BERNARD-HENRI LÉVY, 62, is such an inescapable figure in France of mockery, admiration, amusement, envy that he is by now unembarrassable. Making his mark young as a philosopher, he was satirized neatly by a critic with the words: God is dead, but my hair is perfect.
But in the space of roughly two weeks, Mr. Lévy managed to get a fledgling Libyan opposition group a hearing from the president of France and the American secretary of state, a process that has led both countries and NATO into waging war against the forces of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
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Posted by: Water Modem ||
04/02/2011 9:48 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I remember the multi-part article in Atlantic - I was still a subscriber, then. He came over as a sanctimonious A-hole, tripping lightly from power/intellectual centers, on the east and west coast, with a short stopover in Las Vegas (IIRC) and generally looking at the inhabitants of these United States as if he were examining freaks in a very upscale carnival. I hated his guts after reading the article series, and would have gladly contributed to fund to keep him on the far side of the Atlantic forever.
#4
Fairly typical of the preferred writing style of Atlantic writers -- please to not call them journalists. While reading it seems as if one, too, is thinking deep thoughts, but afterward it's a bit hard to remember all the details, lacking in true perspective. Agreed, Sgt. Mom, he seems very much the cleverly facile, widely read anthropologist. But then, that was the point of the exercise, which would have provided material for his audience on both sides of the Atlantic. Still, one has to respect Mr Levy's work on the Pearl story, which needed to be told.
I much prefer the dear departed Jean-Francois Revel, also known as a journalist-philosopher, who had a true affection and respect for America as well as a serious approach to his subject matter. Not to mention a brisk writing style much more to my taste.
#5
Yokay, I'll bite, doth not "North Africa" include the former "FRENCH NORTH AFRICA" - it sems to me that France + UK + Italia should be interested in Regional andor Country-specific thingys as a matter of course???
#3
All that to appease the bond holders who so foolishly lent the Irish all that money when the credit was fast and foolish. An Irish default seems a far better choice for that country.
#4
And by the way, what will happen when US states cannot pay their contractual obligations to the pension payouts for their retired employees? The "Contract Clause" in the US Constitution includes a bar on any state passing a "Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts."
Think a federal court could order a state to impose a property tax to meet its contractual obligations? IANAL.
#5
Federal judges have long been ordering States to appropriate money to spend on the judges whims, usually public education. The set daily fines to force the legislatures to act immediately, as well as appointing "special masters" to oversee how the judges' dictates are carried out.
#7
AH, in an 80s infamous case of the Kansas (Missouri) City School District, a federal judge imposed a new tax on the citizens of Missouri to pay for his program of school improvement justifying the tyranny by finding the system had discriminated against the usual 'protected group' based upon outcome. It was finally overturned by SCOTUS, who however didn't directly strike it down for its abuse of power but in their terms, because he had failed to exhaust all other alternatives. None the less it was collected and allocated by his fiat. When it was finally overturned the pols in Missouri used it as an excuse to keep it in place [why should we be surprised]. All the money didn't stop the school system from decertification in the 90s. info
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