Okay, not all bloggers, but most of the ones I spent today with were incredibly nice. I was on a panel today at Carolina FreedomNet 2006 sponsored by the John Locke Foundation. The event was in Greensboro and consisted of two panel discussions featuring NC bloggers Sister Toldjah, Bob Owens, Mary Katharine Ham, Scott Elliott, Josh Manchester, Sam Hieb, and Jeff Taylor. The panels were moderated by Jon Ham and were followed by a luncheon with featured speaker, Scott Johnson of Powerline (who happens to be one of the friendliest, most pleasant people I have ever met). He wrote the following about two readers who came all the way from Florida to attend the event.
Last night I met sisters Abby Misemer and Missy Nurrenbrock of New Port Richey, Florida. They are huge Power Line fans who read about the conference here when I first noted it August and flew up to attend. They are the most attentive, appreciative and observant readers I have ever met.
He is right and meeting Abby and Missy and the other readers and bloggers there just confirmed what I already knew — that bloggers and blog readers are some of the sharpest crayons in the box.
I will have more on the event later (after unpacking and feeding the kids), but Bruce from Gay Patriot was there liveblogging and has some good highlights. You can read his posts here and here. There is more about the event at The Locker Room.
Update: Just a note about Scott Johnson’s speech about Rathergate. I don’t expect it was embraced by the few liberals in attendance, but I (and everyone I talked to) found it incredibly interesting, even though we knew the Rathergate story fairly well. He gave us some information we had not heard before, and put it into the context of how he saw events unfold over one very incredible day. He also talked a good bit about the Thornberg report and the statements Mary Mapes has made since. When reflecting back on the story, it is hard to believe CBS ever thought they could get away with putting something so blatantly and obviously fake on the air and it makes me wonder how many other bogus news stories over the past few decades were reported without question.
Update II: Mary Katharine has a great wrap up of the event with lots of links.
Update III: One of the highlights of the day for me was meeting Kathy from Hang Right Politics and her husband. (If you aren’t reading HRP, you need to check it out.) Kathy posted her account of the meeting of the “Souhern Alliance” here.
Update IV: Sister Toldjah has a great account of the conference here. I am sure I will be seeing a lot more of ST, especially when I am visiting my family in Charlotte.
Update V: Here is Scott Johnson’s post, along with a picture of his “blog groupies.”
Update VI: Bob Owens has a post up now that includes the detail I had to tell my kids about, but that no one else, including me, noted in their account — the purple/blue potato. Bob doesn’t live far from me and I am really looking forward to getting our families together soon for some non-blog related socializing.
Hugs to Jon Sanders! This wrap up from Jeff Taylor includes a line about me that is more true than he will ever know. It was great to meet Jon and Jeff and if you are not reading them already you are missing some great blogging.
