Batocchio from Crooks and Liars is continuing a tradition started by the much-missed Jon Swift/Al Weisel, the “Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves.” Nominate your favorite blog post of the year, from anywhere, in the comments.
John and I are hoping to get it together to start a Jon Swift/Al Weisel award for internet humor but we’ve been slow to get on the ball. In the meantime, pitch in and tell us some of your favorite blogs posts, from your own blog, or elsewhere in the comments.
Keith
I nominate the one(s) where JC goes Galt on blogging…and doesn’t. Those are pretty funny.
Jeremy B
Here’s my personal best: “Avatar, Vietnam, and the War on the Trees”
http://redgreenandblue.org/2010/01/14/4535/
An excerpt:
One thing the blockbuster film “Avatar” showed in glorious, graphic 3D: In war, no matter who wins, the forest nearly always loses.
In the normal course of life, average folks tend to be conservationists. Why shouldn’t they? Just like the Na’vi of “Avatar”, most human societies throughout history developed systems that enabled people to live on the same patch of ground for generations.
The Bible actually commands: “When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war… thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them.” This was also the norm in the intercity warfare of classical Greece; The Spartans only cut down Athenian olive trees when their enmity became really nasty. Trees are part of that stability, whether it’s olive and fruit trees for food, or other species for lumber, shade, and cover. You plant trees for yourself, and for your children and grandchildren. Today we call that “sustainability”…
jayackroyd
I nominate David Dayen’s HAMP series.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/08/23/portrait-of-hamp-failure-it-makes-your-financial-situation-worse/
I do not now remember which post it was in the series that did it, but, reading it on my Berry, walking through a B&N, I had my “Obama is not on our side” epiphany. Called a friend then and there, and said, “That’s it.”
hamletta
How ’bout one that said fuck you?
16shellsfroma30aught6
DougJ trolling the Wapo chats
cleek
i nominate this post
JPL
Megan’s post about “math is hard”…
Lysana
Hyperbole and a Half: Why I’ll Never Be An Adult.
Cat Lady
I rarely leave this boat anymore cuz the world has all gone fucking nuts on me and this is my happy place, so I offer this post of Cole’s. I bookmarked it and read it every so often to remind myself why BJ is teh awesome.
M. Bouffant
Sweet Blood of Jesus, I’ve cranked out 2,100+ items so far this yr. (Quantity IS quality!) & as I literally spend 16-18 hrs. a day (minus a few minutes in the kitchen & an occasional foraging expedition, & possibly an hr. or two of telebision viewing) trawling the Internet for anything I can mock or at least amuse myself w/, there’s just no way to remember any single item, whether mine or from serious people. Or there just weren’t any so “good” that they stuck in my overloaded memory.
So let’s go w/ my lowest yet most “popular” moment this yr. Due to the more popular venue (thanks & sorry, Thers) it did get a bit of accidental/unintended attention.
M. Bouffant
@Lysana:
OK, you have my vote. Well expressed, & sums up my existence as well.
J.
As this is an homage (?) to the late great Jon Swift, I nominate this post about the difference between Democrats and Republicans, which references one of Jon Swift’s best posts (IMHO).
And because it is Christmas eve, and I am among pet lovers, I also nominate this post about how to get a cat in a Santa hat. (I dare John Cole to try this with Tunch.)
Wishing all you Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Zoroastrians, Atheists, and Christians a very Merry Festivus…
JPL
@Cat Lady: Thanks for linking to that post again. John, was accurate in his description.
Bill E Pilgrim
This is not my favorite blog comment of 2010.
If this confuses you don’t worry, sometimes it’s better to just walk away, Rene.
Oh and Merry Christmas, you blockheads.
CA Doc
If you get to count the comments as part of the perfection of the entire post, I’d nominate the “Touchdown Jesus DIAF” post. That was this year, right? I’ve never laughed so hard at work; I had to close my door!
JPL
No matter how you celebrate today and tomorrow have a wonderful time. I’d like to nominate Anne Laurie as the point person to post pictures of the babies and tots Christmas.
