I’m a father of three, husband (to just one; my only one), scientist, professor, political junkie, marathon/half-marathon runner, and eater. Probably pretty normal in lots of respects, maybe a bit better than average in some categories, and at the bottom of the barrel in others. I like to discuss controversial things, and I like to talk about politics and policy, in a broad sense — I can’t say that I’m always too interested in the fine-tuning stuff; not quite a policy wonk.

I started this blog because my wife told me I should, and after 19 years of marriage at the time (not 18 — funny story there), I’ve learned that she knows what I want well before I do.

I have no idea what, exactly, I want from this, except to be an outlet for me to put some thoughts to paper, but I guess we don’t use paper for these things so much anymore. Either way, I’m here, and hopefully this will become a useful place for me to be, and express. Time will tell.

P.S. I haven’t figured out the workings of this site all that well yet, so don’t bother hitting the “home” menu item above. If you want to go back to the front page, click on the banner at the top, or use your back button. Time will tell if I get that right also.

[Edit: It’s been more than a year since this started. I still am not quite sure what I want it for, but it has been a great source of pleasure to write these posts, and that’s enough for me. I still haven’t shared them widely, and I don’t know if I ever will. To understand more about this site, there are a couple posts that I would consider required reading. I’d start here for a single paragraph about the name of the blog. Then move to here to make sure you see where I aspire to keep the tone of the entries. Then it’s up to you. There are some that I consider my personal favorites that I feel apply in a timeless manner, like parsing “explaining” and “justifying” bad things. A rather long and maybe boring discussion of a really tough topic, abortion, gives a good sense of how I approach the issue. And, finally, a recent post explaining where I see myself fitting on the political spectrum, and why I call myself a “Bartlet Democrat.“]