American Digest, 2004: The Condensed Version

A look back at what seems, for now, to be worth keeping. I've lost track of how many entries there have been in the last year, but I am determined that there will be fewer in the future -- at least by me. That's the good news. The other news is that, as is common in this medium, I've compiled a list of what seems to me to be of more than passing interest from the last year's entries.

I don't think that many will approve of everything on this list, much less that they will pay attention to more than a small fraction of it. Still, the Web's first and last strength will remain 'The List,' so here's my small contibution:

• To Those Who Own One: "A New Birth of Freedom:" Why Bleats and Blogs Matter
  
• Art-Schmart: Yet Again Contemporary Art Proves It Has No Bottom,
  
• Space: On First Looking Out of NASA's Rover
  
• Author's Message: God's Back and He's Not Pleased,
  
• Digerati Down: Milking the Digital Divide
  
• American Studies: The Age of Miracles and Wonders and Bunless Whoppers
  
• American Idiots: Franken, my dear, I don't give a damn.
  
• Idiots Abroad: All in the (Palestinian) Family
  
• Idiots for President, 1 of 11: Made it, Ma! Top of the world!
  
• And then there were 10.... What Makes Howard "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"?
  
• Spirit of America 1: Small Moves
  
• What's in a Name? : The Name in the Stone

• Electoral Physics: The Democratic Candidate Cartoon Laws of Motion
  
• Space Patrol: Mars -- Man, You Gotta Go
  
• War: The Facts on the Ground
  
• Photography: New York Life -- An Exhibition and Open Invitation
  
• A Single Story from 911: The Wound
  
• Good bye to All That: On the Effect of Changing One's Politics in MidLife
  
• Gilbert and Sullivan Roll Over: I Am the Very Model of A Modern Kerry Democrat
  
• The View from the Heights: Small Fires on the Surface of the Deep
  
• That's Entertainment: The Cash-Flow of the Christ
  
• After the Killings in Spain: When the War on Terror Goes Wholesale
  
• How to Kill New York City: What It Would Take -- A Simple Scenario
  
• Never, Ever, Get on a Boat with 2,000 People You Don't Know and Don't Want to Know: Cruising Off Baja
  
• On National Book Conventions: THE HORROR, THE HORROR
  
• Our Eye on Eternity: The Hubble -- Saving a National Spiritual Strategic Asset
  
• Why Are We In Iraq? Take A Number... Legacy of Terror -- The Mass Graves
  
• Useless Youths and Young Heroes: AIN'T IT COOL? -- A Tale of Two Cultures
  
• Concerning the Death of My Father: The Interface
  
• Once Were Warriors: The Degeneration of the Democratic Party
  
• To Achieve Great Things, One Must First Be Born: On Abortion in America
  
• Endeavors: Small Moves, the Spirit of America, and Doing What You Can
  
• My Sad Captain: Thom Gunn 1929-2004
  
• Not Yet War Enough: Sherman to Sunni Triangle -- Leave Now
  
• Heroes: Courage
  
• Animals: Invitation to the Beheading of an American Jew
  
• The Deepening Cesspool: The New Proud Porn Masters of Our Major Media
  
• Way-New Media: The Toolbar Times
  
• Dumping the Old Media: No More Letters to the Editor
  
• Diagnosis for the Dead: Liberalosis -- A Disease Killing and Crippling Millions of Our Fellow Americans
  
• In ZombieLand: Behind the Scenes at New York Times Headline Meetings
  
• A Kerry Not A Kennedy: Not Camelot, but Hamlet
  
• Getting Straight About Islam: The War of Two Religions
  
• Eye to the Sky: The Greatest Show Off Earth
  
• Dollars for Doughnuts: Coin of the PC Realm
  
• Dumb Criminals that Used to Work for Bill Clinton: Yes, Down My Pants. Oh, Like You Haven't?
  
• Banality of Evil Incarnate: Killing Two of Your Three Triplets to Keep Your Lifestyle
  
• Styling: Pre-Owned Jeans
  
• Into the Air, Junior Birdmen: The Fun of Flying -- Vacation Report
  
• The Slaughter of the Innocents: Pieta for the 41st Photograph
  
• The End is In Sight: Post-Mortem Effects -- The Kerry Campaign is Over
  
• File Under: Once A Bear Is Hooked on Garbage.... The Dead Imagination of the New York Times
  
• Time and Chance Happens to All: Visit to an Old Friend
  
• And Now the News: Yes, Virginia, There WILL Be a Draft
  
• Days of Future Past: The Fortune Teller in October 2000
  
• Facts on the Ground: Impact -- Free Elections in Afghanistan
  
• The Boy: The Magic of Childhood
  
• Smart Women, Foolish Choices: Intelligence
  
• What Drives Democrats to Destruction? Yearning for the Mud -- The Kerry-Heinz Ticket and the Psychotic Party Platform
  
• My First Republican Vote: Fifty Reasons Why
  
• Behind the Scenes: WHY WE ARE IN IRAQ -- Military Bases Are A Requirement, Democracy is Merely an Elective.
  
• Probable History 1: The Meeting
  
• Probable History 2: A Cave in Tora Bora
  
• My Unfortunate Mishap: Blogger's Head Explodes
  
• Exodus, NOT: CANADIAN ARMY FORTIFIES BORDER TO REPEL REFUGEE ONSLAUGHT FROM THE SOUTH
  
• New Americans: "I will vote always for best, always" -- Conversations with Paul
  
• Aftermath: If Politics Imitated "The Godfather"
  
• Obsessions for Others: The Red Hot Halo -- Scoring a Copy of "2"
  
• Obvious Truths: Michael Moore -- The Really Big Winner of 2004
  
• Over Our Shoulder: Nukes South of the Border Will Do, Thank You
  
• Our Towns: The Legacy of the Long Peace
  
• The Insanity Continues: Democratic Dementia Rising -- Victims in the Night
  
• Questions without Answers: The Parent Trap
  
• Losing Their Religion: The Religion of the Left
  
• Lost Religions: Dutch Do-It-Yourself Death-Cult Expands
  
• Amazing Grace: My Mother at Ninety
  
• Looking Back: The Day We Killed John Lennon
  
• Regrets? I've Had a Few: The Daughter That Disappeared
  
• Medium? Rare.: The UnSolitary Cybercrowd -- Over 5 Million Served
  
• Emerging Thoughts: On Advent -- "We Are All Lying in the Mud, but Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars"
  
• Where To? What Next? Building the Perfect Beast: What Is to Be Done in the Blogosphere
  

And that's the total for 2004. See you on the flip side.

Posted by Vanderleun at December 31, 2004 1:58 PM