Lord Dubya: The Anatomy of Cronyism

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In the first article, The Times reported that a new executive order requires that each agency contain a “regulatory policy office run by a political appointee,” a change that “strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts.” Yesterday, The Times turned to the rapid growth of federal contracting, fed “by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does.”

These are two different pieces of the same story: under the guise of promoting a conservative agenda, the Bush administration has created a supersized version of the 19th-century spoils system.

-- Paul Krugman for The New York Times

Mr. Krugman delineates a little the case for Bush's cronyism. Political loyalty and fidelity is more important than expertise, and how the conservative ideal of less government is more of a smoke-screen for the consolidation of power. Given his historic unpopularity, though, one would think that Dubya has hurt his cause more. One is nevertheless reminded that a democratic republic is something people always have to fight for, and not something to take for granted.

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Lord Dubya: The Anatomy of Cronyism

♠
In the first article, The Times reported that a new executive order requires that each agency contain a “regulatory policy office run by a political appointee,” a change that “strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts.” Yesterday, The Times turned to the rapid growth of federal contracting, fed “by a philosophy that encourages outsourcing almost everything government does.”

These are two different pieces of the same story: under the guise of promoting a conservative agenda, the Bush administration has created a supersized version of the 19th-century spoils system.

-- Paul Krugman for The New York Times

Mr. Krugman delineates a little the case for Bush's cronyism. Political loyalty and fidelity is more important than expertise, and how the conservative ideal of less government is more of a smoke-screen for the consolidation of power. Given his historic unpopularity, though, one would think that Dubya has hurt his cause more. One is nevertheless reminded that a democratic republic is something people always have to fight for, and not something to take for granted.

xXx

Elephant Ears and Butterflies

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Monk sees that a few stunted elephant ears are still green and seem to be trying to live. Since the weather has been dry for a while (finally!), Monk removed the faucet-protector and tied the water hose back on and gave the plants a good long drink.

While he was watering, a green-ish, yellow-ish butterfly approached the plants. Monk was impressed with how well the butterfly matches the elephant ears, a perfect camouflage. It is the sort of happenstance and beauty that inspires a religious appreciation and awe - like life is beautiful and meaningful regardless of what we do with out lives and how we treat the world.

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Elephant Ears and Butterflies

♠
Monk sees that a few stunted elephant ears are still green and seem to be trying to live. Since the weather has been dry for a while (finally!), Monk removed the faucet-protector and tied the water hose back on and gave the plants a good long drink.

While he was watering, a green-ish, yellow-ish butterfly approached the plants. Monk was impressed with how well the butterfly matches the elephant ears, a perfect camouflage. It is the sort of happenstance and beauty that inspires a religious appreciation and awe - like life is beautiful and meaningful regardless of what we do with out lives and how we treat the world.

xXx

Ron Jeremy: A True Gentleman and Legendary Stud

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At LJ's celebrity gossip community, a story about Ron Jeremy and Paris Hilton is related. It makes sense that two of America's greatest sex icons should have at least crossed paths sometime, and that there should be a titilating story behind it:

February 5, 2007 -- PORN legend Ron Jeremy has finally fessed up to what Page Six reported three years ago - that he, Paris Hilton and Bijou Phillips played a cheeky game of "I'll show you mine, and you show me yours" during a party at the Chateau Marmont. Hilton "asked if they could see it. I agreed only on the condition that they flash their tops. They both said yes and took me to the nearest women's bathroom," Jeremy says in his new autobiography, "Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz," out next week from HarperEntertainment. "We squeezed into an empty stall, they pulled up their shirts, I unbuckled my pants, and after seeing my [organ], Bijou turned to Paris and wondered aloud, 'Could this be considered cheating?' " Jeremy, who says he's bedded more than 4,000 women, adds: "Being a true gentleman, I never confirmed or denied the [Page Six] story. Later, at a party in Las Vegas, I overheard Paris loudly exclaiming to Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst that she had seen my penis. So now I feel comfortable telling the story."

I am wondering whether Monk should buy Mr. Jeremy's book. Although the porn legend may not exactly be in the same league with Elvis, it would be pointless to deny that Ron Jeremy has played a big part in Monk's life of devoted porn-appreciation. And I have thought that the man should be awarded an Oscar for lifetime achievement.


