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howard owens

Bea McManus

By Bob Harker

Bea! Come back! You and I are on opposite sides of the spectrum as far as political beliefs, but I truly miss our heated discussions!

 

I too let Howard's arrogance get the best of me and left for a while.

 

FUHO. Come back and let's fight!  Bea!  :)

 

 

 

 

clarification

By C. M. Barons

I made a hasty remark aimed at a lead sentence I judged troublesome.

I would not characterize Howard as an unskilled writer.  I've witnessed his work when it exhibits command of language.

Howard has demonstrated often that his writing ability is excellent.  In fact he has done some superlative investigative pieces and propelled a self-conceived project (The Batavian) into a respectable web presence.

The Batavian has an excellent editor, namely  Billie, who nails her grammar and sentence structure consistently.

 

Party Busted On Thorpe Avenue

By Robin Walters

Ok, to set the record straight, it was not your typical party that was happening on Thorpe Avenue tonight. No it was a party of fun, hope and encouragement. It was the Care-A-Van Ministries weekly cookout.  The Care-A-Van band was rocking the neighborhood with their lively music.

We got busted by our own editor of the Batavian, Howard Owens and his friendly watchdog (Howard forgive me, I could not remember how to spell his name!)

Howard being the awesome editor and reporter was out for a walk and thought he would stop by and see what all the commotion was about. It was great meeting Howard face to face, after all of these months of blogging on his online newspaper.

Care-A-Van served dinner to approximately 50 folks tonight. Of course the kids loved the ice cream cones! We are happy to report that the best part of the night was when 4 people received salvation tonight, by asking Jesus into their hearts !

We go forth to not only bring them physical food, but spiritual food as well. We let them all know that God has a plan for them,  a plan to prosper them not harm them, a plan to give them a future and a hope.

Thanks Howard for stopping by! It was great meeting you and being able to give you a tour of the bus and to share of the ministry with you.

We will be returning to Thorpe Avenue on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 PMfor a street church service.  Our own Mike Grasso of the Assembly of God will be giving the message.

Little Briana even joined in for singing with the band:

Howard, Thanks for Muckdog Tickets

By Bea McManis

Howard,

Thank you, so much, for the tickets to the Muckdog game.  Sue, the grandchildren and great grandchildren had a ball.  It was the perfect night to be at the game.

Your generosity is appreciated.

Bea

Responding To Howard's "The Batavian Is An Open Forum"

By Robert Harding

Earlier today, Howard authored a post entitled, "The Batavian is an open forum" that discussed, in my view anyway, the current state of The Batavian and the evolution of The Batavian. It was an interesting take by Howard, but I think he missed the mark in a few areas.

I have been a fan of this blog since its inception. It is because of The Batavian that the Daily News (who had long been without a website) decided to join the rest of the newspaper world in introducing a website to the fold. The Batavian also proved to be key during the 2008 elections - a perfect year for a blog such as this one to start and get off the ground running.

But I do take issue with a few things Howard said in his post. In discussing the political leanings of readers and contributors here at The Batavian, Howard said the following: 

There was a time when Republicans thought The Batavian was hostile to their positions. Many of the original members of the site were active in local Democratic politics, and I think Philip Anselmo leaned a bit to the liberal side. 

While I espoused a localist-libertarian position, I was (and am) non-partisan.

In this environment, Republicans didn't see many of their ideas being put forward and thought their viewpoints would be unwelcome.

Now, I'm hearing the Democrats are thinking of The Batavian, especially since Philip left,  is hostile to their party and positions.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Naturally, I'm going to be critical of big government programs being pushed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand or more taxes and spending from David Paterson, but that's because as  a libertarian, I think those are bad policies. It has nothing to do with party affiliation.  I'm critical of Republicans when they espouse more government solutions to problems.

I don't know how accurate it is to say that Republicans "thought The Batavian was hostile to their positions." Let's be real: The Republicans weren't reading. There were a few Republican contributors, including Genesee County Legislator Jerome Grasso, but the Republicans weren't represented here. It is one thing to claim hostility. It's another thing to be not active. The Republicans weren't active. The Democrats took advantage of having a new medium and did what we do best: We used it. We didn't see it as something foreign.

The Republicans weren't posting any of their ideas. And to say that their viewpoints would be unwelcome is a joke. If they aren't posting and aren't trying to post, how can we make such a statement and claim it as fact?

I'm not sure where Howard gets his facts about Democrats labeling this blog as "hostile to their party and positions." That word "hostile" is getting tossed around rather liberally (no pun intended) and I'm not sure where the perception of hostility is derived. I think the belief is that Howard has tried a little too hard to try and erase and previous views that this blog was friendly to Democrats. He might not agree with that view, but that is something I have noticed over the last several months and I know I'm not the only one who shares that view. Does that mean we believe that this blog is anti-Democrats as a result? No.

It is no secret that Democrats/progressives have had great success in online organizing and with the blogosphere. The Republicans/conservatives haven't had the same success. If that is what they consider "hostile", then maybe they need to be more proactive than reactive. I recall Grasso mentioning this same point. He called on his Republican friends to contribute. Apparently, instead of showing up, they chose to stew about it and allege "hostility."

Unless a blog has a certain identity (progressive, conservative, libertarian, socialist, etc.), then there really isn't a need to worry about who is utilizing the blog more than others. If there are more conservatives utilizing a blog like The Batavian, all the power to them. The Batavian isn't targeting one ideology over another. So there is no reason to try so hard to balance things out, nor is it necessary to try and debunk any claims by one party or another about one side being favored over another.

Burning Questions

By Bea McManis

Is Howard a robot? 

When does he sleep?

 

While Howard's away, the community gets to play

By Brian Hillabush

 Good morning everybody.

If you saw Howard's post on Friday, you know he is away this week. He will be missed, but is going to be posting when he gets a chance. The workaholic he is, is on vacation and won't be able to help any issues people have.

I am obviously still very much involved with The Batavian and have volunteered to help out this week. I am here for any help needed or if anybody has questions, so if you have them you can email me at brianhillabush@yahoo.com.

I'm also a sports guy but will do my best to update news this week, so if you have any tips you can send them to me and I'll look into things (I can use the help on this one). I am still fighting a bit of the flu, which has kept me on the couch all weekend, but I look forward to making any calls or doing some research if a topic comes up. 

Also, with Howard gone I am looking for content. I have a Buffalo Bills post and something on Batavia's basketball team planned for the next day or two, but I welcome submissions from readers this week. That is what this site is all about.

It isn't football season, but the Bills are the biggest local topic right now and I challenge the community to give us great stories about the team and attending games. I'd love to hear stories about attending the games when Buffalo had the best offense in the NFL, or even a post about the current state of going to Ralph Wilson Stadium and dealing with the problems involved with doing so. Please feel free to post about your experiences at the stadium, just make sure to tag it sports to it goes right to the sports page. The best will make the main page.

 

 

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