The Jon Swift 2022 Roundup is All Present and Correct.

 

The blogosphere's faithful host of this year-end treat, Batocchio, has once again collected an engaging selection of blog posts from the year that was, as chosen by the blog authors themselves. It never fails to remind us of the value of the diverse voices of small blogs and the reason why we do the thing we do: because we can use our unique and sometimes specialized perspectives to cast a light on certain corners of our daily events and explain what we are seeing in a way mainstream journalism generally doesn't. 

Anyway, it's always a treat--like a sampler of candies you just have to bite into not knowing exactly what to expect but knowing they will be good. I never read through these posts without thinking about what a great community the left blogosphere is, and what a cool thing it is to get such a neat recap of its highlights. 

Go--treat yourself. It can take a few days to go through. But it is one of the most worthwhile internet traditions, and I'm happy one of my posts is a part of it. 

It's That Time of Year Again--Jon Swift 2018 Roundup Time!

In one of the finest traditions of the internet, Batocchio has again solicited the best posts in the estimation of our blogosphere, and once again, a lovely crop has been cultivated for your reading pleasure, in the spirit of the gone, but not forgotten champion of small blogs, Al Weisel/Jon Swift (page defunct now, but the internet never truly forgets). Head on over for a recap of the year, to engage with the work of bloggers you have not read before or whom you haven't read for a bit or just to revisit the work of the writers you already enjoy in light of what they found to be their best this time around. It is always a year-end treat.

I'm also going to give props to Batocchio's latest, and his own submission to the roundup--it's a good history of where conservatism has gone, and the problems with addressing it. It's just comprehensive first-class work. 

MM Kalburgi Murdered at his Residence

I have posted regarding the brutal slayings of freethinking bloggers in Bangladesh, but it was not until reading about the slaying of MM Kalburgi that I understood that something very similar was happening in India. India has also had the loss of  Dr. Narendra Dabholkar  and Govind Pansare. (Contrary to Bhuvinth Shetty, UR Ananthamurthy seems to have died from illness and old age, not anything some would-be terrorist planned for him. ) 

It doesn't matter to me whether the war on free speech, free thought, scholarship, and democracy, comes from Muslims, Hindus, Christians, or any other creed. It is always wrong, and a sign of people who grasp at faith ignorantly and without any concern for truth or morality. There seem to be Hindu extremists who have a list, like the Muslims in Bangladesh have a list.

I have a list of people I might like to light up, myself, but I would not ever use anything more dangerous than my blog to do it (I think). And since these extremists think so much of the danger of bloggers and scholars, maybe that is enough for me. Since words alone drive them to barbarism and murder. Maybe words alone can drive them into the daylight, and out of a society that protects them.

Just an odd reminder--

If you like how I write about politics, you might appreciate my poetry blog or my fiction and criticism blog,  Basically, I keep writing things. I'm pretty much always in the middle of some kind of composition. This is not to say my poetry is great or my strangely random thoughts are important. But I dunno. I do it for free anyway.

I'm Working on a Post Re: Selma, but for Now

I sometimes find writing fiction a useful way of working out ideas. So, until I make another topical post, I have a dark little tale set in a plague-ridden near-future for your consideration. Twilight Zone? Well, maybe a bit more like Tales from the Dark Side. (I'm not fully down with all these attractive-people vampire soap operas--Dark Shadows has already been done twice, three times if you count the Johnny Depp movie--which I haven't seen, yet. But if a show provides me with regular eerie tales to chew on, I will show up for that!)

I took a few bioethics courses in college and really enjoyed them. This type of thing was not covered. (It's a different plague-universe than this one. Both are permutations of an "entropy always encreaseth" worldview. Which actually isn't my main worldview at all. Really!)