Stephen Lendman

Neo-cons' map for destroying, Russia, China & Pakistan

In late 2011, Obama prioritized reasserting America's Pacific presence. His Asia pivot was announced. It involves advancing America's military footprint. Doing so aggressively is planned.

China's growing economic might and military strength are targeted. So is checking Russia at the same time. Containment is policy. Cold war politics is back. Unchallenged global dominance is prioritized. Anything goes intends to maintain it. War in a part of the world hostile to invaders is possible.

Vietnam echoes remain audible. So are Afghanistan ones today. China's a far more formidable adversary. So is Russia. It's hard imagining any country challenging them militarily. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. America hasn't won a war since WW II. Lessons weren't learned. Permanent war remains policy. War profiteers demand it.

More »

Stephen Lendman

Allan Rock, le recteur de l'Université d'Ottawa (lapresse.ca)

In June 2008, Allan Rock became university president. He's a former Canadian politician and UN ambassador. He's a pro-Israeli flack. He supports its worst crimes.

His administration is unprincipled. It's marked by secrecy, political censorship, abuse of power, and repudiation of fundamental university values. He targets academic and speech freedoms. He violates Canadian law.

Article 2 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states: "Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
(d) freedom of association."

Article 7 assures "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person and the right not to be deprived thereof in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice."

Hardline rule is university policy. What Rocks says goes. Faculty and student activists are targeted, vilified, persecuted, suspended and dismissed.

More »

Thomas Sowell

Cass Sunstein needs to reread John Stuart Mill.

John Stuart Mill’s classic essay “On Liberty” gives reasons why some people should not be taking over other people’s decisions about their own lives. But Professor Cass Sunstein of Harvard has given reasons to the contrary. He cites research showing “that people make a lot of mistakes, and that those mistakes can prove extremely damaging.”

Professor Sunstein is undoubtedly correct that “people make a lot of mistakes.” Most of us can look back over our own lives and see many mistakes, including some that were very damaging.

What Cass Sunstein does not tell us is what sort of creatures, other than people, are going to override our mistaken decisions for us. That is the key flaw in the theory and agenda of the left.

Implicit in the wide range of efforts on the left to get government to take over more of our decisions for us is the assumption that there is some superior class of people who are either wiser or nobler than the rest of us.

Yes, we all make mistakes. But do governments not make bigger and more catastrophic mistakes?

More »