Bloviati non Carborundum
Warren G. Harding is notable for a number of things beyond his prodigious sex drive and the corruption of his administration, including his contributions to American grammar and vocabulary. It was he who invented the word “normalcy” as a substitute for the (then) more proper “normality.” It was also he who graced America with the term “bloviate,” meaning to expound authoritatively and in a long-winded fashion on a variety of subjects about which one knows very little.
The incidence of bloviating seems to be at an all-time high in America, on television, in magazines, and especially on the Internet, where any idiot is free to disseminate the most outrageous opinions and propositions. Over the past few years, I have read a number of pompous blogs and journals by pretentious failures who feel they are qualified to pontificate on the great issues of the day. The fact that they are thirty, living in their parents’ garage, and working at the neighborhood cineplex doesn’t seem to disqualify them, in their minds, from telling the world how it should be. Ten years ago, five years ago, even a year or two ago, I might have begun one of those blogs. However, Life, the Universe, and Everything have conspired to hit me over the head with a number of two-by-fours recently and I no longer feel that I can adequately dictate to those who stumble across my blog whether Karl Rove should be disemboweled, Tony Blair boiled in oil, or the Patriot Act shredded before the Bill of Rights is or after. Indeed, I’m not really certain of anything anymore.
Hence, the title of my blog and my pseudonym.
I am embarking on my personal search for truth and I have decided to blog it, to journal my journey, to share my thoughts with anyone who might be interested. Perhaps it will all be fruitless. Perhaps I will find nothing profound or interesting; but, possibly someone out there might be moved by what I find and write and, if so, I will be happy. If not, at least, I will have had an interesting time by myself.
