Here’s what [...]]]> Bob Schwartz, the South Dakota blogger formerly known as South Dakota Moderate and who then moved his blog to Politics and Hypocrisy, has made a new move. It’s a move I congratulate him on as it means he may have joined my camp (to the extent we disgusted and disaffected have a camp).

Here’s what Bob said Sunday on his retitled blog, Bob Schwartz Online, in a post called The End of Politics As I Know It:

Well after over 2 years of blogging on politics I have come to the realization that my heart is no longer in it. I thought that writing about the hypocrisy displayed by our elected officials would somehow be therapeutic when in fact it had the opposite effect. Reading the hate, the lies, and the spin that both parties try to pass off as policy has finally turned me off to the process altogether.

With that said, my Politics and Hypocrisy blog will slowly fade into obscurity (Ok it was always there) and instead I will try to get back into blogging about whatever I find interesting at the moment. That will still include politics from time to time but I will now focus on other items as well.

Why does this strike such a chord with me? Here’s part of what I said some three and a half years ago:

Yet watching political discourse, particularly as more recently demonstrated by political blogs, has simply reinforced my prior views and further convinced me little or nothing can or will be done to honestly address the problems facing our nation and state.

Politics is politics and those who play and live it are welcome to wade in it all they want. I may comment occasionally on a smattering of issues and will leave up links to political sites for those so inclined. But I am tired of the stench. Thus, I will move this blog away from politics and toward things that actually bring pleasure, meaning and nuance to life.

Welcome to the world of the undeceived and to the important things in life, Bob. The air smells much better, the stress of fighting and becoming angry over things you know won’t change is alleviated and, all in all, your blog moves from the dark side into the light.

H.L. Mencken, In Defense of Women

Guess that shows what the DNC thinks of South Dakota bloggers or South Dakota. As noted a while ago, Badlands Blue was actually [...]]]> So the Democratic National Committee has announced the bloggers from each state who will get floor credentials to cover this summer’s Democratic National Convention. And the pick from South Dakota: Badlands Blue.

Guess that shows what the DNC thinks of South Dakota bloggers or South Dakota. As noted a while ago, Badlands Blue was actually operated by a Democratic Party operative out of Virginia. I haven’t been back to the blog since removing it from my blogroll a couple months ago. But I’m guessing it’s still financed and authorized by the state Democratic Party.

Maybe there weren’t any other applicants to be South Dakota’s convention blogger (I sure as hell didn’t apply). Personally, I would rather South Dakota have no blog representation. But evidently the Democratic Party would rather take a mouthpiece blog than someone with party affiliation who might actually dare to express independent thought. A nice way to uphold the party’s professed — but all too seldom practiced — principles.

Just more reinforcement for my disdain and hatred of political parties and politics as currently practiced in the U.S.

Variously attributed

Somewhat behind on my web reading, I have just learned that my GOP friend PP of the South Dakota War College is part of a cabal planning to take over the world. After all, good and certainly unquestionable authority says PP is — gasp — a “Zionist operative.”

Now [...]]]> Shocked, just shocked! Appalled, absolutely appalled!

Somewhat behind on my web reading, I have just learned that my GOP friend PP of the South Dakota War College is part of a cabal planning to take over the world. After all, good and certainly unquestionable authority says PP is — gasp — a “Zionist operative.”

Now I’ll admit that even when we were joint blogging I was dismayed by the fact PP is a hardcore Republican and by some stretch of the imagination might be called “a SD GOP operative,” as the individual accusing him of being Zionist also calls him. But at the same time, PP and some other GOP friends and acquaintances are proof of the fact that not all Republicans are spawns of Darth Vader, regardless of how much we may disagree — often vehemently — on certain issues.

I also have to admit an insufficient education in New World Order jargon to know exactly what a Zionist operative is or the dangers one poses to our values and lives. I presume, though, that as such an operative PP is part of the Jewish banker cabal working with the Trilateral Commission, Halliburton and other entities as the U.S. shadow government responsible for 9/11 and engaged in a global conspiracy of world domination and a one world government. That has, of course, been obvious to everyone since the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Suffice it to say that as PP unveils his new blog look, his comments on former JAILer-in-Chief Billy S.’s new political activities is once again bringing out the, shall we say, rather interesting views of Bill’s crowd. I just hope there’s no truth to the rumor that the reason PP quit his Pierre job and commuting from Brookings was because his black helicopter crashed while surveying sites for a patriot concentration camp.

Richard Hofstader, The Paranoid Style in American Politics

I thought this an appropriate way to express my thanks and [...]]]> A public thank you to the wonderful hosts for the small “blogger banquet” I attended Wednesday night. I got to meet a couple bloggers I did not know personally and the wide-ranging conversation and laughter were only rivalled in quality by the excellent food.

I thought this an appropriate way to express my thanks and relay to those there how much I enjoyed it. Those who were invited but could not attend missed a delightful evening and I certainly look forward to another in the future.

Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman