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.

Done With Mirrors, “The Artificial Honkey”

Callimachus has realized that in America today race and gender aren’t facts. They’re political positions.

The Glittering Eye, “Comparisons Are Odious”

In my submission for this week I consider Russian President Putin’s comparison of the installation of a missile defense shield in the Czech Republic to the Cuban missile crisis. I’ve been reading a lot of evocations of the Cuban missile crisis in Russian op-eds recently and it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Russian history is different than ours.

Soccer Dad, “Apologists”

Soccer Dad draws a somewhat different conclusion in his post on a recent plot to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Olmert on the part of the Palestinian bodyguards who were supposed to ensure his safety at a meeting the the Palestinian Authority than I do. Soccer Dad considers it an indictment of the idea of a Palestinian state. I’d say that it just points out that Israel is at war with its neighbors and making the Palestinian territories into a state will allow Israel to prosecute their war as one rather than according to the rules by which occupied territories must be treated. I do not envy Israel its pickle.

Bookworm Room, “American Schools Avoid Responsibility At Levels Both Large and Small”

I think that I can help Bookworm in understanding what went on in her meeting with teachers recently. First, educationese is not just a jargon, it’s an argot. Its purpose is to reveal meaning to the initiated (members of the educational bureaucracy) and conceal it from outsiders. In that respect its no different from medicalese or the language spoken by adolescents. Secondly, the document she’s critiquing was, no doubt, written according to the school district guidelines for such things. Such guidelines typically prefer passive voice. Third, school districts are bureaucracies and a bureaucracy is a device for avoiding individual accountability or responsibility.

Cheat Seeking Missiles, “Of Stonewalling and Blackwater”

Laer offers some free public relations advice to the Bush Administration. I’m surprised that Laer didn’t mention the third method of dealing with embarrassing revelations since it’s what I’ve seen the most of: obscure. Make everything so complicated that it’s impossible to make heads or tails of any explanation. In my experience it’s a favorite of Fortune 500 CEO’s.

Rhymes With Right, “A Matter of Death”

Greg posts on capital punishment and restorative justice. The sad truth is that Christian charity is easier when it has no cost, that is to say, when it isn’t charity at all. As G. K. Chesterton put it, Christianity isn’t a case of something having been tried and found wanting. It is a case of something having been found hard and not tried.

Big Lizards, “Mucking About With Mukasey”

Dafydd ab Hugh is upset that the price of getting Michael Mukasey confirmed as attorney general appears to be a ban on waterboarding, a practice that Dafydd defends on narrow consequentialist grounds.

The Colossus of Rhodey, “Why Hate Crimes Are a Joke Part 5783, and Why the University of Delaware Digs ’em”

Hube is outraged at goodthink and the crimestop program at the University of Delaware.

The Education Wonks, “When Kids Grow Up Too Fast: The Maine Story”

I don’t think the case of a Maine middle school where so many students have become pregnant that the school is now dispensing contraceptives is so much a case of “kids growing up too fast” as of a dwindling sense of personal responsibility in our society and bodies becoming mature before the rest does. We don’t have a problem of too much teenage pregnancy in this country. We have a problem of not enough teenage marriage and marriage being viewed as a temporary matter.

Joshuapundit, “Syria’s Assad Caught With His Hands in the Nuclear Cookie Jar”

Freedom Fighter expands on the September 6 air attack by Israel on a Syrian military site which may have been a nuclear development site.

Right Wing Nut House, “The Race to Politicize Tragedy”

Rick Moran isn’t happy about people trying to score political points on the fires in California while the fires are still burning. I think Rick has a point but, as I’ve posted myself, it’s hard for me to imagine people there drawing the conclusions that need to be drawn and making changes that will actually reduce the amount of property and human damage that results from the inevitable southern California fires.

‘Okie’ on the Lam, “The Iraq War — Coming To a Theater Near You”

‘Okie’ comments on the recent spate of anti-war films coming out of Hollywood. I suspect the problem will take care of itself. Stockholders of publicly-held companies are unlikely to be amused at low earnings.

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