i don't like war. i hate war. Wars in general are bad for children and flowers and other living things. Therefore it is with great sorrow and great hand wringing and with pensive biting of lower lip that i must make the following announcement.

But before i do, let me just tell you that my friend Betty and i decided on an apartment and we signed a lease today! So i'll be moving into a place on the west side next month. It seems like a nice neighborhood and we got a pretty 2+2 with a balcony and lots of closet space.

But back to the grave decision, which has been made.

Like i said, i hate war. War is hell. All peace loving creatures hate war. My dog hates war. But i love dogs. Especially puppies. Which is one reason why i have made the following decision.

i ruminated long over this decision because, as i said, war is a bad thing. It's messy. One can get hurt if one gets involved in a war. And why get involved in one if one doesn't want to be one of the casualties?

But sometimes, one must stand up for principles and ideals, which transcend pure self interest or personal comfort.

i believe in certain undying principles of life. Undying principles that govern our universe. Certain principles that live on and should always live on. And God willing, these principles will live on. The principles of which i speak are those which all men and women of honor and righteousness believe and which, down throughout history, great nations have fought to uphold and have forgotten at their own peril.

i believe in principles such as this: that grammatical rules are not rules, but only guidelines. For instance, in the preceding paragraph, i twice failed to place a comma directly after the word "which." Does that make me a bad person? No, i think it does not.

i believe in other principles and ideals too. None jump out at me right now, but believe me, i do. i consider myself a person who lives by the principle of being principled. But those other principles really don't have anything to do with my big decision. Neither does the principle i just enumerated, for that matter.

Which brings me to the decision i have just decided on. Which is that, despite my aforementioned loathing for war, i have decided to move from a state of neutrality to a state of other-than-neutrality with respect to the darkening storm clouds of war and conflict that have recently been gathering over the horizon of this great blogosphere of ours.

As a humble footsoldier in this new war, i know not where Our Leader will send me. But i am willing to serve. After reading Our Great Leader's Call To Arms, i am ready -- more than ready -- to serve and to do what is necessary in order to secure for ourselves, and for our posteriors, those things that should be our birthright, whatever those things may be. And i am sure -- more than sure -- that Our Leader will tell us all about those things that we are fighting for in greater detail as this war commences.

Make no mistake. We are dauntless! Dauntless i say! We shall not be daunted. Nor shall we be vanquished. In fact, we are un-daunted and it is we who shall be doing the vanquishing, if any. And in time we shall win this conflict. The Enemy shall be daunted. He is the one who will be daunted and vanquished, or whatever. That i know.

For it is our cause, and our mission, and our victory that will drive us onward! Onward and upward onto ultimate glory and victory. A just and righteous victory, etc. etc. And to this sacred goal i pledge my honor, my wealth and my precious blog in so far as is necessary to acheive our most certain goal, as it may be demanded and directed or determined by Our Leader, within reason of course.

So, there you have it. i, annika, who value my independence and neutrality so highly. i who, like i said up there, hate war with an unmitigated passion (except for that little bit of time in grad school when i took those military history courses), have declared a side in this great upcoming and destructive conflict. No one can remain neutral for long. You are either with us or against us. i urge everyone reading this to join in this transcendent, noble cause.

And so it begins. i hereby cross the Rubicon by editing my blogroll!