I have to confess I find it incredibly difficult to find blogs that are worth reading. Which given the tens of millions that are supposed to exist is quite depressing.

Political blogs are no exception. As an individualist I can find no end of left-wing, right-wing, religious, anarchist, libertarian and even nihilistic blogs, but pure individualism? They're about as common as rocking-horse droppings.

So these are a few of the political blogs I like, not because I necessarily agree with everything they say, but I may like the way that they say it, or just agree with either their analysis or their conclusion, but not both.

So feel free to read on. Some of them you might have heard of and some you might not want to hear of, but what's life without a little adventure in to the unknown?

One of the best. He does swear occasionally, so if you are sensitive about such things it may not be for you, but I love pretty much everything he writes. He does suffer from the delusion that some how things can be changed ( a very common delusion amongst humans, I find) but his analysis is great.

I think he still describes himself as a left libertarian but he hasn't really posted in a couple of months since he had heart problems and had to spend a less than twenty-four hours in hospital and got a bill for $15,000. The only income he has are the donations he gets through his blog so quite how he is going to survive is anybody's guess.

Arthur Silber:

Various online liberals regularly indulge in notably treacly, self-flattering, vacuous sentimentality -- "the American public," indeed (which, to the extent it can be identified, is an ignorant and frequently violent ass) -- but as I discussed in "The Elites Who Rule Us" (and here as well, on a narrower issue), the American government does not exist to serve "the people," whoever the hell they are. It serves the ruling class: it provides them with untold weath and power, it coddles them, it nurtures them, and it makes them still richer and still more powerful. There is no conflict between the aims of business and of government; their aims are identical on every point of importance. You, "the people," do not figure in their calculations. Their nods to "serving the people" are, as I regularly note, the propaganda used to drug you into unthinking acceptance, and into the willingness to grant them still more power.

I love people who can articulate what I am thinking, 'cos it's more than I can usually manage.

A "proper" journalist and author who is a full time blogger these days as far as I can tell. Generally from the left position and while he is a bit flowery in his prose style it is still great to actually read what is really going on in the world rather than just the corporate propaganda pumped out by the mainstream media.

He's American by birth, but spent some time working as a journalist in Russia and now lives in Britain.

Chris Floyd in: Big Brass Bull: Pentagon Deceit on Media Manipulation Confirmed

A few days ago, we noted the revelations by Stars and Stripes that the Pentagon was using a shadowy PR firm to identify the political leanings of journalists trying to cover the "Good War" in Afghanistan (as well as the "Forgotten War" in Iraq). The idea, clearly, was to encourage and reward "pro-war" reporters while planting a big red flag on the backs of any writers considered less than gung-ho about the imperial bloodshed in Muslim lands.

Another guy always worth a read.

The Beacon is the blog of The Independent Institute which is a right libertarian outfit. I mainly read it for economist Robert Higgs, who I think is wonderful. Or at least his analysis of who is doing what to whom and why is. I just tend to disagree with his solutions as he is a market advocate where I believe in individual action and don't see either "the state" or "the markets" as intrinsically good or bad in themselves. It simply depends on how they are applied. And, unfortunately, it is usually selfishly in both cases. So it isn't "the state" or "the markets" but human selfishness which is the blight of the world.

If you don't like The Beacon at least have a read of some of Robert Higg's essays, like War and Leviathan: The Trick That Works Every:

A peaceful state is an impossibility. Even a state that refrains from fighting foreigners goes on fighting its own subjects continuously, to keep them under its control and to suppress competitors who might try to break into the domain of its protection racket. The people cry out for security, yet they will not take responsibility for their own protection, and like the mariners of Greek mythology, they leap overboard immediately in response to the state’s siren song.

John Pilger has been the scourge of the Establishment for what seems to be decades. He recently won the 2009 Sydney Peace Prize and continues to write fantastic articles holding those who abuse wealth and power to account. If only we had a far better media who were willing to push those articles in to the mainstream we might all be better off.

This blog is mainly a list of the articles he has written for The New Statesman, a UK political magazine.

John Pilger's Britain:the depth of corruption

It is as if our public language has finally become Orwellian. Using totalitarian laws approved by a majority of MPs, the police have set up secretive units to combat democratic dissent they call “extremism”. Their de facto partners are “security” journalists, a recent breed of state or “lobby” propagandist. On 9 April, the BBC’s Newsnight programme promoted the guilt of 12 “terrorists” arrested in a contrived media drama orchestrated by the Prime Minister himself. All were later released without charge.

Craig Murray is an ex-British Ambassador to Uzbekistan. A post from which he was effectively sacked after speaking out once too often about the British Government using intelligence obtained through torture.

These days he has an eponymously titled blog where he exposes the hypocrisy of the British Government. He recently stood for the second time for a political seat in parliament but was unsuccessful. If you think that elections are a bit dodgy in places like Afghanistan then read his view of how "honest" they are in Britain.

As an ex Ambassador he offers a unique insiders knowledge of how things work, or why they don't as is more often the case.

Craig Murray's US Supported Afghan Government Warlords Control World Heroin Trade

There is an execellent interview with former head of the Pakistani intelligence service, General Hamid Gul, here. He makes some very strong points. It is undoubtedly true that it is warlords in the US-backed Karzai government who control 90% of the world heroin trade, and that the trade has expanded to its highest ever levels under coalition control. It is undoubtedly true that US foreign policy in the region is dictated by the desire to access Central Asian oil and gas. It is also undoubtedly true that the US works closely with Mossad and with India in Central Asia, and that many of its attacks appear calculated to stir up rather than ease conflict.

At one level it is great to realise that there are at least a few almost sane humans out there, but it is depressing to see how marginalised those voices are. Almost entirely barred from the mainstream mass media only those who are already thinking for themselves and actively looking for alternative points of view have access (or effectively create their own access) to what is really going on in the world.

Maybe one day that will change, but, given the history of humanity, I really don't have great hopes of that. You can work to improve your own life but as long as the masses would rather watch their avoiding-reality TV shows I see little chance to effect change at that much greater social level. So far the wealthy and powerful, the Sadistic Elite, have it sown up. And as long as the Masochistic Masses prefer ignorance to reality they will continue to be exploited, abused and killed for profit, whether that profit be money or power.

And on that cheerful note I shall retreat in to my solitary misanthropic cave and glower ferociously at the insanity of humanity from afar.