I'm Just Another Blogging Nobody

Frank J, over at IMAO, asks, "Who the Hell Do You Think You Bloggers Are?"

Posted by Frank J. at 12:11 PM | TrackBack (0)

The mainstream media is pretty convinced we bloggers are an unruly, vicious sort. Why, as spacemonkey pointed out, even Ted Rall is questioning whether we're informed enough to have opinions of our own. And, when a piss-poor cartoonist is questioning your qualification to have opinions on political matters, you know you're in trouble.

I think it's time for all us bloggers to prove whether we really are qualified to have opinions. That's why I made...

THE "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" BLOGGER QUIZ

Ok, here are the answers for Old Patriot:

1. Who the hell do you think you are? Well, I don't THINK I'm "anybody". I KNOW who I am. I know my name, my history, and my integrity. I know all about "me", you see, and know the truth and the fiction. I know that:
   
   
   
   • I'm a 58-year-old man named Michael Allen Weatherford, that I come from a long line of Americans that dates back to the early 1700's in the United States, and back even further in Scotland. I know that among my ancestors are a number of pure-blood Native Americans, and I'm proud of that fact. I know my mother's maiden name, and the history of her family, as well as the names and histories of my wife's parents.
     
   • I know I'm a husband and the father of three children.
     
   • I know I'm a high school graduate, and that I've attended almost a dozen colleges during my lifetime, and acquired more credits than any of those colleges requires for graduation. I just never spent enough time with any one of them to get a diploma.
     
   • I know that I'm a retired Air Force Master Sergeant with 26 years' service to this nation and its people. I also know that I'm currently a disabled veteran, and that my disabilities are serious enough they prevent me from holding a full-time job outside my home.
     
   • I know that I've contributed to the US victory in the Cold War, and that I've also helped provide peace and security in places ranging from Panama and Vietnam to Germany and the United States.
     
   • I know that I'm the author of five science-fiction novels, self-published on the Internet. Whether they're any good is a matter for others to decide. I like them, which is all that matters to me.
     
   • I know that, during my military career, I've done many things that materially contributed to the defense of the United States Constitution, and to the people it represents. I've got the medals, awards, and commendations to back that up.
     
   • I know that during my life I've made a significant contribution to the health, well-being, and happiness of many people, because they've told me so (without having to be asked).
     
   
   So, what about you, Ted? Dave? Dan? Howard? Eason? Any takers?
   
   
2. So, other than blogging, what's your job? Do you work at some fast food joint, dumbass? Other than volunteering now and then, as I did in support of humanitarian efforts aiding victims of the Dec 26th, 2004, tsunami, no. It's kind of hard to work at a job in this nation that doesn't have at least some noise associated with it. It's reached the point now where even my personal computer in my home office gives me a headache. That doesn't even begin to take into consideration the chronic pain, chronic fatigue, and other problems I have. But then, I HAVE held jobs, some of them quite significant jobs, in both the military and in civilian employment. My old boss at LSI Logic, Inc., would love to have me come back to work for him... So would several of my former Military bosses, both those still in the Air Force and a couple that work for the CIA.
   
   
3. Do you have like any experience in journalism, idiot? You mean like the squadron newspaper that I edited and managed for two years, or the articles I wrote for the RAF Alconbury Photogram? Perhaps you'd consider the approximately 3000 reports and other documents I wrote for the Air Force, or the 200 or so I wrote for the LSI Logic Software Test Engineering Test Lab's training program. Maybe you'd rather consider the half-dozen articles I wrote for stamp magazines, or the 30 or so articles I've written for various online publications. Then there's always the five science fiction novels I wrote that are online here. I could also mention a few dozen "letters to the editor" I've had published here and there around the country, and a dozen or so other minor publications that were distributed to a limited audience. Is that enough? Oh, and that doesn't include my blog, or the entries I've had published on the blogs of others.
   
