Read My Lips - the blog

The New Weblog Showcase Review II

I was pondering whether to repeat my efforts in reviewing all of the entries in this week's New Weblog Showcase, especially as last week's effort took a considerable amount of my time for three days. However, the author of the blog, I know this is probably bad for me, had to go and mention that it was primarily due to my comments in last week's review that she decided to enter into this week's contest. Also, I noticed that the number of entries for this week were greatly reduced from the 38 that were a part of last week's contest. So, following 15 disconnections, 1.5 hours of reading, 2 hours of writing, and 2.5 hours of review and editing, here are the reviews:

STOP! GO NO FURTHER! READ! Anyone who is offended by my review of their entry, remember 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 and most of the species in the Gamma quadrant.]

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

5.0~Transparent Eye: Dreaming of a Chirac Assassination ~OK, this one gets BEST OF SHOW, despite one noted grammatical mistake. Since it is the purpose of the contest to present a recent post that makes people inclined to read your blog, this post did the best job of hitting the mark. It is a dream, vividly described, but then most of the posts in this blog are dreams, vividly described. Strange, ephemeral and original, this post will either intrigue you to read more or it won't. [I am just not too sure what it means to be "an accessory after the fast." ;) ]

5.0~Catallarchy: Calpundit's knowledge problem ~Upon viewing the title, I was almost sure this was going to be a fisking. In a way, it was, but not really. It was Brian W. Doss's attempt to point out what he saw as the flaws in Kevin Drum's argument on economic philosophy. Pretty dry stuff, unless you are into such. I am unaware of Brian's resume', but suspect he is an academic, and will rise rapidly in the Blogosphere Ecosystem. I am still not sure that I understand everything about what was written, but I have not read Hayek or Mises, and it is doubtful I will, at least not until I retire or something.

5.0~Let's Run The Numbers: Administration Seeks Overhaul of Federal Workforce ~This blogger begins a long thoughtful diatribe with a laundry list of Presidential actions that he believes show a pattern, then follows with an in-depth analysis of further activity along this line. The argument was well organized, and Jim was forthcoming about how he was in line to be personally affected. Although his line was taut, he did give a bit when logic dictated the necessity of such:

Yes, the bureaucracy can be a straightjacket, and some people are drawing paychecks without doing enough work to justify their existence.

Of course, as I mentioned when I stated my previous support for Ross Perot, I think the bureaucracy is too fat and needs some trimming, but I have to agree with Jim that there may need to be a little bit more thinking about the manner in which it is done. I am not sure, however, that the administration is not on the right track. While this latter portion may not have anything to actually do with my review of Jim's post, it is included to show that these reviews are not dependent upon my agreement with the bloggers' viewpoints as much as the effectiveness of their message.

4.5~Tales from a Yeti Suit: The Three Goddesses ~Almost immediately, I can see this guy bolted from blog*spot and Blogger by looking at the first title and second title and first two words of the post. I went through that titling ordeal when I imported my blogger archives into MT. This was a delightfully well-written descriptive anecdote about one night in the blogger's life. I wanted so badly to give it BEST OF SHOW, but regrettably, the template is horrible [Yeti: have a look at it in low resolution] and light text on dark background, while stylish, causes excessive eyestrain. I hate to see such fantastic content dragged down a peg by technical merit. I do expect to see this blogger emerge as a shining star in the Blogosphere Ecosystem in the near future.

4.5~Kuboid: Today's Theme: Architecture ~Those of you that read last week's reviews will remember that posts which are of interest only to a limited group of readers do not rate the very top mark, even, in this case, when the subject is one that I personally find particularly interesting. If I had been grading on design, however, this would have been BEST OF SHOW as this is the best designed page I have seen in a long while [although AstreaEdge is still my very favorite blog designer]. I thought it particularly humorous when glloyd opined that Prince Charles displayed "a worryingly autocratic tendency . . . ." I mean, he is after all, Prince Charles. Does not that position entitle one to have autocratic tendencies? [When you get ready to make that trip to Brasilia, give me a shout. I would love to see that myself, but if you ever get in my neck of the woods, I would be more than happy to show you my favorite design: the Kimbell Art Museum, designed by Louis Kahn.]

