Duly Noted: Racial Discrimination of Dogs

From the desk of George Handlery on Sun, 2009-08-02 20:22

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George Handlery about the week that was. Struggling against the racist profiling of dogs. Culture and crime. Enshrining the wrong tradition. Bailouts and pork. Taxing what is not understood. Talking about the weather is not idle talk any more. New terms for the old left. Helping the people against its will.
 
1. Here is good story if told as a joke. At the same time, it indicates a serious ailment. The increasingly popular four-legged assault weapons, such as pit bulls and Rottweilers, have produced – mainly to children – deaths and serious injuries here. As a result, an attempt was made to have dangerous races prohibited or to subject their ownership to controls. Instantly someone discovered that dog rights were about to be violated. The attack dogs were being proscribed because of their RACE. While only few victims on record have been torn apart by Chihuahuas or maimed by poodles, it was decided that a law restricting the ownership of canines declared to belong to dangerous races is unfair.
After all, the pooch’ race alone would have been used to impose restrictions. Therefore, since most dogs do not endanger anyone, a toothless regulation was borne. In PC terms most virtuously, all races are treated the same. So, unfair “profiling” is prevented. That means limitations for all but no preventive restriction on dangerous animals. This weekend produced another Rottweiler attack on a child. The seriously injured boy is in the hospital. However, thank you for asking, he will not die. The probable upshot might disturb equalitarians. The case could lead to a racist law limiting the ownership of attack dogs. (Forbidding children in open spaces has not yet been proposed.) So, beware! Racism is rising!!
 
2. The following case is presented because its essentials can be generally applicable regarding under-achieving minorities. (There are minorities, which, because of their collective traits, over-achieve. Jews and Armenians in “Europe”, overseas Chinese in south East Asia, Asian SAT takers in the USA.) Some apologists of Gypsy criminality acknowledge that, compared to the general population, they show a high rate of commission and conviction. As is the case with groups that are crime prone, their discrimination leading to anti-social behavior is brought up. Frequently chronic and wide spread unemployment is said to be the cause of criminality and crime as the evidence of society’s unfairness. Discrimination exists when, regardless of identical performance and qualifications, unequal opportunities (training, employment, promotion, salaries, and recognition) are offered. Many Gypsy leaders exploit in their PR unemployment and under representation in upper level positions. Because they make a living out of the political capitalization of failure, they condemn the majority for its unfairness. At the same time, these spokesmen do not use their influence to rally their followers to get the schooling pre-supposed by participation. Encouraging an old-fashioned life-style and its caste building, furthermore, making the refusal of even elementary-level schooling into a “defense of culture”, is frequent. The consequence creates conditions that confirm prejudices. These are judgments based on group experience applied to individuals without investigating the concrete case. Furthermore, modern employment demands modern skills. Those lacking them will wind up at the bottom of the pile. To achieve that result, none needs to resort to discrimination against analphabets to keep the uppity in “their place”.
 
3. Development presupposes freedom and order. Many failing societies regard these not only as separate but also as contradictory concepts. This demonstrates ignorance regarding the man-made creation of successful societies. By all the evidence, unawareness is a condition that the victim of the ailment is last to realize.
 
4. We have experienced a series of collapses after the US’s real-estate snafu. If the response to the predicament follows the pattern, the moment’s instance of last resort might be infected. That would be the credibility of government directed economics. If this happens, the crisis will have reached a new dimension. There will be no one left to override market-related forces. As a result, the ropes to pull the vessel from the shoals to the land will be cut. To avoid failure, an economically wise, that is profit bearing, investment of rescue-funds that are injected in the economy is needed. Bailouts dictated by political opportunism – pork – are more than ineffective. Such adventures are dictated by considerations that are the antidote of the remedy that might cure the patient.
 
5. Attempts to replace the market by government intervention bring a danger. It is the political control of all aspects of life. The major hazard is represented by the attitude of those that are unconcerned – if they do not actually welcome – by this probability.
 
6. International transactions (capital, goods and skilled people) are becoming subjected to hindrances created by shortsighted and US-led national tax makers. The high tax venue in the chain of transactions demands an undeserved tribute after low-tax locations have added value to products or services.
 
