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Looking at the African states run by bandits, bumpkins, and buffoons, someone has suggested we stop kicking the can down the road and begin a process of de-recognition. A Contentions post leads us to the article in the NY Times.
… Prof. Engelbert believes this is a “radical” idea, though he means that in an approving sense. But it is not radical at all. It is an old-fashioned idea, and I mean that in an approving sense. The classical literature on sovereignty teems with requirements that an entity must fulfill if it is to be described as a state and therefore accorded the privilege of sovereignty. It must control its territory. Its armed forces must obey the laws of war and be under a recognized chain of command. It must not allow its subjects to engage in freelance violence against other states. It must have a regular system of justice. By the late 19th century, it could not practice slavery. And, by the 20th century, it had to allow its citizens — the shift from ‘subject’ to ‘citizen’ is vital — some voice in shaping their own government.
If there is anything radical in Prof. Engelbert’s thought, it is that we should seek again to apply these classical standards in a world that, for most of the past hundred years, has paid them progressively little mind. The descent has been slow but steady — first, the admission of the USSR into the ranks of the recognized states, then the reluctance to kick Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany out of those ranks, and then, finally, the step that most worries Prof. Engelbert: the fact that during decolonization, the “gift of sovereignty was granted from outside rather than earned from within.” I describe this as ‘honorary sovereignty’: sovereignty that is given but is not merited. …
Here is Professor Pierre Engelbert’s elegant, concise thought.
THE World Cup, which began on Friday, is bringing deserved appreciation of South Africa as a nation that transitioned from white minority domination to a vibrant pluralist democracy. Yet its achievements stand largely alone on the continent. Of the 17 African nations that are commemorating their 50th anniversaries of independence this year — the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia will both do so in the coming weeks — few have anything to truly celebrate.
Five decades ago, African independence was worth rejoicing over: these newly created states signaled an end to the violent, humiliating Western domination of the continent, and they were quickly recognized by the international community. Sovereignty gave fledgling elites the shield to protect their weak states against continued colonial subjugation and the policy instruments to promote economic development.
Yet because these countries were recognized by the international community before they even really existed, because the gift of sovereignty was granted from outside rather than earned from within, it came without the benefit of popular accountability, or even a social contract between rulers and citizens.
Buttressed by the legality and impunity that international sovereignty conferred upon their actions, too many of Africa’s politicians and officials twisted the normal activities of a state beyond recognition, transforming mundane tasks like policing, lawmaking and taxation into weapons of extortion. …
In the NY Post, Scott Gottlieb gives some of the leaked details about how government is going to control your healthcare. The guy who said if you liked your plan, you could keep it; he lied.
…The ObamaCare law references the Secretary of Health and Human Services almost 2,200 times and uses the phrase “the secretary shall” more than 725. Each reference requires HHS to set new rules on medical care, giving control to an existing federal office or one of 160 new agencies that the bill created.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (who was once the Kansas state-insurance commissioner) has taken to these tasks with zeal. In some circles, she’s now known as the nation’s “insurance regulator in chief.”
She’s starting off by applying new regs to health plans offered by large employers — even though these costly rules were supposedly only going to apply to plans sold in the state insurance “exchanges” that don’t get created until 2014. This twist is spelled out in an 83-page draft of a new regulation that leaked late last week.
Bottom line: Sebelius means to dictate what your insurance plan must look like almost from day one, no matter how you get your coverage. …
In the Corner, Veronique de Rugy explains a popular government ploy to garner support for more spending it cannot pay for. She gives excellent rebuttals to the government propaganda that opens the post.
President Obama’s recent plea for another $50 billion (here is the letter to congressional leaders) to save the jobs of teachers and firefighters in the states is a great example of the “Washington Monument Syndrome.” This refers to the bureaucratic practice of threatening to close down the most popular and vital programs in response to prospective budget cuts; it gets its name from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which always threatens it will have to close the Washington Monument if its budget is cut. …
Ed Morrissey makes a plea to stop the madness.
…When do people in Minnesota get to stop bailing out California bureaucrats? Shouldn’t the states themselves start working on making rational judgments about the size and sustainability of their own governments? …
Now, dear reader, you are going to puke. From The New Editor we learn about the pensions Illinois has awarded to the top 100 school administrators.
… The total estimated cost of these pensions is almost $1 billion — at $887,925,790 — for 100 people! …
We went to the list and pulled out the big winner, Neil C. Codell. He is going to retire in 11 years when his annual salary is estimated to be $885,327. His first year’s pension will be $601,978 and 29 years later his annual pension will be $1,360,470. At that time, his cumulative pension will total $26,661,604. His job is Superintendent of Niles Township Community High School District 219. Mind you, he doesn’t have to worry about elementary or middle schools; just high schools. How many high schools, you ask? Two.
Peter Wehner posts on the collision between the president and reality. You see, he is failing in his duties because you haven’t given him more of your money and your freedoms.
