On HU
Featured Archive Post: Caroline Small on Cocteau vs. Ware.
Ng Suat Tong with the 2nd quarter nominations for best comics criticism.
Erica Frideman on Sukeban Deka, hooliganism, high school crime and giant snakes.
Me on Frank Miller’s Wonder Woman, Marston/Peter’s Wonder Woman, and strong men.
Jones, One of the Jones Boys on Johnny Ryan vs. P.G. Wodehouse.
Utilitarians Everywhere
On Splice Today I sneer at Liberals sneering at Creationists.
Also on Splice I blame the Founding Fathers for Mitt Romney.
Other Links
Robert Jones, Jr. on Nubia and Wonder Woman.
N Plus One Magazine on why universities are parasitic leeches that must be destroyed.
In college, we used to have some interesting debates on the merits of presidential systems versus parliamentary ones. In theory, your points about presidents seem to be right. In practice, I’m not sure that the title of President or Prime Minister makes that big a difference.
After all, most prime ministers tend to be party leaders, and you need a healthy ego to rise through the party ranks, right? And I don’t see much evidence that parliamentary systems produce consistently better leadership.
Are their parliamentary prime minister psychopaths on the level of JFK, LBJ, or Richard Nixon? I mean, I think Tony Blair was kind of awful, but he didn’t actually keep busts of himself in his office so he could stroke them, did he?
Well, Silvio Burlesconi was thoroughly awful, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he decorates his villa with sculptures of himself.
I’ll concede that, off the top of my head, I can’t come up with a European prime minister who’s as crazy as Nixon.
Berlusconi…that’s a good comeback.
Plenty of folks would put Thatcher on the level of a Nixon or LBJ. My British history isn’t sufficient to passing judgment, but I have smart anglophile friends who wouldn’t hesitate to do it. And the admittedly left-of-center histories of neoliberalism I’ve read suggests that her economic policies (forget the Falklands) make her a contender.