7. Just suppose that we admit there is a continuing change of the climate that began when the earth started to cool. Let it be assumed that, therefore, the announced climate catastrophe caused by man provokes your suspicions. Forces that dare to doubt the trend labeled as unique are skeptical regarding some of the proposed counter measures. Now a forecast can be risked. The policies advocated now will be declared to have been successful. If, however, through the laws of nature nothing unusual happens, the Gores will still grab the credit. In case of a cyclical worsening – such as putting elephants back on the artic circle – the same people will be credited for having prevented much worse.
 
8. In traditional societies an often selectively realized past becomes enshrined which, thereby, becomes an intellectual prison. This hinders the ability to adapt and to proceed innovatively. Modern society manages to erase the real past and to replace it with a plastic version of trivia formed out of cultivated ignorance. The danger in this is not harmless nostalgia but the unnoticed restoration of the past.
 
9. Russia’s security interest, like the USA’s is the stop of nuclear proliferation. In Iran’s case the tactic that contradicts the strategic goal is to derail the US and to let America deal with Tehran alone. If Washington does the heavy lifting, Russia benefits from the result. Meanwhile, she can earn for her seeming neutrality Muslim gratitude. At the same time, American IOUs are collected for not interfering. This appears to be a win-win deal for no input. Actually, the game is a high-risk one in case that the tactical rival fails.
 
10. In the tradition that Marx represents, leftist ideology presented its case as being “scientific”. The intended implication was that the guesses were not open to discussion. After all, they represented unchallengeable valid “objective” (another favorite word) insights. This quality of the doctrine made its advocates correct and the program objective in the way the diagnosis of appendicitis can be. (The analogy is fitting as the Red program implies an operation to cut out something as a precondition for the cure.) Nowadays, leftists seem to vary the foundation upon which their truth is said to rest. The shift reflects the current mood that distrusts science and takes extra-rational mantras as fact. Accordingly, the movement sells itself as a faith validated by the alleged moral quality of the goal it set. This, in the contemptuous term of the original Marx, makes those who argue in this manner into “utopians”. The popularity of publicly or privately oriented utopias as paths to some form of salvation suggests that, there is much political mileage to be squeezed out of the once dismissively rejected utopian approach.
 
11. Successful action in the public or the private realm begins with a perceived opportunity. Second, there must be a sense of legitimacy attributable to the method and to the goal pursued. Here the measuring rod is the judgment of the Leaders and the public’s acceptance – by persuasion or coercion – of the right to act. This is how come that, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot and bin Laden, while separated by the details of their Weltanschauung, become united in their ways of implementation.

immer wieder # 3

Submitted by marcfrans on Thu, 2009-08-06 16:14.

2.2  Is this repetition really necessary?  Your original claim was that "agriculture is the foundation for advanced societies".  Obviously, everything that came before in history in a sense provides a basis for what exists today.   In that narrow sense, the move from nomadism to agriculture was necessary for 'advancement'.  But, if we look at the world today, and make a distinction between advanced and 'primitive' societies, the claim that agriculture is the foundation for advanced societies is ridiculous.  What separates the advanced from the not-so-advanced, is not agriculture but 'rule of law' and private property.

Your shift to "empires" is ominous. I preferred to talk about "economies in a regional context".  I agree with you that there is a 'regional' security (noneconomic) argument for agricultural protection, but certainly not to the degree that French, Bavarian, and Kansas politicians claim to think.  At the same time, no sensible Belgian (German, Canadian, etc...) politician would claim that their country is "advanced" because of its high level of agricultural productivity.  Certainly not in an economic sense of the word "advanced" - 'entertainment' is bigger than agriculture in Belgium -  and neither in a cultural/political sense.

5.2  I see, you are still on the idiotic anti-Bush bandwagon.  So, the nutty left-wing media (and politicians) have convinced you that the source of 'toxic assets' was an "anti-government intervention" ideology?  Mon Dieu! Mein Gott!.  Is that why Clinton put his friends in charge of the housing giants Fannie & Freddie, and is that why the financial crisis 'broke' a year and a half after the Congress changed hands and Democratic Congressional (committee chairmen) creatures, like Barney Frank and  Christopher Dodd, had instructed such giants to waive normal prudential requirements?    

