Soccer Dad: Submitted 05/22/08

May 22, 2008

Submitted 05/22/08

The Watcher's Council submissions have been posted.

Before I get to this week's business, be aware that a seat on the Watcher's Council has opened. If you blog and have an interest in joining this weekly blog review follow the instructions here.

Is Human Moral Progress Inevitable?
The Colossus of Rhodey argues that moral progress is a function of the greater wealth and freedom we gain as time goes on. It's a debatable proposition, but it's one of those posts that makes you think. While he uses Battlestar Galactica as a jumping off point for his thoughts, I was surprised that he ignored a different approach. When we were introduced to the world of the Silver Surfer, the Silver Surfer was bored because his society was so advanced that there were no challenges left. The society had become morally lazy because of its wealth and technological advancement. While it's certain that an advanced society can improve morally, I don't think that it's a given.
Net Loss
Done With Mirrors gives two examples of the problematic use of the web in today's world.
Renaming the Paradigm *UPDATED*
In a discussion with her mother, Bookworm Room eschews "right" and "left" for term with more meaning.
No One Will Solve Our Energy Problems For Us
Hillbilly White Trash recommends using our own resources to solve the energy crisis precipitated by rising prices.
Time To Remember The "Global" In The War On Terror
Cheat Seeking Missiles recommends opening up new American fronts in the war. I don't necessarily disagree in principle. Practically (and politically) I don't know how possible it is. But it did remind me of this article by Charles Krauthammer:

Pick up the newspaper, and look at the map. Where are the great explosions of ethnic and religious violence? Follow an arc from east to west then south: Kashmir, Azerbaijan, Kosovo (Yugoslavia), Lebanon, the West Bank. Along this new "arc of crisis" some of the most violent, volatile conflicts in the world are being played out. The explosions appear random. But a deep historical current runs through them all

All of these conflicts are rooted in the same grievance: a Moslem population is demanding sovereign control over a piece of territory in which it constitutes a local majority. The Moslems are fighting for (1) dominion over their province and (2) domination over the local non-Moslem minorities. In all but Lebanon (which long ago achieved sovereignty), they demand (3) separation from the non-Moslem country to which they are now joined and (4) independence or unification with the Moslem heartland.

I'm sure you realize that it's not a new article. It's "THE NEW CRESCENT OF CRISIS GLOBAL INTIFADA" originally published in the Washington Post on February 16, 1990. The problem's not new.
Seattle Times Writer Defends Hitler's Aggression!
Rhymes With Right takes off after an editorial writer who defends Sen. Obama, by arguing that appeasing rather than confronting Hitler was the correct approach. He followed that up with a fine fisking of Pat Buchanan's defense of Hitler.
Republicans Ponder The Abyss
Wolf Howling summarizes the problems facing the Republicans in November, what the party's strenghs are and some the self-destructive behavior the party engages that could well serve to undermine the very real strengths over the Democrats that it has.
Death Toll Continues to Mount
The Glittering Eye looks at the effects of the Sichuan earthquake and doubts that China can continue to grow economically unless the government allows markets to develop freely in order to address the needs of the people. On a tangentially related note, the British Geological Survey published a paper on the tectonics of the Sichuan region. (pdf) In the wake of the quake they released a shorter summary of their findings.
Hillary's Fuzzy Math
The Education Wonks takes Hillary Clinton to task for fighting on with no reasonable chance of success. Perhaps not, but in a couple of posts Baseball Crank has shown that her candidacy has revealed weaknesses in the support for Sen. Obama. Perhaps Democrats would be better off looking at what the continued campaign teaches them instead of complaining about it. Others have made the case that her position is better than Teddy Kennedy's was in 1980.
Would You Buy An ObamaMobile From Tom Friedman?
Joshuapundit makes a comprehensive case for why supporters of Israel shouldn't accept Thomas Friedman's reasons for saying that Sen. Obama may really be good for Israel.
George Bush Isolationist
In my post this week I support Sen. Lieberman's contention that in 1980 it was the Democrats who were interventionists and Republicans who were isolationists and offer a cynical explanation for that fact and the change we've seen over the past 8 years.

My non-council submission this week is Dow Jones: Israel Means Business by The Elder of Ziyon using business information to show that if there is a dying society as Ahmadinejad alleges, it's not Israel.

Read, Enjoy. Be Informed.

watcher's council.