Someone at the Economist has both a nimble mind and a very dark sense of humor.
The result was The Shoe-Throwers Index, an interactive feature in which the reader gets to weight the importance of a number of social factors (length of tenure of the local despot, internet usage, % of population under 25, etc.). Move the sliders around, weight the factors, and see which Middle Eastern country will most likely blow up under the circumstances.
Notice which one's missing? (Hint: it's the only one with a free press, parliamentary democracy, high literacy levels, a productive economy, some of the best universities in the world, etc. etc. Second hint: It's the one Obama despises.)
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
7K Layoff Notices Sent To Los Angeles Teachers
In the end, not every notice will lead to a job loss, but given the circumstances, the school district felt obligated to give fair warning.
The news rippled across the campus Friday morning, and students were falling apart. They texted their parents and sought out one another to see if it could all be true.
"I saw kids crying in the quad," said Portia Amofa, student body president at Hamilton High School in West Los Angeles.
The students were finding out that some of their favorite teachers were among roughly 7,000 in L.A. Unified who had gotten layoff notices. In addition, the directors of two enormously popular and successful Hamilton programs, the humanities magnet and the music magnet, had been told by L.A. Unified that their positions were being eliminated.
It is a cruel reality, and OS does sympathize mightily with the students.
The parents, teacher's union, legislature in Sacramento, the last six governors or so, the Federal government (which has swamped the system with unfunded mandates, and refused refused refused to enforce the border with Mexico for the past several decades--this is during administrations of both parties, ya'll--not just the Dems) need all to be sat in the corner of the classroom with the old 'Dunce' hat perched on their heads.
It isn't like this sad day was not forseen, years ago. It is a mathematical inevitability that this day would come. And everyone just pretended it would never come in their term of office/lifetime.
OS hopes the kids remember this day well, and resolve amongst themselves to never, ever let governments get so out of control as to rob their children of their futures.
This sort of thing is the imposition of a cruel tax upon those completely incapable of paying it.
The news rippled across the campus Friday morning, and students were falling apart. They texted their parents and sought out one another to see if it could all be true.
"I saw kids crying in the quad," said Portia Amofa, student body president at Hamilton High School in West Los Angeles.
The students were finding out that some of their favorite teachers were among roughly 7,000 in L.A. Unified who had gotten layoff notices. In addition, the directors of two enormously popular and successful Hamilton programs, the humanities magnet and the music magnet, had been told by L.A. Unified that their positions were being eliminated.
It is a cruel reality, and OS does sympathize mightily with the students.
The parents, teacher's union, legislature in Sacramento, the last six governors or so, the Federal government (which has swamped the system with unfunded mandates, and refused refused refused to enforce the border with Mexico for the past several decades--this is during administrations of both parties, ya'll--not just the Dems) need all to be sat in the corner of the classroom with the old 'Dunce' hat perched on their heads.
It isn't like this sad day was not forseen, years ago. It is a mathematical inevitability that this day would come. And everyone just pretended it would never come in their term of office/lifetime.
OS hopes the kids remember this day well, and resolve amongst themselves to never, ever let governments get so out of control as to rob their children of their futures.
This sort of thing is the imposition of a cruel tax upon those completely incapable of paying it.
OldSouth's One Irish Joke For The Day: Paddy And Mick Go Hunting
Great jokes often are great parables, which is why they survive the years. This one has been around quite a while, in different guises.
Paddy and Mick flew to Canada on a hunting trip. They chartered a small plane to take them into the Rockies for a week of hunting moose.
They managed to bag six moose. As they were loading the plane to return, the pilot said the plane could take only four moose.
The two lads objected strongly. "Last year we shot six. The pilot let us take them all and he had the same plane as yours."
Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six were loaded. The plane took off.
However, while attempting to cross some mountains even on full power the little plane couldn't handle the load and went down.
Somehow, surrounded by the moose bodies, only Paddy and Mick survived the crash.
After climbing out of the wreckage, Paddy asks Mick, "Any idea where we are, lad?"
Mick replied, "I think we're pretty close to where we crashed last year."
U.S. Federal Deficit for February 2011 is $223 billion.
The annual Federal deficit was $248 billion in 2006.
Paddy-n-Mick, ya'll.
Paddy and Mick flew to Canada on a hunting trip. They chartered a small plane to take them into the Rockies for a week of hunting moose.
They managed to bag six moose. As they were loading the plane to return, the pilot said the plane could take only four moose.
