It’s looking more and more as though the Obama Administration didn’t have a post-war plan in Libya.  Radical Islamists will indeed be a part of the government.  And tribalism (to put the most polite possible face on it) is rearing its ugly head.

For Labor Day:  The bad of unions, and the good.  The Americans always saw ourselves as potential winners rather than losers, settling for what came along, explains why unions never really achieved the sort of radical political power they did in Europe.

View has long been a booster of ties to India.  So, a little news from that part of the world.  At least one Japanese economist sees India as overtaking China in Foreign Direct Investment over the next decade.  Perhaps, as long as the Reserve Bank of India doesn’t try to dictate its terms.   It’s only recently that currency controls have been loosened in India, so the bureaucrat-think is still strong there.  Even the paperless office doesn’t seem to be a goal, much less on the horizon.  Hey, I appreciate a good Selectric as much as the next guy – they’re smooth machines – but I don’t think View would have much readership without the Net.

The business establishment sees opportunity with China, rather than rivalry.  I’m not sure the Chinese see it the same way, and I think the world outlooks are sufficiently different that they’ll come into conflict eventually.

In the meantime, cultural schackles can be hard to shake off, even for immigrants.  I wonder if Indian immigrants to America see things the same way.  It’s possible, but my first guess would be that they don’t.

In the meantime, over in Europe, Merkel, in order to form a more fiscal union, may propose an end run around Lisbon, which was itself, an end run around the people of Europe.  I don’t see how a two-speed Europe is any more sustainable than the current model, but maybe there’s a plan in mind.

And in other European Trends We Don’t Want To Follow, in our zeal to record and hold the police accountable, we can’t destroy respect for them.  That way lies London.

Crumbling infrastructure?  We’re actually spending more. The two statements aren’t in opposition, of course.  If you go on a building spree, a lot of those projects will fall apart at the same time, and government’s never been very good at setting aside sinking funds for future expenses.  Our problem is that we’re spending the money in the wrong places.

Yes, Social Security IS a Pyramid scheme.

There are Icons, and then there are icons.

In a wide-ranging study (L’image interdite, 1994) the French philosopher Alain Besançon has argued that the fear and suspicion of images has influenced the development of religion and philosophy throughout recorded history, and has not disappeared merely because we are now surrounded and distracted by images on every side and at every moment of the day. Indeed, much of what disturbs people in our image-saturated culture is what disturbed the theologians of Islam (and Judaism – ed): namely, that the “graven image,” which begins as a representation, soon becomes a substitute. And substitutes corrupt the feelings that they invite, in the way that idols corrupt worship, and pornography corrupts desire. For substitutes invite easy and mechanical responses. They short-circuit the costly process whereby we form real relationships, and put mechanical and addictive reflexes in their place. The idol does not represent God: it defaces Him, in something like the way pornography defaces love.

Can batteries boost solar power? The author is clearly a booster himself, and I think he wishes away a lot of the economic, technical, and agricultural issues.  But it’s always worth know the latest.

Having missed Friday, and of course, taken Saturday off, the Spy has a little catching up to do.

Irwin Stelzer at The Weekly Standard explains why American hasn’t lost its fundamental advantages:   “Translation: if we get our policies right, there is no reason America can’t recapture the optimism and energy that we once called “the American dream.”

As for getting the policies right, we could start here.

Now playing on TVs all across New York City.  Whoever the Republican nominee is, he’ll have a hard time carrying New York, so this is really a reminder to some of Obama’s biggest fundraisers

Remember the Water Cycle?  Rain to streams, to evaporation to clouds to rain?  That’s pretty much the Dems’ game: tax money, to failing businesses and unions, to political contributions.  Except the Water Cycle didn’t leak water the way this system leaks money.

What’s the matter with saying that, if this $1,000,000,000 is critical, it’s more important than some other $1,000,000,000 that the government is spending somewhere else?

The warmists’ war on science continues.

Just when you thought Moore’s Law was in serious danger, ever smaller flash memory is on the horizon.

Verlander is the MVP.  So what if he’s a pitcher?  I’m hoping that the Tigers will give him one last tune-up on the 20th or 21st down in KC, so I can drive down to see him.

