Click here to view the embedded video.

They point their crooked little fingers ar everybody else
Spend all their time feelin’ sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your momma’s too thin; your daddy’s too fat
Get over it – The Eagles

This week’s winning Council entry, The Razor’s True Bigots takes a shot at our nation’s professional victims.

To the NAACP I’m just a descendant of klansmen. They don’t see me. They see a hooded figure stuffed with straw from the field of hate they have tended. They don’t hear me. All they hear is the words they imagine me saying. I’m not a person: I’m their puppet but they don’t realize they are holding the strings.

It doesn’t matter to them that half of my family were Slavs who arrived destitute at Ellis Island (after having paid all their money to the Austro-Hungarian empire to be allowed to emigrate) decades after the Civil War, or the fact that a quarter of my family were Germans who supported abolition, and that the last sliver were Irish who themselves were discriminated against. INNA isn’t just a meaningless acronym to those of us of Irish descent. They don’t consider that I grew up in a household where both parents worked, and that as a teen I was shocked to see their income tax return and learn that we were just barely above the poverty line.

No, my skin’s the wrong color and because of that everything I say or do is suspect. It doesn’t matter what the reasons are that I oppose the president: I’m a racist.

I might add that now things are so skewed the the NAACP now apparently considers separate but equal its new goal.

This week’s winning non-council post, Noisy Room’s Socialist “JournoListas” is mostly a list. But the list shows:

It was a network of high level opinion makers, united by a “progressive” vision for America. They believed that their superior judgment and insight obligated them to present Americans with a view of reality that they would be too stupid and reactionary to grasp unaided.

To the degree that the “Journolist” folks shaped our news narrative, it shows that our media, that seemingly accepted most of their spin, is not merely liberal, but a strong socialist bent too.

Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! – The Razor - True Bigots
• Second place with 2 votes – Wolf Howling - An Overdrawn Race Card
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Rhymes With Right - Shirley Sherrod: Dissent Equals Racism And A Desire To Return To Slavery
• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes - Virginia Right! – Frankly my dear, charges of racism have lost their impact
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Snapped Shot - The Happy Little Mosque… of Rage
• Fifth place *t* with 1 vote – Joshuapundit – The Age of Obama – Government By Diktat
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Right Truth - Conservative Republican Agenda
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Bookworm Room - How Journolist and Oliver Stone each serve to highlight the other’s insanity

Non – Council Winners

• First place with 1 2/3 votes! - Noisy Room - Socialist “Journolistas” submitted by Bookworm Room
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Gaper’s Block – Sex Trafficking in Chicago submitted by The Provocateur
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Riehl World View -  Sherrod: “We Must Stop The White Man And His Uncle Toms …” submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Jeffrey Laporte at Standing Firm via Fleming and Hayes - Message from the White House on Racism submitted by The Razor
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes  – RightChange/PJTV – Same As It Ever Was submitted by JoshuaPundit
• Third place *t* with 2/3 vote - Brits At Their Best - Recalling The Men Who Fought Naporleon submitted by Wolf Howling
• Third place *t* with 2/3 vote – Israelly Cool - The Day In Israel: Tuesday July 27th, 2010 submitted by Right Truth
• Third place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Moderate Voice – Oliver Stone: Hitler is Misunderstood Due to “Jewish-Dominated Media” (UPDATED) submitted by The Glittering Eye’
• Fourth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Common Sense Political Thought - Duplicity in editing, innuendo in reporting, and a deceived readership submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Fourth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Other McCain - Brilliant: U.S. Gives Pakistan $1 Billion; Pakistan Helps Our Enemies Kill Us submitted by Virginia Right
• Fourth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Hashmonean – Undiplomatic Solution: Strike Options Targeting Iran Go Top Shelf submitted by The Watcher

Congratulations to all the winners!

The Traveling Wilburys were founded after Jeff Lynne produced George Harrison’s Cloud Nine album. The major hit from that album was “I got my mind set on you,” a cover of a 1962 song.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now set your mind on this week’s Watcher’s Council submission.

Council Submissions

• Wolf Howling - An Overdrawn Race Card
• The Provocateur -  Saul Alinsky and Dr. Anna Chacko
• Rhymes With Right - Shirley Sherrod: Dissent Equals Racism And A Desire To Return To Slavery
• Right Truth - Conservative Republican Agenda
• The Razor - True Bigots
• Snapped Shot - The Happy Little Mosque… of Rage
• The Colossus of Rhodey - Oh, but of course! Captain America can’t be a “flag waver”
• Bookworm Room - How Journolist and Oliver Stone each serve to highlight the other’s insanity
• The Glittering Eye – What Went Wrong?
• Virginia Right! – Frankly my dear, charges of racism have lost their impact
• Joshuapundit – The Age of Obama – Government By Diktat

Non – Council Submissions

• Brits At Their Best - Recalling The Men Who Fought Naporleon submitted by Wolf Howling
• Gaper’s Block – Sex Trafficking in Chicago submitted by The Provocateur
• Riehl World View –  Sherrod: “We Must Stop The White Man And His Uncle Toms …” submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Israelly Cool - The Day In Israel: Tuesday July 27th, 2010 submitted by Right Truth
• Jeffrey Laporte at Standing Firm via Fleming and Hayes - Message from the White House on Racism submitted by The Razor
• The Jawa Report - Zach Chesser Indicted for Material Support of Terrorism submitted by Snapped Shot
• Common Sense Political Thought - Duplicity in editing, innuendo in reporting, and a deceived readership submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Noisy Room – Socialist “Journolistas” submitted by Bookworm Room
• The Moderate Voice – Oliver Stone: Hitler is Misunderstood Due to “Jewish-Dominated Media” (UPDATED) submitted by The Glittering Eye’
• The Other McCain – Brilliant: U.S. Gives Pakistan $1 Billion; Pakistan Helps Our Enemies Kill Us submitted by Virginia Right
• RightChange/PJTV – Same As It Ever Was submitted by JoshuaPundit
• The Hashmonean – Undiplomatic Solution: Strike Options Targeting Iran Go Top Shelf submitted by The Watcher

Click here to view the embedded video.

Every whisper
Of every waking hour I’m
Choosing my confessions
Losing my Religion – R.E.M.

Though the lyrics seem to confirm what lead singer Michael Sipe said that the song is about unrequited love, Wikipedia says that the expression “losing my religion is an expression from the southern region of the United States that means losing one’s temper or civility, or ‘being at the end of one’s rope.’” Certainly then it applies to this week’s winning entries.

In this week’s winning Council entry, When is a burqa not a burqa?  When it’s a weapon. Bookworm Room writes:

If this religious devotion was the sole reason behind Muslim clothing and building imperatives, I too would be up in arms about the strictures in France and Switzerland.  However, the sad fact is that, because the burqas and buildings are not only symbols of faith, but are also actively, and predominantly, used as weapons of war, any society that wishes to remain free of the totalitariansim that is Islam must, sadly, trample on some religious expression.

Freedom of religion should not be the same thing as being subjugated by religion.

In his non-Council winning post,  Jews and Israel: Death by Relativism, The Other McCain writes about the deleterious effects of a different religion – liberalism.

Even the most intelligent young people are apt to be impressed with the enormous prestige of those numerous academic experts who present the Middle East conflict in the context of Arab victimhood. And if those young people have been raised within a liberal Democrat environment — remember that John Kerry got 74% of the Jewish vote in 2004 — their partisan and ideological allegiances will naturally make them sympathetic to the “Blame Israel First” crowd, who were among the most outspoken voices in the anti-Bush chorus during the past decade.

Now, I present you with the full list of winners:

Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Bookworm Room – When is a burqa not a burqa? When it’s a weapon.
• Second place with 2 1/3 votes - The Razor – Someday Everyone Will be a Nazi for 15 Minutes
• Third place with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit – Obama And The Apocalypse Blues (Remix Version)
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Snapped Shot – The Washington Post Finds Waste
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – VA Right – Why the TEA Party Should Ignore the NAACP
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Wolf Howling – Redemption?

