He's Back

Johnathan Maxfield is back. Of course I knew he never really went away, but in an interview with STD he vows to remain on the Virginia blogging horizon. He remains also on my blogroll on the right sidebar.

My given name can be found on this blog, while Mr. Maxfield's cannot be found on his Journal of the Common Man. Yes, he is blogging pseudonymously, but I'm pretty sure other bloggers here in Virginia are not really named NoVa Scout, or Isophorone, or Bwana, or Howling Latina, or..you get the idea.

Welcome back Max.

Full disclosure;
I hold no degree in engineering, although I have successfully played the role of an electrical engineer all over the world for the past 20 years or so, with the act currently playing to good reviews in Patrick County. I'm also not a chef, but some may argue with that statement. I prefer the more scientific approach to cooking taken by the one who shares my first name on the Food Network, therefore I'm obviously "Not Emeril".

I've never been very active politically, with the exception of a short period of time while I lived on the west coast of Florida. The most important lady in my life has attempted to persuade me to run against Ward Armstrong, but I always tell her that I have too many ex-wives, ex-girlfriends, and ex-one night stands to ever successfully do so. (What can I say, I'm big on full disclosure.) While I have broke bread with both Will Vehrs and Barnie Day on more than one occasion, I have never poured tea for Shaun Kenney, but I once opened a beer for Jerry Fuhrman.

My Last Words On Both Matters

I'll write one more post on the recent kerfuffle and then I'm through with the subject. Actually both subjects.

I need to start with what seems to be the major misconception most Virginia bloggers have about the whole thing. I do not hate Waldo Jaquith. I do not even dislike him. I've met Waldo exactly twice, and both times he was a very charming, intelligent conversationalist. But I've said that before.

I've also said that I did not have a problem with him removing a blog from his aggregator, it's his and he can do with it what he will. However, I could and did point out his hypocrisy in doing so. Does that mean I'm completely above hypocrisy myself? Nope, and you're not either. What it does mean is that I will never let unsubstantiated charges from the left go unanswered. We've been there, done that in the Republican party for way too long.

I knew from the beginning that anything that found it's way onto the Virginia Political Blogs aggregator was not the doing of Waldo Jaquith. Just as all of you know that. Therefore I have never complained to Waldo about any content found there. The origin of that content is clearly displayed, and even contains a link to take you to the actual source. That is the reason I refused his "olive branch". He demanded that some of us put an obviously distasteful post on our blog with no reference from whence it came, and no explanation or apology allowed. You would be correct in calling that just one more incidence in a very long history of hypocrisy shown by Mr. Jaquith. However, for anyone to blame Waldo for over the top content on his aggregator is simply another example of hypocrisy, regardless of the political side from which the complaint comes.

Second subject. Now it seems we in the ODBA have a bit of egg on our faces. One of our members, a good writer with a sharp mind, was posting under a pseudonym that did not accurately reflect his true self. For whatever reason someone saw fit to "out" him.

Personally I believe that blogging anonymously, in and of itself, is not necessarily a problem. Shaun has a very different perspective on the subject. But the ODBA does not demand that each member march in lockstep with each other.

Some people simply must blog anonymously due to various circumstances. We in the ODBA have learned a valuable lesson. If a blogger must work under cover of anonymity, and he joins with others to collaborate whether it be on a single blog, a diary type blog such as RK, or a loose affiliation such as ours, he or she owes the rest of the team the simple courtesy of describing himself truthfully. We didn't demand that before, and now we are paying the cost for it. Thankfully the damage was much less severe than it might have been.

We will recover, though. I hope the young writer will lick his wounds, describe himself a little more truthfully on his blog, and go back to producing the work that first got him noticed here.

Allow Me To Present...

The newest members of the Old Dominion Blog Alliance.

If you will look at my left column you will see that the Old Dominion Blog Alliance has suddenly grown. By a lot. We are now at our highest membership level ever, and with the best right of center blogs in Virginia represented in the ODBA ranks.

