Slashdot Mirror

The author of the WSJ article, Glenn Reynolds, also conducted an interview with him by email. It can be found on Instapundit.com

HULK's Halloween decorations webcam is up!

Look here. Block spam, code for censoring e-mail, and "methods to provide authenticated directories," code for providing private information to controlling governements. Yeah, the anti-US crowd here is just divorced from reality.

Instapundit

It looks to me that science and engineering in the U.S. is on the collpse, and has no coming shortages.

Population grows by ~2.85% per year. So substract 2.8 percent from each year and you will see that we are producing about the same amount of engineers per capita since the 70's. This occurs as other countries expand science and engineering.

This is mainly the result of false government set exchange rates with other countries. I.E. a dollar in India buys a bunch more than it does in the U.S. when it should be the same.

The Fascist Police state will destroy the U.S. as a result. Leaving the U.S. as a slave state of India and China along with the rest of the world.

Well if _you_ don't want to support them there are plenty of others that you could donate to.

I've spent the last 6 years of my life trying to figure out why my friends brutally murdered other friends of mine and kids at school.

From the 1up Jane Pinckard article

If anyone knows first-hand what violent video games might drive people to do, that would be Brooks Brown, a friend to the Columbine shooters.

From the 1up John Davison article

Today I got a note from Brooks Brown, who if you can cast your mind back all the way to 1999 was the Columbine student who warned police deputies that Eric Harris was building pipe bombs and had threatened to kill him.

........

I can't speak for anyone else, but my FRIENDS don't threaten to kill me. A little revison after the fact, maybe? (shrug)

Anyway, Columbine happened the way it did because it could. It had nothing to do with video games, or puppies, or a lack of group hugs. The place was a "Gun Free Zone", which is just another way of saying "A Barrel With Fish In It"

Think about this: How many people would Beavis and Butthead have killed if every teacher had been trained and armed? Three? Now how many if every student had been trained and armed? None? A Half?

Beavis and Butthead are to blame for the killings, no one else. School authorities are to blame for making it so DAMN easy to do.

Other outcomes do occur when the "victim" is not defenseless: Armed law student who put a stop to the shootings at the Appalachian Law School. You didn't see this on the evening "news", because the "news" people realized that it did not fit their political agenda, and so you did not need to know about it.

See here for a picture of the sign declaring that the University of Arizona does not allow guns on its premises. And here's an opinion piece in the University of Arizona student paper by Rachel Alexander arguing that this is a bad policy. Unfortunately, mass murderers don't pay attention to those signs. Only their victims do.

I kinda doubt that Hulk's Blog is going to go Corporate ... ;-)

The connection speed has to do with the hardware installed in your area. Instapundit has one of those cards and gets 122kbps in Knoxville. I'd guess that that's the best you can do unless you live in one of those "real cities".

Unless you spend A LOT of time on the road, the mobile cell cards just aren't worth the money.

From BoingBoing:

Right wing blogs go ape over George Lucas article in Wired
Steve Silberman's excellent story about George Lucas in the current issue of Wired is inciting a good deal of mouth foaming and carpet chewing on conservative blogs. Says Steve: "My Lucas story has blown up on right-wing blogs like Instapundit and the National Review Online, after being referenced on a conservative forum about film called Libertas. What's strange is that -- with the exception of Libertas -- Lucas' 'statements,' particularly re: Fahrenheit 9/11, are being condemned with no link to the story or the online QA, as if Lucas' supposed opinions are just in the air somewhere. And while Lucas critiqued F911 in the interview, the wingers are characterizing him as a 'Moore-loving liberal.'" Link

posted by Mark Frauenfelder at 08:51:45 AM permalink | Other blogs commenting on this post

So why is it the MSM hates/is so afraid of the blogs? Anybody still remember the "guys in pajamas" remark by Jonathan Klein, then of CBS? Indicative of the way the industry fears Powerline, Instapundit, Kos, etc.

While Canadian media can't report on the details, an account of banned testimony has been published on a U.S. political weblog, and transcripts of the testimony are being circulated among Ottawa insiders.

When the number one TV News program in the country tells everyone where to go to get the details, the ban is pretty much toast from that point on. Anyone who thinks otherwise is probably being fed from a tube.

"Black people, who have the lowest income in the United States, now have a higher standard of living than an ordinary Swedish household," the HUI economists said.

If Sweden were a U.S. state, it would be the poorest measured by household gross income before taxes, Bergstrom and Gidehag said. . . .

The median income of African American households was about 70 percent of the median for all U.S. households while Swedish households earned 68 percent of the overall U.S. median level.

This meant that Swedes stood "below groups which in the Swedish debate are usually regarded as poor and losers in the American economy," Bergstrom and Gidehag said.

Between 1980 and 1999, the gross income of Sweden's poorest households increased by just over six percent while the poorest in the United States enjoyed a three times higher increase, HUI said.

Hi,
I read your post about Sweden and would like to add some statistics. Sorry for the bad English, but I've never used these terms in English. Prepensioned means people who are pensioned before they are supposed to because of illnesses (or because they can't get jobs).

Sweden is the sickest nation in the world. At least according to statistics and costs for healthinsurances. In reality I would guess that Swedes are among the healthiest populations in the history of mankind. But the rise in costs for healthinsurances are staggering. Longterm notification of illnesses have tripled since 1997. One in six of Swedes of working age are listed longterm sick or prepensioned. That's about 800 000 yearjobs in a population of 9 million. The cost is 10 billion dollars per year. The wellfare state has turned into an illfare state.

I won't tax you by asking you to back up any of these claims or cite sources. After all, you're not some huge media company. :)

Bloggers think they're going to be the revolution of the press, and that they'll take the place of the New York Times and Washinton Post, and Newscorp will crumble at their feet.

I certainly don't see any major blogers making any such claims. Blogs will not replace big media in the same way that newspapers did not replace books. They are not out to destroy old media, they are out to destroy the MONOPOLY old media has on information. If you don't like it, stick to television. It has short films and pictures, and not so many viewpoints so you don't have to worry about getting confused.

Not with the half-assed misinformation and melodrama on the vast majority of the political and "news" blogs I've seen (to say nothing of the wild spitting and sputtering in the comments).

Again... are you taking about big blogs like Insty or Jarvis? Or are you taking about tiny blogs that nobody reads? You'll notice the calmer, more even-handed blogs tend to rise above the spittle-spewers, in the same way that CBS News always rated higher than Morton Downey, Jr, The Rush Limbaugh Show, or Donahue.

Not as long as they have no problem with their complete and utter lack of accountability

Oh no! People are publishing without asking permission. Who will contol these people?!?!

Who the fuck should they be accountable TO, I ask you? They are accountable in the sense that if they have no information or false information, people will no longer read them. What other accountability do you need?

of any type, and the vicious, one-sided partisan nature designed solely to incite vitriol in their groupthink audiences.

I can't imagine where you come off calling blogs GROUPTHINK. Visit a thousand blogs and you'll find a thousand different views. Even among those that agree will have different reasons for their views. Are you really suggesting that everyone stating their views for the world to see is inferior to the television / newspaper monopoly?

Not while they do nothing more than constantly pat each other on their virtual backs and reinforce their own worldviews and twisted near-conspiracy theories, ignoring any and all other sides of the story while simultaneously thinking of themselves as "open minded"

This isn't a problem with blogs. This is a problem with every political person since three cavemen voted on who was going to be in charge of widlebeast procurement. News flash: People with strong opinions will express them forcefully.

...and the only revealers of "the truth".

Everyone who has an opinion believes they have the truth. How is this in any way related to blogs? You see lots of closed-minded politial hacks on the editorial pages, the sunday morning political shows, and talk radio.

Which is better: The "truth" as seen by the editor, or the "Truth" as seen by thousands of interested people who want a better life for themselves, and all of whom have varying opinions on how things ought to be done? Blogs run the full spectrum of views from the ararchists over at No-Treason to the collectivists at DNC Underground, and everything in between.

[...] But many, particularly political blogs, have no regard for anything but the furtherance of their own agendas, taking things wildly out of context, and going on vindictive missions to build a one-sided case to paint the target of their ire in the worst possible light, without any consideration for any other motivations or other sides of the stories.

If the same were true of

Okay, then that's essentially every school in the country, not just the Ivy League. State schools included - you think only private schools engage in this practice? It's good fundraising practice for them. See these numbers for some more examples.

Almost no school "gives" spots to legacies, they just give them extra consideration. The idea that somehow only Harvard does this is a trollish lie perpetuated by morons like our dear Slashdot editors who have been posting nasty anti-intellectual, anti-Ivy League trash all day.

If you hire somebody solely because of the college that they attended then you aren't doing a very good job at screening applicants. Obviously any college's degree only means so much. And if you hire a black person who graduated from a top college, you should realize that person more likely than not got in due to affirmative action, and wasn't qualified to be there either.

See these numbers. In short, if you hire a graduate from most any decent college, there is a comparable chance that they got in because they are a legacy.

Oh, and I was slightly over in my estimate, it turns out a total of only about 10% of each class at Harvard are legacies. And about 20% are black or hispanic. I leave it to you to figure out which form of admissions preference does more to screw over the middle class.

This is interesting because it doesn't matter what Daily Kos thought it was getting into with an advisory roll. The Dean folks intended to get good, free press from it, and milked the blogs. Read more about it here.

For those who think the issues with the Dept. of Education paying off a journalist are new, it was actually more common under the Clinton administration, and equally bad.

They should have held up one or two exemplary examples of blogging done right - good content and timley information (and a lack of words like "dat", "ur", "OMG", "LOL", and "ROFLMAO")

You mean, like, instead of holding up our buddy Howard "YEEEEEEEEEAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!" Dean (who, according to Dave Barry, is most famous for "making a sound like a hog being castrated with a fondue fork"), they could have mentioned, oh, I dunno...

The people who broke Rathergate, maybe? A marketing guy in DC who dug up a forensics document expert or Charles Johnson and his famous reproduction of the faked memos?

How about Glenn Reynolds? Or Moulitsas Zúniga? Who really rallied the troops this election season?

Howard Dean??

What about some of the many Iraqi blogs - written by, you know, people on the ground, as it were? How about Spirit of America's Arabic blogging tool, and the bloggers who took the the challenge to raise money for it?

There's a lot more going on out there than ABC is reporting.

I enjoy some blogs, although I have to admit that the signal-to-noise ratio is pretty bad. Here's a few which I personally find interesting and read regularly. I'm a neuro, space, and robotics geek, so the list is biased as such.

* Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) News: The most thorough spaceflight blog around, focusing on reusable systems.
* NASA Watch: A well-known site with regular critiques of NASA.
* Free Republic: Like slashdot, but for ultra-conservatives. I sometimes like to go there to get a better understanding of what goes through the heads of people who think differently from me.
* Alan Boyle's Cosmic Log: "Quantum fluctuations in space, science, and exploration"
* Democratic Underground: The extreme left's version of Free Republic.
* Instapundit: The slashdot-equivalent of political weblogging, with a somewhat libertarian slant. Known for causing "Instalanches" on innocent web servers, analogous to "Slashdottings."
* Daily Kos: Probably the most influential liberal blog.
* Transterrestrial Musings: a libertarian space analyst who helped me understand why it's possible to be intelligent and support the war in Iraq at the same time. He sometimes posts some fantastic satires.
* theferrett's livejournal: sometimes writes some very insightful and well-composed essays
* spacexploration livejournal community: Space-related miscellany and discussion.
* politicsforum livejournal community: Sometimes has some pretty intelligent political discussion.
* robots.net: Robotics news
* Space Politics: "Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway"
* Rocket Man Blog: Rarely updated, but has very insightful and informed analysis of spaceflight and rocketry.
* Howard Lovy's NanoBot: Nanotechnology news and commentary

According to BlogShares, the number of blogs has grown from 1 million to 2.3 million over the past 6 months. It seems like information overload. It also seems like the number of blogs isn't really relevant - most of the attention ends up being focused on a very few blogs run by people already in the media (like Instapundit).

I just checked the numbers over at Instapundit and they work out to about 3.8 million visitors per month. So, Microsoft + "professional" journalists = 4.8 million visitors. One law prof + laptop + WiFi = 3.8 million.

