Welcome to my blog

You might be tempted to greet the arrival of yet another blog on your computer screen by concurring mournfully with the wisdom of one of the most underrated of American politicians, the late Morris Udall.

"Everything that can possibly be said has already been said," the peerless member of congress from Arizona once opined in the middle of a seemingly interminable debate.  "The problem is, not everyone has said it yet."

There is not, as far as I am aware, an opinion shortage in the English-speaking world.  I have seen no news reports of angry, comment-starved citizens roaming the streets, demanding to know what they are supposed to think about American strategic hegemony, the state of the health service in Britain, the outlook for global interest rates or whether last night's TV was worse than the night before's .  There is no plan for the G8, as far as I know, to increase supplies of the observations of armchair pundits to the world's polemically malnourished. 

So to venture into the teeming, infinitely-expanding universe known as the blogosphere, displaying serious intent only to add to the proliferating verbiage, requires at least some explanation, if not an outright apology on my part.

The only defence I can offer is this.  Blogging has simply become an essential component of modern public dialogue.  Not to blog is to leave oneself outside that ever-broadening conversation.

Five years ago I didn't know what a blog was.  Today, I hesitate to admit it but I probably spend more hours in a day reading blogs than doing any other single activity.  And, though some readers of my regular columns in The Times (Tuesdays on economics and finance, Fridays on everything else) might choke on hearing me say this,  I've become better informed for it.  I've never written anything in my life that could not have been improved by having had more pairs of eyes on it. Blogs provide the best means technology has yet devised to maximise that scrutiny. 

And it may sound impossibly idealistic, and just a bit pompous, but the broader the circle of debate the better all of our thinking will become, which I submit, is a good thing.

So I shall blog. In part, I hope, to inform, entertain and stimulate.  But also to learn, from other bloggers and above all, from readers, who I hope will feel free to comment exhaustively (but please not too rudely).

Though politics and policy - especially international and economic policy - are my passions, I shall range widely. My regular writings have pigeonholed me, probably accurately, as a sort of neo-conservative. Certainly my perspective has been coloured this last decade by living through turbulent times in America, and I shall write from that privileged perch, as a foreigner semi-embedded  in American life, trying to make sense of the startling changes around me.

But I shall delve from time to time into other fields - popular culture, movies, literature, TV, sport  (English and American), religion.  The usual euphemism for this sort of mixed and muddled bag is "eclectic".  So I shall claim it for me, and hope occasionally to be unpredictable, even a little confounding.

In doing so, I'll echo the observation of another American political genius, Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York, who once begged the voters of that great city to consider him on these terms:

Think about what you consider to be the ten most important issues, he said.  If you agree with me on six or seven of them, vote for me,  If you agree with me on all ten, go see your psychiatrist.

Comments

[NewSisyphus]

Welcome to our world, Mr. Baker!

I could tell you were plugged in to the international on-line conversation that is the Blogosphere from your columns, which display an otherwise all-too-lacking understanding of what is going on here in the U.S.A. in the British press.

I've added you to my blogroll. Welcome and best of luck to you.

[Thomas Holsinger]

Dear Mr. Baker,

I quite agree with your January 27 column. Please consider the possibility that Iran already has a few nuclear weapons made with fissionables and critical parts acquired from North Korea, as indicated by the Times story of January 29 - North Korea's plutonium pile attracts Iran. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2014464,00.html

This would limit American military options. Suppose we conduct a thorough, 3-6 week, bombing campaign on Iran's nuclear program. A month later they test their first nuke - one they had all along - and say they have more, which they will use on Kuwait and the Saudi oil ports if we attack them again. Then what can we do?

[Mike's America]

Yes Welcome! As many of the rest of us are blog addicted, and likewise spend the majority of our time reading blogs than other sources, your effort here will provide us greater access to your insights. And it doesn't hurt to create one more pathway to The Times either(you can tell your boss that in case he thinks you are just loafing).

[Luciano Tess]

Hello Gerard,
to give you an idea of how dangerous the left is here in Italy I invite you to keep a close eye on the Turin Winter Olimpics.
These people, with Mr Prodi, Mr Fassino and Mr Bertinotti condoning their behaviour, instead of enjoyng what should be a feast of universal brotherhood - the Olympics - will do what they can to fuel what they call the Anti-Olympics.
I call your atention to this because these same people are those who condone the actions of terrorists around the world and call them resistance fighters.
/LT

[Mark Coffey]

As one blogger to another, and as a fan of your work, welcome aboard!

[Jenny Hatch]

Welcome! It will be nice to have a seasoned voice in our sphere. So many of us are novice writers...really just big loud american voices, to have another opinion guy writing just makes the whole adventure that much more fun.

No need to be "confounding", just be yourself and people will come in for a look.

Jenny

[Bishop Hill]

Welcome aboard, newbie :-)

[Devil's Kitchen]

Well, this is all very jolly, eh? Welcome aboard, o MSMer; come, blog us your wisdom...

DK

[Guido Fawkes]

"Stop the senseless slaughter of trees!"

We'll see how you like being contradicted in your comments...

[Bob Hall]

Clue your Washington guy, Tom Baldwin, that most American Conservatives are not 'centrist' in anything and are not influenced by any "Religious Right" - a minority of a minority that controls very few elected officials or anybody else. We didn't care for flying fairies when they were on EAL DC-3s in 1948 and we don't think the are cute now. Know what's going on in the Church of England these days ? Maybe Tom's been away from home too long.