I've finally worked it all out. The reason why over the past couple of years, I have felt no real drive to actually write things for publication or for general consumption. I've actually been reading too much.
You see, I actually trawl through a large number of blogs, mostly from the right,
Tim Blair,
Andrew Bolt, as well as the guys down at
Catallaxy, and a lot of international blogs and journalist's websites, such as
Mark Steyn,
Jules Crittenden,
Lee at Right Thinking,
John at Right Wing News,
Dr Sanity,
Ace of Spades and a whole lot of others. I would fill up a damned page of the various stuff I read.
And just in case whomever reads this actually knows the links and thinks that I only read the RWDB point of view, I also read some leftist blogs like
LP and
Leftwrites as well as swinging left
Clubtroppo (as it is a group blog, it swings from a slightly left of centre to a Labor left depending on the person), and a whole lot more (well, not really that many more, but I often link follow, and then read the sites which they link to).
And basically, at these places and others, everything is picked apart. If not by one blog, than by the next, until every major talking point is covered, sometimes multiple times, from different axis. And so by the time I think of to write something that I find interesting, I realise that I've already read about the same damned thing 10 times or more, and I'm already mostly sick of the subject. So of the big issues of the day, here is what I think, and why I'm sick of hearing about it -
Iraq -I was in favour of the liberation in the early days, and still in favour of up until recently, now I'm adopting a waiting approach to see what happens over the next year or so with the surge and any withdrawal plans. Why am I waiting? Because if the US does withdraw, then the sacrifice in blood and treasure that has been made by the Coalition (mainly the US) and the Iraqi people will have been for far, far less than anybody hoped for. And that would be sad. But if results arn't coming at all, then we need to reconsider our stance (I have no issue with slow but steady progress, but if it is a 'one step forward here, another step back somewhere else while we wern't looking' process, then we need to think what we are doing, and whether we really are willing to pay the price needed to get things right from there).
But I'm sick of hearing about how the surge or a new commander in Iraq or a new war czar automatically means victory (didn't we already win? or at least say we did?) or will end in defeat no matter what we do - if the automatic road to victory crowd annoys, the automatic defeatist crowd really annoys me, because both claim to be able to know the future - but the outcome for Iraqi's in the eventuality of the victory crowd being right is a good one, with peace and prosperity for the Iraqi people, under a stable, democratic system, with long term US presence stabilising the country and the region (like it did/does in Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea, etc). The outcome if the defeat crowd is right, is sheer, bloody chaos. One which may well spread outside the country to infect the region, and spread in drips and drabs through the rest of the world. So I know which outcome I prefer to support. I know neither is completely likely to happen (best and worst case scenarios), but even a limited peace and prosperity after the hardship and bloodshed that Iraq has gone through would be better than disintegration and civil war. But either way, I hear about it all too often.
Afghanistan - I'm still definitely in favour of liberating the Afghan people from the Taliban, and making sure that the Taliban and AlQ can't come back into power through force of arms in the country - if they (the Taliban)win in the polls, then the people of Afghanistan can get the government they want (and suffer for their choices), but they should be able to choose it. But I'm sick of those saying that Afghanistan is the front line of the war on terror (it's not, Iraq is) and therefore our resources should be there, or those who say we should leave those ingrate Afghans to suffer on their own, as they won't help themselves, or because some still support Islam, or the Taliban, or AlQ. But whatever, too much info (though not as much these days as there was in 2001-3) and too much crap.
Muslim extremism and terrorism or RWDB persecution of those nice people from the Middle East somewhere, depending on where you stand - I'm more in line with the RWDB viewpoint here, as but I still feel so damned overloaded with MSM and blog info, opinion and filler on the entire bloody subject that if someone said that Britain had been renamed 'Britannistan' tomorrow and the people told to convert or die or something, I would tell them to stop talking, jump off a pier, and let me go back to my mocha. Same deal in reverse, etc, etc. It isn't that I don't care, it is more boredom from talking about the same damned thihng every day.
Australian Election, John Howard, Kevin Rudd - The election hasn't even been called, and I'm sick to death of the whole bloody thing already. Calling the election from six months out is stupid - people change their minds, and a large number don't make up their minds until election day. There are people ou there, like my cousin's boyfriend who, because of their involvement in politics or hard held ideological beliefs (he runs Howard's local campaign) who know who they are going to vote for, and why, but the vast majority I speak to wait until the campaign, or even the day, to choose who to vote for.
And no, John Howard isn't completely over the hill and no, he's not going to retire and go back to working the fires of hell or eating the souls of unborn innocents, or whatever he did before politics.
And no, Kevin Rudd isn't the Messiah sent from the Father (who the father is, depends on where you stand - either Gough, the ACTU, the left faction of the ALP (who he did his deals with to get power) or the Devil (if you are a RWDB)- he's just a naughty boy, who has a long way to go and a campaign to run before he has a chance of winning office.
And I'm sick and tired how the entire thing is like a presidential race these days - those discussing the election talk about votes like they are directly for Howard or Rudd, not for their
local representative. That may have something to do with the party system, and the culmination of the executives power in the hands of the unelected cabinet, but that's not the point. The point is that the commentary class talk about it like it is a presidential election, so instead of looking at who their local candidates are, most people look at what the party, and most importantly, the leaders of those parties, have to offer to them, in terms of loot and in terms of personality. And so I'm tired of that as well.
This ongoing argument with another blogger from the other side of the political chasm - I really don't care. Especially for most of the tit for tat baby action that takes place, with sniping and name calling and general wank. It's isn't that I'm offended by the arguing, or I'm calling for civility, it is more that the arguing is so
juvenile. Real baby stuff. There is the occasional good argument, and well timed quip, and even, rarely, a well researched, well written rebuttal of an argument. But those are so rare, I'd rather spend time looking for pleasant Star Wars vs Star Trek arguments than looking for decent blogger
(especially political blogger) arguments online.
Cats - I don't care about your cat. Or what it looks like. Or what it did on the weekend. Or how pretty it looks in that bloody outfit you made it. And I never,
ever want to hear how much it looks like a Hello Kitty or how cute your niece thinks it is. Why? Because people you would talk to in person would find the entire experience extraordinarily boring and tedious. What makes things different if you waffle on about it on the Internet? Because people can't slap you silly like they would in real life? Only until I work out a way to. Summary - don't care, don't want to know, don't post it online, in case human eyes should ever accidently grace your page.
That's at least some of the reasons why I haven't been writing. Though I should find some interest soon. Maybe religion and niche politi-blogging. Maybe a continuation of my (pretty lame) criticism of issues and events. I could even dissect various blogs here. Who knows? All none of you that still read this, I guess :)
