Bjorn Tipling

For a while now, I have been following political blogs. I am left of center ideologically but I like to read different points of view. I am especially interested in conservative blogs. I find that I already agree with many of the things that are said in liberal blogs, and it feels a little too much like everyone agreeing with one another without considering alternative opinions. Sometimes conservative blogs have a point. Lately though, more often than not their arguments make little sense. While I am no Cicero, I think you do not have to be very smart to see that many of the arguments on conservative blogs lack fundamental logical structure. Liberal blogs probably also have this problem, and if I see it I will call it out. Some of worst blogs are Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, and Red State. The unfair and untruthful attacks made on politicians I prefer upsets me. The manner in which my ideology is attacked upsets me.

Why do I care? I have noticed an interesting phenomenon on news meme trackers such as memeorandum and blogrunner. Meme trackers follow popular topics and their discussion across blogs and news sites. What I have noticed is that there is little overlap among ideologically differentiated blogs in discussions. For example, a news topic that causes an uproar on the right and is discussed to the point that it makes it to the top of a memetracker is often only discussed by conservative blogs. The same occurs for popular topics on the left. Conservative and liberal blogs don’t seem to acknowledge each others existence. Sometimes when a popular issue is discussed by both conservative and liberal blogs, there is no cross reference. The ideological gap is never crossed, and these sites never debate each other. Points are never refuted, arguments are never examined.

I think this is a bad thing. These blogs only respond to arguments made by politicians and TV pundits and old media, such as newspapers and television networks. One consequence of this is that blogs, looking to gain influence in politics and achieving some success at it, are implicitly acknowledging that their own medium is not significant enough to respond to. The other consequence is that, much like on conservative radio shows, arguments are made without any controls for validity, accuracy, logic. Unlike conservative radio shows, however, the arguments are in print. Because they are in print, these arguments can be examined and rebutted.

I may choose to participate in taking in an in-depth look at what I think are terrible arguments. In the past I have made some political posts in favor of Obama. There will probably be more political posts in the future. Some of the current audience for this blog may not want to read what I will write in the future. I may also begin to increase the amount of posts I publish. Some of the places where my blog is being tracked, such as code4lib and netlamers, might want to look at whether or not they want to continue to follow me. It wont hurt my feelings if anyone unsubscribes. I feel that in the past I have limited what I have been willing to say because of concerns for those that read my blog.

I am not going to ‘hold back’ anymore. I have a lot I want to say and respond to.

I really like programming. My education isn’t in computer science though. I have an anthropology undergraduate degree and a masters in library science. Maybe I took a wrong turn somewhere because I didn’t feel comfortable about my math. I work as an engineer now, but a recent experience has led me to believe that I’m not skilled enough for my choice of career.

So I am going back to school. I took precalculus in college and did well, but I know I didn’t have a grasp on the fundamentals enough to move forward. In high school I had a lot of problems where I lived at the time and just wasn’t able to excel. So I’m going to start over.

I’m going rebuild my math fundamentals. I have signed up at San Jose’s City College and will register for summer classes in Geometry and Intermediate Algebra. Just a refresher. Some have suggested why not read a book or learn online, and my answer is that I need the structured discipline a classroom environment provides.

My goal is to continue to take math classes until I can begin taking computer science courses, with the hope of transferring into San Jose State for a second Bachelors in computer science. I predict this will take more than a few years. But ultimately I will benefit.

The spam was getting out of control. Maybe Jaiku will send me an invitation.