How blog posts grow
Today I thought that this post would be a quickie.
Merkel. Ban the veil. A little fisking of the Bloomberg editorial. Over and out.
About 1500 words and an hour and a half later I was disabused of that notion.
How does it happen? I don’t know whether all bloggers are this way, but I often start a post thinking it will take only a little while and find myself surfacing hours later, surprised at the time. As Frost said, “way leads on to way,” and a chain of thoughts lead to more thoughts and more research.
I’m not really complaining; not exactly, anyway. It’s probably one of the things I find most interesting about blogging—the unexpected discoveries and connections.
[ADDENDUM: Oh, and have you noticed that this blog is a Trump-post-free zone this weekend? If you’re having withdrawal symptoms, feel free to use this thread (or previous ones) to talk about him.]
I am in awe of your ability to quickly develop such a well-documented, logically coherent challenge to a delicately controversial issue. Mainstream, professional editorials are a greater challenge to refute than a poorly written rant. More power to you!
You do it very well, and we return time and again to see just how it will open up like a flower today. And it always does.
I have just the opposite situation: I write an op-ed weekly. It is 600 words. Not 599 and not 601: 600. So I write a little, then start trimming. And trimming. And trimming. And then I trim some more. And wish I had another 100 words. Or 50. But it comes together eventually.
@Neo – if you didn’t go the extra step, I wouldn’t be here.
Frankly, a post-trump or trump free weekend, I didn’t notice. Why? Your blog is not about trump posts… it’s more a function of newsworthy issues wrt conservatism.
I think it a mistake to focus on eyery trump tweet, as the MSM does. The liberal overreaction is precisely what they, trump and his team, are cultivating.
Where there are people who won’t even count against him these concerns, trump has a free hand to court much we”d be appalled with.
“but I often start a post thinking it will take only a little while and find myself surfacing hours later, surprised at the time.”
I’ve had that happen many a time, where you want something quick and easy, a little comment, let the comments do their thing, and bam! you have a giant essay because you get led down this road and that one.
Keep up the great work!
Recall that as we reported in early June, “a bill to implement the U.S.’ very own de facto Ministry of Truth has been quietly introduced in Congress. As with any legislation attempting to dodge the public spotlight the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act of 2016 marks a further curtailment of press freedom and another avenue to stultify avenues of accurate information. Introduced by Congressmen Adam Kinzinger and Ted Lieu, H.R. 5181 seeks a “whole-government approach without the bureaucratic restrictions” to counter “foreign disinformation and manipulation,” which they believe threaten the world’s “security and stability.”
Also called the Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016 (S. 2692), when introduced in March by Sen. Rob Portman, the legislation represents a dramatic return to Cold War-era government propaganda battles. “These countries spend vast sums of money on advanced broadcast and digital media capabilities, targeted campaigns, funding of foreign political movements, and other efforts to influence key audiences and populations,” Portman explained, adding that while the U.S. spends a relatively small amount on its Voice of America, the Kremlin provides enormous funding for its news organization, RT.“Surprisingly,”Portman continued, “there is currently no single U.S. governmental agency or department charged with the national level development, integration and synchronization of whole-of-government strategies to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation.”
Long before the “fake news” meme became a daily topic of extensive conversation on wuch mainstream fake news portals as CNN and WaPo, H.R. 5181 would rask the Secretary of State with coordinating the Secretary of Defense, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors to “establish a Center for Information Analysis and Response,” which will pinpoint sources of disinformation, analyze data, and – in true dystopic manner – ‘develop and disseminate’ “fact-based narratives” to counter effrontery propaganda.