|
July 26, 2004
Weekly QandO Roundup (bumped)
Posted by Jon Henke
Readers: I'll be doing this Weekly QandO Roundup on a fairly regular (weekend) basis, but I thought I should bump it up for this Monday, so weekday readers can get an idea of what we've written this past week. Click the "excerpt" buttons to read a brief excerpt of each post.
__________________________________________________________________
We post a lot here at QandO, and I sometimes worry that the barrage may push some valuable posts down and out of sight. With that in mind, I'd like to do a bit of a roundup post of interesting posts from the week. If you see anything of interest, click it and read.
* "The perspective of history and Iraq" (McQ) - A little "then and now" perspective.
It would seem self-evident to anyone that has taken the time to study it that the conduct of war is imprecise at best and sometimes just pure chaos. One has to deal with imperfect information, fluid events, blunders and failures by your own side as well as the courage and ability of the enemy. This makes any plan simply a starting point, because, as has been immortalized in Murphy's Law, a plan usually doesn't survive first contact. Adaptation is where war's are won.
* "The discipline of the free market" (Jon Henke) - a look at the inherent human weaknesses in a free market.
This is a pretty fundamental assumption of many libertarians and proponents of the free-market. It follows from the a priori assumption that, in a free market where all transactions are voluntary, no actor will engage in a transaction that is not to his benefit. Therefore, every exchange will increase the overall wealth and well-being of a society.
Now, that's a reasonable assumption, except for two things:
1: imperfect information.
2: externalities.
* "Sudan: The UN Leaps Into Inaction" (Dale Franks) - While people die, the UN is as useful as ever.
The peculiar fantasy of the UN is that each member state is equally legitimate. The "ambassadors" sent to the UN by murderous thugocracies judiciously shake their heads--more in sorrow than anger, of course--and counsel their fellow ambassadors not to be too hasty. Because these situations are always so "complex", and the "cycle of violence" is so easily started. The complexities must be "studied" before any "hasty action" is taken.
* "Krugmania" (Jon Henke) - Krugman demagogues, and Democratic bloggers cheer what they previously professed to despise.
As it turns out, they never really had a problem with the "Bin Laden would vote for (blank)" slur at all. They just hated when it was applied to their candidate.
It's the principle of the thing, you see.
* "Webmastering is hard...." (Dale Franks) - Funny, how the Joe Wilson links all died at JohnKerry.com.
Now, that's odd. If you go to the John Kerry web site and do a search for "Joe Wilson", or "Joseph Wilson", or "Ambassador Wilson", it doesn't return any documents at all that actually mention Joe Wilson. Huh. Nothing mentioning Joe WIlson's web site if you do a search for "Restore Honesty" or "restorehonesty.com", either.
Man, is that just the wierdest coincidence, or what?
* "There she goes (to Washington) again..." (Jon Henke) - Cynthia McKinney is back in Washington, and just as weird as ever.
I kid you not. Her own words....
Cynthia McKinney is a strong advocate, mentor and supporter of the Hip-Hop community. Her unique popularity among the members of the Hip-Hop generation and young people across the United States of America has made her a trusted voice on behalf of producers, retailers and consumers of Hip-Hop entertainment.
Should be an interesting couple years.
* "Its a right-wing smear" (McQ) - Joe Wilson defends himself, lies. Yes, again.
I certainly wouldn't go as far as call the man a traitor, but a liar ... possible. More likely though is the fact that Joe Wilson was a poor investigator with a big-mouth who attempted to leverage a mole-hill into a partisan political mountain ... and failed.
* "Rationing Health Care" (McQ) - With scarcity come rationing. Even in health care.
Health care as a service is finite. There are only so many doctors, nurses and hours in the day. Health care as a product , however, has an infinite demand which makes it a product which will be rationed. And that means that in any health care system there has to be a system of rationing. The method of rationing is primarily where the fight is.
* "Internationalization" (Jon Henke) - John Kerry's ace-in-the-hole (international support) is looking pretty impotent.
Even when they vote to help, the rest of the world can't step up to the plate.
Presumably, John Kerry has a Secret Plan to, I don't know, convince the insurgents to stop all that insurging, and make the war in Iraq popular again. Unless he gives some details on that plan, though, it's a bit hard to take him at his word about the utility of this whole "internationalization" thing.
* "Partisanship" (Jon Henke) - We're becoming polarized, which is good for the Parties, but bad for facts. It's probably inevitable, though.
But, perhaps this is the unavoidable paradigm. So long as human nature remains what it is, intellectually honest pundits will never be as effective as flamethrowers. Arguments will occur in absolutes, rather than the margins.
Ezra's post is worth reading, and thinking about. I fear, though, that no amount of thought will change the fact that--if you have any intention of winning--the coalition is more important than the principle.
* "Fix The Military, But Do It Right" (McQ) - The "Peace dividend" of the 90s is being paid for today. McQ offers some solutions going forward.
At the height of Vietnam, 1968, we had 550,000 troops there. True we also had an active force of 3,550,000. But the percentage committed to Vietnam was 15% of the total force.
Right. So fast forward to Iraq. We have 130,000 to 160,000 there out of a total force that is significantly smaller (1,423,348 as of Dec, 2003). But when you look at the percentage of the force committed, its only 9 - 11%.
The question then becomes "why was 15% sustainable in 1968 and 10% isn't in 2004?"
* "Supply, Demand, and Prices: It's not just a good idea; it's the law." (Dale Franks) - Congress trying to shove through a drug law that is bad from both a Constitutional and economic standpoint. Dale explains.
What Congress is trying to do is to ensure that cheaper Canadian drugs will be available for re-importation to the United States. After all, many senior citizens buy drugs from Canada, because of the price. So, in it's "wisdom" the Senate is attempting to repeal the law of supply and demand by requiring that drug companies produce and sell prescription drugs to foreign exporters at the same prices they sell them to foreign governments and consumers.
* "9/11 Commission Report: Iraq" (Jon Henke) - A comprehensive look at the Iraq references in the 9/11 Report.
While Iraq is not central to the 9/11 Commission Report, I thought it could be interesting to see what they have to say about it.
Holy crap.
While certainly not conclusive evidence of extensive collaboration, the 9/11 report seems to give a great deal of weight to the charges that there were "ties" between Iraq and Al Qaeda. It also rains on the parades of one Mr. Clarke, who had claimed Iraq was a diversion, that there was "absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever". In fact, it is quite devastating on that point, using Clarke's own words.
* "Collision Course with Iran" (Dale Franks) - Iran is a tougher military nut to crack than was Iraq. But it's different, too, and we have different options.
Granted, Iran is a problem, and there's certainly much to be done about getting rid of the mullahs. But it's the height of hypocrisy for Dowd and her ilk to even bring it up in this fashion. The fact is, As soon as Bush made the "Axis of Evil" statement, Dowd's crowd could hardly contain themselves from frothing with anger over the very concept of an "Axis of Evil". Now, she's arguing for an invasion of Iran?
You've got to be freakin' kidding me. The Left wanted nothing whatsoever to do with an invasion of Iran or Iraq, so coming back and hitting the president with Iran, two years after the fact, is just laughable. If Bush had even mentioned he was considering such a move, the Left would've collapsed in an apoplectic fit. Which, come to think of it, is actually an argument in favor of such a policy. But I digress.
* "Oh, that liberal media" (Jon Henke) - Chris Matthews sets up a blog, and the blogroll is (was, initially) a surprisingly transparent ideological snapshot.
Other than Instapundit, do you see a single right-of-center blog on that list? Perhaps TheNationalDebate? Other than that, it's a showcase of the left, the far left, the far-far left, and the communist left.
I mean, what the hell? They're not even trying anymore.
* "Faster, faster, more, more! Stop!" (Jon Henke) - Josh Marshall complains that the administration won't release documents. Until they do. Then, he complains about that, too.
Shorter Marshall: "Damn you, President Bush, for taking my advice!"
It's sad to see somebody whore himself out like this for a party.
__________________________________________________________________
It's like our own little Carnival of QandO. Read around to see what you've missed from the past week.
TrackBack
|