The Review
(
Review) JIM HOAGLAND explains the situation in Kashmir. In case, you know, you'd like to find out a little about it before India and Pakistan nuke the hell out of it. And each other.
(
Review) Transportation Secretary NORMAN MINETA would rather let an F-16 shoot down a hijacked airplane than let pilots carry guns in the cockpit.
(
Review) ROBERT KAGAN has done an excellent job in today's Washington Post in explaining why Americans and Europeans increasingly disagree on foreign policy matters. In his article, he asks the central question to U.S. and European relations:
"The irony is that this transatlantic disagreement is the fruit of successful transatlantic policies. As Joschka Fischer and other Europeans admit, the United States made the "new Europe" possible -- by leading the democracies to victory in World War II and the Cold War and by providing the solution to the age-old "German problem." Even today Europe's rejection of power politics ultimately depends on America's willingness to use force around the world against those who still do believe in power politics. Europe's Kantian order depends on the United States using power according to the old Hobbesian rules.
"Most Europeans don't acknowledge the great paradox: that their passage into post-history has depended on the United States not making the same passage. Instead, they have come to view the United States simply as a rogue colossus, in many respects a bigger threat to the pacific ideals Europeans now cherish than Iraq or Iran. Americans, in turn, have come to view Europe as annoying, irrelevant, naive and ungrateful as it takes a free ride on American power. This is not just a family quarrel. If Americans and Europeans no longer agree on the utility and morality of power, then what remains to undergird their military alliance?"
What, indeed?
KAGAN also says that Europeans ask, "if Germany can be tamed through gentle rapprochement why not Iraq?" But to ask such a question reveals a surprising ignorance on the part of the Europeans. Germany was not, in fact, tamed through rapprochement. Germany was tamed by bombing its cities into rubble, decisively defeating its armies on the battlefield, killing--or capturing, trying, and executing--its leaders, and occupying the country with military forces until the Germans created a constitutional government that met with our approval. Germany's taming was neither gentle, nor did it consist of any rapprochement.
(
Review) Hmmm. Even the Time of London appears to think think that Europe is becoming irrelevant. They say GEORGE W. BUSH is right to blow off the Europeans in favor of closer ties with Russia.
(
Review) CLARENCE PAGE thinks we should all be allowed to toke up.
For purely medicinal reasons, of course.
(
Review) PAUL RAGMAN is always quick to jump on the Bush Administration, but in today's Op-Ed on Free Trade, he's absolutely right.
(
Review) VICTOR DAVIS HANSON writes about his uncle, who was killed on Okinawa, and how, just a few days ago, he received his uncle's ring from a comrade. Touching, thoughtful, and above all, stirring to know that our country has produced men such as these.
(
Review) FRED BARNES says that the Bush administration has given up on relying on Europe for...well...anything. In fact, Europe has become the Canada of...Europe.
"America in the George W. Bush era sees Europe a bit like Canada. It is mostly friendly, occasionally annoying and seldom worth worrying about. When important decisions are made or large initiatives carried out, Europe is to be politely consulted but rarely given a big role and never a veto. In fact, "the Canadization of Europe" is a phrase that pops up sporadically these days."
I basically agree, but I still think it's a bit rough on the Canadians.
(
Review) The incomparable MARK STEYN skewers our progress in the war on terror with the rapier of his mordant wit.
Did I really just write that? And, could there BE any more prepositional phrases in that sentence?
(
Review) STEVE CHAPMAN takes a look at the controversy over affirmative action in admission to the University of Michigan.
Look, folks, whether you like it or not, affirmative action is going away. As well it should.
(
Review) JOHN PODHORETZ writes that the conventional wisdom is wrong when it comes to YASSER ARAFAT. He is becoming progressively less popular among the Palestinians.
Now, if only they could find a way to toss him out of there, and send him packing back to Egypt, the Palestinians might be able to find some rapprochement with Israel.
(
Review) CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER appear to have a view about Europe that is closer to my own, which is that for all practical intents and purposes, NATO is dead as a military alliance, and the Europeans, to the extent that they wish, may hold our coattails as we do the real work of trying to secure freedom througout the world.
