French Foreign Minister Alan Juppe has magisterially declared the Libyan operation at an end, marking yet another triumph for the West. But other parts of the world remain in crisis. With winter coming to the Korean Peninsula, Pyongyang has cut its food rations — never ample in the best of conditions — by two thirds, leading the UN to appeal for international donations to feed them.
“There are real needs there, you can’t let the people of North Korea suffer,” a spokesman told journalists in Beijing, saying said daily food rations had been cut from 600 grams to just 200 grams, mostly corn, cabbage and rice, with little or no protein provided.
That was a hint to the biggest supplier of North Korean food aid, the United States. But America was presently distracted by Afghanistan, where Hillary Clinton was telling Pakistanis the US would go after the militants whether Islamabad was willing to help or not. She was especially determined to come down hard on the Haqqani network which was responsible for wounding 77 US servicemen in a recent attack. The Haqqani network is believed supported by America’s stalwart ally, Pakistan.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton led an unusually large U.S. delegation for two days of talks with civilian and military leaders who have resisted previous U.S. demands to take a harder tack against militants who attack American soldiers and interests in Afghanistan.
The large U.S. contingent was meant to display unity among the various U.S. agencies, including the CIA, Pentagon and State Department, with an interest in Pakistan. CIA chief David Petraeus and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey joined Clinton, who said the team would “push Pakistan very hard.”
These developments took place as Hamid Karzai told reporters that the action had now shifted to Pakistan. He called on the US to stop raiding Afghan homes and begin negotiating with the Haqqani network across the border, implying that this was where the problem now was. As if to emphasize its new distance from Islamabad, a State Department official said that more “nonlethal supplies” would begin to flow through the alternative route of Uzbekistan, reducing the logistical reliance on Pakistan.
“As a general rule, we’re trying to get more [goods] through Central Asia and through Uzbekistan,” the senior State Department official, who was accompanying Clinton, told reporters on condition of anonymity.
A drudge’s work is never done. But it may have some rewards. Three studies quoted by the AP says that despite the garish headlines the world has never been as peaceful as it is today. It says, “statistics reveal dramatic reductions in war deaths, family violence, racism, rape, murder and all sorts of mayhem. The mortality from warfare has come down 200-fold in the last 7 decades and people are wondering why.
In 19th century France, it was 70 [battlefield deaths per 100,000]. In the 20th century with two world wars and a few genocides, it was 60. Now battlefield deaths are down to three-tenths of a person per 100,000. … There were fewer than 20 democracies in 1946. Now there are close to 100. Meanwhile, the number of authoritarian countries has dropped from a high of almost 90 in 1976 to about 25 now. …
The average annual battle death toll has dropped from nearly 10,000 per conflict in the 1950s to less than 1,000 in the 21st century. And the number of deadliest wars — those that kill at least 1,000 people a year — has fallen by 78 percent since 1988.
The reasons for outbreak of peace are debated. John Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago credits the Pax Americana. “It’s been 21 years since the Cold War ended and the United States has been at war for 14 out of those 21 years,” Mearsheimer said. It was acting as a “pacifier”. But others believed that the institutions of peace and peace-minded thinking were mostly behind the reduction of violence. Andrew Mack, former head of strategic planning for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan believed UN Peacekeeping, the World Bank and the efforts of thousands of NGOs with preventing war.
One of the institutions which Mack believes has been responsible for World Peace was recently been having trouble of the financial and verbal kind. At a recent summit, the leaders of the EU discovered they were even more broke than they thought and fingers were pointing in all directions to affix the blame and apportion payment.
Just when the eurozone governments thought it could not get worse for Europe’s single currency, it did. …
But then a new bombshell hit as a joint report by the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that, without a default, the Greek debt crisis alone could swallow the eurozone’s entire €440 billion bailout fund – leaving nothing to spare to help the affected banks of Italy, Spain or France. …
Compounding the trauma, Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister turned IMF chief – and one of the few key players who appeared to be enjoying herself in her new headmistress-like role – issued a grim warning to her former European peers.
The IMF would no longer be willing to pick up a third of the total bill for rescuing Greece, a contribution worth €73 billion, unless European banks were prepared to write off 50 per cent of Greek debt. … According to insiders, Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany’s finance minister, could not resist taking an “I told you so” approach … But Mrs Lagarde… “shut him up … and in perfect English too, a language he cannot speak,” said a diplomat. … It is an odd fact that eurozone meetings are generally conducted in English.
Beset by money problems, the European leaders considered the challenges facing the continent with less than statesman-like gravity.
Chancellor Merkel is said to have been deeply wounded by one anecdote that Mr Sarkozy is said to have told another head of government about her.
“She says she is on a diet and then helps herself to a second helping of cheese,” the French president allegedly said after a dinner meeting with Mrs Merkel.
Such cattiness will not have been forgotten by Mrs Merkel when she sat down to dine with Mr Sarkozy last night in an encounter billed as a “make or break” moment to save the euro by patching up Franco-German relations.
A row between the pair in Frankfurt on Wednesday overshadowed leaving-do celebrations to mark the end of Jean-Claude Trichet’s nine years as the head of the ECB.
“Their shouting could be heard down the corridor in the concert hall where an orchestra was about to play the EU’s anthem, Ode to Joy,” said an incredulous EU official.
But this petty backbiting, wounding as it may be to egos, is part of the luxury of peace. The world considers whether to feed North Korea, and who to chastise next, even as it condescendingly advises the United States about what to do next because of the implicit knowledge that it might actually be done. It has been done for so long that it seems part of the state of nature. Few if any have asked themselves why if America is so stupid, then why the last World War was so long ago? Like the GPS and the Internet, World Peace has now subjectively become a public good, owed to its beneficiaries.
But at present, peace is still not free, and the day when Andrew Mack’s world where war is banished by “the UN” has not yet come. Will it ever dawn? Or are we condemned to a peace based ultimately on fear?
Barber’s Adagio for strings performed in commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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Hamid Karzai told reporters that the action had now shifted to Pakistan. He called on the US to stop raiding Afghan homes and begin negotiating with the Haqqani network across the border, implying that this was where the problem now was.
Hamid Karzai also said, “If there is war between Pakistan and America, we will stand by Pakistan”.
Which makes me think that maybe the Diem “suicide” in 1963 was one of the CIA’s better ideas.
“There are real needs there, you can’t let the people of North Korea suffer,” a spokesman told journalists in Beijing.
Which simply goes to show you the Occupy Wall Street, Free Lunch mentality has now reached the Middle Kingdom. Apparently their flirtation with robber-baron capitalism is over. John Galt’s advice to Hank Rearden applies in Pyongyang as well as in Kabul: “Don’t support your own destroyers.”
“…you can’t let the people of North Korea suffer.”
So we give food to North Korea. And who decides who among the people of N.K. gets the food? The same scoundrels who have been starving their own for so many years. Who believes that “the people of N.K.” will get what they need from the present regime? (I know I am insulting scoundrels.)
But this petty backbiting, wounding as it may be to egos, is part of the luxury of peace. The world considers whether to feed North Korea, and who to chastise next, even as it condescendingly advises the United States about what to do next because of the implicit that it might actually be done. It has been done for so long that it seems part of the state of nature. Few if any have asked themselves why if America is so stupid, then why the last World War was so long ago? Like the GPS and the Internet, World Peace has now subjectively become a public good, owed to its beneficiaries. But it is not free.
Not free, perhaps, but reasonable – cheaper than war, even for us alone not even counting the lives saved around the world because they are sufficiently rational not to want to be nuked, or to have a Hellfire up their tailpipe, or anyway they prefer to play with their iPhones because you can’t download pr0n on an AK-47.
