Hello World

My family and friends for several years now have been urging me to start a Blog, and I always had a million excuses not to do it. I've always sent out little e-mail "news blasts" to my nearest and dearest with things I believe are worth pointing out. The Wagger is an attempt to legitimize this activity.

I've finally reached a point where I'm tired of viewing and visiting the same handful of Web sites while attempting to gather, read and disseminate news and information that is not only interesting to me but also of great importance to all of our lives, or at least entertaining.

I'm sick of reading Elliot Spitzer-type stories, garbage mascarading as news, and not being able to find real stories. Spitzer was news at first, but going on and on about the woman's MySpace page was not newsworthy in the slightest, regardless of what the New York Times says. It was purely voyeurism, and nothing less. Time and space dedicated to Ms. Dupre takes away from issues we should be focused on, like the underlying reasons for the current U.S. recession, the actual position of the presidential candidates on issues (any issue, please, God ...), the truth behind global warming and energy prices, and new information just coming out about Saddam Hussein trying to move chemical weapons out of Iraq and hide them in Sudan just before the U.S.-led invasion five years ago.

Real news that matters, and reporting that digs beneath the surface to see what's really going on.

The Wagger will not always focus solely on serious stuff. I, just as much as anyone else, enjoy watching something ridiculous on YouTube, discovering creative Web sites, or just checking out new shit that someone pointed out or forwarded to my inbox. But I also have a fond distaste for tabloid-style reporting.

So, I'm creating The Wagger with the hopes of entertaining, enlightening and informing any and all who stumble across my humble, little Blog. (In case you don't already know, a Wag is a term used to describe a journalist, specifically a news writer; not a dreaded TV reporter of which only a few legitimate ones remain. Similarly, in public relations a PR rep is known as a Flak. Wags and Flaks have relationships not unlike a one-night stand, but the beauty of it is that this unspoken informational tryst is understood and expected in advance. They use each other, and do it well.)

I hope you all find something here that sheds some light on an issue you wanted to understand a little better than you already do, that you discover something entertaining, preferably something that makes you laugh, and leave here with a little more knowledge than you had when you woke up, even if it's only good for answering Trivial Pursuit questions.

Any and all submissions and comments are welcome, and I hope that in the days, weeks, months and years (hopefully) ahead this Blog is able to make even a small dent in the news world.