Recommended Blogs, Pt. 1

I asked for suggestions last year and this is what I received.

For an up-to-date, work-in-progress, link file--go to WritingReadings where I am building files for my students to access.

Courtesy of:

Adam J. Traveling and Teaching in Thailand and Co-founder of “Formerly Known as L’Bourgeoizine”

Derek Owens, author of “Composition and Sustainability” and founder of 21st Century Neighborhoods

Harry

Lisa (who left hers in the comments)

Michael Benton (Compiler)

Thivai Abhor (complainer)

Nick Lewis, co-founder of Progressive Blog Alliance

Joseph Thomas, Subversive Poet/Professor and co-founder of “Formerly Known as L’Bourgeoizine”

Kenneth Applebaum

Michael Miller

Rad Geek People’s Daily

Buyankasha

Abby Normal, disturbed Californian sowing seeds of destruction in the psychic wasteland of Southern Illinois.

Suggested Blogs:

وب‌لوگ
I found this blog because they linked to my Dialogic website and I stayed for a long time browsing the links on the left side. An interesting mix of links to cutting edge theoretical writings. Main page postings are in Farsi (I’m assuming here because I can’t read it and I saw it mentioned)—even though I can’t read these the links on the left could keep me diverted for a long time—high quality and intellectual. I would like to know what the title means? (TA)

Anarchogeek
Rabble says this about another site but it works for this one as well: “Ever wonder what other anarchist bloggers were thinking? Tired of getting relegated outside a two sided debate between warbloggers and bleeding heart liberals? Blogging is personal DYI media, and that's the bread and butter of anarchist media making.” (TA)

Andrew Sullivan
I check in on him for a more moderate perspective, and for a gay-rights perspective. (AJ)

BartCop
Nearly daily, containing more news about the right's shenanigans than you can shake a stick at, but unafraid to critique the left's panderings and missteps where he sees error. He also has an unhealthy fixation on Tiger Woods, tequila and Shirley Manson from the band Garbage. He puts out a webcast radio show (which is by subscription only, so I've never heard more than the free snippets he posts), and often courts debate from his rightist detractors in live chatroom combat. (KA)

The Beat
Heidi Macdonald used to be a friend of mine, and she remains one of the snarkier writers on the comics industry and all surrounding subcultures. Politics don't tend to enter into it at all; this is where you go if you want your first peeks at what Jessica Alba will look like playing the Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four movie. (KA)

Body and Soul
This is some good thinking that intertwines culture and politics. Check out this post that works itself in and our and between Ella Enchanted and the shenanigans of the War on Terror to make a statement about the fairy tales that are in play in today’s culture. Progressive, Anit-Bush… (MM)


Bohemian Mama
Personal blog of “activist politics with a dose of mama-hood.” A great series of postings on the state of affairs in our country on the 40th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act (Sept. 25, 2004). Definitely Anti-Bush! (NL)

BoingBoing
Likely this will be on just about everyone's lists. Tech-savvy, affiliated with other net staples like Wired and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, as well as old media outlets like NPR and, well, Wired. Their collective finger is usually right on the zeitgeist, if not defining it outright. Definitely to the left, though perhaps a more libertarian left than anything else. (KA)

Captain’s Blog
Ultra-Conservative. Defender of Christianity. Hates long haired hippie freaks and people who do not support the war 100%. He visited my website so I figured I would put him in here to balance out the list. (TA)

Chapel Perilous
Collaborative in spirit but mostly the work of one guy who goes by the handle Bsti Natosi who, with his wife Niqita, run an online sock store. He claims no political affiliation, though he's more of a libertarian who'll grudgingly vote Kerry; the admission and embracing of which has recently earned him the enmity of his more right regulars. CP is one of the major members of the blogring known as The Cabal, most of whom are refugees from the sTaRe Network, formerly united by http://www.incunabula.org. (KA)

Die Puny Humans
Warren Ellis also used to be a friend, but if Heidi is just inactive, he's outrightly exiled. Still, he has a knack for finding the more depraved elements of culture and shining a glaring spotlight on them for the entertainment of your more nihilistic types. If you say that I sent you I will deny ever hearing your name. (KA)

