{"id":3776,"date":"2008-12-09T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2008-12-09T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3776"},"modified":"2008-12-09T09:00:19","modified_gmt":"2008-12-09T14:00:19","slug":"til-the-czars-fall-from-the-czky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3776","title":{"rendered":"‘Til The Czars Fall From The Czky"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s long been a truism of American government; when some government figure calls for a “war on…” something that is not <\/em>an enemy nation that is trying to kill us – see “war on poverty”, “war on drugs”, “war on illiteracy”, and so on – it never <\/em>works.\u00a0 “War” is a pretty specific human condition, prone to – indeed, built on – profligate waste of money and, worse, blood, as well as the suspension of reason, liberty and often questioning to complete a mission which, at the end of the day, had better <\/em>be worth all of those sacrifices.\u00a0 Smart people don’t use it.
\nTo paraphrase William Tecumseh Sherman, “War is hell on political rhetoric”.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it’s time to start retiring another term of expedient political rhetoric with similar prejudice; the ‘czar’:<\/a><\/p>\n

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touted the notion of a “car czar” Tuesday to supervise an auto industry bailout, saying Big Three executives haven’t adapted well to changing conditions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Does Pelosi really <\/em>mean “czar” – an omnipotent\u00a0 hereditary ruler\u00a0 who had license not only to rule absolutely, but\u00a0 the means to do so without any due process, often resorting to blood-curdling cruelty?<\/p>\n

Well, we’re talking Pelosi so – sorta:<\/p>\n

As United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger voiced fresh confidence that an accommodation will be reached on a $15 billion bailout bill, Pelosi told interviewers it’s more critical than ever that change in Detroit be forced.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As long as that “forced change” cleans up the auto industry the way twenty years of “drug czars” have eradicated drugs and reclaimed our inner cities from organized crime, it’s all OK, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s long been a truism of American government; when some government figure calls for a “war on…” something that is not an enemy nation that is trying to kill us – see “war on poverty”, “war on drugs”, “war on illiteracy”, and so on – it never works.\u00a0 “War” is a pretty specific human condition, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment","category-culture-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}