Whoops.

But let’s get back to Goldberg.  He has a couple of stories – and one in particular struck me:

[A USAID contractor that Goldberg had met at a high-priced Ugandan hotel] was working to promote democracy in Uganda on behalf of the U.S. government, and I asked her how much time she spent in Uganda (I assumed, because she was staying at the Sheraton, that she was there for only a week or two at a time). She told me that she spent six months in Uganda, in the hotel, and in an office nearby, and then the next six months at home in California, near Carmel, not working, but living off the money she made the previous six months. I noted that this was quite a fortuitous arrangement, and I joked that she better not bring about democracy too quickly. She answered me quite earnestly: “Yes, I know, I would lose this job.”

I don’t know if Jerry Pournelle ever made it an actual law or anything, but he’s quite often noted that if you pay a bureaucrat to take care of poor people, he or she will realize very quickly that his or  her job will depend on there being a steady supply of poor people; and Pournelle went on to argue that if there aren’t any more poor people, the bureaucrat will go out and make some.  Fortunately, I’m not quite cynical enough to think that Pournelle’s endgame scenario is inevitable for every government bureaucrat; but the temptation must be strong…

Moe Lane

*The technical term for people engaging in that sort of uncritical regurgitation is, I believe, “moron.”  Also: if you want me to believe that you actually care about the suffering of a particular ethnic, religious, cultural, or racial group, try to avoid making these kinds of mistakes.  It kind of subverts the message when you treat them as walking, talking props best used to affect American domestic policy.

Brazil builds walls around Rio de Janeiro slums

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 28 (Reuters) – The government of Rio de Janeiro is building concrete walls to prevent sprawling slums from spreading farther into the picturesque hills of this world-famous tourist destination, an official said on Saturday.

This should end well.

Moe Lane

PS: Not that the President of Brazil’s planning to listen to a white guy with blue eyes. Didn’t you hear? I’m one of the people responsible for the current economic crisis.

Um… sorry about that?

Crossposted to RedState.

I do like what Francis wrote, but I want to really drive it home to my people – which is to say, science fiction geeks. Let me strip this down for you. There was a quote that Jerry Pournelle likes to repeat, from one of the anti-nuclear power people: “The only physics I ever took was Ex-Lax.“ Remember that one? Remember how it made you laugh at the idiot?

Well, did you vote for Obama? – because if you did, you voted for the guy who takes people like that idiot seriously.

And, do you know something? I told you so.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.