Author: admin

Editors Note: The name of the weblog was changed to sortapundit.com after the review was written.

Being something other than American, I was kind of skeptical before I even started reading WorldWarBush. I have my own views on American politics, and get tired very easily of anything to do with Bush, or anti-Bush, as it’s been thrown at me from all directions in the last couple years. However, once I started reading I was pleasantly surprised by what I found in the writing.

Keith, or Taylor as he prefers is a young man in his 20’s living in Manchester (which alone puts him in my good books). He explains he started blogging before England went to Iraq, and had so much to write about he has kept at it. He has some very distinct views on politics and George Dub-ya in particular. At times this is trying, because most of us have had enough. but as the blog goes on, he admits he no longer has the loathing he once had. I have to admit, this is where the posts get better. Taylor begins incorporating other news items, that have less to do with Bush, and less to do with Iraq and WMD, and I start to get interested.

The site itself is an interesting one. If you go back to the “old site” link its a bombardment of Lycos pop ups and makes your head hurt. The new site, is a blogger site, with some additions. While I appreciate additions or alterations to any blogger site, the links on the right seem out of place with the box they are in. i don’t know how to explain it, it’s kind of like they aren’t centered right. It’s nothing horrible, just something that caught my eye. Otherwise, the site looks good, the links all work (which is good cause there are a ton) and it’s easy to get around and find what you need.

Overall, the site is good – and maybe great if you like political news. I myself find it hard to stay interested in politics, and especially american ones. Taylor writes very very well making it easier, so regardless I would give it a look just to see what you think.WorldWarBush

First thing I notice at WorldWarBush Sortapundit is that the title has changed, and the format has turned into a standard Blogger template. Needless to say, neither really made sense. With a URL like www.worldwarbush.com, a name having nothing to do with the actual URL is a big awkward. And, well, Blogger templates are always awkward, no matter how you look at them.

There are some parts of the site that I definitely found funny – The Journal of the President’s Personal Aide, made on October 3, 2003, being one of them. The next post, published on November 11, 2003, was an extensive writing piece still dwelling on the topic of President Bush not rightfully winning the 2000 election. The site is not updated again until February 11, 2004.

There’s no explanation for this huge gap in updating until you visit the FAQ section of the site, where readers find out the reason this weblog was started was because “Taylor” had so much to write about once the invasion of Iraq. The reason he stopped for six months was to search for a job, but he now claims he’s back for good now.

The last time I read this site was in August 2003, when the site had been submitted for an earlier review. I hadn’t visited the site again for a reason and that reason being the only thing “Taylor” wrote about was his extreme abhorrence towards George W. Bush. It got old reading the same subject matter for every single entry, written by someone who can’t even vote for in a United States election, because he lives in England.

The content of the site has changed since the weblog’s been “back on track” after its six month hiatus. Now, instead of focusing solely on bashing the President and his actions, Taylor has resorted to overall news related political entries. Unfortunately, instead of writing original content of his own, the majority of the last week’s worth of posts relies on bits of text that have been copied and pasted from other websites.

It may sound picky, but I think there’s got to be a happy medium for this site. The combination of links from around the web and personal content is a wonderful thing. In my opinion, if Taylor would combine his writing and opinion sharing along with the different information he finds while cruising the ‘net, this weblog could have even more potential then it already does. I raised the score on it this time around simply because he has avoided sticking straight to the GWB criticisms and expanded the content of the site a bit more.
WorldWarBush

I wasn’t sure what Always the Abecedarian’s domain, Learning Asigo, meant. It took me a while to realize that it was actually Learning As I Go, which will probably sum up the intentions of the author, whose name I seemed to miss (or maybe she was too busy to say it in her blog).

Scrolling across her sidebar, I realized that she is quite new to the blogging world. Her weblog is only two months old, barely even, but as I continued reading her entries, I realized that how long you’ve spent writing a journal doesn’t measure how well you can, shall we say, intensify the emotions and the thoughts that has coursed in your body for that particular day, or that particular state of mind.

You will realize that the author is lesbian, and that she is very much proud of it. She succeeds in portraying the emotions of a lesbian heart with such grandeur and romance that it seems no different with heterosexual relationships.

Her writing style is very creative. Romantic, even. And if I may add, it’s something only a few straight hearts can express. The author is quite modest proclaiming that she needs improvement when she is already quite good (and her blog is helping her practice writing, so hurray for blogging!).

One unique thing about her blog is that she doesn’t use the first person as frequently as most personal blogs. Instead, she portrays her feelings with other characters, thus, this blog is also a collective of her short stories. These short stories are lesbian in nature, and somehow I’m reminded of Anne Rice’s style of playing with words – and that is by making such good use of the technique of imagery. Access to these stories is made easy by placing links named “Literary Entries” in the sidebar.

