According to Niles Lathem in the New York Post, two Congressional committees have approached Robert Parton – the recently-resigned UN Oil-for-Food investigator – to elicit testimony, but his former bosses aren’t happy.
But sources said lawyers for the Volcker panel are moving to block Parton from telling his story before the House Government Affairs Subcommittee on National Security, invoking a confidentiality agreement he signed with the commission.
Because the panel was set up by the United Nations, the commission may also invoke “sovereign immunity,” officials close to the probe said. “It’s a complicated situation. We are now studying ways to get around this. We would like to hear what Robert Parton has to say,” said a congressional investigator.
But is Parton willing to talk? If he is truly for UN reform, he would be, but it isn’t particularly encouraging that he has hired Clinton mega-loyalist Lanny Davis as his attorney. As Benny Avni of the NY Sun points out, Davis may soon go against his colleague Gregory Craig in a UN version of the Year of the Long Knives:
Indeed, two former law partners, both of whom served on President Clinton’s defense team during the 1990s impeachment hearings, may soon be pitted against one another: Gregory Craig and Lanny Davis. Mr. Davis now represents a former Volcker committee investigator, Robert Parton, who resigned citing principal differences with others on the team. The disagreements led to the Volcker team softening its conclusions about Secretary-General Annan, who is represented by Mr. Craig.
It’s hard to see how the cause of United Nations reform benefits from all this. (Maybe these people are too cynical anyway to care about kleptocracy.) But not to worry. At least the lawyers will, as always, get theirs. As Avni further reports:
Benon Sevan, who once headed the United Nations’ oil-for-food program, hinted in a recent letter to the U.N. chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, that he would consider retributions against the organization if it refused to reimburse the mounting legal fees he has incurred while attempting to fend off allegations related to the program.
The letter adds to growing tensions among lawyers, the United Nations, and a host of investigators who are investigating the scandals swirling around oil for food. Defense attorneys employed by oil-for-food players now include influential Washington lawyers known for taking on high-profile cases – and demanding fat fees.
Meanwhile, as Tom Friedman assures us, the UN goes about its “good works” in Darfur, Rwanda, etc. It’s time for Mr. Friedman – and the rest of the unexamined conventional liberals – to have another look at this movie.
MORE NOT-TO-WORRY: “Let us not get so focused on the veto,” Don Kofi reminds us, apparently rebuffing the ambition of the world’s largest democracy for a powerful role on the Security Council.
AND: Some related news from Provence. [Where's your invitation?-ed. I seem to have lost it.]
UPDATE: More about German involvement from their own Der Spiegel.
Kofi Annan is proudly at the helm of the huge vessel heading into its bright future. In the distance he spots something… looks like, could it be?
An Iceberg?
Is it John Bolton? http://reelcobra.blogspot.com/
In other news, Greg Craig (Kofi Annan’s mouthpiece) today admitted that the interim Volcker Report did not exonerate Kofi.
http://noonshadow.blogspot.com/2005/04/even-kofis-mouthpiece-admits-he-hasnt.html
And guess how Kofi is punishing the UN’s chief auditor for hiring an old pal for a fictitious job, using Oil-for-Food money?
Why, a harshly worded letter in his personnel file, of course!
http://noonshadow.blogspot.com/2005/04/kofi-to-dileep-this-will-go-down-on.html
Claudia Rosett has an article on the French bank, BNP Paribas which did all the financial flim flamery for Saddam. She is just the best when it comes to the United Nations thuggery. ” BNP was picked in 1996 for the role of chief oil-for-food banker by the former U.N. secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali. The U.N. inquiry into oil for food led by Mr. Volcker has reported that in choosing BNP, Mr. Boutros-Ghali bypassed U.N. procedure for competitive bidding. Mr. Boutros-Ghali has also been described in a recent Associated Press dispatch as “the subject of speculation” regarding likely targets of the federal bribery investigation. The AP further described him as “good friends” with the accused bagman for Saddam, South Korean Tongsun Park.” http://acepilots.com/unscam/
” Benon Sevan, who once headed the United Nations’ oil-for-food program, hinted in a recent letter to the U.N. chief of staff, Mark Malloch Brown, that he would consider retributions against the organization if it refused to reimburse the mounting legal fees he has incurred while attempting to fend off allegations related to the progra
The April 10 letter to Mr. Malloch Brown was penned by Mr. Sevan’s somewhat lower-profile lawyer, Eric Lewis. Mr. Lewis demanded that the United Nations reconsider its prior decision not to reimburse the legal fees incurred by Mr. Sevan as result of oil-for-food accusations.
