July 8, 2005
If It's a Muslim Problem, It Needs a Muslim Solution - New York Times
Friedman is right in his long term solution for denying the radical Islamists a place in Muslim society. Meanwhile, Western countries must gather the best intelligence, pursue relentlessly, and eradicate these terrorist bastards by all possible means.
July 7, 2005
Judith Miller Goes to Jail - New York Times
The New York Times made a different decision than Time Magazine in the case that the Supreme Court chose not to review. Time is right and the NY Times, which is so often the case lately, is wrong.
Reporters are not above the law if that law has been shown to be legitimate. In this case, where national security was involved, reporters are definitely not above the law.
The Times' squealing in this editorial is well reasoned, but wrong.
Reporters are not above the law if that law has been shown to be legitimate. In this case, where national security was involved, reporters are definitely not above the law.
The Times' squealing in this editorial is well reasoned, but wrong.
July 6, 2005
Investing in Gaza - New York Times
Friedman thinks all these details must be resolved in advance for a smooth transition. The reality should be that the Palestinians take charge of the specifics about how Gaza will be governed. If they are incapable of orchestrating this shift in power, they will be seen as inept and foolish.
This is a great opportunity for the Palestinians. I'm afraid they will not seize the initiative. My guess is that Hamas or one of the other terror groups will seize control and embarrass Abbas.
Israel has done a good thing here. Let's see if the Palestinians have the good sense not to screw it up.
"Crucial details are also uncooked because Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, while firm in his resolve to end the violence, has been very weak so far. He has not confronted the corrupt and feckless old guard that Yasir Arafat left behind. He has not brought in the young generation. And he has not put his security forces in order. I spent a day in Gaza and did not see one Palestinian policeman, but I saw green Hamas flags everywhere."
This is a great opportunity for the Palestinians. I'm afraid they will not seize the initiative. My guess is that Hamas or one of the other terror groups will seize control and embarrass Abbas.
Israel has done a good thing here. Let's see if the Palestinians have the good sense not to screw it up.
"Crucial details are also uncooked because Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, while firm in his resolve to end the violence, has been very weak so far. He has not confronted the corrupt and feckless old guard that Yasir Arafat left behind. He has not brought in the young generation. And he has not put his security forces in order. I spent a day in Gaza and did not see one Palestinian policeman, but I saw green Hamas flags everywhere."
Africa Tackles Graft, With Billions in Aid in Play - New York Times
Pouring money down a rathole lined with graft, corruption and malfeasance is worse than not giving at all. This pouring in of money and aid that is stolen or diverted to the pockets of thugs and criminals undermines the people's desire for their governments help to improve their lot. Bush is right in his position.
Nigeria is a country used as an example of a miserable mess.
"But this new giving is increasingly dependent on proof that its recipients
are controlling corruption and governing wisely. Mr. Blair's Commission for
Africa, which he established last year, concluded in a report in March that
'without progress in governance,' including tackling corruption, 'all other
reforms will have limited impact.'
The United States has been even more
blunt: 'Countries like ours are not going to want to give aid to countries that are corrupt or don't hold true to democratic principles,' President Bush said last month after meeting with South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki."
Nigeria is a country used as an example of a miserable mess.
"Later audits disclosed scores of botched projects financed with hundreds of millions of dollars in international loans. Nigeria's government never even cleared the site for an $18 million construction project. Millions were spent on paper mills that never produced any paper. Eighteen projects costing $836 million were never completed; another 44 either never operated or were quickly shut down, the Nigerian Finance Ministry reported. Of 20 other projects started between 1985 and 1992, more than half had little
impact or were unsustainable, the World Bank concluded."
Your Land Is My Land - New York Times
Tierney is right on target. The Supreme Court erred grievously with its decision in the New London, CT case. Eminent domain is a government power that should be used sparingly. Pittsburgh, the example Tierney cites, apparently has used the power and the long term results have not been good for the taxpayers.
This little project proposes to make the point of the wrongheadedness of the decision by making application to begin the eminent domain process on Justice Souter's home in Weare, NH. Souter voted in the majority.
"The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."
Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans."
This little project proposes to make the point of the wrongheadedness of the decision by making application to begin the eminent domain process on Justice Souter's home in Weare, NH. Souter voted in the majority.
"The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."
Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans."
July 5, 2005
Oil Is Oil, Be It Burned or Eaten, EPA Says
The EPA seems to have a distorted view of the world if cooking oils and dairy products are subject to the same rules as petroleum. Is this bureaucracy run amok?
"The edible-oil people want the EPA to separate them from the petroleum industry.
The dairy people, meanwhile, want an exception to the rule that says milk and cheese, oleaginous mixtures, will be subject to EPA enforcement. 'I'm sorry. You can have a cheese fire, but you won't have a river of liquid cheese that will endanger the environment,' said Clay Detlefsen , counsel for the International Dairy Foods Association .
That's not to say edible-oil spills don't occur.
Evans said that on average, 45 spills of edible oils and fats reach navigable waters annually. He thinks such spills are underreported. The EPA says on its Web site that non-petroleum oils have physical properties similar to those of petroleum: They create slicks on surface water and form emulsions and sludge that can 'be dangerous or even deadly to wildlife.'"
"The edible-oil people want the EPA to separate them from the petroleum industry.
The dairy people, meanwhile, want an exception to the rule that says milk and cheese, oleaginous mixtures, will be subject to EPA enforcement. 'I'm sorry. You can have a cheese fire, but you won't have a river of liquid cheese that will endanger the environment,' said Clay Detlefsen , counsel for the International Dairy Foods Association .
That's not to say edible-oil spills don't occur.
Evans said that on average, 45 spills of edible oils and fats reach navigable waters annually. He thinks such spills are underreported. The EPA says on its Web site that non-petroleum oils have physical properties similar to those of petroleum: They create slicks on surface water and form emulsions and sludge that can 'be dangerous or even deadly to wildlife.'"
July 3, 2005
A Church-State Solution - New York Times
The author proposes this answer for the battle between the 'values evangelicals' and the 'legal secularists' as he calls them. These two camps are at war over the culture of the United States.
"Despite the gravity of the problem, I believe there is an answer. Put simply, it is this: offer greater latitude for religious speech and symbols in public debate, but also impose a stricter ban on state financing of religious institutions and activities. This approach, the mirror image of O'Connor's compromise, is drawn from the framers' vision and the historical experience of separating church and state in America. The framers might well have been mystified by courthouse statues depicting the Ten Commandments, but they would not have objected unless the monuments were built with public money. Having made a revolution over unfair taxation, they thought of government support in terms of dollars spent, not abstract symbols.
From this logic, it follows that a moment of silence to begin the school day should not be invalidated just because it is intended to let children pray if they wish. Though it will never be easy to determine when schoolchildren are being coerced by peer pressure, at least some older students at optional events like a Friday-night football game surely are not being forced to pray when others are doing so voluntarily. Intelligent-design theory, itself a product of the ill-advised demand that religion disguise itself in secular garb, should be opposed on the educational ground that it is poor science, not on the constitutional reasoning, which some secularists have advanced, that it is a cover for religious creationism. If its advocates can persuade a local school board to put it in the curriculum, the courts need not strike it down as an establishment of religion. On the other hand, charitable choice, which permits billions of dollars in federal money to support faith-based organizations, should not be a vehicle for allowing government to pay for programs that treat alcoholics by counseling them to accept Christ. Schools that teach that Shariah (or Jewish rabbinic law or canon law) is the ultimate source of values should not be supported by tuition vouchers.
Such a solution would both recognize religious values and respect the institutional separation of religion and government as an American value in its own right. This would mean abandoning the political argument that religion has no place in the public sphere while simultaneously insisting that government must go to great lengths to dissociate itself from supporting religious institutions. It would mean acknowledging a substantial difference between allowing religious symbols and speech in public places (so long as there is no public money involved) and spending resources to sustain religious entities like churches, mosques and temples. Public religious symbolism expressed in statues, oaths and prayers reflects citizens' desires to see their deeply held beliefs expressed in those public situations where moral commitments are relevant: legislatures, schools and, yes, courthouses and statehouses."
"... the courts should substitute the two guiding rules that historically lay at the core of our church-state experiment before legal secularism or values evangelicalism came on the scene: the state may neither coerce anyone in matters of religion nor expend its resources so as to support religious institutions and practices, whether generic or particular. These constitutional principles, reduced to their core, can be captured in a simple slogan: no coercion and no money. If no one is being coerced by the government, and if the government is not spending its money to build religious-themed monuments or support religious institutions and practices, the courts should hold that the Constitution is not violated. "
"Despite the gravity of the problem, I believe there is an answer. Put simply, it is this: offer greater latitude for religious speech and symbols in public debate, but also impose a stricter ban on state financing of religious institutions and activities. This approach, the mirror image of O'Connor's compromise, is drawn from the framers' vision and the historical experience of separating church and state in America. The framers might well have been mystified by courthouse statues depicting the Ten Commandments, but they would not have objected unless the monuments were built with public money. Having made a revolution over unfair taxation, they thought of government support in terms of dollars spent, not abstract symbols.
From this logic, it follows that a moment of silence to begin the school day should not be invalidated just because it is intended to let children pray if they wish. Though it will never be easy to determine when schoolchildren are being coerced by peer pressure, at least some older students at optional events like a Friday-night football game surely are not being forced to pray when others are doing so voluntarily. Intelligent-design theory, itself a product of the ill-advised demand that religion disguise itself in secular garb, should be opposed on the educational ground that it is poor science, not on the constitutional reasoning, which some secularists have advanced, that it is a cover for religious creationism. If its advocates can persuade a local school board to put it in the curriculum, the courts need not strike it down as an establishment of religion. On the other hand, charitable choice, which permits billions of dollars in federal money to support faith-based organizations, should not be a vehicle for allowing government to pay for programs that treat alcoholics by counseling them to accept Christ. Schools that teach that Shariah (or Jewish rabbinic law or canon law) is the ultimate source of values should not be supported by tuition vouchers.
Such a solution would both recognize religious values and respect the institutional separation of religion and government as an American value in its own right. This would mean abandoning the political argument that religion has no place in the public sphere while simultaneously insisting that government must go to great lengths to dissociate itself from supporting religious institutions. It would mean acknowledging a substantial difference between allowing religious symbols and speech in public places (so long as there is no public money involved) and spending resources to sustain religious entities like churches, mosques and temples. Public religious symbolism expressed in statues, oaths and prayers reflects citizens' desires to see their deeply held beliefs expressed in those public situations where moral commitments are relevant: legislatures, schools and, yes, courthouses and statehouses."
"... the courts should substitute the two guiding rules that historically lay at the core of our church-state experiment before legal secularism or values evangelicalism came on the scene: the state may neither coerce anyone in matters of religion nor expend its resources so as to support religious institutions and practices, whether generic or particular. These constitutional principles, reduced to their core, can be captured in a simple slogan: no coercion and no money. If no one is being coerced by the government, and if the government is not spending its money to build religious-themed monuments or support religious institutions and practices, the courts should hold that the Constitution is not violated. "
For the Poor in Iran, Voting Was About Making Ends Meet - New York Times
A useful article to understand how the mullahs ahve the economy tied up in knots and the resulting welfare state they have created. This allows them to retain 'control' over the people.
I wonder how long this can last? Billions in oil money available and a large portion of the population living off the government.
When and how will the next revolution occur?
"Iran is awash in oil money, as the price of crude topped $60 a barrel this week, pumping billions into the government treasury. But this country's economy is still tied down by a system in which the state and a shadowy collection of foundations controlled by clerics monopolize the vast bulk of its industries, including oil.
With all that money effectively locked up and a state budget weighed down by subsidies, there is little to spur the kind of private sector growth..."
I wonder how long this can last? Billions in oil money available and a large portion of the population living off the government.
When and how will the next revolution occur?
"Iran is awash in oil money, as the price of crude topped $60 a barrel this week, pumping billions into the government treasury. But this country's economy is still tied down by a system in which the state and a shadowy collection of foundations controlled by clerics monopolize the vast bulk of its industries, including oil.
With all that money effectively locked up and a state budget weighed down by subsidies, there is little to spur the kind of private sector growth..."
July 1, 2005
Follow the Leapin' Leprechaun - New York Times
More from Thomas Friedman...the Capitalist... about the stark differences in how Ireland and other European countries, notably France and Germany, view themselves and their cultural economies.
"And by the way, because of all the tax revenue and employment the global companies are generating in Ireland, Dublin has been able to increase spending on health care, schools and infrastructure. 'You can only do this if you have the income to do it,' Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney said. 'You can't have social inclusion without economic success. ... This is how you create the real social Europe.'
Germany and France are trying to protect their welfare capitalism with defense. Ireland is generating its own sustainable model of social capitalism by playing offense. I'll bet on the offense."
"And by the way, because of all the tax revenue and employment the global companies are generating in Ireland, Dublin has been able to increase spending on health care, schools and infrastructure. 'You can only do this if you have the income to do it,' Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney said. 'You can't have social inclusion without economic success. ... This is how you create the real social Europe.'
Germany and France are trying to protect their welfare capitalism with defense. Ireland is generating its own sustainable model of social capitalism by playing offense. I'll bet on the offense."
CNET Describes TV Legislation
This issue will be a VERY BIG deal as it heats up in Congress and the states. The competitive battle between cable and telco providers has big bucks at stake in terms of franchise fees. These franchise fees at the municipal level in most of the country are significant revenue sources and the opportunity to extract them from both companies will be attractive to local governments fueling a contentious debate. Further, the notion of preemption by the Feds will get the attention of everyone.
In Vermont, the Public Service Board has historically retained franchising authority and regulatory oversight of cable TV. That's a good thing in a small, rural state like ours. If companies had to negotiate agreements with every municipality that would be a nightmare.
In Vermont, the Public Service Board has historically retained franchising authority and regulatory oversight of cable TV. That's a good thing in a small, rural state like ours. If companies had to negotiate agreements with every municipality that would be a nightmare.
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