Soccer Dad

hh2r?

The Ignoble Experiment was the most recent hostess of Haveil Havalim. She was stung by a criticism that Haveil Havalim is too far to the right politically. It's a charge I won't deny. Most of the contributors are politically to the right as are most of the hosts and hostesses.

The thing is, though, Haveil Havalim is a voluntary exercise. You don't have to host and you don't have to submit.

Like all carnivals, Haveil Havalim was meant to be a display of the self selected best posts. However, if it only featured those who nominated themselves, it would only be 20 - 30 posts a week. The success of Haveil Havalim comes from the hosts who supply somewhere between 50 - 80 percent of the posts. (I hope my estimates aren't off.)

If the host tends to the right politically, then those host supplied posts are going to reflect that. In addition, those bloggers who have been most interested in Haveil Havalim have tended to be those from the right. When you're criticizing the makeup of Haveil Havalim, you're criticizing people for not taking the time or effort to participate.

If you want to know what I think is missing from Haveil Havalim is that there are not more posts like Life of Rubin's about Jan Murry, Jack's Shack about his grandfather or PsychoToddler about his father (to give 3 recent examples). Or many posts from AJ History. I really enjoy the slice of life posts that have no agenda except to honor or remember someone or the Jewish experience in general.

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