The Bleeding Ear (or TBE as we affectionately call it) is a blog that deals with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (thanks, John Locke). It is the ramblings, ruminations, ponderances, and pontifications by Triet on just about anything. Mainly, TBE covers politics and current events, both at home and abroad, with special attention paid to Vietnam and Southeast Asia. It also throws in a little sports, rye looks at society and its foibles, and personal stuff. Enjoy!
Who is Triet?
The always enigmatic author has this as his blogger profile:
I am a Texas boy with big aspirations (fitting?). I have a B.S. in Microbiology and History, with about 6 years of experience working in university research labs. Politically I consider myself an independent. I'm libertarian economically, with a conservative moral streak, but not enough to join the "religious right." I'm interested in morally sticky issues, tropical diseases, sports, and international affairs -- especially Southeast Asia. I speak English and Vietnamese.
Other pertinent posts about him can be found:
history:
wife:
Why "The Bleeding Ear"?
The history of the name, The Bleeding Ear, is a long and sordid tale. Actually, it's pretty short and boring. One day, two college students at Brigham Young University were blowing off steam before big exams in the library. Somehow, they both convinced their wives to let them put off studies and rant. So, being two highly intelligent young men, they decided to rebel against the conservative, myopic student body that roamed the campus like zombies and its representative, the school newspaper, The Daily Universe, by creating a competing newspaper. This newspaper was to be called "The Bleeding Ear," because all the stupid things that they had heard come out of BYU students mouths were so dumb, so stultifying, so "superlative" (thanks Steve) that it hurt.
The front page held a disclaimer and manifesto under the title which read this:
The Bleeding Ear
A military style journal for Zoobies
Disclaimer:
- if you are Abercrombie, or his gay buddy Fitch, this is not for you.
- If you own a clean flix membership, this is not for you.
- If you styled your hair, like you just took off a motorcycle helmet, this is not for you.
- Not very many animals have been hurt in the making of this journal (and they weren’t cute furry ones anyways).
- All persons, places, and events mentioned hereafter DO have direct reference to actual persons, places and events, and are intended as such.
The Bleeding Ear Manifesto:
We’re mad as HBLL and we’re not going to take it any more. When in the course of human history, we hold these truths to be self evident, that some mormons are freaking retarded and “Oh my Heck!” they deserve to be made fun of. We hereby proclaim ourselves judges, jury, biased liberal media moguls and verbal executioners of such social criminals. "Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on top at last.” –Joseph Smith, (History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 408).
Although this bastion of liberal thought, social activism and sharp wit never made it to print, the beginning of this blog brought another, cheaper, easier avenue to vent, and there was only one logical choice for a name: The Bleeding Ear.
Why do you blog?
One day a friend of mine, MGO, (found at this blog) related something interesting he read on a blog.
"A blog?? What's a blog?" I asked.
"Actually, I spend about one or two hours a day reading blogs and keeping up with the news," he replied.
From there ensued a long conversation about the "blogosphere," Volokh Conspiracy, Instapundit, and monkeys. Well, maybe not the monkeys ... my memory is a bit fuzzy. However, the seed was planted. Slowly, my curiosity won me over, and I started to read them too. Since time immemorial I had stayed up late at night, had multi-hour conversations, debates, and general discussions with my friends about life, current events, politics, and all things interesting. It's just what my group of friends did for fun.
Eventually, the conversations started to be interjected with comments like "hey, you should start a blog" or "hey, i think this would be interesting as a blog." Pretty soon we were all entertaining ideas of blogging, and in January 2005, MGO and I entered the blogosphere, forever changing the course of human history.
Since then, it has become a convenient forum for learning from others, sharing thoughts and feelings, and generally relieving stress by ranting about the idiocies of the world. It has greatly improved my marriage, says my wife, because she doesn't have to hear it anymore! And, ultimately, I find it fun.
