Who am I and what is this blog?

My name is Zack Shovein and I am a recent college graduate with a degree in history.  I possess no formal qualifications beyond that.  I do, however, have a little more curiosity than most people, and do a little more reading in order to satisfy it.  Some dear friends have flattered me by saying that this reading gives me some claim to a widespread knowledge of the world and its events.  They have gone so far as to suggest that my own comments and analyzes might hold a little interest to some wider group of readers.  Since the barriers to publication are brought so low by the internet I decided to gratify myself by offering for public consumption a collection of my own commentaries and links to material I find intellectually stimulating.  Hopefully I will be able to distill something valuable from the voluminous amount of internet news and commentary I regularly consume.  There may even be a few re-posted photos of cute dogs or attempts at humor. 

While I can't make any promises as to the quality of my own writing, I can promise my readers that anything I write will be written with circumspection and humility.  I am neither a radical nor a bomb thrower,  and insofar as I am ideological my ideology consists of a commitment to pragmatism.  My foremost public desire is the continued smooth sailing of our ship of state.  In this blog I will endeavor to present information and analysis shorn of the political debris that impairs the products of many far better resourced news organs.   There is clearly a niche in the marketplace for such material, it is my ambition that this blog will be considered of enough quality to fill it.

The only caveat to the proceeding paragraph is that these promises will not apply to any humorous postings I make.  It should be obvious if and when these occur, but I'll nonetheless preface the blog by telling my readership that the more outrageous a post is the less seriously it is meant to be taken.  Bear with me through these and you'll be rewarded by the promised photos of cute dogs.

I will always welcome the commentary of my readers, and I hope that a few will be motivated enough to offer arguments and evidence when they believe I am in error.  If I am fortunate enough to receive such responses, I promise to do my best to highlight them and offer a response.    

Finally, to my Francophone readers, I must say that the blog's title is an allusion rather than a promise.