Discordian Research Technologies News
A collaborative blog of the Barry Bittwister Cabal of Discordians, and
probably the organizing agent of the aforementioned Cabal. News of the Weird is the speciality of the house, though they tend left, sometimes to the brink of anarchy, as is fitting of Eros-worshippers. (KA)

Dr. Menlo
The quote on this site says it all: “Promoting people over profits since 2000.” A wild, dangerous, chaotic, fun, transgressive and sexy site. Excellent visuals! Dr. Menlo is the reason I first started blogging—I read an essay posted on another site in which Dr Menlo explained the significance of blogging and how to get started (thanks!). (TA)

Education/Technology
I’m a reformed techno-luddite who is way behind the curve so I appreciate a little bit of explanation about these devices. Tim Lauer provides a regular journal describing some of gear available, projects using new technologies, and it is centered around my profession. (MB)

El Oso, El Moreno and El Abogado
One of my favorite weblogs. This collective blog is a total package (make sure to visit other sections)… politics, language lessons, photos from around the world, arts and music, literary musings, place-based writing and autobiographical reflections. An added bonus is that they hail from my hometown and keep me up-to-date on the happenings there. Beware, if you leave a comment you “must” put a bogus email address in the space or it will wipe your efforts. Oso you need to change that? El Oso sent me a long list of recommended blogs but I couldn’t open his attachment because I am a luddite—check their site for recommendations. (MB)

Eschaton
I'm sure you know this one. He's a bitter thirty-something economist in Philly, and very far-left, albeit within the bounds of the DNC. It might be fairer to characterize him as anti-GOP. I wouldn't characterize the site as rigorous, and it wears its biases proudly. Still, it manages to gather and present all manner of interesting information--I treat it as something of a clearing-house for left-leaning talking points. Additionally, his anti-Big Media perspective, and his economic criticisms, are worth considering. (AJ)

Feministe
“Lauren of Feministe is a single mother of one and full-time student living in central Indiana surrounded by corn, soybean fields, and 180 degrees of sky. She gardens, knits, and blogs in what little spare time she has, and hopes to graduate sometime before the turn of the next century. She started blogging to get over the isolation of new motherhood almost five years ago, and has stuck with it ever sense, knowing that if one can’t find fellow-minded folks in Indiana, one must look elsewhere.” Wide range of subjects, with a heavy emphasis on politics and music. (RGPD)

Front Page Magazine
Collective blog for the magazine http://www.frontpagemag.com/ An example of the far right …
(AJ)

fUSION Anomaly
Very likely the most venomously left-wing political news site out there. They say the nasty shit about the right so that just about anything lesser I can say seems diplomatic by comparison. At first it seems disingenuous how they sometimes edit stuff in that doesn't appear in the original cited text, but once you get used to the running jokes, not to mention that they link to the original articles, you learn to enjoy the invectives. (KA)

Inspector Lohmann
The Inspector escaped from the belly of the machine and has quickly become a respected critic of its operations. I enjoy his patchwork quilts of references and critiques. (TA)

Jesus General
Gen. JC Christian gives us God's own take on current events. A 10 on the Manly Scale of Absolute Gender Scale the General is not a homosexual. Abby who suggested the Genral states that: "The General takes swipes at the wingnuttery surrounding us and has the balls to actually send the letters." (AN)



Lines in the Sand
John Gibbs a contributor to Wealth Bondage maintains this individual blog. Intense, intelligent and wide-ranging. Progressive focus on social justice issues. Example posting: Green Jazz (recommended by Harry; blurb by TA)

Little Green Footballs
Sometimes I skim through Little Green Footballs, one of the more popular right-wing blogs (like an anti-Atrios). They're pretty repulsive people there, though--very openly racist, for instance. Dr. Menlo hosts a parody of the site “L.G.F. Quiz” (AJ)

Memory Hole Blog
Associated with the Memory Hole site run by Russ Kirk. Stated mission of “rescuing knowledge, freeing information.” Breaking news on the war and other important world events. Memory Hole was one of the first sites to run Russ Kirk’s photos of returning coffins of American soldiers. (TA)

