In leiu of recent controversy, a light of hypocrisy has revealed itself in the Fox blogging community -- best portrayed in an elegant break-down of the FoxSports philosophy by SoCalSportsFan, which can be found here.  Taking a quick glance around our community, one would find a plethora of posts on anything-but-sports; friendly tributes to our fellow bloggers, caption-adding discussions, in-depth looks at the origins of avitars, comparisons between bloggers and wrestlers, et al.  However, one and only one seems to irk the blogging community to the point of self-eradication: politics.  Somewhere between the "Pig Roasts" and the political/religious blogs of myself and several others, some bloggers lose their sense of reasonability and decide to withdraw from this forum of discussion abruptly for no reason -- or so they insinuate -- other than the presense of political articles; which, of course, they could simply ignore.

Bloggers incessantly accuse the occasional political blogger Ultra and I of simply trying to garner attention.  Self-absorbed blogging wackos with nothing better to do than write an extremely detailed, and well thought-out articles on politics, just to appease our never-ending desire for notoriety.  Sound accurate?

I find it almost amusing, to be quite honest.  Take a brief look back into my history at FoxSports, you'll find months where I've posted 25 different articles, all sports-related, all of considerable length and all of which I spent a great deal of time in writing.  Upon further inspection, you'll find something strikingly contradictory to what the "whiners," as we'll call them for now, would have you believe about us, as we'll call me and Ultra for now: Several blogs receive little-to-no comments.  In fact, many of my first articles on FoxSports amalgamated more than 7 comments; my narcissistic side should have known better, how could I allow myself to continue posting at a site where I wasn't getting attention?

Simply stated: I love sports, and I love writing.  And those are the only constants in my articles.  Whether I'm writing about George Bush or Reggie Bush; I'll do my research, and I'll do my best in conveying my message to those who would chose to grace my article with a read.  That's what I do.  I'm a writer.

And I've written at other websites, as well.  I currently write frequently on RealGM.com -- and I'll give you a clue: I don't get to write about politics.

One more thing that you'll notice, if you traverse my history of articles at this site is the relative lack of non-sports-related material.  That's right: the lack of.  I've written one post on some of my favorite bloggers, I've written a few posts on some important beliefs of mine (smoking, plagiarism, as they relate to sports and the FoxSports community), and I've written a couple of posts on my displeasure with the performance of the American government.  Out of the ninety-five articles I've written, three are directly correlated with politics.

Take a look around some of the other bloggers who have written on Fox for a while, you'll find masses of avatar posts, "Pig Roasts," and other such non-sports-related content.  I have nothing against these bloggers.  I've never complained about these bloggers.  I've never commented on one of these articles.

Wait a second.  Go back!  What did he just say?

That's right: I've never commented on one of those articles.

Now let's do some deductive reasoning: NorthSider isn't interested in the "Pig Roast" posts, if one isn't interested in a certain type of post he or she shouldn't comment, therefore, NorthSider doesn't comment on the "Pig Roast" posts.

What a novel idea!

And going back to the "attention-getting" arguments; I've seen a couple of people on this site in the past few weeks write posts complaining about the political content (of which there is very little), calling those who write them Ultra and I nothing more than two bloggers trying to get attention, and then announcing their plans to depart.  Now, despite the fact that the posts themselves aren't sports-related; take a second and let that irony resonate.  Why must these bloggers flat-out announce their plans to leave?  If they're so turned-off by the notion that politics would be posted on this site, and truthfully so discommoded with all of the people on this site, why are they posting articles which have no purpose other than to bring attention upon themselves?

Could it be they're jealous of the amount of comments that Ultra or I receive?  I don't know.  Could it be that they just wanted to have an excuse to whine about something that they disagreed on?  Couldn't tell you.  Perhaps they really are just that distracted by the political posts on this website.  But still, why can they not just ignore the political posts as I ignore the "Pig Roasts?"

Maybe they feel that political posts detract from their readership by not allowing their sports-related articles to make it on the front page.  But all this would prove is that they are exactly what they complain about: people starved for attention.  Notwithstanding the fact that everyone else on this site has to "put up with" all of the "Pig Roast"/avatar posts.

And to FlyingPig, I apologize ahead-of-time; I'm picking on you, but unintentionally.  I don't detract from the value of your "Pig Roast" posts, I'm sure they're quite engaging, hence the readership -- they just don't "float-my-boat."

