Forum: Whom Would You Name For Person Of The Year?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day,the culture, or topics of daily life. This week's question: Whom Would You Name For Person Of The Year?

Simply Jews: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. He proved several times during the year 2013 that he is a more astute and more consistent politician, loyal to his friends, disgusting as they may possibly be, than many other leaders, including Barack Hussein Obama.

Bookworm Room:

Leonidas of the year: Ted Cruz, because he took a principled stand when it was unpopular and politically dangerous to do so, and has since been proven right.

Stalwart fellow of the year: Bibi Netanyahu who, so far, is standing strong against Obama's love-fest with Iran. (And let's pray that he continues strong.)

Lying Liar of the year: Barack Obama, the hands-down winner.

Pop culture person of the year: Miley Cyrus, for showing just how debased our culture really is.

Anti-pop culture family of the year: The Robertson family, of Duck Dynasty fame, for proving that Americans are still drawn to old-fashioned values.

Global warming event of the year: And it's a tie, between snowfall in Cairo and an arctic ice cap that has increased in size by 29%

Party hack of the year: Another tie, this time between Kathleen Sebelius and Jay Carney

Best Democrat line of the year: Hillary Clinton, when talking about four murdered Americans, defends herself by saying "What difference at this point does it make?" (And she gets extra credit for scrambled syntax.)

Media star of the year: Megan Kelly

Revolting media personality of the year: This one was a tough one, but it's pretty clear that Martin Bashir, who was a last-minute contender, managed to sink to new depths when it came to revolting ad hominem attacks against a conservative personality.

Robert Avrech from  Seraphic Secret: Seraphic Secret's Person of the Year is George Orwell.

Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984, was published 64 years ago. For Americans, living under Obama, this prophetic novel is more relevant than ever before.

“1984” imagines a country called Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain) a province of a super state called Oceania. The country is under the control of a central party, guided by a quasi divine leader, known as Big Brother. The government justifies their oppressive rule in the name of the collective good. All individualism is crushed, and those who think independently are guilty of thoughtcrimes.

Orwell's understood that those who control language control culture. Bend the meaning of simple words and concepts and you warp the mind, and ultimately control behavior.

Thus, the Ministry of Peace makes perpetual war. The Ministry of Plenty is responsible for starving the population. The Ministry of Love tortures prisoners. And the Ministry of Truth pumps out endless streams of propaganda.

Big Brother teaches that War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, and Ignorance Is Strength.

The ruling party is constantly revising history to make it conform to their ever-shifting versions of the truth. And of course, there is an eternal scapegoat, Emmanuel Goldstein, the reviled public enemy who heads up the counter revolutionary forces of The Brotherhood, which may or may not exist.

Private contracts do not exist under Big Brother.

Big Brother makes the laws. And the laws mean whatever Big Brother says they mean at any given moment

Postmodern Liberalism is evolving into the Orwellian Big Brother state.

Barack Obama was packaged and sold as a cult leader. A radical leftist, Obama's entire political education and career has been at the service of big and bigger government. For Obama and the Democrat party, the individual is merely a cog in the joyous machinery of the state.

Of course this conformity of thought is achieved through the use and abuse of language. If you disagree with Obama's policies you are a racist. If you believe in the Judeo/Christian covenant of marriage between one man and one woman, you are homophobic. If you warn of the dangers posed by IslamoNazis you are an Islamophobe. And if you question the wisdom of granting non citizens all the rights of citizens you are xenophobic.

These liberal charges are classic Orwellian thoughtcrimes.

Obama and his administration tell lie upon lie to the American people: Fast and Furious, Benghazi, Obamacare. The swamp of lies and propaganda is thick and deep. To cover, Obama and his liberal followers, like Big Brother, furiously rewrite the past. A lie as blatant as “If you like your insurance, you can keep it, period.” has been revised to mean something that was never said, never intended.

Big Brother's scapegoat, Emmanuel Goldstein, is alive and well under Obama. Orwell understood that anti-Semitism is an eternal hatred used by oppressive regimes to unite citizens who, might otherwise, become disaffected and unruly. For Obama, Goldstein is Israel. Does anyone doubt for a moment that Obama plans to neutralize the Jewish State by throwing in with nuclear IslamoNazis of Iran?

Under ObamaCare, private contracts have been dissolved by state intervention. And the very laws that Obama and the Democrats pass are as liquid as mercury. From day to day, just as Big Brother shifted the meanings of law and order, the Obama regime makes laws, revises and sometimes simply ignores the very same laws, all in the name of, ahem, social justice.

