Everyone will have 5 seconds of fame.

The following quotation comes from a great Power Line post doing what I love to see done -- attacking the NY Times:

We have commented many times on the apparent unfamiliarity of New York Times reporters and editors with basic facts about science, history, literature and mathematics. (Search our site for 'New York Times corrections' and you'll see what I mean.) Today's paper has two such corrections, one of which is amusing, while the second bears directly on a key public policy issue.

Even this fairly little post, on a simple matter, is so good, it has me asking what role really exists out here for us long-tailers. (For those of you who haven't seen that term before, it's also fairly new to me. ~rich, over at Beef Always Wins, explained to me that, if you look graph charting blog viewing patterns, the big blogs (bless their hearts) such as Power Line and LGF, or Daily Kos (no heart blessing for that one), are the big curve, with most hits going to those sites. Then there are the rest of us, whose hits create the long, thin tail following the big curve for the famous blogs.) Now, these blogs are famous for a reason. They have good analysis (at least my favorites do) and, because they are established, they have great contacts. They get massive amounts of very interesting information in real time. That is, in addition to intelligent analysis, they've become quite reliable information clearinghouses. And what do we little guys provide? Well, I'm a clearinghouse for my favorite blogs (which I've listed off in the right column), but you readers can check those out just as well as I can. I can flatter myself that I'm culling the wheat from the chaff, but that's just my opinion. I can do my usual rants -- I hate the UN, I hate the NY Times -- but that gets boring. I'm also entirely derivative, since I'm only passing on information I gather from news agencies and other blogs. This distinguishes me from a great website such as The Diplomad, which actually has first-hand knowledge about just how heinous the UN really is. Or from the guys at Beef Always Wins -- who, aside from being intelligent, well-read and articulate, are out in Iraq, which gives them a unique perspective when it comes to their posts commenting on the situation in Iraq. So, now having established that I'm derivative, repetitive, and uniquely ill-suited to bring an original perspective to matters, why do I blog? And why should you read my blog? I guess the main reason I blog is because I'm a conservative in one of the bastions of liberalism here in America. I cherish my friends and acquaintances -- they are really good people, albeit politically benighted. But I'm a compulsive newshound, I've got opinions and those opinions have got to go somewhere. This blog is it. Absent a forum for my well-developed views, and a venue for my big mouth, I'd start blabbering my views around locally, only to become persona non grata in my community, something I'm too sociable to tolerate. I also think that my views are intelligent (albeit derivative and repetitious), and I'd like them to give some sort of hearing outside of the echo chamber in my own head. And if you're still reading, why are you reading my blog? Aside from the moderate intelligence I mention above, I like to flatter myself that I write well -- my grammar is good, my spelling excellent (if you ignore the occasional typo), and I certainly bring conviction to my posts. Possibly you agree with my assessment of what's interesting out there, making me a quality clearinghouse of sorts. I guess it's also a conversation of types. You read what I say and, if you find my outlook interesting, you're kind enough to post a comment. Ultimately, a blog is a chance to be heard -- and to talk back. I've established through my statistics counter (Stat Counter), that I'm getting more and more hits -- most averaging 5 seconds. I guess in a blog world, we abandon our craving for our 15 minutes of fame, and settle for our 5 seconds of fame. And we seem to consider the time and energy we spend garnering our 5 seconds of fame well spent. And on those words, thank you for visiting my blog. Y'all come back now.