Krauthammer:
" NATO may still have a role in peacekeeping but not in war-making. As a serious military alliance it is finished. But there is no need for a funeral. NATO can be usefully re-imagined. Its new role should be to serve as incubator for Russia's integration into Europe and the West.
"It is precisely because NATO has turned from a military alliance into a transatlantic club of advanced democracies that it can now safely invite Russia in -- and why Russia has so reconciled itself to NATO. Russia recognizes NATO's shift from a military to a political organization. That is why it has muted its objection to NATO's expansion into the former Soviet republics of the Baltic states."
Well, there you go.
(
Review) PEGGY NOONAN dissects GEORGE W. BUSH's speech to the German Bundestag, and argues that with European help, we can do anything.
I think the real truth is that we can do anything we need to do whether the Europeans help us or not.
(
Review) WOLFGANG ISCHINGER says that the Europeans really ARE our friends. No, really.
(
Review) JIM HOAGLAND writes in today's Washington Post that India and Pakistan are moving even closer to the brink of war. Hoagland thinks that war can be averted if the Bush administration places enough pressure on Pakistan's leader, PERVEZ MUSHARRAF.
I don't know whether that's true or not, but I do know that a war between two nuclear-armed powers is fraught with danger
(
Review) WILLIAM HAWKINS doesn't much like our European cousins:
"At the dawn of the new century, the greatest danger to American independence, security, and prosperity may not come from avowed enemies armed with weapons of mass destruction, but from supposed friends bent on controlling the U.S. economy in order to hobble the American giant."
(
Review) ROBERT NOVAK says that JIMMY CARTER is surprisingly uninformed.
Based on my observation of the former president, I wouldn't have used the word "surprisingly".
(
Review) Hmm. NORA VINCENT seems a bit fearful of our European allies as well.
(
Review) DON FEDER says that the Europeans are essentially irrelevant, and as time goes by they will become increasingly more so.
(
Review) JOHN FUND says in today's Wall Street Journal that a little racial profiling might have prevented the 911 attacks. Although, I think that those of us that have a lick of sense already knew that.
Sometimes, racial profiling is a GOOD thing.
(
Review) MARK HOROWITZ takes a humorous look at some famous statements in American history, and imagines what they would have sounded like if FBI Director ROBERT MUELLER had said them.
(
Review) FBI chief BOB MUELLER says, "there will be another terrorist attack. We will not be able to stop it. It's something we all live with. I wish I could be more optimistic."
The editors of the New York Post reply, "It's your job to stop them. If you can't do it, get out."
Nobody expects perfection from the FBI. But it's not unreasonable to expect something more than sheer defeatism about their ability to be proactive in regards to terrorist threat.
(
Review) JOHN BALZAR writes an op/ed piece for the L.A. Times today that is just chock-full of the type of mind-numbing stupidity that we've come to expect from that august journal.
He says that GEORGE W. BUSH should be far more concerned with the corporate executives moving their companies offshore to Barbados. Such corporate executives, he says, are worse than Castro. It's funny, though, because I don't remember the last time corporate executives threw people who disagreed with them in jail and tortured them on a regular basis.
You know what? I'll bet the editors at the L.A. Times stand around slack-jawed in stupefaction, wondering why their circulation is declining.
(
Review) The Washington Times editorializes today that the European members of NATO spend comparatively far less on defense and does the United States. For example the Federal Republic of Germany spends only 1.5 percent of GDP on defense, whereas the United States spends around 5 percent of GDP.
Naturally, this causes a lot of problems, especially in interoperability between our forces. In fact, the day may be coming very soon went Germany, French, or British forces will actually be unable to share a battlefield with us.
As the editorial states, "in the final analysis, of the United States and its European allies can afford to spend comparable amounts for defense. Each has a wallet but only the United States has the will. In the meantime, it would be helpful if you're contributed as little self-righteous moralizing to the alliance as it does military capability."
(
Review) *SIGH* This is just what we needed.
