Try out the Blog-Lebo SpeedView 3000 Sidebar, now with Extra Wow!

If you read Blog-Lebo by visiting the web site (and not, for example, by subscribing to one of our handy news feeds), here’s something you might like. The Blogger system, which powers our blog, has a new feature that gives you a streamlined just-the-facts view of the site. To give it a try, just visit this link:

Blog-Lebo Sidebar View

It’s still experimental, so it might not work for everyone. (If it doesn’t work for you, try back later because it seems to be hit-and-miss some days.)

Almanac Letter: Mt. Lebanon blog is entertaining

Here at Blog-Lebo, we have always striven to offer our readers the very best in entertainment value. Now, in a letter to The Almanac, we learn that our efforts have finally been recognized:

In recent weeks, Blog Lebo has reached new heights for entertainment value. The blog, originally started as a thoughtful and well written series of comments on Mt. Lebanon, eventually became so nutty that the originator walked away.

Many people, who read it now for the first time, assume it is a parody due to the hilarious comments from the handful of people who have an opinion on everything and anything.

They seem to fall into two categories, the tin hat society or the "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" group. In recent blogs, one of them suggests that "the entire school board must be communists if they don't sell all of the school buildings, fire half of the teachers and put everyone into one building in order to save money".

The other group, led by a former school director who was forced to resign, advocates that anything other than English and science classes should not be the responsibility of the school district and should be paid for separately with money raised by volunteers.

If anyone dares to disagree with their comments, the rebuttals are similar to taunts from fourth-graders on the play ground, ("Apparently you can't read English!"). The fact that five people make up 90 percent of the comments should make this thing so tedious and silly that most people put it in the same context as the nut cases who walk around with signs proclaiming the end of the world.

Since less than .01% of the people who read this paper actually read the blog, I am afraid this is the case. However, I would encourage people to read the blog as an alternative to the astrology section or the comics. It is certainly more entertaining than either.

James Cannon

I would like to correct one error in Mr. Cannon’s letter. It says that Blog-Lebo’s founder walked away from our beloved blog after it became too “nutty.” I have been in touch with our founder, Mr. Mike Madision, and he assures me that Mr. Cannon is mistaken. The reason he left, he told me, is because Blog-Lebo was not nutty enough.

Read more:

• Mt. Lebanon blog is entertaining (The Almanac)

A Protest-supporter Questions Blog-Lebo

In the B-L discussion about the recent protest, an anonymous commenter offered the following comment. Because of our comments policy, I can't approve it as part of that discussion. But because it probably represents what a lot protesters and their supporters are thinking, I'm going to put it on the front page to give their concerns more attention.

If any protesters want to add their comments, please do. As long as you follow our comments policy (include your full name), we'll publish your comments.

Here's the comment:

I know you won't publish this, but 1) I'm not willing to put my name on here to be ridiculed by those who frequently comment on this blog and 2) I at least want to pose some questions to the moderators of the blog. You continue to ask for explanations from the protestors, what about the organizers of the meeting? If the purpose and intent was so innocent then why wouldn't Mr. Kluck or Mrs. Stephenson share the agenda, the invitees, or the proposed call to action with the school board? Why wouldn't Mr. Fraasch share his presentation or any information on what he would present with his fellow members of the school board. He admonished Mrs. Capucci for doing this earlier this year. It is well known in the Mt. Lebanon political community that the Concerned Citizens are trying to get together a block of candidates to run for school board in the election next year. Why wouldn't some be suspicious of a meeting with a "call to action" knowing this? I think things stink on both sides of this issue. Will you pose the questions to the Concerned Citizens now?

Now, here are my responses.

Why has Blog-Lebo not pressed the meeting organizers for answers like it has the protesters?

The short answer is because the meeting organizers have less to answer for. They said that their meeting was about taxes and the economy (not the high-school project), and that's how it turned out. They said people representing all sides of Mt. Lebanon would be there (including those who supported the planned high-school project), and that's how it turned out.

If the purpose and intent [of the meeting] was so innocent then why wouldn't Mr. Kluck or Mrs. Stephenson share the agenda, the invitees, or the proposed call to action with the school board?

I can't speak for the organizers (I'm not them), but my understanding is that there was no planned agenda because it was mostly a Q&A event. The list of invitees probably wasn't known at the time (I think people were given invitations to hand out to their friends and neighbors), nor would a reasonable organizer want to voilate the audience's expectation of privacy by handing out a list of their names. The proposed call to action boiled down to a lukewarm "people, be more involved," which isn't the kind of thing that makes one think to issue an up-front warning.

I also understand the school board was invited to the meeting and, further, that the school-board president was asked to sit on the expert panel. (Blog-Lebo has obtained an email dated 13 August, 2010, to document this claim.)

Why wouldn't Mr. Fraasch share his presentation or any information on what he would present with his fellow members of the school board?

My guess (I am not Mr. Fraasch) is because Mr. Fraash didn't have a presentation. None of the panel members did. It was mostly Q&A. Listen to the audio recording or read the Almanac's summary: there were no presentations. After each panel member made a short introduction, the moderator opened the meeting to Q&A.

It is well known in the Mt. Lebanon political community that the Concerned Citizens are trying to get together a block of candidates to run for school board in the election next year. Why wouldn't some be suspicious of a meeting with a "call to action" knowing this?

Why? Because the town-hall meeting wasn't a Concerned Citizens event (or a LeboCitizens.com event, if you're wondering), nor was it advertised as such. I agree, however, that if you learn that some of an event's organizers are also involved with groups you disagree with, you can be more suspicious of that event. (But to jump to the conclusion that it's a sham event designed to attack your favored cause?)

And there you have my responses.

If any protesters want to ask additional questions, comment away, but please be mindful of our comments policy: you must own your words by including your full name in your comments.

Mt. Lebanon Community Gets Loud In The Blogosphere

Forget gossip over the back fence: These days in Mt. Lebanon, community bloggers are the town criers.

Commissioners Dan Miller and D. Raja have blogs. So do school members Josephine Posti and James Fraasch. The high school's technology director Christopher Stengel has his own blog, and residents Joe Polk, Tom Moertel, Kristen Linfante and Elaine Labalme also run blogs that discuss community developments and events.

Read more: www.post-gazette.com/pg/10063/1039995-55.stm

Why We Censor Comments Only As A Last Resort

Some people may think that a few recent comments here on Blog-Lebo go too far and deserve to be “snipped.” I’d like to explain why Joe and I leave these comments alone, censoring only as a last resort.

Joe and I run Blog-Lebo in the hope that it will serve the public. We therefore feel obligated not to abuse our administrative powers to influence the direction of conversations that occur on our site. (If we have a view to advance, we’ll advance it with our words, just like everybody else.) Because administrative abuse can happen subtly, even subconsciously, the only sure way to prevent it is not to use our administrative powers.

Therefore, we resort to censorship only in extreme cases, lest we unfairly deny someone the opportunity to be heard. That means we must sometimes publish comments that offer more heat than light. When we do, we trust our readers to see those comments for what they are. We trust our readers to make up their own minds about what’s heat and what’s light.

Our readers, in turn, can trust us not to make up their minds for them.