First Post: Disclaimer

So, blogging.  I often find myself wanting to say things in some sort of public forum, usually by making Facebook statuses.  But there are a variety of problems with this.  First, statuses are too frickin short! I post one snippet of an idea, and next thing I know I'm roped into hours long discussions which I've already had a million times.  So this will be a way to get more fleshed-out thoughts out there, so that I can address several points all at once and hopefully avoid so many repeated one on one discussions.  That is definitely NOT to say that I don't like one on one discussions; I love them! This is just a way to go ahead and dispel many of the surface arguments against my viewpoints and jump right in to the meat of it.  Second, pretty much everyone can see a Facebook status, whether they want to or not, and many of the things I say can be offensive or off-putting.  So, I've decided to start a blog; a place where I can speak my mind and pretend people are reading it, and if you are actually reading it you have chosen to do so, and it was not forced down your throat by appearing on your news feed.

Along those lines, if you are easily offended by people with strong opinions that may be different from yours, and who are, indeed, actually trying to be offensive at times, and if you find being offended to be an unpleasant thing, and if you are unable to debate your deeply held beliefs without getting upset, then please don't read this.  Expect a lot of religion, a hefty amount of armchair philosophy, politics (though not really current affairs, more like "governance" in general).  I plan to be brutally honest and overly personal, probably self-deprecating, and definitely arrogant and pretentious.  Also, I will ramble incoherently.  I'm usually going to be writing these in a sort of stream-of-consciousness way.  While part of me is doing this because I want to form a cohesive argument, most of me is just doing it because I need some sort of outlet, and putting things out there makes me happy.  Therefore, I will not spend a lot of time editing and reorganizing things.  It is what it is.

If you are a family member, please be warned that I probably haven't talked to you about a lot of my opinions on things.  Why start arguments with loved ones over these silly things?  If you're taking the time to look at this, it's probably pointless to tell you that you shouldn't read it, so if you really want to talk to me about it, please actually do that: let's get together for dinner or a drink and talk about our ideas, on the one condition that we can agree to keep our heads cool.  Emotion is the enemy of reason.