Bloggerhood Etc. 3/9/2015

Photo: Benjamin L. Corey

Best Open Letter. “Dear Rick & Becky: I Hope You Get To Read This One Day” by Benjamin L. Corey at Formerly Fundie.

Best Special Needs Post. “Letting Go of Self-Sabotage on the Special Needs Journey” by Gillian Marchenko at Not Alone.

Best Story. “Lucky Charms” by Tania Runyan, posting at Cara Strickland’s Little Did She Know.

Best Question. “What’s the Big Deal About the Dad 2.0 Summit?” by Zach Rosenberg at 8 Bit Dad.

Best List. “The Top Ten Portland Album Covers of All Time” by Ned Lannamann at The Portland Mercury.

Best Commentary. “The Argument for a Basic Income” by John D. Sutter at CNN.com.

Best History Lesson. “The Story of the Reformation Needs Reforming” by Eamon Duffy in The Telegraph.

Best Portrait of an Artist. “Simon Beck: Creating Art with a Compass and Snowshoes” by Andrea Crossan at BBC News Magazine.

Best Retrospective. “54 Miles to Freedom” by Paul Murray at National Catholic Reporter.

Best Tribute. “Oren Miller, 1973-2015” by Dustin Fisher (via YouTube).

To catch up on the great posts I’m reading online and to get a sneak preview of next week’s candidates, check out my new Around the Blogosphere board on Pinterest.

Bloggerhood Etc. 9/23/13

CNS Photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters.

Best Interview. “A Big Heart Open to God,” the exclusive interview with Pope Francis by Antonio Spadero, S.J. in America. An in-depth profile of a beloved man of God, and a huge coup for our country’s oldest Jesuit publication.

Best Counter Argument Based Solely on Facts. “Have the People Spoken?” by Rick Reilly at ESPN.com. If you listened only to a handful of vocal sports writers, politicians, and Native American activists, you would think the Redskins name-change debate was settled. But knowing the history of the word, how the team got the name, and the opinion of the vast majority of Native Americans, you would be wrong. This is a far more complicated issue than you’ve been led to believe.

Best (and Most Depressing) Infographic. “Watch the growth of U.S. income inequality with this animated map” by John Voorheis at The Washington Post’s Wonkblog (via Keep Oregon Working). Not sure how civil society can survive this trajectory if we keep going the way we’re going.

Most Heartbreaking. “Whistling Vivaldi Won’t Save You” by Tressie McMillan Cottom in Slate.

Last week, Jonathan Ferrell, a former Florida A&M football player who recently moved to the Charlotte, N.C., area to be with his fiancée, had a horrible car crash. The 24-year-old broke out the back window to escape and walked, injured, to knock on the nearest door for help. Now, Ferrell is dead. The neighbor he asked for aid called 911 (“He is trying to kick down my door,” she cried on the phone), and one of the responding police officers shot the unarmed Ferrell 10 times.

Ferrell, who was African-American, may have been too hurt, too in shock, to remember to whistle Vivaldi to signal he was a victim and not a threat.

So much for “post-racial America.”

Best Commentary. “Shattering Myths About Homelessness” by Herb Johnson in The San Diego Union Tribune. They aren’t who you think they are.

Best Question. “Why Do We Always Specify the Gender of a Stay-at-Home Parent?” by Kathleen Hogan at The Huffington Post. And will the time come when we won’t anymore? I hope so.

Biggest Contradiction. “Hating the Poor but Loving Jesus?” by Craig M. Watts at Red Letter Christians. “Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25:45) Jesus’ words, not mine.

And after a short hiatus, the Internet’s favorite puppets are back!

Funniest Video. “Product Testing” by Glove and Boots (via YouTube).

“They might not be crap, but today we find out if they are!”

They are.