What bokononists whisper whenever they think of how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is.


By Elton Beard

There are two kinds of people in the world, those who divide people into two kinds and those who don't. I don't.


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ARCHIVE ARCHIVE ARCHIVE

Sunday, September 17, 2006
5:00 PM PT

Shorter Jonathan Chait:
A liberal hawk strikes back
  • There is nothing wrong with launching an unprovoked war of aggression as long as your motives are pure and you wage it competently.
It started out a war of great promise.
Plus: There is no such thing as a liberal hawk. This really should go without saying but people like Chait seem confused about the issue. So let's recap. A war hawk is distinguished from a dove only by a willingness to go to war - that is, to shed civilized norms and resort to extreme violence including the inevitable killing and maiming of innocent human beings - for reasons other than immediately defensive.

But if there is one fundamental tenet undergirding contemporary liberalism it has to be an aversion to violence, based both on the golden rule and on a decent respect for the person of others, which requires that we first do them no physical harm. The notion that a war of aggression can be justified by a purported utopian motive - e.g. to "spread freedom" - is not only profoundly illiberal but deeply immoral, from a liberal point of view.

Not that the rule of law is chopped liver to liberals, either. An attack by nineteen guys with boxcutters doesn't change that, does it? Last I heard, invading other countries without provocation was still a big no-no. But that's secondary in this context.

What matters here is that liberalism is not compatible with mass murder. It is therefore not compatible with support for non-defensive wars of choice, which are essentially indistinguishable from mass murder. Which is why there is no such thing as a liberal hawk.

See Also: Atrios, Brad DeLong and Matthew Yglesias.

Friday, September 15, 2006
9:15 PM PT

Shorter Joshua Muravchik:
Weakening Rights to Save Them
  • Don't think of normalizing torture as losing our humanity, think of it as investing our humanity while we defeat evil, after which we'll redeem our humanity with interest.
Scrupulous attention to human rights is a luxury we cannot afford.
See Also: A Spork in the Drawer.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006
8:15 PM PT

Just don't get in my way when I'm spreading freedom. OK?

Shorter Max Boot:
Democracy, Our Best Protector
  • The terrorism will cease once we invade their countries, execute their leaders and convert them to democracies.
See Also: Kevin Drum on Mr. Boot's external contradictions and Dr. Squid on his internal incoherence.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006
2:00 PM PT

Shorter Natan Sharansky:
Proxy Terrorism From Iran
  • If Iran is not punished for Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers, it will next arrange to detonate a suitcase nuclear bomb in a major Western city.
Because the enemies I make, I make for you.

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Busy, busy, busy.

What bokononists whisper whenever they think of how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is.


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