Sobering Thoughts |
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Comments on politics, the culture, economics, and sports by Paul Tuns.
I am editor-in-chief of "The Interim," Canada's life and family newspaper, and author of "Jean Chretien: A Legacy of Scandal" (2004) and "The Dauphin: The Truth about Justin Trudeau" (2015).
I am some combination of conservative/libertarian, standing athwart history yelling "bullshit!"
You can follow me on Twitter (@ptuns).
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Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Quotidian "But a man whose career was glorious without intermission, decade after decade, does sorely try out patience." -- Max Beerbohm, "Quia Imperfectum" The Economist on Liberal government From an editorial in The Economist: "CANADA’S motto is 'peace, order, good government.' Few would dispute that the country has succeeded in maintaining the first two under the Liberal administration that has held power since 1993. But the Liberals are widely deemed to have failed on the last..." Finally President George W. Bush makes the case 1) that America is winning the war for Iraq and 2) that American troops will remain until it the country is safe for the Iraqis. Great, great speech. A year earlier would have been nice but better late than never. Mac Owens liked the speech, too: "Our demagogues have pandered to the fears and weaknesses of the American rather than to their virtues and strengths. In his Naval Academy speech, President Bush did just the opposite, exercising his 'duty [as one whom the people have] appointed to be the guardians of [their] … interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection'." Up, up and away Larry Kudlow demonstrates graphically how the Indian economy has grown with liberalization (8% in the last quarter) including allowing FDI in some sectors. Imagine what the largest democracy in the world could do if its economy were opened even more. Just one example of the old socialist thinking that remains: foreigners cannot be majority owners of or control retail operations. This should be the next regulation to go but unfortunately the Communist Party is part of the governing coalition and they are standing in the way of further liberalization and necessary labour market reform. But, as Kudlow says, at least the country has started down the right path and they're seeing results for doing so. Perhaps as the Communists see the benefits of earlier rounds of economic liberalization they will become more open to it. Probably not but its nice to dream. Taylor rebrands Liberals Stephen Taylor's proposed image for the Liberal Party website. Or is Conservative Party website. Either way, the LPC has made it just too easy. Isn't democracy tiring Not only must we endure a 56-day campaign but also four televised debates. I'm joking; I'm writing something in defense of long campaigns being good for democracy. For myself, I'm tired of this election campaign already although that might have something to do with the fact that for the first time I knew how I was voting before the election was called. LIB on the lesbians versus the KofC Let It Bleed summarizes the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal's finding (pdf) in the case of two lesbians who were upset that the Knights of Columbus wouldn't let them use their hall for their wedding reception: "In the end, the case turns on hurt feelings - the panel thinks the Knights were mean (according to some unknown standard), that there is some vague right to be free from mean people, and that this meanness magically translates into $1,000, plus reimbursement of the complainant's costs. Pathetic." Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Can't. Blog. Anymore. Tonight. I don't really feel like reading online tonight. I don't have anything to add about the election. And I'm whipped after going to the funeral of John Muggeridge this morning and taping @issue on ichannel where I joined Senator Anne Cools, George Jonas and Michael Taube for an historical look at the question "what went wrong with the Liberals and liberalism." I'm not sure when the show will be aired; I'll let you know when I hear from the producers. See y'all tomorrow. Quotidian "It will take some hammering to drive a coddling socialism into America." -- George Santayana, Character and Opinion in the United States Star stolen from Hollywood The Los Angeles Times reports: "Someone has walked off with Gregory Peck at the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Thieves armed with a concrete saw cut through terrazzo and cement to hoist out the pink, five-pointed star that frames a movie camera emblem and the late actor's brass name, authorities in Hollywood said today." What would one do with Peck's star? You couldn't sell it or even show anyone. No Hall of Fame for Rose Pete Rose's eligibility for the Hall of Fame expired. Here's the list of players that baseball writers will consider this year: Rick Aguilera, Albert Belle, Bert Blyleven, Will Clark, Dave Concepcion, Andre Dawson, Gary DiSarcina, Alex Fernandez, Gary Gaetti, Steve Garvey, Dwight Gooden, Rich Gossage, Ozzie Guillen, Orel Hershiser, Gregg Jefferies, Tommy John, Doug Jones, Don Mattingly, Willie McGee, Hal Morris, Jack Morris, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, Bruce Sutter, Alan Trammell, Walt Weiss, John Wetteland. An announcement on who was voted in will be made January 9. If I were a baseball writer I'd vote for Hershiser, Murphy, Smith and Sutter. Mattingly and McGee are two of my all-time favourite athletes but I don't think they deserve entry into the hallowed Hall. Conservatives care, too Alex Singleton on the ideas revolution benefiting the developing world -- ideas most often promulgated by free market advocates: "A lesson from 1980s Britain is that free markets are good but it is better to be in favour of practical ways that free markets can help people. Helping people living in council homes to own their own home actually meant something to people – it helped people climb the economic ladder. And similarly, an enterprise-based scheme like microcredit has an important part to play in helping create an thriving economy in Africa and in encouraging the governmental reforms and recognition of property rights that are so desperately needed. Although four billion people live on less than $1,400, only a fraction have access to basic financial services. Microcredit enables an African, for example, to buy a mobile phone and then set up a business renting it to his village. The phone can then be used to call other towns and villages to find out prices and demand for crops that have been grown, enabling growers to get the best prices. Another enterprise-based scheme, Technoserve, helps identify and encourage entrepreneurs in developing countries. Technoserve helps them find gaps in the market, develop business plans, raise investment, run a small-scale pilot and then expand their businesses. These enterprise-based approaches to development are vastly more effective than the top-down help of which the government, unfortunately, is still far too fond." (HT: Globalization Institute blog) European Football Player of the Year Barca's Ronaldinho won it (no surprise), becoming the third Brazilian to win the prize. Ronaldinho won the FIFA Player of the Year last year. Story here. Past winners of the European Player of the Year here. (Note that the only men to win the award three times were Dutch.) Election prediction Jay Currie predicts that the Tories will be reduced to about 50 seats. I can see this happening. The Liberals and NDP could reduce the Conservative caucus by half because 1) many of the close Ontario battles in 2004 went Conservative and the Liberals could rebound, 2) the Liberals are gaining strength in BC while the Tories are bleeding support, and 3) the NDP could pick up a few of the Tory seats in Saskatchewan and the Liberals are hoping to pick off a pair of Conservatives in Manitoba. That said, the conditions are also ripe for a Conservative victory with a pickup of about 40 seats. Or things could stay mostly the same. I think a status quo election is highly unlikely because the balance is likely to be altered and hold on power by the Liberals more precarious. My guess is that a total of 40 seats will change hands but who knows where the chips will fall? Is that a lot of predictions? Yeah. But a campaign changes everything and who knows what will happen over the next month-and-a-half? If an election were held today, I think the Liberals, NDP and Bloc would each pick up a handful of seats and the Tories losing about 10. But as the old joke has it, if an election were held today almost everyone would be totally surprised. Monday, November 28, 2005
Quotidian "... all men have equal rights; but not to equal things." -- Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France The cost of an election Who cares. Isn't it odd that the Left, which has no problems spending taxpayer money almost any other time, raises this canard when it comes to removing the Liberals from power/allowing people to choose their representatives> Over at The Shotgun, Russ Kuykendall notes that the cost of not having an election is far greater. Does the secret of the Conservatives' success lie in Norwood? Or, Canada's state-run healthcare is the real scandal David Gratzer says that the Liberals could be in trouble and because of much more than Adscam: "The Liberals’ woes, however, run deeper than this scandal and Martin’s handling of it. For years, Canadians have had an unwritten compact with the party: We’d pay high taxes and keep reelecting them and, in exchange, the Liberals would run the country competently. Obviously, the scandal has tarnished their image as astute managers. But even before, the deal was falling apart. With taxes rising steadily over the past decade, after-tax income has essentially stagnated. Yet Canada’s welfare state is rotten to the core. Take Canada’s much vaunted health-care system. In a recent poll, more than 80 percent of Canadians rate the system 'in crisis.' People wait for practically any diagnostic test, surgical procedure, or specialist consult. The doctors’ shortage is so severe that, in Norwood, Ont., winning the town lottery isn’t a ticket to material wealth. With just one family doctor to service the entire town, the physician takes only 50 new patients a year. As a result, the town holds an annual lottery with the 50 winners getting an appointment with him." Calgary Grit on