Comments on: Really, Really Awful

By: David

David — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:06:39 +0000

To make the apples a little bit more like oranges, I wonder how well Wal-Mart would do if there were significant numbers of people shooting at them? It is a lot easier to deal with commercial security (where the concern is theft of assets) than military supply-chain security (where the concerns include espionage, loss of life, etc).

Wal-Mart does do logistics quite well – hopefully the FedGov will take a few hints from them…

By: JC

JC — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:20:46 +0000

MHodak has it right – it’s not reasonable to expect “Military Precision” from folks who gave us the acronyms FUBAR and SNAFU.

By: TDK

TDK — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:36:37 +0000

As regards your postscript, Omaha is a funny example to pick for demonstrating competency. Of the five beaches, Omaha was the only one that came close to failure.

That’s not to dispute the heroism of those involved.

By: Shenpen

Shenpen — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:09:44 +0000

I’d be interested in your story about going from conservatism to libertarianism, but first define what you meant by conservatism, as it can mean many things. At one end of the scale, it’s a sceptical pluralism: a practical, common-sense aversion to any kind of rationalistic ideology. This end is exemplified by people like John Kekes, Michael Oakeshott, a bit back in history: Giambattista Vico etc. This is the kind of conservatism I like.

At the other end of the scale is religious-nationalistic traditionalism. This is the kind of conservatism I don’t like so much. This other end is like Salazaar or perhaps Franco and in a much milder and democratic way, Bush and his supporters.

And there are and were many folks in between: Barry Goldwater was very close to the first end, so is Vaclav Klaus in Czech and Donald Tusk in Poland, Edmund Burke and David Cameron are/were one step closer to the second but still much closer to the first than to the second, Bill Buckley right in the middle of it, Pat Buchanan is much closer to the second end etc. etc.

By: MHodak

MHodak — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:15:08 +0000

Growing up as an Air Force brat instilled a couple of attitudes that I carry to this day: (1) I have a very high regard for individuals who have served in our military–I tend to trust them implicitly (especially senior enlisted/junior officers types), and (2) the military as an institution is, to use one of their own terms, FUBAR. Everyone in the military knows that “military efficiency” is an oxymoron.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:20:24 +0000

I would be interested to hear your personal evolution of going from conservative to libertarian, as I straddle the fence myself. Have you already made a post like that?