An Obligatory Observation

PRESENTING...
Saturday afternoon the Daily Pilot, via their excellent reporter Bradley Zint, provided its readers with a profile of the most recent Costa Mesan to enter the local political blogosphere, Dennis Popp.  You can read it HERE.

GOOD COMPARISON
Zint does a good job of providing a biographical profile of Popp, so I'm not going to attempt to expand on that.  I thought his profile and description of Popp's blog, Costa Mesa Politics and Personalities, was pretty darn close, as was his inclusion of vignettes of this blog and one produced by the grumpy old guy, The Mouth From Mesa North.  While I seldom link to the putrefaction found on his blog, you can read his take on Zint's piece HERE.  Warning:  You may have to take a shower after reading that entry.

NOT YET...
As you might expect, I take exception to much of what Popp writes, beginning with the preamble at the top of his page.  He says, "The aim of this blog is to fit into the blogosphere like the bracingly tart taste of yogurt fits between the boringly bland and the unspeakably vile."  In my view, so far, he has failed.  Nothing I've read on his blog for the year he's been publishing resembles a 'bracingly tart taste" of anything, although I must admit that sometimes it does remind me of fermented milk.  No, I think he's still in that "boringly bland" stage.

HE'S ONLY KIDDING
He then says, "All comments will be answered if their author provides contact info."   And yet, he seldom permits comments to appear on his blog.  Sometimes he will provide his few readers his version - a compilation - of what commenters have to say.  I know from first-hand experience that managing comments on a blog is a sticky wicket.  It's probably better if he just blocked comments to save himself the trouble of having to read them.

REALLY, DENNIS?
He then gives us this whopper, "I have no sponsoring group(s) or agencies, and I owe no allegiance to any candidate or group."  I can see the smirk on his face now... Really, Dennis?  Do you actually read the stuff you write?  How do you suppose you found yourself on city committees?  You purchased those positions with your pandering prose.  I suggest you just delete that phrase from your masthead, unless you don't mind folks thinking, "Just who does he think he's kidding?" as they begin to try to read your stuff.

YAWN
And I intended to say "try to read your stuff" because it is generally so boring that it's very difficult to figure out exactly what he's trying to say.  Of course, he has the endorsement of those local intellectual powerhouses, Steve Mensinger and Jim Fitzpatrick, so that's really all that counts, right?  Well, that and the fact that Popp likes kitties.

WE'LL KEEP DOING OUR THINGS
I'm glad the Daily Pilot profiled my fellow geezer-blogger, Dennis Popp.  He seems like a nice enough young fella.  Some might say we'd make a perfect pair of bookends - two conservative, portly, gray-haird geezers.  We both will continue to write what we write and let the chips fall where they may.  He will continue to support the ill-conceived schemes his benefactors put forward and I'll continue to point out their foibles.  He'll continue to pretend he's an intellectual and I will not.  He'll continue to tell you he "has no sponsoring groups" and I'll continue to smile, recognizing that statement for the falsehood it is.  He'll pretend he receives comments and I'll continue to welcome all views and post them to encourage a lively online discussion of important issues.  Yeah, I know - since I required registration before posting comments most of the threads seem one-sided.  I supposed you could presume that most of those nasty ones in the past were contributed by gutless anonymous posters representing views that oppose mine.  Their comments are still welcome, I just want to know who they are... my blog, my rules.  And, yes - I will protect their anonymity if they choose to register.

DINNER TIME
So, welcome, Dennis.  If Zint's quote near the end of the article is correct, I guess I either get the credit or blame for his presence in the local blogosphere.  I will say, "You're welcome" or "I'm sorry", depending on your viewpoint.  We will do our things and the grumpy old guy from Mesa North - so filled with hatred that he has become virtually irrelevant in the serious discussion of issues in our city -  will likely just disappear in a puff of smoke one day like the Wicked Witch Of The West in The Wizard of OZ.  Now, if you'll excuse me - I have to go feed the pit bull a small kitten.

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