Pooh Bahism

The great head of the multicultural pooh-bahs--Fareed Zakaria--has held forth on the events in Mumbai.  Read it if you must.  He has mastered the art that is the one essential of a keeper of conventional wisdom: saying nothing in a way that sounds important and meaningful.  The art of keeping the conventional wisdom is to make policy proposals and diagnoses that a) involve no value conflicts that threaten the elite, b) call for more resources to flow to the elite and c) blame something (if not the entire problem) on Bush. 

Here is a report from India itself that actually contains information.  Turns out the victims were tortured before being killed, no doubt the result of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.  The special forces that finally won the battle after they had determined that the hostages were all dead did not play nice:

The doctors who
conducted the post mortem said the bodies of the terrorists were beyond
recognition. "Their faces were beyond recognition."

There was no
way of identifying them," he said. Asked how, if this is the case, they
knew the bodies were indeed those of the terrorists, he said: "The
security forces that brought the bodies told us that those were the
bodies of the terrorists," he said, adding there was no other way they
could have identified the bodies.

An intelligence agency source added: "One of the terrorists was shot through either eye."

A senior National Security Guard officer, who had earlier explained the operation in detail to rediff.com,
said the commandos went all out after they ascertained that there were
no more hostages left. When asked if the commandos attempted to capture
them alive at that stage, he replied: "Unko bachana kaun chahega (Who will want to save them)?"

Good thing for them they don't have the ACLU.

Statistics and Global Warming

Turns out the sky isn't falling.

An Upside of Obama

Now at least we can declare victory in Iraq. Look for a spate of good news stories about Iraq as things that are good are credited to the new president.

Pooh Bahism

The great head of the multicultural pooh-bahs--Fareed Zakaria--has held forth on the events in Mumbai.  Read it if you must.  He has mastered the art that is the one essential of a keeper of conventional wisdom: saying nothing in a way that sounds important and meaningful.  The art of keeping the conventional wisdom is to make policy proposals and diagnoses that a) involve no value conflicts that threaten the elite, b) call for more resources to flow to the elite and c) blame something (if not the entire problem) on Bush. 

Anti-torture argument from a qualified source

This returned soldier makes the case against "enhanced" interrogation techniques. One wonders how widespread his view is in the military. His case for the traditional methods based on building rapport seems strong in the case of the Sunni fighters. His argument that Abu Ghraib has cost as many lives as 9/11seems somewhat overdrawn and, moreover, implies that the real problem was not the abuses, which afterall, were being dealt with and prosecuted before they became generally known, but the publication of the photographs. At the very least it suggests that the military's concern with what information gets out might be motivated by legitimate concerns.  

I blame Gandhi

One of things that stands out about the Mumbai attacks is the reluctance of the police in India to shoot. This is a clear case where our avoidance of one kind of error-using too much force-leads to the opposite error-using too little.  A set of constraints designed to save innocent life ends up costing innocent life.

More Gandhi-ism run amok from a story about Somali pirates hijacking a Liberian oil-tanker: "We
have been informed by coalition military authorities that three of our
unarmed security staff were rescued from the water by a coalition
helicopter and are currently on board a coalition warship in the Gulf
of Aden,"

A) if they don't have guns, what are they guarding against? B) Why isn't this Liberia's problem? All of this international law business seems to create a massive free-rider problem. 

At Citizens for Peace they are calling for Mumbaikars to "chanel [their] collective outrage" into "action not just...attitude." She also wants "an end to platitudes." Good luck with that.

Regressing Progress

It appears that our modern legal system can't deal with pirates.  In the bad old days the law was rationally tailored to deal with this problem.  The reason that the law changed was that the world changed.  The law that is appropriate to deal with this old problem is available but will not be used because of our conceit that we have changed the law because we became better people, morally superior to our ancestors, not that the world has (at least in some parts) become a nicer place.

What's good for the Messiah

It is not just that he isn't putting his kids in public school--that would be sacrificing his kids for political favor--it is that he makes it out to be something that has to do with money.  Obama's kids aren't going to a school that is more expensive, it is just more exclusive. Sidwell Friends is $25k a year, but then so are the D.C. public schools if you look at what they spend per pupil.  In the case of D.C. private schools resources really aren't the problem, it is how well or ineffiently they are used.  The press has, as usual, burried the lead: private schools aren't more expensive they are just better managed. If you gave the money spent on public education to the parents to use at a school of thier choice then everyone actually could afford to go to Sidwell Friends.  But do we let the money follow the parents?  No. Just the opposite.  Instead of expanding what works we are contemplating expanding what doesn't into other realms such as health care. 

Obama looking better

Here is the AG elect of the Obama administration taking the Neo-Con line on terrorists and the Geneva Convention.  Suddenly, that pardon thing doesn't look so bad. 

Obama looking better

Here is the AG elect of the Obama administration taking the Neo-Con line on terrorists and the Geneva Convention.  Suddenly, that pardon thing doesn't look so bad. 

Civic Knowledge

Comparison of self-identified public officials and private citizens in knowledge of US government and history. Guess who wins.

Cool: Ray guns

So now we have ray guns in Iraq. War just isn't given the credit it deserves.

Halperin on pro-Obama press bias

Nice comparison by Halperin on the treatment of the two potential first ladies.  My modest prediction is that at some point Michelle will succumb to the temptation to be Michelle and, unlike a VP candidate, it will be impossible to cloister her for the duration of the campaign. Note the circularity of the press's defense:

"The biggest bias in the press is towards effectiveness," said
Heilemann, who is authoring a book on the 2008 race along with
Halperin.


"We love things that are smart."


Because Obama's campaign was generally so well run, he argued, the press tended to applaud even his negative tactics.

 


So the campaign received positive  evaluations because it was so good?

Happy to be wrong

And so far, Obama has made a lot of centrist appointments, particularly at the top. Most hopeful sign of this is that the netroots crowd is starting to  grumble. If Obama turns out to be a centrist I will turn out to been completely wrong, and darn glad of it.  I am even in a way it led to see Hillary back, if only because it represents a little bit less change. Of course, the real  double may be in the details, or in this case in the lower level appointments.

A Reminder of How Truly Rotten it Was

Here is an honest and penetrating piece on the illegality of the seizure of Elian Gonzales back during the Clinton Administration. It is important to note that the police power resides in the hands of the states, that the Federal government has no right to use force to break into a family's home, and that there was no likelihood that a court would have granted such a warrant since Elian was not here illegally.

so we were right which proves we were wrong

William Ayres  has issued a new statement about his relationship with Obama.  the interesting thing about it is not that he admits that all of the charges about the depth of his association with Obama were true, but that he argues that nonetheless we were wrong to talk about them, that the charges amounted to a "smear campaign."

Now, doesn't calling something a smear campaign imply that the charges are true?

more proof of global warming

 here is a scientist arguing that we are due for an Ice Age. I have no idea myself, but if it does happen we can be sure of one thing: it will be taken as one more proof of global warming.

I thought that was his job

Michigan Preacher put in jail for "putting the fear of God," into a judge.  I could not make this up.

Remember Obama's plans, especially the ones they don't want you to remember

Here is a nice post on Obama's disappearing gun ban proposal. 

Here is a law professor claiming to have inside information that Obama is going to try to undo the right of counties to have "shall issue" policies.  Lets hope he is wrong.  Or, perhaps, that he is right, since doing so would be politically stupid and blatantly at odds with the promises he made in the campaign--though, of course, he will find a way to argue that we misunderstood him, just as the President of Poland appears to have done.

What is to like?

Being an African-American was surely a problem  For Senator Obama, but on the other it worked to his advantage in some ways.

I don’t know what the weight equivalent of a Reverend Wright would be, but if John McCain had chosen a white reverent Wright to be his spiritual divisor and religious instructor for his children, it is difficult to imagine his opponent not using it against him.

