Everyone gets a trophy?...um...er...I mean blog.

If you look to the right of these posts there is a "blogroll" of links to the bloggers I read consistently. However these writers are just the tip of the iceberg of an amazingly large and diverse universe of political bloggers; they just happen to be the one's I enjoy reading the most.

This site maps blogs in the political sphere. How often a blog is linked to, indicating its popularity, is indicated by the size of its circle. The identification of the blog as liberal, conservative, or professional is determined by who links to them. Here is a screen shot of the tool, though you should check it out directly at their site.

Blogs seem to have a bad reputation as a self indulgent endeavor by narcissistic people. My blog name, Delusions of Grandeur is a nod to this idea. George Will captures this conventional wisdom in this column.

Moneyquote:

Richard Stengel, Time's managing editor, says, "Thomas Paine was in effect the first blogger" and "Ben Franklin was essentially loading his persona into the MySpace of the 18th century, 'Poor Richard's Almanack.' " Not exactly.

Franklin's extraordinary persona informed what he wrote but was not the subject of what he wrote. Paine was perhaps history's most consequential pamphleteer. There are expected to be 100 million bloggers worldwide by the middle of 2007, which is why none will be like Franklin or Paine. Both were geniuses; genius is scarce. Both had a revolutionary civic purpose, which they accomplished by amazing exertions. Most bloggers have the private purpose of expressing themselves for their own satisfaction. There is nothing wrong with that, but there is nothing demanding or especially admirable about it, either. They do it successfully because there is nothing singular about it, and each is the judge of his or her own success.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 76 percent of bloggers say one reason they blog is to document their personal experiences and share them with others. And 37 percent -- soon, 37 million -- say the primary topic of their blog is "my life and experiences." George III would have preferred dealing with 100 million bloggers rather than one Paine.

However this is the wrong way to think about blogs. I look at blogs as an opportunity to listen to an extremely engaging conversation between highly intelligent and thoughtful people. Once you get to know the personalities and relationships involved the back and forth between these people can be quite engaging and enlightening.

I can't go back to college again and attend all those intellectually stimulating lectures I should have gone to instead of playing another game of Madden's. But now that I am more serious I can seek out some of the most engaging minds and writers and read their observations and ideas in nearly real time.

Despite George Will's protestations this is a wonderful thing. George just can't seem to escape the roll of old-fogey. See this article as exhibit B and this earlier post of mine about how George seems to be losing his fast ball.

George concludes his article by connecting the phenomenon of blogging to the self-esteem culture that gives every young girl and boy a trophy:

Time's issue includes an unenthralled essay by NBC's Brian Williams, who believes that raptures over the Web's egalitarianism arise from the same impulse that causes today's youth soccer programs to award trophies -- "entire bedrooms full" -- to any child who shows up: "The danger just might be that we miss the next great book or the next great idea, or that we will fail to meet the next great challenge . . . because we are too busy celebrating ourselves and listening to the same tune we already know by heart."

The fact that Stengel included Williams's essay proves that Stengel's Time has what 99.9 percent of the Web's content lacks: seriousness.

Seriously George? 99.9% That is a bold statement.

I venture that George is engaged 100% in being an elitist snob who bemoans the loss of his and his buddies gate-keeping power.

And this loss of power comes not a moment too soon.