Ace of Spades HQ
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| Ace of Spades HQ | |||||||
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| Born | United States | ||||||
| Years active | five | ||||||
| Spouse(s) | what a startling idea | ||||||
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Ace of Spades HQ, Ace of Spades, or AoS is a conservative and libertarian U.S.-based weblog, and has been described by Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Blankley as a "very smart military blog".[1] Created in 2003, Ace of Spades has had over 22 million hits as of May 19, 2008.[2] It has maintained a position as a top-100 blog, within the "Blogging Ecosystem" maintained at The Truth Laid Bear.[3] Apart from mention in the Washington Times, Ace of Spades has been quoted, mentioned, or referenced on the Wall Street Journal's website[4], Fox News, CNN[5], National Review, The Weekly Standard, and many notable blogs. The site's leading Blogger, "Ace," has also appeared as a guest expert on Fox News, though it is rare for him to make media appearances.
[edit] Public Recognition
"Ace" was honored as the "Blogger of the Year" at the Conservative Political Union's prestigious Conservative Political Action Conference in March of 2008, where he was introduced by Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation, according to The Weekly Standard. His speech at that event indicated that he felt all Americans have an obligation to maintain political awareness, rather than relying upon elites ("their betters," he said, in a slightly mocking tone with an almost-British cast to it) to make decisions for them.
Brian Faughnan of the Standard summarized the event this way: "Ace has a gift for cutting through political BS, for dissecting the fatal flaws behind liberal arguments, and for doing so with humor.
In accepting the award today, he gave an incisive speech on the death of democracy and the rise of tyranny, accompanied by an analysis of how Ronald Reagan re-invigorated the two-party system.
Seriously."
Blogger Joy McCann, of Little Miss Attila, wrote this about that same ceremony:
"When it came time to speak . . . AoS gave a rather thoughtful set of remarks on why the New Media is an important part of policy-making, and drew a straight line between the history of policy debate in a town-hall setting and the Reagan Revolution, which rejected the notion—now so prevalent in Europe and elsewhere—that the political class can consider itself our superiors, and simply make policy decisions on our behalf.
We have, he reminded us, not simply an opportunity to inform ourselves about politics, but a 'duty' to do so. Naturally, alternative streams of information will play a large role in that process.
[edit] Placing Ace of Spades within the Blogosphere
The Ace of Spades Headquarters blog, a member of Pajamas Media, is often critical of other political and liberal blogsites, including Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish,[6] the Huffington Post,[7] the Daily Kos, and Glenn Greenwalkd's Blog in Salon (including this spirited exchange.ref>Ace of Spades HQ</ref> Ace of Spades HQ frequently employs obscenity and humor to express its point of view on serious political questions. Center-right--and devout Roman Catholic weblogger The Anchoress has described it as "smart but very very vulgar."[8]
Ace/the Ace of Spades Blog have both been quoted and linked extensively at other top-tier weblogs such as Power Line, |Hot Air}, Instapundit, Protein Wisdom, Sean Hackbarth's [http://www.theamericanmind.com/ |The American Mind), and [http://www.rightwingnews.com/ |Right Wing News. Ace retains the rare distinction among bloggers of actually supporting himself 100% via his weblog.
Ace's co-bloggers include: Drew M., Laura W., "Gabriel Malor," "Slublog," "Someone," "Dave in Texas," "Purple Avenger," along with "Kat-Mo," "Tushar," and other readers of his weblog who are able to post to the site via its "open blog" policy.
[edit] Personal Life
Little is known, or can be found, about the site's owner and main blogger, Ace (also referred to as "The 'Moron'-in Chief," or "King Moron"). This is probably intentional, as many bloggers choose to remain anonymous. The Hotline Blog Directory lists all question marks under their profile for Ace under the subjects of age, residence, occupation, education, etc.[9] A recent post on his blog suggests that he does some screenwriting in his spare time and is considering getting one of his movies made at some point.[citation needed] Ace has also alluded to having received some legal training, and at least one of his co-bloggers is an attorney. Consequently, Latin phrases pop up remarkably often at "Ace of Spades Headquarters"--though not with anything like the frequency of four-letter words.
"Mr. Spades" appears to live in the Tri-State area, and according to recent blog entries, has two younger brothers, both of whom apparently read his site. His mother and his girlfriend are also credited with contributing some tips to his blog. He claims that his hobbies are "watching fucking television, and masturbation," though his readers seem to take that with the same grain of salt they use for his oft-repeated claims that part of the "Ace of Spades Lifestyle" involves consuming large quantities of "Valu-Rite vodka," and "killing hobos." Although a segment of Ace's readers and commenters appear to be devout Christians or Jews of one stripe or another, Ace himself is an agnostic.
It's been suspected that in his youth, Ace engaged in role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, though he appears to have replaced those pursuits with poker.
[edit] Cultural Content
AoSHQ, like many political blogs, links to and comments on the day's news. Unlike some other online commentary sites, however, it often features humorous content in its videos, cartoons, and pictures. The site also uses copious amounts of obscenity and vulgar language, setting it apart from most conservative media. AoSHQ allows commenters to select their own screen names. The use of humorous or ironic names, or monikers taken from dead celebrities, former government officials, and the like, has become an integral part of the culture of AoSHQ. Recurring confrontations between "Alexander Hamilton" and "Aaron Burr", who, despite their deaths nearly two centuries ago, have failed to reconcile on matters of national policy, remain a staple, as does random visits from former president "Thomas Jefferson" who generally drops by to clarify and amplify on his published and unpublished opinions.
Some have compared the number of "in jokes" among his devoted followers ("Ace of Spades Morons") to that surrounding Howard Stern, although several of Ace's female readers see the latter as misogynistic, whereas Ace appears to come across as pro-female--at least when the real man peeks through the Motörhead-inspired persona.