R-Jud, Kitten and Suzanne have a wonderful Christmas morn and if we don’t see photos, it didn’t happen.
Bill E Pilgrim
Actually I do have a real one: any list of best bloggy moments of 2010 has to include this entire live chat with Matt Taibbi about Griftopia at a FDL Book Salon and in particular two comments of his, the first about how he and his Rolling Stone editors figured out that during their recent meeting, David Gergen thought he was Matt Bai the entire time, and the second this comment about Fred Hiatt, which I believe DougJ linked here some time later:
jeffreyw
Best blog post? Makes my head hurt! I have a cure for that, though.
Southern Beale
Julian Sanchez’ The Politics Of Resentiment is still one of the best things I’ve read on politics, ever. However, I don’t think it qualifies as it came out last December.
So I’ll nominate my post which linked to it, which came out in January. :-)
El Cid
It’s a really good question as to whether or not I remember a particular blog post that was actually over the last year (I wondered first about Stalin Summer re HCR but that was over a year ago) and not recall something more than an entire cloud of blog hornets buzzing around some issue.
El Cid
@Lysana: That was fucking awesome.
WarMunchkin
Almost all of Hyperbole and a Half is the best that I’ve ever read on the internet, just saying.
hamletta
@Bill E Pilgrim: The empty sidewalks on my block are not the same.
Bill E Pilgrim
@El Cid:
Well yeah but then you’re usually reading Balloon Juice, right?
;)
Bill E Pilgrim
@hamletta: I’m not to blame!
PS: I meant the other Rene, but you knew that.
Southern Beale
@Cat Lady:
Oh man that was good, in a cynical “let-me-crawl-back-to-bed-and-cry” sort of way….
Omnes Omnibus
@Bill E Pilgrim: Descartes?
stuckinred
@Omnes Omnibus: Don’t put Descarte before de horse.
Omnes Omnibus
@stuckinred: What did de Horse write? I’ve never read him/her.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Omnes Omnibus:
Sorry I thought I was being less oblique than it seems I was. My fault. Probably the time zone difference. I meant this one.
stuckinred
@Omnes Omnibus: He wrote Via Duck.
Omnes Omnibus
@Bill E Pilgrim: I was being intentionally obtuse. Getting warmed up for family time.
stuckinred
@Bill E Pilgrim</a>: Now this is a pipe!
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/aR5q-eRqkv0/0.jpg
MikeJ
@stuckinred: If you got a Ford, why you need a horse?
Omnes Omnibus
@stuckinred: That’s fowl.
stuckinred
@MikeJ: Asta funny, I knew a guy once, looked just like you. His name was Emanuel Ravelli.
Ravelli: I’m Emanuel Ravelli.
Spaulding: You’re Emanuel Ravelli?
Ravelli: I’m Emanuel Ravelli.
Spaulding: Well, no wonder you look like him…But I still insist, there is a resemblance.
Ravelli: Ha, ha, ha, ha…hey, he thinks I look alike.
Omnes Omnibus
@stuckinred: I don’t think I could ever do that. Safety first and all that.
El Cid
@Bill E Pilgrim:
There is that.
stuckinred
@Omnes Omnibus: Ya had to be there. Any port in the storm for the 1st Cav!
Omnes Omnibus
@stuckinred: I think it is one I am glad I missed.
General Stuck
I would like to nominate this Cole post for it’s simplicity and depth of insight.
Dave in ME
@Cat Lady:
I could not agree more. I just don’t hit any of the other blogs in my bookmarks folder because I never know when some unadulterated fucktardedness will appear. I come hear and hear plenty of opinions and discussion and get to hear stories about animals and all is right with the world for me, at least for the short time I am here.
stuckinred
@Omnes Omnibus: Let’s go to the video tape!
Bill E Pilgrim
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh good idea. About the family. I was being entirely unintentionally obtuse.
BTW de Horse wrote Tractatus Pimlicus. Subtitled “places I have known.”
stuckinred
@Bill E Pilgrim: Pimlicus, is that the second round of the Triple Crown that they may cancel?
