# What are some good blogs to read? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 3, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574 "2005-04-03T22:07:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2005, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/1 "2005-04-03T22:07:39Z")
I want to bookmark some good blogs so I can keep track of what the “blogosphere” collective is up to. Both left wing and right wing in the political spectrum. Any recommendations? ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/2 "2005-04-04T01:56:23Z")
I don’t check it a lot, but Bob Parsons, the founder of [GoDaddy.com](http://GoDaddy.com) has one: [Bob Parsons’ blog](http://www.bobparsons.com). Just recently I started checking into it when I have free time and I’m bored. I found out about [Save Toby](http://www.savetoby.com) from the blog, and I like his 16 rules for survival. ---
**Author:** ![MentalGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/439d5e/32.png) [@MentalGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MentalGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/3 "2005-04-04T02:42:01Z")
Not exactly a blog but the [daou report](http://www.daoureport.com) shows samples of things being said on both sides of the political spectrum and is updated frequently. It mostly, but not exclusively, lists items from blogs. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/4 "2005-04-04T03:33:00Z")
[http://www.dailykos.com/](http://www.dailykos.com/) Of course. Honest blogging. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/5 "2005-04-04T03:56:24Z")
It’s fairly easy to find interesting blogs. Get recommendations for 2 or 3. Go to a blog. Most blogs have a “blog roll” listed vertically on a separate panel down the left or right side of the page. If you like the blog you’re reading, these may also be blogs you might like. If you hate this blog, don’t bother with the blog roll. Keep surfing until you have a list of blogs you find interesting. Mine are mostly left, but I tend to hop around. I hate invective filled sites, but some of them still have good information buried inside. Some also evolve a bit – I used to like Kos (above) but it seems to have been ceded to the sub-bloggers, the quality has gone down, the invective has gone up. My daily or weekly checklist, in no particular order: [Talking Points Memo](http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com) [Washington Monthly](http://www.washingtonmonthly.com) [Bull Moose](http://www.bullmooseblog.com) [Matthew Yglesias](http://yglesias.typepad.com/matthew/) [Atrios/Eschaton](http://atrios.blogspot.com/) [Andrew Sullivan](http://www.andrewsullivan.com/) [New Donkey](http://www.newdonkey.com/) [Ezra Klein](http://ezraklein.typepad.com/) [The Carpet Bagger](http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/) recently found, good commentary. [Digby](http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/) [Rude Pundit](http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/) VERY rude sometimes. [TAPPED](http://www.prospect.org/weblog/) [Wonkette](http://www.wonkette.com/) Pure gossip. Occasional ass fucking. [Cunning realist](http://cunningrealist.blogspot.com/) Still making up my mind about this guy, but good so far. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/6 "2005-04-04T04:08:22Z")
I’ll give a thumbs-up to all of **squeegee’s** list. Another recent favorite of mine is Pandagon. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/7 "2005-04-04T04:10:28Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > I’ll give a thumbs-up to all of **squeegee’s** list. > > Another recent favorite of mine is Pandagon. Thanks. Yeah, Pandagon’s still OK, but I’m still making up my mind about them since Ezra started his own blog (see above). ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/8 "2005-04-04T04:21:21Z")
Dude, if you’re bookmarking blogs, you Just Don’t Get It. Blogging’s all about feeds. Feeds are all about aggregators. Go to [www.bloglines.com](http://www.bloglines.com) (or My Yahoo! or any other aggregator) and get an account. Load the feeds up in there and free yourself from having to check each page to see if it’s been updated. Sort oldest first and you’ll save yourself a lot of time! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Danalan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@Danalan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danalan)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/9 "2005-04-04T04:31:20Z")
I can’t argue with the political blogs listed so far. Here are some more ‘social’ blogs that I read regularly: Dooce Wil Wheaton [Bahgdad Burning](http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/) ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/10 "2005-04-04T05:42:18Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > Dude, if you’re bookmarking blogs, you Just Don’t Get It. > > Blogging’s all about feeds. Feeds are all about aggregators. > > Go to [www.bloglines.com](http://www.bloglines.com) (or My Yahoo! or any other aggregator) and get an account. Load the feeds up in there and free yourself from having to check each page to see if it’s been updated. Sort oldest first and you’ll save yourself a lot of time! 🆒 All of which doesn’t free doesn’t free a person from seeking out what to aggregate. Which is what the OP requested. Am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/11 "2005-04-04T06:45:56Z")
