Keith Halderman
Robert Higgs
To demonstrate these parallels, I took a number of passages from Karp's text and replaced the original persons, places, and dates with those pertinent to the present war, retaining the basic story line. The results appear in "Plus Ça Change . . . A Template for the U.S. War in Iraq," and "In Seeking War, George W. Bush Held True to Form."
David T. Beito
In a New York Times editorial, [Juan] Cole said that he saw the elections in Syria as a model for other Arab countries to follow: “The last thing the Arab people need is a red herring like ‘free and open elections’ to distract them from the international Zionist/Neo-Con conspiracy to take their oil.” Professor Cole then added that President Assad’s ability to gain such a high percentage of the vote “all the while maintaining an oligarchic cult of personality oppressive regime mired in nepotism and corruption” was “truly impressive” and a positive sign of “Arab solidarity.”
Matthew Barganier reports a slight problem, however. Apparently, no such article ever appeared in the New York Times! UPDATE: The offending passage has been removed from Plaut's article.
Jason Kuznicki
But what exactly was it that the social conservatives were hoping to accomplish in this case? I write,
Just as we honor the wishes of those who want, say, a Christian funeral service--or to be cremated and shot from a cannon--so too, we ought to give Terri Schiavo the treatment that she wanted in death. A decent respect for individual autonomy demands no less. This, my dear fundamentalists, is what it means to err on the side of life: It is to err on the side of respect for individual will, not on the side of mere protoplasm.I may be young, but I can still remember the good old days, back when it seemed like the left was the greater enemy of individual rights. How times change.
The second reason why the case really matters is because it is about... marriage.
With one hand the religious right is"protecting" marriage by denying committed same-sex couples the legal benefits of that state. With the other hand, they are making me wonder what good a marriage would do in any event: If Congress itself can step in and declare that the guardianship that comes with marriage is null and void, then marriage really is the weak and threatened institution that the religious right says it is. The only trouble is, the religious right is the one doing all the attacking. Never mind the egregious abuse of federalism that the case represents; far more to the point, it is also an egregious abuse of the marriage bond.
The hypocrisy could not be more perfect, as Randall Terry himself has taken the lead in both these efforts, demonizing gay marriages and infringing on the rights of straight ones. What people like him want is not to protect marriage--but to subjugate all marriage, all human intimacy, to their own political will.
Wendy McElroy
Chris Matthew Sciabarra
Comments welcome.
Kenneth R. Gregg
Alice Mary Norton (aka Andre Norton) died "of congestive heart failure at her home in Murfreesboro, a Nashville suburb.
"Norton requested before her death that she not have a funeral service, but instead asked to be cremated along with a copy of her first and last novels."
She was a wonderful writer of science fiction and fantasy novels, largely juvies, often depicting animals in her books in creative and interesting ways. Major themes common in her writings were that of exploration and freedom.
For many youth (she had taken a male pseudonym because she was writing for young boys), she was the first introduction into the world of literature and voyages beyond the fences of their lives.
Many of my fondest SF novels were her creations.
She will be missed.
Just a thought.
Just Ken
kgregglv@cox.net
http://classicalliberalism.blogspot.com/
David T. Beito
Hitler took great care to pamper and coddle his people and they loved him -- and the Nazi regime -- for it.
A well-respected German historian has a radical new theory to explain a nagging question: Why did average Germans so heartily support the Nazis and Third Reich? Hitler, says Goetz Aly, was a"feel good dictator," a leader who not only made Germans feel important, but also made sure they were well cared-for by the state. Hitler not only fattened his adoring"Volk" with jobs and low taxes, he also fed his war machine through robbery and murder, says a German historian in a stunning new book. Far from considering Nazism oppressive, most Germans thought of it as warm-hearted, asserts Goetz Aly. The book is generating significant buzz in Germany and it may mark the beginning of a new level of Holocaust discourse.
Sheldon Richman
Cross-posted at The Szasz Blog.
Charles W. Nuckolls
Grade inflation is an increasing problem on campuses around the nation, from Chapel Hill, N.C. to right here in Tuscaloosa.
Two UA professors - David Beito, an associate political science professor, and Charles Nuckolls, an anthropology professor - are suggesting that grade inflation has been drastically on the rise for the past 30 years. The percentage of A's handed out at the University in 2001 was 30.5 percent, up from 23 percent in 1988. When everyone makes an A plus in jogging class, we don't think much of it. On the other hand, if everyone were making such extraordinarily high scores in Calculus, we would wonder when the standards became so lax.
Sudha Shenoy
The evil practices of colonialists are perpetrated on their hapless victims. Anti-imperialists then expose this wickedness. Thus colonialists & their opponents are the two protagonists in the story. The victims are there because, obviously, the imperialists' depravity must have an object - it is directed at someone. Victims, then, provide the sticks to beat the colonialists with.
Within this framework, a *pro-colonial case is the only other stance conceivable: how colonialism benefited the colonised. And on both sides, the criteria applied are those that apply to any sort of case: how strong/weak is it? How well does this material support/undermine the case?
Historical inquiry is, of course, an entirely distinct enterprise. It proceeds from a *specific interest in the *object of the inquiry. It poses a series of questions to ensure that all proceeds systematically; that the various influences at work are sorted out; etc. These questions include:- what is the overall historical context of this particular inquiry? What are the main 'sources' for the inquiry? How reliable/otherwise are they? How do the results of the inquiry fit into the overall context? into cognate areas of investigation? -- & so on. Thus historical inquiry is about *particulars -- gaining some sort of knowledge of, & perhaps even mastery over, certain particulars. And so such study is _specialised_.
The object of the exercise here, is to contrast the _respective outcomes_ of:- case-building & historical inquiry, - in *one specific instance. Consideration of the former will provide a bridge to the particular history involved. I take some points from a recent anti-colonialist work (from a Marxist, Mike Davis, see below), used in a review against Ferguson's book (above.) The points relate to the Madras (or Deccan) famine of 1876-78, in India.
Here, it is necessary to say that the historical study of India is highly specialised. To do the job properly requires a close knowledge of its many regions, especially their commercial geography, as also acquaintance with a vast number of specific, very complex circumstances. - This is merely to underline how different the two enterprises are: the study of Indian history, & fashioning an anti-imperial account.
The anti-imperialist points to various precipitating/exacerbating circumstances (relating to the famine), brought on by imperialism. Firstly, the latter broke up a pre-colonial harmony:
Merchants & the ‘cash nexus’ largely replaced the ‘traditional system of household & village grain reserves regulated by complex networks of patrimonial obligation’ (p. 26.)
(Tell that to the untouchables & the lower castes in the villages.) -- Historical inquiry:- Irfan Habib, the leading historian of Mughal India (& an Indian patriot), refers to ‘the _usual_ scenes of horror marking a _serious_ famine’ (in the 16th & 17th centuries; my emphasis.) These horrific pictures included: large numbers of unburied corpses; cannibalism; ‘choked’ slave markets; the sale of children by their parents. Neighbouring areas experienced significant looting. Entire regions were deserted & cultivation took years to recover.
There were less serious famines as well. One episode of ‘scarcity’ had only a limited impact (he feels.) The criterion? Shahjehan, the Mughal emperor, ordered Mughal officials to repurchase & restore the children sold by their parents. This means the numbers of children sold could not have been large - so it was a moderate famine. -- [NB, Shahjehan reigned from 1628-1658; also see below.]
Anti-imperialist: Rice & wheat harvests in the rest of India were good in the previous three years [before 1876-78.] But much of the surplus was exported to England. 'Londoners were in effect eating India's bread' (p.26.)
