News and Commentary on Politics, Media and Culture

Dear Readers of Webloggin,

Damn, I hate starting any post or letter in this manner.

It has been almost 4 years to the day when I started this venture. So here we sit with 4,352 posts, 76 unpublished articles and 2 private offerings. And this is where it ends.

Webloggin was the byproduct of an earlier blog called Threshold-55. Three years, a bit of burnout followed by a 6 month layoff and then this beautiful site. We had many blogging members come and go. The Machete of Truth whom I miss dearly, Big Dog, Teri O’Brien, House of Eratosthenes, Republic of Biloxi, Jodi 210, The Otto Show (now a group blog called The Inside Straight), The Right Wing Cafe, Right Girl (aka Girl on the Right), Faultline USA, Bookworm Room,  Right Truth, Okie on the Lam, Soccer Dad, The Absurd Report and The Intolerant Fox.

I can’t even begin to thank each of these blogs and their respective owners for contributing the finest conservative commentary I have ever read.  You have been an inspiration!

Most importantly is my good friend Rob at Joshuapundit that took over the editing duties when I became overwhelmed with other tasks. You are awesome.

From a personal point of view Webloggin opened many doors for me. It was from my writing here that Matthew Sheffield of Newsbusters invited me to become a contributing member and how I was nominates as one of the top 10 conservative idiots of 2006 by some true idiots at The Democratic Underground. If you piss them off then you know you are making progress. I even was awarded an invite and pass to cover the 2006 Democratic debates at Soldier Field as a credentialed member of the media; the only conservative in the room from what I could tell!

It also helped me launch a nice little family owned web hosting company that is growing on a daily basis.

The time has come however to shut her down.

Please don’t think that the left has won one here. In fact quite the opposite is true. Webloggin is redundant in nature and it has simply outlived it’s usefulness. I am the acting Watcher at Watcher of Weasels and this has become my central focus in the blogging world outside of Newsbusters. Many of the Webloggin members also blog over at WoW so I urge you readers to follow us there.

As of this week I will begin redirecting readers to Watcher of Weasels and hope you pass on the word. You have all been kind to me and the other Webloggin members and you have my utmost gratitude.

No Comments »

The Council has spoken, choosing the winners in this week’s competition. And there’s some superb weekend reading in in store for you, believe me!

In the Council category, the winner this week was Bookworm Room with her fascinating take on the abortion issue, The need for an honest, 21st century debate about abortion :

I dreamed last night about the first ultrasound I had when I was pregnant with my daughter. I was sixteen weeks pregnant, and had been throwing up non-stop for 15 1/2 of those sixteen weeks. I was not happy. I resented the parasite within me. And then I saw the sonogram image and discovered that the parasite had a little round head, two arms and two legs, and an incredible spinal cord that looked like the most exquisite string of pearls. That image did not instantly reconcile me to the next 26 weeks of non-stop vomiting, but it made me aware that “the fetus” is not simply an aggregation of cells, or a thing indistinguishable from a dog or a chicken fetus. It’s a baby.

By the time I had my second child, I knew, without question, that every “fetus” is a nascent human being. I finally recognized on an emotional level that the zygote created on the first day is the same life as the baby you hold in your arms on the last. It is also the same as the toddler that lisps “I wuv you,” and the pre-teen who says “Y0u’re the best mommy ever.” They all start there, right inside each mother.

You’d think, of course, that this realization should have been obvious to me, and should have long predated the birth of two children. But I grew up in the feminist abortion oriented culture, and that culture shies away assiduously from focusing on the life within the woman and focuses, instead, only on the woman herself. There’s a great deal of logic to that focus. During my lifetime alone, there was little to focus on other than the woman. Doctors doing autopsies and medical students studying anatomy might have had a sense of fetal development but, really, no one else did. We weren’t peeking in the womb just a few decades back. Premature babies died as often as not, so our cultural sense of their viability was limited. Heck, in the old days, huge numbers of full-term babies died as often as not. In the pre-modern era, up to 50% of all children died before their 5th birthday — and that’s just counting live births.

In the non-Council category, the winner this week is a great piece in American Thinker by Rabbi Aryeh Spero on the president’s seeming inability to be an adversary against the global jihad levied against the West,  President Obama Must Choose Sides :

There appears to be a battle raging within Barack Obama. How this war is resolved will decide how we fight the war on terror and determine if we win it at all. In his speech last spring in Cairo, Mr. Obama said, “I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.” Defending the honor of Islam and protecting Muslims is one of the goals that Barack Obama has set for himself. It constitutes a personal definition of his presidency. But is he doing so to the point of misleading the public in general, and at the risk of jeopardizing the American people in particular?

The near-deaths of three hundred people on Christmas due to an Islamic terrorist plot — an act of war against America — did not rouse Obama from golf and relaxation until three days later. When he finally spoke, he disrespected us, as before, by claiming that this was a “lone event” disconnected from anything larger. But most Americans knew what it was, and the subsequent reports and al-Qaeda announcement told us that this was an act of jihad, a part of the larger scheme of radical Islam in its war against America.

After the Fort Hood massacre, the president’s first reaction was to intone the silly assertion that we “do not know what prompted this outrage.” In fact, everyone immediately intuited what was verified more each day after the carnage: that devotion to the Islamic cause generated Nidal Hasan’s decision to kill American infidels. The president was strangely unwilling to tie these murders to Islam or jihad or imams, even knowing that the jihadist yelled “Allah aqbar” as he mowed down innocent Americans.