Now that you're standing at this red light, and the cross street has a green, you'll wonder why you have a red and the cross street has a green, WHEN THERE ARE NO CARS DRIVING ON THE CROSS STREET! Now here is the interesting part. The light could be red for a minute or two, or you might stand there for a long time. As a matter of fact, I noticed that at all of the stoplights on this major street, they will remain red until a vehicle approaches on the cross street. As soon as a vehicle approaches there, his light will change to red and yours will change to green. At 3:00 am, it might take a long time before a vehicle approaches on the cross street. One time, I actually waited ten whole minutes before such a vehicle approached, and only then did his light change to red and mine changed to green.

I've had good luck with an absolutely bare bones videoblogging setup, using a Sony digital still camera that shoots video with sound. And Adam Keipner did some interesting videoblogging from the Nanotech conference in Washington a couple of weeks ago. I think we'll see a lot more of this in the future.

The problem is that the mainstream media tries to paint itself as some kind of oracle of information. The "blogosphere" is an organic system in that there is no official channel for information. So for instance, when Dan Rather stated to the world that the Bush National Guard documents were proof that Bush was AWOL, where were the dissenting voices? Where was the actual analysis?

Instead what we got was CBS news using blatant forgeries, selectively shopping them around to "experts" and pushing a story that doesn't even pass the smell test. The Bush docs story stunk to high heaven, and it took bloggers a matter of hours to determine that CBS lied through their teeth. Bloggers like those at Powerline devastated CBS' story because the media was not willing to do the ground work they should have. Whether that was through sheer laziness or bias I will leave as an exercise to the reader.

The mainstream media doesn't do reporting anymore. The blogosphere allows for a lot of crap, but through that crap comes a lot of valuable research. How many Iraqis are allowed to give their opinions on the nightly newscasts? Yet I can chose any number of Iraqi blogs and get a point of view that I would never see on the evening newscast - and because of it I've learned things about Iraqi culture and the situation there that the media would never have time to delve into.

It would be much better if those crying about the lack of journalistic standards with bloggers were any better - but the only thing that seems to separate journalists from bloggers these days is that bloggers have a greater tendency to check their sources when called and don't carry around the façade of officious objectivity like a shield.

Quite frankly, I give more credence to Glenn Reynolds than I do to Jayson Blair, Howell Raines, Andrew Gilligan, or Dan Rather - all of whom have shown that the combination of arrogance and groupthink in the mainstream media is far more pernicious than the open biases of bloggers.

Somebody must read Instapundit...

Slate, not exactly a publication known for supporting the war in Iraq, suggests this number is probably closer to 8 thousand.
And these two: Marc Cooper and Matthew Yglesias, anti-war types from the left, seem to agree.

Full disclosure, I got this from Instapundit.

"In 1992 the FCC fined Infinity Broadcasting $600,000 after Stern discussed masturbating to a picture of Aunt Jemima."

"Is that better or worse than asking a Nigerian woman if she eats monkeys, or hosting a discussion of whether, when you have sex with a black woman, it smells like watermelons? I guess you can argue that point, but I'd be a lot more impressed with Stern's defenders if they'd quote these comments verbatim in the process of defending him."

Perhaps someday, you will be able to reach deep, deep down and find your inner adult.

Until then, do you feel that a naked person smeared with excrement and buggering a dead muskrat in public counts as Art, and should be protected as Speech? How about if the Artist writes poems on the muskrat's genetalia with a soldering iron?

That's all speech, right, and deserves to be protected?

I mean, I'm sure the people who wrote the bill of rights and the constitution wanted to make sure that muskrat-buggering soldering-ironers were protected from narrow minded repression by the sheeple of the future.

/sarcasm

As Neal says, you shall know the truth, and it will make you mad! :)

Another blog in a similar mindset:
http://instapundit.com/

Right-leaning blogs

http://rightwingnews.com/
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/
http://nicedoggie.net/

Humor - to balance out the bitterness of the last two

http://www.coxandforkum.com/ - Editorial cartoons
http://www.scrappleface.com/ - News satire

My favorite blog list has been expanding, lately. I regularly read InstaPundit and The Right Coast, among others. I've recently begun reading Powerline and Michelle Malkin. My favorite "political" blogs, though, are actually economics blogs. I can't let a day go by without checking Marginal Revolution and The Volokh Conspiracy, which are two of the most interesting blogs I've read since I started reading Slashdot.

