Tuesday, April 13, 2010

New Commentaries: Census Ironies, Foreign Policy Hypocrisy, and Political Martyrdom

Senior Vice President Mary Theroux discusses who gets what out of the Census:
Although the rallying cry of the American Revolution was "No taxation without representation," the modern-day census has turned that sentiment on its head: No representation without taxation. "The method established by the Constitution to set representation proportional to taxation was no mere coincidence. After all, if those not taxed had representatives in Congress, what would stop them from passing expensive legislation that had to be covered by taxes they didn’t have to pay?" While filling out your form might help your city and state get their "fair share" of redistributed wealth, the federal government will be making sure to get its fair share -- compliments of the enumerated -- as well.

Senior Fellow Ivan Eland criticizes foreign policy hypocrisy:
"The New York Times wrote an editorial that briefly expressed horror in response to the Moscow subway terror bombings, then warned that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin might yet again use terrorist attacks to further consolidate his power, and finally lectured Russia that the only way to defeat such extremism was to deal with the underlying causes. Such a sermonizing editorial by any Russian publication after the 9/11 attacks would have engendered outrage in America. Yet the same conclusions and advice that the Times gave to Russia in the wake of its tragedy could equally be applied to post-9/11 U.S. policy. . . . The newspaper’s view merely reflects the lack of introspection by the U.S. political elite and American society about the ill effects of a U.S. foreign policy of overseas interventionism and hostile foreign reactions to it. But then the pot should not call the kettle black, but rather try to clean up its own act first."

Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa reports on political martyrdom in Cuba:
"For weeks the world has followed the drama of the Cuban prisoners of conscience, many of them black, who have started a chain of hunger strikes demanding the liberation of their fellow prisoners. . . . The gradual rise of a civil society built upon the foundations of law and civilization amidst the barbaric communist tyranny is precisely what these men and women are announcing to the world. . . . As witnesses, they are testifying the truth—indeed a deadly truth."

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