Category Archives: Political Commentary
Helping Haiti
The Anchoress has some useful links.
The devastation in that benighted country (our own little bit of Africa in the western hemisphere) demonstrates how deadly it can be to be poor, and why attempts to hold back economic growth in the third world with things like Kyoto and cap’n’tax are almost genocidal.
[Update a while later]
“You hear yells everywhere from underneath the rubble.”
Horrible.
[Update on Thursday morning]
Why is Haiti so poor? Some hypotheses from Tyler Cowen.
[Bumped]
[Update a few minutes later]
History’s most deadly quakes. I expect Haiti will be added to this list, though it’s unlikely to set a new record.
[Update late morning]
Remembering the “good times” in Haiti:
On an official visit to the island in the 1980s, as head of the Latin America/Caribbean Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), I witnessed a grown man, my 28-year-old executive assistant, a lawyer who had not traveled extensively outside the U.S., cry inconsolably after touring an orphanage and hospital run by Belgian nuns and supported by USAID food and medical aid. The rest of my team consisted of experienced (read: hardened) professionals who had seen famine and desolation in other countries many times. The assistant had been shocked at the sight of the “triage” set up by the nuns, whereby they calmly and tenderly separated emaciated Haitian newborns into those who would not survive the night and those who might. Both groups received the same loving care from the nuns, but the ones born with no chance of survival did not receive precious resources that could be used to save the lives of other, slightly stronger infants with a chance of living another day and perhaps even surviving.
That hospital, run by angelic Belgians and their Haitian collaborators, was a metaphor for the entire country. The U.S. chose to deliver its significant assistance (more than that of any other nation) only through private organizations, because the government of Haiti was deemed either too incompetent or corrupt to deliver it safely.
It hasn’t improved in the interim, and this disaster is unlikely to improve it.
Living in Boca Raton, almost all of the blacks that I encountered were Haitian (many of them checkout and stocking personnel at the local supermarket). They were good people, and obviously very happy to be here.
Hope
…and change. A majority of adults wouldn’t vote to reelect the president. I’ll bet the numbers would be even worse for likely voters. They’ve obviously become racists…
Seriously, buyers’ remorse has set in after only one year. Well, I warned them, but better late than never.
Unspeakable Truths
Thoughts from Victor Davis Hanson:
I am fortunate for a wonderful graduate education in the PhD program at Stanford, but I learned more about the way the world works in two months of farming (which saved a wretch like me) than in four years of concentrated study.
In short, the world does not work on a nine-month schedule. It does not recognize concepts like tenure. It does not care for words without action. And brilliance is not measured by vocabulary or SAT scores. Wowing a dean, or repartee into a seminar, or clever put-downs of rivals in the faculty lounge don’t translate into running a railroad—or running the country. One Harry Truman, or Dwight Eisenhower is worth three Bill Clintons or Barack Obamas. If that sounds reductionist, simplistic, or anti-intellectual, it is not meant to—but so be it nonetheless.
I’ve never been less impressed with Ivy League degrees than I am now.
Walter Russell Meade
An interesting interview, by Instapundit.
That Will Increase Its Popularity
Will union members be exempted from the “Cadillac” health-care tax?
The Reason Health-Care Costs Are High
We don’t pay for it.
Want to reform health care? Fix that.
A Party of Thugs
And a thug enabler running for Senate in Massachusetts.
[Update a few minute later]
Here’s a first-hand report from the thugeeassault victim (who was given similar treatment by Scozzafava’s entourage in New York when they called the cops on him).
[Afternoon update]
Meehan has apologized to McCormack.
An Interview With Christopher Hitchens
By Michael Totten. Parts I and II:
Hitchens: It’s not “the regime” or “the theocracy.” It’s now very clear that the Revolutionary Guards have committed a coup in all but name–well, I name it, but it hasn’t yet been named generally. They didn’t rig an election. They didn’t even hold one.
MJT: They never counted the votes. There’s no “recount” to be done.
Hitchens: The seizure of power by a paramilitary gang that just so happens to be the guardian and the guarantor and the incubator of the internationally illegal weapons program. If that doesn’t concentrate one’s mind, I don’t know what will.
MJT: If the Obama Administration calls you up and says, “Christopher, we need you to come in here, we need your advice.” What would you tell them?
Hitchens: I would say, as I did with Saddam Hussein–albeit belatedly, I tried to avoid this conclusion–that any fight you’re going to have eventually, have now. Don’t wait until they’re more equally matched. It doesn’t make any sense at all.
The existence of theocratic regimes that have illegally acquired weapons of mass destruction, that are war with their own people, that are exporting their violence to neighboring countries, sending death squads as far away as Argentina to kill other people as well as dissident members of their own nationality–the existence of such regimes is incompatible with us. If there is going to be a confrontation, we should pick the time, not them.
We’re saying, “Let’s give them time to get ready. Then we’ll be more justified in hitting them.” That’s honestly what they’re saying. When we have total proof, when we can see them coming for us, we’ll feel okay about resisting.
Read all, and hit Michael’s tip jar.
Davy Jones Locker
…is full of oil?
I’ve never bought the peak oil theory, at least not as having any near-term relevance. If production slows down, it’s only because we’ve quit looking, or haven’t been allowed to by idiot politicians.