The art of a good rant

For those of you who have been tuning in to Rod's Rants lately hoping to see a good old fashion rantathon, I apologize. As the planning continued, this thing took on a life of its own and got a wee bit bigger than I had originally anticipated. So to make up for that fact, I had to continue to reschedule.

I then decided to launch a new site for this special event, (that is why you are on my blogspot address rather than rodsrants.com) which has put me in a whirlwind of nameserver problems and this website pointing to that DNS which is pointing to someone else’s CNAME and to top it all off, the webhost I am using saw the need to review my website for malicious content FOR THE WHOLE DAY, thus limiting my ability to work on the site.

SO needless to say, the rantahon will have to wait until after the weekend and all problems aside, should roll on Monday.

Thank you to those participants who have weathered through the storm I give you my word that my ranting will soon be heard for a full day.

With that being said....To the topic

Anyone can spout off at the mouth. It doesn’t take a person with an education to say what is on their mind; they just have to know how to speak a language with some, some mind you, level of proficiency.

To that end I present to you this young man. He has something to say and dammit all if he doesn't beat around the bush. Two things before you watch this.

1. This is NOT, I repeat NOT for those who might be easily offended by ignorance and the language that goes with that ignorance.
2. This video is long, you get the gist within the first few minutes, but if you make it that far, you might as well suffer through the rest, if only for your own education.

Disclaimers aside...here you go...

So believe it or not, this is NOT a good rant. A good rant can not just be spewed out like the chaw that guy is wanting to impeach the president over.

A good rant must be crafted like a fine piece of china. It must be researched and developed so that if someone attacks your point of view, you can defend it without having to resort to your American/Rebel flag.

And last, but certainly not least, must not contain the same argument, for 7 minutes. It's fine if you want to argue the importance of chewing tobacco, but make sure you have a better presentation than a string of insults.

Talk policy and revenue, may even the impact of the ban on the economy as a whole, that would have made for a better rant. No my redneck friend, yours is not a rant, merely an example of what not to do, and a rather good one at that.

So in review, when constructing a good rant, neigh, a great rant. Follow these three simple steps:

1. Do your research - An educated argument is far more powerful than one where you as a ranter clearly have no clue what the hell you are talking about.
2. Use language appropriate to your argument - You ever heard the expression, "don't bring a knife to a gun fight?" Well the same holds true in a rant. A bag full of four-letter words won't do you any good in front of an educated audience. Likewise, you may find yourself banging your head against a wall when trying to appeal to someone with the maturity of a third grader.
3. Be prepared to lose friends - A powerful ranter ruffles feathers, that is his/her nature. Know that your opinion, whatever it may be, will not always be that of your friends. That being the case, unless you and your friends engage in spirited debates on a regular basis, they may not like what you have to say. And, if they are weak and petty and do not know how to get along with those with a difference of opinion, you might not see them by the water cooler tomorrow at work. Don't fear, either they will come to their senses and realize how unfair they are being, or they really weren't that good a friend in the first place.

So there you have it, the art of a good rant. You have the tools, what you do with them is up to you! Go forth rantaholics and wreak havoc upon the blogoshpere!