Happy Birthday, PJ Media
Sometimes I think Jonathan Klein was right. Klein was the CBS exec who inadvertently gave PJ Media its name by dismissing bloggers who questioned the veracity of his network’s anchorman Dan Rather as amateurs “in their pajamas.”
Of course, Rather has long been out of his job and PJM is today celebrating its fifth anniversary — but like the former anchor, we’ve made more than our share of mistakes. We just try to own up to them.
In fact, I remember the opening week of our new media/blog alliance in mid-November 2005 as one giant fiasco. For reasons that elude me now — some version of being thought serious, probably — we had decided to call ourselves OSM Media (for Open Source) only to discover, mid-way through our gala launch at New York’s “W” Hotel, that the name had already been taken by a relatively obscure online radio program.
My co-founder Charles Johnson and I — not to mention our principal partner in crime Instapundit Glenn Reynolds — were embarrassed. In order not to appear the new bullies on the block, we instantly reverted to PJ Media, a name we should never have abandoned in the first place. But that didn’t prevent us from being the object of massive Internet ridicule.
It took us a while to get our footing. In those days PJM was supposed to be a collegial home for bloggers on the right and the left. That didn’t last long either. The two sides didn’t work and play well together, just as they don’t seem able to do elsewhere in our society. Almost inevitably, we evolved into an alliance of nearly a hundred unruly, conservative, center-right and libertarian bloggers, trying to create some form of new media. It was rather like herding cats, as our COO Sandra Rozanski would say.
But we trudged on to be quickly surprised by our first success — our coverage of Iraq’s first democratic election on December 15, 2005. Through our relationship with Omar and Mohammed of the Iraq the Model blog, we were able to place bloggers and correspondents across the Middle Eastern country on that historic day, resulting in much more extensive reporting than was available in mainstream media. We were rewarded with over ninety thousand visitors, our greatest number to that point.
We had the grandiose plan then of becoming a kind of online blogger AP, something at which we were never able to succeed. We did better, however, in more limited, targeted areas. In January 2007, we broke the story of Zahra Kamalfar, the dissident Iranian woman trapped for months with her children in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. In the tradition of Rathergate, we unmasked instances of fake military reporting in the pages of The New Republic. Our coverage of the controversy surrounding the fraudulent Mohammed al Dura video and the rise of “Paliwood” was among the most thorough on the Internet.
We specialized too in mischief wrought by the United Nations, covering the Oil-for-Food scandal, the visit of Ahmadinejad to the Durban II conference on racism and, perhaps most importantly, “Climategate” — all subjects largely neglected by mainstream media until we, or others, pushed the MSM into covering them.
Most recently, led by Department of Justice apostate Christian Adams, with the help of our new Washington Bureau Chief Richard Pollock, we have been in the forefront of breaking the story of the dropped New Black Panther case and related racial bias at the DOJ. This story inspired our Voter Fraud Watch during this year’s election and will most likely continue to grow as the internal dynamics of the DOJ are investigated by the new congress. PJ Media plans on being there, just as it will be for similar investigations.
All through this, however, like almost all media companies in these times, Internet and otherwise, we were struggling financially. For this reason — to the consternation of some and to our own continuing regret — we had to disband our blogger advertising network, consolidating around our main portal, Instapundit and our forthcoming venture into Internet television.
Congratulations. I like this site.
It’s amazing to think that it has been five years already….
A salute to the last five years, and a hope for fifty more!
Congratulations Kingpin! I hear PJM’s name now more than ever in the media. Its become quite influential.
Good luck Roger. We need more outlets like yours.
My biggest regret about PJM? Your co-founder went over to the dark side. I remember how great his blog was in the mid-00s.
Roger Simon is truly a class act, his reference to “creative differences” with Johnson proves that.
Anyone that has seen LGF recently knows what I am talking about.
Just took a look at LGF not having been familiar with it… creative differences indeed Roger! That might just be an understatement of positively British proportion!
Patrick
Happy birthday and congratulations.
Happy Birthday, Pajamas Media! Hooray for you and hooray for us!
