Practically everyday another blogger joins the Blogging Tories, so before it becomes completely impossible to do so, I thought I would do a roundup of the various sites. It was a fun ride and it speaks to the diversity in thought for those who carry the banner. There are social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, neoconservatives and libertarians. There are pro-life conservatives and pro-choice conservatives. Pro-SSM marriage conservatives and Pro-Traditional Marriage conservatives. Pro-Danny Williams removing the flag, Pro-Don't mess with my flag. It truly is a big tent. It begs the question, what is a conservative anyway, or what do we all have in common?
It seems to me that first and foremost this is a group that is fiercely patriotic. Like any group not in power there are things that we think our country could do better. But you will not find a prouder group of Canadians anywhere. That being said, we are strong enough in our sense of Canada that we do not require reflexive anti-Americanism to make us feel better.
It appears that we are pretty uniform in our opinion that Canada needs a stronger military, to not only live up to our NATO commitments but also to actual be the great peacekeepers that we used to be and many delude themselves into believing we still are. Just look at all of the posts regarding DART to see evidence of this.
Being conservatives we want lower taxes and smaller government (or the other way around, if you so choose). And finally we want the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada to stop dancing around issues to please the CBC, Toronto Star and Globe and Mail. Come out strong on issues important to conservatives and stick to them.
So with that out of the way I bring you the review. Blogs appear in the order they appeared on my site when I started (mostly anyway, the order changed while I was doing the review).
Babbling Brooks weighs in on the relevance (or lack thereof) of Canadian vs. American blogging, even if that just means we spell odour with a 'u', and he of course uses his unique perspective on the Canadian military to discuss the Canadian response to Tsunami relief.
North Western Winds waxes philosophic on moral absolutes, MSM and the Screwtape Letters.
Dust My Broom discusses the Softwood Lumber dispute and discusses three tenants of modern liberalism, 1) The modern liberal devotion to sex education is an ideological commitment rather than a policy of prudence, 2) Knowledge and modes of reasoning are socially constructed in the name of fighting prejudice and 3) It is not immoral to lie in a noble cause and for the same reason it is not wrong to break the law.
Brock: On the Attack er, ah, attacks the logic of 16 year olds voting, the false persona of our PM: "I think even Martin realizes all this, as he always seems to be trying to rise above his limitations. The result is this obviously phony, positive and spunky persona he sometimes wears out to dinner. Have you ever noticed how excited he seems to get during portions of interviews? What the hell is that anyways?" and the logic of the Flag Flap.
The Tiger in Winter links to evidence of mass graves in Iraq, the love/fear emotions provoked by Ann Coulter and Electoral Reform in the US.
Ravishing Light wonders about the logic of suing rumour mongers and the dead voting in Washington State.
Small Dead Animals in her prolific (and may I add excellent) style has lots on the Tsunami ranging from the good, bad and ugly, but you already read her site, don't you?
One the originators of the Blogging Tories, Conservative Life, discusses Economic Freedom and Prosperity. O.J. Simpson and SSM, with a sprinkling of photo caption humour thrown in for good measure.
The other originator of this fine endeavour, Stephen Taylor posts on how ridiculous Richard Gere is, links to a National Post column ripping PM Martin for that "in Canada, you have the most caring of friends..." (translation, others may do more, but we care more), he digs out this
quote "[Canadians have] a clear choice between aircraft carriers or health care" -- Paul Martin during the 2004 federal election campaign on the difference between the Liberals and the Conservative Party of Canada and discusses increasing CSIS's mandate to do foreign intelligence (am I the only one who thought they already did that...you mean they only spy on us!)
A new blogger, Joel Fleming plays Poker for Tsunami relief, has an excellent post on Molson patriots "What does it mean to be Canadian?", "What makes Canada unique?", "Canada good, US bad, eh?" with a future promise to discuss True Believers and a third waty. He, like Brock above, also discusses the logic of couting on the youth vote.
The Blue Tory also comes out against lowering the voting age and whether one should join the Blogging Tories group or not, with a good round-up of the reasons for and against.
What it takes to win... is talking about pretty much everything, Kyoto, Liberal corruption, Paul Wolfowitz, voter fraud, health insurance and bogus science wrt global warming.
Ah, Let It Bleed, how could you not know about this blog already. As someone said recently (so many links ago that it is hard to keep up), LetItBleed has started out 2005 on fire. From CHOI conservatives, to PM Martin removing political rivals and a brilliant review of the Shotgun Blogging Wars and you must read this blog.
Rite Turn Only posts on frivolous law-suits and Fear Factor, Nuclear Tests in Egypt and the "Remembering the Wannsee Conference and the Liberation of Auschwitz" Blogburst (he also explains what a blogburst is).
Doxology raps for the Rosary, which makes sense since she provides a definition of Doxology as a short prayer or hymn of praise that extols the glory and majesty of God. She also provides an interesting response to a commenter who felt she was "self-righteous" on her post about the CTV biopic on Morgentaler.
The Skrepnek Sidebar links to a study that shows the Conservative Party of Canada got the high school vote in the last election (hmmm maybe Brock on the Attack and Blue Tory were wrong above, on the other hand the results hardly look scientific), takes a couple of shots at Warren Kinsella and predicts the future and ponders how Stephen Harper would have handled the Tsunami tragedy if he was Prime Minister.
All AgitProp discusses Yanukovych and a Bulgarian's blood-alcohol level.
Jonathan saw his tax refund statement, thought about President Bush's chances of being regarded as the greatest President and felt drunk.
Skeet Skeet Skeet discovers he is a Capitalist Republican, discusses the pandering to terrorists by Mahmoud Abbas and links to an article as to how only Democrats get Mandates (from the NY Times anyway).
Mister Pundit posts on the partisan nature of US unemployment reporting, roving bands of masturbating teens (if that doesn't get you over to his site nothing will) and the worsening Canadian identity problem.
Pro Libertate Veritateque discusses trade protectionism as it relates to Tsunami relief and how Law and Order relates to murder trials, "I do not recall all of the details of the Yates case but if it hinged on whether or not she watched Law and Order or not, I really begin to question the nature of the justice system."
All things Canadian wonders if Warren Kinsella has lost his marbles in regards his suggestion that bloggers could be held liable for the comments sections on their blogs and about switching allegiances from the Red Ensign Brigade to the Blogging Tories.
Strong and Free still fronts the much linked to posts on leadership or the lack thereof by PM Martin.
Ken's Blog makes NFL playoff predictions, lists his favourite CDs and takes Jon Stewart to task for claiming that he got Tucker Carlson fired.
The Monger brings us this nice quote "So I haven't had a lot of time to post nasty vicious slanders against My Betters, a.k.a. The Liberal Party Of Truth And Doubleplusgoodness. I can only pause to say: My Thanks To A Merciful God for allowing Paul Martin to be the first *koffkoff* world leader to visit the tsunami disaster zone. Because Lord knows, if I had lost my family in the worst mass disaster in recorded history not directly caused by Communism or Nazism, what I would want to see most of all would be the ingratiating and oleaginous grimace of His Merciful Goodness Paul Martin. In the flesh. All of it.", links to the Diplomad description of the UN's "aid" and writes the lol moment as well: "When You Assume You Make An Ass Out Of Uma Thurman"
Plum Blossoms criticizes Democrat posturing, predicts the ubiquitousness of blogs and the danger of letting your politics getting in the way of enjoying TV.
Blogging Blue has interesting post about Andrea Paine and she is building her credentials as the CPC candidate in the Pierrefonds-Dollard riding in Quebec. They also link to the CPC alternative plan for Tsunami relief "This is a government-in-waiting move. Instead of trying to score cheap political points by criticizing the PM's failure to cut short his holiday, the party have exposed an even more glaring failure; the Liberals have no plan to make life better in the long-term for thousands of affected individuals in South Asia." and also discussed youth voting and CHOI conservatives as others have above.
The Meatriarchy continues his year in blogging review, good times, good times. And as I have said before, does any blogger have a better tag-line than "If God didn't want me to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?"
Bound by Gravity discussed alarmists, metaphysics, healthcare. There is lots of good stuff here, so it is hard to pull out a quick blog bite.
Gin and Tonic eats cute animals, but don't well all..., talks of school vouchers and how little sense the RIAA has.
And last, but not least is Daimnation. Does Damian really need plugging from me? Is there a better blogger in Canada? (I guess Small Dead Animals can rightfully lay claim to this) or one who gets more traffic. We are all over there everyday so I trust you already know what he said.
