Ahem, an Introduction

So I started this blog way, way back and then dropped it for various
reasons, mainly lack of internet access.

I've resumed without actually telling anybody so if you found me,
welcome.

I am a Peace Corps Volunteer currently posted in Ukraine. If you've
ever been in the PC, you probably know that it is a hive of liberal
group-think so, not being fully with the program makes me something of
an oddball. My PC friends would probably be surprised to hear this but
I would be an oddball in a hive of conservative group-think as well.
I've struggled with the left/right labels in the past, trying to
identify myself as liberal on these issues and conservative on those
but I finally realized that those labels simply don't work for me.

I don't see how a war on terrorism or the war in Iraq can be defined as
liberal or conservative issues. And I find that both parties share the
same enthusiasm for hypocrisy if it suits their particular purpose.

But I do find myself reading more from what is considered the
conservative side of opinion. And the vast majority of my friends are
liberal.

So maybe that makes me a Masochistan. Has anybody started that party
yet?

I am slowly starting to realize various mistakes I've made over the
past week, not attributing some links to the blog that I found them on
being the most inexcusable and I promise to make a better effort.

In Ukraine (it is "Ukraine" by the way, Ukrainians hate it when people
say "The Ukraine"), internet is relatively expensive. My method of
using it is to go online, grab as much as I can and then log off to
save minutes. I do all my reading offline and so when I want to blog a
story, I go back on and blah, blah, blah. Sometimes, in that gap, it
has slipped my mind to attribute where I originally found a story.
Sometimes, I forget where I got it. In any case, I'll try harder in
the future I promise.

Other than that, I need to begin pulling out and posting quotes from
sources that I link to more. I've started that to some degree but I
don't know HTML and I don't get the pretty quote formatting of others.
And since my online time is limited, I think that this will be the
standard for a while.

There are old posts below that I tried to edit and managed to
completely screw up in the process. I'll be repairing that in the
future.

If anybody knows a way that you can post on blogspot by email with
formatting (links etc), please let me know. I don't know if that is
even possible but it would save me a lot of time.

Oh, and I'll be making a greater effort to pontificate on the unique PC
experience in Ukraine.