Raisin d'ether

So it appears that candidates for public office pay some attention to how their names are used on the Web. One person, purporting to be the Montgomery County Council President Nancy Floreen, commented on my last post on the campaign. It appears that the balance of evidence is leaning toward that person actually being Nancy Floreen. I may or may not have more to say about that later, though rest assured that if it develops that I'm a complete idiot, I'll cop to it in these pages.

I mean a complete idiot with respect to this incident. Chill your blains, Landru-smashers. I can't spend all my time copping to being a complete idiot.

Another candidate mentioned in that post (and I'm real sure that it's him) also made it clear that he had seen the post. Hans Riemer seemed tickled, but he's a polite and kind-hearted young fella, as behooves a challenger for public office.

This would be a good time to reiterate my raisin d'ether. Most readers recognize this blog for the largely hyperbolic claptrap that it is. Some readers are offended by my choices of language; they're welcome to not read. As I've said many times, I don't care who reads, or who takes me seriously. Most people who actually know me know full well that I don't necessarily take me seriously.

Of course I'd be lying if I didn't admit that it's sort of a trip that two county council candidates (apparently) have paid attention to me. But that isn't why I blog. I'm here to entertain me (first) and you (second). If I'm not entertaining, don't read. If the way I put things is too raw, too angry, too anything, don't read. You'll be healthier, and my life will likely be unchanged.

As to anonymity, there seems to be some feeling among political types that it's bad. I'm not going to pretend to compare myself favorably to Ben Franklin. But come on, people, reconnect to your fundamental American-ness. Look, it's obvious that people should consider the source when consuming information (including blog comments). But even journalists with names frequently cite anonymous sources. Including the journalists cited in this graf. That said? It's their blog.

This is mine. I have a life, and a family, and a job, and an entitlement to the privacy of my opinions, and it's a mean, destructive world. If I thought that using the word "fucktard" about, say...well, I'm not mentioning her name again...in an anonymous blog would actually be destructive to a particular councilperson's chances of re-election? Uhm...well, actually, I'd still use it. That's my opinion of at least three Council incumbents, all listed by name in the referenced post. If I thought it would be destructive to them in some life sense? No, of course I wouldn't.

I do actually express my well-reasoned, articulate, and more kindly worded opinions under my own name sometimes; just not here. Most of this blog's regular readers (and some not-regular ones, now including Hans Riemer and the person who may actually be Nancy Floreen) know my identity, though they likely don't know all that much about me as a person. There are those close friends who believe that reading one of my blog posts is not terribly unlike conversing with me. But I have very good reasons for anonymity, including my desire for fallout from my opinions to not affect people who aren't responsible for what I think or say.

In this world, that's not very easy to guarantee.