The Council Has Spoken! Our Watcher’s Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“You know why there’s a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one.” – Rush Limbaugh

““Guns are our friends because in a country without guns, I’m what’s known as “prey.” All females are.” “ – Ann Coulter

“[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation (where) the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” – James Madison

This weeks’ winning essay, Stately McDaniel Manor’s I Carry A Handgun, Because.. is a real treat, a beautifully written essay that explains exactly why the author chooses being armed as opposed to the alternative! Here’s a slice to whet your appetite for the entire feast:

I do not advertise the fact that I carry a concealed handgun, or that I am an instructor. However, on the occasions when this comes up, people are often amazed. Not because I am a diminutive wisp of a fellow–I’m anything but, and if I do say so myself, and I do, I’m roguishly masculine–but because I am an English teacher and singer, and my default facial expression is a smile. The resulting conversation usually goes like this:

Friend:  “Really? You carry a gun?”

Me:  “Yup.”

Friend: “Where?”

Me:  “Everywhere.”

Friend: “Everywhere?!”

Me: “I carry a spear gun in the shower.”

Friend:  “No!” The horror and surprise in their eyes is delightful to see.

Me:  “No; but everywhere else.”

Friend:  “Why?”

I usually hit on a few of the high points, issues of logic, common sense, gentle persuasion enabling those that already know me to accept a side of me previously unimagined.. Employing my most frequently used weapon–the keyboard–I’ll endeavor to explain.

I CARRY A HANDGUN BECAUSE:
* Evil exists and may confront anyone at any time and any place.
* I believe God exists and expects me to protect those that can’t protect themselves.
* Self-defense is a God-given, natural, unalienable right.

* There is no gift so precious as God’s gift of life.

* To fail to protect God’s greatest gift is inexcusable.

* My life is worth far more to me, those that love me, and to a just society than the lives of vicious criminals and terrorists.

* The lives of the innocent—friend or stranger—are worth far more to me and to a just society than the lives of vicious criminals and terrorists.

* Three times in my life I have raised my right hand and sworn a solemn oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.  I have never betrayed those oaths and never will.

* By carrying my handgun, I honor the foresight and wisdom of the Founders in writing the Second Amendment.

* The Constitution is only paper and ink, a statement of principals and intentions. When the will wavers and when some wish to change, ignore or destroy those principals and intentions for light and transient reasons, only the threat and, if necessary, the application of the force of arms, will suffice to preserve liberty.

* A handgun is the most convenient, usual and effective means of self-defense.

* Going armed reinforces and upholds the Social Contract.

* An armed society is a polite society.

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was noted Middle East commentatorRaymond Ibrahim with Is Islam Violent? Forget the Koran, Let’s Talk About Islam’s PROVEN Historical Record submitted by Joshuapundit. While he left out part of the story (the Indian Genocide during the Muslim conquest alone is estimated at between 1 and 20 million people), the basic point is fairly obvious.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 2/3 votes!–Stately McDaniel Manor – I Carry A Handgun, Because..
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes –Joshuapundit–Hostages, Ransoms, Iran, and Israel – Obama Lies Again
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –VA Right! – McClatchy Report Poll Has Hillary +15 – Polls 50% Democrats and Only 38% Republicans – Unbelievable!
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Bookworm Room – The fatuous concerns of those 50 GOP “national security experts” challenging Trump
• Fourth place with 2/3 votes –Puma By Design – Hillary Clinton to Sycophantic Journalists When Asked About Black Friends: “They’ve tried to expand my musical tastes.”
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote –The Glittering Eye –We Are The Rich

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 1 2/3 votes!– Raymond Ibrahim – Is Islam Violent? Forget the Koran, Let’s Talk About Islam’s PROVEN Historical Record submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Moon Of Alabama – The Larger Context Of The Jihadi Attack On Aleppo submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Roger L. Simon/PJ Media –A HIllary Clinton Presidency Would Be An American Tragedy submitted by Stately McDaniel Manor
• Third place *t* with 1 vote –The National Interest – Why ISIS Fears Israel submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Politico Magazine – How To Hack An Election In 7 Minutes submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Ace of Spades HQ–Will The Establishment’s Stalking Horse for Hillary Blow Up the Republican Party?submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Glen Greenwald/The Intercept – Democrats’ Tactic of Accusing Critics of Kremlin Allegiance Has Long, Ugly History in U.S. submitted by Puma By Design
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Andrew Michta – A Wake Up Call for Western Elites submitted by The Razor
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 votes –Popehat – Lawsplainer: No, Donald Trump’s “Second Amendment” Comment Isn’t Criminal submitted by VA Right!
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 votes –Betsy McCaughey/IBD – Voters Can Choose Envy Or Growth submitted by The Watcher

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?

The Council Has Spoken! Our Watcher’s Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“Rape is not about sex, it’s about power and control” – Mark Steyn

“Sometimes the men would also exercise extreme physical and sexual violence on the girls and threaten them that should they ever seek to free themselves from the grasp of the group they and/or their families would suffer serious harm.

“The defendants took the girls to other places, usually hotels/guest houses or empty private dwellings, for other men to have sex with them, again often in groups and often in return for money which was paid to the men and not the girls” – Official SCR(serious case review)on UK Muslim sex grooming gangs.

“When a slave market is erected, which is a market in which are sold slaves and sex-slaves, which are called in the Qur’an by the name milk al-yamin, “that which your right hands possess” [Koran 4:24]. This is a verse from the Qur’an which is still in force, and has not been abrogated. The milk al-yamin are the sex-slaves. You go to the market, look at the sex-slave, and buy her. She becomes like your wife, (but) she doesn’t need a (marriage) contract or a divorce like a free woman, nor does she need a wali*. All scholars agree on this point—there is no disagreement from any of them. […] When I want a sex slave, I just go to the market and choose the woman I like and purchase her” – Prominent Egyptian Muslim scholar Sheikh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni

(a wali is woman’s male ‘guardian’ who would have to give consent to a marriage This isn’t a marriage, so it isn’t needed. The Qu’ran also says that when a married woman is captured in battle, her marriage is invalidated so it’s open season.)

This week, we had a tie in the Council Category between Joshuapundit’s–A Few Things About Hypocrisy, Politics And A Certain Mr.Khan… and Bookworm Room’s – With Islam it’s always about sex .

My piece was an in depth look at the Khan game the Democrats used at their convention, the sheer hypocrisy involved and some interesting facts about Mr. Khan’s preference for sharia over the Constitution, his connections to the Clinton Foundation and finally, how he makes his living. On the other hand, Bookworm’s fine piece on Islam and women and its larger implications for society was, I thought, far better. So she gets the gold this week. Here’s a slice:

Not long after 9/11, one of the smartest men I know told me that, when it comes to Islam’s battle with the West, “it’s all about control over women and access to sex.” That’s a simplification for an existential war that involves fundamental beliefs, rather than mere land borders, but I think he’s on to something.

His insight is also part of the reason that the Left is having such trouble with Islam — because for the Left, it’s also all about sex and control. While Islam views citizen control as vesting sexual power in men and denying it to women, the Left views citizen control as vesting sexual power in the state and denying it to the traditional family and religious units that once advocated keeping sexuality within a Judeo-Christian context of heterosexual monogamy. (I’ve expanded on that topic at American Thinker.)

Building upon the foundation of my friend’s insight, the events of the last 15 years have furthered my understanding of the fact that (a) the Islamist need to use sex as a means to control women and (b) the Leftist need to control everyone by using sex as the opiate of the people — and that while Islam understands and loathes the West, Leftists keep thinking Islam is just a different type of groovy. Three articles that popped up on my radar today help illustrate these ideas.

The first, this morning, was the news today about an Imam in England who said that one of the glories of Islam is that men get to keep sex slaves:

An Imam has told his congregation in Wales that war is approaching and Islam allows them to take women as slaves and rape them.

[snip]

In the audio, Imam Hammuda is heard telling a group of young men: “One of the interpretations as to what this means is that towards the end of time there will be many wars like what we are seeing today, and because of these wars women will be taken as captives, as slaves, yeah, women will be taken as slaves.

“And then, her master has relations with her because this is permissible in Islam, it’s permissible to have relations with a woman who is your slave or your wife.”

[snip]

More than 5,000 non-Muslim Yazidi women and girls were abducted by Islamic State in 2014. Many have been trafficked and traded on slave markets.

Surat An-Nisa, verse 24 of the Koran, reads: “And whoever among you cannot [find] the means to marry free, believing women, then [he may marry] from those whom your right hands possess of believing slave girls.”

We in the West shudder when we read that, but it is a very powerful message to young men, not just Muslim young men. After all, young men are all about sex. There are only two things that rein them in: fear of dominant males and social norms preventing them from acting on their sexual urges.

