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THINKING BLOGGER AWARD

Nonpartisan, the genteel founder of ProgressiveHistorians, was kind enough to “tag” me, along with four others, with the ” Thinking Blogger Award“. I thank NP for his gracious nomination, all the more pleasant as it comes from across the political aisle. I’ve always felt very welcome joining in the discussion over at ProgressiveHistorians and that kind of civility and serious intellectual engagement is a quality that far, far, bigger bloggers could emulate more often.

With the award comes the solemn responsibility to pass the torch to five new nominees., according to the hallowed rules as handed down by the thinking blog:

“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).”

I gave the matter some serious thought. There are a number of blogs within my ” koinon“, certainly more than five, who make think on a regular basis and are duly rewarded with frequent links and commentary. A number of these bloggers have become my friends, yea, even unto the real world. Aside from not wishing to have to choose amongst friends, I would like to use this opportunity to highlight some blogs outside of the political-historical-foreign affairs-military-intel genre that figures so heavily here. It’s a little more objective too as I have no personal connection to the following nominees beyond reading their posts and leaving the occasional comment:

FIVE BLOGS THAT MAKE ME THINK:

5. Edge Perspectives With John Hagel: Hagel is not a frequent poster but each of his essays are strategically thought out, imply numerous ramifications across domains and are amply linked and sourced. A blog that will put you ahead of the curve.

4. Complexity and Social Networks Blog: This Harvard University-based group blog inhabits the zone between pure academia and making the discussions of networks and complex systems accessible to all intelligent and interested laymen.

3. Ideas: Professor David Friedman, who authors heroic fantasy novels and plays World of Warcraft in his spare time, is “an academic economist who teaches at a law school and has never taken a course for credit in either field”. He’s also a libertarian. Needless to say, the posts at Ideas have a certain quirkiness of perspective.

2. Milt’s File: University of Chicago professor and longtime ( I think since the late 1960’s) host of Chicago’s Extension 720 AM radio program, Dr. Milt Rosenberg’s blog. As a blogger, Milt is a linker but you can listen to him as a thinker online by tuning in to his nightly broadcast at his WGN site. A Chicago institution.

1. The Eide Neurolearning Blog: Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide deal in the meta-analysis of peer-reviewed research where most bloggers are offering mere speculation and they back that analysis with insights from their own research and experience as physicians. Expert blogging at its best!

Congratulations to the winners!

THIS IS SUITE !

Admittedly, I am far from the best person to do blog posts on things technological but via Ross Mayfield, I found this platform aggregator/bundler application Suite Two which handles RSS feeds, wikis, blogs, social networking and more.

While I personally don’t need something this elaborate, if I was trying to jump my organization into the Web 2.0 world in one leap it would be handy to have a one-stop-shop site with which to launch everyone from the same page at the same time.

I welcome comments from the IT guys in my readership.

IS J.L. KIRK AND ASSOCIATES AN EXAMPLE OF “AUTO-BORKING”?

When Ronald Reagan nominated the highly regarded but arch-conservative legal theorist Judge Robert Bork in 1987 to become a justice of the United States Supreme Court, liberal activist groups in conjunction with the then monolithic MSM, “swarmed”. Judge Bork was slandered by Senator Ted Kennedy in an opening salvo of an unprecedented political campaign by the Democrats to personally destroy a judicial nominee out of loathing for his judicial philosophy and fear of his intellectual prowess. Judge Bork’s nomination was duly defeated, the Reagan administration was dealt a severe political setback and a new verb entered the political lexicon; to be vilified and disqualified from a position was to be ” Borked”.

As Dan of tdaxp has ably documented, an obscure yet arrogant and allegedly shady, headhunting company known (currently- but I wager not for much longer) as J.L. Kirk and Associates has apparently accomplished the business equivalent of scoring on one’s own goal. By attempting to bully a blogger into silence about her ( seemingly legitimate) consumer complaint against them, J.L. Kirk ‘s corporate suits have ” Auto-Borked” their own company’s reputation. As Dan has reported, the story is now reaching regional TV news. I’m guessing national news before Friday of this week and then, perhaps, the sharks will begin circling J.L. Kirk until they reach their own ” Imus Moment”.

Good job boys! Just think of the trouble you might have avoided by being gracious and helpful to your customer instead of belligerent and aggressive. You’d almost think that a company that pro-actively litigious had something to hide

NEW TO THE BLOGROLL

Hoo-HA! New additions !

(Unfortunately, there’s a problem right now with Blogrolling but these blogs have been/are being added)

Albion’s Seedlings

NewsHog

The Networked Book

The Strategist

I should trim the deadwood as well. If you are alive and intend to return to blogging and wish your dormant blog to stay on my roll a bit longer, drop me an email. Inert links irritate a portion of the blogospheric audience.

ADDENDUM:

Global Frontier

NEW BLOGGING SERIES

I’ve started a series of posts at Chicago Boyz entitled “Cutting Edge Military Theory: A Primer (Part I.)“. It is intended to be an introduction for a general audience that may be unaware of folks like John Boyd, Art Cebrowski, Tom Barnett, William Lind, John Robb, John Arquilla, Chet Richards, Thomas Hammes and the bewildering array of acronyms, concepts and neologistic jargon they have unleashed on the world of warfare. It was an idea, originally suggested, as it happens, by Lexington Green.

Those of you with expertise or strong opinions on military matters, feel free to hop in on the comments section at Chicago Boyz and make free with the questions that may arise.