New Blog Added To The Blogroll

Found a columnist at SFGate and discovered she has her own blog, Cinnamon Stillwell. I've added her to the blogroll and I think she is worth adding to your favorites or your own blogroll. I plan to go back a lot.

The Return of Scipio

Now for those of you not historically inclined, the drawing at the left is a Roman Legionaire. Such as may have been found in the army of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Major. "Who the heck is that," you ask? Well, let's have a little history lesson, then I'll tell you why I'm bringing this up.

Scipio (as he is fondly know by those of us old enough to have known him, (there you go with the age/brag thing again...ed!) "...was a general in the Second Punic War and statesman of the Roman Republic. He was best known for defeating Hannibal of Carthage, a feat that earned him the surname Africanus, the nickname 'the Roman Hannibal' and recognition as one of the finest commanders in military history." The man who took down Hannibal and essentially won the Second Punic War.

This little preamble is only because I was curious as to the origins of the name of the blog The Return of Scipio, authored by a charming gentleman and a new friend, Mike Austin.

I first came across his name in a comment he made on another good friend's blog Tim Birdnow who writes Bird Blog so I went to the link he provided and began reading. I sent Mike an e-mail telling him that I liked what I read and had added The Return of Scipio to my blogroll. Gracious gentleman that Mike is, he wrote back and we have been exchanging e-mails ever since. As Mike said "It is always cool to find the like-minded." Yes, it is indeed.

Mike is very near perfectly a true Renaissance Man in its positive meaning. He describes himself as

Teacher. Solo backpacker. Admirer of the Roman Republic. Devourer of books.

"Always I dream of Latin America, where I lived, worked, loved and walked for 14 years of my adult life.

"I am neither scholar nor theologian, nor am I particularly brilliant (no matter what my mom said). I like to write, that is all. I have lived too many lives, read too many books, seen too much of the world, taken too many chances and suffered too many fools—myself included. The results are here." [Note - and he is far to modest imho]

His blog is cogent, on topic with today's issues and full of interesting information about him, his career and his dreams. Good Stuff Indeed Go forth and read, add Mike's efforts to your bookmarks for some really enjoyable reading and be sure and let him know that you appreciate his efforts, even if you disagree with him. I've found very little (how about none bozo... ed!) to disagree with, a truly entertaining blog. Thanks Mike, long may our new-found friendship wave.

Newly Discovered Blogs

You never know what you are going to get when you open an e-mail from a friend. I did today and discovered this. Not exactly a blog, but more than a blog. Go tour, have fun, sign the guest book. I did.

Newly Discovered Blogs

I was surfing through links to my blog via Technorati and came across The Pink Flamingo Bar & Grill - A Common Man Looks At The War On Islamic Terror.

The site is written by Pierre Legrand... how about that, a FRENCHMAN who is pro-america. Actually, his name is French; he is 100% American from Baton Rouge, La. My beloved grandfather used to be the Minister at 1st Methodist, rebuilt in 1960 as Canal Street Methodist Church in New Orleans, La, so I'm comfortable with the French name. ;-)

Pierre is a multi-talented fellow and from his profile, anyone who likes Mozart, Jefferson Airplane AND The Who has got to have an interesting life.

His blog is taut, well written. His politics are conservative, and that is reason enough to link to him.

Go read his blog, you'll enjoy it!!!

Newly Discovered Blogs

One of my favorite sites is Marc Coopers Blog I mean after all, you have to know what the other side is thinking. And Marc writes very well thank you! Having said that, while surfing there the other day, I came across a new commenter and the comment was labled blue, meaning there was a website or an email address attached. So, being the ingenious, curious fellow that I am, I clicked on The Protrusion and discovered another "ugh" liberal website. But guess what? This one was well written, humorous, creative, sassy and just outright good, and I said so in a comment in Marc's blog. The Protrusion, in an e-mail back noted

"Posted a small thank you on Marc's site, but let me again say that it's really wonderful to hear that you enjoy the site in spite of disagreeing with the its politics. Maybe I find it such a nice surprise because I fear I might not be as open-minded if the roles were reversed. That's my thing to deal with, I suppose. For now, I hope you come back often, and stir up as much trouble as you like."

Now, I'm not sure that you understnd how delightful a discovery this was. Here is a site that is well written. Not like dailyKos who's invective is spitefilled and meanspirited - despite (because?) it being the most clicked on website in the liberal field. Not like Democratic Underground, a playground of deranged, G-dawful delinquents who think nothing of verbally bashing anyone who dares to disagree with their profoundly idiotic take on political life. Not even close to the pseudo-intellectual drivel of folk like Juan Cole or Edward Said.

Nope, The Protrusion is a GREAT read.

The author, who I would guess would be The Protuder(?) describes himself as:

"I'm 31. I went to film school, where I got a Masters. I'm not sure what to do with it. I live near L.A., but I don't have an agent. I've written a lot of different things, from screenplays to novels to some fake news stories with over-pixelated drawings, but I haven't made any money.

I'd like to change some of the above."

UPDATE: I thought I'd show you a sample of The Protrusion's creativity. Don't get from the "photo" below that he is a conservative, he is not. But the mark of a really good writer is the ability to skewer both sides of an issue.
As I said, you gotta go see this site.

