Here’s my advice for that crippling pressure (and this comes from long experience as a blogger and journalist) – go ahead and blog something really, really trivial, just to get it out of the way.

Maybe you saw someone doing something dangerously dumb on Route 128, maybe you took a photo of some lame graffiti, maybe your favorite band is playing this weekend – but just go ahead and blog something – a couple of lines or something. Then do it again. Then do it again – and hey, presto, you’re blogging.

Seryusly – it doesn’t have to be Shakespeare. It’s blogging! Don’t psych yourself out. :)

In many respects, I completely agree with you. In response to your question — “should everyone register to vote” — I’m going to say no. While I think that a healthy, secure nation requires a baseline of participation (especially from the "middle class") I don’t believe that America is in danger of falling below this point; thus, I don’t think that all Americans of voting age should vote, only those who see government as legitimate in its power.

If you don’t believe that the government is legitimate, don’t vote (and don’t pay your taxes, either by the way).

However, if you do believe that the Constitution, our legislatures, our executives, and our judiciaries are legitimate authorities, and you would like to engage in the public discourse – whatever that might be — then you must vote (though, not necessarily for Barack Obama or John McCain). Here’s why:

The act of voting is not simply a moment of political judgment by the citizen; it is also an act in which the citizen reaffirms his or her belief in the legitimacy of the government. On Election Day, government creates a mechanism for its own continuance (voting), and the peoples’ votes, no matter how conservative or liberal they may be, implicitly affirm the legitimacy of the government structure.

In this way, voting truly is one’s "civic duty": the engagement with the structure of power maintains a civic or public sphere, separate from the individual’s own private realm of being.

This doesn’t mean that thoughtful, engaged citizens must vote Democratic or Republican. They don’t even need to vote for a third-party candidate if none appeal to them. The content of the vote is not important, it is the act itself which holds meaning. Step into the ballot box, review your options, and submit a blank form if you don’t have an answer. Write-in a candidate if that is what you believe. Just engage with civic society.

My point at issue with Toonie is as follows: he writes, "It seems like, similar to the way that you can protest a company by not buying its products, most of America does not believe that voting is worth it. They are too lazy or apathetic or fed up, and they do not think it is worth the effort or the chance that it will make positive change."

The individual who is fed up or apathetic with government should still vote, but only for what they believe in (a write-in candidate, or “yes” or “no” on a state referendum). If the person truly is protesting the government, as they would a commercial product, then they shouldn’t vote — but they shouldn’t pay taxes either, and they shouldn’t take public transportation or receive public benefits in any way.

You can’t protest the civic/public/government sphere in one instance, and then accept it in another, which is what many non-voters are often times doing.

Another favorite is McKinnon’s Market in Davis. I love the black olives. The owner cures them with his own concoction of olive oil, oregano and garlic. Yummmy! Also try the seafood salad. Again I say Cheep. If you get a chance, check out my blog. barbie
wwwbarbierants.blogspot.com

What I would love to see on the Boston site is more coverage of the city’s cultural events, more media (photos, videos, audio), and more op-ed style commentaries. Since the Weekly Dig has rolled over and died a bit in recent months (I blame glossy covers), Boston Metblogs needs to step it up and provide resident Bostonians with the written insight and wit they’ve come to expect from Boston publications. I’m confident that alongside my fellow Boston bloggers, we can transform Boston Metblogs into the best thirty-minutes our visitors kill at work, each day.