The Stranger's Slog, Now Slightly Less Irritating

It's a big world out there. I believe that we each have the power to shape the world however we see fit, in ways both subtle and gross. It all started when I couldn't stand his bullshit anymore. And by "bullshit", I mean "every last fucking thought that fell out of this guy's head".

The guy I'm talking about is Charles Mudede, staff writer for Seattle's Only Newspaper, The Stranger. He's some sort of enlightened neo-liberal communist and he needs to make damn sure you know this. He's the sort of guy who loves to write about People with a capital 'P' and about big concepts like Right and Wrong and The Rich and The Poor and part way through his articles you realize he's supposed to be a journalist reporting on the factual details on some kind of new local traffic law and he should leave his elitist philosophical masturbation out of your local news feed thank you. Is that too much to ask?

In many ways, his is a gross miscarriage of journalism. Amidst the other ne'er-do-wells on the staff of The Stranger, I'm sure he fits right in.

I read The Stranger's Slog RSS feed daily, and someone must have mistakenly told Charles that his bullshit opinions on Life, The Universe, and Everything have a place among legitimate posts about topical and relevant stories on art, news, sports, weather, and pornography.

Keep in mind I don't have a problem with Charles or his predilection for spouting bullshit. I just don't feel that I have an obligation to read it or even acknowledge it exists. It's a big world out there. I can live without Charles or his bullshit, and I can sleep happily having forgotten he exists.

The easy part was writing software that fetches the Slog feed regularly, strips out Charles Mudede's retarded bullshit, and republishes the sanitized remainder for the world to enjoy. The hard part was convincing Google Reader to fetch it more frequently than twice a day.

No matter. I have been relying on my own customized version of the Slog, Slog: The Stranger: No Charles Edition for a few months now and the results have been very promising. I casually mentioned it to a couple of people over the last few days and was really very surprised by their reactions. There appears to be great enthusiasm for what I've created, so I've gone public with it here. If you use it, leave a comment. If you like it, share it with your friends.

It seems that I'm not the only one who's sick of Charles's bullshit. It's a big world out there. Shape it as you see fit.