Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

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My heart is inditing a good matter

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It may take us a while to get this set up, and I have no idea how to get it set up! But I want to try to endow an Al Weisel Award For Internet Humor.

The Jon Swift blog was a ray of funny sunshine in a humorless cloudy world. And it’s the least we can do.

We’ll try to get something like an endowment set up soon. But in a world of short attention spans I wanted to get this up now.

Reader Interactions

39Comments

  1. 1.

    JGabriel

    I think that’s a nice idea, but how do we make sure it doesn’t just keep going to Gavin M. or TBogg over and over again?

    .

  5. 5.

    JGabriel

    @DougJ: Hmm, maybe nothing is wrong with that. I was just thinking of it as a mechanism for giving attention to new voices, but it doesn’t have to be.

    .

  6. 6.

    Tattoosydney

    Count me in for a donation. Jon Swift was a rare light of joy in the cess of endless updates about peoples’ breastfeeding status that is the post-Facebook internet.

  9. 9.

    eastriver

    He was good, and will be missed, but there are funnier voices out there. I always found Swifty a touch hermetic. In the bad way.

  15. 15.

    slag

    @DougJ:

    I just think the guy was funny and generous with his wit. And he deserves to be remembered.

    Genius, DougJ! A very worthwhile endeavor.

  18. 18.

    Laura W.

    I’m totally with you and here for you and your cause, DougJ.

    I’m sorry — what?

  19. 19.

    burnspbesq

    Getting this incorporated and set up as a 501(c)(3) sounds like a great pro bono project. Eemom, do you have an associate who needs pro bono hours?

  21. 21.

    Batocchio

    It sounds like a great idea. I was also thinking of getting a Best Posts of the Year series going again with skippy or some other folks this December.

    So that the same person doesn’t win over and over again, you can just say if they win twice (for instance) they’re in the hall of fame and won’t be on the ballot anymore. In any case, please post any updates. skippy would be good to contact, too.

  22. 22.

    Porlock Junior

    I’d subscribe. If you get to the point of having an organization that sends out solicatations and calls in chits, you now have my e-mail address.

  23. 23.

    Porlock Junior

    I’d subscribe. If you get to the point of having an organization that sends out solicitations and calls in chits, you now have my e-mail address.

  24. 24.

    Uriel

    @eastriver:

    He was good, and will be missed, but there are funnier voices out there. I always found Swifty a touch hermetic. In the bad way.

    Well, I guess that finally gives answer to the question that has been plaguing me for some time now-

    So, you admit to truly having no sense of magic or wonderment in your soul? So sad.

    But, you will be all the stronger for having faced up to your faults, so kudos to you anonymous sir/madam!

  25. 25.

    ruemara

    If you can get organized enough to set up an auction on Bidding for good, I will give you some jewelry to sell for funds. Very nice idea for a decent, honorable man.

  26. 26.

    Uriel

    @DougJ:

    I just think the guy was funny and generous with his wit. And he deserves to be remembered.

    Without a doubt. And beyond that I can’t help but admire how amazingly thorough and all-encompassing he was, in his idiosyncratic way. I was always impressed by the fact that he avoided the “look at this one funny link, ha ha” paradigm. It was always cool to know that you could spend hours following all the references, links and asides from just one of his posts. That kind of research, just to make a (usually wickedly pointed) joke- it speaks to dedication and devotion that is just incredible. As someone who made an ill advised attempt at emulating his style for a bit, I have to say- that stuff’s wicked hard. And crazy impressive, the way he made it seem so second natured.

    At best, the only blogger I’ve found that comes is Roy Edroso on a good day, as much as I like the sadlys, tbogg and poorman.

    I can’t express just how much gloomier my day became when I found out that waiting for the next Jon Swift post was now doomed to be a futilely endless exercise.

    Which is a long way of saying- I’d be on board for something like this, to whatever extent I could.

  27. 27.

    TBogg

    @Uriel: I agree.

    I think Roy is the best out there, but Al/Jon was in a whole other league. I would read his posts twice: once for enjoyment and a second time to see how he did it. Al Weisel wasn’t a blogger, he was a real honest to Jeebus writer.

  28. 28.

    Luc

    I’m in favor and can chip in a little. From my blogroll, others one can consider for starters include:

    * Attaturk
    * August J. Pollak
    * Ayn Clouter *
    * Bartcop.com
    * BizarroBlog
    * Corey Anderson *
    * David Rees
    * Driftglass
    * Dugan *
    * Fafblog! *
    * Fearguth *
    * General JC Christian *
    * Hairy Fish Nuts
    * Ion Zwitter
    * Jack Cluth
    * James Wolcott
    * Karena Espuela *
    * Madeleine Kane
    * Michael Berube
    * My Alter Ego Speaks
    * Night Deposits
    * Norbizness *
    * Quiddity Quack
    * Rising Hegemon- After Dark!!
    * Roger Ailes
    * Roy Edroso
    * Russ Barnes *
    * S.Z. *
    * Sadly, No!
    * Sister Nancy Beth Eczema
    * Sisyphus Shrugged *
    * TBogg *
    * The Editors (Poor Man) *
    * The Rude Pundit
    * The White House
    * Tom Burka *
    * Watertiger10

    Yeah, I know some have gone defunct and certainly, there’s more and newer ones since I last updated that two years ago.

    And maybe something can be coordinated with MaryBeth and Eric over at Wampum, who’ve been trying to resurrect the Koufax Awards and know how to coordinate the voting:

    http://wampum.wabanaki.net/vault/2010/01/005484.html

  31. 31.

    satby

    I’m in. And DougJ, if you need help setting up a paypal donation link, I can do that too.

  32. 32.

    Barry

    I’ll kick in some money.

    He gave me some good laughs, and his wit did light up my mood in some dark times.

  33. 33.

    shaun

    Jon/Al was the best and I’d like to post a tribute to him at my blog. Can anyone point me to a photo of him?

  34. 34.

    D. Aristophanes

    DougJ – this is a great idea. Perhaps announce winner(s) on July 18 (Al’s birthday)?

    It’d also be nice to have awards for multiple wits … though the demise of the Koufax Awards serves as warning for how these sorts of things can get really unwieldy and difficult to manage. Maybe a simple 1st-2nd-3rd place prize for overall comic blog writing and another 1st-2nd-3rd place prize for funniest single post …

  35. 35.

    Jason Chervokas

    This is a great idea. Al would have loved it though he would have been more than a little frustrated by its posthumous nature and he would have had something ascerbic, smart and funny to say about that. Let me know if I can help.

  36. 36.

    Chris Grrr

    I’d kick in whatever I can spare, although I think Al’s work makes just about everything else seem clownish by comparison…

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