The Razor

That sometimes “white Hispanic” men don’t murder black teenagers just as the OJ Simpson verdict proved that sometimes black men don’t murder white women (and their friends).

Council Winners

• *First place with 5 votes! Joshuapundit –The Coup In Egypt And Why It’s Important
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• Second place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – The Right Planet -NSA Fever and the Sinister Entity
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• Second place t with 1 1/3  vote – The Political Commentator-New York State I-STOP law: Obamacare incarnate?
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• Third place t with 1 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey-Asimov’s robots as a metaphor for human nature
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• Third place t with 1 vote – Liberty’s Spirit- Attacking the Interest Rate Hike Instead of the Real Problem: No Future Inducing Jobs
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• Fourth place t with 2/3 vote – Nice Deb-The New Hotness: Libs Keep Comparing Conservatives To Islamofascists
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• Fourth place t with 2/3 vote – Bookworm Room-Lois Lerner’s demand for immunity before she’ll testify before Congress
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• Fourth place t with 2/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD–Democrazy Démarche
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• Fifth place t with 1/3 vote – VA Right! – Has Obama Actually Accomplished Anything Positive in 5 Years?
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• Fifth place t with 1/3 vote – The Noisy Room –Allen West at His Best – Teach Obama a Lesson
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• Fifth place t with 1/3 vote – The Glittering Eye – The Compliant Press
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• Fifth place t with 1/3 vote – The Razor – The Liberal Fetish For Elections
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Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 2/3 votes! – Andrew McCarthy- Elections Are Not Democracy  submitted by Joshuapundit
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• Second place with 2  votes – Doug Ross@ Journal – Comic Book Version Suitable for Low Information Voters: The Road to Serfdom   submitted by Rhymes With Right
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• Third place  with 1 2/3 votes – The Whited Sepulchre – Happy Independence Day ! – (let’s start another government)   – submitted bySimply Jews
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• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes -American Thinker-Political Correctness Is Cultural Marxism   submitted by The Right Planet
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• Fifth place t with 1 vote – The Augean Stables -The Constriction of Western Intelligentsia-Honor/Shame Dynamics submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
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• Fifth place t with 1 vote - The Duck of Minerva –The Israel Lobby and the Nixon Administration   submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
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• Sixth place t with 2/3 vote - Aeon Magazine –Magic or Medicine?  submitted by The Razor
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• Sixth place t with 2/3 vote -ABC Religion And Ethics –The End of American Protestantism   submitted by The Glittering Eye
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• Sixth place t with 2/3 vote -Victor Davis Hanson – Nemesis, After All   submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
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• Sixth place t with 1/3 vote -The Lonely Conservative –The Horrific, Brutal Murder The Media Has Ignored    submitted by The Watcher
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• Sixth place t with 1/3 vote -Canada Free Press –Obama ducks criticism of his support of Muslim Brotherhood Morsi with lies   submitted by The Political Commentator
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• Sixth place t with 1/3 vote -The Chronicle of Higher Education –Against Environmental Panic   submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
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If according to CNN and the New York Times George Zimmerman is white Hispanic for having a white dad and Hispanic mom, then America is still waiting to have its first African-American president since Barack Obama’s mother is white and his father is a black African.

I thought liberals were supposed to be color-blind, but they sure seem eager to dredge up racial categories used during the Jim Crow era in the US and Apartheid era in South Africa. I guess it’s no surprise given the monocultural  background of their elite. After all, how many black listeners does NPR have anyway?

 

Nothing surprises me about this administration anymore. The only thing that raised an eyebrow was how little the DoJ spent: less than $3k. That’s petty cash to Holder and crew and won’t pay for a single one of Sharpton’s Rolexes.

A division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was deployed to Sanford, Florida in 2012 to provide assistance for anti-George Zimmerman protests, including a rally headlined by activist Al Sharpton, according to newly released documents.

