Les Jones

Now a Proud Member of the Rocky Top Brigade

South Knox Bubba has added LesJones.com to the Rocky Top Brigade. Thanks, mystery blogger! I'll keep the postings voluminous and proud. I already link to a lot of the brigade members, and I'll add everyone else this weekend.

Like the Free Masons, the Rocky Top Brigade is a shadowy organization. For instance, it isn't clear how you gain membership. I know a couple of people in the brigade and wondered if I should discreetly inquire. I did email items to SKBubba and some other Tennessee bloggers, so I guess that may have gotten me some exposure. That, and the blood oath I swore to Phil Fulmer.

I'm going to celebrate my Rocky Top Brigade membership with the traditional buying of the t-shirt.

Welcome, New Rocky Top Brigade Members

Last week I was a new Rocky Top Brigade Member. Now I'm welcoming others into the fold. From our fearless leader, SouthKnoxBubba:

Dingbust

Rush Limbaughtomy

A Smoky Mountain Journal

Frank Cagle

AlphaPatriot

Resonance

New to the Quotes File

If you see someone approaching with the obvious intention of doing you good, run for your life!
- Henry David Thoreau.

She's the sort of person who lives for others. You can tell the others by their hunted expressions.
- C. S. Lewis.

Before you tell me that it will be overwhelmingly obvious when the superintelligent new cyber-species arrives, visit a dog show. Or a gathering of people who believe they have been abducted by aliens in UFOs. People are demonstrably insane when it comes to assessing non-human sentience.
- Jaron Lanier

"What will you have, Norm?"
"Well, I'm in a gambling mood, Sammy. I'll take a glass of whatever comes out of that tap."
"Oh, looks like beer, Norm."
"Call me Mister Lucky."
- Cheers

"What's the story, Norm?"
"Boy meets beer. Boy drinks beer. Boy meets another beer."
- Cheers

"What's new, Normie?"
"Terrorists, Sam.
They've taken over my stomach. They're demanding beer."
- Cheers

"Beer, Norm?"
"Have I gotten that predictable? Good."
- Cheers

"What's going on, Mr. Peterson?"
"The question is what's going in Mr. Peterson. A beer please, Woody."
- Cheers

Volunteer Tailgate Party, and RTB Updates

Lean Left is hosting the latest Volunteer Tailgate Party, a showcase of the best writing from the Rocky Top Brigade for the past two weeks.

Welcome to new RTB members Free Speech News and Team Rock (via SouthKnoxBubba):

David at Free Speech News is a long time Knoxville resident transplanted from Chicago. To catch up and get an idea about the flavor of FSN, you might start with the topics page. Be sure to check out his pre-blog archives, too.

Team Rock is a great new group blog covering the local rock scene it Tri-Cities and beyond. Bonus: there's a report on Goose Creek Symphony. I had no idea they were still around. Cool!

Volunteer Tailgate Party

SayUncle is hosting the Volunteer Tailgate Party, the picks of the litter from the Rocky Top Brigade for the past two weeks.

I always try to read new people at the party. This time my favorite is Troy's essay on his Uncle Buddy.

BTW, I checked my referer stats after SayUncle posted the party. Nothing. A few hours later InstaPundit (a brigade member) posted a link on his site. Boom! InstaTraffic.

Elsewhere

MARK STEYN: George Bush and the Saudi Princess. Mark Steyn details the cozy relationship between the House of Saud and George W. Bush, who invited Prince Bandar and Princess Haifa to his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Princess Haifa sent $130,000 to one of the 19 Saudi terrorists who participated in 9/11. Coincidence? Probably not.

Clearly, the House of Saud has come to an arrangement with al-Qa'eda, and this arrangement involves, among other things, money. More interesting is why the administration insists on pretending otherwise. On 20 September, George W. Bush said, 'You're either with us or you're with the terrorists.' A couple of weeks later, a small number of us began pointing out the obvious: the Saudis are with the terrorists.

