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In a recent interview General Norman Schwarzkopf was asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness – towards the people who has aided and abetted the terrorists who had perpetrated the September 11th attacks on the United States. He said: “I believe that forgiving them is God’s function. Our job is simply to arrange the meeting.” February 11th, 2002 | Comments are closed
 Check out a first-class summation of Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State and Utopia by Alastair Palmer in the latest edition of the British weekly magazine, The Spectator. Very good, particularly in bemoaning Nozick’s failure to give a substantive defence of natural rights. Otherwise Palmer has nice things to say about Nozick, not least the fact that he makes it clear that Nozick was certainly not an apologist for Big Business or the Republican Party. What is so good about this review is how the author manages to draw out the essence of Nozick’s critique of egalitarianism and ‘social justice’ theories generally. February 9th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Justice is sometimes achieved. Jean Bove, a key figure in the anti-globalisation movement who trashed a McDonald’s restaurant in France, has been jailed for three months for his offence, committed in 1999. A report by Reuters on today states he claims he was protesting about US tariffs on cheese and other French foodstuffs, but I do not recall this French twerp as a principled advocate of free trade for American products in Europe. Frédéric Bastiat he most definitely is not! February 6th, 2002 | Comments are closed
The calm acceptance of tyranny is often more scary than its imposition in the first place. I saw the following letter in the online edition of the Daily Telegraph, the right-leaning broadsheet not normally known for excessive idiocy. The following letter on ID cards was written by a certain R.E. Parker who clearly regards libertarian concerns about ID cards as so much paranoia. The letter is a classic:
This surely misses the point. As a freedom-lover I don’t mind being asked for ID in certain cases and indeed, in a free market, all kinds of institutions would make it commercially sensible for persons to carry ID of some kind, such as banks in Oman. But what the letter-writer is interested in, I assume, are state cards, imposed by force. February 6th, 2002 | Comments are closed
I am trying not to laugh as I watch rock musician Bono hold forth on satellite television about issues of Third World debt and so on at the World Economic Forum held in New York. Perhaps we can look forward to getting Britney Spears on the fight against terrorism, Mick Jagger on Aids and Tiger Woods on global warming. I guess I am being irreverent, but what the heck, it’s Friday! February 1st, 2002 | Comments are closed
Here’s a poser for today – Have any fellow bloggers come across an example on a television drama programme in the UK which has ever portrayed a businessman or woman in straightforwardly good light, with no qualifications, ifs or buts? I haven’t. Check out the average British soap shown mid-evening to see what I am getting at. It is pure negativity towards any activity remotely creative or positive. And of course we soak it up because when coming home from a hard day at the office, factory or wherever, our mental faculties are at their least sharp. January 31st, 2002 | Comments are closed
For those looking for some sanity on the issue of Enron Corp’s spectacular fall from grace, take a look at a fine article by Robert D. Kaplan in What next? over on Slate. One of the main things to be drawn from this article was that the top brass at Enron sought to approach not just George W. Bush and his political allies for help, but large numbers of senior Democrats as well. Of course, this will not stop some leftist comentators from trying to tarnish Bush and co with the Enron affaire. January 17th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Thought for late Friday afternoon, prompted by the need for tax competition: “You cannot run a socialist experiment when there’s an escape hatch”. Tom Burroughes January 11th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Silvio Berlusconi has been given a rough ride for his outspoken views, such as the cultural and political superiority of the West vis a vis the Islamic world and also on his remarks on matters pertaining to the EU. Okay, not quite nuanced enough for some tastes but hey, it is a massive improvement on the usual mealy-mouthed outpourings of the European political classes, not to mention our own Sainted Tony Blair. An excellent article by Michael Gonzalez appears in Thursday’s print edition of the Wall Street Journal Europe (page 7), though I cannot find it on the online WSJ.com. Whatever one thinks of Berlusconi, he has already endeared himself to this humble scribe for ruffling the feathers of the Euro-weenies and generally upsetting their digestions. Rock on, Silvio! Tom Burroughes January 11th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Israel and the Middle East Take a look at Victor Hanson in his article about why Arabs have misunderstood Israel. In a nutshell, his thesis is that if Israel did not exist, then as far as many Arabs are concerned, they would have to invent it.
January 10th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Another recommended article for fellow Blogistas: Ralph Peters, a retired U.S. Army officer and author of “Fighting for the Future: Will America Triumph?”, has a piece in Opinion Journal called Riyadh is at the root of much evil, arguing that the most important source of instability and terrorism is Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. will have to confront it at some point. My knowledge of Saudi Arabia is thin so it would be good to get some discussion going on whether folk think the guy has a point or is wildly overstating the case. Tom Burroughes January 4th, 2002 | Comments are closed
A further example of “why-oh-why-are-we-not-able-to-return-to-1890?” type commentary from paleo-conservatives (small c, as this applies to card-carrying Labour supporters as well as Tories), appears in the Thursday, January 3 edition of the Times newspaper (UK). Written by David Selborne, a leftist historian with strong authortarian leanings, in The Tories’ future can be found in their past, he chides the Tories for their concerns with freedom and urges them to come full-on and support the public sector instead. As an example of Bourbon-style learning nothing and forgetting nothing, this takes some beating. (Consider the vast erosion of civil liberties and the Common law in the UK over the past 20 years). Selbourne has a valid point in bemoaning the neglect of civil society (Edmund Burke’s ‘little platoons’), but like most statists misses the obvious point that it has been the growth of the state, such as the monopoly education system, that has wreaked so much havoc. The poor man accuses the Tories of imposing market disciplines on schools. If only that were the case! I think we should arrive at a new name to describe the habit among such folk of accusing X of precisely the very opposite of what they are doing. Call it “false market fundamentalism syndrome,” perhaps. January 3rd, 2002 | Comments are closed
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