In the West, we’ve neutered our dominant males by insisting that masculinity is a toxic disease that must be destroyed (enter Pajama Boy, who’s handed all of his testosterone to TrigglyPuff). Also, while the West preaches the virtue of endless sexual gratification, the reality is that our average spotty male adolescents aren’t getting any of the good stuff.

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Dr. Rich Swier – Letter from a Blue Star Mother to the Muslim Gold Star father that spoke at the DNC submitted by Joshuapundit. It continues most eloquently the theme of my Council submission at the hands of a woman with a son serving in the field , and exposes the real issues involved perfectly. Do read it.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 2/3 votes!–Bookworm Room – With Islam it’s always about sex
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes – Joshuapundit–A Few Things About Hypocrisy, Politics And A Certain Mr.Khan…
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –The Razor – The Internet’s Designated Nazi Rule
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –The Glittering Eye –The View From the Trenches
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –VA Right! – WikiLeaks Emails: DNC Communications Director Luis Miranda Looking for a ‘F*ck You’ Emoji
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Stately McDaniel Manor – The Freddie Gray Case, Update 38: Destruction and Decontamination
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – AirStation

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! –Dr. Rich Swier – Letter from a Blue Star Mother to the Muslim Gold Star father that spoke at the DNC submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes –Dennis Prager – Did #NeverTrumpers Hear Hillary Clinton’s Frightening Speech? submitted by The Watcher
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – Sultan Knish –Stop Lone Wolf Terrorism By Ending Muslim Immigrationsubmitted by The Daley Gator
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote –Elliot Abrams/ Council on Foreign Relations – The New State Department Assault on Israel submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote –Ron Fournier/The Atlantic – Why Can’t Hillary Stop Lying submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Victor Davis Hanson –A Convention of the Absurd submitted by Stately McDaniel Manor
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Wayne Gruden/Townhall–Why voting for Trump is a morally good choicesubmitted by Bookworm Room
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Daily Mail –This is Why We Hate You submitted by The Razor
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Justin Raimondo/L.A. Times – To fight Trump, journalists have dispensed with objectivity submitted by The Watcher

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. And stay tuned for a major announcement from the Watcher’s Council!

Remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?

The Council Has Spoken! Our Watcher’s Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

““The way that I look at it, you take the two officers in New York. I was heart-broken because I knew for sure that these officers had nothing to do with the killing of Eric Garner. You can’t generally be anti-police, because if you become completely anti-police, then criminals are going to take over. When we see these killings, the general thought here is that two wrongs don’t make a right.” – Former gang leader Arthur Reed, AKA ‘Silky Slim’

“… Black Lives Matter never protests when every 14 hours somebody is killed in Chicago, probably 70-80% of the time (by) a black person. Where are they then? Where are they when a young black child is killed?” – Rudy Giuliani

“Kill the Pigs! Fry ’em like bacon!” – Popular #blacklives matter chant.

This weeks’ winning essay is Stately McDanial Manor’s Dallas: An Explosive Use Of Police Force. In it, he examines the legal and practical issues that come to bear when deadly force is used by police with a professional’s eye as a former policemen, what determinations a policeman has to make in seconds in order todo his or her job and how these standaqrds apply when it comes to personal self defense. Here’s a slice of this well written, informative post:

Police use of force is very much in the news these days. On one hand, Social Justice warriors and Democrat politicians (yes; I know I repeat myself) argue that virtually any use of force against favored victim groups–these days, primarily young black males–is not only illegitimate, but inherently racist and criminal. On the other, most people haven’t a clue about the legal issues revolving around the use of deadly force.

The social justice cry is particularly loud when the criminal was not carrying a gun. In such cases, the Michael Brown case being an obvious contemporary example, the cry “unarmed black man” reverberates throughout the media and blogosphere as though those three words say all that need be said, and unquestionably prove any and everything Black Lives Matter cracktivists assert.
In reality, a criminal relying only on his hands and feet can present a deadly threat, a threat justifying an entirely lawful lethal response, whether done by any member of the public or a police officer. This was exactly the case with Michael Brown. It was also the case with Trayvon Martin. Both are continually cited as unarmed, black, holy social justice martyrs, despite the fact that both criminals died while under the influence of drugs, in the act of trying to kill others–classic cases of self-defense–and no police officers were involved in Martin’s death.

