Munich Revisited: Is Putin Hitler?
Andrew Sullivan lambasts John McCain's bellicosity on Russia as displayed in his "Today We Are All Georgians" speech: Sully retorts: All of this is quite potty. Russia is no longer the Soviet Union. You'd think conservatives would understand this distinction. There is a difference between totalitarian states seeking world expansion and authoritarian petro-states in demographic collapse bullying neighboring states because of perceived ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 13, 2008 11:48
Authoritarian Schmauthoritarian
Alex Tabarrok muses, There's nothing like visiting a foreign country like China to get an appreciation of what it's like to live under an authoritarian regime. I was reminded of this when I arrived home and found that the TSA had rifled through my baggage. That's the entirety of his post. I presume he means to shed perspective (we complain about ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 2, 2008 08:50
Obama = Charismatic = Hitler = Armageddon
Arthur Silber is, as am I, fascinated by the cult of personality surrounding Barack Obama. He notes some anecdotal creepy gushing on a local radio show and then Reactions of this kind to Obama are fairly common. No, they are not this extreme much of the time, but such statements are far from unusual. And many of Obama's less obviously deluded ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 1, 2008 08:19
Manhattan Dirtier than Singapore
The lovely and talented Belle Waring is visiting her native New York from her home in Singapore and was shocked to find how dirty Manhattan, and in particular the Pulaski Skyway (pictured right), is. Old metal that's just black with soot! And graffiti! Man, if I fully acclimatize to the level of cleanliness, safety, and well-built massive public ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 26, 2008 07:21
“Storm Troopers In Clown Shoes”
That's how Instapundit refers to James Hansen, apparently the most intemperate of the global warming alarmists (yes, he's worse than Gore because he's Gore's science advisor). Here's Hansen's latest proposal: James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 24, 2008 00:48
McCain the Interventionist
I've long thought that American politics and the fact that we have an activist/interventionist government when it comes to economic policy leads to a race to see who can pander the most to voters, or at least a sub-class of voters. John McCain's new "plan" to bail out the greedy and stupid when it comes to mortgages is another ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on April 13, 2008 12:19
The Real McCain vs. the Newspaper McCain
Matt Welch has an excellent, link-filled article asking newspaper editorial boards to, if they are going to endorse McCain, endorse the real McCain, rather than the "straight-talking", "maverick", "Iraq war skeptic" that newspaper editorialists tend to tag with the name "McCain".Considering that McCain in New Hampshire this month railed against "negative ads" while running them, and then bragged in his ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on January 16, 2008 23:11
Fallout From NIE Iran Nuke Assessment
Yesterday's release of a National Intelligence Estimate reporting that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003 has, as Steven Lee Meyers points out, dramatically shifted the landscape. Rarely, if ever, has a single intelligence report so completely, so suddenly, and so surprisingly altered a foreign policy debate here. An administration that had cited Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 4, 2007 09:40
Putin Wins Big in Undemocratic Election
Vladimir Putin's United Russia had won 64.1 percent of vote, nearly six times as many as his nearest rival, in Sunday's parliamentary elections. All observers are crying foul but Putin is claiming the result as a mandate for his leadership. The international community is demanding a probe. Mark John and David Brunnstrom for Reuters: Europe joined the United States ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 3, 2007 11:50
Chávez Narrowly Loses Referenda Votes
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez will have to make do with the powers he currently has after voters narrowly rejected two packages of constitutional amendments proposed by Chávez and the Chavista-dominated national legislature: Venezuelan voters narrowly rejected a constitutional referendum that would have bolstered President Hugo Chavez's embrace of socialism and granted an indefinite extension of his eligibility to serve as president, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 3, 2007 03:33
