LewRockwell.com Blog

The Unmentionable Fact About Bob Hope

Writes Marshall Fritz: "In all the TV and print the last few days, I have noticed an omission -- that Bob Hope, may he rest in peace, converted to the Catholic faith just a few years ago."

Catholics and the South

Writes Clyde Wilson:

"In my review of Gangs of New York in reply to Sailer, I mentioned several things. The Old South, before the war, was not anit-Catholic, and the North was. The North was full of anti-Catholic propaganda. Mobs burned convents in Boston and Philadelphia before the war. In Columbia Sherman burned a convent with the attached school and valuable religious art collection. There were several Catholics from the South in Congress before the war, and not only from Louisiana. Mallory, Senator from Florida, was in the Confederate cabinet. Father Abram J. Ryan was the poet laureate of the Confederacy. There were large Catholic concentrations in Louisiana, Mobile, Charleston, and Maryland. Catholic bishops North and South never approved of abolitionism. Bishop England of Charleston was a highly respected figure and addressed the legislature, which was unheard of in the North. Father John Bannon from St. Louis went to see the Holy Father on behalf of the Confederacy and was then sent to Ireland to interfere with Union recruiting. Charles O'Connor, New York Catholic, volunteered as Jeff Davis's counsel. The entire student body of St. Mary's College in Maryland volunteered for the Confederate army. etc etc etc. The Know Nothings had no strength in the South.

"I am at home without my files and getting ready to leave town to speak to the national SCV convention, but a year or two ago I wrote a piece for Chronicles called 'Confederate Rainbow' in which I cited sources. Beware that they changed the Charlestown (Mass.) convent burning to Charleston, making it sound like S.C.

"Since I wrote the Gangs of New York review in reply to Sailer, I have thought of a much better point to make. Sailer condemns the Irish for not being willing to fight for the Union which had welcomed them. Let's see. He is opposed to immigrants. However, immigrants are OK if they kill Southerners---and Southerners mostly have a longer American pedigree than Sailer and ilk."

Manichean certitude

As with all of us, Dubya would do well to learn a thing or two from St. Augustine. As Chris Manion notes, Bush apparently believes that he has overcome evil, and that all who have not done the same (in his eyes) are fools and weaklings. A Bush-esque colleague of mine, who is an ex-smoker, never tires of denouncing smokers are pathetic weaklings.

Augustine, of course, knew all about wallowing in philosophical and moral error, but when he overcame it, gave all the credit where it was due: God. As John's Gospel notes, we have nothing that has not been given to us from heaven. This includes faith and moral fortitude. I quote ol' Saint Gus himself: "Woe to those who think the truth so easily discovered and error so easily avoided!"

Hurrah for Forced Immigration and the Destruction of the South

Archbishop Chaput is hailed as a bulwark of orthodoxy, and I am sure he is. His competence as an historian and policy analyst is another matter. The only foreign power to recognize the Confederacy was the Holy See, and Bl. Pius IX presented Jefferson Davis with a crown of thorns that he had personally woven, apparently bloodying his hands in the process.

Marriage and the State

LRC reader Matt Smith writes to the Arizona Republic (Empire?).

Danes and Jesuits

Walter Block continues to add to his Libertarian Autobiographies Archive. Two recent essays come from Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard and Fr. James V. Schall, SJ.

Libertarian Protectionists

Writes a Congressional staffer: "Concerning free trade in pharmaceuticals: Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute screamed at the lead GOP sponsor of the bill at Grover Norquist's meeting that reimportation would 'kill people.' Also, the National Taxpayers Union and Americans for Tax Reform opposed the bill. CATO has been the only one of the DC groups to renounce its anti-free trade position. and while they deserve the lumps they took for temporary protectionism, other DC-based libertarians are even bigger shrills for the drug lobby."

BTW, don't miss Jude Blanchette's excellent article on the entire controversy.

States, Navajo Nation Banish U.S. 666

I guess Devil's Tower in Wyoming is next on the list:

"With the blessings of officials from three Western states, the stretch of highway that cuts across northwestern New Mexico got a new identity Wednesday: U.S. 666 became U.S. 491. "We're kicking the devil out of New Mexico," said Rhonda Faught, secretary of New Mexico's Department of Transportation. "

Give me a break.

Conservatism in America Since 1930

It's always nice when we're not written out of the conservative movement. A new book featured this month by the Conservative Book Club looks to give one of the fairest overviews of the conservative movement that I've seen. Editor Gregory L. Schneider includes selections from the usual suspects in his Conservatism in America Since 1930, like Buckley, Russell Kirk, Frank Meyer, Barry Goldwater and Whittaker Chambers. But he also includes portions from Albert Jay Nock's Our Enemy, the State, F. A. Hayek's "Why I Am Not A Conservative", Murray Rothbard on "What is Libertarianism", Stephen J. Tonsor's "Why I Am Not a Neoconservative", Samuel Francis' Beautiful Losers: Why Conservatism Failed and Pat Buchanan's A Republic, Not An Empire.

This one's probably been mentioned before, but I also note A Constitutional History of Secession by John Remington Graham. With endorsements by Clyde Wilson and a forward by Donald Livingston, this looks like another winner.

At least they can still smoke in their bars...

Spanish mayor orders men to stay home to give women night off:

"The radical move by Javier Checa will ensure that any men who go to bars in Torredonjimeno between 9pm and 2am on a Thursday night would be fined by police.

Mr Checa says he expects the town's men to stay at home on Thursdays, looking after the kids and washing up. The women, on the other hand, are to be given a free run of the town's bars and nightclubs, which, presumably, will be free of the opposite sex."

Mr Checa said he wanted to turn Torredonjimeno, near the city of Jaen, into "an international reference point" for sexual equality. "

Rotating Presidency

Iraq is to have a nine-man, rotating presidency. Can we have that here too?

The SS Leaks to Drudge

Drudge knew, ahead of time, that the Secret Service was going to try to intimidate an anti-Bush cartoonist. (From the Drudge Report.)

No Free Press in a Wolfocracy

Robert Fisk on the US military vs. al-Jazeera.

Re: Cato on Drug Reimportation

A follow-up to this post: Cato's News Release dated July 29, 2003 proclaims its free-trade stance, despite columns advocating protectionism by two of its scholars:

"Cato scholars support drug reimportation

"WASHINGTON—Cato Institute President Edward H. Crane and Vice President for Legal Affairs Roger Pilon make the case for the prescription drug-reimportation bill passed by the House late last week in an op-ed published today in National Review Online. Addressing an issue that has split many conservatives and libertarians, Crane and Pilon argue that the principle of free trade and reliance on free markets support the reimportation of prescription drugs into the United States. The new policy can result in more market-based prices, increased price competition, an easing of prescription drug barriers and lower prices for gouged American consumers."

What is interesting is the comment that this is "an issue that has split many conservatives and libertarians". A "split" among libertarians on this issue? Really? I am unaware of any libertarians, other than the two Cato columnists themselves (Bandow and Krauss), who don't view this as an "easy" issue.

Art in the Service of Religion

Here is a very well done fan site for Mel Gibson's The Passion, which starts with a trailer in easy-to-view form. You can also sign up to support the movie, and to get the lastest news. I love the choose-a-language page: English or Latin.

Terrorism Futures?

For the latest on that, the Zimbabwe cash crunch, Greenspaniana, Iraqonomics, and a hundred other topics, see the Mises Economics Blog.

shizzle to da shiznit

As it is now well known that I have an extensive following of readers from the hip-hop community, you might be asking yourself, "How does this McMaken guy speak to today's youth with such grace and aplomb?" Well here it is: The Shizzolator by Snoop Dogg.

Simply plug in your favorate web site and you'll soon be speaking like the master himself. (warning: "parental advisory")

Academic Freedom and Dissent

Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the League of the South? Professor fired for not agreeing with the federal invasion, looting, and military occupation of his country.

Islamic vs. Secularist Libertarianism

The fascinating interview with Imad A. Ahmad that LRC points to today had an additional surprise. Not only does Mr. Ahmad seem to have reconciled his Islamic beliefs with a thorough-going Rothbardian libertarianism, but he ends up sounding rather more libertarian and more sophisticated than his interviewer from Reason, Tim Cavanaugh.

Cavanaugh asserts that "natural law is a completely discredited theory", while Mr. Ahmad hearkens back to the great tradition of the Scholastics, (and argues that they may have learned a few things from the medieval Muslim scholars). Cavanaugh seems confused about property rights, seeming to think there is something terrible about the Muslim pilgramage sites being off limits, while Mr. Ahmed correctly defends the right of religious groups to have restrictive rules of entry in regards to their holy sites. Mr. Ahmed makes the important distinction between public officials being open about their religious commitments and imposing them on others by force. Cavanaugh notes Mr. Ahmad's questions about school vouchers... I note that Mr. Ahmad is a signer of the Proclamation for the Separation of School and State.

