Mea culpa

I finally got my Time mag today and was immediately immersed in the article about Alexander Litvinenko. It is a long, thorough article about the spy vs spy story involving, basically the whole world. A while back while writing about this story, a reader questioned what Putin's motive was if he, in fact, had Litvinenko murdered.

I responded with a typically American response, "Of course I know what I am talking about." In fact, I know only what I read from a multitude of sources. Time pointed out the error of my ways. I can count to 100 in Russian, I don't speak the language. I have read many books and seen a great deal of Russian art, I have never been to Russia and seen Russian art in the Tretyakov museum.

This blog has given me a chance to remember how much I like to write, what in fact, I learned in college. Many people in the blogosphere are experts in areas of great concern. Glenn Greenwald is a lawyer and writes about the law. I am an expert only on what I find of interest. That is not to say I am an expert on everything I am interested in but merely an expert on what I pursue in knowledge.

Thus, I have become a student of hockey. I can now carry on a conversation about icing, boarding, fighting and whether a player is playing well or my team sucks. I even read "Ice Hockey for Dummies" this summer. Any chance I get, I'm off to see the Sharks.

Ask me a question about politics and I can probably have a pretty informed opinion unless you ask me about the politics of Columbus, Ohio. National, state and local I can pop up with something to discuss and explore. I have spent hours on the phone with Ms Marinucci. She gets her payoff this month for being such a good friend with a dozen home made tamales.

Yeah yeah what's the point? I don;t know if I have one but I have been taught to make amends when wrong. So I doing the public, national and international flagellation for acting like a know-it-all American. I guess there is more to learn.