Once again, I’m pleased to play host to the Carnival of Maryland, now well into its second year and going strong. The submissions this time were quite diverse and covered a number of subjects – I enjoyed reading them in order to compile this post and so should you.
Having the Independence Day holiday fall between Carnivals allowed me to make a look back with 6 Things To Consider and Steven Atkinson’s post on July 4th – not the most recent edition but the much more important one which occurred on July 4, 1776.
The history doesn’t stop there, though. Usually we have Maryland bloggers who expound about whichever subjects they wish, but in this case it’s a blogger of unknown origin who talks about a Maryland-related subject. This time it’s a site called Executed Today, and while Jason’s site sounds like it would be on the macabre side, Four For Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination is a fascinating read for Maryland history buffs – oh heck, you don’t have to be that parochial to enjoy it.
I’ll move the timeline up a little bit more with a post from Clark’s Picks taking a look at the life of a crooner of a bygone era – but you might be surprised at what two things entertainer Cliff Edwards claims the most fame with.
Of course, there are those who wish to create their own view of history past, present, and future in worlds we have yet to know. While they may seem a little on the odd side, that segment of society has plenty of money to spend and Randomonium author Cayusa discusses that side as well in May The Force Be With Us. Come to think of it, Baltimore would be a pretty good place for them to gather.
I’ll stay on the subject of fantasy a little longer because C of M regular (and benevolent headmaster) Attila has his idea for a new movie poster called Nino: First Blood Part 2 at Pillage Idiot. While Attila’s no PhotoShop maven, the idea comes across just fine and it also serves as a nice segue for me to look at the politics of the present day, a frequent subject in Maryland’s blogosphere.
A year ago, the conventional wisdom thought that the war in Iraq (part of what I call the Long War) would be the dominant issue in Campaign 2008. It always comes back to pocketbook issues, though, and this year all of us have seen that which was in our wallet now being handed over to those who extract black gold from the earth. On his site Annapolis Politics, Brian Gill distills a semester’s worth of Oil Economics 101 into a treatise appropriately named The Economics of Oil. The also suitably-named Mike’s Nether Land (hosted by Mike Netherland, naturally) also broaches the topic and ties it in to a local Congressional race with his post Dependence on Foreign Oil?
You can also have a second helping of Mike’s thoughts as he bids to direct the national Republican Party with Saving The Party, Part I. (Being a member of said party, I’m interested in where he goes with parts two, three, and so forth.)
Zinzindor shifts the political focus inward to the Free State most of us call home with what you could term an appropriately-timed post. (Usually after the post-July 4th summer clearance, the next big retail push is the “back to school” sales commencing in mid-July.) For a lot of parents, now is also the time tuition bills come due and his Leviathan Montgomery post on our state’s current tuition freeze takes a hard look at who really benefits.
Another point of political interest is explored by Joyce of Creating a Jubilee County. While the subject is her home county of Prince George’s, the topics she discusses can be applied to almost any other suburban county in America in one way or another. And so it is with my contribution for this Carnival.
Like Brian Gill did on his contribution, I spent several weeks studying for my submission this time around called A time to be accountable. It goes without saying that discussing the voting patterns of our General Assembly is a state-specific task, but the idea can and should be replicated wherever there are those like me who believe government needs to be limited in order to function most effectively and preserve the maximum possible amount of personal rights and freedom.
Perhaps the most freedom one can have is to be not even aware of possessing it; instead simply going about the functions and tasks necessary for survival and adapting to whatever conditions are placed in that path. A frequent contributor to our Carnivals is The Ridger and this one is no exception as she provides pictorial looks at some of what nature provides and the rest of us take for granted. I encourage you to check out and enjoy both Dance at Dawn and Images of a Maryland Dawn at her site The Greenbelt.
Normally when I put together the Carnival of Maryland I like to have about 10 to 15 submissions, as I’ve found that having that number presents the reader with plentiful and worthwhile reading options depending on their interest while providing me the opportunity to do a writeup of optimal length for my site – not too long (well, in the eyes of most people anyway) nor too short. In this case, counting mine I have 13. I could call it superstition, but in truth I wanted to bring up a couple other posts which weren’t submitted but I thought made for good reading as I perused the Maryland blogosphere.
One of these is actually a relatively brief but informative five-part series on Maryland political blogging by Adam Pagnucco, a contributor to the Maryland Politics Watch site. While he’s a participant on the opposite side from me, Adam does look at bloggers both conservative and liberal in his series.
The other post I’d like to highlight is one of many from a blogger who is also more or less my opposite politically but presents his arguments in such a way to promote thought, instead of the more prototypical liberal sites which seem to suffer from varying degrees of Bush Derangement Syndrome and serve just to lower the level of discourse. I’m happy to say that Lost on the Shore isn’t one of those and this post called A Wiser Choice is one of many there worth reading whether you agree with the argument or not.
So ends this edition of the Carnival of Maryland, number 37 in a continuing series. For the first time, the Carnival will remain here on the Eastern Shore for a second big show as the ROTUS blog hosts edition 38 on July 27th. It just moves from the lower part where I live to the upper part where ROTUS is written.
Thanks for stopping by and reading.
Nice job, as usual. You put together a good carnival.
Thanks for the link! I actually *am* in Maryland, as it happens … but since I don’t have a specifically local perspective, I’ve had this date circled for a while. There’s a lot of great stuff on the Maryland carnivals, and more’s the credit to you and all those who host it.