Thank you, Roger. PJM is a daily must read. It keeps me from having to try to keep up with miniscule page 13 reports in a mass of MSM blather. Your regular contributors and occasional authors are great. I like the special insights that arise from their varied backgrounds. The pajama clad have certainly thrown off the covers on important issues.
Thanks so much for your hard work. You are one of the few voices of reason out there on the Internet and I sure do appreciate it. Good luck to you all!
Happy Birthday PJM!
Here’s to Roger’s little brainchild. May PJM last longer than the MSM it is replacing.
Congrats, from a Celtics fan to a Lakers fan.
Bravo PJM!!
The success is well deserved.
Keep up the great work.
You know I think you are the best, more importantly, I believe that the pioneers who have trail blazed a path to the truth are saving this land of ours.
Thanks to you and to Aaron and all those at PJM who allow our information stream to flow free and clean again.
Congratulations and keep going, forever vigilant, forever proud.
kindly add my name to the rapidly growing list of appreciative readers and thankful better informed citizens. Congragulations
Roger, you and all at PJM should be proud of your work and accomplishment. We know you and the blogosphere have made an enormous difference, and we wish you infinite success as you continue to help preserve civility and liberty in our proud nation.
I never thought I’d leave the print media for an online source, but I am hooked. I spend more time on this site that with a newspapaer. I was impressed with your coverage of the Honduras fiasco a couple of years ago.
Keep up the good work ! Really enjoy this outlet for truth along with WSJ.
Dan “full-of-himself” Rather is pouting in his jammies as he is no longer the filter for the news.
Congradulations.
Happy Birthday and well done.
I started reading this site about a year ago. It is now my second go to site after Drudge when I wake up. I email more links from here to my friends than any other site. The best word I can think of to describe it is excellent.
Congratulations. Best wishes for a long and prosperous future.
And sincere thanks to Charles Johnson, ex-neocon for his help. He is not all wrong in leaving right, he will find he is no more comfortable with the yahoos of the left than his former home.
Congratulations and many more to come.
One story that IMHO you should take this occasion to document is that of those “creative differences” and the departure of Charles Johnson. A venture like PJM has always had several sometimes synergistic problems to deal with.
1. Managing income, it is a business and as you noted times are hard.
2. Managing sources, maintaining standards and motivating writers who hold themselves to high standards in what is a demanding and unremunerative position while hostile rivals are circling to exploit any error is a leadership function.
3. Managing readers, keeping the public enthused and eager to build the community while guarding against moby trolls, agents provacateur, and lunatics is also an unending task akin to tending a garden.
All three tasks, and especially the third, are impacted by how you manage the technology and the human interface. My impression is that was what CJ originally brought to the table was a technical skill set that promised to jump start PJM. LGF is his hand crafted child with an interface far richer in what it offers the user than the WordPress based format that PJM uses. LGF displays a depth and attention to detail in how it interacts with the user that are a tribute to the self taught skills and obsession of its founder. If the tools that had been built there had become more widely distributed across the Blogosphere then the world would be a richer place. Unfortunately that was all tied to the person and personality of Mr Johnson. He brought little else to the table except the possibility that he could serve as a critic of music and personally powered transportation devices. His base of commentators must have been a tempting audience to build on, although CJ proved unwilling to share.
Perhaps you can take this opportunity to share more on this part of the history of PJM.
Congratulations! I’ve been reading you since nearly the beginning — hard to believe it’s been 5 years already!
You should be proud, Roger. PJM rocks.
Pajamas Media is the place where lefties disenchanted with The Left can dip their toes into the conservative stream without experiencing the shock of full immersion — a kind of halfway house and a much needed niche.
Hey guys, your dah man.
Congrats, Roger! You deserve to be proud! Excellent analysis, opinion, and news. And it was good you disappeared the slanderous debacle of Ron Rosenbaum from your pages, but I’m still sad to see Ruben (LaRaza) Navarette continue to publish his racist anti-white anti-American swill, and still very sorry to see you banned Gates of Vienna to the wilderness under the influence of libel-blogger Charles Johnson. I’d like to see you make amends in that quarter. I give you a sold B+.