WINDS OF CHANGE: A letter from a special forces officer in Iraq.

SNOPES: It's OK to throw rice at weddings. It isn't harmful to birds. This came up as Melissa started planning wedding favors. We're almost inside the three week countdown.

ATTENTION FRIENDS OF EDDIE: Melissa and Jay and I ran into Eddie and Daisy McGaha and their two sons: 3 year old Robin, and the newest addition to the family, 3 week old Brendan Cyle McGaha. Jay thinks he looks more Ghandi-esque than Churchhill-esque at this point.

Volunteer Tailgate Party, and new RTB Members

The latest Tailgate Party is up at SugarFused. Thanks to Deb for hosting. Here are some good picks this time around:

Longmire has fun in (or at least at the expense of) Gatlinburg.

Chris Range looks at the history of the Coast Guard. If you know Chris, you've heard him talk about how important the Coast Guard is, and he's right. Chris has agreed to guest-blog for me while Melissa and I are on our honeymoon.

New Members

Warm welcomes for these new arrivals to the Rocky Top Brigade.

Arlene Jenkins

Bugly

Hatamaran

Opinari

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Thomas is hosting the latest Volunteer Tailgate Party over at the Newsrack.

My favorite post this time is A Smoky Mountain Journal's photograph of a Turk's cap on Clingman's Dome.

My submission was Postcard from New York, which I jazzed up with a few photos from the trip, and an AVI of a Yankees fan "rocking out" at the game. I think this is the first picture of Melissa or me that I've posted. Note to self: be more narcissistic.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Mike CJ has this week's tailgate party at Up for Anything. The party shows off the best blogging in Tennessee.

I usually read a half dozen or so and select a few good ones, but I'm on deadline for a Web design project tonight, so it's your call, champ. Read them all and decide for yourself.

Tailgate Party

Brian has the new tailgate party over at Resonance, which has a new address.

RTB Bloggers CJ and Rush Limbaughtomy are covering Rush Limbaugh's resignation from ESPN.

Damn Foreigner

Manish at Damn Foreigner is now master of his domain at DamnForeigner.com. He's been busy lately covering the California recall.

Delicious Mix Tape

The best of the Rocky Top Brigade for the past two weeks. Mouse over a link for a description.

1. Guy Montag - Burn, Cubs, Burn (0:21) b/w Hottest Chick on Earth (0:14)
2. Say Uncle - When Dogs Attack (2:40) b/w Party of the Rich (0:26)
3. My Quiet Life - Korn (or, Supply Side Solutions) (4:31)
4. Musings of a Philosophical Scrivener - Of Dogs and Days (2:36)
5. Damn Foreigner - The Governator Recap (3:02)
6. Up For Anything - The Art of the Comeback (1:20) b/w What Does He Have to Hide? (1:53)
7. Resonance - America's Infrastructure (2:28)
8. One Hand Clapping - Shotgun (3:46)
9. HobbsOnline - Music Row Murder (0:56) b/w Irresponsible, Indefensible and Idiotic (2:52)
10. Pathetic Earthlings - Lost In Translation (1:39)
11. Longmire - Last Flight of the Icarus
12. SouthKnoxBubba - Hot Glocks (1:35)
13. InstaPundit - QuickSilver (4:11)
14. Les Jones - Big Cat and Bear Attacks (3:28)
15. Granny Rant - Maybe Clinton Wasn't So Bad (6:45)
16. Adam Groves - John Brown (4:01)
17. Wandering Hillbilly - ponderin the belly buttn of the beast (5:55)
18. Inn of the Last Home - Walking in Darkness, Looking for the Light (2:21)
19. Halfbakered - Diebold (1:12)

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Peggy at Moveable Beast is hosting this week's Volunteer Tailgate Party.

Longmire

I've been a Mark Longmire fanboy for a while. The other day I was visiting his site and realized that I've only been reading the blog, while there's even more fun with Ye Olde Photoshoppe on his main page.

