I asked SA reader Rex, who just happens to be an expert in Latin, if he could provide me with the Latin translation of SA’s tagline. Here is his response, which I greatly appreciate:

Maybe we can flesh this out together:

Giving the bayonet to the “dictatorship of relativism”

“Dare cuspidem ad dictaturam obsequii”

What I have here is “giving the spear to the dictatorship of …

obsequium = compliance, blind following, etc.

This term relativism is a tough one. Perhaps we could go with something like “relativitas”, which is a Latinizing of an English word that Latin simply doesn’t have. It also maintains the look of your original slogan.

So, “Dare Cuspidem ad Dictaturam Relativitatis” might be your “sententia” (motto).

What do you think?

All the best,
Rex

Pretty cool, eh?

Kick off your shoes, pour yourself a glass of Blanton’s, amd stay a spell.

Thanks, Jonah!

I am pleased to announce that Southern Appeal will have two new bloggers coming on board in the near future. Both are former bloggers and long-time SA readers. One is a staunch, Libertarian-leaning conservative (Centinel), and the other is a bleeding-heart liberal (KM).

I brought Centinel on to keep my inner Gerson in check, and I asked KM to join SA to blog on human-rights issues that he and I are both passionate about addressing (specifically the genocide that continues to take place in Darfur).

I look forward to these gentlemen blogging here at SA, and I hope our readers will give them both a warm welcome.

Feel free to use this post as an open thread. I’ll be here for most of the day.

I was glad to see Feddie bring back SA — even before he invited me to return to the party.  I’m happy once again to be a part of it.

to Quin, Hunter, William, and Patrick.

I plan on inviting some other past SA bloggers back as well, but I want to spread those invites out over time. Let things settle around here a bit, if you will.

Also, thanks again to SA’s loyal readers. Since SA’s return on March 5th, we’ve had approximately 17,000 unique hits, and are averaging 972 unique hits a day. Thanks also to the fine folks at the following blogs for announcing SA’s return and/or linking to SA since then: Above the Law, Powerline, RedState, NRO’s The Corner, The Volokh Conspiracy, Professor Bainbridge, Wizbang, The Evangelical Outpost, Confirm Them, The Curt Jester, Mark Shea, Jay Anderson, Stuart Buck, Vox Nova, Newsbusters, Crime and Consequences, PTN, Obsidian Wings, A&C, The Right Coast, Fritz Feds, Cranky Conservative, Catholics in the Public Square, Seeking Justice, Rerum Novarum, Catholic Lawyer, Dispatches from the Culture Wars, Positive Liberty, Jon Rowe, BTQ, Debate Link, My VRWC, McCain Blogs, Ephemeris, Kicking Over My Traces, Fraters Libertas, Cvstos Fidei, CDR Salamander, The City Square, Law Pundit, Liberty Corner, Josh in a Box, The Troglodyte, The Reluctant Optimist, Feminine-Genius, Whatever, Kiko’s House, The Right Bailiwick, FIAB, Stubborn Facts, Raymond Ward, Legal Right, Philly Legal Blog, Tall Cotton, and any other blog who linked to SA in the past few weeks but isn’t showing up in Technorati.                 

Much obliged to the Fedster on (re-)inviting me to blog on SA, though I’ve been around lately helping SA’s Fearless Leader on the technical side of things ’round here.  A little info on yours truly: I’m Mississippi-raised, Tennessee-residing, barbecue-eating, conservative-politicking, computer programming, Ole Miss-loving Southern Baptist.

Ah, it’s good to be back!

Friends, I’m so pleased to be invited back by Mr. Feddie, Esq.

Where else can a fella get together with a group that understands Catholic social thought, pork barbecue properly prepared, the virtues of the Tennessee River, conservative politics, and SEC football?

This is the place and you all are my kinda folks.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kick of your shoes. Grab a glass of Blanton’s. And stay for a spell.

Update: A big Southern welcome to Little Green Footballs readers as well.

In case y’all missed it, here are some of my more notable posts from this past week:

-”On STDs and ‘abstinence only’ education“

-”On McCain and Hagee”

-”On Obama, Ferraro, and race”

-”Spitzer’s fall from grace”

Please also feel free to use the combox section to vent, criticize, praise, or otherwise discuss SA’s return.

