Thinking About Thinking

You may have sensed a powerful disturbance in the Force earlier this week. It was a surge of delight from the Bunker upon learning that we had been honoured with a “Thinking Bloggers Award”, shown left, which has been lovely placed on its own marble plinth in the Bunker’s Hall of Heroes, right beside Treehugger’s bowling trophy.

The award is a blogger-to-blogger presentation for blogs that…well, make you think. Our nomination came from Mentarch, whose excellent blog “Another Point of View” definitely makes us think every day (and who, parenthetically, appears from his blog photo to be a very dapper gent), and who was kind enough to say the following:

StageLeft – “Some say the glass is half empty, others that it’s half full … we say, are you gonna drink that?”. These folks (especially StageLeft and Balbulican) go to the very essence of the headlines and hit you with a one-two opinion punch – in the same vein as Impolitical and My Blagh, but with also a touch of humor that is just right (or should that be “left”? Hmmmm …).

It’s traditional on these occasions to get a bit sentimental , but we will not strain the limits of your collective indulgence beyond two misty-eyed observations (one for each misty eye):

1) It’s really, REALLY nice to know that someone thinks this stuff is worth reading.

2) We note that Mentarch refers to “these folks”. That’s you, too. If Arwen and lrC and Candace and Throbbin and Mentat and Chimera and James and Mike and RJ and Saskboy and Joseph and Lord Bump In All His Manifestations and Dissendat and Section 15 and Shlemazl and Dr. Dawg and Wideye and Chelle and Vinny and Adrian and Red Jenny and the Squirrel Man in Alaska and Jim Bobby and Dirk and skdadl and everybody who comes back and takes the time to actually talk. There would be no point to any of this if you guys didn’t keep this community alive.

Now. Back to business. This award has a few requirements attached to it. Its originator, The Thinking Blog, sets out the ground rules:

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’.

Now the tricky part. Five blogs that make us think. Hmm. Well, every blog in the right hand column makes us think. Heck, every blog makes me think, even if the thought is “I wonder if that person requires navigational assistance and a checklist to wipe their ass?” But I somehow doubt that’s what the originator had in mind.

So let’s refine that to “Five Blogs That Regularly Challenge Our Assumptions And Make Us Think NEW Thoughts”. Our nominees:

Pogge: a Canadian classic, a great group of insightful, funny and passionate writers who always pop up in everyone’s best of polls. I doubt we’ve beat the world to this nomination, but here it is, just in case.

Canadian Cynic: Wry, with a twist of acid. If SJ Perlman and IF Stone had collaborated on a blog, this would be it.

The Shmohawk’s Shmorg: in just a couple of months, this journalist/teacher’s site has become the best source of commentary in Canadian media, mainstream or alternative, on Aboriginal issues. Well written, well researched, politically incorrect, and funny as hell.

Crawl Across the Ocean: How the hell does Declan find the time to post such well researched, thoughtful articles on such a wide range of topics? The blogger on this list most likely to make the rest of us feel like dilettantes.

To Herd or Not To Herd:a radical perspective on government that links events to the inadaquacies/corruption of the state as a concept that people think they need, instead of a problem in and of itself. I don’t know whether anarchists accept awards, though.

Great blogs all…like all the other blogs on our list of faves.

And now…we retire to the Hall of Heroes for champagne and caviar, and a toast to our readers and friends.