Maggie's Farm

While I give thanks for being born in this great nation, speaking this wonderful language and living through such interesting times, I would be remiss if I didn't mention something that I'm sure everyone reading my words is thankful for.

Thank you for Maggie's Farm.

Occasionally, one of the bloggers here will semi-rhetorically ask 'Why do we do this?' A few months ago, I answered one of these queries, and, on this day of thanks, I shall do so again.

There are really two things that make sites like this so valuable.

First, if all we had to read was Michelle, Ed, Tiger, and the rest of the political bloggers, I think we'd all go crackers at some point. The balance that Maggie's provides isn't just desired. It's necessary.

But what I see as the real value in a site like this is the potential it carries.

One day, someone's going to invent the cure for cancer, and he'll be at the press conference when a reporter asks him how he came to discover that the synthesized derivative of the Red-Winged Amazonian Beetle's sweat glands was the miracle cure. He'll say,

"Well, it was kind of crazy, but I was just drifting around the web one day and read this real intriguing article on beetles on some blogsite, and that got me interested in the little critters and eventually led me to the Amazon Basin where I discovered this amazing cure."

This potential does NOT exist on Michelle Malkin's site.

Or Ed's.

Or Tiger's.

So my thanks this day go to the blogsites that view us as human beings, not just "readers". To the ones that reflect life in its entirety, not just a microcosm of it. To the ones who offer us doors to new worlds, rather than spinning us around the same old tired whirlpool.

To the ones that offer us more than just words.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.