2009 Splash Awards

Inspired by the excellent blog work of Electronic Village, and in keeping with the award recently given, here at APS today, we share the 2009 Splash Award with some deserving blogs. This is an award given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive and inspiring blogs.

The Rules:

• Put the logo on your blog post.
• Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.
• Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
• Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.
• Remember to link to the person from whom your received your Splash award.

My nine nominees for a Splash Award are:

1. Cobb - Among the most impressive black conservative intellects in the blogosphere. Eight out of ten posts, he's going to make you think.
   


2. Black Women Blow the Trumpet!- BWBT is a new addition to my RSS feeds and an impressive one. The very first post I read there was dense with complexity. Anytime my first read assures me that a post requires a 2nd or even a 3rd look, I know I've hit some intellectual paydirt.
   


3. Angry Black Bitch - I wince a bit at the profane title and the constant use of the B word, but I accept her literary license and consider my discomfort a small price to pay because ABB is among the most amusing reads on a consistent basis. She has an irreverent, ever so slightly jaded tone and mocking delivery that always delivers.


4. Ms. Grapevine - Grapevine is one of the most bewitching blogs in the afrosphere for me because its a celebrity blog and I don't do celebrity blogs, but its packed with pictures of stars and engaging prose and commentary to go with them. Before I know it, I've been reading for 10 minutes.
   


5. A Work in Progress - This is the blog of my lovely better half Alaine. Her blog is inspiring because while she posts infrequently, its clearly a quality over quantity thing with her. She gets mind share
   


6. Booker Rising - Shay has run an impressive blog to my way of thinking since the first time I read it. She culls the net for commentary and distills out daily some of the most salient and thought provoking political content on the net relevant to black folks.


7. Invisible Woman - Black Cinema At Large - This blog is alluring to me because it talks about one of my favorite things..movies and the people who make them.


8. Black Women In Europe - This blog is inspiring because it reminds me about the diversity of black experience happening out in the Diaspora. All over Europe there are sistas doing so many different things. Its a window on a world I want my daughter to understand is waiting for her to conquer.
   
   
9. Black and Missing But Not Forgotten - This blog is inspiring for its courage and perseverance. The blog bears witness to the hundreds of young black girls and boys who go missing every year. Children who don't get highlighted ad nauseum on the cable news. Its a sad and painful subject to address day in and day out, but this blogger does it, trying to be a compassionate publicist for the stories of these families and victims.
   

Redstate Is Mostly An Empty Snarkfest

I still follow RedState in my reader these days, but ever since they kicked me out for talking about the GOP's lousy political practice where blacks are concerned, I have to say I read their headlines with a more juandiced eye. I've come to the conclusion that about 75% or more of all their posts are simply snark.

They put a lot of time and energy into crafting sarcastic, biting, cutting, insulting and name calling posts to make their point that anyone who doesn't agree with them is pretty much the unpatriotic devil. Case in point; their post about Obama's gift to Queen Elizabeth of an Ipod. They take pains to paint the entire deal as a deadly insult to the Brits, and they don't note that he also gave her a signed songbook by the composer Richard Rodgers. So they are happy to tell their stories in the way that slants in the direction they want to point it and they will leave out facts to get the impression they want. More to the point, does anyone honestly give a crap what the heck Obama gives to the Queen, who lacks for nothing? Do the folks at Redstate really think that people living out here in the heartland and just trying to make it give a flying flip about that? Do they really expect us to believe that in the great game of geopolitics between nations, that our relationship with the United Kingdom turns on what stupid gift the Queen gets when the President comes calling?

I think most of their posts are lightweight just like this one. Now, Redstate has a big following and by any measure is a far more successful blog than my own modest effort, so they are not losing any sleep over my opinion and can live their day justifiably smug that they are on the right track. But a blog that excludes dissenting voices because they only want to hear those who agree with them is lame. APS may not be the daily traffic stop for thousands of conservatives, but I won't kick you out because we don't agree and I can't take the heat of debate.

And yeah, I'm still cheesed off about being banned.