Blog: “Ah, Xenophon, I am glad you could spend some time with us.†Xenophon: “I was not doing anything.†Blog: “We have a bit of a problem in Afghanistan. Despite overwhelming military superiority, we are losing.†Xenophon: “Afghanistan?†Blog: “It is a mountainous land east of your journey through Asia – the people there somewhat resemble the Kurds.†Xenophon: “Ouch! Kurds! Tough fighters, never give up. They never accept that …
The brilliance of Sarah Palin’s “common sense conservatismâ€
When the nation is in trouble, “common sense conservativism†sure sounds mighty attractive, even if you do not know, or much care, what precisely it means. Sarah Palin is a politician who has her finger right on the pulse of the ordinary American. If you are a “common sense conservative†then that implies that other conservatives, such as perhaps “compassionate conservativesâ€, are naive utopians who brought disaster on the nation, …
President McCain would have been worse.
McCain would have implemented the policies of financial ruin, national socialism, economic destruction, defeat and humiliation from the“centerâ€, and these policies would have been associated with Sarah Palin instead Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright.
The improbable economic growth of Argentina.
Over the last hundred years or so, Argentina as swung violently, and with increasing frequency, between policies of on the one hand constitutionalism, rule of law, and the free market, and on the other hand populism, bureaucratic decree, and national socialism. It has also swung violently between being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and being a typical third world poverty stricken hellhole. After the last crisis, it …
Aiming to lose in Afghanistan
Obama is smart enough to know you should not announce intent to retreat in advance, so I conclude that for political reasons, he aims to lose in Afghanistan, and aims to justify the defeat with a disturbingly large level of American casualties rather than leaving immediately. The great wrong is staying there without intent to win.
Northwest passage not open for cargo traffic
since the world is supposedly warming, we need regular announcements that the northwest passage is opening.
Eureferendum provides a nice fisking of the latest report of the northwest passage opening
Darwinian and divine morality
Morality derived from human nature (and thus from Darwin’s sociobiology) differs from divine law as expressed in the New Testament in significant ways. It is Aristotlean and Randian morality, is fundamentally selfish. Aristotle and Rand tells us to cultivate our own excellence. Darwin tells us we commit ourselves to conduct that will enable us to get along with others because humans are a social and political animal, we need to …
Losing in Afghanistan 3
Pashtuns need to be defeated, not morally uplifted.
There is no Republican party
If the republican party existed, it would be going after Van Jones’ scalp and the Obama
health plan, rather than Glen Beck and Sarah Palin going after them. The leadership of the Republican party, like the movement for Obama’s health plan, is itself merely astroturf manufactured in Washington.
The error of Nazism
people and groups that subscribe to Hobbesianism find themselves at war against all, because they expect to find themselves at war against all – but find to their shock and surprise that their non Hobbesian enemies are cooperating just fine to deal with the common enemy and common threat. Thus people and groups that subscribe to Hobbesianism get defeated, and frequently enslaved or wiped out. All those who doubt Hobbesianism gang up on them.