UPDATE 7/24/2021: No sooner did I post this item at the beginning of what I’d hoped would be a somewhat celebratory bday week, then my hard drive crashed on my main computer. Incredibly, we were somehow able to get three BradCasts up and on air Monday through Wednesday anyway, even as my hard drive tried to fix itself.

Miraculously, as I thought it was a goner and was ready to toss in the towel by Thursday, it finally showed some signs of life that morning after a couple of desperate tricks or two. I was able to reboot enough to get some of the most important things off of it, and have otherwise been rebuilding from scratch on a new drive since then, in hopes of returning to the real world in time for Monday’s show. (HUGE thanks to Nicole for, once again, saving my butt and sitting in for us on Thursday and Friday!)

All of this is a long way of apologizing for my absence over the past week, especially to those who’d sent emails expecting a reply and particularly to those who were kind enough to respond to my birthday plea for donations! You might have expected a “thank you!” email by now, and would have received one, but for the fact that I couldn’t answer email all week pretty much until sometime around 2am on Friday night/Saturday morning!

With the various unexpected expenses of this week’s nightmares, I am particularly grateful to those who stepped up with donations big or small! THANK YOU! (And expect a brief email saying as much again as I work my through a mountain of incoming mail, now that I can finally receive it!)

I hope to be back at full speed by Monday. But, so much for a restful easy Birthday week!

Whining complete. Original (more hopeful…those were the days) message follows below. — Brad

Sure, we put out an incredible amount of non-stop, independent, accurate, insightful, educational, informative, leading-edge and occasionally amusing content every day here at The BRAD BLOG. Five jam-packed hours of The BradCast each week, with an article, packed with linked to news sources, to go with each, in case you don’t have the time (or stomach) to tune in. Two episodes of the prescient, world-famous Green News Report. Weekly toons and occasional other treats.

But if all of that isn’t enough to encourage you to support our work with a donation or, better yet, a monthly subscription to help us keep all of this free for everyone as long as possible, as we have for more almost 20 years here now, maybe the fact that it’s my birthday this week will touch your heart strings and convince you to hit the tip jar?

Hoping so. We could desperately use the support right now and I could use some birthday cheer after this past year or two, if you’ve got any of either to spare. If so, OUR EASY DONATE PAGE IS HERE! And thank you!!! — Brad