Watcher's Council Nominations

Each week, the members of the Watcher's Council nominate one of their own posts and a second from outside the Council for consideration by other council members in a contest for best post. The Watcher publishes the results each Friday morning. The Watcher also has a process for anyone who would like to submit one of their posts for consideration as part of the weekly contest. You can find out more about that here. This week's nominations are:
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Council Nominations:

1. The Colossus of Rhodey - Obama's 8 Years As State Legislator Makes Him Better Qualified
Newsweek seems actually more in the tank for Obama than the NYT. CoR blogs another outrageous column from the agenda journalists haunting the hauls of Newsweek.

2. Done With Mirrors - More On Jokes
Another thoughtful and amusing post as DWM dives deep into the ancient history of humor to find many differences, and some striking lines of continuity.

3. Soccer Dad - This Deal Keep Getting Worse and Worse
SD has an excellent post examining Olmert's decision to trade the terrorist who bashed in the skull of an Israeli child, Samir Kuntar, for the remains of two Israelis. The only way this deal would be acceptable is if the trade were made with the corpse of Kuntar. Otherwise, this sets all the wrong precedents.

4. Wolf Howling - The Supreme Court: Originalism, Activism, and America's Future
My post on the dangers of activist courts and why we are in grave danger if Obama is elected. Those who think he could just screw-up the nation for four years and then be gone are not paying any attention.

5. The Glittering Eye - The Rising Price of Oil: How High Is Up?
GE's view of the oil problem is that while flat supply and rising demand, along with security concerns and a weak dollar are certainly culprits, that the liquidity once driving the dot com bubble and the housing bubble may now be driving oil futures.

6. Bookworm Room - Surreal Logic *UPDATED*
There is no logic on the left. The progressives of today are tyrannical and have no intellectual honesty. Thus, I could not agree more with BWR's statement about the left, as she ponders her mother's acceptance of W. Clark's scurrilous pronouncements on McCain: "people starting with the conclusion, and then jettisoning, not just contrary facts, but any facts at all."

7. The Razor - Fireworks and the Nanny State
The Razor rails at the nanny state. "There are good reasons for laws banning fireworks such as in areas where sparks could start fires and damage property. However if the primary reason is to protect me from myself - or my children from my own failure as a parent - then a line has been crossed."

8. Hillbilly White Trash - Patriotism
An excellent post from HWT discussing what is, and is not, patriotism - as well as contrasting American patriotism with the more malignant historical varieties of European nationalism.

9. Cheat Seeking Missiles - Witch Hunt For "Obama's A Muslim" E-Mailer
Laer ponders the troubling ramifications of WaPo jumping on the witch hunting trail and their failrue to ponder any of the other issues surround the e-mailer.

10. Joshuapundit - Iraq Sues Over Oil-For-Food... And There's an Obama Connection
It would seem that we may yet hear of Obama in court. He slid by in the Rezko trial. He is tied to the oil for food scandal through Tony Rezko and Nadhni Auchi.

11. The Education Wonks - Principal Confirms Kids Sipped Margaritas
EW ponders the enlightened act of a private school introducing young children to adult beverages.

12. Rhymes With Right - Impeach Anthony Kennedy
RwR wants Justice Kennedy skinned over his activist decision in the Louisiana child rape case - the same case that I used as a textbook example of judicial activism in my own post. Kennedy will never be impeached. But the next President will determine whether the judicial activism of Kennedy will be ensconced as the majority for several decades to come, or whether it will be relegated to permanent and impotent dissent.

Non-Council Nominations:

1. The Wall Street Journal - Yellow Science
James Kerian sees that the problems of yellow journalism - sensationalist falsehoods peddaled as gospel - is a metaphor for what is occurring in science today with the many who claim that anthropogenic global warming is fact and will devestate the world unless we react immediately by massively transferring our wealth.

2. The Register - Heavyweight Physics Prof Weighs Into Climate/energy Scrap
A rather detestable physics professor puts hard numbers behind some of the various energy plans being considered.