the Tories Calgary Grit has the best short history of the Tories' year thus far: "Belinda and Peter started dating! But then she, like, dumped him!!! OMG! (for full details see what should be the post of the year). And Harper wore a funny cowboy outfit! Yeah, there was some policy mixed into all of that and the Tories did back 1/3 of Goodale's budgets. But really, once you get past tight leather vests and Belinda's romances, the rest of the stuff just seems trivial." CG offers some free advice for Stephen Harper and his party including a slogan ("We won't win a majority...how bad can we mess it up?") and a strategy (pray for snow). His prediction: 100-120 seats which he concludes means that Harper will either be prime minister or gone by the end of January. JQW on the administration's failure to defend its Iraq policy James Q. Wilson offers some free advice to President George W. Bush in Opinion Journal. Noting that, "What most Americans care about is not who is lying but whether we are winning," Wilson provides a speech the president should give to convince Americans about the wisdom of continuing the fight for Iraq which includes a tremendous number of victories for freedom: "We defeated Saddam Hussein's army in just a few weeks. None of the disasters that many feared would follow our invasion occurred. Our troops did not have to fight door to door to take Baghdad. The Iraqi oil fields were not set on fire. There was no civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites. There was no grave humanitarian crisis. Saddam Hussein was captured and is awaiting trial. His two murderous sons are dead. Most of the leading members of Saddam's regime have been captured or killed. After our easy military victory, we found ourselves inadequately prepared to defeat the terrorist insurgents, but now we are prevailing. Iraq has held free elections in which millions of people voted. A new, democratic constitution has been adopted that contains an extensive bill of rights. Discrimination on the basis of sex, religion or politics is banned. Soon the Iraqis will be electing their first parliament. An independent judiciary exists, almost all public schools are open, every hospital is functioning, and oil sales have increased sharply. In most parts of the country, people move about freely and safely. According to surveys, Iraqis are overwhelmingly opposed to the use of violence to achieve political ends, and the great majority believe that their lives will improve in the future. The Iraqi economy is growing very rapidly, much more rapidly than the inflation rate. In some places, the terrorists who lost the war are now fighting back by killing Iraqi civilians. Some brave American soldiers have also been killed, but most of the attacks are directed at decent, honest Iraqis. This is not a civil war; it is terrorism gone mad. And the terrorists have failed. They could not stop free elections. They could not prevent Iraqi leaders from taking office. They could not close the schools or hospitals. They could not prevent the emergence of a vigorous free press that now involves over 170 newspapers that represent every shade of opinion." The revolution will be blogged The Daily Telegraph has a story on Iran's blogging dissidents: "With the closure of most independent newspapers and magazines in Iran, blogging - publishing an online diary - has become a powerful tool in the dissidents' arsenal by providing individuals with a public voice. An Iranian blogger known as Saena, wrote recently: 'Weblogs are one weapon that even the Islamic Republic cannot beat'." But the mullahs will try. The Telegraph reports that there an estimated 100,000 Iranian blogs, that most are written in English and that many have been arrested and beaten for opposing the regime. Among those punished is Omid Sheikhan, who received a one year prison term and 124 lashes because his blog featured political cartoons. Earlier this month, Reporters with Borders named Iran as one of 15 enemies of the internet. But despite the information ministry's war on blogging, the battle to inform fellow Iranians and the world of the atrocities and opposition to the regime continues. As the Telegraph reports: "But the Iranian authorities are fighting a losing battle to crush these new outlets of dissent. As fast as one perpetrator is tracked down and closed, another rises in its place and takes up the cause." Sunday, November 27, 2005
Subsidizing those well enough off to travel Finance Committee chair Massimo Pacetti wants to offer tax breaks to those whose travels take them to three provinces in one holiday. Of cucumbers and Christ Noting that the 27th installment of VeggieTales is about to be released, World magazine columnist Gene Edward Veith questions the use of vegetables in telling Biblical stories: "But dramatizing Bible stories with vegetables can sometimes risk trivializing the Word of God. Reducing the Battle of Jericho to a cucumber and French peas having a slushy fight is funny, yes, but it seems more like a parody than a retelling from the book of Joshua. More irreverent still is the VeggieTale Nativity Set featuring Jesus as a baby carrot. Episodes that do not presume to play out Bible stories and instead apply biblical concepts to life in a vegetative state ('The Grapes of Wrath,' 'Madame Blueberry,' 'The Fib from Outer Space') are more satisfying." But Veith somewhat contradictorily concludes whether it is possible for animated Biblically based (or at least Bible-themed) entertainment "to say something about Christ." Anyway, the Lord of the Beans will probably end up under the Tuns family Christmas tree. Irreverent? Intent matters and Big Idea Productions has no intention of being sacrilegious. Weekend list 10 most pleasurable non non-fiction writers to read 10. The novels of Fyodor Dostoevski 9. The short stories of William Trevor 8. The novels of William Faulkner 7. The short stories of Eudora Welty 6. The novels of Barbara Pym 5. The novels of Anthony Trollope 4. The plays of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (William Shakespeare) 3. The novels of Henry James 2. The poems of Rudyard Kipling 1. The novels of Anthony Powell Shotgun stuff Kevin Libin on how the Tories managed to dodge a bullet in MFEMFEM and me on the new Tory plan to form the government. Quotidian "Purity of line and form, of cheek and chin and lip and brow, a colour that seemed to live and glow, a radiance of grace and eminence and success -- these things were seated in triumph in the face of the Princess, and her visitor, as he held himself in his chair, trembling with relevation, questioned if he were really of the same substance with the humanity of he had hitherto known." -- Henry James, The Princess Casamassima Saturday, November 26, 2005
Conflict of interest Greg Staples and myself weigh in on a huge conflict of interest affecting the Liberals and Bell Globemedia that no one is talking about. Friday, November 25, 2005
Why I wanted Paris to get the 2012 Olympics Over at Samizdata Brian Micklethwait notes that the costs of the London Games are expected to double. I would only add that I expect them to double again before 2012. When buying Rescuing Canada's Right from Chapters ... Look for it in the politics section. I've been to two Chapters and one Indigo at which the computer says there are none available in the store even though copies of Rescuing Canada's Right are on the shelf. Also, in two of the three cases, the not-very-helpful staff at the store checked the computer for me and said that the store had not ordered any and there was no record of ordering any. At one store, I was advised to purchase it online or to make a special order for one. Both times I informed the staff that there was several copies of the book on the shelf and both times the staff appeared a little confused. Frankly, so am I. The moral of the story is that if you are going to buy the book at the bricks and mortar store, check for it on the shelf, don't just check the computer. Quotidian This much, O heaven--if I should brood or rave, Pity me not; but let the world be fed, Yea, in my madness if I strike me dead, Heed you the grass that grows upon my grave. If I dare snarl between this sun and sod, Whimper and clamour, give me grace to own, In sun and rain and fruit in season shown, The shining silence of the scorn of God. Thank God the stars are set beyond my power, If I must travail in a night of wrath, Thank God my tears will never vex a moth, Nor any curse of mine cut down a flower. Men say the sun was darkened: yet I had Thought it beat brightly, even on--Calvary: And He that hung upon the Torturing Tree Heard all the crickets singing, and was glad. -- G.K. Chesterton, "A Prayer in Darkness" George Best, RIP "The first superstar" of soccer, George Best passed away. The Associated Press and Daily Telegraph remember the Manchester United winger's career. In 465 career appearances for United, he scored 180 goals. He scored 9 goals in 37 caps for Northern Ireland. He died after complications resulting from an adverse reaction to medicine he was taking to combat alcholism. As Best said in his autobiography Blessed, "Drink is the only opponent I've been unable to beat." It beat him at the age of 59. Yahoo Sports has links to various other stories about the one-time soccer great -- a player that Pele once called the greatest soccer player in the world. The tsunami windfall The Financial Times reports: "Many aid agencies offered either pre-built boats or help building fishing boats following last December’s tsunami, which left more than 130,000 dead in Aceh and vast areas of its coastline devastated. But that generosity appears to have gone too far, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned on Tuesday, with the province now facing a situation where, if all the pledges were kept, it would have more boats than it had before the tsunami." Before the tsunami, Aceh has 5,600 motorized boats and 4,700 were damaged. Aid agencies have delivered and promised 5,900 motorized boats. That would total 6,800 motorized boats. Some people at Red Cross are now worried about over-fishing. Rescuing Canada's Right. And Conrad Black I attended the book launch of Adam Daifallah and Tasha Kheiriddin's Rescuing Canada's Right last night. It's been a while since I've attended a conservative event so I got to see a lot of political friends I haven't seen in a while. It was a lot of fun. Great book, too. I'll have my review up after it gets published. My only complaint about the evening is about