Blogroll additions and comment

I wanted to note a few additions to the blogroll over the last number of weeks and comment on one other item in it:

• Directly related to the last post, there’s Three Percent, a new project at the University of Rochester “with the lofty goal of becoming a destination for readers, editors, and translators interested in finding out about modern and contemporary international literature.” In the fall of 2008, the university will also launch a new publishing house, Open Letter, which plans to publish 12 works of international literature every year.
• Wholly unrelated but local is A Sect of Myself, a blog “dedicated to keeping a watchful eye on the Conservative Christians who seek to make America a theocracy.” It entices me because it looks TSD is not only another SF liberal, but one who might actually have the fortitude to question the existence of god. On both accounts, I fully identify with the blog name.
• Also local is South DaCola, the blog of editorial cartoonist Scott Ehrisman. (Note Scott’s post about the editorial cartoon exhibit running July 31-September 4.)
• Going north a bit, I’ve added An Angry Dakota Democrat from Jamestown, N.D., who, in turn, led me to Diatomaceous Earth, also from North Dakota. (For the curious, diatomaceous earth is a type of “earth” or soil composed mainly of the fossilized remains of one-celled ancient marine organisms.)
• Departing the country, the blogroll goes to the isle of Malta to add Andre’s Confessions of an Atheist.
• Finally, Clean Cut Kid remains in the blogroll for the time being. For those who haven’t been paying attention, the CCK himself, Chad Schuldt, has been accused of embezzling $100,000 from his employer, Democratic political consulting firm Hildebrand-Tewes. Although so-called “Hildygate” has much of the SoDak blogosphere all ablaze (much less the established media), I haven’t discussed it because I wouldn’t know Chad or anyone at Hildebrand-Tewes if I passed them on the street. I agree with Denise Ross: “To the people who know “so-and-so,” it’s titillating. To the rest of us, it’s of passing interest at best.” Thus, CCK remains in the blogroll until it becomes fully apparent it is defunct. In that regard, it is no different than one or two other items there.

Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance