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Pardon me while I whip this out! This post has been a long time coming, and I may meander a bit in telling the story. Try to stay with me: this cat's tale is a convoluted one.
First of all, I want to thank all those who helped make July 10, 2010, what might turn out to be the ultimate high point of my blogging days. These include Bree Palin, Gryphen and Patrick, who apparently decided it was time to recognize Palin Babygate, the regular readers who commented and sent me direct messages, and of course, all the newbies who finally discovered that there might be something interesting to read over at PB. I can only hope that a significant percentage of you will continue to visit and comment.
That brings us all to an annoying little pebble in the mattress that I do not think we shall ever completely remove, the comment system at PB. After reading through many of your issues posted here and at IM yesterday, I spent considerable time further researching the problem. The short answer is that I do not think I can find a better solution than we already have. All those little known and even less utilized comment options have been deleted. You must now unequivocally set up a Google account to comment on this blog. I do not think this option is as scary or problematic as you might fear. You can provide as much or as little information as you choose, and you can change it at any later time, too. When someone clicks the link on your comment to learn more about you, all that must be listed is your screen name and how many times others have sought the same information. If sharing any information with Google privately that is not displayed scares you, I am afraid I do not have a better alternative. I have been using the Google system on all my blogs for years, and I have no complaints whatsoever, as either a blog author or commenter on other blogs.
To continue this discussion about comments, I must include the two big boys of our industry, PG and IM, two blogs that are as significantly different from PB as they are from each other. PG uses the Disqus system for comments and IM allows anonymous comments with moderation. Especially considering the subject matter and lack of anonymity, I am sure any of you would agree that I would have to be truly nuts to offer anonymous comments without moderation. I personally do not like moderation, from the standpoint of either a blogger or a commenter. If something changes in the future, I shall, of course, change with it, but for now, the Google system probably works best for me. Yes, I have often considered copying PG's Disqus system idea, but whenever I analyze the big picture, I decide against it. If that's what the gang over at PG wants, fine, that's their business, but the swirling circles of chit-chat that this sort of system encourages is just not my thing. Yes, I want to have a lot of influence over the mood and direction of our movement, but that does not necessarily include a large herd of regular commenters. I would much prefer a large herd of regular readers, some of whom have already conversed with me via direct e-mail on a regular basis. Gryphen has his thing, Patrick and Kathleen have theirs, and I have mine. I hope none of you are offended by this analogy because no offense is intended. I hope thousands of you flood my in-box with comments. I read every one of them. However, I want to read them as they come in and are posted at PB. I do not want you to have to wait for me to come home from an errand, sort through all the messages, and then release the appropriate ones to the blog. I also do not wish to return home to a relentless spam or Palinbot attack, either, courtesy of having the convenience of Anonymous comments.
For all of my newcomers, please allow me to indulge in the repetition of what you regulars most likely already know. I am not, nor have I ever been or ever had interest in becoming, a journalist, a rock star, a television or radio personality, or a scientific researcher (all right, that one I did at one time aspire to be, but that's another story). I have a lot more in common with Karl Rove than President Obama, aside from the political side of the fence Mr. Rove has wallowed in for decades! I am a behind the scenes sort of guy. I have never had the looks for television or the voice for radio. What I am is a writer. Bree mentioned in the interview how she always just threw her blog posts together quickly without thinking much about them, and that is indeed how most bloggers write, but not me. I have to be in a special imaginative, creative frame of mind. I have to have a catchy title, a hook like a Top Forty single, a purpose, and an emotional ending of some sort to tie it all together. Nearly everything I write has been mulled over in my mind beforehand, sometimes for months, never for merely moments. When I get my story together, I nail it down in the computer, along with all my previous inspirations. I do the majority of the editing in my head long before I begin to write, so there is usually little to be changed after the composition has been made. Everything is proofread because pesky errors will always find their way into even the best planned posts.
I have never written fiction. I have read some of it, but I prefer nonfiction of many different types. Every book I have written is a compilation of many such inspired short pieces as described above. Yes, I am planning another book. I have been planning it since 2002, but this particular story has already been delayed several times. This next book will
not be an expose of the scams of Sarah Palin, although a large majority of many blog posts that I have made at PB and NIAFS in recent years will be edited into the content, along with other material that I began writing long before I had ever heard the witch's name. As I said, I am not a journalist. That is just not my thing. I am a psychosocial, political and economic, commentator. There is a little Bill Hicks, Bill Maher, Bill Engvall, George Carlin, Bill O'Reilly, Jean Shepherd, Lewis Black, Michael Moore, Al Franken, James Howard Kunstler, Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Robert Rimmer, Peter Egan, and Kurt Vonnegut in practically everything I write.
There is one key point that I wish to make about my position on Babygate. No book or politician is going to bring the bitch down. Books are written to tell you all the gory details of the story
after the central scam has been exposed. Yes, Romney, Huckleberry, and others have plenty of reasons and ammunition to stop her, but they ain't gonna do it! Why? I don't know, but
that is the story of the century, folks, and that is precisely why I started this blog. We have to scream it from the rooftops. The MSM is in on the scam, and the bigger the media entity or personality, the deeper they are in on it. She is not being brought down for lack of evidence, and I think this misguided concept is why Palingates bugs me. The evidence already produced has been overwhelming. One more picture or one more secret document is not going to do the trick. It is great that PG is assembling and publicizing all this stuff, but it ain't going to muzzle the pitbull. Live by the sword, die by the sword, and this screechy voice of hate is supported by the only media that can take her down. We have to convince them that the truth is about to escape and they have to grab onto the caboose of the gravy train.
In-depth interviews are one of my favorite things to read as well as write. I left Charlie Rose out of the list above so I could mention him here. I would love to repeat yesterday's performance over and over, but my tubes are tied. Like the cat above, I am ready to party, but I need someone to party with. I know many secrets and I am good at keeping them, but more key players need to come forward. One idea I think that would work concerns how so many have pleaded with Gryphen to just tell us all more of what he knows, even when it is only rumor and supposition. Why not let me send him one of my interview questionnaires and he can send copies to some of his anonymous sources? Then he could send the replies back to me and I could edit the result into one inclusive interview with several sources at once. All the interview subjects' identities would be known only by Gryphen. What's wrong with that idea? I would be happy to interview Audrey, Gryphen, Morgan, Patrick, Barb Dwyer, or any other of the famous names of Babygate, too. All they have to do is contact me and say yes.
Where is all this going? I don't have the foggiest notion. I have no more Aces or Jokers up my sleeve at this point. I am as wide-eyed and bushy-tailed as the cat in the picture. Where is my lap dance?