From me:

Hi everybody. I know most of my posts to this point have been links to other sites or cut and paste jobs. I have been doing this for almost two months now, and I still am sort of fumbling along, finding my way in the dark as to what this is all about.

I finally installed a counter a couple of weeks back, so I know I am getting some hits. Most of the hits are in the neighborhood of a second or less in duration, so I have no idea if they result from real people or spambots looking for fresh meat. Whatever, someone may be reading this (other than you, Paul!)

I love the idea of communicating with this unseen potential audience, and I have wanted to do a web site for some time now. This is my first shot at a web presence, so I guess I'm allowed a certain amount of amateur diddling. But I wanted to lay out a couple of things in terms of what I'm aiming for, a la "Citizen Kane's" Statement of Purpose.

Generally, I see this as a forum for sharing info that I find in my travels along the information superhighway. I also have been very angered and even scared by my country's direction over the last five years or so, beginning with George Bush's term as president (coincidence???) I feel having a space to expound on my feelings on this is therapeutic, and even may open up a chance for dialog with other people who have ideas about it. It hasn't happened yet, but who knows?

And though you might not guess it from the mostly somber tone of a lot of my posts so far, I would like to approach all this with a sense of humor and playfulness. I think laughter is incredibly useful for puncturing the stuffed shirts and sacred cows of the world, and I'd like to have a hand in some of that. I'll be exploring that more in future posts.

Otherwise, I am not a reporter. My research consists of sitting at a computer screen and browsing though other people's works. I am a citizen of the United States of America, and as I understand it that still means, at least at this point, that I have a right to speak my mind, whether my opinion is popular or not. The Constitutional protections of that right are still in place, and I hope they never are eroded or compromised in the name of "security" or "patriotism".

So that's pretty much where I'm coming from. Oh, and I also like to post pictures of my granddaughter and my cockatiels. Please feel free to comment on any of my posts. I look forward to hearing from anyone who is out there, and I hope you enjoy what you see.