Below are the 4 most recent journal entries recorded in donsingleton's LiveJournal:

Sunday, April 10th, 2005
2:04 pm	Blogging Pet Peeves La Shawn Barber posted an outstanding blog about: Blogging Pet Peeves Listed in no particular order are things I don’t like about blogs and blogging: Bloggers who trackback to a post on this blog but fail to link to this blog in their post. Rule of thumb: If you trackback to another blogger’s post, you must link to that blogger’s site in your post. I’d guess that 90 percent of the blogosphere would agree that this is highly irritating. What is the rationale? By leaving a trackback, you’re alerting the blog host and readers that you’re writing about the same topic. The blog host follows the trackback expecting to see what you wrote about his post. I completely agree with LaShawn about people leaving a trackback that does not link to them. There are three related Pet Peeves of mine I hate it when a blogger quotes me but fails to leave a trackback so that I can know I was quoted. I hate it when a blogger does not provide me with the ability to leave a trackback. I hate to quote someone without leaving a TrackBack, but if they don't give me the ability, I can't very well leave one. Some don't know how to enable TrackBacks (I helped one new blogger get set up with HaloScan trackback), but some have disable TrackBacks because of TrackBack Spam (this may be what LaShaws is upset about, and some don't allow either comments or trackbacks - they expect you to read their thoughts, but don't give you a way of indicating it when you agree or disagree with them The one that ticks me off the most is a site that supposedly allows trackbacks, but when you capture the URL and do the trackback, it gets errors. PowerLine is one site with a bad trackback. (Update: It’s also about reciprocity. When you leave a trackback here, readers follow it to your blog. In turn, your readers follow the link on your blog to mine. ) Online news sites that don’t link to blogs mentioned in a story. High-traffic bloggers who forget to link to my blog or mistakenly link to a different blog in a post where my blog is the subject. Bloggers who write long posts about why they have no time to blog. Bloggers who write about their latest illness, right down to the details of an infection and physical description of a rash. Commenters who respond to a post without actually reading the whole post, or if they have read it, the comment doesn’t reflect it. People who leave off-topic comments on a post to tell me they just e-mailed me. Bloggers whose posts are mainly complaints against other bloggers. Bloggers who don’t include any biographical information about themselves. Even if blogging anonymously, you can still supply basic, non-indentifying information. Bloggers who either don’t list contact information or make it difficult to find. This post will be updated as I think of other things I don’t like. Update II: The Anchoress has ditched Blog*Spot! Visit her new WordPress home. And update your blogrolls. Update III (4/10): A trackback is simply a way to communicate with another blogger. I will refer to a third-party trackback system called Simpletracks because each blog or commenting platform (HaloScan, WordPress, Movable Type, etc.) has a different method for tracking back to posts. Let’s say you’re blogging about this post and you want me and the readers to know about it. If you click on “Comments/Trackbacks” and scroll to the end, you’ll see this: The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2005/04/09/peeves/trackback/. URI is short for Uniform Resource Identifier. This is more information than you need to know to trackback, but in case you’re curious… When using Simpletracks, you will need to copy and paste the trackback URI above (which is different with each post), the name of your blog, your post title, post URI, and an excerpt of the post, and put them in the appropriate place, and hit “Send Ping.” Your blog will ping my blog, and the trackback will show up in “Comments/Trackbacks” like this: The ten habits of highly irritating bloggers According to La Shawn Barber, anyway: 1. Bloggers who trackback to a post on this blog but fail to link to this blog in their post. I’m usually pretty good about… Trackback by dustbury.com — 04.09.05 @ 3:06 pm Clicking on “dustbury.com” will take you directly to the post where this post is mentioned. In WordPress, trackback entries are truncated and post titles are in bold. Depending on which blog publishing system you use, trackbacking will be slightly different. For instance, Movable Type automatically pings URIs in the post, so it’s unnecessary to enter URIs manually. In WordPress (version 1.2.2), I have to copy and paste trackback URIs just below the post. If you’re using HaloScan, you have to go to the site to send a trackback. Trackbacking sounds more complicated than it should. The concept is very simple. Usually I just quote a few lines of a blogger's post, but this one is so good I am going to post the entire thing, and not just in my primary blog, but I am also evaluating several blogging packages for an article in next month's I/O Port Newsletter and I am going to post it in each of them, because when the readers of that article check out the sample sites I posted, I want to be sure they read her thoughts. I will only TrackBack the post from my main site, so as not to clutter up her TrackBack list with a bunch of duplicate posts, but I will TrackBack the posts on the evaluation blog packages to my post, if any one wants to see them. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 9th, 2005
