A while ago....

I read an article in an old Economist special edition called "The World in 2000." It was written by Chris Patten, the EU's former Commissioner for External Relations. He wrote about the idea of how "liberal values trampled into the mud" were the tragic hallmark of the 20th Century.  For Patten, the 21st Century, hopefully, belonged to the heirs of Karl Popper and Friedrich von Hayek.

However, he forgot one important thinker.  William F. Buckley was not exactly a "philosopher" in the traditional sense of the word. Buckley was an activist, an analyst, and an aural artist. He was a champion of Conservatism before it deserved a capital "C."  Buckley proved that conservatives were not just the people who hadn't yet wised up to conventional "wisdom" -- he revolutionized what it meant to be wise.

Bill Buckley was a man who not only walked the walk, but also spoke "the talk" better than anyone had for 30 years.  His movement essentially gave Barry Goldwater the Republican nomination for President in 1964, an extremist in defense of liberty.  Like most politicians, the extremist lost -- Goldwater only won 6 states. But the 1964 election set the conservative movement and the entire nation on a trajectory whose ascension would be felt even today.  If you doubt this, consider the fate of Democrats after Michael Dukakis, who lost 40 states in what was considered a landslide. No Democrat looks at the 1988 election as a "turning point" or a "teachable moment" -- instead, Democrats have turned to the right, and have only elected a Southerner whose signature achievements were international free trade and welfare reform. Extremism was no longer defined as a commitment to states' rights on principle, free markets, cutting away the stifling gauze of the state, and calling the largest totalitarian empire in history "evil;" liberty itself became quite mainstream.

Buckley published a book named "God and Man at Yale" in 1951; over the years, he continued his attack on the moral relativism, atheism, and collectivism taught in academe, but also learned to play the harpsichord, write a few spy novels, show up on a TV show or two, write some columns (5600, according to the New York Times), sail a boat, run for mayor of New York, and argue against communism better than almost anyone.  It is wonderful that he lived to see Castro step down; it is tragic that communist regimes continue to exist in North Korea, Cuba, and China, and are on the rise in Venezuela. His work is not completed, and he would probably cite T.S. Eliot and tell us that it will never really be done. But what an inheritance we have!

What we have learned from Buckley is that sometimes it takes a great long time, even a generation or two, to win the good fight.  He taught us that winning good fight is possible in spite of the pitfalls of democracy, which (as Tocqueville reminds us) usually takes the easy way out, and that it is joyously worthwhile at the end. Buckley dared to take the long view. He redefined wisdom in 1951, and looked to the future optimistically, even while he stood athwart history.  We have a half century of ideas to work with.

Chris Patten wrote that the 21st Century belonged to liberal values of the rule of law, and democracy in the service of freedom. It is because of William F. Buckley and his allies -- the allies of freedom -- that we can be so bold to agree.
RIP.

John Cleese...

is in an ad for a Polish savings & loan. It's hilarious. See it here.

Mozart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h2qJtsHado
This is unbelievable. Needs sound -- it's frickin' Mozart!

We hit it!

According to one naval officer, the US tagged that dying satellite just now.
The Russians and the Chinese are livid, I'm sure.

It is interesting to know that the US military can actually do this. 25 years after SDI was first proposed by President Reagan, we are now starting to see what all that R&D is capable of.

However, the militarization of space is not necessarily a positive development. When Sputnik crossed American airspace (space-space?) in 1957, Eisenhower was correct not to accuse the Soviet Union of an intrusion on US sovereignty. The 1969 moon landing placed an American flag on the moon, to be sure, but Apollo 11 was careful to note that "we came in peace for ALL of mankind." Later on, the Apollo-Soyuz missions provided an important diplomatic example of cooperation -- or, at the very least, a shared expression of the West's and the Communist World's common humanity.  In other words, the civilized world had a tacit understanding that space -- even low-earth orbit -- was taboo as a strategic area of aggressive dominance.

We can probably compare it (imperfectly) to the dominance of the sea of the United Kingdom during the 19th Century. All the powers of Europe were tolerant, if not enamored, with the situation, and they tended to appreciate the stability that the UK brought to the sea.  As a seafaring commercial power, the UK had little desire to create war on the high seas, and many incentives to keep whatever peace existed there.  The other European powers, such as the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch, were happy to benefit from this arrangement; stability on the seas, and freedom from pirates and brigands, meant stability for international trade.  All nations benefited from this, and one of the reasons the European continent was relatively free of international conflict after Napoleon was because a benign hegemony emerged over one critical part of the earth -- the 70% covered by water.
Nowadays, we must admit that the US -- and its allies -- are equally dominant in space. A benign hegemon has emerged, and with it, commercial abilities to transmit information anywhere on the globe has flourished. If it is true that we live in an "information economy," it is also true that we have achieved it through our wiring of space.  Knowing that the United States can keep the peace in this arena can be welcomed for all those who benefit from the free exchange of ideas, and the lucrative opportunities of those ideas.