If a contract is not a contract, what is it?

If a law is not a law, what is it?

Answer: It is 1984.

In 1984, Winston Smith and Julia rebel against Big Brother by falling in love. In the end, after being mercilessly tortured, they betray one another.

“I betrayed you,” she said baldly.

“I betrayed you,” he said.

She gave him another quick look of dislike.

“Sometimes,” she said, “they threaten you with something – something you can't stand up to, can't even think about. And then you say, 'Don't do it to me, do it to somebody else, do it to so-and-so.' And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn't really mean it. But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there's no other way of saving yourself and you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the other person. You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.”

“All you care about is yourself,” he echoed.“And after that, you don't feel the same toward the other person any longer.”

“No,” he said, "you don't feel the same.”

This is the ultimate 1984 prophesy. When love becomes a weapon of the state. And this is our future. Unless America wakes up to the fact that the fiction of George Orwell's 1984 is fast becoming reality.

GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD: Kim Jong Un.

 JoshuaPundit: There were several people I considered...Senator Ted Cruz, Rep. Darrell  Issa, a few others. Instead, my pick for person of the year is The American Serviceman And Servicewoman, this year in particular.

Doing what they do is a demanding job at any time. But now, faced with a dysfunctional commander-in-chief who has proven time and again that he neither understands or appreciates what they do and that his intent is to politicize our military, faced with ridiculous rules of engagement in combat that endanger their lives, an emphasis on political correctness über alles, dealing with the hollowing out brought on by the sequester and threats of simply being released from the service without pension rights as well as cuts in pay and benefits...well, I imagine it is one of the most frustrating jobs imaginable, especially given that we have a volunteer force.

It isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but they have my vote for Person of the year.

The Glittering Eye:Francis. For once Time got it right.

Francis isn't saying anything that isn't consistent with the Catholic social doctrine of the last century (or last millennium for that matter). However, his reminding people of what that doctrine is constitutes a good tonic not to mention good public relations for a church that has been embroiled in scandals.

Just as a reminder, that doctrine is that the Church is indifferent as to what political or economic strategy is adopted in caring for the poor. That could be free markets with private philanthropy or welfare state. It is not indifferent as to whether the poor should be cared for. Whatever our political views I think that we should agree that there's a lot more that can and should be done.

David Gerstman from Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: My person of the year is Barack Obama. He finally deserves it, G-d help us.Dr. Charles Krauthammer has written more than once that Obama is a transformational president set on undoing the Reagan revolution. With the Iran deal to complement the implementation of ObamaCare he has now reversed America's course domestically and abroad. Obviously this is not a good thing. But it is a huge change historically.

Rhymes With Right:Person of the year? Well, I think that the choice made by Time magazine was eminently defensible. A new pope, especially first from the Americas and the first Jesuit -- and one who marks a departure from over three decades of emphasis on doctrinal conservatism and who presents a more pastoral face is certainly of enough significance to be the Person of the Year.

But I'll be honest -- Pope Francis would not have been my choice. Neither would Ted Cruz, for all I like and admire my state's junior Senator and the things he has done this year.

No, my choice would have been Edward Snowden. After all, here is a guy who perpetrated one of the biggest national security breaches in American history and got away with it -- how could he not be the Person of the Year. Especially since he eluded the grasp of the United States, made his way to a historic enemy nation and received asylum, and now appears to be on the verge of receiving amnesty from the Obama Administration in return for returning remaining material rather than disclosing it to the public. He has torn off the mask and shown the United States to be a hollow superpower.

The other possible choice? The Healthcare.Gov website. After all, it may be the thing that finally brings down Barack Obama as it exposes that ObamaCare does the sort of harm to the American people that we would go to war over if it were perpetrated by a foreign government rather than our own. Unfortunately, the extent of that harm is not yet known, so that choice is not yet ripe.

The Independent Sentinel : Ted Cruz is my choice because he is one of the few people in DC who is doing what the voters in his district sent him to do. Another reason is he is one of the few who was right about Obamacare. Congress doesn't have our backs.

The Right Planet : I would have to name Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) as Person of the Year. Love him or hate him, a recent Rasmussen poll listed Cruz as the third most influential person in the world behind Pope Francis and President Barack Obama. Not bad for a "wacko bird," huh!

Well, there you have it.

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y'know?