 

Those wishing to explore the “unarmed” issue in more depth might visit an August, 2015 article: Police Shoot Unarmed Man.

One contemporary case of great significance is the ambush murders of Dallas police officers. Everything about that case effectively refutes the arguments of the social justice crowd. The black killer was very well armed and trained, and was absolutely a racist. We know because during brief negotiations, he expressly said he wanted to kill white police officers, and intended to kill as many as he could.

Even so, some are crying excessive use of police force because the Dallas Police used explosives–reportedly C4, a military grade plastic explosive–delivered by a remote-controlled robot, to actually blow the shooter to bits. And after all, he was black, so the police must be racist somehow. Paul Mirengoff at Powerline reports:

When the Dallas police finally took out Micah Johnson, they used a robot with a bomb — a device that can be compared to a drone. I considered this great police work but, remarkably, killing Johnson in this way proved to be controversial.

Some apparently believed that the officers engaged in the standoff with Johnson, and who had tried unsuccessfully to persuade him to surrender, needed to come close enough to Johnson (who had already killed multiple officers) to be shot at before they would be justified in killing him. As it was, said one law professor, only the robot was in danger.

This kind of commentary proves primarily one thing: even the overwhelming majority of lawyers have no understanding of deadly force law.

When cop killers are willing to die in order to take out police officers in gun battles, we are in uncharted territory. Police departments need to find ways to fight back without accommodating the killers’ desire for a fire fight.

Actually, Mirengoff is partially incorrect. We are not in uncharted territory, as I’ll explain, but first, two important preliminary issues: anyone interested in this topic, or who carries a concealed weapon, must have Andrew Branca’s The Law of Self Defense, an indispensable book. Branca and I often cover national cases such as the Martin case, and currently, the prosecution of the Baltimore officers, he at Legal Insurrection.  Also, we must have an understanding of the issues–triggers, if you will–relating to the use of force, and particularly deadly force.

Each state has its own very specific laws on these issues, and it’s an individual duty to be familiar with those laws. When force has been used, particularly deadly force, those laws will be applied to determine whether that defense was lawful self-defense–justifiable homicide–or some degree of murder.

More at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Sultan Knish with Exploiting Dead Cops to Promote Their Killers submitted by The Daley Gator.

This one’s very much in line with the meme of this week’s Council category. Do read it.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 votes!–Stately McDaniel Manor – Dallas: An Explosive Use Of Police Force
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Puma By Design – Backstabbing Sanders Supporters, Hillary Hires Debbie Wasserman Schultz as Campaign Chair.
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Bookworm Room – Dear Elites — no, Trump is not a fascist, but Hillary probably is
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Nuclear Ottomans?
• Fourth place with 1 vote –VA Right! – Understanding Presidential Polls For Dummies
• Fifth place with 2/3 vote –The Glittering Eye –Why, Oh Why?
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –The Razor – Social Media: Why I Quit It
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Joshuapundit–Dumb Debbie, The DNC And The Wrath Of The Bernistas

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes!–Sultan Knish –Exploiting Dead Cops to Promote Their Killers submitted by The Daley Gator
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Heather MacDonald/ City Journal –Trump Is Right about Crime submitted by Stately McDaniel Manor
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – David Solway/PJ Media – How to Defeat Terrorism submitted by The Watcher
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes – Oren Cass/City Journal–Hillary’s Web Of Promises submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –War On The Rocks – Germany Takes A Steely Look At The World submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Sean Trende/real Clear Politics – Where the Race Stands — Post-RNC Edition submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Kristen McQueary/Chicago Tribune – The truth of Donald Trump’s message: Black lives do matter submitted by The Watcher
• Seventh place with 1/3 vote –Richard Viguerie/Breitbart –Richard Viguerie: ‘Ted Cruz Committed Political Suicide on National TV’ submitted by The Watcher

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?

The Council Has Spoken! Our Watcher’s Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.” – John Harrington

“…Give the devil his due” – Shakespeare- “Henry The Fourth”

“GRAPESHOT, n. An argument which the future is preparing in answer to the demands of American Socialism.” – Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

This week, we had a tie in the Council Category between Joshuapundit’s–A Message For France – And For Us which was my reaction to what happened in Nice and what is happening aro0und the world and Bookworm Room’s – The Devil And Gun Control .

I got off some pretty good riffs as well as some decent perspective in my piece, but I have to give pride of place to Bookworm’s wickedly imaginative idea of a dialogue between Satan and one of his minions!