El Cid
Perhaps this might be the winning post of the year, or part of a series of winning posts, for its valiant effort to portray Sarah Palin as writing any of it.
The lady doesn’t fucking read newspapers and can’t string together any coherent sentence having to do with anything but her stupid family and snide bitching about how awful anyone is other than her dumbass right wing followers and how “elite” they are.
Michael D.
How about that one where the gaywad said something funny about Republicans doing Riverdance in bathrooms and John thought is was funny and asked him to be a front-pager?
That was awesome. :-)
Zandar
Well there’s nothing at my place I’d dare to think was close to that level of awesome, but Tintin’s response to McMegan’s now infamous “bonobos” post still makes me giggle.
funluvn
@Cat Lady: Yes, that is without question something everyone should read.
Sighhhhhhhh
Bill E Pilgrim
@stuckinred: Yes because the tractatus, er, track, is all wet.
stuckinred
@Bill E Pilgrim: I can’t hear you, there’s a hurricane blowin down heah!
Maude
What Now Einsteins
With the picture of Lily sitting on the back of the couch.
Culture of Truth
For a humor flashback, here is last year’s Bobblespeak SOTU translation
http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/2010/01/state-of-union-address-president-barack.html
JMC_in_the_ATL
The cross country dog move post at Hyperbole & a Half.
And pretty much everything TNC wrote during Confederate Month.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Culture of Truth: Good work on those, COT. Bright spot in a strange year. (Little-known Heinlein sequel) Happy 2011.
BruceFromOhio
@Cat Lady: Seconded, heartily. There have been several like it since, and it does make this sloop feel like a luxury cruise.
Omnes Omnibus
@JMC_in_the_ATL: I love the simple dog in that one.
ETA: I mean the simple dog in the H&H post, not the ones in the TNC series (which was brilliant by the way).
SGEW
I really think that the best blog post I read this year was Ta-Nehisi’s April 13th piece “The Ghost of Bobby Lee.”
It’s the one where he first starts quoting passages from the original secession documents from the Civil War, and contains this extraordinary line: “The Lost Cause is necromancy–it summons the dead and enslaves them to the need of their vainglorious, self-styled descendants.”
JPL
Tbogg’s site should be mentioned because he has several classics.
srv
I would nominate and link to Dengre’s Confederate Party series, but he never put them in a category for the linky…
Peter
Shameless self-promotion.
srv
In lieu of that, Tom Junod’s Sore Winnerss post.
david mizner
The winner is this one, of course.
http://fafblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/mule-variations.html
———-
We know that Barack Obama, in his heart of hearts, truly wants Real Change. We can tell this by examining the furrows of his brow as he squints meaningfully into the middle distance, by carefully measuring the sincerity-per-pixel count of his campaign posters, by reflecting on the inspirational Martin Luther King quotes he delicately intones before carpet-bombing an Afghan village. But we also know that despite his best efforts, Barack Obama can’t achieve Real Change, confounded as he is by such institutional barriers as Congress and the Pentagon and Barack Obama. We know, for example, that Barack Obama wants nothing less than a sweeping overhaul of America’s health care system, but has been hopelessly blocked at every turn by conservative Democrats like Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman and Barack Obama. And we know that Barack Obama did everything he could to oppose a trillion-dollar no-strings-attached bailout of a corrupt finance industry, but was helpless to stop it, boosted as it was by notorious corporate whore Barack Obama. And we know that Nobel Laureate Barack Obama is a devout lover of peace, but has been powerless to prevent the American military’s rampant bloodletting throughout the Muslim world, as the nation’s armed forces remain in the hands of that bloodthirsty warmonger Barack Obama.