Rejected Wheel of Fortune Puzzles.
That's the gameshow I want to be on most. I totally kick ass, though any bravado that might come from that it is ameliorated by the fact that the show is pretty geriatric.

This would be even more fun combined with the Chuch Sign Generator code.

Vacation Photos.
"Our dad's funny. Sometime's he's funny ha-ha, and sometimes he's funny strange."

Longmire and Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe.
Dude! If I'd known Longmire was tight with the mayor I'd have asked him to fix my parking ticket. 'Course Longmire's met everyone on the national scene, too.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Barry has the latest tailgate party at Inn of the Last Home.

New Tailgate Party, Congrats to Bubba

Buddy Don has the latest Volunteer Tailgate Party.

SouthKnoxBubba has passed the quarter million visitor mark, and has evolved to be a playful primate on the TTLB link ecosystem, meaning his is one of the 100 most-linked sites in the blogosphere. Congrats, Bubba.

Blogger Awards Poll

WizBang has a poll for best bloggers. There are categories by topic (liberal, conservative, humor), and by size (playful primatess, large mammals, marauding marsupials, etc.).

Lots of Rocky Top Brigade members are nominated, including yours truly. (Thanks to whoever nominated me!). Here are the RTB members nominated for each category. Click on the links to vote.

Best Overall Blog
- InstaPundit

Best New Blog
- Rush Limbaughtomy

Best Liberal Blog
- SouthKnoxBubba
- Lean Left

Best Conservative Blog
- InstaPundit (though I don't think he or most conservatives would agree with the categorization; why no small "L" libertarian category?)
- One Hand Clapping

Best Media/Journalist Blog
- HobbsOnline

Best Large Mammals Ecosystem Level Blog
- SayUncle

Best Marauding Marsupials Ecosystem Level Blog
- AlphaPatriot (one of the most underrated bloggers in the Rocky Top Brigade, IMHO)

Best Adorable Rodents Ecosystem Level Blog
- A Moveable Beast
- Damn Foreigner
- Les Jones
- Up for Anything

Best Flappy Birds Ecosystem Level Blog
- Adam Groves
- Inn of the Last Home
- Resonance
- SugarFused

Congratulations to all of the nominees. It's amazing how many Tennessee bloggers are on the list. Thanks to InstaPundit for inspiration and SouthKnoxBubba for organization.

LATER: one oddity: according to the notes, you can vote once every 12 hours until December 14th. Weird. Vote early and often.

LATER STILL: I checked, and the cookie is actually for 24 hours, not 12.

Tailgate Party XVII

Big Stupid Tommy has the latest Volunteer Tailgate Party.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

CJ at Up for Anything has the latest tailgate party.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Damn Foreigner has the new Volunteer Tailgate Party, a collection of the best of the Rocky Top Brigade for the past two weeks.

Jane at Classless Warfare is inviting bloggers to join in on a diet. I started a diet after the New Year's, so I may jump onboard.

Also on the New Year's resolution front, Deb is trying to quit smoking. I gave up coffin nails five years ago, so I feel for her. Zyban helps.

LATER: BTW, my New Year's resolution (besides the diet) is to not drink any booze for the month of January. It's a good way to moderate, and like VodkaPundit I'm trying to knock up a gal named Melissa.

RTB In the News in Memphis

Mike Hollihan writes:

Kevin of LeanLeft and I (Half-Bakered) were interviewed by the local alt-weekly, The Memphis Flyer, for their Annual Manual. The article is on blogging and also includes comments from Atrios. While I did mention the RTB, the writer did not include it. You can read the story here:

http://www.memphisflyer.com/annmanual/media_fea.asp

New Elephant Stomping Ground

Justin has thrown off the surly bonds of Blogger and has a new address and new digs at http://elephantrants.blogs.com.

Tailgate Party is Up

Janet Dagley Dagley has this week's Volunteer Tailgate Party, featuring the best posts from the Rocky Top Brigade for the past two weeks.

LATER: I emailed Janet, and it turns out she's cousin to Nancy Dagley, if any friends-of-Nancy are reading this.

