I thought it was really interesting the last time I looked at a top 50 list, the only blogs I recognized as non-political were Wood's Lot and Rebecca's Pocket. Both of those link to dozens of blogs none of the political blogs I read link to.

This is kind of an issue for me - Instapundit links to right-leaning bus schedules and PTA minutes and leftish political blogs seems to link to leftish political blogs as much like themselves as possible.

In fairness, though, when Ms. asked for female blog recommendations I found about forty in my bookmarks, but I only knew that about ten of them were written by women off the top of my head.

and yeah, either Bennet is a classic kneebiter or he's playing the longest round of charades in history.

I've noticed that most of the female political bloggers I read speak a lot about Israel and Judaism. That's probably a lot to do with my tastes in reading, but I don't find as many female bloggers writing about domestic politics.

The prominent exceptions I read are on the "group blogs" like The Corner (National Review) or are more columnists than diarists.

I get comments from RB all the time in which he is not a "total asshole", or an asshole at all in any sense of the word. He just has a diametrically opposed political orientation than you and Oliver seem to, and he's not scared to throw it out there, but that doesn't make him an asshole. I would think that such a willingness to jump out and be sharp would be appreciated by someone who is so worried about so-called diversity. As always, I think that the diversity that is so important to you Lefties (that's a joke, kids) is more important physically than it is intellectually.

Yes, I read the comments. I think Oliver did his own bit of race-baiting with the "black men/white women" post, but there's no point in arguing it with him and Jesse. That's about the oldest troll in the book, and all I could do was the "sheesh" head-shake and shoulder-shrug.

In the interest of the argument, such that there is, of "blogger diversity", where is the "About" page, with pictures, for all the luminaries of the Left? I'll pick two - Atrios and Hesiod. And your own, Kuff? I'd put you up there with those two Fake Greek Guys, and even higher, since you've got the cojones to use your own name.

Whoa - that pushed a button, didn't it? Sorry for hijacking the comments section. Carter still doesn't deserve HoF selection, but he is as good as some that are in there.

Hey Chuck, thanks for pointing out Oliver Willis!

I don't have any problems with RB's political orientation. I get plenty of comments from righty bloggers - you, Owen, Kevin, Alex, Binkley - which I welcome. It's just that every time I read a comment thread that Bennett's involved in, he's calling people names. It's rude. I've never seen him add anything to a discussion, and if he did that here I'd ban him.

Which is in part why I asked. He must have some value, I've just never seen it.

I actually thought about having an "About" page when I moved to this site, but it felt a bit egotistical. (I have a hard time believing there are any Frequently Asked Questions about me, frex.) You can view our sadly out of date personal page if you're morbidly curious.

Like I said, I've read a lot of Bennett's comments and I can't recall a single name-calling incident. In the post you reference, there's this: "Mr. Whiney Crybaby". Very obviously used in a humorous fashion. Hardly reason to call him out, as the points he raises in the thread are very valid, and they remain unaddressed. They're just not terribly popular, especially with Oliver's normal retinue of commenters.

And Oliver WAS being whiny about so-called "diversity." (NB: I'm being whiny here about your pick-up of the whole silly thing, so that's not a valid argument against my points :-).) Was it funny and sarcastic, or was it something else? Was the race card referenced above a valuable data point? Honest to God, I'm not here to defend Bennett - Lord knows that he can do that on his own. Just like Oliver's tossed-off post about diversity doesn't need reinforcing from you.

And yes, I say you should be egotistical enough to put up your durn About page. We wouldn't bother reading you if we didn't care. Enough with the false modesty, good sir.

Hrm. Of course, I noticed the lack of sex-based diversity, but since I dropped out of political blogging to avoid hanging out with some of those folks, I probably shouldn't say anything ...

WRT Bennett, I don't know what he's like on right-leaning blogs, but I've seen him comment on several left-leaning blogs, and he's been a grade-A asshole every time. Maybe he just likes you, Scott, and that's why he acts like a decent human being in your neck of the woods.

Mind you, my impression of Bennett was formed when he accused Glenn Reynolds of some nasty sexual tendency involving underaged persons (don't remember which particular variety, just that it was a nasty accusation). I have no use for Reynolds, but that's just wrong.

The followups to that accusation, which involved somebody (Patrick Nielsen Hayden, IIRC) wandering through Google's USENET archives and finding out it wasn't the first time Bennett had done such a thing, cemented it for me. He's a troll.

Obviously, I interpreted RB's comments differently. The other times I've seen him in action (including on a mailing list for Kos' Political State Report), it's been the same thing. I think we'll have to agree to disagree here.

OK, I'll work up a short bio. The things I do for my readers...

Google to the rescue. Here is Patrick's piece, which referenced a comment on Ben Domenech's site. Patrick unfortunately pointed to the Haloscan comments URL instead of the post URl, but the comments thread there (in which RB calls Patrick "scum") is illuminating in and of itself.

All I can say, Scott, is that in the comments I've seen, he's been a jerk.

I'll give yall the "jerk" side, if you'll give me the "valid" side. I don't mind jerks, per se...sometime I wish RB was less strident, but not too terribly often. He says things that others (me, for example) won't say out of politeness. It's not a completely surprising occurrence on either side of the political aisle. For example, Kos called me a chickenhawk and told me that my opinion was not valid, since I'd never spent time in the military service of my country yet still supported the war against Hussein. I still read him and I still feel that some of his viewpoints are valid. I just quit commenting or linking there.

Ach, well...I'm not here to change your minds completely. I'm just saying don't dismiss RB or really anyone as a troll just because they point out inconvenient facts in an impolitic manner*. We all know what trolls are at this point, and Bennett isn't one. There are probably better windmills for all of us to tilt at. "Blogger diversity" and "RB=troll" is one of the lesser ones, and I'm feeling right silly for spending this much time on it. My apologies, but then if we can get the Kuff auto-bio up, well, then, my work here is done.

*Unless you want to, of course. This IS the internet, after all.