UPDATED: Carnival of the Vanities #173
Welcome to the second Carnival of the Vanities of 2006, and the second since the CoTV is under new management with HarshlyMellow.
UPDATE: Due to a mid-Carnival prep browser crash, I switched to preparing this post in an off-browser editor. First time I tried that...didn't work out so well. Sorry about the few broken links; they are all fixed now.
Check out last week's Carnival for all the bloggy goodness, and to read Zeuswood's philosophy about the Carnival and how it should really, really be about quality. I agree, I must say.
Editor’s Choices
My first Editor’s Choice is Adam at Sophistpundit talking about Feeling Accountable for one’s petty behavior online. I agree with Adam that it’s BS to think that there’s some “open spirit of the Internet” that gives everyone a license to be a jerk. This is similar to a post I wrote at the Worker Bees Blog recently asking if online communications really came down to Civility vs. Honesty.
My second Editor’s Choice finds The Assimilated Negro at The Assimilated Negro waxing nearly poetic in his Quest For The Negro Hipster. I never thought so hard about meta-post-neo-classic-ironic hipsterism before!
My third Editor’s Choice features Big Picture Guy at Big Picture, Small Office describing where Yin Meets Yang in the world of customer service and satisfaction. He is right: it’s harder to take the high road when finances started to get a bit squeezed. I’ve been there and done that!
My final Editor’s Choice is pretty self-explanatory. Jack Cluth at The People's Republic of Seabrook asks how long the Western World will support the subjugation of women in parts of the third world by virtue of our resounding silence in Repeat after me: WOMEN ARE NOT PROPERTY..... Amen, brother.
Now on to the rest of the posts, first categorized in a Dickensian way based on whether they're looking at the Past, Present or Future. And then figuring out that every single other submission wants to give you advice or wants to make you laugh. Both worthy goals, I hope those posts do both!
A Historical Perspective
Considering many bloggers keep calling Abramoff “Abrahamoff”, I think it’s clear that we all sorely need Taylor Marsh at Taylor Marsh giving us Abramoff for Dummies.
(If you like your Abramoff scandal set to song, then don’t miss Madeleine Begun Kane at Mad Kane's Notables with Say Goodbye To Tom DeLay -- Song Parody -- Sing to "Yesterday".
Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade parses words with Jihad versus Hirabah exploring cases of the lesser of two evils.
Isaac Schrödinger at Isaac Schrödinger tells some disturbing stories about his schooling in Saudi Arabia and draws equally disturbing conclusions.
And in the most unusual historical perspective, mensa barbie at Mensa Barbie Welcomes You presents Painting Mystery doing for UFOs what the Da Vinci Code did for Mary the apostle.
DL at TMH's Bacon Bits moves us from a supposed conspiracy to cover up UFOs to a supposed conspiracy of a different, more earthly kind in "I'm not a totally corrupt individual."
2006 and Beyond: What are your predictions?
Russ Mitchell at Boxing Alcibiades looks a bit beyond 2006 to imagine space travel and potential space colonization opportunities in Science fiction is here today: but which one?
Kevin W at The Liberal Wrong Wing thinks 2006 will be The Year of Iran or maybe even WW III.
Neal Phenes from Et Tu Bloge looks even further down the road and sees a problem: the western world <isn’t breeding enough to remain a world power!
Mark A. Rayner at The Skwib also tells a cautionary tale about our future entitled Once upon a pretty blue planet.
Conversely, Mike from Cigar Intelligence Agency asks Is global warming real? Or is it junk science, used for political means? Decide for yourself, but not before you have the facts. I think you can tell from his post title what Mike thinks, right?
No wonder I prefer Britt Bravo of Have Fun Do Good and her more hopeful prediction!
I’m too busy with the Present to be predicting the future!
Kim at Emergiblog worked her shift in the hospital this New Year’s Eve, and though she was expecting a mad rush, all she encountered was an unusual visitor to the E.R. You can read all about it in Who Let The Dogs Out?
A different kind of holiday rant comes from Francois Tremblay who calls himself to be the Radical Libertarian and shares his philosophy that Every Day is Buy Something Day. Hey I’m a big ol’ consumer myself, so no argument from me, but I thought the whole thing about Libertarianism was let people do or don’t do what they wanted.
A more traditional-sounding Libertarian is Warren Meyer at Coyote Blog who says in reference to an anticipated Democrat Privacy Push, “bring it on!”
Barak at IRIS (Information Regarding Israel's Security) reports that Sharon's Political Career Over, Likely Caused by Poor Medical Judgment and keeps that post continually updated on Sharon’s condition.
