In the beginning...

Not many seeds, these days, fall on land which has been tilled. Once the seed has landed it takes many storms and sunny days to bring forth from the ground a harvest. For too long the seeds of rationality, compromise, thoughtfulness, deliberation, and consequence are left to rot while seeds of destruction, anger, divisiveness, and ignorance flourish to reap a harvest. This is not because of the desire of people to till the 'less desirable' crop, but because they don't know the difference. I think a couple of lines from a movie would help explain this:

"People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand."
-- The American President (1995)

It is my belief that a democracy can only survive when it's citizens are intelligent and informed. As such it is important for people to be informed about the world, the technology, the politics, and ultimately themselves for the government and world to work. Unfortunately we live in a world where being intelligent and informed in a way that allows citizens to be be effective in a productive way is increasingly difficult. We live in a soundbite world, a world where instant polling affects the voting records of our statesmen. This is not helpful to democracy. In fact it is poison.

As such is life in this day and age I am going to do something about it. This blog will be a place where I will post articles I write and hopefully discussion will be had on any and all topics. While I am not in agreement with both sides of any arguments (it is a logical fallacy to believe you can be) I will try my hardest to present both sides of all issues I discuss. This includes citing sources, providing due justice to all sides, and striving to completely explore various aspects of those issues. This lofty goal is likely to be unattainable consistently so, for all readers out there, keep me honest and press me if you think this blog doesn't provide those aforementioned qualities. To facilitate this I am working on a way for discussions to be had with complete transparency in the blog environment. It'll get there eventually. The code is rolling around in my head.

I promise to try my best. I have already started production on a significant number of postings hopefully some will be finished soon. Some are funny, some are sad, some will make you mad, some will force you stand up and yell. All will hopefully make you think about the world we live in. I will touch on technology, philosophy, political science, current events, politics, economics, and other things that come across my reading list. I will also discuss books as they an excellent forum for real meaty discussions on material. These are important things to know and be aware of. I look forward to discussing these things with everyone and hope you all enjoy reading them.