January 16, 2010

Tom Friedman writes a good column!

Will wonders never cease? Thomas L. Friedman writes from Taiwan in the New York Times:

Frankly, if I had my wish, we would be on our way out of Afghanistan not in, we would be letting Pakistan figure out which Taliban they want to conspire with and which ones they want to fight, we would be letting Israelis and Palestinians figure out on their own how to make peace, we would be taking $100 billion out of the Pentagon budget to make us independent of imported oil — nothing would make us more secure — and we would be reducing the reward for killing or capturing Osama bin Laden to exactly what he’s worth: 10 cents and an autographed picture of Dick Cheney.

Am I going isolationist? No, but visiting the greater China region always leaves me envious of the leaders of Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, who surely get to spend more of their time focusing on how to build their nations than my president, whose agenda can be derailed at any moment by a jihadist death cult using exploding underpants.

Could we just walk away? No, but we must change our emphasis. The “war on terrorists” has to begin by our challenging the people and leaders over there. If they’re not ready to take the lead, to speak out and fight the madness in their midst, for the future of their own societies, there is no way we can succeed. We’ll exhaust ourselves trying. We’d be better off just building a higher wall.

As the terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman noted in an essay in The Washington Post: “In the wake of the global financial crisis, Al Qaeda has stepped up a strategy of economic warfare. ‘We will bury you,’ Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev promised Americans 50 years ago. Today, Al Qaeda threatens: ‘We will bankrupt you.’ ” And they will.

Our presence, our oil dependence, our endless foreign aid in the Middle East have become huge enablers of bad governance there and massive escapes from responsibility and accountability by people who want to blame all their troubles on us. Let’s get out of the way and let the moderate majorities there, if they really exist, face their own enemies on their own. It is the only way they will move. We can be the wind at their backs, but we can’t be their sails. There is some hope for Iraq and Iran today because their moderates are fighting for themselves.

Has anyone noticed the most important peace breakthrough on the planet in the last two years? It’s right here: the new calm in the Strait of Taiwan. For decades, this was considered the most dangerous place on earth, with Taiwan and China pointing missiles at each other on hair triggers. Well, over the past two years, China and Taiwan have reached a quiet rapprochement — on their own. No special envoys or shuttling secretaries of state. Yes, our Navy was a critical stabilizer. But they worked it out. They realized their own interdependence. The result: a new web of economic ties, direct flights and student exchanges.

A key reason is that Taiwan has no oil, no natural resources. It’s a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world. They got rich digging inside themselves, unlocking their entrepreneurs, not digging for oil. They took responsibility. They got rich by asking: “How do I improve myself?” Not by declaring: “It’s all somebody else’s fault. Give me a handout.”

When I look at America from here, I worry.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

92 comments:

l said...

Don't worry. He'll be back next column, making the case for a 10 year committment to rebuilding Haiti. Here's the intro:
"Listen. Everybody knows Haiti's the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. But what do they have a lot of? People. Bingo! You go to the head of the class. You know another word for people? 'Human capital'. That's right. With some smart investments, Haiti could become the Silicon Valley of the the Carribean..."

Steve Sailer said...

Yeah, when he writes that next column, Friedman will have just gotten off the golf course in Miami with some Haitian-American entrepreneurs who will have explained to him how they can make Haiti a huge success if only he can talk Obama into letting them borrow the U.S. Marines for awhile.

Anonymous said...

"We’d be better off just building a higher wall."


Carlos Slim, debtor to the NYT, isn't going to like that phrase apppearing in his newspaper. Oh wait, he probably doesn't read it anyway.

Paavo said...

The solution really is that U.S. just walks away from Taiwan? Then everyone will realise their interdepence, and peace will follow. Like Baltic countries realised their interdepence with Soviet union in 1939. I'm glad that U.S. wasn't meddling then.

Taiwan is a democracy. And the demos is realizing that USA doesn't care anymore and they are more willing to make concessions to the mainland Chinese.

Of course it matters that China has become more like the autocratic Taiwan of the yesteryear. Kuomintang feels brotherhood with the chinese communists.

Cordelia said...

"It’s a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world."

Small edit:

"It's a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work and the use of their high average-IQs, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world."

Anonymous said...

Since Friedman admits that he was in China maybe he outsourced the writing of his column to the Chinese which would explain why it makes sense as opposed to his usual columns.

Or maybe when he e-mailed his column to the NYT it passed through the Chinese censors who rewrote it since they are under orders to stop embarrassing information coming out of China and there is not much that is more embarrassing then a Tom Friedman column

DJF

Black Sea said...

Maybe Brooks turned him on to iSteve, and he's become a covert fan.

If so, Tom, sorry for all the nasty things I've said about you in the comments section of this blog. (On the other hand, they were all heartfelt.)

William B Swift said...

I left a comment about this on Hacker News here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1058383
Along with a link to a related HN comment on a Bruce Schneier post.

Garland said...

This is good, but it's an example of that thing Larry Auster is always complaining about, where a writer totally reverses a position (usually something involving Muslim democracy) without admitting the former position or explaining what caused the change. All of a sudden the guy who wrote countless columns about liberalizing Iraq and peace in Palestine just wants to disconnect? In skipping over the reasons for his change of mind he gets to avoid the gritty details as to why we should, which means he doesnt have to say the really dangerous things.

Anonymous said...

"When I look at America, I worry, and I hope nobody notices that I'm part of the problem..."

friedman is fat said...

It's idiotic to compare China/Taiwan with the Middle East. China no longer has Mao and radical commies running the country. The Middle East is teeming with radicals and terrorists. Chinese and Taiwanese are one people--though the Hakka minority may disagree. The Middle East is a crazy quilt of ethnicities and sectarian differences. Western Imperialists weren't able to cut up China into little pieces. The map of the Middle East was idiotically redrawn by Western--and prior(Ottoman and Arab)--imperialists.

There is a huge imbalance of power between China and Taiwan, and Taiwan knows it has to play ball, especially with US pressuring it to abandon reckless ideas like declaring independence. There is no comparable dominant power in the Middle East we can deal with. Israel may be the strongest power but is hated by all. It is a foreign policy liability for the US.

Also, what about 800 lb gorilla in the room? US's support in the creation of Israel? US's turning a blind eye to Israeli dispossession of Palestinians? US media, controlled mainly by liberal Jews, rigging the news that most Americans would only see the Zionist side of the story. Or, what about the power of AIPAC, neocons, NY Times, and ABC News, etc, which played a key role in our Middle East policy or mass support of that policy? I recall Ted Koppel cheering on than reporting Shock and Awe and the Iraq Invasion.

When will Friedman admit that Jewish power had A LOT to do with our Middle East Policy and that nearly all of our Congressmen, diplomats, and the president are beholden to it. Even our anti-North Korean stance had less to do with the evil nature of Kim Jong Il than the fear of Kim selling missiles and nuclear technology to nations hostile to Israel. So much of our foreign policy is Judeo-centric.

Boiled down to basics, Friedman is saying, "Look, I think the crazy Muslims are currently too busy fighting amongst themselves to mount any kind of coordinated attack on Israel and the West. Taliban, Karzai government, moderates, secular tyrants, various forces in Pakistan, internal factions in Iran, different sects in Iraq, etc. We unleashed instability in the region, they are now clobbering one another, and so let's quietly remove ourselves and let them slaughter one another."

If the Taliban or some extremist group were close to coming to power in Pakistan or if there were signs that Iran was on the verge of having nukes, Friedman would not have written this column. He wrote it because he figures the various Muslims forces and factions are too divided and too much at each other's throats. "They'll be too busy slaughtering one another for the next 10 yrs and give Israel breathing space."

Anonymous said...

visiting the greater China region always leaves me envious of the leaders of Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, who don't have to deal any any messy democratic processes.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone noticed the most important peace breakthrough on the planet in the last two years? It’s right here: the new calm in the Strait of Taiwan.





Great, this means war will break out between China and Taiwan later this year. Thanks a lot, Friedman.

thomas don't fool me said...

As long as we're making a Taiwan-China comparison, why not have a similar policy on Israel-Middle East?

If China is economically so important to us that we must sacrifice Taiwan(or at least pressure it to 'behave'), then shouldn't our policy be the same in the Middle East? We need oil, right? There are over a billion Muslims over a huge landmass while there's only a handful of Jews in tiny Israel, right? So, why is our foreign policy so tilted against our national interest? Shouldn't we try to be friendlier with the Muslim Middle East than with Israel? Didn't liberal Jews in the 60s and 70s argue that we must change our foreign policy to accommodate even the murderous Maoist China over Taiwan? They said China, good or bad, is too big and too important for us to ignore or fail to respect. So, the idea was we had make sure the Taiwanese understand that we value China more.

Why has something like this been impossible with Israel and the Middle East? Because Jewish-American power and Taiwanese-American power are two different things. If most of US media, elite academia, and Hollywood were controlled by Taiwanese-Americans and TAIPAC, our policy in Asia could very well be like our policy in the Middle East. We might be slavish to every Taiwanese-American demand. And, if you disagreed, you'd be labeled as as anti-taiwanite and a Maoist fellow traveler.

Another thing. Why does Friedman insist that we must wean ourselves away from Middle East oil but not from cheap Chinese(or Indian)labor. Hasn't globalism hurt Middle America--made up mostly of working class gentile whites--while it has filled the coffers of the white cosmopolitan elite(which happens to be heavily Jewish)? I suppose there's more money to be made by Jews from China/India trade than from the oil trade dominated by Hugo Chavezes, Texan Republicans, and Muslim Arabs.

And, has Friedman ever argued for weaning ourselves off from cheap illegal labor from Mexico? It's Illegal Mexicans, not Muslims, who are flooding into this country and changing the political, cultural, and demographic character of this country. But, I guess the liberal Jewish elite can use illegal immigration for their own benefit too.

Friedman's 'green revolution' isn't about patriotism. It's just a means to destroy the economies of nations or groups he deems hostile to Jewish power and interests--Arabs, Russians, Texan Oil men. Friedman may argue that we need energy independence because the the Muslim Middle East hates us and is a hotbed of trouble. But, WHY does it hate us? Who has controlled our foreign policy in the last 40 yrs?
And, why is our economic dependence on China(and India)any better? Does he think the Chinese love us more? Is China a humane and progressive democracy? Isn't the rise of China leading to more oppression of Tibetans, Uighurs, and others? Isn't China supporting psychotic regimes in North Korea and Burma(and all across Africa)?
Friedman is a punk.

Polistra said...

It doesn't matter if he turns back to his "flat" normal later ... the fact is, a firmly nationalist view has now been spoken by someone the elites can *hear*. When these things are said by a Michael Scheuer, a Dana Rohrabacher or a Steve Sailer, the elites can dismiss the ideas without even listening.

This is a good step!

Anonymous said...

"It's a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work and the use of their high average-IQs, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world."

Slight edit, again:

"It's a beautiful island with 23 million people who, through hard work and the use of their high average-IQs, the capital removed from mainland China by the KMT, and very substantial US aid, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world."

Remember, Formosa is literally "beautiful island," not "barren rock." Also, while they lack oil, they did have some coal. More importantly, they didn't lack for a friendly US fleet to protect the sea lanes by which they could import oil, and oil wasn't very expensive for the first twenty-five years of Taiwan's development, after which they were already an Asian Tiger.

Without that friendly US fleet, I'm not so sure that mainland China would be quite so nice to Taiwan today. Without the past assistance of the US, I'm quite sure that Taiwan would already have been reunited with China.

- JHB

Gene Berman said...

Anonymous:

You meant "creditor to the..." or, "Carlos Slim, to whom the NYT is heavily indebted."

Captain Jack Aubrey said...

Our response to Sputnik made us better educated, more productive, more technologically advanced and more ingenious,” said the Johns Hopkins foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum. “Our investments in science and education spread throughout American society, producing the Internet, more students studying math and people genuinely wanting to build the nation.

I'd like to see how we're going to do that with 20 million more Mexican and Guatemalan peasants; with California's college attendance rates dropping rapidly in the last 13 years (from 43% in 1996 to 30% in 2004).

Yes, for once I can agree with Friedman almost entirely, but he still doesn't really get it. Not at all.

Here's one example of the problem with our economy. I live about three miles from the interstate exit I take to and from work everyday. It's not a very big suburb, but in the space of the first mile and a half (which are zoned business/retail) I pass 67 restaurants.

We have been importing tens of millions of Mexican peasants to make us burgers and fries. In turn we hand over tens of billions of dollars in government assistance to them and their families, much of it in the form of an education they will never much use.

Why do we educate them? So they won't have to grow up flipping burgers and cleaning hotel rooms, so we'll have to import even more peasants down the road.

China has great hopes because it's filled with Chinese people.

America is filling up rapidly with the people Europeans already conquered because they didn't know how to build a civilization to begin with.

Anonymous said...

He's done enough damage over the years being a propagandist foghorn. Writing one column that seems to be reasonable doesn't rehabilitate him. However, he'll continue to have a platform to make his pronunciations from on high. To be part of the American intellectual environment one needs sponsors to tout them via the media, and he's been a major beneficiary. Thank God for the internet, giving me access to all sorts of information and freeing me from reliance on sponsored shills like Friedman. Give him a dime and a picture of Betty Page.

Gene Berman said...

My expert diagnosis, Steve, is that you've caught a case of the "neocon flu" from Friedman (and he didn't get it over in China--he's been a carrier for a long time).

Anonymous said...

Small edit: "It's a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work and the use of their high average-IQs, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world."


Smaller edit: It's a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work and the use of their high average-IQs, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world, but whose nihilism is driving them straight into extinction:


List of countries and territories by fertility rate
en.wikipedia.org

Taiwan, CIA, 2000: 1.76
Taiwan, CIA, 2008: 1.13 [#220 of 223]

Followed by:

Singapore 1.08 [221# of 223]
Hong Kong (PRC) 1.00 [#222 of 223]
Macau (PRC) 0.90 [223# of 223]


Most of the nations and cultures we spent the 20th Century obsessing about will cease to exist within the lifespans of the younger readers at iSteve.

Heck, even SWPL won't persist beyond about 2025 [if it even lasts that long].

Anonymous said...

Well, I find the idea of a high wall to be very attractive. I'd like to stop sending American boys to die in faraway places.

And I find Whiskey to be very irritating. That being said, there are a dozen or so Generals in Pakistan that have easy access to nuclear weaponry.

I believe US policy is to quietly slip each of these generals a few million dollars each year in protection money, just to make sure that none of those nuclear weapons wind up sold to someone with a grudge against the US.

The money mostly winds up in the Swiss bank accounts of these dozen generals

I don't like paying protection money, but I really can't think of a better alternative. If someone else here has any ideas, I want to hear them.

MTG said...

OT

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/google-agrees-to-take-down-racist-site-20100115-maxd.html

Google complains about Chinese violation of Google's rights, but it works with the Obama admin to take away our rights. Google wants to rule us like the communist party rules over the Chinese. It wants to the final arbiter of what is true, what is untrue, what is right, what is wrong.

Google motto is 'Do no evil'. Well, it is evil. Nothing is more precious in a democracy than freedom of speech. Google only wants leftist freedom of speech.

According to the Leftist Jews, 'racist speech is not free speech'. Then, why does Google support Zionist speech? Would Google take down anti-Palestinian or anti-Muslim sites at the behest of Palestinians? I don't think so. Google aholes have so much power and money that they do anything they want and get away with it.

samoan said...

http://amconmag.com/article/2010/feb/01/00008/

The above may have something to do with it. George Will, the long-time shill of Neocons, have turned more 'isolationist'. It was easy for AIPAC types to smear the 'racist' Buchanan or 'extremist' Ron Paul, but Will has all the moderate-right credentials. If Will and others like him call for US withdrawal, it'll be harder for Jews like Friedman to characterize the anti-war Right as a fringe group.

There is a growing sense among many Americans--right and left, high and low--that Jewish influence has gotten us into the Middle East quagmire. So, it could be Friedman, a self-consciously prominent Jewish 'thinker', is trying to disarm that perception by openly being less interventionist in the Middle East. But, actions and money speak louder than words. It could be Friedman is trying to cover all the bases just to fool us.
After all, we have plenty of people on the Right who make token praises of Martin Luther King just to show that they are not 'racist'. Friedman's column's real message could be "Not all Jews think alike" for gullible gentile consumption. What Friedman says behind closed doors with powerful AIPAC types is a different matter.

Anonymous said...

On a similar note, a good article in Pravda (still can't believe I'm writing that) detailing how much more free and better Russia is than America on a number of issues:

"Religious Education: Under Putin, it has been allowed to have Orthodox Christian religious classes in all the schools. Children are encouraged to take these. This is as opposed to modern America where the only religious classes allowed are Humanism and the worship of one's own ego.

Marxism: Under Medvedev, Solzhenitsyn's Archipelago Gulag is required reading in schools for 11th graders. All the brutality of the Soviets and the crimes that were committed will be in the minds of our children for generations. Where is any review of the crimes that Wall Street committed when it sponsored and set up those same Communist Marxists or Hitler's Fascist Marxists? No where.

Homosexuality: That is one subject that will never be taught in Russian schools, just like Sodomite Pride Parades will not happen in our city streets. Sure, they can have their clubs and do what ever ghastly things they want with each other in their apartments, but unlike the West, unlike many parts of America, there is no homosexualization of kindergarten children. No fisting education courses for 12 year olds and no sexual pedophile perverts in charge of school safety.

Private Property: Again, brought to us by Putin, the codification of private property rights and land ownership. Bet most in the Anglo sphere do not even know we have these rights, as their own are stripped off. In England, you can not even chase away someone who decided to have a picnic on your front porch.

Flat Income Tax: the wet dream of all American conservatives, we have it and not the 30% or so suggested by those American conservatives but at 13%. Just dream about it, because that is as close as your system will ever get there.

Low Corporate Tax Rates: Major corporations pay 24% corp income tax, compared to the American Federal rate of 36% and additional state rates. The French pay less than the Americans, and we are the communists?

Tariffs: Russia, first under Putin and than under Medvedev, has left Capitalism and firmly entered the correct realm of Mercantilism, in other words, Russia defends its companies, its businesses, its markets and above all the welfare of its citizens. Since these scions of "conservatism" in America are Free Trade Capitalist Marxism, why would they do anything but damn us for this...the absurd thought: protecting the welfare of your workers rather than reaping cash off of their lost jobs by shipping everything overseas.

Illegals: Russia, over run by Central Asian and Chinese illegal aliens has taken, under Medvedev, strong pro-active actions to deliver these illegals back to their home realms. Where the government has failed to do so, the people have taken it into their hands to either explain nicely or at the end of pitchforks, why these illegals should return from whence they came from in a big hurry.

War Mongering: Who invaded over 30 nations in less than 200 years? Who has fought over 6 wars since 1991: Iraq followed by 10 years of bombing them, Somalia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, while engaging unofficially in Somalia, Kenya, Yemen, Pakistan and the Philippines? Who waxes and screams for full invasions of Iran, Yemen, Pakistan, Venezuela?
"

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/111658-0/

Anonymous said...

The term "isolationist" is a nasty smear. The "isolationists" simply wanted to put American interests first and avoid an unnecesarry interventionist foreign policy. But it has the same panic-inducing effect as calling someone a "racist". The term was actually coined by Mohan, a rabid imperialist.

Anonymous said...

Its called BLOWBACK Mr. Friedman. Since China minds its own business other guys leave it alone.

Anonymous said...

"Its a barren rock"...

So is Haiti. The difference is the people.

TGGP said...

"debtor to the NYT"
Technically, the term is "creditor".

Anonymous said...

Just a passing sop to sanity. These guys can't look crazy literally 100% of the time.

John Seiler said...

Except that worrying about foreign oil dependency is nonsense. The top two oil importers to the U.S. are Mexico and Canada. The third is Saudi Arabia, a client state. The rest of the Top 10: Venezuela (troublesome, but so what), Nigeria, Iraq (U.S. province), Angola, Algeria, Colombia, Ecuador. Iran isn't even on the list.

List: http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

Anonymous said...

Could be Thomas Friedman is only trying to save Obama's ass from what happened to Johnson with the Vietnam War. Besides, people like Friedman already got what they wanted: removal of Hussein. Iraq is too divided among Sunnis, Kurds, and Shias to pose a threat to any other nation. Iraq is now a much bigger headache to neighboring Muslim countries than to Israel. Turks have Kurds to deal with, Syria has been flooded with Sunni refugees, Iran has been destabilized(even though Iraq has a Shia government).
And, Friedman probably has pretty good sources telling him that whatever happens in Afghanistan, there is no chance of Islamists coming to power in nuclear Pakistan.
So, Friedman may want Obama to save his presidency by aiding the Pakistani government deal with insurgents while rest of Muslim Middle East can go to hell.
Can the Iranian regime last more than another 10 yrs? Probably not.

