Monday I posted an Interesting Speech. It quoted extensively from Attorney General Barr’s speech at the 19th Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture at the Federalist Society’s 2019 National Lawyers Convention. Read that last sentence again… is there anything that sounds less interesting than “the 19th Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture at the Federalist Society’s 2019 National Lawyers Convention”? Nobody trying to “win hits” on the internet would ever comment on anything that dull.
Lucky for me, I don’t roll that way. My blog reflects its author (hopefully in whimsy as well as eclecticism). I don’t bother with the usual things. I don’t post topless women (not that I don’t appreciate the blogs that do… keep it up folks!). I don’t bother with podcasts. I don’t do my own video. I don’t try to cajole SJWs into liking me and I don’t (usually) throw raw meat to the Rush Limbaugh set. I try (with varying degrees of success) to avoid short term politics in a world that otherwise mainlines it. I don’t discuss sports. I ignore most popular culture. I don’t know what a Kardassian is and I’ve never pondered who should be voted off that infernal island. I read Game of Thrones, on paper, with words and shit. I didn’t comment about the TV event… which I didn’t see.
I do talk to trees, write about nefarious anthropomorphic squirrels (God willing I’ll get back to that someday), and emote about firewood. I also go off line fairly regularly. (Commenters who’ve waited a week to see their stuff pass moderation have noticed this.)
My priorities will never land me a gig on CNN. I’m aware of that.
We live in a world where TL:DR is a thing. My posts (averaging 1,400+/-words) are as long as the internet tolerates. Some might induce a coma. But I’ve no regrets.
So back a few days ago when parts of a speech at some boring lawyers convention found it’s way to my keyboard, I figured I was pissing into the wind. It was electronic dead air; for a small audience at most. I even tried to avoid parts of the speech that referred to the kerfluffle du jour. (Team A is incensed by it and Team B is pinning their hopes on it but “Impeachment Mark II; the Auxiliary Backup Lawfare Attack” is a movie I don’t feel like watching.)
I figured I’d be the only one. An unread boring nerd in cyberspace.
Wrong!
Two other such posts popped up on my radar.
- Had Enough Therapy posted a day before me with “William Barr for the Administration“.
- Cold Fury beat us both with “Hope Even Yet?“
No shit! And there are others.
It makes me happy to see it. Yes, it’s a bit of a partisan issue and surely many would disagree with every damn word Barr said. No worries about that. Tolerance of differing viewpoints is a real thing and I welcome well reasoned refutation to Barr’s ideas. (Note I’m using “tolerance” in it’s traditional sense and not in it’s newly twisted configuration as a bludgeon for one team to berate the other). More importantly the internet had a small bloom of cogent discussion and depth. It was more than the bumper sticker / Twitter slogan bullshit we’re usually fed. Nobody reads the speech and feels like Barr was choosing little words because he wanted to wow dipshits with a zinger. Not a thing he said will rock an MSNBC clip or fit on a t-shirt.
Heartening! There are more smart, reflective, people out there than you’d know. Whenever you’re feeling we’ve gone full Idiocracy, just keep keepin’ on. You’re not alone.
It was an early and unexpected Christmas present for the Curmudgeon. Huzzah!