On February 22, 2005, at 8:13 PM, the first BizzyBlog post entered cyberspace.

To quote The Grateful Dead: “What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been.”

It’s been (mostly) fun. Also exhilirating, educational, enlightening, frustrating, really difference-making, heartwarming ….. and occasionally humiliating.

Oh, and very humbling. A quick look at the various blogrolls here, which only scratch the surface of the incredible talent that’s “out there,” keeps things in perspective.

Endless thanks to all readers who have stopped by here during the past year, and to all bloggers who have linked or tracked back, and to all who have civilly commented. If you’ve learned as much from me as I have from all of you, we are all much better off.

If there’s one “surprise” in all of this, it’s how receptive other bloggers are, including the big cahunas, to linking to the posts of others, even beyond reasonable expectations (or maybe it’s because I’m such a pest they link to get me out of their inbox). Most of us would be nobodies if the big boys and girls didn’t pay attention to us, and it’s nice to be in the same ’sphere with people who realize that a bigger pie is better for everyone.

If there’s one non-surprise, it’s that a year of blogging has shown me that those who are supposed to give us the news are failing us in so many ways — and that during the past year it got worse instead of better.

Special thanks to the S.O.B. Alliance members. I think we’re in the early stages of learning that it’s important to be part of something bigger, and I sense that we’ve only just begun.

While I am away on necessary business, the rest of today’s posts will link to what I felt were the 20 best posts of the past year, in four groups of five (one, two, three, four).

Have a great day!

This is the first part of a four-part blogiversary series of my favorite posts of the past year:

• May 2 — Kudlow Doesn’t Understand Biased MSM Business Reporting (So I Will Explain) (explains BizzyBlog’s take on the origins of bias in the business press, which until the early 1980s tended to report business news fairly. Those days are long gone.)
• May 28 — It’s Sober-Up Time in the 2nd Congressional District (one of the first, if not the first, warnings to local congressional contenders that this guy Paul Hackett, who would ultimately became almost a household name two months later, was for real)
• June 9 — 2nd District (OH) Race: The McEwen Connections, Part 1–
  Who is Advantage Associates, Inc? (first in a six-part series of posts revealing business and other relationships of a local congressional candidate that the local press mostly did not cover)
• June 28 — The Real Entitlement Generation (ridiculing Baby Boomer bosses’ complaints that the current generation of job applicants feels overly entitled. Look in the mirror, people.)
• July 5 — US Retains Control of Internet Directory: AP Has Hissy Fit (one of the earlier pieces warning that there would be an attempt to take control of Internet domain management from the US)

This is the second part of a four-part blogiversary series of my favorite posts of the past year:

• July 17 — New York Times Running Out? (a recent history of the decline of The Times that got a surprising amount of blogospheric attention)
• July 24 — Democrat Congressional Candidate and Bush Critic Uses Presidential Video Footage, Pretends to Support the Iraq War (the original exposure of Paul Hackett’s pretend-to-support-Bush video, and comparing it with some things he had already said about the president, even before his infamous “chickenhawk” and “SOB” quotes in the national press)
• August 4 — 2nd District (OH) Congressional Election: Local Center-Right Blogs Have Earned a Victory Lap (notes the contributions of many of those who would become part of the S.O.B. Alliance to Jean Schmidt’s holdoff of Paul Hackett in the August 2 special election in Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District, and tells the story of how Rush Limbaugh learned of Hackett’s duplicitous video attempts to portray himself as a Bush supporter when he was, and is, anything but that)
• August 10 — What’s Happening to the Real People Involved in the Kelo Eminent Domain Case (first post on the outrages happening on the ground in New London, CT as a result of the Supreme Court’s eminent domain ruling)
• September 11 — I Do Not (and Will Not) Yahoo! (reaction to the jailing of a Chinese dissident journalist with Yahoo!’s help; ultimately led to the Internet Wall of Shame)

This is the third part of a four-part blogiversary series of my favorite posts of the past year:

• October 9 — Questions for the Thought Police at the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and The Cincinnati Enquirer (a tavern owner posts a “For Service Speak English” sign, and the PC Police are out in force)
• October 22 — Nicholas Kristof and Mao: He Just, Can’t, Let, Go (an important exposure of a columnist who in the face of 60-70 million dead, still holds onto romantic notions of what the biggest mass murderer in history “accomplished” for his country)
• November 2 — The “No WMD” Lie (with LINKED Proof) (a yet-to-be-refuted rundown of weapons of mass destruction that HAVE been been found in Iraq already — as far as I’m concerned the argument’s over)
• November 13 — About That Nov. 16-18 UN Internet Conference in Tunisia (UN-EU takeover attempt)
• December 18 — Time’s “People Who Mattered” Are Framed with Bias-Tinged Pictures and Captions

This is the fourth part of a four-part blogiversary series of my favorite posts of the past year:

• January 3 — Time for an Internet Wall of Shame for the Chinese Police-State Enablers
• January 5 — The New York Times’ Disgraceful (and Wrong) Opportunism in the West Virginia Coal Mine Deaths (showing that despite the hyperventilation about mine safety slipping, mine fatalities and injuries have fallen in the past four years)
• January 13 — Voodoo Schmoodoo (illustrating the successful track record of supply-side economics over 40 years)
• January 29 — Major Left-Wing Blogs Appear to Be Virtually Silent on Google-China Censorship
• February 20 — Time and Newsweek: Totally, Out, Of, Touch (preoccupation over Cheney accidental shooting of a friend on a hunting trip shows how out-of-whack the newsweeklies priorities are, as shown by their long-term declines in circulation)

Free Links:

• Kevin Hassett at Bloomberg thinks that “first-quarter GDP growth is setting up to be a blowout.” I’m a fan of modest expectations and upside surprises, so I wish Kevin would put a sock in it, especially after the very marginal, though not yet final, 4th quarter of 2005.
• My reaction to Larry Summers’ resignation from Harvard — There is no appeasing tyrants, even academic ones. I really should say, ESPECIALLY academic ones (HT The Corner and Instapundit).
• Yeah, but you have only one mouth — USA Today reports that 16% of wireless phone users have two phones, one personal and one business: “Driving the trend: More large companies are doling out mobile phones or PDAs to employees and restricting them to business use.” Now here’s an interesting side note: 6% of the two-phoners use one for incoming calls, and the other for outgoing.
• No need to fully understand what’s at this link (I sure don’t) — Just know that Apple appears to be losing its (excuse the term) viral virginity.
• This is the first time since the Fed’s tightening regime began in June 2004 that they’re saying they may (emphasis on may) ease up.
• If forcing the Arab company seaport deal is Bush’s first veto, he’s blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other. The only thing I can figure is that he knows the veto will be overridden and he’ll then be able to say he did everything he could. Recent revelations that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Chairman Pace weren’t aware of the deal are not helpful, and are giving off a distinct “gang that can’t shoot straight” (oops) air.
• Well at least Moody’s didn’t say GM’s cars are junk — just their bonds, which are now even junkier.
• Something closer to zero would have been better, but Radio Shack investors can be thankful that the company’s $1.03 million payout to resigned and disgraced CEO Dave Edmondson is $41 million less than Carly Fiorina got from Hewlett Packard.
• This bears watching — megamillionaire Tom Monaghan is building a planned community in Florida that will appeal primarily to orthodox Catholics. The ACLU is monitoring, and is concerned that Monaghan’s developers are asking pharmacies that locate in the new town not to carry contraceptives. A battle royal seems inevitable.

An alert bus driver and driver’s aide saved a boy from a burning house (HT Made 4 the Internet):

(more…)