Maggie's Farm

Political

Okay, let's get the ugly stuff out of the way first.

Hot Air — There's no question Hot Air has become the site du jour when it comes to hot conservative political news of the day.  Commentary sites like Pajamas and Townhall tend to focus on more general topics, whereas the Hot Air gang keys in on the hot story of the hour.  Ed was just voted CPAC's 'Blogger of the Year', and deservedly so.

Neal Boortz — Sometimes it seems like Neal's the only scribbler on the planet who's really got his finger on the button.  For example, do you remember the summer before last when the left-wing Air America radio show was having financial difficulties and going down the drain?  All the right-wing bloggers could do was dance in the streets with glee.  Meanwhile, Neal had a contribution link on his site to help keep Air America afloat.  Why?  Because, with a newly-elected Democratic congress and the Fairness Doctrine suddenly back on the table, Neal contended that the last thing we wanted was for the equation to become even more lopsided than it already was, thereby feeding fuel to the Fairness Doctrine fire.  I mean, duh!  Yet Neal was the only one I saw who took this brave stance.  Check in with his site after 9 am when he wraps up the blog and goes on the air.

RealClearPolitics — One of the better link aggregate sites.  You'll have to fight off the occasional liberal article as they strive for 'balance', but you'll see links that you won't see anywhere else.

Pajamas Media — If all the above doesn't slake your thirst for political tidbits, I suppose the next stop is Pajamas.  They've really caught fire lately and have led the pack on both ClimateGate and ObamaCare issues.

Townhall — Not quite as diverse and entertaining as Pajamas, Townhall boasts some of the most prestigious conservative writers in the biz, including Ann Coulter, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt, Bill O'Reilly, Michelle Malkin, and my personal fave, Debra J. Saunders, the only conservative writer on the San Francisco Chronicle and a devout AGW denier/skeptic/heretic from the beginning.  I cringe to think of the grief she's taken over the years from her fellow Chronicle writers.

Payback time, Deb.

Link Sites

Linkiest — Not only does this small site highlight some of the better conservative articles of the day, it also has a healthy dose of humor, from the latest kooky video to the latest themed gallery of clever pics.  And, assuming you're a cigar-chompin', gun-totin', dawg-lovin', red-blooded American male such as moi, there's always a supermodel bikini shoot in there somewhere.

Instapundit — Glenn has always done a nice job of balancing between political stuff and everything else.  I can honestly say that if it weren't for Glenn, I'd hardly ever get an update on the latest in nanotechnology.  And you'll say the same thing, too.

Right Wing News — The links at the top are nice, but I like the expanded section down below.  There are a bunch of excellent writers in the stable, although sometimes it's a little frustrating that the commentary accompanying a link or quote isn't longer.

Drudge Report — Discounting the fact that he vastly inflates his numbers using every web trick in the book, and discounting the fact that he hasn't had an official 'scoop' in over a decade, his site still comes up with the occasional gem.  I usually glance over the articles just to see what other people are deeming important that day.

Fark — I include this because of one interesting fact.  The format is a list of "non-news" articles that readers have submitted, usually from some small-town paper detailing some local oddball event.  The thing is, very occasionally one of these small stories will be the spark that eventually leads to some huge 'national outcry' on somebody's part, often flamed by some A-List blogger who spotted it first on Fark.  So if you're into knowing the scoop before everybody else, Fark has to be on your daily rounds.

Theo Spark — Speaking of bubbleheaded bleached-blonde beach bimbos, Theo's is worth the daily stop.  Theo also has great taste in vids, usually of the bouncy, healthy, athletic variety, ifyouknowwhatimean.

Entertainment

Cracked — On the humorous side, I think some of the stuff on Cracked is unparalleled.  Note I said "some"; much of it is inane dribble.  Once you get caught up, I view this as a weekly event; spending an hour or two chuckling at the latest on a mellow Sunday afternoon.  Down to the lower-right is a 'Categories' section if you're serious about going back through previous articles.  I particularly like the way they dissected the 'Terminator' and 'Back To The Future' timelines.  Very well done.  Other sites of this genre include Guyism, Manofest, Coed Mag, Pajiba and Unreality.

GraphJam — Like Cracked, some of the entries are seriously lame, but some of them are flat-out brilliant.  The link goes to my post on it.

BoingBoing — This is kind of a 'gizmo' site, from articles on constructing new devices using arcane technology ("steampunk"), to the latest high-tech doo-dad.  It occasionally comes up with a real winner.  There's a nasty left-wing political bent you'll have to get around, but it's a good, once-a-week skip-through.

Video Clips — I've never found what I'd call a 'good' site of the latest fun video clips.  As you know, most posted web clips are pure, unadulterated dreck.  Still, now and then you'll come across a real keeper.  Various sites I have listed are Flixxy, Caught On Video, LiveLeak, College Humor, and my own humble collection is here.

Movie Clips — If you're into movies, you might like to spend a couple of hours some rainy day checking out my custom movie 'trailers'.  (Mac users will need a program that allows them to play streaming WMV files, sorry)

Misc

Dylan Send-A-Message — Place your message inside a Dylan video clip

Wayback Machine — See what a web site looked like in the past.

