One of our anonymous correspondents expressed concern that I was running away readers by posting so much about the flag this past week. Never fear, bud; page views are up.
Here’s another measurement I just noticed…
I’ve learned a lot (mostly about infuriating little technical stuff) since I started putting video on the blog. One thing I’ve learned is that only a small number of the people who go to a given post bother to watch the video. This makes it hardly worth the trouble by the standards of a better time manager than myself, but it’s fun and challenging, so I still do it from time to time.
My all-time, record, most popular video ever was the low-res one I shot on my phone of Joe Biden speaking at my Rotary Club last year — with a grand-total of 1,608 views (in YouTube terms, barely a hiccup).
That was posted Nov. 27, 2006.
No. 2 on the charts, with a speeding bullet, is the one I posted Saturday of the Nazi presidential candidate speaking in praise of the Confederate flag at the State House. In four days, it’s chalked up 1,098 views. I expect it to soon become number one.
So there is interest in the topic.
While I’m promoting video, I think you can check out the entire collection at once. Let me know if this link doesn’t work. They range from the "infamous" Grady Patterson "He makes stuff up" vehicle to a bit of phone-video I shot late one night at a bar (but never posted about) when former State staffers were seeing off Lee Bandy upon his retirement.
But in the spirit of Nick Hornby, in case you’d prefer not to browse, here are my Top Five, as judged by the rather standoffish viewing public:
- Joe Biden at Rotary — 1,608 views.
- Nazi Presidential Candidate Defends Confederate Flag — 1,098
- "He Makes Up Stuff" — 833.
- The Alpha and Beta of Thomas Ravenel — 662
- Nazis Defend Confederate Flag II — 657
As you can see, I have no more scruples than Hollywood when it comes to pandering with sequels. If it works at the box office, the cheap hucksters at bradwarthensblog studios will trot out "Nazis II" before you can go out for popcorn. There’s even a "Sieg Heil" short for fascists with microscopic attention spans (which I suspect is a large part of that demographic).
You’ll notice that the arty stuff that the critics love — such as the five-star Who Resurrected the Electric Car?, trails the blockbusters, although I was pleased to see it got 550 views. It was pretty low-budget.
Another analogy — if this were the Billboard list, the Nazis and the flag would be the Beatles of early 1964 — multiple positions on the chart. Of course, that would make last year’s S.C. treasurer race the Elvis of the blog. Or maybe Sinatra. But I should point out that a Ravenel sequel, and a Grady prequel, both bombed.
See you at the movies.
Related Posts
I think someone on a previous thread wrote something about a presidential debate being held in SC somewhere…
Well yeah. Given that you slapped that blog link to the bottom of your dead-tree columns, and given that at least for a day or two there was a banner link to your blog right up on top of the online Metro section (guess the ad salesmen couldn’t sell the space and slapped you in there instead) I would expect that your pageview count went up. That does NOT mean you’re doing a good job in your topic selection!
I rarely see eye-to-eye with Bud but 8 posts or so each about the flag and the Nazis clearly is excessive (what’s wrong with just one or two posts and letting the no-lifers slug it out without cluttering up your topic list?). The only people who care about these topics are the ones who don’t have a life otherwise. Sure you can rile up everybody and get a bunch of posts but what real difference does it make to most South Carolinians? How would regular people’s lives be any different with or without the flag, or with or without the Nazis marching somewhere? The only reason I can see for your uncharacteristically enthusiastic blogging is that you think you’re so much better than those benighted pro-flag South Carolinians (no, I won’t speak up for the Nazis but obviously you’re bloggin’ the topic for all you can get anyway!).
Yet a topic that would mean about $300 per family member (i.e. over $1,000 for most families) receives virtually no attention.
Why don’t we see 8 posts about the apparent intent of our legislative piggies to spend virtually all of the $1.3 Billion surplus instead of returning it to the taxpayers? That’s close to $300 for every man, woman and child in this state. And it’s all money for things they didn’t think were important enough to include in the current budget. A total windfall in other words. Now there would be a subject with real meaning to South Carolinians!!
Get on the stick, Brad!
That stuff is in the paper, Lex. That’s what I do most of the 24 hours of the day, by the way — edit and publish a newspaper. Anything on this blog is just a little extra that I do here and there when I find a moment.
Is this not clear to anyone?
Anyway, you and I live in different universes. You think that if a dollar comes into the state treasury, it should go to you. I think it should go to one of the many neglected areas in our state that most other states seem to find the will and means to address — public safety, our corrections system, education in rural areas, mental health, take your pick.
Our legislators disagree with both of us. They want the money to go to their absurd pet projects, their pork, their whatever you want to call it. Anybody who reads our paper knows this.
It would be nifty if we had a governor who would point out this gross misapplication of urgently needed resources. He’s about the only elected official in a position to do so. But our governor thinks like Lex. He thinks the money should go to tax cuts — and specifically, to income tax cuts (which, absurdly, is the only tax he seems to care about one way or the other) — rather than to the neglected obligations of the state.
Hey, where did I get all those links about state taxes and spending? They were all on the editorial page of The State — you know, the page you ought to be reading before you come to this blog for a little extra — within the past week.
