Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
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Saturday, June 16. 2012Watergate and the leaksMost Americans do not remember the details of the Watergate charges and facts, if they ever knew them. Instead, the word Watergate has been used to villify President Nixon, most of what he stood for, and almost any scandal since is called a -gate. Fred Thompson was the Republican counsel on the Congressional Watergate Committee. In a look back that is important to read, Thompson reflects on the context, the charges, the findings and what the findings ignored. As the subtitle of the piece says, "Caricatures of the evil Nixon don’t help us learn how to counter abuses of power." Today, we still suffer, not just domestic breakins or coverups but the far worse wholesale usurpation of Congressional power by this President, the betrayal of allies, and the gross undermining of our national security. A taste of Thompson:
Oh, and remember, millions of lives were lost to the communist takeover of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, once the Watergate reaction put a large Democrat majority in Congress.
Posted by Bruce Kesler
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Friday, June 15. 2012Government student loans and grants are simply handouts to the education industryGrowing Pell-Mell - The government’s program to help low-income students is out of control:
Government Created Potentially Catastrophic Education Bubble:
Posted by The Barrister
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14:30
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Friday morning linksGood site: A Way to Garden GM Crops, Organic Food, & Delicious Irony The Case of Mary Richardson Kennedy Anxiety and Resurrection - I was drowning in post-partum anxiety. Then theology saved my life. No, America Does NOT Need More Scientists and Engineers Are Americans Too Dumb for Democracy? If ObamaCare Is Judged Unconstitutional, Here's How To Reform Healthcare Why Should Government Be Involved in Medicine at All? If we want affordable and cutting-edge health care, there's only one approach that will work: open competition. Sheldon Adelson and the Top 5 Super PAC Facts the Media Covers Up Gamechanger: Obama rocks America with speech everyone’s heard 50 times before; Update: Panned by … MSNBC? Only the Public Sector Is ‘Doing Fine’ Sorry, Mr. President: There’s no need to bail out the state and local governments.
Nanny Bloomberg: Point of Government Is To Improve Health of Citizens What You Get at a Fundraiser With Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker The New Communism: Resurrecting the Utopian Delusion:
Thursday, June 14. 2012The non-smoking crisisOne of our many brilliant readers came up with a theory about the terrifying and unsightly "obesity crisis." People aren't smoking tobacco enough, anymore. That's the real cause. People used to have an enjoyable, relaxing smoke in the office instead of a donut or two. Where's the graph that demonstrates the correlation between overweight and not smoking? Tobacco satisfies oral greed, suppresses appetite, produces serenity, conveys an air of edgy sophistication, brings big bucks to greedy governments and tobacco farmers like Al Gore - and we must always remember that "A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke." Now I'm sure I am in big trouble with the nannies...
Thursday morning links115-year-old turtles divorce after 36 years of ‘marriage’ Hollywood gripped by pressure system from China - To appease China and gain access to moviegoers and financing, movies include positive references to the nation (no Chinese villains!) and face censorship. Is a familial genetic legacy the right reason not to have a baby? The longest, most high resolution, most inconvenient paleoclimate data that hasn’t been published Obama is Doing Fine. He’s Only Losing Union Members, Swing Staters, the Middle Class, and Fellow Democrats Why Obama's coalition is unraveling Labor Unions are not dead. They are reloading. Wisconsin and California: Big Labor Democrats are out of touch Now, the Union Pushback - Following big victories for public-pension reform in California, the union empire takes to the courts. *Of Course* Doing Health Care Slowed the Recovery:
"Gave us health care"? Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Left? Do we need “more teachers?”: Obama’s love affair with government Obama is on the wrong side of the union debate - The president wants to send more federal money to states that just funnel it into bloated pension obligations. And Americans are tired of it “The problem is that when you over-rely on the Predator, you miss out on the intelligence,” Republican Surrenderists for Obamacare The Detroit auto bailout was, in fact, a UAW bailout. John McCain: My friends, let’s call for an outside special counsel to investigate intel leaks — Senate Dems: Let’s not, but thanks for all the bipartisanship over the years
Wednesday, June 13. 2012Weds. morning linksRecivilizing the Alley: From Service Way to Narrow Street Have alleys gotten a bum rap? Via Vanderleun, Once Lange regained his strength the people took him to their chief, a man who wore a floor-length feather garment and whose smile revealed two rows of teeth filed to points. I've been playing the same game of Civilization II for almost 10 years. Dogs to be shot in Olympic stadium Time to Crush the Myth about Gender Pay Inequality Energy Abundance vs. the Poverty of Energy Literacy Rahm Emanuel Faces Teacher Strike In Fall Emanuel May Take Away Workers’ Chauffeurs That's mean. The New Haven Register says Connecticut could learn a few things from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker when it comes to dealing with unions and taxes. Could, but will not. Gov is a union puppet Is Perestroika Coming In California? California: America’s Welfare Queen Obama's high-speed trains go off the rails America is ready for a new political realignment. Private Jobs Down 4.6 Million From January 2008; Federal Jobs Up 11.4%\ Well, why have a private sector at all? We can have 0% unemployment with the Gov running everything... I think that's been tried Dueling Stereotypes - Has Obama lost the all-important white bigot vote? Chris Matthews: 'In North Carolina a New PPP Poll Has Romney Up By Two - That’s Not Good' Not good for whom, Chris? Obama Campaign Makes Race-based Appeal to Voters I doubt we'll see a Paleface try that move The Misplaced Emphasis On The Individual Mandate: Other ACA Features Are Far Worse Federal Employees Health Program Experiences Lack Of Competition In Some Areas, Raising Cost Concerns For Exchange Plans Is "cool" racist? PA youth taught that suicide terrorists are "greatest role models" on EU-funded NGO's TV program Remembering Day 3 of the 6-Day War On the Eve is a heartrending, unabashedly compassionate portrait of doomed European Jewry. Tuesday, June 12. 2012ObamaCare’s Promises Versus ActuariesPRESIDENT OBAMA: “Finally, my proposal would bring down the cost of health care for millions -- families, businesses, and the federal government.” (President Obama, Remarks, 3/3/10)
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Office of the Actuary, 6/12/12:
Posted by Bruce Kesler
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18:46
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Tuesday morning linksThe Second-Rate City? Chicago’s swift, surprising decline presents formidable challenges for new mayor Rahm Emanuel. The origins of homosexuality explained Media Myth Debunked: Class Sizes Have Dropped 40 Percent Since 1960 EPA power grab to regulate ditches, gullies on private property Feds regulating my ditches? They'll have to pry my shovel from my cold dead hands. Suddenly, Many Ways For Romney to Reach 270 Electoral Votes Rep. Peter King: National Security Leaks Came From the White House New Yorker Imagines An Obama 2nd Term ..I don’t believe what I write, what I say, or how I live my life. I just do it for the sweet, sweet check from the Koch Brothers I get each month. Gallup Poll: Jewish Support for Obama Plummets Krugman speaks to empty room Obama: I couldn’t go to Wisconsin to campaign against Scott Walker because I was busy with stuff Liberals Are In Disarray Obama’s early Chicago rise brought African-Americans foreclosures, bankruptcies Big Changes in College Health Plans - Schools Are Raising Premiums Sharply or Dropping Offerings Altogether as Low-Benefit Options Are Disallowed Does the EU Support Suicide Bombing? The really shocking thing is that a massacre of children hardly mattered. They died for Westphalia. ObamaCare's Secret History - How a Pfizer CEO and Big Pharma colluded with the White House at the public's expense. Also, Obama Aides Helped Plan Ads to Back Health Bill, GOP Says The optimism during Vietnam’s pre-2008 economic boom is over. The Communist Party knows it must take action. But it doesn’t seem to know what. Americans saw wealth plummet 40 percent from 2007 to 2010, Federal Reserve says Re the Arabs in Israel:
Monday, June 11. 2012Monday morning linksRay Bradbury: Enemy of the State Ray Bradbury Saw the PC Lunacy Coming Men Think About Sex Less Than Women Think About Fashion, Survey Says 45 years after the 6 Day War: 45 Years Later, No Closer to the Truth “Studies” Departments Suffer a Loss Red Shift - China building up space warfare capabilities, report says The Chinese Kleptocracy Is Like Nothing Ever Seen In Human History, And This Is How It Works (fixed link) Germany, Not Greece, Should Exit the Euro Obama Cabinet: A Flock of Flunkies NYC principal bars students from singing 'God Bless the USA' at graduation The New Jews - They're Asian Americans. US Ousts Israel From Counterterrorism Forum - The US blocked Israel's participation in the Global Counterterrorism Forum's, due to fierce objections from Turkey. VDH: The Liberal Super Nova:
Americans hate coercion - especially when "it's for your own good." Sunday, June 10. 2012Million dollar study says Australia warming fastPossibly as much as a tenth of a degree in the past 1000 years. Wow. Time to buy a new central a/c unit right away, to play it safe.