And we know that although Barack Obama is an idealist, representing the very best and brightest of American Liberalism, he’s also a hard-nosed pragmatist, willing to compromise between extremes of Left and Right, between black and white, between war and more war. That’s why when the Left wanted to close Guantanamo and the Right wanted to double Guantanamo, Obama doubled Bagram instead. That’s why when the Left wanted to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 350 parts per million and the Right claimed global warming was an international Masonic conspiracy, Obama bombed a village in Pakistan. And that’s why when the Left wanted universal health care and the Right wanted hundreds of billions of dollars for Wall Street, a capital gains tax cut and a domestic spending freeze, Obama gave them hundreds of billions of dollars for Wall Street, a capital gains tax cut and a domestic spending freeze.
And we know that as disappointed as we might be in Barack Obama – in his little failings, in his petty slights, in his odd betrayals, in his unseemly habit of dancing naked through the streets of Oslo smeared with the blood and entrails of Afghan children – we also know that the alternative would be far worse. Why, with a Republican president, we might be at war with Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and possibly Iran, or facing some hideously draconian corporatist scheme to compel poor people to buy private insurance they can’t afford, with a government that not only excuses the torture regimes of the past but dramatically expands them while giving itself license to murder anyone it likes anywhere on the planet. With Barack Obama, on the other hand, we have all that plus a man who can sparkle wittily on late night television. Now, I think that has to be worth at least a couple thousand dead Muslims, don’t you?
Peter J
I nominate the facebook post where Sarah Palin made sense. There wasn’t one? Then I don’t have anything.
Omnes Omnibus
Happy Holidays everyone. I am off to spend a few days with family. Be excellent to each other.
benintn
@Cat Lady: Yup. Cat Lady wins. I am with SoBeale.
Just an aside – the past 2 weeks is what the Senate would look like if it weren’t for the fact that Republicans completely hijacked Democracy and created the meme that you need 60% support to actually pass any legislation.
General Stuck
@Omnes Omnibus:
Bah Humbug!
Chris
Here’s mine. It’s not funny, though — just pissed off.
Is there anything our school officials won’t do for federal money?
benintn
I submit this one for consideration. Best use of Sea Monkey cartoons in a blog post. EVAH.
schrodinger's cat
Was the post about the naked mopping incident, this year or last year. If it was this year, it is my choice for the nomination.
Culture of Truth
Hyperbole and a Half: Why I’ll Never Be An Adult.
That cracks me up
srv
@schrodinger’s cat: 2009 sometime.
fucen tarmal
@stuckinred:
i love plane spoken humor.
mr. whipple
This one is memorable for me because it is recent and because I couldn’t stop laughing, but there are tons of good snarks out there.
gnomedad
@Lysana:
+1. It’s hysterical, and a cautionary tale I refer to periodically.
demkat620
Hey you know our Kenyan Mooslim Overlord did not release a White House Dog Holiday Video with Bo Cam.
WTF has that guy been doing all year? Not like he accomplished anything else.
JCT
@Lysana: Really great Lysana — just forwarded it to my college junior daughter. Will probably make her mad at me….
Suffern ACE
@Cat Lady: *sigh*. One of these years we’re gonna have to do something about stopping that.
DougJ
@JPL:
I agree.
Dennis SGMM
I nominate myself and all of the others who choose not to blog: we have reduced the amount of redundancy on the internet by .0001%
MikeTheZ
Someone find the post that coined “NANCY SMASH” and nominate it, STAT.
…me? I’m FAR too lazy to do that much work right now.
Shadow's Mom
@Lysana: Oh, that one about achieving adulthood was brilliant.
@MikeTheZ: I believe that this is the Nancy Smash post that you reference? It came from Rumproast. That was one of the better posts of the year; I’d nominate it!
@benintn: To your aside, I favor the proposal that before a filibuster there must be 40 votes in favor and those who chose to filibuster must remain on the floor. Put the onus on those seeking to stop legislation rather than those trying to get it to open debate and a vote. Under those rules, DREAM act might have passed.
Batocchio
Thanks! I’m mainly looking for bloggers submitting their own best work, but I’ll try to contact the authors of the other pieces mentioned. (Also, I only guest post over at C&L, but am a regular visitor over there.)
John O
@Cat Lady:
I can’t believe I missed that one. Bookmarked for reference, and a beauty.
John O
Ran into this one the other day via the Poormen and got a great laugh.
