I am launching this blog to be my main online "home" for news and opinion. I find myself again and again in a position of having something to say, but not really finding a forum to do so. Sometimes the itch costs more time and effort than the scratch, so I am finally scratching the itch.

My other blog, Sites of Memory, is centered on a rather narrow academic interest of mine. I will be doing most of my political blogging as a major contributor over at the ProgBlog. The site hatlie.de is for stable information on my classes and research. There, you can also find out who I am and what I do. This blog is for all the rest: local and personal events, book and film reviews, remarks and reports on education, teaching, and comments on issues of general and personal interest.

Oliver Gassner long ago recommended that I do one blog, and one blog only. This arrangement is as close to that as I am going to get, at least for the time being. My thanks to him for his continued support and advice.

Mark R. Hatlie
Tübingen, Germany
October 2006