Mission Statement

It occurs to me that perhaps I should talk a bit about why I post here every night.  I harbor no illusions of a future in punditry or that this blog will ever be read by more than a handful of good friends.  But I do occasionally think grandiose thoughts, to borrow a phrase from Newt, about the blog as a method of approaching political involvement.  Rather than passively absorbing talking points from The National Review or MSNBC, or only discussing politics with like-minded, unchallenging people, I get to discuss the issues of the day with (most frequently) a libertarian and a Christian minister and other friends with a variety of views.  Friendly conversation of politics provides a non-confrontational protection from the "ism schism game" of thinking one's own positions are always correct.  I try to get the same sort of thing by listening to Hannity and reading Drudge, but this is a much more constructive and pleasant approach.

Thanks to the interwebs, I think that the level of discourse in this kind of setting can be at a pretty high level despite being carried out among people who do other things for a living.  While we don't spend all day reviewing the latest reports from the RAND Corporation, we have the advantage of quick, easy access to whichever resource or column or clip might be germane.  So the interactivity of the format comes at a low cost in terms of quality.

I also think it's useful, not to mention kind of fun, to get on the record with where I stand on the issues of the day.  Sharing my thoughts hopefully at least on occasion encourages at least a few of you to think about something or other in a different way, even if it's rejected.  It'll also be fun down the road to find all the ridiculous predictions I've made over the years, such as my post positing an end to the Republican Party because the economy would certainly recover by the 2010 elections, which would the final nail in the coffin of the GOP.

Oops.

So I'm looking forward to the next four months worth of posts and discussion.  I'd of course be happy to discuss any political issue that might be on your mind.