the blogosphere

Now reading: BLOG: Understanding the Information Reformation That’s Changing your World by Hugh Hewitt, a professor of constitutional law at Chapman University in Orange County, California. His geography should tell you his political leanings.

The book is a documentation of how the meteoric rise of blogs is paralleling the Protestant Reformation by taking the power of media away from the establishment (the Catholic Church back then; today, mainstream media such as TV networks, newspapers, magazines), and putting it in the hands of “common wo/man” such as yours truly.

Just as the printing press in the 16th century allowed commoners to access the scriptures, as opposed to just priests, so now in the 21st century, anyone with access to a computer and internet connection has the ability to discover, report, analyze, and transmit news and opinion with just as much potential as mainstream media. This “new media" will slowly dominate the way information flows in this globalized world. Isn’t this exciting?? Although my dear little blog is but a hobby for keeping in touch with friends, it’s amazing to think that my words and thoughts can contribute to the general buzz about a candidate, topic, event, etc. Amazing and exciting.

By the way, Hewitt also goes into an interesting analysis of the Catholic Church during the time of the Reformation and what led to Luther’s Ninety-five Theses in 1517 and therefore the Reformation. Did you know that under Pope Leo X, the Church didn’t just sell indulgences for single sins – it sold complete absolution for large sums of money that went towards building St. Peter’s in Rome. The very same St. Peters inside which Pope Benedict was recently “elected” by a group of old, mostly-white men.

But I digress. As a tribute to the growth of the blogosphere, I’ll leave you with links to some interesting blogs.

MY FIRST AND LAST NEWS SOURCE:
The Drudge Report
(Drudge gets news so quickly, he even called the Pope John Paul's death about 24 hours before it actually happened!)

POPULAR:
(most linked-to, according to technorati.com)
Boing Boing
Instapundit
Talk Points Memo
Dooce
Scripting News

SIGNIFICANT:
Volokh
Michelle Malkin
Lileks
Evangelical Outpost

FUN:
Television Without Pity
Conversations About Famous People

Finally, blogs that are not popular, significant, or important, but hey - I'm from L.A. so I can't leave out...

CELEBRITIES:
Rosie O'Donnell
Melanie Griffith
Moby
Barbra Streisand