Meet Mike LaChance, aka “Aleister”

Meet Mike LaChance, aka “Aleister”

Hello, dear readers. I’ve been writing at this site and others for years under the pen name of Aleister.

I’ve decided to drop the moniker and write under my real name, Mike LaChance. The decision didn’t come lightly but I no longer see the need to work anonymously.

I graduated from Emerson College in 1992 and I’m one of those Generation X libertarians you may have heard about. I remember the Iran Hostage Crisis and the Cold War. I was watching television when MTV still played music videos and Saturday Night Live made fun of all presidents, regardless of their party affiliation.

I’m a Massachusetts lifer and when I started blogging, I worked in the very liberal fields of theater, sketch comedy and education in Boston, a very liberal city. Over the last two years, I have become a full time political blogger but my story goes back well over a decade.

In 2004 I launched the website “American Glob.” The title was meant to be a parody of my hometown newspaper the Boston Globe which people sometimes call the “Boston Glob.” My plan was to write parody news but I didn’t know what I was doing and the site got minimal traffic. Since it was just a hobby, I eventually got busy with other things and lost interest in writing updates.

In the months which preceded the 2008 election, I became very interested in politics and media. I also went through a personal political transformation. The more I read about politics at sites like Hot Air, Ace of Spades HQ, Instapundit and others, the more I realized I wasn’t as liberal as I had always assumed. Before I knew it, terms like “conservative libertarian” began to define my political views.

In the fall of 2008, I relaunched American Glob as a political blog covering real news. Shortly after that, I saw a report on FOX News about Andrew Breitbart. He was planning to launch Big Hollywood, the first of the “big” sites. I had worked in the entertainment industry so I went to Breitbart’s site and sent an email asking if I could help. Ten minutes later, I was on the phone with Andrew Breitbart who invited me to join as a contributor. I did so and contributed a few posts under my real name over the next two years.

I kept posting as Aleister on American Glob every night, as well. I wrote about the Tea Party from the moment of its creation and I was at the first event on Boston Common. In 2010, I became an early supporter of Scott Brown and did what I could as a blogger to promote his candidacy.

Later that year, fate intervened. I was offered an administration position at a professional theater company. I knew my political views could cause conflict at my new day job, so I restricted my blogging back to hobby status and continued to write at American Glob under my pen name at night after work.

In the summer of 2012, I decided I wanted to use my skills as a part time job. I had developed an extensive list of contacts in the conservative blogosphere by then so I sent out an email blast titled “Hire Me.”

One person responded. Professor William Jacobson of Legal Insurrection wrote back with a two word reply: “Let’s talk.” The rest, as they say, is history. I’ve been proud to cover politics and higher education news as part of the insurrection team ever since.

In the spring of 2015, I decided to make a go of full time blogging. I put the word out with help from Ed Driscoll of Instapundit and ended up writing for the Center for Security Policy, the Gateway Pundit and Progressives Today, a site that poked fun at the left.

The success of my work at Progressives Today led to the creation of American Lookout where I now serve as editor, in addition to my daily contributions at Legal Insurrection. I’ve been blogging full time for almost two years now.

I work 12 or more hours most days but I enjoy the work immensely. I’m also grateful for the support I’ve received from my family, friends and readers over the years.

Finally, you may be wondering: Why Aleister? Here’s the deal: Aleister Crowley was called the wickedest man in the world. If you’re familiar with Massachusetts culture you know “wicked” has a very different meaning here, as in “wicked cool.”

The irony is that I have lived my life in the most liberal cities of one of the most liberal states, working in the most liberal fields while moonlighting as a right leaning blogger.

Now you know the whole story.

Thanks for reading and please follow me at my newly revived Mike LaChance Twitter account.

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