Recommend me a level-headed, cool-minded political blog

@sozobe,

To recap, I think we have:

Me
nimh
engineer
FreeDuck
joefromchicago

as a core, then

dagmaraka and
old europe

will observe and maybe join later, while

cycloptichorn

is interested and

Thomas and
fbaezer

have been mentioned but haven't said anything one way or the other.

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

Cycloptichorn wrote:

Is this a blog just for the cool kids? Or can others play too?

Cant speak for the others, but I dont want any cool kids. Only boring ones. Cool

(Thats only half in jest..)

I'm kinda thinking, everyone always groups Soz and me and FreeDuck together as having the same kind of outlook and style, roughly (am I right?). Thats why this just kinda suddenly came together - like, each on our own would never be able to do a blog, but together it would work, especially because we have the same kind of focus and style and, I dunno, modulation. And Engineer and Old Europe have pretty much exactly the same style.

I agree it's widening up a bit now, and that I encouraged that too, inviting Dag in and welcoming Joe ... but yeah, I mean, I can only talk about myself, but what I envision is something very different from the rough and tumble of the Politics forum here. Even if that means it's less exciting... And I mean, basically, if everyone lumps Soz and FreeDuck and OE and me together anyway, it makes sense to morph into one common blog Laughing

But hey, beyond like, I dunno, a lucky - what are we now, seven? - to begin with, it would be cool to have "guest bloggers" too -- like, if someone from here has an idea about, hey, there's this thing I'd like to write about specifically, and I dont think it fits the to-and-fro here on a2k, or it would get lost in it - that we'd feature individual posts like that too... I dunno. Would have to see as we get along I guess.

Never done this before Shocked

1 Reply

@nimh,

I hear ya. I've just been interested in working on some longer, more scholarly pieces, and it sounded a lot like what you guys were talking about. There are a few issues I'd like to discuss in greater depth and with less interruption by partisan rancor... be it from myself or others Laughing

Cycloptichorn

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Set it up, show me where it is, and I'll be more than happy to quietly read along.

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@nimh,

nimh wrote:

I mean, I could still do the polling stuff etc, of course... but when I think of European stuff to write about, I'm sooner thinking about, to just randomly pick possible posts, the impact of East-West migration after the enlargement of the EU. Or the discrimination of Roma, their exclusion from education, but also how Roma culture plays a role in that. Or the background of the Georgia/Abkhazia/South-Ossetia conflict. Ethnic identity. Or how Budapest has totally changed, even just in the last few years, under the influence of real estate speculation, the lack of regulation when it comes to the wholesale demolition of streets, and how there's organised civic protest in some neighbourhoods but not in others, and why.

that sounds great to me. yeah, that's what i sorta imagined. too bad nakedmind is taken, that wouldda been great.

1 Reply

@dagmaraka,

thenakedmind.net is still available.

whatever you guys call it, dog chow news or whatever, i'm looking forward to seeing you succeed at it.

lemme know. Smile

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@DontTreadOnMe,

DontTreadOnMe wrote:

whatever you guys call it, dog chow news or whatever, i'm looking forward to seeing you succeed at it.

Kibbles and bytes.

1 Reply

@joefromchicago,

joefromchicago wrote:

DontTreadOnMe wrote:
whatever you guys call it, dog chow news or whatever, i'm looking forward to seeing you succeed at it.

Kibbles and bytes.

owww-uh! joe-eyyyyyyy. badda bing! Very Happy

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@sozobe,

We need to go on this! There is so much going on right now we could write all day.

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@engineer,

The blog's ready. Sozobe needs to give you guys accounts but it's ready to start writing (so I guess you can start writing now if you want, and post as soon as she's ready).

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@engineer,

I'm messing around as we speak!

www.observationalism.com is operational.

I'm an admin but I just got started (like in the last half hour) and don't quite know how to give you all accounts yet.

All I've done is the first post and "about us" (not the annoying blog guy on the front page -- haven't figured out how to edit him yet).

But, burning question -- do you want to use your A2K names or other names?

If other, what?

(Go ahead and write drafts then put 'em up as soon as things are ready...)

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@sozobe,

Another question... what do you want the tagline to be?

Robert asked me not to change settings yet but once I can, we can set that. (Right now it's "just another Wordpress blog." Woo.)

I love Ezra Klein's "Momma said wonk you out..."

Obsidian Wings' "This is the voice of moderation... I wouldn't go so far as to say we've seized the radio station..." is also good.

What I typed before I stopped myself ("right, Robert said don't change settings yet") was just "Politics, life, and more."

Yeah. Boring.

But we can change it at any time I think, so can put in a placeholder for now. (Changing the domain is harder for example.) (I'm really liking "Observationalism," nimh!)

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@sozobe,

OK, I figured out how to add users!!

Important note -- I need your email to get you set up.

Please send it to my A2K user name at yahoo.com.

Then you'll be good to go.

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@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

Another question... what do you want the tagline to be?

"if a triangle could speak, it would say ... that God is eminently triangular" -- Spinoza

I don't know if that's a good tagline or not, but I think it's pretty snappy.

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@sozobe,

I can just use my A2K name.

Tag line... hmmm. Let me think on it.

1 Reply

@FreeDuck,

Sent an email. Tag line of Engineer works for me.

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OK, the people (two so far) who have sent me their emails are now set!

Joe, what username do you want at Observationalism?

The Spinoza quote IS snappy.

I had an idea but it may be too obvious:

Quote:

OBERSERVATIONALISM
A level-headed, cool-minded political blog

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@sozobe,

(like that as an observer : I've been hoping cool minded would show up somehow. Not to totally straiten - is that a word - at every moment. Major part of the attraction for me.)

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@sozobe,

Did you email me a password? I might need a brief tutorial (unless it is obvious) on how to post.

1 Reply

@sozobe,

sozobe wrote:

Another question... what do you want the tagline to be?

Robert asked me not to change settings yet but once I can, we can set that. (Right now it's "just another Wordpress blog." Woo.)

I love Ezra Klein's "Momma said wonk you out..."

Obsidian Wings' "This is the voice of moderation... I wouldn't go so far as to say we've seized the radio station..." is also good.

What I typed before I stopped myself ("right, Robert said don't change settings yet") was just "Politics, life, and more."

Yeah. Boring.

But we can change it at any time I think, so can put in a placeholder for now. (Changing the domain is harder for example.) (I'm really liking "Observationalism," nimh!)

Taking off from what others said about dog food and tying it back to A2K, how about a tag line for the entire blog site that says:

Observationalism.com
ver. 1"Quibbles and Bits"
ver. 2 "Quibbles and Bits from Able2KnowItAlls"
ver. 3 "Quibbles and Bits from the Naked Minds of Able2KnowItAlls"

1 Reply

Recommend me a level-headed, cool-minded political blog

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