I’m Michael Burton, and this blog is my own internet-enabled stream of consciousness — or semi-consciousness.
It’s about whatever catches my interest — books, movies, television, music. I’ve worked and played with computers for more than twenty years, and they still fascinate me. Animated cartoons, comic books, comic strips — I’ve never outgrown them.
Oh, and politics.
I’ve been interested in politics since I was very young. I’ve annoyed countless people by sharing my views — sometimes fairly vehemently. Sometimes too vehemently. After the presidential election of 2000, I declared that my political days were over. Neither party really wanted to find out who had won the election. They only wanted to win. I didn’t want any of them in a position of power.
In the months that followed the Supreme Court’s order to stop counting actual votes cast by actual voters, I might launch into one of my patented political rants, then remember that I’d sworn off politics, and stop in mid-tirade. As this continued month after month, people who had known me for a while worried, because it was such a change in my usual obnoxious personality.
I started talking politics again when my country came under attack. It started, of course, with the sudden, highly-visible shocks of September 11, 2001. But in the months and years since, other enemies have exploited those attacks to wage a steady and secretive assault on our rights, on our Constitution, and on the rule of law itself. So, I’m on a mission: to stop them. Or to do my own little share to stop them.
It’s not all politics. But when the baby is playing with matches, trying to start a bonfire, other matters may become secondary to getting … the … matches … away … from … the … baby! So, mostly politics.