I'll tell you what tyranny is: I sort of anticipated your last point as I was writing my first post. To be sure, if you're a smart cookie, then people will read you because you're entertaining/well-informed/insightful. However, I was making the point that to get attention in the Blog world, you have to either have a) previous notoriety; b) break news; c) have some sort of national outlet which you then use to pump up your blog; or d) word-of-mouth. Since most fall into the "d" category, they need links and the occasional mention. My bet is that while you might get linked by someone who disagrees, but respects you, you're not going to get much press in terms of some guy saying: "Go read so-and-so." At least among the petty "minor" blogs who all fight for their piece of the bandwith (we're certainly both petty and minor).