Tapestry

Amber Li at Voluntarily in China has finished a gorgeous hand-made tapestry. Amazing.

Pistol Night for the Rocky Top Brigade

What

We've talked about it before. Let's do it. It's time to get the RTBers in Knoxville together to shoot.

Who

Members of the Rocky Top Brigade and their friends. After the first month we may open it up to readers.

Note: The pistol range only allows access to those 21 or older.

When

Tuesday, February 10. Come between 6:00 and 7:00. The range closes at 9:00, and most people will be done long before then. When you check in, let someone know you came for the RTB shoot and get a name badge so we can put a name to a face.

I'd expect this to be a monthly event, generally on Tuesday nights since that's Ladies Night at the local range. (And yeah, Ladies Night at a pistol range is pretty funny.)

Where

Guncraft Sports off of Lovell Road in Knoxville. Here are directions and a map.

If you've never been to Guncraft Sports

If this is your first time at Guncraft, they require you to take a 15 minute safety and range orientation. There is a one-time orientation fee of $10.

Guncraft provides free eye protection and hearing protection. They rent pistols for $7.50 ($5.00 for members) and sell ammo and targets. The rental fee allows the use of an unlimited number of rental pistols in that session. If you rent their pistols, you have to buy their ammo, which costs around $10 for 50 rounds of centerfire reloads. You can, of course, bring your own pistol and ammo.

Range time is $10. Women shoot free on Tuesdays. I have six guest passes I'll give to the first six men who have never been to Guncraft - you'll still need to pay the $10 orientation fee, but your range time will be free.

If you're new to guns and shooting

We welcome anyone who is new to guns and shooting sports. When you go through orientation, let your instructor know that you're new to guns. When you rent a gun, or someone lets you shoot their gun, let them know that you're new to all of this. Ask them to show you how the gun operates, and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Safety

Remember the basic rules of gun safety:

• Treat every gun as if it's loaded
• Never point a gun at anything unless you want to put a hole in it, OR, Keep your gun pointed in a safe direction (down range)
• Never put your finger in the trigger guard until you're ready to put a hole in something
• Don't shoot unless you're sure of your target and what's behind it

Those are the most basic rules. For more safety information, visit the NRA's Web site.

Tailgate Party

Adam Groves has the Super Bowl Edition of the tailgate party.

Tailgate Party

Welcome to the Tailgate Party, a collection of the best posts from Tennessee bloggers for the past two weeks.

Bill Hobbs, a long-time opponent of increased cable TV prices and increased control of cable TV, looks at recent shenanigans in the Nashville legislature.

Deb at SugarFused has a boyfriend-girlfriend financial transaction failure.

Elizabeth at Busy Mom explains how to start a riot at McDonald's.

Hatamaran has found the Scooby Doo Mystery Mobile. (And if you like old vans, you'll love this one.)

Buddy Don reveals all in "life of buddy don, chaptur 106: true romants in a paris horehouse."

Aaron Chapman of The Golden Calf writes a short paper introducing readers to the Blogosphere.

Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit examines the future of blogging for Tech Central Station.

Brian of Voluntarily in China thinks that the DVD pirates are doing Hollywood (and the U.S.) a great service. He also points out the great service China is doing the U.S. via actress Zhang Ziyi.

SayUncle wonders why kids don't know their civil rights when confronted by the police.

Queen Medb remembers her friend Katie.

2004 Election

Jay Johnson of Drawing Dead suggests Tennessee Democrats give a write-in vote to Governor Phil Bredesen.

A Moveable Beast says of John Edwards recent stop in Knoxville, "I have met the future, it is good, and it has a great smile, too."

Now that Dean is out of the race CJ at Up for Anything updates his rhyme to "And Then There Were Four."

Janet Dagley Dagley discovers that one of her friends is that rare and mysterious creature, the swing voter.

Chris at My Quiet Life defends John Kerry and the Winter Soldier investigation.

