May 31_2007 – My Cynicism About Darfur

I keep seeing these heart rending stories about the slaughter going on in the Darfur a province of Sudan. But it makes me wonder,what it is exactly that this slick lobbying campaign and its bank rollers would have “us” (using “us” in the collective sense of it, as in the American government) do exactly? Many if not most of the noisy pleaders whose message is directed at the US Congress and the Bush Administration are the same subset of persons and groups that are currently loudly denouncing the US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan too. Go figure that? Haven't these folks seen exactly what happens when one nation, no matter how powerful and well-off it may be comparatively, tries to establish itself as the World Cop?

Let the UN and the African Union handle this one you guys. America's plate is full right now with other more pressing imperial entanglements. Again, what, (military intervention, boycotts, airstrikes, blockades, something else?) would these maudlin interventionists have “us” do? I honestly wonder what the real agenda is here.

“Lobbying groups regularly get their way in Washington”, says this article from the Washington Post, “but few have had as much impact in a short period as the Save Darfur Coalition, an organization that has been pressing for international intervention in war-torn Sudan.

Over the past two years, it has flooded lawmakers' inboxes with pleas for assistance, filled the Mall with protesters and blanketed the airwaves with heart-rending commercials. One ad showed photos of anguished, starving Sudanese and asked, 'How will history judge us?' "

History has already judged this sort of thing; and the honest truth is that the interventionists are nearly always wrong. And yet with each new crisis they persist. History doesn't repeat”, said Mark Twain, “ but it often rhymes.” And we know how this kinda song goes too, even if we only know the melody and not the words.

May 30_2007 - Cheap Gas or Energy Independence: Not Both

Says economist Robert Samuelson in today's Washington Post:

"It's one of those delicious moments when Washington's hypocrisy is on full and unembarrassed display. On the one hand, some of America's leading politicians condemn high gasoline prices and contend that they stem from "gouging" by oil companies. On the other, many of the same politicians warn against global warming and implore us to curb our use of fossil fuels that emit carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

Guess what: These crowd-pleasing proclamations are contradictory. Anyone fearful of global warming should cheer higher gasoline prices, because much higher prices represent precisely the sort of powerful incentive needed to push consumers toward more fuel-efficient vehicles and to persuade the auto industry to produce them in large numbers. Bravo for higher prices!"

True enough. If we want the free market and human ingenuity to liberate us from dependence on foreign oil and we also want a healthy and cleaner environment we have to let oil prices rise to what the owners and producers of that oil ask. It is the only way my friends. We just can't have cheap oil and not be dependent on crude petro from places like Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela and the Middle East. The "cheap" gas we have from what we are doing now isn't all that cheap when you add to it the huge cost in blood and treasure that maintaining a huge military presence all over the world to gain and retain access to it, eh?

May 29_2007 - Cindy Sheehan 'Resigns' as Protest Leader

Cindy Sheehan 'Resigns' as Protest Leader

Good riddence you politically illiterate attention whore. Ever since Sheehan played kissy face with that thug Hugo Chavez, a nascent neo-Castro, I've had no further use for her "leadership" role. Just like with John McCain, John Kerry, Jack Murtha and the rest of our "war heroes," Sheehan seems to think that her loss entitles her to a level of credibility that she just doesn't deserve.

The Iraq war and all the rest of America's imperial entanglements should be abandoned just as a matter of justice and honor, period. And this would be true even if her son had come home from Iraq without a scratch. Lead on Ron Paul.

May 29_2007 - Even Blind Pigs Find an Occasional Acorn Now and Then

When my father died this past January one of the things I inherited from him was his unfinished subscription to the Wall Street Journal. And I have to say that over the years I have not found the WSJ very much to my liking. And why is that? Well, their business news stories, while usually well written and researched, are pretty commonplace fare; mainly stuff I can find for free on the web, although not as well written perhaps. And ditto with their tables of stock data, currency prices, precious metal values, and such too. And their reliably “vulgar libertarian” argumentation in their right-wing editorials and columns just drive me nuts.

