Today's Miscellany
Darfur: According to a report in the Washington Times, the U.S. and France, abetted by other members of the UN Security Council, are dancing around on the wording of a resolution on the genocide in Darfur. Apparently France wants the matter to be referred to the International Criminal Court, while the US wants broader wording that would also permit other action to be taken. Truth is, by the time the ICC or any other UN-backed solution gets anything done, so many people will be dead that it will hardly matter any more. When will we learn?
There have to be international sanctions against the government of Sudan, effective troops on the ground, and warplanes in the air if this outrage in Darfur is going to be stopped. And it has to happen now.
Criminal Law: Joe Sobran, whom I classify as a libertarianish curmudgeon, makes interesting points in his latest column. He wrote about the thoughts of Frédéric Bastiat, a nineteenth-century French economist. He said that Bastiat is one of the few writers "every young conservative" reads. Hmm. One more proof that I'm not a conservative--not only have I never read Bastiat, I've never even heard of him. Anyway,
Bastiat wrote, “Look at the law, and see whether it does for one citizen at the expense of another what it would be a crime for the first to do to the other himself.” If so, the law itself is criminal. ...
If you have no right to take others’ wealth, neither you nor a majority like you may delegate such a power to the government. If you have no right to kill foreigners who have done you no harm, you can’t delegate the power to do so to the government either. You can’t “delegate” a right that doesn’t exist in the first place.
So when the government takes money from one of us, by armed force if necessary, and gives it to another, then the government is no better than an armed robber with Robin Hood pretensions? As Sobran concludes,
Some ideas take the world by storm. Bastiat’s ideas haven’t — not because they are too complex, but because they are too obvious. Unable to contradict them, the world goes on ignoring them.
Finger Food: Maybe you read about this somewhere else, but I just came across it. According to an AP report carried in the Washington Post two days ago,
A woman's meal at a Wendy's restaurant brought a whole new meaning to the term "finger food." The woman bit into a portion of a human finger while eating a bowl of chili Tuesday night at the San Jose restaurant, Santa Clara County health officials said Wednesday. ...
Officials said the fingertip was approximately 1 3-8-inches long and a half-inch piece of fingernail was also found. They believe it belongs to a woman because of the long, manicured nail.
Pardon me while I look for a barf bag. And then I'm selling all my Wendy's stock.
There have to be international sanctions against the government of Sudan, effective troops on the ground, and warplanes in the air if this outrage in Darfur is going to be stopped. And it has to happen now.
Criminal Law: Joe Sobran, whom I classify as a libertarianish curmudgeon, makes interesting points in his latest column. He wrote about the thoughts of Frédéric Bastiat, a nineteenth-century French economist. He said that Bastiat is one of the few writers "every young conservative" reads. Hmm. One more proof that I'm not a conservative--not only have I never read Bastiat, I've never even heard of him. Anyway,
Bastiat wrote, “Look at the law, and see whether it does for one citizen at the expense of another what it would be a crime for the first to do to the other himself.” If so, the law itself is criminal. ...
If you have no right to take others’ wealth, neither you nor a majority like you may delegate such a power to the government. If you have no right to kill foreigners who have done you no harm, you can’t delegate the power to do so to the government either. You can’t “delegate” a right that doesn’t exist in the first place.
So when the government takes money from one of us, by armed force if necessary, and gives it to another, then the government is no better than an armed robber with Robin Hood pretensions? As Sobran concludes,
Some ideas take the world by storm. Bastiat’s ideas haven’t — not because they are too complex, but because they are too obvious. Unable to contradict them, the world goes on ignoring them.
Finger Food: Maybe you read about this somewhere else, but I just came across it. According to an AP report carried in the Washington Post two days ago,
A woman's meal at a Wendy's restaurant brought a whole new meaning to the term "finger food." The woman bit into a portion of a human finger while eating a bowl of chili Tuesday night at the San Jose restaurant, Santa Clara County health officials said Wednesday. ...
Officials said the fingertip was approximately 1 3-8-inches long and a half-inch piece of fingernail was also found. They believe it belongs to a woman because of the long, manicured nail.
Pardon me while I look for a barf bag. And then I'm selling all my Wendy's stock.
5 Comments:
Well, I guess I'll skip breakfast. According to the EU Observer, the move to move it to the ICC was meant to force the US to either recognize the ICC's authority or give up on any UN action.
The Wendy's story reminds us all to upgrade our fingerprint recognition systems to detect a pulse.
Great miscellany as always. My guest blogger had made me aware of Bastiat recently, I guess I really need to read that, too.
You are so on target with your Darfur commentary, Tom. It's a travesty what we're allowing to happen as we twiddle our thumbs over wording.
As for that finger....at least it wasn't KFC. Could have taken finger-licking good to a whole new level. Sorry, couldn't resist.
LOL, Esther, about KFC! Come to think of it, they don't use that slogan, anymore, do they?
invadesoda, i wasn't even sure it was KFC but I'm pretty sure it was. I seriously doubt they still use it, lol. Cause it would imply they are greasy and that will make us think of fried...and that's a no-no. Using the name KFC so takes my mind off "fried" -- lol. Cracks me up.
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