Seven years already! With a few breaks along the way, it's on the whole been an enjoyable ride. I have tended to cover a few major topics recurrentlly over the years (for example homophobia, the growing 'surveillance state' and in earlier years the Iraq conflict, but not so much recently, to name just a few, even if a few of the topics which flowed from that still get a mention pretty regularly - the growing authoritarianism of many generally democratic countries' governments, specifically those of the UK and the US with their 'war on terror' and the allegations of extra-judicial methods of pursuing this policy including 'extraordinary rendition' and 'torture'), with added topics for variety from time to time. Some topics I haven't covered though, because they bore me - or more precisely because of the hypocrisy I perceive in a lot of the 'waves' of outrage which flow around the media and the 'blogosphere' - for example the recent brouhaha concerning the Home Secretary's husband and his predilection for video-porn. Frankly it's of no interest to me what this couple choose to do in their leisure hours and I'm sure in the 'greater scheme of things' his/their predilections are relatively innocuous and certainly don't contravene any laws in force; the only feature of interest in this affair is that they tried to get we taxpayers to pay for it! That is definitely not on and would undoubtedly never have come to light if the Speaker of the House of Commons had not lost, at significant cost to the tax-payer, a legal case brought to try and prevent details of our legislators' expenses being available to the public under Freedom of Information legislation; this is certainly an aspect of our public life that deserves to have a bright spotlight shone upon it.
As in previous years, I'd like to thank the gentle readers who visit my little blog from time to time and those who take the trouble to comment on what I have written; feedback is always useful and I am grateful for it, yes even the recent commenters about my views on bilingual English-Gaelic roadsigns in the north of Scotland although it is clear that at least one of those has 'form' as a comment spammer and and perpetrator of some pretty shoddy internet activities as has recently become clear to me as a result of certain search engine queries which have alighted on my little blog; although I strive for 'objectivity' here, I don't pretend always to achieve it, but I don't think that includes pandering to nut-jobs and their obsessions and attempts to hi-jack comments here by extremists of whatever kind will be ruthlessly combatted; people are welcome to comment here positively or negatively, provide that there is a certain level of courtesy which I try to reciprocate. OK, that's enough for now - again, my thanks for visiting if you've got this far.
Roll on the next seven years, or however long this blog continues!
Seven years and still going strong, Bill. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteHave you thought of putting all your material together in a single blogsite? That is, political and personal together. Sometimes, it's good to follow the worter's life and mood, to see the effect it has on his thoughts.
Thanks headbang8 - nice to hear from you again :)
ReplyDeleteDo you mean publishing my blog within my own website, or do you mean combining my two blogs ("Bill's Comment Page" and "casabill - the blog")? There are links between all of them, so it is possible for anyone who is interested to click from one to the other. It's a difficult balance to get right - some people are very reticent about who they are and effectively have 'anonymous' blogs or use a pseudonym which only a very few, if any, can get behind to get the real identity of the person writing, and who then write VERY FRANKLY about their lives in the pretty certain knowledge that no-one or very few will know who they are.
I've chosen the option of being pretty open about who and what I am, but although I allude to some things about my personal life occasionally I don't write much about it in detail - quite deliberately. Some personal friends and family members do read my blog (a few quite regularly, I think), but NEVER comment - I am quite open with people who know me that I do have a blog and how to find it, others will undoubtedly have found it themselves. I'm afraid that one of the decisions I took a long time ago, when I started my first website (about 11 years ago) and my first blog (7 years ago) would be not to discuss my innermost personal thoughts here or my detailed personal life. I realise that my blogs can therefore come across as somewhat 'clinical' and 'impersonal' in a way, even though my identity is completely open, unlike many. From reading your own blogs over the years I think you have faced some of the same dilemmas.
Like many gay men I do have profiles in some of the popular gay websites, but I think it would be almost impossible to cross-reference these with my blogs and websites - I have compartmentalised these aspects of my life. Call it 'self-protection' if you like ;) I have followed for some years the 'Gay Banker' blog, for example, although I have no knoweldge of who he is and obviously I have no knowledge of the 'gaydar' profile he often refers to. As a former banker I can identify with a lot of what he writes, even more so because we are both gay - I read recently that you and he had dinner together, so you obviously now know who he is, but he is quite careful it seems about whom he agrees to meet who also know of his blog, although his policies in this respect have been 'evolving' and it has been interesting to observe.
Thanks again for your congratulations.