Mr. Lewis implied in his letter that Mr. Sevan could go public with the circumstances surrounding the initial promise by the United Nations to cover Mr. Sevan’s legal fees – and the organization’s subsequent about-face. Mr. Sevan’s knowledge of the program might include potentially damaging information about several U.N. officials.”
The pot is cooking over at Turtle Bay and very soon some secretary who has been fondled just once to often is going to sell her memoirs and blow the top off of UNSCAM.
Claudia Rosett deserves a Pulitzer for her tireless (and productive!) efforts.
So does Roger.
Lanny Davis, unlike many Clintonistas, has shown he is capable of independent thought and honest engagement. Am not thoroughly acquainted with his career, but have seen this exhibited several times in his talk show appearances. He does in fact tend to engage the subject matter much more consistently than, for example, a Paul Begala, who tends to be something of a self-satisfied, rhetorical bottom-feeder among the evasive pomo-politicos who populate the punditocracy. :-/
There’s another important development today from France: for the first time, one of the French politicians named as a bribe taker is being investigated by the French judicial system.
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3224,36-643840@51-643957,0.html
Congressional subpoenaes trump private confidentiality agreements.
Volcker would not want to argue that UN sovereignty applies to Parton; silly inane argument, the image backlash on Volcker would be enormous. He has enough soft marks already. He must be asking why he ever took this assignment in the first place.
If you don’t read French, the FT has info in English on the Oil-for-Food investigation and arrest in France
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/b70a4a62-b74a-11d9-9f22-00000e2511c8.html
What are you hoping to hear from President Bush this evening?
I agree with Michael, Lanny Davis is on the short, short list of Clintonistas with credibility.
If Benon Savan wants UN to pay for his defense, UN should do so, else it might end up at the bottom of one of its elevator shafts.
Michael B.,
If ever I do something contemptibly loathesome and wish to escape justice, even if it means sacrificing everything that I have professed to hold dear, destroying innocent peoples lives through smear and innuendo and ruining the institution that I’ve sworn to uphold, why Lanny Davis and Gregory Craig are the first attorneys that I would call. Very intelligent, very focused, very ruthless and completely divorced from the concerns of any petty morality. Perhaps a bit shortsighted as to the long term effect of an amoral defense wrt the Party they represent rather than the party who is paying them but if you need to win at any cost – those are the boys to hire.
If these fellows are signed up, look for threads leading back to the DNC and/or Clinton-Gore.
Buddy/Michael:
You forget how Davis prostituted himself for Clinton. He is a lawyer who wears masks depending on the clients he represents. You compliment him as sincere because of his persona/mask on TV.
He represents Parton and will do what his client wants not what is good for the UN, good for the House Committee, good for the nation, good for the expressions on this site. A reality break is required. Gullablity reigns.
Ok, I largely recant (I did specifically mention I wasn’t thoroughly acquainted with his career and you do bring some items back to mind that I should not have so easily forgotten). Still, more recently I have seen specific, individual instances where he seemed to be much more directly engaged. Perhaps the key word there is “seemed.”
ìHe is a lawyer who wears masks depending on the clients he represents.î
Lanny Davis employs the ìadversarial systemî excuse to the max. He feels it is his responsibility to represent his client in an allegedly professional manner. What does this mean in the real world? That is an easy question to answer: Davis will twist, bend, distort the evidence, and destroy anyone who is in his clint’s way. He is an Orwelian abuser of language. Stanley Fish, Michael Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, have likely influenced his legal training.
The cat is already out of the bag. The United Nations has been severely damaged by these scandals. We are mostly debating the matter of who will go to jail and how long will be their sentence. It is already a marginalized institution.
From:
Shams, scams and Kofi Annan
By ROGER FRANKLIN, The New Zealand Herald
March 27, 2004
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?ObjectID=3557279
excerpt:
Y’all are right, the more I think about it. What I really had in mind was a superficial likeability. Why I said ‘credibility’ I don’t know…all it took to dispel that was a short trip down late 90s memory lane. But, in my defense, Paul Begala had just been mentioned. Begala’s presence you must admit greatly improves by contrast everything in the vicinity.
