Saturday Night Document Dump

Here I go, breaking all the rules.

I'm getting to like this rhythm. Blogging tends to run on immediacy and rapid-response, which is not always the best way to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Listening to Daniel Schorr this morning I realized the ghost of Richard Nixon was still with us, because: "We are all bloggers now." Not that Schorr was blogging, or even talking about blogging, but he was blathering on about the Libby trial and saying absolutely nothing any sentient being couldn't have thought just from watching CNN Headline News. I was thinking about Molly Ivins, who was known for her opinions and sharp wit, but who was, first and foremost, a reporter. A, quelle horreur as we say in Lubbock, journalist! Bloggers pontificate on what they read, based on what they think (Glenn Greenwald, as a case in point, has a book coming out in the fall all about his opinions of who George W. Bush really is. Yet I doubt Mr. Greenwald has ever spoken to George W. Bush personally, any one who knows George W. Bush, either as a friend or an employer or business person, or did any more research for his book than read news accounts about George W. Bush. That's blogging, folks. That's Sen. Frist diagnosing Terri Schiavo via videotape. Fine to have your opinion, but it doesn't mean you know what you're talking about).

So am I a blogger? Well, maybe not, if the standard now is how many people read what you say, and agree with it (it's all about popularity, ya know!). But maybe blogging should just be about airing ideas, spouting opinions, sounding a barbaric yawp the world can hear, if they choose to listen. I'm no journalist, and I certainly have political opinions (as a Jeffersonian democrat I consider that not only a right, but an obligation); but maybe blogging would benefit a bit less from "I saw it first!" and a bit more from: "Let's reflect on this a bit." And let's remember history happens over time, not every morning in the headlines.

Sometimes I feel like I'm supposed to be a goose, waking up in a new world everyday. I'd rather feel like I was inhabiting eternity; but since blogging is never going to encourge that long a view, perhaps we can at least stretch the view out to a week at a time, for a while.

See how that feels. Anyway, for at least 4 more weeks that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

(And yes, I know the time stamps are all over the place, and everything went up Saturday night. I blame Daylight Savings Time. This is what happens when you tinker with God's time!)