I don't know how you guys roll, but I generally bookmark things I find interesting and potentially blog-worthy. I always end up with more links than posts, and I figure it's a shame to just throw them away. Here are four quick bites for your Sunday..
Christopher Hitchens slams Noam Chomsky
Some of you may be only vaguely familiar with Noam Chomsky, that lecturing hero of the America-hating international left. Shunned here at home, he travels the globe with the grateful earnestness of one who has finally found credulous fools willing to listen to his 9/11 troofer nonsense. Euro-lefties and third-worlders eat up his contradictory message that "America deserved it" and "Osama didn't do it, maybe it was a neo-con Jewish conspiracy."
Hitchens focuses like a laser beam on the Chomskyite "cognitive dissonance" as he describes traveling in the Middle East and ...
"...meeting the hoarse and aggressive person who first denies that Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center and then proceeds to describe the attack as a justified vengeance for decades of American imperialism." (Slate)He proceeds to dismantle such America haters in a crisp, acerbic fashion. This is a good one to save for the 10th Anniversary of 9/11.
T Boone Pickpockets is at it Again
His Quixotic windmill plan flopped a few years back when we learned the windmills would be powered not by wind, but by billions in taxpayer funds whooshing into Pickens' pockets. Now he's back, this time with a different angle involving gas and hot air.
We should challenge all grand progressive projects with one question. Is it economically viable? If yes, then the private sector will jump at investing in it. End of story--No taxpayer money needed.
"Fair Trade" is a Crock
Dalibor Rohac provides a public service by exposing "Fair Trade" for the guilty liberal feel good scam that it is. Only a naive liberal could believe such fairy tales. If they think America's rich and powerful are rapacious, they should travel to the third world.
And the main benefit flows to fair-trade cooperatives -- groups of landowners, not laborers. The certification includes no incentives for the owners to pay higher wages to farmworkers, who tend to be poorer and more vulnerable. (NY Post - Dalibor Rohac)Newt's Operatic Flameout
And finally, Rich Lowry at National Review has the best take on Newt's latest flameout involving his characterizing the Ryan plan as "Rightwing social engineering." I love Lowry's vivid use of the language. I wish I could write like that...
Gingrich’s hesitation about the Ryan plan is understandable and shared by other potential GOP candidates. Only Gingrich, though, felt compelled to take a rhetorical flamethrower to the document endorsed by almost every House Republican.Have a happy Sunday!
He can’t help himself. Gingrich prefers extravagant lambasting when a mere distancing would do, and the over-arching theoretical construct to a mundane pander. He is drawn irresistibly to operatic overstatement — sometimes brilliant, always interesting, and occasionally downright absurd.(NRO - Rich Lowry)
10 comments:
Great read, let me see if I can respond appropriately...
Chomsky is a chump...
T Boone is a boondoggle...
Fair Trade is indeed fair...
Newt is neutered...
Chompsky ia a horror of the worst kind and has been for decades! Have a blessed Sunday despite it all !
I've actually read one of Chomsky's books. "Appaling," is the only word that really comes to mind. I knew he was a wackjob when even my very liberal political science professor distanced himself from Chomsky's work. I can say I'm all objective and junk since his book is in my little collection.
The GOP will not win the White House if the Party runs Gingrich for POTUS.
Jack: I guess the guy is regarded as damned near brilliant in the arena of linguistics, but he proves that brilliance in one area does not translate into brilliance in all areas.
AOW: I think a Newt nomination is a distant possibility (I pray). He should go run for the democratic nomination.
>I guess the guy is regarded as damned near brilliant in the arena of linguistics
Not so much anymore. A lot of his theories that were in vogue for a while have been rejected, and it is becoming progressively clearer all the time that he was and is just a weirdo.
Bastiat: I guess that's one more think I know that just ain't so!
Thanks for the update. I'm not very up on matters of academia.
What born again said. Works for me.
Chomsky's a little crazy, and sometimes he says crazy things, but just like Hitchens, he has a lot to offer otherwise. Much more, in fact. Chomsky's silliness about 9/11 and such, just as Hitchens odd quasi-conservative politics, are insignificant when paired with many of his other insights.
Hitchens and Chomsky have been battling about this for years.
Remember though, like me, Hitchens thinks all religion is bad and stupid. Period. We just happen to think Islam is the worst of it. It's just matters of degrees.
Chomsky has a touch of that Glenn Beck-esque ridiculous conspiracy thinking in him. There, I usually depart from him.
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T. Boone is insane. But he does know the energy biz and there is certainly a lot to think about with his Plan. Yes, of course, he would theoretically stand to gain, but he's in his 80's - does he really care that much? It would be wise to regard the general concepts of the Pickens Plan - especially regarding natural gas.
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There's a huge difference between "Fair Trade" and what other people call "fair trade." No one holds the trade mark on the name "fair trade."
When advocates of American prosperity like me discuss "fair trade" we mean TRADE TREATIES THAT PROMOTE THE NATIONAL INTERESTS.
How you'd be against that, I couldn't imagine. How you'd be against the more touchy-feely "Fair Trade" is obvious: It is a movement to increase the profits of Third World small businesses and farmers, which might cause the price of t-shirts and kiwis to go up a few cents. You guys hate that kind of stuff.
Newt took a chance and blew it. He should never have said "rightwing social engineering." He should have said, "unrealistic promise." He overestimated his audience.
JMJ
Trump is gone, Newt is done; next on the chopping block, Herman Cain.
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