The Blog Conspiracy

Everywhere you look these days you see folks from the blogsphere turning up all over the place in various traditional media outlets especially radio and television shows. Last night I caught the program World at Large with David Gergen on my local PBS station and was pleasantly surprised to see well know blogger Virginia Postrel appearing with author Russell Banks and David Brooks of Weekly Standard fame as well as author of the witty Bobos in Paradise. I believe that Virginia was described as an author and "social critic" which sounds like a nice gig if you can get it. She apparently was the libertarian voice, while Banks mostly towed the liberal line, and Brooks represented the conservative viewpoint (duh). The topic was "Are We One Nation Indivisible?" with a lot of discussion on the "red and blue" political division of America. Virgina more than held her own while I thought Banks added little other than stressing over and over again how "troubled" he was by the resurgance in patriotism in America since 9/11. But the real star of the show in my opinion was Brooks. He's a very bright guy and was able to flow effortlessly from topic to topic in the rather free flowing forum of the show while clearly articulating his positions and providing plenty of information to back his assertions. Sounds like a good candidate for a blog of his own. Because Lord knows we could use more of 'em.