Theses and Timely Questions

  1. Markets work extremely well in dealing with the sorts of problems with which markets deal.

  2. Governments work extremely poorly in dealing with the sorts of problems with which markets deal.

  3. Governments work extremely well in causing the sorts of problems which governments enjoy pretending to solve.

  4. Within fewer years than you might think, intelligent design theory will be giving the Darwinist money-changers a hard time in the scientific temple.

  5. Sixty years on, there is still something fishy about FDR and Pearl Harbor.

  6. Stalin killed more people than Hitler.

  7. Mao killed more people than Stalin.

  8. In terms of what he had to work with, Pol Pot killed more people, proportionately, than Hitler, Stalin, or Mao.

  9. Pol Pot was educated in France. This may not mean a thing.

  10. Multiculturalism is not a reliable means of resolving the Rodney King Problem (u2018Can't we all just get along?').

  11. Spiro Agnew wrote a novel. Not everyone has read it.

  12. Secession was a logical implication of the American system of federalism. Absent the right of secession, we are all serfs of the paper feudalists in Washington City. This is okay with Printing Press Kudlow.

  13. The Great Plague, brought by Mongols, killed between one third to half of the population of Europe in the 14th century. Where are our reparations?

  14. Many Anglican clergymen in South Africa, before the recent happy arrival of universal brotherhood, were card-carrying members of the ANC.

  15. The ANC was riddled, packed, and eat-up with card-carrying Stalinists.

  16. It follows that the ANC was a coalition of Anglican clergymen, Stalinists, and Xhosa royalty. Not exhaustive, but there is an overlooked kernel of truth here.

  17. Saddam Hussein was largely a U.S. creation.

  18. Manuel Noriega was largely a U.S. creation.

  19. The Shah of Iran was largely a U.S. creation.

  20. Somoza of Nicaragua was largely a U.S. creation.

  21. Marcos of the Philippines was largely a U.S. creation.

  22. There may be others.

  23. Corollary: U.S. creations have an alarming rate of u2018going bad.'

  24. Second corollary: Dr. Frankenstein should find another line of work.

  25. The rate at which the Republican Party will sell out its supposed constituency approaches the speed of light. This leads one to wonder what the real constituency of that party is.

  26. The War in Vietnam was a bad idea.

  27. A major architect of that war got a really good job at the World Bank.

  28. The World Bank gave lots of bad advice to the soon-to-be-former Yugoslavia. Admittedly, this was probably not the fault of the major architect of the Vietnam War, who was writing books by then.

  29. Nonetheless, it may be that persons interested in keeping their lives and property should not heed the World Bank. (Wanniski's Law.)

  30. NATO is a High Cold War anachronism, which should have been disbanded around 1990.

  31. If NATO membership is extended to all states in the world, it will be hard to say what NATO's mission is.

  32. Myron Cohen was very funny. (See – it isn't all politics around here.)

  33. u2018Smart bombs' are not particularly u2018precise,' unless you define precision as the ability to blow up an area the size of two football fields after hitting within several yards of the presumptive target.

  34. If you u2018degrade' the u2018infrastructure' of a Middle Eastern state, many people will die, long after the military heroics are over.

  35. Mme. Albright u2018can live with that.'

  36. If God appointed Mme. Albright to make such decisions, then all theism is wrong.

  37. It is more likely that Mme. Albright is wrong.

  38. There are no Neo-Cons. Just ask them.

  39. If there are no Neo-Cons, who is in charge? Damn! It must be The People.

  40. If a Straussian bares his soul, does the abyss stare back? How would you know?

  41. No freedoms worth having were sacrificed to federal civil rights. If you don’t believe me, ask the nonexistent Neo-Cons. None whatsoever. No sirree.

  42. It is morally wrong for any political party to seek the votes of white Southerners. On this interpretation of "democracy," the best thing would be to disenfranchise white Southerners.

  43. Betting pool: which Neo-Con will be the first to endorse this solution, assuming Neo-Cons actually exist?

  44. If secession was so intrinsically immoral, why was West Virginia never reintegrated into Virginia? There may be good reasons; I'm just asking. Don't hit me! I'm a Mountain William, too, on the Scots-Irish side.

  45. Who was the first Neo-Con, if such there be? Pericles? Sir Francis Bacon? Henri Rouvroy Comte de Saint-Simon? Suggestions welcome.

January 4, 2003