LIFE IS COMPLICATED

It’s good to see the dialogue has continued at a brisk pace while I’ve been away. It will have to continue that way. I’ve entered the budget season at work and considering I’m responsible for planning and budgeting, my time is already sparse. Now we add the complicating factor that my boss will be gone in two weeks, with the likelihood that his position will not be filled for six months. Half his workload will likely fall on me, and it has already begun.

I will not be able to participate in any meaningful way on a daily basis. I’ll be able to release posts made by others and post some stuff sent to me, but I will not be writing much at all. I’ll try to post a larger article whenever I can find the time on a weekend to write something.

Life is full of choices and there is only so much time in a day. The next six or so months is going to be dicey. I’ll be focused on the area of my life that provides my paycheck.

Carry on.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM TBP TO YOU

Before I enter the two day whirlwind of family and friends coming and going at the Quinn household, I wanted to post a Christmas greeting and thank you to all TBP readers, members, contributors, and commentors, who have contributed to this truth seeking effort. I read many other excellent blogs, but only TBP has the kind of intelligent, funny, and sometimes nasty commentary that is both entertaining and informative. I think the average IQ and social intelligence of the average TBP reader/commentor is far above what you will find among the unwashed masses. There are a few dolts among our members, and they know who they are (bb). I know you have taught me far more than I’ve taught others.

Personally this was an extremely heart breaking year for me and my family as we lost my father-in-law Ray Romano, my young niece Jen Romano, and my son’s best friend Tyler Rizol far too soon. These tragic deaths, along with other family medical issues, made this one of the saddest years of our lives. But life must go on. The entire Romano clan will gather at our house today and we’ll honor the memories of the patriarch and my niece. We’ll light three candles on the center island as a remembrance of those we’ve lost.

I’ve had plenty of issues with the site this year and had to switch server companies for the 3rd time. The technical side of running a website is not interesting to me. The site loading problems and attacks from outside parties (yes NSA- I mean you) almost convinced me to throw in the towel. But, it seems some patchwork done by a couple new vendors has fixed the issues. That, and paying ten times as much for my server as I did in previous years, has allowed people to actually log-on and read the site.

TBP will end up 2013 with over 5 million visitors. That’s not bad for a blog I do in my spare time, with most of the articles written on my laptop while I sit in bed watching Duck Dynasty (just kidding). Sometimes the daily grind of keeping the site interesting can wear me down. I’m particularly crotchety on those days. I really appreciate when the other great contributors post their insights. It takes the load off my shoulders. AWD, Stuck, Harry P, and the other regular contributors are all owed a round of applause for their effort.

Lastly, I’d like to thank all of the generous readers who have supported TBP with their kind donations. I would like to list everyone by name, but I think most want to be anonymous. I’ve kept every letter and envelope that has ever been sent to me. They are piled up next to my computer. That will make it much easier for DHS to track you down when they kick in my door and take me away to the FEMA blogger camp.

I hope the readers of TBP have learned something over the last four years. I consider my efforts to be a crusade on behalf of my three sons and their future unborn children. I try to stay focused on the big picture and not be distracted by the day to day minutia from the propaganda arm of the establishment. I think we’ve opened the eyes of some people. I think we are starting to turn the tide. I think we’re on the right side of history. A tipping point will be reached and I don’t think it is too far away. I’ll keep slogging away and seeking the truth. There isn’t much more I can do.

Thank you for keeping this place interesting. I hope you all have a joyous fun-filled Christmas. There will be plenty of time for doom in the new year. For now, just enjoy the embrace of your family and tell them you love them.

HOLIDAY MESSAGE FOR THE MONKEYS

I know this blog attracts the cheapest bastards on earth and I count myself as a proud member of the frugal army. At one point there were another 20 ads on the right side of the page and the idiot advertisers were paying me $1 to $2 per day to place those ads. They have finally realized that you cheap bastards cannot be lured into buying their shit and have hit the road. After reading my diatribes about shysters and scam artists, you rarely sign up for Casey newsletters. Therefore, they don’t pay me.

Now we’re on the verge of the Christmas season and I’m guessing even you cheap sons of bitches will be buying something. If you hate malls and make your purchases on the internet, consider clicking the Amazon button on the right side of the page. If you make a purchase through that button, Amazon will send me 6% of the transaction amount. It won’t cost you anything more. So, you’ll actually be sticking it to an evil corporation by buying through my Amazon button. And I’ll have some funds to pay Stop the Hacker, Dreamhost and WordPress to keep this two bit blog functioning.

