I’ve never been very good at philosophy and the discourse that could arise from such topics.  There are a lot of people who derive intellectual stimulation from philosophical analysis, though, and if you are one of them, then you should visit Thoughts From The Real Matt Davis.  Philosophy, religion, and art are some of the topics that you can read up on this blog.  From what I have read, The Real Matt Davis has some thought-provoking insights – especially if you consider how young he is!  At 23, he presents some “really deep thoughts.”  Now I feel shallow.

Kneading Water’s subheading says that it’s a blog of:

Largely made-up stories and thoughts of little consequence…

And yet, with the way “Kneading Water” wrote American Nightmare, any viewer/reader of her blog may well await her future posts eagerly.

American Nightmare is more than a pleasant surprise, when one would stumble across it on the blogosphere. Rare is the blogger with a flair close to Hemingway proportions, and this American Nightmare post reaffirms this writer’s faith that there are still artists out there.

Kneading Water, the blogosphere awaits your future works of art!

Repost of American Nightmare after the jump. More →

Strategy to Freedom is a blog that is used as an avenue for advertising financial freedom-related ebooks, and yet, the blog contains content that is not only entertaining, these are also very relevant and informative.

Even if this may be a marketing blog, the worth of its content far surpasses the worth that it brings to the main business, as a marketing arm.

See excerpts after the jump.

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The Pick of the Week for this week is a blog by a man I really admire. His “sermons” are hard-hitting, and they really cut through one’s pretensions. If you are a Christian and you think you’re comfortable with your faith, prepare to be offended by the Truth. If you are a seeker and you want to hear of God’s love, this is not the place to look for a comfy, huggy Gospel.

But that’s the great point about this blog. It’s pure, unadulterated truth, through the eyes of David Chan. This blog has helped knock some sense into me, and helped me get back to getting to know Jesus. If you wanna be serious with Jesus, this is a great place to start.

Excerpt after the jump.

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If you wanna read a cigarette-smoking Yale student’s blog, and wonder how Conservatism, Catholicism, Yale, film and music could make a great mix with cigarette smoking, here is one quirky woman’s blog for you to enjoy.

Intellectualism, a journey through Helen Rittelmeyer’s mind “one cigarette at a time,” and such quotes from intellectual greats that put my brain on deep freeze are the stuff that The Cigarette Smoking Blog is made of.

Any which way you look at it, the excerpt after the jump is my reason why it’s on today’s Pick of the Week. :p

Excerpt from The Cigarette Smoking Blog:

FIRST CIGARETTE, 1:15pm
Walking downtown for coffee
MUSIC: “Two Little Hitlers,” Elvis Costello

I need my head examined, I need my eyes excited, I’d like to join the Party but I was not invited.
If you make a member of me I’d be delighted.
Dial me a valentine, she’s a smooth operator, it’s all so calculated, she’s got a calculator,
She’s my soft-touch typewriter and I’m the great dictator.
Two little Hitlers will fight it out until one little Hitler does the other one’s will. . .

As a right-wing student on a liberal campus, I am sometimes called a fascist. Consequently, I was interested to learn that the original title for this album was not Armed Forces, but Emotional Fascism. Could it be that I’m not a fascist, just an Elvis Costello fan?

So I dedicated my first cigarette of the day to “Two Little Hitlers” and wondering what emotional fascism would look like.

The concept of going beyond one’s duty is incoherent to a fascist because he considers duty to be absolute. His life is overwhelmed by ‘the infinite sphere of responsibility’ (Martin Buber’s phrase) whereby he serves the State with the same absolute loyalty that a monk serves God. Not even the smallest action is outside the scope of his duty, which is why privacy makes no sense in a fascist state.

When a man consecrates all of his actions to the state, he transforms his world into a stage on which he does not merely live, but performs. His smallest actions now have symbolic significance. (FASCISM: Your Name Up In Lights!) It’s a way of believing in a sacramental universe without believing in God.

Love is the same thing: instead of consecrating every action to the state, you devote yourself to your beloved and begin to do everything for his sake, under his eye, according to your infinite duty to him.

SECOND CIGARETTE, 1:25pm
Still walking downtown
MUSIC: “Take Me to the River [live],” the Talking Heads

Don’t know why I love you like I do, all the changes that you put me through.
You take my money and my cigarettes, and I haven’t seen the worst of it yet.
I want to know, can you tell me why I love this pain?

With the Talking Heads, a conclusion crystallizes: love is emotional fascism.

(Which explains the historical connection between right-wing politics and sexual frustration.)