In addition to all of that, I read a wide variety of news sites every day, listen to news radio and watch news in the morning. That's all so I can do a better job in the writing on my own blog, where I cover politics, amateur radio, life, and anything I think is cool. Check out Lockjaw's Lair and don't forget to buy the T-Shirt.

Right Wing News Allah Is In The House Little Green Footballs Cavalier's Guardian WatchBlog Iraq The Model Instapundit Power Line Michelle Malkin Ace Of Spades HQ A Small Victory The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler Israpundit Jihad Watch IMAO Moxie Niel Boortz Lonewacko Wizbang Dumb Celebs Fear And Loathing In Iraq Kim du Toit PABAAH Ann Coulter La Shawn Barber Mark Steyn David Limbaugh

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php

http://realclearpolitics.com/

http://althouse.blogspot.com/

http://www.powerlineblog.com/

http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/

http://www.intel-dump.com/

http://denbeste.nu/indexlofi.shtml

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevoluti on/

http://www.parapundit.com/

http://www.allahpundit.com/

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/

http://www.jihadwatch.org/

http://www.radicalmiddle.com/

Capitalism Magazine ... well, it is not really a blog. It is a site of politic/social/philosophic editorials, from an objectivist (Ayn Rand) point of view. I love this site!

I also like Polipundit , Instapundit , Cox & Forkum , and deliciously corrosive Ann Coulter .

For the portuguese-speaking: be sure to check Midia Sem Mascara and Diego Casagrande .

Here's a sampling of the best I've found:

Vodkapundit. Stephen Green's blog. Probably the best match for my own political views. Hawkish libertarian and consumer of fine ethanol-based beverages.

Instapundit Glenn Reynold's blog. Another decent match for my own viewpoint. Glenn's more of a linker than a commentator, but he's one of the best about linking to all sides of the blogosphere. When he does extended bits (such as at his MSNBC site or his TCS columns), he's quite cogent. Has a lot of outside interests (electronic music, space policy, nano-tech, constitutional law) that dovetail into my own and make his site more interesting than the politics-only blogs. Frequently mentions Slashdot and links to relevant discussions.

Reason's Hit and Run Another libertarian blog, run by Reason magazine. Much more in tune to the Libertarian Party than the above.

Virginia Postrel YALB (Yet Another Libertarian Blog). Postrel is a former editor of Reason. More of a social commentator these days and has written some fascinating books recently. Seems to have become ever-so-slightly more hawkish since 9/11.

The Corner National Review's blog. Conservative and largely Catholic, it's best feature is Jonah Goldberg (the token non-Catholic), who has a pleasantly snarky, pop-cultural laden view of current events. Least pleasant on the blog in John Derbyshire, who is quite the math geek but is way out there on the borderline-racist right (quite pleasant in email, though).

Andrew Sullivan. Classical liberal, Oakeshott conservative. A very incisive and passionate writer, he has an infuriating habit of demonizing the opposition. Originally very pro-war (and spent much time fulminating against the "fifth columnist" element on the left), he's now got a new enemy (those opposed to gay marriage/gay rights), so all those who were the enemy last year (the Democrats/John Kerry) are friends, and all those who were friends last year (the Republicans/George Bush) are enemies who can now do no right. When his emotions are not ruling his thinking, though, he's very, very good.

Mickey Kaus Slate's resident blogger, Mickey is a DLC "New" Democrat. He's one of the more honest of the bloggers (zings his own side often, recognizes good arguments on the other side) and a good source of insider media stuff.

Josh Marshall Establishment Democrat. I found his stuff to be really good a few years back, but recently he's spending more time rooting for the team (DNC/Kerry) than being objective. Also, darkly hints at constant "breaking soon" scoops that either never appear or completely underwhelm. Very bright guy, though, and insightful when not attempting to spin too obviously.

Kevin Drum Another Establishment Democrat. Kevin tends to be more self-reflective than Josh, which stands him in good stead. Great place to capture the mood of the DNC political types.

New Republic They have a couple of blogs (&c. and Campaign Journal). &c. is by far the better of the two. Skews left, but a sort of rationalist left (understands that while America may suck at times, other places suck more).

