The links on the right side of the page, long stale and ignored, have been revised with a couple of things in mind. It is now a list of what I read on a regular basis, nothing more. I don’t like the word “blogroll” and while that may be petty and stupid on my part limiting the number of links on a small personal site like this one seems like a good idea. Really long – ahem – blogrolls always make me a little leery because really, how many different sources of information can someone keep up with?
So far most of the posts here at Tethered Swimming have been reactions to, analyses of, or rants about topics and stories which I’d seen elsewhere. I thought it might be useful to link to the places where I get my information. For daily news I’m pretty well hooked on The New York Times, the BBC and that wonderful clearing house site McClatchy maintains. I am a print subscriber to each of the publications listed in the magazine section (and to the New York Times); and while I certainly don’t read every article, neither are they mere coffee table decoration.
There is a prideful, self-fellating quality to this: “Look how much I read! Look how well read I am!” But I don’t care. These publications and website really are what I like to read. To some it might seem like a lot, to others it might seem like very little, others may scoff at the low quality of my choices; I have no way to judge the relative merits and even if I did I still wouldn’t care about the conclusion. There’s no point dwelling on it. The pithy descriptions are what you get if you roll your cursor over the links, I include them here merely for a sense of completeness. It didn’t used to work in Firefox 2 but seems to work in Firefox 3 (and IE 6).
Daily News:
BBC – Puts American radio news to shame. (I’m looking at you, NPR.)
McClatchy DC – Journalists who weren’t asleep in 2003.
The New York Times – It gets bashed from the left and the right, but it’s still the best paper in the country.
Magazines:
The American Conservative – Conservatives who don’t like Bush, how novel.
The Atlantic Monthly – It’s 150 years old, it must be at least kinda good.
The Economist – Mmmmm, Eurotrash conservatives.
Harper’s – Erudite information served in a broth of liberal outrage.
The London Review of Books – It’s different because of the spelling.
National Geographic – Pretty pictures plus articles about man destroying nature.
The New York Review of Books – Even Sideshow Bob reads this.
The New Yorker – Most of the cartoons are funny, what’s wrong with that?
Reason – Ancient libertarian proverb say . . .
News & Politics
ElectionProjection – I try to ignore the polls, I really do.
Eschaton – I like my martinis dry and caustic.
Feministing – They’re some of those don’t call us ‘chicks’ chicks.
FiveThirtyEight – Stat geeks of the world unite!
Hullabaloo – Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore!
Informed Comment – Prof. Cole knows more about the Middle East than all 537 elected members of the federal government combined.
Jon Taplin’s Blog – Smart about everything, but willing to listen if wrong.
Lawyers, Guns and Money – They slew family, religion and friendship and they’re aware of all internet traditions.
Politico – Because there just wasn’t enough political coverage online before 2007.
The Raw Story – BOLD type is everyone’s friend.
The Reverse Cowgirl – Sex is funny, interesting.
Salon – An online magazine, how late 90s retro.
Talking Points Memo – It’s not really a big organization, it just looks like one.
Tomdispatch – The literate opposition.
Science & Technology
Ars Technica – Organized and edited news for nerds.
Boing Boing – Steampunk gadgets and privacy concerns.
Deeplinks – The EFF, it’s like the ACLU but on-line.
Denialism Blog – Sometimes you’ve got to lay it all out, even if no one ever listens.
PhysOrg – Science rules.
Sports
The Basketball Jones – 20 minutes with these foul mouthed Canucks tells you more about the Association than any four hour AM-radio show.
Every Day Should Be Saturday – C’mon people, college football isn’t going to enjoy itself.
Kissing Suzy Kolber – Dick jokes and the NFL, two things near to my heart.
The last time the links were updated was almost a year ago; hopefully there won’t be a repeat of that kind of inattention. Mindful that my reading habits change I will try to keep the links an accurate reflection of what’s on my plate.