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! – The Other McCain – Jews and Israel: Death by Relativism submitted by JoshuaPundit
• Second place with 1 1/3 votes - Walter Russell Mead’s Blog -Nuking Westphalia: Obama’s Deep Convictions Point to War With Iran submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – American Heritage.com – Philadelphia Story: Professor Ellis on Constitutional Compromise submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Third place *t* with 1 vote -Dennis Prager @ NRO - NAACP Confirms, Election Of A Black President Made No Difference submitted by Wolf Howling
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Big Government — Michael Zak – The Ku Klux Klan, Terrorist Wing of the Democratic Party submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Samson Blinded - We cannot coexist submitted by Right Truth
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Katie, The Pirate King - Can You Believe Anything That This Administration Says? submitted by The Razor
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Pat Condell - No mosque at Ground Zero submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Bearing Drift - NASA Reaching Out to Muslims? AWESOME. submitted by VA Right
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Dick Morris – DEMS DESERT OBAMA submitted by The Provocateur

First of all let’s introduce Tom White of VA Right to the council! Welcome and great to have you on board.

Continuing on our tour of popular music from last week …

Tom Petty’s duet with Stevie Nicks was his first major effort outside of the Heartbreakers. But in the 1980′s he joined the Traveling Wilburys with George Harrsion, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well it’s all right
Doing the best you can
Well it’s all right
As long as you lend a hand
End of the Line – Traveling Wilburys

Council Submissions

• VA Right – Why the TEA Party Should Ignore the NAACP
• Rhymes With Right – Some Observations On The Utah Illegal Immigrant List
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Watch out — Oliver Stone’s “Secret History of the United States” is coming
• Joshuapundit – Obama And The Apocalypse Blues (Remix Version)
• Snapped Shot – The Washington Post Finds Waste
• Right Truth – Obama by any other name — would still smell as rotten
• The Razor – Someday Everyone Will be a Nazi for 15 Minutes
• The Provocateur – The Ghettoization of Obama
• Bookworm Room – When is a burqa not a burqa?  When it’s a weapon.
• The Glittering Eye – The Beginning of the End
• Wolf Howling – Redemption?

Non-Council Submissions

• Bearing Drift – NASA Reaching Out to Muslims? AWESOME. submitted by VA Right
• Big Government — Michael Zak – The Ku Klux Klan, Terrorist Wing of the Democratic Party submitted by Rhymes with Right
• American Heritage.com – Philadelphia Story: Professor Ellis on Constitutional Compromise submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• The Other McCain – Jews and Israel: Death by Relativism submitted by JoshuaPundit
• IsraellyCool - A Taste of “Concentration Camp” Gaza: The Grand Palace Hotel submitted by Snapped Shot
• Samson Blinded – We cannot coexist submitted by Right Truth
• Katie, The Pirate King – Can You Believe Anything That This Administration Says? submitted by The Razor
• Dick Morris - DEMS DESERT OBAMA submitted by The Provocateur
• Pat Condell – No mosque at Ground Zero submitted by Bookworm Room
• Walter Russell Mead’s Blog -Nuking Westphalia: Obama’s Deep Convictions Point to War With Iran submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Dennis Prager @ NRO – NAACP Confirms, Election Of A Black President Made No Difference submitted by Wolf Howling
• Rabbi Kaufman @ Yourish - J Street’s New Ad – The Community of Hypocrisy submitted by The Watcher

This week’s winning entries illustrate different ways that the government is out of touch, kind of like the congressman in “Summertime Blues.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well I called my congressman and he said Quote:
“I’d like to help you son but you’re too young to vote”

Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran, The Who, Alan Jackson

In the Razor’s council winning Life in a vise, he observed of the workers he’s hired to fix up his home:

These men are in a vise – between the failure of the American dream and its expectations of a brighter future for their children on one side, and a government that seems hell bent on reducing them to penury on the other. They aren’t angry; they are enraged. These great- grandsons of confederate soldiers speak rebellion not in whispers but in loud, firm voices that would sound all-too familiar to their forebears. They aren’t traitors; they see their government as betraying them and their country, not the other way around. Seeing what has happened here in North Carolina, it’s difficult to disagree with them.