(Source: Page Six of The New York Post)

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Ron Jeremy: A True Gentleman and Legendary Stud

♠
At LJ's celebrity gossip community, a story about Ron Jeremy and Paris Hilton is related. It makes sense that two of America's greatest sex icons should have at least crossed paths sometime, and that there should be a titilating story behind it:

February 5, 2007 -- PORN legend Ron Jeremy has finally fessed up to what Page Six reported three years ago - that he, Paris Hilton and Bijou Phillips played a cheeky game of "I'll show you mine, and you show me yours" during a party at the Chateau Marmont. Hilton "asked if they could see it. I agreed only on the condition that they flash their tops. They both said yes and took me to the nearest women's bathroom," Jeremy says in his new autobiography, "Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz," out next week from HarperEntertainment. "We squeezed into an empty stall, they pulled up their shirts, I unbuckled my pants, and after seeing my [organ], Bijou turned to Paris and wondered aloud, 'Could this be considered cheating?' " Jeremy, who says he's bedded more than 4,000 women, adds: "Being a true gentleman, I never confirmed or denied the [Page Six] story. Later, at a party in Las Vegas, I overheard Paris loudly exclaiming to Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst that she had seen my penis. So now I feel comfortable telling the story."

I am wondering whether Monk should buy Mr. Jeremy's book. Although the porn legend may not exactly be in the same league with Elvis, it would be pointless to deny that Ron Jeremy has played a big part in Monk's life of devoted porn-appreciation. And I have thought that the man should be awarded an Oscar for lifetime achievement.


(Source: Page Six of The New York Post)

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The Morality of Globalization

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Tim Worstall addresses how inequality has been increasing in America through globalization, arguing that the other side of that is that the poor in developing countries are getting richer. The magic of this discussion, and why it is a keeper, is that he makes the economic argument and isssues understandable and compelling. He argues that this trade-off, as hard as it may be for the working classes of the advanced nations, is morally worthy. I'll throw in the punch-line on top:

Those poor who are getting richer in other countries are not moving from one level of luxury to a slightly higher one. They are moving from destitution, from not knowing where the next meal is coming from, to something close to a middle class income. They are doing this in their hundreds of millions, across the globe, and that has to be a good thing.

... Recasting the argument, globalization is increasing relative poverty in the rich countries, while at the same time abolishing absolute poverty in the poor ones. Put like that it seems quite clear to me that the price is worth paying, indeed, I would argue that anyone who disagrees simply isn't a liberal, classical or otherwise.

( Worstall essay )

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The Morality of Globalization

♠
Tim Worstall addresses how inequality has been increasing in America through globalization, arguing that the other side of that is that the poor in developing countries are getting richer. The magic of this discussion, and why it is a keeper, is that he makes the economic argument and isssues understandable and compelling. He argues that this trade-off, as hard as it may be for the working classes of the advanced nations, is morally worthy. I'll throw in the punch-line on top:

Those poor who are getting richer in other countries are not moving from one level of luxury to a slightly higher one. They are moving from destitution, from not knowing where the next meal is coming from, to something close to a middle class income. They are doing this in their hundreds of millions, across the globe, and that has to be a good thing.

... Recasting the argument, globalization is increasing relative poverty in the rich countries, while at the same time abolishing absolute poverty in the poor ones. Put like that it seems quite clear to me that the price is worth paying, indeed, I would argue that anyone who disagrees simply isn't a liberal, classical or otherwise.

( Worstall essay )

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Zakaria on Islam's Civil War

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So, an organization that had hoped to rally the entire Muslim world to jihad against the West has been dragged instead into a dirty internal war within Islam. Bin Laden began his struggle hoping to topple the Saudi regime. He is now aligned with the Saudi monarchy as it organizes against Shiite domination. This necessarily limits Al Qaeda's broader appeal and complicates its basic anti-Western strategy.

-- Fareed Zakaria for Newsweek

Beyond the implications of the ensuing civil war between Sunnis and Shiites for al-Qaida, Mr. Zakaria argues that it is through this civil war that we may see the path for Islam's own de-radicalizing and liberalizing Reformation. That would certainly be a good end, but it looks like a long, bloody way there.

The worst result, of course, is for the radical, revolutionary forces to win, in which case they would then be united to resume in earnest the Jihad against America and the West. The funny thing is that those forces exist in both the Sunni and Shiite sides. Mr. Zakaria argues that we should not take sides in this sectarian warfare, which sounds wise, since it is not clear how to take sides to our advantage and to realize a more peaceful world. Indeed, it can look like that civil war is only about who will lead the jihad as well as the new Muslim world, but we can jump off that bridge when we reach it.

( Zakaria column )

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Zakaria on Islam's Civil War

♠
So, an organization that had hoped to rally the entire Muslim world to jihad against the West has been dragged instead into a dirty internal war within Islam. Bin Laden began his struggle hoping to topple the Saudi regime. He is now aligned with the Saudi monarchy as it organizes against Shiite domination. This necessarily limits Al Qaeda's broader appeal and complicates its basic anti-Western strategy.

-- Fareed Zakaria for Newsweek

Beyond the implications of the ensuing civil war between Sunnis and Shiites for al-Qaida, Mr. Zakaria argues that it is through this civil war that we may see the path for Islam's own de-radicalizing and liberalizing Reformation. That would certainly be a good end, but it looks like a long, bloody way there.

The worst result, of course, is for the radical, revolutionary forces to win, in which case they would then be united to resume in earnest the Jihad against America and the West. The funny thing is that those forces exist in both the Sunni and Shiite sides. Mr. Zakaria argues that we should not take sides in this sectarian warfare, which sounds wise, since it is not clear how to take sides to our advantage and to realize a more peaceful world. Indeed, it can look like that civil war is only about who will lead the jihad as well as the new Muslim world, but we can jump off that bridge when we reach it.

( Zakaria column )

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Islamist Creationism

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The book's pseudonymous author, a Turk named Harun Yahya (real name: Adnan Oktar), makes a number of astonishing claims -- including that Charles Darwin is "the real source of terrorism." For example, a photo of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers carries a caption reading, "Those who perpetuate terror in the world are in reality the Darwinists. Darwinism is the only philosophy which validates and encourages conflict." Yahya also pretends to portray "the secret links between Darwinism and the bloody ideologies of fascism and communism."

-- Doug Ireland Blog

The Islamists are now getting in on the creationism fun. Though, it is not exactly the same as our fundamentalist Christian variety:

Contrary to the fundamentalist Christian Creationists in the U.S. who have been attacking the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in local school boards and many state legislatures, and demanding with an alarming degree of success that Creationism be taught in the public schools, Yahya's Qur'an-based attack on Darwinism does not claim that the world and those who inhabit it were created only 6,000 years ago. Instead, Yahya admits that Earth is really 4.6 billion years old, but his "Atlas" uses hundreds of photos of fossils found over several centuries to "prove" that "the species have never changed" [sic]. This pseudo-scientific clap-trap, says noted French biologist Hervé Le Guyeder, makes this "new form of creationism even more insidious than the Christian-inspired one wreaking havoc in North America."

This is being tried out in France. Since it is not Christian, and with the French being French, one does have to worry about this taking off.

Incidentally, for Monk's postmodernist friends, this is an example why postmodernism, although fun, really needs to be restrained, because Darwinist evolution is not the same as such creationist theory. Some theories are genuinely better. Two plus two equals four.

Life never ceases to be interesting.

xXx

Islamist Creationism

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The book's pseudonymous author, a Turk named Harun Yahya (real name: Adnan Oktar), makes a number of astonishing claims -- including that Charles Darwin is "the real source of terrorism." For example, a photo of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers carries a caption reading, "Those who perpetuate terror in the world are in reality the Darwinists. Darwinism is the only philosophy which validates and encourages conflict." Yahya also pretends to portray "the secret links between Darwinism and the bloody ideologies of fascism and communism."

-- Doug Ireland Blog

The Islamists are now getting in on the creationism fun. Though, it is not exactly the same as our fundamentalist Christian variety:

Contrary to the fundamentalist Christian Creationists in the U.S. who have been attacking the teaching of Darwin's theory of evolution in local school boards and many state legislatures, and demanding with an alarming degree of success that Creationism be taught in the public schools, Yahya's Qur'an-based attack on Darwinism does not claim that the world and those who inhabit it were created only 6,000 years ago. Instead, Yahya admits that Earth is really 4.6 billion years old, but his "Atlas" uses hundreds of photos of fossils found over several centuries to "prove" that "the species have never changed" [sic]. This pseudo-scientific clap-trap, says noted French biologist Hervé Le Guyeder, makes this "new form of creationism even more insidious than the Christian-inspired one wreaking havoc in North America."

This is being tried out in France. Since it is not Christian, and with the French being French, one does have to worry about this taking off.

Incidentally, for Monk's postmodernist friends, this is an example why postmodernism, although fun, really needs to be restrained, because Darwinist evolution is not the same as such creationist theory. Some theories are genuinely better. Two plus two equals four.

Life never ceases to be interesting.

xXx