Friday, January 13, 2012

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week's Watcher's Council Results


The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week's Watcher's Council match up of 2012, carved eternally in the akhasic records of cyberspace.


This week's winning essay, Joshuapundit's The Tale Of The Swine is a cautionary tale about...well I think you'll figure it out for yourselves. Here's a slice:

Once there was a tribe of wild pigs who lived in a remote area of the woods.

As anyone who's spent time around pigs will tell you, they are by no means the most unintelligent of animals, and these pigs had learned to adapt quite well to their circumstances. They had fashioned dens and had gradually learned to piece together a tribal law that allowed them to work as a group when necessary to ensure an adequate if not over generous food supply, care for their young and defend themselves against any natural predators. In their little corner of the woods, they were pretty much the dominant species, and were reasonably content.

One day, a pig named Andy went missing. The others searched for him throughout their part of the forest, but they were unable to find him no matter where they looked. Andy's fate became a major topic of conversation among the pigs. It was totally unheard of for one of them to simply disappear like that.

The pigs didn't quite keep track of time beyond the seasons, but still by their reckoning it was some time before, to their astonishment, Andy reappeared as the leaves were turning color.

The pigs were ecstatic to see their lost tribe member returned to them..and even better, in what appeared to be rip roaring good health.

Most of the wild pigs tended to lose some weight as the weather started to turn colder and food became scarce and harder to find, but Andy was sleek, fat and obviously had been living, if you'll pardon the expression, high on the hog. His bristles and hooves were clean, his eyes shone brightly and he was as happy as a pig in - well, you know. And much to the other pig's surprise, he had a pretty red collar around his neck, something none of them had ever seen before.

"Wherever have you been Andy?" the other pigs asked. "We looked everywhere for you."

"Oh, I can't wait to tell you", said Andy. "I've discovered something wonderful."

"You know, I was chasing down some berries I smelt over by the oak trees over by our eastern border, you know the place. Well I ended up going a little past our bounds and what bad luck! I wasn't paying attention and got my left rear trotter lodged in a tree root."

"I tried and tried, but I couldn't get free and I thought I might die there. But then the most marvelous thing happened. A man heard my squealing, came through the underbrush and set me free."

In our non-Council category, the winner this week was an interesting piece by Fred Seigal and Joel Kotkin in The City Journal, The New Authoritarianism submitted by Bookworm Room . It's an interesting look at the widening divide between President Obama and the increasingly authoritarian 'progressives' that support him and the rest of the more center right electorate.


Here are this week’s full results.Only New Zeal was unable to vote this week, and was affected by the 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners



Non-Council Winners



See you next week! And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!
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