the media which was there to cover Conrad Black. Here's CTV's report: "Black made a surprise appearance at a book launch in MFEMFEM on Thursday night. Confronted by reporters as he waited for his driver outside the posh Albany Club of MFEMFEM, Black was asked if he will fight the charges." Lord Black arrived at the Albany Club and was swarmed by media. He walked over to the authors, circled back to the door, talked to Gerry Nicholls for a few minutes and left. His limo was not waiting outside and he was forced to take questions from a very hostile media while he waited. Funny, all the media accounts last night on TV refered to Black as angry and hostile but that would describe the reaction of almost every person at the "posh Albany Club" last night after watching the behaviour of the media vultures. But the CTV report is untruthful. They said Black was "confronted by reporters as he waited for his driver outside" the Club. But they, the media, were waiting for him inside the Club, followed him around inside the Club were he refused to answer their questions and only when he left did he answer their questions outside. This may seem like a small thing but it is this type of dishonesty -- a dishonesty that makes the media look less vulturistic (if that's a word) -- that infuriates me. Not enough to not enjoy the book launch. It also reinforces one of the arguments Adam and Tasha make in Rescuing Canada's Right that conservative businesses and businessmen need to step up and create a conservative media (and not just magazines of opinion but alternative television, radio and newspaper sources). Anyway, about RCR, a list of Adam and Tasha's media appearances can be viewed here. NCC & Brison The National Citizens Coalition has a page up on the whole "mini epic" including links to what other bloggers said about it. I'm chime in with my two-cents: I'm disappointed that Scott Brison apologized because I wanted his unkissable ass taken to court. One question: Do real apologies take 17 days to deliver? The state discriminates in killing criminals but not how you would think Simon Heffer joins the "certifiably insane or a complete pervert" in England by speaking publicly about his support of capital punishment in The Speccie: "For, be in no doubt, although we forfeited 40 years ago the right of the state to impose the capital sentence after a fair trial in a court of law, the state still reserves to itself the right to take life. Ask, for example, the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, shot dead by agents of the state in July this year when he was mistaken for a suicide bomber. However awful the consequences of such an error, the state must continue to have our power, as part of its duty of protecting us. Yet we have, since 1965, been in the ironic position of having outlawed execution with trial, but continuing to permit execution without trial. I suppose there is a logic there, but I can't see it." Thursday, November 24, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends Opinion Journal publishes the editorial the Wall Street Journal has printed the since 1961. Terry Teachout has three Thanksgiving themed quotes. Rich Lowry's list of things for which he is thankful. Among that for which I am thankful is William F. Buckley. George F. Will has his appreciation of the godfather of American conservatism in today's Washington Post. Buckley helped make conservatism respectable. As Will has noted before, without Buckley there would have been no National Review, without National Review there would have been no Goldwater in '64, without Goldwater there wouldn't have been the Reagan presidency. A tragedy that should've never happened News 14 reports that Min Soon Chang, a University of North Carolina (Charlotte) freshman, was killed when a drunk driver traveling more than 100 mph down the wrong way on the interstate hit him head-on. The drunk driver was Jorge Humberto Hernandez-Soto, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has been convicted of impaired driving three times and deported 17 times. I'll repeat that: convicted of impaired driving three times and deported 17 times. Americans need to get serious about illegal immigration. Min Soon Chang is the second North Carolinian killed by a drunk-driving, illegal immigrant this year. (HT: Vdare blog) Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Quotidian "Our dependent poor are not citizens. They get their benefits by formula, not according to their behavior. They have the rights to these 'entitlements,' but no responsiblities." -- Jack Beatty, The Rascal King: The Life and Times of James Michael Curley (1874-1958) Cutler to seek Tory nod in Ottawa South Allan Cutler, the man who blew the whistle on the sponsorship scandal, is going to seek the Conservative nomination in Ottawa South to face David McGuinty. CBC has the story here. Political Staples says this is a good thing: "Has Alan Cutler always been a Conservative or is this a reaction to the treatment he received from Liberal governments? Regardless, this is nothing but good news for the Conservatives. I hope he wins the riding nomination and then gets elected as an MP. The punishment levelled against Mr. Cutler, for doing the right thing, is unforgivable and he would could if his courage could be displayed in Parliament." I agree that Parliament would benefit from having more people like Cutler but am worried that his role in exposing Adscam will be discredited by charges of partisanship. Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Quotidian "I have reasons for believing that the training a medical student has to go through is to a writer's benefit. He acquires a knowledge of human nature which is invaluable. He sees it at its best and at its worst. When people are ill, when they are afraid, they discard the mask which they wear in health. The doctor sees them as they really are, selfish, hard, grasping, cowardly; but brave too, generous, kindly and good. He is tolerant of their frailities, awed by their virtues." -- Somerset Maugham, "The Short Story" I would guess the NDP are going to hit Martin with this during the campaign Canadian socialist magazine This has a story on "The dirty secrets of the Canadian shipping industry’s cleanup practices" which, of course, includes Canada Steamship Lines. Alex Roslin describes the process of cargo sweeping and then reports the extent of the problem: "Canadian and US shipping companies pump an estimated 2,500 tons of cargo residue into the lakes each year during 11,000 ship transits, according to a 1999 report by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Data from a study commissioned by the US Coast Guard in 2003 suggests that 80 percent of the dumping takes place in shipping lanes that pass through sensitive-species habitats. Its numbers imply that 45,000 to 64,000 tons of cargo—the equivalent of 6,000 to 9,000 garbage-truck loads—has been dumped into the lakes since the practice started. And nearly all the discharges qualify as pollutants under guidelines of the Ontario government, according to a 1993 study commissioned by the Canadian Coast Guard." Politically this is important because CSL accounts for more than 10% of the cargo ships that ply the Great Lakes each year. It will be fun to watch Prime Minister MFEM Martin imply that one of the reasons that the Tories are scary is because they will wreak the environment when he might have to defend attacks from the Left on his own, er, former company's record. Monday, November 21, 2005
Comments and stuff You can send comments to MFEM_MFEM[AT]yahoo.com. I'll respond when I can but I generally do respond. Be patient. Especially this week because it's production week at The Interim and I have a major deadline for the end of the week. Consequently, blogging will be light and infrequent for the remainder of the week. Quotidian "Not magnitude, not lavishness, But Form—the Site; Not innovating wilfulness, But reverence for the Archetype." —- Herman Melville, "Greek Architecture" So close yet so far Neil Hrab writes for The American Spectator online about an Israeli-UAE story and includes this interesting tidbit: "The international dialing code for Israel is 972. The dialing code for the UAE is 971. They are close neighbors, at least in the phone book, if not by geography. Yet you cannot dial Israel directly from Dubai, my friend said. The UAE telephone monopoly won't allow it." Anglican bishop speaks on British multiculturalism and doesn't suck The London Times reports that Dr. John Sentamu, the soon to be enthroned Archbishop of York, said that St. George's Day (April 23) should be celebrated and that Britons should not be afraid to express their Britishness. The Uganada-born bishop told the Times: "Multiculturalism has seemed to imply, wrongly for me, let other cultures be allowed to express themselves but do not let the majority culture at all tell us its glories, its struggles, its joys, its pains." And: "I speak as a foreigner really. The English are somehow embarrassed about some of the good things they have done. They have done some terrible things but not all the Empire was a bad idea. Because the Empire has gone there is almost the sense in which there is not a big idea that drives this nation." And this: "What is it to be English? It is a very serious question ... I think we have not engaged with English culture as it has developed. When you ask a lot of people in this country, ‘What is English culture?’, they are very vague. It is a culture that whether we like it or not has given us parliamentary democracy. It is the mother of it. It is the mother of arguing that if you want a change of government, you vote them in or you vote them out. It is a place that has allowed reason to be at the heart of all these things, that has allowed genuine dissent without resort to violence, that has allowed all the fantastic music that we experience in our culture." Very nice, very welcome words. But this is the best, most wise thing he said, as he warned against making a fetish of tolerance: "It seems to be the word tolerance is bad because it just means putting up with it. I was raised in the spirit of magnanimity. That is a better word than tolerance. If you are magnanimous in your judgments on other people, there is a chance that I will recognise that you will help me in my struggle." If it is a worthwhile struggle, that is. But why should I tolerate the unworthwhile struggle. The Times editorial on the bishop's comments is worth reading, too. It says that, "The