Why the mortgage lawsuit against the banks is going to be a tough sell.  “Many of these same banks got themselves in serious financial trouble by gorging on their own toxic mortgage securities, which dims the fraud angle.  Unfortunately, being arrogant idiots with the risk appetite of a coked-up skydiver is not a crime.”

All that talk about the debt ceiling debate changing the discussion, maybe it wasn’t just talk.

“If you’re wondering exactly who has been the first to lose confidence in the European banking system, look no further. It seems that at the forefront is the European banking system itself.”

Apparently, Obama’s new economic advisor believes that increasing wages causes an increase the demand for labor.  There are some boutique situations where higher prices help define a brand.  Entry-level labor isn’t one of them.

A California ballot initiative would shift virtually all mortgage risk onto the lender.  You can see the ads now: “Welcome to California.  Cash Only.”  It’s as though someone was reading Atlas Shrugged, saw some of the legislative proposals there, and drew all the wrong lessons.

And lest we risk becoming too earnest, some corporations know how to communicate with shareholders.

Iran sees some strategic value in helping the Libyan rebels.  Well, since we were mostly just interested in preventing a refugee flood into Europe, they probably have more staying power, too.

State pensions.  You thought it was bad?  It’s worse.

Maybe we could just cherry-pick BC, Alberta, and the plains provinces.

Sorry, Airports Council.  Airport slots are a commodity.  These were the same guys who were arguing for more freedom to raise passenger charges to secure revenue bonds.  But the airports involved are almost all government-run, so it’s more about autonomy than the market for them.

Well, that’s ok.  Soon the pilots won’t know which direction the gates are, anyway.

That’s right, from a government that can’t program its own labor rules into an iPhone app when they’re sober.  (You assume facts not in evidence, sir.)

Republicans float a proposal to actually, you know, use our leverage to force the UN to reform.  And this is just the low-hanging fruit.

Remember when we all mourned the loss of Bell Labs?  Microsoft has the room, the time, the talent, and the money to fund applied research, too.

How the EU might be able to get around its treaty limitations, and issue Eurobonds. And here’s why they might want to:

Meanwhile, in an interview with FAZ, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé warned, “The dissolution of the eurozone is not acceptable, because it would also be the dissolution of Europe. If that happens, then everything is possible. Young people seem to believe that peace is guaranteed for all time…But if we look around in Europe there is new populism and nationalism. We cannot play with that.”

Eurobonds by Eurocrats.  Sound about right.  Maybe if the all-vanilla center-left-center-right-center parties hadn’t outlawed debate on anything substantive, they might find more support.  There’s basically no address where the average European can go to complain about things, or to effect change.

Joseph Epstein on the race-, class-, and gender-obsessed gated communities that English departments have become:

Yet, through the magic of dull and faulty prose, the contributors to “The Cambridge History of the American Novel” have been able to make these presumably worldly subjects seem parochial in the extreme—of concern only to one another, which is certainly one derogatory definition of the academic. These scholars may teach English, but they do not always write it, at least not quite.

One-third of the US corn crop could be vulnerable to bugs that have adapted around Monsanto’s GM line.  Well, with any luck, it’ll be the third we were sending to ethanol.

States ask for Medicaid relief.  They should know.  They can’t even estimate the costs of their own policy changes.

Better plans for better boarding time, through math.

Hey, Tom Friedman, call your office.  Those environmentally- and safety-conscious Chinese have done it again, as their major oil refinery catches on fire for the 2nd time in the last few months.

Europe, call a cab.  It looks as though Germany is throwing you out of its basement.

Or, you could call for a bus.  More on why inter-city bus travel is better than trains.

Paul Krugman, call it quits.  Just because Republicans don’t like your version of the dismal science doesn’t mean they don’t like science at all.

Maybe next time you use GPS while driving, you won’t need to call a wrecker.  Using the Android phones’ camera to keep your eyes on the road, even when they’re not.

If Iowa’s a single-issue ethanol state, then Rick Perry will need to call for backup.  I get the feeling, though, that he’s researched this question a little more than we think.