Watcher's Council Nominations, 2/7/07

Every week, the Watcher's Council members nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at the site of our fearless leader, Watcher of Weasels



OK, here's this week's lineup:

1. J O S H U A P U N D I T: Muslim anger over Temple Mount excavations - AKA hypocrisy in action In this week's piece, I contrast the hysterical reaction of the Arab world towards Israel's supposed `desecration of a holy site' - excavation and repair of a damaged walkway leading in to the Temple Mount - with the Muslim worlds' hypocritical silence (and in many cases, outright approval) towards the desecration and destruction of Jewish and Christian holy sites, including Joseph's Tomb, the Gaza Synagogues and the Church of the Holy Sepelchure.

This has nothing to do with any `desecration', of course. What it's about is a Muslim attempt to make an apartheid, racist claim something they have no right to claim - ownership of all or part of Jerusalem.

It's time we started demanding that the Muslims world start practicing the same tolerance for other faiths that they demand from others.



2. Done With Mirrors: What is it good for? Callimachus has a fine essay this week on the necessity of war and peace, and more importantly, how they relate. To quote Marcus Aurelius `If you desire peace, prepare for war.'

Indeed.


3.Soccer Dad: Undocumented Soccer Dad has an excellent piece that helps unravel all the twists and turns of the Scooter Libby case - and take a few well deserved shots at the WAPO's resident blowhard David Ignatius while he's at it.

Ignatius is actually useful as a barometer. His reading of the facts - especially if he makes any predictions - is almost always consistently wrongheaded, and thus helps in providing direction!


4. Right Wing Nut House: WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IRAN? In Rick's well written answer to the question at hand, he agrees with your humble servant FF that the idea of diplomacy with the Mullahs is a ridiculous notion for obvious reasons..and, like me, he also rejects the idea (for practical reasons) of nuking them until they glow and then shooting them in the dark, enjoyable though that would be.

He feels that containment is the answer. Regular members of Joshua's Army know that I agree, with certain qualifications - namely embargoing the shipment of Iranian oil in the Persian Gulf, taking out Iran's infrastructure, plottable nuke sites, Navy, missile launchers, ports, gas refineries and especially taking over the Iranian oil terminal at Kharg Island as I detailed last week, with a little professional help from some knowledgeable military members of Joshua's Army.

Stranding the Republican Guard for want of fuel, sending Iran's economy into freefall and watching Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs get lynched by the angry populace would be just as effective and a lot more fun than nuking or invading them, and a lot less costly.

5. The Sundries Shack: Once more, William Arkin, with feeling I didn't cover this, but last week, the WAPO ran an absolutely horrible and seditious column by a leftist anti-military writer named William Arkin, which essentially said that the US military should stop whining about not being supported by lefty experts like Arkin, and that the troops owe leftys like Arkin support rather than the other way around and should just shut up like the authoritarian, non-representative robots they are and do as they're told.

Needless to say, this caused a major firestorm and the brass at the WAPO obviously leaned on Arkin heavily to `clarify' his remarks. Here Jimmie takes his non-apology apart with superb elan.

Money quote from Mr. Bise : `Imagine being a leftist. It must stink when your own thoughts make your head hurt all the time.'

6. Rhymes With Right: An Open Letter To Governor Rick Perry Here, Greg speaks with the voice of a concerned teacher regarding Texas governor Perry's bypassing the state legislature and mandating that all sixth-grade girls in public schools must receive the Gardasil vaccine manufactured by Merck, (a major campaign donor of Perry's) to prevent a sexually transmitted disease.

Greg makes the point that the disease in question is far less prevalent and costly then another far more common disease, teen pregnancy, and makes a fascinating argument that if the government can mandate that all female students take Gardasil in order to receive a public education, then the state government should also mandate norplant implants to prevent teen pregnancy, which costs the State of Texas far more money.

An interesting and well done essay, to say the least!

7. The Glittering Eye: To find an answer Here, Dave Schuler uses an article by blogger Jeb Koogler of Foreign Policy Watch as a jump off point to examine to what degree US policies are responsible for the current War on jihad.

As I pointed out in the comments section of Dave's fine essay, the current situation is very much our fault.

We have allowed the Islamic world to kill our citizens, subvert our countries and steal our wealth with impunity.

When we are willing to end the export of jihad to our countries and convince the Arab world that we are more than willing to be as harsh, violent and as uncompromising to them as they have been to us, and to retaliate in kind for any aggression on their part, the War on Jihad will have ended in victory.

8. AMERICAN FUTURE - Who Is George Soros? here, Marc reflects on an article by the New Republic's Martin Peretz, in which he discusses the wartime collaboration with the Nazis by Leftist bank roller and enabler George Soros when he was a teenager, as reported in the New York Times' online "Davos Diary.

As Marc relates, it is especially poignant given Soros' remarks that the US needs to undergo a `denazification' process.


9. The COLOSSUS OF RHODEY: Climate skeptic criticized Another fine take by Hube on the global warming controversy....

10. Eternity Road: Toward A New Libertarianism Part 10: The Great Papers Francis examines why American libertarians should also be staunch Constitutionalists.

11. What’s Dunkirk got to do with it? Bookworm Room Bookworm also noticed that horrible Arkin column, and uses the national British myth of Dunkirk as an example of why a nation must believe in itself to triumph in adversity -instead of trying to subvert that country's belief in itself, like Arkin. Great read, Bookworm.


12.The Education Wonks: Is Punishing AWOL Parents The Way To Go? EdWonk examines the implication of a proposed Texas law that would charge parents with a class `c' misdemeanor for missing a parent-teacher conference!

That's this week's lineup..enjoy!