Some of my favorite examples of this are in certain passages in Kennan, Russia and the West Under Lenin and Stalin.
The reluctance to join WW I, until the Russian Revolution provided an ostensible reason to fight a 'rich man's war'.
The revolution was welcomed here back then. President Wilson's statement, classic.
BOOMERBUSTER
OLD CELLO
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
FRET LESS STRINGS
String players who can play in tune, with in tune sympathetic vibrations, with dynamics and rhythm also correct and expressive, on good instruments, vanishingly rare, for a variety of different kinds of reasons.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
RE BBC JAPAN CHINA MINISTERS IN SEVERE MEETING
Please.
Send in Mary Poppins.
She can solve their problems with her parasol.
Send in Mary Poppins.
She can solve their problems with her parasol.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
RE THURSTON HOWELL ROMNEY NYT BROOKS
He occasionally writes a sensible essay, as he does here.
He paints Romney very much as my fictional variation on Thurston Howell III.
Term search: Thurston.
My Thurston had said, 06, at Boca :
"Who do you think they will bail out, you or me?"
He paints Romney very much as my fictional variation on Thurston Howell III.
Term search: Thurston.
My Thurston had said, 06, at Boca :
"Who do you think they will bail out, you or me?"
Monday, September 17, 2012
RE BBC CHINA PROTESTS JAPAN SUSPENDS SOME COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS IN CHINA
This is a good thing to do.
Also, in the Muslim world, suspend operations too,
most everywhere, very prudent.
The other shoe is dropping now all around.
Also, in the Muslim world, suspend operations too,
most everywhere, very prudent.
The other shoe is dropping now all around.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
BBC AMERICANS ARE BEGINNING TO WORRY ABOUT AN ASIAN WAR OVER ISLANDS ETC
Amazing that Americans should only now be wondering about this, after fomenting growth, first of one, then the other, then another, and so on, and resulting rivalries over there, for decades.
It can hardly be that the grand strategy was to get them fighting each other.
No, something much more pedestrian was afoot: laissez faire globalist market capitalism, unmoored from any strategy whatsoever.
It can hardly be that the grand strategy was to get them fighting each other.
No, something much more pedestrian was afoot: laissez faire globalist market capitalism, unmoored from any strategy whatsoever.
Friday, September 14, 2012
ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT MERCANTILISM
Was that it was used quite often as a doctrine to restrict or prohibit trade, or even god forbid take over trade, as well as at times to promote or encourage international trade, for national or imperial interests.
Economic 'sanctions', trade restrictions or prohibitions, are now normally a holding back of otherwise widely available market access.
Simply preventing, or at least hindering, others from economically expanding, at one's expense (a non Smithian concept admittedly), when done on other than adverse overt military terms,
has not been on the West's agenda.
Economic 'sanctions', trade restrictions or prohibitions, are now normally a holding back of otherwise widely available market access.
Simply preventing, or at least hindering, others from economically expanding, at one's expense (a non Smithian concept admittedly), when done on other than adverse overt military terms,
has not been on the West's agenda.
RE APRES RAHM, LE DELUGE BROOKS NYT
The theory he retreats to here
can be summarized in just one word:
bull.
can be summarized in just one word:
bull.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
RE THOMAS FRIEDMAN IN CHINA WE (DON'T) TRUST
Friedman, very predictably now, slamming his erstwhile globalization darling.
And doing it trying to talk about a term like ' trust ',
a term the meaning of which has now been lost here for a long time,
and which exists elsewhere politically only fleetingly.
And doing it trying to talk about a term like ' trust ',
a term the meaning of which has now been lost here for a long time,
and which exists elsewhere politically only fleetingly.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Saturday, September 1, 2012
RE E J DIONNE THE VITAL CENTER SO TO SPEAK
Just a remark here to mention I have been going back into this little tome, Why Americans Hate Politics.
He purports to be a rather well informed political theorist and historian.
One little detail I would point out about his reporting on the vital center issue Ch 5, p. 117:
"From the end of WW II until the 1960s, there really was broad agreement within the country..."
'Fundamental' as it is, he doesn't think hard enough to criticize it against both parties when it comes to its fundamental tenets:
"a free market economy... to underwrite a globalist foreign policy, a modest welfare state, and steadily increasing standards of living...."
The really idealistic naive parts,
which it does not even occur to Dionne to tackle,
even though they are fundamental to both parties he criticizes,
were the free market economy as connected with a globalist foreign policy, together with the unrealistic goal of a perpetually rising standard of living.
It has been precisely these shared fundamentals which have been so catastrophic for America as a commonwealth.
He purports to be a rather well informed political theorist and historian.
One little detail I would point out about his reporting on the vital center issue Ch 5, p. 117:
"From the end of WW II until the 1960s, there really was broad agreement within the country..."
'Fundamental' as it is, he doesn't think hard enough to criticize it against both parties when it comes to its fundamental tenets:
"a free market economy... to underwrite a globalist foreign policy, a modest welfare state, and steadily increasing standards of living...."
The really idealistic naive parts,
which it does not even occur to Dionne to tackle,
even though they are fundamental to both parties he criticizes,
were the free market economy as connected with a globalist foreign policy, together with the unrealistic goal of a perpetually rising standard of living.
It has been precisely these shared fundamentals which have been so catastrophic for America as a commonwealth.
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