Transparent Eye

Brilliant!

This is a startlingly shallow thinker, who ought not to be one “heartbeat” away from becoming the most powerful person in the world

She continued to take a hard line on national security issues when asked whether war with Russia could be necessary if Georgia were to join NATO and Russia crossed its borders again. Palin replied, “Perhaps so.”

Perhaps if it could lead to a totally unnecessary nuclear war, we ought not invite Georgia to join NATO.

It seems unlikely that a real war between Russia and the United States could break out over South Ossetia, because no one in their right mind would deliberately choose this. But once one makes unwise commitments, one then feels its necessary to follow through on these commitments because “honor” and “credibility” will be lost. This is how stupid calamities like World War I started.

I’m glad to see that Russia is eschewing annexation of South Ossetia. Such a step, adding territory to the state by conquest, would have been a dangerous violation of the post-WWII consensus that rejects territorial changes by conquest.

Russia’s international reputation has been battered by its invasion of Georgia (which, it is true, was set off by Georgia’s attempt to conquer the secessionary South Ossetia region), so if it wanted to make amends, it could make an about-face on the use of cluster bombs, which both Russia and Georgia reportedly used in the conflict.

These little bomblets no doubt have some military advantages, but because of their small size and failure to immediately detonate, they often become the equivalent of land mines that persist after a conflict has been settled.

All wars are best avoided, of course, but if war comes, we judge the combatants by their willingness to avoid civilian casualties even at some cost to their own forces. Terrorists, of course, are the most reprehensible by this measure, since they target civilians. But legal combatants need to be mindful of the side effects of their actions on civilians.

I note that the United States has cluster bombs in its arsenal. For what it’s worth, the Defense Department plans to create more efficient cluster bombs with fewer of the duds that terrorize civilians long after the conflict is over.

Interesting demographics on American Buddhists from Tricycle.

Many Buddhists do share the greater number of American’s belief in God or a universal spirit: 39% stated that they were certain of a higher power, while 28% ranked themselves as fairly certain. Nationwide, those numbers are 71% and 17%, respectively. 19% of Buddhists said that they did not believe in God, while only 5% of nationwide respondents said the same.

Not sure what to make of this. Most of those identifying as Buddhists in the survey are former Christians, but it’s not clear what their vision of god is within Buddhism.

I saw her speech, and she is good in front of a camera, but she reminds me of Tracy Flick in Election.

Here’s a scary story, from the non-partisan associated press

Palin told graduating students of the church’s School of Ministry, “What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys.” As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she’d work to implement God’s will from the governor’s office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets.

“God’s will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,” she said.