Many have compared Ace with other comedic-yet-political bloggers such as Iowahawk, Protein Wisdom and Jim Treacher.
[edit] Political Content
Ace's positions were described by Bluey as being "hard right," and include:
- A conviction that immigration reform must begin with enforcement, before the question is addressed of how/if existing illegal immigrants are to be assimilated into the mainstream of American society.
- A lack of interest in furthering the sexual revolution, however much his rhetorical style seems to enjoy the fruits thereof. As far as the "culture war" is concerned, his attitude appears to be: "Hey, Dudes?--You've won."
- A commitment to securing the peace in Iraq through training the Iraqis themselves to deal with any outbreaks of violence that occur, before Americans begin drawing down their presence therein. Ace appears to be convinced that Iraqi-American victories in Iraq against the insurgents are underreported.
- A predisposition to fiscal responsibility and accountability in government.
- A desire to see the United States become more energy-efficient, including increased harvesting of petroleum reserves off of the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, off of Florida's West Coast.
- Despite his libertarian readership, a commitment to law-and-order issues.
- A huge animosity at any expression of anti-Semitism (which led him to condemn Ron Paul repeatedly, early on, and in no uncertain terms).
- An abiding distaste for what he perceives to be an enormous leftward tilt in the mainstream media.
[edit] Leaving Blogspot
AoS's first post appeared on Blogspot on December 30, 2003. It appears that Ace forgot to title the post, and it says, simply, "First post."[10] On April 18, 2004, the first post appeared at AoS's current website. The post was titled "She laid her docile Crescent down," and was the text of the Emily Dickinson poem of the same name. Ace then commented, "Is it just me, or was Emily Dickinson doing some really good weed when she wrote this stuff? She was freakin' smokin', by the way."[11] As of January, 2007 the last post appeared at the blogspot address in July of 2006.[12]
[edit] Ten-Millionth Hit
On January 9, 2007 AoS reached its ten millionth hit. Upon reaching 10 million hits, the site's primary author, Ace, commented (in a post humorously titled "Grim Milestone: Ten Millionth Hit Coming"), "I'd like to thank all sixteen of you, and extend a special thanks to the spouses who do not give you any sex and thus compel you into a dark lonely "life" lived out on the Internet, as well as the teachers who shaped you in your early years to be goldbricking layabouts who do nothing but fuck about on the computer all day long (Gee, isn't it funny traffic plunges after 5pm every day?), and of course your incompetent bosses who apparently cannot be bothered to notice you're about as crucial to your companies' success as, say, a box of stale circus peanuts."[13]
[edit] Twenty-Millionth Hit
On February 25, 2008, AoS received its twenty millionth hit. Upon reaching 20 million hits, the site's primary author, Ace, commented (in a post entitled "Damnit…Twenty Million Uniques"), "Thanks for all you for coming here, and drooling all over yourselves, and learning to tie your shoes (sort of), and making peanut butter sandwiches with dulled plastic safety knives ("fun-knives!"), and wearing socks of mismatched and garish hues, and walking into walls that suddenly lurch in front of you, and of course menacing random women on the street by shouting out I'M LOOKING AT YOU AND TOUCHING MYSELF! I'M LOOKING AT YOUR AND TOUCHING MYSELF!" until a nice friendly officer escorts you back to your, um, cages.."[14]
[edit] Thirty-Millionth Hit
On October 6, 2008, AoS received its thirty millionth hit. No one took any notice of this fact on the site.
[edit] A 'Politically Incorrect" Plea for Tolerance
In September of 2008, a set of visitors to the site used threads about whether or not some attacks on the Barack Obama campaign were, indeed, racist, as an excuse to insert racially offensive humor into his comments section. These users (or, perhaps, others) began expressing anti-gay sentiment in a thread about gay/out blogger Andrew Sullivan. Ace was forced at that point to draw a line in the sand, and explain to his commenters that unless the comments were ironic--and the irony was clearly telegraphed--anti-gay and anti-minority remarks wouldn't be tolerated on his blog. Libertarianism, he explained, was not the same as anarchy, and he wanted his gay, black, and minority readers to feel welcome. He also pointed out that one bigoted comment was enough to get someone banned from his site instantly, "no matter how long you've been commenting here."
"I get tens of thousands of hits a day," he remarked. "I can easily afford to lose a few hundred readers."
[edit] Current Events Served with Your Stand-Up Humor
Despite Ace's habit of referring to his readers and other followers as "morons"--and despite the gratuitous vulgarity and nearly nonstop sexual references--Ace provides a mix of breaking news and deep analysis that his readers find useful in navigating the political landscape. For many center-right political junkies his blog is a "daily stop," although it sometimes takes new readers a while to figure out which entries are intended ironically, and which ones are not. For some, this takes longer than for others.
[edit] External links
[edit] Notes
- ^ Washington Times - No third way in Iraq
- ^ Ace of Spades HQ - http://www.ace.mu.nu
- ^ The Truth Laid Bear
- ^ Bloggers Parse Pool Reportage On Bush Doings - WSJ.com
- ^ Conservative bloggers in full revolt over immigration - CNN.com
- ^ Ace of Spades HQ
- ^ Ace of Spades HQ
- ^ Path to 9/11: Ace readers insightful comments | The Anchoress
- ^ The Blogometer Profiles: Ace of Spades
- ^ Ace of Spades HQ
- ^ Ace of Spades HQ
- ^ Ace of Spades HQ
- ^ Ace of Spades HQ
- ^ [ http://ace.mu.nu/archives/256397.php#256397 Ace of Spades HQ]
