Free Frank Warner

Seven blog years, a million hits

Minutes ago, after seven years and 5,661 posts, the Free Frank Warner blog recorded its 1,000,000th page view.

For clarity’s sake, note that this was not 1 million hits in one day. I’ll never be the blogmeister Glenn Reynolds. I’ve got 1 million total hits in seven years, and I’m righteously proud of it.

After all this time, what have been the readers’ favorite posts here? According to the search hits on Typepad’s daily statistics, here are the Top 10 most popular FFW posts:

* Evil Empire Speech: The full story of Ronald Reagan’s historic address. (2003)

* ‘Too much Johnson’: Mark Twain’s secret critique of the 1906 U.S. assault on Mount Dajo, the Philippines. (2006)

* Legacy of the Dawes Act: How and why American Indian reservations are doomed to failure. (2006)

* ‘The Quiet Man’ soundtrack: Victor Young’s music for a happy St. Patrick’s Day. (2006)

* Barney Frank opposed regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2003, but no one reminds him. (2008)

* ‘Toy Story 3’: Barbie’s words on ‘the consent of the governed.’ (2010)

* U.S. coal mining deaths: 1990-2009. (2006, updated 2010)

* The Single Backpack Theory: Proof archaeologists owe the U.S. an apology for their accusations on Iraq National Museum looting. (2005)

* Bipartisan wars: Dem Congress now has outspent Repubs on Iraq and Afghanistan. (2010)

* Dictatorships’ death toll: 262 million murdered in the 20th century -- and not by war. (2006)

What are the most popular FFW images? Take a look:

* 20 years after Tiananmen Square, the Goddess of Democracy speaks. (2009)

* Kennedy assassination: Magic bullet theory versus single-bullet fact. (2009)

* Muhammad cartoon for Middle East liberation: Mohammad inspires Muslim democrats. (2006)

* ‘The Last Supper,’ front, back and both. (2007)

* John Karr’s handwriting looks like the JonBenet Ramsey ransom note, or does it? (2006) (I have no idea who looks at this, but the hits have been coming for years.)

* More safe cash: $5 reward for proof Saddam ended his repression. (2006)

* Jackie Chan. (2009)

* Fidel Castro. (2006)

* Hugo Chavez. (2006)

* Hugo Chavez. (2007)

Reliable readers. In these seven years, 14,257 reader comments also have been recorded here. Most of the comments have been civil, and every one (except the shoe ads) has made me think. Keep the ideas coming.

I’m grateful to you all for stopping by from time to time. In particular, jj mollo, CJW, Neo, George, Mark, Kevin, Lynne, Nicholas and even “What?” are reliably thoughtful provocateurs.

Thanks a million.

Frank Warner

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Note: The millionth page view came from someone who called up my Sept. 14, 2008, post about John McCain photos by Jill Greenberg.

Blog odometer

999,900.

Blog odometer

999,800.

Blog odometer

999,300.

Blog odometer

997,000.

Closing in on 1 million hits

Free Frank Warner is at 990,000 page views total since 2003. Other writing duties have reduced my posting lately, but I'm still hopeful I can stir up enough ideas to crack 1,000,000 on the blog odometer before the new year.

Frank Warner

Shutdown of 73,000 blogs blamed on FBI terror probe and BurstNET over-reaction

The shutdown of 73,000 blogs over the last several weeks may have been started by an FBI investigation into a server hosting site that posted a link to terrorist bomb-making instructions. A private Internet hosting site may have over-reacted, doing most of the 73,000 shutdowns on its own.

According to John Brownlee at Geek.com, the FBI contacted BurstNET, a web host, and asked for information on who owns Blogetery. Then BurstNET shut off Blogetery and all the blogs it hosts.

Brownlee says:

Interestingly, the FBI did not ask for BurstNET to shut Blogetery down: instead, BurstNET decided that Blogetery had violated their “Acceptable Use Policy,” and shuttered the site and its 73,000 blogs itself.

What a terrible public relations move. BurstNET is surely aware that Blogetery is simply a blog host, not a content provider in its own right. The proper solution here was for Blogetery to shutter the offending blogs themselves, not for BurstNET to yank the plug out of the wall on thousands of innocent bloggers just because one or two were legally suspect.

Not censorship? This is one scenario, as yet unconfirmed. It suggests the government was much less heavy-handed than the original reports implied.

It's possible that when BurstNET heard a terrorist organization might have a link on one or more of the blogs, BurstNET's managers decided they didn't want to be responsible for missing the one blog that might result in the next 9/11 attack, so they shut everything down.

That would be the innocent explanation for what has happened. But was the FBI really looking into a bomb-making link on BurstNET? Stay tuned.

Frank Warner

Rosemary Port exposed as Anonymous blogger

I have the feeling the judge who ordered “Anonymous” exposed expected her to be a man.

But it turns out that Rosemary Port, a 29-year-old fashion student, is Anonymous, the blogger who called 37-year-old model Liskula Cohen a “skank,” a “ho” and a “psychotic, lying whore.” Cohen sued Anonymous for defamation, and Manhattan judge Joan Madden ordered Google to reveal the blogger’s name.

Port says there was no defamation because not enough people saw her “Skanks In NY” blog until Cohen sued. She said that, before Cohen drew attention to it, her Web site “probably had two hits”:

“One from me looking at it, and one from her looking at it. Then it became a spectacle.”

Suits, old and new. Port says now she will sue Google for $15 million. She might apologize for the “psychotic lying whore” comment, even if no one took it seriously. But Port is justified in suing, if only to protect our right to free speech.

Meanwhile, Liskula Cohen has dropped her suit against Anonymous. Go figure.

Frank Warner

Judge says blogger can’t call a model a ‘ho’ and remain anonymous

A Manhattan judge this week ordered Google to give up the name of an anonymous blogger who faces a defamation lawsuit for calling model Liskula Cohen a “skank” and a “ho” on his or her blog.

I’m not sure how long Google has to surrender the name.

The blogger, while remaining Anonymous, says his or her Internet-published remarks were “non-actionable opinion and/or hyperbole,” and not worthy of tying up the court’s time. But Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden disagreed.

Skanked. Google was sued because the blog was part of Blogger.com, which is a Google subsidiary.

“Skank” and “ho” seem fairly harmless words in today’s culture. They don’t sound like statements deserving of even one minute in court. But lawyers must eat. Let the litigation begin.

Frank Warner

2 words you see only on blogs

"Meme" and "risible."

No one talks like that in the real world.

Frank Warner