Historical inquiry:- The majority of the population throughout India ate _millets_, or poor-quality rice. Millets are a tough crop & _very_ coarse in quality (believe me.) They were never export crops, nor was poor-quality rice, nor could they ever be. Wheat is a luxury foodgrain & very delicate in its requirements. Therefore only a smaller proportion of total food output & acreage consists of wheat. It grows in central & northern India. The _small_ quantities of wheat exported were of the very best quality & came from the Central Provinces & the Punjab. The first lay about 300 miles north of the famine areas in the South; the second was over a thousand miles to the northwest. In the Central Provinces, the wheat area _declined_ from about a third of the total area under food (in 1867) to about 28% (in 1875.) The proportion under millets remained constant at around 42%. The famine areas were mainly ‘dry-crop’ areas, without irrigation. And the main rice-exporting region in Asia then & now, was (is) Thailand; its rice is of the very highest quality.
So ‘Londoners’ ate a delicate, specialised export crop. The majority of Indians ate coarse millets.
Anti-imperialist:- ‘The taxes that financed the railroads also crushed the ryots’ [small farmers] (p.27.)
Historical inquiry:- The railways were built by British investors, as part of the world-wide process of railway-building, utilising British expertise, steel, & rolling stock, in the 19th century. By the late 1870s, the major part of the Indian railway network was complete, although construction of branch & feeder lines continued. By 1913, it was the world’s fifth largest network. Goods carried increased from just under 5 million tons in 1873 to 81 million tons in 1914. The goods were almost overwhelmingly agricultural commodities, including foodgrains. The Government of India paid interest (to British investors) out of railway revenues. No taxes burdened Indians for _this_ purpose.
Anti-imperialism:- Merchants used newly-constructed railroads to ship grain _out_ of drought-stricken areas to central depots, safe from rioters. In the cotton-exporting districts of the Deccan, forest enclosures & the displacement of ‘gram’ [chick-peas] by cotton, greatly reduced food security ( p. 26. )
Historical inquiry:- Before the railways were built, all regions _had_ to grow all crops, regardless of soil & climate -- transport facilities were that inadequate/nonexistent. Thus food crops were grown in unsuitable areas. Outputs were low, quality was poor, & the crops were highly vulnerable. Railway transport made regional specialisation & _exchange_ possible. In areas best suited to food crops, farmers increased the land under food & decreased the land under cash crops. In areas best suited to non-food crops, farmers did the opposite. Thus food output increased, quality improved, & risk was reduced. Interregional & national markets in foodgrains developed for the first time. Cash crops expanded spectacularly, increasing farmers’ incomes substantially. -- Incidentally, the railway network included ‘famine’ lines, built specifically for access to famine-prone regions.
Anti-colonialism:- Indians were unable to purchase subsistence partly because of the steep rise in the cost of imports -- the [silver] rupee was depreciating against the gold standard currencies (p.27.) The worsening depression in world trade spread misery & ignited discontent in the cotton-exporting districts of the Deccan….(p.26.)
Historical inquiry:- There are a number of distinct developments here.
A. Food imports into India were insignificant, except for Bengal, which imported rice from Burma when harvests declined [Davis does mention this.] Famines gradually fell in severity & then disappeared as output rose & as markets were integrated. Crop failures are usually localised; increased & improved transport allowed stocks to be brought in from neighbouring areas. And stocks rose with output. Further, the railways permitted temporary migration. When crops failed in a district, virtually all the able-bodied men moved to urban or to other rural areas to seek temporary work. Their earnings sustained them & their families & some of their cattle. These incomes also enabled the purchase of more cattle & of seed-grain in due course.
The officials of the Government of India also instituted a Famine Code (after 1878.) When crops failed, taxes were remittied & loans made for the purchase of cattle & seed-grain.
B. The silver currencies began depreciating in the late 1860s. But gold prices also declined from around 1873 to 1896 -- so import prices remained steady for the silver countries. Trade, output, employment -- the world economy -- expanded spectacularly during these years. In the silver areas, with the fall in silver against gold, exports & export incomes rose substantially. The bulk of Indian exports were agricultural commodities -- produced by _small farmers_: jute (from Bengal), cotton, hides & skins, bones, wheat, oilseeds & oilcake, wool, spices, dyes, tobacco, sugar. These exports rose dramatically; they went to the gold standard countries.
C. The Deccan riots of _1875_ occurred over other issues altogether. Cotton was exported to the expanding textile industries of Britain & Japan (both on the gold standard) & to the burgeoning Indian textile industries, mainly in Bombay.
