Council Winners
Dagnabit. I'm two weeks behind on council winners. Maybe I'll backdate this.
Here are the winners from March 17.
First place within the council went to King Solomon and the Roe-Men, by Gates of Vienna, which is a worthy winner. I've seen a number of attempts by bloggers to wrap their minds around this boggling, but I suppose inevitable, development in the abortion lunacy. I think Dymphna's is about the most cogent:
First place outside the council went to this entry in Crippen Diaries, a site I am unfamiliar with which bills itself as "a candid look at health care," in Britain, and which features, I must warn you, a gorge-raising picture or two. It is splendidly written, though.
Here are this week's winners.
My vote was one of the ones that picked the winner in the council. The post was Autum Ashante: Child Prodigy Or Something Else? by The Education Wonks, based on this news report:
The EWs found more than one way to look at this story, and more than one thought to take away from it. That, if nothing else, sets them apart from the usual blog post.
Come to think of it, I voted for both winners this week. First place outside the council went to What Did You Do in the Great Gulf War II, Grandpa?
Florida Cracker. She finds, and preserves one of the thousands of stories that might make it into one hometown paper, but never onto a national news wire.
Read it all. And wonder whether it's quite fair, even if it is standard journalism, that one hate-filled "insurgent" can do something that will make every headline in every home around the world, but Swabbie Anthony Gonzales was unknown to you before you read this.
(Florida Cracker and I once cooperated, briefly, on the story of doctored Condi Rice photos in the media).
Here are the winners from March 17.
First place within the council went to King Solomon and the Roe-Men, by Gates of Vienna, which is a worthy winner. I've seen a number of attempts by bloggers to wrap their minds around this boggling, but I suppose inevitable, development in the abortion lunacy. I think Dymphna's is about the most cogent:
March 9, 2006. The opening volley was fired across the bow of NOW by the National Center for Men. That was the day they filed a suit in a U. S. District Court in Michigan —
on behalf of a man’s right to make reproductive choice, to decline fatherhood in the event of an unintended pregnancy The Center for Men has trademarked this suit as “Roe vs. Wade for Men” and they are filing on behalf of Michael Dubay, of Saginaw, Michigan.
Mr. Dubay is being ordered to pay child support for a small human being he never intended to bring into the world, and whose existence — he was assured by his former girlfriend — could never materialize since his partner was unable to bear children. Mr. Dubay also claims that his girlfriend knew full well that he did not choose to have children.
First place outside the council went to this entry in Crippen Diaries, a site I am unfamiliar with which bills itself as "a candid look at health care," in Britain, and which features, I must warn you, a gorge-raising picture or two. It is splendidly written, though.
Here are this week's winners.
My vote was one of the ones that picked the winner in the council. The post was Autum Ashante: Child Prodigy Or Something Else? by The Education Wonks, based on this news report:
A 7-year-old prodigy unleashed a firestorm when she recited a poem she wrote comparing Christopher Columbus and Charles Darwin to "pirates" and "vampires" who robbed blacks of their identities and human rights.
Hundreds of parents of Peekskill middle- and high-school students received a recorded phone message last week apologizing for little Autum Ashante's poem, titled "White Nationalism Put U in Bondage."
"Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse," the aspiring actress and poet wrote. "They took the gold, the wisdom and all the storytellers. They took the black women, with the black man weak. Made to watch as they changed the paradigm of our village.
"Yeah white nationalism is what put you in bondage. Pirates and vampires like Columbus, Morgan and Darwin."
The EWs found more than one way to look at this story, and more than one thought to take away from it. That, if nothing else, sets them apart from the usual blog post.
Come to think of it, I voted for both winners this week. First place outside the council went to What Did You Do in the Great Gulf War II, Grandpa?
Florida Cracker. She finds, and preserves one of the thousands of stories that might make it into one hometown paper, but never onto a national news wire.
Gonzales was an aircraft mechanic on a Marine base in Hawaii on Sept 11, 2001. When all the Marines left for war, Gonzales was left behind with a bunch of engines, he recalled.
“I realized I didn’t join the Navy to do this. [I thought] ‘I’ve got to get over there.’”
He switched rates, became a dog handler and eventually arrived in Atsugi [Japan]. When the kennel master asked for volunteers to augment Army dog handlers in the Middle East, he was the first to raise his hand.
“I thought, ‘If I can go out there and find one IED (improvised explosive device) that’s maybe 20 lives to save.’ ”
Read it all. And wonder whether it's quite fair, even if it is standard journalism, that one hate-filled "insurgent" can do something that will make every headline in every home around the world, but Swabbie Anthony Gonzales was unknown to you before you read this.
(Florida Cracker and I once cooperated, briefly, on the story of doctored Condi Rice photos in the media).
