Read My Lips - the blog

BEST BLOG OF SHOW IS:

The body of this post has been moved to extended entries. 6/12/03

As NZ has made it a requirement that all entrants into the New Blog Showcase Popularity Contest this second week are required to link 3 of the competing blogs. I entered this post, and please feel free to vote for it. often, linking it to every entry on your blog. I decided to vote for everyone's blog! But there is a price! I get to tell you and the world just what I thought about your entry. I am honest and can be brutal. The date and time of this post were purposely done to insure you indeed GET YOUR VOTE.

STOP! GO NO FURTHER! READ! Anyone who is offended by my review of their entry, feel free to review my entry. I personally rate it 3.5. I am merely stating my opinions and they may not necessarily be the opinions of any other single person [on this planet, as I have been contacted and told that my opinions were officially adopted by an entire alien sub-culture in the Ming Sector.]

5.0 is top, 0.5 is bottom: ALL RATING IS SUBJECTIVE; Listing is important, as I the best on top down to worst on bottom within tied ratings based upon my personal preference of one post over another.

5.0~Folkbum's Rambles and Rants: The Democrats' Summer Softball League ~Could it be? Is a Leftie going to be Best of Show? I was so set against reading this post as I felt the title was leading into some zealotist attack on one side or the other. What I found was a delightful analogy which gave me more insight into the Democratic Presidential Candidates than I have foretold received. VERY WELL DONE! [There was at least one misspelling, however, so don't get a big head.]

5.0~Reason of Voice: The Clinton Wars ~This guy hooked me with the first sentence:

Full disclosure: I'm one of those who thought Clinton a god.

I am thinking, thought, not thinks, so here is going to be a person who decided his god was not all that great. Nope, it did not pan out that way. It was a book review, with some nicely written personal interludes about how the author felt about the former President and the book. I detest Clinton, mainly because I detested his moral values more than his political stance, but found this post to be entertaining. I also know that I have no need to buy this book. Although this guy leans way too far to the left for me, I believe he at least presents a rational argument for his side on issues. I will blogroll it and check it from time to time just to keep a pulse on the other side's take on the issues.

5.0~The Tough Democrat: How to be tough ~The writer makes a good argument for his/her (or her/his) point of view, interspersed with links that do not detract from the reading, but do offer points for further research and opinion about portions of the argument. There is a bit of a bias leaning left, but with the blog name, I was not surprised. The post was well-written, interesting and informative. It showcased the blogger's writing talents with a sprinkling of partisanship.

5.0~Signal + Noise: Finding a use for all that Evian~ Just when I thought I was getting tired and cranky, someone proves me wrong. It look me a few sentences to adjust to the writing style, but the ideas are pretty profound. It's on blog*spot, but the archives work. It gets blogrolled.

4.5~The Talent Show: Why these tax cuts suck ~I was torn whether this one should be 5.0 or 4.5, but did not think it as good as the ones who are at 5.0. The argument was persuasive, and substantiated. The title informed you of the leaning so nothing was surprising. The writing was crisp and easy to follow. Too Left for my blogroll though. [In case anyone wonders, there are actually those that are Too Right for my blogroll.]

4.5~Happy Furry Puppy Story Time: The Administration as Legion of Doom Characters ~I had already pegged this post to be included in new idea to start doing a Best of the Week listing (that I may or may not do, now that I have undertaken this task), so I already had read and liked it before I saw it listed in the Showcase entries. I have always been an avid comic reader and fan, so I feel norbizness hit a home run with this post.

4.5~Mudville Gazette: SACRED WORDS ~This is getting a late review, because the author noted such on his blog. I thought it had been one of those I had previously reviewed, then lost, then overlooked when redoing the review. [The randomizing of links, doing such on two different systems, and the continual addition of new blogs did make it hard to keep up with the ones I had reviewed and the ones I hadn't.] Upon the revelation, I took the opportunity to look at the post again, and I had looked at it previously. It is long, and my power went off while I was reading it. I had never reviewed it. This was a post written by one of out servicemen which provided that unique perspective about this war. I wanted so badly to place this one among the very top, but I could not, in good conscience, place it in the 5.0 rating. I felt there was a lack of smoothness in the flow of prose and manner of presentation. Like genius and madness, there is a fine line between exceptional and excellent.

