Carnival of Maryland #28, March 9, 2008
Welcome to the March 9, 2008 edition of the Carnival of Maryland. A warm welcome to all referred visitors from BlogCarnival.com!!
Our first-among-equals "Ecumenical Pillagearch" Attila is first up, though let it be noted than in matters scatological and flatulent, he clearly has no equal. Pillage Idiot presents Taking the Green Line, not the 7 Train, to Flushing posted at Pillage Idiot, saying, "There's nothing that says "GUY" quite like a synchronized flush of the toilets at a new baseball stadium. Why didn't they invite me?" Attila, please never get civilized. It would break my heart if you ever started walking upright, or discovered fire or the wheel.
PsychoPhil presents Why Maryland's Light Rail does not work. posted at PsychoPhil I am entirely sympathetic with Phil's points, though I would consider the light rail a obnoxious attribute of a larger obnoxious underinvestment in public transit infrastructure.
Michael Swartz presents Weekend of local rock volume 10 posted at monoblogue, saying, "This is the latest of an occasional series I do when I go check out the local music scene. I'm submitting this to prove I'm not solely a policy wonk. And I had a great time at the Smithereens show!" Swartz is an impressive policy wonk; I am often in sharp disagreement with his perspective but I deeply respect his work ethic and sheer volume of production. Good to note that he, unlike myself, also has a life. Also check out this discussion of the details of the Republican caucus' counter-proposal for Maryland budget priorities.
Jon Rochetti presents A Piece of Submarine History posted at The DC Traveler – Washington DC travel & tourism information, saying, "A piece of submarine history is floating in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and is open to the public for tours. The submarine is the USS Torsk, a WW-II Navy submarine." Some interesting history of the Torsk in the Pacific theater of World War II.
Soccer Dad presents How you can tell your legislators have too much time on their hands posted at Soccer Dad, saying, "Bruce, Please go easy on me! David" Relax, David; not only will I go easy on you, I agree with almost all of your points.
Bruce Robinson presents Democrats: Nothing to like about our candidates posted at GOPinionPlus. I did not like the tone of this piece, not because it took hard shots at the Democratic Party (absolutely fair) but because it consistently used the slur "Democrat Party." Yesterday, I bought a copy of the Baltimore Jewish Times at Courtney's Bagel Shoppe in Owings Mills. I would not refer to that weekly newspaper, even if it praised Peter Angelos or Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, as the "Baltimore Jew Times." However, because GOPinionPlus did take the trouble to submit this piece about local Baltimore County DemocratIC politics, please read it and judge it on its merits. While I have the same objection to two of GOPinionPlus' other submissions, there is a lot of good substantive discussion in this discussion of campaign finance prosecutions as well.
The Ridger presents The Greenbelt: Maryland's AG is right posted at The Greenbelt, saying, "Though he had to defend an unjust law last year, this year Doug Gansler is taking a stand for equality...." The Ridger went to note that The Greenbelt often pursues matters ornithological as well as political, philosophical and [a]theological. I happen to share The Ridger's view of the Attorney General on the issue of marriage equality.
Wade Crodhil presents Even MD Dems Can?t Stand O?Malley posted at Politics, Hon., saying, "Good to have you back Bruce." Thanks, Wade. Re: O'Malley, I have entertained the thought that much of Obama's success in Maryland may come from borderline Democrats who wanted to smack Hillary Clinton as a proxy for O'Malley, the latter having bear-hugged the former with guitar-strumming love as her Maryland campaign chair and aggressive suitor for the VP nomination. I think that Hillary, if she prevails, would be a fool to pick O'Malley has a running mate. Far better choice would be Bill Richardson or a Southern governor (and no, we are not Southern here; San Francisco's Castro district and Berkeley are also south of the Mason-Dixon line.)
Joyce Dowling presents Cyberbullying, LNG laws & Other politics posted at Creating a Jubilee County: Prince George's Co., MD. I was not aware of considerations for an LNG plant in Chillum (near Hyattsville, Langley Park and the DC line for out-of-towners.) Chillum is heavily residential and reasonably dense in population; think Dundalk, only without the water. I also found the discussions of cyber-bullying interesting; they dovetail to some extent with the discussions expected at this year's Take Back the Blog event.