I’ve seen purchases of ammo, bulk silver, red dildos, and lingerie over the years, but I don’t see who buys what. I do have some suspicions regarding the red dildo and anyone who wants to confess can do so on this thread.

Here is the button for your convenience.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR THANKSGIVING?

I’ll be checking out shortly and taking the next day or two off. Kevin is home from college and the Quinn clan is intact. We are all headed to the Movie Tavern tonight to see The Hunger Games – Catching Fire while eating an unhealthy dinner and having a couple beers.

Tomorrow we’ll be headed to Avalon’s sister’s house in Phoenixville to enjoy a rollicking good time. We jam a couple dozen sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, grandkids and anyone else who decides to show up into their small house. There are cases of beer on ice outside, plenty of snacks inside, and a big old turkey will be in the oven.

The men and boys gravitate to the living room where they watch 9 hours of football, drink mass quantities of beer and insult each others’ waistlines and hairlines. The women gravitate to the dining room and talk about something – I don’t know what because I don’t spend much time in there.

By the end of the night, I’ll be yawning from the turkey and beer and ready to hit the road. We’ll adjourn until the next family party at my house on Christmas eve.

I wish everyone on TBP a happy Thanksgiving. Give your kids a hug and have a few laughs. The doom will still be there on Friday and TBP will be the place to find it.

Do it Yourself

SSS’ Turkey

 Don’t Drink Too Much

Drumstick or Breasts?

Thanksgiving Then

Thanksgiving Now

Be Thankful

Keep an Eye on Your Bird & Your Pussy

At Least It’s Only Once Per Year

 

TBP GETS NO RESPECT

Doug Ross’ website published a list of the top conservative websites in the world based upon Alexa ranking.

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-top-150-conservative-websites.html

Zero Hedge was ranked #9.

Denninger was ranked #58

Mish was ranked #59

I consider TBP to be a libertarian website that is aligned closely with ZH, Denninger and Mish. So how come TBP didn’t make the list?

TBP’s global ranking is 87,966, which would put us at #94 on the list. We’ve gone up 30,907 places in the last three months. I guess doom is becoming more popular. Or maybe people can actually log-on now.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/theburningplatform.com

Our ranking in the U.S. is 21,612. Not too bad for a two bit blog run by an old guy, in his spare time, writing articles in his undershorts, while sitting in bed.

I don’t know if you noticed but the average load time has been between 1 and 2 seconds for the last month. I was ready to pull the plug a month ago due to all the technical problems and hacking into the site that was occurring. Stop the Hacker offered to fix the site for $149. It was the best investment I ever made. Whatever they did has worked. The site has been running like a dream from the moment they patched it. I applaud them.

With the new server company, the statistics are gathered differently than before, but our daily visitor counts are still around 15,000. One upgrade is that I can now see the views by post. We’ve been on the new server for two and a half months and I can run a report to see the most viewed posts of all-time. The results might explain why TBP is not classified as one of the top conservative websites. I have written hundreds of well researched factual articles over the last four years. I’ve put my blood, sweat and tears into the site. And after all that, the most viewed TBP post of all-time is my March 31, 2011 masterpiece:

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2011/03/31/best-penis-nicknames/

I’ve figured out that with all the AWD pictures and penis references, we must be classified as a porn site. The huge interest in penis nicknames is further proof that our country has jumped the shark, or in this case jumped the penis. When will TBP ever get a little respect?

 

HACKED

My server company informed me twice in the last week that TBP had been hacked. I don’t know who or what successfully broke into my site. The server company was able to seal off the intrusion temporarily. This was somewhat annoying to me because I’ve been paying a company aptly named – Stop Hacker – to protect my website from being hacked. After asking them why I was paying them, they offered to patch my site’s weaknesses for a couple hundred bucks. They have supposedly fixed the site. I’m doubtful.

They also made a bunch of recommendations that I should implement, including restricting the crap you people copy into the comments. They say that is why Norton keeps warning everyone about the site. I don’t understand most of their suggestions. I’m not technically savvy and have no interest in becoming so. I now spend way too much of my life monitoring load times and trying to figure out why the site will operate perfectly for hours and then go down or take 20 seconds to load. I can’t stand running a website. My enjoyment level drops by the day. I just wanted to write articles and now I deal with IT glitches, trolls, spam, and assholes.

If these technical issues continue to get worse and more expensive to address, I’ll eventually have to pull the plug. In the meantime, I’ll continue to post articles I find interesting with a brief commentary when I feel it is appropriate. The long articles that I tried to write every week or two will be few and far between. Trying to keep the blog interesting on a daily basis and dealing with the daily technical crap wears me down by the time I reach the weekend. Throw in days like yesterday when I spend three and a half hours commuting to and from work and I’m completely burnt out.

I no longer have the time or stamina to spend 10 hours on my weekend writing an article. I prefer reading to writing, and I have piles of books waiting to be read. I’d rather go for a long walk or workout at the YMCA. I’d rather go to a movie or watch a football game. Life is too short to spend worrying about what might happen 24/7. I am responsible for preparing my family for an uncertain future and trying to find some enjoyment in my daily life. It ain’t easy.

TBP has become more of a chat room of doom, than my personal blog. We’ll keep it going as long as technically possible, but something had to give and that is the in-depth articles. I’m not looking for recommendations on how to better manage my time. So don’t make any. Life is full of choices and this is a minor one in the big picture. I can’t find all the good articles, so post anything that will make readers think or get pissed off.

The goal of this site is to provide an alternative to the propaganda you get on the MSM. My personal goal is to discredit the establishment and contribute to their downfall. I hope to see our efforts come to fruition.

TBP IS SAFE

Norton and Symantec software have been telling people that TBP has malicious malware that is attacking their computers. It is a false warning. You can check your website using a Google diagnostic. Below is the result for TBP. If you go to the Norton Safe page and type in my website, you get the safe message below. I need to contact Norton/Symantec to get white listed. No, that isn’t racist. 

 

Safe Browsing

Diagnostic page for theburningplatform.com

What is the current listing status for theburningplatform.com?

This site is not currently listed as suspicious.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 279 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2013-08-01, and suspicious content was never found on this site within the past 90 days.

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, theburningplatform.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

 

Safe Web Report for:

theburningplatform.com
theburningplatform.com Web Site Location         United States of America

SAFE

Norton Safe Web has analyzed theburningplatform.com  for safety and security problems.

Summary

Norton Safe Web found no issues with this site.
  • Computer Threats: 0
  • Identity Threats: 0
  • Annoyance factors: 0

Total threats on this site: 0

                            The Norton rating is a result of Symantec’s automated analysis system. Learn more.                 The opinions of our users are reflected separately in the community rating on the right.

I’M SAFE

 TBP is cured.

Green Verdict Image

theburningplatform.com

This link is safe. We tested it and didn’t find any significant security issues.

Website Category:
Blogs/Wiki, Entertainment

TBP – ENEMY OF THE FASCIST SURVEILLANCE STATE

I never considered that my dinky little blog would ever draw the attention of anyone other than a few libertarian minded people. We draw about 15,000 visitors per day, which is tiny in comparison to hundreds of popular sites. I do consider my site to be anti-status quo, pro-Constitution, pro-liberty, pro-freedom, anti-neocon, anti-liberal, pro-common sense website.

I believe our country has been captured by a small cadre of powerful, wealthy, psychotic, evil men. I believe we have reached a point of no return. Our system cannot be reformed through the democratic process because the system has been corrupted by the wealth of those in control. True capitalism hasn’t existed since 1913. The masses are controlled through propaganda and entitlements.

We’ve descended into a Brave New World/1984 dystopian nightmare. Developments over the last few weeks have veered heavily towards the Orwellian fascist surveillance state. I’ve never been a big conspiracy theory kind of guy, until this week.

There is no doubt in my mind that TBP is now on the radar screen of the Federal Thugs within the DHS spy complex. From the moment I posted articles in support of a true patriot – Edward Snowden, my site has been under assault. I’ve received multiple emails from people and read dozens of comments on the site describing what has happened.

People with McAfee security now get this message when they try to go to my site:

WARNING: DANGEROUS SITE

Whoa!

Are you sure you want to go there?

 

People have been accessing my site for four years and have never gotten this message. Suddenly, this week it is dangerous.

Multiple people have told me that their companies suddenly starting blocking my site this week with the message that it is a POLITICAL/ACTIVIST website. The State University of New York blocks my site. The only way this could have happened is if some agency or organization put my website onto some sort of list that corporations and universities could access to decide whether it could be displayed on their servers. Clearly, this was an act of the government. In the world we live in today, a website that criticizes the government is a dangerous entity and must be silenced. This government is not a big fan of free speech.