4.5~Hi! I'm Black: Shell Vacations Club & Their God Damn Salesmen!!!!!!!! ~A latecomer to the contest. I was a bit alarmed when I read the Blog title expecting some racial diatribe about victimization and was pleasantly surprised. Except for the DAILY DOSE lists to stories which point to stories regarding racism and black issues, the general tone of most of the posting are such that race issues are not of any concern. Having read the entry post prior to the remainder of the blog, I was mindful that the blog title might be soley informational. I personally did not think it mattered, as I thought this was a delightfully well written tale about being kidnapped by time-share salesmenpeople. Been there, done that, got the steak knives to prove it. I really liked what I saw in this blog.

4.5~Sanity's Edge: Top Ten Reasons to Read My Blog ~although these 10 reasons lists seem to be popular in so many blogs, usually they are take only a couple of seconds to read completely through, and if done right, can be pretty humorous. This one was. But, more importantly, it caused me to look at some of the other things the blogger had posted Is this not what you hope to accomplish with a good entry into this showcase? I found that I liked the writing style and the topics of many of the posts. I blogrolled it.

4.5~Across, Beyond, Through: May 26, 2003 ~The title will disclose part of the reason this one did not rate higher. this is truly a new blogger who posts one post a day, and includes several subjects in the same post. And he is on blog*spot so no permalinks. You will have to scroll for this one. But the author does a great job of providing insight into something very intimate about himself and invites us to do likewise. I loved this passage:

We don't really grow in our religious minds or our spirits until we become willing to admit that whatever God may be, it's something bigger than us, bigger than our minds or hearts can grasp, bigger than our particular tradition can hold, bigger even than our questions.

I found the other posts to be interesting also, and hope this author finds his way off of blog*spot and Blogger soon.

4.5~Technically Speaking: Mosquito Extermination on a global scale ~A short insightful post on a topic that almost everyone might find interest in. And a nice graphic included. If I was not so busy rating these blogs in the contest, this post would be a good lead-in for my comments about wolves. I also checked out the rest of the blog, and while I might not be interested in every post, I saw there were several that I would find worth reading. As such, I blogrolled the site.

4.5~RandomActOfKindness: Drug Czar Gets Political ~Primarily a reporting piece on an issue that I find very disturbing. The author interspersed just enough of his commentary to allow the reader to understand his leanings. I just expected a bit more passion. The permalink takes you to the top of the page and you have to scroll to find the posting. His Libertarian leanings get him blogrolled.

4.5~Give It Back: Let It Rant ~Lest anyone think I am rating these posts due to my political leanings, let me say right off this guy is leaning way too far LEFT for my liking. BUT, despite the fact he began the post with

I'm not much of a writer . . .

the writer does a pretty nice job of getting the message across. I think the post was well composed, easy to read and follow, and although I personally probably will not blogroll this blog, as I doubt I would read it much, I think this message will bring him a lot of readers from those that believe the government should be about entitlements for those who cannot take care of themselves and their families. I did think the title was a bit lame.

4.5~Collinization: Life tells me, 'Grab your ankles!' ~It's on blog*spot and it is a post about his personal situation. Mostly, especially when they are much younger than I, I have very little interest in reading about the goings on in the daily lives of people, but I found this post to be very humorous, and wanted to see how the rest of the blog looked. I liked it. I think I will blogroll it. I even emailed him and told him how to get comments on his blog, because he asked, and because after the day he had that is described in the entry post, I felt like doing something nice for him.

4.5~General Glut's Globblog: The wheels of overproduction just keep on spinning ~Decidedly leaning one way, but I could not be sure exactly which way his political compass pointed by reading the entry. The blog seems to be primarily about world economics. However, the entry was another one of those that held my interest even though I had no real interest in the subject matter. Good writing style.

4.5~AlphaPatriot: Mideast Peace ~Well written piece that used links extensively as support for data given in the story, which did not necessarily require reading in order to follow the contentions of the author.

4.0~Britblog: Wimbledon~Newsy site for British expariates. Way too graphically loaded for someone with my 2.4K connection. Nice writing style. But the link doesn't go to the post, or even the page the post is on. You have to search for it.

4.0~I Protest: Weapons of mass retraction ~I found this post to be disappointing, as the purpose of the blog was blurbed to be:

Civil rights, politics, human rights, feminism, psychology and other stuff.