Thanks for your perseverance, PJM. Since the McLuhan-predicted electronic revolution is now moving from infancy to adolescence, it’s an exciting time to be alive….We who seek to understand what’s really happening now have resources like PJM. An added plus: Electronic news allows everyone to comment! Unlike print newspapers, who never accept letters to the editor who don’t follow the editor’s political bias! Time for celebration!!!
Happy Anniversary!
And many more returns.
Good site. Many thought-provoking articles. PJTV is good. VDH is a genius and other regulars are also strong. This is probably the best place for commentors. There are a lot of good ones and not many duds. The comments are often as interesting as the articles.
Thanks for that, proreason. We are well aware how good and interesting our commenters are and this gives me an opportunity to thank them as well – something I should have done in the article.
I notice that either because of your moderators or you, Roger, the Trolls fear to tread here, which is not the case at the other sites on Pajamas Media. Congratulations, Godspeed and add me to Simon’s Blacklist!
Yes, the comments in many cases are more informative and interesting than the article.
I’m intelligent enough to recognize those who are more intelligent than me. Of course, I meet them every day, but never quite so often as on Pajamas Media.
Without the Internet, I think we would already be enslaved under Cap and Trade. We have a lot to be thankful for. Many thanks, Mr. Simon for the cutting-edge excellence of PJM and PJTV. Sincere best wishes for the future.
Congradulation! Keep going on.
Congratulations, Roger, Pajamas Media has become an indispensable read (and watch, now that broadband has finally reached the Seppofarm). Thanks, and best of luck for many more years to come.
Warmest congratulations from a newcomer! Thanks for the wisdom of common sense!
Congrats, Roger – and I want to add to the merits of this site the fact that even at the peak of the Birthing fights, PJM has accommodated all views, be they rabid birthers like me, or obnoxious liberal trolls, on the line from Hurley to… Jome, to name a few – nice -
And I take as a good omen the fact that this anniversary comes by the same time when the HuffPo was hit with a “paternity” lawsuit -
From one of your regular writers Roger,
Thank you for a great place to write and a wonderful opportunity for us obscure in-the-trenches types to show our stuff.
Congratulations on five years, may we see many more!
Patrick
You’re my homepage. Nuff said.
Happy birthday, congratulations, and keep going!
Great job PJM, I love the cast and crew here!
Introduced to a lot of new clear accurate and passionate thinking here. Did not know of VDH or Bill Whittle until finding them here on PJM. They are the Gold Standards for thoughful, passionate OFFENSE (not defense!)in the war of ideas
Your female bloggers are awesome, dispelling the myths of the other side with excoriating tomes on Islam, antisemitism and duplicity found in most “traditional feminist” positions …Tough strong chicks that call it out with no appologies…exactly what our wives and daughters need to see and read more of.
Great job!
I couldn’t agree more with your assessments of VDH and Whittle, although I’d add Wretchard from the Belmont Club to that list.
There is a part of me that would give up democracy for triumvirate rule by VDH, Whittle, and Wretchard.
Impossible, of course, as VDH would post two pages on the risk of Nemesis, Whittle would just laugh in my face, and Wretchard would quote something from Tolkien that was insightful and spot-on about the seduction of the Ring.
Your site is invaluable to me. I stopped paying attention to major media in the mid 80s because of their twisting of facts to fit their common narrative. After 20+ years, I finally have a home to find out what is going on the world.
Congratulations! I stop by every day. Love you all.
Pajamas Media has improved political discussion in the US and is increasingly referred to in the Canadian blogosphere. You consistently present well written articles that contain relevant thoughts. You graciously accept comments from foreigners.
Visit Kos to read their comments and laugh. PJM comments are like fresh mountain powder snow compared with the dirty street slush that is Kos commentary.
Congratulations on your first five years!
Congratulations on making it so far against entrenched and very rich opposition.
You just go to show that people love the truth, and the truth can sometimes win.
Please keep it up!
You are needed.
Happy birthday !
Congratulations !
Roger, congratulations on five years at PJM. Rarely miss a day.
Most of all I wanted to thank you for introducing me to the incredible Victor Davis Hanson. His insights and thought provoking writings are the first thing I look for at PJM.
Keep up the great work.
