Update 20050919:This morning the Museum is lacking their blogroll so I could not visit any new right-wing blogs, but I'm not sure it matters. So far the best thing I've noted is this picture.
I'll have to keep visiting for a little while, but I'm starting to think that there must be a Mars-Venus-like difference between at least this variety of conservative and myself. After I start looking I have to force myself to keep looking. Their facts are not my facts, and I feel their stance on my facts is that they are not facts. I've seen a lot of smug LOLing among them, and I simply can't stand "LOL". "Breaker breaker 1-9 good buddy." Just rubs me the wrong way.
Anyway, nice right-wing tits.
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I've never considered myself "liberal" or "conservative". I've been around brilliant people of both self-descriptions. Invariably though, I find myself very much at odds with both sorts, enough to feel alienated from their respective camps.
For example, I'm 99% atheist so that's one strike against the presently ruling "conservative" party (who don't seem all that conservative to me, frankly). For another example, I'm pro-nuclear energy, so that's one strike against the "liberals" (who seem pretty damned conservative at times).
I'm stereotyping and simplifying, sure, but it's useful.
I'm pro-death-penalty so I'm at odds with the liberals. I'm pro-abortion so I'm opposed to that conservative mindset.
I'm a conscientious objector in the war on drugs so neither liberal or conservative thought in that arena holds much appeal to me.
I've watched enough of Fox News to turn away, having concluded they're a propaganda arm of the republicans. I've watched enough of the the major network news to turn away because of the lowest-common-denominator nature of their content (they titilate rather than inform, they don't cover a lot of very important stuff while devoting time to trivia). I still watch enough of both to confirm my conclusions.
I can't stand Ann Coulter, but I didn't much care for Al Franken's "Lying Liars" either. I very much like William Buckley and David Brooks, but I also like Bob Herbert, Frank Rich and Doonsbury (which I think is eloquent political commentary more than just a comic strip).
I'm suspicious of operatives like Carville and Matalin, especially because they're married.
I suppose I'm sympathetic to the old lady who, when asked how she'd vote, responded, "Vote? That would only encourage the bastards!" (Actually, I don't know whether that line was a joke, from a real old lady, or by a motorcycle journalist called Gordon Jennings, to whom I saw the quote attributed in a now apparently defunct forum.) The assertion that though our system was a mess it was still the best system around used to seem reasonable, but I'm not so sure anymore.
I've had libertarian tendencies all along, but when I read a little deeper into libertarian stuff I find it impractical, so I'm not a libertarian. I'm certainly no communist though some smart people have been.
So what the hell am I? Sometimes I think I'm basically a fatalistic, non-anarchic nihilist, meaning that I am driven to conclude by what I perceive as present and likely-future reality that it doesn't much matter what I am - that events have a course of their own over which there's very little hope of control. I am not a determinist because I don't believe in destiny, so the qualified "nihilist" seems to fit me.
Lately I've been paying more attention to blogs and similar outlets than to mainstream media. I don't read everything at each of the links I've collected, but I try to balance my collection of links and diversify my sources somewhat. My collection seems to be a little lefty, though, so I've blogged this site because they have a long blogroll of conservative sites I can check out.
Right off the bat, though, I like Pip Wilson's collection of founder's quotes better than theirs.
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