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.

Blog-friend Marc Schulman of American Future has decided to vacate his Council Seat. What with maintaining the excellent work he does consistently at AF, posting at centrist üuber-blog The Moderate Voice, and, well, having a life, I can see how his plate is pretty full but he will be sorely missed. If you have a blog, consider joining the Council. The current rules are here.

The Glittering Eye, “Who Were the Etruscans?”

In my submission for this week I consider the ancient and modern evidence for the origins of the Etruscans.

Rhymes With Right, “An Idea I Can Get Behind”

Greg endorses the replacement of the TAKS achievement test with end-of-course tests as better for actually examining what the students have learned.

The Colossus of Rhodey, “Essence of a Problem”

Hube notes the role of expulsion in preserving discipline in the schools and comments on the relative importance of teachers and parents in education. IMO a critical role that parents play is in establishing a framework for education, a basis. If the parents don’t value either education or the teacher, neither will the student. Once upon a time parents and teachers operated collaboratively—students could be confident that in disputes between student and teacher the parent would always support the teacher. Now, too often, parents and teachers have an adversarial relationship.

Bookworm Room, “You Ain’t Never Had a Friend Like Me”

I don’t think that it’s the rush to go to press, innumeracy, or poorly-informed journalists that’s causing the crisis in the media that’s going on these days. As far as I’m concerned all those are effects rather than causes.

Journalism has been in a crisis for at least a century; it may be a permanent condition that’s always been there for all that I know. The business model for print journalism, in particular, is collapsing and I don’t see any way that will be reversed. The publisher of the NYT, Pinch Sulzberger, acknowledged not long ago that in a few years there may be no print version of the New York Times. Competition for eyes and the dollars those eyes mean drives the rush to press.

I blame innumeracy and the low level of general knowledge among today’s crop of journalists on the J-schools. Journalism was, is, and always will be a craft. It will never be a profession and anyone who thinks it is is kidding him or herself. The path to journalism shouldn’t be through the specialist journalism school. It should be through life and experience and knowledge of something else other than journalism.

Does the blogosphere provide a balance? Possibly, particularly as the blogosphere becomes productive rather than reactive. Bill Roggio, Michael Yon, and other bloggers are doing better reporting on the war in Iraq than anybody in the conventional media. They have the skills. Inevitably, the conventional media will take notice and I expect a more give-and-take relationship to emerge rather than the adversarial one the news outlets seem to be cultivating.

Eternity Road, “Acceptances and Severances Part 3: Association by Exclusion and Its Consequences”

Francis Porretto continues his reflections on relationships and society, in this installment examining the hazards of relationships defined by who is excluded.

Done With Mirrors, “Classical Fraud”

I’m surprised that the recently-revealed Joyce Hatto frauds haven’t received more attention in the blogosphere.  If you’re not familiar with the scandal, here’s the quick summary:  elderly invalid woman/recording studio owner husband/virtuoso piano recordings/woman dies/breathless adulation by critics/recordings determined to be of other people playing (lots of other people).  Callimachus considers this fraud along with other famous frauds including the Desiderata, the Ossianic cycle, etc.

Soccer Dad, “Green Thinking from the Red Planet”

I blame the problem of climate change on Mars which, oddly, seems to parallel that on our own planet on SUV’s.

Right Wing Nut House, “Death of a Titan”

Rick Moran celebrates the life, work, and contributions of the late historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.  Liberalism ain’t what it used to be.

Joshuapundit, “Between Iraq and a Hard Place—Why We Went, How It Got so Screwed Up and Where It’s Going—Part 2”

Freedom Fighter’s series on the past, present, and future of the war in Iraq is certainly thought-provoking.  I disagree on any number of his premises and conclusions.  For example, I don’t believe that the war in Iraq “got so screwed up” (the implication being that it could have been anything else).  I think that the mess in Iraq was inevitable.  Better execution might have helped but not much.

And I’d be willing to bet a shiny new dime that he’s wrong in his prediction that, by the end of 2007, we won’t have an appreciable military presence in Iraq.

The Education Wonks, “Student Sex Scandal Rocks Indiana School District”

All I can say about this story of two sixth-grade students having sexual intercourse during a lab class is that school has changed a lot since I attended.

The Sundries Shack, “The Separation Hypocrisy”

I’ve made this comment before on other people’s blogs but I don’t think that there’s any hypocrisy involved in, on the one hand, John Edwards basing his political campaign on there being two Americas, a rich, privileged one and a poor one and, on the other, his building himself a large mansion.  John Edwards is a European-style Social Democrat:  when he says there are two Americas he means either that the government should be ameliorating the condition of the less-advantaged America or that the government should be acting to make one America.  It has nothing whatever to do with his own personal behavior or expenditures—he believes the government should be acting not him.

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