Please remember the chatterer rule in the comments.

I have just notified a right-wing commenter who has already posted over 20 comments today that he is now limited to four a day.

If you are a conservative who disagrees with what I write, feel free to express yourself, but there is no need to comment on every post or to repeat yourself and annoy other commenters. This site exists to further my point of view, not your's.

If you haven't received a notice that you are limited to four comments a day, then this doesn't apply to you. It is very rarely necessary for me to invoke the rule as most conservatives don't abuse it.

And, whatever your politics, if you comment a lot, bandwidth is expensive and it would be very nice if you contributed through our paypal link.

Now back to our regularly scheduled converstations.

Say Hello to Blog One, the blog for Live 8 and ending world poverty.

As Skippy says,

we are in the wrong part of the world to participate other than with watching it on television and sending our best wishes. but it promises to be an incredible event.

Yesterday's open thread got a lot of action, so let's try another one. And check out the bloglift at Daily Kos - it's terrific.

One of the reasons to be an anonymous blogger is if you think you might apply for a job someday where what you write could come back to haunt you. Before you blog your diatribe, you would do well to remember that the Internet has no eraser.

Case in point:

The Lexington Herald-Leader today contains an article that begins, "The young lawyer whom Kentucky Chief Justice Joseph Lambert yesterday named his chief of staff has strong opinions about Democrats, gay marriage and other hot-button topics, and until recently he enjoyed posting them on the Internet.

Jason Nemes, 27, a former Republican congressional aide, discontinued his personal blog -- with posts such as 'Democrats are anti-American' and 'Does a fetus feel pain?' -- before taking a job at the state Supreme Court."

The newspaper also offers a related item consisting of "Excerpts from the blog."

Lots going on offline here today...here's a place for your thoughts.

Scary story of the day:

The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

[Via Huffington Post.] Arthur at Light of Reason has a lot to say about this.

Many bloggers, TalkLeft included, ask for money from time to time. Not Skippy. He's asking for visits, so he can make 1 million visitors by his third blogiversary. Please go help him out.

Your turn. Your topics.

Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a free legal guide for bloggers.

Law Sites's Robert Ambrogi gives it high marks. Here's the index.

A weekend round-up - non-political edition

• This has to be one of the wierdest sites ever, Crying While Eating, and the LA Times says it's had 15 million visitors since late May, making it one of the most popular around.

• Suburban Guerilla on some strange problems the British are having with domestic cats

• Jim MacDonald over at Nielsen Hayden explores the history and variations of the game of chess.

• Paul Reiser at Huffington Post on Father's Day and driving in the car, made me laugh out loud with this line about making his kids listen to the Boss:

let me tell you something; until you’ve heard a 4 year-old belt out, "This town rips the bones from your back, it’s a death trap..." you have not been entertained.

Actually, real parents have their kids sing songs by Bob Dylan, like Subterranean Homesick Blues. The TL kid could belt out from the age of five,

Johnny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government

...Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift

He hasn't been arrested yet, knock on wood.

Your turn....what's on your mind?

TalkLeft is now three years old. How the time flies...

Many, many thanks to the readers and bloggers who have visited, commented and linked to us.

With 6.5 million visits, almost 11 million page views and three Koufax awards for Best Single Issues blog, I'm proud to say the site is still going strong. I hope you'll all stick around, the best is yet to come, as TChris and I continue to focus on the politics of crime - and the crime in politics.

Update: A special thanks to Skippy for his very flattering birthday wishes. Whenever I need to smile, Skippy's always the first place I turn.

I'm sure there are topics besides Michael Jackson you'd like to discuss today, so here's a place for them. I'll be back this afternoon to join in.