Wednesday, July 11. 2007
Here. With an interesting interview. Baqubah sounds much better, but Baghdad still sounds like a mess. The only people who can "win" this thing are the Iraqis, but if they fail, we fail. Weak sisters, I am afraid.
A reader pointed out that VDH emitted an excellent rant on education which, while more articulate and detailed than mine of last week, led in the same direction. Plus he was a prof for a long time, and I never was. All that I did was to pay the bills.
 For those who are inclined towards a federalist, libertarian view of the American nation, the debate about the Most Destructive President probably ought to be about Lincoln and FDR.
Lincoln - a superb and fascinating human being by any measure - squashed any pretense of voluntary confederation among the units of the young nation. FDR elevated the power of the Federal government over the individual to levels which never could have been imagined previously. However, the ultimate result of the sickening Civil War has been positive - freedom for many and preservation of the union (although one may and should question whether maintaining the union was worth the destruction of the South and 620,000 dead - the most in any war in America's history). FDR's accumulation of power in DC has been an enduring disaster which, because of the numbers of clients and beneficiaries, may be impossible to undo short of rebellion (see Vermont's recent threats to secede, but for different reasons). Did the New Deal have any impact on the Depression? No, none - and some argue that New Deal policies helped to perpetuate the Depression. But "he cared." I am sure that he did. Individual freedom from government power is always stolen with the excuse of "crisis." (Thus the Left has learned to have a "crisis du jour" to try to justify the expansion of the Federal government at the expense of the states and the citizen.) The Great Depression was the seemingly permanent crisis which was used to justify almost any power grab by Washington. How was this done? The notion of a permanent severe scarcity crisis was presented, which supposedly only Roosevelt's leftist (more acurately, Stalinist) government experts were smart enough to deal with. A piece on the subject by Captain Ed pointed me to George Will's review of Shlaes' The Forgotten Man, which we have discussed here earlier. A quote from Will: Before Roosevelt, the federal government was unimpressive relative to the private sector. Under Calvin Coolidge, the last pre-Depression president, its revenue averaged 4 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 18.6 percent today. In 1910, Congress legislated height limits for Washington buildings, limits that prevented skyscrapers, symbols of mighty business, from overshadowing the Capitol, the symbol of government. In 1936, for the first time in peacetime history, federal spending exceeded that of the states and localities combined. Roosevelt said that modern "civilization" has tended "to make life insecure." Hence Social Security, which had the added purpose of encouraging workers to retire, thereby opening jobs to younger people. Notice the assumptions of permanent scarcity, and that the government has a duty to distribute scarce things, such as work.
The New Deal "brain trust" was wrong about theory, wrong about the American vision of freedom, and wrong about the direction of the future. You can read a couple of our previous pieces on this subject here and here. Addendum: The Jacksonian makes a different argument - for Pres. Wilson, here. He makes the case that the political changes from 1909-1919 set the stage for FDR. A good read.
 Neoneo has it figured out. What's the big rush about Iraq? Same as the rush was with immigration: the Dems, and now the Repubs too, want those messy issues off the table before the election. Nobody likes what is going on in Iraq - especially the failure of Iraq internal politics - but nobody wants to deal with the consequences of the mess in the ME that would probably follow if we throw them overboard.
Chantix: It reduces desire for both tobacco and alcohol. Maybe they should put it in the water (along with Prozac, of course). We have been saying it for over a year - that the EU is an unelected Empire - the Empire that Napoleon and Bismark and Hitler had hoped to achieve by arms. Finally, the EU admits it. Remarkable that anyone would admit the truth so directly. As we have said before, nowadays invasions happen via immigration, Imperialism via bureaucracy, and individual freedom is stolen by "caring" elected officials. Europeans have become such sheep that arms are no longer needed to run them over. The Ides of July. Shrinkwrapped speculates about looming trouble. Studies show that wives rule the roost, statistically anyway. Dr. X. Duh. Any time a woman tries to give you that "poor little me" BS, watch out for that iron hand inside that soft Gucci glove. Just ask Larry Summers. The 24-hour rule on news. Wizbang. Problem is, most folks just remember the first version. Another old-time back woods Southern tradition falls victim to the goo-goos. NeverYet Melted. Gentrification of the swamp? What would Pogo say? How foolishly does the gummint spend your hard-earned money? Right Wing Prof on a monumentally unsuccessful obesity campaign. Didn't you older folks have the big fight about colleges being in loco parentis back in the 60s? So why now do we have those old 60s libs trying to do the opposite with kids now? On my nickel. Speaking of obesity, the obese survive heart attacks better. The experts can't figure it out, but I have a theory: carrying all of that lard around all the time gives them stronger hearts.
Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I say unto you, not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. Jesus, in Luke 12:27 
Tuesday, July 10. 2007
I have no idea whether they can be commercial, but the idea of not supporting the oil-producing nations sounds good. But Ford?
 For the pleasure and convenience of our handful of readers who really enjoy Bob, we are adding to our Dylan blogroll category
All Along the Watchtower and About Bob. By the way, where is Bob this month?
Red Mosque update. Telegraph
Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children - by David Harsanyi. Great subtitle. Denver Post columnist Harsanyi has a new blog, too. (h/t, Ed Driscoll). The piece on Food Addiction is amusing. I have had a lot of trouble giving up food too.
 As the Feds gradually gain power over everything that used to be left to the states and to localities - not to mention to the individual citizen himself - the wonderful Federalist concept of states as "laboratories for democracy" has been whittled away.
But the arrogant and power-intoxicated Feds still cannot control state and local taxation. Willisms has one of his excellent graphs demonstrating the out-migration from high-debt states. High-debt states are, inevitably, high-tax states, because they run their government on a credit card. Good piece at Cato on the subject of soaring state and local debt. Some localities are spending 30-40% of their tax revenues on debt service. That is no way to run a railroad. Image: The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, famous for being a laboratory of incremental socialism
I have been lax with our fallacy fun, but suddenly some good'uns are thrown in my face. Reductio ad absurdum is not really a logical fallacy but, at its worse, a fallacy support and, at its best, a fairly compelling logical argument, eg (from Wiki): - Father- Why did you start smoking?
- Daughter - All my friends were doing it.
- Father- You're saying that if all your friends jumped off a cliff, you would do that too?
Reductio can serve the purpose of truth or the purpose of fallaciousness. Example: "If we can go into Iraq to take out a murderous dictator, then we should take out every murderous dictator on earth."
As with the Slippery Slope Fallacy, some credibility is obtained via the logical thread, but the germ of logicality is rendered trivial by the reality and the context. Attack Machine invented the entirely reasonable and useful notion of Dilatare ad Absurdum: Expansion to Absurdity. He presents a beautiful example of expansion to absurdity in a piece on the equating of basic human needs with human rights. In his example, both reality and context support the dilatare. It begins: LA Mayor Antonio recently gushed, “Healthcare is a basic human need, and it ought to be a basic human right.” If healthcare is a right, then: - Food must be a right, too. After all, you cannot be healthy if you don’t eat.
- Clothing is a right because you cannot be healthy and naked (in most parts of the world.)
Read the whole thing. I like it. It's similar to the arguments I use to crush all of my commie friends, such as "People need cars to get to work. So why can't we all get free cars and free car insurance?" Or "Legal representation is a basic human right in a free country, so why don't we all get free lawyers?"
 Drove down to JFK on Saturday to put the youngest pup on a plane to spend a while in Barcelona to soak up some Spanish history, literature and culcha. Yes, and to perfect her Spanish too.
For me, the highest points of Spanish culture are El Greco and Cervantes - but probably not the astonishing Gaudi. Words like "ugly," "strange," and "hallucinogenic" do not do justice to how interesting his buildings are to look at, though. Here are some Gaudi buildings. Photo is Gaudi's Casa Batllo in Barcelona.
 Al Gore's persuasiveness and intellectual brilliance finally got through to us. We are officially going green. One Friday per month will henceforth be Green Beer Night in order to save the planet. (Sorry for showing a photo of green beer at what is breakfast time for some our Yankee readers.) Next month, maybe Green Eggs and Ham.
