I is smrt

Mr. Scoville has kindly linked to me as one of five "thinking bloggers" he enjoys. I'm under no illusions that I'm in the top five. But these things run on reciprocity, so I now have to name five bloggers who make me think. Hm.

Jon Schwarz of A Tiny Revolution. One of the funniest bloggers out there, who also has a detailed, obsessive grasp of many of the worst aspects of US foreign policy. You might be able to guess, I would desperately like to be him. Because, you know, obsessive-compulsive bloggers get mad chicks.

Matthew Yglesias: Watching the evolution of Yglesias' views since 2002 or so has been fascinating. When I started reading his work, he was basically a DLC-style centrist, and he was perilously close to supporting the war against Iraq -- bailing out at the last minute. Since then, he's become one of the better voices against American hegemonism. (If hegemonism is a word.)

The troupe at Lawyers, Guns and Money, especially Rob Farley*. (This is kind of tawdry, because Rob was kind enough to name me as a thinking blogger a few months ago.) That Scott Lemieux and Rob have both been adopted by the American Prospect to fill out TAPPED was such an excellent move on the Prospect's part -- sheer genius not seen since they hired Ezra Klein.

*Prof. Farley is singled out not to prejudice you against the others, but because he's the one I pay most attention to. Your Mileage May Vary.

The non-me bloggers at Gristmill. Speaking of tawdry, this is pretty self-indulgent on my part. But no kidding here, Gristmill has some of the best writers on energy and environment issues you're going to find anywhere. I've been pretty spotty in my posting there (and here) of late, but it was seriously flattering when I was asked to contribute to Gristmill. Plus, I started there before Joe Romm did, and he was a deputy in the Clinton Administration. So I win. (You can also find excellent stuff by Gar Lipow, recently of comment threads here, at Gristmill.)

God, there's never enough room on these things. Suddenly, I feel like I'm back in an exam hall, asking a proctor for a second book to continue my essay answer...

Olaf at The Prairie Wrangler. I disagree with, oh, so much of what he writes. But, he's never a Conservative I write off, plus he's exactly the kind of Conservative an NDPer is liable to enjoy -- we're both, uh, not in love with Stephen Harper. The point is this: Olaf made an effort to reach out to me and carry on a reasonable, if sometimes heated, disagreement about everything from Kyoto to Afghanistan. And he's still at it, working to organize a Canadian blogger debate, which I've eagerly signed up for. There's intellectual spine there, and even if you disagree violently with his stuff (like I said, I do often) I don't think you can dismiss his stuff.