Guy Montag wonders aloud, "Why No Democrat Voter Registration at Daytona 500"? On a related note, SayUncle says that "appealing to Nascar dads is Democrat codespeak for appealing to racism."

A few days after explaining why I wouldn't vote for Kerry, I defended him on the intern allegations.

War in Iraq

Thomas of Newsrack takes another look at Iraq and WMDs.

Granny Rant discusses the role of journalism in the war.

Gay Marriage

Manish of Damn Foreigner reports from San Francisco City Hall on the gay marriages being performed this week.

Peggy at A Moveable Beast is planning a trip to Massachusetts in May for nuptials.

Thomas at the Newsrack thinks you should oppose the Marriage Amendment.

Donald Sensing of One Hand Clapping - the only RTBer I know of who has actually performed a marriage ceremony - looks at the gay marriage controversy in light of the changes in heterosexual marriage these past 40 years.

Strange Things

Brian of Resonance notes a school that is regulating the number of bathroom breaks.

Goobage explores the Tao of Codes.

Eating Strange Things

? at Bugly writes about an incident not covered in any published Charlie Daniels song.

StraightWhiteGuy reminisces on MREs.

Granny Rant brings up some uncomfortable thoughts about eating cloned animals and, uh, other stuff.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Teresa has the latest Tailgate Party at Hatamaran.

RTBers Taking Over the News

Katie Allison-Granju is now online news editor for WBIR-TV.

Donald Sensing has an editorial in the current Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.

This is in addition to CJ, Barry, Bill, and Glenn, all of whom work in the media, either full time or periodically. Did I miss anyone?

Web Censorship in China

RTBer Brian Ruckle, a Tennessee blogger living in China, reports that the great firewall of China has blocked access to Blogs.com and Typepad.com blogs. Blogspot.com blogs were already blocked.

China has partially, hesitatingly embraced some free market reforms, but a free market depends on the free flow of information (otherwise you get inefficient markets). If China wants to succeed economically, they're going to have to accept that economic freedom and political freedom go hand in hand. "Restrictions on the free flow of information" is one of the seven signs of a non-competitive state.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Barry has the April Fool's edition of the Volunteer Tailgate Party.

Bonus! RTB founder SouthKnoxBubba has an exclusive interview with Kevin "CalPundit" Drum, who now has a gig at the Washington Monthly.

RTB Membership Update

Bubba has the latest additions to the Rocky Top Brigade.

Nashville Files Blog

Baseball Widow

And last but not least, Cas Walker's Coonhunter's Journal, a Knoxville political gossip column, carrying on the spirit of Cas Walker.

Tailgate Party XXIX

Stoney and Mdeb have this week's roundup of the best of the Rocky Top Brigade.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Big Orange Michael has the best of the Rocky Top Brigade.

RTB News Page

SouthKnoxBubba used RSS feeds to create a combined Rocky Top Brigade Sampler for me and my fellow nogoodniks.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Big Orange Michael is hosting the current Volunteer Tailgate Party, a roundup of the best articles from Rocky Top Brigade blogs.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

Thomas Nephew has the Volunteer Tailgate Party with the best recent posts from the Rocky Top Brigade, and Best of the Rocky Top Brigade 2004.

RTB Updates

With Bubba's site gone people are scrambling to salvage the Brigade. Michael Silence and SayUncle have more.

New RTB Site

The new Rocky Top Brigade site is www.rockytopbrigade.org. Thanks to everyone who's keeping this alive.

SouthKnoxBubba Bait

Hey, Bubba! If you started blogging again you could do a special All Dirty Birds edition of Friday Bird Blogging. You could have the Tit Mouse, the Boobie, the Double-breasted Cormorant, the Woodcock, the Nuthatch, the Red-headed Woodpecker, the Sap Sucker, and the Swallow.

Folks, if that doesn't get him back, nothing will.

LATER: Big Orange Michael has a Tailgate Party tribute to Bubba, though I should warn you that it is entirely devoid of juvenile humor.