Every day is B.A.D.

By Libby Spencer

Hard to believe it's been three years today since the great A-list blogroll purge started a week long bitchfest among us B to Z list bloggers. Feels like a life time ago in some ways. If you don't know what Blogroll Amnesty Day is, see Jon Swift's historic post on the origins of this holiday and then check out skippy's post that explains how it's evolved into its current incarnation. The two of them, along with Blue Gal have taken on the task of organizing the events. I'm afraid I've lost the link to Blue Gal's vid but you can get it there and don't miss Mad Kane's poetic tribute for the occassion. Mad props to them all for keeping this holiday going.

Although BAD started in anger at the A-listers, I love that it's morphed into a linky lovefest among the lower tier blogs. As I said last year, in the end the big guys did us a favor. We may never have found our sense of solidarity if not for our spontaneous united outrage over the original purge and I, like so many others, made friends and found blogs that I might not have otherwise.

This year finds me in an unusal place in that I'm one Eschacon away from becoming a full-fledged Atriot. Yes, I'm now one of those commenters that everyone loved to mock for their failure to stay on topic and takes inordinate delight in being first on a thread. I spend way too much time over there and have come to adore and appreciate the regs for their wit, their knowledge, their kindness, and their relentless scouring of the intertubz to find interesting links. Truth be told, I've even come to love Atrios and finally added him to the blogroll at my place, after swearing I never would until he linked to me. He still never has, but to paraphrase Joni Mitchell, he's a mean old daddy but I like him. And despite his terse style, he really does often catch good links that I might have otherwise missed.

What hasn't changed is that the A-listers still pretty much only link to each other with the notable exception of Crooks and Liars where Mike's Blog Round Up regularly gives a nod and a huge traffic boost to little known bloggers, and also Avedon Carol whose rankings belie her reach and is the most generous linker to little blogs that I know, not to mention an extraordinarily astute polictical analyst and a really terrific person. Oh, and Joe at TMV, who has given many a new blogger a leg up, including myself. I don't think that will ever change, so it's good to celebrate this holiday once a year to remind ourselves that links truly are the currency of Blogtopia (and yes, skippy did invent that phrase).

Here and at The Impolitic, I try to keep the spirit of BAD alive every day. I make it a point to link to lesser trafficked blogs in my regular linkfests and my blogroll is mostly populated with B-listers, many of whom found their way there from previous BAD days. So let this day remind us all, that BAD isn't just a celebration of an isolated event, it's a state of mind. It's all too easy to fall into the habit of linking up to big guys ourselves instead of linking laterally. Remember to reach out to each other. It's the only way to raise a louder voice for those of us who don't get the big megaphone.

So then, on to the links. I hate this part because I want to link to every single blog on my roll and don't want to offend those who aren't included. That's impossible, of course, so I would encourage you to check out my blogroll, as well as the blogroll here at The Reaction, and read a few blogs you don't recognize. Otherwise, I'm just choosing a few at random that I either just discovered or haven't linked to in far too long, including some Atriots who so often get neglected on this day.

Starting with Keeping it Lit, a brand new blog by a long time Atriot who too often keeps her light hidden under the proverbial bushel basket.

The smart and snarky Southern Beale, who probably doesn't qualify as a smaller blog than me, but deserves much more attention than she gets.

Rorschach at No Capitol is doing fine work and already on my blogroll, even though I'm not on theirs. An oversight I'm sure.

Uncle Blodge doesn't do much politics, but his stories of life on the front lines of an inner city urban school are fascinating reading.

Also non-political are 4 Legs Good at Plush Life where the photos will soothe your psyche and Tlazolteotl who doesn't post nearly often enough, but maybe a traffic boost will encourage her to post more, so if you only click one -- go check her out.

Moving off the Atriot list, Truth 101 at Truth Shall Rule is a new regular in the comment section here and is more moderate than me but has a good perspective on politics and life.

A new discovery is Ordinary Gentleman, a group blog that I didn't even know existed, featuring some friends.

I'm including Comments from Left Field even though they're bigger than me because it's such a terrific blog, and to my horror I just discovered that somehow they never made it to my blogroll, an error that will be corrected today.

Drink Liberal in New Milford has been on my radar for a while. He took on the thankless task of moderating an extremely unruly forum at a local newspaper and did the best of anyone who had the job. The forum I believe has folded, and I don't agree with everything he says, but that's the whole point of BAD. Gathering various viewpoints so as not to lapse into an echo chamber.

Neither do I always agree with my friend Mark at Publius Endures who blogs from a libertarian POV. In fact we often disagree, but we share a hope that someday bloggers will be able to unite around their common goals, no matter what their ideology.

And last, but far from least, my friend and blog-child Kathy at Stone Soup. We don't see each other often enough because we both have too many blogs of our own but there's no better blogger out there on workers rights and all things Michigan.

This is already over long, so let me close by reiterating my own blogroll policy. If you blogroll me, I'll reciprocate and if you've already blogrolled me and I haven't noticed, email me or leave your blog in comments so I can. And remember, every voice counts, no matter how small, so be BAD, not just today, but every day of the year.

(Cross-posted at The Impolitic.)