Ampersand's 10 Favorite Posts By Ampersand for 2005

There were posts on “Alas” other than those I wrote, but for obvious reasons I’m not going to sit here rating those. :-) There were also better posts of mine that essentially consisted of nothing but quotes of what other, smarter folks have written, but I haven’t included those here. So here, in more-or-less chronological order, are the ten posts – or series of posts, in some cases – that I’m proudest of from 2005.

Number One:
Probably nothing put more eyeballs on “Alas” in 2005 than the Terri Schiavo controversy, and in particular this image (which was posted here and here):

But the two best posts I wrote about Terri Schiavo didn’t include that image:

Lies About Terri Schiavo’s Case In The National Review.

The National Review‘s most-cited article on the Schiavo case was, frankly, utter garbage. At the time, I apologized to the National Review author, Robert Johansen, for implying that he had shown a shocking indifference to truth, based partly on his implying in email to me that he possessed evidence to support his claims. Nine months later, it’s worth noting that despite multiple email requests from me, Johansen has totally failed to back up any of his disputed claims, or to publish a retraction. I no longer believe that he has any evidence to support the disputed claims in his article.

17 Medical Affidavits About Terri Schiavo. I’m proud of this post because I think it did what blogs, at their best, do: It took a hollow, puffed-up “experts say so!” claim that was intending to decieve through intimidation, and deflated it. Most of the experts weren’t that expert – and the ones who were genuinely expert, mostly didn’t say anything one way or the other.

Number Two:
The three-part series on “gender feminism and equity feminism”: Part one, part two, part three. I think this is a useful series for any feminist who wants to link to something explaining why the “gender vs equity feminism” formulation pushed by conservatives is nonsense.

Number Three:
Every Birth a Wanted Birth: Oh, Really?
This is one of a series of posts arguing that pro-choice policies are at least as compatable with a low abortion rate as pro-life policies – and probably a good deal more compatable. When I first starting making this argument, years ago, I felt like a voice in the wilderness. Happily, this argument, or variations on it, seemed to get a lot more popular among pro-choicers in 2005.

Number Four:
Majicthise on that “maybe fat isn’t so awful” JAMA study

And

Cathy Young’s Reasoning is (Insert Generic Fat Reference Here)

Two posts defending the new federal government findings that fat isn’t so deadly, after all. There’s a bit in the response to Cathy Young that I need to rewrite, but on the whole I think these posts both made good arguments and did a good job of boiling down a lot of research in blog-friendly English.

Number Five:
Myth: The Wage Gap Is Caused By Men’s Higher Pay for Dangerous Jobs

John Stossel on the Wage Gap

I’ve been meaning to write a rebuttal to the claim that men get paid more because they work more dangerious jobs for years, but finally got around to in in 2005, spurred by the new life Warren Farrell’s new book has given this old claim. I’m planning to write at least one or two more rebuttals to Farrell in 2006, but I’m waiting for secondhand copies of his book to become cheap enough.

Number Six:
It wasn’t a post on “Alas,” but I’m on the whole quite happy with my two-part interview on Christian Conservative, here and here.

Number Seven:
This Is How We’ve Freed The Women Of Iraq
And this post is probably as close as I ever come to being incoherant with rage. The injury we’ve done to the women of Iraq – not just in the last two years, but in the last decade – can probably never be made up for.

Number Eight:
For Many Poor Black Girls, Teen Pregnancy Is a Rational Choice
Another one I’ve been intending to write for years.

Number Nine:
Gay marriage isn’t a radical step; it’s just the next step
If I posted less about Same Sex Marriage in 2005, partly it was feeling exhausted with the issue after the 2004 election, and partly it’s simply the feeling that it’s all been said and said again. An exception is this post, which I think is unusually perceptive for me.

Number Ten:
The “Boy Crisis” in Education, part one and part two.
Expect more on this topic in 2006.

That’s it! On the whole I feel it’s a decent body of blog posts. “Alas” frankly isn’t as good now as it used to be – I no longer have the energy or interest to post as much or with as much variety as I once did – but it’s still a pretty decent blog.

I owe big “thank you”s to Kim (Basement Variety!) and Nick, both currently kept away from “Alas” posting by their new, lovely squirming bundles of hunger and need, for their “Alas” posting in 2005. And another thank you to Pseudo-Adrianne, whose blog I hope everyone has bookmarked and blogrolled.

Finally, many thanks to everyone who has cared enough about “Alas” to post, to send me email, to make a contribution to cover costs, or just to read. Y’all rock.

Postscript: I forgot about “Seven Posts About Abortion, Prenatal Testing and Down Syndrome” – it definitely would have made the list had I remembered it.