Jon Chait writes a great review of the Shock Doctrine.
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Tyler Cowen's point about Europe becoming more like the US in economic terms seemed like a fairly simple suggestion at the time, and it's an interesting metric by which to evaluate European news... France is liberalizing their labor market by scrapping the legendary 35-hour mandatory work week and leaving it up to union-business negotiation. I am shocked to see such a thing could pass without some sort of disaster to psychologically subjugate the people. Also, Italy is cracking down on illegal immigrants. Actually, this latter part isn't necessarily becoming more like America, because Europe has its own proud tradition of not getting along with foreigners, too.
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Weird news lately about Russian involvement in the Western Hemisphere. First a replay of the Cuban missile crisis comes up for some bizarre reason. Then Chavez starts talking about Russian troops in Venezuela to defend it from the Americans. While in today's climate, Russia would never be able to wage an effective war across an ocean, the fact that this is even being discussed or worried about is a good reminder that old-style geopolitics aren't over yet.
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McCain is now running for god of war and victory.
Something longer later. As requested, I toned it down a bit.
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