I'm so far behind on Watchers Council business that I'm getting lapped by a week. Before anything else though - I'd be remiss in not alerting you to the announcement that Debbie Hamilton of Right Truth is the newest member of the Watchers Council. In addition to having posts like this and this she's also a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast and speaks French. So European cultural and demographic trends: probably not a fan.

Now for the top posts from last week's spontaneous incompetence roundup. The top Council post was - by an overwhelming margin - Colossus of Rhodey's acerbic post about the academic results of self-esteem boosterism:

Why are these kids in "honors" classes? One way to get in is to have mom or dad merely complain about it. You’ll get in an "honors" class, no problem. Grades? Test scores? Not a problem. The other reason there are kids who don’t belong in "honors" classes is because of what Shirley wrote – we don’t "want to hurt anyone’s feelings." Y’see, those that aren’t in "honors" classes might feel … "left out." "Stigmatized." It’ll "hurt their self-esteem." Then, there’s that tried and true belief (/sarcasm) that the real honors students might serve to "lift up" those who are not actual "honors" students in those "honors" classes. Yeah, uh-huh. In actuality, the typically worse behavior of non-"honors" students usually "rubs off" on the "honors" students.

The next two most posts were JoshuaPundit's observations about incompetence in Iran and The Provocateur's outline of incompetence on the economy. The top non-Council post was Serendipitous Altruism's account of how fundamental Western values persist among NATO forces in Afghanistan despite global tension and division. Fighting together not to be skinned alive by savages seems to puts disputes over genetically modified bananas into perspective.

Previously and references behind the jump...