Soccer Dad

Carnival of the Vanities #126

Welcome to Carnival of the Vanities #126.
Before we start out little excursion around the blogosphere there are a few things to get out of the way.
First of all thanks to Silflay Hraka for originating Carnival of the Vanities and giving lesser known blogs a chance to shine!
Thanks to last week's host, Coyote Blog for his tips on how to best host CotV. I'd also like to thank Chronicles of a Medical Mad House for promoting Carnival of the Vanities along with the medical version of CotV, Grand Rounds!
Next week's host is Pundit Guy. His submission guidelines for the 127th Carnival of the Vanties are here. e-mail him with your nomination at bill at punditguy dot com.

Upcoming hosts of the Carnival are:

March 2nd - Belief Seeking Understanding
March 9th - Solomonia
March 16th - Bird's Eye View
March 23rd - CodeBlueBlog
March 30th - Eric Berlin
April 6th - Incite
April 13th - Yea, Whatever

If you're a blogger and you wish to host a future Carnival contact bigwig AT nc.rr.com from Silflay Hraka. If you're a reader make a note to check these sites so you may be edified!

This has been a lot of fun putting together. I got to read lots of interesting blogs during the week. Alas I'm not creative enough to do themes so this will be pretty straightforward. One other caveat: if you sent me a nomination and don't see it. Don't get mad. Send me an e-mail and I'll include. One problem with Hotmail is that it tags an awful lot of e-mail as spam. I found a number of submissions in my junk e-mail. I believe I retrieved them all. If I didn't please let me know.

A Little Reason gives a blow by blow description of the Juan Cole/ Jonah Goldberg kerfuffle. (Wow I get to use that word. I hope that James Taranto hasn't copyrighted it!) Plus he adds his own comments! Cole's comment, by the way reminds me of a question someone asked me 20 some years ago. What is the second most democratic country in the Middle East? The answer, then, was Iran even though it was already being ruled by the Mullahs. Despite the controls, Iran still had multiple candidates, something that no other Middle Eastern country (save Israel) had at that time.

Ashish's Niti wonders what would have happened if the Iraqi election had been held before the American election.

Politics of CP refutes the notion that Brit Hume, Sean Hannity etc. are misrepresenting the words of FDR. He sees no other way to understand FDR's words than meaning some sort of private account.

Pratie Place recounts her experience in attendance at the Triangle Bloggers Conference 2005. Follow her link to NC Blogs. It shakes my prejudice that either Tennessee or Minnesota should be the capital of Bloggers USA. (More here from Silflay Hraka.)

Damn Hippies considers a pair of Howards. One is a newcomer to his blogroll. The other is the new chairman of the DNC. He welcomes the former but doubts that the latter will welcome him to his party.

Smallest Minority comments on a number of items from news and comment he saw recently in "FEAR, the Philosophy and Politics thereof." It is critical of those who consider "gun nuts" beyond the pale.

Solomonia attended two talks by the remarkable (is that too tentative a description?) Natan Sharansky at Harvard. Former dissident, current politician. And now Presidential inspiration. Read Solomonia's description of the first talk and if you want you can also listen to the speech (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) Not many people attended the first talk, but through the magic of the internet hundreds or more can read Solomonia's account or hear the speech.
The second talk was better attended. Solomonia also has audio files of that talk and provides a link to the video from the event.

I remember once on "Home Improvement" Tim needed a photograph of his wife for a surprise birtday party. Since he didn't think ahead he blew up her driver's license photo. Needless to say it didn't go over well. King of Fools though, is no fool. He decided to post a flattering photograph of his queen on his blog (along with some commentary) in honor of Valentine's Day.

One of the things I like about blogging is how someone picks up on a seemingly innocuous news item and finds something profoundly wrong with it. Brian J. Noggle saw this item and wondered if the government's solution is possibly worse than the problem.

The People's Republic of Seabrook finds something positive about Castro's Cuba.

Spirit Fingers offers a quiz to see if you need to lose weight. And shares with us the positive results of those who follow her plan.

Tex the Pontificator considers what to do with North Korea.

Multiple Mentality's Sethual Chocolate has some strong opinions about the current situation in the Middle East. So do MM's forum members.

Can a movie that ends with a mushroom cloud be a happy movie? Idler Yet says "yes." And lists five movies that fit the bill. (I knew one of them. But then I suppose that just about everyone knows that one.)

