Welcome to my second blog, The Roberts Post (with apologies to Arianna Huffington, the doyen of bloggers).  While my first blog, Space for the Curious, focuses on one topic area, albeit a huge one, this blog is intended to be inclusive, indeed cosmopolitan.  Even catholic in the lower case, original meaning.  This is the place where I write my letters to the editors, expressing a slightly different point of view.  Hope you enjoy.

A word about me, the author.  First, anything written in this blog is solely my responsibility. No one else should be blamed for my off-the-wall opinions and analyses.  Second, I will try to avoid common techniques like ad hominem attacks - going after the individual instead of her ideas.  Third, I'm a product of my time (hopefully leavened by experience in the intervening 30-40 years).  I'm a child of the 60s and I drank from both cups, liberal and conservative.  I am convinced that Man (read man and woman) are inherently good and that they are, if not perfectible, at least improvable.  And yet I call myself a optimistic pessimist.  That is, I expect the worst, and am pleasantly surprised when the worst doesn't happen.  But I'm rarely disappointed when bad things happen. 

I like to be data-driven; I am suspicious of ideologies that demand belief without a solid foundation.  Which explain my political and religious views.  When I hear that "Romney had the best job-creation record in Massachusetts history," I'd like to know the basis for such a claim.  I try to separate out the spin and look at the core within the message,  I like to brush away assertions that have no foundation.  If you assert that the Sun will rise around 6 AM tomorrow, I'll likely believe you because there's a lot of empirical data to support the assertion. On the other hand, I have real trouble with the assertion that one god or another deserves my blind, unquestioning obedience based solely on faith.  Show me the foundation, the data supporting such a claim.  I've been told I'll find out in the afterlife.  Hmmm . . . what afterlife?  Any data?  Any supportable reports?

All that cynicism aside, I like to be liked (not the Facebook version, though you're welcome there, too).  This is hardly unique to me; the vast majority of the human race wants this.  In general, I want you to agree with me; I want you to meet my standards (see above), I want you to share my interests and passions.  (I want you to give me some M&Ms too.) 

In summary of this short psychoanalysis, I have some conflicting desires and standards.  I often ignore my own rules.  As Walt Whitman once wrote, "Do I contradict myself?  Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)"  [Song of Myself, 1855]  And with this in mind, on to the fun!

TK, 15 June 2012