In a different instance of government cluelessness, Sultan Knish in his satiric non-council winning post (by virtue of tie casting vote by The Watcher),  - NASA Unveils New Plan for Muslims in Outer Space, mocks NASA’s administrator, Charles S. Griffith, for saying that reaching out to Muslims was a primary goal of the American space agency.

After carefully reviewing your new priority for NASA, to reach out to Muslims and make them feel good about “their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering“, which consisted mainly of ripping off Greek and Indian science, and passing it off as their own, we have developed a comprehensive plan for utilizing the talents and abilities of Muslims to further the goals of this nation’s goals space program, which you so articulately described as “That Outer Spacey Thing”.

Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – The Razor - Life in a Vise
• Second place with 2 votes – Rhymes With Right - An Interesting Question On Obama’s Citizenship
• Third place *t* with 1 vote - Bookworm Room – Parallels between Obama’s green economy plans and, well, other governments’ economic changes
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Foundation’s Triumph review and the fate of human destiny
• Third place *t* with 1 vote - Wolf Howling – Obama & Keynes, Hayek & Laffer 
• Fourth place with 2/3 vote - The Glittering Eye - What Recovery?
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Joshuapundit – Abbas: ‘No point in direct talks with Israel now’
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Snapped Shot – Speechless

Non Council Submissions

• * First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Sultan Knish - NASA Unveils New Plan for Muslims in Outer Space submitted by JoshuaPundit
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes - Steve Malanga @ City Journal – The Beholden State submitted by Wolf Howling
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Mighty Optical Illusions – Media Manipulation Illusion Example submitted by Snapped Shot
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - Chesler Chronicles – Muslim Honor Killing Elephants in the Room at the New York Times submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - NormBlog - Table Talk (by Eve Garrard) submitted by The Watcher
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Walter Russell Mead’s Blog – The Big Green Lie Exposed submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Big Government – Chicago Machine Deserves NAACP Not the Tea Parties submitted by The Provocateur
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Don Surber – Malcolm: The Unstoppable Sarah Palin submitted by The Watcher

Click here to view the embedded video.

This doesn’t have to be the big get even
This doesn’t have to be anything at all
Stop Draggin’ my Heart Around – Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty

Stevie Nicks was easily the most popular member of the revamped Fleetwood Mac, she provided backup vocals for numerous other acts and released her own album, Belladonna in 1980. One of the songs on Bella Donna was a duet with Tom Petty, Stop Draggin’ my heart around.

Council Submissions

• Wolf Howling – Obama & Keynes, Hayek & Laffer 
• Snapped Shot – Speechless
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Foundation’s Triumph review and the fate of human destiny
• The Razor - Life in a Vise
• Rhymes With Right - An Interesting Question On Obama’s Citizenship
• Right Truth – A Tale of  Two…
• Bookworm Room – Parallels between Obama’s green economy plans and, well, other governments’ economic changes
• The Glittering Eye – What Recovery?
• The Provocateur – Reagan’s Legacy Army
• Joshuapundit – Abbas: ‘No point in direct talks with Israel now’

Non Council Submissions

• Steve Malanga @ City Journal – The Beholden State submitted by Wolf Howling
• Mighty Optical Illusions – Media Manipulation Illusion Example submitted by Snapped Shot
•  The Weekly Standard Blog - Sen. Carl Levin: Okay to Ask Troops, “Are You Comfortable Taking Showers with Gay People?” submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Wonderboywonderings via Flopping Aces - Barack Obama Will Not Rest!!! submitted by The Razor
• Chesler Chronicles – Muslim Honor Killing Elephants in the Room at the New York Times submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Eternity Road - Making Amends Part 2: The Writing On The Economic Wall, By Francis W. Porretto submitted by Right Truth
• Weekly Standard -  Obama v. Arizona submitted by Bookworm Room
• Walter Russell Mead’s Blog – The Big Green Lie Exposed submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Big Government – Chicago Machine Deserves NAACP Not the Tea Parties submitted by The Provocateur
• Sultan Knish - NASA Unveils New Plan for Muslims in Outer Space submitted by JoshuaPundit
• Don Surber – Malcolm: The Unstoppable Sarah Palin submitted by The Watcher
• NormBlog – Table Talk (by Eve Garrard) submitted by The Watcher

Click here to view the embedded video.

