Maybe you’ve been wondering, “What’s with the nickname?” Some of you probably think it’s a synonym for “left-wing looney liberal”, while others may think “he thinks he’s radical, ha!”

It didn’t really start as a political statement. Back in high school, there were a number of kids named Russ. there was “Redhead” Russ, “Wrestler” Russ, “Science Geek” Russ, and there was me. I was a ringleader of a group of misfits calling ourselves “The Radicals”, so I was “Radical” Russ. It just stuck.

I’m not really that radical. Well, unless you compare my politics to the people back in my home state of Idaho. Then I’m way radical fringe lefty as far as they are concerned. Why, I think Bibles in schools are a bad idea, gay people deserve equality, we oughtta tax pot smokers, getting a gun should be as tough as a building permit, and war should be a last resort. That’s almost heretical, not just radical, in the small town I came from.

I’ve had many roles in this four decades of life. Seems like every five years I am somebody new. I was a precocious, chubby child; a gifted and talented kid; a high school band and drama nerd; an Army National Guardsman; a professional club musician; a jet-setting IT consultant; a corporate technology trainer, and now blogger / podcaster / talk radio host. Is it radical to have a different career every five years?

I’m married, but I have no children. I didn’t get married until I was 32 years old, on Jan 1, 2001. That’s 01/01/01, which I selected because…

• it’s easy to remember,
• it’s easy to subtract to impress people by telling them exactly how long I’ve been married,
• Jan 1 2001 was the first day of the third millennium* : 01 + 01 + 01 = 3,
• Jan 1 2001 was the first day of the 21st century* : 010101 in binary = 21,
• no matter what job I have, if I’m lucky I’ll always have the day off,

…and the fact that I’d put so much interest into a date like that tells you something about me. We have two dogs and two cats, and I’d tell you more, but it’s only interesting if you’ve met the dogs and the cats and then only barely interesting. They bark and meow and do adorable things.

I am also known by the nickname “The Au Gratin Cheesehead” because I am a Green Bay Packers fan from Nampa, Idaho (potatoes and cheese, get it?) I have been a Green Bay Packers fan since the age of ten, when my first pick, the Minnesota Vikings, announced they were moving to an indoor stadium. Real men play football outdoors in the weather and it doesn’t matter how cool the purple helmet with a horn on it looks, I’m going to root for the yellow team with the G! That’s the depth of NFL analysis I could handle at ten years old. Also, my mom and dad were married in 1966, year of the Packers first Super Bowl win, and dad was always a Packers fan. Now it had become insane; my entire studio is plastered in Green Bay Packers schwag. This is the kind of mental disorder that can develop when one has nothing better to do on a Sunday morning.

Lately I’ve come to embrace the political side of “Radical” Russ. I do ask for some pretty radical things, it’s just that I feel like these are the same radical things our Founding Fathers were asking for. It doesn’t seem radical to me, it seems patriotic. Equality for all citizens. Freedom from government intrusion. Privacy in personal matters. Provision for the common defense. Care for the general welfare. Checks and balances on power. Accountability and justice for all. A country ruled by laws, not men, nor kings, nor gods. Elected officials who preserve, protect, and defend our Constitution… even over their own best interests!

So for those of you on the right who see me as a radical, welcome to the show. If you stick around, you may find that I’m not so lefty loonie as you might think (hint: I like guns and red meat and UFC). And for those of you on the left who don’t think I’m radical enough, welcome to the show, too. I’m always eager to listen and learn and there have been more than a couple of positions where a committed activist has changed my mind (hint: I used to disagree with hate crimes legislation and amnesty for immigrants and abolishing the death penalty, but lately I’ve been talked into agreement). And for those of you in the middle, well, pick a side already, what are you waiting for?

Radically yours,

“Radical” Russ Belville

* Some people try to quibble with this one, asking, “Wasn’t Jan 1 2000 the first day of the third millennium / 21st century?” No, it wasn’t, it was the first day of the last year of the second millennium / 20th century. See, the first millennium didn’t begin on Year 0 and end on Year 999, it began on Year 1 and ended on Year 1000. There is no Year 0, we went from Year -1 (1 BC) to Year 1 (1 AD). The fact that I know this and would argue about it tells you something about me.

Funny story: I created our wedding invitations. On the cover, I invited people to the beginning on the third millenium. Making a spelling error like that on such an important document in the age of spell check haunts me to this day. It’s one of my great pet peeves - spelling errors on simple public signs - and here I get caught by it.