   
4. Do you even read newspapers? Just the Colorado Springs Gazette in dead-tree, but I read about a dozen online versions, from the Guardian to the London Times and The Sun from England, the English-language online edition of Aftenposten from Norway, the International Herald Tribune, Japan Times, The Straits Times (Singapore), and the Royal Gazette, Bermuda. I'd read several more if they didn't require registration. Links to these and others are available on the left side of my weblog.
   
   
5. Do you watch any other news than FOX News propaganda, you ignorant fool? I don't even watch FOX - this noise thing, you know...
   
   
6. I bet you're some moron talk radio listener too, huh? No. See above.
   
   
7. So, do you get a fax from the GOP each day for what to say, you @#$% Republican parrot? As a registered Independent, I don't get faxes from anyone. Do YOU get a daily fax from the Democratic Party, you donkey, you?
   
   
8. Why do you and your blogger friends want to silence and fire everyone who disagrees with you, fascist? Well, first I'm not a fascist. I'm not into name-calling all that much at all, and find those that do engage in such vitrol do so because they usually don't have any valid argument to express. Secondly, I don't do ANYTHING because someone else does it. I do what I do because that's what I believe in, think, accept, support, appreciate, etc. I link to people because I either agree with them, or I want to tell them I DON'T agree, and why. And by the way, I have many acquaintances, but darned few FRIENDS. Friendship is something I take seriously, and only extend it to those I feel deserve it.
   
   
9. Are you completely ignorant of other countries, or do you actually own a passport? During my military service, I lived in four different overseas countries for at least a year: Germany (3 times), Panama, Vietnam, and England. During that same 26-year period, I visited more than 65 countries and territories in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and Australiasia. I've held both a tourist passport and an official (Government) passport. My job (imagery intelligence) was to keep track of what went on in more than 80 nations around the world, frequently on a daily basis. Of course, as a history major in college with a minor in geography, I have a bit of academic knowledge of many, many nations. This makes my stamp collection covering all the nations of the world even more interesting for me - I've seen many of the places depicted on those stamps, and been to many of the countries I collect.
   
   
10. Have you even been to another country, you dumb hick? See above, smog-breather.
    
    
11. If you're so keen on the war, why haven't you signed up, chickenhawk? When 9/11 happened, and again when the United States went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, I requested the Air Force recall me and put me to work. I guess between my age (58) and my disability (70%+), they decided they didn't need me. What's YOUR excuse?
    
    
12. Do you have any idea of the horrors of war? Have you ever reached into a pile of goo that was your best friend's face? I and the troops I was working with were hauled out of our trailers where we were working and handed a rifle so we could defend Khe Sahn in early March, 1971. Were you there? I started my military career as a Cadet at the Air Force Academy, class of 1968. There are a number of names of people I knew and worked with on that black marble monument in Washington, DC. A good friend of mine, Denny Johnson, went to West Point because I turned down the appointment. He was killed in Vietnam in 1969. I had acquaintances killed in aircraft crashes in New Mexico, Panama, England, South Carolina, and Germany, on TRAINING FLIGHTS.
    
    As an imagery analyst, I kept track of not only the Vietnam War, but also the Cold War, the Afghanistan/Soviet war, the Iran/Iraq war, the many different Arab/Israeli wars, the Falklands war, and dozens of other "wars" and "guerilla actions" around the world. What about you, loudmouth? What are YOUR experiences?
    
    
13. Have you ever reached into any pile of goo? I grew up in a rural environment. I've slopped hogs, milked cows, fed chickens, raised pigs and rabbits, kept exotic pets (my mother still hasn't forgiven me for finding the green ribbon snake in my dresser drawer), mucked out barns, dug (and buried) outhouses, and tossed dried cow-pats to shoot with slingshots. I've walked behind a pair of matched mules plowing a field until I dropped from exhaustion, loaded alfalfa hay from early morning until the field was cleared, and done all sorts of other things even most people my age have never done. What's YOUR excuse?
    
    
14. Once again, who the hell do you think you are? Just a good-old-boy who loves this nation, and who has dedicated his life to honoring and protecting it, and the Constitution that created it. Unless you can beat that record, shut your yap.
    

If anybody needs proof of any of this, I'll do my best to provide it.