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Roger Simon on the lesson of the shoe.
… But more importantly and more apposite to today’s event was that other, oft forgotten, reason Bush went to war in Iraq – that the only way to bring true peace to the Middle East would be through democracy. He wanted to spread the democratic system preemptively. A lot of people have sneered at that idea lately, but while they were sneering Iraq has inched forward toward a democracy. It’s even turning into a (somewhat) decent place to live. That buffoon-like shoe chucker – his name is Muntazer al-Zaidi from Al-Baghdadia channel which broadcasts from Cairo – proved it. No matter what happens to al-Zaidi now (and it won’t be much if anything), it will be nothing like what would have happened to him if he had hurled a shoe at the president during the previous Iraqi administration of Saddam Hussein. As we all know, in that case, he would either have had his tongue and scrotum cut out or both, if he would have survived at all.
And that’s the point – something good has happened. Something very good.
What isn’t so clear, yet, is how history will treat George Bush. I have a suspicion it’s going to be better then a lot of people now suspect – or are willing to admit.
John Stossel says the real scandal is what is legal.
… H.L. Mencken was right: “Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.”
The Public Choice economists remind us that contrary to what the civics textbooks imply, public “servants” have the same ambitions as the rest of us –wealth, career, influence, prestige. But there’s a big difference between us and them. Politicians, bureaucrats and the people they “rescue” get money through force — taxation. Don’t think taxation is force? Try not paying, and see what happens.
The rest of us must achieve our goals though voluntary exchange in the marketplace. That difference — force versus voluntary exchange — makes all the difference in the world.
In “The Road to Serfdom“, F.A. Hayek titled chapter 10 “Why the Worst Get on Top,” pointing out why the “unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more successful [than moral people] in a society tending toward totalitarianism. … [T]he readiness to do bad things becomes a path to promotion and power.”
We don’t live in an authoritarian society, but Hayek’s point still applies. …
Mark Steyn wonders if Nov. 4 trumps 9/11.
Is this the second coming of FDR, or Welcome Back Carter?
Newsweek asks if Bobby Jindal is the GOP’s Obama. Of course it is Newsweek, so they get their digs in, but it gives some flavor of Jindal.
Thomas Sowell has Christmas book ideas.
Holman Jenkins says put Bernie Madoff in charge of social security.
… The herding automatons of the media can never encounter lawbreaking in the financial markets without concluding that it demonstrates the necessity of more laws against lawbreaking. Congress, now in the process of convincing itself it should run the auto industry, no doubt will see in Mr. Madoff proof that Congress is needed to manage rich people’s money and ordinary people’s too. Then we’ll all be in the same position as Mr. Madoff’s clients.