Council Winners
Once again, I'm late with this, but another round of Watchers Council winners has been chosen.
I'm pleased to see the winner within the council was The "Happy Warrior" Is Weeping In His Grave by Right Wing Nut House. It might surprise you to see the title of the blog and learn that the post is a heartfelt paean to the hero of his youth, Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. But then, left-to-right migrations were underway in America long before 9/11 created a big class of "Left Behinds."
And Humphrey was one of the good guys that a politician of any party could appreciate, an essentially decent and basically honest man who was screwed out of the presidency twice by his own people -- first by the Kennedys' money and dirty tricks, then by Johnson's abandonment of his veep. He was the Henry Clay of his generation, and as RWNH points out, he deserves his place in the national pantheon for his bravery in leading the Democratic Party's break with segregation:
Second prize went to Yours truly.
Outside ther council, the prize went to How Does the Modern World Look When You Have Done Nothing To Help Create It, and Innovation Is a Threat To Cherished Beliefs?, by Dinocrat.
I voted for this one. The topic is something Thomas Friedman also has been harping on recently: The utter intellectual paralysis of the modern Islamic world. Dinocrat collects a few bland phrases, easily available on the Web, that are astonishing in their impact:
[Emphasis added]
As many commentators have pointed out, reactions like burning embassies because of Danish cartoons are signs of a culture with a severe inferiority complex.
I'm pleased to see the winner within the council was The "Happy Warrior" Is Weeping In His Grave by Right Wing Nut House. It might surprise you to see the title of the blog and learn that the post is a heartfelt paean to the hero of his youth, Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. But then, left-to-right migrations were underway in America long before 9/11 created a big class of "Left Behinds."
And Humphrey was one of the good guys that a politician of any party could appreciate, an essentially decent and basically honest man who was screwed out of the presidency twice by his own people -- first by the Kennedys' money and dirty tricks, then by Johnson's abandonment of his veep. He was the Henry Clay of his generation, and as RWNH points out, he deserves his place in the national pantheon for his bravery in leading the Democratic Party's break with segregation:
"To those who say that this civil rights program is an infringement on states’ rights, I say this, that the time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadows of states’ rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.”
Second prize went to Yours truly.
Outside ther council, the prize went to How Does the Modern World Look When You Have Done Nothing To Help Create It, and Innovation Is a Threat To Cherished Beliefs?, by Dinocrat.
I voted for this one. The topic is something Thomas Friedman also has been harping on recently: The utter intellectual paralysis of the modern Islamic world. Dinocrat collects a few bland phrases, easily available on the Web, that are astonishing in their impact:
The Saudi Patent Regulations of 1989 established a patent registration system, covering any new article, methods of manufacture (including improvements in either of them) and product patents. In 1996, the Saudi Patent Office granted its first patents since its establishment in 1990.
[Emphasis added]
As many commentators have pointed out, reactions like burning embassies because of Danish cartoons are signs of a culture with a severe inferiority complex.