Justin
This is what I consider my best post
http://americancrackpot.blogspot.com/2010/02/undercover-in-san-francisco.html
HRA
Sorry I don’t have the link. The one where the dishwasher spit out the suds on Tunch and he slither out into JC’s view had me crying from laughing so hard. I also shared it with family and friends for days.
fitzwili
TNC has been writing some of the most amazing posts reflecting on the Civil War. I liked this one but I think there might be others that are even stronger. http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/compassion/63156/
Hungry Joe
Hyperbole and a Half’s “The Party.” Or “The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas.” Or “Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving.” Or “How a Fish Almost Destroyed My Childhood.” Or damn near anything Allie Brosh writes and draws. She may be, at this moment, the funniest human being on the planet.
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/
Bill Murray
@stuckinred: Via Duck? Via No Chicken?
FlipYrWhig
Nothing that contains the non-word “cudlip.”
Platonicspoof
In the category of “One of Those BJ Threads I Appreciated Just Because”,
The Best Thing That Ever Happened to You.
Have a safe and warm and fuzzy holiday everyone!
newhavenguy
OK, Wonkette is junk food. But if Rachel Maddow loves them too, I feel a little less guilty.
This one on the WaPo (sorry) wins the internet:
http://wonkette.com/416303/slave-bloggers-at-washingtonpostcom-say-farewell-to-dave-weigel
I’d nominate something by Steve Benen, but there are too many excellent pieces to choose from.
Happy Happy, Cheers all.
LikeableInMyOwnWay
Just pick any one of my posts and give me the fucking award.
Next topic.
KSinMA
Remember this one? It appeared at one of those numberless moments when we were all in utter despair. I’m sure it was either cross-posted or linked here, though I can’t find it now (I wouldn’t have you think I actually read that other site).
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/8/29/897297/-I-got-Obamas-Back-at-Starbucks-this-Morning
Mutant Poodle
Oh, since this is about tooting your own horn…
My personal favorite is this: Dear Congressional Democrats, followed closely by Dennis Kucinich and the Agent’s Fallacy.
Also, too? Anything Karoli writes about Health care. Or anything else, for that matter.
Anything Tunch produces is probably beating us all…
mario piperni
Since shameless self-promotion is acceptable behavior in these parts, here’s my contribution…it’s not every day Glenn Beck praises one’s work.
Beck Praises My Work
RSA
Of much dreck I’ve blogged this past year, this is probably the best: Knowing your horror movie genre and your weapon of choice, even if it’s only of interest to people who like these sorts of movies. Like me.
Jill
Since I usually write at 5 AM when I’m still half-asleep and can’t even taste the coffee yet, it’s hard to remember.
I still like my Christmas Eve post from 2007:
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2007/12/some-thoughts-from-nonbeliever-on.html
…and my favorite from this year is my cats discussing the relative merits of different kinds of cat food — a useful reference for future retirees:
http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/11/maggie-and-jennys-guide-2-kat-fud-4.html
Lysana
Just to be painfully clear, I am not Allie Brosh of “Hyperbole And a Half.” My Tumblr’s linked on my name here. My most recent entry’s not so bad, but I’ve done better over time on my LiveJournal.
sturgeonmouth
I will be an asshole and nominate my own post, Are You Christian Enough for Christmas? After all, how often does someone get to smack down Douthat and Yglesias simultaneously? The answer of course…when they agree.
http://sturgeonmouth.blogspot.com/2010/12/are-you-christian-enough-for-christmas.html
aarrgghh
sarah palin speaks: “i had a dream”
Menzies
I’ll join in and submit what I think is my best post. Takedown of a really old piece, though – some bullshit Richard Cohen wrote in ’06.
I wouldn’t consider it relevant except for his #1 on the Hack Thirty.
Link here.
bmull
@jayackroyd:
I second the nomination of David Dayen’s HAMP series, for example this one: http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/10/04/fighting-for-homeowners-a-visit-to-a-naca-loan-modification-marathon/
fatster
What bmull said @ 104!