Top Ten Posts of 2010

After only a fleeting realization that today is the final day of the year, it occurred to me that I had neither prepared, nor reviewed my top ten posts of the past year.

consider the oversight corrected.

Like last year, I’ve also included a “best of” category under each post, and a snippet of commentary.

From Pax Plena to you, may the best of 2010, be the worst of your 2011. Happy New Year!

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1. The Myth of Life and Time

Best Post.

My self-denial reminds me that time is incredibly fleeting. What one assumes will not happen for a very long time, can and does, in fact, happen routinely. It seems I tend to envision big-picture/life plans as events occurring far in the distance. But this is a myth - a myth about both life and time. The reality is that even while I assume life will stop for time, both, in fact, march on in harmonious step.

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2. The Things that Matter

Most Philosophical.

If even our mightiest works, and conquests ultimately wind up as crumbled statues in the sands of time, then what hope can we have of our much less noteworthy existence ever being more than a grain in so vast a desert?

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3. When The C: Drive is Full, But the D: Drive is Empty…

Most Helpful. (And oddly, enough, one of the most widely read Pax Plena posts of all-time).

Background. I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 1564 laptop, complete with the new Intel Core i3 processor and a hi-def LED screen…The problem? My c drive was full, but my d drive was nearly empty. And most of my programs had a default installation on the C: drive which was rapidly running out of space.

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4. Boehner for Speaker

Best Reminiscence.

Come what indiscretions may, Leader Boehner endeared himself to me at the event when he said to thunderous applause, in a booming Ohio baritone, "The Democrats don't know shit from shinola!"

Truth be told, I wasn't sure I knew shit from shinola either. But I'm a sucker for alliteration, and the phrase rolled so easily off the tongue. Turns out, the remark was a reference to the Dems complete bungling of public sentiment during the health care debacle. Shinola indeed.

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5. Blogging from a Plane

Coolest Location.

Today, however, I am pleased to post from the comfort of my seat on American Airlines flight 1172 'with service from Phoenix, AZ to Chicago!'

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6. Song of the Week: Mack the Knife

Best Musical Selection.

Like most crooner songs, the swinging tempo makes an unmistakable cameo appearance, all while pressing toward the song’s denouement where Darin jubilantly proclaims: Macky is back in town! In the end, the big band music is so alive, and so exciting, it’s as if welcoming a serial killer to the city were a perfectly logical thing to do.

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7. Are Centrists Still Welcome in the GOP?

Best Political Analysis.

The problem with the pervading political calculus for the right is that the vast majority of Americans are not so far to the right as the GOP base seems to be. By purging the party of moderates, the appeal of the party is diminished, making it less likely that the conservative ideals they champion will ever see the light of day.

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8. When Faith and the Law Collide

Best Headline.

Unfortunately, like my dilemmas, there is not easy solution--although it is surely much easier to change the laws of the United States than the laws of God. But the story is a reminder that not everything that is moral is legal. And for a Nation that prides itself for upholding the rule of law by the implementation of just policies, correcting such aberrations should be a priority of the legislators we elect.

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9. When Politics Meets Sarcasm

Best Book Review.

As if the point needed clarification, O’Rourke’s literary mien is snark. And for some 270 pages of text, O’Rourke cracks wise  on a smorgasbord of policy topics ranging from taxes to terrorism. The table of contents gives the book the appearance of careful organization, neatly divided into three parts (Part I: ‘The Sex, Death, and Boredom Theory of Politics’; Part II: ‘What Is to Be Done’; and Part III: ‘Putting our Big, Fat Political Ass on a Diet’). But in practice “Don’t Vote” actually reads more along the lines of a compendium of essays, loosely tied around O’Rourke’s “Kill, Fuck, Marry” theory of politics – which, by way of disclaimer for the more wholesome of Pax Plena readers,  is actually the title of chapter one.

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10. Love Osama?

Most provocative.

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