Hey! That’s Michel Foucault, not Michael.
What mask will Lanny wear today? The Clintonista mask, the Chris Matthews’ funny face mask, or, the Venetian party mask for the litigator role before Dana Rohrbacher? All irrelevant because the personality of the lawyer is silly inside the Beltway/Tina Brown shop talk.
What matters is the subpoena summoning Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan to the Hill to answer Rohrbacher’s inquiries and the resulting disclosures about Volcker and Parton’s reasons for his departure. “Are you telling this Committee that Paul Volcker told you not to interview this witness or that?”
The answers will be obscured by the press who will spin it as the ravings of the neo con mad man Californian Dana Rohrbacher. For the press, the game of personalities wins all the time; Davis versus Rohrbacher. The substance of the allegations is secondary.
Where’s Eliot Spitzer? Long past time he subpoena’ed Paribas.
Is our future Democrat pol thinking that left-lib New Yorkers will look askance at efforts to clean up the UN?
What I’m hoping is that one of the reporters (Helen Thomas, perhaps?) will ask a truly stupid, moronic question, and Bush will give the Mother of all Slapdowns answer to the question. What is more likely, though, is that the reporters are going to try to spin Bush’s response to their agenda.
Buddy,
Don’t forget that when Janet ‘The Immolator’ Reno needed a fig leaf for shipping Elian to the Gulag, Craig jumped right in on a pro bono basis to represent Elian’s father. I believe that he’s tighter with Team Gore while Davis has speed dial position 1 on Hillary’s “If I get caught again” cell phone.
I’m looking forward to a real gathering of the clan as Hillary’s fundraising crimes continue to creep out from beneath the carpet. Now if we can just tie the S/B/L ACT/Moveon crimes in with Hillary/Gore/Kerry people and get them all in court at once it will be great fun.
I really would advise people to buy Byron York’s book if you wish to understand the utter contempt the S/B/L people had for election laws. They were really betting heavily on a Kerry win to protect them from prosecution – kind of like Hillary.
ìIs our future Democrat pol thinking that left-lib New Yorkers will look askance at efforts to clean up the UN?î
Eliot Spitzerís campaign will be destroyed if he dares take on the United Nations. The liberals still perceive this organization as the savior of the world. The just released movie ìThe Interpreterî is nothing less than pure propaganda on behalf of the UN. The utopian Left prefers to embrace myths such as Fidel Castro is a wonderful human being, Mao was misunderstood, and the UN is the beginning and ending of all efforts on behalf of social justice on this planet. If I were an advisor to Spitzer—I would cynically argue that this mess is best ignored. Better to go after the ìcapitalist pigs.î
Fox just reported that the “diplomatic advisor” to Chirac bagman Charles Pasqua has been ARRESTED by French authorities. Can’t help but remember those reports of post-embargo manufacturing dates on French weapons our troops found in Saddam’s arsenal. Gonna be hell to pay if we find out it’s 1943 all over again on the North African Front, and we’re still being fired on by the Vichy. So, who arrested Chirac’s bagman’s bagman, the Free French?
Spitzer would just hit so many ‘diplomatic immunity’ cul-de-sacs, he’d be wasting his efforts trying to prove any linkages. Right?
“Fox just reported that the “diplomatic advisor” to Chirac bagman Charles Pasqua has been ARRESTED by French authorities.”
Good news.
Pessimistic take: Pasqua is not Chirac’s bagman. The UN/France may have selected him for his dealings with Syria. Syria is no longer’s Chirac’s bribe colony. Chirac tilted to Lebanon, but then his rich pal was tragically assassinated.
Maugein is also on the oil coupon list. Maugein is Chirac’s bagman. When Maugein is arrested then I know France is serious.
Glance over this, from three years ago, for a little sense of the vasty deep.
Rick Ballard:
Byron York’s book details who gave, what happened, “the new dawn” [you used this term a few days ago], and what the GOP can expect in 2006/08.
I am still incredulous [yes, the right word] about “the new dawn.” S/B/L and the Sanders gave 78 million; Soros – 28, Lewis – 23, etc. The future holds the select money guys will influence the nomination and the elections as no time in the past.
