Let me begin by offering my conservative greetings to all my fellow bloggers and all Town Hall readers. This is my first blog, my first post and my first foray into the deep end of the political pool. I would hope that I can introduce some ideas that may be new or perhaps just say things that others have the good taste and common sense not to say. When it comes to political thought, I tend to be in a frequent state of passionate rage and (I think) righteous indignation. I just hope I don't drown in the process.
I've named this blog Burn Baby Burn because, as a product of the 1960's, I am well aware of what are and are not effective tools of political change. As a teenager I marched in a demonstration protesting the mining of Haiphong harbor. I watched the fiasco at the Chicago Democratic convention in 1968. I demanded that my grade school teachers explain to me why the LAPD used shotguns on the rioters in Watts. To sort of paraphrase an old saw; if you're not a radical when you're 12 you've got no heart and if you're not a fascist by the time you're 40 you've got no spine. The tactics of the left worked and they worked quite well unfortunately.
Jerry Rubin and Tom whats-his-name (you know, the ex- Mr. Jane Fonda) will never be elected president and no one of their ilk will be president anytime real soon but they will determine what your kids learn in school. They will shape the way the next generation thinks and if that doesn't scare the hell out of you then you surely have your head deep, deep in the sand. They do control what is available in your local library, they do control your city council (especially if you live in California like I do) and they do interpret or more correctly make the law because they control the court system. Who runs the colleges, who runs the law schools? Who makes the movies you  see, who produces the shows you watch on TV?
So what? You already know all this if you've logged onto Town Hall.
What I don't hear, what I don't see is anyone calling for conservatives to use exactly the same tactics that the left used to get to where they are now. All the good, traditional conservatives, the wise men that I like to listen to, the Hewitt's, the Medved's poo poo the kind of direct action I am going to be calling for in this blog. Worse than that, they would and do call it un-American.
I'll tell you what I call un-American. Losing. Getting the stuffing beaten out of you day after day while you pat yourself on the back because you're too good to get down in the gutter with your opponents. 
I would much prefer to win the fight and walk away with some dirt on my hands than to lose and have only a false sense of superiority to console myself. Whether you like it or not, whether you realize it or not, we are all involved in the fight right now. And it's up to you to choose if your bloody nose will be all for naught.
By now all you good, traditional conservatives will be saying "this guy is a radical, he's no conservative, he's a dangerous voice of downright foolishness". 
I am a radical. I've always been a radical in everything I do. 
Think that if it comforts you. Attack me, flame me. Please do.
Let me help you in that effort. I'm nearly 50 and I still have hair past my shoulders. I look like some kind of dirty musician because I am, or was. I operated a printing press for almost 30 years to actually pay my bills and I have the herniated discs, the sciatica and the chronic muscle disfunction to prove it. In case you're not aware of this, life can be tough on people who aren't ex law proffesors, former White House aides, TV personalities, etc. Don't get me wrong either. I have only myself to blame. No one forced me to do any of the stupid things I've done.  I spent years drinking and using drugs before I got myself off of them with my own effort. I still have to take opiates every day because of the pain I live with. I've destroyed my body but not my brain. Scoff at that if you like, but not all recovered druggies burned out their brains, some were just lucky or perhaps blessed and forgiven.
It was radical to think I might be a succsessful musician. It was radical to work harder than everyone else just because I can't stand slackers. Maybe it's also radical and foolish to think that anyone will even care about the kind of thing I intends to fill this blog with.
Perhaps things might get ugly (within the confines of the rules of this site of course).
But the truth and reality can be ugly.
Or perhaps that's just the way it seems when looking up from the dirt.

Pax,
Tom.