Here’s a slice:

Gun control proponents have a problem. Irrefutable data shows that, since 1992, as American gun ownership has gone up, crime has gone down. When pressed about the dramatic decrease in crime, the best that the Left can do is to point to anything but the increase in privately held weapons:

“Possible reasons for the decline include the country’s high incarceration rate, an aging population and an increased use of security cameras and cell phone videos capturing incidents.”

If gun grabbers were forced to grapple with the fact that the increase in guns tracking precisely with the decrease in crime, they’d also have to acknowledge that all the aging Americans, the imprisoned Americans, and the video cameras are irrelevant. Why? Because if more guns really meant more crime, as they insist, the 300 million guns in America today would more than offset age, imprisonment, and video.

The fact is — as even the CDC was forced to admit — that guns are used defensively as often as 1.2 million times a year. This short John Stossel piece gives a very down-and-dirty explanation for the fact that, while guns are a problem when they’re in criminal hands, they’re not a problem in the hands of law-abiding citizens (and, in America, most citizens are law-abiding or at least non-violent):

So what do you do if you desperately want gun control, but the data refuses to cooperate? Well, I can imagine Lucifer and his chief minion having a meeting that goes something like this:

The scene: A well-appointed office in Hell. Satan, in a snazzy red suit is seated behind a heavy oak desk. Standing in front of the desk, facing him, is Jezebeth, a pimply young demon, who’s one of his primary Earth operatives. The year: 2009.

LUCIFER: Jezebeth, you know and I know that too much freedom is good for human souls and therefore bad for our business. Without an all-controlling government, there’s so much less scope for the corruption that fills our Hell halls. After all, every time a petty official is given the power to control a person’s activities, we’re going to start seeing all sorts of wonderful bribery and other graft.

JEZEBETH: Oh, I agree, Satan the Supreme, I agree.

LUCIFER: Don’t interrupt again. We’ll take the groveling as given. Now where was I? Oh, yes. It’s very hard to empower a corrupt, despotic government when the people are armed. Those bureaucrats may crave power, but never enough to put themselves on the wrong side of an armed citizenry. You understand, then, what we have to do: We have to take guns away from Americans.

JEZEBETH: Your Supreme Evilness, you know that we’ve been working in America for years to get guns out of people’s hands. We’ve arranged with our earthly operatives to ensure that every single time more than two white people are shot with a gun in the same event, that our friends in the Democrat party blame guns and demand gun control. But it’s just not working. People keep getting more and more guns — and let me tell you, 9/11 didn’t help us at all. Neither did Hurricane Katrina. Those people we couldn’t sway directly or through our media imps actually realized that, when there’s a crisis, that non-damned NRA was right all along — when seconds count, the police are minutes away.

LUCIFER: Stop babbling, Jezebeth, and focus here. I know that your team has been pushing gun control for years, but you’re failing. We need to brainstorm here. The problem, as I see it, is that the more that ordinary Americans get guns, the fewer guns crimes there are. It’s devilishly hard to convince people to give up their guns when they’re feeling safer. We have got to make them feel less safe.

JEZEBETH: Well, your Evil Lordship, I have been thinking about this and I’ve got an idea. How about if we increase the violent crime rate so that people feel less safe?

LUCIFER: How in the Hell are you planning to that, Jezebeth? I just said that the problem is less crime.

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Gavin McInnes in Taki’s Magazine with Oops, We Started A Race War submitted by The Watcher .

He has quite a few interesting things to say about race relations, cime, #Blacklivesmatter and a few other juicy topics.

Here are this week’s full results. Only Daley Gator was unable to vote this week but was not affected by the usual 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 votes!–Bookworm Room – The Devil And Gun Control
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes –Joshuapundit–A Message For France – And For Us
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes –Stately McDaniel Manor – Time For A Little Paranoia?
• Fourth place with 1 vote –Puma By Design – Casting call for extras, actors during Cleveland RNC violence
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –VA Right! – Was McAuliffe’s Appointment of Roush to the Va Supreme Court Related to his Convict Voting Order?
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Razor – Goth Inside
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Glittering Eye –Can We Live With Terrorism?
• Sixth place with 1/3 vote – The Daley Gator – Newt Gingrich is right about Sharia Law, and why he is short-sighted

