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Feb

17

Ohio blogs dysfunctional? DSM criteria remain unmet


I was all set and ready to write a nice warm, house is quieting before Shabbat post, and then I read this.

I’ve exchanged some very nice emails with Bill Beutler who edits/authors Blogometer and I understand from him that he doesn’t always do 100% of the research and writing. Hey, there are at least 28 million blogs out there, I can’t imagine pulling from them everyday for what he produces.

However, I must disagree with Bill, or whomever wrote the headline, Are OH Politics Really This Much More Dysfunctional Than Other States? Or Do They Just Have More Bloggers?

What’s happened this week in Ohio in regard to a not nice headline and post on the now defunct blog, High and Broad, shows to me precisely how well-adjusted at least some segments of the blogosphere function. How else would you explain the shutting down of the offending blog, the (maybe hanging out to dry) apology from the blogger and the concrete pronouncement out of The New Rules by none other than a blogger whom many consider to be beyond the pale, not to mention one of the staunchest proponents of blogs and bloggers not needing a written code of ethics of any type?

Sad to say but I know dysfunction pretty up close – through education, work and personal experience. Ohio’s blogs dysfunctional? Not according to my DSM.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 5:37 pm February 17th, 2006 in Politics 

Comments

11 Responses to “Ohio blogs dysfunctional? DSM criteria remain unmet”

  1. 1 Cassandra on February 17th, 2006 9:34 pm

    Wow, I’ve just spent quite a while trying to put pieces together here and there. Crazy…
    I’m glad you were apologized to Jill.

  2. 2 George Nemeth on February 18th, 2006 10:10 am

    Two questions.

    One—what’s DSM?

    Two—do you think he’s implying that it’s bloggers that are making it dysfunctional, or that other state are as dysfunctional but we’ve got more bloggers covering it, so it appears to be more dysfunctional?

  3. 3 Jill on February 18th, 2006 10:37 am

    Before I answer those questions, here’s what Bill Beutler wrote me, unsolicited (that is, I didn’t write him or anything re: what are you talking about; I just posted what I thought):

    Just saw your post… it’s all my work in that section today, and my header. A snarky header too, and about OH politics overall, not just the blogs, and not even the blogs primarily. Between Brown-Hackett and Fingerhut-ODP, it’s been a tulmutuous week or so in Ohio politics, no?

    I wrote him back that tumultuous is an understatement.

    So, in answer to your second question first, Beutler seems to be saying that it’s the Ohio politics, not even necessarily the blogs, that are dysfunctional. Now THAT I can see. If anything, IMHO, blogs are therapeutic for everyone – it’s like group therapy with several million people. (And what did I once comment about re: what Cleveland needs several weeks back on BFD?? GROUP THERAPY!)

    Re: your first question, DSM stands for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – it’s the bible for mental health professionals and let’s you figure out how sick you, er, I mean, your patients are. Mental health professionals experience what MDs do too – where you think you have everything in the book, especially when you’re learning about it.

    Here’s a link to an explanation that also provides access to specific diagnostic criteria, you know, if you want to see what mental health disorders you or your friends have:

    http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html

    See anything familiar?

  4. 4 Jill on February 18th, 2006 10:38 am

    Thanks, Cassandra – I think they wanted to get me quiet, although I do think Kohlstrand was sincere. I just don’t think the incident will necessarily see anyone change behavior or behavioral expectations within the party machine – they want to win and they want the people they want to win, to win. At pretty much any cost – that’s obvious.

    We just have to keep on pushing on, however it is that we think is the right way.

  5. 5 Blue Dog Rising on February 19th, 2006 1:05 am

    Good that you and Bill cleared up that issue of what or who is “dysfunctional”…
    Of course Ohio politics have been dysfunctional for years…Otherwise, we wouldn’t have Bob Taft, Coingate, or even Gee Dubya and the first Veep since Aaron Burr to be accused of treason and gunning down somebody in the same term of office. With a switch of 50,000 votes in Ohio, we’d have Kerry/Edwards in the White House.
    Also, I like your own sense of history with your masthead quote from President James Polk, one of the under-rated prezes. (My grandma was a Polk and an indirect descendant…the Prez himself had no children.)

  6. 6 Jill on February 19th, 2006 9:21 am

    Blue Dog – Thanks again for the compliments. You’re not setting me up for some zinger of a teardown now, are you?

    About Polk – I remember learning about him when I was a kid and developed an affinity (hmm, I wonder if it was more about the teacher?). A couple of folks have commented that Polk’s “success” with Manifest Destiny was not the kind of success people should brag about. I can understand that, too. All a matter of perspective I guess.

  7. 7 Blue Dog Rising on February 19th, 2006 1:46 pm

    Nope, no zingers yet. However, I do plan to check out your DSM Bible and apply it to myself and friends. You and Ted Strickland would get along well, given his background in that arena.

    As for old James K. Polk, he got a lotta bad press for a century or so because the Civil War victors write the history (as with any war)…Polk was a slaveowner who wanted to extend the Southern states westward (Congressman Lincoln voted against the Mexican War). But, like Lincoln, Polk was a big impact player in history. His Manifest Destiny policy gave us California, Texas, AZ, NM from Mexico and the entire Northwest from the British. More recent historians have placed Polk in the top 10 of “successful” presidents because he served one term and accomplished virtually every goal he set.

    Thus, your Polk quote in masthead is right on and should embarrass Bush every time he goes to Crawford for a six-week vacation. My Polk antecedents are the northern branch (Indiana not Tennessee)and fought on the Union side. Granddaddy Sgt. Horace Polk’s pic hangs on my office wall in Columbus. (Now there’s a hunting clue.)

    I better stop here before you disqualify me as troll. Keep on writing like you talk.

  8. 8 Jill on February 19th, 2006 2:51 pm

    I can name that blogger in four searches. And I believe I can. But I would prefer not to do it publicly, should you prefer to remain anonymous. So…you tell me how to proffer my guess. :)

  9. 9 Blue Dog Rising on February 19th, 2006 3:44 pm

    Uh oh….the hunter and the hunted…

    As a blue Weimaraner, I’m a great at pointing and fetching…but not very good at dodging buckshot… (you’ll get mail.)

    At least you’re not Dick Cheney…yelp yelp.

  10. 10 Jill on February 19th, 2006 3:52 pm

    Hey, I could be wrong, you could deny it or you could ask me, respectfully, to cease and desist, which I would do, without further taunting. Well, maybe a little taunting.

  11. 11 Blue Dog Rising on February 19th, 2006 4:48 pm

    That’s OK… you got email… with clues for the hunt for a wascally weimaraner…

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