Welcome to The Skwib, your host for the 157th edition of the Carnival of the Vanities. Before we get on to the posts, a quick (shameless) plug for a new Carnival we’ve started here at The Skwib — The Carnival of Satire. If you’ve got satirical posts or feel an urge for satire coming on, please send them our way. Details are here, and the carnival form from Ferdy is here. Is it a form of satire to add another carnival to an already bulging list of them? Yes, yes, it is, but we just don’t care!
You will see there is no real attempt at organizing the posts, except for a handful that particularly appealed to The Skwib, for a variety of idiosyncratic reasons. No judgment is implied or offered. Our favorite category, humor, is at the end, and the posts we liked most of those are at the very end.
Enjoy!
The Skwib’s picks this week (in no particular order)
When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we’d all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us. It wasn’t until later that I found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear.
–Jack Handy
Laurence Simon at This Blog Is Full Of Crap sends an excellent post that does some much-needed fact checking in Revisionist history from the Houston Chronicle editorial staff. Now, we have not done our own research on the issues, so we’re just taking his word for it. That said, I’m willing to trust. It’s a reasoned, balanced argument, the kind that really, I would prefer to see in political posts. It also gets a nod of approval from Jay Tea at Wizbang in his post, “I’m serious damnit!”. He did not submit this post to the Carnival, but it rounds out the context for Simon’s piece, and it’s edifying to see two writers tackling issues in a serious tone, rather than with satire.
Chicken Little at Chicken Fried Life describes how it can sometimes be a challenge Relating To People At Work I found this posting particularly poignant, as will anyone who’s ever hurt someone else’s feelings in advertently.
FMF at Free Money Finance has some advice for anyone who is thinking about their post-secondary education, and what the return on investment can be in Is Your Degree Worth $1 Million — or Worthless?
David St Lawrence at Ripples: post-corporate adventures gives us quite an entertaining read about how the Blogads logo redesign has some “experts” in an uproar.
Miriam at miriam’s ideas suggests that I led an impoverished youth. This was a surprise to me.
Obi-Wan at Forward Biased asks some pretty uncomfortable questions, which nobody (including me) has had the guts to answer yet (at least not on in his comments) in: So–which side is right?
Big Picture Guy at Big Picture, Small Office presents A Day of Whine and Roses, which like Chicken Little’s post, is an engaging personal story about work.
Politics
And I’m neither left or right
I’m just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
— Leonard Cohen
Tom Bowler at Libertarian Leanings presents Bipartisan BS.
Robbie at UrbanGrounds presents When is it OK for Men to Cry?
Adam Gurri at Sophistpundit presents The entire content of the Roberts hearings: A Sophistpundit Exclusive!
Shamalama at Common Folk Using Common Sense presents What Are You Prepared To Do?
Gullyborg at Resistance is futile! presents Under who?
Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade presents Some September 11 Thoughts
Charlie Quidnunc at Rip & Read Blogger Podcast presents Rip & Read Blogger Podcast: Roberts Hearings and commentary
Two Dogs at Mean Ol’ Meany presents An Unwashed Hippie Liar
Mark Francis at Section 15 presents Rent Rape
Watcher at Watcher of Weasels presents Diary of a Mad White Woman
Tex at Tex the Pontificator presents a nicely balanced post in An Exercise in Comparison and Contrast
Rick Moran at Rightwing Nuthouse presents Outrage Fatigue.
Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority presents They Never EVER Stop
John Ray at Dissecting Leftismpresents Leftism as Psychopathy
Dean Esmay at Dean’s World give us From the Mailbag: War
Attila at Pillage Idiot (great pun) presents a Roberts confirmation update
Matt Johnston at Going to the Mat presents Roberts and Affirmative Action Line Drawing
Ian Hamet at Banana Oil! presents A Model For Us All
Brian J. at Musings from Brian J. Noggle presents Who’s Afraid of Kelo Backlash?
Jon Hyman at Dodgeblogium presents Gaza Goes
David Cabana at Carnal Reason presents La Vida Loca.
Ruy Diaz at Western Resistance presents Iran, North Korea: How Stupid can “Pundits” Be?
The Bostonian Exile at Letters from the Bostonian Exile presents MSM Reports “Pledge Unconstitutional”, Misses Bigger Story.