In all these matters, Mr. Obama’s first concern seems to protect things Islamic rather than name and fight the Islamism intent on destroying us. This attitude predates his presidency, and it is one of the animating and personal goals of his worldview. Even before becoming senator of Illinois, he tells us in The Audacity of Hope (pp.261) of his earlier decision: “I will stand with them [Muslims] should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” For Barack Obama, the recognition that this is not simply generic “extremism,” as he likes to call it, but specific to Islam and carried out by devout young Muslim men borders on the “ugly direction” against which he promised to stand. But by so doing, Mr.Obama is misleading the country and standing in the way of the measures needed to protect the American people and win the war on terror.

Council Notes:

Some  very good news…after last weeks server problems, the WoW site updated to new levels of technological innovation, with new servers and vastly expanded capacity…yes, we hired more monkeys.

If you want to see your blog piece listed on the Watcher’s Council page as an honorable mention, our generous offer of link whorage remains open. Here’s how you take advantage of it:

Here’s the complete rundown of this week’s results. Only Soccer Dad and the Colossus of Rhodeywere unable to vote, and only Soccer Dad was affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty.

I can’t wait to see next week’s exciting entries, and as always, congratulations not only to the winners but to all the participants.

Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! – Bookworm Room - The need for an honest, 21st century debate about abortion
• Second place with 2 1/3 points – Wolf Howling - National Security At The End Of Obama’s First Year
• Third place with 1 2/3 points – (Tie*) Joshuapundit - It Begins: Obama Threatens Aid Cutoffs For Israel
• Third place with 1 2/3 point – (Tie*) –Soccer Dad - Mitchell on negotiation: getting to “no”
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) –American Digest - The 2010 Election Season is Now OPEN: “What Happened to the Republicans I Used to Know?”
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) –The Razor - Republicans Aren’t Ready
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (Tie*) – The Glittering Eye - Reinventing “Reinventing Government”
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (Tie*) – Mere Rhetoric - Obama Loosening Border Enforcement, State Dept. “Diversity Visas” Bringing In Thousands From Terror-Sponsoring Countries

Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 3 1/3 points! – American Thinker/Rabbi Aryeh Spero - President Obama must choose sides
• Second place with 1 2/3 points – (Tie*) –Jules Crittendon - Damn The Naughts
• Second place with 3 points– (Tie*) – Big Lizards - Voting Rights for Felons: “Race Neutral” = Race Biased
• Third place with 1 1/3 points – The Chronicle of Higher Education - Green Guilt
• Fourth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Call Dems Bluff On Refusing To Seat Scott Brown
• Fourth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Family Security Matters/ Dr. Sami Alrabaa - Is Muslim Blood More Precious than Christian Blood? The Hypocrisy of Western Politicians
• Fourth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Dick Morris - Urgent: Help Us Win in Massachsetts
• Fourth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – The Chicago Boyz - America: You Need A Policy Chimp
• Fifth place with 1/3 point (Tie*) – Tnooz - Ex counter-terrorism official labels TSA rules ‘criminal negligence’ and calls for tech solutions
• Fifth place with 1/3 point (Tie*) – Ace of Spades - Culture Clash on Video: CNN Anchorette Wants to Know Why Truck Dealer’s Motto Is “God, Guns, Guts, and American Pick-Up Trucks”

No Comments »

Does anybody identify the people in the picture?

Welcome to the latest edition of the Watcher’s Council nominations, some of the best writing from a group of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The Council votes to pick the winners in each category and the results can be seen in this space on Friday morning.

COUNCIL NEWS:

No one took advantage of our generous link whorage offer this week, earning an honorable mention. If you wish to have your blog earn an honorable mention and have a piece of yours appear on the Watcher’s Council page next week, the opportunity is open and up for grabs.

Here’s how you do it:

So, without further ado, let’s see what we have this week….

Council Submissions

• Wolf Howling - National Security At The End Of Obama’s First Year
• Joshuapundit - It Begins: Obama Threatens Aid Cutoffs For Israel
• Rhymes With Right - On The Left-Wing Freak-Out Over Brit Hume’s Public Christianity
• Right Truth - By Hook or By Crook – How Democrats Plan to win in 2010 and 2012
• Soccer Dad - Mitchell on negotiation: getting to “no”
• Bookworm Room- The need for an honest, 21st century debate about abortion
• Mere Rhetoric - Obama Loosening Border Enforcement, State Dept. “Diversity Visas”
  Bringing In Thousands From Terror-Sponsoring Countries
• The Glittering Eye - Reinventing “Reinventing Government”
• American Digest - The 2010 Election Season is Now OPEN: “What Happened to the Republicans I Used to Know?”
• The Provocateur - The 355th and our Agent Orange Legacy in Thailand
• The Colossus of Rhodey - The Politics of “Avatar”
• The Razor - Republicans Aren’t Ready

