Economist Andy Xie is now writing at Caing.com, the successor to Caijing On-Line, and his first two columns are, as always, well worth reading in full. They explicate the bear case on China accessibly, in concrete terms and with careful logic. If the author betrays a rooting interest, it’s not for or against [...]
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Latest on Sat, 12:54 pm
: @ fairly empty cask:
The piloting of drones, being done by CIA operatives, is placing them in an awkward legal position.
Only because guys like Solis want our legal system to enforce "protocols" that don't apply to us because we have not ratified them.
: No, Sully. Our legal position has been that the 1977 thing was EASING the rules, and that what the CIA guys are doing has always been contrary to the laws of warfare.
I happen to support the drone campaign in Pakistan, but I can't help but think that there are some thorns on the rose.
Solis shouldn't be getting much flak for giving a heads-up here.
: We don't target noncombatants they do, they blow up schools, hospitals, high rises, train tunnels, and then they hide among the local
population
: You know, I've re-read the Solis piece, and I don't really see what his point is. That the CIA drone operators would be lawful targets? So? He thinks he's giving them some kind of warning?: narc, I kinda get that they are the bad guys.
But, again and again, I'm gonna keep saying that they are bad does not mean that we are allowed to do any or every thing.
We have rules and laws for good and sufficient reason.We should follow those rules and laws for good and sufficient reason.
We'll always have reasons for fudging them, but the closer we stick, the better.: Yes, that's the way I read it, maybe he didn't intend
it that way, but bringing
up the attack on FOB Chapman, makes that conclusion undeniable: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704131404575117613313731980.html
: It occurs to me, the idiocy of Biden's recent
remarks, the Israelis had
to go after Mabdouh in an open city like Dubai, because apparently the local authorities welcome
terrorists, yet he's whining about some extra
settlements: BTW, narciso, see new link under Rec Browsing, are you keeping up with the aftershocks? This thing is verging on major imbroglio... (Sure dodged a bullet with Biden instead of that know-nothing chillbilly as VP, right?)Recent Comments
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Luther Tompkins on The Real Progressives: Lissen up, you pantywaists! Now that I have your attention, I would very much wish you to observe my considerable wonder at y’all’s sheer... -
George Jochnowitz on CONTENTION OF THE DAY – DEDUCTIVE LOGIC: I can’t read Obama’s mind, but it seems that we must take seriously the possibility there there IS a God, and that... -
Zoltan Newberry on The Real Progressive Speaks! (replying to the critics #1): @ Seth Halpern: Seth: I have an unemployed son-in-law in Las Vegas who is a very good plumber and a hard worker. My... - Zoltan Newberry on The Real Progressive Speaks! (replying to the critics #1): Self described Progressives today are yesterday’s liberals. They know what is best for us, and hold a vicious...
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Geoffrey Britain on CONTENTION OF THE DAY – THE LAW OF IRONY STRIKES AGAIN: @ Rex Caruthers: As you rightly point out Rex, Louis 16th’s mistake was assuming God was on his side. I was... -
Rex Caruthers on CONTENTION OF THE DAY – THE LAW OF IRONY STRIKES AGAIN: There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right,... - Zoltan Newberry on : Re: Holder: As if his triumphal speech noting “we are a nation of cowards” was not enough, how much more do we need to know about this chinless clown? The man...
- Geoffrey Britain on CONTENTION OF THE DAY – THE LAW OF IRONY STRIKES AGAIN: @ Rex Caruthers: Sorry to disabuse you of the notion Rex but you do not get to define reality, try though you...
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Margo on The Real Progressive Speaks! (replying to the critics #1): Yes, it’s very true that the technology was lacking. It’s interesting to consider what we are going to do when... - CK MacLeod on The Real Progressive Speaks! (replying to the critics #1): Margo wrote: But the nation resisted it admirably for more than a hundred years. Well, I wonder how much of that...
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Said in a Thread
- when you’re a designated shepherd or sheepdog…
March 6, 2010 | 12:17 pm… (remember you can designate yourself) part of you is actually glad to see a wolf, because now you can prove to everyone how important you are, by bossing everyone around for their own good.
“A doctor and a peasant know more than a doctor alone,” the Italians used to say. Self-appointed doctors everywhere are working to suppress this insight. Human societies can save themselves from the next wolf, if they are allowed to do so; but it is hard for them to save themselves from the shepherds.
