The Joann Grimes affair---so interesting yesterday---has become (at cyber-speed) an obvious feud/vendetta using us Alaska Voices bloggers to get at the Anchorage Daily News.

I would suggest that those having a problem with the Anchorage Daily News write directly to the editors. None of us bloggers has much of anything to do with each other or with the Daily News for that matter. The Anchorage Daily News simply selected us “voices” from past Compass contributors. We are sponsored by the newspaper but are independent in what we write. And we damn sure don’t have anything to do with managing this site nor are we consulted or informed regarding the personal business of our fellow bloggers.

Alaska Voices blogs are different from other blog sites. Voices people are obviously not addicted to these blogs---which is part of our charm. Each of us has a perspective that is different from most “professional” bloggers as well as from each other. We all seem to have lives and/or jobs. Those seeking instant-response dialogues are not going to get them (unless there is some extraordinarily brilliant commentary and I happen to be online to see it).

Joann Grimes is not my schism but I’ll say one thing for her---at least she had the guts to put her name (most of it) and face on what she wrote. Something few commentators are courageous enough to do.

[Here’s another rumor I just made up: Someone in the Republican party urged her to “voluntarily” disappear because she was drawing too much heat. This is about the last thought I have on that subject.]

Counter to statements made in some of the posts to Bill Sherwonit’s blog I don’t believe that 125 or whatever commentators made posts against Joann Grimes because those 125 people were libel attorneys who recognized a breach of the law and were just standing up for justice. This mini-storm of anti-Grimes comments---and the veiled threat of “3000” more posted onto Bill Sherwonit‘s blog---is apparently an effort to impose some sort of ideological/editorial control over Alaska Voices.

Except that Bill Sherwonit, who took the time to carefully explain the reality of the situation, is not quivering in fear as was apparently expected. As he politely tried to remind everyone---their comments can all be shut off with the click of a mouse on “comments disabled.“ Hell, we can all be shut off with the touch of a button. Welcome to the digital-electronic age. [search out relevant observations in my “Twitter this…” piece.]

Rudy Wittshirk

PS #1 - To “think4”: I don’t recall having “brought up” this Joann Grimes thing…I was at least the 127th commentator on that, by now, over-cooked subject. Some unknown person identified only as “Talk3fes” solicited my comment. What I find interesting is that a pair of previously-labeled “lefties” are the only voices to comment so far on the demise of a fellow, but stridently right-wing blogger.

PS #2 - The Anchorage Daily News must be doing something right to be accused on this site of being left wing…and now right wing.

PS #3 - “The mysterious blob” in the Chukchi Sea is not “…just a plant” as today’s cutsie Anchorage Daily News headline said---it is an unprecedented occurrence and a sign that something is going haywire with our Northern Seas. Sarah Palin could have written that headline.

PS #4 - Some good comments (at last) on the Afghanistan piece. Maybe this latest wave of cyber-warriors will leave behind some new thought. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves while I go outside and enjoy the freshness brought by last night’s wonderful rainfall and earn my keep by photographing the changing landscape. Perhaps we were all a bit crazed by the heat of the weather and the smoky haze from forest fires.