On the blogs I read and the ones I might stop reading

I used to think that blogging was a way to create ideas and engender debate about serious issues. That was a primary reason why I began blogging about politics versus kvetching about my life and the (crap) music I listen to. Similarly I found many (non-)political blogs in NE Ohio (ie: Pho's Akron Pages, Psychobilly Democrat, and Brewed Fresh Daily) that seemingly wanted to fulfill the same ends and they are terrific. They successfully bring up the tone of debate, even when it's an obnoxious din. In the run-up to the election last fall, I read BSB fairly religiously and posted with some regularity. I found Russell and (later) Jerid to be respectable in how and what they wrote, most of which never failed to be interesting.

But lately I can't say I've been feeling the same towards certain aspects of the blogosphere. Maybe I didn't notice it before, maybe I did and willfully ignored it, or maybe I just didn't care, but it seems like there is much more sniping and boo-hoo name calling than productive and informative debate. Pho, Redhorse, and BFD, among others, have kept it clean, keeping on hard news items (or pimping Eric Mansfield's blog - which is amazingly good and shows a fine journalist doing fine journalism).

But BSB has regressed into a devolutionary - perhaps counter-revolutionary - pattern, trading personal jabs with people affiliated with the Ohio Republican Party, calling names and playing "gotcha!" when it's least needed. Jerid's New Hampshire Project is great and the news he provides keeps me tuned into BSB while someone mentions The Ohio Republicans Would Never Lie To Us. Especially online. There's nothing particularly informative there, just a post filled with vitriol. Plunderbund has similarly fallen off of the map in its coverage of things political and substantive in Ohio.

So while not to make a big deal about it (although I am), I think it's high time to remove them from the Ohio Blogroll. I don't see the point in having things up that convey Ohio as a vast hellhole of a political wasteland.

But maybe that's just me.

-rl