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By: Wolf Howling – Big Lizards - Voting Rights for Felons: “Race Neutral” = Race Biased
• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Call Dems Bluff On Refusing To Seat Scott Brown
• Submitted By: Bookworm Room – American Thinker/Rabbi Aryeh Spero - President Obama must choose sides
• Submitted By: Right Truth – Family Security Matters/ Dr. Sami Alrabaa - Is Muslim Blood More Precious than Christian Blood? The Hypocrisy of Western Politicians
• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – Tnooz - Ex counter-terrorism official labels TSA rules ‘criminal negligence’ and calls for tech solutions
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Chicago Boyz - America: You Need A Policy Chimp
• Submitted By: American Digest– Rough Type - Mr. Tracy’s Library
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Ace of Spades Culture Clash on Video: CNN Anchorette Wants to Know Why Truck Dealer’s Motto Is “God, Guns, Guts, and American Pick-Up Trucks”
• Submitted By: The Provocateur – Dick Morris - Urgent: Help Us Win in Massachsetts
• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – The Chronicle of Higher Education - Green Guilt
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad – Neo-Neocon - Can Mr. Brown Go To Washington?
• Submitted By: The Razor – Newsbusters - Newsweek’s Fineman: ‘Pretty Much Everybody’ Favors Dems Vs. GOP’s ‘Terrible Record’ on Race

No Comments »

The Council has spoken, choosing the winners in this week’s competition. And there’s some superb weekend reading in in store for you.

In the Council category, the winner this week was American Digest with his in depth essay on the Christmas crotch bomber # Lowballing Death: Keeping the Northwest 253 Numbers Down:

I’ve noticed the chant more and more as the days have gone by. It’s a chant usually preceded by the world “only;” as in “Even if the bomb had gone off it would have ‘only’ killed 290.”

“290″ is by far the most magical number in the morass of magical thinking that’s subsumed discussion of the “near disaster” of the Christmas attempt to give Northwest 253 a “premature landing”. The number “290″ is the number of passengers and crew on board the aircraft. “290″ is a number we hear a lot in conjunction with discussion of this failed attempt at mass murder. A lot of people in the administration, the TSA, and those on the left attempting to excuse what happened would be happy if “290″ stuck. If “290″ can be made to stick then the disaster, tragic as it might have been, is merely a “pinprick” and can be, like so many other aspects of this monumental failure, lowballed.

But “290″ is, looked at from any reasonable point of view, at the bottom of the scale when it comes to discussing how many might have lost their lives. The ultimate outcome of NW253 being brought down could have been much worse and, like the attacks against the World Trade Center on 9/11, easily have risen into the thousands.

When referring to “290″ the Obama administration along with their media cohorts and apologists are assuming that the =/-400,000 pound Airbus 300 would have vaporized in thin air and, like some event in the Bermuda Triangle, the aircraft, passengers and crew would have simply gone to their reward in the middle of the sky with only a puff of pixie dust left behind. This is sweet nonsense since airliners, when bombed in mid-heaven, have a nasty habit of coming to earth. In flames and sometimes in pieces.

In flaming pieces is what happened to the closest parallel to NW253, the downing in Lockerbie, Scotland of PanAm 103. In that “incident” the parts of the aircraft fell onto a village of a few thousand people and killed 11 people on the ground as well as the 259 on the plane.

At that point comparisons between PanAm 210 and NW253 diverge. Flight 210 was on climb out from London and, interestingly enough, on a course that would have taken it into Detroit. NW253 was on final approach to the same airport on a flight path that took it over the Detroit metropolitan area with a population of some 3,900,000. It is a much, much denser area; one that might be described as a “target rich environment” for a 400,000 pound flying bomb.

In the non-Council category,  the winner this week is a moving piece by Michael Yon ( and as always with Yon, the accompanying photos are all worth a thousand words) on Afghanistan,  with Into Thine Hand I Commit My Spirit :

Arghandab, Afghanistan
New Year’s Eve, 2009

On this small base surrounded by a mixture of enemy and friendly territory, a memorial has been erected just next to the Chapel. Inside the tepee are 21 photos of 21 soldiers killed during the first months of a year-long tour of duty. The fallen will belong forever to the honor rolls of the 1-17th Infantry Battalion, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, and they will join the sacred list of names of those who have given their lives in service of the United States of America.

The symbol of the 2nd Infantry Division is the Indian Head. At night, soldiers of the “Indian Head Division” can be seen passing by the tepee, sometimes stopping to peer inside before walking into the darkness.

Sometimes the soldiers walk by carrying lights that are red or green, or sometimes white. Tonight, Cobra Battery was firing illumination rounds from the cannons, which boom from the darkness, arcing a round into the night, where miles away a canister unsheathes, and the parachute opens, and brightness floats silently, shimmering over the valley where these soldiers died.

Council Notes:

Some of our readers noticed that the site was down for some time yesterday. What happened is that several of the highly trained monkeys who are responsible for site maintenance in our secret bunker in the American Heartland apparently did some belated New Years Eve celebrating, resulting in a fried server.

The Management promptly disciplined the offenders  and has repaired the damage. Our apologies:

If you want to see your blog piece listed on the Watcher’s Council page as an honorable mention, our generous offer of link whorage remains open. Here’s how you take advantage of it:

Here’s the complete rundown of this week’s results. Only the Razor was unable to vote, and he was the only one affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty.

I can’t wait to see next week’s exciting entries, and as always, congratulations not only to the winners but to all the participants.

