Ogden on Politics leaving the Blogsphere

It’s with a mix of emotions we report that our dear friend, fellow blogger and gadfly Paul Ogden has announced that he is leaving the world of blogging after 15 years. Paul’s blog posts will be dearly missed, but we are also happy for Paul to begin a new chapter in his life. 

We will quote from the master himself as he gives his thoughts on blogging and details some new developments in his life:

Sometime on Wednesday  the lights on the Ogden on Politics blog will go off.  I turned the auto renewal option off and on September 20, 2023 my annual subscription goes out.  Yes, I have backed up my blog in case I ever want to relive the past.

My blog was on line during the era of great Indianapolis blogs.  I think back fondly to reading Gary Welsh's Advance Indiana.  Yes, Gary liked his conspiracy theories, but he also wrote extensively researched articles and broke numerous stories, at least daily if not more.  Advance Indiana remains the gold standard when it comes to blogs.  Not sure where Gary found the time to do what he did.  He was a community resource who can never be replaced.

Here's the thing about blogging though...it is time consuming.  Even when you're only commenting on a news article, it still takes substantial time to write and edit that commentary.  If it is an investigative piece, then it could take a few hours to complete the research and write the article.  Finding the time to blog recently has been difficult.  I have a full-time job as manager of a title insurance agency as well as a part-time job.  I also occasionally write legal filings for attorney friends wanting help.  In addition to those jobs, I also help take care of my elderly mother who lives nearby.  I also try to get to the gym whenever I possibly can.

That's why I haven't been blogging much lately.  But there is another reason why I have decided to shut down the blog.  Come October, after some 17 years, I am extremely excited to be returning to government employment.  While nobody asked me to shut down my blog because of that job, having it active would be too tempting to offer political commentary on candidates and office holders.   I don't want to put myself or my bosses in an uncomfortable position because of some blog article I published.

So it is time to say goodbye.  As we older people say, "See you in the funny papers."   You younger people ... look it up.

I can speak for all of us here at the IR blog: Paul you have done well, and what you have done will live on, besides your far to young to be finished doing good in this world. Godspeed old friend and remember there are others of us who will keep up the good fight. Some of us might be rare, sometimes we are unknown but we help move the world! 

Hang Lose Paul!

P.S. Check out Paul’s blog here at the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20230920085121/http://www.ogdenonpolitics.com/