It’s time for toasting. Grab whatever receptacle, goblet, glass, beaker, chalice, tumbler, or cup lies close at hand, and fill it with whatever fluid your sense of decorum and occasion dictates. (For the purposes of this post, I myself am using a bottle of Seaview Brut Australian Sparkling Wine, which is actually much nicer than it sounds.)
I would like first to propose a toast to our host. Stageleft inadvertently introduced me to all this stuff. Many years ago, he developed an online forum in what was then the Northwest Territories (now Nunavut). It was called the Political Discussion Forum, and it was the bane of northern bureaucrats for years…a no-holds-barred, free ranging place for the uninhibited discussion of issues in a region just about to become a new territory. Stageleft never imposed any rules, and never edited or censored anyone: but by some osmotic magic, his site, while occasionally wild and wooly (and ALWAYS interestingly heated), stayed respectful, and the discussions there were among the best I ever participated in. He has carried that magic south, and devised our current home, a site that remains my absolute favorite blog: smart, challenging, and never lapsing into dogma or abuse. Well… (to quote Gilbert and Sullivan)…hardly ever.
I would next like us to raise our glasses to the Friends of Stageleft, those stalwarts whose passion keeps this site the sparkling forum it is.
- To Treehugger, a thoroughly delightful chap whose wonderful blog “Heart of the Matter” is an oasis of reason, balance, and intelligence. TH may be blogger who comes closest to reaching that unattainable ideal…a kind, cool intellect who truly welcomes all points of view with interest and respect.
- To Vinny. I didn’t know it was actually possible to make a friend online…let alone a ….well, I have to use the “C” word here…conservative friend. Vinny is another rarity: a passionate right winger with an open mind and a sense of humour. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you, screaming at you, and learning from you.
- To Rhazes, a dude who shares Stageleft’s passion for keeping those guys on the other side on their toes.
-To IrC, who shows a commendable ability not to lose his temper when Balbulican gets testy with him.
- To RJ of Thoughtcrimes…the most intelligent and articulate of the right wing Canadian bloggers out there. RJ, spend more time here. There’s not point hanging out on the right wing sites…that’s like being a Catholic missionary to the Vatican.
- To the Mixed Wingnuts, that band of brothers (and sisters) who prove that, against all odds, communication and reasonable discussion do, in fact, have a place in blogdom.
- To Brock and Chet…because it’s News Years Day and we’re seven toasts in.
Slainte, my friends. A wonderful year to all of you. May we jointly find truth and grow wiser and kinder together.
Great post balbulican, you’re way better at the word smithing for that sort of thing than I will ever be - there’s also my dilemma of making a very belated New Years post (it was really November 12th this year) to match everybody elses post of the same. You did it, problem solved, thanks!
And thanks for the reminder of the good old days of the PDF, that place was fun in its day….. I recall Ed Picco (he’ll love a link from here - hehehe), who was then just an ‘Ordinary MLA’ over in Yellowknife instead of a portfolio’d type in Iqaluit telling me that some of the stuff there had John Todd (then Minister of Finance) foaming at the mouth - he also had a real fixation on finding out who called him a “bubble brained Newfie pinhead” :-)
To everybody balbulican mentioned, and anybody else who happens by, have yourselves a happy ‘what ever it is you do at this time of year’ and thanks for making stageleft a fun place to hang out.