Blog review

Back in the early days of Montana Headlines, I posted nearly every day -- sometimes more than once a day. In that atmosphere, I found myself frequently commenting on content found in other blogs -- both lefty and righty. Now that I have been sticking to a regular thrice-weekly posting schedule and maintaining topical consistency for the publication schedule, I rarely have space or opportunity to comment on the interesting blogs that I read.

The Montana blog that I visit the most often, hands-down, is Electric City Weblog, and for good reason. The triumvirate of writers -- Gregg Smith, Dave Budge, and Rob Natelson are as good as any around. Each has his area of interest and expertise, making for regular doses of something for everyone. In addition, their blog has made room for guest posters. Most recently, Electric City has given space to the woes of Benefis Hospital in Great Falls. While I haven't read all of those posts, as a health professional, I can guarantee that the public has been treated to inside views of the Great Falls health care scene that it would never get from the official media -- in no small part because of the economic power that large local hospitals have in Montana cities (i.e. they buy lots of advertising).

Astute readers will also have noted that Ed Kemmick's blog was recently added to the sidebar at the right. Longtime readers will recall that Kemmick's City Lights blog at the Billings Gazette was the key Montana blog as far as Montana Headlines was concerned. In addition, just as Montana Headlines has been a faithful critic of his employer, the Billings Gazette, Kemmick has been a faithful critic of Montana Headlines when I have deserved it (and even occasionally when I haven't.) Kemmick was never an enthusiastic commenter on things like politics in his blogposts and comments, but he did a most credible job of it in spite of such scruples. The advent of his current blog coincided with the appearance of his recent book (just buy it -- you won't be sorry) and has taken an interesting literary bent, with musings on books and literature taking the fore.

One blog I have mentioned a few times has been Million Dollar Way, the mother of all Bakken blogs. It is like drinking from a fire hydrant -- one is in awe at the output, which is so voluminous that one has to spend a fair amount of time just making sure that one has glanced over all of the posts since one last visited.

A new rightward Montana blog is Rockin' On the Right Side, with an interesting mixture of politics, pop culture, and music videos. A recent sampling includes a recent lineup of Chicago performing "Questions 67 and 68," Peter Gabriel doing "Big Time," BTO with "Takin Care of Business," and one of my favorites -- Huey Lewis. It's worth visiting just to see what classic rock videos are going to be posted.

What about the leftie blogs? Have to confess that I rarely look at them the way I used to, and thus have little worth saying about them.

There doesn't seem to be the kind of heated interplay between the leftward and rightward blogosphere in Montana -- and indeed, there aren't as many political blogs in Montana -- compared to my most active years of political blogging. Perhaps the world has moved on to other forms of communication, leaving blogs in the dust. Maybe we just aren't bothering to communicate at all. Maybe we're all too busy doing more important things. My vote -- or rather my hopes -- are with the latter.

I have the entire family home for the holidays, so my own blogging will be sparse until January.