Tag Archives: democracy

Abrogation of the Soul

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Lee

Somewhat tortuously, the State Department has congratulated the victory of Hugo Chavez’s referendum to revoke term limits on his rule as a victory for participatory democracy, while faintly recommending a new respect for multiparty pluralism. Consider for a moment if … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign affairs | Tagged 22nd Ammendment, Barack Obama, Bush, constitutional order, constitutions, democracy, Domestic Politics, fascism, Gaza, Hamas, Hugo Chavez, international affairs, liberal democracy, liberalism, Obama, State Department, term limits | 5 Comments

Implications of the Pletka Purge

Posted on December 22, 2008 by Lee

Roland picks up an interesting piece by Jacob Heilbrunn for the National Interest, describing an ongoing purge of neoconservative intellectuals from the American Enterprise Institute, allegedly instigated by Vice President Danielle Pletka. So far Michael Ledeen and Reuel Marc Gerecht … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page, Military Matters | Tagged 1990s, 2004, AEI, AEI purge, American Enterprise Institute, anti-semitism, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, conflict resolution, constitutional democracy, cynicism, Danielle Pletka, democracy, diplomacy, Edward Shirley, Egypt, foreign policy, geostrategy, idealism, intellectuals, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jacob Heilbrunn, Joshua Muravchik, just war doctrine, M1 Abrams, machtpolitik, Michael Ledeen, Middle East, military, Muslim, neocons, neoconservatism, neoconservative, November, October, Pletka, Pletka Purge, purge, realism, realpolitiker, Republican establishment, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Richard Nixon, rogue states, Saudi Arabia, security policy, tanks, The National Interest, United States | 2 Comments

The West as Nuclear Proliferator

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Lee

(NYT) The New York Times has a fascinating little chart today, illustrating the primary sources of nuclear weapons proliferation over time. In looking at the diagram, one cannot escape the overall impression that until recently the West has been the … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign affairs, Technology | Tagged Africa, Asia, authoritarianism, chart, China, civic culture, communications, democracy, diagram, DPRK, eastern bloc, English, espionage, former soviet republics, government, individualism, infographic, lingua franca, military intelligence, networks, New York Times, North Korea, nucelar research, nuclear proliferation, nuclear weapons, political dissent, prc, proliferation risk, rogue states, Russia, scientific community, Soviet Union, Technology, technology transfer, trade, translation services, Transportation, USSR, western democracy | Leave a comment

The Voice of Murder

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Lee

The subject of the bloody 1965 Indonesian mass murder of suspected communists is not often openly discussed history even in today’s Indonesia. Given the pervasive silence, estimates vary on the actual number of people killed, but it’s generally accepted as … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign affairs, History | Tagged 1965, antidemocratic, Asian communism, Associated Press, Autocracy, banyan tree, Cambodia, China, CIA, clove cigarettes, communism, communist, Darmo, death tool, decapitation, democracy, freedom, Hamid, History, Indonesia, Indonesian, Indonesian massacre, islam, Islamic clerics, Javanese sarong, mass graves, mass murder, murder, Nahdlatul Ulama, nationalism, PKI, pogrom, preemptive murder, prisoners, purge, Quran, religion, sledgehammer, Suharto, Sukarno, Sulchan, US, Vietnam | 1 Comment

Three Banks to Rule the World

Posted on November 6, 2008 by Lee

The winners of the global financial turmoil look to be three American ‘superbanks’: JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. The institutions have all grown to occupy such a predominant position in the marketplace, that all three recently … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics | Tagged Asia, Bank of America, banking, banks, democracy, domestic deposits, Europe, exports, financial crisis, housing crisis, JP Morgan Chase, markets, recession, superbanks, Wells Fargo | Leave a comment

The 2048 Election

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Lee

Barack Obama has been president-elect for exactly one day and James Carville is already arguing for an inevitable Democratic majority for the next 40 years. Imagine predicting Jim’s claim to fame, the 1992 election, from the vantage of 1952, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics | Tagged 1952, 1992, 2048, Barack Obama, democracy, democratic, election, History, James Carville, Karl Rove | 1 Comment

