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.

“When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.” - ― Thomas Jefferson

“Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.” ― Bob Marley


 

This week's winner, Freedom and the Laws of Nature and Nature's God by Liberty's Spirit is her take on the opening of the Declaration of Independence and its meaning for us today. Here's a slice:


When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with one another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitles them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

…Our rights come not from other men, but from an omnipotent all-powerful ruler of the universe who has decreed right from wrong, good from bad, justice from evil. No one human being can deny another these rights. Hence, the usurpation of these rights is a just cause for revolt against your government, ruler or liege lord….

What happens when rights are not given by virtue of existence, but with the largesse of the political class? These rights then are not rights as delineated in the US Constitution (Bill of Rights), which as rights cannot be taken away and can only be denied under a limited scope of governmental authority. In fact, rights that come down to us by virtue of the good will of a ruler are not real rights at all, but a grant of favor by a dictatorial government. As long as you stay in good stead with the power elite then you are entitled to your humanity. But as soon as you cross that threshold of noncompliance with these overseers, then your rights, property and even your life become forfeit.

Moreover, to actually believe that mankind itself defines the ultimate reality in the Universe is the modern hubris of a limited, vacuous mind and an outreach of malignant egos. To say that in the vastness that is the Universe humankind is the epitome of what can and does direct TIME itself calls into play the rationality and sanity of the purveyors of a God-less world. It does not even have to be about an Omnipotent being as much as it is about Nature and the power of the Universe and the acknowledgement of the unknown.

To say that there is no deity above ourselves is to give ourselves the moniker of almighty God. We can now decide what is right, wrong, good, bad, justice and evil. We, the human beings of this world, are now the sole masters of all that is before us without boundary, limit or consequence. To say that God is an anachronism and that humanity is above the immutable forces that have created the galaxy, is to advance upon the human race powers that belie the mortal human being.

When we turn from the concept of something, or someone, greater than ourselves, we have no rights beyond that which we bargain for within the context of our daily lives. Life becomes a merchants market, a bazaar of old. Where for the right argument, and the proper coin, you can buy yourself freedom for the time being. If you are lucky enough to be allowed manumission at all.

More at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Kurt Schlichter – I Checked My Privilege, And It’s Doing Just Fine submitted by Joshuapundit. It's brilliantly brutal take down of the latest Leftist meme. Do read it.


Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! – Liberty's Spirit – Freedom and the Laws of Nature and Nature's God


• Second place *t* with 2 votes –Bookworm Room – Higher education: desperately selling a grossly overpriced, generic product in America


• Second place *t* with 2 votes –Joshuapundit-Has Pope Francis Forgotten The Ten Commandments?


• Second place *t* with 2 votes –The Noisy Room – The Silencing of American Christians


• Second place *t* with 2 votes –The Right Planet – Google Zaps Weasel Zippers!


• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – Ask Marion – Rats Deserting a Sinking Ship in Anticipation


• Fourth place with 1 vote –Simply Jews – Black hats, white hats, grey hats: Mossad in Gore's restroom or NSA in Bibi's larder?


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Power Projection


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Nice Deb – Obama's Rogue law Enforcement Unit Inside The EPA Comes Under Scrutiny (Video)


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Razor – Prom Night Thoughts


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Rhymes With Right – Denise Pratt Scandal Just Won’t Go Away


• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – VA Right! - Why Replacing Majority Leader Cantor with a Freshman Congressman is GOOD for the 7th District

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – Kurt Schlichter – I Checked My Privilege, And It’s Doing Just Fine submitted by Joshuapundit


• Second place with 2 2/3 votes –Ayaan Hirsi Ali/WSJ – Boko Haram and the Kidnapped School Girls submitted by Liberty's Spirit


• Third place with 2 1/3 votes – Mark Steyn –#BringBackOurBalls submitted by The Noisy Room


• Fourth place with 2 votes-Jim Wald/Times Of Israel – On the Margins of the Holocaust: 70 Years On, High Time to Honor the “Absentees for Freedom” submitted by Simply Jews


• Fifth place with 1 vote - Breitbart/Pamela Geller-Daily Beast:Boko Haram Terrorists Are Not 'Islamic' submitted by Bookworm Room


• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Frontpage Mag –Obama’s Foreign Policy: One Big Coverup submitted by The Independent Sentinel


• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Politico – The Boko Haram - Benghazi Link submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote - Larry Sabato/Politico – How Big A Wave? submitted by VA Right!


• Sixth place *t* with 2/3 vote -Michael J. Totten/City Journal -The Last Communist City submitted by Ask Marion


• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -Becca Lower/IJ Review -11 Most Badass Things Trey Gowdy Has Ever Said submitted by Nice Deb


• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -Big Jolly Politics – Ken Paxton campaign imploding as voters learn more about him submitted by Rhymes with Right


• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -Ruth Wisse/WSJ – The Closing of the Collegiate Mind submitted by The Watcher


• Seventh place *t* with 1/3 vote -Eli Lake/Daily Beast – So Many Jihadists Are Flocking to Libya, It's Becoming ‘Scumbag Woodstock’ submitted by Watcher

See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!