I subscribe to the following left-leaning blogs: Corrente, Crooked Timber, Eschaton, First Draft, Hullabaloo, James Wolcott, Media Matters for America, Michael Bérubé, Oliver Willis, and Slacktivist. Interesting blogs that are more tech-oriented (but sometimes political or cultural) are BoingBoing, Tesugen, and Philip Greenspun. Greenspun isn’t left-leaning; I’d say he’s libertarian. Probably the most conservative blog I ever read, if you want to call it a blog, is Arts and Letters Daily. And if you like information design, Edward Tufte’s “Ask E.T.” has an RSS feed. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/12 "2005-04-04T07:57:53Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > [http://www.dailykos.com/](http://www.dailykos.com/) You need Little Green Footballs ([http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/](http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/)) to balance Daily screw-them Kos. Here’s Belmont Club: [http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/](http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/) Here’s Tim Blair > **[TIMBLAIR](https://timblair.net/)** > > Politics, Lifestyle, Finance, Tools, Gadget, Timblair Archive ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/13 "2005-04-04T12:53:40Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > All of which doesn’t free doesn’t free a person from seeking out what to aggregate. Which is what the OP requested. Am I missing something? Strictly speaking, no the OP didn’t ask for it, but given that he mentioned bookmarking blogs, I presume that he/she doesn’t know about aggregators and how much time they save on reviewing multiple blogs. Certainly something worth mentioning, no? They also have a “more like this feature” that may be helpful in determining what other people who have subscribed to a given feed also read - something that may help find more blogs. I should have mentioned that as well. [Technorati](http://www.technorati.com), however, is the blog search engine and another method to check what people are discussing, either through tags, keyword searches or their own Political/Book/Top 100, etc. sections. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/14 "2005-04-04T17:35:23Z")
Here’s a few “left wing politics mixed with some humor” sites that I like to check out once a week or so. [http://www.thismodernworld.com](http://www.thismodernworld.com) > **[Some Guy With a Website | August J. Pollak](http://www.someguywithawebsite.com)** > > A professionally acceptable distribution of humor, commentary and poop jokes [http://www.bobharris.com](http://www.bobharris.com) (that’s former Jeopardy! champ Bob Harris) [http://www.bartcop.com](http://www.bartcop.com) ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/15 "2005-04-10T12:31:36Z")
I read three on a regular basis: [The Corner](http://nationalreview.com/thecorner/corner.asp): Group blog of National Review Online. It’s pretty conservative overall, but it has a wide enough range of regular contributors that on almost any given issue you will find one or two posters who disagree with the rest. Sometimes they even get into some pretty involved debates about those issues, like the Terry Shiavo matter, to cite a recent example. [Instapundit](http://instapundit.com/): Blog of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, he’s a political moderate with some strong libertarian leanings. [Kausfiles](http://kausfiles.com/): Mickey Kaus is a liberal, but not on the far left fringe. I find him to be smart and entertaining even though I often disagree with him. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/16 "2005-04-10T15:11:00Z")
[www.jerrypournelle.com](http://www.jerrypournelle.com) I don’t agree with most of his politics, but often an interesting read. (be sure to check the mail page too). Brian ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/17 "2005-04-10T15:51:57Z")
My taste in blogs seems to run more to the less serious side. For a good gossipy read I hit [Defamer](http://www.defamer.com/) at least once a week. For weird stuff [Museum of Hoaxes](http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax) is a good one. For a laugh or two: [Planet Dan](http://www.planetdan.net/blog/index.html), [X-Entertainment](http://x-entertainment.com/updates/) and [Too Much Information](http://jakebronstein.com/5/2005/03/collection-swim-boy-swim.html) For dog lovers this one is a must-see: [Dog Blog](http://www.automatedredemption.com/flavorcountry/dogblog/2005/01/dogs-61-70.html) One rather serious one I do keep up with is [Jon’s Jail Journal](http://jonsjailjournal.blogspot.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Greywolf73](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d9b06d/32.png) [@Greywolf73](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greywolf73)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/18 "2005-04-10T15:54:33Z")
And if I’d read the OP more closely, I would have seen the request for political blogs only. :smack: Ah, well. Still good reads though. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/19 "2005-04-10T22:09:11Z")
[http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/](http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/) [http://www.kimdutoit.com/ee/](http://www.kimdutoit.com/ee/) (not really political) [http://www.samizdata.net/blog/](http://www.samizdata.net/blog/) (Largely British) [http://www.grotto11.com/blog/](http://www.grotto11.com/blog/) (Gay republican) [http://www.dailykos.com/](http://www.dailykos.com/) (Democrat) ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574/20 "2005-04-11T01:00:49Z")
Most blogs that I’ve tried for a brief time I’ve eventually quit, mainly because the quality of the writing tends to be lower than for print journalism. I do follow left-leaning [Crooked Timber](http://www.crookedtimber.org) regularly, still. They have the highest content/name calling ratio in the business. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-some-good-blogs-to-read/297574.md?page=2)