The Patriot Sharpshooter presents American Politics - Ever feel like you need a bath??? posted at Common Sense, saying, "A simple perspective of the Democratic philosophy and American politics." I am sympathetic to many of his criticisms of Hillary Clinton, though I come biased against her. It's not a clear to me how his indictment of Hillary Clinton translates to American politics or even the Democratic Party as a whole. However, he spells "Democratic" correctly and accordingly gets my respect.
The Ridger presents Is it spring? The birds are on the wing posted at The Greenbelt, saying, "Is it spring? Mixed messages from the birds." I do not follow matters ornithological, but am happy that the Ridger does.
In addition to the submissions noted above, a few pieces from Maryland bloggers have caught my eye.
Maryland Conservatarian has an interesting anecdote about the recently departed conservative icon and man of American letters William F. Buckley, Jr.
Eric Luedtke posts about the right of free assembly and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances in "Very Fine American Citizens" at Free State Politics.
Kenny Burns has a provocative, pointed essay at Maryland Politics Today criticizing analogies between the U.S. Civil Rights movement and marriage equality political activism and advocacy, entitled "Burns to Gay Activists: STOP IT!"
I think the award for Maryland blogospheric work ethic for the past month probably goes to conservative activist and Red Maryland blogger Mark Newgent, though there may be other bona fide contenders. Between multiple opinions printed in the Baltimore Examiner, his prolific work particularly on the climate change debate and other topics on Red Maryland and elsewhere, multiple radio appearances and undoubtedly other activism, he has done all Maryland bloggers a favor, though particularly the conservative side of the local web, by increasing the currency and presence of bloggers in multiple media. Well done from your ideological counterpart across the aisle, Mark.
Announced House of Delegates candidate and Maryland Politics Watch blogger Adam Pagnucco discussed alleged "intimidation" by activist and County employee Dr. Dana Beyer against opponents of a proposed Montgomery County civil rights ordinance protecting transgendered people at, appropriately enough for Montgomery County, a Giant Food store. Disclosure: this blog (or its Blogger.com-based predecessor in blogitude) endorsed Dr. Beyer for the House of Delegates in her Democratic primary bid in 2006. I say look at the video and judge for yourself.
Maryland blogger The Bag of Health and Politics provides an analysis of the electability claims for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. One of the scariest things that I have seen for the Republicans (other than losing former Speaker Dennis Hastert's overwhelmingly Republican district last night in Illinois), though I have no link at the moment, is a poll showing Barack Obama losing Texas to McCain by only one point. That means that the fairly cash strapped GOP and McCain campaigns will have to defend Texas in its 5 major media markets, if Obama wins the nomination, whereas Obama/the DNC can spook the Republicans just by changing planes at DFW for eight months (not that we will definitely know the nominee before August....)
Thanks to everyone who submitted to the Blog Carnival!
P.S. Opinionated - me?
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of maryland using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
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carnival of maryland, blog carnival.
As mentioned earlier this
As mentioned earlier this week, Technosailor.com is hosting the Carnival of Maryland #9. Carnivals are a great way to highlight content from a certain group or niche and in this sense, an entire State. While the Carnival is mostly spearheaded by the Maryland Blogger Alliance, it is open to anyone who is in Maryland.
Let’s get right into this edition of the Carnival:
John, from Montgomery County, participated in a field trip to Little Bennett Regional Park where he consumed the beauty of a variety of birds. Apparently, some birds are hard to see in the wild: “On this occasion, we would not get a second look at the summer tanager, though we could hear the bird singing nearby. Brightly-colored birds may not always be easy to spot, but they offer a high reward to those that can find them. On Saturday we were rewarded with stunning looks at great birds.” John is not the only birdbrain this week. The Greenbelt also observes some interesting birds.
