I Wish I were in Paris hit me with a Thinking Blogger Award. I am really amazed to have gotten this award since there are literally thousands of excellent sites out there. Even in my little blogging world there are literally dozens and dozens of great sites to choose from. Thanks Paris, I am really honored.
Thinking Blogger has a great idea that has proved to be very popular. Here are the rules that I blatantly copied:
1. If, and only if you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).
Okay, that was the easy part. Now on to the hard part. The five blogs that I have chosen that make me think are:
1. Informed Consent. Professor of Middle East History, Juan Cole is one of the first blogs I read every morning. If you really want insights on the war on Iraq, Sunnis, Shia, Palestinians, Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, anything on the Middle East, then this is an absolute must-read. Dr. Cole also translates many Arabic newspaper articles - essential for understanding different points of view in this most volatile land.
2. Another Point of View is blog I highly recommend - just be sure to have had your morning coffee and be prepared to concentrate. Mentarch's posts have many relevant links and references to back up his assertions. He has a typically excellent post today on contrasting priorities of PTSD problems for state department officials in Iraq/Afghanistan and our troops on the ground.
3. Suzie-Q (and the Justice Blog Team) is a prodigious source of politicking punditry. Because there are multiple contributors, they cover a lot of territory. Whether its the mess in Iraq, Big Brother, or jut another rotten CEO, Suzie-Q is on it like stink on BushCo. The site is really well done with a great mix of graphics and pictures. Still, I just can't figure out if the pic of Suzie is real or not. That mystery only adds to the allure.
4. I would be remiss to exclude the newly remodeled Reconstitution 2.0 site. There's always something new and good there. Yesterday's post on the possible collapsing credit bubble still has me thinking. And worrying.
5. Finally, I'm going to give a shout-out to my buddy TomCat at Politics Plus. I first became aware of TomCat about the time we were in on an April Fool's gag with a number of other bloggers. Since then, I try to visit his site every time I'm blogging. TomCat's posts are always interesting and often provocative. He usually has multiple posts every day on a variety of topics near and dear to my heart - bashing BushCo and the vile NeoCons, helping me understand what it means to be a religious liberal (God-hating liberals would be advised to read his posts on this topic - they are real eye-openers), as well as a variety of domestics and international issues. Don't miss his twice-monthly poll.
There are so many other sites I really enjoy, and that's not just some smarmy BS. But the rules say five. Please click on any and all of the links I've blogrolled. I've reviewed each of them multiple times and they all share one thing in common - they are all great!
