Wow! When I first visited kevinsideas.blogspot.com (Ideas Inc.) I expected to find entries with random opinions on random topics. I did not expect to find the massive amount of focused content that I did.
Kevin Holtsberry is a thirty one year old legislative aide to an Ohio State Senator. He’s a Christian and a conservative. I spent the last two days reading Ideas Inc. and my advice to anyone who does go there is to bring your thinking cap along. Mr. Holtsberry writes about his conservative beliefs in a way that you don’t see often in opinion orientated weblogs. This is not a “this is what I believe in and if you disagree you are ruining this country” weblog. I disagree with the authors beliefs but after I read “Education Reform Rant” I found myself questioning my beliefs on school vouchers. I have a feeling thats what the author intended. Mr. Holtsberry just doesn’t throw an opinion out there. He explains them in a way that is not offensive to someone who disagrees, but in a way that attempts (through well thought out and researched posts) to educate those that disagree with him. Kind of like; “Hey, I understand you disagree, and I respect you for that, but let me explain my thinking.” I found at Ideas Inc. a defense of the Harry Potter books and movie that I wish all parents who were worried about wizardy and witchcraft would read, and this coming from a conservative christian! My two other favorite topics; ‘Conservatives and Sex’ and ‘Humans as Animals’ which is a response to something another author wrote.
The site is a basic blogspot one, nothing wrong with that though, especially if you have a content orientated site. The author is working on kevinholtsberry.com (as yet not available) so this is pretty much a work in progress. All the the links in the site worked well. No broken links at all.
Three bonuses that I would like to give the author kudos on; 1) all the links the author provides in his posts are to articles that help you understand what the author is writing about, not just thrown out there randomly. 2)There is a tool to subscribe to Ideas Inc. that I tried out and worked. 3) An ‘About Section’ that was written on my first day reading the site. The archives are ‘iffy’ though. On my first day on the site I was able (through the archives) to find the Harry Potter post, but was unable to on the second day I was there. I’m sure though, with the authors attention to detail, he’ll get around to fixing that.
I give Ideas Inc. a 3.5 because 1) its a work in progress, 2) I wish I the archives worked better, 3)I wish I knew more about the author (he’s working on it so thats cool). I’m sure if I reviewed this site in a month or so I would give it a higher rating.
In summation, I would recommend this site if you are not a conservative (which I am not) because the author does something not often seen in many of the conservative politcally orientated blogs out there; he doesn’t try to tell you that you are dead wrong in your beliefs, he explains, very intelligently, what his beliefs are, and challenges you to disagree with him. If you do disagree, you won’t be ‘flamed’ or ‘skewered’, you’ll get someone who respects your beliefs and only wants to point out where he thinks you are wrong in a very mature and intelligent manor. But my gosh, bring your thinking cap! Ideas etc.