And far reaching

When I wrote about the Blogroll Amnesty and expressed my opinion that Atrios should exemplify diversity and link to more minority blogs, this is not exactly what I had in mind.

Linking to "one of the most compelling arguments against purging blogrolls" made by a decidedly minority blogger, as described at Faux Real, by titling the post "Things Which Make Me Want To Shoot People In The Face" illustrates that Duncan Black just does not get my point at all. To put it mildly.

From reading his blog, I take it that Atrios blogs in order to make an impact. Well, my my my. He certainly is doing just that. Influencing public discourse? Unh. Not so much. At least, not so much as he thinks and not in the way he would surely choose, I would think, especially on this subject.

Perhaps Mr. Black would prefer to lynch all of those of us whom he has offended by his (and others) actions which basically did nothing but "rend the network asunder" as Demothenes so aptly puts it in his comment at Faux Real, and who have the temerity, the absolute gall, mind you, to comment upon it.

Methinks the gentleman doth protest too much.

Perhaps it is time to admit that all he and Kos and others did was stir up a shit storm that may, should no such admission be forthcoming, drown out their own voices in the end.

For what have they become? To my mind, more and more, some of the powerful A-listers have become nothing more than political "insiders", much like what we are fed daily by the MSM. Coverage of actual politics is non-existant already. What is deemed "coverage" is nothing more than pundits and "insiders" making opinionated comments about politics and politicians, and, ever more increasingly, about other pundits and "insiders" and their opinions. Is that not Atrios' forte?

Thanks, but, no thanks. Give me the words out of the horses mouth, or ass, whatever they may be, and I will form my own opinion, thank you very kindly.

We little blogs may be tiny, but yea, are we not mighty also? For, collectively, we are vast. The A-listers may be powerful, but they are few, and quoth as they may be by offline media outlets, we wee ones are vox populi. In the end, it is we who will not be ignored.

I got yer Google right here, Atrios

Ok, maybe I'll just post a little about the blogroll amnesty bullshit. Just because of certain comments like this made by Duncan Black about this post over at My Left Wing. Which, by the way, he didn't link to directly since My Left Wing is probably all but anathma to him and his little coterie of no-life-but-Atriot-comment-thread lifers, but via the cross post at ePluribus Media and then whined about when called on it, by saying he just doesn't have enough hours in the day to follow blogger ettiquette... or would that be ethics?

He seems to have enough hours in the day to make short, pithy comments about just about every tiny little news item that serves his agenda, just not enough time to make nice to his fellow bloggers. Granted, it would have required a little effort to find it, he would have had to go through the Independent Bloggers Alliance, where he might have caught a rash or something, and he might have had to leave out a "Wanker", being so busy and all.

I am a microscopic speck in blogtopia. Some days it bothers me that I only have a teeny weeny group of readers, most days (as in 99 out of 100) I couldn't care less. Some days, I love it because I can put up all kinds of crap about myself and know no one will see it or care but me. I link to Jon Swift and I've finally gotten around to adding Skippy but they don't even know, so they don't link back to me and I guess I could join the Alliance and might one do all of those things one of these days when I feel like getting around to it. So, needless to say, I don't have a dog in this fight, other than my feeling of what the hell is right and what the hell is wrong. And I don't mean "right" as opposed to "left". Plus, while I consider myself very much a left of center liberal, I have very carefully weighed and carefully considered views that don't fit in that mold and would probably give Maryscott O'Connor apoplectic anaphylaxis.

However, I can guaran-damn-tee you that if I did have the kind of following that Atrios does, I would be sure that my blogroll was populated by more than WHITE MEN, with more than a few token women bloggers, ALL of whom already have a huge (and well deserved) following, and two, count 'em, two (as far as I can tell having gone through his entire blogroll) token African American's. Both men, by the way. Not that I hold that against Oliver Willis and Steve Gilliard (hang in there, Steve, I haven't always agreed with you but I want you healthy and back!)

ESPECIALLY if I held myself up to be a leading liberal voice!

But, geezuslouisas!! There's a big, big world out there, populated by voices that aren't the voices of the BIG WHITE MAN, the popular feminists, and ain't gonna stir the pot too far from the mainstream black guys. No offense intended, especially since I haven't read that much of Willis, just a quick first impression.

I'm a freakin' middle aged southern white woman and I've found some scintillating minority voices, who don't try to echo the big white man blogger world, and I'm not scared, put-off, freaked out, or threatened by it. I LOVE IT!! And my viewpoints, while I think I try to be open, liberal, embracing and all that I am and can be, are surely not always those with which these bloggers might agree. But, I link to them because I love what they have to say and how they say it. Hell, sometimes after reading them, I don't even agree with myself! Or I change my mind, whether I post about it or not. Because they broaden my mind and my viewpoints and help me see all sides and learn new things and gain new perspectives. And, quite a few I've found only because they have cared enough about me to link to me!