The two lads objected strongly. "Last year we shot six. The pilot let us take them all and he had the same plane as yours."
Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six were loaded. The plane took off.
However, while attempting to cross some mountains even on full power the little plane couldn't handle the load and went down.
Somehow, surrounded by the moose bodies, only Paddy and Mick survived the crash.
After climbing out of the wreckage, Paddy asks Mick, "Any idea where we are, lad?"
Mick replied, "I think we're pretty close to where we crashed last year."
U.S. Federal Deficit for February 2011 is $223 billion.
The annual Federal deficit was $248 billion in 2006.
Paddy-n-Mick, ya'll.
Water Drops On Reactor 3 Storage Pools, Water Cannon To Follow
NHK English Service live feed here.
Japanese MOD Kitazawa press conference 10:27 pm CDT US:
Thirty tons of seawater were dropped by helicopter onto the storage pool of Reactor 43, in an attempt to cool the fuel rods stored there. Video taken from a distance showed helicopters making four passes at about 1000 ft, releasing water from a bucket attached underneath. (How accurate can this be?)
Police water cannon scheduled to begin bombarding the pool with seawater Thursday afternoon Japan time. From the US East Coast, add 13 hours for Tokyo time. (So, by opening of business in the US, we should have some idea of the progress being made.)
Radiation levels reported to be quite high at the site, explaining the high-altitude helicopter drops.
Japanese MOD Kitazawa press conference 10:27 pm CDT US:
Thirty tons of seawater were dropped by helicopter onto the storage pool of Reactor 43, in an attempt to cool the fuel rods stored there. Video taken from a distance showed helicopters making four passes at about 1000 ft, releasing water from a bucket attached underneath. (How accurate can this be?)
Police water cannon scheduled to begin bombarding the pool with seawater Thursday afternoon Japan time. From the US East Coast, add 13 hours for Tokyo time. (So, by opening of business in the US, we should have some idea of the progress being made.)
Radiation levels reported to be quite high at the site, explaining the high-altitude helicopter drops.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Baylor's Little Dust-Up, And One Other Of An Entirely Different Nature
OS evidently tweaked a few noses last week when he held forth about a little dust-up at Baylor University in Texas.
He concluded, and still does, that the administration is doing the right thing, and that the world runs better when it is run by the grown-ups.
One of OS's favorite grown-ups is Dean Dad, who administers a community college he has to keep held together with chewing gum and baling wire, because it is flooded with students and less cash arrives from the state every year to do the job.
He also balances that task with his life as a husband and father, which blessedly come first. He writes with humor and elegance about his daily journey of pragmatically addressing ReallyBigProblems with the modest resources of at hand. He's a real grown-up.
(Hopefully, if Dean Dad reads this, he won't be crying in despair that someone like OS pays him such public compliment.)
Therefore, OS scribbles this, and launches it to the digital tides, hoping that the undergrads at Baylor will pause a bit, and consider what the grownups have to do daily to keep the place running smoothly, so the undergrads can complain about just how mistreated they are. Go ahead, click that link above, and read about Dean Dad's day. OS dares you.
Damn, kids! You're at Baylor! One of the gems of Texas! Do you know how many kids at Dean Dad's college would trade body parts to have your opportunities? And how many kids who can't even make it to community college would do likewise for that opportunity? Within a ten-minute walk of your dorms in Waco, OS suspects there are students who need tutors, and public schools who would gladly welcome you in to help some eight-year-old learn how to read English and do his multiplication tables, so he can maybe, in 2021, have the opportunities you now enjoy. Maybe, just maybe, it's a better expenditure of your adolescent energies.
Grow up, and you can be a grown-up like Dean Dad one day. It's a noble goal.
He concluded, and still does, that the administration is doing the right thing, and that the world runs better when it is run by the grown-ups.
One of OS's favorite grown-ups is Dean Dad, who administers a community college he has to keep held together with chewing gum and baling wire, because it is flooded with students and less cash arrives from the state every year to do the job.
He also balances that task with his life as a husband and father, which blessedly come first. He writes with humor and elegance about his daily journey of pragmatically addressing ReallyBigProblems with the modest resources of at hand. He's a real grown-up.
(Hopefully, if Dean Dad reads this, he won't be crying in despair that someone like OS pays him such public compliment.)
Therefore, OS scribbles this, and launches it to the digital tides, hoping that the undergrads at Baylor will pause a bit, and consider what the grownups have to do daily to keep the place running smoothly, so the undergrads can complain about just how mistreated they are. Go ahead, click that link above, and read about Dean Dad's day. OS dares you.
Damn, kids! You're at Baylor! One of the gems of Texas! Do you know how many kids at Dean Dad's college would trade body parts to have your opportunities? And how many kids who can't even make it to community college would do likewise for that opportunity? Within a ten-minute walk of your dorms in Waco, OS suspects there are students who need tutors, and public schools who would gladly welcome you in to help some eight-year-old learn how to read English and do his multiplication tables, so he can maybe, in 2021, have the opportunities you now enjoy. Maybe, just maybe, it's a better expenditure of your adolescent energies.
Grow up, and you can be a grown-up like Dean Dad one day. It's a noble goal.
OldSouth On The Road: Western Ohio
OS visited dear friends last week in western Ohio, and recommends the experience to all his readers. This part of the world is hands-down, take-yer-breath-away beautiful.
OS always enjoys his journeys to Cincinnati, once he survives the scary downhill approach from the bluffs of Kentucky down to the Ohio River bridge. It's a great city with an inspiring history of commerce, industry, education, fine arts, and as one of the linchpins of the 19th century's Underground Railroad, which ushered slaves to freedom.
The area north and west of Cincy are a mix of agriculture and industry, and the wealth that has been built there over the years is impressive. Two hundred years ago, it was the prairie, just being settled. OS drove some back roads, through one lovely little town after the other.
The downturn, however, truly truly has hit them hard. Always, there have been upturns and downturns, but OS's friends explained that this one has been different, and it will take a long time to come back, to recover from the closures and departures of industries. On the upside, there is a highly-trained workforce, plant already built, and city and state governments eager to welcome businesses in. OS didn't see any signs of real decay in the little towns he drove through--as in vandalized and boarded-up storefronts and the like. The folks there are a tough bunch, and kept the culture intact, even as the economy faltered. Think old-school-Lutherans, to get an idea of the vibe. Lots of civic pride, no despair.
Everybody knows everybody else in these little towns, back to three generations at least. Solid people.
But the pain is real. The state budget cuts are being announced. The Stimulus did not work, and there will not be a Stimulus 2 to helicopter more cash down to the local level. The money is not there. Period. The public employee unions still don't believe it, but that does not change the facts.
On the way home, OS stopped for gas just north of Dayton, and picked up a copy of the Dayton Daily News for March 11. Nine pages of foreclosure sales, and 72 listed for March 11 alone.
The sheriff's sale listing is here, for those who wish to view for themselves.
It's a loooooong list, dating just from late February.
A transition is underway, and this will be the gritty part for the next year or two.This part of the world will come back, having reinvented itself again.
It's Ohio, not a place for sissies. They've got the culture-economy sequence right.
OS always enjoys his journeys to Cincinnati, once he survives the scary downhill approach from the bluffs of Kentucky down to the Ohio River bridge. It's a great city with an inspiring history of commerce, industry, education, fine arts, and as one of the linchpins of the 19th century's Underground Railroad, which ushered slaves to freedom.
The area north and west of Cincy are a mix of agriculture and industry, and the wealth that has been built there over the years is impressive. Two hundred years ago, it was the prairie, just being settled. OS drove some back roads, through one lovely little town after the other.
The downturn, however, truly truly has hit them hard. Always, there have been upturns and downturns, but OS's friends explained that this one has been different, and it will take a long time to come back, to recover from the closures and departures of industries. On the upside, there is a highly-trained workforce, plant already built, and city and state governments eager to welcome businesses in. OS didn't see any signs of real decay in the little towns he drove through--as in vandalized and boarded-up storefronts and the like. The folks there are a tough bunch, and kept the culture intact, even as the economy faltered. Think old-school-Lutherans, to get an idea of the vibe. Lots of civic pride, no despair.
Everybody knows everybody else in these little towns, back to three generations at least. Solid people.
But the pain is real. The state budget cuts are being announced. The Stimulus did not work, and there will not be a Stimulus 2 to helicopter more cash down to the local level. The money is not there. Period. The public employee unions still don't believe it, but that does not change the facts.
On the way home, OS stopped for gas just north of Dayton, and picked up a copy of the Dayton Daily News for March 11. Nine pages of foreclosure sales, and 72 listed for March 11 alone.
The sheriff's sale listing is here, for those who wish to view for themselves.
It's a loooooong list, dating just from late February.
A transition is underway, and this will be the gritty part for the next year or two.This part of the world will come back, having reinvented itself again.
