Reality Bites by James Norton for the week of April 5

Politics, paranoid people, retreads and staying above the fray

  I have no problem accepting who I am and how I act.  I‚Äôm just as paranoid as the next guy.  Being bi-polar is nothing next to the mania of local politics.  Maybe that‚Äôs why I feel so at home amongst the local politicos and always have?  Who knows.
  Mix a little bit of bravado, a certain sense of entitlement, a healthy dose of paranoia and just a dash (some people have more than others) of bullshit ‚Äì and you have the perfect candidate for office in Somerville.  This also permeates down through the food chain to spouses and children of politicians, the politician‚Äôs staff and then on down through the peripherally supportive all the way to the bottom ‚Äì yes, the infamous hangers-on ‚Äì or those whom I have lovingly dubbed in the past as the ‚ÄúPod People.‚Äù

  You would think that after the ‚Äúyear of never ending elections‚Äù that people would take six or seven months off to leave it all alone.  No way.  We want more.  More juicy rumors, more fundraisers, more blogging.  It‚Äôs like being addicted to crack in some ways.  You know it‚Äôs bad for you, but you need it.

  Being involved with a newspaper is a funny thing ‚Äì I‚Äôve talked about it before.  I once wrote here in these very pages that it‚Äôs kind of being like Tony Soprano.  I don‚Äôt mean that in the silly psuedo-mafioso way some people in this city like to think of themselves, but what I am talking about is the way when Tony says a joke and the people around him laugh that fake laugh at stupid jokes and sterile attempts at wittiness just to avoid being ‚Äúwhacked‚Äù in Tony‚Äôs case, or just ripped on in the

  Newstalk or some other place in the paper if you‚Äôre in our shoes.
They call and they complain about stuff in the paper, sure, but these days its all about the weblog and the stuff that people anonymously post as comments on there.  Finally, some of the people after two years are starting to understand that those aren‚Äôt OUR comments ‚Äì which is a good thing.  Then you get the people who threaten ‚Äì threaten to sue ‚Äì threaten to break some legs.  They‚Äôre almost as funny as the guy who said he was going to ‚Äúexercise his option‚Äù one time.  Exercise that option all night long for yourself if it will make you feel as important as want to believe you are.

   Are people touchy by nature?  Sure they are.  People get defensive all the time.  It‚Äôs part of who we are as human beings.  It‚Äôs really quite sad ‚Äì nobody is immune to it.
Two years ago it took a few hours for the paper to hit the streets for us to start getting the crazy phone calls.  Now with the weblog, its minutes.  It‚Äôs really kind of funny when you think about it.  If you haven‚Äôt check it out yet, come and enjoy the free for all on there.

   I try to maintain order, I really do.  Sometimes it gets out of control.  Sometimes there is good open dialog about a range of issues ‚Äì join in on the fun.
   Sometimes a comment is just a comment ‚Äì and nothing more ‚Äì the Oliver Stone‚Äôs of the city would have you believe there‚Äôs a big conspiracy brewing somewhere.  Feds are coming.  This one is going to run for this office.  That one is secretly meeting with this other person and plotting their next move.  It just gives me more to write about, but for now I‚Äôll stay above the fray, thanks.
   Like a few of my columns in the past, there‚Äôs no real message of good to convey with this piece and I make no apologies for it – it‚Äôs just me trying to vent a little ‚Äì trying to make sense of the silliness.  Hopefully you will take a few minutes to check out our weblog and get a kick out of the characters on there and put in your two cents (sense?).