Politics is the fart jokes of blogging
The Ministry's inboxes have been flooded recently with missives bearing anguished cries from our many readers. "Why," they ask, "has the Ministry scaled back on its unusually penetrating and insightful coverage of the current political scene? Where else can we go?"
It is time for a reply. For my part, the decline in politically themed posting stems mainly from the fact that, though I am to a certain degree wonkishly interested in policy and politics, I am more interested in sharing embarrassing stories from my past, interesting food or beverage experiences, and random musings on topics that actually have very little bearing on whether we all live or die. It's not just that Politics:Blogs::Keith Richards:Heroin, though that's a part of it. There are plenty of top-shelf bloggers out there reading bills, parsing doubletalk, and watching out for our collective asses. Obsidian Wings, John Cole of Balloon Juice, and the staff of Reason's Hit and Run are three such shining exemplars.
But - and let's be frank - politics is done to death. As anyone can see from reading the archives at Little Green Footballs, it is difficult to stare day after day into the abyss and retain a sense of scope. Every new dawn brings a fresh raft of stunning outrages-- which ones are for real? Which ones are not worth fretting over? It quickly becomes hard to tell.
For instance. Should I be concerned that Congress tacked legislation creating a national ID program onto an appropriations bill regarding money for the war in Iraq? Orin Kerr of the Voloks says "yes, but not too much." So why do I get the creeping horrors at the mention of Senator Sensenbrenner's name?
Should I be worried about Social Security? Alex Taborrok says "Yes!!!". Indeed, private companies can bail out on their pension schemes if they can't pay them, trusting that the Feds will pick up much of the tab. If the Feds can't pick up their tab, who do they bail to?
Should I be outraged that the NIH used foster children as guinea pigs for experimental AIDS drugs in the 1980s and 1990s? There are apparently glaring irregularities in how subjects were selected, monitored, informed, and tracked. Ah, but maybe it saved lives! Why does this remind me of Kazuo Isiguro's latest novel?
Should I care that Congress recently upped mandatory minimums for drug offenses, tacking on special extras if a crime was committed within a city block of a gun? Or if one of the perpetrators was thinking about guns? (Check this out, and see if you can spot the giant pit of stupid:)
"Mr. Forbes argued that critics who say jail time only turns juvenile offenders into hardened criminals overlooked the potential for keeping them behind bars when they are most likely to commit crimes. "The crime-probability ages are 15- to 24-year-olds," he said, "and if you take the person off the streets for that period then the statistics go enormously away in terms of perpetrating additional crimes."
I just don't know what to think any more, so I'm resorting to blogging about food, music, and the occasional footwear. Perhaps Minister Buckethead can take up the political side of things, and at least give me a wall to bounce my objections off of. That doesn't hurt when I do that, does it dude?
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Over the last several months,
Over the last several months, I have started and left unfinished countless political posts. Perhaps it is post election anomie, perhaps the fact that I was unemployed and suffering from seasonal affective disorder, perhaps because I was spending most of my day watching Sir John-the-increasingly-mobile-and-talkative so that Mrs. Buckethead can study. Whatever the reason, no political topic has enough juice to get me over the hump and into the realm of saying something interesting. Most of my posts petered off into one of two lame codas:
"Well, basically that's stupid."
or
"Well, isn't that obvious?"
Long walks in the park with a two-year-old are great for lazy contemplation, but not so good for incisive political analysis. You have to be at least a little pissed off to write about politics, and after a session at the playground the only thing I'm good for is a comparative analysis of swingset equipment or babbling about how exceptional my son is. And you would not believe the level of restraint it took to only post one picture of my son over the last six months.
Today, however, I am once again ensconced in a government-beige cubical. The formica-esque surface of the desk is slimy under my forearms. I peer, squinting, into a thirteen inch monitor, even though as a tech writer I have far more need of a big monitor than any coder who probably wouldn’t notice if he was using a amber screen monitor from the eighties. I am once again spending two hours of my day commuting to work. This may be enough to generate sufficient levels of pissiness that I will start writing about politics again.
Or, enough motivation to finish my incredibly involved space war strategy post.
"Over the last several months
"Over the last several months, I have started and left unfinished countless political posts."
Welcome to my nightmare. But at least it didn't kill YOUR blog. Nor will it.
Avast with the politics, sez me. More music, tomfoolery, and food.
Oh, and high-five on the return to The Grind, B. I hope it sucks less than it could.
Well, we have dorkiness,
Well, we have dorkiness, giant fighting robots and such to sustain us. So far, at least the job does suck far less than it could, and it pays a good chunk better than the last one, so I count myself blessed.
You know, anytime you have a goofy nonpoliitcal idea you want to get off your chest, you are more than welcome to post it here. We would insist on it, in fact.