Design-wise. This is a well designed Movable Type blog, thanks to her friend who helped her putting it up. It’s simple and well organized, but it’s neither boring or explosive. It’s one of the jewels of Movable Type blogs, if you asked me.

Speaking of organization, it is a very orderly blog, with a clean entry layout and a very handy and suffecient sidebar containing her archive, her links and cliques.

All in all, I’d say this blog is a must-read. You do not need to be lesbian to enjoy the way she delivers her way of thinking. She is a very talented woman and I wish that the blog lives on. I’ve become envious on how vivid she can get with just mere words and some pictures as well. Hopefully this blog will teach other bloggers that you don’t need to have such an exciting experience to have such interesting entries. It’s how to input images on other people’s brains with how you make use of your literary know-how… and that blogging will help you learn as you go.Always the Abecedarian

The first thing I did was go to my dictionary and look up the word Abecedarian. Funny that the definition is one who studies the alphabet or one who is just learning, a beginner and I am looking it up. Ok, maybe not that funny that I didn’t know what it was and it said I was a beginner.

Anyways, I wasn’t sure what to expect now that I had a definition for the word. Is this blog going to be about the daily life of someone contemplating the impact of the letter H on our society? Or was this going to be more along the lines of a life’s lessons learned type blog in reference to the second definition? I had so many questions, but no answers, so I went on in.

When the page loads, there is an amazing design for the site. There is a wonderful banner of dried roses that set the mood and the color scheme for the site. I loved the design as it is very original. The only problem I had with the design is that the css loads the links all funky in Mozilla. To make sure it was just a browser thing, I opened up IE and the page looks better in IE. So she needs to fix the css problems and the site will look as good as it reads.

The site is amazing. From the very start I could tell that the author was well read. She has a way with words that just make you want to keep reading. She tells a story within her posts, I felt like I should be wrapped in a blanket next to a fire while reading this blog. To change things up she does have some “standard” blogger posts which are nice and give us yet another view point into her life.

Normally I would give you all kinds of details about the author of a blog. I don’t think I could do her justice by trying to describe her. Sure I could pull random things out of her 100 things, or take certain parts from her posts and describe her to you, but part of the joy of this site was actually reading her and learning stuff about her. The only thing I will mention is that her occupation of a bookstore owner completely shines as I said she is well read.

I really enjoyed my time here. I only had one real problem with the site and it was the design issue I mentioned earlier. I couldn’t justify giving the site a perfect 5 because I would have to put this on my weekly read list instead of my daily read. The reason for this is that she writes so well, it would be a shame to only read one day at a time. Imagine your favorite author only releasing 1-2 pages of a chapter at a time. You would rather enjoy the entire chapter than just a couple of pages. This site is a great read, and I recommend that everyone check it out.
Always the Abecedarian

The title of this site is in white projected on a cherry red background at the top of the page. I had to resize my browser window to view this site. The header just below describes the author in terms that, while intriguing, are relatively vague (anarchist mystic?) This had my attention, and, as I read on, key words like fascism clued me into this site being relatively political in nature. Reading on, I found this assumption to be mostly correct.

There are as many blogs as there are political slants, and, by definition, most blogs have a political slant. The liberal anti-Bush blog has almost become cliche. However, a few entries into this blog, and the author was already quite dear to me. Often online one finds people who, while very vocal, have no idea what they’re professing. Here is an obviously very educated and knowledgeable guy writing about the issues he cares about. While this is far from being a traditional links-to-news blog, he often responds to articles or posts by other people with intelligence and politeness. The main subject of this blog seems to be the Bush administration’s policies

The blog has apparently only existed for two weeks, but in those two weeks we have a huge volume of posts. If the author can keep up this level of involvement into the future, this blog is sure to be a success. In addition to the blog, the site features a catalogue of the author’s adventures- trips to semi-exotic locations with lots of great pictures, some of glittering stars hanging from the sky. Visit this section for the view. The author is also an anger-management counselor, and his blog links to his professional site.

As mentioned earlier, however, the site design is less than perfect. A defect in IE forced me to resize my browser to view the page properly. The author acknowledges this on the page, stating “IE is busted.” While he may be correct about IE’s flaw, not accommodating for users surfing with it is alienating to potential readers. I recommend he try for inclusive approach to browser differences in order to reach a wider audience. Also, on the larger pages, the right navigational column is shoved to the bottom of the page.

Without a doubt, however, Elderbear has here a more than sturdy politically-charged blog that has dexterously avoided many of the pitfalls of it’s genre. A worthwhile read for inquisitive surfers willing to tolerate a few design errors.Elderbear’s Den