And thanks so much to all of my loyal SA readers for returning so quickly. It is great to have so many of y’all back.

It’s good to be back in business. Thanks to Professor Adler for the kind mention.

Now, if only my old friend Howard will mention SA’s return, all will be right with the world.

Because SA is always on the cutting edge.

I spent a great deal of time this past weekend going through SA’s blogroll, and deleting dead blogs/links. If your blog was mistakenly deleted, or if you would like your blog added to SA’s blogroll, please shoot me an email or leave a comment to this post, and I’ll add a permalink to your blog ASAP.

Yes, I have been doing a bit of blogging over the past year or so.

And I plan on continuing to blog at RedState. In fact, that will be my primary blogging home for political matters. I’ll still do some political posting here, but not as much as I did in the past.

A new masthead for a new blogging era.

Muchas gracias to my Wordpress guru, Patrick Carver, for making everything work right, and to Christopher Blosser for doing such an excellent job designing the new SA masthead.

Well, it has been a nice year or so break, but I’ve decided to start blogging again here at Southern Appeal. There are several reasons why I shut down SA, and several reasons why I have decided to start it back up. I am not particularly interested in elaborating on the former, but as for the latter, I will simply say this: I’ve missed writing about certain issues on a regular basis, as well as the SA community. Now, whether many of SA’s former readers will choose to “come back home” remains to be seen.

There will be a few changes. To begin with, I am going to resume blogging under the pseudonym “Feddie.” I am not trying to be cute by doing this. Anyone with half a brain and access to Google’s search engine can “discover” my identity. That having been said, I am trying to minimize the number of times my actual name shows up in search queries. I may change my mind on this, but for the time being just call me Feddie. :) 

I have also decided, for the time being, to run Southern Appeal as a solo blog. I may eventually bring on some of SA’s prior contributors, or some new ones, but I would first like to see how things shake out a bit before making that decision. My inclination right now, however, is for SA to remain a personal blog. My decision in this regard should in no way be interpreted as a slight to my former contributors, for whom I have the greatest affection.

Finally, my sincere desire is that the tone of this blog will be consistently civil toward those with whom I disagree. My hope is that my posts will “sound” like a Southern version of Buckley and Neuhaus, rather than Ann Coulter on a bad hair day. Whether or not I’ll succeed in this endeavor also remains to be seen.

In any event, it is good to be back. Here’s hoping that some of y’all come along for the ride.  

Update: And yes, I know that the masthead needs to be changed. If any of y’all want to help me design a new one, that would be great.

For those who are interested in joining, you can do so here.

I realize that this will come as a shock to SA readers, but for professional and personal reasons I have decided it is time for Southern Appeal to call it quits. In doing so, I cannot even begin to express how much I appreciate the contributions of my co-bloggers and many loyal readers/commenters over the past four years. I have learned so much from each of you, and you have all enriched my life in incalculable ways. Thank you so much for everything.

When I started SA, I never dreamed it would amount to anything. It was just a means for me to vent about political matters during the two years I lived the monastic life of a federal appellate law clerk.  But with my extensive commentary/coverage on Judge William H. Pryor Jr.’s nomination to the Eleventh Circuit, SA’s traffic went up dramatically (thanks in large part to Howard Bashman and NRO), and things have never been the same since then. Indeed, SA’s popularity provided me with a special gift: a soapbox to air my views on issues I care about deeply (e.g., abortion, Darfur). I have not always been the most eloquent or able spokesman, and I have often let my passion/temper get the best of me. But our readers have been gracious in forgiving me for my many shortcomings, and I can only hope and pray that I have done more good than harm over the years.  To those who I have offended, or been less than charitable with in my posts, please forgive me.  I am a work-in-progress; and I pray daily that God with shape me into the person I need to be.

There is much more that I could and probably should say, but right now I just don’t have the words. I know this all “sounds” a little too melodramatic, but as I write this post I am coming to terms with just how much of me is wrapped up in this blog (perhaps too much methinks). In any event, it has been a great run. Thanks for the memories, folks. And God Bless.