My own security software gives me a Security Alert every time I try to go onto my own website. Here is the warning:

WEB ATTACK MALICIOUS EXPLOIT KIT WEBSITE

The IP Address of the attacking computer is 188.138.115.108. When I searched this address it is supposedly in Germany. I’ve also gotten messages of attacks from the Ukraine. Is there an entity attacking anyone who tries to access my site or are they trying to scare people away from accessing my site? My site sits on a mainstream American based server company. It is not infected with malware. I can check the diagnostics on the server company’s website. There are no problems, viruses or malware. These warnings are false.

My site has not been throttled by my server company in the last week. My IT guy has taken the site down for maintenance and he says there are no database issues. But, in the last week the number of database error messages and no connection messages have quadrupled versus what was happening prior to this week. I’m sure this is just a coincidence.

I doubt that my website will be accessible within the next year. The government will either force my server company to pull the plug or they will use some legal means to bully me into submission. I had a long discussion with my Computer Science Major son as we drove into work this morning. He has been tasked with figuring out a way for his old man to keep up the fight after the government shuts down my mainstream method of exercising my freedom of speech.

We are clearly descending into a fascist surveillance state. TBP is an enemy of this state.

TIME FLIES

I’ve been doing this day after day for the last five years. The Jason version of TBP started in early 2009. It ended in flames in early 2010. The latest version of TBP went live in November 2010. Since that date, there have been 11,000 posts, 187,000 comments and 21,000 people have registered. The increase in visitors over time has been fairly consistent, from 2.6 million in 2011 to 4.6 million in 2012 and probably 5.6 million in 2013. This has happened even though many sites that used to publish my articles have given me the boot. These are sites that have kicked me off over this time frame:

Seeking Alpha

Minyanville

Op-Ed News

Nolan Chart

Lew Rockwell

Financial Sense

My style evidently doesn’t fit into their money making efforts. Despite these snubs, TBP still seems to gain readers. I suppose that is a good thing. More people are getting an alternative perspective to what they are being told by the MSM. Eleven thousand posts of doom sure seems like alot. It’s a wonder I can get up in the morning. I’m just going to keep plugging away and hope enough people listen to make a difference some day.

Thanks for the contributions of all the regular posters and commentors. Your views are being read by about 15,000 people per day, so keep firing away.

 

Month Unique visitors Number of visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
Jan 2011 77,908 170,341 792,220 4,982,052 36.14 GB
Feb 2011 68,937 158,243 743,738 4,396,753 32.81 GB
Mar 2011 93,337 211,578 972,840 5,942,279 45.01 GB
Apr 2011 69,318 179,942 874,435 4,680,779 36.55 GB
May 2011 73,188 192,532 958,954 5,077,179 40.85 GB
Jun 2011 95,161 224,655 979,395 5,904,361 50.93 GB
Jul 2011 88,190 214,987 937,243 5,322,611 47.48 GB
Aug 2011 116,681 288,636 1,342,852 7,961,428 76.79 GB
Sep 2011 104,543 249,672 1,108,364 6,000,495 57.52 GB
Oct 2011 113,064 258,674 1,294,935 6,531,900 68.34 GB
Nov 2011 113,441 259,769 1,305,147 6,283,059 78.36 GB
Dec 2011 101,295 241,275 1,079,141 5,092,387 57.42 GB
Total 1,115,063 2,650,304 12,389,264 68,175,283 628.20 GB

 

Month Unique visitors Number of visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
Jan 2012 142,179 317,286 1,311,060 7,028,446 78.51 GB
Feb 2012 153,245 334,217 1,433,959 7,831,894 85.82 GB
Mar 2012 131,053 321,665 1,449,151 7,078,203 74.47 GB
Apr 2012 191,585 407,291 1,569,130 9,615,613 96.33 GB
May 2012 166,343 375,757 1,592,056 8,628,373 72.26 GB
Jun 2012 140,869 337,940 1,433,328 7,476,452 64.88 GB
Jul 2012 159,493 357,898 1,402,946 8,233,352 63.64 GB
Aug 2012 168,306 378,542 1,507,243 8,562,515 67.10 GB
Sep 2012 184,306 397,839 1,558,916 9,034,917 85.62 GB
Oct 2012 212,845 463,414 1,823,556 10,562,666 109.75 GB
Nov 2012 200,905 447,717 1,790,968 9,577,438 120.76 GB
Dec 2012 193,299 443,711 1,802,355 9,603,573 122.07 GB
Total 2,044,428 4,583,277 18,674,668 103,233,442 1041.20 GB

