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, “For the Sake of the Fifty”

In my submission for this week I use a rather controversial post of Dean Esmay’s as a springboard to discuss what has now become something of a chestnut: the compatibility or incompatibility of Islam with democracy.

Done With Mirrors, “The Media We Deserve”

Callimachus does a splendid job of illustrating how what’s left out of a story, the context, may be critical in communicating the meaning of a story or, in fact, changing the meaning of the story.

ShrinkWrapped, “There Are No Words”

How can one understand an horrific tragedy? That’s ShrinkWrapped’s point of departure for a post in which he applies his professional expertise and writing skill to derive some meaning from the recent incident in which a man took the lives of four Amish girls and his own.

Matt Barr Live!, “Is There a Case For a Libertarian Republican?”

In this post Matt responds to a group of posts from yesterday on the compatibility of the policies of those on “the far left” with those of libertarians. I was musing on Arnold Kling’s post in this cluster when I posted my own thoughts yesterday.

SoccerDad, “Democratic Israel Jujitsu”

SoccerDad considers the Democratic Party’s position on Israel.

Gates of Vienna, “’Peace’ and War on an Autumn Afternoon”

In a typically excellent post, Dymphna offers us a photo essay contrasting a local Vegetarian Festival with The All-American Military History Weekend. Unrelated to Dymphna’s post, a thought occurred to me when I saw Dymphna’s title. I wonder if, so long as we wage “war”, the most we will be able to expect is “peace”?

AbbaGav, “AbbaGav Goes to Crossing-Guard School”

This post is about exactly what it says it’s about and highlights how different the quotidian realities of life in Israel are from those here.

Rhymes With Right, “Sekula-Gibbs Supports Public Safety—Pro-Wetback Council Members Play Politics”

Greg contrasts the position on immigration reform of Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, running for Tom DeLay’s old seat, with that of the Houston city council.

Joshuapundit, “The Horrors of Camp Gitmo…and Camp Pendleton”

Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Freedom Fighter compares the treatment of prisoners being held at Guantanamo with that of the marines and sailor being held at Pendleton for the murder of Iraqi civilians. Frankly, FF, I don’t think the critics of Guantanamo are actually so much concerned with the treatment of the detainees as they are with the circumstances surrounding their detainment and that’s not a completely unreasonable concern. We’re breaking new ground, the detainees are being treated somewhat as though they were prisoners of war and will be held for the duration but the duration may be forever. In my view we should make a choice. Either the detainees should be treated completely as prisoners of war or they should be tried or they should be released.

I doubt that many would go along with my own prescription.

Right Wing Nut House, “Goldberg on Torture: Sophistry on a Stick”

I’m completely with Rick on this one: torture should be out of bounds. No procedures. No process for approving it. Out of bounds.

The Education Wonks, “Wonkitorial: Artless, Spineless, and Clueless in Texas”

I rather wondered if this would catch Edwonk’s eye. Edwonk criticizes the outcome of the case in Texas in which an art teacher of long standing was removed from her position for taking her students on an approved field trip to the Dallas Art Museum. I have only two points to make on this. First, there is nothing so innocuous that someone will not approve of it. Second, no teacher who conforms completely to administrative policy should be removed from his or her position for doing so.

The Sundries Shack, “So Whatever Happened to Ruthlessness?”

Jimmie Bise doesn’t think much of Bill Frist’s suggestion that the war in Afghanistan is already lost and lurches uncontrollably into one of the reasons I opposed both the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq: we should never attempt to wage a war we aren’t willing to win.
Well, I’ve decided which posts I’ll vote for this week. Which would get your vote?

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