Koufax scouting report
Posted by Thomas Nephew on June 9th, 2007
I thought I’d use the occasion of the Koufax nominations to look around at some of the blogs listed under “most deserving of wider recognition.” Here are some of the posts I noticed:
- At The Galloping Beaver, Canadian blogger Dave observes American movement conservatives trying to distance themselves from Bush, and writes:
You can’t blame anything on George W. Bush. You are George W. Bush. The lies, the criminality, the deception and unbelievable disaster that is US foreign policy all belong to you. You did it. Bush simply signed the bills and executive orders you placed before him.
- Tom Hilton, of the Bay Area group blog If I ran the Zoo has a great headline — “Foxes: “We Weren’t Consulted on Henhouse Rules” — and writes:
I had to laugh out loud–and, y’know, cry just a little–at this headline in yesterday’s Chronicle:
Lobbyists press Congress to ease tough ethics rules
They’re angry they had no input in law about to take effectYes, that’s right: the people whose job is to distort and corrupt the political process are put out because they weren’t consulted on the bill meant to curb their excesses.
PS, 6/11: Hilton also has a beautiful Sierra Nevada photo series at the blog, and often posts about backpacking there.
- Mock Paper Scissors has a scary photoshop image to go with the scary rumor that Second Lady Lynne Cheney might be proposed as a replacement for Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas, who died earlier this week. I hope this is just a strategic trial balloon, not an imminent choice — because if there’s even a one percent chance of this, we’ll just have to invade Wyoming. (Late development, via Talking Points Memo, is that Vikram Amar, a UCSF constitutional scholar, is suggesting that a close reading of the 17th Amendment makes the Wyoming law unconstitutional; it impermissibly constrains the governor both to have to name a replacement, and have to name one from a restricted list of choices, rather than simply empowering him to do so.)
- pass the roti on the left hand side is a South Asian/diaspora-focused group blog; the latest post there, “Musharraf Forces Journalists to Keep Chhuup” by Desi Italiana, notes how Musharraf is cracking down on journalism in Pakistan, and the mealy-mouthed U.S. response to that — only a month after the US Embassy in Islamabad celebrated a bromide-filled “World Journalism Day”, e.g., “Free and independent information is the number one means to clearly portray U.S. interests in South Asia ’s economic growth and democratic reform.” Italiana concludes:
“In US parlance, “free” speech really means “speech that paints the US under uncritical and positive light.”"
By blocking broadcasts by 3 TV networks critical of his sacking of a Supreme Court judge, Musharraf is doing much the same kind of thing Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez is deservedly being criticized for — with none of the same vocal outrage from the Bush administration. Translation notes: roti=”that good flat bread type stuff you get with Indian/South Asian food,” I think; chhuup=”the hell quiet,” I guess.
- LesbianDad has one of the nicer blurbs I’ve run across: “LesbianDad is written by a non-biological lesbo parent who answers to the name Baba and works toward a world in which amor does indeed vincit omnia.” I’m for that. Go amor! Vincit omnia! Her latest post — “AfterBath” — gets a “been there” from this StraightDad:
Note to self: when we’re knee-deep in the worst of it — when she’s got the shampoo all in her hair, and she has moved from stubbornly refusing to let it get washed out, to desperately begging through tears that we not wash it out, and we know there’s little else we can do at this point but impose our will against hers, and being parents in this moment feels way too much like being cops (and sadistic ones at that) — in these moments, we need to remember that:a) less than ten minutes later, reading a book and drinking her milk, she will have forgiven us and forgotten, bless her, and
b) we are damned lucky that this is the worst of it, if that’s the worst it is getting these days. - Skeptical Brotha is “a black, 30 something, political junkie residing somewhere in the Carolina’s”; in a post on Wednesday, he wrote:
I know we go back and forth around here about Obama, and I know that a lot of folks aren’t haters, but skeptics, but this, to me, is sort of serious. The ONLY Black candidate FINALLY presents an ‘Urban Agenda’, and it’s not even reported?
He’s right. Obama’s fine speech was at best ignored, and at worst completely misrepresented as a warning about race riots; because of Skeptical Brotha, I’ve finally read it now, and I think it deserves to be remembered for Obama’s detailed policy prescriptions for fighting poverty, helping minority businesses, and building prison-to-work programs, among others. It also deserves to be remembered for how Obama motivates his audience and himself, with his refrain of “Our God is greater than that,” and particularly with his powerful story and metaphor of a baby wounded in the womb during the LA riots 15 years ago: “It’s time to take the bullet out.”