 

Month Unique visitors Number of visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
Jan 2013 191,952 470,264 1,999,422 10,033,242 194.91 GB
Feb 2013 180,900 431,336 1,731,871 9,337,683 167.76 GB
Mar 2013 155,510 441,063 2,059,492 9,311,671 230.53 GB
Apr 2013 163,796 460,097 2,020,689 9,087,557 212.46 GB
May 2013 2,188 2,688 9,656 35,772 916.33 MB
Jun 2013 0 0 0 0 0
Jul 2013 0 0 0 0 0
Aug 2013 0 0 0 0 0
Sep 2013 0 0 0 0 0
Oct 2013 0 0 0 0 0
Nov 2013 0 0 0 0 0
Dec 2013 0 0 0 0 0
Total 694,346 1,805,448 7,821,130 37,805,925 806.55 GB

TBP WILL SURELY BE UNDER SURVEILLANCE NOW

This is freaking awesome. Yojimbo has pulled it off. The Burning Platform is now being advertised on a massive electronic billboard on I-495 just outside Boston. More than 350,000 people per week will see this sign. It will be live for the entire month of January. If there are any new visitors to TBP from this sign, let us know. I’m blown away by this.

Thank You Yojimbo!!!

To the Boston Office of DHS – you know what you can do.

MONKEYS BEHAVE

Your comments are getting more viewership as TBP demolished our one day visitor record by 15%. We broke the 30,000 visitor barrier for the 1st time. When I started this blog in 2009 we would get 30,000 visitors in a month and 10,000 of the visits were by Smokey and Stuck. Let’s hope the newbies have a sense of humor, thick skin, and aren’t put off by foul language, disgusting pictures, or vitriolic attacks. If not, fuckem.

Day Number of visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
01 Oct 2012 12,781 57,100 281,504 3.14 GB
02 Oct 2012 14,592 56,842 336,607 3.26 GB
03 Oct 2012 13,854 61,423 310,757 3.61 GB
04 Oct 2012 14,530 57,146 332,346 3.16 GB
05 Oct 2012 13,315 54,753 296,220 2.86 GB
06 Oct 2012 10,228 39,501 203,957 2.18 GB
07 Oct 2012 11,050 42,780 224,351 2.45 GB
08 Oct 2012 30,914 99,788 868,694 9.90 GB
09 Oct 2012 3,373 10,430 77,055 825.16 MB
  Countries Pages Hits Bandwidth  
us United States us 364,093 2,261,077 23.91 GB

ca Canada ca 19,331 133,929 1.10 GB

gb Great Britain gb 13,621 96,029 839.81 MB

nl Netherlands nl 8,280 19,673 206.75 MB

au Australia au 6,318 46,357 337.02 MB

de Germany de 5,944 30,374 511.32 MB

cn China cn 5,804 7,773 782.75 MB

fr France fr 5,447 30,212 472.31 MB

ru Russian Federation ru 5,324 14,496 460.79 MB

in India in 3,002 21,285 170.49 MB

ua Ukraine ua 2,595 4,290 235.55 MB

ro Romania ro 2,576 6,727 84.49 MB

se Sweden se 2,244 11,708 110.90 MB

nz New Zealand nz 1,866 9,681 66.46 MB

pl Poland pl 1,795 6,152 161.75 MB

sg Singapore sg 1,674 6,481 56.52 MB

ie Ireland ie 1,575 7,563 88.31 MB

ch Switzerland ch 1,467 6,795 64.84 MB

ph Philippines ph 1,364 9,676 74.29 MB

br Brazil br 1,238 8,122 80.33 MB

mx Mexico mx 1,074 8,667 71.45 MB

hk Hong Kong hk 1,058 4,749 68.40 MB

jp Japan jp 1,028 4,996 57.19 MB

th Thailand th 944 6,390 47.69 MB

it Italy it 925 7,891 62.05 MB

  Others 19176 160398 1.36 GB

 

