Each week, in a contest for the week’s best post, each member of the Watchers Council nominates one of their own posts and a second from outside the Council for consideration by other council members. The results for last week’s submissions got posted at the end of the week, back before centrist post-partisan Democrats nationalized 1/6th of the US economy without a single Republican vote.
Steyn insists that the legislation is part and parcel of a long-term project to change the American relationship – still between free citizen and representative government – into one of helpless dependent and overbearing state. Since he’s more or less totally right you’ll want to check out the winning Council post from Wolf Howling, which describes another aspect of that project:
When it comes to the text books used by public schools throughout the U.S., the Texas School Board wields vast influence. Approximately 47 other states use the textbooks approved by the Texas School Board. This year, the Texas School Board made revisions to books used in social studies and history – revisions that will effect texts in these subjects for approximately a decade. The School Board made some changes that accurately reflect history as well as refused make changes that would have rewritten history. Further, they refused to include in the curriculum a section holding that institutionalized racism continues to be a major problem in America. A progressive journalist for the AP, Ms. April Castro, is up in arms over all of this.
In the same vein see The Razor on The United States of Venezuela, which was one of the two posts tied for the Council runner up slot. The title kind of gives away the gist.
The other Council runner up post was from American Digest, providing some recent context for the inevitable failure of utopian politics. This was a theme that got endless play on MR during the election and afterward: Obama’s utopian populism will stumble over and over again, and he’ll need scapegoat after scapegoat if he’s going to keep pursuing radical change. I really wish I’d had the foresight to sarcastically put the phrase “fat cat bankers” in his mouth during the election. Think how prescient that would look right now. Although in fairness to me I couldn’t have expected Modern Pericles to end up sounding like a Looney Tunes character.
Speaking of scapegoating, the top non-Council post and the runner up post were both about how Obama is setting up Israel to take the fall for his naive Middle East ambitions. Sure it’s an unseemly and dishonorable attack on a long-time US ally. But Hillary says it’s paying off and she’s right. Plus what’s a trifling thing like “American national honor” to a White House that’s busy refashioning America?
As always the list of full submissions is after the jump. Also as always here’s something cute – in this case a ticklish koala – to ease you into the less than optimistic torrent of news and analysis.
Council Submissions
* Wolf Howling – AP Goes APE Over Texas School Book Changes
* Mere Rhetoric – Confirmed: Anti-Israel Jewish Groups Scapegoat Israel For Obama’s Manufactured Crisis
* The Razor – The United States of Venezuela
* Rhymes With Right – Why Is This Not A Major National Story?
* The Colossus of Rhodey – On the Texas textbook controversy
* The Provocateur – The Untold Story of Non Profit Hospitals
* Right Truth – Violence Against Israel, Blame It On Obama, Biden, and Clinton
* Bookworm Room – God and Gaia; or, the difference between a religion that serves man and one that serves Nature
* The Glittering Eye – What Next?
* Joshuapundit – The Prince And The FOX
* American Digest – The Plague of Locusts Presidency
Non-Council Submissions
* David Thompson – But Left Equals Virtue . . . (Submitted by: Wolf Howling)
* John Noonan / Weekly Standard Blogs – Obama Nominates Missile Defense Critic to Key White House Spot (Submitted by: Mere Rhetoric)
* Pajamas Media – Ruben Navarrette Jr – It’s Time for Republicans to Up Their Game (Submitted by: The Razor)
* Riehl World View – Isn’t It Time To Euthanize Reid’s Wife? (Submitted by: Rhymes with Right)
* The Evolutionary Review – On the Origins of Comics: New York Double-take (Submitted by: The Colossus of Rhodey)
* Chicago Tribune/John Kass – For Outfit’s Coffee Klaatsch (Submitted by: the Provocateur)
* The Lunatic’s Asylum – Reason # 11,206 Why Your President is an Asshole… (Submitted by: Right Truth)
* Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic Monthly Blog – Andrew Sullivan Revises History (Again) (Submitted by: Bookworm Room)
* Walter Russell Mead’s Blog-The American Interest – Is this Lobby different from all others? (Submitted by: The Glittering Eye)
* Melanie Phillips – The Obama Intifada (Submitted by: JoshuaPundit)
* The New Ledger – Obamacare’s Two Americas (Submitted by: American Digest)
* Pillage Idiot Retirement – Joe Biden works his magic in the Middle East (Submitted by: The Watcher)
References:
* Watcher Council Submissions March 17, 2010 [Watcher Of Weasels]
* The Council has Spoken 031910 [Watcher Of Weasels]
* Happy Dependence Day! [Steyn / NRO Corner]
* AP Goes APE Over Texas School Book Changes [Wolf Howling]
* The United States of Venezuela [The Razor]
* The Plague of Locusts Presidency [American Digest]
* The Paranoid Style in The Left’s Anti-Palin Viciousness [Mere Rhetoric]
* Pro-Obama Jewish Activist: Jews Only Vote For Anti-Israel Democrats Because Evangelicals Force Them To Or Something [Mere Rhetoric]
* Old Political Terrorists: “Financial Companies.” New Political Terrorists: “ObamaCare Skeptics.” [Mere Rhetoric]
* Is This Lobby Different From All Others? [Walter Russell Mead]
* The Obama intifada? [Melanie Phillips]
* Hillary Gloats: Slapping Around Israel “Is Paying Off” [Mere Rhetoric]
* Obama Successfully Blackmails Netanyahu Into Releasing Palestinian Terrorists, Easing Up On Iran’s Hamas Army [Mere Rhetoric]
Related Mere Rhetoric Categories:
* Democratic Politics
* Liberals Unhinged
*American Politics