The truth of the matter is, these political posts belong here.  This is a blogging website -- a site for people to display their thoughts on a variety of different information.  And it's FoxSports.com, so it's only natural that the majority of posts here are sports-related (99%+).  But, naturally, in an area of free-expression, you're going to hear something about religion every now-and-then, you're going to hear some friends talking amongst themselves ("Pig Roast" posts), you're going to hear some political debate (along with a group of people on-looking), you'll even have your controversy every-so-often.  But, nevertheless, we're in an area of free-expression which happens to be hosted by a sports website, so more-than-likely, when you take a look around, for the most part, you'll see thousands of people showcasing their opinions on sports.  And that's what you'll see, when you look around FoxSports.com.

And to a recent attack which has been shot at me, I must respond -- as long as we're talking about hypocrisy.  For the second (and probably not the last) time, a blogger has gone out and deleted my comments, then posted an article in which he twists my words, and attempts to make a mockery of me.  I'm offended.

I dropped comment yesterday on one of NorthSideFan's blogs regarding this topic.  In it, I must admit, I was a little bit taken-aback by the fact that NorthSideFan shows up after several months of absence and starts dictating what can-and-cannot be posted on these blogs.  I take offense to that.  And I have nothing against NorthSideFan, I enjoy his stuff -- and this occurence doesn't take anything away from him, in my mind.  He and I happen to disagree on this topic, and that's okay.

I noted that I'd been on FoxSports for a long time, I noted that I'd posted nearly one hundred articles, of which few were politically-driven (as I noted here).  I also noted that I was in-the-scheme-of-things during NGS II, not because I wanted to boast my skills or act like I was better than NorthSideFan, but because I was making a point: I've been active on this site for a long time, it's not as if I just showed up and started brewing controversy on incessant political blogs.  I've posted a few articles which convey my opinion, and we've gone over the pertenance.  This is a site of free-expression.  Besides, what kind of #### would I be to start bragging about my status as an NGS II finalist around a group of people which hold deep-seated malcontent, knowing that any false-step I take will be duly noted by the majority of the bloggers in this community.

That's the sad truth with Ultra and I, and I'll point again to Ultra's post on FlyingPig's plagiarism.  Ultra posts about something serious, such as plagiarism, and he's condemned for being "overly-critical;" the plagiarism: forgotten.  I go out, and try to make a point of my longevity at this site, and my dedication towards it, and an article shows up the next day -- coinciding with the subsequent deletion of my comments, so as to prevent anyone from seeing the real context of them -- which calls me a immodest jerk.  I'm offended.

There are a lot of things I've been on this site: Contentious perhaps, verbose, well-traveled -- immodest isn't one of them.  Needless to say, I wasn't the happiest person in the world, but I can live with it.

What I saw next astounded me.  I came across the aforementioned piece by SoCal, and I see a comment by NorthSideFan in which he makes it known that not only is he well-read when it comes to Shakespeare, but also that he's in MENSA.  This is the same guy who quoted four words of mine ("...It's not a hit..."), deleted the rest, and called me out for bragging.  Thanks, Mr. MENSA, for the advice on modesty -- I think I'll make my own decisions, though.

And I won't hold this against NorthSideFan -- and I'm not holding it against him currently.  I think he made a mistake: we all do.  Maybe I was immodest in my comment (although it wasn't my intention, and now we'll never be able to see); but to go out and make an article condemning me, only to post something so foolishly in contradiction with what you had earlier complained about is just ridiculous.  And I think he owes me an apology.  But I didn't receive an apology the first time my comments were deleted, and I don't expect to receive one this time.  This just bothers me.  A lot.

And for the record, I left a comment on NorthSideFan's blog just prior to writing this article.  In it, I expressed my feeling that my comment was being misrepresented, but I also left the following remark:

"You're one of the truly good bloggers on this site."

And I honestly believe that.

I don't hold grudges against anyone on this site, whether they be the ones it seems I always disagree with, or just someone who goes out and writes something which condemns me as a person -- I'll still read their articles.  As I always will.

And it's just the ad hominem arguments that get to me.  Attack my point.  Attack my analysis.  Don't attack me, and don't attack my ethical standards.

I've written two of these types of posts in my stint at FoxSports, the first time, I was accused of plagiarism -- this time, my motivations were questioned.  Both times, both parties were able to put the occurence behind themselves -- I can only hope the same thing happens this time.

And out of this, if you gather nothing else, at least gather this:

There are a lot of people who disagree with Ultra and I, and it leads to a good amount of articles in response, and a great amount of debate.  If you don't want to engage in the debate, just don't read, and if you must read, don't comment.  There are several bloggers on this website who refuse to leave more than one comment on a politically-driven blog: more power to you.  But there are also people on this site who are open-minded to non-sports talk, and are willing to express their opinions, and I really enjoy hearing them -- regardless of how I respond.

This is a site of free-expression.  It's your decision as to how to exercise your freedom.

That's all I've got.  Good night and good luck.

-NorthSider