UPDATE II: Manhattan Le Magnifique

America, Capitalism, Ilana Mercer, Racism, Technology, The West, Trade

YES, MANHATTAN’S STILL THE GREATEST. I say so in reply to Barely a Blog reader Sunny Black.

Another reader, “Contemplationist”—he was at the libertarian-cum-Objectivist New York City Junto gathering, where I featured as speaker for the month of May, 2012—had once admonished me on the blog: “You gotta see things to believe them.”

As I crisscrossed Manhattan in high-heels (naturally) on lengthy walks, I was overcome with a surge of patriotism for very specific (and modest) reasons.

I had hoped to keep this passion and the attendant insights for a new column on a new forum. Stay tuned.

No other city I’ve visited in my longish lifetime measures up to Manhattan (New York City). Paris sucks by comparison—and I loved that city in the 1980s, before “les beurs”—the darling buds of France, aka her raging Muslim youths—took over.

Manhattan Le Magnifique.

UPDATE I: Huggs: People were okay and efficient, compared to the sullen slackers of the Pacific Northwest. On the subway, certain sorts glared angrily and refused to let you sit down, preferring to hog the entire bench. I was only too pleased “they” did not lunge at me, though. No wilding attack. And Central Park is the most beautiful place ever for a runner. I was up Sunday at 6:00AM because of jet lag, I guess. By 7:00am I was running. There were many many people doing the same. Fabulous.

UPDATE II: At the South-Street Sea Port, on the East River, near Wall Street. What a skyline.

Where’s The Evidence?

Homeland Security, Media, Middle East, Terrorism

A plot to bomb an airliner was recently broken up. So America’s reporters all tell us.

Unanswered are some of the questions—without which there is no legitimate news story—that every journalistic lead should address: Who? Where? What? How?

It is apparent, however, that we don’t need to know who planned a “plot to bomb an airliner.” We don’t need to know where the “plot” was hatched, or what explosive device was seized, and how.

All we need to concern our big fat heads with is that “U.S. and other intelligence agencies” vouched for the information. Also fool-proof is that “U.S. Rep. Peter King, Republican and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee,” would never lie to us. Nor would ““a senior administration official.”

CNN’s Alpha Female Anderson Cooper: Now he always keeps them honest, doesn’t he?! The eternally furrowed brow alone speaks to Cooper’s journalistic bona fides. That guy would know entrapment if he encountered it.

Besides, don’t be such a drag. The guilty party, Fahd al Quso, is already dead of a drone attack. That’s your proof right there. You know someone is culpable of terrorism when and if he dies by drone. Dah.

On my own uneventful airport experience last week, I was spared the rogering (WND editor Ron Strom recommended loose clothing. Maybe it worked). But I did see a tall, fit, good looking black TSA worker, working-over a little old man (80, perhaps). It looked like the agent was removing the hunched geriatric’s colostomy bag. It took him forever.

You never know…

UPDATE III: Magic Manhattan, Matters of the Mind (&, Yes, Manhattan’s Magnificent)

America, Ilana Mercer, Individual Rights, Intelligence, libertarianism, Liberty, Political Philosophy, Rights, South-Africa

I am back at my desk after a magnificent trip to Manhattan, where it was my distinction and delight to address the New York City Junto gathering as the featured speaker for the month of May.

The title of my address was “Natural Rights in ‘Into the Cannibal’s Pot’: Abstractions or Facts of Life?”

For his generous and gracious hospitality I must thank the formidable force behind the NYC Junto forum, Victor Niederhoffer, Ph.D. Dr. Niederhoffer, with whom I enjoyed a late night snack after the lively event, is a well-known “professional investor,” trader and speculator. In other words, a man of the free, glorious, financial markets. He founded Junto in 1985, as a discussion group for people who treasure liberty (and, yes, the great Gene Epstein was present).

Dr. Niederhoffer puts NYC Junto guests up at The Harvard Club of New York, established in the late 1800s. I hope to have an image or two for you of the setting, later this week.

The turnout was good and the interactions most enjoyable.

The courteous organizers (Rudolf Hauser, Iris Bell and Linda Peterson) had prepared an introduction to this scribe and her work. It was posted at Junto.org, here. Not being a man who is easily scripted, Dr. Niederhoffer made a valiant attempt to stick to it. But after a few sentences, he gave up and said something to this effect:

“All I can tell you is that you can’t win an argument with this woman. I’ve tried and failed.”

As we say in Hebrew, “Dayenu.” Coming from Victor Niederhoffer, that’s more than enough for this woman.

At the time, when Dr. Niederhoffer and I had had the exchange to which he conceded defeat, I replied thus: “It takes a man and a gentleman to know and say what you’ve said. There are too few of those these days.”

More materially, the quality of recognizing, respecting and heeding intelligence speaks to who a man is. You cannot learn this quality. It is rare, as it demands—and coexists with—a healthy and happy ego.

Other than Dr. Niederhoffer, I have met one other man very recently who has this quality. Otherwise, not a day goes by when one is not saddled with the enormous opportunity costs, personal and professional, that accompany dealing with an ego-driven Idiocracy.

For idiots are invariably malevolent. Oscar Wilde said it best in one of his plays: “She thought that because he was stupid he would be kindly, when of course, kindliness requires imagination and intellect.”

UPDATE I: Here is a very blurred image. I have a few more, also blurred, that I will upload to the Facebook photo album, eventually.

May, 2012, Ilana @ NYC Junto:

UPDATE II: When the punishing publication process of Into the Cannibal’s Pot culminated in a book on Amazon—also The Only Shop in Town—hundreds of my readers wrote in private to share their impressions with me. I say again to all new readers and friends made what I’ve said to the aforementioned readers over the year. The conversation must take place in public, on the forums that exist for the purpose of spreading the word about—and discussing—these ideas.

Of these, Amazon is the most vital to The Cannibal’s cause. Please post your reviews to Amazon. Those who’ve done so over the last year have heard from me (and have my deepest appreciation).

Otherwise, all topics are discussed on BAB (Barely a Blog), which I personally moderate and maintain, on Facebook (ditto), Twitter, and in the Comments Sections appended to the WND and RT weekly articles.

UPDATE III (May Eighth): In reply to Sunny Black, see the new BAB post, “Manhattan Le Magnifique.”

From Bagram In Bondage

Barack Obama, Foreign Aid, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism, War, Welfare

Windy and insubstantial is the kindest thing an honest newsman might say about the gimmick that is the Strategic Partnership Agreement, signed today by Barack Obama in Afghanistan. The president snuck into that US satrapy in secret. Had his intended “benevolence” toward the poor Pashtuns of Afghanistan been made public—the same people would have tried to blow Air Force One out of the sky.

“Afghanistan has a friend and a partner in the United States,” Obama said before he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai signed the Strategic Partnership Agreement outlining cooperation between their countries once the U.S.-led international force withdraws in 2014. … “There will be difficult days ahead, but as we move forward in our transition, I’m confident that Afghan forces will grow stronger; the Afghan people will take control of their future,” Obama said.

(CNN)

Blah, blah, blah.

Stripped of the baffle-gab, the agreement from Bagram amounts to this: Even when U.S. forces in Afghanistan are reduced considerably, they will still maintain the necessary meaty presence.

Oops, I meant to say the “enduring partnership,” which would, ostensibly, “prevent the Taliban from waiting until the U.S. withdrawal to try to regain power.”

Essentially we’re paying to keep in power the authoritarian protectorate we’ve helped establish, headed by the puppet we appoint, all of whom are hated by the Pashtun majority.

Afghanistan was the war Obama could call his own. He increased America’s presence there from 30,000 troops to 90,000, and thus earned his commander-in-chief credentials. Electability in fin de siècle America hinges on projecting strength around the world—an American leader has to aspire to protect borders and people not his own. Obama needed a war he could call his own. Afghanistan served his purposes.

And he intends on keeping Afghanistan on America’s welfare rolls. Afghanistan’s GDP approximates the foreign aid it receives annually, and you know who supplies the lion’s share of that “GDP”? Counterfeiter-in Chief, Ben Bernanke and the US printing press.

At the expense of the American taxpayer.

It goes without saying that Republicans like Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, the three blind neoconservative mice, are elated about the signing of the “Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) with President Karzai,” as it “will allow the United States military to operate in Afghanistan, though without permanent bases.”

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