2-year-old Kholood and 1-year-old Anoud, daughters of Amal Rikad, who was killed; ..2-year-old Raad and 1-year-old Ra'ed -- whose headless body was found near his house -- sons of Fatima Madhi, who was killed; .. Saad, 10, Faisal, 7, Anoud, 6, Fasila, 5, Kholood, 4, and Inad, 3 -- children of Mohammed and Morifa Rikad, who were killed.
(From New York Times/Associated Press. Link via Different Opinion)
Mr. Bush thinks that immersing himself in voluminous, mostly liberal-leaning news coverage might cloud his thinking and even hinder his efforts to remain an optimistic leader.
"I like to have a clear outlook," he said. "It can be a frustrating experience to pay attention to somebody's false opinion or somebody's characterization, which simply isn't true."
Report on president Bush in Washington Times
I know people who read interminably...Of course they "know" an immense amount but..they have not the faculty of distinguishing what is useful and useless in a book; so that they may retain the former in their minds and if possible skip the later. [One must] instantly discern, in a book or journal or pamphlet, what ought to be remembered because it meets one's personal needs...
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf as translated and quoted by sir Alan Bullock.
I hasten to add that in no way do I compare or equate those two political figures and, indeed, I would strongly dissociate myself from any attempt to do so. However, I find the apparent closeness in attitude appearing from this juxtaposition of quotes intriguing and somewhat disconcerting.
Note: Link to Washington Times through Talking Points Memo. Quote from Bulllock in: Hitler: a study in tyranny, Pelican Books edition.
2004 05 04
Abu Ghraib and beyond
Billmon tells us that the US State Department will release tomorrow its annual report accounting for how the United States supports human rights and democracy around the world. We suppose that old Europe will get another beating for not protecting the rights of scientologists, Moonist, Jehovas Witnesses and other holy people. As Billmon notices: Great timing, US!
But all quiet on the home front, eh? Anne Zook reminds us that May 4th is the anniversary of the Kent State shootings (24 years ago).But it's OK now.
Three Swedish professors and one German Herr Doktor have been studying the development of the welfare systems in the EU-countries over a period of 10 years. ( I believe this means that they have been studying this during 10 years but the text is unclear on this point.) The results were recently published in Swedish Dagens Nyheter (article 1; article 2) and can be summarized as follows: The welfare systems in countries like Sweden, Denmark and Finland are very good although they have had their ups and downs. The welfare systems of Greece and Portugal are not so good as in the Nordic countries. Countries like France, Germany etc. are somewhere in between.
In spite of these trivial (but expensive) conclusions the free market fundamentalists in Sweden are angered beyond reason. Their ideology, of course, does not allow for a state that is being governed by “socialists” to be good at anything. And then they probably haven’t even seen the index of competitiveness(!) just published by the World Economic Forum and the International Management Institute in Lausanne which also shows the Nordic countries on top within the EU. It may be more difficult to dismiss those data as a “Social democratic put-up job” (Original sound track : Dagens Nyheter.)
Although scoreboards like those no doubt have their entertainment value they shouldn’t be taken too seriously. There are enough statistics around to show that any country (at least within the EU) is better or worse off than the others in some respects. Scandinavian free marketeers may take some comfort in the fact that Sweden is sliding in the ranking of GNI/capita, particularly if you take the real purchasing power into account where Sweden is down in the lowest quartile of EU 15. Feminists in Sweden should emphasize the employment ratio of women (but don’t mention non-EU Norway and Iceland where it is even higher) but avoid talking about the number of females with a technological degree or the ratio of work accidents among women. (Well, I don’t know how the argument would go, I always mix those things up.)
The three professors and the Doktor have selected a number of variables, grouped them together and called it “welfare”. That is a precarious thing to do. One example: In Sweden people are proud of the fact that the female “exit age” from the labor force is the highest in the EU since this would indicate that also somewhat older women can be gainfully employed and also that men and women are more equal in this respect. In Austria, on the other hand, when the Government tried to introduce a reform of the pension system which included a modest increase in the “exit age” of women to approach that of men, the social democratic opposition, the trade unions and women’s organizations were quick to denounce this as an attack on women.
