June 2003

I'm not sure where to start with the several recent posts by Tia. Click here to read the many SIN message board posts by Tia and Grapevine and others.

David Burgess has lots of interesting Mustang Ranch history. I highly recommend you view it.

Dennis Hof and the U.S. military.

LadyBear to work at Bella's Hacienda in Wells.

Reno Gazette-Journal article on the Wild Horse Canyon Ranch and Spa. And here.

Sunset Thomas on Becca Brat and the pool party.

CNN on the MLBR. And the BBC.

Is this Bobbi?

Cupcake on Mina's Wild Kat. And here and here.

Who the hell is Byron?

Destyny on outing customers.

Shanice on the Wild Horse Ranch Grand Opening.

Shanice says that "Ricki" of the Wild Horse Canyon Ranch got flowers from the Mustang Ranch Museum Inc.

David Burgess about an Old Bridge Ranch customer who roughed up one of his girls. And about Felicia of the Mustang Ranch.

My invitation.

Maggie quits Salt Wells.

LL's two stories.

Lot's of Kaluah photos!

Tia tells Grapevine a thing or two. Grapevine responds.

Tia on Ross Brymer.

I hate to admit it, but I agree with ArcticBear. Oh! And read what he wrote about me!

Wow! What an idea!

Mike Dallas on sex.

Destyny has known Air Force Amy for ten years.

Zoe says it.

fromwyo's post.

REDD's gallery.

Sunset Thomas on the BBC.

FredT's Mustang Ranch #2 story.

Tia has an agenda.

Sunset Thomas pleads the fifth.

Sunset Thomas on Susan Austin.

Air Force Amy is going to the CWMCM#7 banquet.

A correction, by Grapevine. And here.

Shanice on the turnout at the Wild Horse Canyon Ranch Grand Opening.

OffLeash also on the Wild Horse Canyon Ranch open house. And here is a belated link to Interested bystander's post on the same topic!

Border Bandit's reply to Sunset Thomas.

EDITORIAL #023 :

Fareed Zakaria is a talking head on teevee. The author of "The Future of Freedom" is familiar to me as one of the roundtable weekly wrap-up discussion guests on Sunday morning's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" on ABC news, where Zakaria is a political analyst. Zakaria comes across there as intelligent and articulate, but lacking wit and somewhat humorless. Before reading his book I'd hardly paid him any attention simply because of his lackluster personality, but those very personality quirks of his that make him a rather uninteresting talking head are probably exactly those that make him such a fine author, given the subject matter. As you can probably tell, this is going to be a positive book review.

It is doubtful that I am the only American who has developed an interest, admittedly slight, in international politics since the events of September 11, 2001. I've even gone so far as to purchase two editions of Foreign Affairs magazine in my attempt to educate myself on what is happening across our fair planet. So imagine my surprise when I learned that the former editor of Foreign Affairs magazine had written a book reviewing the history and present status of democracy - none other than Fareed Zakaria himself. Zakaria must have been a young man while editor of such a scholarly tome, and has now moved on to the editorship of Newsweek International. Now still a young man of around forty, Zakaria mentions in his book about being born and raised in India, and is not afraid to question the stunted state of democracy there, but I presume he is now an American citizen (he doesn't say) with college degrees from Yale and Harvard, universities which may or may not be American depending on who you ask.

When I purchased "The Future of Freedom" from a local bookstore I was doubtful I was going to be impressed by a book written by some damned foreigner with a glowing recommendation on its back jacket from yet another one, Henry Kissinger ("Vell, I tink dat dee Soviet position ..."). I am here to tell you that I am indeed quite impressed with this book.

The book itself (hardbound) is published by W. W. Norton for the nominal price of $25, with its ISBN being 0-393-04764-4. Six chapters with an introduction and conclusion, 258 well-written and informative pages. The first four chapters discuss the history of democracy and what it takes for a nation to become a democracy, with the fourth chapter devoted to democracy in the Islamic world and its problems there (such as non-existence). This book is worth purchasing for this fourth chapter alone - an excellent summary.

The first four chapters cover a lot of ground, and center on what it takes for a country that is not a democracy to transition to one. Historically, with exceptions, it seems that an enlightened autocrat can do more to insure that a flourishing democracy that respects liberty comes to power than an "illiberal" democracy that has elections by the masses but which all too often limits liberty - the tyranny of the majority. There are other factors as well, such as a per capita income threshold that is rather YMMV, much like my pricing surveys. A feedback process is needed whereby the democracy gets its money from taxes from a prosperous middle class, and the middle class expects a return on their investment from the state, namely a good economy. These two factors go hand-in-hand, but it must be earned by the state. Most of the oil-rich Arab gulf states don't fit into this at all because their income does not come from taxes on their middle class, and their middle class (if they've got one) expects little in return from the state.

There was much in his first four chapters that I didn't expect. Fact is, almost all of it was new to me. Quite a good book as far as it went, but few real surprises. The big surprises, at least for me, were in the last two chapters, which I'm still trying to deal with.

All my adult life I've felt that what is needed in American politics is more direct democracy such as referendums, and less direct democracy such as politicians. What Zakaria does is describe what has gone wrong with American politics in the past thirty to forty years, which has been a departure from the Madisonian norm of delegated representation. This has happened in many areas of American life other than just politics, and he has shown it by noting how the lack of authority and trusted elites in American life has led to a loss of self-accountability. He even devotes a good part of chapter five to examining the case study of the state of California, which I'd love for my California friends to comment on. Instead of my trying to paraphrase Zakaria's last two chapters, I'll just encourage you to buy his book and read it for yourself. There is some humor in his book, but it is kinda dry.

I'm not sure I buy Zakaria's premises from his last two chapters since I'm not easily convinced to turn my mental horse around 180 degrees and start charging in the opposite direction, but I must admit this - Fareed Zakaria has a lot of credibility with his zero rant style. He avoids doctrine and dogma and pretty much just states things as he sees them, and has the balls to admit that not all his evidence is consistent and has only one good-faith conclusion. His just-the-facts attitude sells me faster than any fake act of over-confidence and glossing over of loose ends, and makes me want to read more that this author writes.

Fareed Zakaria may still be a damned foreigner, but dammit, he's one of ours, now!

Quote of the week : "Give Bashful a fish and you'll feed him for one meal. Teach Bashful to fish and he'll slap you in the face with his catch every time." -- ArcticBear, June 06, 2003, 03:42 PM.

Be seeing you.

Bashful