by Smitty

So Stacy has engaged in a lengthy dialogue with Little Miss Attila the last couple of days. In the asymmetric warfare between the sexes, whoever emits the most material is not necessarily the winner. In any case, he’s not managed to be on Twitter to chew the fat with me. However, our mutual friend Ali was, and I complemented him on looking sharp in his avatar photo. I wondered aloud if he could work a little ‘Ali eye for the McCain guy’, thereby improving civilization. Leading to this tweet:

Now, here is the photo in question:

I’m not sure I subscribe to Ali’s notion. Stacy McCain’s anti-design genius fills out the ‘gonzo journalist in the wild’ collection rather effectively. That said genius violates EPA regulations and ordinances in half a dozen cities is more a sign of bureaucracy gone wild than any aesthetic deficiency on his part, in my opinion.
Discuss.

by Smitty

ESR seems correct in asserting the apocalypse is nigh. But even if they immanentize the escargot, we can’t fold, as he advocates. If half the battle is showing up, then going radio silent ensures you have not input after the come-to-Beavis moment.
For all the US has gone way off course the next century, the Constitutional fundamentals are rock solid. We merely have to disabuse the Progressives of some Socialist falsehoods, or, failing that, vote them out.
It is the time to double down, not shut down. Hie thee to the gym; gird thy loins; stock up on thy energy beverage of choice. Pay no attention to Stacy McCain’s habits; he’s on the Trained Professional Program, and you should not try his regimen at home.  2012 is going to call for even more effort than 2010.  No whining.

by Smitty

Newspapers like the WSJ on the Kindle are a surprise feature. Reading Peggy Noonan’s review/screed against Donald Rumsfeld should have come as no surprise. I did just finish reading “Known and Unknown”, so it’s a twofer both to mention what a valuable read it was and tell Peggy what to do with her peg.

He heard all the conversations. He was in on the decisions. You’d expect him to explain the overall, overarching strategic thinking that guided them. Since some of those decisions are in the process of turning out badly, and since he obviously loves his country, you’d expect him to critique and correct certain mindsets and assumptions so that later generations will learn. When he doesn’t do this, when he merely asserts, defends and quotes his memos, you feel overwhelmed, again, by the terrible thought that there was no overall, overarching strategic thinking. There were only second-rate minds busily, consequentially at work. 

Second-rateness marks the book, which is an extended effort at blame deflection.

In a way, the book serves as an index to the documentation on his web site. He offers summaries of events in the name of smooth narration and reasonable length. I thank the man for that.
He really isn’t out for scalps. The heavier criticism, like that aimed at Paul Bremmer, maintains some decorum. The only time he really seemed passionate was in hammering the bleeding hearts on the left who came after him over Gitmo. And rightfully so: they are about a misguided pack of twerps who created major distraction simply by not thinking things through. There is a reason why the Law of Armed Conflict is not Civil Law, and if you don’t know, hold your peace until you understand.
No, it’s as though Peggy is pitching a fit because Rumsfeld refused to write the book that would have gratified her cravings.
My theory is that she wanted some outburst of Knopflerism from Rumsfeld, some remorseful bit along the lines of:

Then you’ll find me in Madame Geneva’s
keeping the demons at bay
There’s nothing like gin
for drowning them in
but they’ll always be back
on a hanging day 

Unfortunately, while there is some remorse in the book about family matters and the toll the job took on him, Rumsfeld is as ready to stand and deliver now as he was at any point in his public service.  He fails to deliver the desired mea culpa, and Peggy is in a snit.
Rumsfeld worked for the President, and when the POTUS called for war, Rummy served up the details on how it would be done. A subtext to the book is that it shows a mind that knows how to be both a subordinate and a leader, and switch between those roles better than most. The reader is left to infer that the President could have, arguably, done a better job of deconflicting the NSC, DoD, and DoS, but Rummy deftly falls short of any swipes at W.
As I keep trying to tell people: if you don’t like what the US has done since the fall of the Soviet Union in terms of foreign policy, you really have to discuss how you’re altering the National Security Strategy. The overarching strategy of the US, across administrations has the US spending blood and treasure in various parts of the globe; Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan.
An old Cold Warrior like Rumsfeld isn’t going to see a problem with the US flexing in various theaters. The problems he had were keeping the bloated US bureaucracy somewhat coordinated and keeping the lawyers from making him a red tape Rummy Mummy. Noonan:

Osama bin Laden was not “one man on the run.” He is the man who did 9/11. He had just killed almost 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, in a field in Pennsylvania. He’s the reason people held hands and jumped off the buildings. He’s the reason the towers groaned to the ground.
It is the great scandal of the wars of the Bush era that the U.S. government failed to get him and bring him to justice. It is the shame of this book that Don Rumsfeld lacks the brains to see it, or the guts to admit it.

Noonan’s fascination with “getting Osama”, while interesting, focuses on something quite tangential to the real problem of where US national strategy should go. Hence the fact that Rumsfeld doesn’t focus on the guy.
Put aside the sophomoric demands on the kind of narrative that you feel he should deliver and give the book an honest read, Peggy.

by Smitty

The notion of some national sales tax or another is tempting in its simplicity. Cowen at Marginal Revolution discusses the VAT at length.
However, this is like discussing what to do about abortion. The discussion frequently accepts irresponsible behavior as a given, for all plenty of societies exist where young men manage not to spray their seed about like dogs in an alley at any available bitch.
So too with taxation. The conflating powers of the Socialists to take privileges and nice-to-haves and recast them as rights are astounding. We simply Do Not Require the federal government to manage activities, e.g. education, housing, retirement, etc., that could be handled more sustainably at the state and local level.
Just because the New Deal has been around for ~70 years does not make it justified. A better route to dealing with the unintended consequences of FDR, LBJ, BHO, etc. will be for the electorate to require a de-scoping of both the power and responsibilities of the federal government. Letting the federal government turn the US into a vast ATM via a VAT would be akin to giving a blank check to ACORN and Planned Parenthood: worsening a sick situation.
Don’t let your children treat sexuality as a video game, and don’t allow an the addition of another half-ass to the federal taxation system become an ass-whole.

by Smitty

Volokh notes the WSJ:

“Some economists have argued that a quake could actually lift the economy in the long run, by requiring a surge in rebuilding spending.”

Does that mean that we could help the economy by regularly trashing all entitlement programs, say, by forcing them to expire with the departure of the executive who signed them into law? All of the effort to come up with new databases, implementation of lessons learned, and shiny new staffing would be some right jolly good economic stimulus, I expect.

by Smitty (via Volokh)

The world’s coffee supply could be threatened. Strongly recommend clearing a five mile radius around Stacy McCain when he finds out. The head ‘splosion shan’t be pretty.