Interesting political links
Interesting to me, anyway. Feel free to skip this post if you don’t care about politics. My definition of interesting is “I cannot predict what this person will say next, even though I’ve been reading their writings for the past several years.” This is also my talk radio strategy, which I may have outlined before on this weblog. I tune in to either NPR or [random right wing radio talk show host who is not Michael Savage], and if I can predict what the host and/or guest is going to say about the day’s chosen topic, then I give up and switch to the other side. If both sides are being boring and predictable, I switch to the radio; the record shortest time for this happening has been about one and a half minutes. Anyway, links!
I’ve been waiting for Camille Paglia’s column to come out ever since the Palin nomination, and she doesn’t disappoint (don’t worry Obama fans, she’s still in the bag for Obama). Lots of thought provoking bits, but I’m going to quote this one because I’m a sucker for a good story:
Here’s one episode. My father and his visiting brother, a dapper barber by trade, were standing outside having a smoke when a great noise came from the nearby barn. A calf had escaped. Our landlady yelled, “Stop her!” as the calf came careening at full speed toward my father and uncle, who both instinctively stepped back as the calf galloped through the mud between them. Irate, our landlady trudged past them to the upper pasture, cornered the calf, and carried that massive animal back to the barn in her arms. As she walked by my father and uncle, she exclaimed in amused disgust, “Men!”
And over at Marginal Revolution Alex Tabarrok outlines the Libertarian case for Obama (emphasis added):
First, war. War is the antithesis of the libertarian philosophy of consent, voluntarism and trade. With every war in American history Leviathan has grown larger and our liberties have withered. War is the health of the state. And now, fulfilling the dreams of Big Brother, we are in a perpetual war.
A country cannot long combine unlimited government abroad and limited government at home. The Republican party has become the party of war and thus the party of unlimited government.