As lightning fall from heaven…

Why blog?

Many would answer, “Why not?” I find such a response a tad lacking, so I’ll attempt to dribble out my reasoning here.

Many years ago, in a galaxy, far, far away, I got started on the Web with a little personal space on one of the first of the world’s Websites, located at the Center for Innovative Computer Applications (CICA) at Indiana University. I was a lowly systems administrator (or “digital janitor”, as I like to call the job) helping to keep several SGI’s, a handful of old Macs and a rather cantankerous Novel Netware server running. This was in the day and age long before URL’s showed up on the sides of UPS trucks and Microsoft had yet to pollute the Internet with every protocol they’ve since abused. The only browsers that existed at all, were on Unix systems.

It was in this lowly little corner of the Net, that “Firearms & Liberty” was born.

My concern was the raping of our inalienable rights, as enumerated in the Constitution of the United States, by what I saw to be a growing force of tyranny through citizen negligence and political power grabbing. It appeared that the Clinton administration was making a grab at perhaps the most important right the People have - the right to defend themselves - not only from criminal assault, but from government itself, should words no longer carry weight.

So I gathered together a mountain of material, none of it my own, asking permission for publishing when not granted in the work itself and I made some rather interesting acquaintances in the process. I also earned my first death threats, from those who desired to kill me for speaking my mind. An interesting union, that - gun-hating people wanting to kill me for exercising my First Amendment rights.

I struggled through it for a couple of years, eventually coming to a conclusion that much of the government’s power grab was through a subject I hand’t given a second thought to before and I began pushing strongly for ending the War on Drugs. Eventually, it all took its toll. I burned out and gave the site away to Shade’s Landing, where much of the original material still resides. If you have any interest in this material, follow the link. If you want a really detailed summation of my experience with the site, read my farewell address.

Years passed - things got worse.

Let me take a quick break from history to make a statement, one that undoubtedly I’ll have to restate over and over again for people who will accuse me of being on one side or the other: I don’t like either of the USA’s Big Two political parties. The Republican and Democratic parties are just two sides to the same evil coin. Aside from a sparkle of hope here and there, Congress is corrupt to the core, the Executive branch is trying to become a kingdom and the Judicial branch is still staring off into space with the daft belief that they are somehow keeping the other two in check. The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican. The only thing worse than a Republican is a Democrat. If you can’t deal with that recursion, get off the gyroscope, please.

Where was I? Oh yes, things got worse.

Reagan had worried me, even scared me at times. Bush Sr. made that feeling grow. Clinton out right scared me. Bush Jr. makes the hair on the back of my neck rise. Through all of this, Congress kept me vomiting.

Though I have a strong opinion that my opinion is ultimately worthless, the waters of my general apprehension are starting to break and fear of personal apathy have forced me to speak out again. Only, this time, I’m not going to selectively pick a subject or attempt to isolate the facts like a news service. There are enough blogs and news sites doing a wonderful job of that already. (You’re going to find quite a few links to them here.)

Instead, I just need to vent.

Whether it is awe over some natural wonder I managed to find time to visit, or railing against injustice seen or felt, I need to get it out. Call it therapy through verbal diarrhea.

Like all bouts of dysentery, a lot of it won’t be pretty. I’m not going to hold my tongue of profanity if I feel a bit pissed off. I’m not going to hold back an opinion if I think it might offend. I’ll warn you right off the bat, if you hold religion, politics, societal norms, celebrities or political correctness to be sacred - run away now!

In fact, I’m probably going to skewer enough sacred cows in this effort, that I’ve decided to take on an appropriate username for the task: Satan.

So, if you’re bored and restless, or just want to see what kind of sparks are going to fly, sit back, get your favorite beverage and poke around. “The adversary” is warming up.

  • Scott W. Ostrander