Whatever Happened To — A 'where are they now?' site

MooM — Huge list of photo galleries

Pixdaus — One of the best reader-submitted pic sites around

Church Sign Generator — Make your own church sign

Empire State Building — An amazing interactive panoramic view

Prank A Telemarketer — One for the ages

Readers' Suggestions

We'll just do this in the order received.  I didn't include absolutely every suggestion, but most.  Some of the suggestions, like reference sites, I'm setting aside for a future post.

The Pioneer Woman — Claim is she's a good storyteller and there are some tasty recipes on the site.  Apparently, she was a city-bred girl who fell in love with a cowboy.  Title of her first book?  Black Heels To Tractor Wheels.  Now that's classy.

Internet Movie Database — A couple of readers reminded me that the IMDb is more than just a reference stop.  Like Wikipedia, you can get lost in there for hours as you chase down interesting tidbits on movies, actors & crew.  And, just to note, although it says "Movie" in the title, it covers the entire TV spectrum, including sections on different TV series, pages for each episode, the whole deal.

David Lebovitz — Ah, an American gourmet hanging out in Paris, imbibing in the delicacies therein and suffering the good life so that we don't have to.  Whutta guy.  For the latest in cheese, truffles and foie gras updates, Dave's your man-on-the-spot.

Opera Chic — "The other night at la Scala, the premiere of the new Tannhauser directed by La Fura dels Baus went down quite badly, with loud, insistent boos and catcalls drowning out the final applause."  That's right, folks.  Even opera has a sordid underbelly.

Sarcasm Society — You know what you're in for when you see, right below the site's name, "We would love to hear what you think!"  Su-uu-ure, you would.  The few articles I read were both clever and polished.

Atlas Obscura — I suppose "A compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities and esoterica" sums it up fairly well.  Main quibble; articles aren't long enough.  Best feature; you can zero in on local articles of interest by country, state or town.

Neatorama and MentalFloss — These go in with the 'Cracked' bunch up above.  In typical eclectic fashion, you'll glance over the first three articles and think they're totally lame, then you'll think the fourth article is the funniest thing you've read all month.

Dogwork — For those of you with a dogged nature (or pet), this looks like a fun site.  Cat lovers, check out the 'Human Cat Perch' video.

Big Hollywood — This site is kind of an enigma, because part of it is just fun, innocent movie and TV gossip, but the dark side is All Political, All The Time, and is as serious as any right-wing political screed can get.  Maybe it works for some, but mixing the two genres just doesn't get it for me.

The Furious D Show — Lots of interesting Hollywood insider stuff (and "respectable", as I requested the other day), but penalized twenty yards for a horrific layout, with huge fonts and a long, unwieldy page.  The guy's really throwing himself into it, though, and probably occasionally pops up with a real insider tidbit.

Astronomy Pic of the Day — A couple of clever things could be done with these, like make the daily pic your screensaver shot of the day, or Desktop background, or just stare at it while munching on breakfast.

The Hubble Site — A knock-out selection of gallery pics and lots of other goodies to awe and marvel at.  Most pic sites, like the above, try to save bandwidth by optimizing the hell out of their pics (which degrades the quality), but this site offers up the good stuff.

Strange Maps — This might actually be the largest collection of maps — of any type — on the planet, august institutions and the Smithsonian notwithstanding.  It's quite a phenomenal collection, and each map has accompanying text so the Search feature works fairly well when it comes to zeroing in on some subject.

Consumerist — If you're looking for "eclectic business news", this is it.  Subjects range from Bank of America customers being the country's "crappiest credit card customers" (that would be me, thanks) to the latest Wal-Mart outrage, to whether or not frozen pantyhose lasts longer.

Cronaca — Here's an interesting site with an archeological theme, but with a focus on the latest digital and genetic techniques used to unravel the arcane mysteries.

Junk Food Science — This lady has stopped blogging for a while, and it's hard to blame her.  Jeez, what a depressing site.  Just picture all the junk science you've been handed about global warming... on your dinner plate.  A great site with lots of info, but only for the stout of heart.

Stuck In Customs — Kind of a 'photo-of-the-day' site, but some pretty spectacular pictures and lots of commentary on how he achieved his effects.  Good example here.

The Presurfer — When this guy claims to be a "full-time blogger", he means it.  I got to the bottom of the fairly long home page, just chock-full of interesting goodies, only to discover those were just his posts from the past three days.  I wasn't planning on including any bloggers on the list, but this guy's in a separate league.

American Digest — While I appreciated this site's eclectic nature, it took me a while to realize what was missing: nature articles.  Just another example of why Maggie's shines in this department.  For example, I had to scroll seven-eighths the way down the home page before I saw any pics of hot, scantily-clad babes!  This kind of reprehensible oversight should earn it a D-minus in anyone's book.  Thankfully, they then said some really, really bad things about Al Gore so all was forgiven.

Arts & Letters Daily — I suppose when your site motto is Veritas odit moras, that says it all.  Daily posts on books, mags and travels.

Sippican Cottage — Just a small shout-out to our local blog buddy who weathered the recent storm along with us.  Furniture maker, blog writer, hog slopper — ol' Sipps does it all.