Welcome Visitors from Afar

Happened to notice today that - for whatever reason - traffic through here from other countries matches or exceeds those coming in from North America (yes, at least 5 US residents do recognize there are a couple other countries in North America, really).

One big positive of blogging, in my humble opinion, is that it can bring global citizens together in a way that reduces some of the worst effects of geographic boundries.

But - even more selfishly important for Americans - there is also the need for us as Americans to cross borders through blogs, to see what people in Iraq, Japan, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and others are saying about global warming, the War on Terror, media spin, top headlines, megacorporations, and the increasing division between the extreme wealthy and the rest of us. I try to do this regularly, and use various translation tools online to help me read blogs in languages other than I can read (my English and Spanish isn't bad, my French sometimes passable, my German and Dutch spotty, and my Asian language skills are non-existent.