3. ShrinkWrapped - Reverberations of Al-Dura
This is a truly exceptional article on al-Dura with some deep insights. "In addition, there is an increasing strand of narcissistic perfectionism (The Suicidal Pursuit of Perfection) that contains an omnipotent masochistic core within those who grow up in modern societies which raise children protected from the historical vicissitudes of life. Narcissism is inextricably enmeshed with demographics and heightened narcissism is an apparently near inescapable consequence of our culture's success." And as the good doctor goes on to point out: "The elites in Israel, including those who run the government, share too many of these dynamics, which makes the state susceptible to false accusations of atrocities, impairs their ability to defend themselves appropriately against such accusations, and even leads them to accept the guilty verdicts that are pronounced even before the trial has taken place."

4. Dave's World - Sun King Rules Still Apply in French "Journalism"
Dave in Boca speaks from personal experience about the dark side of French culture and tradition, including that they are more concerned, in the al Dura affair, with protecting their reputation than in acknowledging the truth. "Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to revive a moribund corpse from centuries of comatose nostalgia punctuated by moments of sheer panic & occasional bravery."

5. 365 and a Wakeup - Sacramento Host Breakfast
A soldier briefly discusses his life, his pride in his service and unit, and the deep loss he and others felt over the death of their company commander to an IED in 2005.

6. Thought You'd Never Ask - "THE TALK" -- On Patriotism
Zabrina poses a fine discussion on the meaning of patriotism.

7. Betsy's Page - How's This for an Example of Obama's Judgment?
I have yet to see an example of good judgment from the secular messiah. Thus I am not surprised to find that his signature claim to fame, taking care of the poor and doing community organizing in Chicago, was a disaster. "Housing and "community development" has been a big part of it. If the result has been a disaster in which Obama's friends made lots of money while his poor constituents lived in dangerous squalor, that seems like a big warning sign, no?"

8. The Brussels Journal - Sarko Wants to Give Dublin the Mugabe Treatment
Sarki wants to pressure the Irish into giving up their sovereignty.

9. The Paragraph Farmer - Lost in Translation
A fine essay from the paragraph farmer on Obama's questionable vision of faith and his mischaracterizations, including the words of James Dobson. "Let's not give into temptation, especially when it arrives as a "fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution" hermetically sealed in a tin of progressivism with a label that fakes an inclusiveness it never had and can only tolerate on its own terms."

10. Gates of Vienna - Demographic Conquest
The GOV is an exceptional website that has suffered for the forthrightness of the authors, though to their credit they have not altered their beliefs or principles. And their basic message is correct. Europe is and will be Islamized. The trend lines are so obvious only a leftie in the EU could ignore them - or at least pretend to while manipulating the situation for their own short term political gain. That is something which does no good for the occidental natives, nor the Muslisms who do not wish to live under Salafi Sharia law. GoV's post is about how you can see the Islamisization occurring today with greater rapidity around the margins.

11. Big Lizards - The New "Fairness" Doctrine
We are, as a nation, conflating war with our ancient anglo-saxon legal system designed to meet out some approximation of fair justice. The two are wholly seperate and apart. While they may meet at time, to place decisions of war under the legal system is insanity. BL blogs on it from the standpoint of a Patterico column. I have blogged on it from the standpoint of the insane judicial overreach in the Boumediene decision.

12. Right Wing Nut House - Honestly, Is John Aravosis a Piece of Excrement Or What?
"This piece on McCain by Aravosis may be the most inelegant political attack I’ve ever seen. Not only is it a vile, worthless, mindlessly idiotic recounting of this Peeping Tom’s idea of McCain’s military service but the obliviousness of Aravosis to the upchucking irony in his calling anyone out for making propaganda is outrageously, hysterically inappropriate."

13. Neo-Neocon - The Leaders of Africa Fail To Live Up To Their Sister Souljah Moment On Mugabe
NN takes on the moral bankruptcy of African nations for failing to draw a clear line in the sand on raving psychopath that is Zimbawbwe's Robert Mugabe.

14. The Anchoress - Let Obama Be Obama & McCain Be McCain
The Anchoress thinks both McCain and Obama are being overhandled. I would agree with McCain, though as to Obama, I think he is in fact being himself, albeit abetted by almost the entirety of the MSM in terms of glowing press and a distinct desire not to broach any serious questions.