Let me paraphrase what a great Swedish author, Tage Danielsson, wrote in “The physiology and technique of talking rubbish”: “You believe that Paris is the capital of France. I am convinced that Paris is the capital of Germany, The truth lies, I suppose, as always somewhere in the middle.”
rice and lamb garnished with sultanas, almonds and all sorts of spices, a Lebanese salad, chicken soup and two different kinds of bread. ... sweet tea and fresh fruit,
Read Riverbend to se how it ended. And to pres Bush and company: congratulations to your nation building efforts.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a growth of payroll jobs of 112 000 for January 2004. This means that professor Robert Barro made a correct forecast with his equation (see below!) since he had predicted a growth of between - 90 000 and +225 000. Good work, Robert!
Unfortunately, commentators seem less than satisfied: they point out that normally the increase should have been around 200 000. Stephen Roach explains that the economy is 8 000 000 jobs short of what you would expect two years into a growth cycle.
Can we have it back, please, since you don't seem to use it?
Des Small of Desbladet is an English (or is it British or even UK; I never get those things right) blogger but with a focus on Scandinavia which he understands better than most of us from there. Despite his somewhat peculiar penchant for Nordic royalty, he is uncannily intellectual. Here is a message to you, which I fully support:
Hey, America! Yoorp here. You know that Enlightenment (Upplysningtid) thingy you borrowed? If you're not using it, could we have it back, please? Thanks!
Your chronicler has precious little sympathy for the politics of Mr. Blair, Prime Minister of England. We have always looked at him as a Margaret Thatcher in Armani with very little in common with the Europe he claims to be a part of. (Did you know that countries like Estonia, Latvia, Malta and Cyprus will have to pay considerable sums of money for financing the rebate that the UK is getting on its EU membership fee on account of it being so poor?) Yesterday, Mr. Blair won a critical vote in the House of Commons with the smallest possible margin after a large part of his own party had rebelled against him. Today, Mr. Blair is fully vindicated in the case of the the tragic death of Mr. Kelly and BBC has been put to shame for spreading false information. The Hutton report also finds that Mr. Blair did not exaggerate the intelligence on the WMD:s of Iraq (although it does not assess the validity of that intelligence which remains highly doubtful.)
Through all this Mr. Blair has not flinched for one second but insisted on being right and his critics being wrong. He has sought no political compromises or made any half-hearted excuses or tried in any way to cover his back. For all this, I think he deserves the highest acclaim for political leadership and courage, whatever we may think of his politics. It is a refreshing contrast to the cowardly consensus politicians in many European countries, not the least in Scandinavia.
I am not even talking about the US where "special interests" and "electability" seems to permeate everything. Not even Mr. Kucinich could stay true to his principles which, sure enough, made him double his share of the electorate from 1 to 2 % in New Hampshire.
This is definitely not an endorsement of Mr. Blair's politics but quite a bit of admiration for the man behind them.
We had the pleasure to receive Mr. John Ashcroft in Vienna today where he met with the Minister of the Interior and the Wiener Sängerknaben. At the press conference everything was Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen (Peace, Joy, Egg Pancakes). Quite contarary to Austrian tradition, however, one journalist (probably an Ausländer) asked Mr Ashcroft a potentially emabarassing question: what did he think of Mr.Powell's statement that Saddam probably didn't have any WMDs when the war started? Mr. Ashcroft looked sternly at the troublemaker and explained that the war was in any case justified because in the past Saddam had used such weapons against his own people and against neighboring states. The Minister of Interior looked embarrassed.
Mr Ashcroft, however, looks almost dove-like compared to Mr. Blair who "has absolutely no doubt" the intelligence about weapons of mass destruction he received in the run-up to the Iraq war was genuine.
Via Anne Zook at Peevish and through Jonathan Dressner at Cliopatra we found a quiz put together by AOL/Time-Warner called President Match. You can compare your views on a number of issues with those of the available presidential candidates, mainly Democrats. Your chronicler thought it would be fun to do the quiz even though he is an old European.
We sincerely hope that it will not hurt these candidates if we reveal an almost perfect match with "Kucinich" and "Sharpton" . The problem is that we have never heard of those guys. Are they real candidates or just virtual ones? If they are so good, why don't you just pick one of them?