It's a very complicated subject, the current financial crisis, but I will narrow it down for you.  This is NOT an issue of government intervention versus government nonintervention, but rather of political interference in proper financial market regulation.  If you want to blame Bush, then blame him for his failure to (at least attempt to) abolish long-established monstrosities like Freddie & Fannie, and for his failure to oppose political interference from 'interventionist' politicians in Congress.  But, do not parrot, the ideological line of self-serving politicians and their media hacks/mouthpieces!   

9.2  You really are a hopeless case.  You are not going to recognise the existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program until one of its products explodes.  If then, perhaps!  This kind of Western self-delusion (whatever its various underlying sources or motivations) is sadly all too common today, as it was in the past, and is re-curring over and over again.     

@marcfrans RE: Duly Noted (Part Deux)

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Thu, 2009-08-06 07:47.

2.2

Again, I had been referring expressly to nomadism v. sedentism in the context of Romani experiences in Europe since their migration from Central-South Asia.  To address your points, the existence of primitive societies practicing subsistence agriculture in various proximities to modern industrialized ones, does not invalidate the importance of the emergence of farming, settlement and the agrarian surplus on the eastern coast and hinterlands of the Mediterranean.  Broadly speaking, apes, gorillas, etc. "co-exist" with humans; Neanderthal with Cro-Magnon Man; and primitive societies with advanced ones.  Whether differences in societal development span centuries or millennia is irrelevant to the criticality  of food technology in the advanced ones' progress. 

Moreover, your legal precepts can be reduced further.  What authority enacts law and what power enforces it?  How is property acquired prior to its private ownership being recognized?  In the absence of clarification, these precepts can be as much cure as disease.
Strong agricultural productivity is crucial to every great empire and nation-state.  None of these could permanently rely on foreign provisions via trade permanently without eventual and inexorable disruptions.

5.2

Necessary regulation was undermind in the name of combating government intervention/political interference!

9.2

Iran's non-compliance with the NPT has not been proven to be severe enough, to warrant international military intervention by the UN Security Council; even the IAEA supported diplomatic measures to bring Iran into full compliance.  The case of Iraq was instructive.  Despite openly admitting the existence of its WMD programmes, there was never enough evidence to support the pre-text for Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Then, as now, the primary WMD threat was to Israel.  Moreover, the fabrication of intelligence and patently false analysis by the American and British intelligence communities in the case of Iraqi WMDs should not be forgotten.

 

American intelligence on Iran has been admitted openly by insiders as negligible, and the CIA relies on the Mossad, although the latter lacks the capacity to glean a full picture.  Even in the Cold War, despite the espionage resources deployed and the sheer scale of HUMINT operations, NATO and the Warsaw Pact were terribly ignorant of one another's grand strategies and intentions.  Indeed, it was as shocking for Andropov's Kremlin to intensely fear a nuclear first-strike by NATO, as it was for Reagan's White House to learn of the former's paranoia!

 

There is legitimate concern as to Iranian WMD programmes, and it is evident that a nuclear weapons programme had been progressing until 2003.  In all probability, Iranian WMD development was intended as a deterrent to another Iraqi invasion.  The latter's use of chemical weapons on Iranian soldiers and civilians alike during the war it precipitated cannot be ignored, no more than Western involvement in aiding Iraq's efforts.  More intelligence is needed. 

Immer wieder # 2

Submitted by marcfrans on Tue, 2009-08-04 17:28.

2.  There was much more 'hunger' in primitive agricultural societies than in 'nonagricultural' developed societies.  My position stands:  the foundation(s) of advanced societies are: rule of law and private property. Your commentary now suggests that you agree, but cannot admit it. 

Western economies can easily "feed themselves", at least when one defines "economies" in an appropriate 'regional' context.  No realistic "crisis" between Germany and Austria, or between Ireland and Britain, or between Nevada and California, is going to lead to starvation in any of these places.

5. You are mixing apples and oranges. Handlery's  comment related to "replacing the market with government intervention" AND the political control that it inevitably will engender. Presumably he is talking here about real goods markets, not financial ones.  As to the latter, it is precisely "political control" (read interference)  that undermined the necessary regulation by the appropriate regulatory bodies. 