But once in a while, as my maternal grandfather used to say: “Even a blind pig finds the occasional acorn, now and then.” Meaning, the pig got lucky, not that he’s skillful or smart.

And so it was when I read a review in today’s edition of the WSJ of Michael Barone’s New book, Our First Revolution -The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers.

Barone describes and analyzes the coup d’etat by nascent English [Classic] Liberals in
1688 that toppled the last Stuart monarch James II, for fear he’d further erode the traditional rights that most English folk had come to like, and become more like the absolute authoritarian monarchies in continental Europe.

“Although James II stood for Catholic obscurantism,” says the review, “pro-French appeasement, and Stuart paternalism and monopoly--all of which would have held Britain back politically and commercially in the 18th century--it is hard not to sympathize with his Lear-like cries of anguish as both his daughters, Mary and Anne, betray him in order to safeguard their claims to the throne.”

Well, I didn’t, but still, that quibble aside, it’s a good review.

“Yet had James II not made myriad errors after succeeding his brother, King Charles II, in 1683--errors that help to trigger William's later intervention—‘French-style absolutism might really have sprung into life’ in England, Mr. Barone writes, perhaps ‘in late 1688 or early 1689.’ Such absolutism was doing well on the Continent, especially under Louis XIV, and James was busy trying to buy the coming general election and pack the House of Commons. When an heir was born to James in June 1688, establishing the Catholic succession, the moment of decision had arrived.”

And England, America and the whole English-speaking world benefited from the coup’s final result, says Barone’s analysis.

How so?

“Everything that flowed from the Whig victory of 1688--limited government, the Bank of England, tradable national debt, triennial Parliaments, mercantilism, free enterprise, an aggressively anti-French foreign policy, the union with Scotland, eventually the Hanoverian Succession and the Industrial Revolution--combined to make the English-speaking peoples powerful. Mr. Barone proves beyond doubt how much the Glorious Revolution inspired the Founding Fathers to launch their own, with Virginia gentlemen farmers seeing themselves as the heirs of England's revolutionary aristocrats. The 1689 Bill of Rights in Britain thus unquestionably paved the way to the American Bill of Rights of 1791.”

Well, perhaps or perhaps not. Some think that the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution are merely Libertarian Myth, mere fable, and weren’t really any form of genuine progress in political philosophy, in theory or in practice, at all. That view I disagree with. All those developments were positives, the best that could be expected in those times, and Liberal Democracy was an important milestone in human political evolution.

Plus, I like English history, and so I am gonna read it.

Technorati tags: Michael_Barone English_history

May 27_2007 – What I’m Reading These Days

Please don’t get the wrong idea here; I read what I’m interested in or curious about or has been recommended to me or is on a topic or subject I’m working on, and doesn’t mean that I embrace any ideas the books might contain. So with that noted, here’s the list.

Buda's Wagon: A Brief History Of the Car Bomb
By Mike Davis
This book, “… [t]races its worldwide use and development, in the process exposing the role of state intelligence agencies—particularly those of the United States, Israel, India, and Pakistan—in globalizing urban terrorist techniques. [Mike] Davis argues that it is the incessant impact of car bombs, rather than the more apocalyptic threats of nuclear or bio-terrorism, that is changing cities and urban lifestyles, as privileged centers of power increasingly surround themselves with ‘rings of steel’ against a weapon that nevertheless seems impossible to defeat.” (AK Press blurb)

How Nonviolence Protects The State
By Peter Gelderloos
“People working for social change face plenty of difficult questions, but sometimes matters of strategy and tactics receive low priority. Among many North American activists, the role of nonviolence as the default mode of struggle bears little scrutiny. Is nonviolence effective at ending systems of oppression? How is nonviolence connected to white privilege? Is militancy naturally macho, or does pacifism reinforce the same power dynamics as patriarchy? Ultimately, does nonviolence protect the State? How Nonviolence Protects the State brings existing criticisms of nonviolence, and several new ones, together into one book, in an attempt to illuminate one of the most severe roadblocks to social change today.” (AK Press blurb)

Durruti in the Spanish Revolution
By Chuck Morse (Translator) and Abel Paz
“In this new and unabridged translation of the definitive biography of Spanish revolutionary and military strategist, Buenaventura Durruti, Abel Paz has given us much more than an account of a single man's life. Durruti in the Spanish Revolution is as much the chronicle of an entire nation and of a tumultuous historical era. Paz seamlessly weaves intimate biographical details of Durruti's life—his progression from factory worker and father to bank robber, political exile and, eventually, revolutionary leader—with extensive historical background, behind-the-scenes governmental intrigue, and blow-by-blow accounts of major battles and urban guerrilla warfare. Written with a thorough and sympathetic understanding of the anarchist ideals that motivated Durruti, this is an amazing and exhaustive study of an incredible man and his life-long fight against totalitarianism in both its capitalist and Stalinist forms.

Includes an afterword by José Luis Gutierréz Molina's on Abel Paz's life and the historiography of the Spanish Revolution.” (AK Press blurb)

"What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books. " - Thomas Carlyle

May 25_2007 – The Results of Living in A True “Culture of Corruption”

Every so often I return to my roots; in my case the mainly Middle-Eastern/North African enclave in Dearborn, MI where I grew up. Then, as now, it is the first place recent immigrants take up residence when they come to America. And the culture, history and life experience that they have informs all their actions and practices too.

I was visiting a friend there recently and we were having a snack at restaurant that serves the food of the Yemenis. The time was early afternoon and it was warm and humid, especially in the kitchen area. So the cooks were taking a smoke & coffee break in the area near the alley door, and the door itself was propped open to allow some cool fresh air in and to let the smoke and steam out. My friend is fireman for the city of Dearborn and carries a badge and ID proclaiming such too. Now being the sort that he is (i.e., a notorious buttinsky), he went up to the cooks and flashed his badge on them and explained that it is against heath code regs to have the door to the kitchen propped open; it can only be open when and if someone is entering or exiting. Anything else is a violation which can get the restaurant fined or closed by the “authorities.” It was this which my friend Firefighter Buttinsky was attempting to warn them about. But that is not the effect it had though.

The owner came running out and jabbered in his native dialect with the cooks to ascertain what the hub-bub was all about. Mr. Owner was absolutely convinced that Mr. Fireman was soliciting for a cash bribe, free food, or something. See, that's how things are done and how badge carriers act in Yemen. The downside of doing business this way is that it adds to the owner's costs, it allows nasty and unhealthy conditions to exist and persist over time, and other bad things as well.

Once the owner figured this out, that it was just friendly advice and not solicitation for a bribe, the look on his face was priceless. America is a good country, mostly, ain't it?

May 22_2007 - RIAA Seeks Royalties From Radio Stations Now Too

“The LA Times reports that the RIAA wants royalties from radio stations. 70 years ago Congress exempted radio stations from paying royalties to performers and labels because radio helps sell music. But since the labels that make up the RIAA are not getting the cash they desire through sales of CDs, and since Internet and satellite broadcasters are forced to cough up cash to their racket, now the RIAA wants terrestrial radio to pay up as well." [Slashdot.org/ post]

It would serve these fookin' greedy monopolist assholes right if they did get they're way on this only because I believe that in pretty short order market forces would settle their hash once and for all. Radio stations would likely stop or seriously cut back on playing the songs and bands where they had to pay royalties and start playing more independent artists and groups that didn't require it. What are the coporate bands who are RIAA clients gonna do when their latest crap gets no or very limited airplay?

The RIAA, MPAA and their shills, lackeys, and dupes in the mainstream media and Congress are marching themselves and their products ever closer to the cliff that I sincerely hope that they go over soon. Step on you morons.

And notice please that this whole “the airwaves belong to the people” meme (but in practice actually meaning “belongs to the government”) provides the nexus for their entire rationale (such as it is) for for this and every other monopolistic practice and the rent seeking that they continually attempt to impose (and then enforce) on us. Ditto with copyright laws too. Without a huge government law enforcement apparatus and the threat of ruinious lawsuits in civil courts what power would these greedheads have at all?