Michael Bérubé Online
Michael Berube was one of the original controversial Cult Studs. This was a nickname (not always complimentary) given to a few progressive academics who came to fame in the late 80s/90s for engaging the aggressive, conservative right, opinion-makers in public forums. Bérubé is very intelligent, has a sense of humor, reaches out to younger intellectuals and he was very approachable and gracious when he was at the University of Illinois. (blurb by MB, recommended by AJ)

Mighty Girl
Heavy emphasis on shopping experiences… with some insights into gender and relationship politics. (blurb by MB; recommended by Lisa; condemned by TA)

A Mixed Blog
A collective blog production of The Multiracial Activist “a libertarian oriented activist journal covering social and civil liberties issues of interest to individuals who perceive themselves to be ‘biracial’ or ‘multiracial,’ ‘interracial’ couples/families and ‘transracial’ adoptees.” Lots of information/posting with very unique content and perspectives. Obviously we are talking about a progressive viewpoint. (MB)

Near Near Future
Ostensibly a tech blog, it's actually more about the ways in which tech is being applied towards more artistic, expressionistic ends. Right now they're featuring stories about USB drives as necklace lockets, prefab modular housing, postal service envelope hacking and a spinoff of "Wallace & Gromit." There's no overt political content, but the blogger is a French woman so, well, you do the math. (KA)

Net Politik
Collective blogging site. Progressive site, with wide-ranging analysis, extensive links, great quotes, and intelligent essays. As an added bonus—good aesthetics! Part of their statement of purpose: “We are a fellowship of progressive bloggers; there are no leaders, and there are no followers. We are not some petty "citizen's media"; we are writers, thinkers, and activists. We are not a part of the "new media". We are part of a tradition that is old as Thomas Paine's essay Common Sense. We recognize that ideas have more power than a hydrogen bomb -- and we hope to take advantage of that.” (TA)

Orcinus
David Neiwert is a freelance journalist based in Seattle. His reportage for MSNBC.com on domestic terrorism won the National Press Club Award for Distinguished Online Journalism in 2000. He is the author of Death on the Fourth of July: The Story of a Killing, a Trial, and Hate Crime in America, (Palgrave/St. Martin's, 2004), In God's Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest (1999, WSU Press), as well as the forthcoming Strawberry Days: The Rise and Fall of the Bellevue Japanese-American Community (Palgrave/St. Martin's Press, 2005). His freelance work can be found at Salon.com, the Washington Post, MSNBC and various other publications. (TA)

Pooponpolitics
Don’t let the weblog name fool you—Buyankasha does some good sifting and analysis. Two contributors from Wisconsin—definitely reflects the left-leaning politics of a state that once gave us a communist mayor (TA).

Public Domain Progress
Michael Miller’s weblog is focused on linking and referring to essays and articles. Brief introductions—good selection of links. Progressive—not for Bush. (TA)

Rad Geek People’s Daily
Web developer Charles Johnson’s site reflects his web skills and the content is informed by his wide-ranging interests in philosophy and radical politics: “As you may have discerned from my constant growling on the subject, my politics are anarchist, radical feminist, anti-war, anti-racist, pro-labor, populist, and humanitarian. I identify closely with the Left and the Libertarian movement (although I am at times intensely critical of both), and the political programme that results is perhaps best described by Benjamin Tucker’s apt phrase, voluntary socialism. Philosophically, I’m chiefly interested in modal metaphysics, pure metaphysics and epistemology, responses to skepticism, philosophical method, and the role of philosophical criticism in building a free society. My influences include ancient philosophy (e.g., Socrates, Aristotle), German anti-psychologism (e.g., Kant, Frege, Husserl, Wittgenstein), common sense and ordinary language philosophy (e.g., G. E. Moore, J. L. Austin, Wittgenstein), and radical political theory (e.g., Benjamin Tucker, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Emma Goldman, James Baldwin, Murray Rothbard, Marilyn Frye, John Stoltenberg, Chris Sciabarra). Bêtes noires include: skepticism, anti-realism, relativism, psychologism, reductionism, scientism, positivism, irrationalism, psychologism, Hobbesian moral psychology, elitism, anti-intellectualism, modernism, ahistoricism, authoritarian Progressivism and misanthropic Romanticism posing as Leftism, vanguardism, fascism, Keynsianism, racism, male supremacy, pornography and slimy apologists therefor, nationalism, militarism, collectivism, corporate privilege, heterosexist privilege, marriage privilege, and the State as such.” Always interesting and great visual aesthetics.


