general

As if we didn't have enough problems, war fever has broken out in Washington DC.
Can anything be done to stop this infectious disease before more people die?
I smeared topical ointment today in the form of emails to Congressman and Senator.
In the past this did not stop the pustular swelling and brain lesions of a truly bad case of Beltway bombing rabies.
The "media" are as usual falling into line. The dunderheaded Kristof, and check out how the Atlantic frames this interview with Alan Grayson, the only sane congressman.
It's great, one supposes, that they're giving him attention but the photo above the interview is a "nutty protestor in a pink shirt" and the headline reads "The Democratic Congressman Who Thinks He Can Stop the Syria War." That seems kind of a leery way to characterize a leader who is pointing out the obvious that "no one has been able to come up with a game plan [on Syria] that makes any sense."

Update: Posted this slightly less breezy comment at Corrente about the Atlantic thing:

Glad that the Atlantic acknowledged the existence of Grayson but the framing of the article undercuts his message. Instead of a photo of Grayson they present a wacky pink-shirted protestor surrounded by calm "suits," directly below the scoffing headline "The Democratic Congressman Who Thinks He Can Stop the Syria War." Oh, that cra-a-azy Congressman. Grayson's level-headed appraisal of the lack of a Syria game plan is largely neutralized by the magazine-provided "optics."

...from Ryz. Ouch.
"Gridhopper" was supposed to be a parody of multimedia journeys, guess I need to work on being even MORE desultory.

Am making these reports for the benefit of social media users who wonder what it's like out here, without the loving arms of Mark Zuckerberg protecting you from bots and gently handing you to the government.
I have the cheap hosting plan from Dreamhost. They claim it's unlimited bandwidth and are good on minor support issues.
But if you attract spammers or lowlifes trying to gain access to your login (the "hack du jour" for Word Press software users), Dreamhost gives you general-interest Wiki links on how to lower bandwidth.
Lately their "Process Watcher" script has been shutting off my site when, say, 24,000 login attempts come in and my plugin is strugging to bounce them.
This is called blaming the victim.
I could move to a plan that's designed for small businesses with multiple accounts. (Pair hosting looks like the better alternative to Dreamhost at the moment.)
But I'm not that active; it seems stupid to do that just to accommodate extra spam.
The price may be that I'm not reachable for a few hours a week while I'm being invaded by bots.
Haven't decided whether to make a move but in the meantime, if I'm down, sorry, it's my host's fault. (And Google's, for their scheme of monetizing links.) I should be back in a couple of hours at the most.

Update: Thanks to TB for a suggestion: I'm trying out another plugin that hopefully won't trigger the dreaded Process Watcher.