10:20 pm	Cardinals agree to ban media interviews Houston Chronicle reported The unanimous vote today by 130 cardinals to maintain public silence was unprecedented. But in an era of continuous news updates and constant speculation, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls called the media ban an "act of responsibility." He asked journalists not to ask the cardinals for interviews and said they should not take the prelates' silence as an act of "discourtesy." "The cardinals, after the funeral Mass of the Holy Father, began a more intense period of silence and prayer, in view of the conclave," Navarro-Valls said. "They unanimously decided to avoid interviews and encounters with the media." This was a wise decision by the cardinals. I suspect many in the press were trying to influence the cardinals decision, and the cardinals should be listening to God, not to the press. I am not Catholic, but I suspect many in the USA and Europe are going to be disappointed in the new Pope the cardinals will select. Many in the USA and Europe would like to see the Catholic Church lighten up on the strict discipline the John Paul II imposed, and they would like to see acceptance of abortion, a more lenient view of sexual orientation, and women becoming priests, but since John Paul II appointed almost all of the cardinals I suspect their selection will want to maintain the policies John Paul II believed in. Since church attendance has dropped of in the US and Europe I don't think they are likely to select a Pope that will cater to people that don't even attend Mass regularly. Rather I suspect the new Pope will come from the third world, where the largest increases in membership have come from -- either Latin America or Africa. But whereever the new Pope comes from, I don't expect the Cafeteria Catholics to approve of the selection. (Comment on this)
4:54 pm	Stamp Out the Stamp Increase Chicago SunTimes reported The post office wants an extra 2-cents-worth for its stamps. As the agency proposed the stamp price increase Friday, however, it also invited Congress to eliminate the need for it. The proposal sent to the independent Postal Rate Commission calls for increases to take effect early next year. They would boost first-class stamps from 37 cents to 39 cents, increase postcards from 23 cents to 24 cents and raise other postal prices similarly. In announcing the rate proposal, the Postal Service said it is needed because a 2003 law requires the agency to place $3.1 billion annually in an escrow account. Postal officials have been urging Congress to drop that requirement and said they will withdraw the rate request if Congress does so. I believe we should urge Congress to make a change, but not the change requested by the Postal Rate Commission. I believe we should urge Congress to pass a law requiring the rate commission to increase the cost of stamps to 40 cents and to then place in escrow the additional money, and inform them that they must live with the revenue from the 40 cent stamps for at least 5 years, and whenever they require additioinal funds after that, the increases must be in 5 cent increments. The rate for additional ounces should be set at 35 cents, and it also should be required to stay there until they can justify raising it to 40 cents. Post cards should be 25 cents until the Postal Rate Commission can justify raising them to 30 cents. That way we only have to have a supply of 5 cent stamps, rather than one, two, and three cent stamps, to upgrade old stamps. An alternative proposal would be to require that all first class stamps just say First Class, and whether they cost 37 cents or 39 cents they would always be good for First Class Postage (stamps for Post Cards would be labeled as such, and stamps for additional ounces would be so labeled, and they would always be good for that purpose). That way if we wanted to stock up on 37 cent stamps before the rate went up we could, and they would still be good for First Class postage, even after the rate went up. Congress mandated the requirement in 2003 when it passed a law [Public Law 108-18] reducing the amount of money the agency has to pay into its retirement system, which was overfunded. Congress ordered the money to be put into the escrow fund. (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 2nd, 2005
1:37 pm	Pope is dead Pope John Paul II, also known as the Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Successor of St. Peter, Prince of Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, and Sovereign of Vatican City has now gone Home to be with Christ. A boy from small-town Poland grew up to become pope and, in the opinion of some, "the man of the century, and together with Ronald Reagan was responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union without firing a shot. The Pope died at 9:37 p.m. Rome Time (1:37 p.m. Central Time). Karol Josef Wojtyla (pronounced Voy-tee-wah) was born in Wadowice (a small city 50 kilometres from Cracow), Poland, on May 18, 1920, the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla (a retired non-commissioned army officer) and Emilia Kaczorowska (a school teacher). His eldest brother Edmund, a doctor, died in 1932 and