The Council’s Cornucopia

Joining the Council of Weasel Watchers was one of the best decisions I made in 2005. I’ve learned a lot from a huge variety of posts I’d not have seen otherwise, and it’s been educational trying to understand what “clicks” for the majority of the council — what components go in to making a first place winner. I’ve been in that position a few times and sometimes I understand the appeal of one of my posts. This one surprised me, though. It’s a personal reminiscence and those aren’t particularly appealing in a milieu mostly devoted to current events. Perhaps it was the timelessness of Christmases past — maybe it appealed to people for the same reason we love Dylan Thomas’ “ A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” For myself, I’ve always wished I’d written the last two lines in that story. Anyway, I’m grateful for the nod from the Watchers. That was a hard story to tell and the vote was a kind of balm.

The Suicidal Pursuit of Perfection took second place. Shrinkwrapped growing strength in making metaphorical and analogical connections between ideas and events is enthralling to watch. Speaking of those who seek an absolute perfection which can never be attained, he says:

When their pursuit of perfection, in themselves and others, fails, as it inevitably must, they are prone to terribly self-destructive despair and depression. It is important to note that the despair has always been lurking; it is held at bay by short term success in using external buttresses to defend their fragile self-esteem. As long as they are seen as smarter, or more ethical, or more correct, or more powerful; as long as they have an audience, people who will look up to them, they can maintain their image of themselves as better than others. It is when such maneuvers fail that they are prone to despair.

The opportunistic Democrats need to hold onto their power; they need the fawning MSM elites to confirm their conviction that they are smarter and better than their opponents, and they are often willing to do anything to regain that power, even if it damages their country and harms other people.

The first “political” psychoanalyst I remember reading was Karen Horney’s work from the 1940’s. Shrinkwrapped is coming ’round the bend and moving up on her.

In the non-Council posts, the first and second places also went to psychologically-oriented posts. Sigmund, Carl and Alfred in The New, Updated Alice in Wonderland

	In what has to be one of the most hypocritical and spectacular displays of chutzpah, Palestinian writer Lucy Nusseibeh write in the Daily Star that the Israelis must address media fed misconceptions of Palestinians. In her moronic piece, she takes offense that some innocuous remarks may have been 'misunderstood'.
	Nowhere does she address the rabid hatred, anti-Semitism propensity for violence seen on the nightly news. Nowhere does she address the blatant remarks of hatred, taught in schools, preached from mosques. Nowhere does she address the public statements of Hamas and Jihad, extolling the violent 'liberation' and 'rivers of blood', nor does she address the incessant broadcast on Palestinian Authority TV of vile, hateful programming. She carefully paints an image of the Palestinian as victim, once more (see this, for a further explanation). She shakes her head and asks, 'Can't we all get along?'
	The only reason we just can't get along is because of the hatred- Arab and Muslim hatred, plain and simple. See MEMRI, MEMRITV and PMW, to hear and see it, in their own words. Ask yourselves why our media refuses to report on what is being said about Americans, Jews and Christians. If you think you have a reason to distrust the MSM now, spend a few minutes on those sites.

Meanwhile, One Cosmos has the most entertaining entomological view of the current goings-on that you’re likely to see:

	Some political behavior is just so primitive that human psychology falls short of explaining it. Instead, a keen-eyed psychologist has to rely on other sciences, like, oh, I don't know, entomology.
	Ever notice how ants, in their busy peregrinations, are constantly rushing up to each other and bumping heads? It turns out that it's not just to exchange pleasantries with one another, but to feed one another. If one ant is well fed and the other one hungry, the former will produce a drop from its mouth that the other one gratefully gobbles down.
	Apparently, ants have what is known as a "social stomach" in addition to a personal stomach. Until food passes into the personal stomach and becomes the private property of said ant, any ant can stake a claim to it. They have even done experiments on this, for example, feeding a few ants honey that has been colored with a blue-tinted dye. Soon enough, all of the ants in the community will show a blue tint in their abdomen.
	This is pretty much how the left/liberal world works. It is filled with media ants, Hollywood ants, academic ants, singing ants, judicial ants, educational establishment ants, and lastly, political ants who all run around randomly bumping their heads together, so that they're constantly regurgitating little half-digested bits of information and feeding them to one another. Pretty soon, just like the ants, they're all the same color.

One Cosmos then proceeds to explain how the whole blue world can fall into line with whatever current Bush Derangement Rantings are making the circuit in this Blue Bubble. Fascinating. You knew they did this stuff, you just didn’t know how the rants got disseminated. Now you do, thanks to One Cosmos.

For the whole deal, go visit The Watcher’s post. There’s some intriguing stuff, including encouraging news about Iraq from America’s Son.