Tapped This used to be a great blog back in the

RealClearPolitics - Polling data and best of the MSM commentary.
Instapundit - Smorgasboard of daily links interspersed with commentary.
Hugh Hewitt - Law professor, author, and radio talk show host.
Powerline - Commentary and links. Were very influential in the Rathergate controversy.

Nice history of RatherGate to date. And what's really nice is that it doesn't mention InstaPundit. Nor should it. I've written about this, but other blogs did all the heavy lifting. As I wrote earlier, the blogosphere has matured into a full-fledged system in which no node is of vital importance, which is a very good thing.

Nice history of RatherGate to date. And what's really nice is that it doesn't mention InstaPundit. Nor should it. I've written about this, but other blogs did all the heavy lifting. As I wrote earlier, the blogosphere has matured into a full-fledged system in which no node is of vital importance, which is a very good thing.

1. Instapundit. Written by a Glenn Reynolds, a libertarian law professor at the University of Tennessee whose expertise is in second amendment issues, technology and communication. Perhaps the most influential and widely read blog.

2. The Corner. National Review's group weblog. Lots of contributors, who vary widely in tone (after you read it a while you come to recognize who the various authors are, and what points of view they hold). If you're not a conservative, you should check it out -- you won't agree with most of the stuff, but after a while you might learn that the folks on the "other side" aren't a bunch of moronic power-mad nazis: They actually have coherent reasons for believing what they believe, and can ably articulate those views. Understanding their arguments will help you sharpen your own.

3. The Volokh Conspiracy. A group weblog of libertarian and conservative law professors. The lead conspirator, Eugene Volokh, is a computer programmer-turned UCLA law professor; he is an expert in free speech issues, with some expertise in the second amendment as well. A lot of bloggers could learn from the civil tone of this blog -- i.e., no yelling, taunting or name-calling. Volokh believes writers should try to persuade others, not alienate them with overheated rhetoric.

Note that Volokh, like Reynolds, is a true libertarian: Conservatives are unlikely to agree with either of them on things like abortion and homosexuality.

4. Andrew Sullivan. An influential writer for Time, The New Republic and other print outlets. Perhaps the best-known openly gay conservative.

5. Kausfiles. A moderate-to-conservative Democrat, Mickey Kaus is utterly unsparing (and occasionally downright brutal) in his criticism of liberal excess, fellow democrats and the media. Doesn't write a lot, but is witty and sometimes offers extraordinary insights you won't get anywhere else.

6. Best of the Web. The Wall Street Journal's blog, written by James Taranto. A once-a-day read, it sums up a lot of current issues from a conservatives' point of view.

Yes, there are many many many many others. But if the conservative/libertarian blogosphere is like a tree, these are the trunk.

- Alaska Jack

• http://www.polipundit.com/
• http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/
• http://www.powerlineblog.com/
• http://oxblog.blogspot.com/
• http://www.instapundit.com/
• and of course, http://drudgereport.com/

http://www.instapundit.com/ - the king of all blogs
http://andrewsullivan.com/ - gone way down hill but still readable
http://www.allahpundit.com/- good mix of political fun
http://claytoncramer.com/weblog/blogger.html - guns and fun
http://www.powerlineblog.com/ - more right slant fun.

http://www.iraqthemodel.com/ - differnt view inside Iraq
http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/ - more good insight in iraq
http://www.iraq-iraqis.blogspot.com/ - and again

http://cbftw.blogspot.com/ - used to be one of the best blogs in Iraq until the man cracked down on him. But MUST READ THE ARCHIVES!

To keep abreast of liberty, I read the following:

Mises Blog
Lew Rockwell's Blog

To find out what the enemies of liberty are up to, I also read:

Daily Kos
Atrios
InstaPundit
Andrew Sullivan

Instapundit is hands down my go-to political weblog.

It offers a nice round-up of links from the blogosphere, along with the his own commentary.

It's run by Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor, and social liberal, everything else conservative.

The beauty of blogs is that Bias is readily apparent, and seldom denied, unlike oh, say, some cats in the mainream media.

If you really want to read a high-quality conservative blog, here are two from National Review Online:

• The Corner, a braided-blog with constributions by many of NR's writers, run by Kathryn Jean Lopez, and
• The Kerry Spot, penned by Jim Geraghty, whichs follows Kerry and his campaign closely, as well as related subjects. (The Kerry Spot was one of the best sites to follow for updates on Rathergate.

