Followup to yesterday's post. Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest
Hugo Chavez has a new theory: that the US has developed a secret technology and is using it to give cancer to left wing Latin American rulers that we don't like. After all, Fidel Castro, the Hero of Venezuela himself, the president of Paraguay, the current and former presidents of Brazil and now Cristina Kirchner of Argentina have all come down with (quite different) cancers....
Unfortunately, the US Department of State has felt it necessary to respond, calling the Chavez statements "horrific and reprehensible." Machiavelli would have counseled an enigmatic smile and a statement emphasizing the importance of regular physical exams as there does seem to be a lot cancer around these days -- and would have suggested that we go on to offer treatment in the US to President Chavez and his colleagues if they are worried. "This official State Department press release is brought to you as a public service by the American Cancer Society, the Ad Council, and your local embassy."
Chavez' statement like most of his speeches was intended more as political theater than as serious analysis of the way the world works; nevertheless ... As a psychological portrait of a certain element of the Latin left, the speech is quite revealing.
First, the US is portrayed as immensely powerful. As a society we not only produce medical advances that others seek to imitate; we have mastered the secret technologies of cancer itself. The secrets in our labs are years beyond the pitiful, pathetic efforts of Venezuelan and Cuban scientists and health workers. Who knows what other incredible advances the capitalist world masters are holding in reserve: drones are clearly just the tip of the iceberg. Invisible airplanes!Really big bombs! iPods the size of a credit card! Talking dogs! Maybe even (shudder) death rays!
Yet this analysis of our alleged medical prowess, like much leftie analysis of our alleged political omnicompetence, is curiously disembodied from actual knowledge of how either science or power works....
Second, this all powerful American capitalist monster is uniquely concerned with the mortal threat posed by the heroic populist revolutionary movements of Latin America. American policymakers do not actually think about Hugo Chavez very much; when they do they see him more as an irritating nuisance than mortal danger: a buzzing horsefly, not a tiger or even a cobra. ...
This is not what Chavez wants his followers to believe. There must be a cosmic drama: Don Quixote tilting at a giant. "Aspiring anklebiter" is not how the glorious leader of the Great Bolivarian Cultural Revolution wants to be known. ...
The sad truth is that even if we had invented some kind of untraceable multi-cancer agent and decided to use it, we wouldn't be wasting it on Venezuela. There might be a wave of cancers in Iran, where recent news events point to a certain activism on the part of US and other agents. Either that, or a really widespread epidemic of lead poisoning and spontaneous human combustion.
Some Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders, and perhaps a few others in the region, might suddenly show the effects of intensive chemotherapy. But as is so often the case, poor Latin America would be the orphan stepchild of US foreign policy. Maybe we would give Chavez the flu. Zing! As we said yesterday, a competent CIA would have already given him AIDS, influenza and the clap.
Posted by: Mike ||
12/30/2011 12:09 ||
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The coming year will not give us a break from the steady stream of political knavery, green graft and governmental stupidity that 2011 delivered, though it will surely provide a flood of politically-induced comedy.
JANUARY: An enterprising BBC reporter -- seeking to prove the practicality of electric cars -- drove from London to Edinburgh. The journey took four days -- longer than a horse-drawn stage would have taken for the trip 150 years ago -- including nine stops of up to ten hours.
FEBRUARY: Chicago chose as its new mayor former White House chief of staff Rahm Effing Emanuel, who immediately ordered a voter registration drive in the city's cemeteries. Shortly after that, the "Arab spring training season" began in Egypt. After Secretary of State Hillary said that the Mubarak regime was stable, the Cairo Clubbers traded their top grenade thrower to the Port Said Molotovs for two machine-gunners and a future draft pick.
MARCH: In January, Obama had proclaimed France our best and strongest ally. Because the French never forgive a favor, Sarkozy dragged Obama into his war for glory in Libya. Barry called it a "kinetic military action" and cute little Sarah called it a "squirmish." My blazingly brilliant pal, Andy McCarthy, said that henceforth we should call acts of terrorism "kinetic Islam." Barry told Congress to stuff its War Powers Resolution because bombing Libya wasn't a hostile act. Meanwhile, Hillary called Syria's Bashar Assad a "reformer."
#1
Nugget: Ron PaulÂ’s program is an American version of the Iranian desire to return to a world of Islamic purity that never existed, any more than did a golden age of American isolationism.
#2
The more Paul is attacked the more I like the guy. Should he be the only choice at election time, I'd vote for him. O has gotta go. I never did join a pack mentality. This so called vetting process only applies to conservatives. Spengler is just another mouth.