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 1 2/3 votes! –Gavin McInnes/Taki’s Magazine – Oops, We Started A Race War submitted by The Watcher
• Second place with 1 1/3 votes – Captain Capitalism – Traits are No Substitutes for Accomplishments submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Third place *t* with 1 vote –City Journal –The Fire Spreads submitted by Stately McDaniel Manor
• Third place *t* with 1 vote –Intellectual Froglegs – Guilty As Hill submitted by Joshuapundit
• Third place *t* with 1 vote –The College Fix–Professor rejects Marxism after traveling the globe: ‘Socialism doesn’t work’submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Jason Willick/The American Interest –The Make-Believe Supreme Court and the Coming Constitutional Crisis submitted by The Razor
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –The National Interest – Everything You Need to Know About Russia’s Lethal Tank Force submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Daniel Greenfield/Front Page Magazine –How the Media Covers Up Muslim and #BlackLivesMatter Terrorism submitted by Puma By Design
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Heat Street –Elizabeth Warren Has A Bullying Problem, But No One Cares because She’s Not A Mansubmitted by The Daley Gator

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?

The Council Has Spoken!! Our Watcher’s Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. – Lao Tzu

“Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. – Mary Shelly

“Much of the wisdom in the world is contained in these two words; wait, and hope.” – Alexandre Dumas ‘The Count Of Monte Cristo

This week’s winning essay,Joshuapundit’s Life, Death And Faith is my reaction to the untimely deaths of two people and what I guess I would call some larger questions. Here’s a slice:

Recently, a young man of my acquaintance passed away. He was one of those people who seemed to have everything going for him…a great, successful career doing what he loved, a loving wife and family, and wonderful friendships. I never met him personally, but based on what I know of his courageous struggle with his disease and the sincere outpouring of sorrow not just from his family but those he knew and worked with, he was a good, decent and loving human being who seems to have left this earth far too soon. He had yet to have his 40th birthday.

In Israel just a few days before that, one of the Arabs whom call themselves Palestinians broke into the bedroom of a 13-year-old Israeli girl who never did harm to him or anyone else and happily murdered her. He was shot down after he attacked another human being, but in his mind and the mind of the Palestinian Authority, its schools, mosques and media, he was a hero, a jihad warrior and a martyr doing Allah’s will. Not only that, but to his family, he represented a handsome financial stipend.

I can’t get her mother’s anguished cry at her funeral out of my mind…”How do you say goodbye to your 13-year-old child?”

Is there any way to answer that?

If G-d exists, why does He allow such things to happen? Or to use the old cliche,why do bad things happen to good people? And it’s even more interesting to turn that one around…why do good things seem to happen to those whom do evil, if a truly just G-d exists? Is it all just random? Does G-d exist at all or is He just a convenient fable man thought up with many names and guises to explain the inexplicable? Karl Marx referred to religion as ‘the opiate of the masses.’ Is G-d simply a fairy tale, just a ploy by the ruling classes to keep people in line?

As a reasonably observant Jew, one example that’s always thrown at me by people when this sort of thing comes up is the Holocaust. Millions of Jews, many of them quite religious were murdered in the most brutal fashion imaginable. Whole Rabbinic dynasties going back centuries were wiped out. Even the most predatory beasts do not engage in such behavior at their worst. And in the end, only a handful of the perpetrators and their many enablers were ever punished in any way. If a loving, just G-d truly exists, how could he possibly allow that?

I can’t say I know all the answers, nor frankly, would I really wish to. One of my favorite spiritual quotes comes from Ramakrishna, who wrote that a G-d who can be explained is no G-d at all. Or as one of the pithier Jewish sages once said, “If I understood G-d, I’d be G-d.”

There’s a great deal of insight there, I think. Given the nature of G-d as defined by every major faith, how could we possibly judge Him by our human standards?

Another thing I’ve realized over time and with study is that G-d simply plays on a much bigger field than we do. By nature, our perceptions are limited. We simply don’t see the big universal picture, the Divine Plan and the reasons certain things might need to happen that seem random good or evil to us. And our view of such things is limited to what happens in this physical world. We have no view as to what happens in the next world, its judgements and designs.

Take the Holocaust, for instance.

I would not remotely represent that I of all people have the answer, but here are a couple of things to consider.

