Political Theatre category archive
Libertarian Vacation Tour 0
Aside: I might have posted this before, but it’s worth a reminder, so I’m not going to check.
Via The Richmonder.
The Dodecadialectics of Pakistan Politics 0
Asia Times interviews Sebastian Gorka, a military affairs analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy regarding the complex politics of Pakistan. As is normally the case with Asia Times stories, the article is long and wonky.
It’s also worth at least a skim to provide a frame of reference to the cross-currents and internal contradictions of Pakistani politics.
Here’s a nugget (RFE/RL stands for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty):
Gorka: I think this is a wonderful example of why one cannot talk of Pakistan as a unitary nation. After Bin Laden was killed, the immediate comment one heard in the American media and internationally was, “Clearly Pakistan must have known. Or if Pakistan didn’t know, they were incompetent.” This is a misunderstanding of the reality that is today’s Pakistan. There is no one political elite in Pakistan.
You can quite easily imagine, for example, that the political leadership – the civilian leadership in Islamabad – had no idea that Bin Laden was living in Abbottabad. But at the same time, you could imagine, for example, that the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] or that members of the military were well aware of it because, let’s be honest, he was within a block and a half of the equivalent of the [US Military Academy at] West Point for Pakistan.
Endangered Species? 0
The Philadelphia Daily News offers a theory about politicians behaving badly.
It’s absurd, but so are they.
Strange Barmates 0
Last Friday’s Fresh Air explored the history of Prohibition.
A confluence of twisted events led to the passage of the Volstead Act. A tidbit, from the transcript:
Mr. OKRENT: Well, going back as far as the Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s and then the beer tax that was brought in during the Civil War to finance the Civil War, the federal government had been dependent upon the excise tax on alcohol to operate.
In some years, domestic revenue, as much as 50 percent of it came from excise taxes. So the Prohibitionists realized that they couldn’t get rid of liquor so long as the federal government was dependent upon liquor to get its revenue and to operate. So they supported the income tax movement, and in exchange, many of the populists who were behind the income tax movement supported Prohibition.
In 1913, the 16th Amendment is passed. The income tax comes in. The federal government has another means of supporting itself. And at that point, the Prohibitionists who had been operating state by state by state decided we can now have an amendment to the federal Constitution because the government is no longer dependent. There’s another source of revenue.
Also, the state of Maryland had an official state bootlegger.
Follow the link to listen to the show or read the transcript. It’s worth it.
Conflicts of Interest 0
Noz asks the question:
(snip)
if they really believe that’s the case, then a heterosexual judge also has an interest in the outcome of the case. the same argument they are using to disqualify judge walker because he is homosexual could be used to disqualify any heterosexual judge. so who does that leave to hear the case?
The answer is clear.
Brendan Makes a Phone Call . . . 0
. . . and it’s a doozy.
Dis Coarse Discourse 0
August J. Pollack is puzzled:
Click through to see his comic for the week.
“Everything You Know Is Wrong” 0
Peter Bergman distinguishes between what is and what isn’t going on:
What is going on is a simultaneous crises in our economy, our environment and our health care and education systems. Wise minds have warned of this gathering storm for decades, but the American public would rather go Dancing With The Stars than Dealing With The Facts.
Follow the link. It’s a delicious, reality-based rant.
Time To Declare Victory and Come Home 0
Eugene Robinson:
Making progress is hard, Crocker said, but not hopeless.
Not hopeless.
What on earth are we doing? We have more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan risking life and limb, at a cost of $10 billion a month, to pursue ill-defined goals whose achievement can be imagined, but just barely?
“Because we are already there” is not a good reason to stay.
“Male Hotness Delusion Syndrome” 1
Clarence Page notes that it seems to be spreading:
Wherever they may be, Salt advises men in their 40s to look in the mirror before they get too full of themselves and “discount their hotness by the proportion by which there are more women than men.” Otherwise, fellas, you could be in for the rude revelation that that certain someone is not nearly as into you as you might have thought.
And if you really want to get a woman excited about you, my wife offers this suggestion: Take a picture of yourself cooking dinner. You can leave your clothes on.
Look Away, Look Away Back
0
Chancey DeVega considers Little Ricky Santorum’s nostalgia for the days before the Voting Rights Act 1965.*
Most important to the White Soul, there wasn’t all of this “political correctness” stuff. Good white people could say what they want and about whoever they wished without any consequences.
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*Sometimes the mask slips, does it not?