This week’s Watchers Council submissions have been posted, with the vote to come over the next few days. A ton of the posts focused on Gatesgate, which is good because it gives me a chance to finally blog something about it. On the downside I’m not sure what I have to contribute other than, yes, Gates was obviously as ass, and no, that’s not something the police get to arrest you for. They certainly don’t get to arrest you for it if you’re in your own home. The Colossus of Rhodey more or less seemed to agree, adding that these kinds of incidents depress police recruitment.
None of which is a defense of Obama’s reflexive “suck up to the base in the guise of strutting confidence” stunt. In the aftermath, Right Truth anticipated how The One’s beer diplomacy would end with a sonorous apologia for Gates and an implicit attack on Crowley. Wolf Holwing sounded genuinely optimistic though, suggesting that reactions to Obama’s gaffe suggest we really are entering a post-racial age. JoshuaPundit was significantly more excised, tracing the institutional credibility that Gates had and still has by virtue of identity politics.
Domestic expert analysis came in for criticism across a range of issues. Soccer Dad unpacked the think tank apologias for Obama’s first six months. Rhymes With Right outlined how the multiculturalist emphasis on “world cultures” undermines sound education in Texas primary schools. And The Glittering Eye took apart some health care numbers being peddled by WaPo.
Also on the health care front, Bookworm Room penned a heartfelt attack on the health rationing that would mobilize government power in the interest of encouraging the elderly to “abandon the will to live.” How much can be done about it is still an open question of course: liberals own Congress and, as The Razor pointed out, are much better at waging lawfare than are conservatives.
My own post was the one about the One Jerusalem conference call with George Gilder, which argued that Israel is hated as much because of where it succeeds – technological innovation, etc – and not because of the fantasized atrocities peddled by anti-Israel partisans.
UPDATE: I missed The Provocateur’s entry, a definitive breakdown of the first 500 pages of the health care bill.
References and previously after the jump…
References:
* Chavez Style Healthcare: Coming to a Hospital Near You [Watcher Of Weasels]
* Common sense on the Gates arrest [Colossus Of Rhodey]
* Advice to Sergeant Jim Crowley [Right Truth]
* Gates & The Politics of Race [Wolf Howling]
* Bigotry In Basic Black [JoshuaPundit]
* It’s the speeches, stupid [Soccer Dad]
* Time To Fix The Texas Social Studies Curriculum [Rhymes With right]
* Is Technology Responsible for Rising Healthcare Costs? [The Glittering Eye]
* “Make me well” *UPDATED* [Bookworm Room]
* Waging Lawfare: A Call to Arms [The Razor]
* One Jerusalem Conference Call With George Gilder: Israel Is The “Crucial Battlefield For Capitalism In The World” [MR]
Previously:
* Watchers Council Nominations – Obama’s Cairo Speech Sure Was Something
* Watchers Council Nominations – Bad Advice Might Not Make The Best Basis For Policy
* Watchers Council Nominations – Conspiracy Theories On The Right, Ignoring Reality On The Left
