BLATHER REVIEW

Blather Review: The Year In Review

So anyway, I've gone through my archives of the past year and selected one post from each month to represent Blather Review's Year In Review. I tried to stick to posts that reflect the basic premise of this site ( i.e. reviewing blather), but a few other goodies slipped in.

I don't expect anyone to actually follow these links, but it was fun fer me to go back and see whatall I actually did here for the past twelve months. Now, on with the rehash!

January
Democratic Underground just can't deal with the success of the Iraqi election of January 30th. I look at one post titled "The Iraq Vote Is Making Me Sick This Morning" and some of its comments in Democratic Undergroundmine Bemoans Freedom.

February
War and/or peace at what price is the theme of Peace On Earth, pt 1.

Sample: The problem with sending someone like Jimmy Carter to negotiate an arms agreement is that he is the kind of man who believes in the inate goodness and fairness and trustworthiness of all men. In short: He is a fool.

March
Apple Computers' argument against a blogger who publicized protected data is the springboard for a larger debate about Shield Laws in Free To Blog?

Sample: What is the purpose of freedom of the press if not to protect exactly what bloggers do? ...... Bloggers are protected by the Shield Law precisely because we perform an investigative reporting function in the manner of a legitimate news outlet.

April
I couldn't decide which of three April posts to select, so I'm including them all. First there's a wordy but thorough fisking of a letter of response send to Stephen Macklin from Senator John McCain in McCain Responds to Macklin; We Respond to McCain.

Sample: If John McCain thinks that 527s like SVT and MoveOn.org were/are illegally spending "soft money" then he is at odds with his precious McConnell v. FEC. Either that or he just likes to call what he doesn't like illegal.

A post that started out as a fun rambling free association rap that actually ended up somewhere is Whatever...?, and my final Terri Schaivo post looks to the future with New Hope For The Wretched.

Sample: Terri Schiavo is a casualty of law. Just as we know that a soldier will probably die while defending liberty, Terri Schiavo died to uphold the law. An armed abduction by Governor Bush might have saved Terri's life for a short time, but it would have killed something a whole lot bigger: our way of life.

May
Again, three posts. First, a glance at Newsweek's wanting self-examination after their unconfirmed reporting of Koran abuse in Checks? Balances? Beuller?, and a longer look at the shocking anti-America tripe put out by Newsweek in their International Edition in Dream On, Newsweak, Pt 1. (They'd never print that stuff in their domestic editions because someone might actually question their patriotism.)

Finally, one of my all-time favorites: A group of three robots with artificial intelligence try to understand a baseball game in Aaaah, Baseball!.

June
A thorough thrashing of Frank Rich and his whacky assertions about the Downing Street Memo in Bush=HitlerNixon.

Sample: Frank impunes Roger Ailes as a "former Nixon media maven", thereby implying that Ailes=Colson. This isn't honest opinion journalism, it's a neo-McCarthyism and Frank Rich knows it. You just can't construct an argument like this without knowing that you're tortured spin is intended to dizzy the reader into submission.

July
A non-political post yet still in the blather review mode is my wading through the lyric of Toto's "Africa" in Blessing the Rains Down In Africa?.

August
A look back at some history on the 15th anniversary of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait with And So It Began. I include one of the most overlooked quotes from Saddam, threatening to use terrorism:

"If you use pressure, we will deploy pressure and force. We know that you can harm us although we do not threaten you. But we too can harm you. Everyone can cause harm according to their ability and their size. We cannot come all the way to you in the United States, but individual Arabs may reach you."
--Saddam Hussein to U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie, 25 July, 1990

September
Trying to decifer the motivations of a local school teacher when It's Constitution Day... And One "Teacher" Ain't Too Happy About It.

October
This one is a personal post; reflections on my grandfather in Post For A Rainy Day.

November
Gotta include three again! First and second are two fiskings of Babs with Barbra Sreisand: Childless Mother Superior and Mem'ries Light The Corners of my Fisking, meticulously sourced for added flavor.
Then I did some quick research to present The Strange Case of Doug Thompson.

December
On a sentimental note, Santa Claus responds to New Jersy substitute teacher Theresa Farrisi after she tells a class of children that he doesn't exist, with a reworking of Yes, Virgina, There Is A Santa Claus in Point / Counterpoint.
Sample: How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as a world without children.

And, with that, Blather Review 2005 comes to a close. Here's hoping that it only gets better!

Happy New Year, one and all!

Posted by Tuning Spork at December 31, 2005 02:16 PM | TrackBack