I wanted to write a bit tonight about the culture we have created here at Daily Kos. About our little community of souls, the things we share, the things we do, trying to lift each other up, encourage each other ..., because as a diarist for a community diary series like Top Comments, I care a great deal about this community, and its verynearlysentientinitsownright culture.
It is a culture of diaries and comments, certainly. Here in TC we try to focus more on comments, the heart and soul of site interactivity, and, I think, perhaps the one thing that really sets Daily Kos apart as a blog home for so many of us. Yes, other sites offer comment dialogue, now, and one can create one’s own free-standing blog with commenting, but ... the numbers just aren’t there, the intensity, the power of progressives dedicated to more and better Democrats, to more and better lives among and for ourselves.
But, first, a word from our sponsor ...
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top to pop up in diaries around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the fleur de kos...
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Of course, in ways there are super-Kossacks, front-pagers with mojo ratings of infinity. They NEED no mojo. If no one recommends a single comment of theirs, their mojo status is perfectly secure. If they are hide-rated, accidentally or on purpose, the consequence relative to their mojo rating is zero. Yet, even though they don’t need it for anything, and can’t use it for anything, their comments are still recommendable! And they still recommend each other’s comments! When they feel the recommendation is warranted! When they read the comment contributions of the others and wish to acknowledge the comment using the ‘coin’ of the Daily Kos culture. They recommend OUR comments, too, on occasion. They recommend diaries, the leave complimentary comments. By all accounts (and some more than others, not to single you out, Meteor Blades), they participate happily, willingly and very consciously in the culture we have created here.
And, for our part, we recommend their comments, as well! We recommend their tip jars, knowing they don’t need the mojo. We do it because it’s a lot of work to fight the battles which face us. Because we appreciate the work that goes into these fights. Into raising money, into selling even our leaders on specific political and moral courses. We do it because recommendations are the ‘coin’ of the realm. One of the most important ways we say well done, and thank you.
So ... why do I say this?
One of the things I enjoy most on Daily Kos (when I am not actively participating in a dynamic, real-time comment thread) is to research issues with searches in old diaries and comment threads. I do topic searches in both archives, I do tag searches, name searches ... and, when I find writing and/or ideas I really like, I do searches on my fellow Kossacks, to see what else they’ve contributed, what else interests them. I happily use the tools of dKos 4 to add them to my stream, to follow their writings, to see the Kossacks whose writing they respect. I often check out their highest rated diaries. But the coolest stuff I find is writing on subjects I am actively studying. I never tire of the wealth of wisdom available here, the depth of insight, the wellspring of passion. I think it is possible that the answers to all of our challenges have already been posted here. That isn’t to say that we’ll find the answer neatly correlated with its challenge. That isn’t to say the answer will find traction and resonance, and then achieve ‘escape velocity.’ That isn’t to say that the ideas will ‘go viral’ to the extent they need to in order to effect the change we seek. But it is possible. And the possible is the most fertile ground in which to establish a reality-based community.
If you almost never go into the old diaries and the closed-to-commenting comment threads, of course, that is perfectly fine! But if you have occasion to delve into the archives, I would ask you to consider a possibility that was, for me, perhaps the finest change that was made when dKos 4 went live - that we can now recommend diaries in perpetuity. Simply, if you go into an old diary, and you like what you see, recommend it. ::wink::
That is perfectly consistent with the culture of Daily Kos. True, it's very likely the diarist will never know of your 'visit.' If you look at the list of diary recommenders, those names are not in order of their recommendation, but rather, sequentially in order of UID, lowest to highest. So ... there may be no way to tell that you recommended 'late' as opposed to when the diary was still active, in the comment threads. One possible exception to this is if you recommend a diary which was published before you joined Daily Kos. In that case, unless someone who joined after you also recommended the diary late, your name will appear as the last name listed. I know this is true because I have recommended a number of diaries written in 2005 and before, hotlisted some of them, too. Personally, I think it is very cool to be able to recommend something from before joining. In one or two cases I have recommended diaries I liked very much, from days so long gone by that no one else ever recommended them! In the old days, when there were many fewer Kossacks, diary recommendations were less common, far more rare. To some extent, that was before recommendations (of diaries AND of comments!) had become such an integral part of Daily Kos culture.
