New And column out–

The column is on the problems with our anointing ourselves the world’s policeman, such as our insistence that self-interested actions are actually selfless deeds for freedom, and our conviction that when America does it it’s legal. In a similar vein, Glenn Greenwald points out the absurdity of the Obama administration proclaiming our activity in occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and maintaining forces in Middle Eastern states is because we won’t allow anyone to “interfere” with them.
On the economic front, one conservative suggests (link is to Roy Edroso, but you can click through)that if people would just be more traditional——go to college, get married, have babies——they’d have more financial success. As several Edroso commenters point out, assuming that path causes the success is very different from saying they coincide——not to mention that if you start out broke, it’s a lot harder to finish school and support kids.
Meanwhile, Paul Krugman points out that slashing government spending during an economic slump rather than using it to stimulate the economy doesn’t actually work, even though it’s become the consensus position in DC. Krugman also observes that criticizing policy Republicans (or anyone else) advocates is not the equivalent of making personal attacks, though Republicans often treat it as such. After all, it’s just soooo mean to point out that their policies make pollution worse, the economy worse and pretty much everything worse.
One of the classic examples of this dates back to when Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. This generated huge opposition on the grounds that given Bork’s view of the conversation, he’d be a horrible pick (case in point: The only speech protected by the First Amendment is purely political speech——as a free speech enthusiast, I’d oppose for that reason alone). You can find arguments here and here why Bork deserved all the flak he got. As the Alternet link points out, the Senate isn’t obligated to confirm a White House nominee just because he meets marginal qualifications (“Well, Bork isn’t an axe murderer, so we should let Reagan get what he wants.”): It’s a serious responsibility. And while the Senate does abuse its power sometimes, this was not one of those occasions.
•I probably wouldn’t mention this if I weren’t an ex-Floridian, but right-wing fave Marco Rubio is in the soup for falsely claiming his presidents fled Cuba after Castro took over. In other words, perfectly conventional immigrants rather than fleeing the Communist despot. Which would be no big deal except all things Castro and anti-Castro are very, very serious in South Florida politics. Which is probably why he lied.
•And wrapping up, here’s some annoying trivia on the consumer front: Some magazines are cutting existing year subscriptions to 11 issues because one issue is just soooo cool they’re counting it as two!