Some dying embers of biliousness

I think I've become an addicted blogger. This is an offshoot, of course, of being logorrheic. In real life, I manage to keep the affliction under control, unless I get really irritated by novices or fall into too large a vat of caipirinhas. But the blank screen is an invitation I cannot resist. I am not alone in this. Why else does Bubba Chut come up with something every day for WTF when there is, obviously, nothing happening every day? He's more of a logorrhea enabler, however, than a blatherskite himself. And I can understand the need for new content as a maintenance measure for the site as a whole: if it wants to be the central debate hub, it has to have a reason for people to visit regularly. If WTF actually waited for something to say, they'd go offline in a week. I'm not much of a fan of things like profiles of Mutt Lick Academy for the Morally Inert, but I guess that sort of thing has its fans. It's like looking at some class other than your own in the yearbook; I mean, yeah, they're there too, and then you turn the page. The site as a whole has done a mitotic split into what I consider to be incomprehensible pieces, well-intentioned but poorly executed. They need to redesign. I'd be happy to give them advice. They'd be just as happy, no doubt, to consider it; both Uncle Wiggly and Cousin Bietz have both been known to read my ramblings on occasion. (All right, Uncle Wiggly has the RSS plugged into a chip in his brain, because he usually posts comments before I write the entries, but that's because he's afraid that any minute I'll insult Wil Wheaton, and somebody has to be there to stand up for the downtrodden!) The idea of 4 separate sites doesn't work. You need multiple departments on one site. Or one main department referring off to side departments. As soon as you maringalize any content, or highlight some other content, you send a message that this content is marginal and this other content isn't. Granted that all content is not created equal, but at the point where you predetermine its importance, you're making a value judgment that may conflict with the reader's, and the power of being the one sending messages influences the interest of the one receiving the message. It's like when I write an essay and I add footnotes: I am sending the form-inherrent message that the main body of the essay is the important stuff and that the footnotes are the marginalia. This makes sense in an essay where, indeed, the main body is imporant and the footnotes had better be marginal, but do you want to make the same claims on a general website?

The Legion of Doom will have the same problem, and there has been some debate over it. Some of us have been pushing for a forum of some sort where coaches could discuss issues openly. Anyone interested could see the discussion (and maybe participate -- that part is moot). The point would be to open the Legion's ideas to everyone to overcome the perception that they are a naysaying monolithic horde of dinosaurs. The problem is, how exactly do you do it? Where? As soon as you choose a venue, you've made a statement. The medium is the message. Tough call.

Anyhow, I've never been one to want WTF to go away. I'm too involved in the dialectic; I wouldn't know what to write about half the time if they weren't around. And I don't know where else to go easily to find out what's on the collective mind of the $ircuit at any given time. To tell you the truth, I miss the vituperation of the Smilin' Js and Victor Js of life, and I think they should have more of that. Big old broadside attacks are what make this country great; we're not quite as good at guerilla warfare, which is why a sniper like yours truly may go on forever, but I hardly ever take down any enemy combatants. And I make for poor press coverage. The media like big ass invasions with troop landers and air coverage and the like; we here in the resistance will be remembered after we're gone, but all the blockbuster movies will be about Ike and D-day.

Maybe, it should be noted, there is more heroism in Ike and D-day? Imagine how hard and courageous it is to openly land on the beaches with weapons blazing. What kind of idiot thinks of June 6 as Antichrist day, anyhow. Omen, my patoot! Get your priorities adjusted, squirt.

How did I get off on that?

What I really am thinking about today, twenty-four hours before hitting the trail, is banning gay marriage. I don't know about you, but I for one sleep happier at night knowing that our crack heads of state in the Senate are working hard to defend us against this...whatever it is. I remember distinctly watching the WTC towers collapse and thinking, those damned gay married people! Not to mention how gay married people are raising the price of oil and ruining the economy and worsening the deficit. And you and I both know that all those illegal aliens are, in fact, gay married people. It's gay married people who are burning flags in front of our state houses and taking the isthmus out of Christhmus and promoting postmodernism in LD rounds! The bastids! Every time gays get married, global warming gets hotter. It's gay married people behind Katrina. You know it. I know it. The bastids!

Actually, I don't sleep at all at night. I'm like the walking dead. I need a vacation.

One more day.

Ciao.