York parses the absurdity/hypocrisy of Soros, a passionate advocate for campaign finance reform now becoming the chief benefactor/violator. During the election, the BBC ran one of these one sided roundtable with Albright, Holbrooke, Soros, a few other Dems countered by some conservatives of little weight and Soros was pompous and unintelligible with no media presence and filled with platitudes and pablum responses.
A stick in the mud like myself is easily surprised how easily people can be corrupted. But it is more readily imagined when the payoffs are huge and the smell of anti-Americanism is in the air. So I actually find it easier to understand OFF than this NZ Herald story about the UN crew swarming the unattended restaurants. Surely those “diplomats” can afford to convince themselves that they have a little dignity and thus sacrifice the two-bit spoils. Do others think this story may be apocryphal – perhaps just the drivers and secretaries learning from their masters? – or do I need another strip torn from my eyes?
Here ya go, Truepeers, a view from the left, and a view from the right (both by way of thanks for the philology insights the other day):
Emblematic? Telling? Evocative? It seems that the farther one strays from the high road, the more so are all of one’s actions.
What is more likely, though, is that the reporters are going to try to spin Bush’s response to their agenda. Ha. And ha again.
You guys are being too hard on those hungry UN workers. It’s not like they could just walk out the front door and find any number of quality restaurants. Even diplomats have to eat.
When I read this morning in the Sun that yet another member of the Clintonista legal cabal had been added to the mix, I groaned (although I suppose we can be grateful for small favors–it’s not Sid Vicious–yet). Parton’s supposed to be one of the good guys. Now I too wonder if we’re going to find a thread or two clinging to the lapels of Clinton/Gore.
I have to go now and brush up on the meaning of “is”.
PS. Expansion of the SC is shaping up to be a wild ride.
O/T, but an update on that little add-on link Roger made some months ago to Prof. Jane Christensen: She’s just now gotten some major play on FoxNews. The interview was with Mike Adams, a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Adams has published his emails from the prof at “Jihad Jane and the Jews”.
This seems important, as the good prof teaches at a Methodist college. I think Methodists ought to join us Presbyterians, many of whom are ashamed of the bigotry emanating from highest echelons within the fold.
Sorry for the O/T, I now return you to the program in progress.
Truepeers,
We need a new meta-narrative to describe what is happening. I haven’t the skill to develop it but I can describe the central elements. I’ve always held that the Left/Liberal (today’s definition) system was, if not a religion, at minimum faith rather than reason based. Sure, it got dressed up in nice rationalist clothes and spoke with a scientistic (never scientific) language but epistemologically it rested on faith. When the Great Temple of the faith (the USSR) not just fell but was revealed as having sand for foundations and not much cement in the concrete, the prophets and priests (profs and pols) around the world began the systematic looting of the Minor Temples that had been erected throughout the West. The profs have been less forthright about the looting, primarily because there is less available for them to steal but the pols have more than made up for that lack.
One may expect that the pols will continue to despoil their Temples and sell their parties for personal gain until all that has any value is gone. OFF just provided an opportunity that the priest/pols could not pass up but it all turns back to the Fall of the Great Temple.
By the end of this year Martin will be gone, Chirac probably, Schroeder maybe, perhaps even Blair. The EU constitution looks headed for ephemeral status. And SBL Ltd. is going to start realizing what a pig in a poke the purchase of the DNC actually was.
It ain’t Gotterdammerung ’cause there ain’t no heroes. Just a bunch of priests and prophets cutting deals for icons and helping the Vandals load their wagons.
Actually, the entertainment is here.
Michael B.
Your pointing out the proper spelling of Mr. Foucault first name, while being accurate in a certain sense, is leaving out the possibility of what David Thomson truth is. As we all know language and truth seem to terms that have little room for debate but that is looking at them in the narrow minded, Euro centric manner. If we expand our minds to allow for the possibility that in Davids reality Michel might actually be Michael, and that our need for certainty and accuracy is actually an attempt to limit other ideas and force our worldview upon a unwilling David and that this patriarchal need for control causes more problems then it solves. I personally agree with you about the proper spelling but this way of looking at truth does not set us free, but it drives us to resrict, often thru violent methods, people who do not share our version of what truth is. Instead of just depending on your own knowledge you must begin to open your thinking to different possibilities. Peace and love brother.