But I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood
Don’t let me be misunderstood – The Animals

In his winning council post this week, Obama’s Lawsuit Against Arizona (Updated) Wolf Howling writes:

Invoking preemption in the present context is a dangerous game indeed. It is critically important to note that the Arizona law is nothing more than a codification of federal law as regards illegal aliens, with the only addition being instructions on when the police can pursue suspicions that a person may be an illegal alien. Thus the DOJ’s argument must be that any state laws predicated on the status of an individual as a citizen or an illegal alien are preempted by federal law.

Think about that for a moment. If the DOJ wins this lawsuit, only the federal government will be able to enforce laws based on illegal aliens.

Of course, as Wolf Howling observes, given that the federal government hasn’t and, likely, won’t do anything about illegal immigration, the lawsuit is an effort to maintain a sizable contingent of illegal aliens in this country.

In her winning non-council post this week about various attempts to hijack the international legal system in order to attack Israel,  Standing down the hanging jury, Caroline Glick writes:

For generations Jews have clung to the belief that law is intrinsically good and if we follow the law the law will protect us. But this has never been more than a fool’s belief.

As we see today in the wholesale perversion of law in the service of Israel’s destruction in countries around the Western world, law is but a tool. Depending on who wields it, it can be a force for injustice just as easily as it can be a tool for pursuing justice.

In both cases we see a measure of vindictiveness against a state and a nation that is spurred by willfully misunderstanding each.

Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Wolf Howling - Obama’s Lawsuit Against Arizona (Updated)
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Right Truth -  A World Without Islam – Review
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – The Glittering Eye – Foundations of Sand
• Third place *t* with 1 vote - Bookworm Room – New country discovered at the Marin County Fair
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – Rhymes With Right – Obama #15? No Way!
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – The Provocateur – Mark Clements and Chicago’s Culture of Torture
• Fourth place with 2/3 vote – Joshuapundit – A Partisan Divide On Israel?
• Fifth place with 1/3 vote - Snapped Shot – D is for Diss

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Caroline Glick - Standing down the hanging jury submitted by Bookworm Room
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes - Patterico’s Pontifications - Feinstein on Judicial Inexperience, Then and Now submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Zenpundit – Reality, Strategy and Afghanistan: Some Questions submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Second place *t* with 1 2/3 votes – Israel Matzav – Who is orchestrating a US rapprochement with Hezbullah and Hamas? submitted by The Watcher
• Third place *t* with 1 vote – Stuart Schneiderman – The Hotness Gap submitted by The Provocateur
• Third place *t* with 1 vote - The Counterterrorism Blog – Two Major Middle East Terrorist Figures Die in their Safe Havens submitted on behalf of Wolf Howling
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote - Common Sense Political Thought – Real, honest-to-God, spending cuts! submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Fourth place *t* with 1 vote – Powerline – Had Enough “Hope and Change”? submitted by JoshuaPundit

From the mid-70′s to the early 80′s one of the most popular groups was Fleetwood Mac. Not only did they put out the best-selling record of the time, rumors, but their members were involved in many other projects. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham backed up John Stewart in the Midnight Wind. It was after that the pair joined the group that Fleetwood Mac became huge.

She is like a cat in the dark
And then she is the darkness

Rhiannon – Fleetwood Mac

When I was looking this up I learned something impressive about Stevie Nicks.

