FYI

With the new year comes the successful completion of my first resolution, which was to change the name of this blog.

Over the last few months, as I discussed previously, this blog has evolved into more of a commentary site with significant discussion about politics and social issues rather than the light-hearted, observational type blog that I originally envisioned. Since this evolution of the blog no longer represented the spirit of the original concept, I decided that I needed to change the name, even if only slightly.

“Brad Neese: Living Large in Oklahoma” just doesn’t seem to capture the true personality of this specific blog any longer. I’d rather save it for later in case I decide that I want to once again do a light-hearted, more personally focused blog in addition to this commentary blog. The reality is that this blog and its focus will be the one that I will feel most dedicated to. Here’s what I said back in November…

Some friends and long-time readers of this blog and the previous incarnations of my blogging expressed disappointment that I was giving up the political and current affairs writing. It seems, according to them, that I do my best blogging and writing when I talk about those things that stir up my passions. Politics, government and current affairs, social justice, faith matters and specific circumstances that affect me or my family are what stir up my passions the most.

So, I went back to writing specifically about those things that are on my mind and stirring my passions on any given day. Much of the time that means it will be about my viewpoint or others’ viewpoints that I find interesting and what to share regarding current affairs and politics.

So, here it is. The new name of the blog, as you can see at the top, is “Brad Neese At Large.”

at large (idiom) —

a. free from restraint or confinement; at liberty.

b. to a considerable extent; at length: to treat a subject at large.

c. as a whole; in general: the country at large.

d. representing the whole of a state, district, or body rather than one division or part of it: a delegate at large.

For various legal reasons, I have added some necessary “fine print” for this site, which includes a general disclaimer as well as a “Terms of Use” agreement. You can find the general disclaimer on the side bar of each page. You can also find it on the “DISCLAIMER/TERMS OF USE” page, which also includes (obviously) the more complete Terms of Use. For your convenience and in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve included it all below Continued

As our extended family gathers together today for a Christmas holiday reunion, I will be taking a brief break from blogging to devote my time to precious fellowship with those who are most dear to me. The time we get to share together has diminished over the years as we’ve gotten older and our lives more hectic, so every moment that we do get to spend together is a treasured moment.

The blog won’t be entirely dormant. I’ve pre-scheduled my specially selected Christmas songs for each morning from now through Christmas Day.

I will be back after Christmas. Until then, to all my friends and to all my “foes,” I wish you a very merry Christmas, filled with abundant blessings, treasured moments,peace, joy and love.

Happy birthday, dear Jesus!

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

If you think we’ve had a few deep and provocative discussions in the last few days, I’m about to delve into an even touchier topic after reading a couple of interesting blog posts this morning. If you’re squeamish about political hot potatoes, you might wait until tomorrow morning to check back in.

If you’re ready to tackle a sensitive subject, stay tuned for a couple of provocative posts this afternoon.

Ron Sylvester, who blogs at What the Judge Ate for Breakfast, looks at “the kinds of emails that get you in trouble.”

My wife says you should never put anything in a company e-mail that you don’t want to be shown to 12 strangers on a big movie screen. She practices employment law, including sexual harassment lawsuits, and she said you wouldn’t believe what people put in e-mails that end up being shown to juries in public courtrooms.

… Searching electronic archives of company e-mails and files is becoming an increasingly useful tool for lawyers involved in lawsuits against you or your boss. It’s called “e-discovery.”

Sylvester references Roger Matus‘ list of phrases that lawyers and investigators search for.

“I could get into trouble for telling you this, but…”

“Delete this email immediately.”

“I really shouldn’t put this in writing.”

“Don’t tell So-and-So.” Or, “Don’t send this to So-and-So.”

“She/He/They will never find out.”

“We’re going to do this differently than normal.”

“I don’t think I am supposed to know this, but…”

“I don’t want to discuss this in e-mail. Please give me a call.”

“Don’t ask. You don’t want to know.”

“Is this actually legal?”