So why the same old diatribe leaning on the curently most divisive issue in the Blogosphere? There [was] were a few "quotes" I thought had insufficient references, and* one link that pointed to my needing to read it for a fuller understanding of the readers point. You showed you could effectively excerpt, so excerpt the portion of that page that supports your position. [I personally try currently to limit my "like this" links to bloggers, so that I do not deprive them of readers on their sites by displaying their great talent on mine.] *Frank, in the comments, questioned my observation that he had made insufficient references to quotes and upon review, I was of the opinion that I had been mistaken on that point, and hereby retract such. My apologies, Frank.

4.0~giant city: pill peeves ~If you only knew how close this entry came to being a lot higher up the ladder [though this is not actually a shabby score]: the author did such a fine job of selling me the point, that by the time I had read down to the excerpted portion displayed on NZB's contest page, I saw no need to go further. Overkilled the point. Really hard to fault someone for giving too much of a good thing. But I also wanted to rate them fairly by my personal subjective procedure: I call 'em as I see 'em!

4.0~Mrs. PseudoPsalms: Israel ~Regrettably this blog is on blog*spot and either Anna does not archive often or, most likely, Blogger archiving in on the fritz again [the main reason I personally abandoned Blogger], but I doubt as such that it will do very well in the voting. Too bad. Although I question the logic and her knowledge of the history about the area, her opinion was concise and easy to follow. She excerpted small portions of the articles to lead in to the comments she wanted to make. Look for it, it is the last posting on the entries for May 30th. Again, this post made me eager to read some of the other entries, which is what I think the purpose of the contest actually is. I found the May 28th posting entitled "Presidents" to have be one of the best ones now showing on the page, but it will like fall off before you read this. Anna, get off of blog*spot.

4.0~Cyber :: Ecology: If You Only Knew: Mad Cow Disease, Beef, and Getting in Touch With Your Food ~Although I did not find the general vein of content in this blog to be all that interesting, it has nothing to do with the writing skill or style of the blogger. It is just my choice of what I find interesting and what I do not find interesting. However, the post selected for entry in the Showcase even I found to be of interest. The blogger was very conscious of what sources she used for her story. I did not like the varying styles and sizes of text used in the post, and am still deciding if I like the short warning excerpt used or not. I am not sure I would have read it based upon that excerpt had I not already decided to read all of the entries.

4.0~BusinessPundit: Porn Goes Mainstream ~Very good article review. I did wonder who Hirsch was, but figured if I was really interested, I could read the story. If your goal is to be the Glenn Reynolds of the business news, you show great potential. The story does sound fascinating, so I might have to use this link later to get back to your link to that. Does that make sense?

4.0~Sgt Hook: Duty, Honor, Country... ~I am saddened that I could not, in all good conscious, rate this posting higher. I am a member of the American Legion, went out sick as a dog on Memorial Day to put flags up at our local cemetaries in recognition of our fallen Veterans. I was deeply saddened that two people with whom the author had become acquainted had fallen in the line of duty. But the author chopped this piece up into a history of the day interspersed with portions of anecdotal memories. The topic was superb, the sentiment was utterly apparent, but the organization was attrocious.

4.0~Wizbang: Smart Growth In Loudoun County, VA (Or How To Piss Off All Of The People All Of The Time) - Part II ~Kevin posted a really nice comment and asked that I not be too harsh. Kevin, I just cannot pull my punches. This post droned on and on with details of little interest to those not immediately affected by the situation to end with this statement:

So when the Smart Growth bandwagon arrives in your area think hard before jumping on.

It would have taken far fewer words to make that statement. Great writing, horrible subject for a Showcase entry, TMI! I love your blog, however! It was already blogrolled.

4.0~Rkayn knowledge: Eleanor Clift is a big fat liar ~This entry had one of the longest excerpts in the contest. When I initially tried to access the link, I found the blog was on blog*spot and that the permalink didn't work. Maybe there was a reason for putting what appeared to be the entire text of the post into the entry submission excerpt box. My review of the excerpt was

Of course, as I have no idea who Eleanor Clift is, I am not thoroughly concerned about the fact that she is a liar. I am always interested in who is getting appointed to Federal benchess, so I intially assumed that I would find something in this story of interest. I, regretfully, found that I did not.

and I scored it 1.0. However, I checked the blog and it was the most recent post in the blog. The excerpt was actually a poor example of the content, but reading the entry in the entirety, I found the entry to be thoughtful, fairly well-written, and informative. I adjusted the score greatly. I would have excerpted this bit:

What does the make-up of the circuit courts have to do with "judicial independence"? Would having them all equally split between Republican nominated judges and Democratic judges mean that they are "independent" in any meaningful way? This split has nothing to do with "judicial independence" at all, they are simply a function of who has been getting elected President.