Hmm, we need to kidnap Michael, Kevin and Truepeers and force them to develop the new meta-narrative I was describing before I dropped my M & M’s and had to quit. Or maybe take up a collection and pay them to do it. Sometimes force is not the most effective means.
More fun though.
Much too funny, Kevin P. You made us laugh when we should be crying about it all.
Rick, that’s pretty good Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire stuff. Nice take on the dynamics. It crys for a Gibbon.
BTW, I wish I’d read more than the top of that hate-mail link. It gets pretty gross on down past the Jihad Jane part. Sorry about the missing due diligence.
Rick–
Outstanding post on the Temples of Leftism. Concur yr analysis re the language of science. If the Left was really interested in science, it wouldn’t be so busy abusing it for political ends.
The Left’s proclamations on global warming, secondhand smoke, solar energy and nuclear waste, just to name a few, have made a mockery of their pretenses to scientific rationalism.
From Duranty to Krugman, the disease is the same. It’s the symptoms that differ.
Kevin P.–
Just one question: Isn’t Michel a girl’s name?
Well Buddy, thanks for those links, I think. My first thought was, well, itís in NYC right, not exactly short on food services, and itís Friday afternoon, surely an excuse to go out or order in some lunch. But then I realized, what could motivate such a mob other than, I imagine, the fact that they are used to getting highly subsidized meals and so they never leave the building for lunch. It is their ingrained sense of privilege that was offended and that justified the free for all. Or maybe it is just that I am reminded of a cousin who used to work for the EU in Brussels and was appalled by all the subsidized shopping the Eucrats get (as if their cushy salaries weren’t enough) along with all the other privileges that made them, for her taste, just too smug and satisfied. She couldnít take it and is now working for a world-wide greenie organization ñ that is what corruption sows!
But Buddy, a view from the left, and from the right? The two reports are written by the same guy! Interesting to compare the two however for editorial input:
Time (dated Saturday May 3): ìa high-ranking U.N. official boldly ordered that all the cafeterias open their doors for business even without staff. The restaurants had been locked shut by security until about 1:00 pm when the doors flung open.î
Newsmax (dated Monday May 5): ìAs tensions grew and stomachs growled, the U.N. chief, in a move even Saddam Hussein would envy, declared war on the union’s action and ordered his security department to reopen the cafeteria, whether or not it was staffed, according to U.N. sources who insisted on confidentialityî
Time: ìThe decision to make the cafeterias into “no pay zones” spread through the 40-acre complex like wildfire. Soon, the hungry patrons came running. “It was chaos, wild, something out of a war scene,” said one Aramark executive who was present. “They took everything, even the silverware,” she said. Another witness from U.N. security said the cafeteria was “stripped bare.” And another told TIME that the cafeteria raid was “unbelievable, crowds of people just taking everything in sight; they stripped the place bare.” And yet another astonished witness said that “chickens, turkeys, souffles, casseroles all went out the door (unpaid).”
Newsmax: “The decision to declare the cafeteria a “no pay zone” soon rushed through the 40 acre complex like wildfire. “I have never seen anything like this, people were everywhere, taking everything in sight” explained one of several eyewitnesses who spoke to NewsMax.
“Chickens, turkeys, souffles, casseroles all went out the door (unpaid),” said another witness. A U.N. security officer who was later called in to examine the cafeteria told NewsMax: “It is unbelievable, they even took the trays and the silverware; the place is stripped clean.”
Time: Kofi Annan, who had a private lunch previously scheduled with the members of the Security Council in the Delegates Dining Room, found they were only served the main course. After that, they were on their own ó no desserts, no cleanup, no coffee for Kofi.”
Newsmax: ìSecretary-General Kofi Annan was scheduled to host a private working lunch with the members of the Security Council at one oíclock in the afternoon. Diplomats found their main courses already waiting for them upon entering the private dining room — sans waiters and bartenders.
However, after an intensive investigation by NewsMax, Council president Munir Akram (Pakistan) revealed that a small, skeleton staff of waiters did remain “as a courtesy” to see that the U.N. chief and the assembled diplomats “received their coffee.”î
Time: “The mob then moved on to the Viennese CafÈ, a popular snack bar in the U.N.’s conference room facility. It was also stripped bare. The takers included some well-known diplomats who finished off the raid with free drinks at the lounge for delegates. When asked how much liquor was lifted from the U.N. bar, one U.S. diplomat responded: “I stopped counting the bottles.” He then excused himself and headed towards the men’s room.”
