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One of the biggest challenges in reviewing weblogs with topics ranging all over the board is trying to review a site that’s nearly the exact opposite of one’s own personal beliefs. Reviewing Learning Right News is the biggest reviewing challenge I’ve experienced to date.



The layout of the site is a standard Blogger template, with the colors being spruced up a bit. There’s honestly nothing special about it, but I suppose a news site such as this one has no need for a flashy layout. The colors are aesthetically pleasing; the layout and colors chosen give the site an overall clean and crisp appearance.



Thanks to the Blogger template, readers are able to find out just the slightest bit of information about the author in the “About Me” square. Tony Mc, who hails from Iowa, is our blogger and creator of Leaning Right News. This is all the information available about him.



Tony Mc and the entries he makes on this weblog lean very far to the right of political beliefs. According to the available archives, the site’s only been up and running since mid-October, just in time for Tony to concentrate his writings and posts on the 2004 Presidential Election.



The words in the banner of Leaning Right News, which ultimately give readers their first impression on what it is they’re reading, is “Giving you thoughts and views from the ‘Right’ side of the political world!!!” With Tony being a huge fan of Ann Coulter and encouraging with all his might people to vote for George W Bush the night before Election Day, he keeps it no secret that he’s deadset against anything the Democrats represented over this past election.



Tony is very adament in his point of view and comes across extremely confident and knowledgeable. He is very opinionated, and his writing shows this. However, Tony never fails to have his opinion backed up by facts that he’s discovered through other websitse. This is what made Leaning Right News tolerable to someone who leans in the complete opposite direction. It’s obviously not a weblog the majority of people will enjoy, simply because it’s not a topic that the majority of people will even understand.



For those readers that also lean to the right or those looking to learn a little more about the right-wing side of politics, this is definitely a site worth investigating.Leaning Right

RIGHT WING BLOG ALERT! RIGHT WING BLOG ALERT!

Sorry. Just wanted to get that out my system. Submitting a pro- Bush blog for review at this particular moment in history is perhaps a brave move. With most liberals and the rest of the world still reeling from his re-election, a blog celebrating right wing politics is perhaps not something a whole lot of people want to read right now.

Let’s say a bit about the design first though, before I start slagging off his politics, er… I mean discussing the content. Well, not a whole lot to mention really- it is a blogspot blog, two columns, fairly innocuous colour scheme and no fancy title bar. The sidebar seemed to do funny things when I first entered the site (like disappear for a while) but it settled down after a minute or two and revealed the usual sidebar content- links, buttons, very long blogroll and Google ads. So for appearance, I can’t really take any points off as, in all honesty the blog looks absolutely fine overall, but I certainly can’t add any points either for graphical extravagance or extras added because, well, there aren’t any.

Ok. Let’s lay my cards on the table and say that I don’t live in America and if I did I would be a Democrat. I don’t feel I need to defend my stance but it may colour my review. It has to be said though, that of the right wing blogs I have read, this is one of the better ones in terms of content. Whilst I don’t agree with his point of view, I have to admit that most of the postings are fair minded, reasonably balanced and steer away from many of the emotive, polemic issues which can rear their ugly heads in blogs like this (racism or homophobia, for example). He supports his troops but hey, no one ever got hurt from troop supporting. He does get a lot of stick for his points of view in the comments, which he replies to with good grace and a calm head. He seems to be fairly well read in terms of news content and he posts up articles in the blog itself, rather than expecting people to click. He is also not afraid to take on liberal journalists either which at least provides some balance. In fact most of his articles are sober, well reasoned and have had a lot of thought put in to them. A few of the points made seem to be biased, over simplified or economical with the truth, but hey, isn’t that what political debate is all about?

