Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Rock Solid in the Blogosphere for Summer 2006

I’ve been putting it off for as long as possible, but the time has come to name the Rock Solid in the Blogosphere winner for the Summer of 2006.

But first, let’s pause to thank our outgoing winner: Mary Katharine Ham. M-Kat has thrived since leaving Hugh Hewitt’s nest and has had a great three-month reign. She has come into her own blogging at townhall and especially in her videos at hotair. If I had one complaint, it would be that she hasn’t done more parodies of “The View” with Michelle Malkin.


Sigh, now I suppose we must move on and declare a new winner. So, the Summer 2006 winner of the award that Hugh Hewitt has called a “high honor and great distinction” goes to ... John Hinderaker.

This may come as a surprise to those who have followed our sometimes bitter rivalry/competition with Power Line, but the fact of the matter is that we have always admired their work. Yes, we have been jealous of there recognition by liberal magazines like Time and Playboy and they were no doubt jealous that we were named right-wing blog of the year by City Pages, but when you get right down to it, both of our blogs are pretty awesome.

True, when perusing Power Line, one has to be careful to not accidentally read one of Paul Mirengoff’s Everton posts (all reasonable British Premier League Football fans are for Arsenal, of course). But, John Hinderaker makes it worth the risk, especially during pageant season.

Nowhere is his expertise more evident than in his excellent coverage of beauty pageants, most recently, the Miss World competition, where he notes the influence of reality TV on the proceedings. Although he failed to mention the eventual winner in his Miss World preview posts, one is still drawn to them again and again.

Here is a sampling of the best of Hinderaker:

Miss World 2006: preview, the climax approaches, final
Miss Universe 2006: preview 1, preview 2, handicapping, final
Miss America 2006: final
Miss Universe 2005: preview (warning: no pictures), handicapping, final, outrage
Miss Universe 2004: preview, handicapping, live-blog,
Miss World 2004: approaching climax, preview, final
Miss Argentina 2004: final
Miss USA 2004: preview 1
Miss World 2003: prelims 1, prelims 2, handicapping, final
Miss America 2003: final
Miss World 2002: controversy (warning: no pictures), final (warning: no pictures)


The other worthy nominees were:

Kevin “It’s an honor just to be nominated” Ecker

Katie from Yucky Salad with Bones who was the front runner until she inexplicably declared “The Breakfast Club” to be the best High School movie of all time

Dean Barnett, who once again proves that Hugh Hewitt is better at choosing co-bloggers than sports teams

And, the go-to guy for election and political analysis, Michael Barone.

Congratulations, John Hinderaker, on joining the elite club of Rock Solid in Blogosphere winners. Enjoy your reign.

6 Comments:

Blogger Dean Barnett said...

I demand a recount. How you could be swayed by Hinderaker's reliance on T&A is beyond me.

9:22 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yer sellin' out man. I remember back in the day when NIGP was raw, loud, angry, and in your face. You used to be the punk rock of the 'sphere. Now you're the Muzak.

10:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Isn't this a bit like George Hamilton giving Sir Ben Kingsley an acting award?

6:07 PM  
Blogger Sisyphus said...

Mr. Barnett: I think you now know what you need to do to win a Rock Solid.

Sid: No, we still haven't lost our edge. Giving a rock Solid to Babs Streisand would be selling out.

Anonymous: Are you taking a shot at John Hinderaker's tan?

7:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Much more of this and I'm gonna develop a complex.

Should I remind the judges I'm probably the most heavily armed of the nominees??

12:42 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Do the judges accept bribes for these awards or is the judging solely based on the yowza factor?

7:38 AM  

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