Jonathan

A brilliant post by Val on one of the world’s great political ironies: voters elect irresponsible leftist/populist spendthrifts who wreck their local economies, leading to mass emigration. The cycle repeats as the emigres foul their new civic nests by again voting for leftist/populist spendthrifts. Every libertarian or conservative resident of the U.S. sunbelt knows what Val is talking about. Lex probably has a learned explanation for this phenomenon, but I feel the same way about it as I do about Jews who are basically conservative yet always vote for Democrats: how can they have so little insight into the contradictions of their own behavior? Beats me.

Val Dorta has a long and thoughtful post about conceptual flaws in our “war on terror.” I agree that we aren’t dealing openly with the problems posed by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. However, unlike Val I think that our behavior in this regard is probably more a function of our trying to finesse these situations, and if possible avoid war, than of any unwillingness on our part to face the truth. But I may be wrong, and Val makes the contrary case well.

Don Luskin is worried about the dollar, or more precisely, about how the Bush administration appears to be systematically — and irresponsibly — devaluing the dollar to buy the votes of exporters and union members. I was worried a few months ago. Is Don right? Was I right?

Well, gold was cheaper when I first became concerned. Now it’s trading at around $380/oz. Also, the dollar regained some of its lost value after I made that post in June. But now the dollar has fallen sharply from its recent highs, and its downward momentum (relative to the Euro, and especially the Yen) has accelerated since the recent G7 finance ministers’ meeting. Time will tell, but it seems likely that Don is right and that there has been a policy shift. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the dollar make a new low vs. the Euro and to continue weakening against the Yen.

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Drudge links to a story about inactive-reserve Israeli military pilots who, as a political stunt, are refusing to participate in attacks on Palestinians. This is typical posturing by Israeli leftists whose agenda doesn’t have enough political support to be enacted via conventional democratic means; sort of the equivalent of U.S. leftists using the courts to bypass legislatures. Ho hum.

But the article links to another, much more interesting piece: an old interview (Part 1, Part 2) with Dan Halutz, the commander of the Israeli air force. The interview is long, and the questions are skeptical — almost to the point of hostility — about General Halutz’s claims of moral authority. But it seems to me that he has thought through the issues and answers the questions well. He comes across as articulate, morally serious and intensely pragmatic.