Thinking Bloggers

News travels fast, except of course when it doesn’t, and sometimes that’s the case in the Kingdom of Chaos, probably because we persecute the journalists too much around here. But, hey, our dungeons are clean.

Ah yes, back to the slow news issue. In any case, it seems that Southern Knight honored El Jefe, earlier in the month, by tagging him as a "Thinking Blogger." The Southern Knight said:

Kingdom of Chaos ... funny and thoughtful commentary. I am trying to become El
Jefe Maximo's minister of propaganda, but thats another story.

The Southern Knight is most generous. Thanks Knight ! Be sure to check out Southern Knight's blog. As to what Southern Knight said, El Jefe is constrained to point out that, after all, it’s the Forces of Evil, (the Bad Guys) who engage in propaganda. On the other hand, the forces of Truth, Justice and Our Side (the good guys), like El Jefe, and Southern Knight, provide information -- as I tell His Excellency, the Minister of Information, twice daily, the better to guide the censors and give a proper tone to all Kingdom of Chaos publications. . .

This said, the “Thinking Blogger” moniker thing seems to work as follows: I’m supposed to pass this honor on to five other, worthy blogs, the owners of which can follow suit if so inclined. So, here are the rules:

If, and only if, you get tagged,

1. Write a post with links to five blogs that make you think.
2. Link to the original post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme and know who thinks so highly of you.
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Bear in mind: I'm trying to avoid listing blogs I know are already "tagged" by Southern Knight or others, or those of people who won't want to compile lists. If any of you "tagged" blogs, don't like this, so sorry, you are under no obligation to follow suit and tag. That said, here goes. . .

If you’re looking for interesting and thought-provoking military commentary, you need to check out Westhawk. Among other things, the Westhawk's current thinking on the Iraq situation and what should be done there is very close to my own. Westhawk keeps you well filled-in on "lawfare," the implications of the growth of NGO's and many other aspects of today's changing strategic environment.

Covering the intelligence waterfront and other related and interesting things, from military aircraft procurement, intelligence personnel shuffles, to Rosie O’Donnell is "Spook 86", over at In From the Cold. If you want the back-story lowdown on what’s going down, or an angle on the big story you haven’t thought of, then going In From the Cold is a good plan.

Then. for anglophile conservative monarchists like El Jefe, there's always The Monarchist. No substitute for it, in fact. I love the Chesterton quote that proclaims The Monarchist’s credo: “the act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice.” The Monarchist’s departments read like a list of the virtues the blog seeks to defend: “Loyalty, Fraternity, Liberty, Country, Gallantry, Regiment, Chivalry, Heraldry, Nobility, Royalty, Christianity.” All splendid stuff, and a gorgeous page to boot.

For matters nautical, drop anchor over at Eagle Speak. The proprietor, or rather, the Captain, "Eagle1" – has always got interesting nautical scoopage, with good maps and explanations even us landlubbers can follow. If you want to know what going on off the coast of Yemen, or about pirates stirring up trouble in the Straits of Malacca, this is a good port of call.

Finally, if you want to get away for awhile from the rantings of political gasbags, airplanes and things that go boom, have a look at Candidly Caroline. Caroline writes from Austin, a town I’m rather attached to, possibly because of my days there in connection with a certain Large Orange institution. Well, Caroline went to the Other Place, but writes thoughtfully on Austin, music, kiddos, romance, food and other things without which life would be dull indeed.