I'm so far behind it's almost embarrassing to link to the winners from two Fridays ago. But since the posts lend themselves to academic pretension - and since I've heard that's the way to build an ethos of sophistication - it'd be a waste to not blog them.

Invoking psychoanalysis is always a risky prospect: the vapid "visualize success" introspection of airport psychoanalysis has pretty much destroyed the space for good psychoanalytic theory. That's unfortunate because there are real costs to letting people say vicious things out loud, and - outside of muddy unspoken Anglo circumspection - it's tough to explain why that is without psychoanalysis. But non-Council winner Ron Rosenbaum does his best:

Hitler made efforts to conceal the purpose of the death camps and distanced himself from them, avoided written as opposed to oral orders for the Final Solution. Not because he felt any shame about them, but because he felt knowledge of the death camps might be counter-productive to the Nazis political goals. Hamas makes no effort to conceal the fact that it wants to kill Jewish civilians, not just combatants, but women and children-all Jews (it's in the charter, remember) -- because Hamas feels this will make them more popular.

Normally an ideology as straightforwardly disgusting as Hamas's would get weeded out via global criticism and economic pressure. But - as non-Council runner up Natan Sharansky points out - Hamas has the UN to shield them from international censure and its consequences. And if the UN ever did cut them off - which won't ever happen - Hamas could always rely on their intricate tunnel system - described at length by Council runner up Joshua Pundit - to keep them in business. Not that it'll matter by 11am EST today.

Speaking of which: Council winner The Razor is not hopeful about the US medical system:

There isn't a single problem within the medical system in America; there are more than one. Irresponsible patients who refuse to leave a doctor's office without a prescription for their common colds or viral infections. Others who gamble with their own health care by avoiding the expense of insurance only to end up seriously ill in the hospital. A legal system that demands perfection from doctors and a society that refuses to bear the burden of that level of care. Huge bureaucracies shuffling paper in independent and loosely regulated insurance companies, each with its own unique codes for procedures and treatments. Electronic medical records systems that cannot communicate with each other let alone their own billing modules. The misapplication of HIPAA by health care professionals who don't understand it. A society that treats medical care like any other business yet blanches when medical care providers act like one. Doctors who receive no formal training in the business of medicine. The grey area separating public from private health care.

Nothing that a little Hope can't solve.

References:
* Of War and Healing [Watcher Of Weasels]
* Some Differences Between Hamas and the Nazi Party [Rosenbaum / PJM]
* How the U.N. Perpetuates the 'Refugee' Problem [Sharansky / WSJ]
* It's Hard Out There For A ( Hamas) Pimp [Joshua Pundit]
* Guardian Report About Obama's Hamas Talks Has An At-Best Coincidental Relationship To Reality [MR]
* 'Physician Shortage' and the Free Market [The Razor]

Previously:
* Watchers Council Results - Turns Out, You Really Can Say Just About Anything
* Watchers Council Results - When I Was Your Age Being Wrong Actually Meant Something
* Watchers Council Results - Could It Possibly Be That Operation Cast Lead Is Justified?