"What's It About?"

Not too long ago (meaning like an hour ago) I asked a friend of mine if she wanted to read my blog, and she asked "What's it about?"

So now I'm wondering what, exactly, is my blog about?

Nothing, really. When I started this, I didn't want to have a political blog. Politics to me is always such a huge bummer. Nobody can disagree politely with anyone any more. Political discourse is effectively dead because at the first sign of a disagreement, people start calling one another names. Cable TV is full of shows where the personalities refer to people they disagree with as idiots, lunatics, pinheads, dumbasses and the like. That's why I don't listen to talk radio - the screaming and yelling gets under my skin. It's why I don't watch TV news shows that purport to "interpret" the news for me. It's why I don't listen to talk radio. I can form my own opinions for myself, thank you very much, and I don't need some "host" to form opinions for me while constantly calling the Other Guys idiots or dumbasses. And it's also why I didn't want a political blog.

It's a hell of a way to run a democracy - when the best interests of the population are ignored for the sake of pushing a political agenda or a political personage, we're all in trouble. But then again, we were already in trouble the minute we stopped being "citizens" and turned into "consumers." Maybe it's just me, but being referred to as a "consumer" makes me crazy, as though I'm nothing but a walking collection of credit card numbers and bank accounts. I'm not supposed to have any role in the political process; I'm just supposed to "consume media" like a good little slave and do what my party handlers tell me I should do.

We saw how well that worked in the Soviet Union.

But my point it that my blog isn't about anything in specific. Just stuff. Stuff that interests me, or stuff that only seemed interesting at the time, but I don't have any illusions about anything.