People are really pissed about Skippy’s rhetorically charged post on VT and Kos and misogyny and violence against women. notice that I read the post as about all four of those things, and not just the first two. But there is one angle I’ll add: it’s a good thing that even when we strenuously disagree about framing, and the relationships between threats and murder and discourse, we are still talking about the basic problem: violence against women. This is the power of the blogosphere, and of blogging as a form of writing. Skippy could’ve put up a post with lots and lots of statistical details about the endemic of violence against women, and about four people would’ve read the whole thing. Instead, in one lightning strike, he’s continued an important discussion, made more important by Monday’s tragic events, and kept it on the front burner.

Kos is a big boy, he can take the critiques made of him, and his friends will come to his support. Discussion will happen, and hopefully, a few people will have their eyes opened to the relevant facts relating to violence against women. Kudos to Skippy for going against the grain, and kudos to the rest of the blogosphere, even his detractors, for keeping the conversation going. This is that rare time when a “blog war” actually serves a good cause. Republicans have made ’feminism’ a dirty word, and it’s long past time to take it back.

John McCay, the owner and operator of that unique and excellent blog, Archy, a man and a blog that do credit to “Blogtopia,” (thank-you skippy), is approaching a birthday of moment; that’s what I like to call such birthdays, it sounds better to me than seminal. (Full disclosure, I faced this particular one some years ago.)  Read more