The River
Mostly political critiques, also occasional cultural commentary and autobiographical posts. The first blogger I met IRL (TA)

Scratchings
Individual blog run by Harry. Harry is an informed and voracious reader who keeps me up-to-date on new blogs and books. Wicked humor and biting commentary. Also some mind-blowing art and music links. (TA)

Silliman’s Blog
A weblog focused on contemporary poetry and poetics. One of my most trusted comrades (and poet) Joseph Thomas turned me on to this site. Silliman makes poetry seem a live to me and for that I appreciate what he has to say. (JT and TA)

Spontaneous Arising
When I first came across Michael H's site I read his bio and said, oh shit, a new age looney-tune (sorry Michael, I'm a native-Californian and they are as plentiful as the sand on the beaches, and you were writing a novel about the "the oracular art of Genital Divination™"--its sort of a gut reaction--by the way I would like a definition of OAGD?)... but because of Buyankasha’s recommendation I revisited it a couple of times and damn I'm liking what I am seeing. The last four posts were about Ward Churchill on imperialism; Michigan militia attacks on Michael Moore's character; the strange similarity between Dubya and the protagonist of the movie Being There; and Oregon Microbrews (is there a better subject?)! Michael H. later posted an explanation of who he is and what OGAD means Michael also has a strong theme of exploring spirituality and consciousness. (Buyankasha and TA)

Talking Points Memo
I find this to be far more rigorous and well-reasoned. You probably already know this site, and Joshua Micah Marshall. If not, here's his self-description: "Joshua Micah Marshall is a writer living in Washington, DC. He is a Contributing Writer for the Washington Monthly and a columnist for The Hill. His articles on politics, culture and foreign affairs have also appeared in The American Prospect, The Atlantic Monthly, The Boston Globe, The Financial Times, The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Post, The New York Times, Salon, Slate, and other publications. He has appeared on Crossfire (CNN), Hannity and Colmes (FOX), Hardball (MSNBC), Late Edition (CNN), NewsNight with Aaron Brown (CNN), O'Reilly Factor (FOX), Reliable Sources (CNN), Rivera Live (CNBC), Washington Journal (C-SPAN) and talk radio shows across the United States. He has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a doctorate in American history from Brown University." He offers fairly in-depth political analyses of all manner of current situations. (AJ)

Thoughts on the Eve of the Apocalypse
Introductory posting of news reports and critical essays—generally has a negative view of the current administration and its policies. (TA)

Ubu Web
One of the sites that just blew me away when I visited it after a recommendation from Joseph Thomas. It is a combination archive/blog/metacommentary on the world of experimental culture. A stunning collection! (JT and TA)

Wealth Bondage
These collective bloggers are masters of wickedly funny posting (think of laughter in its subversive manifestation) that provide intelligent insights and critical analysis. One of my favorite sites because they force me to assess and reassess my interpretations of their creative posts and the juxtapositions of sources/stances/voices bring-to-light contemporary absurdities. They also recognize the power of linking as a form of creative and critical meta-commentary. (TA)

What She Said!
Extensive blog-archive dedicated to bringing notice to progressive women bloggers. A much needed perspective in the blogosphere. (Nick)

Where Project
Tim Lindgren's whereproject.org is a must see...lots of good stuff & links there... (DO) With a recommendation from Derek I knew that this had to be a good weblog and I wasn’t disappointed. This is a very unique blog that is centered around the theme of “place.” Tim states that it is: “an experiment in place-based blogging designed to help me explore the relationship between literacy, place, and the web … As part of this project, I'm wrestling with the question, ‘Can the web help us develop a deeper sense of place?’” (Recommended by Derek, blurbed by MB)

Z-Net Blog
“A Community of people committed to social change.” This collective blog is the headquarters for Noam Chomsky and other radical critics. A part of the vast and radical-left community associated with Z-Net and Z-Magazine (AJ)