Another year, another set of awards. Previous winners can be seen in the original entries. Thanks to Nicholas Weininger, Nell Lancaster and Jonathan Pearse for nominations. Got to dash: the Spouse of the Year wants me downstairs for the ball drop.
Least Dispensible Weblog - Fafblog
Hawk of the Year - Captain Christopher Chown, USMC
Dove of the […]

Despite the fact that I haven’t done much comics-blogging since coming off hiatus, and despite the large number of absolute stinkers the major companies gave us as the year went on, there was actually a bunch of stuff I liked.
Mother Come Home, by Paul Hornschemeier. Absolutely without question the best graphic novel I read this […]

A tradition of year-end wrapups means going through your archives for the previous year, and I found this from January:
Gas, a buck sixty-one at the off-brand stations this weekend. Jeez. Could we make it about the oil after all?
A buck sixty-one! [Sings] I wish those days / would / come back again / I wish […]

For Those Keeping Score - The question that most interested me on learning about the revised DOJ torture memo (pdf) was, What has become of the original memo’s expansive . . . “interpretation” of the commander-in-chief power? (Essentially, the President, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, can do whatever the hell he […]

“Study: Family, Friends Reduce Quality Internet Time” notes Scrappleface.

Like I Needed a Test

(Via Procrastination.)

If you put the “Triangle of Death” and the Sunni Triangle together, what do you get? The Rhombus of Resistance? The Parallelogram of Perfidy? The Quarrelsome Quadrangle? Are there triangles we haven’t been told about yet that will constitute the Tiled Plane of Terror? My New Year’s Resolution is to be up on the latest […]

I haven’t verified the research but a costello-l member suggests the following organizations that he chose on the bases:
* No apparent political or religious agenda
* Enough organizational history to indicate that they’re capable of delivering, and ethical
* At least 90% of total budget goes directly to aid, minimal amounts to internal administration & salaries
Direct Relief […]

Heidi McDonald has the top stories in the comics industry; Johnny Bacardi his year’s best titles and Franklin Harris sound advice for your - yes, your - new venture in comics publishing.
Finally, because we semi-comics (hemi-demi-semi these days) bloggers have to stick together, AND because it’s worth reading, I note that Eve reviews a bunch […]

From “Kettlebells: An Antidote to the Hype,” by Raymond Brennan:
This is not a reason not to use kettlebells, but more of a hype-busting exercise. If you want to be an “authentic” kettlebeller, then learn to play the bagpipes and wear your kilt with pride. The USSR is nothing now but a bad memory-and please let’s […]

Researching the history of the NEA for a paper I’m writing I discover an official document from the agency, National Endowment for the Arts 1965-2000: A Brief Chronology of Federal Support for the Arts (pdf). Said “brief chronology” is 77 pages long.

in a single sentence, from my Agitator patron R. Balko:
If you ask me, the most remarkable thing about blogs and the 2004 campaign was just how ready formerly independent voices on both sides were willing to spew out official campaign talking points, eschew criticism of their own guy, and otherwise fell into line in order […]

Back from traveling, Juan Cole responds to the Iraq the Model controversy. It includes clarifications of intent and a forthright apology to the Ali brothers. From a metablogging perspective, what interests me is that it starts out with a very familiar explanation:
In my own mind, I was merely drawing attention to Mailander’s entry on an […]

The Command Post lists multiple ways to donate to Asian tidal wave relief. (Via Virignia Postrel.)

I’ve never opened comments on UO. When I started blogging, comment functionality was rare. You had to go out of your way to activate it. When I converted from Blogger to Movable Type way back when I set the default switch for Comments to NONE in preferences and removed that code from my templates. At […]

The Command Post’s Global Recon blog has constantly updated coverage of the disaster in South Asia. Our hopes and concerns are with everyone affected by the event, both those we know and those we don’t.

78% on John Tierney’s year-end news trivia quiz. This surely means I’ve been blogging too much. (Via Just One Minute.)

is your barking-mad Talking Dog. Sign me up. I mean, I’m not a Democrat, but sign me up.

Your Christmas quote only seems, initially, a non sequiter:
Even if dogs, sexual humiliation, or sleep deprivation don’t rise to one’s particular uninformed definition of torture, I assume we can all agree that being dropped on barbed wire or having a lit Marlboro jammed in your ear does.
From Thomas Nephew.

It’s become a Christmas tradition, if one likely to end this year: Nate Bruinooge reviews the latest Lord of the Rings extended-edition DVD. Future Christmases will have that much less magic to them.