Day 32 of 1000

This blog is well over seven years old now.  This is 1740th post.  The only thing I wanted to do with this blog is keep a record of our homeschool.  It has served its purpose quite well in that regard.  I quit blogging for several months after the kids started college, but old habits die hard.  The blog helps me focus my thoughts and efforts, I have a very small, but fairly active following, and I enjoy writing, so I thought I would refocus it on something new.  I am writing 5-6 times per week again and enjoying myself, but the blog is a little unfocused.

Reasonable Faith, the William Lane Craig book I read while I walk in the evenings is heavy reading so I though I would take a break and read something a little lighter.  I have never really read anything about blogs and blogging although I follow a good number of blogs every day.  I thought I might do some reading to help me find some focus.  There is a list of books (click on the “Required Reading” tab here) for the Convergence Journalism program at the World Journalism Institute Kelly wants to join, some required, some optional.  One of the optional books is Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That’s Changing the World by Hugh Hewitt.  That is the book I decided to read, so I downloaded it to my Nook Color Wednesday evening and have read about ninety pages so far.

I used to be a pretty big Hugh Hewitt fan.  I enjoy his interview style more than just about any radio interviewer with the exception of Bill Bennett.   I like the book OK and used to read his blog daily, but he has the same problem as his buddies at the Power Line Blog.  He is a lawyer and has that lawyerly affection that permeates his interviews, writing, and radio commentary.  Intellectual rigor in legal analysis is the domain of lawyers.  There are two things in the book that reinforced my reasons for having deleted the bookmark to his blog from my browser.  First, he is a hard-core establishment Republican, establishment Christian, establishment lawyer, and knee jerk Mitt Romney fan-boy.  Second, he appears to believe the intellectual rigor required to be a lawyer somehow provides lawyers with analytical skills suited for interviewing skills, commentary, and research on topics for which lawyers are not trained.  What he might not understand is that some of his commentary on non-lawyerly topics, in its naivete and establishment smugness, can probably only be appreciated by other lawyers while those with skills and training in those topics cringe.  This is frustrating because my worldview is almost exactly the same as his on virtually everything else.

All that being said, I think he is a sincere and thoughtful man.  I am enjoying the book and recommend, if for nothing else, as a historical record of some very cool events that mark the rise of the blog and the demise of the Main Stream Media.