... Intellectuals have always been cheap dates for tyrants, never more so than during the Cold War, when Communist rulers learned how easy it was to get Western intellectuals to swoon before the lyrics of justice and equality. Redemptive ideological movements such as Communism may have lost their élan, but the chief attraction of tyrants for intellectuals is not ideology but proximity to power: hence Thomas Friedmans endless China is awesome columns.
Behind the immense egos of internationally renowned political theorists such as Barber (or Friedman) lies a hubristic confidence in the efficacy of their wisdom. Xenophon had their number 2,500 years ago: Just as the poet Simonides hopes to instruct the tyrant Hiero on how to govern as a benevolent dictator, todays wise poets of human improvement think they can at the very least moderate the modern tyrants excesses if only they gain his ear. And even if the tyrant is unwilling to govern in a way that is worthy of honor, the intellectuals can bask in the self-honor of their endeavors to reach out as they pat themselves on the back in Davos.
These enablers of modern tyranny can always be counted on to overlook its markers, which are obvious even in cases in which violent oppression is largely absent....
The elites excusing of tyranny has real-world consequences, as it leads to appeasement and weakness. It makes it possible for Nicolas Sarkozy to say watery things such as Qaddafi is not perceived as a dictator in the Arab world. He is the longest-serving head of state in the region and, in the Arab world, that counts, and for Hillary Clinton to say of Syrias Assad, Many of the members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe hes a reformer.
How about instead we call such tyrants and their regimes by their proper names maybe even call them evil? That word raises hackles, but unlike so much of what we have heard of Qaddafi and his kind, it would have the virtue of being true.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/16/2011 12:41 ||
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Two Ohio State Economists have done a statistical regression analysis comparing job growth with the amount and type of stimulus funding by State.
Their conclusion (and they realize that their analysis has limitations given the data issues) was that the stimulus program saved some govt jobs (below 1 million job/years) and prevented creation of some private sector jobs (about 1 million job years). They review other studies.
My own opinion is that the ordinary data we collect (the BLS data)could perhaps be taken one level down to county data. However, the data collected by the Administration that was specific to the stimulas projects was basically junk. It was self reported by the grantees who didn't know what to do. Some grantees took the reporting requirements seriously, some thought they should inflate the numbers to position themselves for more grants, some just didn't report anything.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/16/2011 08:48 ||
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Read the whole thing. Exerpts:
COMGEN JSOC
Mr. President, why don't you give me your iPhone and take this.
POTUS
What's this?
COMGEN JSOC
It's an XBox controller. It, uh, controls the SEALs.
POTUS
Really?
COMGEN JSOC
Yes, Mr. Vice President. You don't have to raise your hand.
VPOTUS
I wanna play too! Can I play with my Wii controller?
COMGEN JSOC
Sure, go ahead. And now, if...
Vicious Cutting. Let us hope it isn't anything close to accurate. But it'sa sad statement that a humour writer would expect readers should accept the premise.
h/t instapundit
Since Osama bin Laden was found living unmolested in a Pakistani military town, debate has raged over how to deal with this duplicitous, faction-ridden country. Should the United States and others in the West continue to provide Pakistan with billions in foreign aid, in the hopes of currying at least some influence among elements of the Pakistani leadership? Or should we get tough, and declare it to be the state sponsor of terrorism that it is, knowing this course of action could cripple our efforts to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan and drive Pakistan further into the Chinese sphere of influence?
Neither course would be satisfactory and neither should be adopted. Instead, the West should recognize that the muddle it faces stems from Pakistans internal contradictions. This is not one cohesive country but four entirely distinct nations, having little in common save their animosity toward one another, a predominantly Muslim faith and Britains decision to confine them within the same borders in partitioning the Indian subcontinent more than a half century ago. The Wests only sensible course of action today is to unstitch the British patchwork, let the major nations within Pakistan choose their future, and negotiate coherently with new national administrations that dont have impossibly conflicted mandates.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/16/2011 18:10 Comments ||
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#6
Exactly Babs... After I said "who?" I said "who cares?" I judge a person's worth on criteria that is probably foreign to CNN and other fellow travelers....
#1
This guy's standard template is to give the misogynistic and homophobic and racist and cop killer stuff up front in his rap and then at the end of the rap disclaim it all.
Thus he says that he is not any of those things and still gets to entertain his followers.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/16/2011 14:29 Comments ||
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#2
A guy who pretends to be a rapper performs at the White House, where a guy who pretends to be a President also performs.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