Newsmax: ìAll that free food produced some real thirst. So why not top it off with some free drinks at the bar? What better place than the private bar in the Delegates Lounge. No bartender, but what the heck….price was right and no tipping required!
That was where NewsMax caught up with a well-known U.S. diplomat. When asked how many free drinks he had, he replied: “I don’t know, I stopped counting the bottles.”î
TP Moral of the story? Never, ever, rely on the UN to save your butt when you are caught in some hot spot. All it takes is the SGís word that all moral considerations are temporarily lifted, and those UN guys will show you in a flash why missionaries so often succumb to going native.
M&Ms…how booshwaa….
How can Fresh Air dismiss concerns about second-hand smoke?
Truepeers, no, I didn’t catch that both reports were from the same author…I agree the slantishness is sort of interesting. Either way, though, the UN cafeteria or the planet Earth, we need a Bolt On the door.
yeah, he should call himself “Stale Air”.
Buddy, what is a Methodist college nowadays? The reports I read at Frontpage regarding Wesleyan U. make it out as the pre-eminent institution of pc madness in the US. In Canada, the Methodists and the Presbyterians did largely unite – back in 1925 into the United Church of Canada, which has become our premier liberal church, with all the outrageous “anti-patriarchal” trappings.
Charlotte, Buddy–
I’ll have you know that every puff of smoke from the end of my Excalibur No. 1 contributes to the air quality of Chicago. A couple thousand more people like me and we wouldn’t need trees. At least that’s my understanding of how the science works.
Buddy: Hey, silly puns are my domain!
I guess I missed it the first time Roger linked to Christensen material, so I guess I should thank you for the Adams’ link. But I am now nauseous…she IS worse than Ward.
How in the world is the (UN)(Prez) going to do the (world’s)(America’s) business when it is so distracted by having to (spin)(explain) and (cover-up)(try for privacy over) its (crimes)(discrete pecadillos)? Just waiting for the UN and friends to start using Clinton’s rationale for getting those officious Repubs off its back.
That’d be the RRVRWC, right? The Really Really Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy?
Is there a Mrs. Kofi Annan to go on morning TV and tell American sweetheart Katie about those really really GOP meanies who are making all of this up?
In that big fluffy pink sweater? Ah well…we’re just a buncha rubes anyway.
I think if Kofi himself wore a fluffy pink sweater on morning TV, he’d cut a more sympathetic figure, somehow
Sorry folks, but I couldn’t resist Rick’s temptation…
Rick, IMHO, the problem with the current left is not too much faith (whether religious or secular) and too little reason. As the new Pope is reminding us, faith and reason go together. The more rational and intellectually brilliant our understanding of humanity, the more we simultaneously re-work our systems of faith in humanity and/or divinity. True reason is spiritually profound. Corruption is a sign of intellectual failure in both the reason and faith depts. Reason, in a limited sense, may erode faith, but reason also makes demands on faith.
The problem with the institutional left today is that they have too long been assured of their self-righteousness and correctness. Lacking sufficient reality tests, they have developed over time a grave deficit of both reason and faith from resting confident. If reason and faith don’t grow over time, the old tricks eventually fail us, since culture is essentially a market with all kinds of discounting going on. Part of the historical proof, no doubt, is the simultaneously cynical and self-righteous raiding of the temples that you point to. As Yama said a few days ago, the 1990s-00s are going to go down in history as corrupt times.
How do we save ourselves? The postmodern left metanarrative is that we are now declaring the end of metanarratives, to which the wags respond, all except for the metanarrative that this is the end of mn. Instead of playing those end games, however, we might move beyond the whole modernist/postmodernist fiasco, by grounding our stories more firmly in a sense of origins than in the teleological or apocalyptic themes that fascinate those who debate metanarratives.
I don’t mean so much that we need to find bogus, e.g. racial, identities by glamorizing “our” people and things in the past. But we do need to see history as being, from the start that all humanity shares, a project of building ethical systems to overcome our perennial tendencies to corruption and violence. We need to face down the ethical challenges before us – and face them not by dreaming of becoming celebrated heroes, but merely responsible and anonymous people in locations the MSM will never visit – by keeping in mind this is what the better side of humanity has always done. We many not need metanarratives, strictly speaking, but a speculative sense of our anthropology-in-history that connects us to this ethical tradition of human self-understanding in which the growth of both reason and faith allows us to share in building historically innovative responses to our dark side.
Now I need my Smarties…
Kevin P. – lol – that was good! You had me going there for just a second, but very much enjoyed that. Of course my own spelling correction, to be clear, was merely some faux indignation.
Fresh Air:
Your question is a good one. First you have to define what you mean by “girl”. And you may want to backtrack and ask the more important question, Why do we need to define it? This western need for norms and definitions to attain truth is , in the end, a waste of energy. Shouldn’t each person be able to decide what is meant by boy or girl or whether such definitions are needed. You may even reach the point where sometimes it could mean male and sometimes female. If you would just throw of the shackles of the need for certitude and embrace the freedom of anarchy, and the eventual slide into philosophical retardation you will feel less repressed. If you want to be a girl, so be it. If you want to be a carrot, that is good too!
Yes, Charlotte, there is a Mrs. Annan, but she’s white so possibly Kofi keeps her under wraps to the extent possible in order to maintain his street cred (of course she’s also Swedish which should help). And, please, no one needs to have the image of Kofi Annan in a fluffy pink sweater burned on her retina.
Clues in the air: Ronald Reagan’s appreciation of the ‘ordinary, everyday heroes all around us’. I took him to mean those with just that vision of which Truepeers speaks–reason from faith. If the fundamental dualism is in our own heads (me vs my self), then the clue is in the extra-sensory nature of language. Like the lie of nihilism contained in “everything is a lie”…which can’t be true, because if it is, it isn’t.
That, to me, is the meaning of “is”. You gotta give the devil his due, nothing is valueless that can serve as a bad example. Clinton did ask the “is” question–which may well have begun the slow-rolling spiritual re-balancing that is throwing off all these hardly-believable scandals (as well as, I’m sorry, exposing the intrinsic madness at the core of certain political disguises).
I’d much rather see a carrot wearing that sweater than I would Kofi.
Truepeers,
The correct addition of the fourth dimension to any analysis of political philosophy has always been critical. The failure of historicism – Hegelian, Marxist or Socialist derivative to correctly incoporate actual history rather than some economic interpretation stretched to 1 micron thickness is almost as bad as its denial of the actual state of the human condition.
I really wish you guys would fire up a group blog with Yama. I’ll volunteer for housekeeping chores and syllable reduction work. Troll shooting, too.
Clues in the air: Ronald Reagan’s appreciation of the ‘ordinary, everyday heroes all around us’…
And then there are those ordinary, everyday heroes who offer perfect expositions that put into words what others know in their heads and hearts but don’t always know that they know or know how to say it. Thanks for clueing us in, all of you
Well, all this certainly has been diverting, even enlightening in a post-modern kind of way. I’ve especially enjoyed exploring the concept of self-actualized male/female (you guys are too much). Thanks one and all.
When I was in college, I understandably felt that no liberal arts education would be complete without a study of the great philosophers so I signed up for a two semester course entitled, appropriately enough, “Introduction to the Great Philosophers”. By the time we got to Hegelian dialectic, I was ready to take hostages (and just think, I still had Nietzsche waiting in the wings).
So, where did these philosophers fail me (I see no reason to entertain that the opposite might be the case)? I think mostly in their insistence on focusing on man in an idealized state: man as Noble Savage (sorry, doesn’t exist), Enlightened Man, Superman. Few saw much worth in man as he is. They failed to appreciate the “ordinary everyday heroes all around us”. (Of course, this was not always the case–Machiavelli, Locke come to mind–I like knowledge that has practical application, although occasionally a little navel gazing can be fun too).
As a consequence, normally when people start debating finer points of philosophical theory, I come down with an acute case of MEGO. I seldom find myself so afflicted in Roger’s house. And I second Rick Ballard’s suggestion.
Rick,
It could be fun. I’ve thought of blogging, but I fear I’m already addicted enough to the blogosphere and shouldn’t commit more time, in fact I should be slimming down. The other thing is, they just said on the radio that 30 million people in North America are now blogging. Sounds like a need for more commenters. WHat makes the great blogs is strong comment sections, I think, and they are rare enough, so we shouldn’t all jump into blog ownership. A group blog could be a happy compromise if others are interested… But what would be our theme?
