Blimey, this site has been honoured - "tagged" - with a 'Thinking Blogger Award' nomination. Bit of a shock that, especially the generous words explaining why from the site that nominated. But once through the surprise, it is the sort of playing while making revolution that can be serious fun. The Oscars can kiss my arse.

Thank you Mary at peacepalestine . I usually visit peacepalestine once a day and try to read everything that is posted, always hopeful of finding Gilad Atzmon's perceptive, moral analysis. I feel rather honoured being thought worthy by a blog which promotes such good writing, ideas and activity in support of the Palestinians.

Part of the rules of being tagged require that I now nominate the 5 blogs for writing which makes me think, inform them of their tag and hope they carry it on. Most of the sites I visit regularly are commentary and news collators, which keeps me upto date on world events and political interpretations and the only language is English. They don't really fit the criteria despite publishing some brilliant writers.

Anyway here are the blogs I appreciate the most for their humour, clarity, incisiveness, bravery and compassion. But most, their writing. In no order:

Joe Bageant; No holds barred essays, laced with wit, anger and humanity from the bardic Nemesis of Liberal America. When he posts, Bush's reactionary God-Squad also scurry for cover. Joe's site engages with its audience like no other I have found and his readers correspondence can be almost as well written.

Jonathan Cook; Based in Nazareth, his reporting is more influential than his modesty will allow him to admit. The article about the lop-sided report from Human Rights Watch on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon last year was a major contribution to HRW subsequently backtracking. It made them think, as is the affect of most of Jonathan's writing on me.

Baghdad Burning; For the past three years I have been visiting Riverbend for her personal reports on the state of occupied Baghdad as it affects her family and friends. I have never finished reading an article and felt indifferent to the crimes we are committing in Iraq. The lucid, unflinching writing as Iraqi social relations dissintegrate under the brutal imperial onslaught has been the bravest I have ever read. There have been quite long gaps between postings in the past but Riverbend hasn't posted for two months now and I am fearful for her as Baghdad is walled off into sectarian ghettos by the Occupiers.

Media Lens; Scourge of the liberal media in Britain, especially the Guardian, Independent and BBC. Media Lens' forensic dissection of news reports and editorials coming from these sources, exposes the eurocentric bias, hypocrisy and support for the status quo at their hearts. A site that makes you realise you're not alone in your thinking about the mainstream media, and with suggestions of what to do about it. Essential reading. But that is not all. The occassional postings of 'Cogitations' always leaves this materialist with new ideas to meditate on.

From Gaza, with Love; Defeatism is a trait in left politics and expressed by some European and American writers that really winds me up. Physician, Dr Mona El-Farra runs a blog from Gaza City about women, health, children and human rights. She doesn't post regularly as she is extremely busy and a mother of a young daughter. But when she does post, you get to reflect on scenes of the extraordinary human perseverance of the power of poetry and love amidst the continuing Israeli assault on the Palestinians dignity.




From the originators of the award;

The “rules” regarding the “tagging” and propagation of this award.

For those of you who have been tagged, should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are honouring (tagging): I am including here, as part of this post, along with the meme.

The participation rules are quite simple:
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  with a link to the post that you wrote (there is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).
 

Comments (1)

1  great choices!! Written by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , on 2007-04-25 08:59:42 Les! I know four of your choices, the first one is new to me, and I will certainly start checking it out. Jonathan Cook is really great, and you are right that his writing is setting a standard. I too have lost track of Baghdad Burning, (when people post infrequently, I only check in sporadically) but, stupid me, I didn't even stop to think that there was any reason for it other than being "busy". As usual, Les, you have more depth than I do in understanding situations that are complicated. Thanks again for opening my eyes!     Take care of yourself and keep on writing!

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