The war drove me to blogging. The war against terrorism, that is, led to my original blog (well, it's kind of like a blog anyway). I rarely felt motivated to write letters to the editor in the past, but reading masses of perfectly moronic essays inspired me to write. Email helped it along of course, since I no longer was deterred by needing to find a stamp and envelope. So... various papers here in America, in Canada, and in Britain received perfectly reasonable and reasoned letters from me (with absolutely no foul language, although occasionally disdain did creep in--ok, it was deliberate). None made it to print. I finally got tired of sending off emails into electronic oblivion.
Although I figured my readership would probably decline from the single unpaid intern who previously skimmed and deleted my letters, I thought there was the theoretical possibility that this would be read.
I was inspired by Lileks' site and had multiple subject areas. I cut them down before going live (including my proposed "Waste of Oxygen" section that was to highlight idiots who use oxygen better consumed by mammals and the cuter reptiles).
I had posts regarding the war divided into Defense Issues and Foreign Affairs. I eventually combined them into National Security Affairs after getting tired of trying to figure out where they should go. I also have my first take on the war to come that I wrote within days of the 9/11 attacks. I think it holds up well.
I also eventually added anchors to create pseudo-post links.
Eventually, as I neared my space limits, I transitioned to blogger in December 2004 after dual-posting for a week on both just in case. The old site with its dwindling storage space is now The Dignified Rant: Home Edition, and is reserved for Home Front, Landfill, and List of Annoying Things, along with stuff like an art tour of my home and the start of my Basic Training story, which I've yet to link up since I just have a shell.
In the end, this is my limited part in the war. I want to win it and I want to offer honest commentary on the war. I try to play it straight. I think I do alright on this score, since sometimes I find an old post remarkably similar to a more recent post. If I write what I think, I should be consistent like this. And I think I have the background to offer good opinions grounded in fact and common sense. I may be wrong on occasion, but I'm being honest.
I don't have comments, as you surely noticed. I thought about this when I went to blogger, but was never really tempted. I started without them and will go without them. I don't have the time to moderate and respond to comments (even assuming I get many). And I don't have the need to read praises of my brilliance, nor do I wish to give critics an easy outlet. They can email or blog themselves if they want to rip me a new one. I welcome email comments, of course, and have gotten good commentary and only a few really angry emails (Including one woman who was strangely upset that I mentioned that one really liberal commentator on TV was particularly hot. Flavia somebody, if I recall. She used to be on TV a lot.)
I also never started a blog roll. I have sites I like but adding a blog roll almost seems like a deal proposal to others to link to me. I haven't cared to get on that treadmill. Link to me if you like. I am not offended if you don't. The places I link or cite (if they are so big that a link is really pointless) are the places I read. I don't read very many blogs to avoid the temptation to just write what others are writing about. If I am writing about what a bunch of others are writing about, it is because I had the same reaction to the news/article and not because I get my orders passed down from Karl Rove every Thursday night (or have I given away too much with that last bit?).
I may eventually start categorizing my posts. I really should do that, at least.
Anyway, I'll be having a beer to celebrate. Hoist one at home for me, if you like.
