May 10, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
I guess I touched a nerve with my letter to the Sun last week, because J.P. Avlon took a few swipes at my position in his column last Thursday:Mayor La Guardia... saw nothing incompatible with showing compassion for ordinary New Yorkers and mercilessly cutting ineffective bureaucrats--eliminating redundancies, and increasing efficiency....One of the cardinal rules of government leadership is that every crisis contains an opportunity. Slashing the ranks of government workers outright during a time of multi-billion dollar surpluses would have provided a perfect example of E.L. Doctrow's edged quip that "The philosophical conservative is someone willing to pay the price of other people's suffering for his principles." [New York Sun, 5/1/03]
This last quip irked me the most, because it catches people by relying on the unfairness of sacrificing some people for others, when in fact it is defending sacrificing some people for others. I wrote a letter, which I figured wouldn't be printed as it was several days late--but I wanted to see if I could take on this kind of pragmatism in a compressed space.
Today the Sun printed my letter but omitted my conclusion (which I put in square brackets below):
J.P. Avlon (5/1) argues that the government can live within its means, if only it cuts waste, fraud and abuse. I've heard this refrain all my life, yet government has only grown bigger. Waste persists for a reason: If we allow the state to rob Peter to pay Paul, we can hardly be surprised when those doing the job turn out to be dishonest.
Suppose waste magically disappeared and the state conferred unearned benefits only on the "truly needy." The savings would soon vanish, for important needs would still be going unmet. There is always another vagrant to be fed or housed, another sick person to be cared for, another school to be built, another disease to be cured.
In no era can the state avoid telling needy people that it will not help them, for no budget can ever be big enough to satisfy all needs. [Thus it is absurd to insist, as Mr. Avlon does, that cutting government in good times is impossible. The challenge is the same in good times as in bad: repudiating the irrational "principle" that some must pay the price for the suffering of others--that a need is an entitlement. Philosophical ideas, not "bad times," are the true cause of budget shortfalls.] [New York Sun, 5/8/03]
The Sun also changed "vagrant" to "person."
May 9, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that trans-Atlantic divisions over the US-led war on Iraq were a thing of the past and the United Nations would play a vital role in that country's future....Most of Powell's speech went to praising ties between the United States and the EU and within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. "We are driven forward by common values," he said, "and when we disagree it is usually over means rather than the ends." [Agence France-Presse, 5/7/03]
Is he saying that because he thinks it's true--in which case he doesn't understand that the fundamental value of America is freedom and that of Europe isn't--or because his wish for diplomatic solutions doesn't allow him to say anything else?
May 8, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Scott Ritter, a former United Nations weapons inspector, has compared the invasion of Iraq to Hitler's invasion of Poland. He told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper that 130 Americans had died "for a lie", adding: "I see no difference between the invasion of Iraq and the invasion of Poland in 1939." Both invasions were based on what he said was an artificial argument of self defence. President George W Bush had used the September 11 attacks as Hitler used the 1933 burning of the Reichstag to repress domestic dissidents. [Daily Telegraph, 5/7/03]
Not that Ritter has much credibility anymore, after soliciting an underage girl for sexual acts, and who wouldn't describe what he saw in an Iraqi prison for children "because what I saw was so horrible that it can be used by those who would want to promote war with Iraq, and right now I'm waging peace."
May 8, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
American soldiers from MET Alpha, the "mobile exploitation team" that has been searching for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons in Iraq for the past three months, found maps featuring terrorist strikes against Israel dating to 1991....Team members floated out of the room a perfect mock-up of the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, as well as mock-ups of downtown Jerusalem and official Israeli buildings in very fine detail. They also collected a satellite picture of Dimona, Israel's nuclear complex....Written in Arabic and dated May 20, 2001, the memo from the Iraqi intelligence station chief in an African country described an offer by a "holy warrior" to sell uranium and other nuclear material. The bid was rejected, the memo states, because of the United Nations "sanctions situation." But the station chief wrote that the source was eager to provide similar help at a more convenient time. [New York Times, 5/7/03]
And then there's this:
With the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the flow of millions of dollars that the Iraqi leader sent to support the Palestinian intifada has abruptly ended. [Independent, 5/7/03]
Taranto: "This gives the lie to the claim that Saddam's regime had nothing to do with terrorism--except to those who believe it isn't terrorism if the victims are only Jews. "
May 7, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
See Capitalism Magazine's spotlight on taxation for some insight. Andrew West's piece "George Bush Misses the Point on Cutting Taxes" written over two years ago is particularly insightful.
May 7, 2003 | Dollars & Crosses
Reports today's Miami Herald:Nearly three hours after throwing themselves from their rickety boat to stave off the Coast Guard, three Cuban migrants slogged through thigh-high water and into the mangroves off Key Largo [Florida] on Tuesday. The men had been pepper-sprayed after reportedly brandishing oars and weapons -- including a machete -- at approaching Coast Guard officers about two miles offshore. A fourth migrant, too tired to stay afloat, allowed himself to be taken aboard a Coast Guard vessel after jumping overboard. With rescue boats following and officers watching, his companions kept swimming, hoping to make it two miles to freedom. Barefoot and wearing nothing but brief trunks, the trio gingerly picked their way across a bed of coral to the mangrove swamp ringing the affluent enclave of The Ocean Reef Club shortly before 6:30 p.m. As the ocean gave way to shallow puddles, one of the men lifted his arms to the sky, pumping his fists with joy. Under the wet foot/dry foot policy, Cuban migrants who reach shore are generally allowed to stay, while those interdicted at sea are typically sent back. ["Cubans taste freedom upon reaching shore", Miami Herald]
I saw the arrival televised on TV--it was magnificent as you could see the joy on the man's face as he raised his arms up in triumph.
