Andrew Hagen

Due to a spam attack, comments are disabled temporarily.

Update: September 25, 2005. Re-enabled.

Hoping the spam bots are gone, I’ve enabled comments again.

Due to a flood of spam, comments have been temporarily disabled.

The software that runs this web log, Wordpress, is hosted by the site at wordpress dot org. It was revealed today that that site is infested with spam intended to secretly enrich advertisers through manipulating search engine results. Slashdot has the story. (*) There is no excuse for this disgraceful behavior by the parties responsible.

I had no idea this was going on until today. The Wordpress leadership team can no longer be trusted. I will migrate this site away from Wordpress and to another system as soon as possible.

In the meantime, I have removed all hyperlinks to Wordpress dot org.

While andrewhagen.com has never intentionally participated in any spam campaign, I wish to now take all necessary steps to completely disassociate myself and this site from Wordpress.

I encourage all bloggers using Wordpress to abandon that software permanently.

Update: 2007.03.02. Long ago, the person stopped the practice. (†) Since then, Wordpress has not been in a position of intentionally spamming.

I’ve been trying some Wordpress plugins to stop spam. At some point, one began to seemingly spontaneously block all comments. My deep apology to anyone who tried to post but was blocked. That plugin is now disabled and comments are working.

Comment moderation is still on, of course.

Update: I fixed the problm thanks to some help from the Wordpress support forum.

Update: 20 December 2004: Among others, the words “health insurance” are now banned from comments to prevent spam. You could substitute something like “health ins,” for example.

Unfortunately, this site has been the repeated target of spammers. Search engines routinely index this site. The only way to deny spammers a reward in the form of search engine listings is to prevent all spam from being posted. The only way to do that is to moderate all comments.

Hence, all comments are now moderated. New comments will not appear until I approve them. I promise that I will allow any comment to be posted so long as it doesn’t violate common sense rules.

Spam and unsolicited commercial content are not allowed. Political spam is not allowed. Commercial enterprises and products and political candidates can certainly be mentioned if the mention is made in good faith. Comments that are illegal or defamatory are not allowed. As this is an American web site, the applicable law is that of the USA. The laws of other nations are without effect here. Comments that are personally abusive and profane are not allowed. Comments must be generally relevant to the topic at hand.

Unlike some other web sites, I do not censor opposing views.

As I have suffered the sting and the lash of Internet censorship in the guise of “moderation” many times, I promise to be as liberal as possible in allowing comments.

It might take a day or possibly a few days for a comment to go through moderation and appear on the site as I might be away from an Internet connection.

No other statement by me written, electronic, oral, or otherwise supersedes this paragraph. This policy and all of the promises within it are not intended to be a legal contract, but only a set of guidelines. I retain complete discretion over how to run this site. AH

I’ve made some changes in the software that manages this web log. I have dropped Greymatter (*) in favor of Wordpress.

That accounts for the new look. If something looks broken please say something.

The site design is now slightly better. Site navigation is now on the left. External links move to the right and display in a smaller, more convenient size in both Mozilla and IE. The CSS property font-size is tricky when you are nesting divs. (*) The horizontal scroll bar is finally gone on both Mozilla and IE (conditioned on Javascript in IE). More color is added. I even fixed many spelling errors.

Links to the web logging elites who will never link to me have been moved to a second page, “Other sources.” (†) There are a few exceptions, though.

I’ve found some great web logs lately, including an ever-growing number by hawkish liberals. I encourage people to check them out.

Posting will decrease in frequency for the next two months.

I’ve updated the “About” page. (*) It was long overdue.

In short, this web log is not about religion. I have addressed some issues of religious nature lately. I intend to keep religious issues to the periphery to the extent that is possible. The subject matter here is progressive politics, and issues of public affairs, especially as they concern the United States.

The issue of the U.S. Episcopal Church electing V. Eugene Robinson, an openly gay, non-celibate man to the bishopric (*) is an issue that I may cover in the future, but not now. I’m not sure what public importance it will have.

Recently, in my quotations section, I falsely quoted Martin Luther King as saying:

You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are merely anti-Zionist. And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God’s green earth: When people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews. This is God’s own truth. Anti-Semitism, the hatred of Jewish people, has been and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently anti-Semitic, and ever will be so.

This quotation turns out to be erroneous, a hoax. (*) I should have investigated it further.

Thank you to reader Jay Manifold for the correction. (†)

At this point, I would like to give my readership a warning. Up until now, this site has been at best somewhat controversial. Some highly politically incorrect material is going to be posted within the next few days. If you are looking for some nice, reassuring, soothing articles, you’d best stay away for awhile.

The recent technical difficulties are resolved. Thank you for your patience.

Against the odds, amidst the wailing and gnashing of teeth of criminals, traitors, liars, and evildoers everywhere, I’m back. From now on the gloves are off.

Update: Thanks to Terry Pinder for welcoming me back. (*)

I enjoy updating this web site, but due to other concerns the next new post will be in August. That is, unless something really big happens in the news.

I recommend the sites on the left for their uncommon insights, tenacious opinions, and artful writing.