Marketing, PR & Media
I am not the editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one.
–Mark Twain
Barry Welford at The Other Bloke’s Blog suggests that Listening To Customers May Not Be Customer-Centric
Wayne Hurlbert at Blog Business World offers some good marketing and pr advice in Blog and website visitor traffic: Finding offline sources
Natalie Bennett at Philobiblon presents
Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture- Review
Mr. Snitch! at Mr. Snitch! bring us some good advice in So you want to be a newspaper publisher
Erick Erickson at Broadband Blog presents Congress’s Broadband Law
Environment & Katrina-related
It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.
–Charles Caleb Colton
Andy Clarkson at The Charlotte Capitalist asks Does The Sun Warm The Globe?
Sortapundit at Sortapundit presents The Spirit of a City
Reaganite at Reaganites Unite! presents Blank-O Alert!
Tex at Tex the Pontificator presents An Exercise in Comparison and Contrast
Ethics, Morality & Culture
Culture is roughly anything we do and the monkeys don’t.
–Lord Raglan
Muse at Shiloh Musings presents Lamentations.
Bussorah at Strange Justice argues What Utter Garbage: They Should Have Given Her a Medal.
Drew Burchett at Conservative Friends presents Feeling Sorry
Mark Olson at Pseudo-Polymath presents David and Achilles: The Openings
Eric Scheie from Classical Values presents Spoil the straps and spare the child!
Don Surber at Don Surber presents Creating Racism
Human Interest, Personal, How-To & Highway Safety
Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.
–Oscar Wilde
Rahel at Elms in the Yard presents The Jerk Tax
Isaac Schrödinger at Isaac Schrödinger presents In Delirium
Kevin at Technogypsy presents phase diagrams
Russ Mitchell at Boxing Alcibiades gives some great advice on how to “huff fabric” to deal with your (among others) ragweed allergy in One Shot Sinus Headache Relief
Steve Pavlina at Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog presents How to Go From Introvert to Extrovert
Humor & Grotesquerie
Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.
–E. B. White
Josh Cohen at Multiple Mentality presents Missing Out on Life Experiences
Mike Pechar at Interested-Participant presents this fairly odd bit of information in Man With Three Testicles. This is only in the humor section because I am a sick, sick man.
Ironman at Political Calculations presents series of one-liners in Statistics Anyone?
Madeleine Begun Kane at Mad Kane’s Notables presents A Pair of John Roberts Limericks
Buckley F. Williams at The Nose On Your Face presents Top 9 Obnoxiously Fake Katrina Quotes
Jack Cluth at The People’s Republic of Seabrook presents Another DUMB@$$ AWARD Wiener
Abnu at Wordlab is the only post to use the phrase “huge knobbled club” in
Giant Erections
And to finish off, here are:
Favorite picks in the humor category
The “nearly funny” Ed Adkins [his description, not mine]at ed adkins dot com presents the problem he’s having with a certain Canadian udder-licking celeb in Tom Green Wants You To Have Sex With Me. Also, there are grizzly bears in this post.
The Raving Atheist at The Raving Atheist presents Atheist Blogger Demolished by “Duh, It’s Faith” Comment
Harvey at Bad Example presents HURRICANE RELIEF FROM THE UN. (I particularly liked the use of the word hirsute.)
Ahistoricality at Ahistoricality gives us some food for thought in Diet of the Penguins. I love the concept of Extreme Adventure Dieting. May I suggest that the creature the dieters must protect is a tapeworm? That would make the whole thing even more extreme.
Thanks to one and all for the great reading and the chance to host this puppy. Next week the Carnival moves on to expatriates unite, and you can find more information about this grand-pappy of carnivals at the natal host of the Carnival of the Vanities Siflay Hraka.
And remember, we’d love to see your satire for our first edition of The Carnival of Satire.
King Harald Hardråde of Norway Presents Invasion of England (slide 3)
Welcome to the inaugural Carnival of Satire at The Skwib. This was a real pleasure to put together. As I suspected, there is some fine satire being produced by many a weblog, and I thought most of these posts were of really high quality. So no more blah, blah from me — on to the posts.
Bill Freedman awoke in Bucolic City to the sounds of AM Talk Now — what passed for talk radio in his hometown.
My Grade 11 Gym Teacher Explains the Book (Slide 2)