GOLD STAR AWARDS, October 2009

Time once again to bestow the honor of enshrinement in the Hall of Fame of some insignificant blog to some websites that have inspired, influenced or enlightened me over the years. The will be three stars issued this month, all gold, in accordance with the Hall of Fame election of 1937.

The Cy Young GOLD STAR #6: The American Prospect

It's pretty much just as the tag lines declares: Liberal Intelligence. A monthly magazine dedicated to analyzing the latest news and events from a progressive viewpoint, with regular contributuions from the likes of Paul Waldman, Robert Reich, Robert Kuttner and others. This is really high-brow stuff here, with none of the celebrity fluff that (I feel) weakens sites like HuffPo. Everything here is DEEP and HEAVY. But you won't many better places for truly in-depth analysis and, while they're progressive, they are not afraid to call out Democrats who drop the ball. (My only complaint is the discontinuation of Sarah Posner's regular column, The FundamentaList, This week in the Religious Right. That was great stuff. Oh well.)

The Napoleon Lajoie GOLD STAR #7: The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity

You knew this was coming right? This is not really a website, but rather more of a truly profound article about the philosophy of stupidity. It's a must read. It's brilliant. (And quite entertaining!) I referenced it awhile back to show why conservatives were either Bandits or Stupid, and Liberals were either Intelligent or, at worst, Helpless. If you haven't read it yet, please do. You'll never look at STUPID the same way again!

The Tris Speaker GOLD STAR #8: Rational Wiki

This was a pleasant surprise for me, and not one of the site's I'd planned to enshrine. I actually only discovered it earlier today, but it made quite an impression. It's basically another version of the Skeptic's Dictionary (my bible) but with a more satirical tone (and yeah, not quite the depth or academic rigor) but what I LOVE about it is that it was essentially set up in response to that putrid temple of lies, Conservapedia. The actually have a column dedicated to keeping tabs on the latest wacky happenings over on Conservapedia, and also include links to any articles that the two sites have in common. (They also include links to the relevant Wikipedia articles as well.) I'll give Conservapedia the thrashing they deserve later. In the meantime, check this one out!

BTW - they passed my litmus test for scientific objectivity with flying colors: They're on the right side of the Global Warming "debate", the Autism/Vaccine "debate" and the Evolution vs. Medieval Fairytales "debate." (And much more as well, so check it out!) :)

So there you have it. My favorites for October. Hope SOME of you find these interesting. We'll it again next month.

For reference, previous inductees include:
Ty Cobb's GOLD STAR #1: Media Matters for America
Babe Ruth's GOLD STAR #2: The Skeptic's Dictionary
Honus Wagner's GOLD STAR #3: Snopes
Walter Johnson GOLD STAR #4: ArmchairSubversive
Christy Mathewson GOLD STAR #5: Humanism by Joe