It's Nice To Know Who Returns A Courtesy...

...and nice to know who does not. I guess I do not understand the world of bloggers, although I certainly have tried; or maybe I do understand - and if I do well it just ain't no different from the rest of the world. There are people out there who when shown a courtesy and given a compliment would show a courtesy back at you, even if they decided not to return a compliment. They direct a courtesy back to you because, even maybe while they do not necessarily agree with you or maybe they just don't even like you enough to give you a compliment, they are respectful folks and they know one of life's best kept rules is that one good deed deserves another. They also see a courtesy given to them as a good deed. So it would make sense that if one blogger provides a link on his blog to the site of another blogger, then that other blogger would return the courtesy; but of course that would only make sense if the other blogger was a respectful type of person.

Of course this does not necessarily mean that someone who fails to return the courtesy of a link with a reciprocal link is a cad; there could be plenty of reasons they do not link back. Some of those reasons could be that a courteous and respectful blogger who has not provided the reciprocal link has not: realized his site was linked to on the other site, updated his site in a while, remembered to provide the reciprocal link, does not provide links as a matter of principal. Then again, the blogger who does not provide a reciprocal link could just be an out and out arrogant, disrespectful, discourteous asshole - although I will admit this type is probably the rare exception. I suppose there could also be a number of other reasons, and it is not that they elude my train of thought right now but rather that I am sure you can think of them yourselves.

I have not quite figured out yet, who of the bloggers for whom I provide a link on my list of links fits in any of the above categories - that is except for two of those categories - those who do not normally provide reciprocal links for whatever reason, and those who have had the courtesy and decency to provide a reciprocal link to my site on their blogs. I also know that out of the first 30 links I have provided to the sites of other bloggers, there are only 7 who showed me the same courtesy in return. So I think a little gardening on my side plot of linked sites is about due. Now I have to decide if I want to treat the non-reciprocating bloggers as weeds and just yank em out by the roots, or if I want to treat them as belonging in their own little brier patch apart from those flowers of respect and decency who had the courtesy grace my garden with a link to my blog. Pretty flowery analogies emanating through my keyboard, but not one word of bullshit to be found, I used all of the manure I had on hand in my real garden.

Well, I'll check the rest of the blogs to see how many others reciprocate with a link to my site, and then I guess I'll give it a good think over the next few days on how I should handle it, and if I should do anything at all. I am pretty sure I will do something, and that weeding and replanting will be taking place in the near future with some. By the way, this is not any sort of a threat to those who don't link back to my site on their own sites. I am not foolish enough to think that my removing a link to your site from my little blog has any effect as any sort of threat, and besides that why would I bother with trying to threaten someone into being courteous. Courtesy is a thing you learn, and then that you develop as your character develops. Making any sort of a threat in order to try to guide someone toward becoming courteous would be counterproductive, and is certainly not something I would even think of attempting with a grown adult who has already developed their own character to either include or exclude common courtesy. Of course, if this rant reminds you that you somehow forgot to give me a link on your site to mine, and then you do me that courtesy, that would be nice of you. A reminder it may be, a threat no - not in the least.

I figure most of the bloggers who visit my site are nice folks. I can sort of tell that from what they have written about in their own blogs, and from the quality of comments they have sometimes left on my blog. I would hate to inadvertently offend any of them by having them think that I believe them to be less than nice people, or that I am making some sort of ludicrous threat when I am not. So please, if you are one of the folks who has not linked to this site on your own site, just take my current rant and any action I take concerning weeding or replanting of non-reciprocating bloggers as me being me, and as me blogging about something that is important to me.

One last thing. If you are a blogger, and provide a link to my blog on your own and I have not given you the courtesy of which I have written - well it is most probably because I am not aware you link to this blog. If that is the the case, please let me know you have extended a courtesy to me, and I will gladly return it to you. Thanks.

All the best,
Glenn B

I toned down the above, the morning immediately after I first posted it. Why? Well because I don't want to be offensive to those who read it and are not among the disrespectful type of bloggers who do not give the least bit of concern to common courtesy. I know my fellow bloggers, the ones to whom I have linked on my blog, better than that. I believe you are rather nice people, and would not have wanted to have you believe otherwise because of the way I had previously phrased some things above.

Out Of Touch With The Voters...

...is how I see the candidates on the Democrat side, and I am just talking about them being out of touch with the voters in their own party. I heard this morning, on Fox News, and I believe again on CNN, that no matter how the Democrat primary elections pan out from here until they end, the fact is that Hillary Rodham-Clinton will trail Barack Hussein Obama by more than 150 delegates. If that is correct, then there is no possible way that Clinton can win the primaries. In fact, it means she has already lost and that Obama is the choice of those who have voted in the primaries. Yes I know all about Florida, and was it Michigan, the states in which Clinton apparently broke her pledge of record. They should not, and do not, as far as I am aware, count in this primary. At least they should not count unless done over, and a do over in either state seems unlikely. Even if Florida counted, Clinton would trail. So it appears that when things were run fairly and evenly, the Democrats who voted picked Obama.

Yet the race is not over. Clinton, who has always been on her high horse and out of touch with the people, has decided to stay the course (hmm - where have I heard that before). She decided on that despite her staying the course being in opposition to the will of the people (boy that really rings some bells of familiarity). She apparently is going to go to the Democrat convention and hope that the SUPER delegates give her the nod and select her as the candidate of the Democrat party over Obama! Can you imagine that - SUPER delegates - like what - supermen? Like people who are better than the rest of the Democrats who voted, like delegates who know better than the rest of the Democrats who voted, like some sort of bygone elite class of wundermen (boy that sure sounds familiar too, in a really scary sort of a way)! If they actually bully the whole Democrat party, and disregard the decision of the voters to give Clinton the nod, and she becomes the candidate, well all I can say is it will be time to stock up on guns and ammo. No, not so much because of the pending bans that will come if she is elected, but rather because the USA will have started to look all to much like a Western European nation in the early to mid 1930s (lest you chide me, remember they started out by looking like a rather benign, even whimsically foolish political party and probably less foolish than do these super delegates look today). I for one intend to protect the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies - foreign and domestic; though I must admit - I hope it never comes to that - and I hope this will all blow over and the will of the people - even if Democrats - be honored at least in regard to their own political primaries. You know I want to see the Dems resoundingly defeated in November; but I sure do not want to see an appointed class of self righteous supermen trying to wrest power from whence it truly comes, and that is from We The People whether we are Democrat, Republican, Independent or yet of another political party!

All the best,
Glenn B