Council Submissions

• The Political Commentator – New York State I-STOP law: Obamacare incarnate?
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• The Colossus of Rhodey – Asimov’s robots as a metaphor for human nature
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• Joshuapundit-The Coup In Egypt And Why It’s Important
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• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Democrazy Démarche
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• Simply Jews – She needs feminism – because of armpit hair?
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• Liberty’s Spirit – Attacking the Interest Rate Hike Instead of the Real Problem: No Future Inducing Jobs
• 
  
• The Right Planet – NSA Fever and the Sinister Entity
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• The Razor – The Liberal Fetish For Elections
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• The Glittering Eye -The Compliant Press
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• The Mellow Jihadi – Using a Military ID Card to Spread Joy
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• Rhymes With Right – An Interesting Study On Racism
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• VA Right! - Has Obama Actually Accomplished Anything Positive in 5 Years?
• 
  
• Nice Deb – The New Hotness: Libs Keep Comparing Conservatives To Islamofascists
• 
  
• Bookworm Room – Lois Lerner’s demand for immunity before she’ll testify before Congress
• 
  
• The Noisy Room – Allen West at His Best – Teach Obama a Lesson
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Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – Democrat (State) Senator Switches Parties… Video Goes Viral (Nationally)
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Non-Council Submissions

• Canada Free Press -Obama ducks criticism of his support of Muslim Brotherhood Morsi with lies submitted by The Political Commentator
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• The Chronicle of Higher Education – Against Environmental Panicsubmitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• 
  
• Andrew McCarthy – Elections Are Not Democracy submitted byJoshuapundit
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• The Duck Of Minerva – The Israel Lobby and the Nixon Administration submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
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• The Whited Sepulchre – Happy Independence Day ! – (let’s start another government) submitted by Simply Jews
• 
  
• The Augean Stables – The Constriction of Western Intelligentsia-Honor/Shame Dynamics submitted by Liberty’s Spirit
• 
  
• American Thinker – Political Correctness Is Cultural Marxismsubmitted by The Right Planet
• 
  
• Aeon Magazine –Magic or Medicine? submitted by The Razor
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• ABC Religion And Ethics – The End of American Protestantismsubmitted by The Glittering Eye
• 
  
• Victor Davis Hanson –Nemesis, After All submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
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• DougRoss@Journal – Comic Book Version Suitable for Low Information Voters: The Road to Serfdom submitted by Rhymes with Right
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• FOX News – Restructure US government to make “huge” green changes in America, study proposes submitted by VA Right!
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• Investor’s Business Daily – Egypt Needs Chile-Style Free Market Reforms submitted by The Watcher
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• The Lonely Conservative – The Horrific, Brutal Murder The Media Has Ignored submitted by Watcher
• 
  

The Economist cover this week shows a man whose face is painted with the colors of the Egyptian flag under the words “Egypt’s Tragedy.” Writing that while  Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood he represented “politics (as) subsidiary to religion, and are downright hostile to the attitudes towards women and minorities that pervade the Islamist movement,” the magazine worries that their ouster “sets a dreadful precedent for the region.”

Many dictators have taken power through the ballot box yet few have given up power that way. Both the Greeks and the Romans elected leaders who later became tyrants and seized power.  Two millennia later both Hitler and Benito Mussolini were democratically elected to their nation’s highest offices. Fidel Castro used the power of his rebel army to guarantee his election as Prime Minister of Cuba in 1959. More recently the Iranian regime took power in elections after the fall of the Shah in 1979, and haven’t had a free and open election since. Hugo Chavez. Hamas in Gaza. Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. Dictators throughout history and around the world have found using elections to gain power is much easier than taking power by force.

Yet the list of dictatorships that lost an election and ceded power as a result is quite short. There surely must be one, but I can’t think of any. The ruling South African National party lost the 1994 election in which Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa, but while the National Party excluded blacks from the vote, it was still a Democratic regime. The revolutions that swept Eastern Europe in 1989 from East Germany to the Soviet Union came about after massive protests, and the elections of Lech Walesa and Vaclev Havel and other opposition leaders and parties in the former Soviet Bloc resulted from these protests not through constitutional elections. When dictatorial regimes take power, they mean to keep it, and one of the first things they do is rig the Law to insure their place at the top of society in perpetuity.

