Who I Read (And Why).

This may (or may not) become a regular part of GM's Corner. I read a lot of blogs, for a variety of reasons. Most of the ones I read regularly you will find on my blogroll "Highly Recommended Reading" but not all of them. What Roper, you read folks that you don't think highly enough of to put them on your "highly recommended" blogroll? Nope, and the reason is that they may well be on other blog rolls I have listed and I try not to duplicate (not that I always succeed).

But, I digress. When I first started blogging back in November, 2004 I read maybe three or four blogs. One very "progressive" a couple of middle of the roaders and one or two conservative blogs. Then, surfing through the side bar of one of the blogs, I saw the name Dr. Sanity. Clicking over I don't remember which post I saw, but I do remember one in particular very early in my reading there: The Psychology of Bush Hatred. Interesting isn't it that a post almost three years old has as much relevance today as it did then? Of course now, Bush is being vilified by many on the right for some very peculiar moves on secure borders, the environment and his conduct (or lack thereof) on vetoing spending bills. Well, at least the right isn't being "consistent" on that; after all, as Ralph Waldo Emerson says:

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."

But, again I digress. This was shocking to me, here a psychiatrist, formerly the psychiatrist for NASA, in practice in Michigan (could we be any bluer than that?) and espousing what I also believed. Shocking, shocking I tell you! (Tom Daschle where are you now?) A PSYCHIATRIST? One of the most "liberal" of the mental health professions (but they don't hold a candle to most social workers). And then, through her writings I discovered more psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors... and oh my gosh, a whole new world opened up. Psych Blogers (as opposed to Psycho-Bloggers) such as Dr. Helen, Shrinkwrapped, neo-neocon, Assistant Village Idiot, One Cosmos (Gagdad Bob), Sigmund, Carl and Alfred became more or less regular reads.

Dr. Sanity and I corresponded a few times and since we were both on Blogspot, I asked her about her design which led me to a competition called "King of the Blogs" which of course, I had to enter. And, I won, three times in a row (in fact, since the competition shut down some time ago, I'm still the reigning King of the Blogs).

Doc Sanity sent me an email asking if she could use one of my posts in her delightful series "Carnival of the Insanities" although at the time, I believe it was called Weekly Insanity Roundup or something like that.

"You betcha," I replied (well, maybe not those words, but you get my drift). And thus began a friendship lasting this whole time. Doc Sanity is a regular read, she writes well, her thoughts echo many of mine (the mark of genius of course is the degree to which someone agrees with you - so Dr. Sanity is a genius of the first degree) and she shines a "psychological spotlight on a few of the insanities of life."

Keep writing Doc, and I for one will keep reading.

Posted by GM Roper at June 4, 2007 06:30 AM | TrackBack