Oh, and please have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Administrative note: SA will stay up on the web for the foreseeable future. If there is a kind soul who would be willing to offer free webhosting, so that SA’s archives can remain on the web for an extended period of time, please contact me via email. Also, I will update this post in the near future with a list of my co-bloggers’ other blogging homes, so that you can continue to enjoy their respective talents.

Update: Thank you all for the gracious comments. As promised, here is a list of my co-bloggers’ other blogging quarters and/or websites. I have also established a personal blog that will not contain any commentary, but will instead merely make note of my speaking engagements, radio/television appearances, publications, and the like. I won’t be posting at this blog on a regular basis, so it is probably best to simply subscribe to the feed if you’re interested in getting updates.

Steve Dillard: Steve Dillard

Professor Mike DeBow: Links, Point of Law, Division of Labour

Quin Hillyer: AmSpec Blog

William Watkins: South Carolina Appellate Law Blog 

Patrick Carver: Southron Views

Nathan Hallford: Confirm Them

Major Joel Leggett: Grim’s Hall

Proximo: Dallas Sidebar

Portia: De Novo

Zach Brissett: In Toon With the World

Hunter Baker: AmSpec Blog

Professor Francis Beckwith: FrancisBeckwith.com and Right Reason

Jim Dunn: Do What Now?

Update II: Muchas gracias to Joshua LeBlanc of CyberCatholics for agreeing to host SA’s archives free o’ charge. If you have any webhosting needs, please consider using CyberCatholics.

is that you get to see exactly where your traffic is coming from.

And tonight, I noticed that we have a reader from the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Very cool.

Please tell Cardinal George that the fedster is a huge fan, and that I hope he is doing well and is in good health.

Thanks, y’all!

for getting quoted over at Slate:

In the comments section of legal blog Southern Appeal, “Rex” takes “issue with the idea that the old Latin mass has been said for ‘1,500 years.’ Not wholly true. The Council of Trent, convened in 1563 (maybe where they got their 1,500 number), established the Latin Tridentine Mass. Before then, while many masses were being said in Latin, as was the language of the Church Militant and the greater Roman Empire and subsequent ‘empires’, many masses were still being said in vernacular. The Council at Trent made the Tridentine brand the only and official Mass for the official Church Universal.”

Update: New Catholic from the popular traditionalist blog, “RORATE CÆLI,” takes issues with the substance of Rex’s comment.

Andrew Sullivan links approvingly again to Southern Appeal concerning Feddie’s views on torture.  If it happens a third time, I think some serious damage will occur in the Right Wing space-time continuum or something like that…

to the reader from Reykjavik, Gullbringusysla (University of Iceland), who apparently is a big fan of SA.

Nice to have you stop by for a spell. Come on back now, ya hear!

I know that SA was down for most of yesterday. From what I understand, the server on which SA is hosted crashed, and it took a while to get things back up and running. All is well now though.

I hope.

Regular posting will resume on Friday.

Sorry for the light posting of late, folks. I’ve been swamped at work. I was in Charlotte from Sunday evening until Tuesday afternoon, and I just finished (and filed) a 30-page application for interlocutory appeal (which is essentially a brief asking for permission to appeal). My guess (and hope) is that the Court of Appeals will grant the application, but you never know. The percentage of applications actually granted by the COA is fairly low.

Anyway, I hope to resume regular posting tomorrow.

In the meantime, feel free to use this post as an open thread for any and all topics y’all care to discuss (or wish we would post about).

This is pretty cool. Muchas gracias to the kind soul who penned the entry.

And no, it wasn’t me.

Hard to believe.

Thanks to all of our readers, who make it all worthwhile.

I do reject certain blogads when they conflict with my core convictions. For example, yesterday I received an ad from Ben & Jerry’s promoting its “American Pie” campaign. At first blush, I thought, “What the heck,” so B&J is concerned about children being in poverty. I am too. We may disagree on how to address the issue, but there’s nothing wrong with a corporation giving its point of view on the matter.

But then I noticed that B&J is promoting the Children’s Defense Fund, which is funded by several proabortion organizations and is extremely hostile to parental rights. And with that, I immediately clicked the reject button. I won’t have that trash advertised on SA at any price.