Laurie Shrage via fiu.edu

Yesterday, a piece by FIU philosophy and women's and gender studies professor Laurie Shrage inspired quite the Twitstorm -- as well as one rebuttal, sure to be followed by more today.

Titled "Is Forced Fatherhood Fair?" and published Wednesday morning on the New York Times' philosophy blog "The Stone," Shrage's essay makes the case for an expanded definition of fatherhood and for giving men "more control" over whether they become parents.

In the United States, motherhood, she writes, is more or less optional:

[W]omen and girls have access to affordable and safe contraception and abortion services, and ... [to] programs [which] assist mothers in distress find foster or adoptive parents.

A man, on the other hand, has considerably fewer options if he accidentally impregnates a woman.

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Brian Andrews wants to play your accordion and hump the air.

On a recent overcast day in downtown Fort Lauderdale, a cluster of reporters watched a tanned blond man sashay into the federal courthouse dressed like the Joker: orange pants, purple socks, red pocket square, and a Technicolored iPhone in his hand.

Murmurs immediately.

"Who's that?" one reporter asked.

"He's definitely not print," another reporter said.

No, he most certainly wasn't. The tanned man, Brian Andrews, is a newscaster with CBS4.

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Whitey need not apply?

Wyatt Duvall worked as a home delivery man for the Sun-Sentinel between April 2006 and October 2010. The business wasn't new to him: when the Boca Raton resident had pulled stints hauling dead trees throughout his life, including runs in California, his native-Kentucky, and at the now-shuttered Boca News.

With a long resume, Duvall figured he'd have an easy time jumping the ranks to a district coordinator position at the Sentinel's Deerfield Beach distribution center.

But when openings came, Duvall claims he was twice passed over for less qualified candidates who were Hispanic. In one situation, Duvall says he tried to apply for the position, but was simply ignored.

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The first installment of our highlight reel from the area blogosphere featured everything from legal scholarship to sex toys.

Round two keeps the quality flowing, with a diverse selection from all over the ideological map. Here are laser-guided muckrakes and movement funeral oratory, community issues, and court cases. If anything, this gives you a sampler platter of which local keyboard pounders to bookmark for 2013. Below are some thoughts from the bloggers about why this is their pick, followed by some lines from the original post. Enjoy.

Tim Smith, Tim Smith's Fort Lauderdale: The Great Mahogany Massacre, published June 23

"I wrote this piece back in June, when the School Board started a late Friday hacking of some beautiful giant Mahoganies around the Fort Lauderdale High School. Channel 10 picked up the story and it went a tad viral... had thousands of visits to that little story and it set up a battle between the City's laws and the School Boards' authority... I'm hoping they'll think twice next time (they'll probably change the work to a Sunday afternoon)."

It may go down as one of the biggest tree massacres that Fort Lauderdale has ever seen! Before yesterday, these gauged Mahoganies were part of the treelined, shady Fort Lauderdale High School grounds -- Then came yesterday! .... Neighborhood President Randall Klett was the first to see the carnage happening Friday afternoon (odd time to start ?) . . .

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As a way of wrapping up 2012, we reached out to the bloggers working the turf in Broward and Palm Beach for their favorite posts from the calendar year.

Here is the first installment of what we received. Below you'll find a few lines from the writers themselves about why the posts worked well, a first taste from the piece, and a link to the rest of the original post. The grab bag covers the gamut, from thoughtful analysis to classic flame-throwing. Stay tuned for more.

David Oscar Markus, Southern District of Florida Blog: Judge Adalberto Jordan confirmation stalled (briefly) and Sen. Patrick Leahy quotes this blog regarding Judge Jordan, published February 13 and 14.

"Generally, the blog was at its best when it was able to quickly inform the legal community about magistrate and district judge appointments -- long before the mainstream media was able to do so. One of the most influential posts of the year had to be the post that Senator Leahy quoted discussing the tactics by Republicans that were being used to stall President Obama's judicial appointments, which in this case happened to be Judge Adalberto Jordan, who had bipartisan support. He ended up getting confirmed to the 11th Circuit after Leahy's speech."

So, here's the absurdity of our judicial confirmation process -- the full Senate voted 89-5 to invoke cloture, meaning that Judge Jordan's nomination to the 11th Circuit would finally come to a vote. But then Senator Nelson said that one Senator is holding up the merits vote by demanding 30 more hours of "debate" post-cloture . . .

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Sun Sentinel limps along without the Associated Press.

Most people won't notice a difference. Really, who would? The bylines hide between the headlines and the article, and besides, the entire intent of journalism isn't the writers but the stories.

So, maybe, people won't notice. But they should. In the wake of Newsweek's last issue and the Miami Herald's impending move to Doral, the Tribune Co. -- the Sun Sentinel's parent overlord -- just dropped the Associated Press, dealing yet another body blow to one of Florida's finest and storied newspapers.

For more than a decade, most newspapers have tried to hide the fact that they're doing substantially more with substantially fewer people. On a daily basis, the actual content hasn't changed all that much from two decades ago, though investigations and true pieces of writing have become far fewer.

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We've got some high-brow competition. And we know him well. 
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If you've found yourself thinking lately that your life has been sorely lacking in obnoxious troglodytic sports talk radio, today is your lucky day! After being fired from 560 WQAM-AM last April following a DUI arrest (broken by New Times) that apparently included weeping, curling up in a fetal position, and jabbing fingers into his mouth to induce vomiting, sports radio personality Sid Rosenberg is back on South Florida radio waves starting this morning at 6 a.m. on 640 Sports (WMEN).

Rosenberg, who has a history of drugs, alcohol, and gambling problems that have cost him several radio jobs, tried to drive home from Tootsies Cabaret last April. He was completely trashed. Around 1:45 a.m. Hollywood police pulled him over, he fell into a fetal position, cried, puked, and was taken in. Now he's back -- again -- and, even though he's claiming sobriety, Sid promises to still be a total douche on the radio because "That's who I am."

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Lotta stories with 'H' logos today.

The Miami Herald's impending paywall, it seems, will not be making enough money to make the paper feel better. The newspaper has a creative new way of pulling in cash, starting RIGHT NOW! It's charging readers for stuff they don't want.

The Herald sent out an email to subscribers on Friday explaining how very lucky they were to be receiving the "2012 Football Preview" at the end of the month, for the "nominal one-time charge of $1.25," which you did not agree to and you can opt out of only by calling the paper's automated consumer help line and waiting on hold to ask about it.

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A weird story out of Tampa Bay -- according to WTVT, "Governor Rick Scott has agreed to write blogs for the Huffington Post." Yes, it appears HuffPo will just be publishing the governor's press releases verbatim:

As Romney is turning up the heat on President Obama by stressing Florida's problems, progressive commentator Arianna Huffington invited Governor Scott to explain how Florida is improving, and how small businesses are succeeding.

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