In late 2004, Nicks began visiting Army and Navy medical centers in Washington, D.C. While visiting wounded service men and women, Nicks became determined to find an object she could leave with each soldier that would raise their spirits, motivate, and give them something to look forward to each day. She eventually decided to purchase hundreds of iPod Nanos, load them with music, artists, and play-lists which she would hand select, and autograph them. She now regularly delivers these tokens of her appreciation, bringing her closest friends to share the experience.

Council Submissions

• Rhymes With Right – Obama #15? No Way!
• The Colossus of Rhodey – And the Philly Inquirer wonders why it’s dying a slow death?
• Right Truth -  A World Without Islam – Review
• Bookworm Room – New country discovered at the Marin County Fair
• The Glittering Eye – Foundations of Sand
• The Provocateur – Mark Clements and Chicago’s Culture of Torture
• Snapped Shot – D is for Diss
• Joshuapundit – A Partisan Divide On Israel?
• Wolf Howling - Obama’s Lawsuit Against Arizona (Updated)

Non-Council Submissions

• Patterico’s Pontifications - Feinstein on Judicial Inexperience, Then and Now submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Common Sense Political Thought – Real, honest-to-God, spending cuts! submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• AIE Center for Defense Studies blog -  China Cashes In on Iraq’s Postwar Recovery by Philipp Tomio submitted by Right Truth
• Caroline Glick – Standing down the hanging jury submitted by Bookworm Room
• Zenpundit – Reality, Strategy and Afghanistan: Some Questions submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Stuart Schneiderman – The Hotness Gap submitted by The Provocateur
• Virginia Right! – Obama: Solar Panel $2 Billion Investment Payback in Only 50 Years submitted by Snapped Shot
• Powerline – Had Enough “Hope and Change”? submitted by JoshuaPundit
• The Counterterrorism Blog – Two Major Middle East Terrorist Figures Die in their Safe Havens submitted on behalf of Wolf Howling
• Israel Matzav – Who is orchestrating a US rapprochement with Hezbullah and Hamas? submitted by The Watcher

Click here to view the embedded video.

How was I to know
She was with the
Russians, too?
Lawyers, Guns and Money – Warren Zevon

This week’s winning posts were both about recent Supreme Court decisions concerning the second amendment and the funding of religious organizations. Hey, we’ve got lawyers, guns and money this week!

Wolf Howling, in his triumphant return to the council, won this week’s Council vote with The Supremes – Guns & The War On Christianity, in which he discusses the Hastings and McDonald decisions.

The McDonald decision, authored by Justice Alito, was notable for several reasons beyond just the holding of the case. One, the decision was again 5 to 4, with Justice Stevens writing the dissent in which he argued for applying tests that would allow the activist wing to make of the Second Amendment a nullity. Justice Scalia responded to Justice Stevens in a separate concurrence. The arguments by Stevens and Scalia frame the battle ongoing between originalists and liberal activists. The McDonald decision was one largely based on the original intent of the drafters of the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. The Stevens dissent proposes alternative theories to undermine the Second Amendment that, as Scalia points out, are wholly subjective and, in reality, are nothing more than legal cover for the personal opinions of the activist judges.

On the non-council side, the winning post by Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy examinesConstitutional Rights that Put Lives at Risk in relation to the McDonald decision:

Whether we are talking about guns, speech, or other rights, there are going to be cases where, as a practical matter, it is impossible to prevent death by measures short of restricting the right itself. For example, allowing Nazi speech in the Weimar Republic may have greatly increased the risk that the Nazis would come to power, by which point it was too late too prevent them from killing large numbers of people. Similarly, once free speech by Redeemers and ex-Confederates allowed them to seize control of southern states, it was politically impossible for the federal government to protect black rights against them — at least not without much greater violence than might have sufficed to prevent the Redeemers from organizing in the first place.