The Agora. Elevation of political discourse and examination of policy issues from a classical through Burkean perspective. (Nothing has happened since Burke, anyway.) Or you guys pick where you want put the endmark. Spinoza and Strauss and Mises and Hayek did make some contributions, I guess. According to some people, anyway.
Oh – and political mudwrestling – but only as a sideline.
How about: “Reality Check: new and old cons”
The two thinkers who have had the most influence on my mind (considering they’ve dominated the last five years or so) are still alive! Girard and Gans
Off for dinner… btw am I right in thinking you don’t have Smarties in the States?
OK, this is what it will look like.
Now all we need is a little content. And I have to figure out how the hell a group blog works.
Rick, I do not mean to sprinkle rain on your parade, but I do agree with truepeers that the great blogs have great comment sections, I believe it is a symbiotic relationship. For me at least, comments are where I often learn the most, and that is why I read blogs to begin with, to learn. Sorry to be so simple. Having said that, I first and foremost come to this site for Roger’s skill at writing, his humor, his reportage and for his being a fellow 9/11 changeling, though I look not for validation in that regard. Secondarily, I read here for the commenter’s, you folks are the best around.
It is natural for some people to start their own blogs so they can have the freedom of choosing and more fully forming their own interests and thoughts. There have been a number of extremely good commenter’s from here go out and do so. More power to them, but I greatly miss there comments here. The problem for me is that there is only so much damn time in the day. And here I must confess, my name is Luther and I am a blog addict. So, from a very personal viewpoint, I like consolidation, I like having thoughtful, smart and well written pieces all in a place. Call me selfish.
Luther,
I don’t imagine that the two are mutually exclusive. Discussions may occur accross a spectrum of fora and I have no plans to either stop reading nor stop commenting here. There are a number of commenters here capable of expressing themselves in longer versions of comments that might actually serve better as posts. I don’t happen to be one of them but I do possess the initiative required to set up and offer them space – which is all that the agora ever was.
As Chairman Mao said “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom”.
Rick
You are of course, correct. But how in the hell can I read 10 million blogs a day, plus comments.
You made me look up the agora, see, I learned. Though I think I do remember knowing it before.
The ‘thousand flowers’ made me LOL.
And, oh, you bring a lot more than initiative to the table.
Thanks
Luther,
There are only about fifty blogs worth a dime and there are only a couple of hundred commenters that are interesting. Some of the commenters are better at identifying underlying issues and expressing themselves than those publishing the blogs where the comments occur.
I’m a reductionist sometimes ab adsurdum and sometimes to the nugget of truth. I really have no interest in generating a thousand words in support of my reductio but I certainly enjoy the efforts of those more gifted.
Why not provide a place to go with a “Click my name for more” for those who possess the talent and interest to go beyond the two hundred word limit where comments generate the MEGO that Kyda mentions?
Generate a thousand or so words pro or contra and submit it. I’ll publish what you write. That’s what the agora is for.
OK Rick, I’m thinking of a post. But I will not be a daily poster, so some other people need to sign up.
Rick, though I concur with the ‘yes, buts’, I’ll contribute from time to time–and without any expectations that it’ll get posted.
Nice to see Roger’s and your initiative from our side of the culture wars. I’m sure folks here will try to contribute. You would, of course, get stuck with an editor’s job. You’ll get pieces that are meritless–from me, at least, for certain.
But you’re right, there’s really not all that much readable, ‘come-back-for-more’ current socio/cultural/economic content as one might think.
Well Rick, you are right again on the number of worthy blogs, I was exaggerating of course. Though over the last four years I have narrowed my list down to about ten or so. As to commenter’s I might have a larger number. But of course numbers are not what we are talking about. Quality over quantity. Works for me.
Thanks for clarifying on your idea, it is a good one. I clicked the link and now see what you are talking about. As a matter of fact, I think it is a damn good idea. Good luck, I’ll keep checking.
Let’s see, a thousand words for me would take around…oh, three days, it would be old news already.
Off to bed for the morrow.
Buddy,
It’ll get posted. Some people are writers, some are editors and some are readers. It’s a big bus with lots of open seats.
Because the panel was set up by the United Nations, the commission may also invoke “sovereign immunity,” officials close to the probe said.
Since when has the UN been sovereign?