I think that most republicans will probably like this blog regardless. Liberals could do worse than read this blog, if for no other reason than to understand a bit better the mindset of the kind of person who voted in a President they didn’t want. Like I say, I don’t agree with his politics, but what came across is that the author is probably quite a nice guy, who I felt able to engage with despite our differences.
Leaning Right

The Disenfranchised Curmudgeon has 31 entries that span over the time of about 11 months. This is the entire site. The posts are extremely lengthy and if the topic at hand isn’t something readers find interesting, they may not make it from one entry to the next.



Tony’s former strategy and current thoughts on giving handouts to charities and to beggars is probably one of the most entertaining posts of the weblog. The majority of the posts deal with his political views and opinions of the current economic and social status of America.



Tony lists his site in the News/Links category, which is probably the only one that fits this weblog. While the author does a fine job of relating facts, he also does a good job of relaying his opinions on different world and country related issues. He’s never been found of the current President, and isn’t shy to share that with readers. Instead of just bashing the President for one thing or the other and leaving it at that, Tony goes on to explain in detail what makes his distaste for the President so prevalent. He does this with generally any opinion he holds, thus making his opinions more valid to those that may be reading.



His writing style will not appeal to just everyone. Tony’s writing is very eloquent and professional. The posts often read more like an editorial letter to a local newspaper then something casually written to a weblog.



Thanks to Blogger and its new format of having authors fill out an “About Me” section, readers can learn more about Tony. In short, he’s a well-rounded guy with several different interests living in Dallas, TX. While his President Bush-disliking may not go over well in his home state, other bloggers will certainly be able to relate.



The layout is a simple Blogger template, with the standard About Me, an option to sign up for a mailing list, outside links, and the latest archived posts.



Only in the last few months of the weblog’s existence has Tony implemented the use of comments. This has spurred lengthy discussions between readers and Tony, discussing the posts in great detail. Through this, it’s obvious that he has a great deal of followers that enjoy conversing about the same topics.



Overall, this is not a weblog that will be enjoyable for just anyone. Those who do find it as a site where they can connect will stick around for a while.
The Disenfranchised Curmudgeon

“A special place for special people”.

A refreshingly different perspective on life is gained through Lisy Babe’s Blog. In spite of her phobias, quirks and ills, Lisy’s personality shines through all life’s challenges.

Her honest call-it-like-it-is posts are refreshingly candid and insightful from the viewpoint of a “crip”. Her brash language does grab the reader’s attention. This is, according to Lisy, a “regular part of my vocabulary.” She finds humor in everyday life, just waiting to pop out and laugh AT or FOR you. The reader gains a deeper awareness of environment that is unique in Lisy’s blog.

The weblog is straight forward with no bells or whistles and doesn’t detract from the visualizations that Lizy weaves in her words. You will find colourful musings and straight-forward posts of Lisy’s daily experiences in her apartment, neighborhood, locale and nightlife.

The site doesn’t feature much more about the author – which you must piece together from the archive of posts. Otherwise the weblog is visually and informationally bare but that doesn’t detract from the story that Lisy is narrating.

If you are looking for a personal blog with an exhilaratingly different viewpoint then you’ve come to the right place.

Lisy Babe’s Blog

I felt right at home when I first viewed Cattiva’s site. The colors, the graphics and the whole layout is extremely warm and welcoming. I felt like I should be reviewing her blog while sitting at home in my cozy leather recliner sipping cognac by a nice warm fire, with a golden retriever at my feet and of course some classical music in the background. Now that’s my kind of blog!

First, it’s definitely a woman’s kind of blog. What draws you in first are the fine graphics, colors and layout which create the ambience. Cattiva’s says “I laugh to keep from crying” and isn’t that something many of us women can relate to? Especially those of us over 30. Her title “Does this mean I’m a grown up?” is right on the mark too. You see she’s a wife, mother of three (including a newborn), student, entrepreneur and everything in-between. She’s at a point in her life where she means so much to so many and has so much accomplished behind her, it’s too late to go back, even if she wanted to. It’s all or nothing now. We all hit that point sooner or later. The great thing is that Cattiva’s blog isn’t just about one aspect of her life, it’s about all aspects of her life. Her blog has a little of everything mixed together to create a fine read. Normally if I don’t relate to a blog, it just doesn’t interest me and while I have no children (children seem to be a main focus in this blog) I can somehow relate to her life. That is because when you get into your thirties and forties you begin to wonder if you can ever go back to the way things were. And once you realize you can’t well then you dig your heels in and continue forging ahead