…Yet almost 17 months into his presidency, the man who was going to remake this nation, who was going to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless, who was going to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace, who was going to open doors of opportunities to our kids and replace cynicism with hope and stop the rise of the oceans and heal the planet — this man has come up short. None of this has come to pass. It turns out he cannot even, in his own words, “plug the damn hole.” He has not issued waivers that he should, nor has he provided Gulf Coast governors with the requests they need, nor coordinated the clean-up effort that the people of the Louisiana are begging for. He can do nothing, it seems, except blame others. The man whom, we were told, was the next Lincoln and FDR is coming to grips with his own impotence and ineptitude. From Iran to the Gulf of Mexico, from Middle East peace to job creation, from uniting our country to cleansing our politics, Barack Obama is being brought to his knees. …
The presidency is more than just the person who currently holds the position. Thomas Sowell discusses some of the consequences Obama creates for the nation when Obama puts his agenda ahead of historical agreements and friendships.
…Nothing will keep a man or an institution determined to continue on a failing policy course like past success with that policy. Obama’s political success in the 2008 election campaign was a spectacular triumph of creating images and impressions. …
…Obama spoke grandly about “pressing the reset button” on international relations, as if all the international commitments of the past were his to disregard.
But if no American commitment can be depended upon beyond a current administration, then any nation that allies itself with us is jeopardizing its own national security, because dangers in the international jungle last longer than 4 years or even 8 years. …
In the Weekly Standard Blog, Gabriel Schoenfeld writes that the possible replacement for AG Holder is more reasonable than the NY Times implies.
…Kris did indeed write a memorandum containing sharp criticisms of the legal arguments put forward by the Bush administration on behalf of the NSA wiretapping. But in the same memo, he readily acknowledged that FISA might itself trespass on the president’s constitutional authority as commander-in-chief. In fact, he allowed that even massive dragnet-style warrantless wiretapping might be legal under some circumstances, offering a ticking time bomb scenario in support of this controversial view:
If the government had probable cause that a terrorist possessed a nuclear bomb somewhere in Georgetown, and was awaiting telephone instructions on how to arm it for detonation, and if FISA were interpreted not to allow surveillance of every telephone in Georgetown in those circumstances, the President’s assertion of Article II power to do so would be quite persuasive and attractive to most judges and probably most citizens. The Constitution is not a suicide pact. …
David Harsanyi reports on another market that the government wants to “help”.
You know what journalism could really use more of? Government participation. Who better, after all, than a gaggle of technocrats and political appointees to guide the industry in matters of entrepreneurship, fairness and coverage?
Thankfully, the good folks at the Federal Trade Commission are all over it, cobbling together a report aimed at saving newspapers called “Potential Policy Recommendation to Support the Reinvention of Journalism.” It’s only the first step in a long-term plan to rescue the Fourth Estate from itself.
As you can imagine, the paper is crammed with groundbreaking ideas: industry bailouts, higher taxes on the stuff you buy to help subsidize the stuff you don’t. …
Streetwise Professor is tired of Obama’s strawman debating technique.
(Consistency) … is the Hobgoblin of little minds, according to Emerson. And if you want a pitch-perfect illustration of the kind of mind Emerson was disparaging, I present Obama:
“Some of the same folks who have been hollering and saying ‘do something’ are the same folks who, just two or three months ago, were suggesting that government needs to stop doing so much,” Obama said. “Some of the same people who are saying the president needs to show leadership and solve this problem are some of the same folks who, just a few months ago, were saying this guy is trying to engineer a takeover of our society through the federal government that is going to restrict our freedoms.”
I mean, really. Does this guy have the slightest clue?
Christopher Hitchens comments on a recent speech given by Prince Charles.
…A hereditary head of state, as Thomas Paine so crisply phrased it, is as absurd a proposition as a hereditary physician or a hereditary astronomer. To this innate absurdity, Prince Charles manages to bring fatuities that are entirely his own. And, as he paged his way through his dreary wad of babble, there must have been some wolfish smiles among his Muslim audience. I quote from a recent document published by the Islamic Forum of Europe, a group dedicated to the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate and the imposition of sharia, which has been very active in London mosques and in the infiltration of local political parties. “The primary work” in the establishment of a future Muslim empire, it announces, “is in Europe, because it is this continent, despite all the furore about its achievements, which has a moral and spiritual vacuum.” …
In the Corner, Robert Costa has an interesting post on golfer Tom Watson.
…Did you know that Tom Watson has his own Corner?
“Watson does keep an old guy’s hours, and maybe that’s his secret. He’s in bed by 8 or 9 and up at 4 or 4:30, when he logs on to his computer and checks the news, catches up on e-mail and writes for his blog, Teeing Off, at tomwatson.com. He thinks about a lot in those early-morning hours, he said, but he does not worry about the one question that people keep asking: when will he hang it up?”
Not too soon, I hope. You’ve got to like a Dittohead whose caddie, no joke, played a big part in helping Joe Sestak topple Arlen Specter. If interested, you can check out Watson’s blog here.
Andy McCarthy posts on soccer in the Corner.
… after all, those hip, progressive sports journalists at ESPN and Sports Illustrated keep telling us this is a Bidenesque big, er, deal. But even after taking in Japan’s thrilling, historic 1-0 victory over Cameroon, Jason Black still doesn’t “get it.”
And, as he relates so well in his Washington Times piece, he approached it with a totally open mind. His conclusion? ”There were a few enjoyable things about watching soccer. No commercials, it looks good in HD and I was able to get some things done around the house since there was no real danger of missing anything.”