With all the excitement over the elections in the States, I almost let the anniversary of my first year of blogging slip by. Looking back at my first posts in November 2007, I see that I wrote a good deal more about Iraq than I have done recently (that is likely to change once Barack Obama is inaugurated). There were several posts on the complicated Belgian political situation, which though it has calmed somewhat, remains complicated and never-ending. It's the national sport.
One topic - torture, as in US practice of - is one that I would much prefer never having had to write about. If today's article by Mark Benjamin in Salon is right - "Obama's Plans For Probing Bush Torture" - we may all be learning more about the truth behind Bush's assertion that "This government does not torture people." In the past year of blogging, I've noticed that whenever I do a post about torture, much of my readership seems to fade away. Denial?
During this strange post-election, lame duck, transition, phony war period, there will be plenty to write about. Like many others who supported the candidacy of Barack Obama, I will be scrutinizing the news coming out of Transition HQ, to make sure that realpolitik does not trump the wishes of real people who elected the next president.
But the advent of a new, popularly elected administration, one which has to undo so much that harmed the very foundations of the United States, should account for a slight change of tone in the months ahead. After all, "avuncular" is in my URL: "In the manner of an uncle, pertaining to an uncle, hence, kind, genial, benevolent or tolerant" according to Wiktionary.
I think Barack Obama should bring out the avuncular in me.
