One of the really neat things about blogging . . .

. . . is seeing the countries of the people who have stopped by to humor me on my rants.  I am awed, and more than a little humbled, by the thought that people in Australia, Indonesia, Argentina, Germany, Norway and many other places have at least glanced at the great north blog.  I would love to hear from you, especially if you have the perspective of living in a place far from my insular little world, so please leave a comment--good, bad or maniacal diatribe.  Over the past couple of days I have even had 5 hits from Russia.  My personal theory behind those hits is that Putin, realizing he was being buffeted by strong popular winds of change, told his minions to scour the internet for the world's best geo-political/ socio-economic minds so he could perhaps glean some wisdom in his time of trouble.  Of course, they referred him straight to my blog.  ;)