Yep. I adored my grandfather. Idolized him. But I've come to realize his generation was not only not the "greatest", but is the one that made a devil's pact with government. There really isn't a generation that compares to the Founders. But I also think that if the Founders could peer into the future and look at the choices we've made, they might well have gone "Why did we even bother?"; would men build great things if they think their children will only squander or corrupt those things?

What are you going to do when the EU embargoes the Swiss with their own version of an Anaconda plan? Because sooner or later, they're not going to take "no" for an answer, and the Swiss will join the collective.

If there was a place to go, I'd take my family there. But there isn't a place to go. 

One thing missing from this equation is how China... with relatively little arable farmland in relation to its population... frees up even more space for growing crops by moving people out of the country into large vertical cities that take up little ground space, and then mechanizes agriculture more to maximize that now-freed up land.

I think you're too optimistic here, and that any "reform" in Iran will always be relative. These people chose this life in 1979, and while the youth may be chaffing somewhat, ultimately, if I had to put money on it, I'd put money on them eventually sticking with the system.

What I despair of is our ever learning. Carter supported Khomeini early on. Dubya backed Lebanese revolutionaries. Obama backed the "democracy movements in Egypt and Libya.

And what kind of governments did these countries wind up with, every single time?

Reagan supported the Mujaheddin in the 80's (for good strategic reasons, necessary at the time) but the results were the same: Islamic governments.

Even Turkey... the quintessential "secular state of the Muslim world"... is re-embracing it's Islamic identity more every day.

As Islam...what the peoples of these areas put their hopes and trust in... sees no legitimate separation of authority between religious and state rulers, what makes you think anything is going to change?

And for the life of me, I can't understand why there's a statue of him on Parliament grounds. It'd be a like a statue of Jefferson Davis in front of the Congress. 

I forget who it was, but a comedian used to have a line about this in his routine: "Minimum Wage means If I could pay you less, I would".

Amen

Actually, Canada's Tories have been emphatically re-emphasizing their proud... and glorious... military history and traditions, most recently by chucking the whole postmodern nomenclature that the liberals put into place in the 60's and 70's and emphasizing royal ties and traditions. Maritime Command is the Royal Canadian Navy again, just as the Air Command is the Royal Canadian Air Force once more.  I got quite the chuckle out of the way you all made your liberals scream about bringing "Royal" back. Don't look for that kind of courage or principle from US leaders anytime soon.

From Rule Britannia to Not So Great Britain.

I bet Rob has stories. He should chime in on this.

I've never liked "torture porn". I've never seen a whole Saw movie because the very concept turned me off... and upon seeing about five minutes worth of the first one, it pretty much confirmed my earlier feelings. I'd quibble about Halloween though, at least the early John Carpenter versions (I do consider the Rob Zombie remakes as basically empty torture porn). In Halloween, the horrible murders that Myers committed was a story point to reinforce the fact that he was inhuman. It was nasty, but it had a purpose in the story, which was the Boogeyman allegory. The Saw-type stuff really is just porn... the torture itself is the selling point of the movie. Thus, it really is a kind of porn. People went to see Halloween to be scared. They go to see Saw  so they can see people get tortured.

This is what you get when you take a profession filled with aggressive men... aggression that is encouraged and necessary for the profession.. and put massive numbers of women into the ranks with them, including front line field duties and in tight spaces. This is the latest in the long list of examples of the progressive denial of the facts of human nature. They think human nature is just a "social construct", and can be willed out of existence.

And instead of doing the right thing... taking the women out of the equation, at least in non-administrative roles... I'm sure that we'll do the opposite: soften the aggressive men to make them more sensitive. Which will do wonders for them in combat.

Once upon a time, an internship was a valuable way to get experience and onto a path for high paying careers. Companies used them as an honest way to evaluate new talent and work ethic, gave interns valuable experience into the professions, and then said interns went on to lucrative careers. Internships were almost always strictly for college grads and were never mistaken for apprenticeships... paid entry level training for low level workers in skilled labor fields... and thus weren't abused.

That's all changed. Internships are now routinely abused, and are seen by many companies as a way to get free grunt labor from young men and women. There's often no intent to groom or prepare anyone. It's basically just a way to cheap out on labor costs now. I work for a semi-government entity, and we pay for our interns, and give them real work experience in their field. But too many companies see interns as "Hey, we've got this sucker from college to take out our trash for free for 3 months".

Guys like Michael Lind are why the very concept of a "public intellectual" is mocked and snickered at in America. Yes, an Ivy League English degree is enough to expect the country to marvel at your intellect and wisdom.

While I have a great deal of criticism of Libertarianism, much of Lind's piece was just snotty leftist pap.

Germans have become so neutered and politically correct that they'd probably take the blame for the American Civil War if pressed. "Awfully sorry about that Gettysburg thing, Mein Herr. Our bad... again. Here, have some Volkswagons".