Also in Israel, muse at shiloh musings considers Sharon’s “temporary” replacement…and the basic temporariness of everything in Is the sun really shining?
Doug Mataconis at Below The Beltway presents his take on Kennedy on Alito called Pot, Meet Kettle. Funny, among my group of friends we always say “Hello, kettle…you’re black”, which when you think about it makes no sense at all!
Meanwhile EarlyRiser at Early Riser asks Can you trust your insurance agent? So what’s your guess on the answer? Yup, you can’t.
Despite the title of this section, Wayne Hulbert from Blog Business World urges us all to never be so over-confident about our present, that we aren’t thinking about the future. We wouldn’t want to end up like the Titanic, now would we?
But if you worry too much you’ll never beat that lie detector test…and Bill Adams at Idler Yet thinks the number of false results is just one reason why a current Defense Department contractor bid is big trouble in The lie that never gets detected.
Speaking of worry, I’ve been worried about my 2-week long lingering cold, as chronicled on my blog HealthyConcerns.com. Everyone keeps telling me to try Airborne. Now Purple Kangaroo publishes a post at the Purple Puzzle Place that should make all those people think twice!
And lest you think the Present is only Politics and Problems, nickel at fivecentnickel.com presents The World's Most Practical Five Year Old.
Some Reviews and Advice That Might Be Of Use
Charles of dustbury.com writes a compelling review of Brokeback Mountain.
On a less high-brow note, Josh Cohen at Multiple Mentality presents The Girls Who Live Next Door (and other stories), a post that starts out as a review of teen movie “Band Camp”, but becomes so much more!
While Gnotalex at Dodgeblogium introduces us to a wacky new web app called Goldn Retrievr. Hey, I could never draw, so this one isn’t for me. The again, doesn’t look like Gnotalex is much better off!
Mitch Geller at DubiousProfundity gives advice to the newly retired wealthy, such as Brett Favre and it includes something Bret probably didn’t think of: ART!
Finally, John from A DC Birding Blog shares a particularly fruitful day of birding outside Washington DC.
And finally, it ain’t blogging if there ain’t snark!
Next week’s host FreeMoneyFinance serves up the snark while exploring the art of pet acupunture.
Ferdy, the esteemed owner of the Carnival Submit form at Conservative Cat warns us that if we don’t talk about his few focus topics, then we’re just Link-whoring.
And doctors go snarky on doctors over at a blog called, simply Doctor.
And I’m not sure, but I think Don Surber at his eponymous blog is being snarky to the Amish in Pumpkin Roll Patrol. (Reminds me of my step-sister’s woefully ill-formed opinion of the classic modern movie, “Witness”, and I quote: “blah blah build a house, blah blah dance in a garage, blah blah boring!”)
Buckley F. Williams (what a great pseudonym) at The Nose On Your Face is snarking about PETA and Narnia in Aslan "Most Eligible Bachelor". That’s a double-whammy for me!
And Mr. Right at The Right Place is so snarky with ANOTHER RIGHT PLACE EXCLUSIVE: College Journalism Exam with Answer Key!, that I could swear his tongue was full implanted in his cheek. Ha!
And I leave you with this: It ain’t snark, it’s just laugh out loud funny because El Capitan at Baboon Pirates obviously has been hit with the same obnoxious lingering malady that I’ve been fighting for 2 weeks. I will not, however, cop to the particular “after-effect” he describes in Pucker Up And Blow
There were several of you who came in after the 6PM Eastern deadaline for this week’s Carnival, and there was one of you that submitted once at the beginning of the week, and then again at the end of the week. I have left those posts for next week’s host.
Next week the CoTV can be found at FreeMoneyFinance. Don't miss it!
For those of you who just can’t wait, you can post them in the comments.
Thanks for visiting the hip & zen pen. I hope you’ll take a look around and check out our site. Come back soon now, you hear!
Next week the CoTV can be found at FreeMoneyFinance. Don't miss it!
Speaking of snark ... I'm anti-Amishtic?
Posted by: don surber | January 11, 2006 at 02:51 AM
No, your post just reminded me of my step-sister, who certainly sounded that way after seeing Witness. I should have been more clear. I know you were being snarky to the health inspectors :) That is my own snark gone awry.
Posted by: Elisa Camahort | January 11, 2006 at 07:25 AM
Wow, thanks a lot!
Posted by: Adam | January 12, 2006 at 05:05 PM
Thanks for hosting the carnival.
Posted by: purple_kangaroo | January 14, 2006 at 11:09 AM