More drunken raving from l.f.

Last week, several bloggers noted that Learned Foot of Kool Aid Report was tanked to the gills, offending others and dropping cigar ash on them. He did not offend me. I was happy that at least one blogger had imbibed enough booze to reduce his mental abilities down to my level.

But I can't get out of my thoughts one peculiar thing Learned Foot had said.
He claimed that no blogger should take himself seriously. He didn't get much of a reaction from anybody. He put the question directly to Nihilist("I read you guys before Powerline...Hell, I don't even read Powerline anymore!")."Is there any blog or blogger that should take himself or itself seriously?" I noticed that Nihilist registered some hesitation to answer quickly and I don't remember that he ever did answer.

I may not be quoting Learned Foot precisely. But the point he seemed to be making is that no blog or blogger should believe that he or it are so dignified as watchdogs of the national health as the msm sees itself.

Now, LF's charge is a bit peculiar to me in light of another conversation I'd had with him as he swayed in the night air. I had made some comment to him about the nature of Kool Aid Report's comedic personality as opposed to the "serious blogs". To this, LF had a quick and ready answer. He claimed that KAR is always making serious points.

Is this not evidence of schitzophrenia in Learned Foot? Which foot is the learned one? Sometimes the right, sometimes the left? If so, which is the serious foot and which is the funny foot? I am sure that any casual reader of KAR understands what they do. They fill a useful niche in the local blogosphere with irreverence and brash humor whilst holding an undertow of firmly held center-right conservative political position. The bloggers at KAR know that there are plenty of blogs that maintain a serious agenda in the raging political battles of our day. KAR makes its points with satire and ridicule for their adversaries. They also have no hesitation in postings of the most puerile and juvenile topics. Kudos to KAR. We love them for it.

But Learned Foot, I don't have any problem answering your question. The answer is Yes, some blogs have earned the right to take themselves quite seriously. I don't have to name them for you. One of the most prominent is known by just about everyone after Time magazine named it Blog of the Year; Power Line. Now, we all know that Power Line is not humorless. Far from it, they make me laugh many times with their ready ironic points of political import. A glance at my political blogs in my blogroll will list many of the blogs that have earned the right to take themselves seriously. If it weren't for those essential blogs, Dan Rather would have gotten away with his ruse over President Bush's National Guard service. And if Rather had successfully sold that falsehood, it's possible that John F. Kerry would be president of the United States today. The serious blogs also functioned very well to preserve credibility for the Swift Boat Vets for Truth.

Learned Foot is quick to point out that he was inspired to start a blog when he saw how the msm was treating the SBVFT.

But the shoe is on the other foot. Bush was reelected. We'll probably never know if the blogs made the true difference. Radio had a valuable role to play as well. But the serious blogs and the humorous blogs all had a hand or a foot in that process.