Starting off

Blogging is not something I am used to. As an outward luddite who actually does like technology deep down, I try to avoid doing these things. I have always been wary too of these fora for the collateral effects it could have on my good name.

That said, I have essentially posted a lot of links on Facebook that many have called a de faco blog. So, I have decided to start this.

The name of this blog comes from the old statement, that in polite company you do not talk about two things: politics or religion. Anyone who has met me knows that every conversation inevitably leads to these two issues.

The goal of my blog is to link and comment on things that I find interesting in mainly these two areas. I am a political animal who is also incredibly wonky. What I lead to can have the basic political matter to full on government reports and academic articles. I hope to find pieces on religion as well and discuss some of my own thoughts on this.

I feel as though these two topics can actually lead to polite conversation if there are basic ground rules. First, we do operate in a narrow environment. As an American there are sort of basic norms and conventions that most of us ascribe to, whatever our political stripes. We all believe in some sense in liberal (NB: small "l") democratic republic that is this country. On religion, I am assuming that most following too believe in some sense of pluralism or at least the value of discussion of difference and similarity.

Thus, I want a civil discussion. Sometimes I too can get foul, but I hope that most of us try our best to do that.

I will write a few things for polite company. I do follow sports occasionally (although much to the chagrin of my New York friends I am a Red Sox fan and that leads to some of the least polite conversations ever). I also love culture, the sciences, and the arts. So there will often be posts here.

Finally, I am neither a professional blogger, nor someone with a lot of time to do this effort, but I want to try it out. It could work. It could crash and burn. Here's to a new beginning.