Indian Prime Minister ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE told soldiers on the disputed Kashmir border Wednesday to prepare for a “decisive battle” against Pakistan-supported Islamic insurgents. Vajpayee asked the soldiers “to be ready for sacrifice. Your goal should be victory. It’s time to fight a decisive battle. We’ll write a new chapter of victory.”
Two nuclear armed states, India and Pakistan, are edging closer to war.
(
Review) GEORGE WILL is calling for a blue-ribbon panel, similar to the one FDR set up to investigate how we were cought with our pants down at Pearl Harbor, to look into how the 911 attackers got past us. He even lists who the members of the comission should be.
(
Review) THOMAS FRIEDMAN says we should all calm down.
(
Review) STEVEN SAILER writes on the passing of STEVEN JAY GOULD.
I always found Gould to be a fascinating person, and still have several of his books.
I also found it interesting how his personal Marxism kept him from embracing evolutionary psychology--or sociobiology, if you prefer--which would, in the normal course of things, seem to be an idea which he would champion. But here is where Gould's political ideology interfered with his science. He contested Edward O. Wilson's ideas about sociobiology at nearly every turn. If sociobiology was an accurate way of looking at human behavior, then the Marxist idea of fundamentally changing human nature through political means simply could not be true.
In the end, Gould preferred Marx to Wilson.
(
Review) The House of Representatives is considering a bill that would protect gun manufacturers from being sued for damages arising out of a gun's illegal use.
I think it's a wonderful idea, and is a common sense prohibition.
Unfortunately, I also think its unconstitutional. Congress has no authority whatsoever to shield any manufacturer of any consumer product from state court actions. Congress may certainly proscribe the Federal court system in a variety of ways, but state courts are entirely outside the purview of the Federal government.
If the NRA wants such a bill passed, then it should try to get it passed in each of the 50 individual states. That's how federalism is supposed to work.
(
Review) Just when you thought our friends on the Left couldn't get any weirder, you run across a something like this Guardian column by GEORGE MONBIOT.
He's wondering why the FBI investigation into the anthrax scare is going so slowly. Naturally, he feels it's a government conspiracy.
You have to say this about the Guardian, it's always ready to allow its columnists to spout just about any old foolishness they please.
(
Review) the FBI notified city officials in New York that it received a threat against some landmarks in the city, including the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.
One of the first thing I noticed is that the major news channels like Fox News and CNN have set up live cameras pointed at the Statue of Liberty. And they keep going back to those camera shots, as if to convince themselves that, yes, it's still there.
I don't know why, but I just seems a little...creepy.
(
Review) Well, it looks like the government has decided that pilots will not be allowed to carry firearms in the cockpit. Nope. Can't have that. They might...uh... defend themselves. And that would be wrong.
(
Review) The editors of the Washington Times note today that the Democrats might be pushing it a little too far if they try to place blame on GEORGE W. BLUSH for the pre-911 intelligence failures. The Republicans tried a similar trick against FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT after Pearl Harbor. The Republicans were then thrashed in the subsequent elections.
It does seem however, that leading Democrats have realized this.
(
Review) The editors of the L.A. Times today say that GEORGE .W BUSH is out of step with the times by continuing the trade embargo with Cuba. As it happens, that's probably right. The trade embargo doesn't really hurt Cuba, since everyone else in the world trades with them.
What it does do is give FIDEL CASTRO an excuse for why his country's economy does so poorly. All he has to do is blame it on the American embargo. Trade sanctions, no matter how keen we are to pursue them, usually don't work. They certainly don't work if no one else in the world is willing to join them.
There is one thing about lifting the trade embargo on Cuba: it led, at the very least, remove Castro's last excuse for his gross mismanagement of the economy.
(
Review) Well, the editors of the New York Post have evidently decided to chime in with FBI Director ROBERT MULLER to give us a blinding glimpse of the obvious: first, there will be more terrorist attacks, and second, it will be hard to stop them.
Well......duh.
(
Review) NICHOLAS KRISTOF writes that fundamentalist Christians aren't very much appreciated here at home when they try to tie up society in culture wars. But, as the core of a new internationalist movement, evangelicals are saving lives in forgotten--and nasty--parts of the world.
(
Review) BRUCE BARTLETT explains how passage of the farm bill hurts free trade, by examining Australia, one of our closest trading partners. Australia has seen huge growth in recent years because they dismantled their protectionist regime starting in 1973, in order to more effectively compete in open markets. Now, US farm subsidies are helping to close those markets.
"Now, having endured the pain of restructuring, which caused many businesses to close and many jobs to be lost, Australia feels betrayed. It made its industry, including agriculture, world-class just so it could compete in a world of free trade. But its biggest customer -- the United States -- wants to go back to the old protectionist ways. It slapped tariffs on foreign steel and reinstated massive farm subsidies just when world trade talks were supposed to lead to their elimination.
"There are many reasons why the farm bill stinks. But its impact on trade policy may be its worst consequence. Without the support of free traders like Australia, the United States cannot hope to accomplish any significant breakdown of trade barriers in the upcoming Doha Round of trade talks. But Australia now feels that the U.S. trade policy is being driven entirely by short-term domestic political considerations.
"The United States still has a long way to go before it gets to where the Australians were before 1973, but it is moving in the wrong direction. The farm bill, steel tariffs and other protectionist policies of the Bush administration now virtually guarantee that no meaningful reduction in world trade barriers will come from the World Trade Organization conference in Doha, Qatar. That's a heavy price to pay for a few Republican congressional seats."
Well said.
(
Review) Former Clinton Administration CIA director JAMES WOOLSEY says its time to stop trying to place the blame on who knew what prior to 911. There's work to be done.
(
Review) Not everyone on the left is assailing Bush for not preventing the 911 attacks. New Republic senior editor LAWRENCE KAPLAN says:
"Admittedly, wielding the national security card in the service of politics is nothing new. And, as many Democrats and Democratic supporters have noted, the Bush administration has been known to do the same in recent months--by pointing fingers at the Clinton administration for its irresponsibility in combating terrorism. But the accusations of Clinton administration negligence are different from the accusations of Bush administration negligence in one crucial respect: Their substance is a matter of public record. When confronted with terrorist attacks against an Air Force barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996 and against the USS Cole in 2000, the Clinton administration did nothing. And when, in 1998, bin Laden operatives blew up two American embassies in Africa, Clinton rejected more forceful options, choosing instead to direct a fusillade of cruise missiles against some tents in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan. Bin Laden himself has said that the actions of the Clinton team--particularly in Somalia, where American casualties prompted the president to abandon the mission--proved to him that the United States was a paper tiger."
"So maybe President Bush can't predict terrorist attacks better than any other elected official in Washington. At least he knows how to respond to them once they've happened. Ultimately, that may turn out to be the most important knowledge a president can have.
Or, as the headline reads, "Right Questions, Wrong President".
(
Review) State attorneys general are out of control.
(
Review) DAVE KOPEL writes that JOHN McCAIN and JOE LIEBERMAN are simply lying about the existence of a "gun show loophole" in federal gun control laws. And, of course, when people have to lie to garner support for their policies, it's usually a pretty good clue that that they know the truth about what their doing will not meet the approval of the citizenry.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Blogging will be a bit limited in the next day or two. I have a new computer and am installing my tons of software on it to get it up to speed.
(
Review) A couple of years ago, when I was commenting about the attacks on "big tobacco" I predicted that soon, once tobacco was suitably humbled, the health nazis would start looking at our diets, and begin to use government coercion to try to force us to eat properly.
Of course, everybody said I was a fool and an alarmist.
But, the course of government intervention in peoples lives is to steadily increase, not to say, "enough is enough". So, to those who thought I was a wacko when I predicted an assault on proper diet would begin in due course, I have linked to a NY Times article that describes how government is beginning to do exactly what I predicted.
According to the Times:
"The two biggest states, Texas and California, are moving toward phasing out junk food in schools, as are many school districts in other states. Lawyers who pioneered suits against tobacco companies have set their sights on what they call Big Food as the next target. Class-action lawsuits have been filed in New York and Florida contending that processed foods with little nutritional value have misled consumers. The lawyers filing these suits hope to do to Mega Gulps and Twinkies what they did to Joe Camel and tobacco.
"This week Congress took up legislation, the Obesity Prevention and Treatment Act, that would start a campaign to improve the eating habits in the nation, where more than 60 percent of adults are overweight."
Just as the big government Left don't want you to have tax cuts, because you're too stupid or lazy to spend your money in "acceptable" ways, they now wish you to eat better. Again, because you're too stupid or lazy to choose a proper diet.
One wonders how long the American people will sit, sheeplike, for these increasing attempts by the government to become everyone's mommy.
(
Review) China looks set to put a man in space sometime in the next couple of years, joining the US and Russia as the third nation with a manned spaceflight program. Thanks go to BILL CLINTON, of course, for helping the Chicoms out with their rocket program.
(
Review) The Strategy Page explains how the FBI blew it, pre-911.
(
Review) While crime in America continues to drop, crime in Europe is Soaring. In fact London's murder rate for 2002 might be larger than New York's. ELI LEHRER thinks he knows why.
(
Review) JOHN DERBYSHIRE doesn't believe that, at the end of the day, the US will actually go to war against Iraq:
"I favor war against Iraq. I believe a successful war against Iraq would trigger major attitude adjustment in the Middle East, to the benefit of us and the promotion of our values. I believe it would greatly enhance this country's security by removing a major supplier of WMD to terrorist gangs. But if our leaders believe that "the desire to avoid further slaughter" trumps the desire to take down our enemy; if they believe that Crown Prince Abdullah or Hosni Mubarak will lift one jeweled pinkie to assist our war aims; if they believe that we need the permission of crooks and despots before we act in our own interests; if they believe that Europe is militarily significant; if they believe that the U.N. Security Council is worth anything more than a thimbleful of rat's piss; if they believe that our fighting men and women cannot carry out their duties without a year and a half of preparation; if they believe all these things, then it would be best if we did not start a war at all. They do: We won't."
(
Review) The NATO alliance is, for several reasons, at a crossroads that may determine whether it is broken up in the not too distant future. Already, the US spends more on defense than the other 18 NATO members combined. Additionally, the Europeans and Americans have increasingly different ideas about fundamental foreign and defense policy issues. And increasingly, European leaders are ever more keen to criticize the US over those differences.
As JEFFREY GEDMIN writes in the Washington Post, "For the past dozen years, West Europeans have concentrated on building the attributes of soft power. The euro has arrived. So, too, have new attitudes toward the United States. European Union trade commissioner Pascal Lamy concedes that the best way to get applause in the European parliament is to stand up and denounce America. Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of Spain admitted recently that being down on America gets you points for being "simpatico" in the EU. Indeed, the relationship has changed. West Europeans grew tired of playing the role of deputy sheriff during the Cold War. Now, it seems, they have grown tired of the sheriff, too."
(
Review) Now that we know how our pre-911 intelligence failed, we need to look hard at how tro prevent it from happening again.
(
Review) Economist ROBERT BARTLEY writes that, while Monetary Policy can do a lot of things, it has limits. And I would say that monetary policy has currently reached its limits when it comes to providing a stimulus for economic growth.
Interest rates are already at historic lows, and while the economy bounced back from recession, growth is, once again, slowing this quarter.
Additionally, Bartley says, "If these crosscurrents are not complicated enough, there is also the international component. The foreign exchange value of the dollar is also an artifact of monetary policy. When manufacturers ask for a lower dollar, they are in effect asking for more inflation. Writing here recently, economist John Makin asked for both a lower dollar and lower interest rates in Europe and Japan--which translates into a heady combination of an acceleration of money growth by foreign central banks and an even larger acceleration by the Fed."
This goes back to what I posted earlier about the price of the dollar. If the price of the dollar falls, and that increases inflationary pressures, the Fed will have to raise interest rates in order to combat inflation. Of, course, that will tend to slow economic growth.
The outlook for continuing US economic growth is cloudy.
(
Review) The Palestinians live in an entirely different world.
