Both Council and Non-Council winners deal with the false optimism catered in by the idea of hope and change. The Razor’s winning entry discusses the history of the world wide symbol of peace. Rather than concentrate on the the idea of peace the Razor delves into the forces that used the symbol as a weapon to weaken the United States through propagandistic means, preaching peace while using the ideas to trick it’s people into ceding strength; as if deterrent cannot foster peace.
John Stossel wrote his winning entry at the Real Clear Politics blog. Like the winning council entry he too discusses a topic that deals in hope and change as a tool to promote the domestic agenda behind Barack Obama’s utopian vision of American society. Using flowery yet ambivalent terms such as “blueprint for reform” the Obama vision is using the bad economy as a crutch to bring about social change for the ordinary citizen. Yet history has proven that economic recover and social reform can not be achieved with one grand act based on an ideological precept. The two are by nature at odds because a government imposed burden never transforms itself into a free market system.
Obama wants to act quickly. In the name of stimulating the economy, he plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars the government does not have to convert the economy from carbon-based fuels to “green” alternatives. Even if that were a good idea — and it’s definitely not (http://tinyurl.com/5mav4e) — it would not bring recovery. Any money the government spends must be taxed, borrowed or conjured out of thin air by the Federal Reserve, and that will reduce sound private investment. Obama has no real wealth to inject into the economy. He can only move around existing money while inflation robs us of purchasing power. Meanwhile, private investors who might have produced a better engine, battery, computer, cancer treatment or other wealth-creating and life-enhancing innovations hold back for fear that big government will undermine productive efforts.
Enjoy this week’s winning selections:
Winning Council Submissions
- First place with 2 2/3 points! – The Razor – The Symbol of Oppression
- Second place with 1 2/3 points – (T*) – Joshuapundit – Cheney Slaps Biden Upside The Head
- Second place with 1 2/3 points – (T*) – Mere Rhetoric – Smug Liberal Sophistication Undisturbed By Decades Of Disastrously Wrong Domestic And International Predictions
- Third place with 1 points – Bookworm Room – Destruction of Property
- Fourth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – Soccer Dad – Don’t get too chummy with that flaming dummy
- Fourth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – Rhymes With Right – Impeach Jerry Brown
- Fourth place with 2/3 points – (T*) – The Glittering Eye – How to Give a Bonus
- Fifth place with 1/3 point – Cheat-Seeking Missiles – Gay Anger At Warren Unwarranted
Winning Non-Council Submissions
- First place with 2 1/3 points! – John Stossel – Arrogance and Conceit Won’t Fix the Economy
- Second place with 1 2/3 points – (T*) – Larrey Anderson/American Thinker – Climate Crisis = Logic Crisis
- Second place with 1 2/3 points – (T*) – Dhimmi Watch – Fitzgerald: If we cut off the jizya, could things become even worse?
- Third place with 1 1/3 points – (T*) – Pajamas Media – The Op-Ed the New York Times Wouldn’t Run
- Third place with 1 1/3 points – (T*) – Counterterrorism blog – Jihad by the Shoe: Who Was Behind it and why?
- Third place with 1 1/3 points – (T*) – Simon Deng – Hudson New York – Bishop Tutu and “Israeli Apartheid”
- Fourth place with 2/3 points – The American Spectator – Coffee and Closure
- Fifth place with 1/3 point – Jewcy – Madoff the Jew: The Media’s Hypocritical Obsession With the Fraudster’s Faith
T* – Denotes Tie