Overall I would highly recommend Cattiva’s blog to the thirtysomething/fortysomething female crowd. Now that’s without knowing how old Cattiva is but I am guessing with three children, being in graduate school and her experiences in life she certainly fits into that age range. And I think that many women in that age range can relate to the experiences of her everyday life, I know I can. Women in the thirtysomething/fortysomething crowd are among the busiest women in this country. They have to be adept at multi-tasking and still maintain their sanity, which is so hard. Cattiva is doing it and seeing her do it, encourages the rest of us to keep forging ahead too.

It takes a lot to make a person laugh out loud. Not just an inward chuckle, but an actual audible titter. And, I’m happy to say, Does This Mean I’m A Grown Up? has points where you pause working or whatever it is you’re doing with your other browser windows, to giggle maniacally to yourself.

You can usually tell when a blog’s going to be good by the title. So if it says something like “Me’n’U Stay Forever True’ it’s safe to assume you can skip it without missing much. But “Does This Mean I’m A Grown-Up?” is a question I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves at least once in our lives. That combined with Cattiva’s user profile [I’m a thirtysomething mom to two (the Prince and Princess of Wails)] is enough to keep you reading.

Cattiva blogs about her kids, #1 Son and the little one (her daughter), about her husband C and about her life in general. And it’s not all “Stay-At-Home-Mom-Who-Writes-About-The-Endearing-Things-Her-Kids-Do” either. In her archives I find her take on reality shows, her birthday present for her father, the Olympic Games and divorce. And with lovely little dialogues like:

“#1 Son (bounding home from school one day): Hey Mom, you’re going to die.

Me: We’re all going to die someday.

#1 Son: Yeah but you’re going to die soon, the President says so.

Me: He does? How would he know? I wasn’t involved in Whitewater.

#1 Son: Because you smoke. We saw the President’s Message on Smoking today.

Me: Oh yeah? Well, he inhaled! Humph.”

The design is one of Blogger’s standard templates and if I had to grouse about something in this blog it would be the fact that her links to previous posts that people have enjoyed don’t work and instead keep displaying a 404 error. You’ll just have to trawl through the archives to find them. But they’re worth it, I promise.

I could tell from the name of this blog that it was written by a parent. (I suppose it’s sort of a private joke among Gen X parents to say cliche things like this.) A thirty-something mom from Virginia writes this blog and has since June 2004. It is a standard blogger template (Dear Blogger, when are you adding more templates? Please add more soon because everyone’s blogs are all running together because you only offer 10 templates.)

She writes in her profile “Friends say I have a humorous take on life’s happenings. The sad part is that what I write about is true. I laugh to keep from crying.” Not really knowing her sense of humor upon coming to the blog, that last part seemed a bit sad. In her sidebar she has a list of her previous posts called “Stuff People Liked,” but none of these links work. (I’m fairly sure the extra back-slash at the end of the urls is the culprit.) She also has the standard blog rolls and other links she visits in her sidebar.

Her posts are very heartfelt and frequent. I found more of the posts to come from the heart than the funny bone. And I found many of the posts went on far longer than necessary to convey an idea or situation. She does interesting things like refer to her son as #1 Son, even though from what I can tell he is her only son (she also has a daughter). And she loves hockey.

To me her posts are pretty standard blogging fare. (Nothing too original about going to a friend’s wedding or a son’s birthday party or most of the other things she posts about.) But she does have a good following of readers to comment on her day to day life. Perhaps the BA in History she is pursuing will serve up more interesting posts for her readers.

Does This Mean I’m a Grown-Up?