And pretty girls watch blogs…

(In honor of the Most Influential Artists Ever–link via E-Pression.)

Ted Barlow: Good points on polling, esp. the fact that polls don’t necessarily lead to more direct democracy/less leadership. Poll-heavy presidents can make unpopular decisions; presidents can also use polls to present their unpopular positions “in a way that insults your intelligence less,” as Barlow says. Also, IF YOU CAN GIVE BLOOD, CLICK HERE.

Don’t Be A Shamed: Drink and thrive; excellent post on suicide bombers vs. “homicide bombers.” And other goodies.

Brink Lindsey: Top-notch post on that pro-trade OXFAM study. Go read it.

Louder Fenn: Children’s fiction and Christianity, part seven.

Charles Murtaugh: Cloning terminology.

Sursum Corda: The Body of Christ, in prison. Plus his porn/guns/Big Macs comparison was tongue-in-cheek. Oops… sorry.

Dave Tepper: The daughters of the Confederacy–together at last.

Veritas: Accurate anti-cloning (or anti-anti-anti-cloning…) post; Luther never nailed 96 theses to anything. He’s wrong about the magnitude of the Current Crisis though, for reasons Amy Welborn gives–these scandals are huge. It’s not “just” the abuser priests, the cover-up cardinals–it’s the faithless, reprobate seminaries, too. Ugh.

Matt Welch: Excellent news!