Will anyone ever know you added to someone's rec totals? Maybe yes, maybe no. Probably no. But, in your way, you'll have left a little ‘Kilroy was here’ message for the diarist. Recs are a way of honoring, and that's timeless. Do it even if no one else will ever know it. Because that's what we do. That's the culture as it has evolved here, as we have helped evolve it. Even if no one else ever sees that you have made that recommendation, YOU will know.
It makes me think of an exchange in J.D. Salinger’s fine book, Franny and Zooey. Zooey was speaking of an experience he had had with their now-deceased brother, Seymour. As children, they had all been on a semi-famous radio show, called “It’s a Wise Child.” Seymour told youngest brother, Zooey, to shine his shoes, which Zooey found ridiculous since no one could see them on a radio show. Seymour told him to ”shine them anyway,” to “do it for the Fat Lady.” Franny nodded, as Seymour had made a similar case with her. Zooey said: “I didn’t know what he was talking about, but he had a very Seymour look on his face, and so I did it.”
And, finally, the truth Zooey wished to convey to Franny:
There isn’t anyone anywhere that isn’t Seymour’s Fat Lady. Don’t you know that? Don’t you know that goddam secret yet? And don’t you know-listen to me now-don’t you know who that Fat Lady really is? ... Ah, buddy. Ah, buddy. It’s Christ Himself. Christ Himself, buddy.”
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_ From Franny and Zooey. p. 201-202)
Now ... I am not endorsing pejorative terminology relative to women or any woman in particular (and I don’t think Salinger was, either, frankly). Nor do I find the specific religious reference that compelling. But I do very much like the idea that there is a good reason for doing something, even if we can’t put our finger on it at the moment. So that’s my point. Rec those old diaries when you happen upon them, even if no one else will ever know. Do it for the Fat Lady. (Ah, buddy. Ah, Buddy. The Daily Kos culture, itself. The Daily Kos culture itself, buddy.)
Do it as a little Kilroy was Here moment. It's very cool!
On to tonight’s comments!
From kestrel9000:
In Which kalmoth identifies a problem that others, including myself, have long said existed.......
From KelleyRN2:
Scott Wooledge's malapropism in a comment today is too good to miss. (Put your drink down before reading)
Nurse Kelley
From blueoregon:
Hi- I'd like to nominate Hugh Jim Bissell's comment in Tom P's diary, because i think it addresses the real issue (why) there is so much gun violence in our country.
From BeninSC:
pedmom contributes a fine list of books to read! I am reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, myself, amazing story!
I am including this comment from Steveningen to highlight the quoted passage from Gary Bauer. Yuck. For the reason cited by Tara the Antisocial Social Worker. (Thank you, Tara!)
Tonight's Picture Quilt, courtesy of
jotter!
Tonight's Top Mojo, courtesy of mik!
1) Her comment was by pat of butter in a sea of grits — 203
2) You know damn well if she had braids, someone by blueoregon — 173
3) Yes, Racism still pays well by TomP — 159
4) The problem by Steven D — 143
5) Because his party's entire platform by blue aardvark — 141
6) Talking Back While Black nt by Gooserock — 121
7) If raising the age is out, as it should be, by bear83 — 118
8) If it were up to me, by mndan — 106
9) Entirely her bosses by ivorybill — 103
10) Welcome folks! by Denise Oliver Velez — 99
11) I didn't have to carry it around... by Meteor Blades — 93
12) I am also proud of my votes for Obama. by howabout — 92
13) Several admissions now, but trad med averts its by TomP — 92
14) Why yes... by justiceputnam — 91
15) Since she spoke courteously and graciously by lgmcp — 90
16) I can't stand my name but by navajo — 89
17) This clip just as relevent as when it came out by idbecrazyif — 83
18) Soledad does her homework first... by jennyp — 78
19) Who could have known by Kevvboy — 78
20) Awful timing by Paleo — 77
21) Wow by Mindful Nature — 77
22) 17 million kids, 1 in 4 go hungry to cut food by cherie clark — 76
23) My mom hated being in the Wives' Club. by ConfusedSkyes — 76
24) Remember, it's never the right time... by Chris Tomas — 74
25) I hate my first name by high uintas — 72
26) We all need to help overturn by TomP — 72
27) I always wanted to be called "Meteor" by willyr — 72
28) Yes, unfortunately, I saw this as well in the navy by absdoggy — 72
29) Me too by Steven D — 72
30) The undercurrent is so incredible by LilithGardener — 71