Against Galt

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Lee

Synova wrote a little post that gets halfway to where I would come down on this perennial parlor game of the John Galt general strike. Sy recognized that to be successful, such a revolt would realistically be a miserable experience … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Culture, Lee's Page, Libertarianism | Tagged America, Aristotle, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Carl Schmitt, collectivism, Conservatism, constitutional order, Culture, democracy, epiphany, Eric Hoffer, fascism, futurism, Galt's Gulch, general will, government, group identity, guardians, ideology, individualism, John Galt, justice, liberal democracy, liberalism, Libertarianism, literary style, literature, materialism, Objectivism, Plato, popular democracy, radicalism, Randianism, revolt, revolution, Rousseau, salvation, sectionalism, seperatism, skepticism, socia, social justice, strike, war, William F Buckley | 25 Comments

Is Income Tax Becoming Too Progressive?

Posted on October 21, 2008 by ChrisB

Fewer and fewer people are paying income tax and even less will be with either candidates tax plan. I don’t think this would be such a problem if we didn’t have such high spending, growing entitlements, and if so many … Continue reading →

Posted in Chris' Page, Domestic Politics, Economics, Election 2008, taxes | Tagged Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, Barack Obama, civic tax, democracy, demographics, election, graduated rate income taxes, Greg mankiw, income, income tax, McCain, money, Obama, population, progressive, progressive taxation, tax plan, tax policy, tax shelters, taxes, treasury | Leave a comment

The Folly of Heroes

Posted on October 13, 2008 by Lee

What a day for indignity. Just when I’d stopped shaking my head at the image of Paul Krugman accepting the Nobel Prize, I read two of my most cherished heroes offering rather embarrassing endorsements for bad things. Christopher Hitchens, always … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Lee's Page | Tagged capitalism, Christopher Hitchens, democracy, Francis Fukuyama, hackery, Hegel, John McCain, Margaret Thatcher, McCain, Norman Podhoretz, Obama, Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin | Leave a comment

Poneco Parties in Chile

Posted on September 14, 2008 by Lee

There’s a teenage sexual revolution underway in Chile, that is animated by the emergence of a rebellious new generation of kids born after the 1988 referendum and democratic transition. A generation with no memory of the moral strictures of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Around the Web | Tagged 1988, Chile, democracy, dictatorship, kiss, Michele Bravo, parties, poneco, referendum, sex, sexual revolution | Leave a comment

A Rosy Future for Anti-Americanism?

Posted on September 10, 2008 by Lee

Longtime Clinton ally Leon Panetta pronounces Barack Obama “intimidated” by Sarah Palin, and lost in a deepening cycle of reactive defense. With McCain now winning a majority of independents and erasing the gender gap, the blood is most definitely in … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008 | Tagged American, anti-Americanism, Berlin, blood, Bush, Bush Administration, Bushism, democracy, elites, Europe, European, free enterprise, gender gap, independents, Jonathan Freedland, Leon Panetta, limited government, McCain, militarism, multilateralism, November, Obama, Palin, patriotism, pessimism, politicians, poll, Sarah Palin, social conservatism, The Guardian, United States | 1 Comment

Mixed Economies: Efficacy Without Moral Narrative

Posted on September 9, 2008 by Lee

(photo: Ian Murchison | website) The nationalization of Fannie & Freddie is often presented as a crisis of faith for the political right, due to its manifest incompatibility with the advertised belief in the “free market.” However, Sunder Katwala at … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics, Economics, Lee's Page | Tagged analysis, Anglo-Saxon, Bush Administration, business, capitalism, Conservatism, democracy, Environment, Fannie Mae, Francis Fukuyama, Freddie Mac, free market, Fukuyama, left, liberalism, markets, mixed economy, morality, mortgage crisis, NextLeft, orthodoxy, private sector, Reagan, right, social democracy, Sunder Katwala, Thatcher, Third Way | Leave a comment

Anti-Palin Hysteria Expands, Degenerates

Posted on August 31, 2008 by Lee

I’m beginning to sense that anti-Palin hysteria is building toward a collective psychological meltdown of truly epic proportions on the Democratic side of our political divide. Today, Democratic consultant Dan Conley angrily pushed us a little further to the brink … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008 | Tagged cynicism, Dan Conley, democracy, democratic, left, McCain, Palin, patriotism, peace, Republican, Sarah Palin, speechwriter, unpatriotic, war | Leave a comment

Going to Tbilisi?

Posted on August 13, 2008 by Lee

Russian units are on the move again in Georgian territory, apparently in violation of the truce agreement. One Russian soldier in a large convoy shouted an ominous flirtation to a press photographer outside Gori, hopefully in jest or lust: “Come … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page | Tagged Caucasian, Culture, democracy, Domestic Politics, factions, Georgia, Gori, Media, Medvedev, military, monocrats, photographer, political, Putin, Russia, Tbilisi, war | Leave a comment

Saakashvili has a Future

Posted on August 12, 2008 by Lee

Last night Joshua argued that Saakashvili, having quite obviously failed to recapture his renegade territories, is certain to be finished one way or the other. Either overthrown by the Russian army, or by the Georgian people at the ballot box. … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign affairs, Lee's Page | Tagged ballot box, democracy, Domestic Politics, Georgia, Joshua Foust, nationalism, Russia, Russian Army, Saakashvili, United States, war | Leave a comment

Thunder in the Place of the Winds

Posted on August 7, 2008 by Lee

photo: Isuru Senevi | site And so ends Mauritania’s brief experiment with constitutional democracy. The AFP has a source in the new ruling junta who says there will be new elections in two months. We shall see.

Posted in Foreign affairs | Tagged Abdallahi, AFP, Africa, Alex Ely, capital, Cold War, communism, constitutional, coup, darfur, democracy, extermists, Islamic, Mauritania, military, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, power, State Department, support, Washington Post | 1 Comment

Swordsmen into Social Workers

Posted on August 5, 2008 by Lee

It seems Muqtada al-Sadr is getting out of the mayhem & militia business in favor of social services. Not strictly as a Hamas style prop for publicity and popularity either. Iraq may well become that strangest of political landscapes where … Continue reading →

Posted in Around the Web | Tagged democracy, Hamas, Iraq, landscapes, militia, Muqtada al-Sadr, populairty, publicity, social services | Leave a comment

Exit Trinity. Exit Church.

Posted on May 31, 2008 by Lee

Well, Mr. Obama has finally quit that ludicrous Chicago institution known as Trinity United Church of Christ. His membership had survived Rev. Wright, but was ultimately done in over the visiting Rev. Michael Pfleger’s bizarre self-hating white guilt trip, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics, Religion and theology, Uncategorized | Tagged Chicago, christ, church, conservatives, democracy, Domestic Politics, evangelical, God, Huckabee, Obama, pfleger, pirates, pulpit, religion, Trinity, wright | 1 Comment

Assasination and Democracy

Posted on February 18, 2008 by Lance

The Bayesian Heresy tipped me to a profile of economist Ben Olken, who has published a couple of papers on the effect of political leaders on economic and political development: Olken wonders whether economic development and the path to democratization … Continue reading →

Posted in Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, social science | Tagged assasination, autcracy, democracy, economic development, political economy, social science, war | Leave a comment

“You grew up in freedom, and you can spit on freedom, because you don’t know what it is not to have it.”

Posted on February 11, 2008 by MichaelW

For your viewing pleasure, watch Ayaan Hirsi Ali effortlessly dismantle the typical leftist tropes thrown at her in an interview with Avi Lewis (Naomi Klein’s husband). The quote serving as the title comes across as venomously pointed when read, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Foreign affairs, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Philosophy, social science | Tagged America, Avi Lewis, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, democracy, Domestic Politics, freedom, islam, Netherlands, On The Map, Somalia | 4 Comments

The Best Result Possible

Posted on February 10, 2008 by Peg

Do you want the best possible result? Sure; don’t we all? When I play bridge, we frequently say: “I didn’t get the best possible result. But – I got the best result possible.” Sometimes, the best possible result is impossible … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Peg's Page | Tagged abortion, Barack Obama, democracy, Democrats, Election 2008, Hillary Clinton, immigration, Iraq, John McCain, Republicans, spending | Leave a comment

I Have No Mouth Yet I Must Scream

Posted on February 6, 2008 by Lee

Michael Goldfarb denounced Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives as “disgraceful” today, for their open criticism of John McCain’s record and views. He labels it the result of a psychological condition he and other McCain apologists call “McCain Derangement Syndrome”: I … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Lee's Page | Tagged Bill Kristol, conservative, criticism, democracy, GOP, Harriet Miers, liberal, McCain, Michel Goldfarb, Rush Limbaugh, silence, Weekly Standard | 18 Comments

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