dan collier

Brad DeLong, a professor of economics at UC Berkley, made an interesting post reviewing the Paul Wolfowitz scandal at the World Bank. The good professor speculates on both the actual series of events and what Wolfowitz has convinced himself is the true story.

While interesting and informative, I think Professor DeLong missed the key point regarding Wolfowitz’s reasoning. It seems clear that Wolfowitz is one of many neo-conservative powerbrokers that do not believe the rules apply to themselves as they do to others. “We” are uniquely good and self-empowered is the basic tenet of neo-conservative realism. The situation can be summed up quite well by Machiavellian philosophy: Petty rules are not intended for great men.

Wolfowitz is in good company in selectively obeying the rules. Alberto Gonzalez recently lied obviously and repeatedly during Congressional testimony. Bush’s response was effectively “Heck of a job, Al!”. In contrast to such blatant disregard for Congressional authority, promoting one’s girlfriend seems quaint.

Though clearly not the thought-leader, George W. Bush is the cheerleader and role model for this philosophy of moral relativism. Bush had no use for international legal approval before invading a sovereign country. Of course, Wolfowitz was a key member of the team that planned and delivered that unjustifiable war. Bush’s choice to ignore FISA and the Geneva Conventions are further examples of the real limitation of rules on men possessed by a supposed greater mission. Bush’s extraordinary use of signing statements, which reserve the right to ignore the just signed law, give a true insight into the governing philosophy of the most influential group of leaders in the current US administration.

I just noticed that the email comment form on this blog has been broken for a while. I’ve fixed it now, I sincerely apologize if anyone sent comments that got lost.

I’ve been thinking about turning on public comments for posts. I’m still debating whether my personal journal is the best place for a public two-way conversation. Of course, give and take read/write websites are far more interesting for everyone involved. If you have an opinion either way, let me know.

Everything I Needed To Know About Women I Learned From Han Solo – from the site Vonnegut’s Asshole. The site takes its name from Vonnegut’s asterisk-asshole drawing in Breakfast of Champions. The site’s author solicited authors to submit their own stylized renditions of their arses, you can browse them here. The site name is about as graphic as it gets.

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Coffee meets milk – nice photos, though it could all be post-processing.

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The Best Short Films at the Tribeca Film Festival – I guess I liked “Lawrence” best. Independent short films on the internet makes perfect sense, at least for those of us with basic cable.