Council Submissions

• First place with 3 2/3 points! – American Digest - Lowballing Death: Keeping the Northwest 253 Numbers Down
• Second place with 2 2/3 points – Bookworm Room - San Francisco: America’s homegrown anarchic totalitarianism
• Third place with 1 1/3 points – Joshuapundit - 58% Of Americans Want The Crotch Bomber Waterboarded – And the Left Is Outraged!
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) –Wolf Howling - Knee JERK Reaction Of Progressives
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) –Soccer Dad - The Very Model Of A Modern UN Bureaucrat
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (Tie*) – The Colossus of Rhodey - Is This ‘Hypocrisy’?
• Fifth place with 1/3 point – (Tie*) – The Glittering Eye - Facing Chinese Mercantilism
• Fifth place with 1/3 point –(Tie*) – Mere Rhetoric - Iran To US: No Visa For Kerry, Please Consider Yourself Officially Humiliated
• Fifth place with 1/3 point –(Tie*) – Right Truth - Jihad vs Terrorism Today

Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! – Michael Yon - Into Thine Hand I Commit My Spirit
• Second place with 1 2/3 points – (Tie*) –Jules Crittendon - Damn The Naughts
• Second place with 1 2/3 points– (Tie*) – Villainous Company - The Official 2010 Villainous Company Banned Bloggers List
• Third place with 1 1/3 points – Media Backspin - 10 Significant Articles From the ‘Noughties’ Decade
• Fourth place with 1 point – Next Web - Google Blocking Negative Search Recommendations On Islam – Why?
• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Powerline - John Brennan’s disgraceful performance
• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Big Hollywood - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Military Blogger Michael Yon Detained, Handcuffed by TSA in Seattle Airport
• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Bernard Goldberg - And What Exactly Is Wrong With Profiling
• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – The Mudville Gazette - # Taliban Kill 8 CIA Agents in Afghanistan

No Comments »

Trust the Israelis to make a joke out of this…Menachem Jerenberg in the Jerusalem Post.

Welcome to the latest edition of the Watcher’s Council nominations, some of the best writing from a group of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The Council votes to pick the winners in each category and the results can be seen in this space on Friday morning.

COUNCIL NEWS:

This week, LawGambit got the drop on the competition and took advantage of our generous link whorage offer this week, earning an honorable mention. If you wish to have your blog earn an honorable mention and have a piece of yours appear on the Watcher’s Council page next week, the opportunity is open and up for grabs.

Here’s how you do it:

So, without further ado, let’s see what we have this week….

Council Submissions

• Joshuapundit - 58% Of Americans Want The Crotch Bomber Waterboarded – And the Left Is Outraged!
• Wolf Howling - Knee JERK Reaction Of Progressives
• Soccer Dad - The Very Model Of A Modern UN Bureaucrat
• The Colossus of Rhodey - Is This ‘Hypocrisy’?
• Bookworm Room- San Francisco: America’s homegrown anarchic totalitarianism
• American Digest - Lowballing Death: Keeping the Northwest 253 Numbers Down
• The Razor - Firing Napolitano Not Enough to Make America Safer
  
• Right Truth - Jihad vs Terrorism Today
• The Glittering Eye - Facing Chinese Mercantilism
• The Provocateur - Inside the mind of Dr. Anna Chacko
• Rhymes With Right - Talk about Insincerity
• Mere Rhetoric - Iran To US: No Visa For Kerry, Please Consider Yourself Officially Humiliated
  

Honorable Mentions

• LawGambit - Just Another Wannabe Lawyer

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By: Wolf Howling – Jules Crittenden - Damn The Naughts
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Michael Yon Into Thine Hand I Commit My Spirit
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad – Media Backspin - 10 Significant Articles From the ‘Noughties’ Decade
• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – Powerline - John Brennan’s disgraceful performance
• Submitted By: Bookworm Room – Big Hollywood - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Military Blogger Michael Yon Detained, Handcuffed by TSA in Seattle Airport
• Submitted By: American Digest– NeoNeoCon - Avatar: The War Against Humans
• Submitted By: The Razor – Radical Islam.Org - CAIR: Empowering Muslims to Ignore Terrorism
• Submitted By: Right Truth – Michelle Malkin - Airline security idiocy of the day: Milblogger Michael Yon handcuffed, Joan Rivers blocked
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Villainous Company - The Official 2010 Villainous Company Banned Bloggers List
• Submitted By: The Provocateur – Bernard Goldberg - And What Exactly Is Wrong With Profiling
• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – Mudville Gazette - Taliban Kill 8 CIA Agents in Afghanistan
• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – The Next Web - Google Blocking Negative Search Recommendations On Islam – Why?

No Comments »

The Council has spoken, choosing the first winners of 2010 in this week’s competition. And there’s some superb weekend reading in in store for you.

In the Council category, the overwhelming winner – I don’t believe anyone’s ever gotten a higher vote total -  this week was Wolf Howling with his excellent essay on the unrest in Iran Ashura – A New Phase To The Revolution:

It cannot be stated often enough that Obama’s lack of leadership and his lack of strategic vision in failing to decisively support revolution in Iran are mistakes of the highest order. While Obama plays golf in Hawaii, the people of Iran are fighting, bleeding and dying in the streets for freedom from the oppression of a regime that is every bit as much our and the world’s enemy as it is the Iranian people’s. While Obama’s foreign policy acts of his first year have been one misstep after another, it is this misstep that is exponentially the worst. [Update: Obama has since made a reasonably strong statement in support of the protesters (see here), though he still does not condemn the regime as illegitimate. I applaud Obama's decision to finally speak up. That said, it remains to be seen whether this marks a months late decision by Obama to lend decisive support to the protesters (something which even WaPo, in an editorial, is calling upon him to do) or whether Obama has made merely a pro forma statement that he does not intend to follow up.]

By all accounts, the Iranian peoples’ protests against the regime yesterday on the holy day of Ashura (see here) were the “largest,” “bloodiest,” and most wide spread of the protests to date. There are several things of significance about yesterday’s protests that suggest Ashura marks a new phase to the revolution.

