A Shout Out to Yar's Revenge

Earlier this week, the proprietor of the fine blog Yar's Revenge pointed out to all and sundry that blogging is a frelling waste of time (he used somewhat, um, stronger language than you might be used to seeing here. My neices and nephews might be reading this, don'cha know). I can understand his position, and while I have some sympathy for it, I must respectfully disagree.

Yar says that we are all playing Calvinball here in Blogistan. To some degree he has a valid point; however, I think he needs to be reminded of a few things:

- the Media Whores are playing Calvinball as much, if not more so, than the vassals of Bloghdad. Some of us manage from time to time to call them on it (not to mention Atrios or Calpundit, or for that matter most of the shining stars here in the Fashionable Left Bank of Blogistan, by name or anything). So we are adding to the diversity of the global media with our little blogs. Even the ones about detailing the arcana of the daily existence of a 15-year-old virgin from Tacoma who likes Neon Genesis Evangelion and Hoobastank. They probably make more sense than, say, your average Ann Coulter column. And, since AnnThraxx gets paid for her screeds, that makes those blogs (with a profit of zero) more valuable than yer basic media whore hysterical ravings.

Some of the bloggers out there, by the way, do hold to journalistic standards and ethics. More so than the mainstream media. The trick is to find out which ones they are and to implore them to continue maintaining those standards.

- I know Dennis Prager is a sanctimonious prick who talks out of his @$$ every time he opens his pie hole. I don't have to read his vile dren (thank Koresh!) or hear the smarmy slurpy blow jobs he sends out to the current cabal over the people's airwaves. But maybe there is someone out there who doesn't recognize this walking bag of BS, and might actually listen to and/or believe what he says. Once they visit Yar's place (provided they aren't brain dead FReepertrash), they are quickly and effectively shown the beast behind the mask.

This is only one of the many invaluable public services that Yar's Revenge performs for the community. There are a lot of bloggers who have made it their business to check on the prominent media whores and call BS on them when they make things up (not to mention Drudge, and his unfounded smear on Kerry, by name or anything, as an example).

- For some strange reason, when some authors have writer's block, it seems that they can write about almost anything except what they need to for the job at hand. Thus blogs could be considered a valuable outlet for those authors to vent. I'm not saying that this is Yar's situation, but it could be. Or it could be Josh Marshall's. Or Dave Niewert's. Or any of the fine would-be writers who can now scribble on a public wall if they want...

That sense of obligation to read the ravings of Dennis Prager, though? Maybe Yar needs to suffer for some past misdeeds, karmically speaking. Maybe he needs to raise his blood pressure some more, and the doctor suggested he check out this Dennis Prager guy. Maybe Prager is heard on every radio in every location within a fifty-mile radius of Yar whenever Prager has a Repugnicant sponsored propaganda activity broadcast on, and the voices are driving Yar crazy. I appreciate the effort, dude, but seriously, Prager is a tired old man who has nothing useful to say to anybody. I personally thought it was all just because you found it amusing, and I was lucky enough to find the joke pretty funny too. Skewer him at your leisure. After all, it's not like you're getting paid to do it, right?

And, if you are getting paid to lambaste this particular flavor of idiot, you should be shouting it out to the world every five minutes. If anyone would come up to me and ask me to provide a weekly column critiquing any of the media whores as a paying proposition, I would jump on it in a heartbeat. Not to suggest a good use of a very little amount of money to George Soros or anything...