I commend to you a process I stumbled into, for selecting websites. Maybe in doing so I’ll be stating the obvious, but maybe not. I found it to be a great boon to be able to enter my email address at various blog sites for my interests, in philosophy, politics, literature, and humor. At first I was a little surprised at how much good stuff I could get for only the cost of getting a few emails I had less interest in than others. I subscribed to all kinds of things, and then found I was swamped with emails. Clearly, some discernment was called for. Now, I ruthlessly purge sites that become burdensome, but I’m grateful to stumble across new ones that are worth following.
I’m curious what sites you especially like. And to reciprocate, here are mine, in more or less descending order of importance:
www.albertnorton.com. Forgive me, I can’t very well leave off my own site, nor fail to give it poll position.
www.babylonbee.com. A satire site for the Christian worldview. Sometimes hits close to home, always funny. I read this every day, almost every post, and no, I’m not ashamed to have this as my number #2.
www.prufrocknews.com. Fantastic. A blog by Micah Mattix in which he curates (much like Rod Dreher) cultural developments. Not the usual postmodern drivel, instead this culls the best of the best, it’s worth your attention. Affiliated with The Weekly Standard.
www.roger-scruton.com. If you haven’t read Roger Scruton, you should.
www.kenboa.org. I’m a fan of Ken Boa, a local theologian who posts a daily devotion guide. I get these daily and try to keep up with the devotions there. Start with reading one chapter of the Bible, which he provides the link to, and then just read and pray and finish in maybe 10 or 15 minutes.
www.thebigconversation.show. Titled Unbelievable?. Consists of excellent debates or other video presentations on large metaphysical questions, routinely.
www.theamericanconservative.com. Specifically, the blogs of Rod Dreher. I’m a big fan. He has some good commentary, but I like this site a lot because he serves as a kind of curator for other very timely articles and blogs. I get an email daily and there are usually several selections of posts in that email, so I can decide from the title if it’s something I’m interested in or not. I usually read one or two of the articles/posts per day, and that’s a lot for me, because the content is so good.
www.steynonline.com. The inimitable Mark Steyn. I get it weekly and always read one or two of the articles.
www.thepublicdiscourse.com. To show you I am actually a serious person, I refer you to this think-tank (Witherspoon Institute) site with well thought-out discussions. Comes out almost daily. I filter these by topic just like anything else, but they’re particularly in-depth so I invest the time when the topic seems to hit the center of my interests, and disregard otherwise.
www.firstthings.com. This is in-depth social commentary from a Christian, and especially Catholic, perspective. I get the print edition, too. This is meaty stuff and I don’t mind the Catholic emphasis, in fact this magazine has contributed to bringing me to the opinion that the Reformation break meant an unfortunate tendency among Protestants to disregard or at least de-emphasize the rich heritage of development of theology in the first millennium-plus following Christ’s Ascension.
www.stream.org. I get this not quite daily. Several headlines each post. If time permits, I read one or two.
www.lithub.com. This is a great site for literary developments, though decidedly left-leaning. I was getting too many of these but I adjusted preferences to once/week, so now one day a week (usually Saturday) I get a selection of things. They’re hyperlinked in such a way that you can easily peruse the list to see if there’s anything you’re interested in.
www.jordanbpeterson.com. I’m fairly choosy about what I listen to here, because sometimes he’s going up against big names who are flyweights in the ring. Or else Peterson is just that good, one or the other. But to me his best stuff is just him speaking, like with his fantastic series on the Bible, which were transcribed in addition to being made available on youtube.
www.nationalreview.com. I gave up on the magazine some time ago, after having read it for more than 20 years, but this is a good source of clickable headlines.
http://www.maxwella.com/the-weekend-reader/. A weekly curated set of links, from someone who advocates reading substantive material, and not snippets all the time.
www.city-journal.org. I like the writing of Myron Magnet, especially The Dream and the Nightmare. He sometimes blogs on this site. Otherwise, I look at the daily offerings and probably read one or two a week.
www.nypost.com. I pick up the New York Daily Post whenever I can. It’s thought of as tabloid journalism, but I often read exceptionally well-researched articles. Avoid it if you can’t take a joke or you think puns are beneath you.
www.patheos.com. Lots to choose from here. I read less of this than I used to. Too many angry atheists just spinning off headlines, so that it’s hard to sort through to good substantive posts.
www.corechristianity.com. I skim the headlines. I don’t read many of them, because a lot of them are time-to-do-my-blog posts, rather than in-depth, substantive essays. But there are some good ones in there, too.
www.theareopagus.org. More occasional than a lot of the sites, but what’s there is good.
Not an exhaustive list, but includes the more general-interest sites I subscribe to, as of right now. If this list makes you wonder, I’ll add that I get more than my fill of left-leaning input, from NPR, The New York Times, Time, and most mainstream news outlets. I sometimes scout around for thoughtful leftist blogs that are similar in depth to those listed above, but so far I’m not having a lot of luck. I’d appreciate your suggestions there.
And your suggestions for substantive blogs of any kind — please note them in the comments.
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