Archbishop does not denounce the notion of multiculturalism but he wants it to be meaningful." Too much of multiculturalism is pose -- the mindless and gutless show of tolerance of which Bishop Sentamu is rightly critical. To be meaningful, multiculturalism must respect -- or at the very least acknowledge -- the nation's heritage or the very foundation of that polyethnic society is likely to collapse. Again the Times editorial: "Multiculturalism has obvious merit. A society has, though, to have a spine in order for it to possess a functioning body. A nation without a uniform sense of shared values is not destined to have a sense of itself. The Archbishop is right to articulate that point, and correct when he notes, without embarrassment, the essential part that Christianity has played in the formation of modern British culture. Candour and clarity are not always qualities associated with the highest echelon of the Church of England. It is appropriate for the Archbishop of York to make the most of his platform as well as his pulpit, even if that may court controversy occasionally." Are there no Lloyd Bentsens in the Democratic Party of 2005? Over at NRO, John Tamny wonders why no Democratic Congressmen support serious tax cuts. Good question. Aside from the politics, Democratic hardening of their anti-tax cut stance is threatening the American economy. But in an age when the president takes the blame and gets the credit (usually) for economy's performance, perhaps Democrats want the economy to tank. Missed manners and the decline of civilization Washington Post columnist George F. Will on the rude people who are using cell phones and video iPods: "Many people have no notion of propriety when in the presence of other people, because they are not actually in the presence of other people, even when they are in public." Quoting from Lynne Truss' Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door, Will says: "And multiplying technologies of portable entertainments will enable 'limitless self-absorption,' which will make people solipsistic, inconsiderate and antisocial. Hence manners are becoming unmannerly in this 'age of lazy moral relativism combined with aggressive social insolence'." Kathy Shaidle adds: "Of course, one reason people hide in plain sight with their iPods and so forth is because they're trying to block out other people's pre-existing rudeness to begin with. If Apple came up with an iNose for smells, they'd really be doing something." Let me add my two cents. It is not only rude but incomprehensible to me why two people both listening to their iPods would also talk (loudly) to one another in public spaces. It is rude because the volume of conversation required to be heard over the music ensures the resultant conversation is shared with the entire streetcar. Incomprehensible because ... well do I have to explain that it makes no sense why anyone would listen to music through earphones and try to carry on a conversation. Is it the music or the conversation that is not good enough to warrant one's full attention? Will says in his column: "Because manners are means of extending respect, especially to strangers, this question arises: Do manners and virtue go together? Truss thinks so, in spite of the possibility of 'blood-stained dictators who had exquisite table manners and never used their mobile phones in a crowded train compartment to order mass executions.' Actually, manners are the practice of a virtue. The virtue is called civility, a word related -- as a foundation is related to a house -- to the word civilization." One might think that Will exaggerates but I wonder. This morning, as I witness almost every morning on the streetcars in Toronto, there was the usual anti-social behaviour. One particular high school girl was cussing, sat with her feet on the adjacent seat despite the fact that people were standing and boasted of the "need" to punch various acquaintances and teachers. She used the f-word abundantly and loudly. When a man asked her to move her feet she refused. He went to sit down anyway and she reluctantly moved her legs but under heavy protest. She threatened him and she and a friend, who was sitting behind her, called him fat and repeatedly told him to ... em, perform an anatomical impossibility upon himself. When people looked their way to see what the commotion was about, the two girls hurled obscenities their way, too. They complained loudly and with a number of cuss words that nobody has any manners anymore and that they would appreciate if everyone would leave them alone. Eventually another person gave up her seat so the older gentleman could get up and the girl could have her second seat back. Now this scene is not quite the Hobbesian state of nature but I think it is a sign of our times in which anti-social behaviour makes more of our public spaces unfit for civilized people. To his credit, the gentleman who originally sat beside the girl did not once try to admonish or otherwise engage his tormenter. I would hate to see what would have happened if he did. As Truss says, we have "created people who will not stand to be corrected in any way." Sunday, November 20, 2005
Quotidian "It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mould, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work." -- Edward Gibbon, Memoirs of My Life Weekend list Ten people (living and dead) I would like to interview to better understand the 20th century America 10. Edward Teller (1908-2003, nuclear and molecular physicist) 9. Michael Barone (1945-present, journalist, principal author of the Almanac of American Politics) 8. Louis Armstrong (1901-1971, jazz cornetist, trumpeter, vocalist) 7. Murray Kempton (1917-1997, journalist, author of Part of Our Time) 6. William F. Buckley (1925-present, author, columnist, founder of National Review) 5. Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004, historian and Librarian of Congress) 4. Jackie Robinson (1919-1972, first black player in the Major Leagues) 3. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969, general and president) 2. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927-2003, academic and senator) 1. Richard Nixon (1913-1994, Vice President and President of the United States) Blogging the Tory leadership debate ConservativeHome blogged the leadership debate between the Davids Cameron and Davis. All the posts can be conveniently viewed here. Saturday, November 19, 2005
Quotidian "Obviously it is normal to think of oneself as younger than one is, but fatal to want to be younger." -- W.H. Auden to Robert Craft, quoted in Humphrey Carpenter's W.H. Auden: A Biography Social conservatives and moderate, so-called fiscal conservatives To continue on the theme ... Leon H. at RedState examines the voting records of Republican Congressmen and finds that the ones who are actually voting to cut spending are "a virtual who's who of rabid social conservatives." But, as Leon says, when you are losing you have to blame someone. Socons are an easy bogeyman. Friday, November 18, 2005
Tax cutting zeal is outside DC Even if the Republican Congress/Bush administration is not serious about cutting taxes, USA Today reports that several states are looking at small reductions in property and business taxes and targeted reductions in sales tax on items such as food. This follows widespread increases in tax revenue and budget surpluses, even in states such as California. Unfortunately, it does not appear that any state is seriously exploring the viability of cutting personal income tax rates. The paper reports that in the first nine months of 2005, revenue is up 7.2%, while spending increased 6%. Perhaps if state legislatures also cut spending they could find a way to cut income taxes, too. About those Conrad Black indictments I agree with Adam Daifallah about the unseemly glee of the Conrad Black haters ("So the Conrad Black haters are sipping champagne today. The amount of schadenfreude witnessed since his troubles began is second to none, or maybe second only to that seen during Martha Stewart's tribulations.") I also agree with Adam that "the whole thing is a waste of time" although I don't share his optimism that "Justice will be done." I hope it is, but as Ayn Rand noted long ago, capitalists are the most persecuted minority in America. (Well, maybe second most persecuted after free thinkers.) Martha Stewart did nothing wrong either and she ended up in jail and with a sinking reality TV series. Three Mark Steyn observations are worth highlighting: 1. "What I find distressing about this zealous 'regulation' of US businesses is that, in essence, most of this dispute is a matter of opinion: How much should Conrad Black be paid for running Hollinger? I dunno. Thirty grand? Thirty million? You say one, I say the other. But once the compensation's been approved - as almost everything was - why should it be retrospectively criminalised?" 2. Can't Barbara Amiel's birthday bash be considered a legitimate expense considering she worked in several high-profile jobs for Hollinger? 3. About the more than $100 million in legal fees incurred by Hollinger since the persecution of Conrad Black and tarnishing of his image begun: "It hardly needs pointing out that the investigation into the Blacks' alleged milking of the company's funds has, in fact, milked a lot more of the company's funds." Martin's flags of convenience You can read the cover story I wrote for Business Report for the October issue on business owner/politician Paul Martin wraps himself in the Canadian flag during election time but flies CSL ships under foreign flags to avoid high Canadian corporate taxes. The story also raises questions about whether policies were implemented to benefit his company and whether handing the business over to his sons negates concerns about a potential conflict of interest. Here are the final two paragraphs: "Might Martin's high-minded ideals have taken a back seat to private enrichment? When Martin ran for Parliament in 1988, his wealth was estimated to be $20 million, but current low-end estimates peg his private worth at $70 million. CSL's net worth has certainly benefited from its exploitation of tax-haven rules -- rules for which then finance minister Paul Martin was responsible. Are we to believe that Martin would not similarly affect government policy to benefit his sons' company, now that he is prime minister?" There is no new information in the story, but it does, usefully I think, re-raise questions the prime minister has never sufficiently answered. Thus it reminds Canadians that an examination of Martin's ethics do not begin and end with Judge John Gomery's exoneration. A little something for ST's Hungarian readers Hungarian blogger Pestiside notes that the Hungarian government has an online computer game which allows you to explore their budget. Furthermore, budgets submitted by participants will be read by bureaucrats, perhaps looking for some fresh ideas about how to cut spending for which they could take credit. (This would never happen here in Canada; at least not the spending cuts part.) Unfortunately, you have to be fluent in Hungarian. (HT: PSD blog) Socons and limited government Yesterday I noted this George F. Will column to highlight the out-of-control spending of the GOP Congress/Bush White House. I referred briefly to Will's criticism of some social conservatives. Burkean Canuck calls it a "diatribe" which I don't think it was, but BC uses the column as a jumping off point to make an important point about socons and so-called "moderate" conservatives who often juxtaposed to socons as fiscal conservatives -- summarizing Ramesh Ponnuru's Corner post, BC says: "[T]hose most likely to agree with Will on reducing spending and lowering taxes are social conservatives, and those most likely to disagree with him on spending and taxes are not social conservatives." This is true. (The distinction between social or moral conservatives and fiscal conservatives blurs the truth that many conservatives are both.) The Burkean one illustrates the point with a personal anecdote: "Several years ago, a friend and classmate from grad school was elected a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. My friend very graciously invited me to visit him in Washington, D.C. while he was a Congressman. While I was there, I tagged along with him to a GOPAC dinner at the Corcoran Gallery near the White House that featured a keynote from the Governor of Oklahoma. My friend was invited to say a few words at the beginning of the dinner, and then we were seated with a table of large donors. We talked about how to reduce public spending and taxes and a whole variety of subjects. When my friend left the table for a few minutes to return some calls, our tablemates started grilling me about his views on this or that subject. We had anticipated this, and I had already been given the go-ahead to fill them in. Our dinner companions were most interested in whether or not my friend was a social conservative, and what public stands he had taken on those issues. It soon became clear why, and if there were any doubt, they explained . . . Whether or not they themselves were social conservatives, they believed that the Congressman most likely to follow through on commitments to reduce public spending and lower taxes was someone who had taken public stands on issues on the social conservative side." Give it up Mr. Stevens Two years and $100,000 later, no court will agree to Sinclair Stevens request to nullify the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties. The Federal Court of Appeals is the latest to reject Stevens' sore loser routine. (HT: Right Ho!) Liberalizing India's economy Great news from India, as reported by the Financial Times: "India’s Communist-backed government will on Thursday afternoon consider a sweeping liberalisation of foreign direct investment rules that would kick start a long-stalled programme of economic reforms." Specifically, the government is proposing permitting 100% foreign direct investment in a number of sectors including airport construction, oil & gas infrastructure and cash & carry wholesale trading. (The communists have long opposed this last item figuring it would open the door to foreign-owned retailers.) The government is also considering opening up FDI in the exploration and mining of coal, lignite and diamonds, and in the cultivation of several important plantation crops including coffee, tea and rubber. These are big moves that will allow India to better compete with China which attracts more than ten times the amount of FDI. Friendly advice for a rival The Washington Times praises the tight-rope that President George W. Bush is walking in Asia: reiterating the importance of America's close relationship with Japan, challenging China on democracy without pressing them on specific human rights abuses, and working with Japan to be a regional counter to Chinese influence in east Asia. I think Bush should do more (most importantly calling upon China to close down its laogai prison system and committing America to the defense of Taiwan and abandoning the silly and out-dated One China policy) but I'm surprised he's going as far as he is. And while I'm not a fan of buying Chinese products at Wal-Mart knowing that they might very well have been built with prison labour, I'm no fan of slapping sanctions on China. So what the Bush administration is doing -- urging Beijing to liberalize its politics as well as its markets and to respect basic human and civil rights -- while preparing to curb China's regional influence until it does so, seems a reasonable (workable and moral) balance. I would just wish they would do it a little more, and a little more strenuously. More bad news from Africa Both stories from the Financial Times "Ethiopia and Eritrea edge back towards brink of war" The fruits of democracy slow to ripen in Kenya To be fair, the story on the Ethiopia/Eritrea border is that tensions are high and the story from Kenya is on the constitutional referendum being held next week. But it will be a great day when the likelihood of war in east Africa is not imminent and democracy is secure in Kenya (and elsewhere). Fantastic quote "If the French social model is so great, why is the country in flames?" - Peter Mendelson (Via Samizdata) What's wrong with Hollywood It's liberal. We all knew that, of course, but as Brian C. Anderson notes in a column in the Los Angeles Times, Hollywood biggies -- producers and actors -- have put ideology ahead of making money. They also value more highly the esteem of their colleagues than the affection of the movie-going audience: "IT WAS IN THE late 1960s and 1970s that Hollywood nearly stopped making such movies. Instead, it began to produce the countercultural films of 'New Hollywood' — such as Arthur Penn's violent, criminal-glorifying 'Bonnie and Clyde' (1967) and Hal Ashby's paean to the sexual revolution, 'Shampoo' (1975) — that wowed critics, who shared their anti-establishment attitudes. Some of these films did decent box office, but even 'Bonnie and Clyde' only lands around 850th on the all-time money list. In general, by the late 1960s, in the years after Hollywood dumped its old production code and started making edgier movies, attendance at theaters fell by half, to about 20 million from about 40 million. Hollywood didn't crack the 30-million-ticket mark again until 2002 and 2003, largely because of the box-office success of the first two 'Lord of the Rings' installments. Why does Tinseltown churn out so few such moneymakers? The wish for recognition as artistes by liberal elites is a big factor, says Emmy- and Oscar-nominated writer/director Lionel Chetwynd. From the late 1960s on, he says, 'if you wanted to be seen as an artist, you have to be a liberal'." Thursday, November 17, 2005
Quotidian "Experience has no value for the presumptuous man; faith is nothing to him; he substitutes for it a pretended individual conviction and to arrive at this conviction dispenses with all inquiry and with all study; for these means appear too trivial to a mind which believes itself strong enough to embrace at one glance all questions and all facts. Laws have no value for him, because he has not contributed to make them, and it would be beneath a man of his parts to recognize the limits traced by rude and ignorant generations. Power resides in himself; why should he submit himself to that which was only useful for the man deprived of light and knowledge?" -- Clemens von Metternich, "A Confession of Faith," sent as a secret memorandum to Tsar Alexander I in 1820, reprinted in his Memoirs The Baathist Galloway Saddam-loving British MP George Galloway spoke at Damascus University on November 13. Among the pearls of wisdom he had was this gem: "The reason that Syria is facing this crisis is not because of any bad thing which Syria has done or any weaknesses within its democracy, or within its economy, or within its human rights record - and there are weaknesses in all three of these. The reason why Syria is being threatened is not because of anything bad which she did, but because of the good which she is doing. That's the reason why Syria is being threatened - because she will not betray the Palestinian resistance, because she will not betray the Lebanese resistance, Hizbullah, because she will not sign a shameful surrender-peace with General Sharon, and above all - more than any of these others - because Syria will not allow her country to be used as a military base for America to crush the resistance in Iraq. These are the reasons why Syria is being targeted by these imperial powers." More from Memri. Or watch the video. (Cross-posted at The Shotgun) Some interesting facts about the G-O-P The headline on George F. Will's Washington Post column is "Grand Old Spenders." Ouch! But I guess the truth hurts. But it also matters. Slamming the religious right for failing to be more discriminating in the battles they chose, he says that the conservative coalition: "... will rapidly disintegrate if limited-government conservatives become convinced that social conservatives are unwilling to concentrate their character-building and soul-saving energies on the private institutions that mediate between individuals and government, and instead try to conscript government into sectarian crusades." I agree on this point. But more importantly is Will's comment that finding a limited-government conservative in the Republican Party is no easy task. Consider some facts about the GOP Congress and Republican president: * Congressional Republicans are unable to agree to cut the growth of Medicaid from 7.3% to 7%. * Congressional Republicans are unable to cut $54 billion over five years from budgets projected to total $12.5 trillion. That is just a 0.04% cut but the GOP Congress won't do it. * Despite the fact that Republicans have won 7 of the last 10 presidential elections and have held Congress since 1994 (save for about 18 months when the Senate was under Democratic control), per-household federal spending