But yes, the luxury of peace, indeed. Cordwainer Smith emphasized that in his stories, especially “Golden The Ship Was, Oh Oh Oh!”, that in times of peace all sorts of corruption and incompetence may play out, and why not it passes the time. Much based, I suppose, on the history of war, where the generals at the start of a conflict are quickly turned over for ones who can get the job done, at least on the winning side, requiring the leaders to be at least that serious and competent.
Our own efforts have been amazingly, unprecedentedly restrained, and I especially tend to rant about that as being sub-optimal in terms of time and resources (read: our soldier’s lives not to mention our tax dollars) spent. The rational bet contra my opinion is that it pays off long-term. Perhaps. Let us pray. Amen.
As for the Norks … sigh. Press China to do whatever needs doing, I guess.
“French Air Power Begins, Ends NATO Campaign Over Libya With Sarkozy’s Help”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-20/french-air-power-begins-ends-nato-air-campaign-over-libya.html
hmm, at least, when we decide to go to war, it’s not for parading !
but this event is clowded by the euro crisis, it’s seems that German stiffness isn’t ready to give the argument to the French because they still assimilate that as the unjustified “le poche paiera”, cuz they still think that they weren’t responsible of WW1, like they think that aren’t responsible of the euro crisis
this is well described here:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/14/angela_merkel_germany_eurozone?page=0%2C1#.Tp-HfYQtQAQ.facebook
hmm typos
clouded, le boche…
“There were fewer than 20 democracies in 1946. Now there are close to 100.” And they’re so busy bankrupting themselves there will soon be none.
Yes Bowing and Apologizing have lead us to all this war zone ally backhanding. More targeted assassinations and death then the neocon war hawks. While the world melts President “Zero” plays golf… It don’t get much better! Can’t wait for next year, as bad as things are going… better yet the “Prophets” of old said 2012 was to be turbulent! The big roller coaster ride drop is surely soon to come. time to inhale for the scream will be very long and loud!
For whatever the reason, Hilary runs hot and cold on protecting America’s interests. Mostly cold, I’m afraid. But at least there are some times when she seems to be doing the right thing, as compared to our Dear Leader where such instances are disturbingly rare. And when she puts her mind to it she can be one real tough barracuda. This time, I really gotta believe she is out there freelancing, probably with Panetta’s help, because we wouldn’t want to interrupt Dear Leader’s golf and TV time.
We can give NoKo some food when they completely shut down their nuclear program and all their other threatening military adventures. And only after those operations have been thoroughly verified to be shut down by onsite inspections performed by America. Otherwise, let ‘em starve.
The Euro is on life support. The only question now is when does the bickering end and the collapse begin.
I believe the Banksters know that market reality is going to absolutely hammer them soon, and I think that is why they have messed with the FDIC insurance fund. If the FDIC fund is so loaded up with tens of trillions in derivative liabilities that it can’t fund depositors to the tune of 3-4-5 trillion necessary when the TBTF go belly up, then the FED even under enormous pressure, won’t be able to take the TBTF into bankruptcy. Helo Ben can print 3- 5 trillion,( he’s already done it), but not fifty. It’s a poison pill move.
There are those who know, those who fantasize, those who create and those who consume. There are things worth fighting for and things worth fighting against. Those who attack the light should not be helped. You do not free a slave by feeding its master.
If we want to free North Korea then we must do two things.
1. Free ourselves from totalitarian energy and the accompanying corruption of our finance and politics. That means that while we may buy from Arabs and Chinese we must never let them gain coercive capacity over us and the corruption subversion and sedition that they foster must be rooted out.
2. Return to our Constitution by validating our actions through the exercise of our republic’s sovereign legislative will as embodied in Congress.
If we do choose to eradicate the North Korean regime then we should do so as a unilateral and sovereign act. If we should so choose we could invite allies to join us. Once the threat to peace and cause of suffering was eliminated then our responsibility would end. It would be the job of the government of Korea, and possibly given their history of colonial repression Japan, to rebuild liberated lands and people. It would be advisable to continue to guarantee the freedom of our allies and warn the Chinese against aggression.
We need to consider whether the current level of leadership in world capitals is really worse than it has been in other periods. If so why and if not then is it merely technology that exposes their flaws? Were the men, they were almost all men, who lead the world into conflagrations, 30 Years War, War of the Spanish Succession, Napoleonic and Franco-Prussian Wars, World War I & II, in every century over the last 500 years really more statesmanlike and serious than the current crop?
I don’t know if this means anything, but years ago, during the depression, children were told- “Eat your dinner, there are people starving in India!”. Either before or after that it was “Eat your dinner, there are people starving in China!” Meaning of course, that although there was little that could be done in China or India to change the conditions there, that, despite that, there was no good reason on earth to let food go to waste here.
So if you start hearing this season- “Eat your vegan dinner! There are people starving in North Korea!” in profusion, you’ll know the ad campaign has sunk in and completely saturated the market.
“There are real needs there, you can’t let the people of North Korea suffer,” a spokesman told journalists in Beijing, saying said daily food rations had been cut from 600 grams to just 200 grams, mostly corn, cabbage and rice, with little or no protein provided.”
well the chicoms are in the humanitarian game these days so you might try them:
“Chinese media said the ship has 300 hospital beds, eight operating rooms and 107 medical workers, including doctors and nurses.
Military experts and China watchers say the ship is one of the ways in which the Asian giant is increasing its use of “soft power” to burnish its image and achieve other policy goals such as increased trade and access to raw materials.
The Peace Ark was launched four years ago but is making only its second trip abroad after treating 15,500 people last year on a voyage to the Gulf of Aden and five African and Asian countries.”
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/idINIndia-60058520111021
I’m so glad that here at PJM Spengler is predicting the collapse of Islam and Michael J. Totten is finding so many moderate Muslim friends wherever he goes. You might think there’s something to worry about with Drudge headlines like “Islam Rising” and “Islamists Set to Win Tunisian Election” and “Libyan Leader Says Sharia Will Rule” – or with the fascist Islamic APK in control of Turkey, Muslim Brotherhood in control of Egypt, Pakistan coming out of the closet as AQ central, Lebanon fallen to Hezbollah, and Muslims coopting the UN and opeven our own State Department and Department of Justice to make criticizing Islam illegal, and “insulting Muslims” criminal, and equivalent with “racism” and hate crime.
Phew!
@12, it’s the least we can do for a religion of peace. We’ve got to show them that insulting hisslom will be punished. And perpetuate the peace.
Barber’s adagio for strings is sublime. You made my day wretchard; thank you very much.
I am skeptical of the AP studies….
In a heartless, souless world (Marx’s term, not mine), does it take war to reconnect with those things??
That there is any debate ongoing as to why warfare has declined is typical human irrationality. America’s involvement in the world is clearly why. When we withdraw, which me must now for financial reasons, it will begin again.
Of course, another reason is the accounting. Do they count the non-uniformed revolutionaries as ‘soldier deaths’? How about the victims of government killing of civilians? Few nations actually wage war, anymore, except wars against their own people.
It puts me in mind of some people denying God. They want proof, even though miracles abound. They want to attribute them always to other things. Likewise, folks do not want to believe that this extraordinary peace comes from America. “Oh, it comes from all these other things!”, things which never happened on a large scale until America came along and got active in the world. America is a Blessing to the world, a reflection of the Glory of God.
America IS the Miracle. But you can only know that, if you know your history and know how miserable the world used to be before our advent. America is the wellspring of all this goodness that the world now enjoys, just as God is the Source of our own bounty. Truly, all this peace in the world comes from God via America. Praise God!
50 years ago people in the US marched for civil rights. We now have civil rights out the whazoo and are trying to figure out how to do with less of the bureaucratic trappings associated with it.
