The links below are to sites written by people that are generally considered very smart.

Well…much smarter than me…which come to think of it isn’t saying much…or anything at all for that matter.

You ever notice that REALLY smart people have very large heads?

THE GOOGLE-MEISTER

Would you like to know what’s really going on in Iraq? One word…Chrenkoff! His bi-weekly round-up of “Good News From Iraq” is the result of painstaking searches of media sites both national and international. He brings you the news from Iraq that the MSM doesn’t cover.

This post on the circular logic being used by both Sunni moslems and western liberals about why the Iraqi elections aren’t legitimate is a must read.

AN AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE IN LONDON

Gregory Djerejian is an American by birth living in England. His blog, The Belgravia Dispatch, is a series of posts on culture, politics, and the media in America from a European perpsective. He also posts on European attitudes towards America.

Being a former State Department employee, he has some great sources of information in several European capitols. His coverage of the Balkans is outstanding (check out this post about Serbian war criminals writing award winning books). His recent coverage of the elections in the Ukraine should receive whatever the blogger equivalent of a Pulitzer would be.

THE MYSTERY MAN

Who is Wretchard? What is the Belmont Club? Does it matter?

Only if you’re a snarky NY Times reporter, one who recently suggested that Wretchard was a Republican hack.

Whether Wretchard is a nom de plum, a pseudonym for a group of writers, or someone’s real name isn’t important. What’s important is that, bar none, you won’t find better analysis of the WoT on the net.

For an example of what I’m talking about, this series of articles on the Iraqi elections ( here, here, and here) will convince you that you’ve got to blogroll this site if you want the most penetrating analysis of issues around.

THE WRITER

Victor Davis Hansen is one of the most prolific writers in the United States. His talent is on loan from the angels. He is a master of the arcane area of writing known as “the column.”

Usually writing between 750-1500 words, a good columnist will be able to identify, analyze, and summarize any issue while writing prose that both inspires and provokes thought. Hansen does that in spades.

I don’t think I’ve ever read a bad column by VDH. This one is no exception. Putting the war against Neoconservatives in an historical context while exposing liberals as anti-semites, the column, like all VDH pieces, makes you think. Isn’t that what smart people are supposed to do?

OLD EUROPE EXPERT

John Rosenthal is an expert in international relations who speaks 5 languages and has been published in both scholarly journals and mainstream press in several countries. He’s taught at Ivy League schools and other comparable European institutions.

Talk about scary smart…

His blog The Transatlantic Intelligencer can, at times, be a little to “wonkish” in that it deals with issues at a policy rather than political level. But that doesn’t take away from the brilliant analysis that John provides on issues affecting France, Germany and the US.

In this post, John takes on the international cultural diversity freaks and their drive to blur nationalistic lines by playing “identity politics.”

HOMETOWN BOYZ

The Chicago Boyz have a disclaimer on their blog that Chicago Boyz are not all boys and not all from Chicago. That being said, this group blog has a whole bunch of very smart people writing for it.

Their themes run the gamut; History, Politics, War & Peace, Incentives & Human Behavior, Economics, Markets, Finance,Technology,U.S. & Israeli Exceptionalism, Humor, Rock ‘N’ Roll, Galactic Conquest…truly a diverse group blog.

They’re all experts and they’re all REALLY smart.

Check out this post on US plans to hit Syria. Great stuff.

I know I’ve been sort of poking fun at some of these blogs but the fact is that if you read stuff by smart people, you can’t help but get smarter yourself.

One other thing you may have noticed. Site design on these blogs leave much to be desired. For God’s sake three of them or on Blogspot! Just goes to show that you don’t have to have a prize winning design on your site to get noticed.

That is, as long as you’re scary smart.