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HERE and order BlogAds cheap. Get a big bang for a few bucks -- along with the best audience in the world.

GOOGLE ADS

now sends the following message:

Our AdSense representatives review all AdSense applications according to our Terms and Conditions and our program policies. I apologize if the prior disapproval of your application was made in error. I have now reviewed and confirmed that hayekcenter.org/prestopundit/ meets all of our policies. Your application has been approved.

I'm left wondering, what was that all about?

And I'm also left wondering why I should want to do business with these people. They did reverse their error on "internet time" -- within hours. But will they have PC cops looking over my shoulder everyday? I'm a rather mainstream "classic liberal" blogger who enjoys gently poking the left with a stick. If this throws up giant red flags for the Google company, then we are all in trouble.

GOOGLE ADS

has blackballed PRESTOPUNDIT.

>>>>BREAKING -- Google Ads now acknowledges its error. See "UPDATE II below for details.<<<<

According to the PC folks at GOOGLE, PrestoPundit contains "sensitive content":

Issues:

- Sensitive content

We've found that your website contains content that we don't allow at this time. AdSense policy doesn't currently accept sites that advocate against any individual, group, or organization.

I guess criticism of John Kerry or Dan Ra^ther and CBS News will not be tolerated by the GOOGLE company. Except for the fact that they RUN ADS across the Internet ATTACKING exactly those folks. What obnoxious hypocrites. I'm still waiting for my Blogads account to be activated --they have a backlog at the moment. Not much of a surprise, given my bad experience so far with Google Ads.

UPDATE: Now I'm paranoid. Perhaps the PC police at Google thought I should have censored this, or this or this. I'll just scream if I think I have to worry about PC censors from Google looking over my back every day. Why did I ever think I needed ads, for Crimany sake. I have my readers and they continue to generously donate enough to pay for most of my bandwidth. And book sales cover the rest. Don't expect to see Google ads here soon.

UPDATE II: Google Ads writes:

Our AdSense representatives review all AdSense applications according to our Terms and Conditions ( http://www.google.com/adsense/terms ) and our program policies ( http://www.google.com/adsense/policies ). I apologize if the prior disapproval of your application was made in error. I have now reviewed and confirmed that hayekcenter.org/prestopundit/ meets all of our policies. Your application has been approved.

CONTRIBUTE TO

the new media revolution -- make a modest donation to PrestoPundit and help me buy some much needed blogger jammies!

PRESTOPUNDIT

was interviewed on the radio this morning by Daniel Weintraub of the SacBee. It was great fun talking about blogging with one of the pioneers of "big journalism" blogging -- who also happens to be one of California's most respected political commentators. I was on KION in the Salinas-Monterey market, and we talked alot about the future of mainstream reporting in the era of the fact-checking bloggers. Like I said, it was a blast talking with Dan, who knows journalism and blogging as well as anyone. More later.

I WENT OVER

my 10.0 GB allotment for data transfer for the month from my internet service provider -- that's after upgrading to a more expensive hosting plan. I need your help. Support wall-to-wall coverage of "Kerry in Cambodia" by sending a donation here. Ten or 20 dollars from you will cover data transfer for a couple of weeks. Let me thank in advance those who answer the call. I do appreciate the support that's come from my readers. I couldn't do this without you.

And don't forget to buy a book.

UPDATE: I now find out I also went over my storage allotment, which corrupted my most recent postings. These have now been removed. I'll get them back up later in the day -- along with lots more new stuff. So check back. There's a lot of stuff happening and I've got a lot to say about it. I've added another 50 MB of space which should be plenty of space to provide continued "Kerry in Cambodia" wall-to-wall coverage.

If you're new to PrestoPundit, please bookmark or blogroll the site and scroll down for the most complete "Kerry in Cambodia" coverage anywhere.

PrestoPundit = Greg Ransom

Reporters, newspaper columnists, radio hosts, and other journalists have been regular visitors to this site from the beginning, and these folks have some right to know a little bit more about who I am. Others of you may simply wonder, who is this guy that's posting all of this stuff? Well, let me tell you.

My name, of course, is Greg Ransom. I have degrees in Political Science and Philosophy from the U. of Washington in Seattle and the U. of California in Riverside. I'm ABD "all but dissertation" in Philosophy at UCR, where I studied under Alex Rosenberg and Larry Wright, two of the best philosophers of science in the business.

I currently edit the Friedrich Hayek Scholars Page and I administer the Hayek-L email list for scholars and journalists. I'm recognized by academics in the field as one of the most knowledgeable Hayek scholars in the world. I have a dissertation in the works on Friedrich Hayek and the nature of scientific explanation in the social sciences. Read some of my academic papers here. I've taught the following subjects at UCR and MiraCosta College: philosophy of law, critical thinking, moral philosophy, logic and introduction to philosophy.

I have a wife and kids, and I spend a lot of time taking care of them. I work part time, and donations are accepted here. Orange County California is my current home. I was raised, however, in the state of Washington, where I still have family.

I've over the years I've worked outside the Ivory Tower as a press secretary in a political campaign, on a Navy fast frigate, in a meat packing plant, at a Washington, D.C. think tank, in the sports department of a newspaper, and as an energy analyst.

In the field of philosophy, beyond my research on Hayek and the philosophy of economics, I've also worked on topics in the philosophy biology, mind, law, ethics, and the general growth of scientific knowledge. I spent several years intensely reading the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein with Larry Wright, and I also consider myself something of an unpublished Wittgenstein scholar.

I should add that I know at least something about journalism. I've taken courses in journalism and its history at the U. of Washington's Dept. of Communications. Over the years I've published Op-Ed pieces in the Seattle Times and the Portland Oregonian. I've worked as a press secretary and I've written sports for a city newspaper. More than enough background to be on the staff of the LA Times, don't you think?

What else is there to say? I've read about every word in print by H.L. Mencken and I've visited the Mencken room in Baltimore. I did roll-your-own Drudge style blogging before anyone ever heard of InstaPundit or MovableType. I like to garden. I wave the flag. I don't like paying taxes. But enough. Back to blogging.

PrestoPundit became a PrestoDaddy for the second time earlier today, a bit earlier than we'd expected. Mommy and baby are doing fine, and so is the new big sister. Perhaps understandably, blogging will be intermittent here at the PrestoPundit site for the week or so. In the mean time, there are lots of great blogs to read just to your right -- I'd especially recommend some of those in my "California Bloggers" category.

Or you might check out some of the articles which will be presented at the Dewey, Hayek and Embodied Cognition conference this weekend. The program includes a who's who of some of the very best people in the fields of neuroscience, economics, philosophy, the history of ideas and several other fields -- including some of my favorite Nobel Prize winners. This could easily turn out to be the most outstanding interdisciplinary academic conference of the decade.