We recently received this comment from Scholar:

Erich or Grumpy,

May I please have some more links to the discussions here at dangerous intersections which you have found to be most interesting, *must read*, or highlights in general.

Thanks,
Scholar

–

I took Scholar’s request seriously and went back to review many of our posts.  I still can’t get over how many topics we’ve addressed in nine months, covering 592 posts! 

Rather than call these posts the “best of,” I would merely call them the more memorable posts to me, keeping in mind the triple asterisk that comes with the assembly of this list:  1) I simply didn’t have the time to review each of the posts again.  Therefore, this list is only representative, not complete.  2) It is difficult to determine any meaningful criteria on which to base such a list, other than (as I’ve already suggested) the idea that this list includes many of the posts I found memorable.  Other people will certainly have different ideas of what posts are worthy 3) Scholar’s request puts me in an awkward spot, given that I write for the blog. 

To the extent that I’ve included my own posts, then, it should be with the understanding that I am not trying to judge the writing so much as considering whether the ideas addressed are memorable to me, whether the ideas expressed therein seemed important or whether they moved me.  Here’s another way of looking at it:  if you want to know what this site is all about, here are some good places to start.

It is so very hard to choose.  It’s like asking a parent to choose his or her favorite child.  Without further ado, here are my selections:
Reflections on Hotel Rwanda  

Why Do They Hate Us?  

Why Does a Recently Created World Seem So Old? 

My limited vision. 

Banking laws for sale  

semantics, schemantics

A new age of immaturity 

The greatest sin–and virtue–of human memory 

God’s attractive nuisance: the Tree of Knowledge 

Playing to the terrorists’ strength 

SEX 

Alien Rapture

Wither Thou Goest…

Consumptious Conspicuosity  

Sticks, Stones, and Prayer Mats (more…)

I have been accused of being a curmudgeon by more than a few people who know me well. Perhaps I deserve it, based upon the intensity with which I approach writing.  Also, I too often fall into the trap of seeing the world as a set of problems needing to be solved rather than an experience to be enjoyed.  Though it is likely true that I am not a prototypical “happy” person, it would be horribly inaccurate to assume that I am unhappy.  I hope that the “not unhappy” side of me also occasionally shows through in my posts.

I truly appreciate the many opportunities and challenges life has thrown my way.  I am lucky to have found so many people who have influenced me in so many good and important ways, not the least of which are my wonderful wife and daughters. I am also extremely lucky that I have met so many people who have taken the time to challenge my ideas and thereby teach me important lessons.  Many of these people who have made me a better thinker and writer are those of you who have taken the time to contribute comments to this blog or send me notes via e-mail.  Truly, thank you.

About a year ago, “Grumpypilgrim” and I had a well-established routine: we traded ideas and book recommendations by email on almost a daily basis.   I suggested to Grumpy that we should start a blog to see if anybody else might show some interest in the sorts of topics that interested us.  Grumpy was a wee bit tentative.  With the incredibly generous help of Nick Smith (of www.nicksmithdesign.com), however, this blog made its first appearance on the Internet back in February 2006.  We didn’t begin posting with any regularity until March, 2006.  In those early days, someone we didn’t know personally sometimes actually posted a comment.  Grumpy and I celebrated many of those early comments with commemorative phone calls (grumpy lives in Madison and I live in St. Louis).

One by one, we invited other people to join us as authors, people who shared our passion for writing and who shared our interest in the sorts of topics and ideas we feature on this blog.  Currently, fourteen different authors have appeared on the blog.  What they bring to this blog (as you can see from the “About” page) is a wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds that are manifested in their writings.  The authors write because they love to write.  As you can see from the site, we don’t advertise.  Therefore, this blog does not make any revenue with which to compensate the authors for their dedication.  What you see at this blog, then, is a labor of love by all concerned.  For some additional background on why this blog exists, check out one of my earlier posts, “Why I Blog.”

It occurred to me that some of the readers might be interested in knowing how much this blogging community has grown since March, when we had 53 visits for the entire month.  Through the month of November, 2006, this blog is receiving a daily average of 1,500 visits.  More than 5,000 pages are downloaded daily from the site.  This surprises and delights me, of course.  I am pleased that the topics that have long interested me have been presented here in a way that so many others find worthwhile.

Through the history of this blog, the authors have written more than 500 posts, which have received in excess of 2000 comments.  During that same time period (March, 2006 through the present), the blog has also received more than 6000 comment-spams.  This ever-increasing amount of spam might require us to take some steps to combat the spam.  I certainly hope that whatever steps we are forced to take (we are considering several possibilities) will not in any way discourage anyone from joining us with their comments. 

In closing, I wanted to use this Thanksgiving holiday to thank each of those people who have taken the time to contribute posts and comments to this blog, as well as those who have visited this blog or recommended this site to others. I have been overwhelmed by this little success story, and I truly appreciate that this writing community exists. 

We’re just getting warmed up here at Dangerous Intersection.  There’s a lot more to come. 

Thank you once again for being part of this endeavor.

Erich

In Missouri, Republican legislators charged with getting to the bottom of a problem, have produced a fine example of spurious causal linkage that ought to go down in history with the assertion made by certain agents of the pope to Michelangelo that, since one of his marbles had taken seven years to complete, the new one for which he had requisitioned four helpers, would therefore take 28 years to complete–four times seven, you see, equals twenty-eight. It never occurred to them to divide, only multiply.

Which seems to be a problem Republicans have with regards to certain problems.

Their conclusion in this instance is that the rise in illegal immigration over that last three decades can be attributed to abortion. Specifically, because some forty-five million abortions have been performed since Roe v. Wade, those millions of potential Americans represent the short-fall in our labor pool which illegal immigrants are filling.

I haven’t laughed so painfully in a long time. Not over this sort of absurdity.

The Democrats on the same committee have refused to sign off on the report, but the report is now public, and all the Republicans signed it, hence alleviating any doubt (had there ever been any) where they stand on the issue of illegal immigration. Obviously, we should go on an accelerated program of creating a second baby boom to stem the tide of all those undocumented workers stealing American jobs. It will, of course, take about 18 years for the program to produce any tangible results–unless, of course, the Republicans intend sponsoring legislation to overturn child labor laws.

Anything to strike a blow at a woman’s right to choose.

Now, lest we not be clear about where I come down on this issue–both issues–let me state a couple of things up front.

I am a man. I therefore do not believe I have a “natural” right to say anything at all about what a woman does concerning reproduction. I have some contempt for males who bleat about their rights being trampled by abortion (after all, it’s MY fetus, too, she used MY sperm). In specific instances where a couple planned in advance to make a baby and the woman backed out after pregnancy occurred, I have a modicum of sympathy–broken promises are hard to take–but I don’t see any way short of legal instrument (a contract between them, notarized, etc) of ever proving the case. (more…)

Here’s how it went. Worth a look and a laugh.