Two of my favorite bloggers have put forward substantive posts (rather than merely promises to do so later) after a period of absence, on the same day. Creepy.
First is Chip Smith at the Hoover Hog. He introduces us to some music by an old friend of his (some of which Chip helped write), gives the story of how he met his wife and reminisces about his loser years before he lived high on the Hog in a manner that almost makes me look forward to my first shitty apartment. Second is Hopefully Anonymous, who gloats about breaking his promise to start posting more often. He also has a series of unusual ideas, such as redefining the word “size” in accordance with Richard Dawkins’ notion of an “extended phenotype” and according intelligence/agency to inanimate constructs or groupings of organisms, which is odd given his previous suggestion that some humans lack subjective consciousness. UPDATE: Just recently Kevin Carson roused from his slumber to respond to the most Carsonian post Jim Henley has yet made. UPDATE 2: The anti-natalism blog also has a new one and has added HA to his blogroll.
Another blogger I read occasionally who infrequently updates is M. Traven at Omniorthogonal, who I usually converse with in the comments of other sites. I’ve decided to add him to my blogroll. He’s rather normal compared to the others up there, which in a certain sense makes him the odd man out.
In completely unrelated news, via the Distributed Republic I find an animated version of the Communist Manifesto.
Entitled to an Opinion 
March 4, 2008 at 4:22 am
Luckily you can’t actually break a promise to start something.
March 4, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Not sure how my self-indugent vagaries qualify as “substantive” in comparison with HopeAnon’s boundary-testing cerebrations, but thanks just the same. I’m working on getting some more stuff from the old print edition of THH up soon, which might be of interest.
March 4, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Hey, thanks for the link. I’m happy to be abnormally normal, or whatever.
March 5, 2008 at 12:08 am
Luckily you can’t actually break a promise to start something.
When someone tells me they lied, I take them at their word.
Not sure how my self-indugent vagaries qualify as “substantive” in comparison with HopeAnon’s boundary-testing cerebrations
You are competing against a much lower bar. I’m not normally into personal stuff (I don’t plan on having many posts like “Lucky to be alive”), but I liked it. I look forward to more from the print-edition.
mtraven, a while back I berated MM for having a link to bbroadside’s livejournal and then short-lived blog but not to you. For all the time since then I didn’t have you on mine, I guess I was a hypocrite. Now don’t get weird on us.
March 5, 2008 at 3:00 am
The animated Manifesto was beautiful. Thanks ~
mnuez
P.S. Tggp, you’re smart enough to see that the reigning cut-throat capitalism is a soul-wrenching endeavor for the vast vast masses of humanity. You see the suffering, the stress, the envy, the broken families, the loss of self-worth, the vanishing of any sense of community, etc. etc. etc. Don’t you? Were not the vast majority of American folk better served and happier in the 1950s than we are today? Honestly, why are you intellobloggers radical capitalists (please don’t get term-technical here). How can you not see the statistical facts that literally engulf you?
[Your signature is superfluous, as it appears above your post, so I have removed it.]
March 5, 2008 at 4:37 am
That has to be the highest postscript-body ratio I’ve ever seen.
What statistics do you refer to? It seems to me that migration tends to be from countries low on this this list to high. It appears to me countries that rejected capitalism back when many thought it possible failed horribly, and Zimbabwe or Venezuela are pitied rather than respected or feared nowadays. As an emotivist I don’t think “better served” means anything, nor do I think happiness can be compared. However, I do not think most people would want to live in the 50s. The communitarian author & diavlogger I linked to here concedes that economic growth was more important than preserving community in the 50s (though he thinks that is no longer the case). My beliefs are not despite my intelligence at all, IQ and education are the factors most correlated with thinking like an economist, which means being much more market-friendly than the general public. Perhaps we use our intelligence to self-deceive, but then we believe false things because rather than despite it.
Do you live in Cuba or North Korea? If not, why?
March 5, 2008 at 9:03 pm
You couldn’t go back to the 50s, even if people wanted to. Some things are specific to that time and cannot be repeated, e.g the USA’s post-WW2 dominance (which resulted in steady manufacturing jobs, Detroit automakers, etc). Other things that people like about the 50s are precisely what led us to where we are today e.g the rise of the suburbs, cheap oil, cars… “Broken families” are the result of an increase in freedom for women – making their own money, the Pill, etc. Same for the loss of community, the flip side of the freedom to move at will, chase the best jobs… People who are optimistic (maybe irrationally) about their own ability to control their destiny (which I’d guess most high-IQ bloggers are) will find a society that offers more opportunity and freedom for individuals to be more attractive.