4.5~vision : on: Egad ~To tell you the truth, I was not really sure what Stu was talking about, but found this to be very interesting all the same. It was well written and although the humor escaped me personally, I could recognize the effort. I also viewed some of the other posts and there are some interesting items, but of all the posts on this page, this was the best one. That is what you should submit to a Showcase, your best piece of material. Lamest title I have ever seen!

4.5~this is probably bad for me: Grown Up Passion ~Horrible design: dark text on a dark background and displaying the entire URL on linkage is very distractive. The prose, however, was well composed and easily allowed one to assess where the blogger rests on the political compass. There was enough passion expressed in this post for two posts! Is this another voice for the far left?

4.0~The SchoolHouse Review: How NOT to diversify ~I see something from a blog called the SchoolHouse Review that I wanted so badly to print out, to mark up badly with my red pencil and hand back to a student who shows great promise as a writer, once they learn the basic tenets of proper punctuation. Of course, I suppose I had not been paying proper attention to this issue because I actually thought the sentiment about Jayson Blair was that it was "a tale of deceit by a young man who got a taste of the big time and a failure by those in charge to notice it," and was not aware that anyone viewed such as a failure of diversity. The viewpoints expressed, however, outside of the context of having anything to do with Jayson Blair, are very valid!

4.0~Brian's Study Breaks: Afghan Nation-Building ~This blogger is on blog*spot and supplies no titles, so it was difficult to determine if I was reading the entered post. Thankfully, he does know how to archive with Blogger. Brian puts forth some great points about the problems with actually building a unified nation in Afghanistan, however, the prose is a bit haphazard and hard to follow. Another thing that I felt was lacking was any references to whom some of the people/entities were. In addition, the opening blurb related to a different topic for discussion and the update appeared to also be related to something other than nation building in Afghanistan. Brian showed he has keen analytical abilities, but it may be the shortage of the time he has between studying that requires him to rush his composition.

4.0~Judicious Asininity: Smoking Saves Lives ~Errrrrgh! That design. Actually, I was not too impressed with this post, although it does seem to be doing well in the current voting. It was not the subject matter that disturbed me, but the majority of Romulus' post was a lengthy 5 paragraph blockquote from someone else's comments, followed by one paragraph of this blogger's thoughts. I wanted more from Romulus. However, from looking at the other recent posts in the blog, it appears that Romulus is still attempting to find his blogging niche. He has discovered the essence of becoming a popular blogger, however: impressive blogroll and a prolific linkage. But for his one and only chance at entering the Showcase, he should have picked a post with more of his writing and less of someone else's.

3.5~The SmarterCop: BUSH IS A GENIUS ~On blog*spot but knows how to archive [and Blogger's archiving was working], however I did not find any substantiation in the post for the statement made in the title. While I saw nothing substantially wrong with this post, I also saw nothing to make it stand out from the mundane type of stuff that fills most of the space in the Blogosphere. This being a Showcase, I want to see someone show their stuff, so to speak. This blogger shows great potential, however, and may be the only pro-Bush blogger in this week's Showcase.

3.5~idols of the marketplace: A Mapquest for Peace ~Upon first view, I had great hopes for this post, despite the lame title. Although residing on blog*spot, the permalink did take me to the correct post and the template was attractive. The commentary displayed sufficient linkage to show the blogger had done his homework. However Walter's punctuation was haphazard and there were quite a number of spelling errors. The blogger showed a decided left bias to his commentary.

3.0~Facilitating Paradox: God-Name = God Substance [entry link] ~A late-comer to the contest, this one is on blog*spot and is using weekly archiving so you will have to scroll to find it. I read this post a couple of times attempting to discover exactly what point David was attempting to make. Was it about whether there was one Hindu God or more than one? Was it about David's relgious choices? Or, was the whole point, as what I devined from the final sentence, that David would agree to whatever your opinion about God was if you were to meet? Like I said, I was really confused.

2.5~A Layman's Opinion: n/a ~My link will actually get you closer than the link on the New Weblog Showcase will. I had to hunt for this one. Thankfully, upon reading some of the rest of the blog, Joseph has discovered how to title posts. The writing was somewhat convoluted but readable. The issue discussed was very personal to Brian and his wife, and was likely a good post to have submitted in the contest. Abortion is always a touchy subject, but Brian's provided the viewpoint of someone who understands the personal issues behind having to have made the decision to abort a child. I wish, in all good conscience, I could have given this post higher marks. Hopefully Brian's blogging and writing skills will improve over time.