I had a couple of long exchanges with Scott Tarlo, who assumed editorship of Politically Speaking after I had the job (long story).

Scott believed that PS was mostly about giving people the chance to vent. And with venting comes some degree of catharsis. In essence, PS was playing the role of a psychiatrist's couch.

I think there was a lot of truth to that. In this crazy world, people want a sense of control--and maybe writing political articles gives them a piece of mind------even though their work is not going to be widely read or studied.

I saw myself as being on the psychiatrist's couch. There is some satisfaction of moving thoughts between ears to somewhere where people can read--even if very few people do actually read it.

But yes, PS was not a great place to absorb new ideas.

And Scott and crew burned themselves out.

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When I checked out Free Factor the first time, I didn't see many articles under it. I'm not sure why, but it was a relatively new pub.

I checked it this morning, and I now see about 20 articles with 10 writers. I took a look at a few articles--and I see a big difference between FF and PS. FF is much more "leading edge. " Ron Miller and Peter Bradley have insights I have not encountered before.

Keep up on that thread. Try not to be a psychiatrist's couch.