Soccer Dad

Submitted 07/18/2007

The watcher's council has submitted its articles for this weeks' voting.

Leading off this week's lineup is Pangloss by Done with Mirrors. He refutes the argument that there's no reason to fear terrorism because it is so rare. He argues that we ought to fear it because of the intent its perpetrators possess to do us harm.

Next up is Colossus of Rhodey.Hube's Mutants, Civil Rights and Fundamentalism in which he critiques the argument of Chris Claremont author of the X-men that the conservatism of the Reagan years could have led to his totalitarian fantasy of government hunting down mutants. (Yes, he thinks the argument ridiculous.)

In Another one that flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Education Wonk tells the story of Francisco Rodriguez. In a Kafka-esque twist of fate he finds himself on the hook for paternity payments for a child, who has been shown by DNA testing, is not his. Rodriguez missed the filing date to contest paternity. Of course that was because he was informed too late to make the deadline.

In Harry Potter and Ostrich Syndrome, Bookworm room explores the popularity of books that have heroes facing evil enemies with no excuses for the evil, just an understanding that it must be defeated. (To be fair The Half Blood Prince does go into Voldermort's background; but it doesn't excuse it.) She draws lessons from this for our own post 9/11 world.

Right Wing Nuthouse asks Are Conservatives Really Hoping For Another 9/11? Short answer, "no." Slightly more detailed answer: It's not that conservatives/Republicans are hoping for another 9/11, it's that they want the nation/world to unite behind their view that there are evil people out there capable of pulling off another 9/11 and that we need to confront and defeat them. The problem is

Of course, this throws up all sorts of questions about the leadership of President Bush, Republicans in Congress, and conservative intellectuals who have failed miserably in making the case for this wider war on terrorism to the American people.

Okie on the Lam says "Kiss my prius ...," or how he stopped worrying and learned to love global climate change. Just because the Prius runs cleaner doesn't mean that it doesn't introduce environmental challenges all its own. (In fact a little while ago someone discovered that building a Prius was a lot less environmentally friendly than building a regular gas guzzling car.)

In Pope reaffirms teachings of Vatican II, Rhymes with Right defends the Pope against political attacks from those who don't understand Church doctrine.

Cheat Seeking Missiles looks at What's wrong with this story, specifically an opinion piece by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley that got placed on the op-ed page under "Opposing Viewpoints." There's nothing wrong with Hadley's piece except its placement, the opposing editorial though is a bunch of incoherent nonsense.

The Glittering Eye tries to imagine Two Stories or, perhaps, two scenarios: one of an American victory and the other of an American defeat in Iraq. In the end he argues that the only consideration must be what is good or bad for the American interests. While he didn't think that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea, he doesn't see a withdrawal furthering American interests. (In fact he sees it as a disaster.)

Big Lizards is happy that Bush muzzled Sturgeon General .... He points out that the reorganization of the office of the Surgeon General came about with significant help from Democrats in Congress, so the President hardly took the action alone. He also points to some of the more unusual views of recent Surgeon General's past, arguing that they ought to come under some sort of control.

Like me JoshuaPundit takes aim at President Bush's recent statement on the Middle East in President Bush and Peace in our time. It's an argument I agree with wholeheartedly. I won't summarize the article but this paragraph is it in a nutshell

If the Palestinians want to elect a terrorist, Islamist government to represent them, they have every right - just as we have every right not to give them a dime, notwithstanding the current occupant of the White House and his desire to prove to his Saudi `allies' how even handed he is when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict .

and by all means, read the whole thing.

My entry this week is A president's legacy quick fix playground - the middle east in which I, too, argue that President Bush's push for a conference is an unfortunate repeat of the actions of his predecessors to score a diplomatic victory at Israel's expense.

I guess it's only right that I should point out that this morning I received and an article that Michael Oren has written article defending and praising President Bush's initiative, The Bush Doctrine Lives. Oren argues, rather than traveling down the path of appeasing the Arab world at the expense of Israel, President Bush defined very clear red lines demonstrating his appreciation of Israel's position.

According to Mr. Bush, the Palestinians can only achieve statehood by first stopping all attacks against Israel, freeing captured Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, and ridding the Palestinian Authority of corruption. They must also detach themselves from the invidious influence of Syria and Iran: "Nothing less is acceptable."

In addition to the prerequisites stipulated for the Palestinians, Mr. Bush set unprecedented conditions for Arab participation in peace efforts. He exhorted Arab leaders to emulate "peacemakers like Anwar Sadat and King Hussein of Jordan" by ending anti-Semitic incitement in their media and dropping the fiction of Israel's non-existence. More dramatically, Mr. Bush called on those Arab governments that have yet to establish relations with Israel to recognize its right to exist and to authorize ministerial missions to the Jewish state.

Accordingly, Saudi Arabia, which has offered such recognition but only in return for a full withdrawal to the 1967 borders, will have to accept Israel prior to any territorial concessions.

I can see Oren's argument to a point. The problem I still have is that a conference brings with it, its own pressures, especially the pressure to accomplish something. President Bush's commitment to Israel may be beyond question, but given his politically weakened state and the way the conference is likely to be portrayed there is little doubt that it will amount to little more than pressuring Israel to make concessions while getting precious little (if anything) in return.

And if I may point out, right now the story that Iraqis are entering the U.S. across the Mexican border is gaining attention due to a story on the Blotter (via memeorandum). This past week us watcher's council voted an earlier incarnation of that story the top post of the week. It's nice to be ahead of the curve!

Read. Enjoy. Be informed.

watcher's council.

Posted by SoccerDad at July 18, 2007 6:25 AM | TrackBack