RIP Jon Swift

A sad day for the entire Bloggosphere as Al Weisel, AKA Jon Swift, has passed away:

The great Jon Swift has died. That's the "blogging" angle to a personal tragedy. In reality, the voice of Jon Swift - the hilarious faux conservative blogger whose talent and passion were evident in every post - belonged to Al Weisel, a sweet and good-natured journalist who happened to be the college roommate of my once-and-future collaborator Jason Chervokas.

...snip...

Al was on the way to his father's funeral in Virginia when he suffered a sudden aortic aneurysm and underwent several surgeries in an attempt to save his life. Sadly, they did not succeed.

Heartbreakingly, Al's mother has posted this comment to the Jon Swift blog, unmasking the true identify of her brilliant son - and yes, he was a blogging super-hero to many of us.

I don't know how else to tell you all who love this blog. I am Jon Swift's Mom and I guess I'm going to OUT him. He was Al Weisel, my beloved son. Al was on his way to his father's funeral in VA when he suffered 2 aortic aneurysms, a leaky aortic valve and an aortic artery dissection from his heart to his pelvis. He had 3 major surgeries within 24 hours and sometime during those surgeries also suffered a severe stroke. We, his 2 sisters, his brother, his partner and his best friend since he was 9 years old were with him as he took his last breath. We have all lost a shining start who warmed our hearts, tormented us and made us laugh as he giggled at our pulling something over on us. He passed away on February 27, 2010. My beloved child will live on in so many hearts. I miss him more than I can say. If you are on Facebook, go to organizations and join "Friends of Al Weisel, Unite!" It will give you just a taste of how special he was. Farewell, Jon (Al)

Al Weisel was the political poser's worst enemy as Jon Swift, but he was also a good guy to hang around the pub with and commiserate over New York's shrinking freelance rates. Gone all too soon, he'll be truly missed by many.

One of the greatest satirists in the entire Blogosphere, for certain. And someone I considered a friend even if our only contact was through comments, posts and occasional emails. I had assumed for a longtime that something had been wrong with him as he had not updated his blog in nearly a year. Now we all know why. :(

Here is the Facebook group his mother mentions.

And here is a glimpse of some of what he did beyond the Blogosphere from his profile.

RIP Al Weisel...

[update] I should note that Al began the idea of B.A.D. with some help from skippy, a linking celebration meant to take the Blogroll Amnesty Day that had created some negative feelings in the Blogosphere and turn it around into a positive for everyone of which many Blogs, myself included, were early participants. Here is a list of some of the original B.A.D. participants taken from Jon Swift's own post on Blogrolling and just to give you an idea of how much sway he had in the Blogosphere:

Polimom, My Left Wing, Kiko's House, Blue Gal, Brilliant at Breakfast, Thoughts of an Average Woman, Blah3, Mockingbird's Medley, Hot Potato Mash, Mad Kane, Chapomatic, Howard Empowered People, Instapundit, Classical Values, Mock, Paper, Scissors, Drinking Liberally in New Milford, Pen-Elayne on the Web, Three Sticks, Man Eegee, Barefoot Bum, Three Wise Men, The Apostate, Debsweb, Newshog, Spiidey, The Talking Dog, BostonJoe, Booman Tribune, The News Blog, The Field Negro, If I Ran the Zoo, The Galloping Beaver, The S.N.A.F.U. Principle, driftglass, Republic of T, Faux Real, The Debate Link, Creek Running North and Blogroll Amnesty Day Sucks.

Since that original frenzy of linkage it has grown to become a yearly celebration of Blog discovery. And skippy suggests linking to memorial diaries from the many others that Al's Jon Swift personae has touched and inspired in honor of Al's typically liberal linkage policies:

you made life on earth and in blogtopia a better place.

- - -

you can read other memorials for jon/al here:

tom watson, who also knew al/jon in real life

blue gal

drinking liberally in new milford

john cole @ balloon juice

mad kane

maryscott o'connor @ my left wing

oliver willis

jill @ brilliant @ breakfast

sadly, no!

michael j.w. stickings

carl @ simply left behind

mock paper scissors

distributorcap

blue girl @ blue girl in a red state

glenn reynolds @ instapundit

melissa mcewan @ shakespeare's sister (where jon was a contributor)

instaputz

libby spencer @ the impolitic

kevin k. @ rumproast

kathy kattenburg @ the moderate voice

kathleen maher @ diary of a heretic

mike the mad biologist

mustang bobby @ bark bark woof woof

jill @ feministe

vast left @ corrente

man eegee

steve hynd @ newshoggers

chuck for..., who, sadly, was the subject of jon swift's last post when tragedy visited upon chuck's family

attaturk @ rising hegemon

the mahablog

james wolcott

lance mannion

pamela @ the democratic daily

batocchio @ vagabond scholard

shawn russell @ the tardisgrade

busted knuckles @ ornery bastard

dj @ buzztwang

ann althouse

jeff fecke @ alas! a blog

driftglass

liberal values

jurassic pork @ welcome back to pottersville

pam @ pam's house blend

ed morrisey @ hot air

thers @ whiskeyfire

and blue gal over @ crooks&liars.

