Get Your Red-Hot Council Winners Right Here

Rick Moran won in a walk on this week’s voting for his post on Cindy Sheehan. As he says in his summation,

Sophocles rightly said “Only the dead are free from pain.” For Cindy Sheehan, there will come a time when she prays for the playwright’s wisdom to overtake her folly.

To which I would add, the best thing we could do for our moral well-being is to call a moratorium on discussions of this addled and desperate woman. To continue to pay attention to her is to play into the hands of her keepers and the MSM, both of whom use her to evil ends. It never behooves us to give evil attention unless we’re going to confront and end it. She has become malice personified and we take note of her at our own risk.

Or are we addicted to watching her? Have we fallen under the spell of her handlers now and must discuss her behavior whether we want to or not? In the years to come, cultural analysts will not be looking at the lady, they will be peering through the microscope at us, wondering what drove our intense focus on her. I wonder what conclusion they will come to?

The Lunatic Fringe, second place winner, is Doctor Sanity’s view of a condition called “acquired narcissism”:

People with any type of narcissism believe their feelings and beliefs should be adopted by the world in general--if not voluntarily, then they are prepared to use violence. They believe that their needs are the center of everyone's universe. When confronted by reality, they become enraged and frustrated that it won't conform to their will. It makes them want to destroy reality. Like petulant children, they want what they want when they want it or they'll threaten to do something horrible to you.

Sounds like the abusive men I used to work with during my years counseling battered women. We called them “emotional terrorists” back then. Seems like they passed their lessons on to the political realm.

In the non-council posts, Junkyard Blog exposes former President Clinton’s execrable behavior in attacking President Bush — not to mention William Jefferson's attack on reality — by claiming Bush went into Iraq alone.

JB assesses this turn on Bush as evidence that Clinton has his finger in the wind and is taking the opportunity while he has it:

... Clinton is nothing if not an opportunist. He is driving a knife into Bush's back to finish him off and benefit himself. He senses some personal and political profit in renouncing everything he has said over the past ten years regarding Iraq to adopt a line that is 180 degrees out of sync. Recall that Clinton is perhaps the most cautious President we have ever had. He never made a move without consulting polls, and after the failure of HillaryCare he never introduced initiatives more daring than the V-Chip and school uniforms. Clinton is not by nature a bold man; the damage done to Bush after Katrina signals that he sees an opportunity and is willing to seize it.

Clinton’s mendacity is breath-taking. If politicians didn’t already have the lowest of low reputations, Clinton would have driven them to the bottom of the pond with this latest maneuvering. What a shameless human being he is.

Second place was split between Ace of Spades HQ and BlameBush!
The former says most succinctly what we have asserted here at Gates:

You can either be advocates and agents of change or you can be disinterested reporters of news. You're entitled to do either, but you cannot claim to be doing both simultaneously. The unexamined lie at the heart of journalism is that these two contradictory missions can be reconciled through the "professionalism" learned at j-school.

The latter points out the sudden turnabout on the part of the Left wing, some of them becoming newly converted chicken hawks when it comes to sending troops into the aftermath of Katrina. Here’s his money quote:

Don't get me wrong. I love these progressive icons as much as abortion itself. Perhaps this sudden spurt of fascism is just a temporary case of insanity, like when the entire political left became flag-waving jingoists for about 10 minutes after 9/11. Michael Moore helped us get through our patriotic dementia, and were back to sneering at the Stars & Stripes before Bush could finish milking his Pet Goat.

What a wonderful summation! “I love these progressive icons as much as abortion itself.” That, fellow readers, is genius.

Meanwhile, back at the fort, The Watcher is keeping an eye on things. Go see all the offerings. While you’re there, give him a big gratias for all this work.