Democracy à la Dubya

Democracy ala Dubya has two sections. Here are excerpts from each:

To Democratize Or Not To Democratize

In his State of the Union Address, the president branded the United States as the world’s “partner for a better life.” He also recommitted “our nation” “abroad” “to an historic, long-term goal”: seeking “the end of tyranny in our world.” To discredit those who oppose recreational, unprovoked wars, coups, and other state-sponsored global interventions, Mr. Bush deployed the “isolationist” epithet.
The president’s proselytizing is unconstitutional and has been undertaken with no real authority. If Mr. Bush is so bewitched by the demos—the rule of the many—he should try some Athenian magic on the foot soldiers who’ll be fighting and financing his schemes.
So how about a referendum on this question?

Elect A New People
While throwing money and men to Moloch, the commander in chief ignores that the Arab Street has always been more militant than its leaders… The only way Bush will get the democracy he desires in the Arab world is by dissolving the people and electing another, to paraphrase Bertold Brecht…

Blog away.

About Democracy ala Dubya, Jay Homnick of The Reform Club writes: “Ilana Mercer has summed up her recent critques of George Bush’s Middle East policy in one powerful essay wherein every word sparkles. Agree or not, not to be missed.”
There is an interesting thread at The Reform Club, to be followed here.
Thanks Jay.

Mackinnon's Textual Harassment

Feminism, Gender, Law

The baleful influence of feminist Catharine Mackinnon on American and Canadian jurisprudence cannot be underestimated. With relatively few obstacles from the dreaded patriarchy, Mackinnon, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, “teacher, writer, and activist,” has been transforming law since the 1980s. Her legal conquests, especially in developing sexual-harassment law, are the subject of this meaty volume, which comprises speeches and screeds Mackinnon has disgorged over 25 years.

The excerpt is from my review in The American Conservative of Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws by radical feminist, Catharine A. Mackinnon. Comments are welcome.

Mackinnon’s Textual Harassment

Feminism, Gender, Law

The baleful influence of feminist Catharine Mackinnon on American and Canadian jurisprudence cannot be underestimated. With relatively few obstacles from the dreaded patriarchy, Mackinnon, Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, “teacher, writer, and activist,” has been transforming law since the 1980s. Her legal conquests, especially in developing sexual-harassment law, are the subject of this meaty volume, which comprises speeches and screeds Mackinnon has disgorged over 25 years.

The excerpt is from my review in The American Conservative of Women’s Lives, Men’s Laws by radical feminist, Catharine A. Mackinnon. Comments are welcome.

Surprised By Hamas' Victory?

Israel, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Media, The Zeitgeist

A consensus has emerged according to which no one predicted that the “Palestinian People” would elect Hamas as their representatives—democratically.
It shows you what little attention I pay to the talking titmice out there, because I thought that when I called the elections, I was merely stating the obvious. I believed that a consensus existed according to which there would be no other outcome.
I foresaw both the victory in the municipal elections of 2005 and in the general elections of 2006. On January the 7th this year, I called Hamas “the Palestinians’ unofficial representative,â€? and spoke of a shoo-in for the terrorist organization. Apparently the precious few who read the forecast viewed it as comic relief. What are you going to do!
Isaiah Berlin said that an ideologue is someone who is prepared to suppress what he suspects to be true. Those who fetishize the Palestinians are ideologues who’ll put a spin on reality so that it’ll comport with their ideology.
To foresee the results of the recent elections in the Palestinian Authority, all that was required was a commitment to “unvarnished objective reality.” But no one wants to take an honest, hard look at the cruel complexion of Palestinian society—unless, of course, it is to blame the liberal, orderly commonwealth adjacent to it: Israel.