Bloggers on Blogging: Part 7

Well, I finally got around to making my own contribution to DJ!'s birthday blog-fest.

First I want to thank all the bloggers who responded to the call-out for blog posts:

Part 1 by Catelli.

Part 2 by TrappedInAWhirlpool.

Part 3 by deBeauxOs.

Part 4 by Mandos.

Part 5 by Alison.

And Part 6 by pale.

Among them, they hit all the points that I would make about blogging. The people, fun, camaraderie, feminism, politics, dissent, and breaking stories.

Mandos, an internet senior citizen compared to the rest of us, takes us back to the dark days of the internet as a boyo-only space. Pale recounts the fun of our push-back against it, partly in the form of the F-Word Awards.

Trapped, Alison, and deBeauxOs muse about the seriousness with which we took blogging. And the political angles we explored that were not being addressed by the mainstream media.

Catelli reminisces about the people and important discussions in the blogosphere.

Like Alison, I loved it and miss it.

Those were the days of the "hat tip" (h/t). It was a Very Bad Form to fail to credit the source of an idea, a link, whatever. As Trapped says, credibility was our only coin.

I miss the collaboration, the planned blog-bursts and the plotting behind them. The passing-along of links and stories to bloggers who had a particular interest in a subject.

I miss all of the very smart -- yet ordinary -- people I met, who, from all over the country and world, were thinking very smart thoughts and sharing them on their blogs.

In particular, I miss Dave of The Galloping Beaver and JJ of The Unrepentant Old Hippie.

Dave was an ex-military man with insights into world events that were completely new to me. (I hear he's doing fine. Hi, Dave!)

JJ was a hoot and I considered her a pal. She was scathing but gracious. I learned a lot about how a good blogger conducts herself in the comments. She replied to all of them. She also helped the TechnoDolts (deBeauxOs and me) set this blog up. (So did Mandos.) JJ flopped the cat-bread picture up there for us.

She blogged on politics, abortion and right-wing nutjobs. Speaking of the latter, she had her own dedicated pray-er. Every Monday night, apparently, she was the target of a prayer assault from a blogger she called TubeSock.

Like most of us, she'd get fed up with blogging. She quit for a while. Then came back for a bit. Then disappeared. Her blog is still up.

I miss her and hope she's well.

So, it's been fun. We're going to leave this blog up and may return to it. I do to scoop old links.

Finally, I want to thank the other bloggers who responded positively to my call-out but who, for whatever reason, didn't hit my loose deadline of "end of the month." If any of you still want to play, email me and I'll publish your thoughts here with the others.

INCOMING! (And I totally missed it)

It's hot and I'm having a shitty day. So out of boredom and in need of distraction, I googled "fern hill dammit janet" and look what I found from Canadian (formerly "Christian") Association of Pregnancy Support Services, aka fake clinics/crisis pregnancy centres.

We are excited to be holding the first annual CAPSS National day of Prayer on Thursday, April 2, 2015

There's a lot a jeezuzy stuff, then things get specific. Joyce Arthur of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada and I are targeted for prayer assaults.

Joyce's many crimes against truth, science, and good care for women are listed -- of course with an emphasis on how successful she'd been lately at fucking up fake clinics' work -- are listed.

Then there's me.

In November 2014, the Ontario Trillium Foundation rescinded the second half ($41,500) of a $83,000 donation to the Lambton, Ontario Crisis Pregnancy Centre due to complaints by Fern Hill of the Dammit Janet blogspot: http://scathinglywrongrightwingnutz.blogspot.ca/.  Fern Hill is the pen name for the blogger and her real identity is anonymous.  If you read through her twitter account she is bent on attacking every CPC across Canada and her current target is the Kamloops Crisis Pregnancy Centre.  Fern Hill and Joyce Arthur are collaborating together to get the charitable status of the Crisis Pregnancy Centres revoked.

In what's gotta be a first for this gang, that description is accurate.

And finally I'm getting my due recognition for it.

The page goes on to instruct the faithful on which particular failings Joyce and I need to improve.

Joyce Arthur & Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada

• For the Holy Spirit to hover over her and to move her towards her own healing journey
• For ARCC members’ eyes be open and see the truth about abortion
• For Joyce Arthur and ARCC members to experience firsthand the love of our Father
• For Joyce Arthur and ARCC members’ eyes to be open to the truth of abortion
• For God to open Joyce Arthur’s eyes to see that Centres and CAPSS does not give out anti-choice misinformation and harassment – that Centres and CAPSS are  not her or ARCC’s enemy
 
 



Fern Hill and her Dammit Janet Blog

• For Fern Hill to experience firsthand the love of our Father
• For Fern Hill’s eyes to be open to the truth of abortion
• That God will nullify the influence that she has
• That as people read her blog that they will read it in light of their own experience and have the courage to speak out

Interesting differences. Joyce gets both the Holy Spirit and "our Father." I get the attention of only "our Father." We both need our eyes opened.

But I love the third incantation for moi.

I'm sitting here feeling quietly INFLUENTIAL. And proud.

But this got me thinking of our old pal and sadly missed sister Vicious Abortion Crusader®, JJ who used to chortle when she was -- pretty regularly -- targetted for prayer assaults. If I were a praying gal myself, I'd lob a few in her direction. Wherever you are and whatever you're doing, JJ, we miss you.

We're missing a blogger

I've tweeted a few times asking about JJ, The Unrepentant Old Hippie.

But Twitter is ephemeral, so I thought I'd blog too.

Here's her most recent blog-post dated November 17, 2012.

It's a typical JJ take on fetus fetishists in general and the Fetal Gore Tour gang and their FetusMobile in particular.

Nothing like another post of hers from December 2010 when she announced she'd had it with blogging, which prompted this from us.

She returned after that one and I think I've heard that she'd hung 'em up before that too.

(There's something addictive about blogging. I should know.)

She and I share a loathing for all things xmassy, so here's a tweet expressing her relief.

Ahhh! Its over!

— JJ (@jjhippie) December 26, 2012

Note the date. She's been quiet, at least under her usual handle, since.

I hope nobody -- particularly JJ herself -- sees this as stalking.

It's just that I and -- judging from the number of RTs tweets about her get -- many others miss her and hope she's well.

In fact, I hope this is what she's looking at right now.





If anybody knows what's going on, please let me know. You can DM me on Twitter and I'll respect any conditions/confidences.

Image source.


UPDATE: Yay! (Check out the comments.)

W00t!!!!!!!!

She's baaaaack.

Noooooo!

JJ The Unrepentant is hanging 'em up.

As a young bloggerling, JJ and Canadian Cynic were my first daily blog visits. (CC has turned his formidable snarkitude to Twitter, which is a perfect medium for him.)

When deBeauxOs and I decided to strike off on our own, she advised and helped. That weird catbread thing up there is her doing. dBO supplied the photo and JJ flopped it for us.

We bonded over the Ottawa Senators' wives idiocy and got branded Vicious Abortion Crusaders by the fetus fetishists. A badge I will forever wear with pride.

JJ was/is my blogging hero and inspiration.

A class act, a free thinker, a gracious hostess, and one wicked funny babe.

We'll miss you, JJ.

(But I'm keeping my fingers crossed. This is literally the darkest time of the year. Maybe when the light returns, so will JJ.)