In the wake of the mid level cleric-cum-Supreme Guide Khameini’s ever more brutal repression, the size of Iran’s protests had been dwindling since June. The people of Iran, other than a hard core at the center, appeared to be cowed. That has been reversed. The size of the protests that began earlier this week with Grand Ayatollah Montazeri’s funeral and culminated in yesterday’s holy day of Ashura were back to, if not in excess of, June levels. Moreover, they involved new and different classes of protesters. The protests now included many religious Iranians outraged at the regime’s lack of principals and many of the lower class. The protests show a very much revitalized opposition to the regime that is, as Michael Ledeen notes, “very broad based.”

In the non-Council category the winner this week is the always fascinating  Robert J. Averach at Seraphic Secret with
his take on th edifferences between airline security in israel as opposed to the rest of the West, Suicide In Slow Motion:

Flying is unbearable.

Not because we’re jammed like sardines into a steel tube and frequently treated like cheap luggage by the obviously unhappy flight attendants.

No, air travel is a horror because radical Islam has terrorized the entire planet. If we did not have checkpoints in every airport, in every terminal, death would endlessly rain from the skies.

I’m always amused by those who decry the Israeli checkpoints that are maintained in order to thwart terrorist attacks.

Checkpoints in Israel are not restricted to the movement of Arab Muslims.

No, when you go to a mall in Israel you have to pass through a checkpoint. If you go to the movies, checkpoint. Restaurant, cafe, department store—everyone passes through a checkpoint.

In Israel, checkpoints are a way of life. The citizenry, right wing, left wing, Jew, Muslim, Mormon, Christian, Druze, Coptic, Catholic, Samaritan, Russian Orthodox, whatever, everyone submits because checkpoints are designed to protect, well, everyone.

The PLO pioneered airline terrorism—who says Islam isn’t an innovator?—and ever since their reign of terror began in the 60’s the world is held hostage by a growing number of caliphate Muslims, creatures who yearn for the 7th century even as they use the technology of the 21st century to bring about Armageddon.

When I move through our airports and observe the TSA workers, I do not feel safe. That’s because the TSA workers seem more like the product of some dopey works program. They are interchangeable with the angry bureaucrats at the DMV or the U.S. Post Office.

This is a stark contrast to the intense and eagle-eyed El Al security agents who are actually trained in counter terrorism, and whose methods are mostly invisible and involve vetting passengers before they get to the airport.

Council Notes: If you want to see your blog piece listed on the Watcher’s Council page as an honorable mention, our generous offer of link whorage remains open. Here’s how you take advantage of it:

Here’s the complete rundown of this week’s results. Only the Provocateur and Mere Rhetoric were unable to vote, but only Mere Rhetoric was affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty.

I can’t wait to see next week’s exciting entries, and as always, congratulations not only to the winners but to all the participants.

Have a wonderful New Year, from all of us at the Watcher’s Council!

Council Submissions

• First place with 4 1/3 points! – Wolf Howling - Ashura – A New Phase To The Revolution
• Second place with 2 points – The Razor - Hard Choices Needed to Stop Terrorism
• Third place with 1 point – (Tie*) – Bookworm Room - The Princess and the Frog — Disney’s Gift to American Blacks
• Third place with 1 point – (Tie*) –Right Truth - 300 terrorists in Yemen planning terror attacks: Bare your body and pay them money!
• Third place with 1 point – (Tie*) –Soccer Dad - What’s There to Debate
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) – Joshuapundit - # The Christmas Crotch Bomber – How He Almost Succeeded And How To Stop Him In The Future
• Fourth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) – Rhymes With Right - A Global Warming Observation
• Fifth place with 1/3 point –(Tie*) – American Digest - The Emperor’s new speech impediment
• Fifth place with 1/3 point –(Tie*) – The Colossus of Rhodey - Liberal Trek
• Fifth place with 1/3 point –(Tie*) – Mere Rhetoric - Obligatory Post About New Organ Harvesting Story That Provides “No Evidence” For Organ Harvesting Libel
• Fifth place with 1/3 point –(Tie*) – The Provocateur - Sarah Palin: Crazy Like a Fox

Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 3 points! – Seraphic Secret - Suicide in Slow Motion
• Second place with 2 2/3 points – Rhymes with Cars & Girls - The Smart People Crowd
• Third place with 1 1/3 points– The Volokh Conspiracy - The Unorganized Militia Once Again is Needed
• Fourth place with 1 point – Serious Medicine Strategy - Surgery For Life: How Romanticism and Religion Are Working With Science To Improve Medicine
• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Doug Ross @ Journal - Judicial Watch Announces Most Corrupt Politicians of 2009 Awards
• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Dick Morris - Griffith’s Switch Illustrates Death of Moderate Dems
• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – The Volokh Conspiracy - Assessing Airport Security Measures
• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Hudson New York - Shhh…Mubarak is building a wall
• Fifth place with 2/3 point (Tie*) – Gates Of Vienna - The Death Bells of the Occident
• Sixth place with 1/3 point(Tie*) – Commentary/Jonathan Tobin - Comic Book Hate: a New Chapter in Anti-Israel Bias at the New York Times
• Sixth place with 1/3 point(Tie*) – Impeach Obama Campaign.com - Does The Left Want To Impeach Obama Too?

No Comments »

Welcome to the latest edition of the Watcher’s Council nominations, some of the best writing from a group of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The Council votes to pick the winners in each category and the results can be seen in this space on Friday morning.