More at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was a Facebook post by black police officer Jay Stalien, Facebook post re blacks and crimesubmitted by Bookworm Room . It’s a street level view of this topic and a must read.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 1/3 votes!–Joshuapundit–Life, Death And Faith
• Second place *t* with 2 votes –Bookworm Room – Black Lives Don’t Matter
• Second place *t* with 2 votes –Stately McDaniel Manor – Is America Racist?
• Third place *t* with 2/3 votes –The Razor – What If They Gave a Race War and Nobody Came?
• Third place *t* with 2/3 votes –VA Right! – For Those Hoping for a Dump Trump Moment at the Convention – Watch the 2012 Roll Call
• Third place *t* with 2/3 votes –Puma By Design – Leader of NBPP: Need Blacks to Migrate to Five Southern States; Form a Black Nation
• Third place *t* with 2/3 votes –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Prokhorovka

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 votes! –Police Officer Jay Stalien–Facebook post re blacks and crimesubmitted by Bookworm Room
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes – City Journal –America’s Worst President? submitted by Stately McDaniel Manor
• Third place with 1 1/3 votes –Eli Lake/Bloomberg – The Palestinian Incentive Program for Killing Jews submitted by Joshuapundit
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –The Washington Times – One law for us, another for you submitted by Puma By Design
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Elliot Abrams/Council On Foreign Relations – The Middle East Quartet’s New Report Misses the Point submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Sultan Knish –Divest From Palestinesubmitted by The Daley Gator
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Damon Linker/The Week – Race, justice, and America’s founding mistake submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Michael Walsh/PJ Media – More Proof the Fix Was in at the FBI submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes–Edmund Kozak/Lifezette The Cop-Hater in Chief submitted by The Watcher

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?

The Council Has Spoken! Our Watcher’s Council Results

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason.” – John Harrington

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. “ – Proverbs, 16:18

“What difference does it make now, at this point” – Hillary Clinton

This week, we had a three way tie in the Council category. My piece, When Justice Just Is Not dealt with the recent circus in Washington, the acrobatics of our FBI director in rewriting existing law and the how and why of what happened. Bookworm Room’s fascinating piece dealt with the inside details behind the scenes on the anniversary of one of Israel’s periodic miracles, The 40th anniversary of the raid on Entebbe . Stately McDaniel Manor’s Hillary Clinton: You’ll Be Able To See It From There examines in splendid form Mrs. Clinton recent history of corruption, deception and dare I say it, soullessness.

Since it’s my job to break ties around here, I get an extra vote to pick the winner. A tough choice indeed, lemme tell you!

After mulling it over, I had to go with Mike McDaniel’s piece, simply because he encapsulated so well in a concise, well written package exactly what we face if this corrupt snake gets her hands on the presidency.I have no patience with anyone who facilitates that in any way, and that includes a great many people I used to have respect for.

So without further ado, here’s a slice:

During his white-suited standup days, Steve Martin did a bit about buying a $300 dollar pair of socks. It was funny–absurd really–because who in their right mind would pay that much for a pair of socks? Martin played it masterfully, acting like a dim-witted, self-important twit. Who would really do something like that? Hillary Clinton would; Hillary Clinton who campaigned in a $12,000 dollar jacket. Hillary Clinton, the women who was so poor when she left the White House she had to steal the furnishings. Hillary Clinton, the woman that is just like us and is going to fight, fight, fight for us, the middle class!

In composing this brief article about Hillary Clinton, I immediately realized I could easily write ten thousand words and not come close to touching on her major scandals, lies and violations of the law, to say nothing of her innumerable minor outrages. Never in my living memory has any political party put forward a more dishonest, dishonorable, corrupt and criminal candidate for national office. I’ll have much more to say in the near future, but for now…

With the release of the Benghazi report we know Hillary lied about the attack. She lied to the public even as she was telling her daughter and Egyptian authorities the truth: it was a planned terrorist attack. When the caskets of our honored dead returned to America, Clinton, over the bodies of the dead, lied to the survivors, and later called them liars for daring to tell the truth about her lies.

But we learned a number of new and equally dishonorable things, things that alone should convince any rational American that Hillary Clinton should never again be allowed to hold any position of authority or responsibility in our government. I’ll mention only one.

We now know the night of the Benghazi attack, she presided over a teleconference of several hours. Apparently by that time, President Obama and the Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had given the authorization for mobilizing our military rescue forces. Remember, please, gentle readers, that Clinton ignored hundreds of actual requests–pleas, really–from Ambassador Chris Stevens and others for enhanced security assets in Benghazi.