If this is Islamo-libertarianism, then it may be far preferable to Rando-libertarianism.

Death and Diversity

On July 18, two days after an 86-year-old man killed 10 people as he drove his Buick through the Santa Monica farmers market, the Associated Press ran a story headlined: “Crash victims reflect area’s diversity.” Readers learn about their ethnic backgrounds, etc. This is where our society has gone. We are no longer individuals, but mere representations of our entire race, even in death. The story seemed like something that should have been in The Onion.

Condoloozza

Last January, Condoleezza Rice wrote an op-ed for the New York Times pointing out that we know Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration to the UN is false, because it fails to mention the Niger yellowcake purchase. In fact, wasn't that huge declaration accurate, and its opponents a pack of liars?

Gimme the Red-Hot Pincers, Corporal

The occupation of a conquered people puts the state in a particularly revealing light. The neocons cheer (here in a blog on National Review), as they seek to foist a similar regime on us:

"COME ON, PLEASE?" [Jonah Goldberg]

"I'll be your best friend." "You can have the rest of my ice cream." "Pretty please with maple syrup on top." "I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours"

These are just some of the words not being overheard coming out of the interrogation room where they're "debriefing" Saddam's bodyguard.

Cato Tugs Stray Back Onto the Reservation

Recent posts (2, 3, 4, 5), and a wonderful speech by Congressman Ron Paul properly chastised Cato writers for opposing reimportation of medicines, thus adopting a protectionist, anti-free trade, anti-property rights stance.

It must have caused some outcry among Cato's libertarian supporters. Looks like Cato's Ed Crane and Roger Pilon decided to get back on course, in their article Conservative Drug Split in NRO. They conclude "Reimportation is right and good", but they spend a lot of time bending over backward to try to make the protectionist argument look respectable, making for an overlong, convoluted defense of free trade. It should take about a paragraph or three, at most, for a libertarian, free-market group to explain why there is nothing wrong with free trade.

Another US Massacre

US troops turn botched Saddam raid into a massacre
By Robert Fisk in Baghdad

28 July 2003: (The Independent) Obsessed with capturing Saddam Hussein, American soldiers turned a botched raid on a house in the Mansur district of Baghdad yesterday into a bloodbath, opening fire on scores of Iraqi civilians in a crowded street and killing up to 11, including two children, their mother and crippled father. At least one civilian car caught fire, cremating its occupants.

The vehicle carrying the two children and their mother and father was riddled by bullets as it approached a razor-wired checkpoint outside the house.

Amid the fury generated among the largely middle-class residents of Mansur - by ghastly coincidence, the killings were scarcely 40 metres from the houses in which 16 civilians died when the Americans tried to kill Saddam towards the end of the war in April - whatever political advantages were gained by the killing of Saddam's sons have been squandered. A doctor at the Yarmouk hospital, which received four of the dead, turned on me angrily last night, shouting: "If an American came to my emergency room, maybe I would kill him."

Two civilians, both believed to have been driving with their families, were brought to the Yarmouk, one with abdominal wounds and the other with "his brain outside of his head", according to another doctor.

At the scene of the killings, there was pandemonium. While US troops were loading the bullet-shattered cars on trucks - and trying to stop cameramen filming the carnage - crowds screamed abuse at them. One American soldier a few feet from me climbed into the seat of his Humvee, threw his helmet on the floor of the vehicle and shouted: "Shit! Shit!"

There was no doubt about the target: the home of Sheikh Rabia Mohamed Habib, a prominent tribal leader who had met Saddam but who was not even in his house when the Americans stormed it. One report says they killed a guard as they entered.

"The Americans searched the house completely, very roughly," Sheikh Habib said. "It seems they thought Saddam Hussein was inside." It appears the killings started as the troops were searching the building and as motorists approached the barbed wire which the soldiers had placed without warning across the road. Witnesses said the first car contained at least two men. "The second contained two children about 10, their mother and their father who had been wounded in the Iran-Iraq war - he was a cripple," a local shopkeeper told me. "They all died. The man's legs were cut in half by the bullets," he added. A third car then approached the Americans, who opened fire again. One of the occupants fled, but the other two remained in the vehicle and were killed.

When another car arrived US troops riddled it with more bullets and it burst into flames. It is believed that two people were inside and both were burnt to death. "The Americans didn't try to help the civilians they had shot, not once," a witness said. "They let the car burn and left the bodies where they lay, even the children. It was we who had to take them to the hospitals."

Yet again, false informers, ill-trained American soldiers who appeared to exercise no fire control and a lack of military planning has created a tragedy among the people the Americans claimed to be 'liberating' from Saddam Hussein only 15 weeks ago. Last night, there were reports from the southern city of Karbala that three men had been shot dead by American troops during a demonstration.

Copyright: The Independent. UK

(Courtesy Paul Craig Roberts)

US Army Kidnaps Mother and Child

"Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: 'If you want your family released, turn yourself in.'” (Courtesy of Bob Murphy.)

Lincoln the Crook

John V. Denson writes to Thomas DiLorenzo:

"Enjoyed listening to the tape of your Lincoln program in Richmond, Virginia, and also purchased the work book which I look forward to reading along with watching the video.

"In preparation for a train vacation, I purchased a book entitled Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow. I did not expect to find any particular information about Lincoln but there is a nugget that I think will serve as another arrow in your quiver to help deflate the false mythology surrounding Lincoln.

"At the time the first railroad bridge was proposed to cross the Mississippi River the steamboat business objected that it was were interfering with a navigable river. The bridge was built and a steamboat crashed into it and this resulted in the famous Rock Island Bridge case. The railroad hired Abraham Lincoln to represent them in a Chicago trial in 1857. Lincoln's close connection to the railroad allowed him to get inside information on where the railroad might go and so Lincoln purchased land at Council Bluffs. When Lincoln became president he was able to make sure that the railroad would go near his land, causing him to reap immense profits.

"The whole railroad story is one of corruption, death, and destruction. There is much here about how the Union army was used through General Sherman and General Sheridan to exterminate the Indians and to trick them out of their land. The whole railroad picture was governed by a partnership between big business (the railroads) and government in the name of internal improvements. The two main obstructions to the great fortunes that were to be made in the railroads were the political power of the South to fight this phase of mercantilism, and the Indians and their possession of the land where they wanted the railroads to go. The Union army wiped out both obstacles and huge profits were made by those politically connected to Lincoln and his administration, which of course included Lincoln himself."

Evil Attracts

Writes Jacob D. Steelman, Jr.: "I found your article in the Mises Daily interesting. Back in the late seventies I was appointed by my company to be a representative in an industry group exploring protectionism for the copper industry. I remember the first major meeting we had of executives of our company to decide whether or not to participate in this process. There were 20-30 managers and executives there. We went around the table with each person giving his view on participating or not - each speech evoked supporting comments from all the other attendees. When they came to me - a young lawyer still somewhat naive in corporate matters - I voiced my opposition citing the failed policies of protectionism. I argued that we would be better off spending our time lobbying for reduced regulation and reduced taxation on the our industry. When I was finished you could have heard a pin drop - no comments in support and no comments against.

"The group decided to participate in the protectionist project of the industry. The industry hired a large PR firm, two large law firms and other support. Within weeks of the organizational meeting very emotional articles began to appear in the press and TV about the plight of copper miners and their families. Large hearings were held in Tucson for industry executives who flew in for their testimony and flew out after they were finished. The testimony was scripted by the lawyers to make sure that each witness said the correct thing to support the case for trade sanctions against the foreign imports. Sanctions were granted - to little avail as the world price of copper continued to drop as plastics in automobile manufacturing re-placed copper and fiber optic cable replaced copper cables in the telecommunications industry.

"Curiously while the government was trying to provide protection for the industry the EPA was waging a war against the industry and in my view helped to drive much of the industry overseas with its extreme environmental and land use planning regulations. During that time I recall a meeting with EPA regulators who made the comment that there was no place in the United States for a non-ferrous industry. The industry ended up overseas primarily in Chile (owned by the state-owned company CODELCO) and some other isolated places in the world and has retrenched in the US.

"Years later one of the company executives who had voted for participation in the industry protection project admitted to me that it had been a mistake to participate in the protection project and that the industry should have concentrated its efforts on reducing regulations and taxes on the industry. Unfortunately for the company and the industry such revelations came much too late to revitalize our industry or save our company."

Brainwashed

Writes Jimmy Walter: "The extent of the brainwashing by the media is that as July 24th, 72% of Americans believe that 'Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was harboring al Qaeda terrorists and helping them to develop chemical weapons.' Of course that is a negative view. We could say that this is a success rate for Bush."

RIP

Paul Weyrich

I'm not surprised about Paul Weyrich supporting higher gasoline taxes. A couple of years ago he was brought to Orange County by our anti-car transportation authority to join in a debate about a multibillion-dollar light-rail boondoggle being imposed on our suburban county. He was supposed to make a "conservative" case FOR light rail, but sounded like any garden-variety light-rail authoritarian. The libertarians on the 'anti' side demolished his arguments. Since then I refer to him as a public-transit activist rather than as a conservative activist.

Lights, Camera, Marxism!

Film school isn't what it used to be, reports the LA Times Magazine. Marxism, semiotics, and narratology are in; plot is out. (Link courtesy of Arts & Letters Daily.)

Sell-Out Watch

Republican guru Paul Weyrich, head of the Free Congress Foundation, has just sent a message on the letterhead of Coalitions for America to all Congressmen, calling for an increase in the federal gasoline tax. It is a uniquely wonderful and constitutional tax, he tells his fellow Beltwayers, reminiscent of George Washington and the other Founding Fathers.

Bye, Bye Uday and Qusay

Bye, Bye Uday and Qusay: Why the news is Bad For Bush and Blair
by Alexander Cockburn in Counterpunch

Short of good news ever since the end of the formal war, Bush and Blair are naturally exultant that Saddam's sons, Uday and Qusay, have been satisfactorily incinerated in Mosul, presumably victims of someone eager to collar the $30 million reward for turning them in.

But though Saddam's sons deserve everything they got, and more, the news of their demise should not be cause for great rejoicing in the White House and 10 Downing Street. In the event that Saddam soon follows his sons into the Great Hereafter, that would not, in anything other than the short term, be great news for Bush and Blair either.

For obvious reasons, Bush and his entourage have been eager to identify Saddam, Uday and Qusay as the instigators of the attacks on the US and UK occupying forces, with attendant steady, demoralizing trickle of casualties.

To suggest otherwise would be to concede that there might be long-term, organized opposition to the Allied occupation which has less to do with Saddam Hussein and his clan, and more with nationalist, or Islamic/nationalist opposition to the invaders.

The fact that Uday and Qusay were holed up in the house of a relative scarcely suggests that they had elaborate flight plans, replete with secret command bunkers, prepared in advance of the US/UK invasion. It looks as though, like many others suddenly on the run, the only plan they could come up with was an desperate rap on the door of a family friend.

With his epic record of blunders and miscalculations we're probably safe in assuming Saddam wasn't much better prepared. All those elaborate scenarios about ratlines to Russia or even nearby Syria were so much hooey. So in the end the huge reward for Saddam will weigh heavier than loyalty or fear and he'll end up dead too.

With Uday and Qusay finished off, Bush may enjoy a short-term uptick on the polls. Maybe the attacks on US and UK troops will slow, but they certainly won't stop and in the medium term they'll probably increase.

Remember, many Iraqis saw the only virtue of the invasion as the end of a hated regime. If Saddam gets nailed too, that fear will finally dissipate and then more Iraqis will focus on the business of driving the Americans and the British out of their country. More US and British troops will get killed, but the rationale that this is the last ditch resistance of the cornered Saddam clan will have disappeared.

It's a cynical proposition, but Bush and Blair will be much better off if Saddam is not run to earth, at least until some advanced point in next year's presidential campaign season.

Even the killing of Uday and Qusay won't help much in the steady erosion in both Bush and Blair's popularity, because of the reasons for their slump. They stitched together a handsome patchwork of lies about Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction and that patchwork has fallen apart. No amount of grandstanding by Blair in Congress about the absolutions of history alters that.

Take the current uproar in the UK about the suicide of Dr David Kelly, the biowar expert charged by Blair and his minions with leaking disobliging information to the BBC. The plan of Blair's spin team in 10 Downing Street, headed by Alastair Campbell, has been to create a diversion, to occlude the obvious: that Blair and his cohort obviously mangled the truth about Saddam's WMDs.

This is the reason for all the howling from Number 10 about the BBC's charges, based on interviews with Kelly by three separate BBC reporters, that Blair's people "sexed up" (words never used by the BBC)the original report on WMDs prepared by Britain's intelligence services.

But the record is clear enough. First, Britain's intelligence services rushed from one preposterous piece of inflation to the next, accepted crude forgeries, plagiarized a student's essay off the internet, and so forth. Kelly himself was an assiduous threat inflator till near the end, and maybe guilt over his own role, contributed to his very strange decision to kill himself. (Or maybe the security services were threatening him with some damaging personal revelation unless he denounced the BBC for misrepresenting his remarks to their reporters.)

Then Blair and his team took these threat inflations and inflated them even further. Whether it was some intelligence officer in MI6 or one of Blair's flacks who came up with the notorious 45-minute launch time for one of Saddam's bioweapons is a legitimate but not very important question. They were all in the business of exaggeration, as was UNSCOM, which has thus far escaped well-deserved rebuke. The same is true this side of the Atlantic. The press has finally caught up with the matter and won't let it drop. Neither will the Democrats.

It will take a lot more than the killing of Uday or Qusay to turn this tide.

re: Johnny Can't Add

Writes Paul Gabler:

"Mr Reed: Excellent article. I know exactly what you are talking about. I received my B.S. Electrical Engr back in 1993. Poke around at any engineering/science department of any university and one will be hardpressed to find very many Smiths & Jones, esp. at the graduate level. The situation is so severe, that many graduate departments have resorted to Affirmative Action for whites and blacks alike. Nonetheless, my experience is that within 2 generation, both Chinese & Indian students become as inept, lazy, and complacent as the rest of us.

"On a side note, it always seemed to me that the best jobs for PhD Elect Engr (Physics, Math ... ), were in weapons/military. So unless one wanted to pursue a career with the "merchants of death" (ie. Lockheed, Raytheon, Sandia Labs), much of the remaining work was in rather banal, ie. designing web pages for dot.coms, or selling Sun Sparc workstations for a VAR. In this respect, I believe an extended technical education to be highly overrated. What we need are more English & History majors. People that will become virtuous citizens and politicians. Make the world a better place."

Hurrah for Child Labor

Where children actually learn.

More Money, Less Learning

Great moments in public education.

Hey, Drudge

I'm listening to Matt Drudge's radio show, on which he reveals the amazing scoop that Bush is desecrating the flag by autographing it. The LRC blog had it last Friday morning.

Kuwait Funny Business

Is the Bush-Kuwait coalition of the drilling stealing oil from Iraq? A fascinating article on what weather satellite images reveal in the hands of an independent observer.

MacArthur

Thank goodness Gen. Doug didn't get the 26 atom bombs he asked for, to bomb China and N. Korea.

More Korea

One of George Wallace's mistakes was choosing Gen. Curtis LeMay as his vice presidential candidate in 1968. The crazed LeMay, who tried to bomb N. Korea "back into the stone age," as he so charmingly put it, and advocated the same for N. Vietnam, was a genuine Dr. Strangelove figure. Just one of his war crimes--bombing the dikes to drown and starve civilians.

Fifty Years

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the US-Korean war, in which 39,000 Americans and perhaps 3 million Koreans--mostly civilians--died. Not that gooks count, of course, so that latter figure is never mentioned.

Maryland Calls It Quits

A Rothbardian fantasy. Hey, we can dream, can't we?

re: Gods and Generals

Writes JimBob: "The director's cut of Gods and Generals, which includes Lee's [attempted liberation of Maryland] and the bloodiest day in American history, Antietam, will not be released until 2005.

"The film only did 12-15 million at the box office and Ted Turner won't bankroll the final installment until he at least makes his money back on this one. Thus, they've released the theater version now, then will wait 2yrs and hope everyone goes out and buys the 6+ hour version!"

A Quick Note on Seabiscuit

Not everyone likes the new movie Seabiscuit--this bird criticizes it as too white--but I did. It's the story of the Depression-era triumph of an underdog racehorse, which did indeed rivet the country.

I'll admit to being biased towards horses (my daughter rides), and although there isn't a surfeit of great acting, the photography is terrific (best ever of horseracing) and the production values are extraordinary. Note to Jeff Tucker--the clothes are up to your standards.

Ideologically, it is a little off with talk of men being disheartened by the Fed's Great Depression--true enough!--and only cured by the New Deal.

Court historian David McCullough tells us in a voice over (and what evocative photographs he talks over) that "call it the NRA, the WPA, or just Relief, finally people knew someone cared": the beaming Franklin and his leviathan.

Yes, that cold, cruel monster the state cared, especially the NRA, Franklin's fascist central. Franklin cared enough to enslave and kill the unemployed in his war.

Some bad language and a couple of short scenes that should have been cut (to make it PG rather than PG13), but overall very much worth seeing. When was the last time a movie portrayed a wealthy businessman (Seabiscuit's owner, played by Jeff Bridges) as an unalloyed good guy?