I’ve been reading Instapundit, Driscoll, Simon and Vodkapundit long before PJM existed, so i’m happy to see them all here and I drop by a couple times a day.
Congrats!
Congrats, and keep up the good work.
I have enjoyed being able to comment and post, even on topics I take a slightly different view from or disagree with the article’s author. I have also mostly enjoyed the spirited exchange with libs who visit the site (I wouldn’t call all of them “trolls”) – it keeps us on our feet.
Best luck for the next five years.
It’s a smashing success. Roger. I have been an avid follower since you started (and a follower of many of the contributors for long before that.) Proud member of PJTV. The most important contribution, I think, is PJM’s substantial contribution to breaking the power of the lagacy media to establish and control “the narrative.” PJM, to its credit, does not seek to create a replacement narrative, but to open dialog and promote transparency and accountability. I think of PJM as less of a collective blogger site and more like a think tank. The quality is high, and so is the integrity.
I’m very impressed by what you have accomplished in such a short time and am grateful for it. Thank you and congratulations. It’s important.
Happy Birthday Pajamas Media! I kmow I’m a day late, but, I don’t mind leftover birthday cake.
I’m sure your stats show you have reached maturity in ranking beyond your five years, with all on-line news blogs.
I hope you enjoy many more.
Thanks.
Congrats! PJM and PJTV are essential sites for the Information Age. Keep up the excellent work!
I was glad to be a party of the PJ Blogger Network from the start. Sorry that didn’t work out. Ah, well. PJTV is great stuff.
The two sides didn’t work and play well together, just as they don’t seem able to do elsewhere in our society.
Which is why NPR and PBS have been captured entirely by the left. Those propaganda organs will not ‘look like America’ until they’re staffed from the top down, particularly producers, by reds and blues in equal numbers, like our population. Yes, there would be some mutual hatreds, but there’s no other way to achieve balance. And they’d mutually bust one another, and the forced honesty would be very beneficial to the body politic.
Not the Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs infamy, is it?
That’s him.
He used to be a very good blogger… he’s the one that did the Rathergate memo analysis showing that it couldn’t have come from a typewriter that was around when Bush was in the Texas ANG.
Alas, he went off the rails… waaaaaaaay off the rails.
Yeah, I used to use that site as an information source on the Islamic Jihad.
But that place is whacked now.
Perfect timing! I’ve been trying to decide when to thank Roger for pulling yeoman’s work, and haven’t found an article where a thank you for PJM seemed appropriate or might be noticed. Now I’ve got the opportunity.
Roger, I know you and your colleagues are not getting rich off the PJM ‘enterprise.’ I don’t know if this will mean a thing to you and the PJM staff, but you are providing a service more lasting than wealth. In no small part, you might be helping to save the Republic and I’m not kidding.
You give real power to the “little” people and the anonymous masses of the “unwashed” an outlet to provide our two cents and our shared knowledge. That is real power. I have found the PJM audience and comments, when taken as a collective, the best on the net.
Glenn Reynolds was absolutely correct – an Army of Davids is what we are. And if you ask me, the biggest winner in the 2010 midterm elections were not Republicans, but those of us who have fought an overmatched battle with the media moguls for years to disseminate truth. We knew the main stream media untruthful and one sided – most rank propagandists. But we had no weapons with which to fight. We do now. And the Goliaths of the network news don’t discount us anymore.
So to you Roger, your colleagues, the entire PJM staff, and the regulars who provide commentary here, a big tip of the cap.
Great mixture of information, humor and serious content.
Thank you to Roger and all who make PJM possible.
I have thoroughly enjoyed and benefitted from PJM almost since its inception and do not like to miss a day. It is an important voice of thoughtful yet joyful conservatism, useful information, and common sense commentary unlike anywhere on the Net, much less in the Mainstream Media. In passing, I had the opportunity to write some articles early on, and appreciated the opportunity presented by Roger’s open-heartedness and free spirit. It is rare. Kudos and best to you, Roger and team.
Congratulations on the milestone, and may there be many more.
Congrats, Roger — from one of the early bloggers who has been following the fantastic Michael J. Totten since before PJ; and come here more thanks to him (and VDH! Wretchard!)
