The L.A. Dime

Dear Readers,

Brad’s new professional blog/website is now up at www.smoofv.wordpress.com. Eventually, bradriddell.com will point there, too.

He’s also posting pictures, tweets, and bloggy-type items at www.bradriddell.tumblr.com.  The Tumblr site catches everything he publishes in one place, so if you’re interested bookmark it!

Dear L.A. Dime readers, very soon this blog will be migrating to www.riddellfamilyblog.com. Nothing will change other than the address. Brad has decided to use the www.bradriddell.com address to build a professional(ish) website about his writing, teaching and other projects. This new site for Brad won’t be a blog, per say, but he is exploring using the very cool website Tumblr to start his own, more personal microblog.

Sound complicated? It’s not. Bookmark www.riddellfamilyblog.com now, so that when you run up against Brad’s new site, you’ll know where to go. He’ll post a link if he gets the Tumblr thing going, too, just in case you haven’t gotten enough of us!

Thanks for reading!

When thinking about doing a blog post, Brad & I often ask ourselves if that’s a topic that you, our beloved readers, care about. So, we’d like to ask you to tell us who you are (and that means all you “blog lurkers” too:)) and what kinds of stuff you enjoy reading about the most. We want to keep up with The Dime, enjoy knowing that you stop by, and most of all, love it when you leave comments! So, identify yourselves and let us know what you’d like to read about!

A supremely talented friend of mine writes the wonderful blog, Sofia Stories, which is now featured below on the Dime’s blog roll. Her latest post beautifully captures what it means to be scared, both as a parent and a child. Check it out.

Thanks to Chris Carrier of Carrier Designs, who graciously hosts and maintains this blog because we are code inept, Brad will now be tweeting using Twitter on this site. You can find his updates in the upper left corner.

We’ve also taken to video chatting with friends and family using Skype. I think, now, finally, we’re only five years behind the times.

I hope you like the new look, thanks to Chris Carrier of Carrier Designs.

Announcing a new presence in the Blogosphere:  Taco Salad, Brian Riddell’s zesty mix of happenings, musings, life, and interesting tidbits.  Zoom over and take a bite.

In case you’ve missed it, a few posts down under Endorsement, a nice little political discussion has sprung up. I’m enjoying the dialogue, and hope you are, too.

Recently, I was shocked to learn that there are numerous internet email campaigns, and several websites, and probably a lot of barbershop and hunting trip conversations propagating a wicked conspiracy that Senator Obama is a Muslim sleeper agent bent on destroying America from the inside out. Seriously?

I understand people’s politics on abortion, the war, etc….I may disagree, but that’s democracy. But I can’t abide the kind of fear-mongering that allows people to lose their sense of reason. I can’t abide an America built on fear and threats and color-coded warning systems that keep some folks from going to the mall. I can’t abide smear campaigns like Bush 43′s Swift Boat campaign against Kerry. Let’s vote on the issues. On leadership. On character and charisma.

My friend Jan and I were outraged that people actually believe such nonsense, so we decided to enter the world of political satire and create some nonsense of our own. That’s how we came to create Obamadamus.

Visit the site, if you think it’s funny, then tell your friends. If you hate it, let me know. But please, do what you can to keep people thinking reasonably, and to not be swayed by propaganda and fear. Haven’t we had enough of that in the last eight years?

It should be noted that my sometime partner in The Dime, Tina, is on record as opposing Obamadamus, because she feels it only contributes to the noise, and only calls more undo attention to a dangerous idea. Point taken. But we’re hoping to make people laugh, and in so doing, make them realize how silly all of this is in the first place. Decide for yourself.

Visit The Cheese Fry to read why one former Patriot fan has become a hard-core hater, and may even be cheering for Payton Manning (whom he also loathes) next weekend.  You may also want to dispute his top-10 scariest movies of all time.