• http://www.powerlineblog.com/
• Instapundit
• Little Green Footballs
• http://www.allahpundit.com/
• Rather Biased, which perked back to life after the scandal broke.
• http://www.rathergate.com/, which sprang into being shortly after the scandal broke
• http://www.indcjournal.com/
• Finally, although I'm less of a regular reader, it was a poster on Free Republic who first broke the story.

Well, that should get you started. in truth, except for the NR blogs, I was only an occasional readers of the others before the Rathergate story broke, but now I'm much more of a regular reader, much to the detriment of my productivity...

Drudge.. the original proto-bloger..
National Review's The Corner. http://nationalreview.com/thecorner/corner.asp
Captains Quarters http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/
Instapundit http://instapundit.com/
Powerline http://www.powerlineblog.com/
Tim Blair http://timblair.spleenville.com/
BerkeleySquareBlog http://www.berkeleysquarejazz.com/blog/

Dailykos & Atrios for "opposition" research....

Try Instapundit. Lots of links from there.

Google for the AR-15 and the Ruger Mini 14

Read these two links:

ruger mini 14 vs ar 15

Marlin Camp 9. Scroll past the comments to the bottom till you see the pictures.

HTH HAND.

• Daily Kos
• Democratic Underground
• Talking Points Memo

• Instapundit
• Eject! Eject! Eject!
• Little Green Footballs

Not to criticize js7a--he gave you fair warning--but his list leans to the left. I don't know if I have the definitive right-leaning counterexample, but here's a list of guys who are biased right but seem to be fair in their analysis...
mainstream media:
Best of the Web Today
Andrew Sullivan
The Corner
blogs:
Instapundit
oxblog
JustOneMinute
Daniel Drezner
Captains Quarters
cartoons:
Cox and Forkum
Day by Day

All are blogs and/or openly opinionated. They are generally right wing. This is in no way a complete list, and should not even be considered the "best of", since I haven't spent a lot of time exploring. YMMV.

I'd actually be interested in hearing from people who knew of right-leaning blogs not on this list that they recommended. I am not trying to start a flame war about who's better or why Instapundit/Daily Kos is a snooty liar.

FREE DOWNLOADS AND COMPETITION: Okay, the InstaWife's book was selling on Amazon for $100 used, which led her to make it available for free download on her website. The used price is now $95.24, after being available for download for over a month, even though there's a comment on the Amazon page telling people where they can get it for free. I'll grant that this isn't scientific , but it certainly suggests that the availability of free downloads doesn't destroy the market for a product, even at a very high price differential

Perhaps Gizmodo is just parroting some party line he was fed by his puppet masters.

Fact is, the evidence show that people will buy $100 paper copies of books that they can get for free.

Such a crude and careless error on a fundamental point makes me suspect the other information.

Possibly the article was written to order to push the sales of e-books and readers. Having a link to it show up on /. smells like a paid advertisement.

I'll leave the other e-book problems, like the inability to resell a used book, and the fact you will lose all your books if the reader breaks, to others to pick apart.

Indeed.

Fortunately, Democrats have been listening to their base, and while network security may be a problem at the convetion, Some Democrats have been moving secret information the old-fashioned way:

In their pants.

Happily, they still have time to make sure that those who disagree with them will have to sit at the back of the bus:

Cement barriers, 8-foot-tall chain-link fencing, and heavy black netting have been installed around the protest zone outside the FleetCenter, angering protesters who say they will be penned in and closed off from Democratic National Convention delegates. Much of the area is located under abandoned elevated Green Line tracks that slope downward. The setup, which one netting installer called ''an internment camp," will force tall protesters at the southern end of the zone to lower their heads to avoid banging them on green metal girders.

I mentioned this in another comment on this story, but I figure the more I write it, the more will see it. YMMV, but my jurisdiction, although it uses evm's, has paper ballots available at the polling station. It's much faster than electronic voting (no waiting in line for a machine), to boot. So, everybody on /., and all their friends and family too, should get the word out to people to use the paper wherever possible.

You do not need to be aware of any information sources not sanctioned by Big Media