I just received an email from a comrade-in-arms titled
Shutting Down the Blog(s)". It's an interesting letter and I'm asked for my opinion, so I figure I'll post it here, since I'm not really interested in talking about Moseley's half-assed "investigation" or the tired old attempts by newspaper whores in raising SG' s GPA or even about SG presidential hopefuls or how bummed I am all my friends are out of town for w/e reason and I don't just go to Cooley for a year and then transfer like any non-procrastinating person would. I don't want to talk about these things, though on a emotional level, I will say that the song Hey There Delilah by the Plain White Tees always seems knock me on my ass, I'll just sit there and be totally consumed by that very simple melody and that very optimistic, very
take the world by the balls and follow your dreams to the 't' kind of attitude. Youth is innocence, I believe, but who wants to hear about that? Especially from me, right!
I. Blogging: An Indispensable News-Commentary ToolThis certain email has not been the only one in recent time, suggesting the downfall of the Observer and the normal transition of TR to no more non-SG waters. Seriously, there's so much going on arund the world, that I find myself at a loss for words covering YOUR student government, MY student government has long passed into history. However, I feel it's key in keeping TR on a SG track at least until 2008 to assure that the Observer will have competition, a healthy, supportive competition so they won't fold.
past blogs have been put up by ego-maniacs. Their civic-mindedness was almost null and void. Swamp Pundette was a hot girl's rant; Reitz Rambler was a pretty boy's chalk board; UFGDI was a rumor rag and NAGAS was a halfway decent publication. The Radikal is just some fringe indie, old guy ala CG that still shakes things up, though drives 100x by Swamp and never either looks in from his car or has any desire to sit there with sipping a Blue Moon and re-living past R&E hours-long meetings that could have been better spent having sex with my gf and (LATER) making bubbling-water-sounds with my rogue fraternity brothers, but that's fine, I loved my SG days. And finally, though it almost feels like no more thoughts should be added onto to this paragraph, you have the SG Observer. I think they are the best blog yet, because how egotistical can you be when you deny the public the most basic fact of knowing who you are? I also like the fact that the blog has multiple authors and really like the fact that Ryan Moseley turned them down for an interview too. Naturally he only speaks to the Alligator, i wonder why....cha ching $$
Blogging in politics will never go away, let's just hope we can say the same about UF SG. In a world without blogs (pre-04), you had list-serves, facebook, all that fun stuff and yes, things still got done. However, it's so much better to have people discussing the issues and venting year-round than only two semesters out of the year or exclusively in SG or party meetings. An informed public is a dangerous electorate.
The worst thing that could happen at this point in time is for the Observer to go anywhere!
The Josh Simmons of UFJosh Simmons I've never really met I don't think. If I have, I don't remember. I am convinced he is one of my chief critics on the boards. The "tribute," the sex stories that was all a way for me to strike back at him, he truly put me on edge and messed with my head with many of his posts throughout the months, but even though I have some data, I would
NEVER use it, b/c while he can be an abysmal headache to what I sometimes want to get done, he's the very kind of person you need on a college campus. Whether you agree with him or you don't, guys like Josh Simmons, Will Foster, and Bruce Haupt are the Andrew Hoffman's, the Peter Gruskin's, and the Christian Duque's just as these were the Ken Kern's, the Nick Capezza's,and the James Argento's of their time at UF. But sadly, even by his own word, Josh is is just
too lazy to get off his ass and blog.
But people like Josh Simmons & Will Foster, they need to blog because they are the classic dissenters, the non-conformists. Even making videos for PANTS and seen at their tables quite a bit, when asked if he belonged to the Party, Will Foster could never concretely answer that. Was he full of it? No, I don't think so. The classic GDI is very reluctant to join ANYTHING, to join means to follow, GDI's don't follow. Independents follow all the time, whether courting John Boyles, making Joe Goldberg laugh, or dusting Ryan Moseley's FBK Who's Who, but GDI's are not so quick to renounce their identity in exchange for that of a group of zombies (no offense to any Party). Now is Josh Simmons a GDI? Who am I to answer that. I would say no, I would say he's an Independent, but who cares, he's got a lot to say and knows this, but doesn't blog.
So no, doing away with the blogs would certainly not help anyone, especially not the dissenting, growing ever less powerful Minority, the Indies & GDI's.
The Greeks & BloggingI'm loving this dialectic btw. On the matter of Greeks and blogging. All I can say is that, what happens in the fraternity house stays in the fraternity house (as were told). Fraternities can do some very dirty things to undermine the democratic process, fraternities are also subservient to Florida Blue Key, and without blogging, those that oppose this shit would have a lot harder time leaking it. To leak information is a time-honored trait of intellectual dissenters, people that would be socially ostracized and in some cases, face even more damning consequences. Take the soliders that leaked the Abu Gharib photos, that leak was an act of solidarity with humanity! A scared kid that's got his whole life in that frat house, from his furniture to his closest friends, he is NOT going to publicly blast the people he considers family. Still, there are many people of strong moral fiber in the Greek system and while these people would never do anything to hurt their organizations, they will and have leaked information to stop or curb their organizations from less than honorable behavior.
The System Alligator no longer allows anonymous emails, they want your name, they want your info, and given where the paper's loyalties seem to lie as of late, I would rather where orange in West Belfast than take them for their word. from what I gather, if Jesus Christ returned to Earth RIGHT NOW and became a UF student and the Indie presidential candidate and the Gator/Swamp Party chose the Taco Bell dog as its candidate, the Alligator would pass on Jesus and give the nod to the System pooch b/c the doggy is
more experienced and has that
certain something that Jesus the Carpenter with those
unbecoming nail marks on his hands, just can't match up to.
RecapBasically blogging should continue. This doesn't mean I support everything the Observer does, I mean surely, guessing Moseley's lsat grade isn't the best way to spend your time blogging, however, on the low time, the boring time, anything you post is better than nothing because the last thing you want do is go inactive. He's an Englisman, if he can do as good of a job as his countrymen have done of trying to destroy Irish, Welsh, & Scottish culture, then I'm sure he will do a great job on the lsat, but who cares? A better post would have been on the Professors lashing back at Moseley. Was his "investigation" up to par or is this nothing more than system-dribble, cheap political rhetoric that got this kid elected and now it's not looking so good - or - is he on the right? What of this? This would be a great read that only the Observer, with its more current, more expansive network could carry out.
Thanks. I'm going to McDonald's now to get breakfast and then go talk to my DM. Ciao.
What A Fuckin Moron:
Stupid Guy Could Have Had It MadeIf You are easily offended Don't Watch This