Saturday, June 9. 2012Pediatric Dentistry IncomeHow much does a busy pediatric Dentist make? I obtained some inside information. A local, solo practitioner guy nets, for himself, $1.4 million per year. His gross is almost double that. He works hard, keeps three rooms going at a time, and around 40% of his practice is children's Medicaid which apparently pays well. The rest is self-pay plus some dental insurance. He has two hygienists, a receptionist, and a billing person in the office. A small businessman. But would you want his job?
Posted by The Barrister
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14:33
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Saturday morning linksVia Insty, how to save your relationship Cargo Cult Science: Richard Feynman’s 1974 Caltech Graduation Address on Integrity Freud and Jung: A Dangerous Method Why Fathers Matter 'Slacker mandate' lets adults play Peter Pan Betsy has good links Obama’s entire reelection problem in one chart Romney: Obama 'doing fine' comment will 'go down in history' as 'extraordinary miscalculation' Romney Charges ‘Moral Failure’ on Jobs as Obama Blames Congress Americans Still Hate ObamaCare Why Do We Elect People Who So Clearly Lack Character? Noonan: What's Changed After Wisconsin - The Obama administration suddenly looks like a house of cards. Obama's Clueless appeal to aid gov’t workers Lecturing the Yanks on Obscene Capitalism? EU's Richest 20% Have Income 5 Times Higher Than Poorest 20% IRS Ruling on Political Nonprofit Hints at Bigger Inquiry Getting burned by biofuels Forty Years Later: Kim Phuc and Her North Vietnamese Enemies - Meet the girl in the picture considered iconic for all the wrong reasons. Friday, June 8. 2012Special Operations Forces Organize Against ObamaMy good friend Larry Bailey retired from the Navy in 1990 after a 27-year career as a SEAL, rising to Captain. Captain Bailey's most significant military assignment was as Commanding Officer of the Naval Special Warfare Center, where all Navy SEALS undergo basic and advanced training. Bailey and others from across the spectrum of US special forces have banded together to form Special Operations Speaks. I'll let them speak for themselves:
There's a petition at the site for an investigation by the House Homeland Security Committee into who leaked the secret information about the SEAL raid that got bin Laden. Please sign up. Also, rest assured that just as they defended us during their active duty, our special operations forces are still doing the job. P.S.: Here's a 2007 interview by me with Larry Bailey, when he organized 40,000 in D.C. for a No Cut, No Run rally.
Posted by Bruce Kesler
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23:02
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Misleading Reporting About Black Illegal Immigrants In IsraelAs in so many other cases, international media usually seeks out and features negative news about Israel or exaggerates it or treats it in a biased manner. So, too, on this issue. There is a natural, and commendable, empathy for peoples in dire straits or whose experience, by large stretches of analogy, may be compared to other groups, like Hispanics or Blacks in the US, but that alone does not merit the one-sided coverage of this issue and the lack of facts and context. That lack of context and partial facts has been the case with most of the reporting about African illegal immigrants in Israel. As in the US, it is difficult to count the number of illegal immigrants, so hard numbers of illegal African immigrants in Israel are estimates. According to Wikipedia, there were about 26-thousand in July 2010 and 55-thousand in January 2012. Estimates of new arrivals are about 1-thousand a month, which would bring the June 2012 number to over 60-thousand. Two-thirds are estimated to be in south Tel Aviv and another 20% in the resort city of Eilat. Some other estimates of illegal African immigrants in Israel are higher. This is a lower percentage of illegal immigrants than in the US, but Israel should not wait until it is as large a problem as here. There are also about 150,000 Black Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Black Ethiopian Jews were brought in by Israel. As in the US, there is certainly racism against Blacks within Israel. There is also acceptance and substantial aid within Israel, as in the US for its illegal immigrants. Continue reading "Misleading Reporting About Black Illegal Immigrants In Israel"
Posted by Bruce Kesler
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21:14
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Friday morning linksSome great examples of unintended consequences "And so to bed:" The 10 Year Web Project "Pepys' Diary" Comes to An End Dinosaur National Monument reopened Bummer: World To End In 2025, Globull Warming Involved Union of Concerned Scientists Cooks the Books, Media Swallow It Which City Might Try to Ban Huge Sodas Next? Let's give polygamy a chance Peter King: 'Pattern' of Leaks, 'Amateur Hour' in White House Depression-era farm subsidies should end Obama’s 28 star-studded fundraisers… so far Romney’s Tipping Point - Has the presidential race come to a crucial turn? The Obama campaign hopes not. Romney Fights Back - He has no intention of running a model, but losing, campaign.