So why do liberals hold elections in such high regard, resulting in farcical acts such as former president Jimmy Carter certifying the election of Hamas in Gaza or Hugo Chavez in Venezuela? One man one vote is a pervasive ideal that cuts across ideologies and forms of government. It is the start of the Republican form, and is found in everything from pure Democracy (think Switzerland), Socialism, Communism and Anarchism. Because casting a vote ideally represents an individual’s free will, the resulting form of government is thereby a legitimate expression of the voter’s intent. But history is replete with examples proving  such an ideal is a complete fallacy. Voters may believe they are electing a protector of democracy only to see him become a tyrant after taking power. Or voters may use the opportunity to choose a non-democratic regime as has happened in Iran and Gaza.

What an election can do though is confer the mantle of legitimacy upon a dictatorship, and in Marxist philosophy such a dictatorship (by the proletariat) is necessary to reach the higher stages of communist development. Could this explain the progressive movement’s obsession with ballots? Honestly I’d be surprised if progressives thought that far ahead so other reasons must underlay the obsession.

Having an election does not guarantee a country is a liberal democracy. Such a belief that it does is yet another example of liberal magical thinking that confuses actions and results. An election cannot guarantee a functioning democracy just as a single battle cannot determine the outcome of a war. Democracy only has a long history on the European continent, and even there it is only within the last 50 years that democratic institutions have developed roots that can withstand the changes wrought when one regime leaves power and another replaces it. Even there a democratic Germany had to be restored through force of arms, Spain has only become democratic within the past 30 years, and the continent itself cannot decide how to govern itself at all levels, from the local through national to the international (the EU is far from being the pinnacle of Democracy).

Instead Democracy is a long process and casting ballots in an election has more symbol than substance. A free and fair election is meaningful only when institutions exist to support the results such as a free press, an independent judiciary and a military firmly under civilian authority. It is much more difficult to create these institutions from scratch than it is to throw an election without them. The American Occupation authorities in post-war Japan found this out the hard way when it allowed local and national elections in the aftermath of the war and watched the well-organized (and Soviet provisioned) Communist Party win them. Instead of ceding Japan to the Soviets, it annulled the elections and focused on creating the conditions necessary for democracy to eventually take root and Japan is better off today than it would have been otherwise. The US exercised a degree of authoritarian control in Japan and to a lesser extent in post-war West Germany that would be difficult to replicate in today’s politically correct times where “all cultures are equal” including those without any understanding of or foundation in Democracy.

Egypt’s democratic history is scant, it’s institutions non-existent. Any election Egypt holds is not going to usher in a democracy, it will instead legitimize and autocracy. Is a Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship better for Egypt and the world than a military one? It is difficult to judge, but there are more instances of the army returning to their barracks and ceding power to civilian authority than there are of clerics returning to the mosques and doing the same. A magazine as venerable as The Economist should know this more than anyone.

While waiting for a video to start at YouTube I was subjected to an ad that I couldn’t escape. Normally when forced in such a situation I open another browser window and minimize the window running the advertisement until it’s over, but something immediately caught my eye in this commercial so I kept watching it. I quickly realized I was watching History being made. Here’s the ad:

 

For decades Madison Avenue has treated men as buffoons in the laundry room and the kitchen, barely able to put two words together in a sentence without their wive’s condescending help. It’s as if advertising agencies are stuck in the 1970s while the rest of America has moved on.

In my household I do all of the cooking and most of the housework. I also did most of the laundry until I passed the task onto my teenage son when I got tired of doing midweek loads so that he could wear his favorite shirt twice in one week. And I happen to be extremely brand loyal to only a handful of products, and Tide happens to be one of those brands. I don’t think I’ve used another laundry detergent since returning to the States from abroad 16 years ago.

I’ve spoken to other men who have taken on what has been traditionally considered “woman’s work” for a variety of reasons. Some like me have done so because their wives work longer hours. Others do it because they like the independence that comes with keeping a household functioning. Still others, including myself, view it as yet another expression of a man’s mastery of his world. If I can replace the heating element of the clothes dryer, why shouldn’t I be able to properly launder the clothes that go into the appliance?