American election campaigns are centered on the question of does the candidate’s record matches rhetoric? Obama, having no record to begin with, was never really forced to defend what record  he did have. Thus, he was able to present himself as a moderate. Perhaps he is in his heart of hearts. He was nothing of the sort in Chicago.

 Leave aside the question of whether, on balance, his race was an advantage or disadvantage; it seems clear that his race did constrain what other people would say about him. We can feel in this conversation. Here I am a very conservative Republican asked to talk about the election of a very liberal Democrat to the presidency. Under normal circumstances no one would expect me to be anything but very unhappy. Yet April keep expecting me to celebrate the election of an African-American to the presidency. And if I don’t that I’m some kind of mean person. I am not being allowed to go to the grieving process. And besides, I don’t think if the situation were reversed, if Clarence Thomas had been elected president, the first reaction of all my liberal friends would be oh how wonderful to have an African-American president.

Identity politics matters greatly until  the day the man takes office. After that, it is what can he do for us. It is policy. And I for one can’t wait to start talking about it.

That being said, I hope you don’t mind me plugging an NPR story, but it is just great to see the daughter of a slave live to see an African-American elected president. Any American has got to love that.

Now I am Alone

So Omo-bare decided this morning to give up on Nader and vote for Obama. He has assimilated to the Blorg! He has melted into the Oblama. I am the last man, the Omega-man, no! The Amega-man! The last American standing.

7:29--from the country formerly known as America

Ok, so it is fine. I have lived in foreign countries before. I can get used to it. This time I get the fun of living abroad without the hassles of airports.

They have just called Pennsylvania for Obama. It was a great country while it lasted.

McCain loses Hispanics

In the why bother department McCain loses big among hispanics in New Mexico. Mr. Bipartisanship, Mr. reach out to hispanics and trash our rules of citizenship and has the knifes in his back to show for it, loses Hispanics 64% to 34%. Next time, don't bother. The immigration issue has always seemed to me to be a case of trying to get the best surrender terms we can by suing for peace early. It turns out the terms don't get better. May as well fight to the finish and leave a bullet riddled corpse. Makes for a much more moving funeral.

7:29--from the country formerly known as America

Ok, so it is fine. I have lived in foreign countries before. I can get used to it. This time I get the fun of living abroad without the hassles of airports.

They have just called Pennsylvania for Obama. It was a great country while it lasted.

Now I am Alone

So Omo-bare decided this morning to give up on Nader and vote for Obama. He has assimilated to the Blorg! He has melted into the Oblama. I am the last man, the Omega-man, no! The Amega-man! The last American standing.

Notes from the Country formerly known as America

What is the country going to be called in the new era? surely America--meany land, land of slavery and colonialism--will never do for a country under the beneficent guidance of the Obamasia? Decisions, decisions.

MSM: See no stumble, hear no stumble

"Rob" at Pajamas Media records a few of the rhetorical stumbles of the Obamassiah that the Mass Media have not deemed worthy of mention. The analysis of why the Iraq war is causing a shortage of translators in Afghanistan is priceless and, it must be admitted, inarguable. After all, a translator you send to France can't be sent to China, though why you want to do so is left obscure by the great explainer. Merci, oh citizen of the world.

How Will We Explain it to Our Children?

It will one day be hard to explain to our kids what it was like to live through Obamania.  I think the item linked to here will be helpful. If the man who voted against a bill to outlaw putting babies in laundry closets to die, no, was the only man in the entire legislature to do so, can be thought of as pro-life by voters it gives you some idea of how in the tank the MSM were for the guy. It also gives you an idea of what kind of media environment we lived in, where the small, homogeneous group of people from a small group of schools could swim together like school of fish and present such a solid wall of credulity that no other information could get past them. It has been like a an Obama-land re-education camp.

Election Prediction

I have a bottle of Maker's Mark whiskey.  I predict that whatever happens tomorrow I will have a compelling reason to drink it.

Depressing News about Depression

Economists calculate that Roosevelt's policies lengthened the depression by years through suppressing competition and inflating wages. Another reason to dread the coming of the O.