40 years ago people marched for Peace. We now have both more and less Peace than before, more on the average and less in terms of peaks of violence. And the UN complains that the severe cutbacks in member nation’s military forces has imperiled their quest for Peace. It’s just too bad they can’t task North Korea and Iran.
30 years ago people marched to stop nuclear weapons. Today the major powers have far fewer nuclear weapons while they have spread to far more countries than before, to far less stable countries, and so their possible use has increased.
Today we have people marching for .. something. They are not quite sure. Better conditions, whatever that means. More free stuff. Full employment for all Union members and people with Phd’s in Wymens’ Studies. Or something like that, nobody really knows, including them.
Did anyone get what he wanted from all that coordinated expenditure of shoe leather? Yes, and no. None of them got just what they wanted and all of them got what they asked for, although they might not agree.
Freedom is slavery
War is Peace
or something like that. Maybe they are corseting, oops!, correcting the record to:
Peace is slavery
and War is Freedom
I’m sure that’s all it is. And I’m sure Winston Smith will make the proper corrections and adjustments, and get them in motion before the day is out, at close of business Sunday.
12. Morton Doodslag: Muslims coopting the UN and opeven our own State Department and Department of Justice to make criticizing Islam illegal, and “insulting Muslims” criminal, and equivalent with “racism” and hate crime.
That might work in Canada or the UK, but we have the first Amendment.
10. Gaffe Prices: So if you start hearing this season- “Eat your vegan dinner! There are people starving in North Korea!” in profusion, you’ll know the ad campaign has sunk in and completely saturated the market.
There’s a best-selling cookbook in North Korea, Forty Ways To Cook Bark. It has knocked 101 Ways to Wok Your Dog off the charts because everything that barks has already been cooked.
8. Unsk: We can give NoKo some food when they completely shut down their nuclear program and all their other threatening military adventures.
Who said anything about giving the Norks food. This isn’t a charity outfit here, they get to pay for it like everyone else. Oh, no hard currency? Well, that’s just fine, we can go Old School and fall back on barter. We’ll trade calories for weapons grade U-235.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.7a1f679ced5b40465c22d8e765ab2046.881&show_article=1
Shut up McCain, you MIC whore!
Geez, has this man ever met a war he didn’t like since young McCain denounced sending the Marines to Lebanon? I mean, shilling for Soros’ protege Misha the Tie Eater after he bombed and shelled the crap out of Tskinval wasn’t bad enough?
I fear for the coming months. Any Middle Eastern regime that can read our politics knows that the President cannot afford to recognize difficulties in the Middle East while his drawdown of American troops is under way. In fact, he can’t afford to do so until after next year’s election.
This President has put himself in a box the same way that President Carter did with his declaration of America’s “inordinate fear of communism.” Brezhnev knew that he couldn’t respond in Nicaragua after that, or anywhere else without declaring his policy an abject failure. Now Iran, Pakistan, Syria and others know they have been given the same freedom to act against us for the same reasons. They know the President must help them conceal any skulduggery they may choose to partake of lest he publicly admit failure and forfeit all credibility.
We are in for interesting times.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/14/angela_merkel_germany_eurozone?page=0%2C1#.Tp-HfYQtQAQ.facebook
My dear Marie Claude,
This FP hectoring seems to be more or less expressing annoyance that the German people actually have the temerity to say nein to the Eurocrats and trans-Atlanticists who clearly know what’s best for them. In other words, they love democracy, so long as it doesn’t result in electorates who actually make politicians afraid endlessly bailing out insolvent megabanks and ‘trade partners’. I suspect Germany now does more trade with the City of St. Petersburg and its environs alone as it does with the entire country of Greece. But the FP, constantly trying to convince you that no wealth transfer from West to East has taken place and Russia is bad, bad, bad, will never admit as such.
Actually, I’m a little surprised to find out that “the Greek debt crisis could swallow the eurozone’s entire 440 billion bailout fund – leaving nothing…
So why not just not give Greece anymore “loans” nor bailout from the fund, and give the money to Italy, Spain and Frence, or not give any of them money from the fund, and simply write off the “loans as bad, unpaid, un-retired debt? Or give the money to Germany who has been paying, and still write off the debt, as banks do with regards to a default. It makes the same difference either way, and for Greece, the gig is up with no mo free money, as it would, should and will be anyway.
It’s not near as bad as it seems, it’s just thoroughly humiliating and highly embarrassing. Who’s back must break for the sake of the eurozone‘s ego? The EU was a bad idea from the get-go, it just went belly up sooner rather than later. It was created, not for the sake of bettering euro trade and such, but to become some sort counter-super-power to the big bad U.S.of A.
There’s your bad and false premise.
o/t
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2011/10/wed-rather-do-it-ourselves.html#links
On Sunday, there was an earthquake at a location that is a 1.5-hour flight from Israel. Israel offered to assist. Turkey said no.
President Shimon Peres has called Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul and sent his condolences over the deaths caused by the powerful earthquake that hit the country. Peres also reiterated Israel’s offer for humanitarian aid.
Gul thanked Peres, but said that the Turkish search and rescue forces are expected to be able to handle the relief efforts.
But Israel Radio reports that Turkey has accepted assistance – from Iran and Azerbaijan, who are world experts in… nothing.
“The reasons for outbreak of peace are debated.”
Just because people like to debate. The American way of war is to attack C3. That means we go after the Generals. Mostly we get them. Or as the Military guy for the Wash Time said; ‘Bombing kills voters, precision bombing kills politicians’. His comment was about Democracies seldom going to war against one another.
Obama’s foreign policy sucks, but he is willing to let loose the dogs and they are VERY skilled at killing despots, or would be despots.
Knowing there is a JDAM with your name on it has to have a chilling effect of would be trouble makers. If the JDAM’s don’t get you, there are the Hellfires and Seal Team 6.
Marie, you want la boche, you get La Bouche;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F-4T3dy7fI&feature=related
12. Morton Doodslag So long as we are hunting them with UAV’s and they are NOT hunting POTUS with UAV’s, we are winning. Granted, it’s a slow process but in the end we will remove targets faster then they can produce them. Plus the cost is dirt cheap, as such things go.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Luke 2:14 is always truncated. No one dares quote the full verse with the qualifier “among those with whom he is pleased.”
Peace with God leads to peace on earth. Not vice versa.
Mr X, Germany leaning towards East must be rejoicingful for you !
but it ended badly, each time !
In re: North Korea. We are about to go through hungry times ourselves as our economy collapses. Let’s see, we have technically been at war with the North Koreans for 60-some years. They threaten us with nuclear weapons, commit repeated military aggression on our allies, counterfeit our currency, and push drugs. Yep, from the point of view of the current administration, they are a prime candidate for American aid. From my point of view, not so much. Let them reap the consequences of the system that their country has chosen. What are they going to do? Threaten us again with nukes?
In re: Turkey. Israel offered, it was refused. Israel has done more than its humanitarian duty since Turkey has been threatening acts of war against them. They should sit back and watch.
Turkey has been making threatening noises at us lately too. And we still owe them for blocking the 4th Division during the Iraq War. Unless any aid can be targeted solely for the Kurdish areas of Turkey [Kurds like Americans, unlike the current Turkish Islamist government]; the shaking of the ground in Turkey must be the will of Allah. Who are we to interfere with what their Deity does on his own territory?
Subotai Bahadur
Mr X, Germany leaning towards East must be rejoicingful for you !
but it ended badly, each time !
what FP rather says, is that the today Germany wants to go her ways, no matter the ties and alliances with the West that were forged after WW2, some even still don’t want to acknowledge WW1 as their responsability… wait until the crisis gets deeper, and WW2 will also be of our responsability !
@18
And everything with bark on it has too.
Hmmm…people in Cambodia ate bark and leaves and bird droppings during and because of Pol Pot, but he didn’t kill anybody, they all died of natural causes.
As far as Krapistan is concerned I think it is like Vietnam. How can you tell if they are VC or civilians? If they run they are VC. If they don’t run they are well disciplined VC. How do you shoot women and children – you don’t lead them as much.
Seriously the way to solve a problems in Waziristan is to kill a few colonels and brigadiers in Islamabad. They will get the message that you don’t double cross the Don and once bought you better stay bought. No point renegotiating the price of a pile of horse manure,
As for North Korea I would like to see them order their conscript army south when Mon, Dad, and Granny are starving back home. There is nothing keeping that house of cards afloat but the habit of fear. If I was a North Korean general I would be more afraid of issuing my troops live ammo then I was of the regime.
As for the EU the only conclusion they can possibly come to is to try and kick the can down the road a little further. Anything else would be to admit the obvious – Greece is bust and Spain and Italy soon will be and France and germany have their credit tapped out as well. Ever growing debts coupled with an ever shrinking population demanding ever growing services from the government is every bit as scewed up a proposition as it seems.
Meanwhile back in the ‘ole USA Good King Barry has Sheriff Harry Reid of Rottingham ably assisted by the court jester and heir apparent Price Joe of Delaware out trying to squeeze a few more coppers out of the great unwashed peasantry that is busily clinging to its guns and religion. It seems Queen Michelle Antoinette needs the waist moved higher on her designer dresses so nobody notices her butt keeps getting bigger and bigger while she puts the kids on a cauliflower juice, potato free diet. She apparently has a nervous five star eating disorder brought on because the HMS Pinafore has been stalking her every junket and pointing their guns at her.
But I say in the words of the immortal Alfred E Newman “What me worry?”
Marc Malone,
Another factor in declining casualty rates, at least in ‘conventional’ conflict, is an inverse correlation of casualties with rising lethality of weapons in conjunction with their supporting technologies.
The trend actually goes back hundreds if not thousands of years. Trevor Dupuy documented this in his excellent “Evolution of Weapons and Warfare” written about 30 years ago. The thinking is that increased lethality enables greater decisiveness on the battlefield, reducing the meatgrinder element.
27. Subotai Bahadur Turkey. Israel offered, it was refused. Israel has done more than its humanitarian duty since Turkey has been threatening acts of war against them.
This is kanly. The forms must be obeyed, as the Baron Vladimir Harkonnen would say.
Kanly (kanli) is a Turkish word meaning sworn enemy. This animosity continues from father to son, until the last child is dead or the two families make peace.
30. Joe Hill As for North Korea I would like to see them order their conscript army south when Mon, Dad, and Granny are starving back home.
When the Nork army finally crosses the DMV and invades the South, there will be nothing but gales of laughter. Sixty years of famine has incrementally reduced them to a race of hobbits, and they don’t even realize it.
Polygamy is now legal in Libya. Liberal progress winds the clock back 500 years.
Anyone surprised W. was received with a standing ovation at the World Series, especially after three years of Obama?
The George Soros controlled private equity company Cerberus Capital Management could cut off all gun and ammunition sales in the US. Apparently, the American people are totally unaware that Cerberus has for the past decade acquired nearly every gun and ammunition maker in the United States and consolidated them into a holding company called The Freedom Group.
Funny how when all is quiet and peaceful every little pipsqueak claims he’s responsible, while when the barnyard comes apart in storm and strife its always Uncle Sam’s fault.
It’s peaceful in the barnyard
Said the chicken to the sow
There’s naught to fear and this I hear
It’s duck who takes a bow
He says that it’s because of him
That peace is all around
And so what luck that we have duck
To thank for peace unbound
Well I dunno, the sow demurred
Some think it’s that big guy
Who tends the locks and shoos the fox
Who slips up on the sly
There’s lots of critters who would like
To make a lunch of us
But they’re afraid to make a raid
They dare not make a fuss
‘Cause that big guy has got a gun
I’ve heard it, it goes BAM!
So sows and geese, we all have peace
Because of Uncle Sam
There was a post on Strategy Page.com a while back and another that I lost track of, that were stating the Chinese were cutting back on food aid to N. Korea. They found that the food they sent ended up back in China being sold black market and the cash was used to purchase “goodies” for the ruling “elite.” Even the Chi Coms apparently have limits. One problem is that the Norks are having greater and greater problems keeping their military fed except for the elite group of “enforcers.” There more and more reports of the elites moving money out of country in preparation of beating feet. Some members of the S. Korean government are reportedly not too happy about the plans the Chinese have been making to take over N. Korea when it fall apart. Things could get interesting on the peninsula again.
I figure you can use an egg timer to measure how long the Iraqi Shia will take to start killing the Iraqi Sunni after the US pulls out.
27. Subotai Bahadur
Ditto, I also wonder how well the Turkish military is going to perform since the majority of the professional high rankers that worked with NATO and the US have been purged. The head guy is apparently a jumped up MP that has no large scale combined arms experience. There is some rumour that the lower rank officers still in are not real,real, happy about things all around.
“Liberal progress winds the clock back 500 years.”
Always. Has to, when you think it through.
“The George Soros controlled private equity company Cerberus Capital Management could cut off all gun and ammunition sales in the US.”
Not.
Now, all this talk of reduced war deaths has an implicit bias. The question is what’s a war, and who is killing whom?
Were the Rwanda and Sudanese conflicts wars? Surely, the Coptic Christians who are dying are considered to be war deaths, right? Doubt it.
Is the war against Christianity currently being waged by Islam and Secular-humanism part of their calculus? Because that would have to include, among other things, the deaths of 42 million unborn children each year.
Actually- with the financial meltdown in Europe, the coming mass- starvation in Asia and the demographic catastrophe in Russia
The 21st Century will, in fact, be
The American Century–
We need to end handouts to parasites in MENA and elsewhere and get our house in order.
Bill Gates spent $ 1.75 Billion of his own money on developing a successful vaccine for malaria.
He is hands on in managing the project.
That sets the model for foreign aid moving forward.
Voluntary Charity by individuals and if they chose managed by Christian or Islamic Charities.
The Roman Catholics have the best record in this matter–but there is room for competition
I would say the peace of recent decades is due to the Atomic Bomb scaring people into more prudent choices.
Things are looking bad as usual. Every nation holds a handful of painful burrs. More pain ahead as they start to pull the burrs out from their skin. Yet, as I listen to Barber’s Adagio for strings, the music creates a similar feeling to a string quartet playing Hadyn’s “Seven Last Words of Christ”.
Peaceful.
27. Subotai Bahadur:…the shaking of the ground in Turkey must be the will of Allah. Who are we to interfere with what their Deity does on his own territory?
I’m sitting on top of a subduction zone where the San Juan plate goes under the North American plate (it makes the Olympic range), and it’s three hundred years overdue to slip, and it will probably come in at 9 plus on the Richter scale. Our cities are designed for 8, tops. Five minutes of rocking and rolling, then you get twenty minutes to get above 50 feet of elevation before the tsunami hits. My hut is at 180 feet, but that’s a super-Katrina in the making. So I’m not gonna gloat.
Touche MC, I understand what you’re saying, particularly as someone who’s spent over a year in the country that suffered more from Nazi aggression than any other. But the remarkable reconciliation — to the point that German companies go out of their way to label their products with a big German flag — that I see in Moscow is heartening. There is no bitterness, not even among my father-in-law whose own father disappeared while fighting the Germans as they advanced towards Stalingrad in summer 1942.
I don’t see the Greater Reich going on the march again except economically anytime soon. They may come for some of the Paris real estate again (what is that German phrase, to live like a god in France?) but they won’t be marching down the Champs Elysees.
And Viktor, get ready for the Indo-Russians to avert that ‘demographic catastrophe’ — like Ethiopian Israelis, countries don’t just stand by and depopulate. The psychological conditioning has already begun, what with the Bollywood-style Russian pop music already out there. But there’s no shortage of babies in Moscow or signs of graying, it’s just the countryside that even Russia Today admits is depopulating with whole villages disappearing. Sounds a bit like central Kansas (not the part that has the Niobrara Shale for the next oil and gas boom) to me.
My main point is that Germans saying NO to their leaders is actually a positive sign, even when the banksters would prefer that they shut up and accept being fleeced to save their utopian euro project and completely insolvent big banks like DB, BNP Paribas, and Credit Suisse.
Europe needs to go back to the Euro-mark — call it Germany plus France, Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway. The Czech Republic and Poland might be eligible to join it in the future. Ireland will do better on the punt anyway.
Re: Joe Hill #30
Now that was a rant! Good job. I didn’t get the reference to the Pinafore, however.
“Peace with God leads to peace on earth. Not vice versa.”
The Duck of Death is at peace with his god. A 9mm behind the ear tends to have that effect.
32. Teresita, as we say here in the south, the horse has already left the barn, no point in closing the door. A civil war in the states will not involve much in the way of ammo. There is more then enough in circulation.
A civil war will be fought with food. No city has enough food in it to last a week. Stop the trucks and the stores empty. Empty stores means the liberals go hungry. The real political divide in the USA is the time tested Urban/rural one that plagued the Romans, Babylonians and other ancient Empires.
Us rustics feed the city slickers and in turn they steal the fruits of our labor using various monetary schemes. We stop feeding them and they will get the idea. Americans have no idea what it is like to go 2 days without food. After 3 days the small animal population of New York, LA or Chicago will be pretty much wiped out. You did see the menu for the OWS crowd.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/dining/protesters-at-occupy-wall-street-eat-well.html
Only in America are riots catered. My Greek E-pal, who was tear gassed the other day, freaked out when he found out the OWS folks had Salmon with dill sauce for lunch.
I suspect Kimm Il fails to see the irony here.
We need a new deal with Kim. Resign, move to France and America will feed the Norks for the rest of the decade. Drop off your nukes on the way to the plane. If he doesn’t want to do that, all those starving millions are on his head.
Plan B would be taking out the Nork Air defences and then dropping MRE’s in the Coutryside.
China isn’t going to invade the North when Kim’s police state collapses.
In a stand up fight, the ROK’s will tear China a new orifice. China is a paper dragon. They last thing the Chi-Coms want is to expose the PLA to combat against a competent military.
Dave @42 – Apparently when Michelle was vacationing on our dime in South Africa there was a British ship in port. One of the crewmen had died and there was a service on board. As part of the service they mounted dummy missiles on the launchers. The Secret Service payed a call all in a huff because the launchers were pointed in the general direction of the hotel Michelle was staying in.
Why the British would want to murder the wife of one of their own subjects is a paranoid delusion of psychotic proportions. Giving the state of the United Kingdoms defense budget these days I could hardly believe they had enough oil to send a ship all the way to South Africa. They do however still have snappy uniforms.
No food aid, or aid of any kind, for North Korea. North Korea is a client state of China; North Korea is China’s problem. China can feed them.
Wretchard – I wonder what your thoughts are on Obama’s unprecedented diplomatic failure in Iraq? I deplore nation building in any Muslim bunghole, and its good to get out of Iraq, but leaving this way under these ignominious circumstances must be the worst outcome short of an outright military defeat. we have, in essence, been kicked out by the Muslim slime we installed. I believe a similar fiasco is brewing in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Teresita @32
Sorry, but you just lost your credibility with me.
http://factcheck.org/2011/10/george-soros-gun-grab/
“The 21st Century will, in fact, be
The American Century–”
Yes, but not because of your list of problems but because when you get down to it, America still leads the world in innovation;
http://www.infoplease.com/entertainment/awards/2011-nobel-prize-winners.html
Of the 3 science awards, two(medicine, physics) were split by Americans.
When China or Germany invents the next “I-Pod”, I’ll be worried.
America’s problems are self made. That is true of most nations but American exceptionalism is recognising the source of our problems is ourself and working to fix them.
Like Pogo said; “We have met the enemy and it is us.”
md @ 46: I wonder what your thoughts are on Obama’s unprecedented diplomatic failure in Iraq?
I would say the answer to that will be seen in time, and for now I would just note that timing – just after the 2012 elections.
Mr X
I don’t want of YOUR Europe, nor I don’t want to bow to any suzerin, be it German, and or Russian, nor to the Brits, but Sarko told them to STFU yesterday, as he will soon send la putzfrau aus Berlin back to her Stasi fellahs !
Hmm the sooner the whole machin will crumble, the sooner we’ll get serenity
43. stoicheion In a stand up fight, the ROK’s will tear China a new orifice. China is a paper dragon. They last thing the Chi-Coms want is to expose the PLA to combat against a competent military.
It won’t be an invasion. “At the invitation of the North Koreans” China will send their forces in to stabilize the country when it begins to collapse, and refugees begin pouring north into China. They can’t pour south, there’s a little thing called a minefield there. You’re right about not wanting to go directly up against the ROK, that’s why they have NK there as a buffer, and even after the Nork government falls, it will remain a buffer, with a Chinese “advisor” (military governor) if that’s what it takes. So the North Korean people better just get used to eating grass and tree bark, because nothing is gonna change.
The killing of Qaddafi bumped Obama up to a lofty 37%. He will have to kill every dictator in the world to have a shot at reelection.
Only 37% of Americans support Occupy Wall Street. What a coinkadink!
Percentage of millionaires in Congress: 50%; in America: 1%
“…you can’t let the people of North Korea suffer.”
Why not?
Less exhalation of carbon dioxide means less AGW means sea levels stop rising means zerO triumphs again!
“…you can’t let the people of North Korea suffer.”
Yes, we can! (I heard that at a political rally a few years ago)
There is absolutely no reason for the US to feed North Korea. It might be in South Korea’s interest, it might be in China’s interest, it might even be in Japan’s interest. All of them have net trade surplus with the US. Offer to sell any of them as much corn as they want to give to the Norks.
But give? No.
We might even suggest that UN do gooders take up a collection, what percentage of UN salaries should be set aside to buy food aid to the Norks? You can’t let the people of North Korea suffer, or can you?
50. Marie Claude
The basic problem with the EU is it was forced on the sheeple of Europe. That makes it an illegitimate government. Something the elites forced on the sheeple to make it easier to fleece them. Illegitimate governments ALWAYS collapse under pressure.
That is why the Duck held out so long. His support level among the citizens was much higher then Obams’s is now.
So the EU will fall apart. The elites will look to the USA for support. Not sure it’s coming. Axelrod will try to figure out how saving the arse of a bunch of Eurocrooks plays out economically in Nov., ’12.
By now the White House will have looked at the poll numbers for the Iraqi retreat and seen that they got no bounces for their cowardice. That makes sense because those who favoruing fleeing Iraq will vote for teh won no matter what he does. Those on the right won’t vote for the Obomination, no matter what he does. Those on the fence are worried about feeding their families and clothes for the kids.
So if Axelrod thinks that the EU collapsing will drag down America AND this administration, he will act to bail them out. If he sees a Euro bail out as making things worse for this administration, then he will wave bye-bye as the Euros sink to the bottom.
How’s your Russian? Remember, the French and Engish militaries, which are having an orgy of mutual congratulations, needed US munitions to cook the Duck. Pootie noticed, I’m sure.
We should give North Korea all of the food they need using subsidized farm products from the US on the condition that they are distributed by US Marines and accompanied by Commander Solo flights. Who said there was no free lunch?
deano41 47,
I have no dog in this fight but quoting a Soros site to exonerate Soros is laughable.
We could build fully stocked Walmarts right below the DMZ and offer the NorKs “Cash for Clunkers” meaning payment for anything like tanks and guns they defected with. Then just watch the 2+ million man army cross the border to surrender. It would drive China crazy if we bought their client with their merchandise on credit and our food.
There are two major reasons for the era of comparative peace that has existed since about 1953: (1) the advent of WMD’s, especially nukes, making industrialized war between major powers possessing them too risky and expensive to contemplate; and, (2) the relative debellicization of major powers, particularly in Europe and the Americas, produced by (a) the hangover from the World Wars; (b) the rise of graphical media and the associated culture; and, (c) the greater political and social power of women. All of this has produced, at least in the west, a general decline in the efficacy of the nation-state
The trade off is the continual existence of more or less low level degrees of conflict — because root causes of these eruptions can never be completely eliminated, because nobody thinks it worth the risk of general war.
The situation might become destablized by the appearance of more powers with WMD’s by powers that have not been socially debellicized (e.g. Iran, North Korea). The truly frightening variant will be the advent of a socially un-debellicized power with WMD’s and a real economy — that is, the return of an authoritarian great power, not hobbled by a quaint pseudo-religious economic philosophy.
RE: fact checking
factcheck.org is operated by the Annenberg Public Policy Center out of Univ of Penn.
factcheck.com is the Soros site.
Here is what the United States ought to expect of the newly freed Libyan people.
1) They should guarantee “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” to all Libyans.
2) They should collect all MANPADS and other anti-aircraft missiles into a centralized storage area accessible to American inspection as there is no legitimate need for such weapons under an American no-fly zone. They should do this for free, specifically rejecting Hillary Clinton’s suggestion that they would need to be bribed to do the right thing.
3) They should declare Nov 10, 2011 as America Appreciation Day and hold parades with bands playing the Marine Corps Hymn (“From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli…”) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtorKpNdoqo and Souza’s Semper Fidelis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL6qQ7plqaA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL with everyone expected to join the parade, not just watch it.
4) They should start an Arab Spring Cleaning to neaten up the mess that currently exists to make their land presenable for guests to visit.
” John Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago… ”
That’s it? Just another professor?
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/09/john-mearsheimer-endorses-a-hitler-apologist-and-holocaust-revisionist/245518/
“She says she is on a diet and then helps herself to a second helping of cheese,” the French president allegedly said after a dinner meeting with Mrs Merkel.
How stereotypically French, choosing a food-related insult.
There is a Hank Williams song about N. Korea and the EU.
‘Yeah my bucket’s got a hole in it
Yeah my bucket’s got a hole in it
Yeah my bucket’s got a hole in it
I can’t buy no beer.’
‘Nuff said.
Josh@3: “you can’t download pr0n on an AK-47″
I think you just hit on the counter-terrorism/counterinsurgency idea of the century so far. We should manufacture a few million AKs that CAN download pr0n and airdrop them by the case anywhere there are people we need to deal with militarily or where we want to stir things up a bit. Guaranteed to reduce enemy reaction time, keep them busy, and otherwise make life easier for our military.
Teresita@51: “Only 37% of Americans support Occupy Wall Street. What a coinkadink!”
The correct spelling is “coinkinink”. Get it right, woman.
This is the second useless post of my allotted four on this thread. Don’t expect better as the day goes on…my mood prohibits me from being serious or thoughtful. You may want to skip the rest of my offerings (if there are any).
W: “The reasons for outbreak of peace are debated. John Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago credits the Pax Americana… But others believed that the institutions of peace and peace-minded thinking were mostly behind the reduction of violence.”
I believe the reason behind relative peace since WWII is that Marxists and Fascists have in effect combined their forces – now the hybrids can be called Statists. Fascists are Crony Capitalists who use the legal system to enrich themselves via favorable laws, favorable contracts, etc. which suppress their economic competitors – a subversion of Free Enterprise. Fascists create immense unnatural economic inequality (as opposed to milder natural economic inequality inherent in Free Enterprise) via government power. Marxists use this unnatural economic inequality as justification for self-serving government collectivization of middle class property – via excessive taxation – but not excessive taxation of their Fascist friends – tax laws see to that. Marxists enrich themselves via collectivization of property – also a subversion of Free Enterprise. As with the Fascists, Marxists create immense unnatural economic inequality. The Once Marxists are in possession of mass-collectivized property they can go about “making things equal,” – except for themselves – the not-to-be-equalized Marxist equalizers. The Marxist economic process eventually destroys the laboring, tax-paying middle class – which is intended beforehand – because t he the fruit of middle class labor is siphoned off to the lazy, tax-eating, so-called proletariat class – in return for the proletariat vote. Once the middle class is gone one is left with a uniform lower class of “Proles” and a Marxist/Fascist (Statist) ruling class. Voila: There is no longer any need for kinetic world wars (smaller wars for show will do) because a Statist economic war against the middle class has taken its place.
“The problem was how to keep the wheels of industry turning without increasing the real wealth of the world. Goods must be produced but they need not be distributed, and in practice the only way of achieving this was by continuous warfare… The consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing over of all power to a small cast seem the natural unavoidable condition of survival. War it will be seen not only accomplishes the necessary destruction, but accomplishes it in a psychologically acceptable way… All that is needed is that a state of war exists… Everywhere there is the same pyramidal structure; the same worship of a semi-Divine leader; the same economy existing by and for continuous warfare. It follows that the three super-states not only cannot conquer one another, but would gain no advantage by doing so. On the contrary, so long as they remain in conflict they prop one another up like three sheaves of corn… The war therefore… is merely an imposture… For though it is unreal it is not meaningless; it eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs. War it will be seen is now a purely internal affair… In our own day we are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects; and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.” George Orwell – 1984
The basic problem with the EU is it was forced on the sheeple of Europe. That makes it an illegitimate government. Something the elites forced on the sheeple to make it easier to fleece them.
For me 2005 was the key year. The electorates of France and the Netherlands rejected the EU constitution but the ruling class continued on as usual. The EU and its apologists had little credibility before then but after 2005 they had zero. A lot of Europeans stopped listening to them after that. Now they (especially the clownish Sarko) are running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
As I type this there is a debate in the British HoC on holding a referendum on EU membership. The opponents of the referendum are saying: “Look, let’s not jump to the other extreme. Let’s reform the EU and make it more accountable, instead of leaving it altogether.” The problem is that they – the ruling class – have had many chances to make the EU more palatable but instead have consistently pushed for more centralization of power. No one believes them.
As I said to Spengler – I hope that you are a sperm donor. Keep it up. Your writing is great with great insights.
RE: which is worse – money changers vs ideologues
The Vatican Issues a Manifesto:
“Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” … condemned what it called “the idolatry of the market” as well as a “neo-liberal thinking” that it said looked exclusively at technical solutions to economic problems. “In fact, the crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale,” it said, adding that world economics needed an “ethic of solidarity” among rich and poor nations.
“If no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence, and ultimately undermine the very foundations of democratic institutions, even the ones considered most solid,” it said.
It called for the establishment of “a supranational authority” with worldwide scope and “universal jurisdiction” to guide economic policies and decisions.
Asked at a news conference if the document could become a manifesto for the movement of the “indignant ones”, who have criticised global economic policies, Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department, said: “The people on Wall Street need to sit down and go through a process of discernment and see whether their role managing the finances of the world is actually serving the interests of humanity and the common good. “We are calling for all these bodies and organisations to sit down and do a little bit of re-thinking.”