The holiday of Hanukkah is, in part, a celebration of the victory of traditionalist Jews over Jews bent on assimilation to Greek Seleucid culture. As such, the second-century B.C.E. Maccabean revolt has resonated throughout the ages not only as a key historical contest, but as a wellspring for interpretations of the divergent moral and theological views of the Hebrews and the Greeks.
For almost every supposed difference between the two systems of thought, one can point to exceptions or actual similarities; yet certain very real divisions remain. In 1967, the philosopher Leo Strauss formulated his interpretation of "Hebraism" and "Hellenism." Provocative yet equanimous, Strauss believed that both the Hebrew prophets and the Greek philosophers had a divine mission--but the mission was not the same.
We re-publish his essay, "Jerusalem and Athens: Some Introductory Reflections" below, with the permission of Commentary, where it first appeared. And, in the spirit of ideological contentiousness, we present the classical scholar Louis H. Feldman's 1994 reconsideration, in which he argues that the sharp line drawn between the Hebraic and the Hellenic has sometimes prevented a more balanced understanding. --The Editors
From Rasmussen Reports:
This was the Year of the Middle Class -- as in, its falling incomes, loss of job security and anger. The global economic forces fueling the decline, such as foreign competition and computers, have been well reported. But what about cultural factors? Is the middle class going down partly because it stopped acting middle class?
Marxist writings reach their zenith of hatred when discussing the middle class, which is seen as the enemy that must above all others be destroyed, from without or from within.
#2
OK, what was the dollar worth back in the '50s compared to what it's worth now? Hmmmm. I remember my dad paying cash for a new Pontiac. He paid $3000. What would a comparable car cost today? And our house cost $30,000. Not a McMansion but comfortable enough. Probably cost $300,000 today. Seems to me it would be easier to live within our means if inflation hadn't reduced to value of the dollar. It'd be easier for companies to hire us too. So what does the government do to help us out? Print more money, of course. We're the new kulaks.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
12/30/2011 11:27 Comments ||
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#3
Inflation does indeed erode the value of money.
But prices aren't only linked to currency values. They're also linked to consumer demand. How many people, in the US at least, are now content to live on one average income, with far fewer household appliances, no day care or nanny, no housecleaning service, no smartphones laptops or flat screen TVs, one car in the family, few meals out at any type of restaurant, and a driving vacation as a special treat in occasional years?
That 50's car - did it have power windows and antilock brakes? Air conditioning? Tinted glass? Sporty wheels? That house: how big was it, was it air conditioned? how big was the lot?
#4
Yup. The issue isn't how many dollars it takes today versus 1950, but rather: how do we live today versus 1950?
Answer: even the poor today live better than most folks did in 1950, in terms of material and consumer goods. In terms of (say) health care, the poor live every bit as well as the middle class of 1950 if not better. Ditto food supply and affordability.
Yes, it takes many more dollars today compared to 60 years ago. Most of us are paid many more dollars. It all works out, and the productivity, innovation and advances of the past 60 years means that virtually everyone in a first world country is living better.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/30/2011 15:11 Comments ||
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#5
Actually it's a bit poorer in quite a few ways.
Houses are much LESS affordable, cars more so in average wage terms (especially if you look at hedonic changes)
#6
I heard today that the black teen unemployment in the 50's was 9%. It is arround 20% these days. When the minimmum wage is increased more black teen unemployment. The many programs may feed people but they distroy them also.
#8
From an outsiders POV the US appears to be an Empire, with an unelected Emperor in charge, namely the Chairman of the Reserve Board. The Reserve which was meant to be an adjunct to the Treasury Dept. The takover started with Volker and the current emperor is of course the Bernank.
After all the rhetoric of free enterprise, the US meekly submitted to the central planning power of the Reserve (At least the USSR fought a revolution before submitting to central planning)
The similarities to the Roman Empire are eerie. A centrally planned economy, mighty military and entitlement mongering increasing exponentially.
I read somewhere that 30 years after the fall, someone visited Rome. All they found were outlaws and wild animals. Bit like Detroit. It appears that is what entitlements will do to you.
Just wondering how long it's going to take. 20 to 50 years perhaps?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Hugo Chavez has a new theory: that the US has developed a secret technology and is using it to give cancer to left wing Latin American rulers that we don't like. After all, Fidel Castro, the Hero of Venezuela himself, the president of Paraguay, the current and former presidents of Brazil and now Cristina Kirchner of Argentina have all come down with (quite different) cancers....
This is not what Chavez wants his followers to believe. There must be a cosmic drama: Don Quixote tilting at a giant. "Aspiring anklebiter" is not how the glorious leader of the Great Bolivarian Cultural Revolution wants to be known. ...
