Instapundit

While I don't always agree with his views, I really appreciate Instapundit as a clearinghouse of sorts for news which you don't hear about in other places (even Drudge). He's great at linking items which you might not hear about otherwise.

For instance, here he links this post by another blogger which in turn quotes a story demonstrating our recent battlefield victories in Afghanistan, contra the doom-and-gloom reporting of the mainstream press.

And in this post he discusses similar positive coverage of Iraq, again, contrary to what the mainstream media portrays.

And finally, he here quotes another blogger who writes the following gem:

According to this week's story from Scripps Howard News Service, there are 140,000 troops in Iraq, and there have been 286 fatalities from all causes since the war began in March (about 24 weeks ago). That gives us an annualized death rate of 443 per 100,000. Only about half of these deaths (147) were in combat, for a combat death rate of 228 per 100,000.

According to Center for Disease Control / National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, there were 21,836 young black men (age 18-30) in Washington DC in 2000, the latest year that mortality data is available. The total number of deaths in this group from all causes was 132, with 95 homicides. i.e. the death rate for this group was 604 per 100,000 and the murder rate was 435 per 100,000.

In other words, a young black male soldier from Washington DC would have been 36% more likely to die by staying at home than by serving in active duty in the Iraq war, and almost twice as likely to be murdered at home than to be killed in combat. Yes, that's horribly sad, but it puts a few things in perspective.

Instapundit's comment? "I think we need regime change in the D.C. government, for starters. The death toll is just too high."

While I often disagree with his libertarianism, Glenn Reynolds (that's his real name) is a great source of "alternative news."