Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Council Winners

Watchers Council winners for the week of March 16 have been posted.

First place within the council went to Serving While Republican by Eternity Road.

Votes also went to What Are Europe's Options? by Joshuapundit, I Disagree by Rhymes With Right, The "Burqini" -- Shaken and Stirred by Big Lizards, and Persistent Libels by Soccer Dad.

Outside the council, the winner was Tenured Deceit by Sigmund, Carl and Alfred.

Votes also went to Tips For New Teachers at Right Wing Nation; Obama: "Nobody Is Suffering More Than the Palestinian People" at Ace of Spades HQ; How the Left Gets It All Wrong at Chicago Boyz; and Sestak CAIRs by In Context.

Also, I neglected to post the winners for the week of March 9.

The winner was Between Iraq and a Hard Place -- Why We Went, How It Got So Screwed Up and Where It's Going -- Part 2 by Joshuapundit, who is doing the good work of trying to see the thing comprehensively while it is underway, and to explain that vision.

Second place went to Death of a Titan by Right Wing Nut House, an eloquent tribute to Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., whose name you might not expect to see at the head of a long and respectful post on a site that has "right wing" in its header (even if with tongue in cheek).

But the rise to importance of the mixed-heritage Neo-Cons in the American landscape has brought a great deal of good old liberal DNA over to the right, and I think Rick appreciates Schlesinger for qualities that used to characterize the old true-hearted liberals but now are as often found on the other side:

Schlesinger may have been a liberal’s liberal. But that didn’t stop him from challenging political correctness nor the dominant New Left ideas regarding foreign policy and America’s role in the world. Not only a staunch anti-Communist, Schlesinger was an internationalist in the traditional sense. He saw America’s mission as bringing freedom to the world wherever possible while working with international institutions like the United Nations to solve conflicts. While his faith in the UN may have been misplaced, he never lost sight of American interests and the need to defend them.

Where he parted company with the new left was in some of their wackier ideas regarding social policy. He was a vociferous critic of multiculturalism, specifically “Afro-centrism” that he at one time compared to the Klan ....

As for me, well, for a historian, Schlesinger was a hell of a writer.

Also getting votes were Green Thinking from the Red Planet by Soccer Dad, You Ain't Never Had a Friend Like Me by Bookworm Room, and Who Were the Etruscans?, an interesting discussion of a mystery in historical linguistics by The Glittering Eye.


Outside the Council, the top vote-getter was the parodic Uncomfortable Questions: Was the Death Star Attack an Inside Job? by Websurdity.

Also getting votes were Iraq Trip Report by Bing West at Small Wars Journal; 10 Institutions That Ruin the World -- #1 by Kerplunk; Free Speech, Political Identity, and the Post-Coulter Debate at Protein Wisdom; Swift Boating the Swift Boaters at The QandO Blog; and What Happened To Our Political Discourse? at Rants and Raves.

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