Welcome back. I figured I'd do a little social commentary today, since we live in times that are so easy to commentate upon.

Why do individuals and the media continue discussing the Iraq situation? OK, it seems ridiculous for me to suggest that we completely ignore what may be an important turning point (DOWNWARD turning point) for America's foreign policy and image in the world at large, as well as an event which may cost thousans of American lives. But here's the facts, folks: we don't live in a pure democracy, but rather a representative republic with our DELEGATES determined via democratic vote. Not so long ago, these elected delegates basically turned over the power to attack Iraq to none other than Mr. George Dubya Bush, our beloved (by the uneducated, mind-numbingly easy-to-convince portion of the population, anyway) president. What this essentially means is that the individuals who supposedly speak for the people of America in our government's affairs have voluntarily silenced themselves on this issue. In short, we the people literally have NO CONTROL over what happens in the Iraq conflict-to-be (and believe me, it WILL be). So why do we bother debating back and forth on it? Is it justified, is it moral, is it worth the risk? IT DOESN'T MATTER. We can't stop the now-inevitable waste of American lives in the Persian Gulf. Anyone who DOES disagree will just have to wait until 2004 to make their voice heard, and then I can all but guarantee it will be again stifled, this time by the aforementioned uneducated masses combined with the proven power of our Fearless Leader to manipulate the voting system to his advantage.

End rant, return to normality.

Hello.

Well, here it is. Blog. How I stumbled upon it I do not know, but it seems like it'll be a fun little experience. I'm guess most of the people who surf around here will be folks who already know me, but just in case, here's my gig. The name's Thom Gray, and I'm a 17-year-old Senior at Elizabethton High School in Elizabethton, Tennessee. If you're not familiar with Elizabethton, let me give you a visualization: take all the worthwhile eating, recreational, and shopping establishments out of your town, slice the IQ of the general population by half, and install greedy self-serving "good ol' boys" in every government post, and you're pretty close to our town's image. Oh yeah, and cows. Lots and lots of cows. No real farms, but plenty of cows.

My main interest is music; I play alto and soprano saxes, guitar, bass, and keyboards, and enjoy pretty much every style of music aside from pop, rap, and the "bad" kind of country. I guess I'll describe my views on country music later, since this is just an introductory thing. Politically, I'm slightly to the left, but my standings on moral issues tend to pull me back towards the middle in the scheme of things. I consider myself independant, preferring not to tie myself down to the agenda of a single group of upper-class yahoos called a political party. I guess I'll be discussing my views on political-type things here, too.

For now, I'm going to bring this thing to a close. Check back frequently for rants; they should be plentiful and always fun-filled. If you like that sort of thing. Have a nice day.

-Thom