Introduction

Dispatch 0

Hello!  My name is Bob Hinkle, and I welcome you to my Substack.

I am in life a ponderer: someone who takes in information and then spends a long time thinking, analyzing, synthesizing, and assessing before ever coming to conclusions.  This kind of approach can be a liability; for example, early in our marriage my wife used to ask me for my favorite book or movie, or my happiest childhood memory; after having waited many minutes for any response, she’s learned to ask different sorts of questions to make conversation.  My hope and desire are to make my inherent ponderous nature an advantage that works for you, my reader, provided there is value in the long-germinated perspectives and opinions you will see over time.

My posts will be divided into several different categories, as described below, but all have the goal of adding useful thought and perspective on substantial issues in America and around the world. Areas of interest include governance, politics, economics, defense, international relations, law, journalism, and civic discourse.

Statements

These short articles will provide brief personal introductions, offering context for reading and evaluating everything else.

Principles

These will articulate the principles that I plan to follow and that I believe would help improve the quality and effectiveness of civic discourse if adopted more widely.

Dispatches

These will be the backbone of this Substack, each concerning some issue or topic of interest.

Investigations

These will be even longer, in-depth looks at complex topics and may be complete in themselves or parts of a longer series.

My intention at the outset is to post one article every Friday at 4 A.M. MST, but I hope to add other articles most weeks on a less regular basis.

Finally, my writing, and my Substacking in particular, are both works in progress. (As an example, I ought to have made this introduction my first post, hence its ordering as “Dispatch 0.”) To my initial readers and subscribers, I ask you and thank you in advance for your patience as I develop a routine publication schedule and familiarity with the tools and channels Substack provides.