The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverted nor sadistic, that they were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal. From the viewpoint of our legal institutions and of our moral standards of judgment, this normality was much more terrifying than all the atrocities put together, for it implied — as had been said at Nuremberg over and over again by the defendants and their counsels — that this new type of criminal, who is in actual fact hostis generis humani, commits his crimes under circumstances that make it well-nigh impossible for him to know or to feel that he is doing wrong.   Hannah Arendt

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Fire up the choppers

As though to prove that the rank dishonesty of the right is a global phenomenon, our own rightist scumbags make stimulus a political football.

Let's be clear. If Malcolm Turnbull was PM, he would be racking up a deficit right now. If the Republicans were in power in the States, they'd be passing a huge stimulus.

Each claims that they would focus on tax cuts, but tax cuts do not work as well as spending. This is a matter of economic fact, not an ideological position, and was quite decently demonstrated by Bush's failed stimulus.

Indeed, if Turnbull or the Repugs were smart, which I'm fully willing to accept they are not, they would be urging bigger stimulus.

Australia has taken the right course. The times call for helicopter money and we are firing up the whirlybirds. Good for Rudd. I hope it works, and Australia avoids the depression that lurks. Of course, if America fucks up, it won't matter what we do, but at least we are showing willing.

posted by Dr Zen @ 3:51 pm

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