Overall: India, as all the LDCs, participated in the world economic growth of the 19th century. This meant considerable improvement in the lives of the mass of the population.
I hope this has shown the difference between: (1) inquiring into the history of the people of India & (2) using sticks to beat imperialists with.
------------------------------------------------------
Mike Davis, Late Victorian Holocausts, London, Verso 2002.
Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India, London & Bombay, Asia Publishing House 1963, p. 107 (quote), pp.100-110, p. 105 fn 35 (moderate scarcity.)
Steven Horwitz
"And yet, I find the specter of the most powerful people in the only superpower drop[sic] everything to focus on the destiny of a single badly disabled woman edifying."
I could not disagree more. Whatever one thinks of the merits of the husband's case, the idea that our esteemed legislators are concocting a bill to save the life of one woman, and calculating the electoral benefits thereof in the process, is precisely what I dislike about democracy. This is just the kind of abuse of Congressional power that gives democracy a bad name. It is antithetical to any reasonable understanding of the rule of law, not to mention the tax dollars being spent as lawmakers rush back to DC to vote on this bill while procedure allows them to.
And the notion of using the subpoena power to resolve a case of this sort is hardly what one thinks of when one thinks of the merits of democracy - at least not the type framed by a meaningful constitution.
Rant over.
Sheldon Richman
Steven Horwitz
The apocalyptic tone of Kathryn Lopez in NRO's The Corner, and their near total focus on the Schiavo case, is like watching a car wreck. I think I'll go read something by Ward Churchill to cheer myself up.
Sheldon Richman
Not only was Michael Schiavo awarded money by a jury for her perpetual care, it has been reported that others have offered to pay for her life-support. Add to these facts that ten years ago Michael Shiavo commenced a romantic relationship with another woman whom he describes as his fiance, has had two children with that woman, and has announced that he has “moved on” with his life, and his wish to disconnect his wife from feeding and hydration tubes becomes suspect and indeed irrelevant. The Florida courts long ago should have excluded Michael Shiavo from the matter, declaring that he has a conflict of interest, and recognized Terri Schiavo’s parents as having her best interests at heart.
Cross-posted at The Szasz Blog
Steven Horwitz
My quick bit of "legal research" suggests that the definition normally includes "punishment without trial," so that it's not just about naming a specific person, but about doing so for a nefarious purpose.
Even so, the notion of the whole Congress being called in to adjudicate a family tragedy like this really does step way over any line of the legitimate powers of the state, whatever the real meaning of a Bill of Attainder is.
David T. Beito
According to this website, the following photos were taken recently at a Havana hospital that Castro has praised as one of the"most modern in Cuba." The first shows roaches on the hospital floor that were smashed by the shoes of patients and family members, the one in the middle is a curtain next to the bed of a patient getting an IV (the black specks are flies!), and the one on the right is a sink used by doctors who treat samples taken from orthopedic patients.
Charles W. Nuckolls
While the article has some devastating information, the article has some errors. Our report on Grade Distortion never claimed that the College of Education had the highest increase in the percentage of A's only that it had and continues to have one of the highest percentage of undergraduate A's on campus. Unfortunately, the article did not mention the high percentage of A's in Women's Studies (nearly 80 percent of entry level undergraduate grades!).
The article also lets go unanswered the administration's claim that grade distortion (the combination of inflation and disparities between disciplines) results from higher ACT Scores. For example, it does not cite our correspondence with Bob Ziomek, director of ACT program evaluation. He stated that that the “ACT average doesn’t explain the whopping increase in A’s being awarded. ACT scores are fairly flat while the number of A’s and B’s being awarded are out of sight.” Here is the Crimson White article:
Grade inflation has become an issue at universities across the nation, but David Beito, an associate political science professor, and Charles Nuckolls, an anthropology professor, said UA officials are not addressing what could be a growing problem.....
Beito and Nuckolls reported great difficulty in obtaining the information about student grades, and they said administrators are trying to cover up the University's grade inflation problem. "This is a public institution," Nuckolls said."One would think that the public could get the numbers. This should be an issue of accountability."