his father died in 1941. He made his First Holy Communion at age 9 and was confirmed at 18. Upon graduation from Marcin Wadowita high school in Wadowice, he enrolled in Cracow's Jagiellonian University in 1938 and in a school for drama. He studied literature and philosophy and later was a playwright and poet. The Nazi occupation forces closed the university in 1939 and young Karol had to work in a quarry (1940-1944) and then in the Solvay chemical factory to earn his living and to avoid being deported to Germany. In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Cracow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, archbishop of Cracow. At the same time, Karol Wojty?a was one of the pioneers of the "Rhapsodic Theatre," also clandestine. After the Second World War, he continued his studies in the major seminary of Cracow, once it had re-opened, and in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Krakow on November 1, 1946. He spent much of the next few years studying -- he earned two masters degrees and a doctorate -- before taking up priestly duties as an assistant pastor in Krakow in 1949. In 1956, Wojtyla was appointed to the Chair of Ethics at Catholic University and his ascent through the church hierarchy got a boost in 1958 when he was named the auxiliary bishop of Krakow. On July 4, 1958, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cracow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated September 28, 1958, in Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, by Archbishop Baziak. When the Vatican Council II began the deliberations in 1962 that would revolutionize the church, Wojtyla was one of its intellectual leaders and took special interest in religious freedom. The same year, he was named the acting archbishop of Krakow when the incumbent died. On January 13, 1964, he was nominated Archbishop of Krakow by Pope Paul VI, who made him a cardinal June 26, 1967. Wojtyla was shrewd enough not to let his distaste for communism show, so his appointment as cardinal in 1967 was welcomed by the government, considered "tough but flexible" and a moderate reformer, but an improvement on old-school hard-liners who were unalterably opposed to communism and communists. Although he had established himself as a formidable intellectual presence -- as well as an able administrator and fund-raiser -- few suspected that the Sacred College of Cardinals would choose Wojtyla as the next pope after the death of John Paul I in September of 1978. But when the cardinals were unable to agree on a candidate after seven rounds of balloting, Wojtyla was chosen on the eighth round late in the afternoon of October 16. He reportedly formally accepted his election before the cardinals with tears in his eyes. (Associates say the pope is an emotional man, and is often moved to tears by children.) Wojtyla chose the same name as his predecessor -- whose reign lasted just 34 days before he died of a heart attack -- and added another Roman numeral in becoming the first Slavic pope. He was also the first non-Italian pope in 455 years (the last was Adrian VI in 1523) and, at 58, the youngest pope in 132 years. When Wojtyla's election was announced, Yuri Andropov, leader of the Soviet Union's KGB intelligence agency, warned the Politburo that there could be trouble ahead. He was right. Less than eight months after his 1978 inauguration, Karol Wojtyla returned to Poland as Pope John Paul II for nine cathartic days. There was a crowd of one million people, and he told them 'You are men. You have dignity. Don't crawl on your bellies.' It was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. His support for the Solidarity movement in Poland -- priests concealed messages from John Paul to imprisoned union leaders in their robes -- was a key to the downfall of communism in Poland. When a Turk named Mehmet Ali Agca shot the pope twice in an assassination attempt in 1981, Agca first told the authorities that he was acting for the Bulgarian intelligence service. The Bulgarians were known to do the bidding of the KGB, but Agca later recanted that part of his confession. It didn't matter to the pope who was responsible, and later he visited Agca in his cell and forgave him. The astonished Agca said, "How is it that I could not kill you?" Incidently Tom Clancy wrote a fictional story Red Rabbit about this assassination attempt. It was written long after the real attempt, so it is not as amazing as Executive Orders which was written in 1994, long before 9/11. By the 1980s, Pope John Paul II had reaffirmed the church's position on controversial issues such as abortion, birth control and the ordination of women. He could communicate his message in eight languages, and traveled widely throughout his papacy. The pope wished a Happy Easter to the world in 58 languages as part of his "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) during Easter Mass at the Vatican in April 1998. Deteriorating health and age forced the most traveled pope ever to cut back on his visits. His principal documents include 14 encyclicals , 15 apostolic exhortations , 11 apostolic constitutions and 45 apostolic letters. The Pope has also published five books : "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" (October 1994); "Gift and Mystery: On the 50th Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination" [Italian, Spanish] (November 1996); "Roman Triptych - Meditations", a book of poems (March 2003); "Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way" [Italian, Spanish] (May 2004) and "Memory and Identity" (pubblication spring 2005). Since the start of his Pontificate on October 16, 1978, Pope John Paul II completed 104 pastoral visits outside of Italy, and 146 within Italy. As Bishop of Rome he visited 317 of the 333 parishes. John Paul II presided at 147 beatification ceremonies (1,338 Blesseds proclaimed ) and 51 canonization ceremonies (482 Saints) during his pontificate. He held 9 consistories in which he created 231 (+ 1 in pectore) cardinals. He also convened six plenary meetings of the College of Cardinals. From 1978 to today the Holy Father has presided at 15 Synods of Bishops : six ordinary (1980, 1983, 1987, 1990, 1994, 2001), one extraordinary (1985) and eight special (1980, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998[2] and 1999). No other Pope has encountered so many individuals like John Paul II: to date, more than 17,600,000 pilgrims have participated in the General Audiences held on Wednesdays (more than 1,160). Such figure is without counting all other special audiences and religious ceremonies held [more than 8 million pilgrims during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 alone] and the millions of faithful met during pastoral visits made in Italy and throughout the world. It must also be remembered the numerous government personalities encountered during 38 official visits and in the 738 audiences and meetings held with Heads of State , and even the 246 audiences and meetings with Prime Ministers. For more information on Pope John Paul II see the sources I used to gather the information for this post: vatican.va, cnn.com, and zpub.com. What happens now When the pope dies, the dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals notifies the cardinals and calls a meeting -- always held in the morning -- that must begin no more than 20 days after the pope's death. The cardinals draw lots to select three members to collect ballots from the infirm, three "tellers" to count the votes and three others to review the results. Blank ballots are then prepared and distributed. After writing the name of one man on his ballot, each of the approximately 120 active cardinals -- those under 80 years of age -- walks to an altar and pledges to perform his duty with integrity. He then places his ballot in a container which is covered by a plate. After all votes are cast, the tellers tally the ballots and the result is read to the cardinals. If there is no winner, another vote is taken. If there is still no winner, two more votes are scheduled for the afternoon. After the votes are counted each time, the ballots are burned. If there has been no winner, a chemical is mixed with the ballots to produce black smoke when they are burned. Sight of the black smoke emerging from the roof of the Vatican Palace tells those waiting in St. Peter's Square that a pope has not yet been selected. When a winner has been selected, the ballots are burned alone, and the white smoke indicates there is a new pope. Traditionally, the winner had to garner two-thirds of the vote plus one, but John Paul II changed that in 1996. He ruled that if, after 12 or 13 days there is still no winner, the conclave could invoke a rule -- by majority vote -- that would permit the selection of the pope by an absolute majority. Once there is a winner, the pope-elect is asked if he accepts the decision. (Pope John Paul II reportedly accepted his election with tears in his eyes.) If he does, the dean asks what name he chooses and announces it to the cardinals, who then come forward to offer congratulations. The oldest cardinal then steps out on a balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square and says to the crowd, "Habemus papam" -- "We have a pope." He then introduces the pope, who steps out on the balcony to bless Rome and the world. Many popes have been formally installed with a coronation, but Pope John Paul II refused a coronation and was installed as the pope during a Mass in St. Peter's Square. For more information see Electing a Pope, How Are Popes Elected? Two Complimentary Lectures, A Concise Overview Of Papal Funeral Rights And Transition, , Who will be the next pope?, Ritual governs choice of successor, Why The Next Pope May Be A Surprise, Cardinals Differ on Who Will Succeed Pope, A search for the new Pope, and Cardinals differ on who will succeed Pope. Candidates cited as front-runners: Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, O.P., the Cardinal-Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, Cardinal Ivan Dias of India, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a German who is the Vatican's doctrinal watchdog; Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes; Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, and Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi of Italy. (HatTip to MM) Other interesting references are The Pope Blog, MSNBC Vatican Watch, Citizen Journalists Report, The Pope Page, John Paul II and the Crisis of Humanism, Faithful Pray for the Pope, and ewtn. Blog posts honoring Pope John Paul II include Professor Stephen Bainbridge, Josh Marshall, Michelle Malkin, The Pope’s Beautiful Life, The Pope's Final Hours, OC Chronicle, BogusGold, baldilocks, A Certain Slant of Life, and Pundit Guy. (Comment on this)