Thinking bloggers

Thursday, 12:28 pm

By Kate

Jun

21

2007

When you’re a blogger, there isn’t a much nicer compliment than being told “You make me think.” Adam, over at Seacoast NRG was tagged for the Thinking Blog Award meme and decided that my blog was one of the five he would select as a blog that makes him think. And that really makes my day. Thank you, Adam. His blog is all about energy, mostly with regard to the seacoast area we live in. He’s a New Hampshire neighbor just up the coast a few short miles. I don’t know if Adam knows it or not, but he has been my inspiration to spend more time on my blog writing about energy issues, mostly from a personal perspective. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and it’s a calculated risk...I’ve lost a couple of readers yet gained a couple more...but energy and the environment have become more and more important to me over the past year and what better place to talk about it than on my blog? If I have made anyone else interested in, excited about, or even angry about the things I say about energy/environmental issues, then that means I have struck a chord or a nerve just long enough to make someone think about what I’ve said. That’s the blogger’s best reward.

Now, it’s my turn to select five blogs that make *me* think.

Casaubon’s Book - Sharon Astyk is a prolific writer and agent for change in the environmental and energy arenas. As a mother, farmer, CSA producer, teacher, scholar, homesteader, and inventive doer, she is a true inspiration. Sharon is a co-founder of the 90 percent Project and, to many people’s minds, rather controversial. She says what she means and means what she says, without mincing too many words. She is a fascinating individual who walks her talk and even makes it sound fun. (You know how well I relate to fun!) Sharon has a brilliant mind and a philosophical bent that have, at times, inflamed me, but, more often than not, have led me to say...ahhh, I hadn’t thought of that before. In other words, she makes me think. More than that, she has encouraged me to DO.

The Oil Drum - This blog is a compendium of information and accrued knowledge about the issues of Peak Oil and the oil industry. I first began reading about a year and a half ago and have never looked back. Their approach is balanced, the staff is comprised of geologists and engineers and oil industry professionals who see the handwriting on the wall. They are engaged in a very uphill struggle to make people aware of the challenges we face in the future. Their commenting section is frequented by other brainy individuals who range from economists to engineers to geologists to physicists...and a few regular schlubs like me. Conversation is always fascinating and amazingly educational. I can not begin to explain what I have learned there. In the regular world, I’d have to pay big bucks to learn the things I’ve learned from these people who offer their knowledge and experience for free. They do make me think. Every day.

Sic Semper Tyrannus 2007 - This is the province of Col. Patrick Lang for whom I have tremendous respect. His blog is primarily political from a military and foreign affairs perspective. He has served in the Defense Intelligence Agency as Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia, and Terrorism and Deputy Director of Attaches and Operations. Col. Lang is not someone who can be pigeonholed. He’s something of an enigma (to me) with a streak of the curmudgeon. I frequently don’t agree with his personal views, but I respect his knowledge and experience. He frequently surprises me and approaches the ongoing situations in the Middle East in ways I would never otherwise do based on anything I read in the media. He has lived with, negotiated with, and befriended (as much as possible in his professional role) many of the peoples in the Middle East. He is fluent in Arabic. His understanding of the cultures, tribes, and their traditions surpasses anything else I’ve run across to date. He is a valuable resource. I often wonder if he is as prickly in person...that being neither here nor there. He teaches, he inflames...he makes me think.

Gorilla’s Guides - This blog is run by a staff of individuals who are either native of or intimately associated with Iraq. Several are relief workers associated with NGOs and in the time I’ve read the blog, some have perished in the ongoing disaster that is Iraq. Mark from Ireland, probably known by several who frequent progressive blogs, is the blog’s founder. Reading this blog is acutely uncomfortable for an American. They don’t like us and make no bones about it. The reading is difficult and horrific on a near daily basis. Yet they put human faces to the horror and the statistics. They provide an alternate view of life in Iraq which Americans most certainly do not get in our own media. It’s a view that we need. It’s a view that we all should be obligated to absorb and understand because it is very real. You won’t get any warm fuzzies reading this blog. You might even slink away feeling pretty lousy after reading it. But it is a valuable resource and the passion and contempt are genuine and raw. I often walk away angry and I don’t agree with them many times, but I am quite sure that has much to do with the ingrained American exceptionalism that I think we Americans all have to one extent or another. What right do I have to disagree when I’m not living the nightmare? I can’t pass judgment when I haven’t walked a mile in their shoes. No one I know has been blown up in front of my eyes. And I sure as heck hope I never have to experience what they do daily. I appreciate their commitment and their attempts to teach. They take me out of my comfortable and safe confines and show me what war is like on a very human level. They make me think.

The News Blog - This is a posthumous tribute to a blogger, Steve Gilliard, who was, bar none, my favorite blogger. He was a brilliant, plain speaking individual..pulled no punches. His knowledge of military history and strategy was astounding. His blog was always the last one I read in the evening because it is the one I spent the longest time reading. I looked forward to it every day. I always knew that Steve was special, but it wasn’t until he became ill and hospitalized several months ago that I truly realized how valuable his voice had become to me. There was nothing remotely like it in the blogosphere and I missed it tremendously. What we never truly understood until the last days was how ill Steve really was. His death was a shock. Isn’t it interesting how the internet works? People you’ve never met become so dear. Steve is gone now and the silence he leaves is a void that will never be filled. He was that unique. He made me think. He made my brain a better place. I really miss him. I expect that I will for a long time.