This Week, Turkey Went a Long Way Toward Becoming an Islamic Republic Film Review: “U.N. Me” — Everything the Left Doesn’t Want to Know About the UN Without Patient-Centered Health Plans, It’s the Same Tired Script Former ACORN Director Gets $445 Mil From U.S. Treasury
Thursday, June 7. 2012Thursday morning linksRoyals back at their shit office jobs Beautiful Central New York Bus Driver is a green job Joe Biden: My wife and Michelle Obama wouldn’t have had a chance in life without government help I think he missed the implied insult to them They came first for the smokers Host Mika Brzezinski referred to the drinks as "poison" for their sugar content and applauded the mayor. Nobody ever mentions that fruit juice has the same sugar content as soda pop Ruth Marcus: Nudge Government Run Amok Knish on government obesity:
California voters have "buyers' remorse" over over a $68.4 billion high-speed "train to nowhere."
Big Labor morphs into predatory bankers Elizabeth Warren’s “weird choices” French president Francois Hollande cuts retirement age to 60 The French are not into work. Nowadays, 60 is the prime of life Blaming the Walker win on $. They omit the fact that unions are corporations too Big Blue Hammered in California Not just Wisconsin: California portends bad news for public-sector unions "At stake is the proper role of government itself. Does it exist primarily to serve the public and the needy, or to serve those who serve in government? The question is not easy for Democrats, who have traditionally straddled both priorities. But a choice between them is increasingly unavoidable." Even WaPo says Unions need to reorganize after Wisconsin
30 North Korean officials involved in South talks die 'in traffic accidents' The traffic is just terrible in NK, with all those SUVs and sports cars Soros Spends $400 Million On 'Open Society' Education, 'Social Action,' Colleges And Universities The Brothers Abbas - Are the sons of the Palestinian president growing rich off their father's system? Wednesday, June 6. 2012Mead on blue WisconsinThe Wisconsin election fits well with Mead's thesis about the need for revision of the antique "Blue Model": The “People United” Go Down In Flames:
A rational Liberal, is Prof. Mead. Slick writer too. Weds. morning linksFrom Radosh yesterday, before the results came in: On Wisconsin! The Meaning of the Recall Effort:
Peterson, Howell and West: Teachers Unions Have a Popularity Problem - Only 22% of Americans think unions have a positive effect on schools. Public employee unions are corrupt by definition. That's why even FDR opposed the idea. Lowry: Gov't unions will never be the same On Salt Consumption and Mayor Bloomberg’s Public Health Initiatives Good Grief. Obama Completely Swipes Christie’s Note to a School Kid "Bill Clinton Does Not Want Barack Obama to Win." Brooklyn Democrat In Line To Be The Most Outrageous Member Of Congress Josh Mandel thinks he can win this Cash-Strapped, Overtaxed Connecticut Gives $300,000 to Communists We’re in a recession and should extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich, says … Bill Clinton Since the death of Mao, the People’s Republic of China has almost never hesitated to sign and ratify pacts, conventions, and treaties—and at the same time violate them. Celebs, desperate to be seen as smart and not shallow, cling to Obama as the p.c. life raft during auditions, Frappuccino runs and coke parties. As the world awaits the Supreme Court's ruling on ObamaCare, there's a larger story that the pundits are missing: the court's rejection of the Obama administration's increasingly extreme claims on behalf of unlimited federal power. EEOC's protection of felons could hurt minority hiring Whatever its intentions, the farm bill has become one of the most flagrant examples of corporate welfare in the federal budget Equal Pay nothing but a payoff for lawyers Nyquist on Euroland:
The Long-Delayed Trial of the Fort Hood Terrorist Iran and Israel Can Agree on This: Rita Jahanforuz Totally Rocks - Jewish Star Remakes Persian Oldies in Tel Aviv and Her Fans in Tehran Can't Get Enough Tuesday, June 5. 2012Political QQQ"Just don’t get caught with the weed AND A 24 OZ COKE!" A commenter at Volokh in response to Bloomberg Backs Plan to Limit Arrests for Marijuana Tuesday morning linksTwo female soldiers sue military over ban on combat roles Majority of Unemployed Have Been to College With charts from Ray Dalio's Bridgewater: Brussels... We Have A Problem The battle of Midway at 70 - the perils of looking weak Der Struma, the floating coffin of 1942 Everything bad is good for you:
Wehner: Please Excuse My President:
New farm bill would end direct payments to farmers but maintain other safety net subsidies California Gov. Jerry Brown Finds Environmental Regs Inconvenient For High Speed Rail Muslim Mob in France Beats Jewish Youths With Hammers and Iron Bars on Sabbath
Actually, Americans Do Support Government Union Reform - Explaining why Wisconsin voters likely won't recall their governor Sen. Marco Rubio earning respect in Senate for foreign-policy work A message from the New York Bureau of Food Discipline (#NYCBFD)
Robert Reich doesn't trust the people to invest How Obamacare is Destroying Student Health Insurance Exclusive - The Vetting - Senator Barack Obama Attended Bill Ayers Barbecue, July 4, 2005 The Tyranny of Having Too Many Choices - Mayor Bloomberg is saving us from being oppressed by confusing and important choices about our health. Policy victory: Numbers of wealthy dropping in US Examining the Means-tested Welfare State: 79 Programs and $927 Billion in Annual Spending:
Where’s the Flotilla to Syria? The Shabiha: Inside Assad's death squads The Window is Closing for Riyadh - The oil won’t last forever -- so Saudi Arabia’s government has to reform its economy if it wants to survive. The Glory of Vietnam From one of O's law school classmates:
Monday, June 4. 2012"White/Jewish"?It's a new minority classification in New York, of all places. (h/t Prof J). A quote:
Good grief. And still, it seems exclusionary to me to omit "White Native Americans" from the special treatment list.
Posted by The Barrister
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14:48
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Monday morning linksWhy Anchoress wants you to read Sigrid Undset Britain’s Already Dead, It Just Hasn’t Been Buried Yet - Don’t be fooled by the pomp of the Queen’s royal Diamond Jubilee flotilla this weekend. Britain is a country rotting from the inside. Boats take to Thames for queen's jubilee flotilla Ungridlocked - Mayor Bloomberg’s transportation reforms have unclogged New York’s streets and made them safer Dr. Sanity: ENVY, RESENTMENT, AND HUMAN NATURE What Couples Want to Know But Are Too Shy to Ask Nebraska lawmakers question EPA's aerial livestock surveillance I just can't understand what happened with McCotter Jenkins: The 5th Avenue to Serfdom - Nobody thought about taking away your Big Gulp until the government began to pay for everyone's health care. Republicans need to go on the offense on healthcare, suggest free market solutions Public opinion about the National Rifle Association A House of Horrors for Autistic Children but Cash for Democratic Pol Believe it or not, that is not satire
Barack Obama Longs for an Opponent Who Rolled Over and Died What if Barack Obama was president? Bookworm: Entropy is setting in and Obama will lose this election More good poll news for Romney Wehner: Obama Is Simply Overmatched by Events Article of the Year: The Fourth Revolution? A quote:
Where did all the billions of dollars given to the Palestinian Authority go? Muhammad Ali’s Grandson is Bar Mitzvahed Mullahs Stopped Bin Laden Killing Children SANDERS: The perils of intelligence blabberitis O’HANLON: Rays of hope in Afghanistan - Progress portends stability by 2014 pullout Sunday, June 3. 2012Why there's no Dunkin' Donuts in CaliforniaIt takes the Marines to open just one!
