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May 31, 2006
Gay Marriage Amendment: Republicans Use Demagoguery to Pave the Way for Tyranny and Oppression
"The question posed by the [anti-Gay] marriage amendment" says Reason.com, "is not just whether gay marriage is a good idea, but who should decide—the states or the federal government? From its debut in 2001, the marriage amendment was misleadingly advertised as a restriction on activist courts. In truth, the amendment would strip the power to adopt same-sex marriage not only from judges but from all 50 states' legislators, governors, and electorates."
Well, that's a good start from the Libertarian/libertarian leaning Reasonoids. What they should ask themselves next and justify if they can is WTH should anyone but the couples involved get any say in the matter? Assuming the usual caveats (adult age, voluntary consent, soundness of mind, et. al) of course.
So why do the GOP bother with this stuff? Consider Virginia, where in 2004 the Republican-controlled Legislature hit on the promising formula of passing both a whopping tax increase and a gratuitously vindictive anti-gay-marriage law. (The so-called Marriage Affirmation Act outlawed not only gay marriage and civil unions, but also private contracts between same-sex individuals seeking to replicate marital arrangements.) Lyndon Johnson once said, "Hell, give [a man] somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." The Virginia formula was in that vein: Knock the gays hard enough, and maybe conservatives wouldn't notice the tax hike. It didn't work either. The Democrats won the election anyhow.
And further note this whole business of character blackening going on around marriage and moral issues right now with Top Ten FBI fugitive Warren Jeffs out in Texas and Arizona as an example. "How dare this prick (says the FBI and local authorities) break the law by taking more than one wife! He's prolly a tax cheat, a pedophile, a gun owner too. And a self-admitted religious kook,(even by Mormon standards) as well." Why all this? "Cui bono?” my friends. When the SWAT team finally surrounds the compound of Jeffs' outfit and the bullets fly and the bombs go off, most of the sheep will be far and away fully convinced that Jeffs and his sect somehow deserve their fiery and violent destruction, that's why. Better planning than at Waco in 1993, eh?
Posted by Ali Massoud at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2006
Florida Anti-Porn Crusaders Resort to WMD to Close Adult Bookstore
I kid you not!
"In Waldo [Florida], people have held prayer vigils and protests aimed at an adult bookstore along US 301, trying to keep the 'Cafe Risque' from opening its doors on time, " reports this new story.
"Those efforts have all failed, so investigators say it looks like someone has turned to what they're calling a clear act of terrorism to keep the store's owner from opening up shop.
The device, discovered Sunday morning, was made of two gallon-size sports drink jugs connected by hoses. Someone set it on top of the store's window air conditioning unit."
Hey if you can't bring down lightening bolts from the Almighty down upon the heads of the wicked through prayer or intimidate them with demonstrations and picketing, or drive them from business through boycotts, then resorting to terrorism is the next best option. Or so it would seem anyhow.
And so another reason emerges why the forces of liberty cannot align themselves with the modern day political Right. The sort of people who covertly or openly support such tactics are the same sort of people who go ballistic when some nitpicking atheist or agnostic sues some town or city for having a manger display at Christmastime or to remove religious symbols from public property too. But that you see is "anti-religious persecution. I wonder if those same people have a name for what this is?
(Via Drudge Report)
Posted by Ali Massoud at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2006
Fence? What Fence?
Supporters of a fence along the U.S./Mexican border will be disheartened after viewing a couple recent photos. One immigrant doesn’t seem to have any trouble scaling the barrier despite not being in the possession of any detectable ropes or tools to aid his climb. This fellow, even though a bit on the chubby side, seems to be faring quite well, too.
I guess a mine field will be next.
Posted by Roger Young at 02:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
"Minutemen" Installing A Private Border Fence..
..in Arizona. Well, at least it ain't with taxpayer money, eh?
From the SF Chronicle article:
"Rancher Jack Ladd and his son, John, were hopeful the effort would limit the illegal immigrants and drug runners who have cut the small fence along the property or just driven over it to cross into the U.S.
" 'We've been fighting this thing for 10 years with the fence, and nobody will do anything,' Jack Ladd said."
Most of the day was dedicated to speeches from politicians and Minutemen leaders and celebrating large donations the Minutemen group has been receiving.
Minuteman spokeswoman Connie Hair said it would take up to three weeks to build the estimated $100,000 fence. So far, the group has raised $380,000 for more border fences, she said.' "
Oh, well private solutions are the best, eh? If you can call this a solution.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 02:23 PM | Comments (2)
May 27, 2006
'Dr. Death' Has Second Thoughts About Assisting Suicides
Especially now that it's him that is dying. I remember a few years back when ol' Dr. Kevorkian was on a tear. People would fly in from all over the country and he'd hook 'em up to his (patented no less!) suicide machine, video tape them through the dying process, bag 'em up, and drive their remains to the Wayne County (Detroit area) Coroners Office. And then get arrested.
The Detroit PD and the DA’s Office would huff and puff and certain "community leaders" would piss & moan for the state to "do something" (the impetuous for most nanny state overreaching too, eh?). Kevorkian would be arrested, arraigned, bailed, tried, and invariably it seemed, acquitted.
Dr. K's downfall came when the smart, cocky, and politically ambitious trial lawyer who used him as a catspaw for his own political agenda Geoffrey Fieger dumped him to run for governor of Michigan in 1998. Before whole the "Dr. Death" thing no one outside the ambulance-chasing world of the personal injury lawsuit specialty ever heard of him. And after his crushing defeat in the 1998 election, we had hoped to never hear of him again too, but like a bad penny Fieger won't go away.
As for Dr. K who languishes in prison? "Physician heal thyself,” would seem to apply here I would say. But it seems Dr. K isn’t through living yet! Go figger that, eh?
I admired, albeit grudgingly, what Kevorkian was trying to accomplish, (i.e. establishing ultimate right of "self ownership" by being able to terminate one's life as a matter of principle and law) but that was largely thwarted by Fieger's exploitation and Kevorkian's creepy and insensitive morbidity. Which was in hindsight prolly another piece of bad advice from Fieger. And so it goes.
You can read of Kevorkian's plight here.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 08:46 AM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2006
Commercials get "Lost"
In re ABC's Lost, one of my favorite shows..
"For the past four weeks", says Yahoo News, "ABC has included an ad for the fictitious Hanso Foundation during commercial breaks on "Lost." These ads have featured phone numbers and Web sites that viewers need to check out for more clues about the game.
But a closer look at the ads and the game itself show that there are actually some marketing tie-ins. The Hanso "commercials" have actually featured small print showing that they are paid for by well-known corporations."
Very clever marketing too eh?
Posted by Ali Massoud at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2006
Why Writers Use Pen Names
"The Boing Boing blog broke this story, which is something anyone who is interested in genre fiction needs to take interest in. A University of Florida graduate student wrote a horror story on his LiveJournal which got the interest of the university police. They have been harassing him for his fingerprints and DNA so they can try to match him to other murders. The unstoppable force that is Cory Doctorow got involved, calling and investigating, with the police quite unwilling to discuss the situation, although they chose to use Doctorow’s interest in the situation as more ammo with which to threaten the student. There is no case. There are no charges. And yet they won’t lay off this guy.
Writing is not a crime. Writing about bad things is not a crime. Being an unpublished writer, writing about bad things, is not a crime. (Notice no one going after big time authors."
I wonder what kinda reception Edgar Allen Poe would get from today's PC cyber-cops? Or Stephen King if he were just starting out?
Entry meme via Escape Pod
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2006
Censorship or Responsible Journalism?
"We report", says one ideologically bent network, "and you decide". Not Google though. They decide what fookin’ websites you'll see and what news you'll read and just as importantly what results you'll get from web searches.
This is not official policy of the "Don't be evil" megacorp but it sure plays out that way in practice. They make deals with totalitarian nation-state entities to censor, deny service to vast segments of the world's population, and nark out those who go afoul of the dictatorships that Google has as clients. And further Google eliminates "hate speech" websites from their search engine results too, again based on their notions of truth, free speech, and ah.. The bottom line of their balance sheets I guess. Read one of Google's termination letters to a site they don't approve of.
"Thanks for writing. We received numerous reports about hate content on your site, and after reviewing these reports, decided to remove your site from Google News. We do not allow articles and sources expressly promoting hate speech viewpoints in Google News (although referencing hate speech for commentary and analysis is acceptable)."
Oh brother!
Just show the results of my search criteria you guys, and I'll decide what is or isn't germane or relevant, eh?
post concept via slashdot.org
Posted by Ali Massoud at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2006
Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way
That bit o’ wisdom cuts both ways eh? As digital age pioneer Scott McNealy noted once about using the Internet: "You have zero privacy anyway, [so] get over it" True that.
Slashdot.org has a posting today about some company in Switzerland that has built a mobile phone that features 128 bit-key encryption technology. Cool eh? Yeah, I guess so, but in the end that prolly won't work either. Even a non-technical goof like myself can see a few ways to beat this. Brute force for one and which is also Leviathan's specialty. If we can't listen the POB be will figger, then neither can you! And so they'll jam the signal. All you'll hear is static. Or the POB could announce that this item is "dangerous technology" and restrict it (like they did with PGP data encryption for a while) or just ban it outright like they have in England and Australia. And they can always prevail by simply putting a fookin' gun to your head. It's hard to defeat that with encryption technology, eh?
And then there's stealth. The POB could easily put a listening device in the phone or on your person or in close proximity to where you are calling from. I noticed when I had a corporate job that this one lady I knew always went out to smoke and sat at particular booth at the restaurant next door. And while puffing on her Marlboro Light she usually brought along her cellphone. How hard would it be to put a listening device in that booth? And then despite the encryption, signal scrambling and whatever I could hear whatever she said or did. Even text messages.
Today snooping technology is so extensive and pervasive that the only possibility for privacy at all is to fly under the radar. I say this because in the end, if Leviathan's minions get desperate enough or pissed enough then they'll just tie you to chair and run some current through the electrodes they’ve attached to your balls until you tell 'em what they wanna know.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 09:28 AM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2006
When GI Joe Says No
"How can the peace movement draw more Iraq War veterans into its ranks?, asks a good article in The Nation this week. The answer: "It can begin by understanding the socioeconomic realities of the all-volunteer military."
Yep. Amen to that idea.
Most of America's warriors are young men and women from small towns and urban ghettos who have no real options in life. They can try and raise their kids on McJob wages in the civilian economy or they can enlist and role the dice in the ruling classes' death lottery and see if they make it through to retirement without being killed or dismembered.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2006
Cyber-Terrorists Victorious Yet Again
"Anti-spam startup Blue Security decided on Tuesday to shutter its aggressive anti-spam service, citing threats of further--and more malicious--attacks on its service and users." [link]
Damn those guys..
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2006
Schools for Scribblers
Newspapers dwindle, but journalism graduates keep coming. So now what? So this:
"If America's universities were providing students with adequate academic instruction," says the Wall Street Journal, "instead of pumping out degrees in pseudosubjects like 'communications,' then J-schools wouldn't need to adapt at all. They could simply shut down."
Ouch!
I get the local paper here where I live, but it only comes out once a week on Sundays. I get all the local news, sports, and advertizing. I dropped the Detroit papers some years ago and the NYT and the WSJ last year. This freed up an hour or two a day and my son has less stuff to carry out to the recycle bins.
As for the sad, sorry journalism grads? Well if they really love writing they can always blog, eh?
Posted by Ali Massoud at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2006
The Dismal Science's Practitioners Analyzed & Deconstructed
Economists who are members of the American Economic Association were surveyed recently. The views of these folks may surprise you. The majority supported the whole array of state interventions in the economy. To wit: FDA regulations, monetary and fiscal "fine tuning", redistribution of wealth, public schools, foreign aid, prohibition of drugs, the adult sex-trade, gambling, and foreign military adventures overseas to impose "democracy and the rule of law".
So I would gather that most AEA member economists are full-blown statist social engineers and collectivist nanny-staters. And so ah.. Fook 'em eh? People can, should, and do live their lives very nicely without the advice, policy recommendations, and anti-liberty social theories of the econo-geek class foisted on the rest of us like it was religious scripture or empirically derived scientific fact.
Read about it further here.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2006
(State) Researcher Fnd No Signs of "Iraq War Syndrome"
" 'Is there an Iraq War Syndrome? The answer is no, at least not yet but at the moment certainly not', Professor Simon Wessely, of the King's Center for Military Health Research at King's College London, told a news conference."
And if you believe that well then there's this bridge I have for sale...
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2006
Vengence or Judgement?
I received this LTTE from the media alert bot at the Ayn Rand Institute. It is surprising because its logic and moral clarity start out so well but then become so muddled as it proceeds. Read it.
"Dear Editor:"As Saddam Hussein's trial resumes, he will face further charges for
slaughtering thousands of Kurds--but Hussein deserves no regular
trial. A trial that presumes him innocent is a travesty of justice.
Hussein is not a private citizen, whose guilt requires proof in an
objective court of law, but a dictator whose incontestable evil was
manifest to any rational observer of his tyranny.Hussein deserves to be definitively condemned as evil and then
executed--immediately or after any valuable information is extracted
from him. Prior to his execution, there can be a legitimate reason to
hold a public hearing--not to establish his guilt, but to fully expose his secretive dictatorship's myriad vile deeds. Such a hearing would acknowledge that as dictator he is responsible for all crimes
committed by his regime.Instead of endorsing the trial of Saddam Hussein, the United States
should withdraw its moral sanction from such corrupt proceedings.Elan Journo"
Saddam Hussein does deserve to be punished and without the need for an elaborate, expensive and interminably long show trial too. His guilt needs no further proof. However the people were injured, tortured, imprisoned, exiled, stolen from or otherwise harmed are the ones who are more entitled to justice here.
In other words the people of Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait. What standing in law or moral philosophy does Mr.(?) Journo have to demand Hussein’s imprisonment or death? Or the United States government either for that matter? Mr. Journo should address the standing issue directly before demanding to spring the trap on Saddam's gallows. It's only rational, eh? Otherwise his screed seems more appropriate for the leader of a lynch mob.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2006
One Trick Pony
Our D.C. area local papers led their metro sections with the story of a police killing of an 18-year-old after a 35-minute standoff. The young man had been yelling at the police "Kill me," pressing a pair of scissors at his neck, and was shot to death by four of at least five present police officers when he menaced them with the scissors in some way.
While these officers were defending themselves, gunning down Justin Fisher after 35-minutes was a pretty pathetic response for five (or more) uniforms. Of course, this is how police are trained. Using some imagination or creativity to save a life isn't high on the agenda. Preserving an aura of lethal authority is.
I read this scenario locally about once a year as Fisher's mother initially called police. The endgame is always the distraught parent(s) asking why the police shot down their mentally ill son. A word to the wise: this pony doesn't know any other tricks.
Posted by Robert Jackson at 11:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Free Market "Solution" to What Problem Councilmen?
San Bernardino California landlords who rent to "illegal" immigrants could face $1,000 fines, and homeowners who hire undocumented workers could have their cars impounded under a measure being voted on today by the San Bernardino City Council. As a former landlord myself, I can sure see some problems with this. But at least the council is thinking along the lines of market-based solutions.
So now even dictatoral collectivistic statists are begining to understand the value of market-based incentives. This new approach on the councils' part represents progress even if it isn't especially progressive, eh?
Posted by Ali Massoud at 03:31 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2006
We're in Charge of the Borders..
So ah..Use state National Guard troops to protect it. So goes the logic of the top minds of the Bush administration. USANG troops, many freshly returned from lengthy overseas deployments, are now gonna be tasked with "border security". And no doubt at state taxpayers expense too. Go figger these guys in Washington.
How many times over past few years have the citizens of California, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico tried to deal with immigration issues through legislation and ballot initiatives only to be rebuffed by federal courts? ("Immigration is a federal matter you people!) So now the Bush administration, in a sad and transparent attempt to shore up what's left of its conservative base, is moving on the immigration issue by passing the buck for a very likely to fail border security program that it isn't even willing to fund. Sheesh.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 10:34 AM | Comments (2)
May 12, 2006
Feds Want Hacker's Genetic Code...
...but they don't say why. Adrian Lamo hacked into the New York Times data base a few years back for which he was convicted of three felonies and given prison time and a lengthy period of "supervised" parole. Okay, fair enough. He shoulda left the NYT alone. But now the feds want his DNA too? And unless he gives it up Lamo's lookin' at five more years in prison.
If it was me, I'd head down to Costa Rica or look into obtaining some new identity papers. I couldn't live that way myself. Just ask around amongst the immigrant community. In Detroit you can buy a SSN, green card, birth certificate, or pretty much any other piece of ID for a few hundred bucks.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 08:33 AM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2006
Yet Another Plagiarism Scandal from People Who Are Smart Enough to Know Better
"Poor, perfect Kaavya Viswanathan. When the first reporter, a kid from the Harvard Crimson, called about the dozens of cribbed passages, Kaavya stonewalled. 'I have no idea what you are talking about.' Later, her continuing, elaborate disingenuousness made it harder to pity her. McCafferty’s books 'spoke to me in a way few other books did . . . [I] can honestly say that any phrasing similarities between her works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious.' Why’d she go on the Today show? To tell 'the truth.' Such chutzpah. But last week—as Little, Brown canceled the novel—the Times unearthed more appropriations from another girlocentric romantic comedy. And the Harvard Independent found that parts of Opal Mehta were also lifted from Born Confused, a novel about an Indian-American girl growing up in New Jersey. Such over-the-top chutzpah; no wonder she got into Harvard."
Hah! Read the rest of her lame excuses, misrepresentations and lies here.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 05:33 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2006
Monetary Myths
Aaron Singleton writes:
Money carries with it an expectation. We see it as the symbol of our productive effort, which can be traded for the things we desire. That’s why we accept it. We expect that others will do the same. In our minds, money becomes the physical embodiment of our sweat, our hard effort, our ideas, our achievements, and our labor. It is these things, and the material goods they produce, that do not grow on trees. The money we currently use does.
Posted by George F. Smith at 09:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 09, 2006
repressive desublimation
I added this definition of the term "repressive desublimation" to the Liberty Wiki:
" repressive desublimation
A concept described by libertarian Marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse: One of the principle thinkers within the Frankfurt School, and generally important in efforts to fuse the thought of Freud and Marx. Marcuse introduced the concept repressive desublimation, in which social control can operate not only by direct control, but also by manipulation of desire. Marcuse specifically referred to the role of advertising and propaganda in manipulationg societal consensus."
I am certainly not an expert on this concept. I have carefully read One Dimensional Man and Eros and Civilization by Marcuse where he touches on this. If some of you guys who know better could look it over or make suggestions I'd really appreciate it.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)
May 07, 2006
They Hate Us and Yet..
“Did the American crusaders flatten your village with their God-cursed Blackhawk helicopters? Here's your chance to kill a few infidels and strike a blow for Islam.” Yikes! Some code-savvy Islamist ethno-nationalists out there have re-worked a few of our favorite shmups so that the heroes are now the jihadis shooting at the US Marines.
The games appear on militant websites, where youths as young as seven or eight can play at being US troop-killing urban guerillas after “registering” with the site's sponsors. It had to happen I suppose…
Posted by Ali Massoud at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2006
Those Crazy Economists
"Newlan's Truism: An 'acceptable' level of unemployment means that the government economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job."
I saw this nugget ‘o wisdom at the bottom of the main page at slashdot.org’s website today. I don’t know who Newlan is or was, but he sure captured the feeling I get when reading or hearing pronouncements from most economists. They tend to take the kid-with-an-ant-farm view of humanity. To wit: ”Sure some people will lose out with this new policy we have put in place or want to, but hey, in the long run.. blah blah blah…” You get the idea. In the “long run” we’re all fookin’ dead too.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)
May 05, 2006
Monkey Wrenching Government Snoopers
File this entry under FWIW, but it sounds plausible. I was IMing with a long time friend who is a communications expert. He told me that if you include the words "cialis", "viagra" or "penis" (or any variant of spelling for the latter) in an email, text, or fax then the NSA websnooping protocols will skip over it.
See, even goverment snoopers with the best hardware, most bandwidth, and expert help can’t individually look over everything. Even they have a spam problem he says. It sounds plausible to me but I'd still recommend PGP or some other encryption program for really sensitive stuff. I dunno. If any of you techno geeks or amateur cryptographers have opinions or input on this I'd really like to here from you either by email, IM, or whatever.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
May 04, 2006
Leviathan Eats its Own
I read an article today chronicling the torments and travails of innocent people by the USG. And a very ignoble admission on my part here: I felt nothing but hilarity and schadenfreude at the pissing & moaning from Pentagon brass, US diplomats, and others in the employ of the USG who are routinely hassled by the TSA when they fly. Hah!
A guilty pleasure reading the chronicles of tyranny against people I don’t even like anyhow. Despise really. I know, Thoreau, MLK, Gandhi, and the rest would say that an injustice to one is an injustice to all. And this is quite true. But the heart feels what it will, eh?
Indulge your dark side here.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 12:14 PM | Comments (1)
May 03, 2006
How Low Can You Go?
This list is impressive: Tom Leykis, Mario Cuomo, Jim Hightower, Jesse Jackson, and the Air America Radio Network What do these “progressives” all have in common? All have simply bombed when it comes to building and maintaining a radio audience big enough to stay on the air. Well, except for Air America, which ain’t dead yet, but is on its last breaths, and Tom Leykis who dumped his progressive Democrat talk radio format and switched over to being a Howard Stern clone.
But why? Their views aren’t any more obnoxious, lame, uninformed or retarded than Rush, Sean and their legion of imitators are. And “liberals” (as the msm misidentifies the above-mentioned list), are at least as numerous in the markets where Air America hits the airwaves as are the conservatives. Hmmmm.. If Air America can’t get any ratings in NYC, Chicago, or LA then WTF can they? And why is this anyhow? The bloggers at City Journal have some ideas. To wit:
“You’d think that the public’s growing dissatisfaction with President Bush and the Iraq War would translate into lots of listeners for Air America’s ‘progressive talk’,” says City Journal blogger Brian C. Anderson, “especially with the fawning free publicity the network and its top host, comedian Al Franken, have enjoyed from the mainstream press. But even hard-core liberals (who make up only about one-fifth of the American electorate, it’s important to remember) must find Air America’s incessant and often moronic Bush bashing monotonous and unentertaining—the kiss of death for talk radio.”
And also:
“Further, liberals already have NPR—and for that matter, the New York Times, network newscasts, CNN, and most of the mainstream media. Conservative and libertarian voices dominate the radio dial because they offer a much-needed response to the liberal media mainstream. The Right has done well on cable television and in the blogosphere for the same reason. Air America, created and kept afloat by a handful of wealthy liberal financiers, meets no such market demand.”
The Air (America) Heads could learn from Jon Steward and Stephen Colbert. Even as Air America’s hosts snicker about President Bush’s plummeting approval ratings, the network seems destined to disappear from the radio dial before the president leaves the White House. How ironic. But funny eh?
Posted by Ali Massoud at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2006
Will Wonders Never Cease?
Whoa! I opened my Ayn Rand Institute email update and surprise, surprise! Logic and sense were proclaimed and expounded! To wit:
"The essence of democracy is unlimited majority rule. It is the notion that the government should not be constrained, as long as its behavior is sanctioned by majority vote. It is the notion that the function of government is to implement the "will of the people." It is the notion we are espousing when we tell the Iraqis, the Palestinians and the Afghanis that the legitimacy of their new governments rests essentially on their being democratically approved."
Yowsah! Can't argue with that! It's a wonderful change from the usual "[fill in the blank] must be bombed immediately!" sort of foreign policy screed we usually get from ARI op-eds.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)
Some Thoughts on Nationalization
Who owns a natural resource? The people who live on the ground the resource is on? The people who “own the rights” to the resource? And who is in a position to sell off such rights anyhow? All good and legitimate questions I maintain.
So while I am not entirely happy about using the armed forces of the State to seize private property, such questions as mentioned above beg for serious examination and some answers.
When States make sweet-heart deals to harvest resources for the profit or benefit of political and financial elites these questions arise. I dunno. When I harvest trees I buy the right to do so from the people who own the land the trees are on. End of story.
Posted by Ali Massoud at 12:40 PM | Comments (0)