Soccer Dad: Submitted 04/23/09

April 23, 2009

Submitted 04/23/09

This week's Watcher's Council nominations are up!

Witch Hunts (and you are the witch) - Right Truth writes about efforts to marginlize the political right.

Dr. Andrew Agwunobi Strikes Again - The Provocateur follow the career of a doctor who leaves disaster behind wherever he goes.

The Real Holocaust Denial - Joshuapundit doesn't blame Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his religious beliefs, but many in the West for turnings blind eyes to his provocations and acting as his enablers.Related thoughts here.

Obama Administration Sucking Moonbats Out of Private Sector - With Senate Democrats interested in bailing out newspapers, The Razor writes about a parallel effort of the administration to help the industry: by giving columnists government jobs!

About The Secession Thing - Rhymes With Right argues that there is nothing inherently wrong or un-American about a state seeking to secede from the Union.

For the Want of a Horseshoe Nail - The Glittering Eye asks a neighbor about the state of his business and uses the answer to speculate about the state of the economy. Has the failure to judge appreciate significant risks given way to being overly risk averse?

Honing our arguments - Bookworm Room explains why she might start trolling for trolls. :-)

Throwing Green Fuel On An Economic Fire - Wolf Howling comments on the recent EPA decision to declare carbon dioxide a "greenhouse" gas. It turns out that it's not just fat people who contribute to global warming, but all of us who breathe who do!

Preoccupied with occupation - In my post I argue that the focus of much of the world on Israeli "occupation" is misguided and actually makes peace in the Middle East less likely.

This week I nominated Elder of Ziyon's More of those "civilians" killed in Gaza (UPDATED) for my non-council entry. The Elder has actually gone to Hamas affiliated websites and found which supposed "civilians" killed by Israel during Operation Cast Lead are now being claimed as martyrs by Hamas. Today the NY Times reports that Israel's army has concluded that it acted within the dictates of international law.

Gaza health officials said more than 1,300 Palestinians died during the war, but Israel disputes Palestinian claims that most of them were noncombatants. By the Israeli military's count, 1,166 people were killed, of whom 295 were noncombatants, 709 were what it called Hamas terrorist operatives and 162 were men whose affiliations remain unidentified.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza put the number of dead at 1,417: 926 civilians, 236 combatants and 255 police officers. Israel says that about 400 Gazans die of natural causes every month, possibly accounting for the discrepancy in numbers.

Elder of Ziyon, rather than taking the PCHR reports at face value, has cast serious doubts as to their veracity.

Of course the NY Times report concludes with a statement from Human Rights Watch, which, despite its recent report condemning Hamas, remains committed to preventing Israel from defending itself.

In other news, Hamas launched no investigation into its continued firing of rockets at Israeli civilians. This hasn't particularly bothered any human rights group.

Read. Enjoy. Be informed.

watcher's council.