Links from an external page (other web sites except search engines)Full list

http://www.stevequayle.com 4,853 4,884
http://www.thedailycrux.com/Post/41480/Controversial-post–Hyper… 2,874 2,934
http://www.thedailycrux.com/Post/41457/-Chilling–report-reveals… 2,816 2,848
http://stevequayle.com 2,811 2,875
http://www.stevequayle.com/index.php 2,800 2,800
http://www.tfmetalsreport.com/blog/4246/corner-copperfield-and-b… 2,037 2,037
http://www.zerohedge.com 1,876 1,876
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-10-08/guest-post-decline-deca… 1,704 1,704
http://dollarcollapse.com 1,270 1,302
http://whatreallyhappened.com 493 524
http://www.facebook.com/l.php 311 311
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com 255 255
http://td5howard.livejournal.com/201061.html 229 229
http://www.valueforum.com/forums/show.mpl 215 215
http://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com 209 209
http://www.facebook.com 196 204
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article36916.html 184 184
http://sgtreport.com 177 177
http://36ohk6dgmcd1n-c.c.yom.mail.yahoo.net/om/api/1.0/openmail…. 134 155
http://m.facebook.com/l.php 118 118
https://www.facebook.com 111 111
http://sbynews.blogspot.com 107 107
http://stevequayle.com/index.php 100 100
http://www.thedailycrux.com/Post/41322/Several-frightening-signs… 96 96
http://www.blacklistednews.com/Guest_Post%3A_DECLINE%2C_DECAY%2C… 96 96
– Others 5,494 7,305

A Stucky Poll: What do you like or don’t like about TBP?

First of all, what my intent is NOT about. This is not about Administrator, the great things he has done. This is not a “tribute” thread. Leave direct references to him out of it, if possible.

WHAT PROMPTED ME TO START THIS THREAD

To a lesser degree, this post from a newbie, Alan McCracken:

“I wanted to drop a note before I deleted your blog from my favorites for good. I’m taking advice from the Silver Shield and am dumping toxic people and things . I agreed with virtually everything that you wrote about financially and politically. I was willing to overlook the racist crap because it didn’t directly affect me. Then comes the gays and other fringe freaks comment. When you attack people for who they are and not what they do or say, YOU LOOSE ALL CREDIBILITY. We are around you at most times. Be careful since we might “convert” you, asshole.”

To a much, much greater degree, this comment from Big Dog, Muck About.

“My conclusion, maybe it’s time I moved along and leave the arguing and bickering and stupidity to the late Boomers, tattoo’d Millenniums and just bow out.”

What we have here are two people fed up with TBP; one left for sure, another might. Both are just too fed up with the bullshit; the name calling, the slurs, the bickering and stupidity.

Admin’s general stance has been that if you want to leave, then do it and don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out, no one cares. But, I know he does care, not always, but often. He was sad when Smokey and I left at the same time. I’ll bet he’s at least a little sad Howard doesn’t post here anymore. I know he’ll be sad if Muck About leaves, as will I. I don’t care much when a Newbie leaves. I am almost always sad when a Big Dog leaves, even if I didn’t agree with their views. People leave for all kinds of reasons. I just hope we can stop or slow down the reason being …. us.

WHO and WHAT THIS IS ABOUT

This is about all of you, and me. Long timers, often known as Big Dogs, and newbies alike. It’s mostly about We, the People; what we post, how we post, how we interact. What turns you on. What turns you off. It’s pretty wide open.

You can be general; “I hate dopplegangers.” Or, you can be specific; “I hate Stucky’s doppleganging habits”. I do realize naming names can turn this thread into a real shitfest. But, we like that too! Or, don’t we? Anyway, let’s be real. If you simply say, “I hate dopplegangers”, we all can figure out that it’s mostly Stucky we’re talking about. Might as well be specific in the first place.

This can also be about policies. Some might say there are no policies here, that it’s wide open. Well, “wide open” is a policy, is it not? I don’t want to make more work for Admin, and he may not even have the time or inclination to implement new policies. And that’s fine. Policy comments are a good way to “get things off my chest”. For example, I think we need a Banning Policy. Posters who attack a family member should be banned. It doesn’t need to be permanent; maybe 1 week, 1 month, or such.

WHAT I HOPE THIS ACCOMPLISHES

1)- “laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.”

Metaphorically speaking, I think a lot of us here are “crying alone”. I am hoping there some catharsis if we can cry together. Get things off our chest.

