In my RSS feed this morning, I have three blog entries from otherwise normal-seeming people who suggest that maybe it’s somewhat unusual to invade foreign countries without a really good reason. There was mine, of course, and Ron’s - it was Ron who gave me the courage to blog about a dream - and Scott’s (I was going to blog about what big balls Condi Rice has after seeing her on Meet the Press, but Scott has that covered). The other two were a little more subtle than mine - but, then, I am an extreme moderate.

Such a happenstance reminds me of that September morning a few years back when I really, really wanted to do something but there was nothing I could do. I had a brain flash. I found the huge Stars and Stripes in the back of the cupboard and went to hang it outside. I felt just like that dude in the Tony Orlando song when, on his way home from prison, the whole damn bus is cheering because there are a hundred yellow ribbons.

Maybe I am not the only moderate?

I have wanted a blog for a long time - if I had had a blog three years ago, I’d be patting myself on the back for predicting that the unholy alliance between Christianists and small-government conservatives could not possibly hold - but a couple of things held me back.

The biggest block was a promise that I made myself a long time ago - that I would no longer start anything that I would not finish. I don’t start nearly so many things these days and there are a lot less things that I don’t finish as a result. I was worried that a blog would inevitably hurt my batting average. So far so good on that front but it is still too early to celebrate my persistance on the blogging front.

The other obstacle was that I did not know who I wanted to be when I blogged. I have a blog at www.developertesting.com where I talk about subjects related to my work at Agitar and I have a website at www.diamond-sky.com which is a placeholder for the software company that I’d someday like to get back to. Neither location felt appropriate for a blog where I could talk about my beliefs and hopes and dreams. I decided to create a new identity - Ragged Clown - for more personal scribblings. I have three separate identities and anyone who cares enough to find out will know that they are all me - and noone else needs to know.

Brian Marick is very happy to mix professional blogging with political blogging - Ron Jeffries too - but I am not as brave as they are. I still have mixed feelings about this.

On the positive side, there are large swathes of America for whom liberal ideas - and liberals - are demonized. They see liberals as a force for evil and if they occasionally hear a liberal opinion from someone they respect (I have no idea whether or not Ron Jeffries is a liberal, but support for civil rights for gays is certainly a liberal opinion) it might make them more likely to understand what liberals say rather than what people like Hannity and Coulter and Rove and Ponnuru say we say.

On the other hand, Brian’s observations about the national debt might - for big chunks of his potential audience - render the rest of his advice worthless. It could cost him both professionally and financially.

I respect his choice - it is a brave choice - but I have made a different one.

And if you hear vague traces of skipping reels of rhyme,
To your tambourine in time.
It’s just a ragged clown behind,
I wouldn’t pay it any mind,
It’s just a shadow you’re seeing that he’s chasing.