I’m so angry at the UN so often, I can’t read the great Claudia too often; it’s such an impotent rage I feel.
But I read, seldom watch — PJTV is too slow for me. It would be great if you could get speech to text working enough for rough text versions (perhaps with good edit notes), so I could read the clips. Though Bill is good enough that I do watch.
Finally, can I suggest you try to get more exposure to other bloggers? It seems you’re adding some named articles, a bit more like TCS was, but you could have an “editor’s choice” reference to some blogger each day, especially of the stable of bloggers who were dropped by the advertising.
In any case, keep trying new things. Andrew B. and Big Gov’t, Journalism, Peace, etc. is your most interesting rival so far, helping you both get better.
Congratulations, and thanks to everyone at PJM for all their hard work!
Yes congratulations. It must have been a long strange journey from your Dartmouth days to here. I stumbled in after the demise of the Powerline Forum. To give honor where honor is due, righty blogs including this one (and the emails) have made me skeptical about the “fact” that humans are the primary cause of our current warming, a substantial shift in my point of view.
Often the sparring with rabid, and a few reasonable righties here is entertaining. In general, but I would not share in the adulation for VDH. Maybe my expectations are too high, but to me pretties up his boilerplate righty stuff with occasionally creative creative approaches, but underneath, it is the same-old, same old. I don’t feel as if I am getting perspective from a learned classics scholar, but rather 13 ways of telling us that the blackbird is black. So it goes.
It is rare that you find people on either side searching for truth; instead you find people who think they have it, even when they clearly do not. The trick is to try to discern what small piece of the truth that any of us have. I appreciate the people here who think similarly. There ain’t many, but there are some.
PJM also provides perspective when the rabid righty readers mutter and caterwaul when a few of the writers here, Radosh and a few others are not sufficiently doctrinaire.
We are all participating in something; what it is ain’t exactly clear. There’s a man with a teapot over there, saying stop, I better BEWARE! It ain’t exactly Coleridge, but then, neither am I, although I am getting Ancient.
I’m just one of many lurkers who would be lost, as would our Republic, without the hard work and courage of the writers on this site and others such National Review, Melanie Phillips, First Things, Powerline, Michelle Malkin, Jihad Watch, etc.
Ditto the Drudge, Hot Air, Lucianne for news links that provide world and national news we would miss otherwise.
I never turn on TV news — haven’t since sometime after the 2000 elections. WSJ is our household daily newspaper. Talk radio keeps up my spirits when breaking news needs background and commentary.
Our household does not subscribe to cable — our last year’s cruise evening treat was watching Fox News! Forget the silly ship’s entertainment.
Kyle~Anne Shiver’s my personal favorite.
Congrats n Godspeed!
One of the Best Web Sites ever!! Good Luck and many many more. Keep fighting on!
Congratulations to you, Roger, to PJM and all the “crew” in reaching this first milestone! And a big ‘Thank you’ for all the hard work you all put in and for – not least – the contents that you serve us on a daily basis.
We are looking for the next 5 – and on . . . . but for now: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
i’ll pile on with the adulatory congratulations. i like PJM because it has a labor of love feel to it. lots of smart, amatuer political philosophers who are visibly having fun. it is a great counter/complement to traditional “con” media and i like the cross-overs when they happen between the to worlds. i was an early sullivan/lgf fan but left those after they got weird– faves are Belmont, VDH and increasingly zombie. i like poliwood which is good fun and insightful. love the podcast but would suggest a more thoughtful approach– i REALLY like the richochet podcast and think it is a good model to look at…love getting to listen to smart folks really kick something around, whereas the pjm podcasts are more like newsy commentary pieces/interviews and less dialogue.
Happy Birthday, PJM! Thank you for being the voice of information in the old format “You Are There”.
Yep, PJM has only just begun. Case in point, with the Irish sticking to what is going on, versus the narrative communicated by Brussels, we can see the unraveling of the EU before our eyes.
The price for Ireland not to shackle itself with more debt is banishment from using the euro. Well, what is there to prevent others from leaving?
So, don’t be at all surprised to see Europe divide into 4 parts, and with varying degrees of friendliness to North America. That range in friendliness will be above zero.
