Ramblings' Journal

Weekly Conservative Brotherhood roundup

This week, the Conservative Brotherhood has been busy (as usual), on a variety of subjects.

• LaShawn Barber has finally moved her always insightful blog off of BlogSplat! While that is an effort in and of itself (having made the move myself, I can say with confidence that it gets better, LaShawn!), she hasn't reduced her level of blogging insight.

  She has a revealing conversation about geneology and personal roots on both her new and old sites (and I've finally moved my comments from her old site to the new one). There's some fascinating roots for many of the conversation's participants.

• Michael Bowen talks about a physical exchange between noted New York Post columnist Stanley Crouch and visceral and mean-spirited reviewer Dale Peck. OK, Crouch bitch-slapped Peck after the latter said that Crouch's Don't the Moon Look Lonesome: A Novel in Blues and Swing is such "a terrible novel, badly conceived, badly executed and put forward in bad faith," that it's amazing the guy shows up on Charlie Rose.


• Ambra Nykol has the penultinmate part of her fascinating series of essays, Why I Am Not A Republican, where she boils the answer down to a single sentence: "Because Republicans are boring." She promises that the final part of that series is forthcoming.


• Juliette Ochieng and Prometheus 6 engaged in a verbal "meeting of the minds" this week both on her blog, and over on P6's, spawned in part by Juliette's Throwing Away The Crutches piece, where she addresses one of the inevitable questions put to conservative blacks in conversations far and wide: "What have Republicans/conservatives done for black Americans?"

  The conversation (most of which is on P6's site), is far more even-handed than many I've been involved in on the subject, and is given far more context than most discussions of the type by the historical viewpoint that P6 brings to the table.

• Samantha Pierce looks to be on vacation this week, but her posts from last week include a rant on the loss of decent discourse between bloggers, with many conversations sliding into shouting matches and flame wars.


• Shay Riley talks about a story that has slipped by underneath the radar. Dr. Condoleezza Rice's friend and associate Jendayi Frazer has been confirmed as the new United States Ambassador to South Africa.

  After running into so many people who insist that Dr. Rice does nothing for other blacks, I end up with the last laugh, as Dr. Rice has worked quietly behind the scenes to pull one of her associates up alongside her. Unfortunately the "soul patrol" will superficially see Ms. Frazer as yet another "black conservative" who has "forgotten her roots."

• Darmon Thornton talks about the 15-foot effigy of George W. Bush that ice cream magnate Ben Cohen is dragging around the country behind his car. The figure has the President in a would-be flight suit, and flames shooting out of the rear end. Cohen claims that Bush has lied about everything since he's been in office.

  Darmon's right. Someone does have too much time on his hands. I'll stick with Breyer's, Edy's, and Mayfield ice cream, thank you very much.

• Avery Tooley discusses name calling, especially those names hurled back and forth among black liberals and conservatives.

  I don't know about you, though - it's a bit difficult to imagine Thomas Sowell playing the dozens, but, as Avery reminds me, though he's well-reasoned and logical in public, behind closed doors, he might come back better'n all of us.

• Scott Wickham starts ticking off the "reasons" that blacks in general have for hating George W. Bush. After scouring a book he was referred to by a black liberal, (The I Hate Republicans Reader: Why the GOP is Totally Wrong About Everything by Clint Willis) he could only find four. That's right, four. I'm sure there are more reasons...aren't there?

Posted by mhking at July 24, 2004 08:35 AM