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  LIBERAL FASCISM

Zizek & Fascism: From a reader: Jonah, I'm sure you're aware of Adam Kirsch's article on the Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek in The New Republic.  Did you notice Kirsch almost tripping into your LF thesis as he calls Zizek a fascist, while at the last falling back into the description of fascism as a phenomenon of the right ("He is willfully blind to the old and obvious conclusion that totalitarian form accepts content from the left and the right")? It isn't the main point of the piece, but Zizek's standing as academic flavor of the month has been particularly noticeable in theological circles (my own area).  . . . Go

  THE CORNER

Income Tax Moratorium: Just for a moment let's consider the possibility -- remote as it is -- that the Democrats would allow a 1 year reprieve on the income tax. (And while they're at it, they could throw in a 1-year moratorium on FICA too!). There would be an enormous boost in investment, hiring and spending. The deficit would get bigger, to be sure, but that's going to happen anyway. Meanwhile, I think it would shatter the GOP for a generation -- and I would still be for it! The Democrats could, with Republican help, use that year to plot a ginormous . . . Go

  THE CAMPAIGN SPOT

Wondering About Security in Mumbai Hotels: A correspondent of Mickey Kaus who stayed at the Taj hotel in Mumbai in the past said that they had much heavier security in early November, additional staff and safeguards that were obviously not present the night of the attacks. When I went to Amman, Jordan in January 2006, shortly after Abu Zarqawi sent suicide bombers into three luxury hotels, killing 63 and injuring hundreds, the security was heavy and very visible -- I wrote at the time, "the guards are so gracious with their 'good morning, sir,' that their MP-5 submachineguns almost seem unobtrusive." Describing the thoroughness of the airport . . . Go

  PHI BETA CONS

The Cabal Stays Fat at Students' Expense: John cites an article indicating that the cost of teaching in colleges is declining, all the while that students and parents almost never see any of these savings. Well-paid tenured faculty members and their union chieftains, administrators getting fat salaries, and politicians richly rewarded for their compliance like this arrangement just fine. And gutless governing boards rarely lift a finger to disrupt it. . . . Go

  DAVID CALLING

Terror in Bombay: The attack on Bombay seems to have much in common with 9/11. Another group of young men have been prepared to kill and to die.  On both occasions, the intention was to leave as many victims as possible. The captured terrorist says that in Bombay they intended to kill 5,000, which would have been an atrocity on a wartime scale. A lot of planning and premeditation went into the attack. The terrorists had been trained professionally. They had also prepared the ground. The targets were carefully selected. In the big hotels and the café they could be sure . . . Go

  BENCH MEMOS

This Week in Liberal Judicial Activism—Week of December 1: Subverting text and practicing faux originalism:     Dec. 5 1984—No legal text can ever be clear enough to avoid being subverted by a liberal judicial activist.  Consider now-Eleventh Circuit judge Rosemary Barkett’s ruling for a Florida appellate court in State v. Bivona.  Florida’s speedy-trial rule generally provided that every person charged with a felony shall be brought to trial within 180 days of the charge or be forever protected from prosecution on that charge.  Under an express exception (“(b)(1)”) to the rule, a “person who is … incarcerated in a jail or correctional institution outside the jurisdiction of this State … is not . . . Go

  DAVID FRUM

Will the Harper government collapse?: Bare weeks after winning re-election, Canada's Conservative party has stumbled into a political crisis that may soon turn into a constitutional crisis. Don Martin of the National Post explains: This Conservative government’s apparent death wish is propelling Canada toward two possible, and equally unthinkable, outcomes: The second federal election inside of two months, or a Liberal-led coalition that includes New Democrat cabinet ministers and a separatist component.Jittery Canadians and business leaders will tolerate none of the above, so Stephen Harper called a time out last night to give his government another week to avert the crisis.And yet the Prime Minister showed . . . Go