A man of prodigious fortune, coming to add his opinion to some light discussion that was going on casually at his table, began precisely thus: "It can only be a liar or an ignoramus who will say otherwise than," and so on. Pursue that philosophical point, dagger in hand.

--Michel de Montaigne, Of the art of discussion.



Stab back: cmnewman99-at-yahoo.com


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Newman Family Gaming Update:


Fusball championship of the world: U.S.A. v Italy: Italy has a 3-2 lead in this best of seven series. It doesn't look good for the U.S., because whenever we continue the series again Paola will be fresh, and the only way I ever win is by wearing her down through superior stamina.


Star Wars Queen's Gambit: Yes, the table top reenactment of all the climactic battle scenes from The Phantom Menace. Don't laugh. As Herr Doktor Suarez has learned, the quality of a piece of pop entertainment has no necessary correlation with the quality of the board game based on it. This is actually a quite engaging strategy game. You only have a certain number of moves you can make per turn, and you have to divide your attention between four separate (yet interrelated) battles at once. Status: Lucas (the Trade Federation...hiss) thinks he's going to take me this time. So far he's been concentrating most of his attention on Darth Maul, who has nearly finished off Qui Gon while receiving barely a scratch. This is a problem, because if he manages to kill both Jedi and still has any life left, he's going to be able to run through my palace guards like bullshit through the NYT editorial staff. Stay tuned.


Civilization III: Paola is assimilating the globe one city at a time through the sheer overawing superiority of her culture. Again. Resistance is futile.


Chess: Coming off his hard-fought battle with a very cheritable and wine-addled Pejman, Lucas got his posterior handed to him twice in a row by the good Professor Volokh, who even pointed out and encouraged him to take back various bad moves along the way. I was very gratified by this, both as a father (because I think it was a salutary learning experience for my son) and as a frequent opponent (because it's nice to see someone treat Lucas the way he usually treats me).
posted by CMN at 12:43 PM
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Babs, populist defender of free speech and the environment against callous rich people who think property rights trump everything. No, wait. Strike that. Reverse it. The lawyer representing the defendant, I am proud to say, is a partner at my very own firm. I am not, alas, involved in helping to defend this particular client.

By the way, just in case any psychiatrists happen to read this, I'd really appreciate having someone explain to me just how far up your ass your head has to be for you to believe that the configuration of your lawn chairs is information of any consequence to anyone.
posted by CMN at 11:29 AM
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Good thing it wasn't my other anniversary... I just realized, I passed my one year blogiversary and didn't even realize it. Not surprising, given that it fell during a rather lengthy lacuna during which I hadn't had much to say or time to say it in. So, do I have any words of wisdom to mark this august yet obviously forgettable milestone? Nah.
posted by CMN at 3:40 PM
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Principles for Iraq: I for one was willing to cut the administration some slack for not having a detailed plan as to how Iraq was going to get running again, because I don't think such a plan is really possible if we're serious about giving the Iraqi people autonomy. But I was frustrated that we hadn't seen a clear statement of principles telling the Iraqis and the world what they could expect from us and what we expected of them. That should have been the first speech Bush made after the regime fell. Instead we had to wait till now. Notice how Rummy's first two bullet points, Assert Authority and Provide Security, represent a tacit admission that we've been rather remiss up to now. In an email exchange with Mr. Tough Guy I was recently arguing that even if we were ultimately going to have to take on that responsibility, it made tactical sense for us to err initially on the side of under rather than overdeployment. Because in the former scenario, you wind up with the Iraqis and the rest of the world demanding that you send in more troops to keep order, which strengthens and legitimates your hand when you do so. Whereas if you go in immediately and clamp down on everything, you're nothing but an evil occupier whose contributions to civil order go unnoticed because no-one has ever tasted life without you, but whose every misstep in trying to keep order is touted as oppressive and tyrannical. Does it make sense to attribute this kind of calculation to the Bushies? Tough Guy says no, the Bushies just don't like nationbuilding and therefore screwed it up with colossal negligence. He may be right. Certainly, the little mini regime change we just saw from Garner to Bremer suggests that Rummy's current first principles are the product of experience rather than foresight. Oxblog's David Adesnik made a similar point, asserting that no-one in their right mind should believe that "the Bush administration wanted there to be just enough chaos in Iraq to ensure that everyone would demand a stronger American hand in Baghdad rather than an immediate withdrawal." Funny, what I had theorized as a possible justification for the Bushies' apparent blunder, he regards as a conspiracy theory against them.

But my favorite one of Rummy's bullets is this:

• Contracts--promoting Iraq's recovery. Whenever possible, contracts for work in Iraq will go to those who will use Iraqi workers and to countries that supported the Iraqi people's liberation so as to contribute to greater regional economic activity and to accelerate Iraq's and the region's economic recovery.

Anyone else catch the glaring non sequitur? Well, maybe it isn't really one. Given the economic conditions these days in those countries that didn't "support[] the Iraqi people's liberation," maybe steering contracts elsewhere actually is more conducive to economic recovery. Maybe it will actually serve to bring the Iraqi people into contact with businessmen who have healthier ideas about the way to run an economy.

Alright, it's a stretch. But you know, I don't feel all that inclined to demand much in the way of justification for this particular policy.
posted by CMN at 6:28 PM
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Anybody still reading? Yes, I'm still alive. Just been busy, and somewhat low on blogging steam. But I do want to draw the attention of anyone who does still come here to a new blog, the Tough Democrat. I know the guy behind it, but I can't say who he is cause he's chosen to be pseudonymous for now. I will say that he's very politically savvy, very smart, very Democratic, and does a mean Elvis impersonation. I've had a number of spirited email exchanges with him over off the cuff remarks made here that he called me on, and I'd definitely recommend checking him out. I know I will.
posted by CMN at 10:05 PM
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Amazing, isn't it, how even when I can't seem to find time to write anything for my own blog, I somehow find myself writing lengthy posts in other people's comment sections.
posted by CMN at 6:42 PM
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