That bastion of foreign policy debate, the Chicago City Council, voted for a resolution yesterday to oppose military action again,st Iraq unless convincing evidence of Iraq’s guilt is presented. Mayor Daley said “Everybody’s against war … No one is for war.” Well, the margin of the vote was 46-1, with Alderman James Balcer — a receipient of three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star — the lone opposition vote. This is, after all, the same political body that at various times has featured Rep. Bobby Rush and Dorothy Tillman. I’m curious as to what the City Council hopes this accomplish. Does it send a message? If so, then to whom? The City of Chicago has no resources that would be required for the war effort, so I’m not sure what they hope to accomplish by their lack of support.

Welcome to the new blog. This probably the third or fourth incarnation of the blog. When I originally began to experiment with blogs, I tried BLOGGER, and while I found it very intuitive, it just lacked the flexibility I thought such a tool should provide. From there I tried Greymatter. The interface was great and it provided a lot of power and customizability that I had been lacking. However, the free web host I was using didn’t work very well with the software. I eventually migrated over to a new host. Then, I discovered Moveable Type. It was just as powerful and flexible as Greymatter, but it just did more than Greymatter. It offers a whole new level of customization.

One of the questions that I think has been interesting to debate is exactly what a blog is. Webpedia defines it as, “a web page that serves as a publicly-accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.” Over at blogroots, they say, “Weblogs are a grassroots phenomenon. They weren’t created in a board room and unleashed on waiting consumers. They were created by people with something to say in a format that works well on the Web. With all of the media attention and debate surrounding weblogs, it’s easy to lose sight of what they are: people speaking and connecting online.” I think it is fair to say that blogs are the latest killer app. First there was e-mail, then web browsers, then instant messaging. Now, it’s blogging … Blog on!