The Egyptian blogger who produces “Rantings of a Sandmonkey” has some remarkably interesting findings to share about the cartoons that have provided the occasion for so much violence.
The Egyptian blogger who produces “Rantings of a Sandmonkey” has some remarkably interesting findings to share about the cartoons that have provided the occasion for so much violence.
Oh yeah, the whole thing — according to “sandmonkey” — was a plot by the Egyptian government to divert attention away from their cuts in welfare state entitlements like Social Security. This is what the great “libertarian” Tom Palmer endorses?
Some people are just too thick to understand that when one points to “some remarkably interesting finds” (viz. that an Egyptian paper printed the cartoons months ago, with no reaction from the public) it doesn’t mean that one endorses everything written by the author. Moreover, their understanding of the relation between moral interpretation and the objective grasp of reality doesn’t admit of anything too complex to be put on a bumpersticker. They don’t quite grasp that an interpretation of reality (that old thing!) regarding the motivations of government leaders tells one little about the author’s substantive moral and political views. What is so implausible about Sandmonkey’s hypothesis? I’m not an Egyptian and don’t read the Egyptian press, so I’m not in the best position to judge, but there is hardly anything “unlibertarian” about a theory about the motivations of government leaders in promoting violence to distract attention away from policies that are likely to cause them political problems.
The removal of price controls in Iraq led to riots and violence among some who had become accustomed to absurdly low and subsidized prices after decades of Saddam’s policies. To point that out is hardly to endorse price controls. Yet that is what the shallow author of the above remarks would have to claim to maintain her silly approach. Sometimes a policy that one might endorse is coupled with policies or public justifications that one would not endorse. That’s not exactly rocket science, but it seems too complex to fit into the commentator’s exceedingly simple (minded) model.
Tom,
It looks like the rioters and Islamic fanatics have won the fight to regulate free speech in the EU.
In today’s Washington Times, http://www.washingtontimes.com/world, Senior EU officials are proposing a charter to put limits on freedom of speech.
Now the Muslim world can end the boycott.
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