Elayne Riggs' Journal (for Leah)

Monday, August 13, 2007

Blogaround for Roxanne

There's a reason I have a "Dead Zone" section on my Bloglines subs -- to catch returning bloggers should they decide to take up the hobby again. Roxanne Cooper is back blogging, and I couldn't be more delighted. This one's for you, Rox:

• I can't believe how bent out of shape some feminist bloggers are getting over Ellen Goodman's E-male column in the Boston Globe. As usual, this is merely another case of a mainstream "old media" journalist "discovering" a topic a couple years after all of us "new media" types have already talked it to death. It's Goodman's version of "Where are all the (A-list) female (liberal political) bloggers?" that (as Roxanne noted) used to appear like clockwork every three months or so, usually asked by a male liberal blogger. Now that lots of A-list female bloggers are well established, Goodman's biggest sin is being well behind the times. So cut her some slack, educate her, and suggest she ride the wave before it crests next time rather than two years after.

• Last week was Blog Against Racism week, which I forewent because I wasn't blogging for or against anything that much. I'd like to recommend the following race-related posts on the question of whether Yearly Kos (which I did not attend) was too white and male: Digby, who at least acknowledges her own misspeaking of the "some of my best friends" defensive trap into which many of us fall; Amanda, who makes the case that "organizers went out of their way to rectify the problem" but does admit the gathering "would have been even better if we’d had a tad more racial diversity"; and particularly Kai, who has a pretty comprehensive wrap-up of posts and reactions. While I have the greatest respect for Digby and Amanda, I do suspect a problem with diversity still exists to a great extent when the same white male organizes or sits on five separate panels, even though I like the guy and he's been on my blogroll for years. Oh, also highly recommended is Will Shetterly's post about class bigotry.

• Happy fifth blogiversary, Budgie!

• Comics from bloggers who aren't comics bloggers: Jim enjoys Spider-Man meeting Liza, and D at Lawyers, Guns and Money with the best tribute I could think of for the late Merv Griffin, courtesy of Evan Dorkin...

• Honestly, people, of course the North Denver News article about the guy whittling down his thumbs so he could better use his iPhone was a satire-hoax-parody-fake-whatever! Unfortunately, so many people didn't find this obvious that the NDN had to issue an editorial about it. Snopes has the details. Shame on y'all.

• The deadline for the Group News Blog's Shortest Book title competition will probably have passed by the time this post goes up. Hey guys, don't open the contest on a Saturday then close it Monday at 1 PM, that doesn't give most of us nearly enough time! :)

• Atrios, who desperately needs the hits (and has been posting some delicious-looking food photos!), makes a good point about Stu Bykofsky's ill-advised article. In our current W-is-for-Weimar Republic, there's little difference between unity and lockstep. In fact, the point I haven't seen anyone make in response to Bykofsky is that the country's unity of purpose after 9-11 was deliberately squandered by the people currently in power, who turned the collective grief (and world sympathy) that came out of that tragedy into cynical political ploys to get their way on everything from the slashing of civil liberties to the invasion and occupation of a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with 9-11. Our country's citizens can and will have that coming together again, as was shown after Katrina and Minneapolis and may evidence again in Utah -- but each time we try to express our collective sorrow these bastards turn it around on us, and we move ever backwards in trying to do something about the situation so that it doesn't recur. The problem isn't a lack of unity, it's the current administration's constantly divisive tactics. And I fear not even the departure of the architect of those tactics will make things better at this point.

• Speaking of which, Lance points out that Bush has been a spectacular success at getting what he wants. Reminds me of the Star Wars dialogue: "Ben's a great man!" "Yeah, great at getting us into trouble." Or was it "pants"?

• Kevin has a theory about the controversy surrounding Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's home run record that I think is pretty spot-on.

• Scott has created a new comic day Bingo card.

Lastly, Terry notes that today is Left Handers Day. To all my fellow lefties: Left On! Now back to work...

0 comments: