Thursday, June 02, 2005
‘The gulags of our time,’ Part III: Hub Blog was only half joking the other day when I said ‘Pol Pot comparisons must be around the corner’ as far as outrageous rhetoric is concerned. Unfortunately, it wasn’t off the mark. Peggy Noonan is tying Mark Felt to Pol Pot. … There used to be a day when conservatives rightly torched similar statements by liberals, such as how Pol Pot’s Khemer Rouge were driven to genocide by U.S. bombing of Cambodia, an infamous argument contained in the movie ‘The Killing Fields.’ … Peggy is right about one thing: “The old battle lines fall into place.” … Now about that impeachment of President Clinton for …
'Lieutenant Bob Woodward ... sir': What a great piece by Bob Woodward on his relationship with Mark 'Deep Throat' Felt. There's been a lot of talk about Felt's motives for serving as Woodward's Watergate source. But another explanation, interwoven with Felt's personal sense of slight and integrity, jumps out of the article: a paternal friendship. One question: Would Felt have talked to any journalist other than Woodward, who befriended Felt before he became a reporter? Maybe. But I doubt it. It was Woodward who sought out Felt during the early stages of Watergate -- not the other way around. ... Say what you will about him, Woodward is simply amazing. He had Felt's direct FBI phone number by the end of his first chance encounter.
'Something that's typical of high school,' Part II: There are now calls to reexamine Massachusetts' statutory rape laws in the wake of the Milton Academy episode. ... Alan Dershowitz, who has a daughter attending Milton Academy: "This represents the most senseless use of prosecutorial discretion I've seen in a long time ... The laws of statutory rape are so twisted and convoluted and completely fail to reflect the reality of adolescent sexuality."
'Europeans clearly love their way of life': Far be it for Hub Blog to take issue with someone engaging in one of my favorite sports (clubbing lefties over the head), but I think David Brooks is being a little unfair to the American Left. France's EU 'non' vote had so many mixed messages embedded within that it's too simple to say one segment of the U.S. political sphere has more to learn than another. ... Europeans clearly should love their way of life. It's more relaxed, less hectic. The problem is it's not sustainable. Meanwhile, I hear more and more Americans complaining about our highly charged, hectic lives. It seems we're all groping for some sort of balance. Maybe it's not obtainable. But I think a lot of people are yearning for something like, for lack of other words, a more 'compassionate capitalism' –- a phrase that will undoubtably make socialist lefties and laissez-faire righties cringe but somewhat accurately reflects a sentimental pragmaticism that people desire in their lives.... Here's a less partisan piece along the same line: 'Europe's Balancing Act.'
Update -- From Reader No. 1:
"Brooks is very right about Europeans looking at the future with fear and that being the context of the French EU vote. He is also right that American liberals fond looks to the other side of the pond are misguided (and there is an entire subliterature on this topic)...
"What Brooks misses is the possibility that the vote might signify a significant 'cocooning' where large swaths of the population reject the new form of centralization based in Brussels (even less accountable than local welfare state offices) thinking they can retreat into the safe old culture back home. There IS no way back. Tony Blankley nails the role of globalization in the Washington Times yesterday.
"Also check out these typically acerbic and sensible observations from the Man Without Qualities."
Hub Blog's response -- I have no argument against those points. I agree with most of them. As I said, there are many mixed messages within the French vote. But one of those messages is a general and growing anxiety about where today's globalization is headed -- and it's an anxiety felt here as well. There IS, as Reader No. 1 says, no way back. But which way forward? I probably would have voted against the EU referendum, as I suspect Reader No. 1 would have too, on political grounds. But again: Which way forward? I'd submit many Americans are in the early stages of asking the same economic question as slow-paced Europeans, though coming at it from the opposite fast-paced direction.
'Lieutenant Bob Woodward ... sir': What a great piece by Bob Woodward on his relationship with Mark 'Deep Throat' Felt. There's been a lot of talk about Felt's motives for serving as Woodward's Watergate source. But another explanation, interwoven with Felt's personal sense of slight and integrity, jumps out of the article: a paternal friendship. One question: Would Felt have talked to any journalist other than Woodward, who befriended Felt before he became a reporter? Maybe. But I doubt it. It was Woodward who sought out Felt during the early stages of Watergate -- not the other way around. ... Say what you will about him, Woodward is simply amazing. He had Felt's direct FBI phone number by the end of his first chance encounter.
'Something that's typical of high school,' Part II: There are now calls to reexamine Massachusetts' statutory rape laws in the wake of the Milton Academy episode. ... Alan Dershowitz, who has a daughter attending Milton Academy: "This represents the most senseless use of prosecutorial discretion I've seen in a long time ... The laws of statutory rape are so twisted and convoluted and completely fail to reflect the reality of adolescent sexuality."
'Europeans clearly love their way of life': Far be it for Hub Blog to take issue with someone engaging in one of my favorite sports (clubbing lefties over the head), but I think David Brooks is being a little unfair to the American Left. France's EU 'non' vote had so many mixed messages embedded within that it's too simple to say one segment of the U.S. political sphere has more to learn than another. ... Europeans clearly should love their way of life. It's more relaxed, less hectic. The problem is it's not sustainable. Meanwhile, I hear more and more Americans complaining about our highly charged, hectic lives. It seems we're all groping for some sort of balance. Maybe it's not obtainable. But I think a lot of people are yearning for something like, for lack of other words, a more 'compassionate capitalism' –- a phrase that will undoubtably make socialist lefties and laissez-faire righties cringe but somewhat accurately reflects a sentimental pragmaticism that people desire in their lives.... Here's a less partisan piece along the same line: 'Europe's Balancing Act.'
Update -- From Reader No. 1:
"Brooks is very right about Europeans looking at the future with fear and that being the context of the French EU vote. He is also right that American liberals fond looks to the other side of the pond are misguided (and there is an entire subliterature on this topic)...
"What Brooks misses is the possibility that the vote might signify a significant 'cocooning' where large swaths of the population reject the new form of centralization based in Brussels (even less accountable than local welfare state offices) thinking they can retreat into the safe old culture back home. There IS no way back. Tony Blankley nails the role of globalization in the Washington Times yesterday.
"Also check out these typically acerbic and sensible observations from the Man Without Qualities."
Hub Blog's response -- I have no argument against those points. I agree with most of them. As I said, there are many mixed messages within the French vote. But one of those messages is a general and growing anxiety about where today's globalization is headed -- and it's an anxiety felt here as well. There IS, as Reader No. 1 says, no way back. But which way forward? I probably would have voted against the EU referendum, as I suspect Reader No. 1 would have too, on political grounds. But again: Which way forward? I'd submit many Americans are in the early stages of asking the same economic question as slow-paced Europeans, though coming at it from the opposite fast-paced direction.
