Amen, Paul. The only thing I disagree with in this post is the claim that the link is to a post on PASWO; it seems to be pointed to a slightly different post.

Phil, I was careless in my typing: Jason introduced the phrase "point at something with outrage" in the post, but he didn't discuss it in full there; the fault is my own.

In an earlier post, Jason discussed the differences more completely:

Each entry will attempt to be a full, considered, free-standing treatment of a different topic. Where references are made to other sites or publications, such references will be secondary and not essential for understanding the material I discuss. Too many blogs, web journals, and the like add no real content at all, or do so only in a slapdash way that will convince no one except those who are already converted. Too many do nothing but parrot what has already been said elsewhere, and better, by others. They point above all to other blogs, who point to other blogs, who point to... While these blogs of course have the negative-liberty right to be left alone, one wonders what positive good they are doing, and I will have none of it. I intend to present sustained and independent opinions, even if this means that I will have fewer readers.

Thanks as always for the link. It's a good acronym, too, one that I'll be sure to use in the future.

Mencken was a genius in part because his targets for outrage were so different from the things that outraged the mainstream at the time. In his pointing, he was doing a lot more than just reinforcing an existing party platform or ideological program. Instead, he was articulating what was for his time a new way of thinking, the modern secularist libertarian tradition that has since become a much more common way of looking at the world. It's something that few to none of the PASWO bloggers can say they are doing today.