Eye on the Watcher’s Council

As you may know the members of the Watcher’s Council each nominate one of his or her own posts and one non-Council post for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week’s Council nominations is here.

The Glittering Eye, “Forlorn Hope”

In my submission for this week I react to a post by Ali Eteraz and muse on the value (and lack) of hope.

Eternity Road, “Working: a Midweek Rumination”

Francis Porretto uses a sleepless night and May Day, the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, to reflect on work.

One of my life’s objectives has been to make of my life a seamless garment—no encapsulation, no sharp demarcation between my work and the rest of my life or between work and play for that matter. As with my other major life’s objectives, I’ve been variously successful. But I have been successful at arranging things so that I needn’t feel guilty that I’m not punching in or punching out. That’s something, anyway.

The Colossus of Rhodey, “Voter Fraud? Not a big deal!”

I agree with Hube that voter fraud is extremely destructive to our system of government and, not only should it be prosecuted, it should be reformed both in process and structure to increase the electorate’s confidence that our system is honest and aboveboard.

As one of the (probably) relatively few in the blogosphere who’ve worked as an election judge for 20 years and been one of the designers of a electronic voting machine, I believe I have a rather distinctive perspective on this subject. There are a few principles I’m adamant on. That voting must leave an auditable paper trail that the voter can actually hold in his or her hand and verify is one of them.

Still, resources for prosecuting cases of voter fraud are limited. What’s the best use of them?

BTW I think the best and most likely conclusion to draw from the paucity of prosecutions for voter fraud is not some massive coverup but that election officials and election workers are doing their legitimate best by and large and that our system really is an honest one.

Done With Mirrors, “After Iraq”

I actually think that a pretty likely direction for what we may laughingly think of as a foreign policy for the United States is “neo-isolationist realpolitik” hiding behind a facade of “sap-headed transnationalism”. Based on what I’m seeing around me that sounds about right.

I continue to expect that, whatever the pre-election rhetoric, whomever may be elected to the Presidency is likely to experience a post-election epiphany (if necessary) and find some compelling reason to leave our troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future. Callimachus is pretty gloomy and thinks that withdrawal sooner rather than later is inevitable during the next presidential term if not before and pledges to devote efforts to saving the Iraqis who’ll be most at risk in the event that we do withdraw: those who’ve supported us.

The Education Wonks, “Wonkitorial: The Latest from Babylon, D. C.”

I always look forward to EdWonk’s too-rare “wonkitorials”, open expressions of opinion, and this one was no exception. In this post EdWonk comments on the revelations from the D. C. Madam. The only conclusion I can draw is that power and the ready availability of sex for sale makes certain sorts of people horny. And I was reminded of Sam Clemens’s comment that America has no native criminal class other than Congress. The federal bureaucracy was much smaller in Sam Clemens’s day.

Soccer Dad, “A New New Europe?”

Soccer Dad devotes his attentions to the upcoming second round of French presidential elections. In my view we should be cautious about relying too heavily on conclusions drawn using the persistence theory.

I have no idea who will win the French election. I suspect Sarkozy but who knows? I also suspect that whomever is elected will make no dramatic change in how things are done in France. If Sarkozy is elected, there may be a few reforms. If Royal, possibly fewer.

I also believe that the gloomy predictions are probably exaggerated and, come what may, France will remain France and that’s a good thing, certainly for the French and, no doubt, for the rest of us as well. The ethnic states of Europe have some challenges ahead of them but they’re challenges they’re completely capable of handling. As to the way in which they will handle them only time will tell.

Bookworm Room, “Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi”

Bookworm’s submission this week is a fine consideration of Cornelia, paragon of Roman motherhood (and held out as a model for, literally, millenia) and the choices made by working and stay-at-home moms.

Whenever I see a discussion of a Roman woman of the Republic with a given name, I wonder if her family were innovators, even revolutionaries. Women of the Republic did not have praenomina of their own and, since Cornelia’s name is neither a feminized version of her father’s praenomen nor a feminized version of his cognomen, it makes me wonder.

Cheat Seeking Missiles, “Lt. Col. Steele’s Tragedy”

Laer takes note of the fall from grace of a U. S. military officer in Iraq.

Right Wing Nut House, “Changing Times Require Telling the Truth in Wartime”

I’d hoped that Rick Moran would nominate his post on the Iraq War. It was one of the blogosphere’s best posts last week and certainly one of the most-discussed. Instead Rick has submitted a post considering the stories of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch and the hazards of stretching the truth in a fruitless attempt at message control in an era of information availability.

Big Lizards, “’And Why the Sea is Boiling Hot and Whether Pigs Have Wings’”

Dafydd ab Hugh suggests the existence of “Democratic speech-sythesizing software” as a possible explanation of statements from Sens. Clinton and Edwards on the occasion of the much-misrepresented “mission accomplished” speech (even characterizing it that way is a misrepresentation), which had its fourth anniversary last week.

Rhymes With Right, “Zero Tolerance Goes Way Too Far”

I find the story recounted by Greg of a young woman denied her degree for what appears to me to be a rather harmless picture on MySpace completely baffling. Perhaps Callimachus can shed some light on the subject since the university in question is in his neck of the woods.

Joshuapundit, “Giuliani on Hamas, Fatah, and Islamic Terrorism”

Freedom Fighter dissects a speech given by Rudy Giuliani in New Hampshire the other day and finds a lot to like.

Well, I’ve decided which posts I’ll vote for. Which posts would get your votes?