COUNCIL NEWS:

This week, The OyVaY Blog took advantage of our generous link whorage offer this week, and earned honorable mention. If you wish to have your blog earn an honorable mention and have a piece of yours appear on the Watcher’s Council page next week, the opportunity is open and up for grabs.

Here’s how you do it:

So, without further ado,  let’s see what we have this week….

Council Submissions

• Wolf Howling - Ashura – A New Phase To The Revolution
• Right Truth - 300 terrorists in Yemen planning terror attacks: Bare your body and pay them money!
• The Razor - Hard Choices Needed to Stop Terrorism
• Bookworm Room- The Princess and the Frog — Disney’s Gift to American Blacks
• The Provocateur - Sarah Palin: Crazy Like a Fox
• The Glittering Eye - The Underwear Bomber
• Soccer Dad - What’s There To Debate
• Mere Rhetoric - Obligatory Post About New Organ Harvesting Story That Provides “No Evidence” For Organ Harvesting Libel
  
• The Colossus of Rhodey - Liberal Trek
• American Digest - The Emperor’s New Speech Impediment
• Rhymes With Right - A Global Warming Observation
• Joshuapundit - The Christmas Crotch Bomber – How He Almost Succeeded And How To Stop Him In The Future

Honorable Mentions

• The OyVay Blog - Tweeting About Iran

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By:The Watcher– Commentary/Jonathan Tobin - Comic Book Hate: a New Chapter in Anti-Israel Bias at the New York Times
• Submitted By: Wolf Howling – Doug Ross @ Journal - Judicial Watch Announces Most Corrupt Politicians of 2009 Awards
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Seraphic Secret Suicide in Slow Motion
• Submitted By: Right Truth – Powerline - Obama and the Iranian protesters — mutuality of interests but not of spirit
• Submitted By: The Razor – Volokh Conspiracy - The Unorganized Militia Once Again is Needed
  
• Submitted By: Bookworm Room – Impeach Obama Campaign.com - Does The Left Want To Impeach Obama Too?
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Serious Medicine Strategy - Surgery For Life: How Romanticism and Religion Are Working With Science To Improve Medicine
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad – The Volokh Conspiracy - Assessing Airport Security Measures
• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – Hudson New York - Shhh…Mubarak is building a wall
• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – Discriminations - Are Republicans More Principled Than Democrats?
• Submitted By: American Digest– Rhymes with Cars & Girls - The Smart People Crowd
• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – Gates Of Vienna - The Death Bells of the Occident
• Submitted By: The Provocateur – Dick Morris - Griffith’s Switch Illustrates Death of Moderate Dems

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It’s that time again… the Council has spoken, choosing the winners of this week’s competition. And there’s some superb Christmas weekend reading in your stocking for you…No lumps of coal here!

In the Council category, the winner this week was Bookworm Room with an interesting essay on Communism’s role in th eglobal warming controversy, The Communist Cat is out of the Climate Change Bag:

Since the beginning, climate change skeptics have said that the hysteria of the man-made global warming movement, aside from being based on manifestly shoddy and often dishonest science, was in fact a Leftist political gambit. The Communists, having failed to win the world over with a Cold War had regrouped and were seeking to win it over with a warm war. By targeting Western (that is, capitalist) nations as the evildoers in the world’s imminent boiling destruction, and then playing on the fear, guilt and ignorance of those same Western nations, the Communists . . . er, global warming saviors . . . announced a solution: the West should give up its wealth by transferring it en masse to poor nations. The West should also give up its lifestyle, by abandoning electricity, gas and even toilet paper. The West, in other words, should give true meaning to global warming by engaging in self-immolation.

The last month, though, has seen this Communist-inspired house of cards collapse as quickly as the Soviet bloc did back in 1989. First came ClimateGate, which revealed to the whole world the fact that the most ardent climate “scientists” were, in fact, ideologues who cared little about science, and a great deal about achieving a political goal. They lied about their data, destroyed their facts, and systematically set out to muzzle and destroy anyone who disagreed with them.

In the non-Council category the winner this week is the always scintillatingMichael Yon with a birdseye view of the ewar in Afghanistan entitled Arghandab & The Battle for Kandahar :

People are confused about the war. The situation is difficult to resolve even for those who are here. For most of us, the conflict remains out of focus, lacking reference of almost any sort. Vertigo leaves us seeking orientation from places like Vietnam—where most of us never have been. So sad are our motley pundits-cum-navigators that those who have never have been to Afghanistan or Vietnam shamelessly use one to reference the other. We saw this in Iraq.

The most we can do is pay attention, study hard, and try to bring something into focus that is always rolling, yawing, and seemingly changing course randomly, in more dimensions than even astronauts must consider. All while gauging dozens of factors, such as Afghan Opinion, Coalition Will, Enemy Will and Capacity, Resources, Regional Actors (and, of course, the Thoroughly Unexpected). Nobody will ever understand all these dynamic factors and track them at once and through time. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that a tiger doesn’t need to completely understand the jungle to survive, navigate, and then dominate. It is not necessary to know every anthropological and historical nuance of the people here. If that were the case, our Coalition of over forty nations would not exist. More important is to realize that they are humans like us. They get hungry, happy, sad, and angry; they make friends and enemies (to the Nth degree); they are neither supermen nor vermin. They’re just people.

But it always helps to know as much as you can. This will take much time, many dispatches, and hard, dangerous work. Let’s get started.

