Free market subsidies

Allen E. Smith calls for new energy policy legislation, arguing that the ethanol industry is an example of "our preoccupation with letting the free market determine our national energy policy."

The only reason that ethanol is in our gas tanks is because of energy policy legislation mandating its use, along with billions in subsidies for ethanol producers. Rather than a failure of the free market, ethanol is a perfect example of how legislators with a poor grasp of the energy market, abetted by corn and green lobbyists, can push an ill-conceived project forward. Allen Smith, no. Adam Smith, yes.
(published in Boston Globe 11/20/07)

We want more social justice

Much has been written about the attempts of the educators to brainwash our kids with liberal values. Last night at an informational meeting for a local prep school (sorry, “independent” school) I got a glimpse of another side of the story. The Dean of Students was met with a several questions:

-- An insufferable bore whose daughter has been at the (Gay, Multicultural and Non-judgmental) Friends School asked, What will your school do to instill the values of social justice in my daughter?

--From a black woman: “What is your diversity percentage?” Not an unreasonable question, but her tone was accusatory. And the question is distressingly at the top of many parents concerns. And easily answered in 15 seconds on the school website. When she heard the number (20%), the woman then asked, “Yeah, but what is the African-American number?” Gotcha.

--This was followed up by an Hispanic woman who said with great disdain, “Yeah, I look around this room and I see a lot of Caucasians.”

The Dean fielded these questions with grace and honesty, and I saw a picture of school administrators under the onslaught of a public snarling for more diversity, more social justice curriculum, more multiculturalism, more “service oriented learning.”

Then this morning’s Globe had a story (naturally on page 1) about UMass students going on strike—marching in the streets--because the school’s “diversity recruitment was lackluster.” Of course, it’s the fault of the university for not recruiting strongly enough. The idea that admissions departments aren’t interested in increasing “diversity” is ludicrous.

I don’t want my kids spending their education being taught tbe Robin Hood theory of socialist justice--take from the rich, give to the poor. Or being lectured by Al Gore that the end is neigh! Or being taught to hate America. Or being taught that Islam is really wonderful because it’s not just a religion, it’s a system of government (from an educational training video I saw earlier in the week). I’d rather they study their biology and grow up to be a doctor than spend a week in the spring restocking a food pantry for the homeless.

I know that Laura Ingraham is calling for us to take back our schools, but at the moment I just want to hide in the corner until these bad people go away.

Tutu

Archbishop Tutu uses flowery language and talk about peace, love and truth to camouflage his offensive anti-Israel bias. He acknowledges that some people are enraged when he (and his fellow Nobelist Jimmy Carter) label Israel an apartheid state, but he nevertheless repeats the comparison numerous times. Most egregious is his treatment of Palestinian suicide bombers. Although he does not condone their acts, he praises their motives; they believe it is “heroic and pious’; “they strap bombs to their torsos to achieve liberation.” In sum, blowing up pizza parlors, buses and weddings is misguided and tragic—not for the victims but for the perpetrators. The Israeli response to the murder of civilians is described as, a “lust for revenge…crowding out all reason and restraint.” A man who sympathizes with murderers and vilifies their victims should not be considered a moral leader.

Mommie dearest

James Carroll writes about suicide bombers: "Anguish and dread must fill the hearts of their family members, if they know ahead of time. After the fact, grief must anchor every feeling...What was the meaning of [a mother's] life if not the well-being of her children?" This may be true for the two Afghani mothers he describes and for many families, but--unimaginable as it may seem to us--these feelings are not universal among the mothers of suicide bombers; Mr. Carroll is projecting his liberal western values onto fanatics who love death more than life. I suggest he go to Youtube and listen to the chilling interview with Palestinian legislator Umm Nidal who describes the joy she felt after sending three of her sons to paradise through martyrdom.

Mailer's knife

Note to Christopher Busa (letters,10/14/07): if you want to defend a man like Norman Mailer who stabbed his second wife with a knife, avoid phrases like "a pen is not a knife to stab someone when he is down."

Never again and again

Sandy Tolan writes in “Four Decades of Occupation” (6/7/07): “Just as the average Israeli's deep psychic need to feel secure could be traced to the Holocaust, so the government's response -- massive retribution on a scale far greater than the provocation -- turned "never again" to ‘again and again.’ …This strategy [of acting so the Holocaust would never happen again], rooted in the horrors of Europe, would instead help ensure the opposite.” His formulation is more subtle but the message is the same as that familiar trope on the anti-Semitic far left and far right: Israel = Nazi Germany.

The Globe feigns impartiality by pairing Tolan’s blame-Israel-for-everything with a second column by Jerold S. Auerbach supportive of Israel. The same logic could be used to publish an article by a Holocaust denier next to one by a Holocaust survivor.
(published in the Boston Globe, 7/10/07)

Marx betrayed

It is staggering to read James Carroll claim that “Marxism has yet to be really tried,” (Labor's failure, 9/3/07) blaming Marxism’s 100% failure rate on the “betrayal” of “tyrants.” Marxism has been “really tried” in dozens of states. The invariable result is tyranny and great human suffering—according to “The Black Book of Communism” as many as100 million deaths in the 20th century.

The culpability for this legacy of murder lies not with tyrants who hijack a valid system; it lies with Marxism itself. Radical redistribution of wealth requires placing absolute power in the hands of a central planning boards, which unfortunately are governed by corruptible human beings. Marxism, as Hayek wrote in 1944, is a “road to serfdom.”