…..
“The Pope! How many divisions has he got?” Uncle Joe
Stoichemon
“That is why the Duck held out so long. His support level among the citizens was much higher then Obams’s is now.”
hmm the Duck had the means to pay foreign mercs, at the end there were only blacks left, this is why the Libyan population is trying to “slaughter” them !
“How’s your Russian?” ask the Germans !
“Remember, the French and Engish militaries, which are having an orgy of mutual congratulations, needed US munitions to cook the Duck. Pootie noticed, I’m sure”
uh, not that much, Nato countries supplied them, besides our and Brit planes aren’t compatible with the US missiles (Rafale and Typhoon)
Of course, our army budget is far from reaching the US’ level !
jules
“Let’s reform the EU and make it more accountable, instead of leaving it altogether.”
oh, that’s so british ! whinning, but no concete decision !
hmm Sarko, as a direct friend told Cameron to mind his business, then, a bit like bush used to talk, sure the smart Brits have some difficulty to accept that laguage !
61. grackle
“How stereotypically French, choosing a food-related insult”
normal for cheese eating monkeys !
and how streotypically you noticed it as such .
“They make a desert, and call it peace”
-Tacitus
… and how streotypically you noticed it as such …
The commentor agrees but cannot resist a parting shot.
grackle
ah that’s that… boff !
YBR 68,
“The crisis has revealed behaviours like selfishness, collective greed and hoarding of goods on a great scale… If no solutions are found to the various forms of injustice, the negative effects that will follow on the social, political and economic level will be destined to create a climate of growing hostility and even violence…” The Vatican
The people at the Vatican are not stupid – they know that when ordinary people labor for their corn, and desire their corn, it is not greed. No, greed is when the government Pigs (think Animal Farm) collectivize corn – so the corn falls under their communal control – in order to fill their own barns – with leftovers tossed out to the little animals in return for votes – if the little animals wag their tails just right – and lick the hand that feeds them. Communal control of corn (property) is a function of the commune-ists – the Pigs who control communal corn – the Marxists. The Vatican is advocating an International Marxist “supranational authority” with worldwide scope and “universal jurisdiction.” This is not new – remember “Liberation Theology?”
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=12826
To be fair Christian Communism dates back to Medieval times – prior to Marx – and prior to Roman Catholic Liberation Theology. The first Christian Communists were the Cathars, followed by other non-Catholic Christian groups. It looks like the Roman Catholic leadership is reverting back to an early Communist heresy.
http://freebooks.entrewave.com/freebooks/docs/a_pdfs/newslet/preface/03pref.pdf
BTW, Jesus was not a Marxist; He did not command His followers to collectivize their property via government. Jesus’ moral instructions relating to property were given to individuals only.
This Marxist Vatican Manifesto reminds me of the proto-Marxist French Revolution.
“We claim to live and die equal, the way we were born: we want this real equality or death; that’s what we need. And we’ll have this real equality, at whatever price. Unhappy will be those who stand between it and us!… The French Revolution was nothing but a precursor of another revolution, one that will be bigger, more solemn, and which will be the last.” Gracchus Babeuf
http://www.marxists.org/history/france/revolution/conspiracy-equals/1796/manifesto.htm
Babeuf was guillotined
S-R@76: The people at the Vatican are not stupid…
Nor am I. I did find the Vatican story interesting for several reasons, which you (and others) may or may not have surmised.
The (multiple) calls for an international regulatory “authority” to standardize the trading environment and bring consistency to international banking practices are hardly surprising. Modern history is replete with examples of industry failures leading to increased regulatory control. Jamie Dimon and Pete Wallison and the rest of this bunch should have known better. They exposed themselves to the inevitable regulatory backlash through irresponsible behavior that has been well and repeatedly documented here and elsewhere. Seems that Obama is not the only one who is yelling and walking out of meetings.
Speaking of people “laboring for their corn”, much of the recent crisis would have been mitigated had Wall St labored for some productive corn, instead of paper profit on capital, and short-term quarterly paper at that, making (il)liberal use of structured investment vehicles to bring in double digit returns in a trading environment that wasn’t producing enough of anything to support the kind of growth that Wall St was “delivering” to its clients.
The Vatican appears to be making the technical argument for consistency of international standards and practices (something like a Uniform Trading Code) to stabilize investment and (possibly) currency imbalances in globalized markets, both of which lead directly to consolidation of property ownership among the wealthy (Ref Russia). The Vatican directive advocates international measures to constrain the severity of market excesses, which favor property and wealth (bankrupt assets auctioned at a fraction of cost) at the expense of labor and productive economic growth.
The Vatican is also making the exact same point as the “Creative Capitalism” movement started by Gates, Buffett et al. The concept remains hotly controversial, but if the only comparison is free market capitalism, which the world experiences in imperfect form, then I suggest that the debate should continue.
The subject of this post is ‘why’ the prolonged peace. A parallel subject could be formulated as ‘why’ the persistence of poverty, disease, malnutrition, and abuse, the enduring social issues about which libraries have been written. The failure to address such issues without being penalized for harboring some form of subliminal collectivist inclination is a telling liability to the intellectual dialogue.
Capitalism is cranking along, making some progress in some venues for some people, but in the absence of a reliable, stable, and transparent financial, banking and trading environment, capitalism may well have peaked in 2008, only to be redeemed at some point in the future when the Next Big Thing overwhelms the current systemic liabilities introduced by the Wall St investment firms, starting with repeal of Glass-Steagall and and continuing with removal of derivatives investment trading from regulatory scrutiny, both of which transformed what would have been a Normal Recession into a Financial Crisis, one that will only be resolved by withdrawing capital from middle class portfolios. That’s wealth redistribution.
The USA is not Europe. Our critical weaknesses are not the same. USA had demographic imbalances that required adjustments to entitlement programs and major reform to health care delivery systems, and we were nearing the $4 trillion mark in the ME which needed to be wound down, but by and large this country was cranking along. You are correct – the Vatican is not stupid. But I’m beginning to think that Wall St may have over-reached if any of these calls for international trading/banking standards gain traction. That Next Big Thing can’t get here soon enough.
YBR@58 Thank you for clarifying the diference in “fact checks”. I don’t normally use that source. I came across it, trying to dispel the rumor of Soros controlling the gun industry.
I should know better than to try and run with the “big boys” here on BC. :>)
S-R @65 “…Marxists and Fascists have in effect combined their forces – now the hybrids can be called Statists.”
The similarity was always there just beneath the surface. Beatrice Webb, writing in 1926, looked favourably upon both:
BW later became disdainful of Mussolini’s ‘petit bourgeois’ vulgarity, but built up her admiration for the USSR even as evidence of its horrors became pretty much irrefutable. However, G.B. Shaw remained consistent and balanced in his praise of both Hitler and Stalin, and he positively idolised Mussolini – the only despot he despised was Franco.
It is the nonsense of the Left v Right mapping system which has (until recently) kept alive the illusion of Marxist/Fascist polarity.
Phil Jackson 80,
All one needs to do is compare the writings of Karl Marx and the Fascists to see the essential equivalence of their views – that the role of government is to dominate the individual – and to take possession of his/her property for any reason that Marxist or Fascist government decides is in the interest of “social justice.”