2)- If nothing else, to restore sanity to my TBP life. The level of shit flinging has been unreal this past week, especially the tone, which has traversed from “fun” to downright vile and mean. I’ve been throwing around words I normally abhor; cunt and nigger, and even wishing people were aborted. I wrote (but won’t submit) something called’ Stucky’s Grand Apology and Fuck You Tour” — about using the power of hate to thrive and motivate.

Ms Freud rarely reads this site, but I forgot to close the TBP window when I went to bed. The “Should we be Optimistic / Pessimistic” shitfest thread was open. She gets up earlier than I do. She read it. I get up, do my thing in the bathroom, go to the kitchen, say “Good Morning”, and she responds, “What the fuck has gotten into you?” She only uses the f-word every 6 months, so she was a bit overdue. She was aghast, asked me to explain myself. I told her about Stucky 2.0, how I was going to fling shit nonstop, fight hate with hate, that I was joining the Dark Side, that being nice was just to fucking hard. She laughed, literally, and said, “What a crock of bullshit.” She was overdue on that word too. But, she’s also correct. It just isn’t me. I can count on one hand the number of enemies I’ve made in my real life. I tried real hard to be something I’m not. I just can’t continue down that road.

3)- I am hoping for better understanding and maybe some changes in behavior.

No, I’m not so dumb to believe we’ll all be holding hands around the campfire singing Kumbaya. I honestly don’t want to hate SAH. I let my emotions get the better of me. I should have done a MUCH better job trying to understand her, to find some common ground, instead of only differences. If people say they really hate doppleganging, I doubt I’ll cut it out altogether. But, I’m will to curtail it, if it means TBP will be a better place. That kind of thing.

4) – To stress that for us TBPers there is more that unites us, than divides us. The 3 shitfest threads I participated in the past week — Boomers, Creation, Truthers — don’t amount to a pimple on an elephant’s ass in the big scheme of things. We are so fucked as a people and nation, and we’re (me) getting too sidetracked by the incidentals.

5)- I hope no more Big Dogs leave.

6)- To issue a sincere and heartfelt apology. To SAH for calling you a despicable name and wishing you dead. I was wrong. To Colma for calling you a despicable name, and shitting all over your post. I was wrong. (I might even try to like Bad Religion). To everyone else who was turned off by my bullshit and whom I may have offended, I’m sorry. I hope we have a “Do Over” button.

ENOUGH ALREADY

OK. Enough already.

Let me try and explain myself. First of all, it was not llpoh’s fault. It is nobody’s fault. I’m just mentally burnt out. I seem to have a problem with balancing my life. The daily rage required to keep this blog interesting affects my health. For a couple weeks I’ve sat in front of the computer trying to write part three of my last article. I keep drawing a blank. I don’t know why. I can’t seem to focus or think properly.

I concluded, rightly or wrongly, that trying to write five to ten commentaries per day and live my real life has mentally drained me. It happened back in December and seems to be happening more frequently.

I haven’t left the planet. My goal is to not leave the planet sooner than I want to. Keeping up the  daily rage required to keep this blog growing will probably put me in an early grave. So, I’m just going to step back from the daily commentary.

I’ll post articles I find interesting from other people, but I’m going to try and not get worked up on a daily basis. I hope that my mental faculties return and I can write an occasional article.

I appreciate all of the nice things you’ve said, but I’ve learned far more from you than you will ever know. I won’t pull the plug on this blog because it wouldn’t be fair to all the brilliant, funny, intelligent people who have become like a family to me. A dysfunctional family, but a family none the less.

Thank you for the donations, but this has nothing to do with money or TBP being a business venture. I don’t care about making money. I care about the truth and my kids’ future.

So this isn’t about the end of TBP. I just need to find some sort of balance that doesn’t make me crazier than I already am.

P.S. This is really me. I have not been carted away to a mental institution by the authorities.

No one has threatened me or my family. I just need to step back and get some balance.

Keep throwing the shit.

STORY TIME – WHEN DID YOU WAKE UP?

Dustwallow suggested a thread on when people woke up and realized our economic and political system was corrupt, rigged, dysfunctional, and designed to benefit the few at the expense of the many. I’ll start it off.

I turned 40 in 2003. I knew the world had changed after 9/11 but I was still a diehard Republican. I had voted for Bush in 2000. I was outraged by the 9/11 terrorist attack and fully supported the invasion of Afghanistan. I didn’t question the rapid passage of the Patriot Act. I had never even heard of Ron Paul. I also believed the rhetoric from the Bush administration leading up to the Iraq War. I particularly trusted Colin Powell, so when he went before the world showing pictures of weapons sites and mobile labs, I was convinced.

