So I finally got around to fixing some stuff around here. It was quite fun doing the cleanup, and you can definitely see the difference in site load times. Speed, in the end, is of utomost importance
Here’s what’s changed:

1. Blogs for Terri: Gone. Why? Because they’re nuts, that’s why. It’s one thing to fight for Terri’s right to live. It’s another to rally against a woman’s right to die when she made the wish to do so explicitly clear. I don’t need any more rabid militant kooks in my blogroll; I just finished exterminating a bunch of them. BFT did good work for Terri, but its deterioration has walked it right off my blogroll.

2. Blogs for Bloomberg: Gone, for obvious reasons. The man got re-elected. If these guys start it up again in a few years, the links will be back.

3. The Sources: Gone. Frankly, I hadn’t updated that list in so long it wasn’t accurate anyway. I realized it as I looked down at the list and saw Sean Hannity, whose show I haven’t listened to in about a year, on it. I have too many sources to effectively link here, and since I source everything I write about, it’s not important to have a list of stuff I read.

And now the biggie.

The blogroll: 80 links removed.

I really have been bad about keeping that list updated, but now it’s right up to the minute. I exported all my blog feeds from Bloglines into Excel, twiddled around with them, and then reimported them (using MySQL) into Wordpress. If you were removed from the list it could mean one of a few things:

1. I don’t read your blog anymore (sorry folks, but it’s just a reality).
2. Your blog didn’t have an RSS feed, or the feed never worked properly and therefore wasn’t in Bloglines (most common reason, honestly, if you were on the list and your blog is still active, PLEASE let me know so I can fix it).
3. For some odd reason it just didn’t import.
4. You delinked me and I never liked you much anyway and was just reciprocating (a very big reason).

So there you have it. The new, tidier, insignificantthoughts.com.