WSS Featured Blogger: MizM of Left at the Altar

• Name: MizM
• Blog: Left At The Altar
• Tag Line: Unapologetically liberal observations on news, politics, media, science, philosophy, faith and future
• Location:San Francisco, CA

1. How did you start blogging? Why do you keep at it?

I started when I realized I could use a blog to stop spamming my friends with emailed news clippings and diatribes, putting everything in one easy location that they could ignore at their own peril. Friends referred it to other friends, and the address began creeping around. (Kudos to Blogger for making it so easy to start.) I keep at it because people keep coming, and because I can't stop myself, and because there's so much work to do!

2. What are your most important issues?

(1) Regime change. (2) Regime change. (3) Regime change. And human rights, environmental issues, peacemaking, the interaction of faith and politics, ethics... Whenever possible, served up with a little humor.

3. What's the nicest recognition you've ever received from the media and/or the blogosphere?

A friend and fellow blogger called me "the Molly Ivins of the West Coast." Another asked me to run for office. Both were friends, of course, so it probably doesn't count.

4. Who is your audience? What is unique about your blog?

The blog is aimed at the community on the "religious left," which is certainly not completely unique, but it's a community that's still finding its voice. And the blog is definitely aimed at liberal Democrats. Liberal. (Be proud, people.)

5. Most frustrating aspect of blogging?

I feel really bad when I can't make daily updates; I know readers want daily updates!

6. What's the one point you'd like a reader to take away from your blog- the one thing for them to really "get"?

That people of faith have a special obligation to oppose the policies of George W. Bush, in order to reverse the destruction, oppression and exploitation he is imposing in his "biblical world view." That means staying very well informed, because BushCo attacks on many fronts; I hope the blog contributes to that. (And even if we are successful in removing him from office, the obligation remains!)

Quote: "A successful autocracy rests on the universal failure of individual courage. In a democracy, abdications of conscience are never trivial." -- Marilynne Robinson