blog awards, still dire

Blog awards, eh? What a gaggle of crap that is. It's not just the staid and ossified elite who are always in these things (haven't we had enough chances to vote for BoingBoing or Andrew "Overrated" Sullivan?), it's the volume of egregious turdmerchants who still get in. 17,000 votes for Hot Air? I'm expecting Vint Cerf to say it was all a terrible mistake, and this Internet lark has got to stop. There's probably something clever to say about how if your blog attracts the fat end of the social-authoritarianism distribution you're bound to do well. If you think I'm taking the piss about a staid and ossified elite, by the way, look at the "Best Liberal Blog" nominees; I couldn't say sight unseen which year that list came from. 2004? 2008? 2010? "The Confluence" is a clue, but then there's always one you never read.

So I'm not going to offer endorsements, but what I will do is call on the readership to do what I usually do, which is to vote for anyone who looks like beating the most egregious arse in the race. This policy stood Britain in good stead for the last 500 or so years so there must be something to be said for it. As far as "Best Conservative Blog" goes, well, I suppose voting for Victor Davis Hanson can be considered an existential acte gratuit, and anyway the other nominees achieve the rare and impressive feat of actually pushing him into the role of the lesser evil. After all, at least VDH doesn't post videos of people actually killing an Arab.

Whilst we're playing philosophy, however, arguably you're required by the greatest good of the greatest number *and* the categorical imperative, and the fact I tell you to, to go and vote for Army of Dude for Best Military Blog. And you could try to stop a bunch of atmospheric physics dodgers winning the Science category. The Fistful is in the Business category, btw. And, of course, there's this. Don't let it happen.