Saturday, January 14, 2006
Friday, January 13, 2006
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Friday, January 06, 2006
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
The Central Political Issue of the Day in One Paragraph @ AMERICAN DIGEST
The Central Political Issue of the Day in One Paragraph @ AMERICAN DIGEST: "The Central Political Issue of the Day in One Paragraph
BY MARK HELPRIN IN Herd Animals
'Irrationality on a political level from these quarters has never been a shock. On a personal level, however, the predominant response of the intellectual Left was a mystery. It was as if the thousands of crushed and incinerated men, women, and children—those who threw themselves into a quarter-mile abyss rather than have the flesh seared off their bones as they stood in the wind at glassless walls, the small children who died in terror after watching hysterical fanatics slit the throats of screaming stewardesses, and so on, for there are almost three thousand stories—simply did not exist. How does one explain such an egregious absence of sympathy (much less assertions that 'they' deserved it, or that it was a work of art) among endlessly self-proclaiming empathetics whose stock in trade is to milk compassion even from the Rock of Gibraltar? This is a real rather than a rhetorical question, because it is significant of a great division.'"
BY MARK HELPRIN IN Herd Animals
'Irrationality on a political level from these quarters has never been a shock. On a personal level, however, the predominant response of the intellectual Left was a mystery. It was as if the thousands of crushed and incinerated men, women, and children—those who threw themselves into a quarter-mile abyss rather than have the flesh seared off their bones as they stood in the wind at glassless walls, the small children who died in terror after watching hysterical fanatics slit the throats of screaming stewardesses, and so on, for there are almost three thousand stories—simply did not exist. How does one explain such an egregious absence of sympathy (much less assertions that 'they' deserved it, or that it was a work of art) among endlessly self-proclaiming empathetics whose stock in trade is to milk compassion even from the Rock of Gibraltar? This is a real rather than a rhetorical question, because it is significant of a great division.'"
The Creche by the Side of the Road @ AMERICAN DIGEST
The Creche by the Side of the Road @ AMERICAN DIGEST: "The Creche by the Side of the Road
[Republished from December, 2003 ]
A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
--Eliot, Journey of the Magi"
Read the whole thing!
[Republished from December, 2003 ]
A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.
--Eliot, Journey of the Magi"
Read the whole thing!
Monday, December 26, 2005
Cafe Hayek: The Beauty and Power of Undesigned Order
Cafe Hayek: The Beauty and Power of Undesigned Order: "The Beauty and Power of Undesigned Order
I love this blog-post entitled 'Of Social Snowflakes...' by Steve Horwitz. It's inspired by this photograph of a real snowflake. Here's Steve's concluding paragraph:
My fervent wish for the 21st century is that more smart and caring people can begin to see and appreciate 'social snowflakes.' People who are so willing to accept the existence and beauty (and benevolence!) of undesigned order in the natural world should be more willing to open themselves to the possibility that there are processes of undesigned order at work in the social world too. These people know that no one can make a snowflake, but seem blind to the fact that much of the innocent blood that was spilled in the last century was because too many people thought they could intelligently design the social world. Not repeating those mistakes will require a renewed aesthetic appreciation of, and deep desire to understand, the awesome beauty and complexity of the undesigned order of 'social snowflakes.'"
I love this blog-post entitled 'Of Social Snowflakes...' by Steve Horwitz. It's inspired by this photograph of a real snowflake. Here's Steve's concluding paragraph:
My fervent wish for the 21st century is that more smart and caring people can begin to see and appreciate 'social snowflakes.' People who are so willing to accept the existence and beauty (and benevolence!) of undesigned order in the natural world should be more willing to open themselves to the possibility that there are processes of undesigned order at work in the social world too. These people know that no one can make a snowflake, but seem blind to the fact that much of the innocent blood that was spilled in the last century was because too many people thought they could intelligently design the social world. Not repeating those mistakes will require a renewed aesthetic appreciation of, and deep desire to understand, the awesome beauty and complexity of the undesigned order of 'social snowflakes.'"
Power Line: Travels with Cheney
Power Line: Travels with Cheney: " [I]t appears the Bush administration will continue to make the case aggressively that Americans are better off because of its conduct of national security policy, including the Iraq war.
That effort will likely include the release of documents and other materials captured in postwar Iraq. In recent weeks, senior Bush administration and intelligence officials have been discussing several plans to expedite the public release of those materials. According to officials familiar with their contents, the documents provide an unfiltered look inside a criminal regime that brutalized its own citizens, bought off numerous European politicians, and provided significant support to transregional terrorists.
Steve also reports on the vice president's meeting with the troops, and much more, including this:
Cheney ended [his interview with the AP's Nedra Pickler on the flight home] with what may be the most forceful on-the-record defense of Bush administration national security policy yet. The vice president said it is this policy--not luck or fate--that explains why the United States has not been attacked in the last four years.
There's a temptation for people to sit around and say, well, gee, [9/11] was just a one-off affair, they didn't really mean it. Bottom line is, we've been very active and very aggressive defending the nation and using the tools at our disposal to do that. That ranges from everything to going into Afghanistan and closing down the terrorist camps, rounding up al Qaeda wherever we can find them in the world, to an active robust intelligence program, putting out rewards, the capture of bad guys, and the Patriot Act...Either we're serious about fighting the war on terror or we're not. Either we believe that there are individuals out there doing everything they can to try to launch more attacks, to try to get ever deadlier weapons to use against [us], or we don't. The president and I believe very deeply that there's a hell of a threat, that it's there for anybody who wants to look at it. And that our obligation and responsibility, given our job, is to do everything in our power to defeat the terrorists. And that's exactly what we're doing."
That effort will likely include the release of documents and other materials captured in postwar Iraq. In recent weeks, senior Bush administration and intelligence officials have been discussing several plans to expedite the public release of those materials. According to officials familiar with their contents, the documents provide an unfiltered look inside a criminal regime that brutalized its own citizens, bought off numerous European politicians, and provided significant support to transregional terrorists.
Steve also reports on the vice president's meeting with the troops, and much more, including this:
Cheney ended [his interview with the AP's Nedra Pickler on the flight home] with what may be the most forceful on-the-record defense of Bush administration national security policy yet. The vice president said it is this policy--not luck or fate--that explains why the United States has not been attacked in the last four years.
There's a temptation for people to sit around and say, well, gee, [9/11] was just a one-off affair, they didn't really mean it. Bottom line is, we've been very active and very aggressive defending the nation and using the tools at our disposal to do that. That ranges from everything to going into Afghanistan and closing down the terrorist camps, rounding up al Qaeda wherever we can find them in the world, to an active robust intelligence program, putting out rewards, the capture of bad guys, and the Patriot Act...Either we're serious about fighting the war on terror or we're not. Either we believe that there are individuals out there doing everything they can to try to launch more attacks, to try to get ever deadlier weapons to use against [us], or we don't. The president and I believe very deeply that there's a hell of a threat, that it's there for anybody who wants to look at it. And that our obligation and responsibility, given our job, is to do everything in our power to defeat the terrorists. And that's exactly what we're doing."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