Beito and Nuckolls said they would like to see reports on student grades published regularly and possibly posted on the Internet. Provost Judy Bonner said there are no plans to post grades. "It is not anything that I would like to see available," Bonner said."It is not useful to anyone."
Read the rest here A report by two UA professors indicates that the percentage of A's awarded in undergraduate courses has increased dramatically over the last 30 years. But getting to the University grade information itself is difficult.
Aeon J. Skoble
Mark Brady
BW: On the supposed opposition to war that is a key element of the classical liberal tradition—Bush, like just about everyone in the U.S., fits.
Few argue that war is a positive good—providing the best field for man to exemplify his martial virtues. Few argue that the U.S. needs an Empire so that our nation will be glorified in History.
Similarly, few argue that we should have an Empire to collect loot or tribute. Or even to impose favorable trade or investment policies so that the U.S. can gain or maintain prosperity at the expense of the rest of the world. The conventional wisdom today is that the trade and investment policies we favor for other countries would benefit them and the rest of the wold too.
All the sorts of bizzare pro-war notions that the classical liberals opposed have almost entirely been defeated in the marketplace of ideas. Instead, we have competing ideas about how best to apply liberal (or libertarian) values to foreign policy.
MB: Many of us believe that the lessons of the past have not been learned by contemporary nation-states and in particular by the United States. There seem to be few limits to the hubris of the Bush administration. I assert that current U.S. policy can be meaningfully described as imperialism, although of course it is somewhat different in character from the imperialism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
BW: Isolationism isn't the only libertarian approach. The notion that it is, is just that sectarian approach that those libertarians who disagree with my view aren't really libertarians. Not unusual, but innacurate.
MB: Isolationism is not—and has never been—a libertarian approach. The classical liberal tradition has always emphasized peaceful relations between the residents of different states. And a diplomatic policy of genuine neutrality is not the same thing as isolationism.
BW: Liberal (or libertarian) imperialism isn't a very plausible approach, but some libertarians do hold to it. Creating a libertarian world is one way to provide for national defense, and one way to create a libertarian world is to impose it by military force.
MB: I agree that imperialism isn’t a very plausible approach for libertarians and classical liberals to adopt, but more to the point it’s fundamentally antithetical to their ideology. The word ‘libertarian’ looses a vital part of its meaning if ‘libertarians’ can advocate imperialism—just as it would loose a crucial part of its meaning if ‘libertarians’ included those in favor of a mixed economy or limited government censorship. Can Professor Woolsey provide even one example of how a nation-state has successfully promoted libertarian values at the point of a gun?
BW: While it seems to me to be unlikely to work, could easily be counter-productive towards geting a libertarian world or for national security for some regime trying to implement the strategy, and would likely have unnacceptable collateral casulties and create an unreasonable tax burden, it isn't incompatible with libertarian values.
MB: What Bill Woolsey considers likely I see as well nigh inevitable. Moreover, they call into question how libertarian such a policy could ever be. Where I disagree with him is with regard to his implicit assumption that the mindset behind such a policy is compatible with libertarian values.
BW: Of course, Bush isn't working fo a libertarian world, but rather a democratic capitalist one.
MB: What exactly is a “democratic capitalist world”? Democracy may well be incompatible with what I understand Bill Woolsey to mean by capitalism.
BW: But then, the claim isn't that Bush is a libertarian. Rather that he shows libertarian tendencies. While what I like least about Bush is his foriegn policy, I can't agree that it is obviously unlibertarian. Some libertarians support it.
MB: Where does Bill Woolsey draw the line and assert that a position is so antithetical to the libertarian ideology that a libertarian cannot support it and remain a libertarian? How about advocacy of a mixed economy? Or limited government censorship? Or is his ecumenical approach prepared to include such people within the libertarian tent? It’s not that I am a narrow sectarian seeking to crush deviationism but words do have meanings and a non-interventionist foreign policy has always been at the core of the (evolving) classical liberal tradition.
