How am I going to procrastinate now?

Last week my favorite Blog, The Mighty Middle, closed up shop for good. The writer, Michael Reynolds, also writes books for children and young adults with his wife K.A. Applegate. To summarize, it came to his attention that young fans of his books were finding there way to the Mighty Middle which featured adult discussion of current events and politics (read: lots of profanity and arguing). This was not good and thus he pulled the plug. The top post in the link above is his description of events.

Naturally, the comments pilled in. The Mighty Middle will be missed and people wanted to let him know. Many read and commented on his site daily, many more would drop in from time to time. His writing was consistently good, the discussion was animated and, with few exceptions, the comments were well thought out. In a small way, I feel like I’ve lost a good friend.

Since no one asked (or cares) I’m going to post my own conspiracy theory on why the Blog is being shut down. I don’t think it was the language, because while profanity was used I don’t recall any instance of something truly vile being written. I think it was the Jehovah Blog.

This Picture always cracks me up

This piece of brilliance is exactly the kind of thing that would drive some fundy parents bat-shit crazy. I’m not saying all Christian parents would lack the sense of humor to appreciate the Jehovah Blog, but enough would that they could make a big stink. So that’s my theory, MR got enough outraged emails from Fundies that he felt he needed to shut the site down. Why do I like this theory, because I like blaming things on Fundamentalist Christians. Why should you care? You shouldn’t because I’m full of crap. All I know for sure is that the Bible 2 isn’t going to write itself God damnit!

So now what? Where will I go to kill those fleeting minutes at work when I’m trying not to start a new project? There are a couple of places I’ve been looking. The first is Donklephant, a moderate political site run by Justin Gardner with several other good writers. Not as many comments though, which is a shame but I think some of the commenters from MM might migrate over. At least I’m hoping so.

A couple of others attracted my interest recently. The first is Unwilling to Self-Negotiate, written by Ali Eteraz (don’t know if that’s his real name). He is an articulate, intelligent and humorous Muslim. The exact opposite of how Muslims are portrayed on the news and in popular US culture.

The second is Indiscretions, written by Natalia Antonova. Natalia has lived a traumatic but very interesting life. She writes very much from a feminist point of view without coming off as preachy. Reading about her childhood has made me terrified for my own 3 year old daughter, but it’s also forced me to think about the issues she will face growing up. I guess I’m seeing this blog at a time when I am most receptive to its message. More on that some other time.

So there it is, I lose one blog but gain three more. My manager can rest assured that he won’t see a dramatic spike in my productivity.