May 13, 2013
Though Robin sometimes seems to intend to incriminate Hayek and others by association, as with the likes of Pinochet, perhaps as a way to emphasize his continued membership in good standing on the political Left, there is nothing in the core of his argument, as opposed to its trivial polemical decorations, that a Hayekian ought to find embarrassing. To the contrary, Robin attributes "profundity and daring" to Hayek and his marginal siblings. Thought through, Robin's arguments may present at least as many difficulties to a leftist, including one operating from Robin's own presumptions, as to a conservative or to a libertarian.
Continued
December 21, 2012
"Counterfactual certitude fallacy" would be a corollary of historical fallacy, as in any claim of certainty that a simple alteration of a particular fatal decision would have necessarily led to an on-balance better course of subsequent events.
Continued
September 12, 2013
The world's chieftain cannot serve the general interest effectively and reliably unless convinced that serving the general interest also serves "his" self-interest - that the two interests are finally the same or non-severable. When the chieftain falls into a depressive state - of apathy, or aboulia, or neurasthenia; doubting all, negating itself to negate all - the system fails, and the will to stasis is realized, or hypostatized, as crisis.
Continued
On “Tales from the Geopolitical Crypt: Seven Deadly Scenarios by Andrew Krepinevich”
Well I got from Pete Wyden's account of Hiroshima, take it for what it's worth
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Kyoto was out because many moons before, Secretary Stimson had his honeymoon there
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Are you cosmically stupid instinctively, or do you work at it?
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It takes him nine months to decide on a mission we're already on, an actual new crisis would be beyond him, several would task him
to the limit. but we have the expertise of Biden
On “Portrait of a Failed Presidency: "What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?" by Kevin Mattson”
Right I'm just making the comparison between now and 1977. The Shah of Iran was still on his throne, although the Ayatollah's transfer
from Najaf to Paris, would hasten his departure.
Pannetta tried to pull a Turner, but that didn't hold so far. Now interest rates will like spike and we really didn't get around to fixing that
subprime problem, with the resetting rates
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Carter was a piker, with Obama just comparing their first year in office. At 10.2 (closer to 17%
unemployment, before the inevitable
hyperinflation and interest rate spike, there hasn't quite been a Halloween massacre, type purge of Langley, but not for lack of trying. With the Russians ruefully suggesting a possible first strike, the Iranians announcing ten more nuclear facilities, the upcoming show trials in NY. 'interesting times' my friends
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