Some of the new members I'm sure will be familiar to my readers, others I'm just as sure will be a delightful discovery. Go ahead now, explore the depths of the Old Dominion Blog Alliance.

To the old and new members I would like to say that I've been thinking about how best to exploit the powers of a well coordinated group. I'll be posting on that subject, as well as utilizing the group e-mail to expound on some of the ideas I've formulated. If any of you have ideas along those lines please use the ODBA group e-mail feature. If you are not signed up for it contact Kat at Cathouse Chat and she will soon be able to guide you in the steps required to do so.

UPDATE:
I just fixed a couple of "errors and omissions", please reload your page.

UPDATE II:
Now, I challenge each of you to scour the Virginia Blog community (I hate the word blogosphere) and find one more conservative blog to recruit for our team. I have two that I am looking at now.

UPDATE III:
I've been doing this both from home and at work (ala Will Vehrs), consequently there may be someone else that I've overlooked. If we've shared e-mail messages lately concerning this and you are not listed on the ODBA blogroll and expected to be, please don't be bashful, contact me. My e-mail link is right over there ---> and up toward the top.

A Short History Of The Old Dominion Blog Alliance

The seed was planted on the 15th of November in 2004 by John Behan, soon to become known by his given name of Chad Dotson.

Several other states have blog "alliances" for blogs devoted to items of interest in that particular state. For example, check out Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania, the Rocky Top Brigade (Tennessee), and the South Dakota Blog Alliance.

Well, there's no reason there shouldn't be an alliance of Virginia bloggers, too; specifically, moderate to conservative Virginia blogs. I guess it's up to me to organize this alliance, huh?

By the 8th of January, 2005 the Old Dominion Blog Alliance was born. Chad bestowed upon the new Alliance a motto that certainly fits, a quote from Margaret Mead;

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Thus, with the following Charter Members the Old Dominion Blog Alliance began;

• Commonwealth Conservative
• Sic Semper Tyrannis
• One Man’s Trash
• northerncrown
• Q and O
• CatHouse Chat
• Spark It Up!
  
• Reason & Revelation
• SW Virginia Law Blog

Shortly after those 9 Charter Members were announced Will Vehrs had this to say in his Virginia Pundit Watch column at Bacon's Rebellion e-zine;

Virginia may be developing blog networks that will be as influential within the state as blogs have been nationally. An elected official who blogs under the pseudonym John Behan has formed the Old Dominion Blog Alliance (ODBA), a group of conservative weblogs...Liberals have blogs, but no "alliance", Commonwealth Commonsense and Virginia Progressive. A blog that hasn’t clearly established a partisan slant is Virginia News Review, although "Hefty Lefty", a new Virginia contributor to Polstate.com, claims it as left leaning.

With all this choice in partisan blogs, it may be time for Bacon’s Rebellion to start the definitive Virginia blog that presents all points of view.

However, during that first year there were a few problems, as one would expect from a fledgling alliance. Kilo mentions the sad fact that many bloggers simply fade away after a short burst of brilliance in his post titled "Blogging- The Old Dominion Blog Alliance". Soon after that Too Conservative, Skeptical Observor, Elephant Ears, Below The Beltway, From On High, and my own blog joined the alliance.

Of the 9 Charter Members only two are no longer active, ODBA founder Commonwealth Conservative, and Sic Semper Tyranis. As to Commonwealth Conservative, the lights may be out, but Chad conveniently left the door unlocked. For it's wealth of information and depth of writing from Chad, Will Vehrs, Government Cheese, and Norman Leahy, and it's commenters too numerous to mention, it will maintain it's place at the top of my ODBA blogroll.

In the past year the ODBA grew to a high of 30 member blogs. Recently several of those members have become inactive or quit blogging, most notably Commonwealth Conservative, bringing our alliance down to a current total of 22. Much like Chad did 2 years ago, I have taken it upon myself to re-invigorate the Old Dominion Blog Alliance by inviting several conservative Virginia blogs to join our ranks. If you are a right of center blog and you wish to join, e-mail me at the link found upper right on this page.