Small nit, the Dude "abides", not "endures". Other than that, you get points for the Lebowski reference, as well as the articulate response to the vaunted Grey Lady.

Thanks for the nit. It now abides.

There are still stiff problems to be solved, not the least of which is that news sources that start out reliable don't always stay that way. That having been said, the Toolbar Times is, indeed, proving to be preferable to the pabulum and pontifications of the mainstream press. Those latter scoundrels have abused their privileges for far too long.

Here on Long Island, TAAGAS ATTUYBE, is the main course and the inhabitants think they are well fed. They feed at Newsday's trough. They can have the same dish from the N. Y. Times and be assured that they are intelligent to boot, a veritable feast!

Great point, especially if (in my case) you substitute "RSS reader" for "toolbar". I get more focused news faster and more accurately than ever before, in less time. But crucially there are MORE sources behind this news, it comes from everywhere, corrects itself, sometimes even contradicts itself and let's me see more of the big picture. All at less cost than ever before. Awesome.

And the best part... the wild card slot: When nobody has yet written on the object of my curiosity, there is that little search box I can use. My Toolbox Times has MUCH greater resource depth available than any print medium.

I had a similar experience sorting and culling blog bookmarks down to a "daily read" list. What has amazed me most about comparing MSM newspapers to blogs is the number of important stories they completely suppress. Before becoming a blog reader this year, I did not know I was only getting a highly filtered version of the "news" from MSM.

I never realized how much news I was NOT getting until I discovered blogging about a year ago. Let's never let the UN get their corrupt hands on this resource.

My Toolbar Times is:
Instapundit
Power Line
Michelle Malkin
Little Green Footballs
Captain's Quarters
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Drudge Report
The Indepundit
Wikipedia
Hugh Hewitt
Ranting Right Wing Howler
Confederate Yankee

Excellent post, and observations!

I use my.yahoo, but what I use it for is my "Toolbar Times," which consists of links down the left column. I can put a short plain english description, which helps, because what I write in the description dictates where it appears in the column, via the alpha sort that Yahoo applies. Got every one there, that tracelan has, too. I thought that was interesting.

Have yet to get serious on RSS feeds, though.