Scottish Voters to Whitehall: ‘Let My People Go!’

The Scottish people sent a message to formerly “Great” Britain in the recent elections:

“Scottish nationalists committed to independence from Britain became the biggest party in the Scottish parliament on Friday in elections which left a political headache for Prime Minister Tony Blair’s successor.”

I have an aspirin for that headache: Let it go, Brits. Secession is the wave of the future: one might as well try to hold back the tides.

The Pretty Boy Sweepstakes

National Review‘s T.J. Walker on the only authentic …. person in last night’s GOP debate:

“Ron Paul has the unfortunate distinction of looking and sounding wacky and impish, even when he says entirely reasonable things. He brilliantly and succinctly positioned his opposition to the current war within the context of Eisenhower getting us out of Korea, Nixon having a plan to get us out of Vietnam and Bush vowing not to start ‘nation-building’ (in the 2000 campaign) that must have left a lot of Republican viewers thinking ‘this guy makes a lot of sense.’ Unfortunately for Paul, he looks like a combination of My Favorite Martian’s Ray Walston and a comedian who habitually ran for president, Pat Paulsen; not helpful.”

Is it me, or is this, as the kiddies say, a bit too gay? Unsurprisingly, Senor Walker pronounces Pretty Boy Romney — “At six-feet-two-inches tall with perfect hair and impeccable tailoring” — the “winner.” So, is the Republican “debate” all about who is the … prettiest?

Unreason Magazine and Gulf War Syndrome

Speaking of Reason magazine being clueless and all: now that scientists have found significant abnormalities in the brains of veterans afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome and normal folks, will the magazine that increasingly doesn’t deserve its name apologize to all the veterans whose disability they not only denied but mocked by publishing all those pieces by the evil Michael Fumento — strongly implying that the sick vets are just plain psycho and afflicted with “Gulf Lore Syndrome“ — averring that Gulf War Syndrome was (and is) a “popular myth”?

If not an apology, then how about a retraction?

Reading the Playbook

The spin on the GOP debate last night is just getting up to speed. Here‘s good ol’ David Weigel of Reason magazine,

“Ron Paul is asked why everyone on stage was wrong about the war, and Paul sticks to ‘a policy of non-intervention.’ He’s a bit loud, but more concise than usual: ‘Think of how Eisenhower won the Korean War, think of how Nixon was elected to end the mess in Vietnam.’ Basically he reads the paleocon playbook much more clearly than anyone expected.”

Paleocon playbook”? Uh, Dave — that’s the libertarian playbook he was reading from, but, then again, it’s totally understandable you didn’t get that, working for Reason magazine, and all. I mean, without calling for the legalization of methamphetamine in the same breath, Paul’s antiwar stance is plainly incoherent ….

Those warmongers over at National Review know better than that, however. Here‘s James S. Robbins on Paul’s performance:

“Taken in aggregate the candidates presented a coherent if superficial national-security policy. Yes, there was Rep. Ron Paul, one of the six congressional Republicans who voted against the war in Iraq, repeating his perennial non-interventionist libertarian position.”

What kind of a world is it when National F***ing Review knows what the libertarian position is on invading and conquering a country, and killing 650,000 of its people, and “Reason” magazine is utterly clueless?

Why, a Bizarro World, of course ….

U.S. Troops — in Montenegro?

A “defense” pact recently signed by the U.S. and the tiny Balkan nation of Montenegro, formerly a province of Yugoslavia nestled in the eastern corner of the Adriatic shore, is a “status of forces” agreement which, according to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, “establishes a basis for United States military personnel to operate in Montenegro for mutually agreed activities.” Nestled in the eastern corner of the Adriatic shore, the country is known for its beaches, its pine forests, and its Mafia-connected smuggling and other activities.

After all these years, we’re finally going back to the Balkans. What will American troops be doing in Montenegro? Remember way back when, when Republican members of Congress were denouncing U.S. intervention in the Balkans and threatening to withhold funding for troop operations? Why, it seems like only yesterday!

Perhaps we’re paving the way for the Democrats to intervene in a bigger way — that always was their preferred area of operations. One assumes that a Democratic administration will be just as tough as Russia as, say, Dick Cheney had been — and establishing a U.S. base in the Adriatic is bound to infuriate Moscow, and it’s designed to do.

Back in the 1990s, Republicans were saying that we had no real interests in the Balkans, and that we ought to get out forthwith. Today, a Republican President is sending American troops to the make-believe country of Montenegro, the Grand Fenwick of the Balkans, for no discernible reason other than to annoy Moscow and add to our empire of military bases. (Although, given Bush’s history on the Balkan intervention question, his move into Montenegro isn’t all that surprising….)

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