Our military assets weren’t sent. A Marine FAST team in Rota, Spain was forced to sit and wait. At one point, Clinton and her dithering nitwits were trying to decide whether the Marines would be sent unarmed. The Secretary of State of the United States of America, the woman who claimed Americans wanted her answering that 3:00 AM phone call, was actually intending to send Marines on a rescue mission, into a failed state–a state she caused to be a failed state— a war zone where we knew hostiles were trying to kill Americans, unarmed. No less than four times, the Marines had to change in and out of civilian clothing and uniforms because Clinton couldn’t decide what they should wear as she worried about offending the virtually non-existent Libyan government, a government she destroyed.

Ultimately, it was an ad-hoc convoy of former Libyan military that rescued our remaining personnel and allowed them to evacuate, but not before Hillary Clinton’s carelessness, inattention and dithering caused the loss of four American lives.

Marines changing back and forth–four times–from civvies to uniforms. That’s insane. That’s criminal. Americans are dying, and Hillary Clinton is obsessed with appearances. Surely this is unprecedented.
No. It’s not.

 Consider this from Dereliction of Duty, by Lt. Col. (USAF ret.) Robert “Buzz” Patterson (Regnery, Washington. 2003). Patterson was the Air Force officer that carried the nuclear “football” in the Clinton White House. He carried the means by which the president could launch a nuclear strike. Bill Clinton once lost the card with his nuclear launch codes and didn’t tell anyone. It was never found, but that’s another story.

 “Early in the administration the ‘buzz” was that Chelsea had refused to ride to school with her military driver and that Hillary had banned military uniforms in the White House. The president eventually called the uniform ban ‘an abject lie,’ once it because apparent that this story didn’t play well politically. I can’t speak on whether Chelsea refused military drivers, but I do know the uniform issue with Mrs. Clinton was real. Soon after I arrived in the White House, my predecessor briefed me that Mrs. Clinton didn’t want the military aides in uniform. The White House Military Office argued that, for the safety of the president, it was critical that the Secret Service and staff be able immediately to identify the military aide. Common sense and security finally prevailed–at least at official functions with the president. At all other times, however, we were expected to be in business suites or civilian clothes in order to downplay the military presence at the White House.”

Patterson’s book is full of examples of Mrs. Clinton’s hatred for and abusively vile behavior toward White House military staff. It would appear her disrespect for those that serve our nation has very deep roots indeed.

And now we come to Hillary’s absolution. There was, of course, no way that the Obama Administration would allow the Democrat’s presumptive nominee to be indicted. It would be difficult to imagine any crime that could possibly have provoked an indictment. Bill Clinton’s in-your-face meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch was nothing more than a last minute sneer, a spit in the face of the collective American public.

Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Kurt Schlichter with You Owe Them Nothing – Not Respect, Not Loyalty, Not Obedience submitted by Joshuapundit.

In it, I think he catches the mood of a substantial part of the country right now as well as his own. And given that he’s a highly decorated combat veteran, a sensible human being and an undoubted patriot, that says something.

Here are this week’s full results. GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD was unable to vote this week, the result of some last minute travel, but she was not subject to the normal 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 2/3 votes!–Hillary Clinton: You’ll Be Able To See It From There
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes –Bookworm Room – The 40th anniversary of the raid on Entebbe
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit–When Justice Just Is Not
• Third place with 1 vote –Puma By Design – Marxist Private School in NYC Teaches White Children That They Are Born Racist.
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –The Glittering Eye –The Collapse of the Technocratic World Order
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –VA Right! – #Binary. Why I’m Blocking #NeverTrump and Anti Trump ‘Friends’ on Facebook
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Intervention Pendulum

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! –Kurt Schlichter – You Owe Them Nothing – Not Respect, Not Loyalty, Not Obedience submitted by Joshuapundit
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Michael Walsh/PJ Media – The Day the Rule of Law Died submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Wolf Howling–Hillary, The FBI & A Travesty Of Justicesubmitted by Bookworm Room
• Third place with 1 vote –NRO –Washington’s Hollow Men submitted by Stately McDaniel Manor
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Bearing Arms –Democrats looking to gut our Bill of Rightssubmitted by The Daley Gator
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes – Brigitte Gabriel – (video)Religion of Peace: A Brief History of Islam submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 votes –Glenn Reynolds/USA Today – About that Clinton-Lynch accidental meeting submitted by The Watcher (hat tip, Puma By Design)

See you next week!

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum.

And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.

It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it...or any of the other fantabulous Watcher’s Council content.

And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that, y’know?