Interesting clash of echo chambers. Two guys, in my comments in reaction to my short piece on gay marriage last night, say I should not comment on non-technical issues. One, Michael Sanford writes "You are using the popularity of your blog to promote your own personal beliefs that are well outside the context of what gained you this status. Some will agree and some will disagree and that is not important to me. What matters here is that you now have a responsibility to manage your status in the community in a responsible way. Please don't ruin what you have created by turning this into your political soapbox."

Some points in retort:

1) Being called a "celebrity" blogger with 2000 to 8000 visitors a day is sorta weird. I wonder what Glenn Reynolds is (his Instapundit gets 100,000).

2) This is my personal weblog. As of yet my weblog is still not a property of Microsoft and/or Waggener Edstrom (Microsoft's PR firm).

3) Because this is my personal weblog I will occassionally make personal statements on issues that people are talking about. Sometimes you won't like those statements.

4) I believe that to be an informed human being you should consider points of view that you might not agree with. If you look through my 1300 feeds, you'll see many blogs done by people and companies I don't agree with, and, maybe even, don't like. Why do I do that? To get outside of my echo chamber.

5) Last night Maryam and I watched a show on the murder of Emmett Till (a black man killed in the south in the 1950s). What I noted was how all the white people held rank. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence. The defendents were so supported that they admitted they did it after they were found not guilty by an all-white jury. Sorry, sometimes you need to sign your name to unpopular opinions to keep things like this from happening again.

6) Out of dozens of posts yesterday, only one was on this issue. Yet two guys keyed in on it and assumed they were seeing a new trend.

Sorry, I'm going to write about my personal beliefs from time to time. Yes, I will use this as a soapbox from time to time. I've earned that right. If you don't like it, then unsubscribe and leave. I only want informed interesting readers here. I don't just want an echo chamber.

Update: I'm glad to see there's 34 senators who agree that they, too, need to take a tough stand.

BloggerCon II is April 17.

Maryam just reminded me that Patrick and my mom will be here in Seattle that weekend. Grrr. So, doesn't look like I'll be able to go. I hate this, I really want to go this year.