Searching their way here

One of the more interesting time wasters anyone who has a blog can employ is to peruse the traffic you're getting on your site, and specifically the searches that people enter which sometimes cause them to click their way over. Two visitors from this weekend deserve special mention.

The first was a person who came to this site via Blogger's blog search function. After he entered his search, I - out of all the blogs out there - was the first result that came up. What was the search, you may wonder?

"my place" san francisco gay sex bar

Um, OK. The reason Gadfly came up first was because of this post. I can't help but think that the reader was really disappointed when he clicked through and saw what this site was actually about. Sorry, buddy - hope you found what you were looking for elsewhere. For the record, the number #4 result on that blog search was "being a 'Bear.'"

On a more serious note, a couple of hours later someone came to the site via a search for "Tyler Stanger." For those who don't know or don't remember, Mr. Stanger was the flight instructor and other passenger that died in the Cory Lidle plane crash last month, which I have written about extensively. The person searching, though, wasn't just a fan of Lidle's or maybe someone who knew Tyler.

How do I know? Well, the same person left a comment to this post; it's Alex Constantine, who writes the Political Conspiracy Research Bin. Judging from his comment, Alex is not very impressed by my screed against conspiracy theorists. Fair enough. I wouldn't expect anything different, since (from his blog header) . . .

"Alex Constantine's books are tour-de-force incursions into the secret world of American Fascisti, the classified government agencies that act as their Templars and the conspiracies they spawn. Fascism, says Constantine, is inherently conspiratorial."

His work includes, among other things, arguments that the government was (is?) killing rock stars, and that there are mafia and CIA mind control aspects to the O.J. Simpson case. Just in case you were wondering.

Does this mean that, despite my thinking that they had sheepishly moved on, the great conspiracy minds among us are actually taking a deeper look at the Lidle crash? I mean, could Christmas come this early? Please, pretty please, try to convince us that the Lidle crash was part of an effort to take out a safe house, or a distraction from a martial law bill signing, or a numerology message from the Illuminati, or whatever else you come up with.

I beg you. Please. I'll have new material for a month.

Welcome to some new readers

Just wanted to point out two recent links to this site that deserve a special note:

• Matt fights the good fight in what must sometimes feel like an intellectual Alamo, being The Only Republican in San Francisco. Living in Manhattan, I can empathize with his plight. His most recent post is a comparison between Glenn Reynolds and Andrew Sullivan, much of which I agree with; if you read them, check it out. I've been thinking of doing a Sullivan-related piece myself at some point.
  
• Karol over at Alarming News gave a mention as well. She also runs Right Events, an event listing site that is a must read if you are a conservative in the NY area. And while I'm at it a hearty congratulations to Karol for just getting her one millionth hit. Well done!

If you've come here by means of Matt or Karol, welcome. If you have come here another way, be sure to check them out.

About the name

So what is "Grade-One Gadfly?" supposed to mean?

Taking the second part first, a "gadfly" is simple enough - "a person who persistently annoys or provokes others with criticism, schemes, ideas, demands, requests, etc." Those who know me will probably agree with that description, especially if I've already had an adult beverage or two. But, to be fair, I always try to do it with a smile.

As for "grade-one," that's a reference to an essay I read when I was 13 by William Golding called "Thinking as a Hobby." He lays out what he sees as the three types of thinkers in the world: grade-three ("feeling, rather than thought"), grade-two ("the detection of contradictions"), and grade-one ("which says, 'What is truth?' and sets out to find it"). This blog is aiming for One, undoubtedly will stumble about in Two, but will have a lot of fun at the expense of those in Three.

Take them together, and what I hope to create is a gadfly with a purpose, an irritant with a goal. Point out things that don't make sense? Most definitely. Hopefully, though, at the same time we can move the collective conversation forward ever so slightly.

And, if not, I'm pretty sure "Grade-Two Gadfly" is still available.

Welcome

Welcome to the Grade-One Gadfly.

We're going to touch on politics, finance, economics, current events and other stuff. I say "we" because I've left the comments option on, and I hope that over time there will be some good dialogue that goes on here (what else could a gadfly hope for?). But I'm sure it will take a while to get that up and going, so for a bit I will just have to opine myself.

The approach is going to be serious, but hopefully fun. I believe in data, evidence, and analysis, and I'll do my best to use all three as the need arises. The tone will be opinionated, but above all sane and civil (and that goes for the comments, too - this is my little corner of the web, and you are warned). People who disagree are encouraged and welcome; people who can't discuss things like adults are not.

One thing that will separate this from some of my other favorite political blogs is that many of them (say here and here) are written by lawyers. I'm a finance professional, which will inform (some) of my choices of topics, as well as the approaches I take. It also means that we may do a little number crunching around here; probably nothing too crazy, but just enough to see if things other people are saying pass the "smell test." Hopefully it will make for a fresh approach; if not, no harm done.

Oh, and conspiracy theorists aren't going to like this site. Just to warn you.

Bear with me the first couple of weeks, as I work through things like playing with the format a bit, getting links up and running, finding a sustainable pacing that works, etc. As for what to expect, I think that initially there will be a bit more about politics and foreign policy given the upcoming election and ongoing war, with financial stuff lagging but eventually picking up as well (my vision is that these posts will be more original and less "linky" than the politics ones, but we'll see how it goes). And of course, there will also be a random sampling of other things that catch my interest as time goes on.

Thanks for stopping by, and don't be shy about letting me know what you think.