Toward an Unregulated Society

Baldilocks, one of my favorite bloggers (she's another blue-suiter, you know!) has an interesting article where she pushes a bunch of buttons, and asks the very real question, "Why do you have to look at WHO's blogging, rather than what they're SAYING?" (She doesn't use those exact words, but that's what I got from her comments.)

I link to a lot of different people. Some of them are white males:
Power Line, Tim Blair (a white Australian male - I guess that makes it worse), David Limbaugh (yeah, Rush's brother), Glenn Reynolds, Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs, Major Mike, a Marine zoomie, Donald Sensing's One Hand Clapping, Rev. Mark Roberts, and Sgt Stryker (actually, I enjoy Sgt. Mom a lot more!).

I also link to several female bloggers: Baldilocks, of course, La Shawn Barber, Ann Althouse and Angie Shultz, and the beautiful Filipina Michelle Malkin.

I also link to Medpundit, who is a female general practitioner, and Dr. Bob at The Doctor is In. There are additional links to people in the active military, and others who are retired, like me. There are links to a half-dozen foreign bloggers, and to a lot of people I don't know who, what, or where they are - and it doesn't really matter. I've linked to them because of one thing - I enjoy reading what they write.

There may be more blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Europeans, and whatever that blog: I probably haven't read what they write, or I don't care much for what they say, or I don't like HOW they say it, or they duplicate what I hear from others, better. If that weren't so, they'd have found a place on my blogroll. That's the beauty of the blogosphere - it's not WHO you are, but what you say that's the final deciding point. People who read what I write and like it will come back. Those that don't, won't. It doesn't matter that I've got three hands, eleven toes, and a horn in the middle of my forehead - only what I say and how I say it will keep people coming back to my mutterings.

Anyone attempting to impose "quotas" on the blogosphere will have the same problem that people who insist that "everyone's equal" here - if a blogger can't attract an audience, their blog isn't going to be widely read. Ideas count, links count, but what counts the most are the thoughts and words put down in logical sequence for others to read. Good writing is good writing, whether its in a newspaper, in a novel, an article in a magazine, or something posted on a blog. Good writing, well-crafted sentences, provocative thought, and intelligent comments attract and keep readers. Sloppy writing, ill-considered ideas, poor expression, and lack of decent punctuation, won't, regardless of who you are, where you live, or what you do.