The Blog Has Moved! (Duh)

With the up-coming change in Google's privacy policies, I came to the realization that if the message is to be preserved without necessarily mixing the messenger up in it, I would need to create a new Google profile and transfer my previous blog from one to the other.

The previous blog was not, obviously, entitled "Messages From a Militant Moderate".  It's name is soon going to be moot as all the posts on it will be deleted come March 1st 2012 and transferred to this blog.

They will be listed in chronological order (that is, their original posting dates will be preserved) even if they were all posted HERE only recently.

The purpose for this, in case you don't quite get the changes in privacy, is that any "anonymous" information that was previously associated with a Google account - blogs, posts under different or "public" names, etc. - will be combined into one profile, to which one's real name will be attached.  This I would rather avoid, less because I have something deceptive to hide and more for reasons of privacy.

Obviously, Dewey Sayenoff isn't my real name.  It's a public name, used as a means of conveying information under some recognizable tag without allowing myself or my family, friends, neighbors or postal carriers, etc. to be sucked into any controversy I may have generated.

And I did try to generate some controversy.

I wrote a book (currently in e-book form) called "The Great Right-wing Conspiracy".
(Amazon Kindle - Smashwords)

Call it paranoia, call it being observant as to what happens to people who come out publicly and trash the right-wing (and, to be fair, the left-wing as well, although the right-wing has elevated it to an art-form), call it wishful thinking that I'll even be that much of an irritant to anyone, but I have things to say that I'd rather be heard instead of having my personal life (as boring as it actually is) become the focus of any controversy I kick up.

As for me, myself, you can get to know me through my writings, of which there is a decent amount.  Most people would call me a leftist (I'm technically center left and more center than left).  No one would call me a "Christian".  I did serve my country honorably and am considered modestly "disabled" by the Veteran's Administration.  As the book says, I live in the suburbs of one of American's 20 largest cities, was raised a Republican (which, I should point out, I used to be until the GOP was hijacked by right-wing extremists at which point I became an Independent, found out I had no voice and subsequently de-registered myself from the voting roles entirely) in a middle-class home.  I am well educated, more through life than formally, but do I have two college degrees.

My personality type is INTJ which pretty much describes why I do what I do.  I don't WANT to lead anyone or anything.  I have no lust for the spotlight (obviously).  I'm content to let others lead, provided I think they're doing a good job.  I am biased in my own opinions (who isn't?), but am relatively objective about most things - if one defines objectivity as believing in moderation and actively opposing extremism.  If I see something that's wrong, I try to fix it.

I'm usually VERY good at fixing things.  I don't mess around.  I cut to the heart of the problem.  Usually, that's all it takes.  Others can then come up with the actual fixes.  I'm not conceited enough to think I have ALL the answers.   My self-appointed role is the identification of the problems in the first place.  That's what most people have trouble doing to begin with.

So here I am, pointing out the problems with the world.  I may offer a fix or fifty, but those don't need to be implemented if something better can be done.  As long as others agree there is a problem, that I'm at LEAST close to what the problem is and that others are willing to help work on the problem, too, I can be content.

But as I originally said, who I am isn't important.  What I have to say is.  Sometimes the message is funny.  More often, it isn't.  Some may think I go too far.  Others may think I don't go far enough.  Some will agree with me.  Some won't.  But before anyone comments here, shooting from the hip and probably hitting themselves in the foot and the mouth with the single round, (It's a visual), my most important self-appointed task is to get you to THINK FOR YOURSELF.

You have a brain.  USE IT!  It will put you in a pretty elite group of humans (at least considering the lack of thinking going on today).

If what I have said makes you go, "Hmmmm..." as you think about it, then it's mission accomplished, whether you comment about it or not.  If you react to it without thinking, it will be pretty obvious from any comment you may leave.  Just keep in mind here that this is a written media, not a conversation.  You have time to think about your response - if any.

So think first.  Think first ALWAYS.  Make it a habit.  You don't have to agree with me.  You don't have to LIKE me, either.  Thinking first isn't something you'll ever do for ME.  That's what you do for YOURSELF.  And in the end, everyone benefits when people REALLY think for themselves.