Newly Discovered Blogs

I received a comment from a new reader today and since it had his URL, I decided to go take a look. Wow, whatta site. Bronx Pundit - Not all poor Hispanics are down with the Left! is a delightful read. William Dipini Jr, is a BRAND NEW BLOG, less than 3 weeks old and already making a mark getting into a "blogerment" (arguments between blogs - I claim coinage) with Preemptive Karma over the power of congress to form/abolish federal courts (except SCOTUS of course, that is established by the Constitution.)

I think that Bronx Pundit got the better of the blogerment and got some support from a Dr. Strangeglove (who is one of The Citizens - a decidedly leftist blog) in the comments section.

In all, an interesting site, one that I will visit often if for no other reason then to watch the catfight. God, I love this medium.

Newly Discovered Blogs

This blog The Baba Gannouj is an absolute delight. Funny, urbane, conservative and with a delightful sense of whimsy. Something for everyone who can think beyond their own boundries of political thought.

A sample: (of biting humor aimed at the Democratic Underground that is)

Recently Discovered Blogs

Paul Deignan writes Info Theory. He has only posted about 40 or so posts over a seven month period, but what he does post is fascinating. Please, go visit, drop him a comment or two and let him know how much you appreciate his blog. Blogs that delve into information theory are good learning experiences, and there are far too few on the internet. Not saying there aren't any, just too few. But this one is one of the better ones.

Paul posted a comment on my site and of course, I had to go look and see who the new kid on the block was. (relatively speaking of course his blog is 2 months older than my first effort.)

Welcome to the Blogosphere Paul.

Newly Discovered Blog

One of the delightful things about the internet is the chance to randomly read blogs on bloggers bloglists. You get a lot of reading done that way, learn quite a bit if you are open to other's ideas and thoughts and can generally have a great time.

Today, I started with one of the links from my site, to another link, to another and to another and came across this one hosted by One John Jay Ray who notes that he is a

"...former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party."

At any rate, Dr. Ray takes after the left much better than anything at DU or Moveon.org does at taking after the right. Go, Read, Enjoy and tell him GM Sent you.

Blogs Recently Discovered: Dr. Sanity

Scrolling through the blogosphere the other day, chasing perhaps a wayward thought, or perhaps just dropping off some garbage that had been cluttering up my memories, I came across a blog named Dr. Sanity..... "WHO!!!!!" I thought, someone else in the psycho-therapy business, another shrink (shrinkette?)and conservative to boot? Well, my day was made.

The majority of, people if asked the political persuasion of psychiatrists, counselors, psychologists, social workers, other do-gooders will say "why, liberal of course." They would be right, the vast majority are indeed pretty liberal in their thinking, routinely vote democratic and otherwise inhabit the left side of the political spectrum.

So, how come there are many of us of a conservative "stripe" as it were? When I'm asked "How can you be a counselor and be conservative or republican?" my standard response is "Because I learned how to think." That is absolutely true. The vast majority of "liberals" or "leftists" or "progressives" are feelers, not thinkers. They dress up their feelings in goodly rhetoric, but it's still feeling good about feeling good. I have the deep down conviction that Dr. Santy can also think. Come to think of it, one of my favorite pundits is Charles Krauthammer, also a psychiatrist. Yeppers, between the three of us we got the left "whooped." (well, maybe not whooped, but would you believe worried?)

But, I digress, Back to Dr. Sanity. Pat Santy is a medical doc who is a board certified psychiatrist. She was born in New Jersy and grew up in California. After medical school and ancillary training, she became a flight surgeon (and is a pilot - though not flying much) for NASA and was the crew doc on the Challenger mission.

I remember looking on with ever growing horror at the realization that the Challenger had exploded. I can only imagine the sense of loss that Dr. Santy must have felt being intimately related to the process and people. Dr. Santy blogged about that experience and having read it, I can only hope everyone else will too.

Dr. Santy blogs a terrific blog, I'm hoping that this will generate a lot of traffic for her, she comes across as smart as a whip, and has a good sense of humor. Go, Read, and Enjoy!

Newly Discovered Blogs

A blog I discovered while surfing conservative blogs (and yes, I occasionally surf left wing blogs, but they are generally all of a single mindset...lothebush)I thought to myself: "This looks to me like it's going to be a good read."

Wahabism Delenda Est! Reads the top of the sidebar. The motto of The Smallest Minority is "The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities." What a concept huh? At any rate, one of the entry's intrigued me and I took a closer look. One might first begin to think "What a gun nut this is, let's move on!" You'd be wrong dear reader! You would be very, very wrong. In fact, have you ever noticed that for far too many on the left, each amendment in the Bill of Rights means exactly what it says, including all the emanation's and penumbras EXCEPT for the 2nd and 10th. According to the Left, the 2nd is not declaratory at all except for being a member of a "well regulated militia." And of course, the 10th which no one, not even the federal government pays any attention to because of all those emanations and penumbras. But, I digress.

The site is authored by Kevin Baker, a 42 year old (for another couple of weeks he says), a married electrical engineer living in Tucson, AZ. Kevin has a stepdaughter and two grandchildren, which of course, leads me to wonder with two grandkids, how on earth does he find time to blog?

Kevin writes about politics, education and media topics along with technical and legal expose' pieces on media misrepresentation. Kevin says he has no formal legal training (that sounds like a bonus to me.)

Keven was a regular commenter on the DemocraticUnderground.com site until they booted himfor publishing a piece on KeepAndBearArms.com (mighty tolerant, and quite supportive of the 1st Amendment aren't they? -ed. Hey, that's only when you agree with them!) But, I digress. In time, Kevin discovered blogs and has been blogging since May, 2003.

There are a number of articles you need to read... Go there NOW!