Lefty Blog Roundup
I’ve received quite a few emails from folks suggesting lefty / liberal blogs that might be of interest. I have to confess that thus far, I’ve yet to find one that has struck me with complete clarity and brilliance that I feel comfortable annointing as The Chosen Leftie. But there sure is some interesting stuff out there, so rather than inflict my prejudices on you, I decided to at least do a roundup of everything I’ve received, and let readers browse as they wish. This list is pretty inclusive of what I received; I only dropped a few that I thought were really lame or were already popular enough to not need the attention. (And I’m not relisting those that I did full posts on; scroll down for those…)
I’m attempting to behave myself today, and maybe go 24 hours without insulting anybody, so I’m going to restrict my comments to honest-but-polite assessments. If you seek snarkiness, look not here.
The list:
Liberal – Another liberal warblogger, and a good one at that. Check out his takedown of a fellow critical of the SFSU blogburst effort, in particular.
Eschaton Sometimes heavy on the insult-tactics, but also sometimes pretty darned sharp.
Charlie Stross – Cthulhu plush toys and links to squirrel fishing photos. Not sure about his politics, but how bad could it be? And he’s a SF-writing Scot, so there’s two extra points. (Hey Charlie, go ask MacLeod why he hasn’t responded to my email, would ya? Thanks.)
Cogent Provocateur – Hmmm. Interesting, but here’s a quote: “Terrorism is not a strategic threat to the US. It wasn’t on September 10, it wasn’t on September 11, and it isn’t today. Terrorists can harass us, they hurt us, they can cost us lives and fortunes, but they can’t knock us over or turn us around.” Well, yes — sort of. There is one low-probability scenario that could lead to the actual destruction of the U.S., and that’s a well-executed bioterrorism attack, but in my view that’s pretty unlikely. And barring that possibility, I can’t see anything else the terrorists can throw at us that would lead to our “defeat” in any real sense of the word (no, not even a nuke attack). However, I’d quibble that just because they are highly unlikely to defeat us, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t a strategic threat. They can still do us great damage, and I think our “strategic interest” should clearly be defined to include preventing great damage, not just preventing total defeat. (Bottom line: blogged something I felt the urge to respond to, so that must be a good sign… see for yourself).
Demosthenes/Hegemon – Straightforward lefty commentary with a particular focus on refuting the CW of the libertarian/conservative blogosphere; insults light to nonexistent.
Dr. Menlo – Let’s put it this way: three of the images prominently displayed on his page are of Edgar Allen Poe, Lenny Bruce, and an automatic weapon that looks to my untrained eyes to be an M-16. I have no idea what that means, but go see for yourself.
Ethel the Blog – Quotes Harlan on the top of his page, so how bad could it be? Also, much linkage and quotage from interesting sources: check out Umberto Eco on Ur-Fascism
The Hauser Report – I think this one is a bit better known, but it wasn’t to me, so here it is. News media link & commentary from a “politically obsessed, self-righteous, fanatically liberal law student”
Jason Rylander – Sharp guy. And he points us to an absolute must-read essay by, of all people, E.B. White on New York City, which is simply chilling in its prophecy.
Public Nuisance – Pleasantly high intelligence/insults ratio (might even be dividing by zero, there). Most recent post is a critique of MWO-Watch, which makes it a weblog commentary on a weblog devoted to monitoring the activities of a weblog devoted to monitoring the activities of the mainstream media. It’s a meta, meta world.
The Serenity– A lot of well-intentioned stuff here that I don’t agree with, but zero on the obnoxious meter and high points for good intentions, so go judge for yourself.
The Stationmaster – I’ll just stick with the self-assessment he emailed me: “I’m a revolutionary communist. Maoist even. That hard enough for you?” Yipes. Uh, yeah.
The Poor Man – Just damned funny. A must read for the chuckles, at the very least.
WarBloggerWatch – – I approve of the concept here, really I do (not that I suspect they care). I mean, it would be a bit hypocritical of the warblogger community to object to someone attempting to fact-check their asses, right? (That “their” should probably be “our”, strictly speaking). As for the execution: well, a bit heavy on the insults and light on the well-reasoned analysis for my tastes, but they do hit some good points at times. Judge for yourself.
War Liberal – Smart stuff, but most folks know that. Almost didn’t make the list because I don’t think Mac qualifies as “small”, but oh well.
Welcome to the Sideshow – – Intelligent stuff, even if she (he?) does say some slightly mean things about my fave Christopher Hitchens (not entirely undeserved things, for the record). Most notable page factoid: the three “resources” listed on the right navbar are the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Bible.
Wisse Words – Gets points if for no other reason than drawing my attention to a Nation article on criminal charges being considered against a U.S. official in the 1973 Chilean coup — demonstrating that sometimes, the left is indeed right.