I did notice that this blog had archives dating to 10/6/2002 and thought the cut-off date of the contest was Mar 11 2003 however, as I also noted that there was a major break in the archives between 1/05/03 and 5/01/03 I suspect there may have been consequences that would allow for some relaxation of the general rule for sake of the spirit underlying the showcase. I was hopeful that one of the early May entries would disclose the reason behind this gap, but was unable to access any of those posts.

4.0~GrahamLester.com: A Nonbeliever's Defense of Religion ~If the object of an effective blog post is to hold someone's interest in reading about a subject that they were not all that interested in, this post does the trick. However, hoping to find more insightful opinions about subjects, I did peruse the rest of the blog, which has little of the same type of fare to offer. However, to say this, it looks like this is the only purely non-blogging software blog I have ever seen. UPDATE: I thought he did a much better job on this piece.

4.0~Whiskey Bar: What a Tangled Web We Weave . . . ~I didn't like this all that much, but restrained myself from burying it way down in the ratings. I did put my bias aside, however, remembering this contest was about drawing readership. This post should draw the left in like flies to a lightbulb. Pure partisanship. I did not read all the way to the bottom because I got tired of scrolling down and looking to the right. That display setup was an irritating exercise in frustration.

3.5~FreeSpeech: Bob Herbert forges forward with his class warfare ~Wizbang + Rkayn knowledge = 3.5 ~That's about all I can say, not interesting and way too long to hold my attention. Maybe I was just tired, and wanted something with a bit of humor interspersed.

3.5~Page Three: Seat Belts ~I thought the title was a misnomer, to a degree. It was essentially prior restraint on free speech, and the author just led you to read InstaPundit. Not a great post to intice people to read you, by forcing them to read InstaPundit to understand the context of your post. Also, there are actually links to most case opinons, if you only search for them. I guess I would have to, since you did not do it for me, even though you suggested I read some cases. At least the blog*spot archives worked, but you still have to scroll, but not far. Megan, you are a good writer, so do not have fears about writing passionately about how you feel about things. I think you have great potential to create a blog I would love to read regularly, but not yet.

3.5~Serenity's Journal: 100 Proof ~Just to show that even those I agree with 100% do not draw the highest rating. This was a decent post, but this subject is so common right now, one side says this, the other side says that. I am not saying that one shouldn't have their say, but that it might not have been the best post to enter into the Showcase. Another thing, although it did not enter into the rating, but I found to be amusing was that the purpose of the blog was listed as:

Covering current events with a libertarian/conservative viewpoint. And other musings.

and within this post, the author referred in what seemed to be a derogatory nature to "clouds of pot smoke." I was almost sure that anyone with Libertarian leanings would not have done so.

3.5~Along the Way: Reloaded Thoughts ~I absolutely love this:

As I trudge through life, one day at a time, every once in a while a thought pops to mind.

The title threw me, as I expected it to be a introspection discussion, and was not ready for a movie review for a movie that I have yet to see. If I was a "nice guy," I would award 0.5 just because he said nice things about me on his blog. But I will just stay inclinated that I received those comments because I deserved it. The blog was interesting, though. Mostly seemed to either be family stuff or technical stuff way over my head. [Kenneth (I hope), you need to link your archive pages to your home page.]

3.5~Silver Rights: Some logs and a bottle of wine ~It appears that there has been some problem with blog*spots linkage [no surprise there] but I had previously applied my review to Silver Rights: No sympathy for the devil: Biracial white supremacist deserves his fate, which I prasied as a very well written piece talking about a very sensitive issue, racism, without any pointing fingers. The writing was crisp and I thought the template matched the tone of the writing superbly. However, I was not quite so impressed with this post. The writer expouses a belief in an injustice basing such on the unsubstantiated evidence of what one person said he observed and what another said he had done. While my own observations note that there is often a disparity in the way that class affects the way people are treated for the same transgressions, to proclaim the existence of such require far more substantiation that the writer was able to provide.

