Does everyone on the planet already have a blog ???

After some serious consideration, I've come to the conclusion that it's time I start spewing forth some of the clutter, which has recently begun to fester inside my brain ... Those who know me best might suggest this won't take more than a few seconds, but I have a feeling that over time, the spill could reach major proportions.

This was all spurred on as a result of a particular news item, which has spilled over onto the web and the realm of the so-called "Blogosphere". I just happened to have enough interest in the story, to Google it and I ended up in an endless series of [fill-in-the-blank].blotspot.com sites ... Each one opining (from a completely uninformed perspective I might add) on the matter.

Which all lead me to the conclusion that I must be the only person on Earth not to have a blog of my own. And I have to say, after reading many of those blogs, whatever I might spew forth can't possibly be too much worse than some of what's already out here.

Don't get me wrong, while some of the blogs and comments I read were barely coherent and steeped in ignorance, some were very well written, and even a few were presented from an objective viewpoint to boot.

In my years online ...

Just over 12 to be exact, as I met my wife online, on the original MSN in late 1995, back when you had to pay for monthly access and (in her case) long distance dial-up access as well. We were one of the first recorded online romances, which resulted in marriage and were the focus of a couple local news station reports (local to where she lived, and I moved ... We were on opposite sides of the country, Idaho and Texas), because nobody had ever heard of such a thing and the Internet itself was a big unknown ... Oh and yeah, we're still very happily married. And yeah ... I digress just a bit, you'll get used to it ... Or maybe not.

I've generally stayed away from blogging and blogs in general. Generally speaking I figure people want to read my ramblings about as much as I have cared to read their ramblings.

But because the lines between news and entertainment are so blurred these days ...

And because you can see a news story on a major network where they encourage their viewers to go to the Internet and read blogs to get "the rest of the story" (which has an implied "which we aren't willing to air lest we get sued, but we think you really would like to read what we found online" air about it) ...

And because when you do there's no differentiation between John and Jane Doe's uninformed, absurd ramblings (which reads more like something you'd find on a bathroom wall or a lynch mob's itinerary/to-do list), and an actual coherent account of factual information ...

And because news outlets are blurring the lines between news and entertainment, and half the time I watch the news these days it's more like watching people gossip with that ever so subtle mind-control edge, instead of presenting the actual news of the day ...

And because the older I get, the more concerned I am becoming over the direction our country is headed in and it appears to me that the media is actively diverting our attention away from the problems we should be focusing on, rather than shining a light on them ...

And because I've quite simply reached the point where I don't care what people think of my opinion anymore ...

I think it's about time I joined in on the blogging and rambled along with everyone else.

Hopefully with a certain amount of objectivity and reason ... A bit of occasional humor ... Literacy is always nice ...

And ultimately, if nothing else ... With the intent of relieving some of this clutter that has begun to fester inside my brain.