It's Ohio, not a place for sissies. They've got the culture-economy sequence right.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Admitting Failure, The Voters Of Memphis Revoke The School Board's Charter...
...and vote to join the richer, whiter, better-run, higher quality Shelby County school system.
Problem is, folks in Shelby County, where the City of Memphis is located, moved to Shelby County to escape the Memphis school system, which is now attempting to export itself to the county. The residents of the county are, well, not amused.
This will end up being litigated, legislated, negotiated for several years. Lawyers will make money. Real estate values (and commercial real estate values) in Shelby County will drop, subdivisions will spring up in the surrounding counties, along with the attendant private schools, retail development, and traffic.
Home school enrollment will climb, as well it should. Tennessee's laws are friendly to families who wish to pursue that arduous option, and take OS's word for it, it is hard hard hard work. And it does cost money to do well. Ain't no free lunch, nowhere.
The top-down, utopian, race-based, federally-mandated public education system is a failure. Memphis and environs are Exhibit A, and last week's vote is an admission of the extent of the failure.
OS is so grateful his kids are grown-up. And that he didn't have to raise them relying on the public schools of Memphis.
Memphis is a wonderful city, for those with the means to live in the good parts, and school the kids privately--in other words, with the ability to insulate the family from the predations of the utopian state.
Problem is, folks in Shelby County, where the City of Memphis is located, moved to Shelby County to escape the Memphis school system, which is now attempting to export itself to the county. The residents of the county are, well, not amused.
This will end up being litigated, legislated, negotiated for several years. Lawyers will make money. Real estate values (and commercial real estate values) in Shelby County will drop, subdivisions will spring up in the surrounding counties, along with the attendant private schools, retail development, and traffic.
Home school enrollment will climb, as well it should. Tennessee's laws are friendly to families who wish to pursue that arduous option, and take OS's word for it, it is hard hard hard work. And it does cost money to do well. Ain't no free lunch, nowhere.
The top-down, utopian, race-based, federally-mandated public education system is a failure. Memphis and environs are Exhibit A, and last week's vote is an admission of the extent of the failure.
OS is so grateful his kids are grown-up. And that he didn't have to raise them relying on the public schools of Memphis.
Memphis is a wonderful city, for those with the means to live in the good parts, and school the kids privately--in other words, with the ability to insulate the family from the predations of the utopian state.
The Detroit Symphony Striking Musicians Should Attract Even More Sympathy Now...
Memo to strikers: If you wanna get the public on your side, make sure your lawyer's clean.
The lawyer representing the striking musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was in a Manhattan federal court Monday facing charges that he embezzled $150,000 when he represented dancers and stagehands at American Ballet Theatre.
Leonard Leibowitz, 72, is accused of writing checks to himself from union funds between 1997 and 2005 and helping prepare reports that contained forged signatures when he was working for the Independent Artists of America Union, according to a two-count indictment handed down March 3 in U.S. District Court for southern New York.
Stick a fork in 'er, ya'll. Sheeez dun!
The lawyer representing the striking musicians of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra was in a Manhattan federal court Monday facing charges that he embezzled $150,000 when he represented dancers and stagehands at American Ballet Theatre.
Leonard Leibowitz, 72, is accused of writing checks to himself from union funds between 1997 and 2005 and helping prepare reports that contained forged signatures when he was working for the Independent Artists of America Union, according to a two-count indictment handed down March 3 in U.S. District Court for southern New York.
Stick a fork in 'er, ya'll. Sheeez dun!
The High Price Of Electing Children To High Office...
Quoted from Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge, today:
And so the US Treasury has hit the proverbial paycheck to paycheck sustenance level. After burning $12.8 billion (without a change in gross debt) in cash today alone, and $75 billion in the month of March so far, primarily driven by a back end-loaded tax refund calendar, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, today's cash balance dropped to the scary level of just $14.2 billion. Without the benefit of incremental funding, this is the same amount that the Treasury burns on a good day! In other words, we take back what we said about the US Treasury existing paycheck to paycheck - Geithner now has to scramble to find funding on a day to day basis. If tomorrow operating outflows surpass $14.2 billion (and, again, the amount was $12.8 billion today) the world's "greatest" country (i.e. banana republic) runs out of cash, period. And as the following schedule indicates, there are no Long-Term bond issuances until next week (and the Bill issues are merely funding of rolling issues), we have some trouble seeing how the US Treasury will fund itself for the balance of the week...
Congress and White House now playing 'chicken'. Little Timmy Geithner in way the hell over his head. Obama working on his golf game. Gadafi is winning the war in Libya. Heaven only knows what's going on with Japan.
White House and Congress taunting one another like schoolyard children.
And so the US Treasury has hit the proverbial paycheck to paycheck sustenance level. After burning $12.8 billion (without a change in gross debt) in cash today alone, and $75 billion in the month of March so far, primarily driven by a back end-loaded tax refund calendar, according to the Daily Treasury Statement, today's cash balance dropped to the scary level of just $14.2 billion. Without the benefit of incremental funding, this is the same amount that the Treasury burns on a good day! In other words, we take back what we said about the US Treasury existing paycheck to paycheck - Geithner now has to scramble to find funding on a day to day basis. If tomorrow operating outflows surpass $14.2 billion (and, again, the amount was $12.8 billion today) the world's "greatest" country (i.e. banana republic) runs out of cash, period. And as the following schedule indicates, there are no Long-Term bond issuances until next week (and the Bill issues are merely funding of rolling issues), we have some trouble seeing how the US Treasury will fund itself for the balance of the week...
Congress and White House now playing 'chicken'. Little Timmy Geithner in way the hell over his head. Obama working on his golf game. Gadafi is winning the war in Libya. Heaven only knows what's going on with Japan.
White House and Congress taunting one another like schoolyard children.
Monday, March 14, 2011
New Explosion Reported Early Tuesday, Japan Time, At Reactor #2
Here is the KyodoNews live English feed.
And the article of the moment.
An explosion was heard early Tuesday morning at the troubled No. 2 reactor of the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the government said, about five hours after work resumed to inject seawater into it to prevent overheating of exposed fuel rods.
Shortly after the 6:10 a.m. incident, the radiation level exceeded the legal limit to reach 965.5 micro sievert per hour, and it is feared that the reactor's pressure-suppression system was damaged, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator, said it is evacuating workers from the plant, except for those necessary for the work to cool the reactor.
The reactor's fuel rods were fully exposed for around two and a half hours Monday evening after water levels rapidly fell, and again late Monday night although seawater was being injected, prompting the utility to open some steam valves at 1:10 a.m. in order to resume pumping seawater.
If this sort of horrible thing must occur, best that it occur in Japan, the land of engineers, and a social selflessness sadly not seen here.
And the article of the moment.
An explosion was heard early Tuesday morning at the troubled No. 2 reactor of the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the government said, about five hours after work resumed to inject seawater into it to prevent overheating of exposed fuel rods.
Shortly after the 6:10 a.m. incident, the radiation level exceeded the legal limit to reach 965.5 micro sievert per hour, and it is feared that the reactor's pressure-suppression system was damaged, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator, said it is evacuating workers from the plant, except for those necessary for the work to cool the reactor.
The reactor's fuel rods were fully exposed for around two and a half hours Monday evening after water levels rapidly fell, and again late Monday night although seawater was being injected, prompting the utility to open some steam valves at 1:10 a.m. in order to resume pumping seawater.
If this sort of horrible thing must occur, best that it occur in Japan, the land of engineers, and a social selflessness sadly not seen here.
From The Left Side Of Jesse's Page: Saudi Troops Sent To Keep Order In Bahrain
Jesse, a calm voice of clarity, always leaves the really 'good stuff' on the left side of his page.
This tidbit is enlightening.
MANAMA (Al Arabiya, Agencies)
Forces from neighboring Gulf Arab countries will help maintain order in Bahrain, Arabiya TV reported on Monday, and an adviser to Bahrain's royal court said their forces were already on the strategic island.
"Forces from the Gulf Cooperation Council have arrived in Bahrain to maintain order and security," Nabeel al-Hamer, a former information minister and adviser to the royal court, said on his Twitter feed.
Gulf Daily News, a newspaper close to Bahrain's powerful prime minister, reported on Monday that forces from the GCC, a six-member regional bloc, would protect strategic facilities.
A Saudi official said Monday that more than 1,000 Saudi troops, part of the Gulf countries' Peninsula Shield Force, have entered Bahrain where anti-regime protests have raged for a month.
Somebody over there is worried, with good reason.
OS had a family member who worked for years in Saudi Arabia, which he described as flooded with cash and bereft of any shred of humanity, overlaid with a strict legalistic reliqious social regime (for all except the rulig family). Oddly enough, those years in the Kingdom transformed said family member into just such a person--now deceased, and unlamented.
OS doesn't shares Jesse's urbane eloquence, but he'll just keep on keepin' on saying the same thing: When we decide to develop and use our own oil, gas, coal and nuclear, we can send those guys on their way. And thousands upon thousands of lives will thereby be spared.
This tidbit is enlightening.
MANAMA (Al Arabiya, Agencies)
Forces from neighboring Gulf Arab countries will help maintain order in Bahrain, Arabiya TV reported on Monday, and an adviser to Bahrain's royal court said their forces were already on the strategic island.
"Forces from the Gulf Cooperation Council have arrived in Bahrain to maintain order and security," Nabeel al-Hamer, a former information minister and adviser to the royal court, said on his Twitter feed.
Gulf Daily News, a newspaper close to Bahrain's powerful prime minister, reported on Monday that forces from the GCC, a six-member regional bloc, would protect strategic facilities.
A Saudi official said Monday that more than 1,000 Saudi troops, part of the Gulf countries' Peninsula Shield Force, have entered Bahrain where anti-regime protests have raged for a month.
Somebody over there is worried, with good reason.
OS had a family member who worked for years in Saudi Arabia, which he described as flooded with cash and bereft of any shred of humanity, overlaid with a strict legalistic reliqious social regime (for all except the rulig family). Oddly enough, those years in the Kingdom transformed said family member into just such a person--now deceased, and unlamented.
OS doesn't shares Jesse's urbane eloquence, but he'll just keep on keepin' on saying the same thing: When we decide to develop and use our own oil, gas, coal and nuclear, we can send those guys on their way. And thousands upon thousands of lives will thereby be spared.
Japan, Before And After
HT Calculated Risk
A dramatic photo montage from New York Times here.
Satellite shots of coastal cities before after the quake and tsunami--chilling is a word that comes to mind.
A dramatic photo montage from New York Times here.
Satellite shots of coastal cities before after the quake and tsunami--chilling is a word that comes to mind.
Daniel Hannan: You Deserve Better, Cousins...
OS is certain that Establishment thought in the UK finds Dan Hannan infuriating. Which means he's probably correct in his assessments of the situation, on the whole.
This latest essay in the Wall Street Journal will probably only fuel their anger.
On a U.S. talk-radio show recently, I was asked what I thought about the notion that Barack Obama had been born in Kenya. "Pah!" I replied. "Your president was plainly born in Brussels."
American conservatives have struggled to press the president's policies into a meaningful narrative. Is he a socialist? No, at least not in the sense of wanting the state to own key industries. Is he a straightforward New Deal big spender, in the model of FDR and LBJ? Not exactly.
My guess is that, if anything, Obama would verbalize his ideology using the same vocabulary that Eurocrats do. He would say he wants a fairer America, a more tolerant America, a less arrogant America, a more engaged America. When you prize away the cliché, what these phrases amount to are higher taxes, less patriotism, a bigger role for state bureaucracies, and a transfer of sovereignty to global institutions.
He is not pursuing a set of random initiatives but a program of comprehensive Europeanization: European health care, European welfare, European carbon taxes, European day care, European college education, even a European foreign policy, based on engagement with supranational technocracies, nuclear disarmament and a reluctance to deploy forces overseas.
He's spot-on, once again. The whole article is well worth the time spent.
His Telegraph blog can be found here.
This latest essay in the Wall Street Journal will probably only fuel their anger.
On a U.S. talk-radio show recently, I was asked what I thought about the notion that Barack Obama had been born in Kenya. "Pah!" I replied. "Your president was plainly born in Brussels."
American conservatives have struggled to press the president's policies into a meaningful narrative. Is he a socialist? No, at least not in the sense of wanting the state to own key industries. Is he a straightforward New Deal big spender, in the model of FDR and LBJ? Not exactly.
My guess is that, if anything, Obama would verbalize his ideology using the same vocabulary that Eurocrats do. He would say he wants a fairer America, a more tolerant America, a less arrogant America, a more engaged America. When you prize away the cliché, what these phrases amount to are higher taxes, less patriotism, a bigger role for state bureaucracies, and a transfer of sovereignty to global institutions.
He is not pursuing a set of random initiatives but a program of comprehensive Europeanization: European health care, European welfare, European carbon taxes, European day care, European college education, even a European foreign policy, based on engagement with supranational technocracies, nuclear disarmament and a reluctance to deploy forces overseas.
He's spot-on, once again. The whole article is well worth the time spent.
His Telegraph blog can be found here.
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