exceeds $22,000 per year, the highest level since World War II. * Since 2001, federal spending on education has doubled. * Federal spending "has grown twice as fast under President Bush as under President Bill Clinton" and the War on Terror can't be blamed for that; 65% of spending growth is "unrelated to national security," Will notes. * Here's my favourite: "In 1991, the 546 pork projects in the 13 appropriation bills cost $3.1 billion. In 2005, the 13,997 pork projects cost $27.3 billion." I thought the Republicans who rode into Washington on Newt Gingrich's coat-tails were going to do things differently. But consider this: "Washington subsidizes the cost of water to encourage farmers to produce surpluses that trigger a gusher of government spending to support prices. It is almost comforting that $2 billion is spent each year paying farmers not to produce. Farm subsidies, most of which go to agribusinesses and affluent farmers, are just part of the $60 billion in corporate welfare that dwarfs the $29 billion budget of the Department of Homeland Security." The argument from Republicans is always that the Democrats would be worse. Maybe. But as Will says, "the government is more undisciplined than ever." Martin doesn't want a 'holiday' time election Prime Minsiter says a holiday time election would offend people because ... well ... you know ... the orthodox celebrate the New Year on a different day than many other Canadians. Really. That's what he said. Actually read the comment, as quoted by CTV: "When you are talking about the holiday season, there are also other religions that have different New Year's at different dates and their holidays at a different date and I think we have to be respectful of that -- the orthodox churches, for example." What an idiot -- " ... at different dates and their holidays at a different date..." You gotta be joking. How did this man rise to become leader of any political party. His statement is a rambling pile of [sorry this is a family friendly blog]. And one last thing. After imposing his own personal opinion of what marriage is upon this country, in contradiction of how most faith traditions understand what marriage is, now he cares about offending people of faith. UPDATE: Political Staples and Paul Wells respond to Martin's desire not to offend. Honouring WFB Next week, William F. Buckley turns 80. NRO has asked friends and family to share some memories and thoughts. I want to highlight four things. Mona Charen recalls that some Soviet officials said something typically stupid and Buckley said, "You know I’ll almost miss them when we win." This was at a time when few people, including conservative hawks, could imagine a world without the USSR. Charen notes: "In Reagan, it was called optimism. But it was more than that. It was a spiritual strength and it was one important though perhaps underappreciated reason Bill Buckley was and is a great leader." Very nice. Very wise. Peter Robinson notes that at a San Francisco dinner recently the conversation was about Buckley's accomplishments. Various ones were proposed: the books, the television show, his hobbies (skiing, sailing, painting and playing the harpsichord (I'm told badly, actually). Milton Friedman interjected: "You’re all wrong ... Bill Buckley’s greatest talent is for friendship." Bill Simon describes that capacity for friendship: "For example, when I announced that I was running for governor of California in 2001, few people took me seriously. Bill did. Even fewer people came to my first fundraiser. Bill did. And the fewest number were those who hung with me after I narrowly lost. Bill did. Indeed, it was during those long weeks, just after losing to the ultimately recalled Gray Davis, that Bill was extraordinarily careful to stay in touch. In his inimitable fashion, Bill would jot short, witty notes and in encouraging phone conversations keep a light touch. Always, always, after hearing from Bill, my day was brighter, and my footsteps had a bit more spring with a quiet appreciative smile." Simon captures what I think makes Buckley so special: "There is no one I have ever met that took himself less seriously while at the same time taking his ideas most seriously." Nordlinger of Saudi PR From Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus column: "I’m looking at the back cover of The New Republic. It has an ad from the Saudi government. The slogan is, 'Strong allies. Committed friends.' (That means them and us Americans.) There is a photo, and it shows two young girls, frolicking, having fun, faces to the sun, hair flowing freely. Smart cookies, those Saudi admen: What an image of female Saudihood (or Saudi femalehood) to transmit! I guess they didn’t want to show women covered in black, locked in a room at home, while their husband is having his way with the Filipino maid." For 99.99999% of humanity this is completely useless information Hot Brass has a complete "list of brass players for the London Symphony Orchestra's inspiring soundtrack recordings for the Star Wars series." (HT: Musical Perceptions) Great agri-news website The New Agriculturalist is an excellent source of agri-news and commentary. Okay, immediately upon typing that, I realized how big of a nerd I am. But read the next post to understand what I mean. Snail farming New Agriculturalist On-Line reports that there is a growing snail farming industry in West Africa: "Snail farming can be a very good business in areas where the local market is strong and where, as a result, over collecting from the bush has led to a shortage and boosted prices. Snails fit in well with other farming activities, helping to fertilize the soil prior to cultivation of other crops. And those of unmarketable size can be fed to pigs, shells included. ... Snaileries can vary from a patch of fence-protected ground, sheltered from the wind, to a wooden box or movable pen. Also widely used are trenches or pits which, provided they protect the snails from predators (rats, lizards, centipedes etc.) also work well. Ash, neem or tobacco leaves help to deter natural predators and a site close to the home helps to deter human thieves." As the World Bank's Private Sector Development Blog says, this gives "new meaning to 'micro-enterprise'." Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Quotidian "The boast of the Soviet Union has always been that it is a multinational state in which national antagonisms have all been resolved, and different peoples work co-operatively together for the common goal in peace and equality. Stalin took credit for formulating the Soviet nationalities policy. But neither his formulations nor his treatment of minority cultures can be reconciled with the declared Soviet policy. The very claim that 'Soviet culture is national in form and socialist in content' already indicates that the national element in culture has only a formal and extrinsic place. The form of a free culture develops integrally with its content. To insist in advance that a culture must be socialist in content means to impose norms and directions on the cultural life of a people -- its art, song, folklore, religion, and literature -- instead of leaving them to the spontaneous expression of its carriers. In effect freedom of minority cultures in the Soviet Union has meant little more than freedom to praise Stalin in all languages but Hebrew." -- Sidney Hook, Marx and the Marxists Final five for the World Cup Who's headed to Germany for the 2006 World Cup is all clear now, with Spain, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Trinidad, and Australia qualifying for the final spots today. I am surprised Australia -- the Socceroos -- got by Uruguay (they needed a shootout to do it), but none of the others are surprises. Fifa has good game summaries of the five matches. The group drawings will be December 9. The World Cup itself begins June 9. Support our troops Through the Canadian Coalition for Democracies' Operation Rudolph: "The plan is simple. The Canadian Coalition for Democracies and our generous partners are asking Canadians to make donations that will be spent to purchase a package of Holiday gifts for each soldier in Afghanistan. We are all volunteers, so all of your donation will go to the mission of Operation Rudolph. Each gift package will be accompanied by a letter of appreciation from Canadian students and adults for their efforts in building a democracy. The gift packages will be delivered with the help of the Department of Defence, together with the letters, in a formal ceremony in Afghanistan prior to Christmas 2005." Entertainment prediction Jonathan V. Last says of Brokeback Mountain, a movie about gay cowboys filmed in Calgary last year: "But what do you think the chances are that Brokeback Mountain is the best-reviewed movie of the year, no matter what? If it stinks, would anyone dare say so? And do you maybe get the sense that perhaps many members of the entertainment press doesn't even need to see Brokeback Mountain to figure out what they think?" Gutless priest cancels pro-life conference Father Jean-Pierre Aumont, the rector of St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal cancelled the national pro-life conference scheduled to be held on the church grounds one day before it was scheduled to start because of opposition from abortion and gay rights activists. Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Morning-after pill politics The Daily Telegraph reports: "Democrats yesterday accused the Bush administration of denying women the morning-after pill because it offends the religious Right." Actually, I think the Food and Drug Administration may have refused to give the MAP the green light because it offends embryonic human beings (by killing them). Either way, it's an obvious sign that Democrats might be onto something when they complain that the United States is becoming a theocracy. (That's sarcasm.) Quotidian "Intellectual serenity in the United States, I have heard it said, consists in not giving a damn about Harvard." -- Joseph Epstein, Narcissus Leaves the Pool: Familiar Essays Martin will focus on governing Okay, you can stop laughing now. Seriously. The Prime Minsiter wants to focus on governing, to deal with the important issues, to do everything he wanted to do in the previous 18 months but couldn't so much as announce until the eve of an election call because ... because ... oh never mind, he's busy governing. In all seriousness, there should be an election because the taint of scandal and the partisan jockeying has taken over this Parliament and it is impossible to get anything done. Even if -- and it's a big if -- the government is serious about the mini budget non-budget they announced yesterday, it appears to be nothing more than electioneering. As J. Kelly Nestruck says: "... this Liberal 'economic update' is exactly why we should go to the polls sooner rather than later. As soon as Gomery dropped his first report -- ie. the one that actually matters in terms of an election -- the campaigning began and any semblance of running the country ended." If the Prime Minister is serious about governing, he would seek a new mandate to do so. Second thoughts I will reconsider my policy of judging people on what they think about the song Let It Snow. The difference an a makes In an interview with the Wall Street Journal that ran on the weekend, William F. Buckley said that President George W. Bush as conservative but not a conservative. Burkean Canuck on the distinction, which BC says is little more than the difference between gut conservatives and movement conservatives. Does it matter? Yes it does, but as the always wise BC concludes, "The winingest coalition will embrace both kinds of conservative." You can tell its nearing an election The Martin government is offering a package of goodies that include personal income tax cuts. The CBC reports that included among the tax cuts and spending initiatives is a $500 increase in the personal exemption and the dropping of the lowest personal income tax rate from 16 to 15%. Remember under Chretien the Liberals dismissed tax cuts as "buying voters"; yes, Martin might be different and may actually believe in tax cuts. Or what might be different is the precarious hold on the power that the Liberals have. Monday, November 14, 2005
And in the beginning there was Buckley Judge Samul Alito credits William F. Buckley with making him a lifelong conservative. That tidbit is found within this Bill Sammon story at the Washington Times which describes a document Alito sent to the Reagan White House when applying for a job in the Solicitor General's office. Specifically, Alito said at the time: "When I first became interested in government and politics during the 1960s, the greatest influences on my views were the writings of William F. Buckley Jr., the National Review, and Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign." Weren't Buckley and NR the greatest influences in many of our lives? Good news from the Middle East Saudi Arabia agreed to end its economic boycott of Israel. Of course, they didn't do this out of the goodness of their hearts. It was a condition for admittance to the WTO. Still, it is, as Martha Stewart would say, a good thing. Quotidian "Don't talk all the time. It is an error to assume that other people can have nothing interesting to say." -- Edmund Wilson's instructions to himself, The Fifties Dowd's style doesn't translate for effective books Kathryn Harrison has some legitimate criticism for Maureen Dowd's newish book -- new because it is mostly merely an enlargement of her columns on the battle between the sexes -- Are Men Necessary, in a review for the New York Times. Harrison says: "But what makes Dowd an exceptionally good columnist on the Op-Ed page - her ability to compress and juxtapose, her incisiveness, her ear for hypocrisy and eye for the absurd - does not enable her to produce a book-length exploration of a topic as complex as the relations between the sexes. Consumed over a cup of coffee, 800 words provide Dowd the ideal length to call her readers' attention to the ephemera at hand that may reveal larger trends and developments. But smart remarks are reductive and anti-ruminative; not only do they not encourage deeper analysis, they stymie it. Producing one of her trademark staccato repetitions - for example, on cosmetic surgery: 'We no longer have natural selection. We have unnatural selection. Survival of the fittest has been replaced by survival of the fakest. Biology used to be destiny. Now biology's a masquerade party' - Dowd effectively dismisses a subject by virtue of proclamation. Does she let loose three arrows instead of one because she can't choose the cleverest among them? Typically, her formula is to articulate a thesis, punch it up with humor and then follow with anecdotal support or examples taken from TV shows, advertisements, overheard conversations - all cultural detritus is fair game. Often she quotes from reputable sources, CNN or The Times or a professional journal like Science; more often she applies witty asides, snippy comparisons ('Arabs put their women in veils. We put ours in the stocks') and tabloid-style alliteration (e.g., 'dazzling dames' and 'He mused that men are in a muddle')." But that is precisely Dowd's problem. She once wrote a clever column, won a Pulitzer for it and has tried way too hard ever since to ensure every column has five zingers in it. She found a style that pleases some Manhattan liberals and she fell for the conceit that America loves her (at least the part of America that counts). Harrison is only half-right; she is correct to say that Dowd's style doesn't make for a good book. But neither does it work very well for a column. Not the big break blogs were looking for I'm sure that a few people (read: bloggers) will note with glee the fact that Andrew Sullivan's blog is now going to be run by Time.com. They will probably say that it is a recognition of the seriousness and importance of blogs. And to some degree it is. But remember, Sullivan is Mr. Big Time MSM anyway, with regular gigs at a number of places at one time or another including The New Republic, the London Times and Time. While this may bode well for other bloggers in the future -- at least those that seek MSM recognition (validiation?) -- this is mostly a recognition of Sullivan's MSM credentials, not his blogging. Five questions for Muslims From a column by Dennis Prager in the Los Angeles Times this past weekend. Here's the first one with an explanation for the question: "Why are you so quiet? Since the first Israelis were targeted for death by Muslim terrorists blowing themselves up in the name of your religion and Palestinian nationalism, I have been praying to see Muslim demonstrations against these atrocities. Last week's protests in Jordan against the bombings, while welcome, were a rarity. What I have seen more often is mainstream Muslim spokesmen implicitly defending this terror on the grounds that Israel occupies Palestinian lands. We see torture and murder in the name of Allah, but we see no anti-torture and anti-murder demonstrations in the name of Allah. There are a billion Muslims in the world. How is it possible that essentially none have demonstrated against evils perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam? This is true even of the millions of Muslims living in free Western societies. What are non-Muslims of goodwill supposed to conclude? When the Israeli government did not stop a Lebanese massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps in Lebanon in 1982, great crowds of Israeli Jews gathered to protest their country's moral failing. Why has there been no comparable public demonstration by Palestinians or other Muslims to morally condemn Palestinian or other Muslim-committed terror? The other questions: "Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?" "Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?" "Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by Muslims in the name of Islam?" "Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?" All very good questions but I'm most curious about the first. Of course, Muslims demonstrate against "torture" at Abu Ghraib, but why never against the torture committed by Muslim regimes? Might it have something to do with the fourth question, the one wondering why Muslim-majority countries are not rated free by Freedom House? Just wondering. Further decline of the LAT Ken Masugi notes at the Local Liberty blog that the Los Angeles Times has canned their Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist MFEMFEM Ramirez -- one of the most brilliant and talented editorial cartoonists anywhere. Fortunately, Copley News Service will continue to syndicate them. Also, as part of a sizeable shake-up of their columnist roster, they have dropped David Gelernter. In case anyone thinks this is totally motivated by ideology, the inane MFEMFE Scheer was recently let go, too. On the plus side, Jonah Goldberg has been picked up and they have retained Max Boot. Masugi has more thoughts on the changes and the whole roster in his long post about the seemingly desperate moves to keep the paper ... em, interesting. Wal-Mart and its critics Both sides are trying to co-opt the help of clergy. Wal-Mart Watch prepared a Faith Resource Guide for use in both Catholic and Protestant churches as well as synagogues, highlighting Biblical texts that apparently back-up its case. Wal-Mart is inviting clergy to its headquarters to hear its side of the story and to make the case that it provides jobs (the story doesn't allude to this but Wal-Mart should also note that they help low income workers and the unemployed by providing inexpensive consumer goods). Read about it in the Los Angeles Times. I for one would have a hard time believing Jesus would be chasing Wal-Mart out of town, like liberals are trying to do across America. Sunday, November 13, 2005