Council Notes: If you want to see your blog piece listed on the Watcher’s Council page as an honorable mention, our generous offer of link whorage remains open. Here’s how you take advantage of it:

Here’s the complete rundown of this week’s results. Only the Provocateur and Mere Rhetoric were unable to vote, but only Mere Rhetoric was affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty.

I can’t wait to see next week’s exciting entries, and as always, congratulations not only to the winners but to all the participants.

Have a great Christmas weekend!

Council Submissions

• First place with 2 points! – Bookworm Room - The Communist Cat is out of the Climate Change Bag
• Second place with 1 2/3 points – (Tie*) – Wolf Howling - The Democrats’ Assault On Deliberative Democracy
• Second place with 1 2/3 points – (Tie*) –The Glittering Eye - The Healthcare Reform House of Cards
• Third place with 1 1/3 point – American Digest - What’s bad for America is good for the Obama gang
• Fourth place with 1 point – Soccer Dad - Iran’s Cats Paw
• Fifth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) – Joshuapundit - Jimmy Carter Apologizes To Jews !!##!?!
• Fifth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) – The Razor - Democrats Gripping the Disemboweling Knife
• Fifth place with 2/3 point –(Tie*) – Right Truth - Hundreds of British schoolgirls facing genital mutilation

Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 points! – Michael Yon - Arghandab & The Battle for Kandahar
• Second place with 2 points – The Doctor is In - Our Gnostic Masters
• Third place with 1 1/3 points– Reason - The State’s Failed Experiments
• Fourth place with 1 point – (Tie*) – Totus - ATTACK: Washington D.C. Nuked
• Fourth place with 1 point (Tie*) – Chronicle of Higher Education - Matching Teaching Style to Learning Style May Not Help Students
• Fifth place with 2/3 points – To Which I Replied - 40 Reasons To Ban Guns
• Fifth place with 1/3 point(Tie*) – Gay Patriot - Will Obamacare Passage Lead to Inverse Cloward-Piven?
• Fifth place with 1/3 point(Tie*) – In Context - Ban Champagne

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Welcome to the latest edition of the Watcher’s Council nominations, a some of the best writing from a group of most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The Council votes to pick the winners in each category and the results can be seen in this space on Friday morning.

Hey everybody, Christmas is just around the corner!

I make no excuses…this is simply my favorite time of year. Perhaps it’s because I was a winter baby born in January but my energy level,my intuition, my creativity and yes, my enjoyment of life get amped up right around the Solstice of December 21st. I can feel myself getting rejuvenated by the colder temperatures and the winter skies.

Since I don’t celebrate Christmas and never did even as a child, I have no poignant family memories associated with the holiday. But what I most love, aside from what the season does to me it what it does to other people.

For a brief time, many people seem to not sweat the small stuff, to go out of their way to treat even strangers with that extra bit of courtesy and warmth that reminds us we’re all human. Mystical things happen.

Perhaps that’s a sort of unconscious remembrance of a young couple with a child on the way who had problems finding a hotel room during the holiday rush and ended up having to bed down in a manger. But in the end, things seem to have worked out.

Wherever and whomever you are, take a breath, ditch your worries for awhile, enjoy life (trust me, they’ll either have worked themselves out and be gone or be waiting for you patiently when you get back) and let the magic spread over you. It will do you good.

Have a Blessed and Merry Christmas.

-selah-

Rob @ Joshuapundit

COUNCIL NEWS:

No one took advantage of our generous link whorage offer this week, so there are no honorable mentions. But if you wish to have your blog earn an honorable mention and have a piece of yours appear on the Watcher’s Council page next week, the opportunity is open and up for grabs.

Here’s how you do it:

• Make a post on your site linking to this week’s Council winners when they’re posted Friday morning.

• Send me an e-mail by Tuesday 5 PM with the subject line ‘link whorage’ at rmill2k@msn.com with a link to the post you wrote linking to this week’s winners and a link to a new piece you’ve written and want to showcase that you want to appear here the following week.

• We”ll do the rest, and the increased traffic and the resulting fame and notoriety are all yours!

So, without further ado let’s see what we have this week….

Council Submissions

• Joshuapundit - Jimmy Carter Apologizes To Jews !!##!?!
• American Digest - What’s Bad For America Is Good For The Obama Gang
• Right Truth - Hundreds of British schoolgirls facing genital mutilation
• Wolf Howling - The Democrats’ Assault On Deliberative Democracy
• Bookworm Room- The Communist Cat is out of the Climate Change Bag
• Rhymes With Right - A Proper Response?
• Soccer Dad - Iran’ Cats Paw
• The Colossus of Rhodey - Just don’t call it a “hate crime” part 4
• The Razor - Democrats Democrats Gripping the Disemboweling Knife
• Mere Rhetoric - Copenhagen’s A Battle To Humble And “Redefine Humanity,” Get Rid Of “Passion” And “Heroism”
• The Glittering Eye - The Healthcare Reform House of Cards
• The Provocateur - How Dr. Anna Chacko Played Congressman Brad Miller

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By:The Watcher– Big Government - Build-A-Climate Scare: Why You Should Boycott Build-A-Bear
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit – To Which I Replied 40 Reasons To Ban Guns
• Submitted By: American Digest– The Doctor is In - Our Gnostic Masters
• Submitted By: Right Truth – Totus - ATTACK: Washington D.C. Nuked
• Submitted By: Wolf Howling – Michael Yon - Arghandab & The Battle for Kandahar
• Submitted By: Bookworm Room – Maggie’s Farm - Cause for Hope for the Next Generation of Politics
• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – Chronicle of Higher Education - Matching Teaching Style to Learning Style May Not Help Students
• Submitted By: Rhymes With Right – Gay Patriot - Will Obamacare Passage Lead to Inverse Cloward-Piven?
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad – In Context - Ban Champagne
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Wired - Learn to let go: How success killed Duke Nukem
• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – Rubin Reports - The Palestinian Authority Sets its New Strategy: Tempts Obama Administration with Instant Peace if it Pressures Israel
• Submitted By: The Razor – Carnaby Fudge Journal - Thank You Grandpa
• Submitted By: The Provocateur – Reason - The State’s Failed Experiments

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It’s that time again… the Council has spoken, choosing the winners of this week’s competition.

