This week’s Watcher’s submissions *UPDATED*

It’s a duty — because, as a member of the Watcher’s Council, I have to vote — but it’s also a great, great pleasure to read the weekly submissions at the Watcher’s Council site.  Today, I get to read and vote upon the following:

Council Submissions

• The Provocateur – ACORN’s Past Due Taxes
• Bookworm Room – Seasick Warriors
• The Glittering Eye – The Perversity of the Publishing System
• The Razor – A Conservative Case for Animal Rights
• Right Truth – British National Party (BNP) – Are they racist? Anti-semitic?
• Soccer Dad – The cairo context
• Joshuapundit – Live In Cairo – The Lap Dance Of The Seven Veils
• Mere Rhetoric – The WH’s Eight-Step Plan For Detonating The US-Israel Relationship
• The Colossus of Rhodey – A tale of badly misplaced priorities
• Wolf Howling – Obama’s Cairo Address: What We Needed, What We Got

Non-Council Submissions

• Submitted By: The Watcher – Marc Epstein at City Journal – Not Worth the Paper . . .
• Submitted By: The Provocateur – Real Clear Politics – Geithner Brings the Laughs in China
• Submitted By: Bookworm Room – Jewish World Review – Frank Gaffney: America’s First Muslim President
• Submitted By: The Glittering Eye – Pajamas Media – The Reckoning
• Submitted By: The Razor – The Jacksonian Party – Straw, Stuffing and Notation
• Submitted By: Right Truth – StratFor – West Bank Settlements and the Future of U.S.-Israeli Relations
• Submitted By: Soccer Dad – The optimistic conservative – The next phase of WWIV part 2
• Submitted By: Joshuapundit – Ralph Peters – What Obama Taught Me- Wonderful Arabs, American Slavers, Wicked Jews
• Submitted By: Mere Rhetoric – Christopher Hitchens – When the Extreme Becomes the Norm
• Submitted By: The Colossus of Rhodey – The New Humanist – Free Market Faith
• Submitted By: Wolf Howling – Big Lizards – Sonia “Banana Peel” Sotomayor Slips Again – and Again – and Again…

I also highly recommend the Watcher’s own post, which he paired with the nominations, on “The Benjamin Button Society.”  It’s an excellent post about the tragic devolution of American culture.  I guess we couldn’t stay as hardy revolutionaries or pioneers forever, but the decline has been swift indeed.

UPDATE:  Having read and voted on the submissions, I’m going to do something I’ve never done before.  Rather than generically tell you to read all the submissions because they’re so good (and they always are), I want to recommend four of the non-Council submissions as must-reads.  They are necessary to expand any educated person’s world view:

StratFor – West Bank Settlements and the Future of U.S.-Israeli Relations

The optimistic conservative – The next phase of WWIV part 2

Real Clear Politics – Geithner Brings the Laughs in China

Christopher Hitchens – When the Extreme Becomes the Norm

I obviously did not vote on all four, since rules allow us to vote for only two — and I’m not going to tell you which two did get my vote — but I would have given each of the above articles first place if I could have.