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, the infamous Watcher of Weasels
Do take the time and check out the non-Council links..they are always rewarding.
Now, take some time off the post-Christmas rush and feast on this week's Council lineup...tasty!
1. JOSHUAPUNDIT: What Would Jesus Say To Those That Defame His People? Every Christmas like clockwork, the dinosaur media runs lachrymose articles on the decline of Arab Christians in the Holy Land, usually focusing on Bethlehem, a Christian symbol. The common thread for most of them is to blame Israel and the "separation wall". To find out why these articles are pure factually challenged horse manure and the actual reason for the Christian exodus, click and venture within ...
2. Done With Mirrors:Ron Paul Callimachus puts his considerable historian's chops to work to examine in the depth the candidacy of Ron Paul and finds Pauls' neo-isolationism wanting in a number of respects. I agree with Cal that to try to turn back the clock to the 19th century is highly impractical, and like Cal, while I find some aspects of his domestic program to be workable, I admit I have a major problem with a number of his supporters. Especially since he has yet to to anything much to distance himself from them.
3. Soccer Dad:First, Let's Let The Lawyers Kill Us All This week Soccer Dad paraphrases the well known quotation from Prince Hal as a title and writes on an excellent topic for discussion, the legal establishment's blatant interference with the military during war time. He focuses on Israel and the Lebanon War, but the problem exists here as well.
During wartime, the military is focused on a specific and easily definable goal, killing the maximum amount of the enemy and achieving victory in the quickest possible time at the least cost in lives and treasure. Lawyers, on the other hand are focused on the less defined goal of perpetuating their existence as a class and their control over society. Formerly,in both Israel and the US this problem was solved to everyone's mutual benefit by a temporary curtailment of certain liberties during the duration until victory was won and freedom's survival ensured. Lately, of course, the lawyers have increasingly gotten out of hand,no matter what the ultimate cost.
4. The Glittering Eye: Nuclear weapons Policy in the 21st Century This week, Dave has an interesting post with recommendations on what US nuclear weapons policy might be in this century an dhow we might, in concert with other nuclear powers regulate the technology.
5. Bookworm Room: Judeo-Christian Doctrine and Moral Freedom Ms. Bookworm tackles quite a lot in this well written post.
Her basic position appears to be that the foundation of western freedom and individual liberty is the west's Judeo-Christian values. She makes the point that this freedom is opposed by the values of Islam and the Left, which philosophically have similar views on individual freedom (as others have noted before). After all, as she points out, Islam means `submission' rather than `peace'.
She also makes the point that Islam is both misogynistic in its approach to women as well as misanthropic in its belief that mankind in general is not to be trusted to yield to its better influences without harsh and (to us) cruel punishments.
I would differ with the idea that Islam does not 'concern itself with broader moral issues that rise above mere tribal law.' I think it does, but in practice it mostly seems that Islamic society chooses to implement those broader values by imposing consensus and obedience in ways diametrically opposed to the Judeo-Christian values Ms. Bookworm compares them to.
6. Rhymes With Right:A Holiday Primer for Ron Paul Supporters Poor Greg and his Darling Democrat obviously ran into a few Ron Paul fanatics over the holiday season. I'm reminded of Billy Eckstine's advice to Miles Davis on how to deal with people this clueless, and I admit that it has mostly worked for me. But Greg's way is certainly more civil; he provides a witty primer for Ron Paul supporters in an attempt to educate them.
7.Colossus of Rhodey:The Arrogance Hube looks at the blatant hypocrisy of the way the Left promotes `free speech' for itself and censorship for those who disagree with the party line, using the Left's championship of teacher James Corbett's bigoted rants as opposed to the silence on the attempt to muzzle writer Mark Steyn as examples.
In fact, this is exactly in line with the Marxist dialectic as applied by the Soviets, something that influences the Left in America far more than they realize or acknowledge.I suggest a reading of Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey by David Horowitz for those interested in exploring this further.
8. Cheat Seeking Missiles:Cross about Huckabee's Cross Ad Here, Laer writes Mike Huckabee's famous `cross' ad, which it appears he feels (not to put words in his mouth) trivializes what the Christian cross stands for.
Not being an evangelical, it obviously doesn't hit me as vigorously, although I can certainly see Laer's point.
For a reason that I'll detail later, I remain of an open mind on Huckabee's candidacy, although I would say I'm leaning towards negative, as I find a number of his ideas suspect. Like Laer, I also feel that the War on Jihad is America's primary issue and am still waiting to see what the governor's concrete ideas are on this and the related issues.
9. The Education Wonks: George Will Gets beyond NCLB Edwonk looks at columnist George Will's take on No Child Left Behind and the resulting size of the huge `Educracy' in the Department of Education. A pity Reagan didn't abolish it and put school choice in place when he had the chance, and an even bigger pity that the current occupant of the White House declined to do the same, thus missing out on an issue that would have tied working families to his party for some time.
10. Wolf Howling: A Tale Of Two Iraqs And Two Wars GW has an insightful piece that uses the views of retired Lieutenant General Barry McCaffrey on Iraq as a starting point. which are always worth the read. McCaffrey's views are almost always worth the read. Like other observers, he sees the Iraqi government and constitution as basically dysfunctional, but also sees things vastly improving at the grass roots level and with the Iraqi police and security forces...a sort of `bottom up' construction of a state.
Of course, had the Bush Administration not pushed the Iraqis into an election before they were ready and had time to develop a civil society under the guidance of a strong military governor, as we did with Japan, much blood and treasure would have been spared...but I digress.
GW further analyzes what he calls two `wild cards' in the pack - Iran's pernicious influence and the specter of Kurdish separatism.
11.Right Wing Nuthouse: Huckadumb Rick dislikes GOP candidate Mike Huckabee, and like Laer focuses on the `cross' ad and a minor tiff between conservative icon Rush Limbaugh and his followers as evidence of the Huckabee campaign's attempt at exclusion and group cohesiveness at the expense of Republican unity .
12. Big Lizards: Lame duck crushes Christmas turkeys Dafydd writes about his take on the current occupant of the White House and his legislative victories over a hapless opposition party.
That's this week's lineup..enjoy!
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