Stirred, Not Shaken

Dan Hull, at his thoughtful law blog, What About Clients?, remarks, "Blawg Review #50 Is Out, Out There and It Should Wake Us All Up."

The Dark Goddess reminded me that blawging can be more than the same self-congratulatory conversation (i.e., "wankfest", if you're English) between the same people from the same country in the same profession on the same subjects. It made me want more--from her, other bloggers, myself.

Blawg Review is not your typical blog carnival linkfest. Unlike most other blog carnivals, which rely only on submissions, Blawg Review collects the best of the law blogs each week from various sources, including the recommendations of readers of law blogs.

A peer-reviewed blog carnival, the host of each Blawg Review decides which of the submissions and recommended posts are suitable for inclusion in the presentation. The host is encouraged to source another dozen or so interesting posts to fit with any special theme of that issue of Blawg Review.

The host's personal selections usually include several that reflect the character and subject interests of the host blawg, recognizing that the regular readership of the blog should find some of the usual content, and new readers of the blog via Blawg Review ought to get some sense of the unique perspective and subject specialties of the host.

In recent weeks, our hosts have been "rethinking" the whole blog carnival genre, starting with the Patent Posse at Rethink(IP), who have hosted the business bloggers' Carnival of the Capitalists, as well as a couple of issues of Blawg Review. So, they're entitled to their opinion, expressed in Blawg Review #48:

In a nutshell - we're sick of carnivals.

Not all carnivals, mind you - just the long drawn out boring ones that really don't offer anything of value. We think that several popular carnivals, including Blawg Review, have become bloated, link-whore-optimized versions of the original vision for what a carnival should be - an edited review of relevant blog posts presented in a manner that contributes to thought-provoking conversation.

This week's Blawg Review #50, presented by The Dark Goddess of Replevin, is certainly provocative; at Unused and Probably Unusable, Eh Nonymous takes the bait.

Check out the brand new Blawg Review #50, which poses the challenge "there aren't that many blawggers showing much interest in pitting the establishment clause against the free exercise clause."

Now, that's a fine statement for a rebuttal. I'll volunteer, if'n ain't nobody else gonna do it.

As tDGoR notes, most folks are in it for the one, or t'other. Either you're a natheist (sic) or a dominionist (wanting to extend God's law, in your preferred form, to rule over all of man's law); a Freedom For All To Worship As Conscience Dictates Wackadoodle, or a Tear Down This Wall of Separation Which H'ain't in the Constitutiom (sic) NoHow Christian Fundamentalist, probably in favor of criminalizing abortion and contraception and miscarriages. Well, surely there's some middle ground between good common sense on the one hand, and insanity on the other. And that's where we'll stand! Er. Um. Right, onwards...

Blawg Review is approaching the end of its first year, with a roster of excellent hosts lined up for the next, so it's appropriate that our regular participants reflect on where we've been, and rethink our expectations for the future of this carnival of law bloggers.

It's certainly going to be interesting at Blawg Review over the next couple of weeks, when we'll be entertained and inspired by the imaginative George Wallace, a fool in the forest, and David Giacalone, a voice in the wilderness, two of the blogosphere's most creative spirits.