Ask any blogger or online and writer they’ll tell you when they had their first Instalanche. An “Instalanche” is when a website or blog has a spike in traffic after a link from Glenn Reynolds’ Instapundit.com. A Google search for the phrase “my first Instalanche” offers over 18,000 results.
In addition to his popular blog and columns at USA Today, Pajamas Media and other outlets, he is a law professor at the University of Tennessee and Contributing Editor at Popular Mechanics. He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths. In 2007 Reynolds was named one of 25 “Web Celebs” by Forbes.
Politically, Reynolds describes himself as a “libertarian transhumanist.” In a frequently cited quote from 2004, Reynolds political beliefs can be summed up in this sentence, “I'd be delighted to live in a country where happily married gay couples had closets full of assault weapons.”
For many years Reynolds has inspired bloggers and online writers with his wry observations and support of their work. Robert Stacy McCain of The Other McCain blog, told me, “There are lots of bloggers who count themselves lucky to get a thousand visits a day. One link by Instapundit can deliver more than twice that much traffic in a single hour.”
If this week’s Dozen comes off as an obvious plea for an Instalanche, surely that speaks more about Reynolds’ influence and not my shamelessness, right?
Each week the De Pasquale's Dozen asks political figures and free market-minded writers and entertainers to take a break from politics and talk about their pop culture obsessions.
1. What one thing would you do as President "just because you could"?
Make my first State Of The Union address revolve around the need to bring back "Firefly." Also, pink uniforms with floppy bow-ties for all IRS agents.
2. Tell me about your favorite teacher and how he or she influenced your life.
My second grade teacher at Agassiz Elementary in Cambridge let me read the encyclopedias instead of doing the usual busywork. I started with Childcraft and worked my way up through World Book to Britannica.
3. If you could be paid to do anything besides your current job(s), what would it be?
Space pilot for Virgin Galactic.
4. What was the first rock concert you ever went to?
I saw a bunch of shows when I was a kid, including Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. But the first show I ever went to on my own was ZZ Topp, with The Outlaws as opening act.
5. What's your current “guilty pleasure” non-news television show?
I'm not the least bit guilty, but I like Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother.
6. What’s the best present you ever received as a child?
7. What’s the best present you ever gave?
When we got married, my wife didn't want an engagement ring. For our 15th Anniversary I gave her one anyway.
8. What advice do you remember your mother or father giving you? Did you take it?
Actually, the best single advice was from my grandfather, on money. He said people spend a lot of time worrying about the big-ticket items, but it's the nickel-and-dime spending that makes or breaks you.
9. Who would be on the perfect "Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld" panel?
My wife, Dr. Helen Smith, touting her book, Men On Strike. (In the legs chair, natch). Bill Whittle. Gary Sinise. Alexis Garcia.
10. What books are on your reading list?
Toby Buckell's Apocalypse Ocean
James Miller's Singularity Rising
James Scott’s Two Cheers for Anarchism
11. What would you like tomorrow's headline to say?
Obama: You've Been Punk'd -- I'm Really a Libertarian.
12. Tell me about the moment you decided to enter the political arena.
I don't think I've entered the political arena. As a blogger, it's more like I'm sitting in the bleachers throwing rotten tomatoes. Need more tomatoes.