- Consider this angle on what Ryan is doing:
February 15, 2010 | 2:37 pmThe unbridled, technocratic arrogance of this administration has acted like a time machine. Obama and the Dims have, deficit wise, leapt at least 10 years into the future. The ever-over-the-horizon inevitable fiscal catastrophe of the committed welfare state has been brought rudely into the present tense for all of us to gape at in shock. RIGHT NOW! As with the hapless, doomed frog sitting in water slowly being heated to boiling, yet continuing to sit because the heat is being added incrementally, Americans have for 40 years been putting up with first 50- then 100-, then 200-, and even 400-and-500-billion-dollar annual shortfalls with pathetic equanimity. The Dims threw caution to the winds, skipped right past 800-billion and even trillion-dollar deficits – why tarry? – and seized the big brass ring: Whack! $1.6 trillion bucks in the hole. Suck on that! And more of the same to come. Ring-a-ding-ding!
The frog is scalded pink and more than ready to jump. It just wants somewhere – anywhere but the destination on offer now – to land. Ryan suspects that, I believe. Why can’t the Repub leadership see it, too?
Joe NS @ Who’s afraid of Paul Ryan?.
- America is much bigger and much stronger and far more resilient and wonderful…
January 11, 2010 | 12:17 pm…than the pedestrian Obami would have it, and [Avatar] is an American film. Think about it. The Russians and Chinese and others will see it and they must again marvel at our creativity and our technology. They will be seeing yet another distinctive American film, a wonder like Dances With Wolves and E. T. and Close Encounters… before it. Again they will be seeing America at Her best, an America which can meld together all people of good will, an America which is not afraid to be self critical and idealistic. They may even come to think well of an America which can inspire such a fine sense of wonder as “Avatar” has done.
Zoltan Newberry @ In a world of their own: Conservatives and Avatar.
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Archive for Said in a Thread »
- when you’re a designated shepherd or sheepdog…
Collected Poetry of Sully
- Telomeres
February 17, 2010 | 6:23 amTelomeres of defined length,
Were by his God in mankind bent,
To make it sure that aged ones,
Would pass to make room for their sons,
Before they learn to mount the hill,
They yearn to climb, their God to kill.New daughters too then see their day,
As the used up old fair pass away,
And the brighter young can in their turn,
Seek their creator’s iron rules to spurn.One day mankind may beat the odds,
And take on the powers of the gods.
Sure on that day He’ll mold an image,
And include within his toy’s equippage,
A strictly limited telomere,
To set for it a cliff that’s sheer.For once a former God is whipped,
Displaced by his toy free will equipped,
The former toy learns something odd,
About possession of the mind of God,
Namely, knowledge of the entire script,
Makes the endless now a boring crypt.Mere mechanical beasts are not a cure,
For their script entire a God knows for sure,
To divert a toy must have free will,
And at least a chance to climb the hill,
There to displace its God, a bitter pill - Riff On MacLeod’s Quote
January 29, 2010 | 6:32 am“People are 97% water and no damn good.”
They’d do what they oughta,
If they god dammned could,
But they can’t, so they don’t,
And they ain’t gonna change.It’s a hundred percent fact,
That the truly pure,
Are more or less demure,
And don’t make a show,
Of a holy man act.Those precious few don’t affect the case,
For the utterly pure never win the race,
Which always goes to the mostly base,
Cause none of us likes very much to be,
Reminded too much that we’re deeply flawed,
Though we talk a bit about being awed,
By those few among us who walk with God.Then too the vast mass,
Of the flawed and crass,
Like nothing better in the end,
Than a deep and sweet crow,
At the predicament of them,
Who get caught, caught, caught,
Where they ought not go.Who’s to say the vast herd,
Isn’t better off for the word,
To get around and resound,
Among the flawed but sound,
That if you should get caught,
Doing what you shouldn’t ought,
Ninety Seven Percent will pretend,
That your act was round the bend,
And the mocking, the mocking, will never end. -
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- Telomeres
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"Jochnowitz, throughout the essays, is animated by the cool precision of logic.... scintillating, amusing, and provocative."
—February 2009, Midstream Blog Authors
