Frank the Tank’s Slant Objective

I love news, I love pop culture, I love politics and, above all else, I love sports.! Fortunately, the constant changes in these subject areas lend themselves perfectly to be the focus of a blog. What makes me qualified to speak with any semblance of authority on these topics? Nothing really, other than I truly believe that the only way you can understand your own position on any issue in life is to understand the opposing position even more.

What you'll see here on Frank the Tank's Slant:

1) Sports - Focus on Chicago sports along with other major national stories regarding NFL Football, Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball, College Basketball, and College Football. I obsess over the Fighting Illini of my alma mater first and foremost, but I'm just as fanatical about the Bears, White Sox, and Bulls. Also, I pay close attention my law school alma mater of DePaul along with the Cubs (I don't hate the Cubs as a Sox fan - I probably attend and watch more Cubs games than 99% of people who call themselves Cubs fans - it's just that I can't cheer for them). I'll get into other niche sports subjects when it's timely, but I'm pretty much a traditional male American sports fan in my tastes.

2) Pop Culture - Random comments on TV, movies, and music. There's no rhyme or reason on the posts here other than if I really love something, I'll talk about it, and if I really hate something, I'll also talk about it. Music-wise, I listen to rock, hip-hop, classical, Rat Pack standards, and pretty much everything other than country (although I'm game for nationalist Toby Keith songs).  My TV watching habits befit a male in his 20s - lots of sports and even more channel-flipping (two of the few shows that I'm a diehard fan of are "24" and "Lost").  I tend to lean toward movies rooted in realism as opposed to fantasy a la Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese (I enjoy documentaries, as well), but I do love the "Star Wars" films.

3) Politics - The focus here will be on the strategy and art of national and Chicago politics with a smaller dose of issue debate. I believe there's a huge difference between discussing political issues and discussing politics. To me, debating political issues means discussing one's own personal views on national defense, the economy, abortion, etc. I'll get into a little bit of that here, but hopefully not so much so that you'll think I'm a windbag. What's more fascinating to me is political strategy itself - how one presents (or does not present) his or her own personal views to the public in order to advance policies and win elections. Therefore, my posts on politics will heavily concentrate on analyzing how well both sides of the aisle are conveying their messages and their strategies.  Just so you know, though, I consider myself a libertarian Republican.  I'm a solid fiscal and free market conservative, a semi-hawk on national defense, and a social liberal (my beef with the Republicans right now is how much they've driven their agenda toward the Christian Right).

4) World - There's nothing much more surreal than real life, so I'll have a plethora of comments on all types of news topics.  I'm an old-fashioned reader of newspapers - I check out the Chicago Tribune and the Wall Street Journal on the train everyday and, despite my Republican leanings, keep the New York Times and Washington Post websites up on my laptop all day.

I'm a firm believer that everything that you read or hear, no matter what the source, needs to be taken with a grain of salt. With this in mind, I hope this introduction has helped you understand my personal biases and where I'm coming from. Enjoy The Slant!