3.0~A Blog of His Own: Damn It! Just Knock It Off! ~This guy needs to get his feet wet. I think he has some great potential at becoming a pretty good blogger, but he seems a bit too new at the game to me. The entry post was all right, it gave the person's viewpoint, but I had to actually access the link to get a clear understanding of the context of the post. Aaron, get off of blog*spot, because you are not going to lodge any votes: your permalinks don't work. [link is to blog, the post is among the June 3rd entires]

3.0~Brainysmurf: Partying — east vs. west ~Can you say disppointed. When I read the first three paragraphs, I was entranced with the subject, thinking I was going to get some insight about something really interesting. I just did not quite pan out up to my expectations. Thinking maybe I would find better fare somewhere else on the blog, I checked it out, but really found it to be of very little interest to me. However, if you are leaning a bit to the left side, it might be more to your liking.

3.0~David E's Fablog: Fait Divers: An Unmarried Pixie ~I was never really sure what the author's point was in this story. At first, I thought the issue was the fact that the media tended not to reference the sexual orientation of certain people when writing about them, but then it seemed to migrate to a minimalist fisking of the story, excerpted immensely, and had more to do with the long term investigation of Copeland as a communist sympathizer during the McCarthy era. David, blockquotes work better than italicizing to set off things your are quoting from your own comments. I had a really difficult time doing so.

2.5~DANEgerus weblog: Gary Hart fisked ~grasp--->SPLAT! Missed me Gary! So did this fisking of his stupid commentary. I found both to be pretty inane. If this is the best the person could offer as an entry, I was not too inclined to see what else I could find on his blog. Realize, however, this is my opinion, and some of you might really like this post.

2.5~Mac-a-ro-nies: Blogospherics: Anger in the blogosphere ~This entry is currently #1 in the voting. Are there really all that many people impressed with this post? I mean it was mainly about the stuff other people were putting on their blogs, and not the good stuff, just the petty bickering and "I am gonna take my ball and go home whining." I am surprised at the votes and not overly impressed with the entry.

2.5~Yet another weird SF fan: Libertarianism and SF Fandom ~Maybe the hype on the contest page caused me to expect something better, but I was really deflated reading this piece. I am both Libertarian and a SF fan, but where was all of this supposed data coming from? Surely, the author does not deign to speak for me without some substantiation? I did read a bit of the rest of the blog just to see if there was a better indication of the writer's skill at which to point. I didn't find it. At least he does know how to correctly archive on Blogger, or is it just because this post was made over two weeks ago? I sense a kindred spirit here, but we cannot seem to communicate to one another.

2.0~Just an Ordinary Guy: College Adventures ~

I'm just an ordinary guy, posting my ordinary thoughts...

about stuff they teach in college that the didn't even have when I was in college. Not interested. But still a more worthwhile blog than Rant Dude and a better post than Hawken Blog. I am sure your friends will love your posts. Most of the rest of us probably won't.

1.5~World War Bush: A Heightened State of Paranoia? ~I saw all I needed to see on the contest page:

Anti-war, anti-Bush rantings

Too Far Left and too fanatic ... actually, I do not like fanatics on either side of the fence. I didn't even look. But . . . v

1.0~RantDude's Ravings: Zoom Zoom The Hell Out of Here ~The only one of "the lost posts" that I did not need to go back and read in order to remember my prior review. It was an inane little rant about a non-issue by someone who does not seem to post but about once a week. Why enter the contest to draw readership if you have nothing to offer? And yet, it was still better than that v down there.

0.5~Hawken Blog: Vote for me even if linking to my specific posts doesn't work ~It is on blog*spot, you have to scroll to look for it, and "Vote for me even if linking to my specific posts doesn't work" is not the title to the post. I scrolled up and down that page so many times looking for this post, that if this was the was the best well written message pass along, it had already lost 2.5 points. What is the message? Whining about the fact that you can't play in the contest because you are on blog*spot. zzzzzznt! No, you get .05 for playing. I might check this one again, after he leaves blog*spot. The scanning gave me some indication that he is a blogger. [Now I have to raise up ZOOM, ZOOM which used to occupy this slot on the list.]

Posted by Tiger at June 8, 2003 12:00 AM