“Society does not consist of individuals but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand.” Karl Marx
“The proletariat [lazy, non-disabled, under-achieving, tax-eating government-dependents] will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie [laboring, tax-paying middle class], to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state [Marxist Government]… Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property… You must, therefore, confess that by “individual” you mean no other person than the bourgeois, than the middle-class owner of property. This person must, indeed, be swept out of the way, and made impossible… And the abolition of this state of things is called by the bourgeois, abolition of individuality and freedom! And rightly so. The abolition of bourgeois [middle class] individuality, bourgeois independence, and bourgeois freedom is undoubtedly aimed at.” Karl Marx
http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html
“It is thus necessary that the individual should finally come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of his nation; that the position of the individual ego is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole … that above all the unity of a nation’s spirit and will are worth far more than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual… By this we understand only the individual’s capacity to make sacrifices for the community…” Adolph Hitler
“Private Property as conceived under the liberalistic economic order was a reversal of the true concept of property. This “private property” represented the right of the individual to manage and to speculate with inherited or acquired property as he pleased, without regard for the general interests… German socialism had to overcome this “private,” that is, unrestrained and irresponsible view of property. All property is common property. The owner is bound by the people and the Reich to the responsible management of his goods. His legal position is only justified when he satisfies this responsibility to the community.” Ernst Huber – Nazi Party Spokesman
“Contrary to the Marxists, the Nazis did not advocate public ownership of the means of production. They did demand that the government oversee and run the nation’s economy. The issue of legal ownership, they explained, is secondary; what counts is the issue of control. Private citizens, therefore, may continue to hold titles to property – so long as the state reserves to its self the unqualified right to regulate the use of their property. If “ownership” means the right to determine the use and disposal of material goods, then Nazism endowed the state with every real prerogative of ownership. What the individual retained was merely a formal deed… which conferred no rights on its holder. Under Communism, there is collective ownership of property de jure. Under Nazism, there is the same collective ownership de facto.” Leonard Peikoff
http://www.peikoff.com/lr/review_rand.htm
This video correctly pins the Fascist Left alongside the Marxist Left.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7M-7LkvcVw
Phil@80: It is the nonsense of the Left v Right mapping system which has (until recently) kept alive the illusion of Marxist/Fascist polarity.
That’s closely related, if not identical, to Matt Taibbi’s point in his recent series of Rolling Stone articles (as the rebuttals continue to fly):
[begin]
…The reality is that Occupy Wall Street and the millions of middle Americans who make up the Tea Party are natural allies and should be on the same page about most of the key issues, and that’s a story our media won’t want to or know how to handle.
Take, for instance, the matter of the Too-Big-To-Fail banks….
This is an issue for the traditional “left” because it’s a classic instance of overweening corporate power — but it’s an issue for the traditional “right” because these same institutions are also the biggest welfare bums of all time, de facto wards of the state….
Both traditional constituencies want these companies off the public teat…
The banks know this. They know they have no “natural” constituency among voters, which is why they spend such fantastic amounts of energy courting the mainstream press and such huge sums lobbying politicians on both sides of the aisle.
The only way the Goldmans and Citis and Bank of Americas can survive is if they can suck up popular political support indirectly, either by latching onto such vague right-populist concepts as “limited government” and “free-market capitalism” (ironic, because none of them would survive ten minutes without the federal government’s bailouts and other protections) or, alternatively, by presenting themselves as society’s bulwark against communism, lefty extremism, Noam Chomsky, etc.
[end]……….
Ideological characterizations notwithstanding, the advantage of the OWS crowd is their emphasis on the mechanics – Reform Wall St (and they now have God on their side, or so it appears.) That is actionably more specific than the demand for “limited government” (although Storm-Rider has presented a specific list of four to five actionable government reforms, the majority of which I also support, as I recall the list (term-limiting the SCOTUS justices is long overdue) but such institutional reforms are tough to make happen – requiring a very different Congressional body than the one we have now, at a minimum.)
The Reform Wall St crowd has one other advantage over the Reform Government crowd and that is relevance. It will be hard to gin up any enthusiasm for term limits among a voting population working through what promises to be a lengthy and jobless recessionary recovery. By comparison, banking reform should be a slam dunk issue – at least segregating the commercial deposits from the high-risk investment games to which The Street is addicted. (I think that can be done but it might be tricky in today’s environment.)
Taibbi is right – the two groups should be working together. Instead they are being manipulated into intractable political gridlock (conveniently caricatured using definitions from the old paradigms) out of which will emerge as winner – the corporate state, call it whatever you want.
……….
Dean@79: You’re welcome (but you were using the impartial Annenberg site FactCheck.ORG – I was unaware of the Soros site until I looked – tricky little devils.)
A parallel subject could be formulated as ‘why’ the persistence of poverty, disease, malnutrition, and abuse, the enduring social issues about which libraries have been written.
That’s TOO easy: it’s our DNA.
Variability is locked into the zygote each and every one.
A propensity towards violence is also embedded there, too.
Poverty strongly correlates to stupidity — which is linked to nutrition and DNA.
Disease is linked to one’s immune system — which is linked to the DNA.
The reason that these afflictions are still with us is because we are mortal — and the poor will ALWAYS be with us.
The obsession with poverty eradication sends all of society on a fools campaign.
It leads to monumental follies like No Child Left Behind – a utopian grand scheme able to destroy all of society.
Money spent educating retards is money wasted… it would be better for all concerned that the focus was on hyper advancement of outstanding talent. The economic returns on such policies would then permit subsidies for those on the low performance end of the Bell Curve.
Current policy starves the best reducing GDP and artistic output across all of society. Even the Wan is coming to realize that one cannot legislate the end of stupidity. He’s relaxing the creeping mandates of NCLB as fast as he can.
blert@83: the poor will ALWAYS be with us….The obsession with poverty eradication sends all of society on a fools campaign.
Agreed on both counts (I am (marginally) curious how many are surprised.) I think of human existence and mortality in terms of the Serenity syndrome (the sci-fi movie). Our human-ness will be with us for a long time. There is no Ultimate Solution – not one we can live with anyway.
Which Is Why I focus on the (near miraculous and arguably exceptional) balance our government was maintaining until it wasn’t, starting with first decade this century. The balance was fitful and argumentative and messy and inefficient and not always fair, and did I say messy? But it was moving things along in a roughly forward direction by any number of metrics. Until the music stopped.
The way ahead is going to be even messier.
All of which is very generic (because I’m not in the mood for writing a detailed Little Essay right now.) But I agree that the bell curve will be an enduring facet of humanity. (But I also am prepared to applaud Bill Gates for his near-term success in eradicating malaria – deserves a Nobel for his vision and effort, imagine if he had never tried.)
Where I disagree is the resource allocation argument, aka, “educating retards.” (Possibly we can have a bake sale to raise tuition fees for blert’s Dale Carnegie “re-education.”) Resource allocation is a huge subject. My abbreviated contribution is that the allocation system “should” (yes, the argument is ethical) be based on something more than efficiency and functionality (sounds like the Army Corps approach to design engineering) if one agrees that life has intrinsic value, as per Christian theology. If life only has value in terms of functionality and efficiency of performance, then resource allocation is subject to different constraints. The Individual vs … Something Else.
Storm-Rider @81. Thanks. The particularly good quote of Peikoff defines pretty well (if we omit the Nazi race malevolence), those forms of statism that have now forsaken the state’s direct control of industry…and redoubled their efforts to nationalize the people:
It’s interesting that the John McManus video puts the Anarchist v. Totalitarian axis over on the horizontal plane rather than where Pournelle/Eynsenck (?) placed it (I’ve argued this for a long time), but still retains the terms Left and Right, which I think we should be rid of. Instead I would suggest ‘West’ and ‘East’; and my mapping of the axis is the other way about – that is, with the anarchist cavemen on the far West and the assorted oligarchs/absolute monarchs etc. on the far East. Don’t know why; that’s just how I’ve seen it, maybe as the most emphatic way to nudge conservative thinking away from the intellectual straitjacket of the existing L v R spectrum.
Either way, the centre ground is the territory of ‘the Golden Mean’: US Constitution, 1689 Settlement, French 5th Republic etc etc.