Peace Coming to Kashmir?

Pragmatic Euphony brings a crime report that seems to indicate progress toward peace in Kashmir.

Thieves decamped with an ATM in the middle of the night from uptown Srinagar.

snip

Even though this sounds counterintuitive, it is a crime worth rejoicing over. After all, criminals wouldn’t dare to decamp with an ATM in the night if the town was infested with terrorists and trigger-happy security forces ready to nab them. Alas, the law will punish them for their crime — as it should — but these burglars have sent a larger message to all of us: things are indeed getting back to normal in Kashmir.

Let us hope he's right.

Freedom

Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It’s not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It’s not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the “right” to education, the “right” to health care, the “right” to food and housing. That’s not freedom, that’s dependency. Those aren’t rights, those are the rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences
P.J. O’Rourke Remarks at a May 6, 1993 gala dinner celebrating the opening of the Cato Institute’s new headquarters in Washington. HT: Pragmatic Euphony


Wise comments but I have a quibble.

Freedom is the right, not, to do as you damn well please, (baring things like murder and theft that hurt others ) but the right to do what is right, and to speak the truth. In practice this may not make much difference. A government that does not have ability to keep one from doing as they damn well please, does not have the ability to keep one from doing right or speaking the truth. A government that has the ability to keep one from doing as they damn well please, has the ability to one from doing right or speaking the truth

Of course sometime people are mistaken and even dishonest when claim to do right or speak the truth, but if we limit there right then we have limited everyone else’s right. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, there will be consequences, which can be heavy for the mistaken or dishonest,

Empowerment, lets one do wrong and say falsehoods without consequences.
Entitlements place one at the disposal of the entitler, one must do and say as directed to keep the entitlement right wrong or indifferent.
Dependency is slavery, not freedom.


But first and foremost - freedom means being able to do what is right. With the duty to accept the consequences for ones actions.


See also:
Storms - Stoplights - Equality
The Fourth of July

Red Tape Holds the Nation Together

Except it is so true this would this is funniest thing you read today.

From
Pragmatic Euphony at Indian National Interest

“Sometime in early 1999-I was unable to fix the precise date-two officers in the Ministry of Steel made some notings on the files that passed through their desks. What caught the eye of their colleagues and superiors was not anything they had written, but the fact that they had used red and green ink. Accordingly, on 13 April 1999, the Ministry of Steel wrote a “D.O. letter” to the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. Can officers use ink other than blue or black, the Ministry wanted to know. Are there guidelines on the question? If so could these please be forwarded to the undersigned.


And

Reminds me of this quote from that timeless classic, Yes Minister:
“
Bernard: What about a publicity campaign Minister, you know ADMINISTRATION SAVES THE NATION, RED TAPE IS FUN, full pages ads in … in. Just an idea.

Jim: Red tape is fun?

Bernard: Well what about RED TAPE HOLDS THE NATION TOGETHER.”