we are sure that jon would want his idea of linking to other deserving voices in blogtopia to continue. if you write a memorial on your blog for jon, pls. send us a link and we will post it here.

also, sadly, no! has a special thread for posting links to your favorite smaller blogs, all dedicated to jon's memory.

addendum: the next morning...tributes keep rolling in for al/jon:

joe gandelman @ the moderate voice writes a very heartfelt tribute

terrence @ the republic of t

m.a. peel

tbogg

right wing nut house

outside the beltway

eric martin @ obsidian wings

kevin @ the american street

brad jacobson @ mediabloodhound

cogitamus

the dc trawler

dan @ pruning shears

avedon carol @ the sideshow

m and t @ agidita diaries

steven d. @ booman tribune

david e. @ fablog

the sailor @ vidiotspeak

zencomix

out of context @ oocradio

and lucskyward kevin @ am. street tells us that dougj @ balloon juice is trying to endow an annual al weisel award for internet humor. more on this later.

the day after that: the tributes keep coming in:

shy ann @ cheyenne's campsite

enigma4ever @ watergate summer

that's right nate

zenyenta

ina @ unbound confine

Here is another post from another satirist, William K. Wolfrum, but he lays off the satire in this one. And Reconstitution 2.0 has added another voice to the Blogosphere memorial.

RIP Dave

bigdavefromqueens around these parts, and David Weintraub in real life. There was someone that wasn't afraid to climb out on a limb if it was a cause he believed in.




He thought this was important, important enough to have it as a signature:

"I shall not rest until right wing conservatives are 4th party gadflies limited to offering minor corrections on legislation once or twice a year."

They aren't 4th party, yet, but you pushed them halfway there. And they seem determined to try their best to get the rest of the way.

There is "Spin", and then there is "Spin"

I have been waiting to write something on the Virginia Tech tragedy. And the very reason I have been waiting is the fact that I am truly disturbed with how fast too many of the politicals on both sides have jumped in to the fray with their "talking points" for pet issues.

At the center of that nightmare lies a dark, bottomless pool. As with the Columbines of this country, people will stare into the pool seeking answers. Some will see reflections and try to generalize from them about the nature of the shooter and the victims, but the reflections they see will only be their own. Interest groups will look into the pool and see their causes, filling the talk shows with spokespersons who will say that if we had only done “x” the event would have never happened. Others will take a longer view trying to peer into the depths of the pool seeking confirmation of trends historical, social and psychological. They too will see only their own reflections.

For those at the center of it all, the parents, relatives and friends of the victims and the shooter, those who witnessed it and lived, and those who somehow made a decision to not go to those places at that time the pool will seem more like a maelstrom in which they are caught and cannot get out. Spinning helplessly they will try to maintain some sort of equilibrium, some rationality to keep from drowning in it all. For some this may mean just focusing on the immediate, the details of that which has to be done and it is only days, weeks, even months after that a delayed reaction will overcome them.

People need to show and have a little respect for the dead and grieving.

There is much to be discussed concerning these issues, but for the moment think about these words from LiberalAmerican's thought provoking piece:

Instead we need to turn away from the pool and remember that at least for a brief tick in time all of us will be as one. For now is not a time for politics or debates or even business as usual. Instead families and communities need to realize how fleeting order and life can be and hug one another because that is all they can do. This time as with all those other times we will pledge to love one another a little more and show it. We will swear not to hate and to watch out for those stray souls who slip between the cracks only to emerge from those dark places with guns in their hands. Perhaps this time we can make that oneness last longer.

Perhaps we can remember that kind words can conquer hate and vitriol. Perhaps we can remember to succor the meek, the powerless, the people who have been dealt a bum hand through no fault of their own. Perhaps we can remember that in situations like the Virginia Tech shootings that we are in fact all equal, that it could have been any one of us who died or knew someone who died and yes who knew the shooter, for death recognizes no classes, no races, no languages or cultures as superior. Most of all we can try to nurture that feeling that all of us struggle to feel right now, that feeling of empathy with other human beings we did not know before and whose friends and family we somehow each wish we could help.

To everything
There is a season...

These issues have a time and a place. Now is not the time so, for now, this Blog will not be the place.

Goodbye Babies. Farewell to Earth.

There is no denying that the man had a way with words:

I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”

According to the NY Times he "suffered brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago" and died at the age of 84 in Manhattan on Wednesday night.

Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?

He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,” “finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.”

Not all Mr. Vonnegut’s themes were metaphysical. With a blend of vernacular writing, science fiction, jokes and philosophy, he also wrote about the banalities of consumer culture, for example, or the destruction of the environment.

snip

To Mr. Vonnegut, the only possible redemption for the madness and apparent meaninglessness of existence was human kindness. The title character in his 1965 novel, “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,” summed up his philosophy:

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’”

RIP Kurt Vonnegut.

(Image via Salon.com)