Filling in for the News Junkie today...
"The government is endogenous." A profound comment by Prof Bainbridge. We've been inching towards this kind of clarity, but the Prof arrived. The point being this: Why should govt be the problem solver, when it is no more rational, or even less rational, than the public? We would argue, far dumber, much more amoral - and power-hungry arrogant schmucks.
I'd like to spend some time in Mozambique. Looks good to me: Samizdata. Beautiful women, beautiful, exotic place. I am ready to go. Should be no problem for my G5 bumbling along at 50,000 feet.
Ten Step Plan to becoming a dictator. (H/t, Reader). This guy figured it out.
The truce is over. Belmont Club. What truce? The Left has been pushing surrender forever. Surrender to what? To whatever.
Melanie Phillips takes a look at Iran's 27-year war on the west.
Does Russia want to re-start the Cold War? NY Sun. I doubt it. But they do want to be players on the world stage. It's such a dump of a country, I guess they need something to feel good about.
The surge has been a success, thus far. But the bad guys are just hiding under rocks, waiting. Even the NYT, after a bit of Bush-bashing, wonders whether Murtha et all are crackpots.
The stupidity of crowds. No Pasaran takes on the Greenie-Lefties. Our opinion: the Greenies are the "useful idiots" of the Left.
Adding to blogroll: Siberian Light, Granddaddy Long Legs, Foo Bar and Grill
Catholic women's college obsessed with vaginas and sex. Is this "higher education"? Sounds like lower education to me.
Hate to quote Instapundit because everyone reads him anyway, but this blurb was too good. It captures a ton of insight:
IN THE MAIL: Michael Burleigh's Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics, from the Great War to the War on Terror.
Looks quite interesting. From the blurb: "Covering a vast canvas, Michael Burleigh examines the many secular religions the twentieth century produced, analyzing how successive totalitarian leaders coveted and mimicked the hierarchy, rites and ritual of the churches in the desire to return to the day when ruler and deity were one."
Deval changed his mind. Sorry, MA. Now he wants more of your money. I guess he changed his mind...
Should the word "scrotum" appear in kids' library books? Why not? I thought they were already teaching the little ones gay and transexual pleasuring techniques in our progressive government schools. Scrotum definitely a sensitive area.
"Fusionism" is the notion of the merging of Libertariansim and Conservatism. Is it possible? I think so, as long as folks don't feel the compulsion to be completely consistent in their politics - but who is? TCS takes a look.
More on the subject of "We're all Welfare Queens" now. How pathetic have we become as a nation? Help used to be for the folks in trouble, but now it's for everybody, including the "greedy geezers," with the predictable weakening of the human spirit and the rise of whining as a life style and a voting style. There is no way back to good old study Manhood and Womanhood, once a majority is on the dole in some way - or expects to be.
Are we raising a generation of the dependent, passive, and spineless, like Europe? Not only a serf mentality, but a surrenderist mentality. I do not wish to imagine where this sort of future takes my descendants. People who won't take up a challenge, but collapse and give up? That ain't the American Way, nor is it the Anglo-Saxon way. Nor is it the Pilgrim way, where freedom under God was every family's goal, in the face of death. Pull up your socks and get to it and give it the old college try - come what will. And pray. That's our approach. Whether it works or not, fine. We will get by. Can't beat Touch of Gray. It has got it all over Woody's sappy "This land is your land..." Touch of Gray is the American middle-aged Song, and man, could that guy play a sweet guitar? Although we do have a natural weakness for the Maggie's Farm attitude - good for all ages.
The depressing graph is from a piece at Villainous.
