I believe that every person who chooses the title of “blogger,” or for that matter, anyone who decides to self-publish online under any other title conceivable has a responsibility to himself and his readers to produce material that has what I would call additive value. While I am not the sole judge of this—not by the longest shot ever—it is still within my right to have an opinion to declare flat out when I like a blog and when I find a blog to be junk.

And when your own dad calls you out on your blog about how your current writing is basically less becoming of what you did when you were in the seventh grade, I feel comfortable in such company in saying that a blog post like the one linked to and the blog in general adds to the general white noise level of the many, many blogs out there now.

By contrast, every writer out there will find a niche audience who will stay loyal readers. That’s well and good: one man’s junk is another’s treasure. However, we all reap what we sow and we will always be responsible for the lawns that we tend. I have avoided some blogs’ comments sections for the grave fact that they have done nothing but make cesspools out of every comment thread. But in some cases—like this—it’s hard to expect much when the blog itself doesn’t promote it.

But what would you expect out of a blog called “Hillary Clinton Farts” anyway?

UPDATE (2006-10-26): And so I grab the plunged dagger and twist: Big party foul, sonny Jim. See, while it is our responsibilities to tend to the gardens we keep, it’s also considered rude blogger ettiquette to delete and revise without notification things that have been written and linked to. ‘Coz when I send my peeps over, they won’t see what I’m talking about and that would embarass me. So for the benefit of all my twenty or so readers, here’s the screenshot of both my pingback and daddy-Joe’s spanking.