Why Republicans can't do foreign policy without seeming like hypocrites

Leon Hadar has a piece over at The American Conservative where he posits that libertarians can't do foreign policy because of their convictions. What that really amounts to is that libertarians only will engage in wars of defense on American soil or the high seas. They would not roam the world looking for monsters to destroy. Republicans have the same problem though. Call it cognitive dissonance or call it hypocrisy the outcome is the same. You can't call for the the government to leave you alone at home and then send the government's soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen all over the world to rebuild nations and reformulate their cultures more to our liking. That in a nutshell is what the neo-conservative, Christian zionist wing of the GOP do on a regular basis.

Weblog -June 10, 2011

Ypsilanti neighborhood degenerating into violence, chaos (Tom Perkins, annarbor.com/)
Sleazy liquor store surrounded by abandoned cars and houses two blocks from public housing. What could go wrong?

Flint-area Goodwill store customer finds full funeral urn for sale on their shelves (David Harris, MLive/Flint Journal)
Sad and funny at the same time, eh?

Disgraced Rep. Wiener won't resign; He needs the paycheck (Chuck Bennett, New York Post)
Likely the first honest thing Wiener has said about himself to date and esp. on this matter.

Senators target Bitcoin currency, citing drug sales (Don Reisinger, Cnet)
Senators Shumer and Manchin just can't stand people being able to spend money that the government can't trace, control or regulate. Can't have that much liberty now can we?

The HK416—The gun that (probably) killed bin-Laden (Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics)
Typical of high-end German engineering. Precise, efficient, perfectly executed and very expensive. Just like their cars.

Iceland's citizens are writing its new constitution online  (Clay Dillow, Popular Science)
It will be interesting to see how this works out. However Iceland has some distinct advantages. No racial/ethnic or religious minorities. A single homogenous group will likely work out better assuming this can be done at all. All previous attempts at constitution drafting have been done by constituent assemblies, well connected local elites or imposed by a foreign power.

Outgoing US SecDef castigates NATO countries for not pulling their weight in global security ops (Matt Welch, Reason)
Bottom line: "It might be worth beginning to consider whether intervening in far-flung civil wars really qualifies as 'defense'." Indeed.

Extra Gene Copies May Trigger Some Cases of Autism (John Timmer, Ars Technica)
"Overall, the new studies strengthen the argument that autism is primarily a genetic disorder, and help explain why it has been so hard to identify the genes: most mutations are rare or completely unique to the affected individuals."

weblog

The peasants are revolting! - History News Network blog (Wendy McElroy)

"Even though France was a comparatively wealthy nation, the peasants existed at near-starvation level because they were so burdened with taxation in myriad forms. A direct tax ate as much as 50% of the earnings of the non-exempt. The collection process was particularly brutal because tax collector were 'entrepreneurs' who paid the king a flat amount for the privilege of collecting taxes; anything over that amount became profit."

Remind Me Again Why We Practice Daylight Savings? - Gizmodo

A reification for the benefit of monied interests dear reader; just like everything else.
A New Breed of Medical Screws Dissolve In Body and Promote Bone Growth - Popular Science

Wish they'd of had these about twelve years ago.

Everyone Against Empire - American Conservative (Jeff Taylor)

"The U.S. government acting as policeman of the world has never been a popular idea among Americans. It is costly and implies that our own society has reached such a state of perfection that we can easily afford to look elsewhere for problems to solve."

Facebook friends are not really - Front Porch Republic (Susan McWilliams)

"By the same token, Facebook friendship does not confer any of the real joys of friendship, like sharing a really deep secret, or sitting in a room together in silence, or having a rip-roarin’ good time together. (Two years ago, Hal Niedzviecki wrote a memorable piece in the New York Times Magazine describing how he invited his 700-or-so Facebook friends to a party. One person showed up.)"