Think Progress highlights another Sean Hannity distortion:

[Tuesday night], Fox’s Hannity & Colmes hosted John Ziegler, author of a push poll attempting to prove that voters who supported Barack Obama were misinformed. Hannity used Ziegler’s study to complain that Obama supporters didn’t know about “really significant issues” like Bill Ayers and Obama’s views on coal. He insisted that only those who watched Fox News understood the real issues:

HANNITY: If you don’t listen to talk radio, if you don’t watch the FOX News Channel, you’re not anywhere nearly as informed as people that are just hearing the bumper stickers, the slogans, the snippets of the commercials of the media. So, journalism died in 2008, and it influenced a lot of people on the way out.

ZIEGLER: That’s exactly right.
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You can watch the video clip here. Think Progress provides this fact-checking rebuttal…

Studies have consistently shown Fox viewers to be among the most misinformed Americans. A 2008 Pew study ranked Fox News dead last in the number of “high knowledge” viewers, with only 19 percent of Fox viewers able to correctly identify the majority party in Congress (Democrats), the name of the U.S. Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice), and name of British Prime Minister (Gordon Brown).

Fox viewers are particularly misinformed about the Iraq war. A 2003 study found three common misperceptions about the war held by many Americans: first, that US troops found evidence of close pre-war links between Iraq and al-Qaeda; second, that troops found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; and third, that world public opinion favored Washington’s going to war with Iraq. Fox viewers were the most likely to believe these falsehoods:

Eighty percent of Fox viewers were found to hold at least one misperception, compared to 23 percent of NPR/PBS consumers. All the other media fell in between. … As to the number of misconceptions held by their audiences, Fox far outscored all of its rivals. A whopping 45 percent of its viewers believed all three misperceptions, while the other commercial networks scored between 12 percent and 16 percent. Only nine percent of [print media] readers believed all three, while only four percent of the NPR/PBS audience did.

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Nate Silver has more about John Ziegler’s push poll as well as Ziegler’s response.

I used to participate in a weekly meme called Wordless Wednesday, which was to feature posts of images/photographs with little to no copy — wordless blog posts… on Wednesdays. Well, today is likely to be a Wordless Wednesday (except for this post, of course). It’s been insanely busy at work with everyone trying to cram their projects into these first couple of weeks of December in between the various holidays that mess up the normal routine, and I just don’t have the time to dedicate to doing much writing and the corresponding reading I do that drives what I write about.

I apologize in advance if it seems like I’m taking the lazy approach to blogging today by just posting “wordless” posts — but I have to be “lazy” today blogging-wise because of time constraints.

So, I hope you’ll enjoy this special, extended edition of Wordless Wednesday. (Instead of photographs, I’ve found a few videos that I want to share.)

I had a reader ask:

“What’s up with all the political blogging? I thought you said you were giving that up.”

Well, I did say that. But, I simply changed my mind. Some friends and long-time readers of this blog and the previous incarnations of my blogging expressed disappointment that I was giving up the political and current affairs writing. It seems, according to them, that I do my best blogging and writing when I talk about those things that stir up my passions. Politics, government and current affairs, social justice, faith matters and specific circumstances that affect me or my family are what stir up my passions the most.

So, I went back to writing specifically about those things that are on my mind and stirring my passions on any given day. Much of the time that means it will be about my viewpoint or others’ viewpoints that I find interesting and what to share regarding current affairs and politics. Sometimes, though, I will write something about my family or about a specific experience I’ve had.

For those who don’t like it, I’m sorry, but this blog is what it is. I’m not going to pretend to be something I’m not. I guess I just don’t do personal blogging as well as I do viewpoint and opinion blogging. It’s who I am. And this blog will reflect who I am.

Tag along, if you like. Or don’t, if you don’t. I’d love for you to keep following this blog, but I’ll certainly understand if you decide to look elsewhere.

For family and friends, there was a “SNAPSHOT” post from Sarah’s induction ceremony that didn’t actually show up until this morning. You can see it here.

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Continued