Speak Up, Speak Often.

Who knows if I'll stick to this, but I think it's time to dust the cobwebs off this place, square up, and start talking again.

Why? Because there's a few awesome people talking about anything: religion, politics, feminism, thinking, action, etc- and a whole hell of a lot of bullshit.

So, I think I am doing no one any favors by staying silent. In fact, staying silent is the worst thing I could do. Well, next worst. I'll get to that in a second. Like right now, actually.

There's gonna be some new rules for this blog. Specifically, I am making a pledge, right now, to avoid vitriol, fulmination, and other forms of outright nastiness. This is not going to be easy for me. But the only way to have the kind of conversation I want to have is to avoid the pitfalls of the kind I don't. And adding to the bullshit kind of discourse is, indeed, worse than silence, though not much.

Second, I am going to stop hiding this thing, and will post publicly when I update. You, the reader, can feel free to ignore it, and not be a Reader. I don't anticipate needing to have rules about moderation and the like, we'll build that bridge as we come to it.

Third, I don't want you to think that I won't get angry. I will, and I'll let you know when I am. Because one of the important things about discourse is that Having Anger is Okay. It's what you do with it before, during, and after that's important.

Fourth, some rules about the discourse here. For those inclined to reply to comments with, "Entitled to Opinions" and "Hate anyone who disagrees with you" a lot, if I hear anything at all. To these points:

-On the subject of Opinion, please be sure to verify if a statement is, in fact, Opinion or Judgement. Everyone has opinions, but you have to earn the right to make a Judgement. That's why there's a whole profession (hint: called Judges), that do that shit. I will make judgements from time to time. So will you. We should remember that no, we're not entitled to them, and expressing them _might_, in fact, be wrong.

-This is not gonna be a forum for, "well, it's just my opinion." If you want to discuss things here, it'd best be because you're okay with having opinions, or other positions, questioned, argued with, poked at, and scrutinized. What I care about isn't what you think or believe, but why. And if you don't have at least _an_ answer for why, and if you're not prepared to discuss it, then this is probably not the place for you.

Anyway. That's the gist. Like I said, we'll see what happens.