Via Glenn Reynolds, I was fascinated to learn about a blogger who has been criticized for having too many links. Jon Swift (a man after my heart) will blogroll anyone regardless of politics or traffic ranking:

when it comes to blogrolling I am surprisingly liberal, as you can see from the Blogroll Policy I have posted on my sidebar. "I will add anyone to my blogroll who adds me to theirs, whether conservative, liberal, moderate, libertarian or Albigensian, with the exception of spam or porn blogs or anything else your mother would be embarrassed to read," it states. I oppose litmus tests for blogs as well as Supreme Court Justices.

You might think that for all their talk of being inclusive, more liberals might agree with my policy. Although some other blogs have adopted my policy as their own, and my blogroll was recently mentioned in a post about blogrolls as an example of a site that had a blogroll "a mile long," my policy is surprisingly controversial and not universally accepted.

1) that I am too longwinded; and

2) that because I will blogroll almost anyone, my blogroll is equally longwinded, and therefore "out of control."

Yes to the former and yes to the latter. The former is just the way I write, and the latter reflects my philosophy, and an early idea I had that generosity in linking would lead to dynamic growth of the blogosphere. Whether this is true, or whether it just causes "inflationary growth," I do not know. Frankly, the blogroll has been the way it is for so long that it's now one of Classical Values' traditional values, and except for maybe deleting dead blogs occasionally, I do not intend to change it.

Which is why I just added Jon Swift to my blogroll. I think his blogroll philosophy is admirable.

What seems to have given rise to the discussion of blogroll bloat was a self-serving post by Atrios (titled "Happy Blogroll Amnesty Day") in which he claimed he was purging his blogroll in order to be fair or something.

Hey, the blogroll is gone.

As I wrote earlier, one of the big complaints by new bloggers is that it's impossible to get onto blogrolls because established bloggers tend not to add them. They're right. A big reason for that is that everyone feels a wee bit guilty about removing blogs from their blogroll, so they're hesitant to add new ones to an ever-expanding list.

Or blogroll bulimia? (Geez, the urge to purge seems to be contagious lately....)

FWIW, I think Atrios's new "policy" sucks. While I know my blogroll looks ridiculous to many (and I agree, it is a little disorderly), the fact is that being dumped from a blogroll is the most insulting thing that can happen to a blogger. Any blogger. Even the high and mighty Atrios, whom I have blogrolled for years (and who of course will remain despite his latest snit).

However, I guess if Atrios had ever blogrolled me (which he had not) I might feel honored to be a purge victim right now. So let's just pretend that I just got purged by Atrios, and that I'm outraged. In fact, let's pretend I'm so outraged that I'm in the mood for -- for....

CORRECTING ERRORS!

In an accompanying post written five minutes earlier, Atrios pronounces Glenn Reynolds the "Wanker of the Day," and says this:

I have never come across a person so proud of their own profound stupidity.

Better yet, SIC SAEC SUC!

Normally I don't correct grammar. (I avoid the "sic" business as it often strikes me as argumentatively tedious.) But considering that Atrios is a college professor, for all I know he was grading students for their errors when he wrote what is called an error in number. It's supposed to be "proud of his own profound stupidity." I suspect Professor Black knew deep down inside that he was wrong, but instead of correcting himself, he lashed out at all those little people who helped over the years to make him what he is today.

For shame!

MORE (more damn numbers, that is): Regarding the merits of the "pride of profound stupidity" claim, Atrios links Glenn Reynolds's discussion of a dispute between Tim Blair and Tim Lambert over whether 79 is "similar" to 88.

My view is that those who want it to be similar will consider it similar.

At the risk of being profoundly proud of my stupidity, I'd rather be 79 than 88.

UPDATE: Longtime reader, commenter and linker Socrates wondered whether my failure to blogroll him was an "intentional snub." It was neither intentional, nor a snub! It is my intention to blogroll all blogs that blogroll me, and I try to do this whenever when I discover them. The problem with me is that I am a very poor administrator -- which is why my blogroll asks people to email me and let me know. As far as I know, I have never intentionally failed to honor a request to be blogrolled.

However, any failure to blogroll me is a very grave matter. I will state here and now that all who do not blogroll Classical Values are not only guilty of intentional snubbing, but they are engaged in discrimination, in what amounts to a conspiracy to deprive everyone of my civil rights! Furthermore, by making it harder for potential readers to freely access this blog, they are stifling their First Amendment rights -- thus contributing to the annihilation of free speech and free association!

I therefore reserve the right to engage in retaliatory non-reciprocation!