Banana Oil fantasizes that not producing a movie may be the happiest ending of all!

The Big Picture contemplates the danger that Saudi funded mosques present and suggests that we contact our representatives to bring diplomatic pressure to bear against the Saudis. Ironically I just received an e-mail with a link to an article in Ha'aretz on the same subject.

Following in the footsteps (or missteps) of Jeff Gannon, MadKane aspires to a White House press pass.

Anyone can make a suggestion to Best of the Web Today. But not everyone gets nominated to become President of the NAACP. LaShawn Barber did. Even if it was only in a comic strip!

Biur Chametz contemplates laundry of the past and laundry of the future. About the latter: if you're about to do a load and discover that you're spouse/significant other/POSSLQ forgot to restock the supply of detergent, well, it might not be a problem in the future!

Dissecting Leftism tackles anti-Americanism, German superiority, environmental silliness and more in his Tuesday roundup.

QandO Blog dissects (American) leftism and wonders if it represents a coherent set of beliefs.

Wicked Thoughts considers some wicked (British) slang.

Rightwing Nuthouse dissects the Virginia legislature and wonders if it isn't filled with certifiable loons.

Conservative Cat considers the Bush administration's foreign policy for its second term. This article by Max Boot (LA Times, requires free registration) illustrates one of his points. Meow.

Last week's CotV host Coyote Blog wonders why someone talking with a journalist can simply say "timeout" (sort of) and have his remarks considered private. He also considers the possible consequences of various recent media missteps.

At L&N Line, Mike wonders how to prioritize his charitable giving.

Opinionated Bastard considers the Cold War and the 6 Day War and faulty valves. I feel a little uncomfortable, though, with the way he describes people of my faith. And one point that's interesting to note about the 6 day war was that Israel had a spy, Wolfgang Lotz in Egypt who identified for Israel every plane Egypt had in the Sinai. Israel only hit the genuine articles and didn't hit any decoys.

Tim Worstall recounts what happened when a British pilot decided to make an unauthorized trip to see his girlfriend.

Amateur Megalomania wonders what effect the blogosphere will have on our political alignments. Michael Barone has a slightly different take.

The Smarter Cop wonders why the Democrats still don't get it.

Rogue Pundit contemplates naturally occurring polution and writes that this requires more research.

Interested-Participant reports on a recent effort in Russia to outlaw Jewish organizations.

Business of Life contemplates Lent and labyrinths.

Blog d'Elisson shares with us his entry in the "Blogging for Books" contest in which he recalls a chance he took in "Letting go the Tree."

Before we go, I'd like to toot my own horn. A few months ago I started (along with some blogging buddies) a Jewish and Israel Carnival "offspring" called Haveil Havalim. The most recent is here. The next Haveil Havalim is at Biur Chametz. Also if you're interested in Jewish/Israeli blogs check out the results of Israelly Cool's JIB Award voting. You might find something new and interesting to read and enjoy.

UPDATE: Two bloggers who apparently got shunted off to the spam filter have notified me. Thanks guys and sorry I missed you.
BlueStateRed rightly criticizes a Rhode Island State Senator for introducing legislation that is of dubious value. Of course the Senator has to do this because of something called job security. After all, he needs accomplishments to point to when he runs for re-election for another term of pointless legislating (or grandstanding.)

Setting the World to Rights disputes the Belmont Club's assertion that the media are Orwellian. Setting the World to Rights asserts that there's enough diversity in the media so that there could never truly be a "memory hole." More disturbing Setting the World to Rights also notes that BC quoted the Institute for Historical Review - a Holocaust denial outfit - to make its point.

Revealed Truth recounts the outrageous tactics employed by those Iraqis that Michael Moore praises as the equivalent of colonial time Minutemen.
ANOTHER UPDATE: I linked to the wrong post by Revealed Truth. (Well it wasn't wrong, it was also worthwhile!) Anyway here's a link to "The minutes of this week's meeting of the Fidel Castro Fan Club..."

Well that wraps up the 126th edition of Carnival of the Vanities. I hope you enjoyed the "rich bloggy goodness" of the Carnival. While you're here, check us out. If you like what you read come back; we'd be thrilled to have you.

Have a great day!

Posted by SoccerDad at February 16, 2005 12:25 AM | TrackBack