Chalabi at AEI Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi's recent speech at the American Enterprise Institute can be seen here. As Chris DeMuth called him, he is one of democratic Iraq's founding fathers, a "patriot, liberal and a liberator." There are many highlights, but to note just a few. He warned that this is not the time to rest because the job is far from done: "Iraq is at the threshold of a new era ... we are not out of the danger. What we do matters." He said that security is possible if Iraqi leaders persuade the government's opponents that they have a stake in the success of the democratic project. While Chalabi said that he hopes the Iraq army and police forces will eventually take over most of the security measures, he reported that no legitimate political leader is calling for the removal of foreign forces; the goal, he said, is the restoration of their own security forces so that foreign troops can leave the cities and return to their military bases. This is significant because Chalabi is implying that there will be a long-term need for foreign military assistance. Looking at the economy, Chalabi expressed concern that there has been no investment in the development of Iraq's oil capacity; he noted the importance of private enterprise in realizing their petroleum potential and the need to introduce some semblance of market pricing for gas prices domestically (which will still be less than 20-cents a litre). He talked about sharing oil revenue with the people as an important divergence from the policies of Saddam Hussein who kept the profits for himself and other high-ranking Baathists. He said that the government will not have the opportunity to loot because the elected assembly will have to okay money transfers. He also makes some comments on the Volcker Report, including noting that the "procedures of corruption" remain in place in the Iraqi bureaucracy. He hopes that the transparency required by having the assembly legitimize spending will change this. He has some strong words for the Arab League which looks at the Iraq government as a foreign-imposed alien power and condemns the fact that they never criticize the terrorist attacks that kill Iraqis. He wonders what the Arab League proposal for a conference for national reconciliation will accomplish: "Who do they want to reconcile: the residents of the mass graves with their murderers?" Powerful stuff. Discussing the ethnic strife, he praised the emerging "politics of participation and sharing" rather than the "politics of monopoly." He eloquently called for respecting human rights and the rule of law. He said that national security is not an excuse to violate the rights of tens of thousands of people. "The way to win against the terrorists in Iraq is to clearly seperate them from the communities in which they hide." The key is to win over the hearts of these communities. He praised the Iraq constitution in terms of women's rights and essential freedoms. He says that "federalism will be a very positive project for unity" when people realize the benefits of the success of the democratic project in Iraq. Welcome news for GOP (if you look way into the future) Florida Governor Jeb Bush has once again ruled out a presidential run in 2008, this time in an interview with a German magazine, Focus. But when asked if he would consider a run at a later date, say 2012, Bush responded: "Let's say there's a vague chance." That assumes, of course, the Republicans don't win in 2008. I still say that Jeb can run and overcome the back-to-back Bush thing if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee. Quotidian "There is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people." -- Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Sudanese refugees protest UN inaction The latest from the UN-fiddling-while-Sudanese-suffer file, as reported by the Canadian Press: "Leaders of more than 1,000 Sudanese refugees who have been camping in a park for six weeks said Sunday they were starting a hunger strike in protest against the United Nations, accusing the world body of failing to help them. 'We want the UNHCR to look into our problems,' said Bahr-Edin Adam, 28, a refugee from the war-torn Darfur region of west Sudan. 'No UNHCR representative met us, and we don't want to go back to Sudan because the Sudanese government is not interested in us'." Despite not talking to many of the refugees, UN officials dismiss them as economic migrants not legitimate refugees. The refugees' leaders say that they are not economic refugees, that they are not seeking entry into Europe or North America but would return home if it were safe, i.e. if Khartoum would not turn a blind eye to the genocide there. And what was Kofi Annan's response to banners in Cairo, where he was visiting, which said: "Save us Mr. Koffe from the office of UNHCR in Cairo." Nothing. Or pretty much what the UN has been doing with Sudan since news of the first genocide became public several years ago. India's security fence According to the London Times, the 8-foot high, 2,500-mile long security fence between India and Bangladesh will be finished sooner than expected to stave off any Muslim attacks from what some are worrying could become the new Afghanistan. The Times reports that one Bangladeshi opposition leader is concerned about his nation's creeping "Islamicisation," noting: "If you look at state TV, more presenters are wearing beards. On the radio they’re reciting more and more from the Koran. The most notable example is at Dhaka airport where signs are now in Arabic but no one speaks it." Islam, Religion of Peace (c) From WorldNetDaily: "Some 2,000 organized Muslims first vandalized three churches, a nuns' convent, two Catholic schools, the houses of a Protestant pastor and a Catholic priest, a girls' hostel and some Christian homes, according to Asia News. Then they burned them to the ground, while about 450 Christian families fled yesterday. They have not returned." Blairite cronyism The (London) Times reports that Tony Blair is appointing more life peers than his Tory predecessors, Margaret Thatcher and John Major. More importantly, the Times finds that about 10% of the peers are Labour Party donours, collectively contributing nearly £25 million: "An investigation by The Times shows that at least 25 of the 292 peers created by Mr Blair since 1996 have made donations ranging from £6,000 to £13 million. Two of the most generous are now ministers." The paper calls Blair, "the biggest dispenser of political patronage in the Lords since life peerages were created in 1958." Impressively, the article names names and reports the amounts given by each. Recall, too, that Blair criticized Major for appointing party faithful to life peerages. Liberal media in Britain Mark Ravenhill writes in The Guardian that British television is peddling a liberal moralistic vision in their soaps: "There's a tablet of commandments in soap opera ... a set of liberal values. 'Be true to yourself'; 'talk about your feelings'; 'learn to forgive and move on'; 'accept difference'; and 'you're still family even after the murder/arson/substance abuse'. Most of the plots of the soaps are generated when one of the characters strays from these commandments and the others rush around the Street or Square or Village trying to get them back living by these liberal values until - whoops! - another character slips and the game is on again. And again and again. The message is clear: learn these values or be ostracised by your community and banished to panto in Crewe." Ravenhill says this is "odd" because, we're constantly told, "we're living in a morally relativistic age, an age when TV programmers like to scoff at the Rada vowels and patronising tone of previous eras of television." Still, it's clear that television provides a "model of the perfect citizen it wants us to be: a liberal, sensitive, communicative person." So how does Ravenhill deal with this moralistic crusade? He uses the remote control: "There is hope. I watch QVC for several hours a day. On a shopping channel, they don't want to teach you anything. They're just desperate to sell you something, a product that you're never in a million years going to buy - Diamonique ('a branded diamond simulant'), or a Marie Osmond doll. You can sit for hours and just say to the TV: 'No way.' And for once the power is yours and there's no liberal producer, no lesson to be learned and you're totally free of soap, soap, soap." Cameron has momentum David Cameron is claiming that he is not only poised to win the Tory leadership race but that he will unite the Conservative Party behind him and beat the Labour Party. He is uniting the party, it seems. Joining left-leaning Tory MPs Tim Yeo and Alistair Burt in endorsing Cameron (who both announced they were backing him last week) are conservative-leaning MPs Liam Fox and William Hague. It's just sad to see that Tony Blair and not Margaret Thatcher is the model for Tory leadership. World's largest prison According to the latest Cuban census -- and only the third since Fidel Castro's rise to power -- there are 11.4 million residents of the island prison. Friday, November 11, 2005
T-shirts I'm getting my son for Christmas Considering Attila the Hun -- aka Patrick, 15 -- dislikes Che and hates communism, I'm getting him this shirt. He hates hippies, too, but my wife says this one is inappropriate. (Apparently so is this one celebrating diversity.) So instead, he'll get one about the UN. SDA on sexual abuse as a life-ending event Small Dead Animals writes provocatively but truly when in reaction to the over-used line that an act of sexual abuse "ruins the life" of some youngster who experiences it, she says that such descriptions continue to victimize: "A few years ago a friend revealed, almost matter-of-factly, that as a young teenager she had been the victim of a gang rape. She jumped through the counselling hoops of conventional psychological wisdom until the day she realized that she was still wallowing in the event, stretching a brief trauma into an extended one. She decided instead to accept what happened, put it behind her and get on with her life. She never looked back. While not everyone has that type of strength, her story does tell us something. If we want to help victims of sexual crimes regain normalcy, it's time that society and the justice system stop sending mixed messages. We claim there is no shame in being a victim of sexually based crime, then try the cases in courts that "protect" identities and ban publication of testimony. We applaud their courage, then use 'fate worse than' hyperbole equating rape with murder, as though the truly couragous victim would have choosen death over submission. We tell small children that the crime is 'not their fault' - but that their lives are ruined and childhoods at an end, placing before them the additional hurdle of self-fulfilling prophecy. Sexual assault is a heinous, traumatic crime that deserves the full force of the law - additionally so, because of the predatory nature of offenders and the threat they pose to others. It often requires a good deal of medical and emotional support for survivors to recover their health and their lives - but this is also true of drunk driving victims, those who survive beatings or robbery, survivors of spousal abuse - all of whom we expect to pick up the pieces and move on. Elevating the victim of sex crime to special status as the ruined perpetual 'survivor' may be as damaging a societal response - perhaps more so - than that of 50 years ago, when they were told to shut up and get on with their lives in silence." |