Saturday, September 16, 2006

Oriana Fallaci

Italian author, political interviewer Oriana Fallaci died at age 76 yesterday. I've read a few articles by her and knew of her existence, and have been thankful for her point of view on the current Islamist threat. Via the Anchoress, who knows a lot more about her, I get this well-distilled quote from Oriana:
"The West reveals . . . a hatred of itself, which is strange and can only be considered pathological; the West . . . no longer loves itself; in its own history, it now sees only what is deplorable and destructive, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure.”

The Anchoress is the latest "Blog of the Week" on Powerlineblognews. She is a good writer. Thoughtful, well informed, dripping with the kind of decency we should all be soaked in, yet not shy about expressing her beliefs. I'd fear giving her a big head, but since I am nobody, anyway, and I'm quite certain she's not the type to let praise go to her head -- I'm not worried.

I'd encourage you to go read the post I linked at the top of this post.

On that -- doing a little reflecting on why I read blogs (and why I write this one -- with all due respect to Morgan Freeberg, this truly IS the blog that nobody reads and I have the statcounter numbers to prove it) -- I don't really read them to get my news, or find out what my opinion is or should be as some people might argue. I read them because I am woefully lacking in my expressive abilities (especially verbal -- I do better writing) and I am often looking for better ways to express what I already believe. I am also open to the beliefs of others and am willing to give them a shot at showing me the truth in what they believe. Ultimately, I get my news from about the same places everyone else does... BBC, NPR, Reuters, AP, and, often via links from other bloggers, Washington Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and -- I hate to even type this name here but ... the New York Times. The LA Times.

Why I typically go to conservative bloggers -- 1) the news is already spun hard to the left. Almost by reflexive definition, a journalist is a liberal "blogger". They just use ink or radio waves instead of (primarily) the internet and a big electronic chalkboard. I've already seen it from the left angle, I'd like to see it un-spun the other way. 2) as I mentioned above, I'd like to find out others' takes on the news -- people who have similar philosophical leanings as I do because they often have found better ways to express my opinion than I have. I do agree with most of them most of the time. I disagree with all of them some of the time. And sometimes, they convince me to look at something in a way I wouldn't have. I think it's healthy.

Ok -- there's another two cents for today, and a plug (like she needs one) for the Anchoress.

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