Jay Reding.com

In my tradition of getting utterly sick of the design of this site at regular intervals, I’ve done another overhaul of the visuals and functionality of the site once again. This design tries to be clearer and more usable than the old site, and is also formatted for today’s larger screen. The small percentage of you still at 800×600 will just have to deal – the world has moved on.

You’ll also know I’ve added AdSense ads to the site. This site doesn’t cost a great deal to maintain, but it would be nice to at least break even. Plus, in a few months I’ll have a rather momentous personal change that will mean that I’ll be pinching pennies until Abraham Lincoln cries uncle. So, you’ll have to deal with some unobtrusive text ads for the moment. There’s an ad bar along the right-hand side and also one before the comment boxes. I’m not a big fan on online ads, but they do help pay the bills, at least in theory.

I’m a typography fanatic, so I’ve been looking at ways of improving the contrast and typographic style of the site for some time. As always, Mac users get the best view of the site - they have the great Gill Sans font as one of their standard system fonts, so that’s what they get in the sidebar. Sadly, PC users are stuck with a second-rate font. Then again, they should be used to being stuck with second-rate by now…

The main body text and headings are both the excellent “Georgia” font, one of the best for online typography. Serif fonts are normally difficult to read on computer displays, but Georgia is one of the more readible font options, and it isn’t as blaisé as Times New Roman has become. You’ll notice it’s the same body text as the new New York Times website uses – if you’re going to steal, steal from the best, I say.

Undoubtedly, I’ll be tweaking things as I go along. I’m not sure about the archive system yet, or what needs to go where in the sidebar. I’m never quite happy with designs, and since I have the luxury of eternally tweaking various elements here and there, you can bet that I will.

If you happen to notice any problems, leave a comment here or click on the author link at each post to send me an email.

“Captain Ed” Morrissey has been named by the CityPages as their “Best Gadfly” for 2005 (the original article is here). Quite a complement for one of Minnesota’s natural treasures and one of the world’s best bloggers. Captain Ed’s coverage of Canada’s Adscam - which ended up vaulting Stephen Harper into office - was top-notch journalism, better than what you find in most “professional” publications these days.

Given that Socrates liked to fashion himself as a gadfly, I’d take that as some high praise. Then again, given what the Athenians did to Socrates…

Sadly, I find myself in utter agreement with Andrew Sullivan on this one:

One simple conclusion: conservative government really is dead, isn’t it? A conservative government would simply say: we have no control over global oil prices; consumers reap what they sow; companies should be left alone; and if your wallet is empty because of all that gas in your SUV, you’ve learned a useful lesson in self-government. If only Margaret Thatcher were around to punctuate that lecture with a swipe of her handbag.

When Andrew Sullivan makes sense, he makes sense, and sadly, he’s right on the money with that.

Is it really too much to ask to have some grown-ups in charge of our politics for a change? Really?

This site, and a whole host of other sites that are hosted through Hosting Matters were hit by a denial-of-service attack earlier today. Apparently the attack came from Saudi Arabia.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has more on the DOS attack. Hosting Matters has faced such things before, so this must have been one hell of a flood to take down a good section of their network like that.

PBS’ FrontLine has a show in the insurgency in Iraq – on their website they have an excellent piece by an American counterinsurgency expert on if/how the insurgency in Iraq can be completed. Sepp’s analysis is quite frank, outlining the mistakes we’ve made in the past, but also acknowledging that progress has been made.

He notes that the “model” for successful anti-insurgency operations, the British suppression of the Malay insurgency after World War II, took three years to truly develop into a successful campaign. The first three years were marked with major mistakes in tactics and strategy. The beginning of the post-war period in Iraq was the same – America has never fought this kind of war, and we were learning as we went. It took us two years to get the right strategy, which involved advancing both the military and political tracks to develop a native Iraq counter to the insurgency. We are also greatly fortunate that the insurgency is so disunited – al-Zarqawi’s brutality and lack of leadership has ensured that the insurgency has never gained majority support in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shi’ite population, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has has spoken out directly against sectarian violence and demanded the disarmament of militias. Now that the political track is once again back on course, the progress that had been made in Iraq can continue. This is a crucial step towards establishing further legitimacy for the central government and restoring order throughout Iraq.

Sepp is right, we’re in the middle of a long war, unlike those we’ve fought before. However, contrary to the prophets of doom who seem to want us to lose, the situation in Iraq is getting slowly better. Al-Maliki seems like a much more acceptable leader than al-Jafaari was. As Sepp notes:

I remain concerned but encouraged. We can’t be defeated by the insurgents or their criminal and extremist allies. But we can fail to help build a new Iraq with viable economic, political and social institutions. Without these, civil war may consume the country, or a dictator may come to power, or Iran may intervene militarily. Looking back on each of my four tours of service in Iraq, from January 2004 to December 2005, I have seen distinct and steady improvement in the coalition and Iraqi counterinsurgency fight, from near-chaos to a disciplined, purposeful campaign. We may yet succeed. We certainly have the capacity; the question may ultimately be one of will.

Sepp is right, ultimately this is a question of will. When we have a sizable amount of our own population cheerleading for defeat, that makes it all the much more harder. However, there is no doubt that our interests are tied to the concept of a democratic Iraq, and our military has the will, the tools, and the knowledge to bring it out, even if they are frequently betrayed by those they serve to protect. The most dangerous insurgency may not be in Iraq, it may be those Americans who put partisanship above country.