9.  Et alors?  Have you considered the implications of what you are saying?!.   You are implying (but not consciously) that 'international law' (nonproliferation treaty) is a joke, that the Russians (and the Germans, and the Chinese etc...) will always play hypocritical high-risk games, and that we will have to live - or die? - with the ayathollah nuclear bomb.  There is nothing new here.   Please convey your 'European' attitude to the Anointed One.  I bet you, he will put his head in the sand and won't believe it.   

@marcfrans RE: Duly Noted

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Tue, 2009-08-04 05:37.

2.1 

 

I had been observing the importance of sedentism and opposition to nomadism, in the context of Euro-Romani relations.  Laws precede sedentism, but expanded in size and scope with the sophistication and population of settled societies; property rights derive from land claims.  The current marginalization of agriculture in Western economies is irrelevant, but alarming, if a country is unable to feed itself when trade is paralyzed by crisis. 

 

5.1

 

My belief in and support for free markets does not blind me to political economy and the dubious relationship between big business and government.  The US government took the hand-cuffs off Wall Street and then gave it the green light to lead the economy by creating wealth via excessive leverage and instruments such as derivatives.  Now, the government has used taxpayer funds to save Wall Street from its own bad decisions.  This is not a partisan issue.  Big business wanted "hands off" when it suited them; now it wants a "bail out".  Presidents and party majorities come and go; the result is the same.  Far from "government intervention", the issue is big business dicatating economic policies and government spending.  Bureaucracy is bureaucracy.

 

9.1

 

Iran is not Iraq.  Any Israeli strike would only delay the programme, consolidate the fractious "mullahtariat" and provoke reprisals in Iraq and Lebanon.

Immer wieder

Submitted by marcfrans on Mon, 2009-08-03 16:15.

2--  Agriculture..."the foundation of advanced societies"?  Nonsense!  That foundation is/are (1) rule of law and (2) private property.   Naturally, people have to eat, so agricultural output is 'useful', but it is also marginal to advanced societies (as opposed to subsistence economies). 

5--  Economies of scale?   Relevance? None!  Mr Handlery points to the great danger of people being UNconcerned about "the market being replaced by government intervention". Apparently the kapitein is part of the problem... sorry, the  "major hazard".  The confluence of politics and business interests is universal, and not particular to "America".  And the greater is the degree of "government intervention" the greater the possibilities are for "corruption". 

9-- Actually, nobody is asking Russia "to force Iran to abandon its nuclear programme".  However, sensible people are asking Russia to stop presenting obstacles to the 'world' forcing Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons programme.  As Mr Handlery points out, Russia is playing a "high-risk game" relying on someone else doing the 'dirty deed'.  Obama is playing a minor version of the same high-risk game, relying on Israel to do the hard deed (as it did in Iraq in 1981), so as later to be able to join the rest of the hypocritical world  in condemning Israel (while secretly releasing a great sigh of relief).  A world in which great powers (like Russia and the US) fail to behave responsibly will reap its 'just rewards', of which the 20th century provided a clear glimpse. 

RE: Duly Noted

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Mon, 2009-08-03 08:41.

RE:

 

2.  Agriculture is the foundation of advanced societies.  The advent of the agrarian surplus and sedentism necessitated land assuming a central role in social and political life.  Land had to be demarcated for the purposes of development, and individual and group ownership.  For the Romani peoples to cling to nomadism, and to practice it in settled areas bitterly contested by various interests, they cannot expect special privileges.  The reaction of the Magyars to their defeat at Lechfeld is instructive here.  Yet the Romani have endured centuries of oppression, ethnic cleansing and genocide by the Europeans, and to no avail.  Once our current milieu is consigned to the past, the Romani will have either carved out a niche or they will once more fall victim to others.

 

5.  The confluence of politics and economies of scale is endemic in America.  The notion of public versus private is misleading, as the aggrandizement of power has led to "businessmen-politicians".  This state of affairs is reminiscent of the corruption of Catholic Christendom, wherein prelates held aristocratic titles, wielding spiritual and temporal power.

 

9.  Russia cannot force Iran to abandon its nuclear programme.  Moreover, a destabilized or isolated Iran is not in Russia's interest.