For the benefit of newer readers (and for some other reasons too), I've decided to start a new series, looking back every now and then at an older post or two. And I guess we may as well start at the beginning.Prior to the 2004 presidential "election" I was surfing the web in a superficial way, reading faux-dissident sites like Daily Kos and Democratic Underground, content to form my own opinions and mostly keeping them to myself.
But then the "election" was stolen, or given away, or both, and the topic suddenly became verboten on all the faux-dissident sites, and my internet habits changed drastically.
At first I spent most of my time at The BRAD BLOG, where Brad Friedman was doing some excellent reporting on election integrity (or lack thereof), and where my contributions on the subject were generally quite welcome.
But I got a sense that my contributions on other subjects, particularly terrorism, were not quite so welcome -- a premonition that would be borne out in spades a few years later. And it was this sense, along with a strong desire to speak freely -- that led me to start a blog of my own.
It's no exaggeration to say that this blog exists because I needed a place to post two articles. I didn't imagine that I would keep it going, or that I would start up several other blogs in the next few years, or that I would do any of the other things that I have done since that time. I just needed a place to put a couple of things.
And though I dare to say it myself, they stand up well against the best I've written since then.
So please read the following if you haven't already done so, and speak freely if the urge strikes you.
[the blackest op of all]
9/11 Was a Hoax: How and When I Knew It
[fear and loathing after 9/11]
Trouble