Go see it, and then sign up for the sequel, Burt Blumert's Day at the Races.

Support the Troops

Ignore and downplay their deaths, suppress their families' anguish. Important story by Greg Mitchell. And here's his followup article.

Why the Neocons Are Upset

At the new Coulter book. Here's the view of Sam Tannenhaus in Slate (courtesy of Tim Gillin).

re: Gods and Generals

Chris, I too have the DVD of the extraordinary Gods and Generals. This is the theatrical release; the six-hour director's cut is due out, I believe, in October. This four-hour version continues to sell very well--#6 on Amazon. When you've watched it, let us know what you think.

Neocon Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal refused to print this letter from M. Stanton Evans, which refutes their McCarthy/Coulter smear by Dorothy Rabinowitz. (Courtesy of Justin Raimondo.)

And by the way, who did promote Peress?

Late Night Reading

From Norman Cantor's book The Civilization of the Middle Ages:

"[A] Merovingian king who wanted to get rid of one of his officials simply sent him out to collect taxes; the man would never be heard from again."

The Same Old George

Jeffrey Mansour writes:

Bush spoke at a Michigan defense contractor yesterday. I find it amazing that he is still spreading the same bogus story: Iraq was a threat, they hate us for our freedoms and now for imposing freedom on them, Saddam defied us so he had to go, an Iraq reformed in our image will reform the entire Middle East – and finally, Saddam’s sons were brought to justice.

In the same speech Bush takes corrupt business leaders to task for lying and cheating to the detriment of their shareholders, employees and our nation; in fact they’re guilty of shaking “the confidence of America.” Bush will hold these liars accountable for their actions. We know he has no shame; is he completely lacking a sense of irony as well?

The main message of the speech seems to be that there are three reasons why the economy is in the tank:

1. 9/11. Not Bush’s fault. He never mentions Osama; that would remind us that we haven’t caught him yet. He certainly doesn’t discuss on-going “investigations” as they will make us wonder if the ball wasn’t fumbled in the other team’s end zone while he was quarterbacking.

2. Corporate corruption shaking the confidence of the nation. Again not Bush’s fault and he’ll hold those dastardly liars accountable. He mentions no names as that would lead to a trail of campaign contributions and lobbying connected to the Bush administration.

3. The cost of making “sure our troops had the best equipment necessary to fight and win war. (Applause.)” Of course, not Bush’s fault at all since this war was clearly forced upon us and golly, we have to support our troops. So what’s this extra money for? How much of it goes to support the troops? Didn’t last year’s appropriation bill pay for their training, equipment and salaries? He doesn’t mention “supporting our empire” but that’s what it amounts to.
Is there a pattern here? Yes! Bush is not to blame! In fact, things are looking pretty darned good!

Finally, why is it that he only makes these appearances at military suppliers or military bases full of people who would whoop, hoot and clap even if he said he was going to bomb Baltimore? Never mind. Stupid question.

Postal Reform Means Spying

Dr. Don Printz writes, relaying a message from Michael Ostrolenk of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons:

“The President's Commission on the US Postal Service offered their final recommendations yesterday, and buried in there with the calls to maintain the first-class mail monopoly, engage in more cutesy promotions, and automate comes this gem:

“‘6. Security. The Subcommittee believes that the events of 9/11 and the Postal Service anthrax incidents have increased the need to ensure security in the mail system. The Subcommittee believes that a more secure system could be built using sender identified mail. The Subcommittee recommends that the postal Service, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, explore the use of sender identification for every piece of mail, commercial and retail.’

“There you have it -- a legal monopoly over all snail mail to be tracked and trace with the help of Homeland Security.”

Shaving a Corpse

The Army touches up the bodies it displays, to quell local skepticism (huh?). But not to worry. Bush is sending Dad's chief fixer to handle matters, i.e. Iraq is now a subsidiary of the Carlyle Group.

Red Dawn in Iraq

Justin Raimondo on the commie-neocon axis of evil. By the way, Red Dawn was one of Murray Rothbard's favorite movies, and it is a fun and instructive watch these days.

WMD Found!

And the Pentagon plans to burn them among the civilians of one of its occupied territories. (Courtesy of Joseph Stromberg.)

Hating Saddam Doesn't Mean Loving Bremer

Iraqis, for some reason, don't trust government officials of any stripe.

Slug TV

Writes A.P.: "Thanks as always for bringing articles to my attention like the one on television and the 'freak out mechanism' in slugs. It scared my teenage stepson silly...for a few minutes...until South Park came on. He was at least diligent about wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth at the start of each commercial break...some days, that's all his mother and I can hope for...after all those years of 'free compulsory' education."

Free Trade in Pharmaceuticals

Writes a Congressional staffer: "Last night the state's pharmaceutical industry, their poodles in the GOP establishment, and the lap-dogs libertarians and kennel-fund conservatives at Cato, Heritage, CSE, CEI, ATR, NTU, et al., lost out when the bill allowing greater free trade in pharmaceuticals passed the House by a vote of 243-187."

President Bush Defaces the American Flag!

Courtesy of Daniel McAdams.

Re: Richard Epstein and Drug Patents

Epstein and CATO apparently have not thought seriously about what would happen to the pharmaceutical industry and to its r&d expenditures if patent protection were ended. While r&d expenditures might decline in the short run, in the intermediate - long run r&d would rise as new smaller firms entered the market to challenge the few mega-drug firms that use the patent monopoly as a barrier to entry into the industry. With the entry of new smaller firms, r&d per firm would be focused tightly on areas where a firm could bring a new drug to market profitably before competitors copied it. And enhanced competition would bring drug prices down sharply.

Epstein also apparently ignored the FDA role in delaying even patented drugs from entering the market, a factor that significantly raises the r&d required to bring a drug to market - the opportunity costs of all that capital tied up in a product that cannot be quickly brought to market are staggering. This factor is an extremely serious barrier to entry for new smaller firms.

As I argued in LewRockwell.com several months ago, the FDA should be totally abolished. In its place, a system of private drug testing organizations would spring up, much like the renowned Underwriters Laboratories. Competitive drug evaluation, combined with liability insurance and the potential for product liability lawsuits would yield faster approval and earlier sale of new drugs. It would encourage new and smaller startup drug firms to enter the market. Competition, not monopoly, would increase the number of useful drugs on the market, increase the quality of those drugs, and reduce the price of those drugs.

Despite complaints from the mega-drug firms about the lengthy FDA approval process, they all know that it is a significant barrier to entry into the industry, and not a one has ever called for its abolition.

Couple abolishing the FDA with reduced or eliminated patent protection and you would see a booming and rapidly growing drug industry no longer dominated by a few mega-firms.

Epstein and Patents

Re Lew Rockwell's latest post about Richard Epstein's pro-patent comments--Epstein writes, "'Patented goods are subject to a lawful monopoly created by the state in order to induce their creation. No one thinks that new pharmaceutical drugs will be invented by private firms that cannot receive a rate of return sufficient to recover [various costs]. ... 'The legal monopoly granted by the patent is the only mechanism that allows the producer to recover those fixed costs...."

Obviously, this is a utilitarian argument; Austrians and libertarians are well aware of the economic and ethical problems that plague utilitarianism. But besides this, another problem with Epstein's argument is that there is no logical stopping point. For it is not that "drugs" either will, or will not, be produced. By Epstein's logic, there will still be some drugs that will not be produced, namely those whose cost can't be recovered even with patent profits. The current patent term is about 20 years. If it were longer, more monopoly profit could be obtained, thus allowing more drugs, currently not produced, at the margin, to be profitable. So let's extend the term to 30 years. Or 40. And so on. But why stop there? Why not impose criminal liability for infringement of patent rights--say, life in prison or the death sentence. We could also lower the statutory standards for obtaining a patent, so that more drugs would be subsidized by the patent monopoly. We could triple the budget and salaries for the Patent Office, so that patents are issued more quickly (they take 2-3 or more years, now).

What's more, even the strongest patent rights in the world simply might not give enough extra profits to justify the generation of some "really useful" drugs. So by using the standard utilitarian reasoning underlying Epstein's advocacy of patent law (and also undergirding his defense of the power of eminent domain in his book Takings), why not let some administrative commission dole out taxpayer-funded subsidies to the pharmaceutical industry. Yes, taxpayers would be harmed (just as private property owners are harmed by patent law--as the drive to outlaw reimported medicines attests), but drugs that would not otherwise be invented, would be. Presumably the "value" of these drugs would "exceed" the "value" (to whom?) of the money taken from taxpayers.

I better shut up. They might not realize I'm being sarcastic.

More on Cato's Protectionism

Cato's incredible advocacy of pharmaceutical protectionism is especially ironic in light of the fact that Bill Niskanen is chairman of Cato precisely because of his free trade credentials. Around 1980 he was fired as chief economist for the Ford Motor Company because he refused to endorse automobile industry protectionism. He became quite the hero to free marketeers, especially Ed Crane. I wonder if he'll do the same now and resign?

Last week a Cato fellow went on television and advocated military intervention in Liberia. This week it's pharmaceutical industry protectionism. What's next -- a plea to raise taxes?

(Thanks to Bruce Bartlett for reminding me that it was Ford, not GM, that fired Niskanen).

Intellectual "Property"

Two classic articles: Gene Callahan's "Rethinking Patent Law" and Stephan Kinsella's "Against Intellectual Property (PDF)."

re: Protectionist Cato?

Writes Casey Khan: "I guess there was no invention before the US patent office opened.

"Cato adjunct scholar Richard Epstein writes: 'Patented goods are subject to a lawful monopoly created by the state in order to induce their creation. No one thinks that new pharmaceutical drugs will be invented by private firms that cannot receive a rate of return sufficient to recover not just the cost of fabricating and selling each pill, but also the huge front-end costs that reach (when dead ends are taken into account) under anyone's estimate in the hundreds of millions of dollars for each new product that reaches the market.

"'The legal monopoly granted by the patent is the only mechanism that allows the producer to recover those fixed costs, for without it new competitors could produce the same generic compound at a fraction of the price, driving the first drug out of the marketplace.'"

Protectionist Cato?

In a recent post, Lew Rockwell notes that Cato's Doug Bandow opposes free trade in pharmaceuticals. Seems there must have been a memo: now comes Just Say No To Drug Re-Importation, by Cato's Michael Krauss. Krauss opposes H.R. 2427, which would authorize wholesale re-importation of pharmaceuticals from 26 countries to the United States for distribution to consumers. Warns Krauss, If enacted, it could endanger American lives, imperil national security, and reduce the quantity and quality of drugs available for Americans."

This is a rambling, confused piece. Here we have a libertarian urging that the importation of commercial products, from willing sellers to willing buyers, be banned--because it could "endanger" American lives? When did libertarians abandon caveat emptor and adopt maternalism? As for how importing drugs can "imperil national security," maybe someone else can figure out just what Krauss's argument is, but it seems quite a stretch to me.

The real problem for Krauss is that reimporting allows consumers to avoid some of the monopoly price charged due to the US patent system. Hence, support for intellectual property rights leads once again to the undermining of genuine private property rights, such as the right to trade.

Interesting to note that here we have Cato favoring open immigration--let anyone in--and restricted trade; exactly the opposite of Hans Hoppe's paleolibertarian views on immigration. As Hoppe points out, trade in goods does not violate rights and can be engaged in even by distinct groups that live separately, whereas the importation of people into a welfare state can result in forced integration and other rights violations. Here Cato apparently favors outsiders marching into the country, carrying with them the right to vote and to trample the private property rights of citizens by virtue of antidiscrimination and affirmative action laws--so long as they don't bring cheap medicines with them!

Congress's actions are also bizarre: they help to create artificially high pharmaceutical prices by giving patent monopolies to American companies. Then, they attempt to solve the problem by allowing reimportation. Why doesn't Congress simply curtail patent rights in drugs, if they really want to lower the artificially-high drug prices consumers face? Similar with the medicare drug prescription plan: the feds are going to increase our taxes to pay for drugs that are expensive because of the federal patent grant. If the feds are going to make us pay for retirees' drugs, shouldn't they at least remove patent protection from them, so that the burden is lower?

Grunt Vision Goggles

The soldier's-eye view of Iraq, thanks to Mark Fiore's animation.

That's No Double Standard!

Butler Shaffer writes:

"Do you remember how morally incensed Bush and his crowd (including the media) were when, early in the 'war,' the Iraqi government allowed photos to be taken of dead US soldiers? ('That violates the Geneva Convention!' 'That shows you the kind of vicious regime we're up against!') But now it's all right for the US government to show photos of Hussein's dead sons.

"A phenomenon that has always amazed me: how so many people think it's all right to do something, as long as you are on record as being opposed to what you are doing! We can trust Americans to deny people their due process rights, because we don't believe governments should deny such rights!

"What did Twain say about God creating man because he was disappointed in the monkey?"

St. Thomas on Law

Sorry, no news hook, just a good reminder (via Tom Woods) from St. Thomas Aquinas of how expansive the modern state is compared with the medieval Catholic conception: "Now human law is framed for a number of human beings, the majority of whom are not perfect in virtue. Wherefore human laws do not forbid all vices, from which the virtuous abstain, but only the more grievous vices, from which it is possible for the majority to abstain; and chiefly those that are to the hurt of others, without the prohibition of which human society could not be maintained: thus human law prohibits murder, theft and such like... The purpose of human law is to lead men to virtue, not suddenly, but gradually. Wherefore it does not lay upon the multitude of imperfect men the burdens of those who are already virtuous, viz. that they should abstain from all evil. Otherwise these imperfect ones, being unable to bear such precepts, would break out into yet greater evils."

Why the Beltway Loves Libertarians

If you want a protectionist argument made, so much better to get a free-trader to do it. Here Cato's Doug Bandow opposes free trade in pharmaceuticals.

Are American drug prices "free market"? Well, they are, given the anti-competitive FDA, so beloved of the pharmaceutical industry; the anti-competitive patent laws, so beloved of the pharmaceutical industry; and the vast, artificial stimulus to demand from Medicare, Medicaid, and a hundred other welfare programs, so beloved of the pharmaceutical industry.

I could also mention Bush's $400 billion drug benefit (the vastly understated official cost) and his $15 billion drug benefit for Africa, both written and pushed by the Republican pharmaceutical industry.

Dick Armey's Republican thinktank, which paid for this NRO article, gets drug money, and on his last day of Congress, he bragged to a friend of mine that he was "starting at $1 million a year as a lobbyist." Gee, what industry might be among his clients?

No IDA

There's no Iraqis With Disabilities Act, so George Bush could have the crippled son of Saddam machinegunned without trial. You notice the publicity about the eldest son being in a wheelchair? Right next to the publicity about his 14-year-old nephew being assassinated. Not as much fun as having Karla Fay Tucker beg him not to electrocute her, and imitating her cries afterwards, but it will have to do.

Rats Leaving a Sinking Ship

The worm has turned, by a few degrees at least. George Will's new column criticzes George W. Bush for favoring big government at home and nation-building abroad! Will warns that "conservatism is being recast -- and perhaps rendered incoherent."

And there's more! The gang at National Review are nodding along with Will and, as usual, claiming they thought of it first. One NROdnik even quotes Randolph Bourne. It's enough to make you think you've woken up and found yourself in the Bizarro world.

But really this is just par for the course for our neocon friends. Once in a while they need to lip-synch some kind of conservative platitudes lest everybody realize the official American Right these days consists of warmed-over social democrats and nostalgists for the very British Empire that Americans fought to be free from in 1776.

Toostupidtobepresident.com

Jeffrey Mansour points out "a rather clever site that offers flash movies poking serious fun at the Bush crowd." Three of his favorites:

'It's the Benny Hill Presidency!'
'Flight of the Chickenhawk'
'The Quest for the Oily Grail'

Michael Moore, nostalgia monger

A friend sent me this article on Michael Moore and notes "Reminds me of this conversation at a bar in Melbourne [Aus]. This chick, like 18, was talking about how “Bowling For Columbine” was the best movie of the year, unafraid to tell the truth about “the states.” Come to think of it, a lot of those people in bars knew "the truth" about the states."

---
Poor Michael is apparently trapped in some kind of nostalgia spiral where the good ol' days were perfect and everything today is the result of a vast and evil corporate conspiracy. But some corporations are good apparently...

"In fact, there are plenty of indications that Michael Moore is not a compassionate, big-hearted man dedicated to social justice; he just plays one on TV. When asked by a reporter from the Arcata Eye in 2002 why he wasn’t speaking at independent bookstores rather than at corporate chains, he exploded in a tirade that revealed his willingness to have his principles—in this case, his distrust of corporate power—take a backseat to his personal vengefulness. “You know in my town the small businesses that everyone wanted to protect? They were the people that supported all the right-wing groups,” he ranted. “They were the Republicans in town, they were in Kiwanis, the Chamber of Commerce—people that kept the town all white. The small hardware salesman, the small clothing store sales persons, Jesse the Barber who signed his name three different times on three different petitions to recall me from the school board. F*#% all these small businesses—f*#% ’em all. Bring in the chains.” "

All-Too-Possible Offspring

Karen De Coster blogs a great analysis of Fox News, "the impossible offspring of supermarket tabloids, sitcom news spoofs, police-state propaganda mills and the World Wrestling Federation.”

re: Joe Farah Warns the ADL

Writes Paul Gottfried:

"I doubt that Farah is speaking for all neocons by defending the Gospels against the ADL. About two weeks ago I encountered a column by Eric Fettmann in the New York Post, which not only castigated Mel for his choice of texts but also asserted that the New Testament is full of anti-Semitism. I waited entirely in vain for Cal Thomas, Bill Buckley, etc. to weigh in on the Christian side. Needless to say, none of them did, presumably because they were too busy calling for more wars to spread democracy. Although I'm usually no big fan of Joe's, this time, I would submit, he stepped to the front of the class."

Randians Endorse Christianity

Sort of: Daniel Pipes in Capitalism Magazine on the dispensationalists. (Courtesy of Tim J. Gillin.)

The Morality of Genghis Khan

Make that Daniel Pipes. (Courtesy of Gary North.)

Faulty Predictions

Hopes Rise for End to Attacks (NYT, July 22): "The deaths of Saddam Hussein's two eldest sons in a battle with American troops in northern Iraq could be an important victory in the campaign to control, and even end, the guerrilla-style insurgency that has almost daily killed or injured allied troops, administration and military officials said today."

Three American Soldiers Killed in Iraq (NYT, July 24): "The killings were further signs that an insurgency against American troops is not losing strength as Washington hoped after the deaths Tuesday of Saddam Hussein's sons Odai and Qusai."

Rummy to deliver the "box shot"

Iraqis apparently don't believe that the U.S. killed Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay so Defense Secretary Rummy will release photos of their shot up/blown up corpses. American tabloids have delivered much better "box shots" of folks like Elvis. Rummy is just not in their league and couldn't land a job at the Enquirer even if they had been short handed for six months.

Joe Farah Warns the ADL

Don't smear 'The Passion.' Don't blacken Mel Gibson. "If the Anti-Defamation League chooses to make an issue of this film, it will be the organization's own undoing. In effect, the ADL will be telling Christians their most deeply held beliefs, their faith, their Holy Scriptures are offensive," writes Joe Farah in WorldNetDaily.com.

Republican Spending Orgy

Jeff Jacoby on those fiscal conservatives.

Saddam's 14-Year-Old Grandson Also Killed

He resisted to the end, but why the orders from the Pentagon to kill his father and uncle and not, under any circumstances, take them prisoner?

Deficit-Wracked Maryland Calls It Quits

The Onion provides a nice little fantasy... A government actually going bankrupt and calling it quits. The only thing they get wrong is suggesting that a state without government services (or taxes) would become a "vast vacant lot"... As we know, it is far more likely to become a booming free enterprise zone.

"ANNAPOLIS, MD—Citing mounting debt and a decline in tourism dollars, the state of Maryland will shut down for good on August 31, Maryland Gov. Robert L. Erhlich Jr. told reporters Monday.

Continue reading "Deficit-Wracked Maryland Calls It Quits"

Shame on HNN

Justin Raimondo on History News Network. Very disappointing for a site that features as an advisor and contributor, the great historian Thomas Fleming.

'If the Constitution Is Universal'

"And if Qusay and Uday were just killed for being related to Saddam Hussain," writes Joseph Stromberg, "isn't that worse than a Bill of Attainder?"

Fox News is today's "Twilight Zone"

The Fox News Channel has become today's equivalent of the "Twilight Zone," the old Rod Serling television series. Watching John Gibson of "The Big Story" interview some inside the beltway think-tank weenie about the impact of the U.S. Army killing two of Saddam's sons (yes, there is reportedly a third one!) reminded me of those old shows. Gibson was desperate for a clear U.S. victory, and he pressed the expert weenie to state that the killing of Hussein's sons would bring an end to the guerrilla warfare against U.S. troops. Well, the weenie didn't agree that guerrilla warfare would end. Stymied, Gibson then asked if critics of the war shouldn't now recant, admitting they were wrong, that the U.S. was clearly winning the guerilla war.

Well, the expert weenie hemmed, hawed, shucked, and jived his way out of giving a straight answer to that question, although he managed to clearly state that he was a supporter of the war from before day one. The bottom line was that the expert weenie wouldn't concede that the U.S. had won nor that critics should recant.

Like a protagonist in one of Serling's old shows, expect to see Gibson continue to spout his beliefs, regardless of what the facts are. If Gibson actually believes all the baloney being put out by the White House and the Pentagon, he truly is caught in Fox's "Twilight Zone."

Respected 'Loner' From the Lone Star State

"I'll probably win this argument. The reason is not because anybody's going to pay any attention to what I say. But what's going to happen is we're going to run out of money. It happens to every empire, throughout all history." Even the left-liberal Hill respects Ron Paul.

War Vocab

Has anyone else noticed that no American soldier is wounded anymore, but rather "injured"? Nor are the wounded counted in casualty figures, at least for public consumption. Oh, and the enemy always engages in ambushes, as Peter notes. This is supposed to sound dishonorable, as when the Indians were similarly demonized during the Union's ethnic cleansing of the West. And please keep things straight. When 200 troops snuck up on Saddam's sons' house to kill the four occupants, this was not an ambush, but a raid.

Poor Jessica

What kind of a regime sends a little girl into battle as part of its crazed egalitarian ideology, and then, after she is almost killed in a horrible car wreck, saves her in a make-believe hospital raid and pretends she is Audie Murphy II? The Bu'ushists, of course.

More Intelligence Follies

The US murdered 80 people in Syria during a "hot pursuit raid" on gasoline traders.

From a Reader

"I wrote you after 911 and blasted you for not wanting to go to war. I was on board for everything except I was pro-war. I’ve since changed my mind and wanted to let you know that your site has shaped my views significantly in the last 2 years. Keep up the great work and stick to your principles. This administration is out of control."

They Had To Be Killed

They were smokers.

Give Krugman the Nobel Prize

In peace, of course, not economics. "Who's Unpatriotic Now?" (Courtesy of Christopher Westley.)

The Modern Cincinnatus

Ron Paul: The Modern Cincinnatus (Nelson Hultberg, Financial Sense Oline). Nice piece, minus the suggestion that Dr. Paul go the 3rd-party route.

Go, Mel!

Lloyd Grove in the Washington Post: "Movie star Mel Gibson -- under fire from Jewish groups and religious scholars for his still-unreleased film that graphically portrays the crucifixion of Jesus -- yesterday screened a two-hour rough cut of 'The Passion' for a select group of Washington pundits, clergymen, cybergossip Matt Drudge and Hollywood lobbyist Jack Valenti, and at least one White House staffer....

"Yesterday when the lights came up, many in the audience -- who were required to sign a confidentiality agreement before being admitted to the screening room -- were in tears. Some were sobbing, we hear.

"'Heartbreaking,' Michael Novak told Gibson. 'The Exorcist' author William Peter Blatty called the movie 'a tremendous depiction of evil.' MPAA President Valenti was perhaps the most enthusiastic. 'I don't see what the controversy is all about,' he told fellow audience members. 'This is a compelling piece of art. I just called Kirk Douglas and told him that this is the movie to beat.'

"Another invitee, right-wing radio host Laura Ingraham, flew here from San Francisco to see the film but arrived too late and missed it. 'I'm so bummed,' Ingraham told us. 'I want to see any movie that drives the anti-Christian entertainment elite crazy.'"

Nock vs. Bush

From Sam Tannehaus in the LA Times on Bushian statism:

"What alarms these conservatives, young and old, is not so much the specific policies of the Bush administration as its appetite for an ever-enlarging, all-powerful government, a post- 9/11 version of statism, the bête noire of conservatism and the subject of one of the movement's founding texts, Albert Jay Nock's Our Enemy, the State.

"Published in 1935, this manifesto analyzes centralization in the federal government under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with its expanding bureaucracies and new entitlements. In Nock's view, the New Deal bore disturbing resemblances to new dictatorships arising overseas. The connection seemed remote, because FDR was so genial and because Americans were 'the most un-philosophical of beings,' immune to doctrines of the kind espoused by Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini.

"But Americans suffer from a different weakness, Nock said. Our national temper is that of 'an army on the march.' Susceptible to grandiose crusades, we respond with emotion rather than thought and are easily swayed 'by a whole elaborate paraphernalia of showy etiquette, flags, music, uniforms, decorations and the careful cultivation of a very special sort of camaraderie.'

"Nock had in mind World War I — a war he opposed. But his description also applies to the mood created by the Bush administration since 9/11.

"The ringing call for an all-encompassing yet ill-defined war on terror; the paraphernalia of a massive new Homeland Security Department; the showy drama of the president's Hollywood-style landing aboard the U.S. carrier Abraham Lincoln; the decorative images of Bush's features framed against the rocky visages on Mt. Rushmore — all of it backed by stern reminders from the White House that criticism of administration policies may undermine our camaraderie, our national zeal....

"These same conservatives are well aware that the current administration boasts holdovers from the Ford years, most prominently Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. This alone invites suspicion. Not because Ford Republicans aren't 'real' Republicans but because Cheney and Rumsfeld have been comfortably perched for many years now within the Beltway establishment —'the imperial bureaucracy,' as Nock called it.

"And Nock's brand of conservatism, rooted in ideas and fiercely contrarian, fears most the 'monocrat' at home in either party.

"'The exercise of personal government, the control of a huge and growing bureaucracy and the management of an enormous mass of subsidized voting-power,' Nock wrote, 'are as agreeable to one stripe of politician as they are to another.'" (Courtesy of Bruce Bartlett.)

Re: Empire vs. Traditional Morality

Writes Adam Young: Reading Stephen's earlier post, I was reminded of Joe Stromberg's comment in his column on Étienne de la Boétie.

"When liberty perishes, valor vanishes as well.... Tyrants may also achieve by corruption what they would hesitate to achieve by force. La Boétie writes of how Cyrus pacified the rebellious Lydian city of Sardis: "He established in it brothels, taverns, and public games, and issued the proclamation that the inhabitants were to enjoy them. He found this type of garrison so effective that he never again had to draw the sword against the Lydians" (69).

There will be a brief intermission while left-libertarians try to assimilate the connection between cultural corruption and tyranny.

Roman emperors would put on big feasts and games, with gifts for the participants. La Boétie writes: "The fools did not realize that they were merely recovering a portion of their own property" already seized from them (p. 70). The poor ancients, of course, didn't have the Republicans and Democrats competing at this art form and thereby ratcheting up the costs."

The Niger Scam

Actual document declassified.

You Mean We Need to Consider the Children?

Here we go with the usual poo-poo in the media, in terms of deciding whether ot not Mom should go to work. In a decadent society where the children are no longer a priority, the decision to work or not work is purely a monetary decision made between parents and accountant:

When does being a dual-income family pay off? That depends on the family and the finances.

What's the bottom line? Do the math, crunch the numbers and figure out how much a new job will bring in -- as well as how much more you would be spending in taxes.

Ha! Forget the kids...it's all in the numbers. It's accounting for dollars, not about what's best for children. In other words, we can't put the raising of decent, educated, respectful children into quantative numbers, so that's not part of the equation. Just dump them in daycare 7am-5:30pm, and have a few more goodies in the garage to make ya happy. Head start, public schools, daycare, free lunches, free breakfasts, latch-key......so why have children? Oh yeah -- to keep up with the Joneses in the Little Suburban Heaven of $475,000 "starter homes." Lest I forget.

Cycling & Old-World Sportsmanship

This is a great (short) story about The World's Greatest Sport and it's greatest event: the Tour de France. No other sport exhibits such old-world sportsmanship, dedication to unwritten rules, and Hoppean natural elitism.

Lance Armstrong's recovery from a fall helped him outpace his rivals in a dramatic Tour de France on Monday, but that fall also illustrates the tradition of the 100-year endurance cycling race.

Sportsmanship and cycling skill figured into the victory. Armstrong crossed the line 40 seconds ahead of Jan Ullrich, whom he left behind on the punishing ascent in the misty mountains of the Pyrenees.

Armstrong, and Iban Mayo of Spain, who also fell, quickly got back on their bikes; during that time the peloton — the pack of cyclists — did not attack, in keeping with tradition, Reuters reported.

Great, old-world, Euro sportsmanship that still adheres to timeless, genteel tradition.

Bomb them with Superbunnies

Shortly after writing my previous blog entry I ran across the following in today's USA Today. I really wish I had made this up myself for more than one reason, but unfortunately it's real:
Playboy says it will create an animated TV series starring Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner and a squad of sexy Playmates who battle "enemies of democracy." The cartoon, Hef's Superbunnies, will be developed by comic-book legend Stan Lee for a mainstream television network.

Empire vs. Traditional Morality

It has been noted that porn was used by the Israeli army as a sort of weapon against a Muslim town. We often hear complaints that the spread of American culture these days also, for many traditional societies, involves the spread of material they find offensive (like Madonna music videos).

What I didn't know is that there is evidence of undermining traditional morality as a tool of empire going back well before MTV. Richard M. Weaver notes in Ideas Have Consequences:
The well-known fondness of the Japanese for honorific expression is but an aspect of the highly symbolic character of their culture. Naturally, this symbolism became a target for those who imagined they should re-educate the Japanese. Nothing would give the West a more complete sense of victory over the East than the abolishment of its taboos and ritualistic behavior. In this light I think we are to understand a curious press dispatch of March, 1946, which declared that MacArthur's headquarters "had suggested to the Japanese motion picture industry that kissing scenes in the movies would be a step toward democratization." (p. 161)

Not that I'm blaming conquerors for undermining traditional religion, hierarchy and morality. They are right. These do serve as a source of resistance to the New Order.

How Clintonian

Writes Adam Young:

Does anyone else think the entire idea of sending troops to Liberia was a PR
stunt cooked up to supply a good reception from Africans while Bush was on
his safari? Has there been any discussion of troops to Liberia by Bush or
the administration since he returned from Africa? Does he even talk about it
anymore? How Clintonian.

Boys Can't Be Boys

Until they can do rip-roarin' cannonballs, dive for pennies in the 10-ft. deep end, earn merit via conquering their fears, and impress girls with their aquatic prowess and daring ways. Brian Dickerson asks the great question: How the heck is he going to do that in 4 feet of water?

I had previously blogged Mark Morford's piece on the same topic, then I came across this very similar piece by Dickerson. It appears that one writer had to of have copied the other, to a degree, but who was first? If you didn't read the Morford piece previously, don't miss it now. It's one of the best columns I've ever read.

Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer

Not everyone agrees with the ANC slogan today, even former leftists: "An African Lament" by R.W. Johnson.

Lunatics and Psychopaths

Writes Anne Williamson:

Here's a piece for the Blog you might like: "At War for Freedom" by James Woolsey. I see it as very significant, indicating that these neocon lunatics have no intention of so much as breaking stride in their campaign to rule and "reform" the entire Middle East.

Reading this, I felt as if I were in Moscow in 1991 when the US govt set about drafting the Dramatis Personae, "eager, young reformers" meaning those willing to sell out for US dollars like Gaidar, Chubais, Boyko, etc. and the "diehard Communists" who included large numbers of people who would not sell out for US dollars and who had never been CPSU members, or even sympathizers - and some very decent people who had been!

Yes, I know that's a shocking statement to American ears, but even among Communists there were patriots, as Hitler learned to his enormous expense and as did Stalin to his considerable surprise. And here Woolsey begins to lay out not only the characters, but the playbook. I swear there are 18 mo.s of NYT, WP and WSJ editorials' worth of 1990-91 type propaganda included in this single article. And that's why it ran in the UK press, and not the US - too much detail, too specific for the home team.

PS When I interviewed Woolsey in the 1990s about Latvian financier Loutchansky, he seemed a calm soul, almost a milquetoast - never in my wildest dreams did I sense the psychopath with whom I was actually dealing. He's a very strange man, indeed. And dangerous.

Did Tony Blair push Dr. David Kelly over the edge?

British voters are holding Tony Blair's government responsible for the suicide of Dr. David Kelly, the bio-weapons expert who was a source for British Broadcasting Company (BBC) reports that actual information on Iraqi WMD did not support government conclusions used to justify the war on Iraq. Because of conflicting accounts over what Dr. Kelly actually told the BBC, it reportedly was also struggling to maintain its credibility.

In a separate report in the London Telegraph, Dr. Kelly expressed shock that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) willingly gave his name to reporters who called and questioned whether or not he was the BBC's source. Kelly had told MOD officials that he was the source, but he understood that they would keep confidential his involvement. After his name became public via reporter inquiries at the MOD, Kelly was forced to testify before Parliament on what he had said. Upset by this disclosure of his involvement, Kelly committed suicide. In an email sent to a New York Times reporter on Thursday, just before he killed himself, Kelly stated referred to "... many dark actors playing games."

While the MOD asserted that it did not want to be involved in a coverup by not telling the press of Kelly's involvement if it called for confirmation, the British public apparently do not believe it. Tony Blair, who refuses to resign, is really sweating it out, teetering on the brink of political disaster. Apparently George Bush's attempt to give him new political life with his address to Congress has made no difference to the British public.

If Tony goes, is George Bush far behind?

A Case in Point

WaPo reports that "U.S. Plans to Enlist Iraqis in Operations":

CAMP AS SALIYAH, Qatar, July 19 -- U.S. military commanders plan to train and arm thousands of Iraqis to conduct military missions alongside U.S. and British troops in an effort to restore security and quell resistance by forces loyal to ousted president Saddam Hussein, the new head of U.S. military forces in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East said today.

