...to the new Ex-Donkey Blog. Feel free to look around. I've just finished setting up all the furniture.

Don't forget to update your links and bookmarks. Tomorrow we'll start business as usual. But right now, since I've finally got the kids in bed, I need to go and set up my new flat screen TV.

Hey, a guy's gotta have priorities.

Posted by: Gary at 09:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 63 words, total size 1 kb.

Contact: ex-donkey20105 * at * earthlink * dot * net

If you want to share some feedback, by all means shoot me an email.

This is an official notice, however. Any email sent to me - particularly any that I deem to be nasty, offensive or downright moronic - is fair game for publication and ridicule.

Posted by: Gary at 08:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 60 words, total size 1 kb.

Simple. This blog is about me and my opinions. It is not a forum for open discussion. People can read what I write and decide for themselves whether or not I'm full of it. That's their prerogative. I leave comments open for my own entertainment. I find most of them amusing and interesting.

But that's not an open invitation to unload your childish frustrations and tell me what an a-hole I am. I have a wife for that. Go be bitter, hostile and humorless somewhere else. Or better yet, go start your own blog.

Snotty, incoherent or inane comments will be ignored. Comments that I find to be a waste of my bandwidth will be deleted without a second thought. If you become a big enough pain in my ass, then your IP address will be blocked. Patience is not my strong suit.

If you read through enough content here you'll understand that I don't take myself too seriously. I learned that lesson a long time ago. I'm just a guy with a blog and a lot of opinions. And like the great "Dirty Harry" Callahan once said, "Opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one."

Comment spam used to be a big problem, but remedies have been made to minimize it. At one point, it was such a headache that I had to disable comments for an entire month. Hopefully, I won't ever need to take similar action again, but if I do I'll announce it accordingly.

Do not include commercial website URLs in your comments without my permission. I'm not here to drive up Google rankings for businesses that I don't give a crap about. Commercial web addresses that do nothing for me will be deleted (if not the whole comment). When leaving comments, you're more than welcome to include a personal website address in the "URL" field, but it isn't a required field.

One last thing. Be aware that I'm terrible when it comes to responding to comments. Honestly, I rarely do unless I can add something of value or if I feel I need to make a rebuttal. Please don't take it personally if I don't follow up your comment with one of my own. I'm not ignoring you. Actually, the best way to make direct contact with me is via email.

Posted by: Gary at 08:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 389 words, total size 2 kb.

Besides all the blogrolls from Blog Alliances, I keep one manual blogroll.

I add links because 1) I like them and/or 2) they've added me to their blogrolls. The only real "policy" I have is that if a blog's author manually adds me to a blogroll on their page, I will usually reciprocate if 1) the blog in question doesn't suck and 2) I actually know about it. However, the decision as to whether or not to add a link may depend on other factors as well. And pretty much the only reason I would de-link a recipricol blog is if it looks like it has been abandoned - something that happens now and again.

However, be aware that if you blogroll me on your site and you would like a reciprocal link, you people have to speak up. Unless I check sitemeter or technorati (which I have less time to do every day) I won't know I've been linked. So leave a comment or email me if you want to bring it to my attention.

Posted by: Gary at 08:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 180 words, total size 1 kb.

All opinions expressed on this weblog are those of the author (and his auditory hallucinations). The author's opinions do not represent those of his employer. All original material is copyrighted and property of the author. Don't like my opinions? Go get your own damn blog!

(Disclaimer expressly stolen from The LLama Butchers, who stole it from A Small Victory)

Posted by: Gary at 08:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 61 words, total size 1 kb.

Who is Gary the Ex-Donkey?
I was born and raised a Democrat. Over time, I began to feel more and more like an outsider within that party. I got married, had kids and started looking at the world differently. Liberalism continued to make less and less sense to me as I began to question things that I always accepted at face value.

If you really want to know the whole sordid tale (and you have lots of time) I have it all written out in a 10-part narrative that I wrote back when I started this site. Here are the links to these posts (each post contains links to the other ones):
The Story So Far (Part I)
The Story So Far (Part II)
The Story So Far (Part III)
The Story So Far (Part IV)
The Story So Far (Part V)
The Story So Far (Part VI)
The Story So Far (Part VII)
The Story So Far (Part VIII)
The Story So Far (Part IX)
The Story So Far (Part X)

Today, I'm a Married White Male with three sons, a mortgage and a pet rabbit living in as "Blue" a part of the country as you can get - New England. I am an American first, a proud Conservative second and a Republican third. I try to abstain from drinking the party Kool-Aid and I have varying opinions on a number of issues. One thing I sincerly believe in is the danger that the Left in this country poses to our Constitutional freedoms and our national security.

Why do you still look like a donkey, then?
It'd look kinda funny to be an elephant called "Ex-Donkey" wouldn't it? Actually, someone who didn't know me all that well would look at me - a guy living in New England, one of the "Bluest" parts of the country - and just assume I vote Democrat. So to most people I know or meet, I still look like a "donk".

Are you on some kind of anti-Democrat jihad or something?
No, but I think it's important to emphasize the sad state of the Democrat party, point out where the Left is it wrong and have a little fun at their expense. If in doing so, I can help convince other reasonable people with similar experiences to unplug themselves from the Democrat matrix I figure that's a bonus.

What is this site rated?
PG. For mild profanity and crude potty humor.

I notice you're not all politics around here.
Politics 24/7 will drive you crazy. I'd say my posts are about 50% political, 40% cultural and 10% personal. My last New Year's resolution was to expand that last category. I like to balance this site with fun. Plus, I try not to take myself too seriously.

Note: On September 1, 2005 I switched over from Blogsnot to MuNu. All of my archives were migrated over to the new server. But prior to 9/1/05, very few of my posts were assigned a category. If there is a topic or an issue of interest, I recommend doing a search (located in the left sidebar). Also, some of the photos and graphics uploaded to Blogger don't always load properly. So if you are searching the archives prior to 9/1/05 you may have to reload (refresh browser) of try again later to see whatever photo is included.

Posted by: Gary at 08:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 567 words, total size 4 kb.