Stop Reading This Blog

Belle Waring says everyone should eat more quinoa and tells us how to cook it. I find it somewhat curious that blogs centered on political commentary seem to be systematically higher-profile than blogs on other subjects. Obviously, I like some good political commentary as much as (or, indeed, way more than) the next guy, but basically it's totally useless. Say you're walking around in life with a bunch of wrong opinions about politics. What difference does it make? None, really. Say your opinions got better. Well, that's be nice, be really nothing in your life would change. If, by contrast, I try out this quinoa recipe and it really is "yum-tastic . . . a lovely texture . . . super good for you" then the quality-of-life improvement will be clear. So why waste your time here? Looking back, my efforts at predicting election outcomes are less reliable than coin-flipping....

UPDATE: Now cultural criticism, at least, is entertaining when done well, but who wants to read about soldiers' families getting screwed in contravention of the law? That's no fun, though if I happened to run a mortgage company that wasn't currently engaged in screwing people over like this the story would be useful. Breaking the law, it seems, doesn't come with any real penalties even if you get caught in the end.