Happy birthday, PJM!
THANK YOU so much for all you do to help keep us informed and sane.
Reading this, as usual, I’m in my pyjamas—Canadian spelling—and send PJM Many Happy Returns of the Day!
After Power Line, you’re my next daily fix. Your contribution to truth telling/intelligent analysis is a major contribution to sanity in this increasingly madcap world.
Godspeed, Roger, to you and all your crew. You help to keep us on an even keel.
Congratulations!
Your site is resourceful, intellectual and sometimes with good humor. It is always with responsible commenting representing the good values of common humanity and conservatism unlike, so many of the other so-called conservative sights who perpetuate snark-casism, superficial pettyness and vile division among their readers and responders.
Your obvious mature professionalism and intellectual approach will continue to set your site apart….as a first class winner!
Thank you so much for existing!
This site has literally changed my life. After immersing myself in the writings of the knowledgeable and noble authors here, my worldview has changed forever.
It’s an embodiment of the Internet revolution. From the far-away, socialist and, in many ways, primitive Middle East country of Israel, I’d come to learn and understand the communist maladies that drag this country into its grave, and to appreciate what makes America – and Americans – so great and unique for the world’s freedom and prosperity.
Thank you, Pajamas Media, for opening my eyes and mind, and for changing my life forever.
PJM is a Scorpio?!
Doesn’t it feel good to have survived the terrible twos?
Congrats!
Proreason beat me to the comment about the commenters. To me, they are what make this site so great. I can get more perspective on the article from them than I can on my own. I read a lot of townhall, but the comments are generally poor, and the print is very small.
Specifically, I would like to compliment eon and cfbleachers on their input. Others are fine too, but these two write seemingly whole, knowledgable articles themselves. I really enjoy them. I would like to compliment Dwight, too. He is a Lefty, but he doesn’t come in to just fart in the room. He will actually engage is dialogue, not dogma.
I quit commenting for awhile here, when you changed the format, but I had to come back because of the inadequate site presentation of others.
Here’s something you may not know. Many times, I have seen some turn of phrase I have created make its way into the national dialgoue. President Bush used one of my comments in a speech to CPAC in ’09. Others were used in articles. Stossel has used one. Hannity has used one on TV. I say this not to brag, but to let you know how much of an impact this site now has.
It is further-reaching than you know. Even a lowly commenter like me can have an impact and shape the dialogue if he says the right thing. I think these writers peruse this site and the comments for inspiration. This site can shape the national dialogue. It truly is the new media.
Now, some criticism. I hate the new format. I used to go to the my last post and read from there. Now I have to hunt all over for the latest comments. I hate typing in my email addy each time. I also wish certain lefties who come in here only to call names and disrupt would be blocked. “BC” is a Lefty, but at least he tries to marshal an argument at times. “Your Sensei”, for example, just spews.
Still, for all that, thank you for the site. Congrats and carry on. All the best to you in the future.
Although I don’t know Roger L. Simon except to share an email or two, I admire him from afar. His blog, “Pajamas Media” is where I started blogging as a commenter. To me, it’s home.
I wrote the following on “Eternity Road”in response the death of Sable, a furry member of the Fran Perretto family. I called the piece, “Eternity Road”, same name as the blog. My advice. When it’s your turn to walk this road, take a dog, preferably one with big brown eyes. And so it begins.
Eternity Road |
I met Julie about two months ago in a writing group in my town. Twice a week, about twenty people gather in the local library and read their stuff, mostly about their memories of growing up in the country, stories stretching from West Virginia to Iowa. Some of the writing is less than inspired. But many of the thoughts hidden between the uneven lines are gems. Julie’s writing jumped off the page as brilliant.
When Julie puts words down on paper, the imagery of her family, against a backdrop of the scenic mountains of West Virginia comes alive with the wonder of hearing Earl Hamner Jr. open another episode of “The Waltons,” a TV dramatic show that ran in the 70’s and early 80’s about a mountain family during the depression and into the war years. This wonderful woman reminds me of Mr. Hamner who for years on TV had an amazing, almost super human talent for weaving words into a tapestry that stokes the spirit and touches the heart in ways fairly unimaginable. At least for me.
