PRINT CHR$(1); " HELLO WORLD! "; CHR$(1)

For the past two years I have been reading other blogs, commenting occasionally, watching the impact they have on the media, on politicians, and on the communities of like-minded people they are informing. I cannot say how much I really expect to add to this confluence, especially given the boring nature of my day to day life and my limited attention span, but I would rather be present than absent.

I am christening my blog "The New Samosatan" in honor of an obscure Syrian philosopher, orator, and writer of the 2nd century C.E., Lucian of Samosata. His obscurity is surprising, since he is responsible for writing the first science fiction novel nearly two millenia before the birth of the genre and had covered a modern concept of atheism with more meaning long before Nietzsche. Personally, his dialogue between Hermotimus and Lycinus was catalytic in my apostasy and transition to secularism (I am not actually an atheist, but a deist). I have been using his name as a pseudonym for some time, but I thought it would be presumptuous (and perhaps falsely indicative of lacking my own identity) to continue to do so in this medium, hence the more generic reference.

While I take a keen interest in Greco-Roman literature, my opinions on current events are colored primarily by the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden and Leonard Peikoff. It is unfortunate that however valuable the essays of the school of thought may be, so little real momentum has been achieved by its proponents due to internal divisions. I suppose that's intrinsic to a point of view which holds compromise in contempt. It would do wonders for this country and the world if the mostly unimportant divisions between Objectivists, Libertarians, and the Secular Republicans were forgotten long enough to accomplish some mitigation of the advance of statism.

My interests do extend beyond philosophy and politics, so I expect to comment on notable developments in the information technology industry. I actually can become as animated in a debate about hardware manufacturers as I do in debates of policy.

While this introduction might be lighter than does justice to its purpose, I am going to get some sleep.