The world needs a new blog.

Yeah, right.

Well, ok, I need a new blog. I’ve been writing for almost half a decade at a number of different sites, including my own “Stormfields” under the url: http://www.bradleybirzer.com. I’ve never had a large following (nor do I really want to pursue a huge following), so I don’t think switching this around will throw too many folks off. If any of my 15 formal followers at/for http://www.bradleybirzer.com are angry with me, my sincere apologies.

If you like what I write, God bless you. If not, I completely understand. I can be rather cantankerous, especially when I don’t hold my passions in check.

So, why this new blog? First, it’s really a continuation of my previous Stormfields blog–but now with WordPress rather than with Google. I love what Google does in many things, but WordPress is far more flexible than Blogger is.

Second, I have a place for straight politics, straight theology, and straight music, so I want a place where I feel like I can state anything I want without limits.

I often list my great loves as: my wife, my kids, Apple computers and products, cooking and baking, drinking, hiking/walking, Christian Humanism, western civilization, individualism, liberty, Natural Rights, Natural Law, the American West, Mariner Software, Panera, and Hilton properties.

Third, I still feel as I though I want an outlet for my thoughts, whether many folks read them or not.

As I get older, I find myself less and less taken with the adherents of “conservatism” in the U.S. As I’ve come to understand it, modern conservatism–though divided by the small government (paleo) conservatives and the large government/imperial (neo-) conservatives–has slowly systematized.

Whatever I might think of specific views of each, I find them each tending toward rigidity in thought and moving toward becoming ideological entities. Only certain strands of libertarianism and individualism (and all non-socialist anarchy) really promote an a-ideological or anti-ideological vision (or, non vision) of the world. All other political strains of liberalism (especially) and most conservatisms suffer from the oldest sin, pride, believing only a certain vision can save the world. To my mind, such a presumption must inevitably lead to a remolding (or attempted) of the human person.

I believe it, the world needs, first and foremost, to recognize the dignity of the human person. Racism is nothing more than a lazy form of collectivism. Each person–male, female, Greek, Jew, black, white, Asian, or any other variation–is made finitely in the Image of the infinite. Second, the world needs to realize that constructs of power (especially political ones) are always imperial–whether banks, corporations, or governments–and want to remake the world in our image.

So, the words will continue. But, I hope this helps explain why I (if not the world) need a new blog.