Anonymous said...

Quote: "They took responsibility. They got rich by asking: “How do I improve myself?” Not by declaring: “It’s all somebody else’s fault. Give me a handout.”"

Jerks like Friedman always pay lip service to statements like this until it gets down to the nitty gritty of letting people go without handouts. It gives them something to point to when they want to appear rational.

The dissonance with his actual politics does not bother him at all. A sure sign of denial.

fred

Anonymous said...

The bigger issue is the increasingly common experience of Americans travelling in the Sinosphere and getting really pissed off that we can't have what they have. I want to be safe walking in the streets, I want public transportation, and the big taboo - I want service workers to be clean, efficient, and deferent. The experience of flying from Taipei or Hong Kong to LAX, SFO, or SeaTac is one of flying from civilization to barbarism. People need to be less worried about oil and more worried about prestige. We've lost ours.

albertosaurus said...

As I stood in line a few weeks ago for my flu shot on the third floor of the Kaiser medical building I noticed the shingle outside one of the medical stations. About twenty doctors were listed. There was one Jewish name and nineteen Asian names.

Kaiser assigned me a new Korean doctor about two years ago. He might have been Chinese or Taiwanese. Given their medical roster he could hardly have been anything else.

The head of the local opera company I am associated with is also Korean. It seems that East Asians are making deep penetrations in the San Francisco Bay Area the way they did in Hawaii a few decades ago. All this success is very low profile and private sector.

Koreans are only ninth in terms of new foreign medical doctors entering practice in the US but the vast majority of these new doctors from abroad are specialists in Allopathy, Osteopathy, or Homeopathy (bogus medicine). I can't get better figures but I bet among MDs who actually studied real medicine the bulk now on the market are Chinese, Taiwanese or Korean. If so Kaiser's hiring is just reflecting the existing market.

Like the Chinese-Taiwanese rapprochement, East Asian success takes place below the radar. I suspect that we will soon have an Obama administration initiative to help the Haitians through education. In contrast to the low profile East Asians the first Haitian medical school graduate will be widely acclaimed. He may become a permanent figure in "Black History Month".

However I think I'll stick with the Asians - thank you very much.

Tommy said...

It would be worth spending my tax dollars to send the entire nomenklatura of the two major political parties to Taiwan if similar results were guaranteed.

Truth said...

Whiskey will no doubt respond soon with:

"But, Israel must be defended...er, I mean, SUITCASE NUKES...SUITCASE NUKES! The US will be destroyed by SUITCASE NUKES if we don't spend hundreds of billions fighting terror!"

Anonymous said...

Friedman's notes "hard work."

The United States of the last forty plus years, through it's social welfare policies, has discouraged hard work. Until some politician and some Congress has the balls to pull the plug on programs that undercut the necessity of work, we will continue to slide.

BTW, I live in CA and yes, the area has been hard hit by the recession, yet not one time has a single teenager nor adult knocked on my door (I do live in a nice middle class neighborhood)as asking if he or she might wash my windows, wash my car, do chores that might need doing for an extra buck. This ain't my father's America.

Glossy said...

Paavo said:

"Taiwan is a democracy."

When I hear the word democracy, I imagine ancient Athens, republican Rome, maybe early medieval Iceland. Calling any modern state a democracy isn't just incorrect, it's dangerous. You're buying into somebody's propaganda, letting others fool you. And "democracies" are always bigger producers of propaganda than governments that are honest about how they work.

Of course China also calls itself a democracy and even holds elections into its National People's Congress, but it's not as vocal about that (false) claim as most Western states are. In other words, it's a bit more honest, less hypocritical.

Real democracy, the kind that the Greek inventors of that term would have approved of, can only work in very narrow, specific circumstances. It didn't even always work in Greece. I don't know of any examples of it working outside of Europe or in multi-ethnic states or even in large homogenous states. I remember reading some Greek author (forgot which) saying that democracy could never work in states with more than 10,000 citizens because in a real democracy all the citizens have to know each other.

And then there is the whole question of whether or not democracy is desirable even when it's possible. There is always a danger of a free-rider effect and of other abuses in it.

This is not irrelevant: the most effective large companies are always the ones run by their founders. Think of early Ford, early Walmart or of Apple today. Why? Because there's someone at the top who deeply cares about success, who thinks that this is HIS company. And that someone has proven that he's worthy to lead others by clawing his way to the top, by outcompeting everyone in sight. What's owned by everyone is inevitably cared for by nobody. Isn't a democracy more like a typical public corporation which belongs to myriads of people and to nobody at the same time than like a private firm or like a company like Apple, which is run by a charismatic dictator who acts as if he owned it? Which do you think is more effective and efficient?

Anonymous said...

Re "I said" and Haiti's human capital:I remember a picture in the Economist which showed African male illegal immigranys who had broken into Europe,and the caption was "Young risk takers..." Yep I bet there are many young risk takers in the streets og haiti today! (For Gods sake dont let them get Diane Sawyer!!!) My first rule of thinking about Jews is :ignore what they say,and watch what they do.(As ben-Gurion once said,'Its not what the goyim say,its what the Jews do!")Israel sends out fighter planes and bombs African immigrants!

Mr. Anon said...

"Tom Friedman writes a good column!"

I'm sure it won't happen again. "Le Moustache" will return to writing his usual globalist bilge.

When this man - within the space of a few columns - repudiates nearly everything he's written in the last 20 years, why should that confer the slightest degree of credibility on him? He says, in effect: "Sure everything I've espoused up till now was a stinking load of crap, but now I'm right. Trust me."

"Has anyone noticed the most important peace breakthrough on the planet in the last two years? It’s right here: the new calm in the Strait of Taiwan. For decades, this was considered the most dangerous place on earth, with Taiwan and China pointing missiles at each other on hair triggers. Well, over the past two years, China and Taiwan have reached a quiet rapprochement — on their own. No special envoys or shuttling secretaries of state. Yes, our Navy was a critical stabilizer. But they worked it out. They realized their own interdependence. The result: a new web of economic ties, direct flights and student exchanges.

I suspect there is a different reason for this. The Taiwanese have reasoned, correctly, that the U.S. is bankrupt and over-extended, and can no longer be relied upon. So they are making whatever accomodations with China that they can. We are becoming a non-factor in the world.

read it said...

"We’d be better off just building a higher wall."

Yes, Yes, Yes

Chief Seattle said...

The MSM seems to be having a public shift on China. After a decade of manufacturing jobs shipped to China by the container ship and all happy-talk they've suddenly decided that Chinese trade must be looked at carefully. The only logical explanation is that they've decided there's not much more wealth to steal from Americans at this moment and that the country is very close to a violent backlash. So our rulers have decided to lay off the whip for a bit and offer a bit of carrot.

C. Van Carter said...

Speaking of Haiti, the President of Senegal thinks Haitians should be resettled in his country.

Whiskey said...

Friedman is reliably an idiot. There IS no substitute for US preventing hostile nations from controlling Gulf oil.

BECAUSE THE WORLD RUNS ON OIL. Biomass, windmills, LNG, solar, are all a bunch of pipe-dream fantasies and crap that was tried and failed in the 1970's. There is no substitute for oil.

EVEN if we nuked up for generation of electricity, and drilled the heck out of everything here, we would not see ANYTHING significant for our own energy needs for ten years.

China, contra-Friedman, spends A LOT of time with its borders and with supplies of oil, iron ore, and copper. China is engaged in a hot-cold war with India and Vietnam, supports Pakistan's nukes against India, and faces a constant Islamic insurgency in XianXing.

Iraq, zero casualties last month, will eventually bring on (in the next ten years) the production of the Saudis TODAY. Dropping the world price of oil and increasing wealth.

Afghanistan, will always be a mess but some (not too much so they are logistics hostages) troops there are leverage on Pakistan. Regardless, we pull out and we lose the argument against factions in Pakistan giving bin Laden a few nukes to kill NYC and/or DC.

Since after thirty years of running away no one is afraid of us. Heck PUTIN will have to re-apply terror given the Chechens blowing stuff up in Russia again.

Friedman is throwing a tantrum that the globalized world that gives us cheap crummy Chinese sneakers and global aristos like Carlos Slim or the guy running Arcelor Mittal requires well, killing people to provide stability.

Besides, he's going to GET HIS WISH. And he won't like it (neither will Isteve readers).

Whiskey said...

Friedman will get his wish in the following way:

1. We've cut Israel loose and they are on their own, essentially, security guarantees from Obama being worthless (will we nuke Iran to prevent Tel Aviv from being nuked, or in retaliation?) No.

This is why Israel is providing avionics to the joint India-Russia 4th Generation Fighter plane (will Russia provide targeting info? Other help?).

Cutting Israel loose only insures it will cut its own deals with anyone to prevent being nuked.

2. Taiwan. (See also South Korea). 24 million Chinese Men will be single by the end of the decade. Meanwhile, Tianjin has an indoor ski-slope and hotels modeled after the continents. Shanghai's skyline has huge "dark spots" of luxury apartments with no residents, bought as investments by wealthy Chinese.

Its a classic bubble, about to burst. With the explosive characteristic of lots of Chinese guys unable to find a mate. Like Steyn says, China is unlikely to become the first gay superpower since Sparta.

More likely they will look to war, particularly with Taiwan, South Korea, Japan (perhaps), Vietnam (again), India (again), and possibly Indonesia and Malaysia.

China needs guaranteed access to raw materials, including but not limited to: oil, rubber, agricultural commodities, and iron/copper ore. China is not much different than Mercantile Imperial Japan circa 1890-1941. It has a habit of finding stability by fighting wars with its neighbors. It is building a Blue-Water navy meant to wrest control of the Western Pacific (up to Hawaii) from the US and Indian Ocean from India.

This is why Australia under Labor is spending a lot more on their military.

I am astonished at the intellectual vacuity of so many in bracing the reality that many peoples are not capable (for whatever reasons) of playing constructive parts in international systems, and yet a belief that "magically" they will not use commoditized technology to take advantage of weak and dithering Western society.

Friedman and Isteve readers are likely to get JUST WHAT THEY WANT -- and not like it. We are in retreat as in the 1930's, and just like that provocative weakness we will only invite attack.

Had the US built in the 1930's, 24 instead of 8 aircraft carriers, not even Tojo would have attacked us (he would not have dared) nor would Hitler have dared to make war on the Western allies.

kudzu bob said...

Clearly, Friedman has been replaced by one of Jack Finney's bodysnatchers. I wonder if Mrs. Friedman really minds all that much--it must be a relief to have some intelligent conversation around the dinner table, for a change.

Anonymous said...

So is Haiti. The difference is the people.

Okay, let's do this again:


List of countries and territories by fertility rate
en.wikipedia.org

Haiti, CIA, 2000: 4.50
Haiti, CIA, 2008: 4.79 [#37 of 223]

Taiwan, CIA, 2000: 1.76
Taiwan, CIA, 2008: 1.13 [#220 of 223]

Followed by:

Singapore 1.08 [221# of 223]
Hong Kong (PRC) 1.00 [#222 of 223]
Macau (PRC) 0.90 [223# of 223]


Guess which country will still exist, come mid-century?

And guess which countries [and island-states] will be extinct, come mid-century?

The people who make the babies make the future - no ifs ands or buts about it.

CJ said...

"The top two oil importers to the U.S. are Mexico and Canada."

The U.S. is an oil importer. Canada and Mexico are oil exporters.

Fred said...

Anonymous,

"BTW, I live in CA and yes, the area has been hard hit by the recession, yet not one time has a single teenager nor adult knocked on my door (I do live in a nice middle class neighborhood)as asking if he or she might wash my windows, wash my car, do chores that might need doing for an extra buck."

As if you'd welcome a black teenager offering to do chores around your house. For what it's worth, here in the Northeast we do still have teens (black teens too) who offer to shovel driveways and sidewalks and clear off cars when it snows. It's not that teens lack drive but that it's not socially acceptable to knock on doors and offer to do chores, wash cars, etc. It would be seen as an unwanted solicitation. When people are stranded due to snow drifts, it's a different story.

Whiskey,

"Since after thirty years of running away no one is afraid of us."

We haven't done a whole lot of running away (with the exception of Somalia)in the last 28 years. Whether we bail or stay in small wars with guerrillas in wastelands like Afghanistan has little bearing on whether anyone is afraid of us. Conventional threats (e.g., the Russians and Chinese) remain deterred by our air and naval power. Muslim nutters remain undeterred because:

1) They are nutters. They have been for centuries.

2) They don't want us to run away. When will you figure this out? Muslim nutters know that we won't carpet bomb their countries, and they live for luring us into never-ending ground wars. If Al Qaeda robbed every bank in America they couldn't drain us of more money than we have spent so far in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Melykin said...

" 24 million Chinese Men will be single by the end of the decade."
---------------------------

If the Chinese are so smart, couldn't they have seen this coming when they were aborting all those female babies?

Another thing...what's with medicine in China? You wouldn't think high IQ people would be into weird superstitious folk remedies so much.

Israelis are busy building portable operating rooms in Haiti, America is sending a huge hospital ship. Even places such as Cuba, South Africa and Brazil are sending doctors. So what is China planning? Maybe send a few cases of bear bile or something?

Anonymous said...

For the hundredth (or is it thousandth) time posters here put forth the meme that somehow AIPAC controls what the president is doing.

But all of the evidence is that the POTUS is telling Israel that POTUS won't bomb Iran to prevent Iran from building nukes. No matter how much wailing and gnashing of teeth comes out of Israel, Obama is standing firm.

It seems like on almost every thread here, the "white power" crowd talks about how desperate and hungry American Jews are for the US to bomb Iran.

