If you haven't personally dabbled in it, take it from Side; blogging is an interesting "hobby."
If nothing else, it puts you in touch with the apathy and sense of futility that are such driving realities in the conduct of our "common" affairs.
I've posted well over 100 items in the months that Other Side has been in operation. Most were intended to report, to inform, or to advocate a particular view. Every now and then, an item was posted to draw some fire, to stimulate some engagement.
What a failure those attempts have been. The number of comments submitted can be counted on one hand. The number of items submitted as guest posts can be counted on no hands.
Side does have a tracker that provides "analytics" of blog traffic. It's interesting to look at the results, but anything but scientific. Traffic does spike following ads, or when the blog is referenced in a letter to the editor.
The last day or two has seen a change in things, however.
On Saturday, September 12th, I posted a strongly worded piece on the "truther" commentary run by the local newspaper on the anniversary of the attack against our country (or should I say "this" country?) In it, I touched on editorial sympathies and how they relate to the local 'peace at any price' folks.
Not much happened in the day following the post, but the wires sure lit up this morning! Early hour traffic was the heaviest I've seen, and the numbers have continued to increase to what are currently the second highest on record. We'll see what happens by midnight.
The commentary has drawn reactions elsewhere in the state, including one from Al Diamon, a legend in his own mind, and in the minds of many others. Al pulled his punches, suggesting only that the TR had run an op-ed "full of lies."
As to this blog, a thoughtful comment was posted by "Mike," and you can read it here. He goes to some lengths to argue logically for the Shaw truther perspective.
Apparently, Mike stirred up the local 'truther' coalition and vectored them to Side's compelling and cogent treatise.
And in so doing, he has helped this reporter gain a more accurate profile of the local community.
In the interest of keeping the 'dialogue' going, Side extends an invitation to Mike to submit essays on the bombing of the USS Cole, the '93 bombing of the WTC, the train bombings in Spain, and all the other fabricated reports of terrorist attacks upon American interests and those of other countries.
Hopefully, when he does, he'll maintain the same control of his passions demonstrated in his first comment, so that we can have the same confidence in his further disclosures, and what they say about the rationality of he and his associates.
Meanwhile, Side thanks him for boosting circulation. And for teaching us what they mean by "earned publicity."
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