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. Here’s what the Council members nominated this week.

Dr. Sanity, “The Democrats Better Review the Situation”

Pat Santy assesses the current state of the Democratic Party in song (to the tune of “Reviewing the Situation” from the musical Oliver!).

ShrinkWrapped, “Live Flying Reindeer”

ShrinkWrapped uses the publisher of The New Times, Pinch Sulzberger’s first commencement speech as a springboard for discussing the futility of relying on the perfectibility of human nature.

Joshuapundit, “The Pope at Auschwitz”

Freedom Fighter has a fine post on Benedict XVI’s visit to the World War II prison camp.  Vere dignum et justum est.  His visit and his speech were the right thing at the right time by the right man.

Done With Mirrors, “Haditha Incident”

Callimachus comments on the incident and the commentary:  too many are searching for perfection.  I think it’s possible to condemn evil acts and condemn the concealing of evil acts without either despair or self-hatred.

The Glittering Eye, “You’ve Gotta Know the Territory”

I had a rather fallow week last week.  In this post, my submission for the week, I consider how professional management may be contributing to the downfall of the newspaper business (and a lot of other American industries as well).

New World Man, “Who Do You Trust With Your Constitution?”

In this post Matt Barr reflects on legal interpretation by the Supreme Court.  If I understand his point correctly, he concludes that the interpretations by the people should be receiving more weight.  I seem to recall that the Missouri state motto is Vox populi lex supremis, which would pretty well cover it.

In the 18th century there was a tradition that the right of legal interpretation belonged equally to legislators, executives, and the people.  Since Marbury v. Madison there has been an increasing reliance on the courts for legal interpretation so that we’ve now reached the point where there’s a presumption that the courts are the sole repository of that right and always have been.  I’m chary of this point-of-view because the courts are the most elitist of our chambers of government and becoming more so.

Right Wing Nut House, “Who Do You Believe On Global Warming?”

Rick Moran comments on global warming, the Kyoto Protocol, and notes, correctly, that there’s no practical way to de-politicize the issue.

My guess is that I differ from Rick a little on this issue.  From my point-of-view that human activity has some influence on global warming is simply a matter of physics.  The question to be considered is what’s the correct policy?  I think that trying to maintain any status quo in climate is a sucker’s game.  And I further despair that any solution which explicitly excludes China and India is doomed to failure.  The U. S. Senate overwhelmingly agreed with me.

I think there are lots of reasons that people get hot under the collar about global warming. For example, although we like to be nice and egalitarian about it, there’s no particular reason to believe that one degree of warming has the same effect on climate at the equator as in the arctic. I see no particular reason that exporting our pollution to China is the optimal solution to the problem. Maybe no solution at all. I also don’t know that emissions trading actually does anything but shuffle the shells.

Gates of Vienna, “Interview With Starling David Hunter, PhD”

Dymphna interviews Dr. Hunter, who is currently teaching business at the American University in Dubai.  Very interesting.  I’ve already put his blog in my list of regular visits.

Sundries Shack, “On Memorial Day, 2006”

Jimmie Bise reflects on Memorial Day with the roster from the QandO Blog’s Hero Project and some observations on Benedict XVI’s visit to Auschwitz.  You brought a tear to my eye with this one, Jimmie.

Rhymes With Right, “Blog About School, Get Expelled”

Greg comments on the recent moves by public school officials to attempt to restrict what students at their schools post on their blogs.  I agree with you, Greg.  I don’t see how this can stand.

The Education Wonks, “Wonkitorial: Lessons To Be Learned From Private Schools”

EdWonk continues to report on extremely important stories from the education beat that I hadn’t heard about before.  Check out his post on the “nativity school” movement.  EdWonk links to an article that highlights Loyola Academy of St. Louis.  For more on the nativity school movement see here.

The Jesuits’ contributions to education in St. Louis goes back 200 years.  For all of that period the city’s outstanding high school has been a Jesuit high school.  I graduated from it.

The Strata-Sphere, “Zarqawi’s Last Stand?”

AJ Strata wonders if the flurry of activity in Iraq lately marks the last desparate surge for Al Qaeda there.  We can only hope.

I thought it was a very good field this week.  I’ve made my choices.  Which posts would you vote for?

3 comments… add one
  • kreiz Link

    “Live Flying Reindeer” by Shrinkwrapped was an outstanding piece, well deserving the nod. I really like the Watcher’s Council nominations and ‘awards’, Dave. It’s definitely expanded my reading list to include some new names (Rick Moran, Shrink, as examples). It’s a cool concept- glad that you and Callimachus are participate.

  • I think that each of the members of the Council contributes his or her little bit to an interesting ensemble. Callimachus and I, for example, are the most centrist of the bunch. Callimachus, Dymphna, and Rick Moran are oustanding writers. Joshuapundit is growing on me—he’s more of a firebrand than I am.

    EdWonk is really top-notch on the education beat (as is Greg of Rhymes With Right). I learn about things happening in the ed world reading their stuff I’d’ve never heard of otherwise. Pat Santy and ShrinkWrapped bring the perspective of their profession to their posts.

  • kreiz Link

    Politically, I’m more of a centrist myself, so I find an affinity with you and Cal, the guy who ushered me into this madcapped group.

Leave a Comment