How is it possible to believe this when Obama campaigned on a platform of NOT BOMBING IRAN and won the Jewish vote and McCain ran on a platform of BOMBING IRAN and lost the jewish vote resoundingly.

Hard to believe how stupid the "white power" crowd on this blog is. Jews, as evidenced by their voting record, are more against starting a war in Iraq than any Christian group is.

Let me repeat that - the average Catholic or Mormon or Evangelical is much more likely to want to see Iran bombed than the average American jew.

"Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools." - August Bebel

Anonymous said...

"We’d be better off just building a higher wall."


But don't we all have to accept that the world is FLAT, whether we like or not?

In any case, if we put a tax so that the price of gas goes to European levels, the Saudis would have to drink their oil.

oy-vey-pac said...

"For the hundredth (or is it thousandth) time posters here put forth the meme that somehow AIPAC controls what the president is doing.

How is it possible to believe this when Obama campaigned on a platform of NOT BOMBING IRAN and won the Jewish vote and McCain ran on a platform of BOMBING IRAN and lost the jewish vote resoundingly."

Because AIPAC works in mysterious ways.

Anonymous said...

BTW, I live in CA and yes, the area has been hard hit by the recession, yet not one time has a single teenager nor adult knocked on my door (I do live in a nice middle class neighborhood)as asking if he or she might wash my windows, wash my car, do chores that might need doing for an extra buck."

As if you'd welcome a black teenager offering to do chores around your house. For what it's worth, here in the Northeast we do still have teens (black teens too) who offer to shovel driveways and sidewalks and clear off cars when it snows. It's not that teens lack drive but that it's not socially acceptable to knock on doors and offer to do chores, wash cars, etc. It would be seen as an unwanted solicitation. When people are stranded due to snow drifts, it's a different story.


I don't know about this. CA is very geographically segregated - it's unlikely that the commenter lives within walking distance of any black teenagers.

I live in an expensive neighborhood in Seattle and there are grown men (white) going door to door here asking for work. I live walking distance from the hood, but there are no black people doing this. There are, however, black men working for 1-800-got-junk, installing washing machines, and things like that; there aren't a lot of black people here at all and yet they are very visible in that kind of work. It's interesting that NO ONE is going door-to-door this in CA.

rosh said...

It's hilarious that no matter what the topic, iSteve commenters always revert back to bashing blacks and Jews.

Anonymous said...

Smaller edit: It's a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work and the use of their high average-IQs, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world, but whose nihilism is driving them straight into extinction:

I'm not sure if this along with the other E. Asian low birthrates is necessarily reflective of "nihilism" as much as say Europe's low birthrates are.

The E. Asians have always been like quasi-atheists anyway. It's not as if they've lost a compelling and powerful faith like Christianity like the Europeans have.

Also, the E. Asians seem to have a stronger "immune system" so to speak, that is they are more ethnocentric and not keen on importing millions and displacing themselves in the process.

Though, who knows. I know the UN, NGOs, and other globalist outfits have been promoting globalist immigration policies in E. Asia. I'm sure nobody in the West 100 years ago ever even though that such demographic changes would ever occur in the West.

Dutch Boy said...

Glossy is making the case for monarchy. Long live the king (if we can find one)!

Anonymous said...

Israelis are busy building portable operating rooms in Haiti, America is sending a huge hospital ship. Even places such as Cuba, South Africa and Brazil are sending doctors. So what is China planning? Maybe send a few cases of bear bile or something?

Aren't the Chinese paying a lot - albeit indirectly? Their foreign reserves prop up the value of the dollar so that countries like the US can look generous spreading the cash around despite massive deficits.

Anonymous said...

>posters here put forth the meme that somehow AIPAC controls what the president is doing<

For the second time, no one here, to my knowledge, has mentioned AIPAC in this connection. The rest of your comment is wild and gratuitous insults and is offensive.

lyle and tector said...

"It's hilarious that no matter what the topic, iSteve commenters always revert back to bashing blacks and Jews."

It's hilarious that no matter what the topic, liberal Jews and blacks always revert back to bashing white gentiles.

Did you hear Danny Glover blame the earthquake in Hawaii on climate change brought upon by white greed? He should complain to his rich Hollywood buddies--many Jewish and black--whose carbon footprints are huge!!!!

Mr. Anon said...

"Whiskey said...

Friedman is reliably an idiot. There IS no substitute for US preventing hostile nations from controlling Gulf oil."

Was he an idiot a year ago when he agreed with you ("suck on this....")? Given Friedman's recent turn, I'd say that you, Whiskey, are a much more reliable idiot.

jody said...

"Except that worrying about foreign oil dependency is nonsense."

nah. it is one of the top 3 or 4 biggest problems for the united states. it's really THAT big of a deal. as big of a deal as what to do about social security, as big of a deal as what to do about millions and millions of IQ 80 mexicans flooding into america.

we're living in the oil age. modern technological society is practically totally dependent on machines that run on black liquid that we can basically take out of the ground for free. the biggest company in the world, exxon, is an oil company. the second biggest oil company in the world, petrochina, is an oil company. what used to be the biggest manufacturer in the united states for 50 years, general motors, builds machines that drink black fluid from the ground. these companies are quite a bit more important than intel and IBM. if semiconductors went away, we would still have a recognizable society. if oil went away, we would not.

when the oil is gone in about 70 years, it will be EXTREMELY clear that the time period in which humans alive between 1900 to 2050 were living in was the OIL AGE. not the information age, the space age, the computer age, or any of those. in 2010, human society is built around oil. it depends on there being an unlimited supply of inky glop in the ground. inky glop that can only be extracted one time. and then it is gone, forever. inky glop that took hundreds of millions of years to develop, and then was burned in jets and boats and cars in only 200 years.

i've posted the numbers before, but here they are again. the united states drinks 21 million barrels of oil every day. it only produces 7 million barrels. therefore it MUST, it absolutely HAS TO, import 14 million barrels of oil every 24 hour period. this basic math is the sole reason that president carter established the department of energy. unfortunately, DOE has been an epic failure. when the price of a barrel of oil is about 80 dollars, as it is now, the united states is sending out 400 billion dollars a year in exchange for that precious, precious black liquid. at 120 dollars, the US is now straining to send out 600 billion dollars a year for it's addiction. this is more than the trade deficit with china.

the biggest oil field in mexico, the cantarell field, is about to decline to the point where mexico is going to stop exporting oil, and begin importing oil. this will happen in the next 2 years. when this happens, the economy in mexico will fall, and may even crash. this will send millions more short fat brown guys north.

this is why there are 2 major oil pipeline projects under contruction between the US and canada. the keystone pipeline and the alberta clipper project. because oil production in canada is set to increase by several million barrels of oil per day, in anticipation of mexico not exporting oil to the US anymore. canada is going to make up the difference.

between the MASSIVE amount of money the US will be spending every year from now on, on importing 80 dollar a barrel and up oil, and the widespread effects of mexico becoming a net importer of oil, american leaders need to think long and hard about the topic. i personally am already talking with a team at MIT which is considering getting involved with a nuclear reactor start-up company funded by ex-microsoft guys nathan myhrvold and bill gates.

hogopac said...