Posted by Bruce Kesler
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22:08
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Always a crisisLet no crisis go to waste. It's always a "crisis" when government wants power and control, and it is in the nature of governments to desire those things. Not from The Onion: Frank Bruni in the NYT tries to make the case that government should control what we eat. It's a crisis, you know. Related article: Is Freedom Possible Without Virtue?Albert Jay Nock on doing the right thing:
Image is from Political Commentator's Mayor Michael Bloomberg starring in "The New York Nanny State of Mind"
Posted by The Barrister
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14:28
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Saturday, June 2. 2012“Existential Defeatism” Abroad and at HomeIn the fall of 1971, in grad school, I did a 60-page analysis of the Nixon/Kissinger détente policy. I concluded it was largely a holding action meant to slow down what otherwise was believed by its primaries as the inevitable declining power of the West in the face of rising Soviet and Chinese power. I termed it “existential defeatism”. Although pragmatic coping in many ways, defeatism or its better cousin called nuance, has not been terribly beneficial to US interests since. There isn’t a linear relationship from 1971 to now, but rather a trend. This trend is toward restraint in asserting our interests, with the confused interruption of our Iraq experience. It is increasingly coupled with deference to the alternate or contrary interests of other countries, called internationalism. These policies can take little credit for the fall of the Soviet Union, under the weight of its own internal contradictions, in 1989. On the other hand, China kept ascending, US fecklessness in Indochina is touted by Islamist radicals as encouragement for their causes, and Russia is following its old path contrary to Western interests. Meanwhile, many of today’s foreign policy gurus tout international law and international organizations, usually most often in play to hinder or attack Western interests. Restraint in foreign engagements, particularly military, is certainly to be prized unless clear US national interests, mechanisms, and follow-through plans are pretty clearly present, and articulated by our national political leaders so necessary to domestic support. However, instead, what we’ve increasingly seen is muddling and disparagement of the very concept of US national interests, substituting outright negativity, conceptual distractions, and refusal to actively engage unless elusive or impossible international consensus is reached, to include Russia and China who aren’t shy about exerting themselves actively in opposition to US or Western interests. In effect, as well, the US and Western Europe have too often abandoned its moral core, as well, to the favor of those who don’t share it or deride or hate it. All that said, this critique must face the serious real-world problems we face immediately in the Middle East and coastal Asia, and the influence of financial problems. Understandably nervous and hesitant to confront crazies in the Middle East, we have defaulted influence to Iran and to Russia. Not wanting to indiscriminately support or arm possible future foes, as we did in Afghanistan to chase out the Soviet Union, there is little effort to discriminate and strengthen those not antagonistic to the West. Syria has been a cat’s paw of Iran to ferment conflict. Our non-action furthers this, rather than decrease it, aside from the humanitarian toll on Syrians with Iranians on the ground adding to the murders and Russian arms arriving in torrents. The US is rightly seen in the region and elsewhere as ineffectual, hardly worth allying with. Meanwhile, enough said, Iran continues its steady march to nuclear weapons, stirring others in the region to possibly also do so, further destabilizing international order and security. One would hope that the US is doing more behind the scenes than is apparent, but no observers have seen such which is telling in the usually open sieve of reporting and NGOs. The US should be doing more in Syria, and more openly and assertively, including arms to those less problematic. The US should announce a date certain in 2012, after which all informed analysts recognize it will be too late, by which the US will devastatingly bomb—as only the US could -- Iran’s nuclear installations if there is not a convincing abandonment of Iran’s nuclear war-making capacities. Neither in Syria nor Iran are US military forces necessary on the ground. But short of that we have done far too little to influence the outcomes, leaving the threats to grow and to undermine confidence in the West, and influencing Middle East countries and citizens to accommodate or ally themselves with Iran. The primary rationale for the US Senate to ratify its decades-pending Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) may be to strengthen the hand in an international forum of the states in coastal Asia against the expansiveness of China. However, all, including China, have long since joined LOST, and that hasn’t slowed China’s claim of virtually the entire South China Sea as its own. China’s navy is expanding, often acting aggressively toward other states, and its oil and gas exploration is reaching into deep waters near other countries. See this map, the red lines far away from China being ocean borders that China wildly claims.
Continue reading "“Existential Defeatism” Abroad and at Home"
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13:37
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