How’s Ron Paul doing?

The air raid sirens atop VCU’s James Branch Cabell Library have gone off twice today.  Earlier today VCU claimed that last night’s false alarm was because of someone working on something or another on the roof setting it off.  No word on what today’s alerts were caused by.

The lack of response by students out on the street is to be expected.

Way to waste money, VCU.

VCU will be testing the emergency notification system at noon on Wednesday, Feburary 6th.

Heath Ledger has passed away at the age of 28.

Well, the results are in and… well… *sniff* I’m sorry, I just… This is going to take some time to sink in. I think I need to do a little soul searching, but, well, until then, I feel ya kid. I feel ya.

Congrats to the winners. I guess.

(No, seriously, congrats to all the winners. There are some great blogs out there and there were some tough choices to be made. Kudos to all, especially the 270 some odd folks who voted. Great showing!)

Does a paper’s font impact its final grade?

Velvet’s Princess Di is no more. (Via RDN)

Jon Baliles has the sad photo evidence here.

From Virginia Virtucon:

George Allen has ruled out a run for governor in 2009.  Democrats Sen. R. Creigh Deeds and Del. Brian J. Moran have both announced.  No one has announced on the Republican side yet, though may expect a battle between AG Bob McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling.

After four season, two playoff appearances, and one very emotional year, Joe Gibbs will be retiring (again) as head coach of the Washington Redskins.  Thanks for everything, Coach Gibbs.

First, my apologies to Preston Yancy for if it appears as if I’m piling on him.  I’m not, you just happened to make a post that re-inspired my thoughts on this matter.

Every now and then the blogosphere seems to be faced with a question on commenting and the responsibilities of a blogger to his readership wishing to do so.  Most recently, Preston Yancy has called on Don Harrison and Jon Baliles to allow comments on their websites.  Yancy both makes and breaks his argument with the following comment:

That is interesting since Harrison was critical of the School Board; because, the public could not speak at the meeting.

Ahem.

Blogs are not meetings that are open to the public.  Nor are individual blogs public forums.  Blogs are one man soapboxes that sometimes allow comments from the peanut gallery but have every right to limit those comments.

I have in the past been accused of “censoring” comments on my website.  While any instance of this has been an oversite and I strive to allow all people to speak on J’s Notes, the only individual with unlimited free speech  in the People’s Democratic Republic Of Jason is, well, me, Jason.  (And maybe my mother.)  This is my website.  I am under absolutely no obligation to provide a voice on this site to anyone other than myself.

And neither are Don or Jon.  (Can I just call them Don Jon collectively?  Would they beat me up for that?)

So how is one to respond?  Well, you can e-mail them directly or, as Yancy has done, create your own blog and enter the conversation. Because that’s what blogs are, conversations.  And if you truly feel so strongly on an issue, why allow your thoughts to be buried in the comments section of a post at someone else’s site when you can put it up front and center on your own?  Like I’m doing here with this topic.

You wouldn’t dare to tell people what to write on their sites.  Why would you assume to tell them to let you write on their site?

October 27, 2006:

Kaine said again Thursday that he does not support legislation that would ban smoking in private businesses, saying that would be a troubling expansion of government regulation.

“I don’t think the police power of the state should go that far,” he told reporters.

Today:

Governor Timothy M. Kaine today proposed legislation for a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants, including dining establishments in public and private clubs.

Politweets is an interesting aggregator of Twitter posts about Presidential nominees. Short, sweet, and usually to a point of some sort.  (h/t Leslie)

MJ’s available, Guys!  And the NYT Personals prove it.  (And comic fans are outraged at the whole to-to.)

Style Weekly has an article up on Landmark’s decision to explore their sale:

Style Weekly Editor Jason Roop says the alt-weekly isn’t going anywhere: “Although I was disappointed to hear the Battens were exploring a sale, our readers will continue to get the best of in-depth, local reporting on news, arts and culture.”

…because I know that sometimes this is me: