Friedman: Arabs "a little people, a silly people: greedy, barbarous, and cruel" "In his must-read new book about the impact of culture on politics and economic development, “The Central Liberal Truth,” Lawrence Harrison notes that some cultures are “progress-prone” and others are “progress- resistant.” In the Arab-Muslim world today the progress-resistant cultural forces seem to be just too strong, especially in Iraq, which is why it is so hard to establish durable democratic institutions in that soil, he says. "
- Thomas Friedman, Ten Months or Ten Years - New York Times

Oh, I see. It's that the Arabs are inherently incapable of governing themselves. Hmmm, didn't we hear this about 85 years ago at Sevres?

This is a convenient excuse, and it excuses the inconvenient fact that Bremer, Wolfowitz, and the Gang purposely dismantled whatever functional elements of Iraqi society existed (army, state-run enterprises) after the war in their attempt to create their NeoCon Nirvana in Nineveh.

Friedman, one of the blindest and most enthusiastic "liberal" apologists for this disaster, should be ashamed. Tom, go back to writing about how the Indians and Chinese are going to eat our lunch. At least there your simplistic analysis and blind enthusiasm ("Dig me! I know the Chairman of InfoSys!") doesn't get anyone killed.  ¶ 9:36 AM 1 comments

  Also: Dog bites man... Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices - New York Times

Sure, it seems like an obvious headline. What it's really about is that the well educated few who have the luxury of such choices are increasingly drawn out of merely upper-middle-class employment (like being a doctor) to endeavors with lotto-style payoffs like investment banking and private equity.

This is not a good thing for several reasons. First, this level of inequality is bad just in general. But also, the level of envy that this induces in people who have already won life's lottery is, in a certain sense, tragic.

Sure, it would be nice to have millions and millions and retire early, but the fact that the top 2% is depressed because it isn't the top 0.01% is obscene.

If you're already making $200K doing something you like, you've won. Be happy. Go out to eat and don't think about the check. And for God's sake, don't spend all day reading about people richer than you.  ¶ 12:43 PM 1 comments

  Are you talking to Elmo? Elmo doesn't see anyone else here? Elmo and DeNiro, courtesy of YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJJ2WTn9WOc

That will make you happy.  ¶ 4:28 PM 0 comments

  Who is in charge of symbolism here? First the Whitehouse fires Rumsfeld immediately after the elections, making it look like they were forced into it by the Democrats. Next, in the middle of an unpopular and impossible-to-win war, they put Bush on a plane to....Vietnam?  ¶ 9:55 AM 1 comments

  In case you forgot exactly how and why Iraq is all f'ed up... Re-read this Harper's Article: Baghdad Year Zero (Harpers.org).

Apparently, if your number one goal is privatizing 200 state-run entities, all the employees and managers of those entities will support an insurgency that specifically makes it too dangerous for you to find private buyers.

Hmmm....  ¶ 10:01 PM 0 comments

  And all this time we thought they were the party of big fat party animals... Do you think the Republican Party is starting to feel a little like Homer that episode of The Simpsons?

It's like that t-shirt my friend in the arty dorm at another school had: "We're all gay. And we're coming to get you."

Now we know why they're all so concerned about The Homosexual Agenda...  ¶ 8:58 PM 0 comments