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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Friday, September 30, 2005
Bush to name justice next week MSNBC reports that President George W. Bush is likely to name the other Supreme Court justice next week. Here is the usual list of the people Bush is supposedly considering: "Mentioned most frequently in recent days are appeals court judges [Priscilla] Owen, Karen Williams and Alice Batchelder; Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan; White House counsel Harriet Miers; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; and PepsiCo lawyer Larry Thompson, who was the government’s highest ranking black law enforcement official when he was deputy attorney general during Bush’s first term. Others mentioned less frequently include appeals court judges J. MFEMFEM Luttig, Edith Jones, Samuel Alito, MFEMFEM McConnell and Consuelo Callahan." That second list has some conservative heavyweights: Luttig and McConnell and, to a lesser degree, Jones. Thursday, September 29, 2005
Speeding down the slippery slope AP reports: "The Dutch government intends to expand its current euthanasia policy, setting guidelines for when doctors may end the lives of terminally ill newborns with the parents' consent. A letter outlining the new directives will be submitted to parliament for discussion by mid-October, but the new policy will not require a vote or change of law, Dutch Health Ministry spokeswoman Annette Dijkstra said on Thursday. ... The change in Dutch policy is especially significant because it will provide the model for how the country treats other cases in which patients are unable to say whether they want to live or die, such as those involving the mentally retarded or elderly people who have become demented." ... because not enough Dutch people are being euthanized. The basis of the new policy is the Groningen Protocol, named after the university hospital in the Netherlands where doctors began (illegally) euthanizing terminally and non-terminally ill newborns and children. To read about the dangers of the Groningen Protocol, check out Wesley Smith's column from NRO earlier this year. Quotidian will return After the weekend. For those who have inquired what has happened to this feature. Best observation on Tom DeLay's woes David Frum: "Tom DeLay is not accused of corruption. He is not accused of taking bribes. He is not accused of personal enrichment. He is not even accused of breaking campaign-finance laws. Instead, if I understand the indictment correctly, he is accused of circumventing the campaign-finance laws, doing something technically legal in order to achieve an end that the state of Texas has sought to ban: routing corporate contributions to candidates for Texas office. So I can understand why DeLay so passionately insists on his innocence. Every taxpayer appreciates the distinction between tax avoidance - using legal means to reduce one's tax liability as far as one can - and tax evasion. DeLay was engaged in what might be called campaign-law avoidance. My guess is that the technical legality of what he did will in the end defeat the indictment - if indeed the case ever goes to trial. But in Washington, innocence only takes you so far. Innocence is a good excuse the first time, and maybe also the second, possibly even the third. But when you get up to the fourth protestation of innocence, well it begins to acquire a bad sound." That smell in Washington right now is the stench of death around Tom DeLay's political career. He is innocent of the charges (I say confidently) but guilty in the eyes of the media and, perhaps, his colleagues. And if not guilty, too tainted. Chief Justice John Roberts The Senate voted78-22 to confirm John Roberts as the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Here's the roll call. Most the surprise votes came from Democrats who voted yes: Patti Murray, Ron Wyden, Carl Levin. Obviously, they are setting themselves up as able-to-compromise Democrats for the next vote so they can savagely attack President George W. Bush's next appointee. About the DC anti-war protest Sorry that this is ... well, five days late. Oxblogs's David Adesnik was going to give Hershey kisses in exchange for answers to a little quiz to ascertain the knowledge level of anti-war demonstators but there has been no follow up to that post. But in this post he examines the arguments that the protestors and counterprotestors employed at the demonstration (and none were that compelling). I especially liked this observation: "Another disturbingly common response by protesters was giving their critics the finger. I even saw one guy marching back in forth with his hands in the air, one with the middle-finger raised, the other with a two-fingered peace sign." Such is the state of the Left's political arguments today. The jailbait caucus As I noted yesterday, Rick Casson's private member's bill raising the age for sexual consent from 14 to 16 was defeated by the Liberals, NDP and BQ, 167-99. By my count, eight (perhaps nine) MPs from those three parties supported the bill, while just one Tory MP (Gary Schellenberger) opposed it. Perhaps the latter could be called the jailbait caucus. Oddly, such pro-family stalwarts as Paul Szabo, Rose-Marie Ur and Paul Zed voted against raising the age of consent. Liberal cronyism The Canadian Press reports on the secret of David Dingwall's success, so to speak: "When David Dingwall resigned Wednesday as president of the Royal Canadian Mint, some Liberals were privately surprised -- not that the diminutive Nova Scotian had been felled by controversy but that he'd managed to survive for so long. Allegations of patronage and pork-barrelling have dogged Dingwall, an unabashed practitioner of small-town politics, since 1980 when he was first elected to represent the impoverished Cape Breton region. Yet the wily political operator always seemed able to dodge the bullet. Although he was one of then prime minister Jean Chretien's fiercest loyalists and strongest leadership organizers, Dingwall even seemed impervious to the purge mentality that set in when Paul Martin took over two years ago. He was the public works minister who hired Chuck Guite, now facing fraud charges, to run the scandal-riddled sponsorship program. Yet Dingwall somehow managed to avoid the fate of other Chretien-era cronies who were summarily dumped from their positions as heads of Crown corporations and federal agencies even though some had more tenuous links to the toxic scandal than Dingwall. How did he do it? 'He's politically smart,' said Sheila Copps, a former cabinet colleague and now a columnist for Sun Media. She said Dingwall has 'a lot of good friends in the system'." And that, my friends, is why Liberals will do anything to get elected: to help their own. Vote for top intellectual Over at Prospect magazine. My choices: Pope Benedict XVI Hernando De Soto James Q. Wilson Paul Wolfowitz Pavel Demes Definitely not on my list: Naomi Klein. What the heck is she doing as one of the 100 nominees? I get why Peter Singer is on the list -- he's repugnant but I understand. But Klein? Winnipeg's priorities The Canadian Taxpayers Federation noted that the city of Winnipeg was considering a two-year $220,000 bailout for the Burton Cummings Theatre; last week, the same city council gave another theatre, the Pantages, $110,000. This largese comes despite a municipal operating deficit of $18 million, total debt of more than $428 million and deferred road repairs because the city just can't afford it. New GG becomes media darling Gerry Nicholls notes the evolving role of the Governor General to mere PR instrument of the government of the day and how after weeks of media skepticism about Jean's credentials and criticism of her past she has suddenly become beloved: "The Governor-General has evolved from being the Queen’s representative in Canada to being a PR device for the federal government. That’s was pretty obvious from yesterday’s swearing in ceremony for Michaelle Jean, which looked for all the world like some sort of combination variety special and reality show. And the beautiful and articulate Jean played her part masterfully – the teary cheeks, the emotional speech, the reaching out to all regions. She sure has the media gushing her praise. (They have conveniently forgotten about the way she once apparently dallied with separatism.) It’s all part of a plan, I think, to sell the federal government as an institution to a generation of Canadians who are growing increasingly cynical about this scandal-ridden institution. The government seems to be saying: 'forget the scandals, look how hip we are!'" Gerry is onto something here. The media was critical of Jean when she was merely the Governor General designate, but now that she's effectively an ambassador for the Liberals, the media now gives her what a former editor of mine indelicately called "the blow job treatment." Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Most MPs support adults having sex with minors CTV reports: "A Conservative MP's attempt to raise the age of consent has failed, with a resounding defeat in the House of Commons. When Conservative MP Rick Casson's bill was put to a vote Wednesday night, 99 parliamentarians voted in favour of increasing the minimum age for sex by two years, to 16. A total of 167 MPs voted against the bill." Challenging Castro No paper has demonstrated its dedication to the cause of liberty as clearly and consistently as has the New York Sun. For proof look no further than today'seditorial: "Congress is scheduled to vote today on whether to get tough with the Cuban tyrant, Fidel Castro. It is now more than two months since Mr. Castro began his latest crackdown on his citizens. The measure the House is scheduled to vote on today, House Resolution 388, is expected to pass, categorically condemning Castro's regime, his imprisonment of his own people for the crime of wanting democracy, and the European Union's coddling of the despot. After the crackdown began July 22, the number of dissidents arrested has reached at least 50, of whom more than a dozen remained in jail at last count. They join 61 of the 75 dissidents who were arrested in a similar wave of repression in 2003. A month ago, one of those arrested in July, Rene Gomez Manzano, started a hunger strike ["Cuba's Ganji," August 22]. Since then, several others have adopted that form of protest, including a journalist, Victor Arroyo, who is now in the third week of his own hunger strike, and an activist, Felix Navarro. Messrs. Arroyo and Navarro were arrested in 2003. In statements to The New York Sun in August, spokeswomen for both the White House and the State Department called for an end to the repression in Cuba. Now the House will issue a call of its own. The proposed resolution notes the plight of the jailed dissidents. It also reminds the world that Castro still jails anyone with the temerity to try to leave the island, that he still offers safe harbor to American lawbreakers, and that his regime is still listed by our state department as a state sponsor of terrorism. The resolution also notes that throughout the latest repression, the European Union has been lifting, not tightening, its sanctions. After the 2003 crackdown, the EU countries had cut off high-level official contact with the regime and had started inviting dissidents to events at their embassies in Havana. The EU lost its nerve earlier this year, lulled by the release of 14 of the detainees arrested in 2003. By July, the French embassy in the enemy capital was inviting Castro's cronies to the very Bastille Day party that sparked the protests that led to the crackdown. A failure of feck is the best hope for despots like Castro, which is why today's vote in the Congress matters." Subscribe to the Sun, here. British Tories Different country, same problem: the belief that conservative parties must swerve left to win votes. David Davis, ostensibly the most conservative of the Tory leadership candidates (or at least the most conservative of the three candidates garnering media attention), says: "I know there will be hard times. But in my view, to shift your position to shore up your core vote is the one way to guarantee that you will lose the next election." Also, according to the same London Times story: "Coral Bookmakers cut Mr [Kenneth] Clarke’s odds to 2-1 and said he was likely to become the favourite today." Meanwhile, much to the chagrin of Kenneth Clarke, Liam Fox will force Europe into the campaign by announcing that he wants the Tories to cut ties with the European People's Party, a pro-European federalist party in the EP. Instead, Fox hopes to "set up a new bloc of centre-Right, pro-market, non-integrationist and Atlanticist parties in the European Parliament. It is expected to receive the backing of other centre-Right parties, particularly among the new EU states." Environmentally friendly funerals I have no comment on this Daily Telegraph report: "A town in Sweden plans to become the first place in the world where corpses will be disposed of by freeze-drying, as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation or burial. Jonkoping, in southern Sweden, is to turn its crematorium into a so-called promatorium next year. Swedes will then have the chance to bury their dead according to the pioneering method, which involves freezing the body, dipping it in liquid nitrogen and gently vibrating it to shatter it into powder. This is put into a small box made of potato or corn starch and placed in a shallow grave, where it will disintegrate within six to 12 months. People are to be encouraged to plant a tree on the grave. It would feed off the compost formed from the body, to emphasise the organic cycle of life. The national burial law is currently being updated to accommodate a practice that is expected to spread across the country over the next few years." Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Che Chic Jay Nordlinger notices two recent uses of the murderous thug Che Guevara to promote things. The Churches Advertising Network is using Baby Che Jesus to promote Christmas. The advertising campaign is both offensive and tacky. Then there's Che's Revolutionary Lip Balm. In the photo, the lip balm container looks like a used condom. And then there's Club Che in Dallas features "a 'Join The Revolution' international theme" that is "modeled after the late controversial rebel leader Ché Guevara." Goody. There are still communists I always get impatient with those who think that our battle with communism is over or pretend that the evil ideology no longer animates any nation. Jay Nordlinger has two examples of communism alive and kicking in today's world. Nordlinger highlights this report from Human Rights in China: "Human Rights in China (HRIC) has learned that Shanghai authorities have staged a major round-up of long-term petitioners, detaining at least 100 people since September 14. [Petitioners are people who have appealed to the government to address some wrong.] Sources say some of the detainees have been threatened with forcible psychiatric treatment. Sources in China told HRIC that beginning on the afternoon of September 14, local police detained more than 100 petitioners city-wide, with some people rounded up as they were walking in the street, or riding a bus, while others were taken in the middle of the night. Most of the detainees remain in custody, although their families have not been presented with any warrants for their detention. . . . HRIC's sources quote a number of . . . detainees as saying that they witnessed one detainee, Zhang Fenfen, being beaten by a police officer with the badge number 027223 when he refused to be photographed and searched; police reportedly also threatened to send Zhang to a psychiatric facility if he didn't cooperate. Zhang has been sent to a psychiatric hospital on two previous occasions after judicial organs ruled that he had an "obstructionist personality." While under psychiatric treatment on these occasions, Zhang was reportedly subjected to forcible injections and electric shocks." And he also highlights this report from Cuba, the "Communist hell, made all the more sorrowful by the huge and unshakable support the regime receives from Free World elites": "According to the testimony of Lisandra Lafitta, wife of the physician and prisoner of conscience Dr. Luis Milan Fernandez, her husband, a man free of mental ailments, has been arbitrarily confined since February 18, 2005, to a psychiatric ward of the Boniato Prison Hospital in Santiago de Cuba. Dr. Milan, serving a 13-year prison term, is forced to share a cell with patients suffering a variety of mental disorders . . . Dr. Milan is unable to sleep due to the incessant mosquitoes and suffocating heat (40 degrees Celsius in the shade). To escape this situation he sleeps on the floor, under his bed. Following an inspection of the Boniato Prison on June 10, 2005, when trucks arrived and guards with dogs searched every cell, Dr. Milan lost all his maps and the personal letters he had received from different countries. . . . Also, he is prohibited from receiving any medicines or food that his family takes him. Dr. Milan, who is 35 years old, has always been a very healthy man. When he was transferred from the Prison of Canaleta in Ciego de Avila (where he was confined along with 146 common prisoners) to the Combinado del Este Prison in Havana, where he underwent a medical check-up, penal authorities diagnosed the following illnesses: a tumor in the left humerus, loss of hearing, pulmonary emphysema (he does not smoke but was exposed to cigarette smoke in the Prison of Canaleta), hypertension, swollen nasal turbinates, and an enlarged liver. Dr. Milan refuses to undergo the required biopsies and surgical procedures required to treat these ailments since he does not trust the medical personnel in the prison. Dr. Luis Milan Fernandez is a member of the Independent Cuban Medical Association (Colegio Medico Independiente de Cuba). In June 2001 he and his wife, a dentist, signed a document titled 'Manifiesto 2001,' calling for recognition of fundamental freedoms in Cuba. ..." Note the use of psychiatry as a political tool to punish those who do not toe the communist line. Globe and Mail mentions my book You can read about it at The Shotgun. You can order the book from Freedom Press (Canada) Inc. Stones concert As I noted yesterday, I went to the Rolling Stones concert last night at the Rogers Centre. It was my first concert ... well, almost. I went with my parents to see Burton Cummings at the CNE when I was six or seven and we left early but I don't have any recollection of that evening other than we left early, so that concert doesn't count. Last night's concert was great. Here's the good, the bad and the ugly, but we'll save the good for last. The bad: Keith Richards' voice. He can't sing. Well, he can, but it's awful. People who must spend time in purgatory got some credit last night after listening to the two songs he sang. I'm 32-years-old and for the first time yesterday I was exposed to pot smoking. I was a little shocked to note that with just one exception, every pot smoker I saw was easily in his or her 50s. I heard several men in their 40s and 50s express their sexual interest in 17-year-olds. One gentleman -- and here I'm using the term loosely -- said, and this is a direct quote, that "17-year-olds are luscious." Another middle-aged man turned to his friend while some teenage girls walked past them in the hallway before the concert and said: "Those 17-year-olds are hot." Apparently middle aged Stones fans like teenage girls. The ugly: Keith Richards. He looks like death only slightly warmed over. Seeing grown men play the air guitar was only slightly more embarrassing to watch than the same men repeatedly punching the air with their pointer finger extended. Even uglier was seeing these same men embrace each other during the performance of Ruby Tuesday. Keith Richards' and Mick Jagger's shiny outfits. They're adults and its the 2000s. C'mon guys. The good: They did a cover of Ray Charles' (Night Time Is) The Right Time that blew me away. Backup singer Lisa Fisher sang the duet with Mick Jagger and it was incredible. In fact, their approximately six-minute rendition of this tune was worth the considerable price of admission all on its own. The backup singers were amazing; I'd pay to see Lisa Fisher sing if she ever performed solo. After a slow start -- the two opening numbers, Start Me Up and some other completely lame song, were awful -- it picked up considerably with the lesser hit She's So Cold. It's a high energy song that really got the crowd going. Until that moment, the 40,000-strong audience was somewhat subdued. The stage show was great. Lots of lights, pyrotechnics, video and, for three songs, a portion of the stage moved slowly to the middle of the stadium. That really got the audience going. I'm not a big (Can't Get No) Satisfaction fan but they rocked that song last night. Likewise for It's Only Rock and Roll, which was their closer. Mick Jagger. Yes he's ... well, there's no other way to put it ... a bit faggy with his British accent, prissy comments, strange girations and fluttering hand gestures. But he is also 100% energy; he never stopped moving, even when he played the guitar for a great rendition of Dead Flowers. The band rocked for a good two hours. If there was a disappointment for me it was that they didn't perform Gimme Shelter, my favourite Stones song and my five favourite songs of all time. Lisa Fisher could easily have done the background vocals for this tune but for whatever reason, the band continued its habit of not performing it on their tours. However, that's a quibble; they belted out maybe 15 songs over 120 minutes and for all but maybe 20 underwhelming minutes, I had a fantastic time. Monday, September 26, 2005
Done blogging for today I'm off the Rolling Stones concert with my 14-year-old and his friend. This is my first concert. It should be fun. And fodder for blogging tomorrow. British politics The British version of the Jean Chretien/Paul Martin power play continues. Chancellor Gordon Brown has angered his leftist base by vowing to keep Labour "New" with all that means for keeping Really Big Government at bay. Of course, the Left is not happy about this. The Labour Party is getting together in Brighton and the Telegraph is trying to blog the meeting. Thus far it is not all that exciting -- neither the conference nor the blog; nice try on the part of the Telegraph but still too MSMish. The Centre for Economics and Business Research has said that after overestimating economic growth Chancellor Gordon Brown will have to raise taxes 3%. Kenneth Clarke has urged David Cameron to drop out of the Tory leadership race and back either himself or David Davis. Furthermore, Clarke is beginning to brag that he thinks he can win: "I think I'm going to break this run of always being second." Or he's predicting a third place finish. Nordlinger on Iran From Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus column: "Someone sent me a story from the BBC, with an amazing headline: 'EU drops hardline stance on Iran.' Ponder that, for just a bit. Had you known that the EU had a hardline stance on Iran?" Lots of other great stuff in Nordlinger's meandering (in a good way) column. And speaking of Iran's nuclear weapons, er, nuclear energy program, read Anne Bayefsky's article at NRO. Sunday, September 25, 2005
Pray for Victor Arroyo You probably won't recognize Victor Arroyo's name unless you follow such things. He is a Cuban journalist and political prisoner that was hospitalized Thursday, two weeks into his hunger strike. Fellow political prisoner Felix Navarro has joined Arroyo in protesting the treatment of prisoners. Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists has not only expressed its concern over Arroyo's health but reiterated calls for Havana to release 24 journalists currently imprisoned by the regime. Never mind the Liberal scandal, look at Harper's woes ET comments on a post of mine at The Shotgun and makes a great point: the media was all over the Carol-Jamieson-criticizing-Stephen-Harper story after the story broke about the travel expenses of Pierre Pettigrew's chauffeur. Is the media doing a little deflection for the Liberals? Good news from Poland Exit polls show that the Law and Justice party has 28% of the vote and the Civic Platform Party around 25%. The likely coalition partners look like they'll win 303 of 460 seats. Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski is poised to become the prime minister. (This is too bad; Civic Platform leader Jan Rokita has more favourable views of the free market than Kaczynski.) Kaczynski's twin brother, Lech, is the party's candidate for next month's presidential election. More good news: the governing Democratic Left Alliance was soundly rejected, garnering only 11% of the vote. Reuters and AP have the story. Today's vote was the fifth fully free election since Poles overthrew their communist rulers in 1989, yet not once has Poland re-elected a government. Will on Marshall In his Washington Post column, George F. Will laments that with all the attention on the current nominee for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, America missed the opportunity to celebrate the birthday of John Marshall, the country's first chief justice. "Marshall is the most important American never to have been president. Because of his shaping effect on the soft wax of the young republic, his historic importance is greater than that of all but two presidents -- Washington and Lincoln. Without Marshall's landmark opinions defining the national government's powers, the government Washington founded might not have acquired competencies -- and society might not have developed the economic sinews -- sufficient to enable Lincoln to preserve the Union." The rest of the column explains why that is true. The Weekly Standard: deserves a wider audience That's the conclusion of Jonathan Kay after he reviews the The Weekly Standard, A Reader: 1995-2005 in the New York Post. I've been a subscriber to the Weekly Standard since Day One and it is as close to required reading as political commentary can be. You can subscribe to either the dead tree or e-versions here. Men: you are not needed The Sunday Telegraph reports that increasingly women are using IVF treatment to become pregnant because they "do not have the time or inclination for a sex life." In other words, British women are paying up to £2,500 not to have sex. Polish election Great news from Poland where according to the polls the right-of-centre parties will win enough seats in today's parliamentary elections to form a coalition government. Recent polls have both the pro-free market Civic Platform party and the populist centre-right Law and Justice party hovering around 30% support; the governing Democratic Left Alliance has just 4%, about half of the reconstructed communists. Unless there is a massive meltdown, the right should win. While there are some issues that need to be worked out between the two parties -- Law and Justice is not as enthusiastic about economic liberalization or a 15% flat tax as Civic Platform -- it would seem that anything is better than the current crop of socialists who have not done anything to dent the country's unemployment rate which is just under 20%. In other good news from Polish politics, it looks like Civic Platform's Donald Tusk will win the presidential election next month. Steyn on the intellectual poverty of Democrats -- and Republicans Mark Steyn begins his Chicago Sun-Times column thusly: "American politics seems to have dwindled down to a choice between a big government party and a big permanently-out-of-government party. The Senate Democrats had two months to cook up a reason to vote against John Roberts and the best California's Dianne Feinstein could manage come the big day was that she'd wanted to hear him "talking to me as a son, a husband and a father." In that case, get off the judiciary committee and go audition for 'Return To Bridges of Madison County,' or 'What Women Want 2' ('Mel Gibson is nominated to the Supreme Court but, despite being sensitive and a good listener, is accused of being a conservative theocrat')." He then handles the party's willing submission to the George Soros/MoveOn.org/Cindy Sheehan wing of the party with great aplumb. He pokes fun at Sheehan's "Million-Moan March washed up in Washington on Thursday to besiege the White House." Great stuff. But he saves some arrows for the Big Government party, too. About the Republicans Steyn says: "Big-time Republicans tell me Bush's profligacy is doing a great job of neutralizing the Dem advantage in the spending-is-caring stakes. This may have been true initially -- in the same sense as undercover cops neutralize a massive heroin-smuggling operation by infiltrating it. But, if they're still running the heroin operation five years later, it looks less like neutralization and more like a change of management." So what choice do Americans have? Here's Steyn: "Instead of changing the nature of the federal government, the Republican majority in Washington seems to be changing the nature of the Republican Party. The Democrats' approach to government has been Sorosized, the GOP's has been supersized. Some choice." That would be no choice, woudln't it? Surprising fact Estonia has the highest rate of HIV infection outside Africa with (officially) one in 100 carrying the disease. The number may be higher. I found this surprising on two counts. One, that it is an eastern European country that has the highest HIV infection rate outside Africa. I know, I know; Russia has a huge AIDS problem, but it still surprised me that a southeastern Asian or perhaps Caribbean nation didn't have a higher rate. Second, that the highest infection rate outside Africa is so low. Many African nations consider themselves to have the problem under control when they get infection rates under one in 10. Interview with Chavez The Washington Post's Lally Weymouth interviewed Venezuelan dictator Hugh Chavez. It is entirely predictable as he rants against the American "terrorist state." In one part he states that recently, "Reverend Robertson called for my assassination. This is a terrorist attack, according to international law. In Miami, on a daily basis, people on TV shows are calling for my assassination. This is terrorism." Very interesting. Robertson doesn't speak for the state. Neither do the Miami radio stations. Perhaps in Venezuela where freedom of thought and freedom of association are controlled, when preachers or members of the media speak it is the approved state version of things, but in the United States they are merely privately expressed opinions. It is telling that Chavez either doesn't get the distinction or choses to ignore it. But what do you expect from someone who when asked about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro replies: "He is one of my best friends." The rest of the interview also illustrates the fact that Chavez is either delusional or a liar as he discusses American empire and its "plans" to invade Venezuela, the left-wing revolution in Latin America, and his and Fidel's plans to provide surgery for all Latin Americans with eye problems. Rescuing Canada's Right Of course you are all going to be purchasing Rescuing Canada's Right when it comes out in November. Although you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, Rescuing Canada's Right has a great cover. Here are some of the themes authors Adam Daifallah and Tasha Kheiriddin promise to address: · Why the Conservative Party and its predecessor parties have such a poor electoral record · Why today’s Conservative Party is not really conservative · Why a new political vision is necessary to inspire Canadians – and what it should be · How the Liberals use public money to entrench an unhealthy reliance on the state – and how the right has failed to challenge it · What Canadian conservatives can learn from the American and British experiences · How to build a Canadian conservative counter-culture in media, academia, and the law · How the right can break though to the young, to immigrants and in Quebec · An action plan to end Canada’s democratic deficit - and level the political playing field I'm really looking forward to reading it. Weekend list The 30 best baseball books 30. The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It by Lawrence Ritter (1984) 29. What Baseball Means to Me: A Celebration of Our National Pastime edited by Curt Smith (2002) 28. The Diamond Appraised: A World Class Theorist & a Major-League Coach Square Off on Timeless Topics in t he Game of Baseball by Craig Wright and Tom House (1991) 27. The Head Game: Baseball Seen from the Pitcher's Mound by Roger Kahn (2000) 26. Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time by Ray Robinson 25. A Mathematician at the Ballpark: Odds and Probabilities for Baseball Fans by Ken Ross (2004) 24. Why Time Begins on Opening Day by Thomas Boswell (1984) 23. The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James (2003) 22. Top of the Heap: A Yankees Collection edited by Glenn Stout (2003) 21. Strat-O-Matic Fanatics: The Unlikely Success Story Of A Game That Became An American Passion by Glen Guzzo (2005) 20. Forging Genius: The Making Of Casey Stengel by Steven Goldman (2005) 19. National Pastime: How Americans Play Baseball and the Rest of the World Plays Soccer by Stefan Szymanski & Andrew Zimbalist (2005) 18. Baseball Dynasties: The Greatest Teams of All Time by Rob Neyer, Eddie Epstein (2000) 17. Beyond the Shadow of the Senators: The Untold Story of the Homestead Grays and the Integration of Baseball by Brad Snyder (2003) 16. The Book on The Book: A Landmark Inquiry into Which Strategies in the Modern Game Actually Work by Bill Felber (2005) 15. 9 Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game by Daniel Okrent (1984) 14. The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball by Frank Deford (2005) 13. Confessions of a Baseball Purist: What's Right--and Wrong--with Baseball, as Seen from the Best Seat in the House by Jon Miller (2000) 12. The Heart of the Order by Thomas Boswell (1989) 11. Baseball for Everyone: A Treasury of Baseball Lore and Instruction for Fans and Players by Joe DiMaggio (1942) 10. The National Game: Baseball and American Culture by John P. Rossi (2000) 9. Creating the National Pastime: Baseball Transforms Itself, 1903-1953 by G. Edward White (1996) 8. I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson by Jackie Robinson (1972) 7. How Life Imitates the World Series by Thomas Boswell (1982) 6. A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti edited by Kenneth S. Robson (1998) 5. Baseball: An Illustrated History by Ken Burns (1994) 4. The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination with Statistics by Alan Schwarz (2004) 3. Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball by George F. Will (1998) 2. The Dimaggio Albums (Box set) by Joe DiMaggio (1989) 1. Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball by George F. Will (1991) * Also, Total Baseball by John Thorn et al and Baseball Prospectus by the "Baseball Prospectus Team of Experts" are a pair of annual releases that are impossible to rate with books that are not purely about statistics but which should be on the shelf of every baseball fan. African al-Qaeda arrests This may be more politics than actual War on Terror success, but if it's true it's great news: Eight al-Qaeda suspects were arrested in Somaliland -- a country that is not internationally recognized. President Dahir Rayale Kahin said the men were disguised as clerics and intended to strike before September 29 elections in an attempt to disrupt them. Amy Welborn on the Catholic Church's 'gay purge' In the New York Times, of all places! (I know, I'm breaking my own no exclamation marks rule, but Amy Welborn is in the New York Times!). She says it is not a purge as much as applying the Catholic Church's rules on Catholic seminaries: "The same goes for the presence in seminaries of gay subcultures that draw their identity from secular values rather than the Catholic moral vision. Why is it considered unfair to expect priests and seminarians to live by the values of the institution they serve? Others may call it a purge, but I call it truth in advertising. A seminary has a dual responsibility. It owes the future priest preparation for a life of sacrifice, unique witness and engagement with other human beings at moments of joy and pain in a society that has no respect for his vocation. But a seminary also owes us, the people in the pews, psychologically mature priests who aren't engaged in an eternal and ego-driven struggle with their own problems, who are prepared to serve, to teach and preach - with integrity and honesty." Saturday, September 24, 2005
Questioning the protestors Literally question them. David Adesnik at Oxblog was planning on giving a Hershey Kiss to the anti-war demonstrators who would answer his five-question survey. Here are the questions: "1. George Bush's middle initial is W. What does it stand for? 2. Approximately how many American soliders have been killed in Iraq? 3. One of the main organizers of this protest is ANSWER. What do the letters of "ANSWER" stand for? 4. Who is the prime minister of Iraq? 5. Who is the president of Afghanistan?" How many would "peace" demonstrators would get even two of those? I look forward to him publishing the results. Someone else's weekend list Opinion Journal has Tim McCarver's five favourite baseball books: 1. "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton (World, 1970) 2. "The Summer Game" by Roger Angell (University of Nebraska Press, 2004). 3. "The Great American Novel" by Philip Roth (Holt Rinehart Winston, 1973). 4. "The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn (Harper & Row, 1972) 5. "October 1964" by David Halberstam (Villard Books, 1994) I might try to put something together along these lines by the end of the weekend. Quotidian "I had the feeling that he wasn't quite pleased with his parents. Either he didn't like them or perhaps they weren't his style." -- Painter Allen Saalburg about S.J. Perelman, quoted in Dorothy Herrmann's S.J. Perelman: A Life Just say no to Amtrak On his blog, Joseph Vranich, one of the creators of Amtrak, says get rid of it. He delivers the same message at TCS: "We could phase Amtrak out of existence while preserving the busiest routes through a competitive bidding system that reduces subsidies as more efficient private companies take over. Already in the United States, companies under contracting arrangements carry 40 million rail commuters annually -- many more than Amtrak carries -- and they do so with a high degree of reliability. The trains in Europe that are run by private companies are the ones gaining the most customers, a result of companies providing higher quality and lower prices to stay ahead of market contenders. Such competition inspires them to be more innovative and imaginative. Amtrak will never turn itself around if it keeps raking in taxpayer's dollars. If Congress won't cut Amtrak and other wasteful programs now, then President Bush must put his thus-far-unused veto pen to use." What Leahy really meant Earlier this week, Senator MFEMFEM Leahy (D, Vt.) supported Judge John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Cour of the United States. David Mader examines Leahy's surprising move and here's the money quote: "Leahy suggests that his decision to support Roberts' confirmation is motivated in large party by his belief that Roberts lacks an 'ideological agenda.' ... What Leahy means is that he doesn't believe that Roberts has an ideological agenda with which Leahy doesn't agree." There is one other aspect of Leahy's endorsement that everyone should remember: the media will remind Americans how non-partisan the Vermont senator was in the Roberts nomination -- a nomination that will likely get Senate approval with or without Leahy's endorsement -- when he viscously attacks President George W. Bush's next judicial nominee. Friday, September 23, 2005
The Mugabe model Over at Samizdata, Johnathan Pearce links to this unsurprising story about how South Africa's Commission on Restitution of Land Rights, for the first time, is forcing a white farmer to sell his land under a socialist redistribution plan to increase black land ownership. The farmer refused to agree to a suitable price so now he will have a price imposed upon him. And this will surely not be the last time it happens. As the BBC reports: "South Africa's government says it wants to hand over about a third of white-owned farm land by 2014." Bush just can't win Stephen Spruiell, NRO's Media Watch blogger, notes that, "After President Bush briefed reporters on his intention to visit the area affected by Hurricane Rita as soon as possible, one reporter yelled, 'Sir, what good can you do going down to the hurricane zone? Might you get in the way'?" If Louisiana's senators win this argument, pork is on its way Porkopolis estimates that the $250 billion request to rebuild Louisiana, never mind Alabama and Mississippi, would cost approximately $80,000-$100,000 per affected person. Thursday, September 22, 2005
IMF has its hand out The International Monetary Fund is working to improve its anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism program, as it should. But this costs money and it urges donor nations to give more. According to the IMF's press release announcing the change to the AML/CFT program, its, "resources are limited and urges the donor community to commit additional resources, given the clear and urgent need to support countries in the implementation of the revised standard." Free Khodorkovsky The Financial Times and MoscowTimes.com report that Mikhail Khodorkovsky has failed in attempt to appeal his conviction of fraud and tax evasion, a result of a politically motivated prosecution. However, his prison sentence has been reduced from nine to eight years. According to the Moscow Times, which was at one time owned by Khodorkovsky (I have no idea if it still is), Yury Shmidt, the former Yukos CEO's lawyer, said he understands that the Prosecutor General's Office was planning to bring more charges against his client. Platon Lebedev, Khodorkovsky's former business partner, also had his sentence reduced from nine to eight years. Japan's reformist government Following his stunning victory earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is pressing ahead more aggressively with privitization plans, including the restructuring and abolishing eight state-owned banks. As the Financial Times reports: "The proposed move would provide an important boost for the country's private sector banks, which have been undermined by government-backed financial institutions that have cannibalised their customer base and undercut their prices. Japan's state-owned banks generally raise money by issuing government guaranteed bonds and making long-term, low-interest loans to corporations involved in areas such as urban redevelopment. They have often been used to channel cheap funds to construction companies and other businesses with connections to the government or bureaucracy. Mr Koizumi's proposed reforms are unpopular with some anti-reform bureaucrats." What a great move, both economically and politically. Koizumi could just as easily sat back but he knows that politicians cannot bank "political capital" and that it only increases when it is being seen as being used. Polls show Dems to hold Michigan (X2) The Detroit News reports that both Governor Jennifer Granholm and Senator Debbie Stabenow hold significant leads over their likely GOP opponents. Depending on the poll, Granholm leads Republican Dick DeVos by 15-20 points. DeVos has no competition for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Stabenow leads either likely opponent by at least 24 points. Interestingly, both candidates, Rev. Keith Butler and Jerry Zandstra, are ministers; Zandstra is also the Program Director for the Acton Institute, a religious, pro-free market think tank. Business takes a pass on embryonic stem cells The Economist has an interesting article on the business of stem cell research, by which they mean embryonic stem cells. It concludes: [Consultant Michael] Steiner reckons that just over $1 billion was spent on stem-cell work last year, a mere 1% of global spending on health-care R&D. More than four-fifths of that investment came from governments. Venture capital, the traditional engine of biotechnology, is remarkably scarce in stem cells. Only $50m was pumped into the field last year, as private investors look for safer bets in more developed products with larger markets, where regulation and patent protection is more clearly defined. It will be some time yet before the reality of stem cells catches up with the rhetoric." When private capital doesn't rush to a "product" such as stem cell therapies, with all its promise of cures for a myriad of diseases and ailments, might that not be a sign that the promises have been over-hyped. Governments are spending money on ESCR but remember that governments have a very poor record of picking economic winners and losers; if subsidizing jobs or agriculture or whatever is a bad idea, then so is subsidizing immoral research with dubious benefits. Proving the critics of UN critics wrong In recent weeks the media has typically covered the United Nations with stories that include lines such as this: "Even critics of the UN can't envision a world without the world body," or "Even critics don't want to see the UN disappear," or "Even critics blah, blah, blah." Well, Lorne Gunter is a critic of the UN: "But while frankly and accurately assessing the U.N.'s shortcomings, Mr. Martin insisted there was no alternative to the world body. Oh, I don't know, no U.N. sounds pretty good to me." Whether its realistic for the UN's political critics to advocate its abolition is quite another issue. But there are those out there who wouldn't mind if Turtle Bay sunk into the Atlantic. Useful, new(ish) blog The Foundation for the Defense of Democracy has a new blog. (HT: Relapsed Catholic). The Canadian Coalition for Democracies needs to do the same type of thing; their message board doesn't quite cut it. Compassionate conservatism and Katrina Marvin Olasky has a list of seven suggestions on how to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina and future natural disasters: 1. "Listen to and learn from the real poverty experts, those who have fought their way out of it." 2. "Tweak tax rules to make it financially possible for that black single mom, as well as middle-class individuals, to help evacuees for a year or even more." 3. "Do not discriminate in any way against groups that see the importance of offering spiritual as well as material help." 4. "Provide student evacuees with vouchers so they can attend any schools in their new communities, whether governmental, private or church-based." 5. "Create the 'Gulf Opportunity Zone' (encompassing the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama disaster area) that President Bush has called for, and within it provide tax relief for small businesses as well as other spurs to entrepreneurship. Accompany that with the White House's "Urban Homesteading Act," which would give low-income citizens free building sites on land the federal government currently owns but does not need." 6."Honor compassionate 'first responders' by telling the story of not only what went wrong, but what went right." 7. "Thank God for His mercy." In his column, Olasky expands on each point to explain its importance or provides an example of how it works. Rethinking multiculturalism David Goodhart, a man of the Left, relives the experience of Prospect's examination of race and social cohesion in the pages of The Spectator: "I wrote a 7,000-word essay called ‘Too Diverse?’ for the February 2004 issue of Prospect which tentatively explored the ‘progressive dilemma’ — the potential conflict between social cohesion and the many kinds of diversity, including ethnic diversity, that have flourished in recent decades. The essay was then reprinted in full in the Guardian under the heading ‘Why too much diversity could tear us apart’." He describes the reaction which was basically that he was the new Enoch Powell. He explains the essence of his argument: "My basic argument is that lifestyle diversity and sustained mass immigration bring cultural and economic dynamism, but without a compensating reinforcement of the ‘we’ of common citizenship and values they can also erode feelings of mutual obligation. This in turn may reduce willingness to pay for a generous welfare state — diverse and individualistic America has a thin welfare state, homogeneous Sweden has a fat one." Who could argue against that? That is, what does Goodhart say there that is not true? (I don't agree with the implicit argument that one of the main problems with massive numbers of immigrants is that it endangers support for the welfare state. I think that the lack of any sense of "we" does indeed reduce the public's willingness to pay for the welfare state; I just don't see it that as a problem.) The rest of Goodhart's essay is well worth reading because it is a critical assessment of the Left's beloved fallacies (that the West is responsible for all the developing world's ills, that nationalism is always bad, that human beings are "rational individualists with a propensity to treat all other humans with equal regard") from one of their own. But the larger question about whether a multicultural society can sustain the social cohesion necessary to thrive (or even to merely continue) is impressive not for the answers it may elicit but for even being asked. Who, I wonder, would write a similar essay in Canada, or even the United States, and especially from the Left. In the U.S., Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams have both addressed the issue, but to my knowledge no mainstream Canadian conservative has. And I won't hold my breath waiting for a liberal to pose the same question. Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Quotidian "His own enjoyment, or his own ease, was, in every particular, his ruling principle." -- Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility Not going to happen Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Silvan Shalom told the United Nations that his country would like a non-permanent seat on the Security Council. Israel has never had a seat around that powerful table. Despite the AP's arguments about Israel becoming more accepted within the international community after its Gaza pullout, it is inconceivable that the UN will let Israel have a voice on the influential Security Council. Monday, September 19, 2005
Roberts and abortion At NRO, Edward Whelan says that Judge John Roberts, even in gettting the endorsement of pro-Roe Senator Arlen Specter, has laid the groundwork for overturning Roe v. Wade. First, about the law Whelan notes: "Specter's 'super stare decisis' notion implies that there is an especially high wall that would need to be surmounted to overrule Roe. But Roberts reconceived this single high wall as two successive hurdles that would have to be cleared: first, the precedent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey on whether or not to revisit Roe, and second, the precedent in Roe, as modified by Casey, on what abortion regulations are permissible and on the standard of review to be applied to them. Roberts's phrasing cleverly obscured the point that it is far easier to go over two hurdles in succession than over a wall that is the height of the two hurdles combined. ... The first hurdle — overturning Casey as a precedent for applying principles of stare decisis to Roe — is easily cleared: The principles of stare decisis invoked in Casey were contrived for that case and are in conflict with the Court's other precedents on precedent (such as Lawrence v. Texas, as Scalia's dissent in that case points out). Moreover, what Scalia aptly described in his Casey dissent as the majority's 'Nietzschean vision of us unelected, life-tenured judges — leading a Volk who will be "tested by following," and whose very "belief in themselves" is mystically bound up in their "understanding' of a Court that 'speak[s] before all others for their constitutional ideals"' — is profoundly antithetical to the American understanding, and Roberts's stated understanding, of the role of the Court. The second hurdle should likewise prove insubstantial. The 'undue burden' standard that resulted from Casey's modification of Roe is patently subjective and unworkable, as illustrated by the fact that its inventors split on its application to a ban on partial-birth abortion in Stenberg v. Carhart. Casey itself eroded Roe, and there will be plenty of occasions for further erosion. The political processes are fully capable of determining abortion policy and of identifying and protecting any legitimate reliance interest that anyone might have in Roe. And the grossly distorting effect that Roe continues to have on American politics, and on the confirmation process for Supreme Court justices, provides compelling reason to jettison Roe." The idea that Casey itself eroded Roe is, as far as I know, a novel reading of the decision, but who am I to argue with the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a person who "worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1992 to 1995." The law may be esoteric but the politics isn't and I fully agree with Whelan's argument that some of things Roberts said are ... well ... just things he said. As Whelan notes, Roberts says that Casey is "settled as a precedent of the Court, entitled to respect under principles of stare decisis" is nothing more than "definitional boilerplate in Roberts's usage." Whelan explains that, "As Roberts employs the terms, anything that qualifies as 'precedent' is 'settled,' and all precedents of the Court are 'entitled to respect'." But respect doesn't mean that the precendent is binding, only a fairly firm guidepost. I should note that I disagree with some pro-lifers on this point about Roberts' words being "definitional boilerplate." They say that Roberts is not telling senator what they want to hear but what he believes. Or, if he is telling them what they want to hear, that he isn't giving himself much wiggle room later. Whelan addresses the legal arguments in his article. But the heart of my rebuttal to pro-life skeptics of Roberts and their belief that he is going to be David Souter II is simply this: Roberts is smarter than David Souter I. Bush II cares more about the abortion issue than Bush I did. I doubt that Bush II would appoint a solidly pro-Roe justice to the court. Quotidian "Gravity is the quality that confers greatness in literature, even on comic literature; gravity has to do with spirituality, with high and undeflected seriousness, with recognition that literature provides the best record of the common humanity of all." -- Joseph Epstein, Plausible Prejudices: Essays on American Writing Sunday, September 18, 2005
Weekend list 19 favourite Rolling Stones songs 19. Mother's Little Helper 18. Paint It Black 17. You Can't Always Get What You Want 16. Let It Bleed 15. Under My Thumb 14. Child of the Moon 13. Jumping Jack Flash 12. Not Fade Away 11. Lady Jane 10. She's A Rainbow 9. Torn and Frayed 8. Street Fighting Man 7. Bitch 6. No Expectations 5. Shattered 4. Can't You Hear Me Knocking 3. Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo (Heartbreaker) 2. Sympathy for the Devil 1. Gimme Shelter Reform wasn't going to happen no matter who won in Germany Writing in the London Times Anatole Kaletsky says that putting Germany's fiscal house in order isn't going to happen regardless of who wins this weekend's election there because of the larger macroeconomic forces at play (structural issues associated with the European Union that are beyond the control of the government of the day) and political limitations (the nature of coalition governments). Quotidian "The Homeric Greeks, the master class, Vico tells us, were cruel, barbarous, mean, oppressive to the weak; but they created the Iliad and the Odyssey, something we cannot do in our more enlightened day. Their great creative masterpieces belong to them, and once the vision of the world changes, the possibility of that type of creation disappears also." -- Isaiah Berlin, The Crooker Timber of Humanity Muslims block terror definition Good column by Joshua Muravchik at the Los Angeles Times explaining why the 56-state Organization of the Islamic Conference, nearly 30% of the UN's membership, has prevented the United Nations from defining terrorism. Muravchik notes that the OIC has prevented the UN from defining terror since 1997: "A proposed U.N. convention against terrorism has been stalled since 1997. The holdup? How to define terrorism. But this is nothing more than a semantic trick. The Islamic states insist that terrorism must be defined not by the nature of the act but by its purpose. Putting a bomb in a market or train or bus is not an act of terrorism, they say, if it is done for a righteous purpose; namely national liberation or resistance to occupation. To say there is a problem of definition is to focus on a word. The real question is whether it is ever legitimate to target women, children and other noncombatants. For the Islamic states, the answer is yes. Not only have they succeeded in blocking anti-terror resolutions, they have secured votes endorsing their approach. In 1970, the General Assembly adopted a resolution 'reaffirm[ing] … the legitimacy of the struggle of the colonial peoples and peoples under alien domination to exercise their right to self-determination and independence by all the necessary means at their disposal.' This has been repeated several times by the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights. Everyone understands that the last phrase is a euphemism for terrorism." After 9/11 (and Bali and Beslan and ...), there seemed to be renewed interest in defining terror: "Last year, the U.N.'s High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change proposed to cut the Gordian knot by having the U.N. embrace this common-sense language: 'Any action constitutes terrorism if it is intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or noncombatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act'." That seems to make sense, doesn't it? Too much so, apparently, for the OIC which initially signalled its support but eventually did oppose the wording and thus it was "stripped out of the final document." Although terrorism is denounced by the UN, its language leaves Islamists free to support terrorist attacks in, for example, Israel and Iraq against so-called "occupiers". Sadly, the U.S. claimed victory, apparently a bad, incomplete or ambiguous definition of terrorism being better than none. Hugh v. Sid Powerline on the differences between Hugh Hewitt and Sid Blumenthal, just so Andrew Sullivan won't mix them up again. 10. Hugh has not been called before a grand jury. 9. Hugh believes in people; Sid believes in conspiracies. 8. Both have great hair, but Hugh's is gray. 7. Hugh is a gentleman (see his response to Sullivan); Sid's nickname is "Vicious." 6. The president Hugh supports is a gentleman. 5. Hugh advances the policies of President Bush because he agrees with them; Sid advanced the misconduct of President Clinton because he was on the payroll. 4. Sid demonizes those with whom he disagrees; Hugh invites them on his radio show for a discussion. 3. Sid is a name-dropper; Hugh isn't, except for the occasional Catholic Bishop. 2. Hugh didn't compare our liberation of Fallujah to the Nazi's siege of Stalingrad; or America's handling of terrorist detainees to Stalin's gulag. 1. Hugh has a massive nationwide U.S. audience (sort of like Sullivan once did); Sid is read, if at all, in a few precincts of England and Germany. Tories call for tax cuts to help families Alas, it's the British Tory leadership candidates calling for lowering taxes to make life easier for English families, not Canada's pathetic Conservatives who haven't said a peep about taxes since ... I can't remember. Saturday, September 17, 2005
Judged by one's admirers? Alarming News wonders: "Is it just me or does the fact that Ariel Sharon got 'the warmest applause in decades for an Israeli leader addressing the UN General Assembly' worry you?" Quotidian "A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it." -- G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man Because it's never too early, and no one is too insignificant to run Arkansas' Republican Governor Mike Huckabee is visiting Iowa so he obviously has presidential ambitions. In fact, unlike many politicans who are coy about their intentions, Huckabee admits that he is considering running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Pop quiz Who said this? "Now I love unions ... Multi-national corporations like DaimlerChrysler Canada pretty much have their way in spite of the Canadian Autoworkers Union that represented me as a worker for six years (and of which I am still a card carrying member). Imagine working without the union. Wages and benefits would roll back substantially hurting the prosperity of families and communities. As well, workers would become expendable without recourse to important grievance mechanisms. It’s tough enough feeling replaceable without easily becoming so." Hints #1 and #2: The person is an MP and blogs. Here's some more. "But Labour Day isn’t just about union jobs. It is also about those who labour without such distinction. Our farmers feed our cities, yet urban unions aren’t doing anything to show solidarity with farmers who are facing yet another year of declining revenues. Because their productivity has been replaced by agribusiness and foreign market, cities haven’t noticed the changes in rural Canada nor the steady disappearance of family farms. If current trends stay constant, it won’t be more than a couple more years before farms collapse in Canada. As fellow labourers, we need to support our farmers. Thank a farmer when you see one. If you’ve never seen a farmer, get in your car and journey outside your city and pick a farm at random. Knock on the door and say, 'thanks!' It will make their day. Then buy local produce. Buy provincial produce. Buy Canadian produce. Demand it on your shelves at grocery stores. The large grocery chains aren’t helping our producers much either. You might pay a buck and a half for a cantaloupe but the local farmer got less than 30 cents for it. And he had to sell because the massive purchase power of grocery chains allow them to name their price. Our farmers’ cost of production isn’t as low as the lowest global price the chains can get to their shelves." That would be Conservative MP and not-conservative blogger Jeff Watson (Essex). Bush re-establishes free trade creds I heard about these comments from President George W. Bush but couldn't find it on the 'net. Found them, eventually, at the indispensible Globalization Institute blog: "Today, I broaden the challenge by making this pledge: The United States is ready to eliminate all tariffs and subsidies and other barriers to the free flow of goods and services as other nations do the same." Even if it is a bluff, what an incredible bluff it is. Thursday, September 15, 2005
Willets backs Davis David Willets has decided not to run for the Tory leadership race and has backed David Davis, a major blow to Davis' two main competitors, David Cameron and Ken Clarke, who both desired Willets' support. The London Times reports, "Mr Clarke needed him to underline his claim to attract all wings of the party and Mr Cameron was hoping that the support from a respected heavyweight figure would have given his campaign fresh momentum." Willets explains in a guest column in the Times that Davis has the "right mixture of authority, credibility and personal experience to be an effective leader." More importantly, one presumes, is that Davis can best advance Willets' agenda which the Shadow Industry Secretary explains is thus: "I have been arguing that we can renew our Conservatism by standing for personal freedom in a stronger society. These are not just the usual principles enunciated by politicians, they are above all statements about what it is that enables people to lead fulfilled and satisfied lives. Conservatives have been quite good at the freedom bit — and of course the price we must pay for that freedom is eternal vigilance. That means deep scepticism about the Government’s proposals for ID cards and it means relentlessly pursuing the case for free trade, lower taxes and market reform. We have been better at the politics of I and me than the politics of we and us. But your life only really has meaning as part of a family, a neighbourhood, and indeed a nation. That is why we have to show we don’t only talk about public services but value public service. That is why we must be the party of real social reform with genuine compassion and understanding. It is not good enough just to tell people to pull their socks up. All those voters in the middle of British politics need to see a Conservative Party that doesn’t just talk about tough estates, broken families and abandoned public spaces but really means it and has a policy agenda to match." Quotidian "The answer to anyone who talks about the surplus population is to ask him whether he is the surplus population, or if he is not, how he knows he is not." -- G.K. Chesterton, introduction to A Christmas Carol Here we go again The New York Times expects the worst when it comes to elections in the Middle East, predicting violence in Afghanistan's parliamentary elections this coming Sunday. Voters, the paper predicts again (remember Iraq in January and Afghanistan last October?), must choose between voting and possibly being a target of "insurgent" violence on the one hand or staying home and remaining safe on the other. Of course, earlier elections in Iraq and Afghanistan were disappointingly non-violent for most of the anti-Bush western press. Clinton's real legacy Reuters reports that according to a report released from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, that oral sex is more common than sexual intercourse -- or as one teenage girl I overheard one time call it, "the regular kind." The NCPTP found that 54% of teenage girls (including 72% of 18 and 19-year-old girls) and 55% of teenage boys have engaged in oral sex and that one in four teens who have not had intercourse have had oral sex. Bill Maher once said that in post-Lewinsky America where oral sex is not considered sex, society has effectively turned teenage girls into prostitutes. Nice legacy, Mr. (former) President. Corporations line up behind Clinton Bill Clinton, that is, and his Clinton Global Initiative. WND reports that "750 global glitterati and their aides have converged on the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers – at $15,000 per head – to forge a "new level" of global cooperation." The corporations that sponsored his big gabfest/fundraiser in New York this week include the usual suspects of liberal corporate America: Microsoft, Starbucks, Hewlett Packard, Google, Yahoo, Goldman Sachs, the Rockefeller Foundation and Citigroup. The political bigwigs include Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Jacques Chirac, media baron Rupert Murdoch, former vice president Al Gore, Secretary General Kofi Annan and Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice. Clinton hopes to do what the UN does -- talk about the environment, talk about poverty, talk about peace -- but in a way that he gets all the credit. Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Government wasn't there for Katrina victims, but gun shops were The Boston Globe reported that Wal-Mart has stopped selling guns at 40 stores in areas affected by hurricane Katrina: "Smaller stores are eagerly filling the void. Spillway Sportsman, near Baton Rouge, sold 172 guns in one three-day period after the hurricane, when normally it might sell 15. One mother came in to buy her first gun after she and her two children, ages 9 and 12, witnessed a slaying on the streets of New Orleans, said Scott Roe, Spillway's owner. 'Her comment was, "I was a card-carrying, antigun liberal -- not anymore",' Roe said. 'She said, "I'm going back home, and I am not going back unarmed".'" The Globe quotes one Wal-Mart customer who said that no one needs guns at a time like this, saying that police will protect people. But the police can't be everywhere, all the time, can they? (HT: Clayton Kramer) Good news? RedState reports: "Sources tell RedState that there are two names actively in circulation right now for Justice O'Connor's seat. Those names are Judge Edith Jones of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and Larry Thompson, formerly the second in command at the Justice Department. Yes, you heard it here. Edith Jones is in play and it is not just a conservative dream." Jones, unfortunately, is only a conservative dream. I still believe that it is unlikely that President George W. Bush is going to pick someone whose name often crops up when media reports list of potential SCOTUS justices. For the good news of Edith Jones being appointed to the Supreme Court, first it must become surprising news. Quotidian "Every man makes his own summer. The season has no character of its own, unless one is a farmer with a professional concern for the weather." -- Robertson Davies, "Three Worlds, Three Summers -- But Not the Past Summer, The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies Sympathy for a devil The AP reports on the execution of Frances Newton, 18 years after she shot and killed her husband and her two children. She became the third woman and first black woman executed in Texas since the death penalty was resumed in the Lone Star state in 1982. (Isn't that an amazing fact when you think about it.) The AP reports: "Strapped to the death chamber gurney and with her parents among the people watching, she declined to make a final statement, quietly saying 'no' and shaking her head when the warden asked if she would like to speak. Newton briefly turned her head to look at her family as the drugs began flowing. She appeared to try to mouth something to her relatives, but the drugs took effect. She coughed once and gasped as her eyes closed. She was pronounced dead eight minutes later. One of her sisters stood against a wall at the rear of the death house, her head buried in her arms. Her parents held hands and her mother brushed away a tear before they walked to the back of the chamber to console their other daughter. About three dozen demonstrators chanted outside but the crowd paled in comparison to the hundreds who gathered in 1998 to protest the execution of Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War." So I ask you, who was the victim? The AP gave a sympathetic account of Newton's last minutes, presenting her as a helpless woman and vividly describing the obvious pain of her family. I ask who appears to be the victim because the one thing that makes me squeamish about the death penalty (and why I oppose broadcasting executions) is that the public, even for the moment, may become confused about who the real victim is. The AP story didn't even mention the names of the family members Frances Newton killed in 1987. Her husband was named Adrian, her 21-month-old daugher was named Farrah. Frances took out a $100,000 life insurance policy shortly before killing them, forging her husbands signature. She also killed her seven-year-old son, Alton. Adrian, Alton and Farrah are the victims, they deserve our sympathy; not Frances Newton. Furthermore -- and I hate giving Frances Newton or her defenders more attention than they warrant -- the Free Frances website is disgusting. There is a photo of Frances Newton beside a photo of a black woman hung in the 1880s. There is no comparison between the two. The black woman from the 19th century almost certainly did not face a jury trial and likely did not commit a serious offense. Frances Newton, despite the elaborate theories of her defenders (aka: capital punishment opponents), was found guilty in a court of law of murdering three members of her family. UN reform I haven't had time to follow the World Summit this week in any depth so I haven't had the opportunity to read the agreement on UN reform which the Guardian reports about here. The Guardian says, "The negotiations have been caught in a squeeze between Mr Bolton, and a group of countries that one diplomat referred to as 'the awkward squad,' which includes Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Cuba and Venezuela." It may seem strange but Syria, PA, Sudan, etc..., are concerned that the reforms proposed by Secretary General Kofi Annan go to far -- and that Annan means what the reforms say -- on obligating the UN to intervene during genocide, coming up with a definition on terror, and keeping serial human rights abusers off the human rights commission, as well as keeping strategic competitors off a reformed (read: enlarged) Security Council. John Bolton, the American ambassador to the UN, presumably represents the U.S. position but the media coverage of his first month at his new post implies that he is representing nothing but his own "anti-UN" views. Bolton opposed the original reform document because he didn't think it went far enough and that Annan wasn't serious about what he vowed to do. He also sought to change language that would seem to commit the U.S. to development aid equal to 0.7% of GDP and to the fundamentally flawed Kyoto Protocol. David Shorr at Democracy Arsenal has an analysis and concludes its a good start. Here's his take: "The world leaders will 'resolve to create a Human Rights Council' Yet all of the features that would distinguish the new body from the existing discredited Human Rights Commission -- election procedures, a peer review mechanism, a year-round schedule -- remain disputed. Proponents of the Council avoided sending the issue to diplomatic purgatory by keeping an 'open-ended working group' from being set up. The proposed new Peacebuilding Commission, whose job will be to coordinate efforts to rebuild conflict-ridden countries and prevent renewed rounds of violence, is subject to a tug of war over how it will relate to the Security Council [and] the Economic and Social Council. It, too, gets a promised future birthing, but with an end-of-2005 deadline. The definition of terrorism that had been in earlier drafts was dropped from the text; a consensus that not even liberation struggles justify terror apparently hasn't been reached. The summit statement calls for the conclusion of a comprehensive convention on terrorism and 'welcomes' UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's holistic anti-terror strategy. The intention of the latter is to give counterterrorism a broader context, to 'internationalize' the issue so that efforts no longer seem so American-driven. There is no section on disarmament and proliferation. There wasn't enough agreement even to salvage. A sad statement on the state of non-proliferation affairs -- but certainly a clear statement. The development section is sprawling and deserves a fuller treatment than I can give it. An African ambassador today, though, told me that the Bush Administration's willingness to accept the 0.7% of GDP target for aid donors (albeit it as a goal for others) was appreciated. The language on the responsibility to protect victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing was one of the few passages that remained relatively intact. The key sentence reads, 'we are prepared to take collective action ... should peaceful means be inadequate.' The section on management asks the Secretary-General to submit a reform proposals in early 2006, based on a review of budgetary and personnel regulations. Provision for outside experts to oversee audits was not included." I have several observations. The mere "resolve" to create a new Human Rights Council is UN-speak for another 10 years of debate; there is no way that the General Assembly is going to approve changes that would prevent most of the member states from sitting on the council in judgment of real human rights abusers. If they do, the definition of human rights abuse will be so meaningless as to make the new HRC useless. A Peacebuilding Commission is simply a bad idea. Realizing that the UN has not entered various conflicts because the there was no peace to keep, the organization is looking to take a more "proactive" approach (my sarcasm, not their language) to creating the conditions for peace. I doubt the organization, once it creates the Peacebuilding Commission will have the political will to intervene when necessary. The negotiations over defining "terrorism" is getting bogged down in a one-person's-terrorist-is-another-person's-freedom-fighter debate. Furthermore, it is typically UN to try to "internationalize" the terrorism issue and therefore attempt to preempt U.S. efforts to defend themselves, the West and freedom in general. No "progress on disarmament" is a good thing. Utopian thinking has no place in serious international diplomacy. International development and commitments to 0.7% of GNP for foreign aid, presumably to be funneled through the UN (Oil-for-Food scandal II in the waiting), will sound good and then be ignored by every government. John Bolton agreed to the language after securing an understanding that it does not apply to the United States. At least the U.S. is honest about it unlike the Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair types who will get their photographs taken with leaders from the developing world and feel good about making the world a better place and then ignore their commitments. Language committing the international community to the responsibility to protect people from genocide remained intact, but does that language go far enough? It still says, "we are prepared to take collective action ... should peaceful means be inadequate." "Prepared"? That isn't a commitment to act, is it? And "Inadequate"? No doubt that word will be subject to months of debate as future Rwandas and Darfurs take place far from the comfortable meeting rooms of Turtle Bay. No firm commitment to change the way the secretariat works and no provision for independent audits. 'Nuff said. Suzanne Nossel, also at Democracy Arsenal, explains why the reform package did not "achieve its promise": lack of political will, a hobbled Annan, and ineffective US diplomacy. Her comments about the last item are especially worth noting: "I've argued from the outset that the US stood to gain enormously from many of the reforms on the table this year, including strengthened UN commitments on terrorism and WMD, a more legitimate human rights mechanism, a buy-out for the organization's dead wood, and beefed up internal controls. While the Administration's frayed relationships made it harder to push these things through, it could have been done. In the past we've hammered home wildly unpopular reforms at the UN, through a painstaking process I call retail diplomacy. It involves going member-by-member, capital-by-capital and figuring out what other nations want in return for agreeing to what matters most to us. The US has enough clout at the UN to be able to get its way on almost anything, provided we go about it skillfully, advocate forcefully at the right levels well in advance of decision time, and are prepared to make trade-offs. This work cannot be done by mid-level diplomats alone: cabinet secretaries and even the President need to get involved. In this case, while the Administration waxed lofty on reform, they were far too distracted in Iraq to make the kind of push that would have been needed. The U.S. put the nail in the coffin of Security Council reform back in June, but struck no comparably powerful blows in favor of the reforms it should have cared about the most." Why there are so few economists in politics The Angry Economist explains: "I think that if somebody thinks they can decide things for other people, they do not understand economics. If you understand economics, then you are humble and modest. Of course, that would explain why there are so few economists in elected office. You have to have a large amount of confidence that you can help people by forcing them to do things they wouldn't otherwise do." Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Nicholls on the Newman's Mulroney book The NCC's Gerry Nicholls: "I am a little disappointed with Peter Newman’s R-rated Brian Mulroney biography. No where in the book does the ex-Prime Minister attack the National Citizens Coalition. Not once are we referred to as a**holes, or f***kers or as sons of b*****s. It’s not really fair, as the NCC opposed his precious GST and we opposed the Meech Lake Accord. Oh well, maybe he just ran out of colourful English adjectives when he got around to us. Maybe the next Jean Chrétien biography will give us our due." Actually, a** holes, f***ers, and sons of b*****s, describe Chretien, the PMO and many in his cabinet. Yeah, Yanks New York Yankees pummel the Tampa Devil Rays, who have been giving the Bronx Bombers trouble all season (5-11 before tonight), 17-3. Fotunately, the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Boston Red Sox 9-3 but, unfortunately, the Cleveland Indians won their game against the lifeless Oakland A's. All this means that the Yankees are two games behind Boston for the division title (BoSox magic number is now 17) and 1.5 games behind the wild card Indians. Champions League update The 3-1 score does not reflect how close the AC Milan-Fenerbahce match was. The Italian side won because Kaka scored a pair of goals in the final three minutes. Amazing. Dutch squad PSV Eindhoven beat the Germans from FC Schalke 04 1-0. Olympique Lyon stunned the injury-plagued Real Madrid 3-0 in what some soccer observers say is a sneak peek of what is to come from the French squad. Liverpool begins the group play phase of their Champions League defense by beating Real Betis 2-1 with two goals in the first 15 minutes. Chelsea looked like an average team in beating Anderlecht 1-0; the Belgians have lost a Champions League record eight straight matches. Rangers edge FC Port 3-2 in an exciting game. The Norwegian side Rosenborg Trondheim beat Olympiakos 3-1. An early goal from Julio Cruz led Inter Milan to a lucky 1-0 win over the hapless Artmedia Bratislava, one of the two weakest teams in group play. Inter will be without awesome midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron who was red-carded early in the second half. Wednesday's games include struggling Arsenal against first time in the Champions League for the Swiss Cinderellas from Thun, Villarreal vs. Manchester United, and Werder Bremen vs. Barcelona. Quotidian "I know my state, both full of shame and scorn, Conceived in sin, and unto labour born, Standing with fear, and must with full horror fall, And destined unto judgment, after all." -- Ben Jonson, "To Heaven" |