Wednesday, April 16, 2008

My Favorite Websites

I probably spend too much time on the Internet, although nowadays it is far and away my biggest source of news and information. Over time I've tended to gravitate to a central core of websites, and here are my favorites:

1. National Review Online (http://www.nationalreview.com). I regard National Review Online as my most-indispensable website. The quality and quantity of conservative political commentary on NRO is extremely high, and the tenor of the articles is almost always thoughtful and measured.
2. SteynOnline (http://steynonline.com/). Mark Steyn is simply the wittiest, most cogent, and most tell-it-like-it-is political writer of our time. His prose must be the envy of every left-leaning pundit in America.
3. Best of the Web Today (http://online.wsj.com/article/best_of_the_web_today.html). "Best of the Web Today" is really just a feature of the larger Wall Street Journal website, written by James Taranto. Taranto is masterful at deconstructing other people's writing and putting it in a logical context.
4. YouTube (http://youtube.com/). I'm constantly amazed at all the old video clips of bands from the 1960s and 1970s that can be viewed on YouTube. Just one example: Someone uploaded several clips from Finnish TV of the Spencer Davis Group (featuring a very young Steve Winwood) performing live in 1967. Who could have imagined, even ten years ago, that video that old, from that obscure a source, would find a world-wide audience?
5. Real Clear Politics (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/). A great source of political commentary from across the philosophical spectrum.
6. Lucianne.com (http://lucianne.com/). Lucianne.com is, in essence, a conservative version of DailyKos, where one can post links to articles and then comment on them. The quality of the commentary isn't always great (although it's certainly much less profane than that found on DailyKos), but it's often as instructive and insightful as the articles themselves.
7. eBay (http://www.ebay.com/). I've sort of reached a saturation point in terms of buying things on eBay, especially as sellers in general have become more savvy about the market value of the items they sell (thus making bargains increasingly hard to come by). In short, I buy things that I perceive I need or want (and can afford), and gradually I've met all those needs and wants; however, eBay remains a great place to find merchandise that you can't find at the local Wal-Mart.
8. SuperTopo Climbing Forum (http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/forum.html). SuperTopo is a commercial concern started by Chris McNamara, aid-climber extraordinaire, to sell rockclimbing "topos," or route maps/descriptions. The forum, despite being the cyber-hangout of scores of burnt-out old hippies with paleo-liberal views (and the inevitable ad hominem attacks that seem naturally to flow therefrom), is special for two reasons: (1) the regular participation of dozens of living rockclimbing "legends"; and (2) the posting of many interesting and hard-to-find climbing photos and articles.
9. Weekly Standard (http://www.weeklystandard.com/). The Weekly Standard is another conservative political site that often contains even-better content than NRO; I rate it lower, however, due to the limited quantity of online articles.
10. Classmates.com (http://www.classmates.com/). This site embodies a great concept -- bringing old school friends and acquaintances back together -- but it has two drawbacks from a practical perspective. The first is that much of the content is only available to paying members. The second is that most people's level of participation is so low (or non-existent, in the case of many of the folks I'd really like to know about) that the content isn't really worth paying for. (I'd say people generally aren't all that interested in being contacted or in revealing much about themselves, perhaps with good reason.)
11. ESPN (http://espn.go.com/). I used to visit this site much more often than I do now, but it's still the best overall Internet source for sports-related news and commentary.
12. ICECAP (http://icecap.us/). A great place to find articles and commentary concerning the overblown nature of herd-science's claims about anthropogenic climate change.
[13. Albuquerque Tribune (http://www.abqtrib.com/). The Trib website used to be one of my favorites, at least until the paper folded and they stopped updating the website. I liked the layout, the high level of content (we took the paper itself, but really only so that Dorine could do the puzzles), and, especially, the forum that followed each and every article, which was much nicer than having to write to the editor.]

[Update 1/14/2011: At this late date I'd include Facebook and Amazon.com in this list, and I probably would leave Classmates.com off but for the yearbooks it has uploaded to its site, which is its only feature worth paying for.]