Now, Eschaton is Duncan Black's blog and he has every right to do whatever he wishes with it. Still, do I sympathize with Skippy and My Left Wing and Jon Swiftand all of the other bloggers who got wiped on the Atrios "Blogroll Amnesty Day"? Hellza, yeah, I do!

In his comment linked to above, (yes, I graciously linked as I graciously left him and Kos-but-no-link-here on my blogroll, um, while still "having my say", I can't help it, I'm southern) Black claims that he wiped his blogroll so he could link to more blogs.

Uh. You gotta limit there, Atrios? You get charged by the pound or sumthin'? Maybe try Blogger Beta or something if your blog has set up it's own rules of limitations? Ummmm.... open the pod door, Hal.

I mean. Come on! That is sheer and simple bullshit. I thought Atrios was the all great and powerful cut to the quick bullshit pointer-outter of the Intertubes Universe! Maybe he might want to turn his keen eye to himself before he writes such unself examined, unself knowing Bushspeak.

That's got to be teh Eschaton WMD if I've ever heard shit. And I've heard a lot of shit.

So, I just gotta ask. What are you afraid of, Duncan Black? Afraid you're going to link to someone who's not going to echo you and your white male dominated echo chamber? Afraid you're going to link to someone who might get you called out by the MSM you so outwardly loathe and so inwardly seek to emulate? Opting for MSM cred instead of (blog) street cred? (Had to add that "blog" in there because I was just hollaring thinking about a former Bryn-Mawr economist Philadelphia Yankee white boy having street cred! Oh lordylordylawsy! That would make my granny hoot.)

Oh, well. Out of the kindness of my heart for you, poor Yankee white boy, I'll give you a few links that I've discovered. It's just a few, granted, since I don't hunt them out but get blessed with finding them, but it's a hell of lot better than you've got, so I recommend you check them out and see if you can find some room on your gilded lily blogroll.

The Primary Contradiction
IntelligentalIndigena (angry indian)
African American Opinion
African American Political Pundit
Skeptical Brotha
Jack and Jill Politics
Francis Holland
Angry Black Bitch
Spirit21

There now. That should get you started. Or it would, if you ever saw this. But, hey, maybe you'll Google yourself again. Hee. That cracks me up. I would never think about Googling myself. But, then, I am not the Great Atrios.

Sorry. Seriously, you do good work - so much so I'll probably keep checking Eschaton first so I can find links that might interest me without a bunch of opinionated blather about them. It's so sparse it's like a surprise-a-link page. I mean, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO? More power to you if you can earn $5000 a month on that shit.

You just could do a little better. You might not have set out to get where you are today on purpose, but you got there by one other blog linking to you. Then another. Then another. And, back in the day, way back before I and 99% of your other readers turned our bloodshot eyes your way, you were all just little bitty blogs by some guy on the internet.

Turn your back on all those who actually give a damn, and who actually try to earn a little money for their efforts, and who are hurt by your abandonment if you like. But, despite your self-proclaimed indifference to religion, you might try reading The Divine Comedy for it's allegorical content alone. For in it, the ninth level of hell is reserved for traitors.

(Kos is probably split between the fourth and ninth levels. Split, as in literally. If there is, was, or will be a hell, literally.)

UPDATE: I was trying to get some sleep in my weird, post-apocalyptic (wacky illness) world, but I couldn't knowing that I might have left off The Unapologetic Mexican who has been on my blogroll for quite some time and is not only unapologetic, but unforgettable, so I had to get up just to add him.

I'm sorry I don't have any Japanese or Micronesian or even Polynesian, but I probably wouldn't understand the language anyway. And, speaking of language, I speak southern and "white boy" is not racist when spoken by a white southerner, just to clarify because of some half-wit commenter. It is, in this particular case, condescending and patronizing, thank you, and intentionally so though perhaps not terribly nice of me. And, more often than not, it's a term that can be tinged with not a little exasperated affection, even if the white boy is a Yankee and a full-grown man. Hell, I have 80 year old freakin' uncles who are white boys. Down here, if you have a problem with being called a white boy, or a good ole boy, or just a boy when you happen to be white, then you're just plain thought to have a problem with doubting your own masculinity, as long as it's not preceded with damned and stupid. That's when only utter disgust and shame takes over. As in, those damned, stupid white boys at Duke didn't have a lick of sense and oughta be horsewhipped whether actually guilty or not because they oughta known better and they disgraced themselves, their families, their university and the south with that ignorant, uncalled for behavior. (Forgive my colloquism, but sometimes I just feel like it.)

None of the above applies to male blacks. Then it's fighting words, or worse, and rightly so just the same here as anywhere else.