in your medium. in itself thats not necessarily a bad thing but its ripe for misunderstanding.

also, youre entitled to your opinion and i and im sure others welcome it but your invective in this instance seems misplaced. its refreshing that someone speaks their mind but that doesnt negate ones obligation to be mindful of what one speaks.


- dave 4-26-2003 4:42 am

Hmmm? I wonder who sent it? What a relief. I always consider you nearly unflappable. I must have been projecting. For consolation to whomever here's my beautiful friend's version of the end.

- frank 4-26-2003 5:55 am