What was so memorable about JFK? Town Hall. Not much that matters, really. He was a pretty good conservative, though, the way I see it. Iraq FM warns against US withdrawal. TANSTAAFL. Enuf said. Dem advisor: "Appeal to their emotions, not their brains." I find that approach overly logical... RFK Jr on warming deniers (via Drudge): "Get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington, who are nothing more than corporate toadies," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmentalist author, president of Waterkeeper Alliance and Robert F. Kennedy's son, who grew hoarse from shouting. "This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors." Hyperbole or insanity? I find it a bit creepy. I guess I'm a traitor, RFK Jr. I dare you to try to hang me. Mom complains about her Marine Corps son going to war. It's his job, for Pete's sake. Jules Cognitive dissonance at the NYT. Donnelly at The Daily Standard. In one hand they hold the narrative, and in the other hand, the facts. I like Melanie Phillips, but how naive is she? Larry Auster. I have heard her interviewed, and she didn't seem this out to lunch at all.
Monday, July 9. 2007
 Today, one of the Bird Dog litter began her first big job in NYC. She was appropriately apprehensive. More accurately, scared halfway out of her mind. I sent her an email this morning: "Be brave and strong, honey. You can do it!"
While chatting with Mrs. Bird Dog tonight, she told me that she had sent her an email too: "Are you going to wear the pearls I gave you?"
 A story the MSM will not print. Powerline. Rush always says "Follow the money," but with the news it always makes sense to "Follow the Narrative." The narrative always determines the "news."
John Leo on good writing. h/t, Ed Driscoll. Good reminders in there for me.
 A note at Villainous led me to the Paragraph Farmer's essay on "snark," defined as "snidely derisive".
I went to prep school with a kid named Snidely P.Q. DeRiseve lll from Locust Valley, Long Island. It must be the same guy. Wore an ascot, family had a place in Quogue, a nice pied a terre on Park Avenue and a flat in Paris? And that piece led me to an old piece by our hero P.J. O'Rourke from Parliament of Whores about a Farm Bill. Everything O'Rourke said about Farm Bills then is still true, except that the farmers are much wealthier today.
Re-wiring the addicted brain. Tyee. Straight talk about immigration. "Close the f-ing border first." Right. Kim. If you have a leaky pipe, you turn off the water before you repair the leak. Wishful Thinking Department. The desire to believe that terrorists are the Keystone Cops. Neoneo What is Syria up to now? Why isn't it reported by the MSM? Classical Values. Likewise the Red Mosque story: why not reported? Dreaming of a heroically liberal Supreme Court. Althouse Zawahiri is worried about how things are going in Iraq. SDA Is Al Gore still involved in politics? Hewitt Ten politically-incorrect truths about human nature. Psychology Today, via Flares. Why Moslem docs in the UK? Because Brits don't want to be docs working for the NHS. Dino Excellent example of how screwed-up the NYT is these days: Powerline. They have a political agenda, and that is what they are all about. When facts don't fit the narrative, they land on the cutting room floor. For another example, why does the NYT deal with Iran as it does? Lasky at American Thinker. A quote: The paper's power is hard to overestimate. The Times creates the newscape of America: the issues it chooses to highlight and the perspective it brings to these issues are the genesis behind the news coverage of the mainstream media. What it chooses to be "fit to print" becomes, through its sway and news syndicate, the stories that fill America's daily news. Arthur ("Pinch") Sulzberger has alluded that it has been his desire to drive public policy since his Vietnam-war era college days. He has accomplished his mission. The paper's potency reaches the halls of Congress; the agenda that drives the paper often becomes the agenda in Washington. Herein lies the peril: by presenting a Pollyannaish view of Iran's intentions and abilities, the paper has served to spin the news in a way that has demonstrably minimized the threat from Iran, has eroded our ability to thwart Iran's nuclear program, and has ridiculed and dismissed the concerns of people who take a more wary and realistic view regarding the Iranian regime.
