Category: The Dish

Scott Horton defends himself. It is perfectly possible to be in favor of war against Islamist terror and yet believe that military tribunals should be expeditious, fair and according to long-standing Anglo-American principles of justice. And it is perfectly possible to support the detention of terror suspects if they are not tortured or abused and have the right to a fair hearing.

Hamburg, Germany, 8 pm.

A reader writes:

The wife and I were talking about this last week. She believes that Hillary Clinton really is crazy, and is living in a state of denial, and has no plans for the future beyond the election. I tend towards the view that she is pretending to be crazy, as a way to try to scare others into giving her what she wants.

Thoughts?

A little of both, perhaps. When it comes to Mrs Clinton, one under-estimated factor is the nature of her ambition. As her life has progressed from those salad days at Wellesley, her own long march through the institutions has been fraught with awful moral compromise. In this campaign alone, the pacts she has made with various devils to keep ahead of the pretender to her throne have been particularly brutal. Somewhere in her head, she justifies all the principles she has trashed over the years, all the enemies she has allied with, all the racists she has won over, all the abused women she has smeared … on the grounds that if she becomes president, the good she can do will outweigh it all. These are the sacrifices all people who seek power for the good must undergo, she tells herself. To have it all taken away from her at the last minute – by someone who hasn’t made as many compromises – is therefore unimaginably cruel. She cannot accept it – because her life’s work is at stake. So she struggles on. Her private life, her marriage, is fused with her public life. So she has nowhere else to go. Which is why she stays. This is all there is for her.

Is that crazy? I don’t know. But it is immeasurably sad. Not sad enough for pity. She did this all herself. But sad nonetheless.

Roger Altman wants Clinton to quit soon. But she’s not listening to anyone:

"The campaign has broken down to those who drink the Kool-Aid that Hillary can still win, and those who don’t, and are considering their options," one operative said.

It makes a difference.

The sexual marketing of seat belts.

Start smoking in the hospital, dudes. He’s cured cancer now:

A group is trying to create quasi-sovereign, libertarian ocean communities on strange looking platforms.

British Tory leader David Cameron gave a speech yesterday that outlined his approach to taxing and spending. Peter Hoskin reviews it here. It’s McCain before he committed to the permanence of the Bush tax cuts:

After a decade of reckless spending under Labour, Britain needs good housekeeping from the Conservatives.  We need to start living within our means. Why?  Because in the decades ahead there will be pressure to spend more on the essentials – whether that’s care for the older generation, equipment for our armed forces, or more prisons and police to keep us safe. At the same time, we have reached the limits of acceptable taxation and borrowing. With the rising cost of living, taxpayers can’t take any more pain indeed they want a government that can give them the prospect of relief. And our economy can’t take any more pain without losing jobs to lower tax competitors.

So how are we going to square the circle?

How are we going to spend more on the essentials without putting taxes up – and over time, creating the space for cutting tax, as we have promised to do?  Our overall method and aim are clear: we will share the proceeds of economic growth. Sharing the proceeds of economic growth is what living with our means, actually means. Not spending everything we have. Not borrowing to spend beyond our means. But ensuring that, over time, the economy grows faster than the state, so spending falls as a share of national income and we can reduce taxes and borrowing.

Those who criticise sharing the proceeds of growth have sometimes not appreciated that if a government actually did this, either taxes, or borrowing, or both would have to fall over an economic cycle.  I stress: have to fall.

And to reduce spending, he proposes welfare reform, pro-family policies, long-term waste reduction, and an overhaul of top-down public services. It matches Labour’s spending plans but promises to make them more efficient and more accountable. Like Hoskin, I have my qualms. But it’s a start toward restoring conservatism’s brand as a careful custodian of public finances.

A young girl affected by cyclone Nargis poses near a monastery where she and her family found shelter near Kyauktan in the delta region south of Rangoon on May 16, 2008.