"If the Chinese are so smart, couldn't they have seen this coming when they were aborting all those female babies?"

Most Chinese are not smart. But, they work hard and are good followers of the elite. China rises or falls with the elite.
The elite can rely on a vast pool of hard workers. But, if the elite sucks, the people are oppressed and can't do shit. If the elite is too weak, the greed and pettiness of the Chinese take over, and China becomes utterly corrupt.
But, if the elite is talented but also maintains order, Chinese can do well.

Some nations--like Haiti for instance--, on the other hand, couldn't do much even if it had the Founding Fathers or Frederick the Great as leaders because the people suck so bad. A lot of people blame Haitian leaders and see the people as poor victims, but idiocy and corruption are prevalent at every level of Haitian society. If the rulers didn't steal but sent funds down to the people, others would steal them just the same. So, the rulers figure they should steal before others do.

If the problem is with the rulers, Haiti and African nations would have turned out well with change in leadership. But, NOTHING changes because new rulers--even decent ones--must deal with the same fools and idiots who comprise the masses.

A fool like Dan Quayle would make a better leader of Germany than a genius like Abe Lincoln or George Washington would make as a leader of Zimbabwe. Not because Quayle has talent but because most Germans know how to rule themselves and respect the law.

Anonymous said...

I used to think that Whiskey was the most predictable poster here, but he has been replaced in that regard by "David"

(by the way, David is a pretty popular name among members of the tribe, so perhaps you should change to a more Christian moniker)

Let me predict the next few posts:
(1) Israeli crews are in Haiti right now in order to persuade the blacks to move to America and impregnate the daughters of gentiles like David
(2) Israelis are in Haiti to persuade America to invade Haiti to advance Israel's geopolitical agenda
(3) ...

Anonymous said...

Most of the nations and cultures we spent the 20th Century obsessing about will cease to exist within the lifespans of the younger readers at iSteve.

You're right - Taiwan should be more like Haiti.

Svigor said...

Small edit

During the yawnfest NFL playoffs today there were repeated ads for the upcoming 60 Minutes program about Samoans and all the NFL players they export. They showed a clip where the interviewer asked some Samoan what is the single most important factor explaining why Samoa sends so many players to the NFL.

Before he could answer I said "genetics." Then he said "determination." Know thy audience, I guess.

Richard Hoste said...

Could we just walk away? No

Um, why not?

PRCalDude said...

There is a growing sense among many Americans--right and left, high and low--that Jewish influence has gotten us into the Middle East quagmire. So, it could be Friedman, a self-consciously prominent Jewish 'thinker', is trying to disarm that perception by openly being less interventionist in the Middle East. But, actions and money speak louder than words. It could be Friedman is trying to cover all the bases just to fool us.

Agreed.

Bootstrapping this article onto the recent David Brooks article, it appears some Jewish neoconservatives are just attempting to go with the flow of popular sentiment (described by Brooks). Friedman knows everyone is pissed off because of guys like him telling us how great perpetual war and globalism were going to be for us. This is article is an attempt to look like he is on the right side.

Anonymous said...

It's hilarious that no matter what the topic, iSteve commenters always revert back to bashing blacks and Jews

Then you have strange sense of humour, since its clear you actually find it worrying.

The beauty of the internet and iSteve is that its an antidote to the standard MSM/political line. I can go to any number of websites and have events explained in ways which purposefully avoid any mention of blacks and jews - other than to tell me how wonderful they are 24/7.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why Steve lets "Weekly Standard" readers like Whiskey post here. I suppose he wants some diversity in his blog.

Reading all the crap that these neocons are spamming this blog with is really irritating.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Steve lets Whiskey post for the same reason he let's the "white power" anti semite crowd post here -

Steve wants all view points to be presented so that we readers can decide for ourselves

And actually Whiskey has an interesting and original idea about once every leap year and the anti semite crowd also has something worthwhile to say every five or six years.

Fred said...

"Reading all the crap that these neocons are spamming this blog with is really irritating."

It's funny how the Jews and the anti-Jews* among the commenters here both are irritated that the comment threads here aren't an echo chamber for their posts. Good on Steve for facilitating a vibrant comment thread. What would make it less irritating to you would make it less interesting to others.

*No, being anti-neocon does not make you anti-Jew, anymore than being a Jew makes you a neocon, but there seems to be a pretty high overlap in both cases

Anonymous said...

Where else but ISteve can you read a (reasonably) civil debate between neocons, paleocons, isolationists, and traditionalists.

I think what brings us all together on this blog is our shared acceptance of HBD.

As you know, it has been proven that each race has a different IQ.
People on this blog accept racial IQ differences. All debates here start from the premise of racial IQ differences.

We on this blog can thus delve deeper in to many topics than anyone outside this blog can, because we start each debate with a premise that is true and people off this blog start each debate with a premise that is a lie.

The level of discourse is generally much higher here because fundamentally we are all looking for the truth, and in the mainstream media, everyone is looking to cover up the "big lie"

Anonymous said...

You're right - Taiwan should be more like Haiti.

Taiwan's TFR [total fertility rate] has fallen so precipitously in the last decade that the nation is probably doomed to extinction.

But if a miracle could occur, so that somehow Taiwan's TFR could come to resemble Haiti's TFR, then yes, that would be a very, very good thing.

I'm not holding out much hope, though: Mid-century [which the younger iSteve readers should live to experience], places like Taiwan and Hong Kong and Singapore and Japan and South Korea will either be barren deserts, or else they'll be populated by Muslims.

Otis the Sweaty said...

"In the US, anti-(white)nationalism serves Jewish interests since they are the minority(and fear a potentially anti-Jewish white nationalism)."


So Jews are out to get the best friends (American whites) that they have ever had? Why would they want to do something like that?

If Jews hate whites so much, why do they marry them at a rate of over 50%?

Anonymous said...

If Jews hate whites so much, why do they marry them at a rate of over 50%

Im skepitical about that 50% number, I keep seeing it but I dont think its been substantiated. Its just too useful to wave around in discussions like this one.

Anonymous said...

Otis,
You are 90% correct to be cynical about what the anti semites here have to say.

The anti semites are correct to be angry at liberalism. Liberalism has indeed instructed white girls to cavort with NAMS.

But Finland has no jews running the government and yet white girls there are just as eager to cavort with NAMs as they are in America. If you spend time traveling around the white world, you will see that in every country where liberalism has taken root the white girls are with NAMS.

So the complainers here are right to feel angry, they have just selected the wrong target.

At the rate jews are intermarrying, there will within 100 years be no non orthodox jews left in America and anti semetism will be gone.

Pity the anti semites, they will eventually realize the error of their ways. Until then they provide comic relief

Black Sea said...

To return to the topic of Friedman for a moment, the NY Times is preparing to go to a metered system of payment for access to their website. They tried a similar move once before, with a wall for select content, but it proved to a bust, since very few people are willing to pay money for boilerplate insights.

