What do you want from this blog? What do you like or dislike? How can I make it better?
If I read something good, but don't have a lot of time to discuss it, would you like me to post the link anyway? This is something I have been doing more of lately. Here is an example: I finally caught up with my TomDispatch reading -- go read the last several postings there. Too much insight for me to summarize right now.
Do you prefer only my wisdom and erudition, or do you use this site as a portal into other readings?
How about my links along the side? Are they useful? Should I do a better job organizing them?
And comments: do you have any suggestions as to how to generate more interactivity on this site? I have assigned my U.S. as World Power students to post or comment three times during the semester, but to not much avail -- HINT, HINT. Maybe I should threaten to fail them and their progeny for generations to come?
Topics: what are you interested in reading about? I think I have run out of steam a bit with my Bush Administration bashing -- there's just too much, frinstance, from today alone:
Looting at Iraqi Weapons Plants Was Systematic, Official SaysAnd,
By JAMES GLANZ and WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: March 13, 2005
Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television NewsUgh. And that is just from the front page of today's Times.
By DAVID BARSTOW and ROBIN STEIN
Published: March 13, 2005
Should I give you a daily torture update? That would keep me plenty busy.
Or should I just drink the koolaid and join the other side. Turning the corner! Freedom's on the March! Cut and paste RNC press releases?
Please, please, please, as the Godfather of Soul begs, let me know your thoughts, anonymously or otherwise... and you will have my gratitude.
3 comments:
This is a good blog, and one I consult pretty regularly. It sometimes comes off as a little scattershot and all over the place, but a tighter focus might actually make it less interesting. The combination of commentary, recommended reading, point-counterpoint, and excerpts is pretty good, and the wide range of topics is usually stimulating and thought-provoking. Of course, it's up to you if you want to maintain it. The demands of setting forth a daily journal are pretty rigorous, and it's not easy to keep up.
Why don’t more people participate in the Blog? Just look at the recent posts, you don’t have to look much further. The demagoguery on the board is overwhelming. Most of the posts or linked articles are tremendously one sided and a reader is usually met with a flurry of almost random topics. In additions a lot of the articles are simply opinion pieces that don’t really spark debate or cause much thinking of any sort IMHO. Your recent is most unsettling. You are actually persecuting a man based on his religious beliefs! You do know that people first came to this land to get away from that very thing don’t you?
“Frightening, that is, considering this is a man whose job it is to uphold and interpret our Constitution.”
The only thing frightening is that a professor would claim a man’s personal religious belief to be frightening. Does the fact that he believes in god so offend you that you would have him driven from public life and service? I am truly amazed and frightened to find such a narrow minded and ignorant belief still present in modern academia. As it now seems only atheists can be judges, congressmen or presidents. The mere mention of one’s own personal religious beliefs now devalues that person’s existence.
The Blog characterizes the hollowness of “academic” debate. It is mostly a thin mask covering watered down talking points. Trying to claim the high ground against the methods, motives, or reasoning of the opposition but ultimately it remains as claustrophobic as the most ignorant debate. If Digby, Delong, and the intellectual giant at the carpetbagger are what currently passes for intellectual debate then frankly I am pissed.
At the beginning of my college “experience” I had the honor of taking a very interesting English class with an excellent professor. One day he stood in front of the class and in a somber and eerily depressing moment told the class that “people come to college to get stupid.” At the time I kind of laughed but now I am confronted with that reality on a daily basis.
Steve
If anything, I would like to see moderately low number of postings. The only time I can read this is when I'm at school since I don't have the internet at home. It occasionally becomes overwhelming when, like today, I come back after a week of not checking in and finding umpteen million postings to sort through. While I recongnize the importance to have variety to choose from, I also think it's intimidating and frustrating when there are just too many damn things to read.
ABT
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