In the YouTube comments a commentator sees this advertisement as the continued feminization of men, but I don’t see it that way at all. I see a father sharing the joy of raising a child and building a bond with her that will last a lifetime and embodying the qualities of fatherhood. I see a man showing the masculine trait of being comfortable within his own skin and not worrying about what others think. I see a man who by extending the definition of manly to include what was once considered the domain of women underscores the independent spirit laying at the heart of what it means to be a man.

Being a man doesn’t mean taking on a role which has traditionally defined the sex; it means extending that role into new areas of living that prove the creative and positive nature of masculinity to women and to the boys who look up to them asking themselves what being a man in the 21st century means. It’s not switching gender roles with women but moving our identity to encompass new ground, and doing so quietly, with humility and confidence.

Yes it’s just a commercial, but its presentation was so different that not only did it keep me watching it in amazement, but served to give me hope that while men have been devalued and derided so often and for so long, perhaps attitudes are beginning to change. I’m cynical enough to not hold my breath, and in the meantime I’ve got to move a load of laundry into the dryer.

Council Winners

• *First place with 2  2/3 votes! The Razor – Why a Supporter of Gay Marriage Isn’t Happy with the Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage
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• Second place with 2  votes – Liberty’s Spirit-We The People
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• Third place t with 1 2/3 votes – Joshuapundit-An Update On The Zimmerman Trial
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• Third place t with 1 2/3  votes – Simply Jews-Yes, President Morsi Is Jewish
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• Fourth place t with 1 1/3 votes – The Right Planet-Strategem for Republicans: On the Issue of Issues
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• Fourth place t with 1 1/3 votes – Nice Deb-Why Do Republicans Want To Prop Up A Scandal Plagued President?
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• Fifth place t with 1 vote – The Noisy Room- It’s “Not An Invasion,” If We Think They Belong Here
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• Fifth place t with 1 vote – Bookworm Room –Marriage’s open frontiers in America
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• Sixth place  with 2/3 vote – The Political Commentator – Iran and the U.S. Commander-in-Competent!
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• Seventh  place t with 1/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey–Celebrities Love Social Media … Except When They Don’t
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• Seventh place t with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi –Sexual Assault and Harassment in the United States Navy 
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Non-Council Winners

• First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Barry Rubin- As Slander and Hatred Mount: Where is the Rallying for Israel? submitted by Simply Jews
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• Second place t with 2  votes – Roger L. Simon – Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State this July 4th?   submitted by Joshuapundit
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• Second place t with 2  votes – Mark Steyn – The Simulacrum of Self-Government   submitted by The Watcher
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• Third place with 1 2/3 votes -Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion -Zimmerman Update — How Much Injury Is Required Before Self-Defense is Justified?   submitted by The Glittering Eye
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• Fourth place with 1 1/3 votes -Claire Lopez/Gatestone Institute -Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate?    submitted by The Noisy Room
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• Fifth place t with 1 vote - Victor Davis Hanson – Liberal Apartheid   submitted by The Right Planet
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• Fifth place t with 1 vote -TF Stern’s Rantings  – They Chose…Poorly   submitted by Rhymes With Right
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• Sixth place t with 2/3 vote -Charlie Martin/PJ Lifestyle –Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate? submitted byBookworm Room
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• Sixth place t with 2/3 vote -Michael Totten –Bluffing In Cairo   submitted by The Razor
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• Sixth place t with 2/3 vote -Emet m’Tsiyon –Obama’s Hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an enemy of the Jews And Holocaust Facilitatorsubmitted by The Political Commentator
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• Seventh place t with 1/3 vote -The Compass –America’s terorrism Strategy Makes No Sense   submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
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• Seventh place t with 1/3 vote -Bruce Bawer –If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em?   submitted by The Watcher
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Council Submissions

