Check out Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's blog.
It's called "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Personal Memos."
He doesn't blog very regularly. He's only written 13 posts. The first is dated August 8, 2006. The most recent is from December 1, 2007. To say it's not a very active blog is an understatement.
Ahmadinejad addresses his commitment to his blog in this post, from November 18, 2007:
To read or to write, that is the question! 2007/11/18
In the Name of Almighty God-the All-Knowing, the Most Lovingly Compassionate
Since my last post on the blog, a few months have passed. But this doesn't mean that I have not been keeping my promise of spending fifteen minutes per week on it. As a matter of fact, I have spent more than the allocated time on the blog. The magnitude of the reception and acclamation from the viewers was beyond expectations. So I had to decide how to spend the limited time that I have allocated for the blog; should I write new notes or respect those viewers who kindly and generously have shared their thoughts and opinions with me and sent messages and read their numerous received messages.
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As you know, the purpose of running this blog is to have a direct and mutual contact and communication with the viewers and even though I have received many messages from the viewers to update the blog and write new notes, I preferred to write less and spend more time on reading the viewers' messages – and not let this communication tool become just a one-way medium.
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I personally have read those messages that are considered to be short. I even have read those messages that have started with a sentence like "I know that the president is not going to read this message, but…."
Also some of my trusted students have shortened the long messages for me and have prepared a statistical report regarding all of the messages which I have read and studied those too. God willing, a portion of the overall analysis of the messages and its interesting results will be posted on the blog in the future.
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I am apologetic to those who have been waiting for my new posts, but fortunately overall, the analysis of the messages has got to a point that I can start writing here again.
I would like to use this opportunity and ask those of you who intend to send me messages through blog, to make it as brief as you can. Thank you.
Wow. That's so...right.
Ahmadinejad's blog inspired Red Eye host Greg Gutfeld to give his take on blogging.
He writes:
So Iranian President Ahmadinejad has a new blog and it works, in that "senile grandma in the attic" sort of way. But other than realizing how similar it sounds to Keith Olbermann, it dawned on me that when the elderly, squirrels and crazed dictators start having their own blogs, then blogging is dead.
The worst five words you can hear at a party is "have you read my blog?" Blogs, really, used be called diaries, hidden under the pillows by troubled twelve year old girls. They were usually covered with stickers of rainbows and unicorns (Oh I loved those unicorns). But now everyone has a diary, but they call them blogs and they're asking you to read them - it's disgusting. It's like pulling off a band-aid and saying - I made it myself!
I call it the Sylvia Plath Syndrome - the idea that every nuance of your life should endless fascinate everyone else. At least Plath at the decency to provide a killer ending.
Some think that if you don't blog, you don't have a life. But it's the opposite. You should be happy that you don't write for folks who prefer to live in a disjointed bubble of weirdness where their own self-serving cowardice is masked temporarily by online bravery. It's better to go outside and beat up somebody for real, than beat up someone on the web, while sitting in your feety pajamas, eating Cheetos and drinking Mr. Pibb. Six Cans!
If you'd like to hear more about this - go to my blog - dailygut.com.
I agree with Gutfeld's assessment that Ahmadinejad's blog works in that "'senile grandma in the attic' sort of way."
He says, "it dawned on me that when the elderly, squirrels and crazed dictators start having their own blogs, then blogging is dead."
Blogging isn't dead. Gutfeld's biting yet entertaining post proves that, although it's not really just a blog entry. His comments also served as Wednesday's Gregalogue on Red Eye. As usual, Gutfeld's posts tend to do double duty.
Along with the humor, Gutfeld sneaks in some worthwhile insight.
Some think that if you don't blog, you don't have a life. But it's the opposite. You should be happy that you don't write for folks who prefer to live in a disjointed bubble of weirdness where their own self-serving cowardice is masked temporarily by online bravery.
One need look no further than Ahmadinejad's blog to find that online "disjointed bubble of weirdness."
In any event, Gutfeld's blog is exponentially superior to Ahmadinejad's blog. Blogging isn't dead, though some blogs should be, like "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Personal Memos."
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Watch the Gregalogue.
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