Five who make me thinkful

So, I've been tagged by the excellent Renegade for the Thinking Bloggers Award. As per guidelines, I cut and paste the following:

The idea is to name 5 blogs that make you think. Here are the rules for participation:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog)

Unsurprisingly, several of the many people who immediately leaped to mind (Queer Dewd, brownfemipower, Sage, Black Amazon) have already been tagged. So, here are some of the others that leaped immediately to mind (it's -really hard- to pick just five):

1. Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican. His is one of those sites that I put off reading, paradoxically, because there's so much I want to read and re-read. His analysis of Falling Down is worth the price of admission alone; also be sure to check out his series, "The Skin of my Soul." Or just start anywhere and keep reading.

2. Trin at the strangest alchemy. Trin writes thoughtfully and incisively on a number of subjects, from disability to BDSM to feminism(s) to spirituality. A number of her posts are friends-locked (it's a livejournal), but there's still plenty of good stuff available to the public.

3. Victoria Marinelli at Vortex(t). Victoria is a thoughtful, empathic, and eloquent radical feminist, with much to say both personal and political. We challenge each other, I do believe; and yet there's enough common ground to make a connection, which pleases me, as she's good people.

4. Little Light of Taking Steps. What can I say? Little Light burns bright. Not only is she a brilliant writer, scholarly and poetic at once, but she is what I would call an "old soul." Even when she's not writing overtly about religion, I find her deeply spiritual, in the genuine sense, a rare quality.

5. Finally, a recent addition to my 'roll: Infra at Skin::filter{}. I met Infra over at Feminist Critics, which itself has been...an adventure. Infra is above all else, I think, very much -not- a dogmatist; his blog is a nice blend of personal introspection and analysis of subjects ranging from the "seduction community" to the occult.

What I particularly like about all of these people, besides the scope of their knowledge and skill with words, is their self-awareness, and ability to consider, and re-consider, the argument from every angle. They are "critical" in the true sense.

Your turn.