Café Philos: an internet café

"There's No One Driving the Plane" is largely a political blog -- and one of the funniest I've come across on the net. It's written by Mark (a.k.a. "Marxsny") who brings to it not only his sharp sense of humor, but also his background in both science and business.

The articles are not overtly intellectual. They are neither footnoted, nor cry out for footnotes, and Mark sometimes buries the weight of his analysis under a sort of uncertain fatalism -- or perhaps, "a light hearted despair" -- that at the last moment turns away from emphasizing his conclusions in a typically intellectual manner. But those things are just issues of style: "There's No One Driving the Plane" is an intellectual blog.

Along with the exceptional analytical skills he probably honed by studying science and business, Mark uses sarcasm to cut through the smoke of politics and get to something approaching the truth -- as close as anyone ever gets to the truth. He is both incisive and insightful. But I sometimes think Mark would be happier writing about music and the arts than about politics. So far as I know, writing about music and the arts seldom makes you want to take a shower afterwards, whereas writing about politics so often does.

In a typical post, Mark strings together several seemingly unrelated ideas in a way that might disconcert someone who does not love ideas -- but if you love ideas, then it's easy to think of his string of ideas as a string of diamonds. At least, that's what I imagine them to be.

For those and other reasons, I am very pleased to tag Mark and "There's No One Driving the Plane" with the Intellectual Blogger Award.