Here we go.

My friend and I, we want to start a blog. For him, I think it's to channel his anger and frustration at the injustices and hypocrisy he sees in society into a productive, constructive endeavor. For me, it's to air some of my newer, tentative opinions and stimulate intelligent discourse on a handful of controversial topics. Our reasons overlap some, and I'm sure we both have additional ones.

You see, we are two liberal atheists living in a small, stringently religious, and painfully conservative city, in the landlocked middle of God Bless Texas. Plus we're grad students, which for me means I am 1)exhausted all the time, 2)desperate to talk about something other than my field (psychology), and yet 3)seemingly incapable of not talking about my field much of the time. Add to this a relative dearth of opportunities to interact with like-minded or even middle-of-the-road folks, because of the aforementioned demographic profile and the aforementioned exhaustion, and a socio-political blog seemed like something exciting and feasible.

My personal values are changing right now, and I'd like a place where I can discuss, explore, debate, and refine them with other people. I'd also like, in an uncharacteristically optimistic way, to share some of the ideas that have helped me to sharpen my worldview and might help sharpen others' worldview too. I'm not much of an activist or protester or preacher, but I do believe in asking, "Have you ever thought about it this way? Why not? What if you did?" I believe that is how I can contribute, and what I'd like to do here. I hope that you readers will ask me those questions, too, because I am far from resolution on many issues, and I NEED to hear your opinions, soapboxes, gripes, suggestions, logic, and educational offerings.

I also hope that my background or opinions don't scare off the readers who see or live things differently. Respectful disagreement is going to give me a lot more to think about than affirmation and praise, as much as I love the latter. Please share your dissenting thoughts or ideas. Well, I think I've covered most of my goals for this blog, so without further ado...