There’s a nice tie in between our two big winners this week..the idea of personal responsibility and what happens to a country when its leaders chuck responsibility aside like an empty bottle of Night Train.

In the Council category, the winner this week was The Razor with Obama versus Carter :

Recently fellow Watcher’s Council member Terry Trippany in stated his belief that Obama is a worse president than my nominee of “worst president ever” James “Jimmy” Earl Carter. I am no fan of our current president, so I thought I would take a moment to explore why I continue to believe that our current president has a long way to go before he surpasses his mentor Jimmy Carter in the pantheon of infamous chief executives.

Any day now Jimmy Carter is going to fall permanently off his high horse. Carter recently turned 85 so it won’t be long before flags fly at half-mast and the nation eulogizes Carter. Given the current resident of the White House I expect the prose to be florid, plentiful, and a complete white-wash of the Carter era that Obama seems intent on consciously or not resurrecting. It’s not surprising; it happened to Richard Nixon – another member of the pantheon – under a Democratic president no less, so I expect the worst when Carter dies.

Human memory mixed with Time becomes adulterated. Events become blurry, and both painful events and pleasurable ones soften and fade. Take a moment to imagine the worst physical pain you ever felt in your life; now imagine a recent event where you stubbed your toe or had a sinus headache. Which seems stronger? Most likely the more immediate pain because it is fresher and hasn’t faded with time the way the other pain you experienced has.

In the non-Council category the winner this week is Zombie at Zomblog who’s justly famous for his photo journalism amongst the Angry Left in the Bay Area, but this week scored with an insightful essay entitled Why America Hates Universal Health Care: The Real Reason :

I watch the debate over health care with amazement. A million words are spoken on the topic with every passing minute, and as far as I can tell no one has ever addressed the real issue that’s upsetting everyone.

So, rather than wait in vain for someone else to finally speak the honest truth about the single-payer system, I’ll just have to do it myself.{…}

A built-in false assumption with the health-care debate is that sickness is always no-fault sickness. It’s never socially acceptable to assign blame for people’s medical problems — especially blame on the patient.

But I’m not afraid to confess that I’m a judgmental person. And I’m pretty confident that most Americans who oppose socialized medicine share this same judgment: that some people are partly or entirely to blame for their unwellness.

I’m perfectly willing to provide subsidized health care to people who are suffering due to no fault of their own. But in those cases — which, unfortunately, constitute perhaps a majority of all cases — where the unwellness is a consequence of the patient’s own misdeeds, bad habits, or stupid choices, I feel a deep-seated resentment that the rest of us should pick up the tab to fix medical problems that never should have happened in the first place.

Council Notes: If you want to see your blog piece listed on the Watcher’s Council page as an honorable mention, our generous offer of link whorage remains open. Here’s how you take advantage of it:

Here’s the complete rundown of this week’s results. Only the Provocateur was unable to vote, but he was not affected by the mandatory 2/3 vote penalty.

I can’t wait to see next week’s exciting entries, and as always, congratulations not only to the winners but to all the participants.

Council Submissions

• First place with 3 points! – The Razor - Obama Versus Carter
• Second place with 2 1/3 points – Wolf Howling - Ringside Seats To A Revolution
• Third place with 2 points – American Digest - December 31, 2010: Defused Lethal Poem Released by Government. “Safe but Still Sucks” says President
• Fourth place with 1 point – (Tie*) – Soccer Dad - Goldstone’s Innumeracy
• Fourth place with 1 point – (Tie*) – Joshuapundit - WAPO’s Ezra Klein Accuses Joe Lieberman Of Genocide
• Fifth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) – Bookworm Room - Press Secretary Gibbs perfectly exemplifies nanny state thinking
• Fifth place with 2/3 point – (Tie*) – Mere Rhetoric - HRW: We’re Not Sure About Marc Garlasco’s Nazi Obsession, But There’s Definitely A Coordinated Jewish Cabal Of Liars Attacking Us
• Sixth place with 1/3 point – Right Truth - Gitmo Comes To America

Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 3 2/3 points! – Zomblog - Why America Hates Universal Health Care: The Real Reason
• Second place with 21/3 points – Iowahawk - Fables of the Reconstruction (Or, How to Make Your Own Hockey Stick)
• Third place with 2 points – Jason Maoz/Commentary - How Richard Nixon Saved Israel—but Got No Credit
• Fourth place with 2/3 points – (Tie*) – The Belmont Club - The Monkey Trap
• Fourth place with 2/3 points(Tie*) – EU Referendum - A Busy Man
• Fourth place with 2/3 point(Tie*) – Yourish - The War President’s Peace Prize
• Fifth place with 1/3 points – The Brussels Journal - The Anti-Globalist Agenda Behind The Climate Conference

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