It's that time

Folks, it is that time. I believe - and abc agrees - it is time to close up "Left at the Altar." I am delighted and honored that people read this blog - that many have even bookmarked it and make it a regular weekly stop. But it's time to re-direct the hours and energy that goes into the search for bloggable material. (Even when I'm updating this site with the minimal and unsatisfying "regularity" that has characterized the past year or so, I still spend more hours than I care to count "surfing" other blogs and news sites.) Other bloggers and activists are doing this much better, more resourcefully, and with greater reach and impact than I have the time or talent to cultivate. We're quite small, and have stayed pretty small. I know that some people are going to miss us, and I know I (I won't speak for abc) will miss blogging.

But the internet can be - as abc herself has called it - a big time sink. You all know what happens: you follow a link, which leads to another, which leads to another, and suddenly 30-60 minutes are gone. If that happens a few times each week, then there's that block of time I've been saying I don't have for volunteering somewhere! abc and I attended the Faith and Politics
conference in Pasadena this past weekend. One of the speakers quoted someone - Rabbi Abraham Heschel, perhaps? - on the need to "put feet on our prayers." Walk the talk. I'm ready to put some of my blog time and energy to different use. The reason you haven't heard much from abc this year is because she's been "putting feet on her prayers" -- organizing, demonstrating, and rallying others to do the same. I've been content to conduct a pretty anonymous "virtual activism" on this very small scale. But I'm preaching to the choir - not even recruiting new "singers"! - and there are much more inspirational and effective "preachers" out there.

Why stop now, of all times? No matter what happens in November - whether Dems take back one or both houses, as they possibly could, or whether they once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - closing up shop the day or week after won't feel right. It will look smug and satisfied, or tired and defeated. Closing up now will let us concentrate even more on November and the aftermath. There is much to be done!

We'll keep the site up (but not updated) through Election Day -- taking up bandwidth and giving you time to make sure you've bookmarked any sites you accessed regularly from the sidebar on the right. Then we'll take the site down and someone else will fill the space.

Thank you all!

P.S. Consider adding these sites to your blog stops:

Progressive Christian Witness

Faithful Democrats

Quaker Agitator

Don't ask...

...about the comprehensive exam. It wasn't pretty.

You CAN ask about Baxter, on the other hand. He is doing quite well! He had those gnarly stitches removed yesterday, and the biopsy report came back Saturday with a good news/bad news aspect to it. The bad news: the tumor was malignant. The good news: it's a non-fatal type of cancer that likes to recur in the same location, and doesn't spread. So we will need to remain vigilant in order to catch it earlier if it returns (and sadly, there's a good chance of that: the vet was not able to "take anything extra" around the tumor to leave super-clean margins). The cancer has such a long and bizarre name, even the vet stumbled as he read the report to us. If I can figure out how to spell it, I'll link to a description later.

A few items:

San Francisco and Oakland are having a disturbing increase in violent crimes this year, but it turns out that's happening all over the U.S. Still feeling safer under the Tough on Crime/Tough on Terror Republicans? Check out this report by the Third Way Strategy Center for Progressives. I love the title, "The Neo Con: The Bush Defense Record By the Numbers." The reality is this: while the BushCo NeoCons waste billions of dollars and thousands of lives on an illegal and unwinnable war over there, our national resources and preparations for violence and disaster are rapidly deteriorating. Sleep tight!

Oh, you meant those secret prisons?

A more constructive link: I buy and sell quite a few used books from Amazon's "Marketplace." Recently, several of my textbook purchases came from a dealer called "Better World Books," and arrived with the claim that my purchase was helping send books to Africa. Sounded pretty cool, so I finally checked out the organization and discovered I can order books directly through their web site. Please take a look and throw them some business!

Next time a wingnut tells you conservation projects don't work, show them this study!

(A Bali starling, one of the species saved from extinction.)

(If this post appeared, disappeared, and reappeared in your "feeder," it's because Blogger only published 3/4 of it the first time, and momentarily lost all the sidebar links, etc. So I deleted the original post and "re-published" it.)