This of course brings us back to the weaponization of space. America must be careful about its abilities to project power in this new area.  For as much "hard power" as the US has, it is nothing compared to the so-called "soft power" that America has.  It is the power of our framing documents, which proclaim equality for every individual under the law, and freedom to choose his life as he sees fit.  It is the power of our way of life, which rewards hard work and ingenuity more than any other society on earth.  The military might America has pales in comparison to the dream of a Green Card.  For this reason, the US must continue to be a society to be emulated and dreamed for, rather than feared.  A mistaken attempt to control space militarily will make it harder to manage America's troubles on Earth's surface.

Nevertheless, new threats to the free exchange of ideas in communist China and a belligerent Iran have already emerged, and the Chinese have been preparing for this very day.  They are eager to head off this dominance, and we should not be surprised to see China's efforts to become a "space power" accelerate.  Our problem is not the free exchange of ideas; it is that our way of life is based on our common belief that the free exchange of ideas is beneficial.  There are many regimes who simply do not agree with us on this point.  These regimes will hold out as long as they can against the storm of free ideas, which gushes down from the heavens.  They will go for the satellites.  They are the harbingers of their doom, appropriate on the night of an eclipse.

A Picture of Totality!

One of OMIB's readers adds this beautiful pic from the corner of K Street and Vermont Ave. in Northwest Washington. We all hope that it is not a harbinger of doom.

Totality!

The lunar eclipse arrived on schedule. It's a cold night here in Washington, but clear enough to see the moon.

Lunar Eclipse Tonight!

According to this report from NASA, there will be a big ol' lunar eclipse tonight. Europeans and Americans have something to enjoy together, though Californians will be fashionably late to the party, and will miss the beginning.
On the east coast, the eclipse starts at 8:43, in Colorado at 6:43, and 78 minutes later, the moon will be completely in Earth's shadow.
So, if you're in Europe, set your alarms -- it starts at 1:43 Greenwich Time (2:43 AM in Germany, Austria, and Czech Republic) and achieves totality (where it gets blood red and spooky) at 4:01 AM CET.
Astronomy is cool.

As If Birth Rates in Czech Republic Weren't Low Enough...

It is typical for young Czechs to study and work for a time in the UK, Germany, and the US. Wages are much higher, they get opportunities to improve their foreign language skills and their abilities to adapt to different cultures, and they generally have a great time, by many accounts. Sometimes they stay (though usually these young people return after a spell).

Another interesting problem for Czech Republic is its astonishingly low birthrate. The Czech population is actually decreasing, though as this article notes, hospitals have begun to notice an uptick in births. In any case, it may not be enough to avoid population contraction.

In any case, this seems outrageous.

Václav Klaus....

has been re-elected President of the Czech Republic. He received 141 votes in the third round of voting -- exactly the number he needed.
Jan Švejnar, his opponent (who has dual citizenship in the US and Czech Republic), received 111 votes.
Klaus promised to be "President of all the citizens of the Czech Republic, and of all of you [in the Parliament]."
Earlier, Klaus promised to fight against euthanasia and smoking bans.

That Danish Cartoon

According to this report from the BBC, Danish police have arrested three people for planning the assassination of Kurt Westergaard, who drew the cartoon of Mohammad printed in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper three years ago. Two of them will be deported, and one, a Danish citizen, will be tried for conspiracy to commit murder.

There are two particularly important aspects to this story. First off, newspapers that originally refused to print the cartoons are now doing so. This indicates one of two things: either journalists now believe that the threat has receded, now that a few arrests have been made, or journalists recognize that the threat from radical militant Islam is more long-term than they originally thought, and are staging an act of defiance.

I wonder which it is; a quote from the editor of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, indicated, "We'd become more or less used to death threats and bomb threats since the cartoons, but it's the first time that we've heard about actual murder plans - that's new." He should not be surprised. Europe, even more than the US, is under an existential threat from Islamic terrorists. This particular threat may be sent back to Tunisia, but more will come.

The other critical line in the story is this:
The BBC's Thomas Buch-Andersen in Copenhagen says the arrests have stunned people in Denmark, where the furore over the cartoons was thought to have passed.

The cartoon "furore" is not an isolated incident. These terrorists have long-term plans, and long memories. Indeed, they are still angry about losing Spain in the 15th Century. Picking off the foot soldiers in this war of ideas is not something that will end for a very long time. Westergaard's righteous anger will serve him well. Let's hope his alertness to politics and society can be translated into alertness in his own neighborhood.

The World Bank says something interesting

A recent report from the World Bank points out that protection of property rights is a far greater bulwark against civil war than high incomes.
Check it out here -- it's fascinating.