2014 archive
The Rich Are Different from You and Me 2
They have their own code of laws.
After pointing out that the root of the word “privilege” is the French for “private law,” Noah Smith bemoans the system of private law for the rich and white that he sees evolving in the United States. He supports his case with many examples. Here’s one (emphasis added):
“Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger’s profession, and that entered into it,” [prosecutor] Mark Hurlbert said. “When you’re talking about restitution, you don’t want to take away his ability to pay.
So a rich guy got a lighter sentence because a heavier sentence would prevent him from being rich. Obviously, this get-out-of-jail-free card isn’t available to someone from the middle class, even if he or she is white.
Smith’s mistake is thinking that there is anything new about the rich having private law, though the privilege of the privileged does seem to be increasing. As recently as the Savings and Loan scandal of thirty years ago, banksters went to jail for stiffing their customers; today they get bonuses.
Follow the link for the rest of Smith’s examples.
American Taliban 0
You can’t make this stuff up. What’s truly sad is that you don’t even have to try to make it up.
The Hollow Men 0
The Sacramento Bee’s Jack Ohman parodies pandering pols. You don’t have to be from Cali to get a chuckle from this.
Denial Is Not Just a River in Egypt 0
The gyrations of Southerners who wish to deny the reality of Southern history constantly bemuse and amuse.
Houdini would be confounded by the contortions of those who seek to justify a society based on kidnapping, captivity, torture, rape, and theft of labor.
Well-Turned Phrase Dept. 0
War and Mongers of War 0
Yastreblyanski thinks that President Obama isn’t digging the war drums. A nugget (emphasis in the original):
Founder Flounder 0
A bit tedious, but it makes the point: Republicans will say anything, even made-up stuff, to advance their cause.
Let There Be Blood 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., mulls the continuing American bloodbath. A nugget:
God bless America. We legislate against sharia law in places where there are no Muslims, much less an inclination toward sharia. We pass laws to curtail election fraud despite the fact that election fraud, as a practical matter, does not exist. Yet we endure a yearly toll of gun carnage that makes civilized people in civilized places shake their heads in wonder and our only action is inaction.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The polite want just a little help from their friends.
Deputies say 25-year-old Bret Anderson and 21-year-old Taylor Keele were handling a 9 mm pistol when Anderson unintentionally fired the weapon. It struck Keele in the chest.
Rousted 1
At Psychology Today Blogs, Lynne Soraya remembers when, after she packed up her belongings in a rented van and moved across the country, she was lost and confused on a strange road in unfamiliar territory and a cop decided that she was driving in a suspicious manner.
Given that level of intensity that had developed in a matter of minutes, the intensity that left me staring down the barrel of a gun, it’s interesting what happened next. Nothing. The gun dropped as quickly as it had been raised. The officer’s manner changed in a split second.The very second he saw my face. I didn’t even have to speak. His utter confusion at seeing me was evident, even to me. Even in that moment. So why was that?
Follow the link to find out her answer.
“Exporting Democracy” 2
At the Bangor Daily News, Gordon L. Weil suggests that the US fascination with “regime change” is misguided and counter-productive. He gives some examples; follow the link for more examples. (I think his summaries may be a little too summarized, but it is a newspaper column, not a history text.)
Russia has no democratic history. But, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and others countries took it for granted that it would install democratic institutions.
While Russia may have adopted the appearance of popular control of the government, it has become clear that the Russian people prefer an authoritarian rule allowing them some limited freedoms. A majority likes President Putin, largely because he is a throwback to paternalistic control under the czars.
Afghanistan sheltered Al Qaeda terrorists, which justified American military action to root them out. But the U.S. has engaged in its longest war ever to stamp out opposition and install democracy, so far without success.
The problem in this case is that Afghanistan has never really been a country. A collection of regions dominated by warlords, it, too, has no democratic traditions or even a truly national identity. The net result of 13 years of war may be no improvement over the U.S. staying for only 13 months and with more limited goals.
American governments of both parties have been comically wrong in understanding the culture, history, and politics of other nations and peoples. Our attempts to manipulate the future of others to suit our ends and preconceptions invariably ignore that the others might not agree with our interpretation of what’s good for them. Furthermore, they will likely instinctively resent our attempts to dictate and manipulate their political processes, however flawed their processes might be, especially when those attempts are accompanied by robotic death raining from the sky.
Our punditocracy and our governing classes of all parties, despite getting it wrong time after time, always seem surprised when they get it wrong yet one more time.