Death has no sting

It doesn’t have staying power, either.

If you’re wishing the DJ blog wouldn’t go away, look at it this way: It’s not going away. It’s morphing. You can visit some of the same topics at Fear, Itself (my day job blog) or, if you don’t treasure the bare-knuckled comments over there (and I know I don’t), the scepter for heartfelt but kind conversation has been passed to Sis. Vegas, at Playa Minded.

DJ isn’t dead. DJ lives, but on a higher plane at Playa Minded.

And Vegas? I love you and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.

I started this blog in December 2008

That first month, I got 467 readers.

Stick with it, fellow-bloggers said. You’ll build readers, so I stuck with it. I have since written something like 6,220 entries that drew 65,250 comments (some entries more than others). One day, I got some 6,150 hits, though most days the numbers hovered around 2,000 or so.

I don’t know how that compares with other blogs. I was happy, though.

I have enjoyed this blog more than is healthy. I’ve moved heaven and earth to keep it updated, but never thought twice because I wanted so much to sit down and chat with my friends. Mr. DJ gave up asking, “What’s going on?” when I burst out laughing at something someone said here. I’ve missed sleep and other activities simply because this has been so stinking much fun.

But now? I’m moving the party. My blog at my day job at America’s Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper is going to go all-religion, all-the-time in the next few weeks, and because I don’t like to repeat myself much — though many of my better day job entries started here, first — I’m going to stop updating this blog, and spend my blogging energies over there. This is in addition to writing my newspaper column, teaching a couple of classes part-time, and maybe — just maybe — starting on something longer.

I encourage you to move with the party, though I’d understand if you don’t. I have to warn you that the comments on the current blog, “Fear, Itself,” can be quite barbed, and I’m assuming the same will be true on the as-yet-unnamed religion blog. Should you choose to throw your energies elsewhere, I hope that you’ll at least stay in touch.

Either way: Thank you. For whatever you’ve drawn from this blog, I’ve drawn twice as much. I appreciate you more than you know. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And if you have any ideas for names for the new blog, I’m all ears.

Did you miss me on the radio?

You can listen here. The conversation centers mostly a discussion about Islam and American politics.

And if you choose not to listen? Not to worry. There won’t be a test.

The anti-community center/mosque needs better music

Because if this is the best they can do…

That sounds snarkier than I mean it. I find it appalling that the 9/11 tragedy would be used to stifle religious freedom, and this jingo-laden song is a sad example of how far we’ve moved from the original ideal. (That link raises an interesting parallel. Remember when the proposed The Wall, the Vietnam War Memorial, was considered an affront to our war dead? And now, it’s among Washington’s most beloved monuments.)

Here’s more on www.projectshiningcity.org, the creator of the music video. Their web pages features one essay called “The Islamic Ballerina,” in which Project Shining City’s lead guy, Jeff Bruzzo…well, I’m not sure what it is he’s doing, but it’s not the most informed of essays. I leave it for you to judge.

A short meditation on information overload

From Ezra Klein, at The Washington Post.

Quote for the day:

“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate,
continued, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and
unrealistic.”

— John F. Kennedy, in a 1962 Yale University commencement address

And thanks, Aud, for the link.

Space rock!

Help choose the wake-up songs for NASA’s final space shuttle missions.

You can write your own (and we have plenty of musicians here who could do that, but you must remember to give me credit) or choose one from previous wake-up songs (including “Fly Me to the Moon” and “Beautiful Day,” among others).

Sarah Palin Hearts Dr. Laura

Following Laura Schlessinger’s use of the n-word on-air recently, and the
subsequent announcement of her retirement, Alaska’s former governor/the Republican’s former vice presidential candidate/and current grandmother of Tripp sent words of support via her Twitter account.

To which the Rev. Al Sharpton responded, via Twitter: “Reload what? The N Word?”

And thanks, Sis. Cynical, for the link.

New York Muslims and that community center/mosque

From this New York Times story, the reaction appears to be mixed. Said Malik Nadeem Abid, a Brooklyn insurance agent:

It was not a politically smart move, from my perspective. No one wants a center in downtown Manhattan that stands as a permanent fixture of this terrible tension.

Yet the decision has been made, he said, “and we can’t let the loudest voices dictate what happens.” Still, he added, if the center were built 5 or 10 blocks away, as some people have proposed, “I don’t think it would matter very much.”

The range of opinions, the story says, reflects the diversity of Muslims in America.

And thanks, Bro. Sensei, for the link.

Forty-three percent of American adults are single

Does that number seem high to you?

It did to me until I started thinking — strictly anecdotally — of my friends. Roughly half (and I’m only doing a count in my head) are single, half are married. So never mind.