Something Requisitely Witty and Urbane

Say Hello To...

So, I was doing a DFW area blogging survey which required me to look over my blogroll and I realized a grevious omission.

Being Amber Rhea has been one of my favorite reads for 6 months or more. Even when I get behind on my blogreading, she is among the handful that I make sure I keep up with on a daily basis. It's a crime that I haven't included her until now.

So, problem corrected.

Yeah!

What Summer said.

Say Hello To...

I really should have added these two a long time ago.  Please welcome to my sidebar:

winding road is written by a friend, Linnea, who leads quite the intrepid life (of which I am insanely jealous), working with the Peace Corp and FEMA.  She has recently worked in New Orleans, Sri Lanka, and is now heading to Guatemala. 

LaDawn Unplugged is written by Linnea's older sister, and is another family friend.  She writes about her kids, local politics, race and myriad other topics.

Two refreshing newer voices to the blogosphere.

Anthropomorphizing

Alley Rat with another take on the film "March of the Penguins" and the strange way which the Religious Right has co-opted it as an example of monogamy in nature:

First of all (if we're going to continue with reading these creatures as little humans in suits) these penguins all meet up at what could be described as a big sex party, where they all wander around until they find a hook-up. They hook up pretty fast, the little sluts, leading one to assume that their standards are fairly low. And the mating takes place out in public! There's a scene in the film where seemingly hundreds of penguins are all rubbing on each other, with no shame whatseover. Whores.

Sac Bee Pub

SRWU got mentioned in the Sacramento Sac Bee again.

I still shake my head, sometimes, that anyone reads my stuff at all.  Thank you to all my readers.

Tirades

Everyone probably knows about these by now, but if you haven't seen them, go watch these clips.

Kanye West went off the script and had some choice (and I think a bit over the top) words for President Bush on live tv.

Fox News' own Shephard Smith and Geraldo Rivera pummeled O'Reilly and then Hannity about the absolute misery they have been reporting on.

The rank and file of Fox News are angry.  That anger isn't fading away.

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the videos.

On Being a Tattle-Tale

Pauly D took my suggestion for his weekly "Words for Your Enjoyment" segment, about the merits of being a tattle-tale in adult life.

Sure, people who get told on consider the tattle-taler to be immature. Sure, those who get nailed by the adult tattle-taler get frustrated and angry. Anyone affected by the adult tattle-taler’s stories want to do bodily harm.

But you know what? It’s YOUR FAULT.

You didn’t have to copy your ass on the copy machine last night. You didn’t have to tilt the vending machine to get another free Snickers bar. No one forced you to take that five bucks out of the petty cash box without anyone knowing. Eating those unclaimed pizzas was definitely not a suggestion by the boss and using the office’s FedEx number to send your own eBay crap to someone in Rhode Island was all you, baby.

Read it, if only for the chance to see someone take the time to write the phrase, "Oh, Dylan. Dylan. Dylan. Dylan." It's rare for me, outside of the bedroom, to hear that.

Optical Illusions

Here's a website with 57 different optical illusions.  A fun time-waster.

(via Boing Boing)

Follow Up

Jay Tea's follow up piece to our titanic (monumental? legendary? words fail to accurately describe the import of it all) discussion this weekend starts like this:

Hoo boy.

That's how I feel too, as it sent this little blog on quite a ride as well.  I'm always amazed at the things I write which garner the most attention.  Inevitably, the posts I write in which I think I've really knocked it out of the park are the ones which are completely ignored and the ones which I put very little thought into are the ones which garner the most attention. Such was the case this time.

To be sure, it was Jay Tea's original post got most of the attention, but my response got some attention as well.  It was just a snarky little post which I barely remember writing (it was the weekend, and I was drinking).  If I'd put more thought into it, I would certainly made sure I mentioned Amanda and Jesse, James Wolcott and Digby.

Below are the links that I am aware of which discussed our altercation.  Apropos of the discussion, I'm unaware of any righty blogs which discussed it.  Perhaps Jay Tea will be kind enough to supply them for me, and if anyone knows of any other posts that I've not found, I'd love to know about them as well.  As always, I'm grateful for interactions such as this one, and the attention it receives.  This is why I continue to blog and love doing it.

• Jay Tea's original post.
• My response
• Pandagon
• Ezra Klein
• Jay Tea's follow-up

A Helpful List for Jay Tea (who can't even look at his own website for the answers he seeks)

Jay Tea, over at Wizbang, has put up a fairly asinine post today.

I've aspired to be more of a "thinker" than a "linker." It's largely a matter of practicality for me; I don't have the sources to come up with great scoops, nor do I have the time to track down items and be the first to "break" them. What I can do is look at events and ruminate about them, take my time to properly ponder them, and then bloviate at my leisure.

But one thing I've noticed is that the right tends to dominate the "thinkers" category. There's the above-mentioned (and much missed) Steven Den Beste, Wretchard,  Austin Bay, Will Franklin, Bill Whittle, and the non-blogging Victor Davis Hansen, just to name a few.

But where are the thinkers of the left? Where are the serious essayists, the scholars, the contemplators who would provide balance to the sheer intellectual power of the above?

There options to reply with are, of course, myriad.  And I thought I'd give him a list.

Lets just start with some of the members of the left who were, I don't know, nominated for "Best Liberal Weblog of 2004" (a list put together by none other than Jay Tea's own blog, Wizbang).

John Aravosis at Americablog (though I'll admit that he may be a bit too activist for Jay Tea's taste)

Want the best essayist on the left, in my opinion? How about Matt Yglesias?

You don't know who David Neiwert is? Allow me to help.

How about economics?  Try Brad DeLong.

Me thinks you aren't trying hard enough to find...wait, how did you put it?  "...reasonable, logical, intelligent opinions that disagree with my own."  So desperate, in fact, that you couldn't be bothered to consult a list put together by your own website.

But let me help with some more.

There's Alley, who's the best essayist I read on the real issues facing women today.

Of course, there's Josh Marshall (but I'm sure you'll find something wrong with him...)

How about the second coming of Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein?

I'm sure that Jay Tea will find something wrong with all of these excellent writers.  When he does, I challenge you all to remind him that he was the one that wanted real discussion and real discourse with people that disagree with him.  These people will disagree with him, for certain.

Something tells me that very fact will be what Jay Tea eventually finds to declare these people unacceptable.

UPDATE: I encourage you all to go over to Jay Tea's post and, civilly, give him examples of who you think might be worth his while to read.