As the Iraq War got under way and no weapons of mass destruction were found, I began to question the entire story. This coincided with my personal disillusionment with the company I had helped go from $80 million in revenue to $1 billion in revenue. My fourteen years of dedicated service was ending badly as a clueless CEO ruined the company and people I thought were friends threw me under the bus.

After leaving IKEA and being so angry at Bush’s lies that I actually voted for Kerry in 2004, I began to read the writings of Bill Bonner, John Mauldin, Richard Russell, John Hussman, Robert Shiller, Doug Casey, and many of the websites listed on the side of this page. These people opened my eyes to the evils of the Federal Reserve, inflation and debt financed “prosperity”. I began following Ron Paul and reading his articles. I questioned everything I had been taught and everything being spewed at me by the MSM.

When I witnessed the scorn and ridicule heaped upon Ron Paul by the Republican Party establishment during the 2007/2008 debates I was infuriated and decided to write an article. Lew Rockwell published Why We Need Ron Paul in the spring of 2008. I found an outlet for my new found passion at the Seeking Alpha website. My first article on the site in early August of 2008 was Is the Banking System Safe?. I wrote an article per week all through the 2008/2009 crash. I was the third most popular writer on Seeking Alpha, but as they got bigger they tried to censor and edit my articles.

That was when I started TBP version 1 with Crazy Jason. That ended in a scene remiscient of a Quentan Tarantino movie. For the last two years I’ve been running my own site with the help of some good friends at my university.

That is the story of my awakening. Let’s hear everyone’s story, even those who normally don’t post.

 

TBP’s RECORD MONTH

We had a record month, despite the tragic loss of Smokey. We had 211,000 visitors in March. That was a 30% increase over January and February. We are getting a lot of new visitors, as the number of unique visitors went up by 35%. You can see that on the days when I post a featured article, the visitor counts go sky high. Another interesting statistic is that the average visitor spends over 6 minutes on the site, with 9% of visitors staying for longer than 30 minutes at a time. You know who you are.

Thanks for your continued support and don’t forget to click “you know what”.

Day Number of visits Pages Hits Bandwidth
01 Mar 2011 4831 24244 123282 875.24 MB
02 Mar 2011 5296 28220 145400 1002.78 MB
03 Mar 2011 4932 24517 130817 948.57 MB
04 Mar 2011 4646 25097 126751 850.27 MB
05 Mar 2011 5925 24038 155720 1.21 GB
06 Mar 2011 6676 26790 173081 1.43 GB
07 Mar 2011 6936 34775 199818 1.51 GB
08 Mar 2011 5330 28650 148710 1.09 GB
09 Mar 2011 5203 29112 146201 1.01 GB
10 Mar 2011 5617 30305 163359 1.12 GB
11 Mar 2011 5306 28812 154734 1.01 GB
12 Mar 2011 4573 24072 125133 900.55 MB
13 Mar 2011 5622 24779 150733 1.13 GB
14 Mar 2011 20589 68983 621904 5.46 GB
15 Mar 2011 14142 53871 421735 3.84 GB
16 Mar 2011 7704 35540 216232 1.78 GB
17 Mar 2011 6159 33318 179168 1.34 GB
18 Mar 2011 5403 29117 152194 1.10 GB
19 Mar 2011 4524 22805 119363 904.50 MB
20 Mar 2011 4995 26103 132832 1022.38 MB
21 Mar 2011 5596 27319 152127 1.07 GB
22 Mar 2011 12105 41991 348815 2.71 GB
23 Mar 2011 12544 46608 370987 2.84 GB
24 Mar 2011 6840 29075 179105 1.30 GB
25 Mar 2011 5407 29573 153453 1.01 GB
26 Mar 2011 4463 25040 123630 890.66 MB
27 Mar 2011 4646 25597 129969 899.49 MB
28 Mar 2011 5637 31662 164440 1.08 GB
29 Mar 2011 5722 29404 154402 1.07 GB
30 Mar 2011 5623 28551 146634 1.00 GB
31 Mar 2011 8586 34872 231550 1.80 GB
Average 6825.10 31381.94 191686.42 1.45 GB
Total 211578 972840 5942279 45.01 GB