While taking a look at this week's New Blog Showcase, I noted Irreconcilable Musings. Hrm, that's a pretty toxic blogtitle, there - "Musings" is a major cliche no-no. The subtitle "Examining cognitive dissonance one paradox at a time..." isn't a cliche, but it ought to be. I was surprised to see that the blogger is a member of that silly anti-Reynolds "alliance" ("Instapundo delenda est!"), but upon consulting his backlog, his blog is actually younger than mine, so - it's definitely a new blog!. His sample post is an article about the recent DDoS attacks on Internet Haganah and, indirectly, everybody on Hosting Matters. His take on the obvious "Internet Front of the War on Terror!" meme is somewhat different - he feels that supporting Internet Haganah (which tracks and exposes online al Queda resources to the public and the authorities) is a way for a philosophical pacifist to participate in the War on Terror without all that ooky killing and wounding and arresting and throwing of terrorists into Cuban oubliettes.



Demosophia definitely gets cool points for an excellent neologism - "Wisdom of the People" - as a blogtitle. The subtitle - "When the statues of Daedalus come to life no men will have masters, nor masters slaves." -- Aristotle - definitely isn't a cliche, but it is a bit opaque. His sample-post - proposing that there is a "Totalitarianism 3.0" that needs to be fought - isn't particularly earth-shattering, but it demonstrates a solid, full-winded grasp of the historical essay-blog that shows promise. It's essentially a summation of the arguments of Paul Berman, Christopher Hitchens, and Steven Den Beste. It's a very good summation. It just isn't anything else, yet. He also needs to be careful with his terms - he seems to demonstrate a certain sloppiness with his constructions that could lead to misunderstanding by those unfamiliar with the subject matter. For instance, he uses "liberal democracy" in a fashion that might lead an unwary reader to think that he meant to say that Athenian democracy was a "liberal democracy". In the full context of the article, I'm fairly sure that he is aware that "liberal democracy" refers to the modern, post-Enlightenment construct, but the opportunity for confusion is definitely there. He isn't alone in this flaw, however: Den Beste himself is prone to commit this kind of error at least once a week, on average. Further study of his later posts seem to indicate that he's definitely got things to say. I'm adding him to my list of blogs to watch for now. Interesting.