• The Colossus of Rhodey – Celebrities Love Social Media … Except When They Don’t
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• Liberty’s Spirit – We The People
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• Simply Jews – Yes, President Morsi Is Jewish
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• The Noisy Room – It’s “Not An Invasion,” If We Think They Belong Here
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• Joshuapundit- An Update On The Zimmerman Trial
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• The Political Commentator – Iran and the U.S. Commander-in-Competent!
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• The Mellow Jihadi – Sexual Assault and Harassment in the United States Navy
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• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Egypt’s Next Revolution
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• The Right Planet – Strategem for Republicans: On the Issue of Issues
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• Rhymes With Right – My One And Only Comment On The Abortion Law Debate In Texas
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• VA Right! - Va Governor Bob McDonnell Billing State for Sunscreen, Dog Vitamins and Colon Detox Cleanser
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• The Glittering Eye -VRA Now, VRA Tomorrow, VRA Forever
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• The Razor – Why a Supporter of Gay Marriage Isn’t Happy with the Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage
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• Bookworm Room – Marriage’s open frontiers in America
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• Nice Debs – Why Do Republicans Want To Prop Up A Scandal Plagued President?
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Honorable Mentions

• Ask Marion – Freedom Party or GOP Overhaul… You Be the Judge
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• Maggie’s Notebook – Amina Sboui Tyler Trial July 4: FEMEN Topless Protests – In a Mosque: My Body Not Your Honor – Topless Jihad Day
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• The Pirate’s Cove – Obama Calls For “Calm” In Egypt While Offering Toast To Tanzanian Dictator
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Non-Council Submissions

• Douglas Ernst – Matt Lauer grills Paula Deen over the N-word, NSA listens, laughs submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
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• Melanie Phillips – A Hysterical and Ignorant Response submitted byLiberty’s Spirit
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• Barry Rubin – As Slander and Hatred Mount: Where is the Rallying for Israel? submitted by Simply Jews
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• Claire Lopez/Gatestone Institute –U.S. Keeps Joining the Forces of Jihad submitted by The Noisy Room
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• Roger L. Simon – Is America in a Pre-Revolutionary State this July 4th?submitted by Joshuapundit
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• Emet m’Tsiyon -Obama’s Hero, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an enemy of the Jews & Holocaust Facilitator submitted by The Political Commentator
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• Maggie’s Farm –What could have beens in Vietnam submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
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• The Compass – America’s terorrism Strategy Makes No Sense submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
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• Victor Davis Hanson – Liberal Apartheid submitted by The Right Planet
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• TF Stern’s Rantings – They Chose…Poorly submitted by Rhymes with Right
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• The Right Scoop – FANTASTIC: Mark Levin asks what if Boehner gave a Lincolnesque speech on Obamacare like this? submitted by VA Right!
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• Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion – Zimmerman Update — How Much Injury Is Required Before Self-Defense is Justified? submitted by The Glittering Eye
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• Michael Totten –Bluffing In Cairo submitted by The Razor
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• Charlie Martin/PJ Lifestyle-Can We Actually Even Tell if Humans Are Affecting the Climate? submitted by Bookworm Room
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• Andrew Malcolm, IBD -The disturbing pattern: Obama rids America’s military of yet another top general submitted by Nice Debs
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• Mark Steyn – The Simulacrum of Self-Government submitted by The Watcher
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• Bruce Bawer/FrontPage – If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em? submitted by Watcher
• 
  

FT columnist Gideon Rachmann explains liberal disillusionment with Obama:

Yet those who argue that the world was duped and Mr Obama is simply a fraud are making a mistake. Before disappearing into a lather of anger and disappointment, the president’s critics should consider some counter-arguments.
First, some of the decisions that Mr Obama has made that liberals hate are partly a result of some other decisions that they liked. Foreigners have largely applauded the Obama administration’s decision to wind down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, if you are not going to go after your enemies on the ground, you may need other methods. Mr Obama’s controversial expansion of the drone strike programme is closely linked to his reluctance to deploy troops on the ground.
Similarly, Mr Obama has rightly received some credit for his decision to end torture of terrorist suspects, including such practices as waterboarding. But the need to gather information on terror threats remains – and the massive expansion of electronic monitoring is partly a response to that.

Read the entire thing.