Oui

Posts like this remind me why I religiously read Ian Wood's site. Ok, my religion may be a little "different," or "zany" to you, but I find nothing wrong with rolling around in Crisco singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Leave me be--what kind of libertarianish person are you?

I digress.

Ian made one particular point that I find compelling and something I had felt rather "alone" in my thinking on:

And so, I don't read him (Sullivan) much anymore, which isn't so much an example of cocooning as it is of my general boredom with the whole Blogosphere Thing. Maybe I need to get out more. Virtually, that is. Sullivan isn't even telling me anything that I don't know or particularly disagree with. I'm just tired. Of. Hearing. It.

I'm also tired of wriggling on an epistemological spit turned by the billion handed beast of Information. Goddammit, I don't know what's going on in Guantanamo. And unless you're locked up there or guarding someone who is, neither do you. There's so much manure being flung in all directions, masquerading as news, that it's impossible to delve into that and many other issues without stinking. I'm tired of stinking. I want to ride my bike and eat Doritos.

When I first read this I shouted, "Yes!" and sprinted to the kitchen for that can of Crisco, but thankfully I hesitated, and became immersed in deep reflection on my intentions providing the basis of these thoughts.

Am I joyously enjoying the ripping of the establishment in the blogosphere because I get like 3 visitors a day to my site and I am filled with raging bile over it? No, I don't really care. I didn't start this site (thanks Kyle) for anything other than having an outlet to put my thoughts down. Writing in a journal takes too long, and I like quoting people because they're way smarter than I am.

So, I think have some actual legitimate gripes that Ian articulated above as a reader. I'm tired of reading how outraged and angry people are about what the New York Times said, or what Barbara Boxer did, or what a dunce Michael Moore is. I often agree with the gripes, but the volume is too loud and there aren't very many other conversations occurring that supplement the angry stuff. After the election, the number of blogs that I regularly read diminished by a factor of 10 due to my realization that after all the election mudslinging was done, there just wasn't that much substance and people were just as angry. People quote other people because they're just as angry about the latest knee-jerk topic and inter-blog warfare ensues. Comments pile up, people take sides, and the playground scenario manifests itself in our virtual world.

Not that I'm immune to this. I actually loved watching Glenn hammer away at Sullivan a few weeks back, and said so, but it's nothing of which I am proud. Anger is ok, but what are you actually saying?

I'm actually a pretty happy person, and try to retain some semblance of a positive attitude as I walk through this dark, morose, shit-stain of a existence called life. I'm pressing to make "The Power of Positive Thinking" work for me, man!

Anyway, the rub of it all is some great thinkers/writers have grown weary because of this catering to the lowest common denominator. Steven Den Beste hung it up, Ian posts less and Steven Green steps away for long periods of time. Unfortunately, these are the guys who best help me understand current events because instead of hysteria and raw emotion, they provide crucial historical perspective that is really difficult to find. Just like my underwear drawer, life is full of the good, the bad and the ugly and nothing will change that, but just as that is constant, the peanut gallery on the left and right will continue to yatter away with a bile that is just above the level of bumpersticker logic.

Great, now I writing a pissed off post criticizing people for being pissed off. And I wonder why no one reads this site.

So Ian, I'm with ya, but I'm begging you to keep writing. Write about beating your washing machine, or holding Zarqawi hostage, or riding your bike because that is far more interesting than 99.999% of the blog fodder out there. I'll be interested in seeing what you come up with in your journeys "out there," because I'm going to start getting "out there" too. Sorry for the suck up post, but I couldn't agree with you more.

In the meantime, has anyone seen the size of those Crisco containers at Costco? I mean, my God...