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, “You Be the General”

In my submission for this week I consider why we the idea of a greatly increased force in Afghanistan is unlikely to happen: logistics.

Wolf Howling, “The Race Card, Liberal Guilt and Our Next President”

The charges and counter-charges that GW takes note of in his post are already simmering down but I tend to think that we’ll hear a lot more if the primary race looks very close.

The Colossus of Rhodey, “Ed. Schools: They’re Awful (for the most part)”

Hube reveals the sad truth about education schools. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the difference between engineering schools and music schools on the one hand and journalism schools and education schools on the other is that if an engineer designs circuits that blow up or a musician can’t play his or her instrument, they’ll find it hard to keep a job.

Done With Mirrors, “Tribes With Gods”

Callimachus remarks that religions are inextricably entangled with the circumstances under which they arose. I’d put it a little differently.. Religions develop within the superstructure of particular social environments. In the particular case of Islam, the religion is still struggling against the tribalism and cruel traditional practices that Mohammed preached against 1,500 years ago. Only now its adherents are calling their practices “Islam”.

Cheat Seeking Missiles, “500,000 Iraqis Did Not Die”

I see that Laer complains about the same thing I did: that the number of deaths caused directly by U. S. forces aren’t disaggregated from the whole. He goes on to point out the numbers killed by Saddam, a dreadfully low standard. As I pointed out in my post the facts don’t matter, the harm has already been done. I wonder if it isn’t possible to take a number from the Islamists’ book and prosecute for libel or hate speech in a British court. Lancet is, after all, a British medical journal.

Soccer Dad, “Shavit’s Prescription”

Soccer Dad comments on a column from Ha’aretz, written by a member of the peacenik left.

Bookworm Room, “Identity Politics Then and Now”

Bookworm posts on the gender identity that moves some women to support Hillary Clinton and Jonah Goldberg’s new book. This touches on the point made yesterday: that if your identity is an individual one, you can be evaluated based on your accomplishments. If your identity is a group one, you’ll inevitably be stereotyped, either positively or negatively.

Joshuapundit, “Bush In Ramallah — The Road To “Peace In Our Time””

Freedom Figher is highly critical of President Bush’s remarks in Ramallah during his Middle Eastern trip.

Big Lizards, “Paul of Mises; or How the New Republic Bewitches the Right”

Dafydd ab Hugh rises to the defense of Ron Paul. Sort of.

The Education Wonks, “A Solution for the Pop-Tart’s Problems”

EdWonk’s suggestion to Britney Spears: get a job!

Rhymes With Right, “Disenfrancisement Example Is Actually Vote Fraud Queen — And a Tax Cheat To Boot!”

There are two sides of the voting law coin. Democrats frequently complain about disenfranchisement and vote suppression. Republicans complain equally frequently about vote fraud. I can tell you with confidence that neither are happening in my precinct and to some extent both parties are fighting the last war. I only point out that if elections weren’t so close neither side would be complaining this much. Greg posts about a case of what was originally purported to be a case of disenfranchisement but was actually found to be a case of voting fraud. I see little way of dealing with this specific sort of fraud without some kind of national database.

Right Wing Nut House, “Those Who Live By Identity Politics…”

Identity politics is on Rick Moran’s mind, too. I think the likely outcome of the primaries and upcoming presidential election is that the discourse will become increasingly surreal.

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

3 comments… add one
  • I hate to nitpick, but Shavit is a columnist for Ha’aretz not the Jerusalem Post.

  • Thank you, Soccer Dad, I’ve made the necessary correction. I’m not clicking on all cylinders today. 😉

  • Thanks. I think a few months ago I misinterpreted one of your posts. I guess we’re even now. 🙂

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