Best Posts of 2007 by Blogpower Members - Self Chosen

I'm not above lifting a brilliant idea when I see one and following some links one day recently I discovered Jon Swift's post, Best Blog Post of 2007 (Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves).

Jon invited all the bloggers on his blogroll to contribute their best posts of 2007 and was he ever overwhelmed.

Well a little light bulb popped on in my head. This would be perfect for the one year celebration of Blogpower, the group of very varied but very talented bloggers who run the banner you see here, Defending the Blogosphere. Not everyone is represented, no doubt due to real life commitments and time constraints, but those who are submitted what they considered a post to be proud of, along with their own words about the post or occasionally mine.

Thank you so much Jon Swift for the idea and thank you BP members for taking part. Enjoy!

George of Finding Life Hard? is raring to go so let's start, shall we?

Since this is my compilation effort I get to go first:

JMB of Nobody Important wants to introduce you to her mother-in-law who died two years ago, just shy of her 105th birthday in My Mother-in-Law, a Remarkable Woman which continues in The Perfect Mother-in-Law.

Gracchi of Westminster Wisdom offers us L'Argent: Robert Bresson in a Sinful World in which he shows that this film is a religious meditation on money and will and Catholicism- it's an argument with Dostoevsky and the book of Job. It is one of the defining pieces of art of the century and everyone should see it and try and understand it- whatever your opinion of Gracchi's thoughts on it, go and see the film now.

Calum Carr of CalumCarr's Take on....Whatever in British Identity responds to an article, by Jack Straw, about Britishness in which he suggests criteria which define "Britishness". Calum uses his Scottishness to highlight how difficult he, and others, would find it to meet those criteria.

Ellee Seymour of Ellee Seymour discusses divorce along with the most generous settlements in Europe being obtained in the English Courts in the post Is the Cost of Divorce to blame for Fewer Marriages?

Chris of The Russian Wolfhound says of his post Arriving on a Jet Plane, "If the government was really concerned about the environment, it would strive to emulate the budget airlines, rather than demonising them. At least I think that's the point I was making."

Liz of Finding Life Hard? says "When Uncle Horace died old memories came creeping back...." and so she wrote Stop the Clocks.

Louis of The People's Republic of Birmingham says of his post The Far-right to Offend, "Freedom of speech is not about the right to make fun of another religion - it is much more important than that."

Beaman of Beaman's World describes his post, Why I Strongly Support Israel, as an essay outlining the reasons why he supports and feel affection for the state of Israel during its times of peril and war with its neighbours. Why are so many people hostile to Israel, in the West? He explores such reasons.

Hetty raids the Beaman's World refrigerator for a snack before she can continue reading

The Incomparable Team of George Poles and Simon Littlefield of As a Dodo submit "Harry Potter July 1997- July 2007 "as our best post of the year, largely because it's the one that provoked the most comments. It's an obit for the boy wizard ostensibly taken from an exclusive preview of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" obtained by our reporter (despite the fact the "preview" seemed to be written in his hand on the back of several betting slips in his own name)."

Ian Grey of Shades of Grey says of his post, Newcastle's Theatre Royal, "I have chosen this post from May 2007 about the backstage visit to my favourite local theatre that I had the pleasure of working a panto season at in my formative years. There is nothing overly remarkable about the blogpost, however it is the first entry that resulted in a request to use one of my photos for non-Web purposes. (For the curious- it is the fourth photo)."
Ed: Ian is languishing in hospital with a broken leg at the moment, at the mercy of the dreaded NHS. All BP members wish him a speedy recovery.

Sackerson at Bearwatch in Real Cycles looks at how apparently objective markets may be skewed by the self-interest of the insiders and relates it to everyday experience, for example he says, riding a bus.

Grendel of well, Grendel says of his post Holy Cow!, "I thought that the arrest of school teacher Gillian Gibbons in the Sudan after pupils names a teddy bear Mohammed required a gentle mocking. I'm not sure the man building the new shed/Akhenaten joke quite came off though. Either too clever by half or not half clever enough. Probably the latter."

Ruthie of Zaftig says of her post, A bizarre (and infuriating) day: "It's an account of my encounter on campus with a small army of pro-life demonstrators and it's a post that resonated with readers and prompted a lot of subsequent debate."

Phil of Critical Faculty Dojo considers the rush to legislation to force the use of so-called low energy compact fluorescent (CF) bulbs in two posts, firstly in EU saves us from deadly barometer threat!! and in Nu Lab's campaign against 'traditional' light bulbs gathers pace.

Matt Wardman of The Wardman Wire offers some very interesting sets of "long lost twins" in Lookalikes as a continuation of his double trouble series.

Jams O'Donnell, of The Poor Mouth says, "Although I don't pretend to be particularly talented I do enjoy photography and I regularly post photos on the Poor Mouth. This post is a collection of a few of my favourites from 2007" Thus Wordless Wednesday - A Few Favourites.

Robyn, one of the felines at The Poor Mouth defends his snack from all comers

Tom Paine of The Last Ditch offers We Pay to have an Underclass -- Telegraph in which he "argues, from personal experience, that unskilled British workers are no better or worse than anyone else, but that they are badly served by our education and benefits systems, which draw them into idle, purposeless lives. Then we import workers to do their jobs..."

Matt Sinclair of Sinclair's Musings in Being globally aware is bad for your health, wealth and freedom makes a correlation between a nation being internationally aware and its economic situation, etc. Just what the title says in fact. ( Very lame summary by Ed. Go read it.)

Ordivicius of Ordovicius submitted his post Preserving the Kingdom, a link post directing the reader to his excellent six-part series considering the options facing the UK constitution regarding devolution, England and the West Lothian Question.

Colin Campbell of Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe seemed very taken with camels in 2007 for he wrote two posts on the topic. In Camel Burger Anyone? he discusses the whole camel story in Australia where they are considered to be in numbers of plague proportion. Then when horse racing was under threat due to horse flu he writes about Camel Racing to be trialled in Broken Hill.

jrd168 of Some Random Thoughts talks about his Gran who sadly had passed away earlier in the year in Political Influences --Mary Wragg.

Mutley of Mutleythedogsdayout decided that 2007 was the year to get in shape. Of course one has to have the right exercise kit, so in Getting Fit by Snowboarding he tells of his quest to choose the appropriate gear for Snowboarding. Snowboarding? In Devon, where there is no snow?

Harry Haddock of Nation of Shopkeepers puts forward Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, and, err, Wrong which he describes as one his usual rants against those who seek to steal our freedom by stealth, in this case health fascists.

Welshcakes Limoncello of Sicily Scene sorts out her ideas on feminism, love, chivalry and the whole darn lot in La Grande Illusion.

Miss Simi, who rules the roost at Sicily Scene says it's time for a nap after reading all those interesting posts.

Once again I would like to thank all the contributors who made this possible. 2007 was a very good year for the bloggers in Blogpower and let's hope that 2008 will be more of the same.