Thank You, Thank You

Demonstrating his questionable taste, jedi jawa has bestowed upon me and The Ranch an award, the "You Make My Day" award. That's because The Ranch is one of "5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day."

Firstly, thank you very much, your jawaness. Secondly, I'm pleased to be in such illustrious company (check out his other four - they're all worth a visit). Thirdly, I'm going to take this meme and blow it all to heck!

See, the last time I got memed it was the same deal, but by the time I got around to naming five of my favorite personal blogs, the awards were doubles and, well, it was embarrassing. So, this time, I'm taking a slightly different approach, and highlighting five blogs on my "Other Fav Blogs" list that folks might not have checked out, but really should (in alphabetical order):

• Orcinus: Dave Neiwert is a free-lance journalist in Seattle who has spent a long time researching, tracking, and writing about racism, nativism, and eliminationism on the fringe right. He brings that experience and knowledge to bear on current events, politics, etc. Lots of very interesting posts and good comments, too.
  
• Pharyngula: PZ Myers is a Minnesota-based biologist who is an outspoken atheist (it's where my Big Red A came from), scourge of the creationist/ID crowd, and all around curmudgeon. He's blunt, but honest. Occasionally, there's some heavy duty scientific stuff on his blog that's way over my head.
  
• TalkLeft: Run by Jeralyn Merritt, a long-time criminal defense attorney, TalkLeft provides a liberal perspective on criminal justice issues. Co-blogger TChris won the Booker case at the Supreme Court, too. During this election cycle, it's focused a lot on the Democratic presidential race, becoming a haven of sort for Clinton supports run off some of the other liberal blogs. It's at its best when dealing with criminal justice issues, IMHO.
  
• The Volokh Conspiracy: A collection of law profs, with a conservative/libertarian bias. I often don't agree with what they're saying, but the issues they raise and the discussions of them are thought provoking.
  
• Zoom: Documentarian Errol Morris's blog at the New York Times. He doesn't post often, but when he does, it's well worth the read. It will challenge your ideas about how you perceive the world.
  

I dare to be different!