Soccer Dad

Watchers of weasels 9/27/06

Council nominations are in, voting is taking place. Here are the entries for the other members of the watcher's council.

AbbaGav explains that it's not actually Holocaust denial that President Ahmadinejad suffers from but Holocaust envy. And of course there's an irony to that

The irony in the Iranian President's competing positions is almost too much to bear. He simultaneously claims there wasn't a Holocaust -- not that there's anything wrong with Jewish Holocausts, mind you -- and that he'd also like the chance at pulling off one of those Holocaust things himself, if the world would kindly just stand back and give him the chance.

Done with Mirrors in Ouch follows up on the story of his contractor friend, Kat who seems to survive just fine without all the protection that NY Times reporters require in Iraq.

Gods, it looks like I could have hired somebody to carry my gun, as I see it. I never realized that could be done. I guess it doesn't matter, since I'm still here. Apparently the terrorists were frightened by my steely black eyes and 5ft tall, 89lb muscular body. They must have known when the saw us that "hell is coming with me." (giggles to self)

The Education Wonks report that the teacher who burned flags in class won't be facing criminal charges, but wonder

Given the time and place where Holden pulled his stunt, it's quite possible that he might just lose his job over this one.

Gates of Vienna considers humor as an appropriate tonic for what ails the world, and makes a serious observation about Pope Benedict's chosen coat of arms

Benedict XVI’s coat of arms has an image of a miter instead of the usual papal tiara, much to the disgust of traditional heraldists. And he also has a picture of a Moor (a Muslim), whose identity is in question. If icons are your bag — they fascinate me — Wikipedia has a wonderfully detailed description of Benedict’s choices for his coat of arms.

The Glittering Eye considers the big picture of the war on terror and what larger consequences terror could have on the global economy

Globalization and proselytization take place on different tracks. Globalization is not a law of physics or some sort of irresistible historical movement. Globalization proceeds as a series of economic decisions. People in Bangalore aren’t manning help desks and customer support lines for U. S. companies because those companies want the people in India to be happier or more enlightened or more prosperous or because of a law of physics or historic inevitability. They do so because it makes economic sense and they’ll stop when it stops making economic sense. That can happen in the flash of an eye.

Joshua Pundit presents his own Middle East Peace Plan. Among other things it would require a level (painful) candor that has been missing from "peace" proposals until now as his would require PM Olmert to say

Jerusalem is the ancient capitol of Israel. It is the single most holy site of our religion, and the spiritual center of our nation and our people. Dividing it would be the equivalent of asking you to divide Mecca with non-Muslims. Yet, for the first 20 years of Israel's rebirth, we were faced with exactly that situation. After 1948, Jews were ethnically cleansed from East Jerusalem, old and historic synagogues were desecrated and destroyed and Jews were forbidden to access their holiest sites.

Rhymes with Right takes issue with the NY Times objection to demanding ID's in order to vote

I'm the local election judge. I run the polling places here in my precinct. I remembeer when folks could walk in with virtually anything to vote -- and remember one guy who had to check the name on the phone bill before signing the voter registry. I remember how much better things got after Texas tightened it voter identification requirements. Now I 'll concede that I think the current bill before Congress is problematic -- because of its potential for establishing a national ID card and database -- but I think that meeting the same requirement for voting that is required to buy groceries witha check at Krogers four blocks away is not an unreasonable step.

Right Wing Nuthouse considers a number of possible October Surprises but concludes (hopefully)

The only “Surprise” we’re likely to see in October is a further erosion of the gigantic lead built up by Democrats over the summer as the American people realize the party has nothing to offer except deranged Bush hatred. And while they may despise Bush as much as the Democrats, they would prefer to vote for somebody or something rather than mindlessly oppose the President based on the prognostications of people who have yet to be right about predicting anything.

Shrinkwrapped considers ex-President Clinton's response to Chris Wallace a Missed Opportunity

Bill Clinton could have taken a stance that the weight of responsibility now rests on George Bush's shoulders and that even if we disagree with his policies, we need to support our President in time of crisis. He could even have defused the moment by pointing out that he knows how difficult it is to perform the duties of the Presidency when under unrelenting political attack. Toning down the rhetoric would have been a wonderful service that this ex-President could have performed. Instead he leaves us wondering if he was even more culpable than we thought.

Socratic Rhythm Method looks at the Stifling of dissent when it comes to a pharmacist's freedom to choose

A federal judge has decided not to dismiss Illinois pharmacists' civil rights lawsuit against Gov. Rod Blagojevich. A new state law requiring pharmacists who object to birth control to quit being so icky around normal people has been sort of hamfistedly enforced by the Gov: he got himself emergency powers to enforce the law before its born-on date, and used them to make Illinois pharmacies hang posters proclaiming that "no one should stand between a woman and her doctor," for one example. You may wonder whether Illinois also now requires doctors who object to birth control to write the prescriptions in the first place; Illinois would prefer you don't ask.

The Sundries Shack wonders if the West's weakness in confronting Islamism is No Commitment

We have forgotten how to finish the jobs we start, whether we voluntarily started them or not. That is the source of our fear. Hollywood, the MSM, a goodly number of our politicians, none of them can look Islam directly in the eyes because they know, deep in their hearts, that Islam has the will to fight for what it wants and they simply do not. They lost that about the time they, in a marijuana-addled counterculture haze decided that fighting for our high morals was no longer somthing we should actually do but something we could talk about and still reap rewards. They decided that they could simply reward themselves for talking tough about freedom and liberty and peace without actually having to commit to them. They then turned the word “commitment” itself into a jingoistic slogan trotted out to fool the rubes. They replaced courage and conviction with cynicism and “cool” mockery of the very things we need to remain free.

Please check out the many wonderful non-council nominations this week too. This week's most blogged about issue is the Pope's speech and the reaction to it.

Bloggers: Like what you see? Do you wish to participate? Follow the instructions here to get your post added to the non-council nominations next week.

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