Mixed Grill

In Index Veritas

Is it any surprise that the U.S. has fallen to 8th place on the Heritage Foundation's Economic Freedom Index? Well, of course, the Heritage Foundation is supposedly a “conservative” outfit, so you might expect any index they came up with to be weighted in favor of old-fashioned, fuddy-duddy things like property rights, freedom from excessive regulation, freedom from confiscatory taxation, and what not. But hey, no one can accuse them of being partisan – they put the blame on both Bush II and Obama. To which I would add the hopeless, endless wars, which I'm afraid the Heritage Foundation might not be so quick to condemn, since they generally seem to be in favor of a “muscular” foreign policy (the “M” word standing for “military aggression”). Still, conservatives of whatever stripe are still right at least half the time, especially when they're talking about liberal utopianism and its impact on prosperity.

I'll Have Nunavut!

And speaking of utopias, a small, brave band of level-headed Canadians has apparently turned back the tide of PC idiocy in the land of Dudley Do-Right. A proposal to change the lyrics of the national anthem “to make it more gender inclusive” has terminated with a “never mind”, and hopefully this is the beginning of a sea change in Canadian politics – not a minute too soon for a country that felt compelled to change the name of its largest territory to Nunavut.

England's Mini-Nuremberg

As degenerate and crushed by political correctness as Britain is these days, they are still managing to accomplish something that will never be possible here – namely a serious inquiry into the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq by the “coalition of the willing”. The latest politico to mount the hot seat is PM Gordon Brown, who has admitted to errors on the part of both governments – unlike Tony Blair, who was last seen wearing a Yankee Doodle hat, waving a wooden sword, and riding a straw pony around his back yard while screaming, “Kill! Kill!” Brown at least had doubts – then, and even more in retrospect. Catch the likes of Bush, Cheney, or Rumsfeld ever admitting such a thing! And how about this line: “The inquiry won't apportion blame or establish liability, but will offer recommendations later this year on how to prevent errors in the future.” Good idea! And may I be the first to offer a recommendation – stay far away from fanatical, delusional, war-mongering American politicians! But Brown himself offered, for starters, this bit of elegance: “I never subscribed to what you might call the neo-conservative proposition that somehow, at the barrel of a gun, overnight, liberty or democracy could be conjured up.” Mr. Brown seems to have acquired more respect for sanity as the result of his experience; would that our own leadership might have the same capacity.

The Sleeper Awakes, and the Awake Slumber

It always amazes me that people are still so surprised that China has reared up, like a sci-fi sea monster, and threatened to take over the world economy, one bite at a time... with the biggest bite being the first, namely its fatal co-opting of the American economy – and therefore government – and therefore foreign policy – through its heavy investments in American debt. Oh, for the glory days of the Cultural Revolution, when China was an economic basket case, and the Chinese who hadn't already starved to death were spending all their time killing each other. We didn't know how good we had it back then! And, to think, there were some sentimental souls longing for China's “awakening”... and, wouldn't it be wonderful if they would repent of their collectivist madness and embrace capitalism, and free enterprise, and international trade (which means: trade with us), and all the rest of it. And wouldn't you know, they did just that, and now they are playing, more and more, the piper whose tune we have to dance to, or else. They may have been totally insane as a society during Mao's time, but they've more than made up for it since, while we have gone the other way, sinking into hopeless debt, military quagmires, and diplomatic dead ends. Now we know what all of those “inscrutable Oriental minds” were thinking all those years. Did we really imagine that, once China's billion-plus awakened from their slumbers, they wouldn't immediately embark on a program to dominate the world, through sheer human wave tactics if nothing else? But as it turns out, they play the capitalist game better than we do, while keeping a firm hand on their own citizenry – a combination that was once thought impossible, until they showed that it worked. Seems like, in the long run, size might count after all...

My Fascist is More Fascistic Than Your Fascist

Any MSM article on Dutch politician Geert Wilders will make it clear that he's one of those anti-immigration nativists, Holland-firsters, right-wing “haters”, etc. -- just like his counterparts over here who don't think the open borders idea (in practice if not in law) has worked out very well for the U.S. And they also seem to think that Islam is somehow different from other religions – more aggressive or something. But if what he's objecting to is, basically, religious conservatism and fanaticism, of the Islamic variety, that ought to put him more in league with liberals, who don't think religion should have anything to do with public policy, or with anything else, for that matter. See, the other side of this coin is the irony that follows the open, tolerant, “welcoming arms” attitudes of liberals, who ought to have second thoughts (but seldom do) when the people they welcome with open arms turn out to be into things like honor killings and female circumcision. Plus, Wilders even uses the F word to describe Islamic fundamentalism – no, not that F word, I mean “fascist”. So how can a guy who is determined to protect his country against fascists be considered a fascist himself, by his political opponents? Do we need an entirely new political language here? Sometimes it seems that way.