Sifting the ruins ...

So, class, here we are at one of the mid-paleoliberal blog sites. As you know, the webscape is littered with literally thousands of these early 21st-century homesteads. Hundreds of thousands of bloggers were lured onto the Great Plains of the cyberfrontier by the promise of free space -- where a man could state his opinion, by god, and make his own way among the punditry.

No one really knows why so many of these settlers gave up on their dreams, although theories abound. We do know this. Some went bust, pulled up stakes, and retreated to their day jobs. Others found that, rather than plowing their wits into this rocky soil, they could make rather handsome fortunes exploiting those who continued to do so. These people are now called campaign consultants, and it's best not to speak of them.

Mostly, though, we can attribute the downfall of the blogsteaders to the steady drought that has afflicted the political landscape for several years now. It's difficult to scratch out a respectable living beating the Bush, and the Dust Bowl obliterated the Democratic Dream. Now, all that's left is a collection of vacant pages like this one -- the dry well of ideas, the shutters flapping in the lonely wind, and the echoes of the erudition that once fertilized these fields. Okay then, class, let's move on ...