New Look

Yes, you found the right blog. I just decided to try a new template.

Across the Bay

Check out "He Don't Get It" on Across the Bay. I like his joke:

A small Syrian boy finds a tarboush ("fez") in an old drawer, puts it on, and goes to tell his grandmother "look I'm Lebanese!"  Wham, she slaps him across the face. "Go tell your mother."

Tearfully he goes to his mother, "Look Mum, I'm Lebanese!"  Whack, she too clouts him across the face. "Go immediately and tell your father."

Desperately anxious, he goes to his father "Look, Daddy, I'm Lebanese!" The old man takes a stick and beats him blue. "Now what do you say to that?" he asks.

Between sobs the child says "I've only been Lebanese for five minutes, and already I hate all you Syrians."

Meanwhile, Rich Lowry finds more cause for hope. He spoke with someone "in the know" on the Middle East who sees plenty of signs of things going the right way. The fact that the Saudis have told Syria to get out of Lebanon is huge.

In general, people shouldn't be unrealistic. There will still be plenty of bad news in the future. But the tectonic plates have shifted in the Middle East the last few weeks and there's no pushing them back.

Freedom's Just Another Word...

I hold that capitalism is simply the economic term of art for freedom. It means that what you earn is yours, and what is yours you may dispose with as you choose. So those who are anti-capitalism are really anti-freedom. This is usually obvious to all but the anti-capitalists.

Victor Canto on NRO would, I think, agree.

In the long run, political freedom and economic freedom are not sustainable independently. People give up on political freedom if it does not deliver economic well being. And if societies do not achieve political freedom, economic freedom is lost as repression increases in order to keep control of the political process.

Posting from the Road

If you're reading this, it means I can now email posts to the blog. In which case I may be able to make a few short posts while on vacation.

This has been a test.