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Proverbs
11:9 combines the Proverbialist's oral obsession with (as seems
to be a Proverbs 11 theme) good news for the righteous:
9 With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors,
but through knowledge the righteous escape.
This could be the premise for a pretty good movie, although it would
probably be better if there were more gunplay, less talking.
Those interested in the 'godless' topic should feel free to purchase
today's Amazon Product du Jour via the link.
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Hooray, there's Kevin D. Williamson content at NRO:
Venezuela’s Future — and Ours
Progressives will consider the case of Venezuela or North Korea (the
American Left’s longstanding admiration of Castro’s Cuba, and its
celebration of Hugo Chàvez only a few years ago, has been
memory-holed) and say that the problem with those countries is not
socialism but a lack of democracy, political violence and
instability, etc. But repression on the Venezuelan model is not
extraneous to socialism — it is baked into the socialist cake.
Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro (and Castro!), Chàvez, Maduro, Honecker,
Ho Chi Minh, Pol Pot, the Kim dynasty, Shining Path: No ideology is
that unlucky. Violence and oppression is not something that
just happens to accompany efforts to impose political regimentation
on the economy — which is to say, on private life — but is an
inescapable accompaniment to it.
The Venezuelan case is a textbook example of the evolution of socialism. While the Soviets and the Maoists had intricate five-year plans, Venezuela had essentially one big plan: Use the profits from state-run oil companies to fund a massive welfare state, and use the leverage thus gained to fortify support for Hugo Chàvez and his political party until they achieved power sufficient to move Venezuela’s assets and its people around like pawns on a chessboard. The problem is that people are not chessmen. Chàvez et al. turned out to be pretty poor chess players, but even if they had been grandmasters, it would not have been enough. Economies cannot in fact be controlled and managed in the way that socialists imagine, something that is much better understood today (thanks to our deepening appreciation of complexity) than it was when Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek described the limitations of central planning in more qualitative terms.
And, as Hayek said: the worst always get on top.
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David Harsani's column at the Federalist observes:
The
Real World Is Starting To Resemble Twitter, And That’s A
Problem.
The next phase of our ginned-up national moral panic will contain
public shunning and harassment in their private lives of people we
disagree with. If that’s the way society is heading — a divorce — by
all means do this thing right. In the United States, even the
pretend oppressed can kick the imaginary Nazi out of their
establishment, as we saw when the co-owner of the Red Hen in
Lexington, Virginia booted
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders from her
restaurant.
Certainly politicians don’t deserves safe spaces from peaceful
protest or even confrontation (of course, spitting at Republicans is
not peaceful). You want to make their lives miserable, humiliate
them, and show everyone how principled and right-thinking you are,
by all means stop them from having those chimichangas.
That’ll teach ‘em.
But don’t fool yourself into self-idealization. You’re no budding MLK. No matter what you think of Trump, you’re still an insufferable a–h-le. You’re a member of a tribalist, blindered mob, imbued with a false sense of certitude that allows you justify incivility. That is to say, you’re like a Twitter troll made real.
I have a better than average Twitter experience, I guess. Because I
keep all the obnoxiousness on my blog.
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But speaking of Red Hen and Sarah Huckabee Sanders… Nick Gillespie
at Reason lays out
The
Libertarian Case FOR Serving Sarah Huckabee Sanders (and Other
People You Disagree With).
[…] Sanders wasn't forced from the Red Hen by an angry mob—she was
asked to leave by the property owner, who was exercising freedom of
conscience. Just as libertarians wouldn't want a Christian cake
baker to be forced to endorse a same-sex wedding by preparing a cake
for it, we shouldn't force a restaurant owner to serve a government
official involved in policies the owner believes are
immoral.
The Red Hen's owner is free to deny service to Sanders, so too is everybody else free to criticize that decision. As cruel as it may seem for conservatives to destroy Red Hen's Yelp rating, recall that liberals played this game, too (remember Memories Pizza?).
I'm wondering if some of the trendy eateries down Portsmouth way
will start giving their prospective patrons ideological purity tests
at the door. "Open borders, yes or no? No? Away with thee,
bigot!"
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But as Nick asks: remember Memories Pizza? Jim Treacher does!
Red
Hen, Memories Pizza, Whatever.
You may not think [Red Hen proprietor Stephanie] Wilkinson has the
right to do this, but I disagree. A restaurant should be able to
eject anyone, for any reason. Even if I disagree with the reasons.
Hell, especially if I disagree with the reasons.
And our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters on the left feel
the same way, except when they don't. Discrimination is bad, except
when it makes them feel good.
Aren't double standards wonderful? Isn't it marvelous that the same
people who tried to destroy Memories Pizza, just for giving the
wrong answer to a hypothetical question, are now standing up for
another business owner who actually refused someone service on moral
and ethical grounds? Isn't it great that they don't care how
hypocritical and outright insane they look to everybody else?
The current landscape is littered with
Calvinball
rules, dictated by the tribalists. Fun on the comics page, not so
much in real life.
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OK, enough politics. At Language Log, Victor Mair is in
Germany, and is
fascinated with their
Long
words. Specifically:
The first day I was here, in the afternoon I went out for a walk.
After taking about 50 steps from the front door of my hotel, I saw
this lettering on the glass facade of a nearby building:
"Rechtswissenschaftliche Fakultät".
My feet were glued to the ground. I just looked up at that big,
long word and pondered. "Hmmmm," I thought to myself. "How would
we say that in English?"
"'Law Faculty' or 'Faculty of Law.'"
That made me even more unwilling to move on.
I sometimes peruse alternate translations. Google makes this easy.
WASH HANDS BEFORE RETURNING TO WORK
LÁVESE LAS MANOS ANTES DE VOLVER A SU PUESTOR DE TRABAJO
Or:
HARD HAT AREA
CASQUE DE SÉCURITÉ OBLIGATOIRE
Much more often than not, the English will be shorter than the
alternate. Xenophobe that I am, my conclusion: English is better
than other languages, full stop.