For five years, Johns Hopkins University bioethics professor Hilary Bok--daughter of former Harvard president Derek Bok, and granddaughter of Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal--was a blogger. Writing under the name "Hilzoy," first for the moderate Obsidian Wings and then for the magazine Washington Monthly, Bok served as the conscience of the blogosphere, taking arguments from the right and left seriously, and writing with such precision that she was able to quickly find fame, like subbing for First Blogger Andrew Sullivan, without disclosing her academic qualifications. Bok, who started blogging in 2004 because she felt "my country had gone insane," hung up her hat this past July, writing that "the country as a whole does not seem to me to be crazy anymore." So far, the birthers haven't pulled her out of retirement, but one can still hope.
