We The Free

Saturday, October 18, 2003

ENCORE: The Best "Short Case"?

This is a classic by Hitchens and probably the most concise yet nuanced case for the war in Iraq: "Machiavelli in Mesopotamia". Enjoy -- and be discomforted no matter what your opinion of the war...

The Past Blasts

Resolved, That the aim and object of the Democratic party is to preserve the Federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired, and they hereby declare that they consider that the administrative usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not granted by the Constitution — the subversion of the civil by military law in States not in insurrection; the arbitrary military arrest, imprisonment, trial, and sentence of American citizens in States where civil law exists in full force; the suppression of freedom of speech and of the press;
...
Resolved, That the shameful disregard of the Administration to its duty in respect to our fellow citizens who now are and long have been prisoners of war and in a suffering condition, deserves the severest reprobation.
...
===
Sound familiar?
The Democrats are saying 1) The war is lost; 2) Let's negotiate; 3) The Constitution is trashed; 4) They steal elections; 5) We support the troops.

You've got to hand it to these Dems. They're certainly consistent.

That was the 1864 Democratic Party platform. Yes, 1864.

Cycles of History Again: We're Somewhere In The Bold Print...

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

from bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependency;
from dependency back again to bondage."

The Current Jaw Dropper

In a series of e-mails I patiently explained that Bush couldn't be Hitler since Hitler was dead. He also couldn't be a "new Hitler" since the two men have policies almost diametrically opposed. Most significantly, Bush is attempting to replace genocidal dictatorships with secular democracies. Hitler did everything he could do to destroy democracies and replace them with genocidal dictators. I thought my sister might understand the difference. I also pointed out that Hitler was a starving artist who joined the National Socialist Party, supported gun control, abortion, government control of corporations, was an athiest with an affinity for paganism, hated Jews and allied himself with radical Muslims. I then noted that the Democratic Party, not the Republicans, had a platform which came closest to Hitler's. In other words, using objective reality, not delusional rantings, Hitler is closer politically to the Democrats than to Bush." --See this.

TEA PARTY UPDATE: Looks to me like the fullness of time has put a nasty dent in the idea of Bush eschewing government control of corporations and the Muslim alliance issue remains at best complicated. So the Dems still clearly remain worse now that we see Ogabe in action but both parties basically suck big time.

The Previous Jaw Dropper

I was stunned to learn the story of Haj Mohammad Amin al-Hussein, which I tell at great length in Preachers of Hate. Not only did he meet with Hitler in Berlin in 1941: he became the Arabic voice of Nazi Germany in all their broadcasts to the Arab world, exhorting Muslims to murder Jews and enact Hitler's final solution. Not by coincidence, one of his greatest students is Yasser Arafat, who in moments of weakness claims (wrongly, I believe) that he is Haj Mohammad Amin's nephew."
-- see it here

We The Free

Saturday, October 18, 2003

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The Grand [Democratic] Inquisitor

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The Constitution Will Not Be Televised

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The Past Blasts

Cycles of History Again: We're Somewhere In The Bold Print...

They Will Have It

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We The Free

Saturday, October 18, 2003

Contact Info

Hot

The Grand [Democratic] Inquisitor

Book Shelf

The Constitution Will Not Be Televised

Who Said It?

The Past Blasts

Cycles of History Again: We're Somewhere In The Bold Print...

They Will Have It

The Current Jaw Dropper

The Last Jaw Dropper

The Previous Jaw Dropper

About Me

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Blog Archive

Links

Classics