Bloggie Style

It’s nice to have state blogs to address state-specific issues. We find that in Doug Masson’s A Citizen’s Guide to Indiana.

From Delphi schools needing repair work to Georgetown, IN’s bankruptcy consideration, state and local issues are covered providing cited sources, facts, and opinions with more questions than answers. The answers, apparently, are yours to give and not to be told.

This proves, to me, to be a powerful selling point of the blog as it seeks to empower the people with thought, rather than dumbing the population with supposed answers.

Sometimes you just need that voice of reason. Political blogs in many cases pollute the minds of the masses, feeding false information, or lazily hashed out opinions that offer no logical explanation for the conclusions they draw. With Bloggie Style, I have sought to ensure that I do not review “blogs without purpose”. If the information isn’t relevant, researched, and logical, I will not promote, even if negatively.

Sometimes you find blogs that tend to be a step above the best of the best. We’ve seen that in this feature with Andy Horning’s We Declare, and Rex Bell’s Bell Curve. So it cannot be any surprise that I have found another blog that seems to reach above and beyond even a talented and well thought out blog.

By keeping some of the posts short, and others longer with great detail and organized thought processes, one can follow rather easily Sean Shepard’s On Politics and Policy. Yet beyond even that we find that the posts are timely, and provide intelligent questions, which ultimately force the reader to think.

As is often the case, political labels get confused over time. Naumann’s Foundation for Liberty seeks to correct the misidentification of liberalism, by explaining it’s connection to freedom.

In Liberal Confusion, the site’s blog seeks to explain that the word liberal truly means “free”, and that social freedom cannot come without economic freedom as well. The Foundation for Liberty also seeks to differentiate liberalism from conservatism and socialism, explaining conservative political parties are often invariably linked to specific religious organizations, and socialism is the imposition of one doctrine of beliefs upon all citizens of the nation (essentially stating that conservatism and socialism are one in the same, differing only in that one is run by religion and the other in the absence of religion).

Through the course of time many politically astute persons have found President Abraham Lincoln’s imperative assessment of keeping close company with political enemies as the best way to achieve astuteness. It makes sense, then, that from time to time we Libertarians should take time to read and consider the views of others, just as it makes sense for them to consider ours. It is and was for this reason that I have kept a keen eye on Socialist Unity.

The blog site, advocating socialism, brings to light many important social issues that otherwise go unnoticed. On a very simply designed page that is easy to read and follow, but that offers no uniqueness, one finds compelling stories and messages of hope.

Bloggie Style is back, after a short break, to review The Bell Curve. The Bell Curve has been rated the 4th best Libertarian blog site by WebDesignSchoolsGuide.com.

The site is designed like many others, a rather blah style, nothing unique. However, the content is very user-friendly, and the blog site is easy to follow.

The blog's author, Wayne County Chairman Rex Bell, submits very well-written, coherent, and intelligent entries. While I do find that some of the positions are debatable within Libertarian circles more so than previous blog sites reviewed, it is Bell's willingness to take on tough, objectionable issues that makes the articles fun to read.

After reviewing Righty Blogs, I was informed about a blog site called Lefty Blogs. I decided that in fairness, I should review this site as well. The site design varied greatly from Righty Blogs, but the intent was the same. State-by-state listings of local blogs, as well as national blogs, could be found.

Billing itself as the place to find “progressive” blogs from across the country, Lefty Blogs seeks to give information mostly centered around civil liberties, while Righty Blogs centered on economics.

Today I was browsing the internet looking for a good Libertarian blog site so I could read some reactions to the November 4th elections. While looking specifically for a national blog to gauge nationwide interest in the party, I happened across the Ludwig von Mises Institute website.

It has political blogs on the home page and on the community page, and features as “User Blogs” section and a live chat section as well. Also featured is a forum with some great discussion on some wide-ranging topics. The blogs and articles inter-mix, giving in-depth, knowledgeable, and factual information.