- ArchCrone is from my old home town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee; she’s a co-blogger at “The Crone Speaks” (after ending the solo blog “Thoughts of an Average Woman”). In her latest post, she writes about the three year sentence for Mary Winkler, a Tennessee woman convicted of voluntary manslaughter for shooting her abusive, rapist husband. With parts of that sentence already served, and others to be spent in a mental health facility, Ms. Winkler may not spend any more time in jail, which I think is a good thing. Apparently, she can count herself “fortunate,” judging by statistics ArchCrone assembles:
The statistics of prison time of men that kill their spouses and women that kill their spouses is astoundingly unjust.
The average prison sentence for men who kill their intimate partners is 2 to 6 years. Women who kill their partners are sentenced, on average, to 15 years.
The reasons are far different as well.
In 1993 an Ohio-based research team studying the motivations for murder in intimate relationships found that 82 percent of men in custody who killed female partners or wives did so because they were motivated by “possessiveness,” whereas 83 percent of women in custody described their motivation for murder as “self-defense.”
Good for the jury for not convicting her of murder (the charge prosecutors sought); good for the judge for not seeking more retribution. Maybe some abusive husband will take heed. And maybe more people will help women in abusive relationships, and not assume they don’t need the help. This guy was a preacher.
—–Well, I’ve done my part. Before I once again succumb to A-list lethargy, I challenge more bloggers allegedly “worthy of greater recognition” to look around and do some of that recognition with “Koufax Scouting Reports” of their own. See you later! Eschaton, Huffington, Daily Kos, Eschaton, open thread, rock on…. zzzzzzz.
Category: Post. Tags: blogosphere.
Thread RSS,
Comment, Trackback.
Print This
June 9th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve been dipping into some of the blogs you thoughtfully listed in your previous Koufax post, and this encourages me to keep at it.
June 9th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
“Translation notes: roti=”that good flat bread type stuff you get with Indian/South Asian food,” I think; chhuup=”the hell quiet,” I guess.”
“Chhuup” means “to stay/be quiet.”
June 10th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Thanks for the link! That’s a great suggestion–I’ve done ‘notes from the Z-list’ before, but tying it specifically to the MDoWR lineup is a nice idea.
June 12th, 2007 at 5:30 am
ARRRGH! Another challenge! I’m a sucker for challenges.
June 12th, 2007 at 6:16 am
iz in ur head tripl dog darin u
June 12th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Thank you, Mr. Nephew, for taking a looksee. You’re very gracious, and right, too, to challenge others to do the same footwork. I’m afraid I’ll be among the more sluggish on this job, though, and not for lack of goodwill. I just have two sweet little critters acting like legirons on my discretionary time. If I only see a smattering of all the other “Deserving of Wider Recognition” blogs, I’m glad I’ve been hepped to yours.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Thanks, Polly! Won’t take up a blogging challenge because of … childrearing!!!??? What kind of screwed up priorities are those? Actually, it’s not so hard to build up a little post like this one, you just don’t try to do it all at once.
I liked your post about Jessica Valenti’s appearance on the Colbert show the other day — especially this: “Heck, some of my best friends are men. TheyÂ?re even close family members! And IÂ?ll say it right here, in digital print: I love Â?em! Love Â?em! Especially the little one thatÂ?s home right now, bouncing up and down in his bouncy seat.” Valenti might be wise to use something like your line (and the rest of your discussion) herself next time the ‘man hating’ canard comes along, whether in jest or not. (Not that I’m “Mr. Enlightened Smooth Reply On Every Occasion” either.)
June 13th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Thanks! For the props, and also for the productivity tip. Heaven help me, I need ‘em. I tend more often than not to NOT Get Things Done.
Yeah, and you know, regarding Valenti on Colbert: it’s got to be a challenge, because so many folks don’t quite know what to do with the satire. They play into it and stumble, rather than picking it up and doing more with it. I can’t imagine how I’d manage under the bright glare of the TV lights and of Colbert’s speedy wit, but I’d have to hope Valenti’s got a subtler take on all this. One day, when both the little nippers are out of diapers, maybe I’ll read enough of her stuff to find out.
Or, I’ll be a big fat slacker with no more excuse for my low output.