The first time I heard her read a couple of pages to the group I was amazed at the beautiful, almost spiritual prose, and told her so. And she looked at me in wonderment, as if no one had ever lavished her talent before with such praise.
What connects Julie and Hamner is their ability to make such an impact on my receptors. Maybe it’s because so much of what they write about strikes me as so unmistakably American.
Today, when Obama latched the medal of honor around the neck of Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, and I saw a still photo of the moment, I sensed a proud President, but with the most subtle almost snide look on his face. Since I’m not willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, and I’m prepared to follow my instincts to hell and back, I’d say Obama questioned in his own mind the folly of such heroics. Salvatore didn’t risk death for 70 or so virgins. Death in battle was the eternal reward for the Japanese, the path to glory and God, but it’s not for the American soldier. Why Salvatore did what he did even Salvatore may not know. Why Davy Crockett and 189 others chose almost certain death at the Alamo I don’t know.
Friends, I believe we have a President who hasn’t the faintest idea why Americans do some of the things they do. Vote the way they do, for instance. A lack of communication? I doubt it. Obama has no more empathy for what it means to be an American than my front screen door possesses for the flies it keeps out.
The ground zero Mosque? Obama doesn’t get it.
The need to start profiling at airports and start leaving 6 year old children, and 80 year old women in wheelchairs alone Obama doesn’t understand. The impact on the rest of us that Muslims are exempt from ObamaCare? Obama has no clue.
The emotional impact of a beloved family dog leaving this world I believe falls in the same Obama empathetic abyss.
One look at Sable’s brown eyes and the missive I had in mind to write tonight left without a trace. Twelve people commented. Consider this the thirteenth.
I’ve had two brushes with death that were so intimate you couldn’t have slipped a piece of paper between life and the afterlife. Between us. A heart attack victim at my feet. No pulse. A (91A-10), I did exactly what they taught me at Fort Sam to do. He was a close friend. For ten minutes, a life and death struggle raged.
Six months ago, I brought one of my cats back from the vet. Jenny was very ill. Very old. But not in pain. That evening she lied down on the floor in front of the TV. I could feel it. It was the same feeling I had about 50 words ago. Life was about to end. I picked her up and told her I loved her. She gasped one last deep breath. Jenny is still in my prayers.
So tonight I saw the brown eyes staring at me when I clicked the Mac to Eternity Road. I read the words, and the memories flooded back. “Rest in peace, old friend. May God clasp you to His bosom. I hope to see you on the other side.”
Then I remembered a story I’d once been told. By who? I closed my eyes and searched my thoughts. I remembered. It was about a dog and a guy, Hyder Simpson and his dog, Rip. Then I remembered who wrote it.
If my favorite voice in the world is Bob Sheppard’s, (and it is) “Batting third for the Yankees, number seven, Mickey Mantle,” my second favorite voice is Earl Hamner Jr., who also is one of my favorite writers.
For me, God, love, loyalty, truth, justice, American is all wrapped up in this story.
Episode Recap: The Twilight Zone, creator, Rod Serling.
“The Hunt” by Earl Hamner Jr.
Sable, this one’s for you.
“An old couple, Hyder and Rachel, live in a cabin and argue affectionately. Hyder insists on having his dog Rip in the house since it saved his life. Rachel reluctantly lets Rip in and the couple have supper. Rachel talks about how they’ve been married for 50 years and Hyder thanks her for it. Hyder plans to go coon hunting with Rip, but Rachel says she saw several bad omens and doesn’t want him to go out that night. Hyder insists on going out that night and he and Rip soon tree a coon. It escapes and heads on a branch over a nearby creek. Rip jumps in after it and doesn’t come up, and Hyder jumps in to rescue his dog.
