zenpundit.com

THE THING I FOUND MOST AMAZING ABOUT THE BILL BENNETT STORY:

It wasn’t the gambling habit but the fact that he could plunk down 8 mill and not miss it. In our lifetime political discussion have become entertainment and celebrity and with it comes all the riches formerly due – or perhaps in excess of – a medium grade Hollywood movie star. It’s hard to imagine Walter Lippmann, despite having been America’s only big league pundit for half a century, earning enough from his political commentary to afford the gambling habit of a Turkish pasha.

I don’t begrudge Mr. Bennett a cent of what he spent. He earned it, it didn’t come out of my or anybody else’s pocket unless they were willing to buy his books or pay for his time and he’s free to spend it any way he chooses. If instead of gambling in Vegas Bennett gambled on -say – the value of a Monet bought at auction going up – no one would have a second thought about it but fundamentally the operating principle of speculation is the same. It’s also nice to see someone reaping the rewards of being smart and well educated instead of for ball-handling skills and 40 yard dash times.

He may take a hit on the virtues thing however.

IN PRAISE OF CALPUNDIT:

I just wanted to say that I am tremendously impressed with the quality of discussion on his site having just watched a dialogue on mathematics unfold. It’s a far cry from the ad hominem gibberish and endless recycling of the 2000 election that you see elsewhere. An intelligent audience indicates superior content – you don’t see MENSA meetings at monster truck rallies or roller derby championships – perhaps Kevin Drum is on the way to becoming The Economist magazine of the blogosphere

DANNY GLOVER AND HARRY BELAFONTE …LICKING CASTRO’S BOOTS ( OR SOMEPLACE HIGHER)

In the wake of a crackdown on the Varela 78 – Castro’s jailing of democracy and human-rights activists – U.S. celebrities are flocking to defend the Communist tyrant

Reuters reports:

” U.S. singer Harry Belafonte and U.S. actor Danny Glover are also among the personalities who have signed the two-paragraph declaration “To the Conscience of the World” so far, Gonzalez announced to a May Day rally in Havana.

“At this very moment, a strong campaign of destabilization against a Latin American nation has been unleashed. The harassment against Cuba could serve as a pretext for an invasion,” it continues.

These celebrity morons are the honorary jailers and torturers of the Cuban people and they deserve contempt.

INSTAPUNDIT reports that the two British Islamofascists who committed the suicide bombings in Israel were former ” human shields ” and peace activists.

Not that there is much difference ;o)

LEGITIMACY, DEMOCRACY AND SOVEREIGNTY:

International law does not take into account such niceties as free elections in determining which regimes are regarded as ” Legitimate ” in terms of having the right to exercise sovereignty over a terrotory. In a legal sense then, Switzerland’s government is no more ” Legitimate” than that of Oman, an absolute monarchy or Burma’s which is ruled by a repressive military-socialist dictatorship.

Nevertheless, various dictatorial regimes like Iraq under Saddam feel compelled to go through the charade of staged elections where the dictator gets 99.9 % of the vote or sometimes more than 100 % in order to demonstrate the regme’s bona fides to the international community. Why ? No one believes these elections are anything less than a complete farce and they more often invite ridicule and contempt from foreign observers.

The answer lies in the creeping acceptance of the Lockean social contract and Jeffersonian principle of ” just consent of the governed ” as the only true source of ” Legitimate ” governmental authority. All but the hardest-core leftists and Bush-haters acknowledged that the U.S. establishing democracy in Iraq was preferable to Saddam’s rule. As a principle of international law, democratic rule has yet to be enshrined as a bestower of legitimacy but psychologically democracy has made such inroads among the Western world’s population this outcome is all but inevitable.

Let tyrants fear.