NoisyRoom.net

The Watcher’s Council

Me too, lil’ weasel. Me too! Because there was certainly a lot of information, entertainment and stimulation in this week’s entries… but then, there always is.

The Council has weighed in, made its judgment known and the results are hereby engraved in our marble archives here in deepest cyberspace.

The above is a tweet posted by lefty comedian Chris Rock on July Fourth, America’s Independence Day. One of the added benefits of writing this week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s Gettysburg – A Fourth Of July Long Ago, was being able to reply to this ignoramus, include a tiny url link to it and remind him that today was also the anniversary of a great many white people dying to free his ancestors… and that he should be ashamed of himself.

I doubt it had any effect (it seldom does with that mentality), but it did make me feel good and apparently a few other people as well.

In any case, here’s a slice:

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass.Let me work. – Carl Sandburg

One hundred and forty-nine years ago today, brave men fought in and around a small town in Pennsylvania to determine whether the Union would endure or whether it would not.

The Battle of Gettysburg broke the tide of the advance of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and while the war itself didn’t end for another 22 months, Gettysburg decided the outcome.

Lee’s objective was psychological as much as strategic. By 1863 there was substantial sentiment in the North to allow the Confederacy to go its own way and end what had become an increasingly bloody, unpopular and costly war. By subjecting the North to the same sort of invasion the South had been subjected to – in essence, bringing the war home – Lee hoped to increase this sentiment and force the North to negotiate a settlement.

Gettysburg was very much an accidental battle. Neither side was really looking to fight here, but the armies accidentally collided, largely because Lee was deprived of Jeb Stuart’s cavalry in the early stages of the battle and thus lacked his usual awareness of where the Union forces were. Once the initial impact was made,on July 1st 1863 in a battle between Brigadier General John Buford’s Union cavalry division and two corps of Union infantry and two large Confederate corps that attacked from the north and northwest under General Richard Ewell, the armies came together and the battle was on.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Potluck – A Tale of One Tragedy and Two Campaigns submitted by The Watcher. It’s an absolutely wonderful piece that perfectly illustrates the difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, and I’m sure you’ll find it as illuminating as I and the Council did.

Here are this week’s full results. Only The Independent Sentinel was unable to vote this week and was affected by the 2/3 vote penalty:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 1/3 votes! – Joshuapundit – Gettysburg – A Fourth Of July Long Ago
• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes – Bookworm Room – Judge Roberts’ decision forces Americans to stand on their own two feet and that’s a good thing
• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes – VA Right! – My Doctor Is a Flaming Pro-ObamaCare Liberal – Time to Change Doctors!
• Third place with 2 votes – Gay Patriot – Contemporary liberalism: preferring the abstract “good” to the imperfect real?
• Fourth place with 1 vote – The Noisy Room – Obama Lies, Taxes Rise
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The America Iran War of 2013
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Right Planet – SCOTUS Obamacare Ruling: The Government Can Now Tax Any Human Activity
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Mellow Jihadi – Muslim Targets
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Razor – Global Warming Heretics Aren’’t Stupid
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Simply Jews – Dan Savage and the “house faggots” incident

Non-Council Winners

• *First place with 2 1/3 votes! – Potluck – A Tale of One Tragedy and Two Campaigns submitted by The Watcher
• Second place with 1 2/3 votes – John Woo/WSJ – Chief Justice Roberts and His Apologists submitted by Joshuapundit
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Mark Steyn – Constitutional Contortions submitted by The Noisy Room
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Sultan Knish – Why The Newsroom is Good News for Republicans submitted by The Right Planet
• Third place*t* with 1 1/3 votes – Zero Hedge – The Dummy’s Guide To Healthcare submitted by Gay Patriot
• Third place *t* with 1 1/3 votes – Hot Air – The Navy’s “Great Green Fleet” sets sail submitted by VA Right!
• Fourth place with 1 vote – Human Rights Watch – Syria’s Torture Archipelago submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Passing Parade – Reform, or can I have another cookie, please? submitted by Simply Jews
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Sir Winston Churchill – We shall fight on the beaches submitted by Bookworm Room
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Dan Drezner/Foreign Policy – An open letter to the Mitt Romney on American foreign policy leadership submitted by The Glittering Eye
• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – Barry Rubin – Former Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir Dies at 96: A Personal Memory submitted by The Watcher
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Taki’s Magazine – Gangsters At Sea submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Buckhorn Road – Seeing Obama’s incompetence with my own eyes submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – TaxPolitics – When is a Tax Not a Tax? When the White House Says So submitted by Rhymes With Right

See you next week! Remember to tune in next Monday for the Watcher’s Forum question, where the Council and invited guests provide pithy short takes as a roundtable on a cutting edge major issue… don’t you DARE MISS IT! And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter… ’cause we’re cool like that!