On same topic, Fifth Column Rushes to Defend Iran. Front Page
 A new weekly feature at Maggie's Farm! Ask Dr. Bliss!
Dr. Bliss can tell you how to be happy, healthy and wise. She knows the Meaning of Life, the Purpose of Existence, the True Nature of God, whether human relationships are worth the bother, which of your sexual and violent fantasies are sick and which are wholesome, how to please a man, what your mother really thought about you, and where to find the best prices for Manolos.
Photo: Our Dr. Joy Bliss in a pensive moment, contemplating the mind-brain problem, the mysteries of counter-counter-transference, and wondering what shoes to wear tomorrow. (Yes, it's a friendly spoof of our blog friend Dr. Helen, who has begun an Ask Dr. Helen feature at Pajamas Media - an excellent idea, and we are chagrined that we did not think of it first.) Editor's Note: Check the comments. Wiseacres abound around here.
I am a democrat [believer in democracy] because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that every one deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they're not true. . . . I find that they're not true without looking further than myself. I don't deserve a share in governing a hen-roost, much less a nation. . . . The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.
C.S. Lewis, in his essay Equality (as quoted at Evang. Outpost)
Check out the "Dreamliner"
Sunday, July 8. 2007
 Is Iran on the path to self-destruction? Forbes
Jihadists on the police force. Riehl. Yes, that is suicidal. The newest line on Iraq: "The Iraqi government let us down." Blame them. Of course, there is some truth to it. Alan Johnson's ransom paid by the BBC: 5 million dollars and a million bullets. Where does one buy a million Kalashnikov bullets? And does the Beeb care who those bullets end up inside of? Samizdata quotes a Telegraph review of The Islamist, which is written by Ed Husain, former terrorist: Mr Husain, whose book, The Islamist, exposed the workings of Hizb ut-Tahir, is contemptuous of the idea that the latest plots were inspired by the West's intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. "This is just an excuse. They reject Western culture full stop, not just 'slags in night clubs'. They would have supported the bombing of Muslims attending the cinema in Cairo in the 1950s. They do not want Muslims to enjoy social freedoms. If it was not Iraq they would cite Chechnya. Or Palestine. These are angry men. Accommodation is not an option. It has to be containment or annihilation." A quote from Augean Stables, re dealing with the Moslem manipulations to which some are so foolishly susceptible: ...isn’t it time we stopped being condescending racists, treating them as children even as we loudly proclaim our respect for them? The conflict right now divides along two mutually exclusive lines. The hawks say, “let’s get tough, only force will work.” The doves say, “let’s be nice, only talk will work.” How about some verbal confrontations? How about every Western newspaper publishing the Danish Cartoons (with the three fake ones identified as psy-ops incitement) so that Muslims the world over are embarrased by the revolting behavior of their co-religionists, rather than we and decent Muslims are subject to the temper tantrum of the touchiest and most violent of the lot? How about the Pope saying “you’ve got to be kidding!” when the Muslims violently insist he apologize for calling them violent? How about the Brits saying, “We take this level of self-criticism as part and parcel of a decent and tolerant society. If you can’t stand the heat, a) get out of the kitchen, and b) don’t expect us to take your criticism of us seriously until you can take the heat?
Re the above, Cal Thomas: "I'm going to keep pointing it out until they blow me up"
Being a black lesbian. We must always remember that Victim Points accumulate exponentially, not arithmetically. A white guy treated the same way gets 0 Victim Points, and thus ends with 0, and therefore no cash award. And, under the updated rules, even white gay guys start with 0 points: the white part plus the testicles are the problem and white testosterone is, of course, the main obstacle to world peace and happiness - except for the crisis of Globalistical Warmening, of course. Proof of AGW: it's darn hot today in CT. QED. Absolutely beautiful, with every Happy Hydrangea in Yankeeland shouting the Sabbath news that God Lives. Tennis (off the TV and onto the courts - inspired by the great Federer and the young Nadal), then maybe a drink by the pool - and not one more second for me today in the internets.
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