Blog Birthday

Last year, on July 5, 2005, I started Deep Thought.

Not knowing what the form of the blog would be, I actually registered under the name 'The Institute of Deep Thinking' (hence the URL) but shortly thereafter shortened it to what it is now. The first post (linked here) discussed what I wanted the blog to become and what some of my thoughts were on it: It said,

And what, pray tell, do we do here? Easy enough, we think. We write. We exchange ideas.
We do what we can to survive the next 1,295 days. We plan for the future, a future better than what we have now.

A future in which people respect each other, help each other, and in which we as a society have the moral fiber to refuse to just allow any one of us to 'slip through the cracks.'

A future in which the United States of America is once again the leader of the world, not because of threats, force and intimidation, but because of achievement, generosity and leadership.

A future in which every member of our society has the same opportunity to succeed, a society in which each person can and does achieve his or her potential, and a society in which no young person ever has to feel that their situation is hopeless or that they will never reach their goals.

A future without racism, sexism, homophobia or any other form of prejudice, and a future in which the lingering effects of these evils have been scrubbed from or society, like an unneeded wart.

A future in which we make the necessary tax investments in schools so that our children will truly be able to bring a better future.

A future in which no one who is sick or injured will be denied health care because they cannot afford to pay.

We are not Republicans here, nor are we the kind of Democrats who fight with Republicans over the crumbs of a shrinking pool of bad ideas. We have our own ideas. Big, Bold, Brash, Bright Ideas!

That is it in a nutshell. We've tried to stay positive, although I've never been shy about pointing out the failures of the Bush administration or of the Republicans in Congress or the Arizona legislature (and they are legion).

This post will be number 373, although I've not tried to average a post per day (I've taken some vacations and some days I just don't post, while on some other days I've had as many as four posts). I've also been invited and have posted on Night Bird's Fountain, The Coalition for a Republican Free America, and Bushmerika (part I). So I don't rightly know how many posts I've written over the past year (although in some cases I've put the same post on more than one blog.) I would also be ungrateful if I didn't mention that this year I was honored to receive an invitation to join Ass Kickers in Exile, which I would have very much enjoyed, but had to decline because it would have (at that time) been the fourth team blog I was a contributing member to in addition to maintaining this one, and I do have a day job and a family and other commitments (one of the most important of which is that I am a precinct committeeman and an active member of the Democratic party; if anyone doesn't just want to write, but wants to do more, I'd highly recommend contacting your county party about becoming a precinct committeeperson.) Of course, it has to be noted in this framework that anything I say on any blog speaks for myself only.

I also don't know how many times I've been visited. Some people have suggested putting up a site meter, but I haven't done that. For one thing, I don't have the technical wizardry to install one, and for another thing, I've heard a number of people complain that it slows down their sites. But those are both excuses that I could get around if I really wanted to; neither of those is the main reason, the truth is that I just haven't been that interested in how many people come and visit. Maybe that will change (especially if my wife remains unemployed much longer and I have to consider doing something I have resisted and selling advertising on my blog), but right now, knowing what my volume is just isn't that important to me.

I'm not sure how many total comments I've had (I'd have to go back and add up the numbers manually and I'm not going to do that). The most I've had was 162, back when the mobs were burning bookstores and European businesses over those cartoons showing Mohammed. I personally found the cartoons detestable, but being an advocate of free speech, I found them online and put them on the blog when most of the major media were declining to show them, and got a ton of comments. I'm sure that if I had a site meter, it would have jumped up by a lot on that day.

I continue to periodically announce that if I make a substantial factual error in a post (as opposed to in the comments, which are not necessarily researched), then I will give the person who points it out credit. Right now, I have had six factual errors in 372 posts, so that equates to a 'fielding percentage' of .984. Actually I could get by with saying there were five errors, as the first time that someone pointed out an error, it later turned out that I was in fact correct, but still should have been more on top of it.

Finally, as we begin year 2, I would like to thank all of you who have visited this site, taken the time to read it and leave your thoughts, and wish you well and hope that you will come back this next year.