“What of the ‘why’ of the world? Of course the question has no scientific answer. It is the question beyond science, the question left over when all of science has been written down. It is a philosophical question.”—Roger Scruton, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Philosophy. Recently I have been exploring the phenomenon of “scientism”, a […]
Archives for January 2010
Financial Suicide
Of all the misguided initiatives to revive “industrial policy” currently underway, none is more foolhardy and risky than the massive intrusion into the financial markets under the guise of the rollback of the financial deregulation that has been officially designated the leading culprit in the meltdown of the past two years. It will lead to […]
But What Will They Learn?
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni has recently released two reports, Protecting the Free Exchange of Ideas and What Will They Learn? The former identifies concrete measures recommended by ACTA and taken by 40 universities to ensure that students are learning how to think and not what to think. The latter demonstrates that our […]
The Continuing Health Care Debacle
Not much more to say about what remains the worst bill ever, even without the public insurance option or public funding of abortions, at least until whatever health care reform passes from the Senate/House conference and is signed into law, but I cannot pass commentary on the travesty of the process by which the Democrats […]
Obama at Oslo, West Point, and On Iran and the “Overseas Contingency Operation”
Hold the thoughts of Victor Davis Hanson in mind while contemplating the Obama war (or “unwar”) strategy. In Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, he at least acknowledged that “evil exists in the world” and that there is such a thing as just war, a major concession for him to the obvious consternation of […]
The Western Way of War and Its Future
Victor Davis Hanson has written a brilliant essay in the November 2009 issue of Imprimis, in which he discusses what he calls the Western way of war, how it developed over the history of Western Civilization, its current configuration, and its prognosis. The sum of its evolution to date is that it has been without […]
The Return of Industrial Policy
We just thought we had buried forever with the Carter presidency the notion of “industrial policy”, a kind of Japanese MITI-like concept of government direction of major elements of the economy, with various aspects of “investment” in favored industries and the selection of winners to receive subsidies and targeted tax incentives. Well, guess again. The […]
The ICC and American War Crimes
Get ready for this—in spite of the fact that the U. S. is not a signatory, the International Criminal Court is claiming jurisdiction over American soldiers in Afghanistan and intends to “end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community”, according to the ICC web site. Of course, […]
The Copenhagen Charade
The best I can gather from the spin coming out of the recent climate change talks is a vow by world leaders “to use markets to achieve cost-effective [carbon] mitigation actions.” Translated, this no doubt means the imposition by governments of a heavy burden on productive societies for their carbon-generating activities, whether or not there […]