Least similar to your chronicler was Mr. Lieberman whom we have consistently dissed on these and other pages. He was beaten only by president Bush who scored a meager 16 % which probably greatly overstates our affinity. We have more in common with pres. Bush Senior who at one time declared that he hated broccoli and felt he could refuse eating it since he was the president of the United States.
Note: Obviously president Bush Sr had to withdraw this statement since it upset broccoli growers who commanded a great number of votes. But for one bright shining moment there was a piece of courageous political leadership.
2004 01 20
Robert J. Barro puts it right
Some of us lesser mortals (including Krugman and various bloggers, such as Kevin Drum and Mats Lind) expressed some concern about the recent data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Harvard economics professor and regular Business Week columnist Robert J. Barro does not worry, however. The economy is strong and will remain so, which:
reflects the Bush Administration's two best policies: tax cuts...and the pursuit of international security through the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Professor Barro even ventures a quantitative forecast: according to "a forecasting equation I use" he expects a January gain of 65 000 payroll jobs.
Now, as a sometime economist, your chronicler knows that it can be fatal to make forecasts of the immediate future. The best thing is to make forecasts of the past. But if you cannot get away with that, try at least to have a sufficiently long planning horizon, 5 years or so. Then you can safely assume that, when the outcome is known, everyone will have forgotten or lost interest in what you said.
But professor Barro, of course, knows this. He places his forecast for January within an interval of - 90 000 to +225 000.
Let me make a prediction of my own. The next US president will be George W. Bush. But it could also be someone in the range between Joe Liebermann and Hillary Clinton. It will probably not be Howard Dean, whom Prof Barro deems as
clearly qualified to be President...of France...or, perhaps, of Boston University.
Footnote: Business Week has a commendable web presence but the number of different editions is quite confusing and I have not been able to locate Barro's column on the BW site. It was, however, published in the European edition, January 26.
2004 01 17
Volvogate
On the eve of the Iowa caucuses your chronicler heard Mr. Dean, in a self-ironic way, describe himself as
tree-hugging, Volvo-driving, NPR-listening
which apparently was a quote from a Republican anti-Dean spot.
Volvo-driving - I guess that is the ultimate argument.
Anyhow, that's not my business but please, whatever you do, don't select Mr. Liebermann. His strategy to out-Bush Bush is sure to guarantee 4 more years for the President. Voters are no fools, at least not as a collective. If they want Bush they will vote for Bush not for a pathetic facsimile. See the update of Get your war on (line 4) for an assessment,
Update 2004 01 19: A reader in the US has commented on my Swedish blog (hence the concern about Volvo) that the quote should go like this:
He: "Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New-York-Times-reading..."
She: "...body-piercing, Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs."
Many thanks! But I am pretty sure that when I heard Mr. Dean on CNN he also mentioned at least the NPR. Like me, he must have quoted from memory.
Professional philosophers are almost as fun as professional economists. According to the BBC News a professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge, England, has just declared that:
Lust has been wrongly branded a vice and should be "reclaimed for humanity" as a life-affirming virtue
Cool. This comes on the same day as a Swedish scientist declares that to believe that you get fat from eating fat food is as stupid as believing that you get green from eating vegetables.
So that takes care of lust and gluttony. Remain anger, envy, sloth, pride and greed.
Sloth?????
Now when lust has become a virtue we may interpret the words of a famous Danish poet somewhat differently:
Deutsche Welle is an excellent European TV-station, broadcasting in English and several European languages including, of course, German. In a contribution concerning the eastern expansion of the European Union, which will take place in May 2004, a senior economist of the Deutsche Bank points out that even if the rigid criteria for joining the euro area might reduce economic growth, the new member states would do right in trying to join as soon as possible.
They’ll be able to enjoy low interest rates, a stable currency, a fixed exchange rate with main trading partners as well as with the euroland, where most direct investments come from.
The German economist lists Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia as countries that may introduce the euro as early as 2007.
All 10 new member states have undertaken to join the eurozone as soon as they meet the admission criteria. Following the Deutsche Bank, we will soon have a situation where 17 and later 24 European countries will have a common currency.
Eurosceptic Sweden may have its next referendum around 2012 - 2014 according to the Swedish Minister of Finance. It is highly likely that Denmark, and possibly also Norway, will join much earlier than that. It may become pretty cold out there for the Swedes and their only friend by then, Mr. Howard (?)
But then those people know how to make money out of cold and ice.
