Thursday, April 14, 2022
Russian and American "Leaders"
Staff of Unforeseen Contingencies here. Our CEO, Chief Blogger, and general Top Dog has returned from galivanting around the country for "economics conferences," as he calls them. He is now back in the classroom at [redacted], but before heading out we forced the following brief observations out of him.
Greetings, dear readers! (Imagine my shock when I learned I have readers.) I was away at a Liberty Fund conference discussing the work of the founder of the Austrian school, economist Carl Menger. This was followed by the APEE annual conference. Both were excellent! I might blog about them later. But current events are calling for comment, so let's let other matters wait.
Today the Moskva sank. The Moskva was a Russian guided missile cruiser and the flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, arguably Russia's premier naval unit. "Flagship" means that it was the vessel from which the top admiral commanded the fleet. Ukrainians claim they struck it with several Jupiter surface-to-surface missiles and that this led to the sinking. It's a great triumph for Ukraine, and a great blow to the Russian invaders. But that's not what I blogging about.
To save face, Russia has announced that in fact Moskva sank not because of Ukrainian attacks, but because of Russian incompetence. "A fire broke out" and fire damage control groups failed in putting it out. "Our own failure"... that's the Russian excuse. Ayn Rand wrote that every culture but one is antifailure, and that exception is Russian culture. "Failure is unAmerican, it's unChinese, it's unFrench, it's unGerman... but failure is very Russian," she wrote. Good lord. What kind of regime would "save face" by claiming its own incompetence as an excuse for its failures? Normal people would blame circumstances beyond their control -- e.g. the skill or luck of the Ukrainians. But the Russian regime claims its own incompetence as an excuse. Failure is Russian.
To my Russian readers, you and your country are trapped in a terrible tragedy. You're being silenced and suffocated by a dictatorial regime. It tells you you are faced with fascist enemies who must be destroyed, but meanwhile it imposes totalitarian fascist controls on you. While your lives get worse, it tells you that Russian greatness consists in dominating others and in being feared. Many of your friends and neighbors buy these ideas. It's awful and I'm sorry for you. You are living in a regime of failure.
But speaking of regimes and failure, note that America now has its first female Supreme Court... oops. under oath, Ketanji Brown claims to be unable to define what a woman is.
Under oath and under questioning, Judge Brown pretended to be unable to define what a woman is.
SEN. BLACKBURN: "Can you provide a definition of the word 'woman'?"
JACKSON: "No, I can't."
BLACKBURN: "You can't?"
JACKSON: "I'm not a biologist."
Good grief, what a stupid thing for her to say. The obvious followup question would be "will you be the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court?" But apparently her questioners thought that would be uncouth and let her babble such idiotic nonsense unimpeded.
Brown is not qualified to be a judge. Many have noted her sympathy for pedophilia, certainly a terrible thing. But even more disturbing is her opposition to natural rights. Under oath, she claimed "no opinion." That's nonsense. For one thing, the U.S. Constitution is explicit that rights are inherent in each person. She has sworn to uphold it. It's in the Constitution and the Declaration. There is no way a judge can honestly take such a position; she does have an opinion, but doesn't want to say what it is. She's a would-be tyrant who will violate our rights wholesale if she gets the chance.
Let's never let her get that.
Tuesday, April 05, 2022
Update
Much is going on in the world, and it is all crying for comment. But your Chief Blogger has been super busy of late, hence no posts. I'm currently in Las Vegas, Nevada, first for a Liberty Fund conference on Carl Menger, and next for the APEE annual conference. Both events have been excellent.
The Liberty Fund conference was on the work of the founder of the Austrian School, Carl Menger, and was simply astonishing. I knew a lot about Menger, but this awakened me to an enormous amount of German-language discourse on economics, methodology, subjectivism, and Menger that I did not know. And the APEE meetings have added to that. Great experience! And I have also connected with students and former students of [redacted] who are doing our college proud.
Meanwhile, evidence of Russian murder of Ukrainians mounts, the economic and political perfidy of the Biden admin increases, and civilization continues to degenerate. (Why, at the Academy Awards, one of the entertainment elite deigned to slap another member. Quelle horreur!)
I'll return to blogging soon with a full report.