By the way, if some of these neo-imperialists read Tacitus they might learn a thing or two, like how much trouble Rome faced from barbarians who had been trained and fought alongside Roman legions. We've already seen a hint of what's to come in Somalia, where the son of Mohammad Farah Aideed, Hussein Aideed, was a U.S. marine and, upon his father's death, followed in his footsteps by becoming a ruthless warlord in his own right.

re: Military Slavery

I don't think the draft is likely to return, not short of World War III. Conscription simply elicits far too much resistance. The War Party can intervene in other nations endlessly so long as the so few Americans actually stand to lose their lives and freedoms directly. Ironically enough, bringing back the draft might lead to fewer wars, not that it would be worth it.

Instead I expect the U.S. will come to rely more and more on the soldiers of other countries, both those of allies like the UK and Poland and native forces. We may also see more trade-offs of US citizenship in exchange for military service. We can see some of this taking place already, and it's pretty well attested in the history of empires. Rome provides a good example of that; as the Roman empire expanded, the Roman legions became progressively less Roman.

Safliar and Friends

Chris, thanks for dissecting the evil Safire, who is happy to fight to the last kid from Iowa or Alabama. On the neocons in general, let me recommend again Julian Borger's brilliant article from the Guardian, linked to last Friday, as well as Justin Raimondo's essay in Antiwar.com on it and much else today.

The Good Buffett

Warren Buffett's Dad, that is. In the July/August 2003 issue of The American Enterprise, Bill Kauffman writes a nice column on Howard Buffett, the heroic, anti-interventionist, anti-FDR, anti-Churchill congressman that was sort of a Ron Paul of his day. Buffett was a contributor to various libertarian journals of his day. Kauffman also mentions the friendship between Buffett and Murray Rothbard. This article is not available online. However, Joe Stromberg wrote an excellent piece on Buffett 2+ years ago.

Lincoln, Hitler, Lenin, and Marx

In one of Lew's July 19 posts he noted that Hitler was pro-Lincoln and pro-Union. Indeed he was: in Mein Kampf he invoked Lincoln's anti-states' rights argument from his First Inaugural Address to make his own case against states' rights in Germany.

It's also worth noting that shortly after his reelection in 1864 Lincoln received a gushing letter of praise and congratulation from Karl Marx, another huge fan. The letter can be found in any number of Marx archives on the internet.

And as Edmund Wilson wrote in his book, Patriotic Gore: Essays on the Civil War, Lincoln, Bismark and Lenin did more than any other individuals in their respective countries to introduce centralized governmental power and bureaucracy.

Military Slavery Coming?

The regime wants more troops to run the world. Does this mean they will try conscription again? Daniel Webster's great 1812 speech on the topic is still on target.

Our Authoritarian Military

"They were wrong, of course. Soldiers should not go public in the middle of a conflict and trash-talk their superiors or ask for the resignation of the secretary of defense," says Maureen Down. But why? Why are our soldiers supposed to have no rights against the DC elites? How about a little freedom for the Army?

Dusty Baker Has Nature on His Side

Of course black athletes are more tolerant of heat, says Jon Entine, author of Taboo: Why Blacks Dominate Sports and Why We're Afraid to Talk About It.

Geneva Convention? What Geneva Convention?

What's happened to the Iraqi scientists the US has put in secret camps?

Mussolini the Neocon

According to Mussolini, here is the first principle of fascism: "Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism -- born of a renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to meet it. All other trials are substitutes, which never really put men into the position where they have to make the great decision -- the alternative of life or death."

You've Got a Ticket

For driving an SUV. Another loopy group in the Baltimore area is handing out bright, orange "tickets" to SUV owners this weekend. They are trying to "shame" SUV owners, and mostly, they want to shame Detroit. (Shame on you, Detroit!) I think they really just want to shame Tom DiLorenzo, who drives one of those BMW SUV beauties and lives in the Baltimore area.

From the article:

Laura MacCleery, council for auto safety at the group Public Citizen, slammed SUVs for creating a "vehicle arms race on the highway where everyone has to keep super-sizing their family car just to be safe."

And another SUV Hater says, "The choice to drive an SUV or to purchase a new one is also doing violence to others. It's just done in more insidious and constant ways every time they turn the ignition," Dobb explained.

Oh, and notice that the fella mentioned in the article who defends SUVs is named Rothbard. Thanks to JS for the link.

"Every stage of the weapons cycle was missing"

A nice, concise article on the 'evidence' for Iraq's nuclear weapons program. No one in a position to know could realistically have believed that Iraq had anything like a significant nuclear weapons program.

More Lindorff

Dear Lew,

The Lindorff article had me shaking my head, too. Is it ignorance, ideological blindness, or just balls that would lead a man to demonize a Republican administration that suspends habeas corpus by accusing its Attorney General of Confederate sympathies?

As to criticizing you for posting it, as one reader did-- sometimes (not very often, but sometimes) I scratch my head at an article you have linked, but I am always reminded of the statement on your Principles page: "LewRockwell.com highlights the news and commentary that he finds important, or simply interesting. It is therefore unapologetically idiosyncratic."

Thanks for the idiosyncrasies, Lew. Thanks for being such an intelligent and genial companion and guide six mornings in the week.

Best regards,
Steven St.Jean

P.S. This letter rides on the back of a small gift to lewrockwell.com.

I'm fed up with Lance Armstrong

I think my views about Lance Armstrong began to change from admiration to distrust when he became identified with "Team U.S. Postal Service". At first, I didn't think much about it.

"It must be fashionable in European biking circles to affiliate with a government agency", I thought.

Wrong. I don't follow the sport that closely, but I never recall any of Armstrong's rivals being refered to as Pierre, with "Team Garbage Men de Paris," for example.

Visit Armsrong's web site and he is not just a Post Office icon, he is Uncle Sam with a biker's helmet. I wouldn't be suprised if he were with the CIA.

But what bugs me most about Armstrong is his never changing status as a victim.
Okay, he fought his way back from testiscular cancer, and acheived fame and glory.

Heroic, but enough already. He has become the poster-boy of all poster boys.

We want to teach our kids to overcome adversity, not to revel in it.

I 'm not sure I'll be rooting against him as the bikes fly down to the finishline in Paris next week, but I won't shed any tears if someone from Euroland beats him out.

Lindorff's Mistake

Just a note on the Lindorff article, which has all of the usual mistakes that come from the Left. To quote Lindorff: "Now we may not yet have a dictatorship, but we do have the extreme right with a solid lock on power in Washington today..."

Extreme right?! Do I really need to clarify that? Will these Lefties ever get the political continuum figured out? And will they ever understand the Social-Democrat apparatus enough to make the necessary distinctions? Additionally, Lindorff also gets it wrong on Charles Lindbergh.

Reader Criticism

Michael Gaddy writes to criticize my linking to the Lindorff article on Hitler and Bush, because it compares the Confederates to the Nazis. Good point, though it doesn't affect the thesis of the article. As Thomas DiLorenzo has pointed out, and neocons and other leftists hate to acknowledge, Hitler was pro-Lincoln and pro-Union. Hardly a surprise that he took the protectionist, centralist, militarist, nationalist, big-government side.

The Founders and the Fedayeen

Mary Beth Norton talks some historical sense to Rumsfeld, Bremer, and the rest of the occupiers -- though please note, Prof. Norton: the "lack of national authority over commerce and taxation" is not exactly a flaw to some of us! (Courtesy of Michael Ewens.)

Hmmm

According to the NAACP's Kweisi Mfume, the political capital of presidential candidates who didn't kiss his ring "is now the equivalent of Confederate dollars." But what about the fact that a Confederate dollar is worth a lot more than a federal one?

Ted Rall

We Are Now a Colony

The British lament.

Make War: Vote GOP

If you aren't familiar with Kevin Tuma's artwork, you should be.

Photographing the Captured

Remember when that caused Rumsfeldian-Foxian fury? Now the bag is on the other head, so to speak.

Shut Up and Sniff Your Glue

Unwed Mothers, Iraq, and Imperialism by Anthony Gancarski.

CIA vs. Neocons

The CIA stops planned lies about Syria.

Thieves Fall Out

Oh no! A Hate Crime Against Congressional Comity: a Democrat calls a Republican "you little fruitcake."

Secret Life of Cowboys

I highly recommend a wonderful, new book I'm reading called The Secret Life of Cowboys, about a Chicago suburbanite becoming a sort of Marlboro Man. It's available at Amazon.

Rice's Control

Justin Raimondo on Robert Joseph, the member of the Perle Gang who slipped those 16 words among the other lies.

Since Conspiracies Do Not Exist

Writes Butler Shaffer: Since "conspiracies" do not exist, I guess this means he was either (a) a suicide, (b) a victim of an accident, (c) a v