And in case you’re confused, that newspaper is published in the actual, real world, instead of the alternative universes inhabited by LexWolf, and Michael Gass, and that Wallace/ChrisW/Chris White/Wally guy.
Folks, if you don’t read the paper, you’re wasting your and our time by coming here.
I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to cinema.Americans have such atrocious taste!I can’t believe that “Idle American” is still on TV.Your best work as a novice auteur is the classic masterpiece “Sandford Barbecue”.I wish I could get a DVD copy so I could experience that slice of nirvana in surround-sound.
If you did some collage work with that footage and make it 90 minutes long,you might find yourself on a flight to Cannes.
It is an ideological difference.
Mr. Warthen speaks in terms of neglected obligations. What obligations? Outside of military readiness, I’m not sure if we have any other obligations due us from the Government. Roads, schools, corporate welfare. All things we have set ourselves up to expect, but I would debate whether they are lawful obligations. This mentality breeds beauracracy, waste, mismangement, greed and dependence on Government.
Sanford, along with true conservatives, believes in tax rebates since that money is ours to begin with. It’s (it’s = tax dollars gleaned from income, sales, purchases, gasoline, etal) not the Government’s to dally with as they choose.
Sanford and others believe that you and I can best determine the course of our lives and that of our families by spending our money accordingly. If we just didn’t have to send so much of it to Washington and Columbia.
Anything else is income redistribution, and a burdensome stone around the necks of taxpayers.
Just my $.02.
Of course, the surplus should go to tax cuts. If those so-called “many neglected areas” are so important, let them be justified in the budget instead of throwing money at them just because our piggies got this huge windfall.
It wouldn’t even be so bad if our piggies wouldn’t also want to raise our taxes next time there’s a recession and they have a huge budget deficit. I could live with that: let them pig out now when slop is plentiful but severely tighten their belts when the trough is rather empty. Let them live within their means like everybody else in this state has to do.
If they don’t want to return the windfall, at least they should use it to pay off part of the state debt or put it into a reserve fund. This is money we, the taxpayers, were overcharged for. It rightfully belongs to the taxpayers and should be returned to them. Spending it on pork or “many neglected areas” clearly is the wrong thing to do.
The income tax is a focus for a very simple reason: it’s the only tax in our state that directly affects people’s incentives to work more or to work less. SC’s top income tax rate is already 11th-highest among the states with an income tax and it kicks in at a low $12,850 taxable income (9th worst among the states). It clearly is a strong disincentive for people and businesses to come to SC and create more jobs for our people.
In contrast our sales tax is right in the middle of the pack and the property tax, contrary to all the clamoring against it, is actually among the lowest in the country. Thus the one tax that clearly should be cut is the income tax but surely you knew that already and just pretended ignorance. Good thing we have a principled and clearheaded governor who actually looks out for our best interests!
Sandford has an earwig crawling through his head.IT’S LAYING EGGS IN HIS BRAIN!
Trajan, you’re talking about the federal government. And on that count, you and I don’t have that much of a disagreement. Basically, I look to the federal government to run the military and foreign relations, and not a whole lot else. Maybe regulate a little interstate commerce.
Pretty much everything else that you need to do in common to have a civilization — roads, police, schools — is mainly the states’ responsibility. I expect states to live up those responsibilities. Most do. Ours doesn’t.
And bill, thank you, thank you, thank you for actually responding to the post.
Sure, it was sort of a silly post, but I’ve spent all that time on those videos, as one of the forms of EXTRAS I try to provide in this medium, so I like to call attention to them now and then…
That should have been Sanford.I was thinking about Fred Sandford.Wish Redd Foxx was still alive,he’d make a much better governor.
… one more thing.
LexWolf mentions the underhanded way I used my column in the paper to refer people to the supplemental materials on the blog.
Yeah, I do that at the end of every column, whatever the subject.
Again, read the paper.
Brad, the flag and the Nazis were pretty well-covered in the paper as well yet you inflicted those “extras” on us anyway. How about some “extras” on those $1.3 Billion?
BTW, I don’t read your dead-tree paper. In fact we cancelled our subscription 6 or 7 years ago because we got tired of the persistent pro-big government slant. A slant that continues to this very day. I check the online version occasionally for the headlines but it rarely takes more than a minute or two to read whatever might interest me. It’s pretty thin gruel, in other words. It’s a pretty sad situation when the WSJ, a national paper, has better local coverage of the truly important issues that should interest South Carolinians than The State does.
I’m beginning to prefer the “silly” posts.An in-law is dying from lung cancer(second-hand smoke-he smokes,she gets cancer).It really puts things in perspective.
I read the newspaper at 5:30 every morning(good carrier).Keep the silly posts coming.I really do like the videos.
By the way, I see the “Nazi II” sequel has breezed by the too-cerebral “Alpha and Beta” to assume the number-four spot.
I short of expect it to start challenging the Grady Patterson classic soon.
Sequels aren’t ALWAYS bad.Maybe this is your “Godfather” moment.The Grady Patterson classic is a lot like “Schindler’s List”.Great but painful to watch.