Why do we blog?

NPR, in its all-feeding-tube¹, all-the-time frenzy, has been digging up people to tell us all what it means. They had an ethicist on, asking what it means to live. It sounded more like the intro to a syllabus than an actual essay or anything, but anyway. Who am I to contradict the great-and-powerful NPR, funded as it is by our mighty conservative corporate masters?

First, there are bits like this, where one can point to awesome Daily Show segments.

Or this story about actual dinosaur flesh discovered in the middle of nowhere. Flesh, preserved for 70 million years. The mind fucking boggles. Note to scientists: I fully expect to see cloned miniatures of these in dinosaur shows by 2012, or no Nobels for you.

Then there is this long piece by Billmon, which explains why he used to blog, why he stopped, and how he started again. (Which is a good thing. I missed the Whiskey Bar when it was closed. I also miss Counterspin, which was removed after the election.)

But as I’ve noted before, blogging is a strange drug. When you’re clean, it’s not too hard to stay clean. But once you start using the stuff again . . . man, the monkey can get his claws in your back pretty damn fast. So one post led to another, and then another. And, well, pretty soon I was back freebasing.

A coworker of mine once described my blog like this:

Grrr, Bush. I hate him so much. And Cheney, grrr. And Rumsfeld, and HEY LOOK! COMICS AND VIDEO GAMES!

Variety is the spice of life, really. All things in moderation, even moderation. Is that one of the Oblique Strategies?

(Speaking of which, there's a Konfabulator widget for those now. It's good.)

Maybe we just do it for the cat pictures.

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¹ - It's to the point now that the word "feeding tube" sounds in my head just like Lenny in the episode of the Simpsons where Homer becomes the union rep.

   Homer: [thinks...]
   Lenny's voice: Dental plan!
   Marge's voice: Lisa needs braces.
   Lenny's voice: Dental plan!
   Marge's voice: Lisa needs braces.
   Lenny's voice: Dental plan!
   Marge's voice: Lisa needs braces.
   Lenny's voice: Dental plan!
   Marge's voice: Lisa needs braces.
   Lenny's voice: Dental plan!
   Marge's voice: Lisa needs braces.
   Lenny's voice: Dental plan!

Replace "dental plan" with "feeding tube" and that's what it's like for me to watch or listen to any news.