“Hyder wakes up the next morning by the side of the creek and heads home with Rip. As he passes the Miller brothers, he sees they’re digging a grave on his land and discussing how it’ll be lonesome without Hyder around. Hyder calls out to them but they don’t see or hear him. He tells them to leave but they finish the hole and put a box with a dead dog in it. Hyder asks them how the dog died but they still ignore him. He figures they’re not talking out of grief and heads for home. He finds Rachel dressed in her best dress and she ignores him. Reverend Wood comes in and offers his condolences about Hyder’s death: it’s been a month since Hyder died. The Miller brothers come to collect Hyder’s coffin and Hyder insists that it’s just a dream and everything will go back to normal. He can’t believe he’s in the coffin and follows them to the graveyard, but gets lost and comes across a fence he’s never seen. He and Rip follow it and come to a gate.
“The Gatekeeper comes out and writes down Hyder’s information, then asks how he died. Hyder is skeptical at first but the Gatekeeper has him think back and Hyder finally accepts that he’s dead. Rip starts to bark at the gate and Hyder wonders what’s on the other side. The Gatekeeper explains that Heaven lies on the other side. Hyder wonders why he doesn’t hear music and the Gatekeeper assures him he’ll hear heavenly choirs once he enters. Hyder starts to enter but the Gatekeeper informs him that people are only allowed in people heaven and Rip has to go to dog heaven. Hyder refuses to go without his dog, even after the Gatekeeper offers to slip Rip through the gate later. He warns that if Hyder continues down the road, Rip might get into his heaven but Hyder won’t. He offers to hold the dog and let Hyder look around inside and see if it’s too his satisfaction, but Rip barks at him and Hyder refuses when he learns there’s no coon hunting allowed in Heaven either. Hyder starts down the road despite the Gatekeeper’s warning that the road continues on to Eternity.
“After a while, Hyder sits down and wonders if he can go into Heaven and talk to the judge to convince them to let Rip in. A young man, a Messenger, comes to find them and explains he’s there to take them to Heaven. Hyder explains what happened and the Messenger says that the gate leads to Hell: Heaven’s down the road a piece. Hell doesn’t allow dogs in because they can smell the brimstone. He escorts Hyder down the road to a simple opening in the fence and assures him that there’s plenty of coon hunting in Heaven. As Hyder goes in, he asks if Rachel will have any problems and the Messenger assures him that she’ll be fine.
“Hyder and Rip go into Heaven… together.”
Many thanks to you Roger and all the rest that make this my favorite place to get a view on the world. I used to love Politico and I still go to Huffpo once in a while but this place is so much more civilized and informative. Please keep it going. There is quality here.
CONGRATULATIONS Roger and your great staff of writers for so many great articles.Keep up your high standards.’Pajamas media’ and ‘American Thinker’are a must read every day.
Happy Birthday,
Jay Kanter
Roger et. al.
Started following your blogs from shortly after 9/11 by basically going through the Insty blog roll and keeping the good stuff.
As an ardent follower, then, since long before day 1 I, too, send my congratulations.
You (plural) have the most advanced set of BS detectors ever aglomerated in one spot. And is this ever the time we need them!!
My one regret is that I am SO humbled by the display of the PJM crew and the superior commentariat.
In the words of our generation…Keep on keepin’ on!
Roger and others, Thanks!
I am a better auditory learner than visual learner. I am a subscriber to PJTV and I purchase a subscription for my sister. I give too much money to cable TV (most of which I do not like) so I am glad to give a few cents to something with which I mostly agree.
“Note to Sarah Palin: Please stop supporting candidates who are obviously incompetent to hold office, as you did in Nevada. All this accomplishes is six more years of Reid. And it doesn’t reflect well on you either.)”
You should be ashamed for writing such a comment. You need to write a colunm
either substatiating, or apologiing, for this insult. Otherwise, you are on
my “worthless” list.
Congrats Roger and PJM!! I do come here quite regularly and do repost many articles onto my Facebook page.
I do remember the early days of PJM and LGF….
Those were the days!!
It’s a great site. It has a host of great contributers, and there is virtually no banning of unpopular views. A lot of the article writers are willing to interact with the readers and expand on and defend their positions, as opposed to the old information dispensing system where great men sit in television studios and shower us with their pearls of wisdom without anyone ever being able to challenge what they say.
This is everything the MSM should have been and never really has been.
Nice job by Simon and co. in taking advantage of internet technology to create a news/political info site that blows newspapers and television out of the water.