Mostly agree with most of what's been said so far. I'd grade it C+. Typography for masthead is generic and uninspired, but tolerable. The all caps serif font in top level navigaiton is also uninspired ... and not tolerable. Change it. The site is too active and busy, both visually and in terms of animation. Someone above said that news sites don't need a lot of sizzle. I'd go a step farther ... a lot of sizzle gets in the way. The standing footer with nav tabs and weather has potential. Will be interesting to see how it evolves. Speed and page loading is a definite improvement over previous site. A C+ may not seem all that appealing, but given that the previous incarnation was a solid F, it's a nice improvement. I'll go through the account registering / log in process later. Base on past experience and the downward spiral of content, I'm not sure it will be worth the trouble. Nice try.

What fun! Thanks for the kick.

Thanks for that link. Had fallen off my radar.

The woman who published my first novel, a href="http://annepetty.blogspot.com/">Anne Petty, is a legendary Tolkien scholar. From what I can tell, it takes a special kind of mind to delve so deep into such fascinating fantasy. Sadly, Anne is closing her publishing company, Kitsune Books, due to health reasons. Long live JRRT!

This is a place where I'm a 100% free-marketer. A consumer boycott is the perfect response to Chick's boneheaded political position. That said, I'd also support any legal government action that could be taken. If Chick discriminates in its employment practices, it should bear the brunt of any official sanctions that may apply. For example, I would oppose allowing the company to sell its products in venues that are owned by taxpayers, such as the Dean Dome. Chick can have any philosophy it wants. But it should not expect to have a free ride to profits in contracts with public agencies, organizations, or institutions of higher education.

Related from Romney's "I did it my way" tour ... https://twitter.com/gingergibson/status/227455460075241472

I recently read Steve Jobs' book, which is quite wonderful by the way. Especially the part where he carefully explains that he didn't do anything by himself, with the possible exception of the ethnic cleansing he achieved at Microsoft. I, on the other hand, built my own company single-handedly. At our peak, we had 450 employees, all living in homes built exclusively by me, all using an electrical system that I personally invented and constructed, all getting health care from a hospital system that I created and funded, and all working for money that I printed in my own private bureau of engraving. I did it all by myself for more than 20 years, standing on the shoulders of no one. The wife adds: Hmmm. Wasn't that a public university in Chapel Hill where you rode the GI Bill for 45 months to get into the PhD program and learn everything you needed to start that business? The husband responds: No dear. I built that university all by my freakin' self.

With a willingness to misunderstand the English language, he stood on the shoulders of mental midgets and couldn't see past his purposeful ignorance.

Zygotes are living things, Frog. Sperm are living things, too. So are eggs. So are stem cells. You are splitting hairs when you don't equate them. Why have you drawn the line of demarcation in the particular place you have chosen today? That Frog line has not existed throughout most of history. It is only recently, with the advent of an aggressive Christian patriarchy, that the zygote test has come into vogue. The only possible case you can make for distinguishing between "zygote" and its component parts (sperm and egg) lies in religious belief related to human soul. As I understand it, you believe the act of fertilization creates a magical new thing that doesn't exist in the sperm and egg as separate elements. As an atheist, I see soul as a figment of your overactive imagination, having no relevance for my life beyond the need to constantly battle those who wish to impose their beliefs on me. If I were an atheist woman, you would literally be imposing your religious beliefs on my ability to manage my own body. I thought you were a conservative. You could protect a lot more of the "unborn" if you come out against condoms and masturbation.

What an asshole.

You're still wrong. Santorum is the candidate that is most worrisome. For starters, he is The Chosen One by the evangelical right, right up there with Jesus and pregnant virgins. Plus, Santorum is NOT a member of the Joseph Smith cult like Romney. And while he has a history of scamming taxpayers for personal benefit, he's not a serial adulterer like Gingrich. Republicans turn a blind eye toward sleaze and corruption among their darlings, but they are loath to allow Satan in the door. What a quandary! Who can beat the darkie in the White House? The cultist? The whoremonger? The fraud? So many levels of hell, so little time.

Too little, too late, too stupid. As a marketing guy, I find it fascinating to watch the complete destruction of a brand in 48 panic-filled hours. Komen's extremist anti-abortion agenda can't be put back in the bottle. The organization is now just another ideological sideshow in the Tea Party Tempest.

As I understand it, the so-called conservatives on the thread are arguing for social engineering, for using tax policy to encourage certain kinds of behaviors on the part of individual investors. The Frogman and the Picker advocating for social engineering through economic policy! How ironic is that?

I don't have any authority, Kermit. I just call 'em like I see 'em. And when I'm wrong, I admit it.

Methinks the Frog doest protest too much. One of the marks of maturity in my book is the willingness to stand in the shoes of others, to see the situation from an other's perspective. In this instance, the enlightened response would be: "I'm sorry. It's clear that my expression carried strong racist undertones. That wasn't my intention and I apologize."

And they say racism is dead in the Old North State. As usual, "they" are full of shit.

. [Funny]

Yeah, our blog is dead too.

@polifrog It's remarkable how you can pull any discussion into the "a fertilized egg is a person" arena. But I gotta admire your consistency, especially your reference to the non-voting unborn. Now if you can just figure out a way to issue every zygote a valid driver's license, you'd be home free. Even better, Pat McCrory would make you the King of Voter ID! Happy new year, Mr. Frog.

Boy oh boy, I can't wait for some of that free-market magic to trickle down to Alabama and South Carolina so black people can be bought and sold again.

Me too, Mick. My mom was a TJ groupie before groupie was a word. Between him and Elvis, she had all the gyrations one middle-aged woman could stand. Bless her soul.

Wow. That is fabulous. Love the comment ... plus Stills looks like he definitely cranked up his inner Tom Jones for the occasion. Gotta cross post this one at Blue. Thanks for the treat!

The ability to distinguish between "good" things and "bad" things ... even when they represent the same genre ... is a fundamental characteristic found in thinking people. Arguing that all regulations kill jobs or that they don't kill jobs is like arguing that all mushrooms are poisonous or that all mushrooms are not poisonous. In the early days of cellular phones, the US adopted a low-regulation policy with few standards, while other countries chose standards and bet on their effectiveness. That's why the US is still sucking wind behind the rest of world - with crappy service, disintegration, and higher prices. Regulation would have helped enormously, but the free market maniacs carried the day. Purveyors of "regulations are bad" and "regulations are good" nonsense should take those broad brushes and slap themselves upside the head. Such brush holders paint themselves as dimwits.

Some minutes of fame that the Newtster probably wishes he didn't have. http://images2.dailykos.com/i/user/151025/Billboard.jpg

I have shopped at Lowe's three or four times a week for a decade - with a never-ending series of home improvement projects to manage. Home Depot is less than a mile farther down the road. An easy switch to make. CP, sarcasm doesn't become you (or anyone, for that matter), especially when it's so easy to read it as a legitimate point of view.