Last year, readers of The New York Sun met Mr. X, the
conservative who lives in the bastion of New York liberalism: the
Upper West Side of Manhattan. He wrote anonymous oped pieces on
the difficulty of being a pro-Bush Republican living among
fire-breathing Bush-haters in an election year. His essays
provoked a flood of letters from other Mr. Xs and Ms. Ys who
identified with the necessity of disguising their political
affiliation in this city.
I recently met Dr. X, a Manhattan psychiatrist who is also an
anonymous conservative blogger. At the biography section of his
Web site, at Shrinkwrapped.blogs.com, he writes: "I am a
practicing Psychoanalyst, Psychiatrist, with four children,
living with my wonderful wife in the suburbs of New York, and
trying to make sense of the unreality around us."
I cannot disclose where Dr. X's office is located, what he looks
like, how old he is, or any other tiny hint that might jeopardize
his practice. I'm hazarding a guess that the majority of his
patients are not conservative because, Lord knows, we
right-wingers are so well adjusted that we don't need
psychiatrists. I'm joking.
Dr. X is a medical doctor - not a Dr. Phil-type psychologist -
and that further confounds his liberal friends, who admit to his
intelligence but think he's crazy because he's conservative. In
the conservative blogging community, however, many consider him
their favorite psychoanalyst.
I asked Dr. X why he started his blog. Not surprisingly, he
answered, "It was 9/11, the day that the world changed for
everybody. I was frustrated because I wasn't getting the real
news from the usual sources, so I went to the Internet and that
turned everything around. There I could even access what was
being reported in the Arabic press."
Blogging is a great way for the average person to put in their
two cents on current events, but many of the bloggers are far
from average. Often, they are professionals like Dr. X who can
provide expert analysis on important issues. From the comfort of
their homes, the personal bloggers can expound, expose, or merely
opine in varying levels of expertise on any subject. They have
become known as the "pajamahadeen," and their most
significant achievement has been bringing about the demise of the
CBS anchorman, Dan Rather.
A Georgia attorney, later disclosed to be Harry W. MacDougald,
logged on under the ID "Buckhead" to the forum
atFreerepublic.com. He questioned the authenticity of the 1972
Killian documents Mr. Rather was asserting were genuine evidence
that George W. Bush went AWOL from the Texas National Guard.
"Buckhead" insisted that the font used in the document
was not available in typewriters back then and that clearly this
memo was a forgery. We all know what happened then. Byebye, Mr.
Rather.
My niece, who lives in Georgia and is a Democrat, called me soon
after the Katrina disaster. While she knows I am a supporter of
the president, she remains open-minded. Nevertheless, she
commented on the horrors being reported in New Orleans and asked
whether I agreed that the administration had blundered terribly.
I then asked her where she was getting her news, and she listed
every local liberal newspaper and the New York Times as her
sources.
"If you want the facts," I advised her, "log on
toLucianne.com." This is the biggest blog produced in New
York City. According to Lucianne Goldberg, who owns and operates
the popular site, as of August it received a monthly average of
23,516,902 hits. This is the site I rely on to get the truth on
all the issues because the registered Lucianne posters, known as
Ldotters, post news articles from all over the world, regardless
of political affiliations or inclinations. The site has strict
guidelines requiring legitimate news sources - foolish rants are
not tolerated by Ldotters or the Lucianne staff.
In my opinion, what distinguishesLucianne.com from other major
forums such as Freerepublic.com and Powerlineblog.com are the
witty and frequently hilarious comments regarding the posted news
items. Clearly, Ldotters are highly intelligent and have an
irreverent sense of humor that lightens the day for many of us
who've sometimes found it difficult to laugh since September 11,
2001.
For instance, Ldotter "Nattering Nabob" posted an
article from a Scottish paper with the headline "Bill
Clinton Charms Indian Actress." In the comments section, the
poster added, "Love means never having to stain your
sari." Now that's funny.
But - most importantly - all the significant news gets a thorough
vetting from a community of inquiring minds, like our own Dr. X,
who are anxious to ferret out the facts, not the spin. The truth
is out there and it's online.