Here's Friedman's comment on the prior payment experiment:

"As we got into it, it was clear to me I was getting cut off from a lot of my readers in India and China where 50 dollars per year would be equal to a quarter of college tuition" Friedman recently told me by phone. "What was coming to me anecdotally from my travels was the five worst words that as a columnist you ever want to hear: ‘I used to read you before you went behind the wall.’”

That's eleven words, but whatever.

OK commenters, you may now return the Jew/Gentile slugfest.

Anonymous said...

Taiwan's TFR [total fertility rate] has fallen so precipitously in the last decade that the nation is probably doomed to extinction

pure BS. France lost a third of its population during the black death. Guess what, France was as much France in 1350 as it was in 1450.

Also, as long as the ethnical core remains, borders can fluctuate a lot yet the nation remains. France lost ALsace to Germany, yet can anyone argue that what remained as France was even a bit less French because France´s Eastern border moved West?

Taiwan´s population may decline for a generation. So all those old morons who voted benefits for themselves at the cost of younger generations will see their pensions wiped out due to the lack of tax payers.

But since Taiwan will still be Taiwanese, taxes will then go down, costs of housing will decline as less people share the same territory and young Taiwanese will end up producing more kids someday.

But now that Ile-de-France is turning into Ile-d'Afrique, no matter what is the birth rate of its inhabitants, those births are not maintaining the French nation French

Zeenon said...

I don't know why you all are harping on Taiwan's (and the rest of East Asia's) TFRs. Taiwan is overpopulated and it wouldn't hurt to give everyone a little more breathing room. I doubt that the TFR will always be so low, it was only a century ago that Taiwan had a TFR of 6.

Anonymous said...

"But Finland has no jews running the government and yet white girls there are just as eager to cavort with NAMs as they are in America."

Because Finns watch Hollywood-made movies?

http://www.finlandforthought.net/2007/11/21/five-best-movies-of-2007-so-far/

Marc B said...

"Am I going isolationist? No..."

He forgot the obligatory "not that there is anything wrong with that", but considering the elite class he with which associates himself, I know why he felt like he had to qualify the previous paragraph with this statement. A long period of heightened nationalism and isolationism is necessary for a country like the US that has spread itself too thin.

If stopping globalism on the basis of it damaging US sovereignty, it's economic base, and self-determination is too kooky for the NY Times crowd, I welcome them aboard the growing unilateralism bandwagon if only sheer pragmatism is bringing them on board.

ben tillman said...

If Jews hate whites so much, why do they marry them at a rate of over 50%?

They don't.

In 1989, the figure was 14% for Jews in the United States and 0% for Jews in Israel. Twenty years later, we have no data for the US (though a fair guess is 20-25%), and the figure for Israel is still 0%.

Anonymous said...

pure BS...

<blah blah blah>...

But now that Ile-de-France is turning into Ile-d'Afrique, no matter what is the birth rate of its inhabitants, those births are not maintaining the French nation French

C'mon people - INTELLECTUAL CONSISTENCY!!!

You need to be able to hold your arguments together for more than just a few sentences before you shoot them in their metaphorical feet.

herb said...

"Another thing...what's with medicine in China? You wouldn't think high IQ people would be into weird superstitious folk remedies so much. "

Since when are herbs "superstitious?" That various herbs have a salubrious effect on the health is a fact even western medicine does not dispute. Many patented drugs are based on herbs. My friend had sinus infections that eventually resisted any drug the specialists could think of. Finally she researched and found fairly cheap herbal tablets that drained the mucous and normalized the nasal passages. She did have a take a lot of them, but they were pretty cheap.
A lot of this stuff works. Don't you realize that 20 years ago, acupuncture and acupressure were rejected by western medicine? Now they are common though they haven't replaced all western methods.
That being said, a lot of their traditional medicines, such as bear bile, is based on cruel and unusual treatment of animals, including endangered species.
You have to use brains and discernment where these things are concerned.

Truth said...

""It's a barren rock with 23 million people who, through hard work and the use of their high average-IQs, have amassed the fourth-largest foreign currency reserves in the world."

Then why did it take so many thousands of years?

"China has great hopes because it's filled with Chinese people."

Who work seven-day 12 hour a day weeks for 44 cents an hour.


"Religious Education: Under Putin, it has been allowed to have Orthodox Christian religious classes in all the schools."

And how free are they to study Islam in all the schools?

"Marxism: Under Medvedev, Solzhenitsyn's Archipelago Gulag is required reading in schools for 11th graders. All the brutality of the Soviets and the crimes that were committed will be in the minds of our children for generations."

That's kind of like the "hate whitey" lessons you guys are always whining about here, isn't it?

"Illegals: Russia, over run by Central Asian and Chinese illegal aliens has taken, under Medvedev, strong pro-active actions to deliver these illegals back to their home realms."

Although, strangely enough, their IDs said "CCCP" 25 years ago.

"Because AIPAC works in mysterious ways."

Brilliant answer there Mr. Miyagi; but just, for a second, assume that we're all yellow belts.

Truth said...

"If you spend time traveling around the white world, you will see that in every country where liberalism has taken root the white girls are with NAMS."

Is it liberalism, or is it, well, a more basic, primal urge?

""Another thing...what's with medicine in China? You wouldn't think high IQ people would be into weird superstitious folk remedies so much."

Gotta agree with herb on this one Sport; acupuncture has been around for 2,500 years, your god has only been around for 2,000!

Svigor said...

Guess which country will still exist, come mid-century?

The people who make the babies make the future - no ifs ands or buts about it..

Your monomania gets old.

Sub-Saharan Africans have been kicking ass at baby-making since, well, forever. At what point will they start making the future?

And how good are Haitians going to be at baby-making when the white-sponsored NGOs all dry up (due to lack of white babies)? About as good as sub-Saharan Africans have always been. How will this impact the future-making?

I'm not saying it's wrong to think hard about fertility, I'm saying the monomania is wrong.

Svigor said...

So Jews are out to get the best friends (American whites) that they have ever had? Why would they want to do something like that?

Ask them! What am I, a mind-reader?

If Jews hate whites so much, why do they marry them at a rate of over 50%?

Your tendentious diction (hate) aside, the rate's exaggerated (Jews do all the counting; they have a horrible track record and motives to dissimulate), and a lot lower than the rate at which whites marry one another.

How many bloody times do I have to answer the same bloody questions?

Svigor said...

"As we got into it, it was clear to me I was getting cut off from a lot of my readers in India and China where 50 dollars per year would be equal to a quarter of college tuition" Friedman recently told me by phone. "What was coming to me anecdotally from my travels was the five worst words that as a columnist you ever want to hear: ‘I used to read you before you went behind the wall.’”


Thus Obama's musings about paying the NYT with taxpayer money.

Svigor said...

Brilliant answer there Mr. Miyagi; but just, for a second, assume that we're all yellow belts.

Sarcasm grasshopper, sarcasm.