This being a new forum in which to express the many opinions that come and go between my weekly essays for The Star, I figure a few housekeeping chores need to be taken care of, such as explaining what you can expect from these postings.

Let’s begin with the motto that has guided me through my adult life: "I never met a sacred cow I didn’t like — medium rare."

The problem with sacred cows comes from the fact that once people raise a "cow" to such an exalted status, they expect others to back off from any questioning, criticism or discussion that would reveal the "cow" not as "sacred," but as fallible as everything else.

We need the questioning, the criticism and the discussions. We need them to engage in relevant and rationale dialogue if we hope to solve the issues and the problems that we face together as a community, a county, a state and a nation.

Such dialogue need not be mundane. Strong beliefs argued with passion should never be discouraged. Shrillness, on the other hand, deserves the same fate as sacred cows. Thus, do not expect Howard Dean Cro-Magnon yowls here. Do not look for Ann Coulter screeds here. Expect neither Bill O’Reilly nonspin spins, nor Rush Limbough rants, nor Bill Maher political incorrectness, nor Michael Moore subterfuges.

To make sure I don’t fall into the same trap as these and other pundits have — making the messenger more important than the message — I have developed a set of "10 short rules" for my blogging:

1. Be topical, mostly.

2. All’s fair.

3. Humor works.

4. Accuracy rules.

5. Argue reasonably.

6. Don’t use this as a draft for Opinion page writings.

7. Be passionate, not shrill.

8. Focus, don’t spray.

9. Attribute liberally.

10. Acknowledge errors immediately.

That wraps up the housekeeping chores. Now get out the barbecue sauce; it’s time to grill some sacred cows.