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May 17, 2006
Steyn: On Venezuela, Islam, and Oil
The following passage from the latest Mark Steyn column would have, by itself, prompted a link by me:
[...]Yet as long as industry "reform" is intended to force Americans into smaller, less comfortable, less safe vehicles, it's hard to see anyone taking it seriously. (As a world-class demography bore, by the way, I don't think it's coincidence that the only Western country with healthy birth rates is also the one that drives around in the biggest vehicles: the nanny state can't mandate bulky child seats and then require a young family to drive around in a Fiat Uno.)
I have made the same demographic point when urging free-market solutions to the "oil crisis" we face. There is no point in denying the Saudis money if we make it even harder for Americans to raise children. If we were to behave like an empire and dictate terms to them; such as "pump oil or we'll take them, and reform your schools while you are at it", there would be no problem at all. But we need to understand the philosophical weakness that allows our enemies to act boldly when facing America; we are unwilling to exert our power in our search for moral perfection.
The column, however, is more than that, and deserves to be read in its entirety: Feeding the hand that bites them
Four years ago, The Economist ran a cover story on the winner of the Brazilian election, the socialist leader Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva. It was an event of great hemispherical significance. Hence the headline: "The Meaning Of Lula."The following week, a Canadian reader, Asif Niazi, wrote to the magazine: "Sir, 'The meaning of Lula' in Urdu is penis."[...]
Posted by Ruy Diaz at May 17, 2006 10:22 PM
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