The Council Speaks and Moves On

First Place in the Watcher’s Council:
Right Wing Nuthouse is an excellent essayist. He combines and synthesizes themes in a way that makes his subjects fresh and interesting. This example includes Clio, Scotty, and Neil Armstrong. And yes, he makes them all fit.

As we look back and remember both Star Trek and the moon landing, it may be well to also remember the dreams and aspirations of today’s children. What kind of technological future are we going to leave them? Will it be a nightmare future where the very few enjoy the benefits of the best that the human mind can dream? Or will it be a future where, like the world of Star Trek, most can share in the magic and the miracles and the unlimited potential of the human spirit realized through our dreams of what can be accomplished when we are inspired by the better angels of our nature.

It no doubt depends on what we, like those pioneers at NASA, are wiling to sacrifice.

Second place was occupied by Glittering Eye in a thoughtful response to the questions raised by Tancredo’s Option. Here is the Eye as he succinctly outlines the possible American reactions to a nuclear event:

Jacksonians will demand a nuclear response. Wilsonians and Jeffersonians will maintain a horrified silence. Hamiltonians will worry which will be worse for business, responding or not responding.

In the non-Council winner’s place is a brilliant piece by Hog on Ice. And this is not just your ordinary call for sexual abstinence, this is the real thing, all orifices included:

Everybody tells me I'm uptight and self-righteous when I say sex outside of marriage is wrong and dangerous, but the facts are on my side. Extramarital sex often has devastating consequences, and the more you screw around, the worse the consequences are for you and the people around you. Disease is just one consequence, but the others are bad, too. Promiscuity leads to divorce, unwanted pregnancies, abortions, and violence. Jails are full of people whose violence can be traced back to jealousy or infidelity.

Required for your kid if he or she is over the age of thirteen. Though for some it may be too late by then.

The Belmont Club’s And Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep placed second. Here’s what he says about the litterati’s attempts to dismiss the idea of “world-wide terrorism”:

Yet on one limited point the BBC's producers may be right. There probably isn't a single controlling terrorist network in the world today; but multiple ones each with their own specific goals who may maintain links with each other, just as the multiple totalitarian movements in the 1930s formed an axis whenever it suited them. But the multiplicity of diseases does not invalidate the notion of disease.

I would say the man is a national treasure but unfortunately he belongs to Australia. Well, at least he went to school here. Amazing to think that Harvard didn’t ruin him. Let us say a small prayer for large miracles. Of which Wretchard is one.

As they say, read the whole thing. And then hit the “donate” button. In fact, it’s a cute little button.

Always, thanks to the Watcher. He da man. Over there you’ll find

• information on Judge Roberts that you didn’t know,
  
• an essay on a teacher who got fired for hanging the President’s picture in her classroom,
  
• a tart dismissal of another school district that wants to use gummint funds to feed everybody,
  
• and a photo of the London bombers on a rafting trip.
  
• There’s also an intensely good review of a book I read last year — thanks to Wallo’s World for bringing it up again
  
• and the inimitable Dr. Sanity’s take on Wretchard’s essay.

Did you know she’s moved up to Playful Primate in the Ecosystem? Way to go, Doc!