Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Victorious Entities”

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July 10, 2007

Victorious Entities

Hatched by Dafydd

This week's winners in the Watcher's Council votes are enumerated below...

For the Council

Guess Where Your President Was Wednesday Morning... Insh'allah, by JoshuaPundit.

My votes for this category were ignored, as usual. I cast my votes thus:

Cage Match: Assimilation vs. Multiculturalism, by Right Wing Nuthouse.

This was a fascinating look at a social scientist, Robert Putnam, who had a large, well-performed study indicating that "diversity" was terrible for trust, community, and neighborhood cohesiveness... but he is sitting on the results because he is afraid either that right-wingers will use them to promote (wait for it) assimilation of immigrants... or that left-wingers will use the results to cast Putnam out of the group of the "anointed," as Thomas Sowell calls them.

Quote of the Day: Islamophobia Edition, by Cheat Seeking Missiles.

This piece is about all the various "phobias" that radical hirabis and irhabis seem to exude. Some examples:

"Someone touched my Koran phobia;"

"Daughter has a boyfriend phobia;"

"Young women dressed up phobia."

It's funny, but it also makes a serious point: That the sane seem obliged to cater to the psychotic whims of the insane; and that the Europeans especially increasingly buy into this insanity.

For the Nouncil

Bless the Beasts and Children, by Michael Yon.

Another masterpiece of "non-fiction short story" (with a tip of the hat to Truman Capote) from Yon, this time contrasting the hope of Iraqi and American forces fighting side by side with the despair of horror by al-Qaeda, and what it looks like when they decide to tree a town.

It was good, but I didn't vote for it; hey, one Michael Yon is much like another, eh? Rather, I cast my broad upon the waterbed with these two pieces:

Understanding Current Operations in Iraq, Small Wars Journal.

Also my nominee. A tour de force recounting of what we're doing in Iraq -- and more important, why we're doing it -- by some fellow named David Kilcullen. Who's he? Oh, yeah: "Senior Counterinsurgency Adviser, Multi-National Force - Iraq." In other words, Kilcullen is the guy that Gen. David Petraeus turns to when the general wants some advice on counterinsurgency operations.

Guess Who Likes Earmarks?, by Captain's Quarters.

A typically great post by my old blogboss, Captain Ed; he finds that one of the most prolific earmarker in the House is... oh, it's too hysterical; I can't squish Cap's punchline!