Watchers’ Council results this week:

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

“There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.”
– Alexander Hamilton

“When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death – that is heroism.” – Robert Ingersoll

“I had the good fortune and opportunity to come home and to tell the truth; many soldiers, like Pat Tillman… did not have that opportunity. The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype.” – Jessica Lynch

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Roman Philosopher and Statesman

This week’s winning essay,The Noisy Room’s Harry’s Heroine Hikes 1,000 Miles For Wounded Troops… She’s An American Warrior All The Way [Video] is a story of heroism, of not giving in. Here’s a slice:

Meet Kirstie Ennis, one of the bravest Americans out there. Her story moved me to tears and I wanted to share it with you.

Kirstie is a 24 year-old Marine Corps veteran who toured in Afghanistan. Her life changed dramatically on June 23rd, 2012 when the massive Sikorsky CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter that she was riding on as the door gunner crashed. She survived, but woke up to a living nightmare that she almost didn’t make it through.

The butt of her gun went through her jaw and ripped it off. She was missing half her face and she was swallowing her teeth. All that happened when her 50-caliber machine gun smashed through the left side of the chopper when it crashed. Her legs and arms were crushed. Kirstie had brain and spinal damage. She thought she was going to die and that it was over for her. They don’t know why the helicopter crashed, but it was fast. When you fall at 150 ft. per second, there’s no time to wonder why. That was the day her career as a Marine ended. It was all she had wanted to do her whole life and now all she wanted to do was survive.

When she woke, she was choking on her own blood in her throat and nose. There was screaming. A medic told her not to close her eyes and stay with him. She knew that if she closed them, she would never open them again. They made it back to Camp Bastion and her long fight began. They really thought she would not make it, but Kirstie is a true Marine… a fighter and she hung on. She was so terrified, she kept throwing up on herself. She knew she would never be the same.

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Watcher’s Council

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

This week, Doug Ross, Sheryl Attkisson, and Simply Jews earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address (mandatory, but of course it won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out on Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have for you this week….

Council Submissions

• The Razor – Hillary Is Going To Miss
• The Noisy Room – Harry’s Heroine Hikes 1,000 Miles For Wounded Troops… She’s An American Warrior All The Way [Video]
• The Right Planet – BILL GATES: Only Socialism Can Save Planet
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The Strategic Tradition of Sunni Jihadism
• Maggie’s Notebook – IBD Ted Cruz Tax Reform: Economically, Politically Revolutionary –– Intellectually Dominating
• The Independent Sentinel – Wait Until You Hear What Obama Calls Convicts
• Puma By Design – Campaigns Revolt against Ben Ginsberg’s Efforts to take Control of Debate Process
• Joshuapundit–JK Rowling – When Cowardice Calls
• The Glittering Eye –The Lesser Evil
• Bookworm Room – The terrifying nihilism behind Leftists’ desire for socialized medicine
• Fausta’s Blog – Puerto Rico: Bernie Sanders and the starving kids
• VA Right! – Siobhan Dunnavant HIPAA Investigation Exposes GOP Sickness
• Nice Deb – Saturday Movie Matinee: Black Violence In Schools

Honorable Mentions

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At the Watcher’s Council,

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

““Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think?” “ – Peter Hitchens

“The very power of [textbook writers] depends on the fact that they are dealing with a boy: a boy who thinks he is ‘doing’ his ‘English prep’ and has no notion that ethics, theology, and politics are all at stake. It is not a theory they put into his mind, but an assumption, which ten years hence, its origin forgotten and its presence unconscious, will condition him to take one side in a controversy which he has never recognized as a controversy at all.” – CS Lewis, The Abolition of Man

“Schools train you to be ignorant” -Frank Zappa

“Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods in school. And the person that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool” – Plato

This week’s winning essay,Bookworm Room’s Public schools — un-educating Americans, one student at a time is a compelling look at exactly what the Left is doing to indoctrinate children in the K-12 levels to support their agenda. Here’s a slice:

I was livid this morning. One of my children asked me to quiz her about rhetorical fallacies, which she was studying for a test. The teacher had put the examples together himself and they included such gems as saying it’s a logical fallacy to argue that guns are tools in the same way hammers are tools. Another example was that it’s a logical fallacy to argue against gay marriage. To give students an insight into good arguments against logical fallacies, he directed the students to Jon Stewart’s hyper-partisan The Daily Show. Indoctrination much?

School indoctrination is a sore subject with me, since it’s endemic in Marin, as it is in any school district that has a teacher’s union. Math is tainted both by Common Core and the fuzzy math approach that’s meant to give a pass to women and minorities who apparently struggle with actual math (you know, the kind where the results are correct).
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