Daniel Larison is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.

The Whippersnapper struggle continues. Too bad Jean Baudrillard is dead, because getting any attention for one post with no analytical content and a hastily written 'about me' is clearly something that's only possible with layers upon layers of simulacra and fantasy. But I'll let blogosphere superhero Daniel Larison speak.

As a young fogey who supports the aspirations of whippersnapper bloggers (isn’t that a redundant description?) to trouble the more esteemed and well-known pundits, I point you to the blog of Matt Zeitlin:....

[whippersnapper] is in one sense a perfect word to use for all bloggers, who are, in the grand scheme of things, pretty insignificant and who also presume to hold forth on matters great and small, but it might just as well be applied to all columnists and pundits. An important part of good blogging, it seems to me, involves reminding better-known pundits and columnists that they are not necessarily all that important and authoritative and that they have no monopoly on driving the debate.

In all honesty, I really like Daniel Larison's stuff and I'm really interested in the crack up between paleocons and neocons on foreign policy, and he's, in my humble, uninformed opinion, one of the best for the paleo view on most things. So yeah, thanks a lot Daniel, you're really my first blogospheric fan. I guess I might be getting some love from the TAC and Chronicles crowd, so it looks like I'll need to bone up on my Kirk, Chesterton, Maistre and Eliot. I already like Burke, and I'm not a huge fan of this Iraq fiasco, so maybe being a paleocon is the way to go. On second thought, maybe no, I'd probably just end up like Alexander Konetzki.

Again, another post with no real content of the type I hope to provide soon. I was literally in the midst of writing a post about Robert Kagan, but I guess that will have to wait.

Daniel Larison, don't let anyone tell you that you're not a hero.

The Whip's First Crack

I guess this is my first post, so some explanation is in order. First, to the certain disappointment of some intrepid googlers, this is not an S&M blog, despite the fact that reading certain blogs (hopefully not this one!) can only be described as sadistic.

Like so many bloggers, writers, thinkers and infantile scribblers before me, I am the product of those brave souls who preceded me. Now, I've been an active lurker in blogosphere and occasional commenter (matt z) on some blogs, namely Yglesias and Garance, but only recently have I been inspired to get in the game. I was inspired primarily by the Methuselah of the blogosphere, Mickey Kaus. In a series of posts and a bloggingheads kvetch fest Kaus feared the rise of the "whippersnappers" - young bloggers and journalists who never went through the standard apprenticeship and rise to punditry, and instead just pollute the blogosphere with their sophomoric (literally!) thoughts.

Two of the most prominent whippersnappers, bloggers whose faces should be carved onto a digital Mt. Blogsmore (and the bad jokes just keep on coming....) Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias, promptly responded to Kaus' shofar blast of derision and concern. Yglesias promptly went on to crush my dreams - The good news / bad news is that I suspect the whippersnapper window is closing. Ezra, in his response, offered some reassurance and also provided me with the title for this very blog!

So here I am, the youngest, most infant terrible, least experienced, least qualified blogger out there. Hopefully I have plenty of whip and snap as well.

Who knows if I'm Kaus' mythical "generation of post-Bush, anti-Kos neolibroots rebels comes online? These people are, like, only 12 at the moment." I was a neolib in my past life, like when I was 14 or so, so who knows...and despite Kaus' curmudgeonly, House-like charm, I tire of his constant assault on liberals...well, I've probably said too many nice things about him for being a leftie blogger, so I'll just stop now.

Don't worry my adoring legions of fans, posts with real content and analysis will be forthcoming.