A few good rants — on ESPN.com

One of the perks of having my own blog is that I can post about pretty much anything. I try to keep the ratio around 50% on world politics, 25% on domestic politics, 15% on academia, 9% on popular culture, and 1% on Salma Hayek (as opposed to Friedrich von Hayek). Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback column on ESPN.com is about 50% on football, 25% on humorous asides about current events, 20% on “megababes” (his word) and 5% on serious rants. Unless, like me, you like football there’s a chance you would miss some of the good rants. So as a public service to the blogosphere, let me put Easterbrook’s rant from his column two weeks ago about Toronto mayor Mel Lastman’s comments following the Northeast blackout:

In the hours after the blackout, Toronto’s mayor Mel Lastman declared that the problem must have started in America but, “Have you ever seen the United States take blame for anything?” Mel, we’ve taken the blame for more awful errors than anyone can count — the bomb that hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and the destruction of the Iranian Airbus among many others. Just a few months ago, in a case that every Canadian except, apparently, the mayor of Toronto knows, America took the blame for the four noble Canadian soldiers whom United States forces killed with friendly fire in Afghanistan. America accepts lots of blame because we are out defending the free world: and equally important, defending the notion of freedom. Year after year, liberal democracy spreads and tyranny continues its retreat, because year after year the United States surrenders blood and treasure in this vital fight. Canada sleeps well, with very small defense expenditures and thus more money to spend on itself, because the United States stands guard. Canada’s recent track record at taking the blame? In 1993, a Canadian commando unit in Somalia tortured a civilian to death. The Canadian military and the Ottawa federal government denied responsibility, then engaged in a three-year cover-up. Here is a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation summary of the cover-up and investigation, plus CBC’s lament that “The government’s decision to cut the inquiry short left many questions unanswered.” So people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, eh? Regardless of whether the power is on in the glass house.

Indeed. Here’s another excellent rant on an issue I failed to blog about out of sheer laziness, the Ten Commandments flap in Alabama. This is what Easterbrook has to say about Alabama Chief Justice (and unofficial chief jackass) Roy Moore:

Moore further said that the First Amendment precept, “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion,” does not apply to him because “I am not Congress.” Drag this incompetent lunatic out of the court quickly, please. Anyone with entry-level knowledge of Constitutional law knows that the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, was intended to extend the Bill of Rights to state governments; that a 1937 Supreme Court decision specifically declared that the First Amendment binds state officials like Judge Moore. As a church-going Christian… I find it deeply embarrassing when Christianity is associated, in the public eye, with hucksters like Moore. I find it embarrassing, too, when Christians supporting Moore’s hunk of stone suggest that a big object in a public square is what matters, rather than the power of God’s message itself. Anyone who needs to look at a big object in order to believe, doesn’t really believe.

Indeed again. UPDATE: This Jay Drezner post reminds me why I like football so much.