The Voltage Gate looks at the blue crab population in Maryland, linking to a story From Science Daily about an invasion of Chinese Mitten Crabs. CMC’s are a dangerous introduction to the ecosystem for blue crabs, a main source of economic (and foodie!) interest in the State of Maryland.
“Global Warming Swindle?” is the question asked by David Keelan from HoCoMd, the Howard County Maryland public watchdog blog. He attaches a video that demonstrates the cyclicar method of climate change over the millenia. I think I’ll stay out of this conversation. ;)
Frederick County blogger and golfer Phil Bundy, introduces us to “The Quest“, his personal journey to enter the PGA Tour. Phil writes, “For Phil, his quest is not about winning major championships but about learning the answer to the question, “Can I make it on the Tour?” As the Embedded Golfer, he will learn the answer to that question.
Soccer Dad, from Owings Mills, discovered that an hours drive can net him gas 10 cents cheaper, but also afforded him the opportunity to instill some wisdom of age into his daughter. The funniest part of this post was when he quoted non-Maryland blogger, Book Worm Room, describing teenage drivers and cell phones.
_____________________
Doma
Thanks for a great carnival!
I've linked back. I also noticed information about the Blog Against Theocracy, which sounds great!
- JoyceD aka UU-Mom
Creating a Jubilee County, MBA Member
http://community.livejournal.com/prince_georges
http://uu-mom.livejournal.com/
Great Job on the Carnival
Bruce,
Excellent job with this week's carnival.
Thanks for your kind words, I deeply appreciate it. I hope at some point Maryland bloggers left,right, and non political get more recognition. The MBA has great writers who deserve exposure to larger audiences.
Here's hoping that debate happens soon so we can share a beer and talk about more serious matters, you know like finding more way to denigrate Duke.
Best,
Mark
thanks and a raised glass in your direction
^(&*@# Duke.
Bruce Robinson's Democrat reference not a slur
I want to congratulate Bruce Godfrey on a well developed. clear and comprehensive carnival. I feel more educated for my reading.
I do not want to take exception with his concerns about the term Democrat as much as I wish to clarify it. Members of the DNC do not describe themselves as Democrats, they are Democrats. republicans, due to the vagaries of our language are Republicans. The Baltimore Jewish Times is the Baltimore Jewish Times. I suspect it is read by Jews as well as other ethnic group members and religous pracatitioners.
Calling Democrats Democrats is no more than an attempt at clarity. It is a descriptor. I seriously doubt that anyone reading or hearing the term has a question about the reference. The word Democratic requires the listener and the reader, depending on the location of the word in the sentence and the context, to make decisions and choices that do nothing more than disrupt the thought and understanding process.
The party of Jefferson was the Democrat-Republican Party. The Republican portion of the name was dropped, probably more as shorthand than for any substantive reason. As the Whig party faded, enterprising people forming a new party recovered the previously abandoned Republican name and adopted it. In short order, Democrats realised that the Republican Party name invoked a definable, clear message about its principals and countered by adding the "ic" to its name, an effort to evoke similar ideals to their opposite party. Interestingly, this was the era when the Democrats were the party of the establishment and the Republicans were the populist message bearers. Over time, more has blurred in both parties than has become absolutely clear.
Words have meaning. I like words used in a way that clearly communicates meaning. Democrat - if the name fits, wear it with pride. I will call you as I see you.
A response
Hi, Bruce. No organization in Baltimore County calls itself the "Democrat Party"; the target of your criticism is in fact the Maryland DemocratIC Party and its local affiliate, the DemocratIC Party of Baltimore County, Maryland as organized under the Baltimore County DemocratIC State Central Committee (see bottom of page of prior link.) While "Democrat" is the proper noun, DemocratIC is the adjective.
Accordingly, I must judge GOPinionPlus's manual of style to be pure rhetorical flourish on this point, offered in furtherance of its express mission: to promote the Republican Party and to damage its opponents. Of course it's a slur; that's why it's popular among some Republican activists and used nowhere by Democratic activists.
BTW I wish that you had offered this well-written post also.