Council Winners

• First place with 1 2/3 votes! – Wolf Howling - The Supremes – Guns & The War On Christianity 
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room - A challenge to us all to renew the philosemitic paradigm in America
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Colossus of Rhodey- Private jet liberals
• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes - The Glittering Eye - The Unemployment Depression
•  Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Razor – Institutional Brain Freeze
• Third place *t* with 2/3 vote – Rhymes With Right - When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Go Golfing
• Third place *t* with 2/3 vote - Snapped Shot – Resurrecting Old Features
• Fourth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Joshuapundit – The Way Forward In AfPak
• Fourth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The Provocateur - Mr. McDonald and the Lunacy of Liberal Empathy

Non Council Winners

• First place with 3 votes! – The Volokh Conspiracy - Constitutional Rights that Put Lives at Risk submitted by Rhymes with Right
• Second place with 2 votes – LATMA - The Muslim War Council submitted by Joshuapundit
• Third place with 1 vote – Elder of Ziyon - Mondoweiss: Hate as “Progressive” Jewish Politics (Adam Levick) Submitted by the Watcher
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Sundries Shack - Do Conservatives Hate Journalism? No, But We Do Hate Journalists, and Rightly So. submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – NewsRealBlog – Jenn Q. Public - Object to Prostitot Culture? You’re Probably a Racist Prude submitted by The Razor
• Fourth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Politico.com - Weigel and the Post submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Elder of Ziyon - Reuters’ lying caption submitted by Snapped Shot
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote -  BlackFive - Ideologues and COIN submitted by Right Truth
• Fifth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Doug Ross @ Journal - An Open Letter to the Republican Members Of The Senate Judiciary Committee submitted by Wolf Howling

Last week, I featured the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer.” “Daydream Believer” was written by John Stewart. Stewart had been a member of the Kingston Trio (though he joined late, well after Tom Dooley, which was based on true story), but later had a hit with Gold. As with some other songs on his comeback album, “Gold” was backed by Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac. So too was “Midnight Wind.” “Midnight Wind” is like Billy Joel’s “Only the good die young,” but without the snarkiness.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You Beauty Queens come on so clean
But you’re, you’re missing all the fun

Two notes: I forgot to congratulate Council member Rhymes with Right for his 5th anniversary on the council last week. And I’d like to welcome back Wolf Howling after an extended absence.

Midnight Wind - John Stewart

Council Submissions

• Rhymes With Right - When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Go Golfing
• The Colossus of Rhodey- Private jet liberals
• Right Truth - Russian Spies, No Surprise
•  The Razor – Institutional Brain Freeze
• Bookworm Room - A challenge to us all to renew the philosemitic paradigm in America
• Snapped Shot - Resurrecting Old Features
• The Glittering Eye – The Unemployment Depression
• Joshuapundit – The Way Forward In AfPak
• The Provocateur - Mr. McDonald and the Lunacy of Liberal Empathy
• Wolf Howling – The Supremes – Guns & The War On Christianity 

Non Council Submissions

• The Volokh Conspiracy - Constitutional Rights that Put Lives at Risk submitted by Rhymes with Right
• The Sundries Shack - Do Conservatives Hate Journalism? No, But We Do Hate Journalists, and Rightly So. submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• BlackFive - Ideologues and COIN submitted by Right Truth
• NewsRealBlog – Jenn Q. Public - Object to Prostitot Culture? You’re Probably a Racist Prude submitted by The Razor
• NewsReal Blog – David Swindle - Townhall’s List is Most Prominent on Right, Here’s True Top 30 Conservatives the Left HATES (And 5 They LOVE) submitted by Bookworm Room
• Elder of Ziyon - Reuters’ lying caption submitted by Snapped Shot
• Politico.com - Weigel and the Post submitted by The Glittering Eye
• LATMA - The Muslim War Council submitted by Joshuapundit
• Big Government – Dave Wiegel Comes Clean submitted by The Provocateur
• Doug Ross @ Journal - An Open Letter to the Republican Members Of The Senate Judiciary Committee submitted by Wolf Howling
• Douglas Farrah - Failing States and Despots: Interesting Reading submitted by the Watcher
• Elder of Ziyon - Mondoweiss: Hate as “Progressive” Jewish Politics (Adam Levick) Submitted by the Watcher