Two-Year Anniversary!

As of tomorrow, our little blog Three Wise Men will have been infesting the internet/blogosphere for two full years! It's hard to imagine how far we've come since this little post here way back at the beginning. In recognition of those momentous event, we here at TWM have decided to do a little retrospective, where we each will pick some of our favorite blog posts of the past two years...not of our own, but of each other's. I'll get us started.

I think each of us brings certain talents to the blog. For Nat-wu, I think a couple of things he contributes are his often rigorous analysis, and his willingness to do very meticulous and thorough research on topics he's not personally familiar with. For an example of the former, I direct you to two complementary pieces on the flat tax. The first one, generously titled "Why the flat tax is stupid and why rich people should pay more" is probably the only post thus far on this blog to include a mathematical formula. The companion piece, "A challenger appears" consists of more mathematical derring-do, as Nat-wu fends off a commentator questioning his mathematical skills.

For an example of his willingness to do research on completely obscure topics, I direct you to this post, titled "Stop Funding Human Rights Abuses with American Money", certainly the longest and most thorough post on any topic written by any of us here. But I actually think his most informative post is a fairly recent one, titled simply "Somalia" documenting the conflict in Somalia and the rise of the Islamic militias. The links are informative, and I'm pretty sure any reader would feel as if he's gotten a very good summary of the history and current status conflict in the war-torn nation.

I have to give Adam particular thanks for sustaining this blog virtually on his own for about the first 9 months of it's existence. Thanks to his involvement in the "real world" of political activism, the demands of college life, and his involvement at other blogs he doesn't have as much time to post here as he once did, but whatever he posts it's a quality read. More than anything, I think Adam brings to this blog the passion of his beliefs combined with his political acumen. He's pretty much the only one among us to offer real, substantive policy proposals, the kind you're likely to read in a policy magazine or journal, or hear politicians proposing at luncheons and conferances. For two examples of these I refer you to his impassioned call for withdrawal from Iraq and his call for universal health care (which he was actually invited to write for another blog.) But my personal favorite is this one here, titled "The Future of the Democratic Party", written just after John Kerry's defeat in the 2004 election. Despite the bitterness of the loss, Adam is already looking to the future, pulling out lessons for the future, and striking a note of optimism only a few short days after the defeat. But I couldn't possibly pass on talking about Adam's work here without mentioning this fine little gem written about a month after we kicked the blog off. Here's the whole thing, short and sweet:

In a statement Tuesday, Time said reporter Matthew Cooper agreed to give a deposition after Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, personally released Cooper from a promise of confidentiality about a conversation the two had last year. He did the same for Tim Russert.

So if Libby released them from their confidentiality promise, is he not the source then?

So, there are my thoughts on the work of my two colleagues over the past two years. They'll be offering their comments as well, but I'd be remiss in not asking you the reader to keep an eye on us for the next two years to see what will almost certainly be even better writing, analysis, thought and opinion.