Where I Get My News

I get my news from a variety of places and through a variety of ways. I browse websites, use RSS feeds, read emails I have signed up for, and follow some twitter feeds.  None of these ways is perfect, and I am not always consistent with them, finding that I have other things to do than follow the news—though it is important to follow the news in my line of work. Here are a few places/ways I get news:

National News

I really like Doug Wilson’s blog as much as anything. Not so newsy, but when he writes about a news issue, he does it from as solid a Biblical perspective as you will find. Plus, lots of good faith/theological posts as well. I also like Albert Mohler’s blog—it also covers news and religion. Peter Leithart’s blog is more religious than newsy, but is good nonetheless. World Magazine is more newsy and always from a strong biblical perspective, but a bit busy. The easiest place to find national news stories selected from a conservative perspective is the Drudge Report. The easiest places to find commentary on national news from a conservative perspective are National Review Online and Red State.

There are two emails that I get from NRO that I like and read quite often: The Morning Jolt by Jim Geraghty (daily) and The G-File by Jonah Goldberg (weekly)—you can sign up for them here. I also like Mark Steyn but he seems to have left NRO recently—you can find his blogs here.  Red State also sends out a good email, its Morning Briefing. the Wall Street Journal editorial page also often has good commentary on national news, but requires a paid subscription. I recently discovered Lucianne.com and like it—she picks a few interesting stories each day and posts brief summaries about them with a link to the original.  The NCPA also has some daily policy news posts from a policy wonk perspective. And the Acton Institute blog has newsy posts from a biblical perspective. A bit wonkish but good is the Mercatus Center. I really like newgeography.com, though it is more cultural writing than everyday news. Finally, I like baylyblog.com—they write about news in the church, especially the PCA. And though it isn’t really newsy at all, I love Douglas Bond’s blog and his books.

Texas News

Start with Michael Sullivan’s group, Empower Texans. Their blog can tell you a lot about what is going on in the world of Texas politics. So can their sister organization, AgendaWise, though it is really insider baseball stuff. My organization, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, has some good info about Texas public policy; not so newsy, though our blog is more so. Breitbart-Texas is relatively new but is off to a good start. PushJunction collects headlines from around the state and is a pretty good source from a conservative perspective. Texas Values has a pretty good blog. The mainstream, i.e., liberal, media cover Texas politics—they are good news sources, but you have to read them through a very strong filter: Houston Chronicle, Texas Monthly, Texas Tribune, andDallas Morning News. Twitter is also a pretty good way to follow Texas politics: you can search for the hashtag #txlege, or follow conservatives: @MQSullivan, @pvenable, @jonathansaenzTX, and liberals: @evensmith, @quorumreport, and neutral: @TXelects.

RSS Reader

Most of these sources have RSS feeds, which I really like. If you know anything about them, they are not too hard to use if you have a good RSS reader. I think the very best is http://feedly.com/. It allows me to easily scroll through the headlines from many of the sites and just pick the articles I want to read. Saves a lot of time.

Thinking Economically

Finally, I have another blog, Thinking Economically, where I write about things from more a an economic perspective. I also send out Thinking Economically as an email newsletter about every two weeks or so with some extra thoughts not online. Send me an email at bpeacock@tortillacoast.net if you want to receive Thinking Economically as an email.