Best Blogpower Posts of 2008, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves

In celebration of the second anniversary of Blogpower we have a repeat of this compilation. Well yes, I do know it is a bit late this year. Jon Swift, whose idea I pinched last year, posted his Best Blog Posts of 2008 way back at the end of December. I see he included images from the Lolcats site. Do you think he nicked the idea of animal images from my last year's post where I featured photos of our members' delightful pets? I thought his compilation was a long standing tradition but in fact it was a first, so both of us are celebrating the one year anniversary of this feature. The only thing I share in common with Jon Swift.

Again, 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 it or occasionally mine. Several were chosen by me in a rather random fashion.

So thanks again Jon for the idea originally and thank you BP members for taking part. Enjoy!

But first of all, let's start off with an image and not just any image. George who supervises Liz at Finding Life Hard? is one year older and wiser than last year when as a puppy he led us off on our journey. George I don't think that is so wise and Liz is going to kill you!

Once again I get to go first since I am putting together this compilation.

JMB of Nobody Important looks back on her fortunate life in her birthday post, Another Year Older.

Gracchi of Westminster Wisdom says about his post, The Lady of Musashino: Films and history are two of my obsessions and the Lady from Musashino unites the two. It is a truly political film- observing the consequences of the changes taking place within Japanese society in the 20th Century and also the effects of world war two. It bears testament to the deep structural changes that we are still living with- deep structural changes that arise out of a century of warfare and industrialisation- and whose outcome are, as the film suggests, still uncertain. In that sense it is a shard of the mirror of art, literature and history (I suppose which my blog is about) which reflects back at us processes and ideas, achievements and failures whose consequences are still with us.

The Fake Consultant of Advice from the Fake Consultant says: Your friendly fake consultant spends a fair amount of his time complaining and griping--but to balance it out he also tries to find real solutions to real problems, which was the point behind the post On Buying Out the Fleet, Or, Here's A Gas War We Can Win.

Mutley, that is the real Mutley from Mutleythedogdaysout, sits here shyly, taking note of all the great posts of 2008. But let's turn to a cat owner.

Jams of The Poor Mouth, although we don't agree, feels that his photos are better than his words and presents us with a two parter of his favourite photos in his Photo Hunt Favourites and Wordless Wednesday Favourites II.

Chervil of Green Living gives us Stop the Madness -- Stop Coal Mining which she describes thus: My forebears came from the villages that lie in the path of a giant monster, set to destroy centuries of German history and architecture and the best farmland in Germany. Two thousand years of history sacrificed on the altar of greed. My forebears' graves will be dug up and crushed under with no respect to the dead. And the monster does more than "just" destroy villages and valuable farmland. It is digging up coal, the biggest contributor to climate change. The crazy thing is that it does not even make economic sense. Germany pays large subsidies to support coal mining. This is money that would be better spent on renewable energy projects, more affordable public transport and better energy efficiency.

Sally of Sally in Norfolk gives us a charming anecdote from her place of employment in True Story.....

Colin of Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, our intrepid reporter of things Downunder, in Koala Watch tells us, with photos, of a visit to his neighbourhood by a friendly koala.

Heather Yaxley of Heather Yaxley - Green Banana views of Public Relations and More in Do PR Freebies equal blogger relationships? asked a series of questions about the nature of "hospitality" offered to bloggers and in response, many of those involved became very defensive. The fuss seemed to speak volumes - also the campaign went on to win many awards despite little evidence of its effectiveness beyond people saying it was a good campaign. That seems to sum up the nonsense that is a lot of online marketing/PR activities.

Tom Paine of the Last Ditch explores Patriotism versus Nationalism in a three part series. Part 1: A Complicated Subject, Part 2: Virtue or Vice?, and Part 3: The Dark Side.

Welchscakes Limoncello of Sicily Scene says of, My World at 1pm, "This post quite simply reminds me why I love living where I do!"

Paulie of Never Trust a Hippy offers Ignoring Fanatics as maybe not his best post, but he says, "I think that this is something that isn't said enough."

The Cornubian of The Cornish Democrat describes his post Modernising the Magna Carta? Why not start in the bottom left hand corner? as follows: Essentially any constitutional reform that ignores feudal institutions like the Duchy of Cornwall would be a half arsed job.

Deejay of Age is all in the Mind says of his post, The End of a Terrific 10 Days : "This summarises one of the best episodes of the year for me when I have one of the few times with my elderly mother who lives so far away that unplanned trips are not a possibility."

Louis at The People's Republic of Birmingham in ObaMcCainia takes a pre-election look at the candidates in the recent election for the US presidency.

Yes, it's Robyn who eats Jams of The Poor Mouth out of house and home, wondering if that rose is good to eat. Pressing on.

Andrew Allison of well, Andrew Allison - A Conservative View, succinctly sums up his post My Letter to Gordon Brown, in this way: "I think it shows up in glorious technicolour the moral bankruptcy of the British Labour Government."

Lady Mac of Braveheart-does-the-Maghreb talks about education, or rather the difficulties in obtaining it in some parts of the world, in her post, How Big is your World?

Phil of Critical Faculty Dojo in Democracy and the EU criticises the EU's non acceptance of the Irish no vote against the Lisbon Treaty, as they simply ignored the results and continued as if it had never occurred.

Since he misunderstood the instructions another BP member nominated a post by The Morningstar of Cynical Chatter from the Underworld called Extreme Pornography or Sections 63 to 67 of the CIJA 2008. The nominator described it thus: "It is on the surface controversial and highlights the current New-Labour State's desire to control everyone but themselves and that their justifications bear only a passing connection to reality. Tabloid politics. It is clear and well argued."

Mutley of Mutleythedogsdayout in Men's Rules!! issued very serious guidelines for women to follow with their menfolk to ensure an harmonious relationship. Since he considered them equally important they were all labelled Rule number one, despite the fact that there were 26 of them.

Crushed of Crushed by Ingsoc says of his post One in Ten, discussing sexual abuse, "I'm not sure I myself saw it as my best, but it certainly hit a nerve. Which of course, is what makes a good post I guess. In a sense, I guess it sums up what the blog is about, because it's one of the very real problems existing under the carpet in this world we live in, proof that really things are very far from OK."

Miss Simi, who keeps Welshcakes Limoncello of Sicily Scene in line is quite exhausted by clicking all those links and has taken to her bed.

Let's hope you are all of a stronger constitution. Thanks for reading to the end and thanks to those members of Blogpower who contributed their best to this compilation.