Politique Internationale/The Comedians

...I will grant taxes may be too high, but a blind rejection of taxes as unnecessary is absurd...

...Classical theory underlying free trade assumed full employment, but no one can seriously accept that assumption, certainly not the U.S...

...When the airlines set up their own security system he ordered it dismantled, on the grounds that it reflected unfavorably on the competence of the Greek police...

...Thus they proclaim that the CIA plotted and ordered the Colonels' coup against An-dreas's father in 1967, and ditto the Turkish invasion of Cyprus...

...Which he is doing as surely as some Greek newspaper will accuse me of being in the pay of the CIA once the Greek intellectuals read this...

...Among many plays he wrote Lysistrata, the one that today's silly feminists get most of their silly ideas from...

...One's favorite comedians change all the time...

...He screamed pro-Shiite slogans, made threats, and finally prostrated himself on a grassy knoll inside the perimeter of the Athens airport and prayed his comrades would succeed in hijacking the unarmed airliner...

...The long-run replacement of high value-added industry by low value-added industry will undermine the American economic strength...

...So if you think comedy is dead, think again...

...I salute Tyrrell's final point in calling for conservatives to show a largeness of spirit and imagination...

...It should be noted, however, that Britain declined under free trade and was eclipsed before 1914 by the protectionist economies of Germany and the U.S...

...Gasper is concerned about consumers, but the unemployed make poor consumers...

...harbors almost as many terrorists as Beirut, and has seen foreign diplomats murdered as regularly as demonstrators show up in front of the South African embassy in Washington, Tsimas's claiming to be the coordinator of Greek anti-terrorist activities is a bit like claiming to be the head dietitian of the senior senator from Chappa-quiddick, or maybe the man who taught Teddy how to drive...

...The conservative challenge just now is probably greater than at any time in American history...

...The U.S...

...He first led the Athenians against the Spartans, then the Spartans against the Athenians, and finally the Persians against the Greeks...

...Such shortsightedness is the death of statesmanship...

...The Greeks have had a long history of making people laugh...

...They chose to ignore the warning, and once the hijacking took place, tried to get mileage out of it...

...xxnc idreas's opponents have always suspected that Papandreou one day will dismantle the country's democratic institutions to perpetuate his rule...

...Papadoc's appeal is easy to understand...

...Especially when, in a country that thrives on rumors and political intrigues, real or imagined, every politician, crooked or otherwise-and there are a few otherwises-has always found Uncle Sam's forbearance Of slander a temptation impossible to resist...

...Government-business cooperation is not socialism, it is realism...

...Heeler Manuka, Australia Tax No Evil It is unfortunate Melville J. Ulmer ("Open Secrets of the Deficit," TAS, July 1985) did not give us a breakdown of government outlays 1980-1985...

...I believe with O.W...

...And their governments have helped them do it both by subsidy and protection...

...Western intelligence sources believe that there is some tacit deal between the Greek government and various radical Arab groups, allowing them to use Athens as a staging post or base provided they do not attack Greek targets...

...The Japanese gain their surplus by exporting steel, autos, electronics, and other industrial goods...

...Atwa's capture is proof of the effectiveness of the Greek anti-terrorist force, and it constitutes a blow to terrorism internationally...

...Bill Anderson tried to disprove Japanese success by citing British failure, but that kind of apple and orange comparison will persuade no one...

...Especially with those who still move their lips when they read the yellowest and most anti-American press this side of Tripoli...

...An act of monumental stupidity for a man who says he wants to cut federal spending and balance the budget...

...James Earl Carter is the funniest of that lot...

...I also disagree with some of the particular countries he chose to identify to the American Bar Association as supporting terrorism...

...Now the world trade group of scheduled airlines has proclaimed itself satisfied with security in the Athens airport...

...But if Papadoc's volte face after President Reagan's call for a boycott of the Athens airport was any indication, the same kind of boycott-this time of arms and money- could be applied effectively if Andreas continues to take Greece toward one-party rule...

...Expanding such exports will not help...

...Here is the man whose greatest achievement in the White House was to change the parting of his hair from the right side to the left: "I disagree with Ronald Reagan that there is an international conspiracy among nations or entire populations of countries concerning terrorism...

...Performing at a press conference, Tsimas rose and in a deadpan voice said: "Mr...

...Papandreou, however, had other things on his mind...

...Andreas was first elected in 1981 on an anti-American, pro-socialist ticket...

...Gasper does not understand why foreign governments subsidize their industries...

...That will do nicely, thank you...

...His latest shenanigans seem to confirm this suspicion...

...The American position is similar to a Third World country...

...W.R...

...Holmes that "taxes are what we pay for civilized society...

...Reciting the errors of the Manchester School a century after its decline will hardly solve our current problems...

...In fact the first comedian, Aristophanes, was a Greek...

...Atwa, in case you forgot, is the Shiite who failed to get on the ill-fated flight, the swarthy, sweaty fellow who remained behind and loitered inside the airport in a manner that even Inspector Clouseau would have been hard pressed to overlook...

...The nations of East Asia which are cited as proof of the superiority of capitalism over socialism all use the trade surplus strategy to support high growth...

...But permit me to suggest a slightly different focus...

...Gasper and Anderson would sacrifice the future to gain a few lower prices today...

...became the most powerful economy in the world...

...In a country where all major utilities and industries belong to the state-and the few large companies which are still privately owned are in hock to state-owned banks-raising the minimum wage, increasing salaries and pensions for public workers, along with strident anti-Americanism and demagoguery, have made him a pretty popular guy...

...But not far behind him come others who take him seriously and make excuses for him...

...What is to be done...

...Britain's decline started after 1870 for reasons that were more cultural than economic...

...In the past it was the gods...

...Employment in the favored industry is part of the reason, but there is a multiplier effect which produces jobs in other sectors as those in high-pay/high-productivity firms spend their income...

...Wealth and power ultimately rests on the power of production, not consumption...

...And yes, there is reason to doubt that, with a political era ended, they will step into the breach with confidence and useful proposals...

...Papandreou's "reforms" of parliament, local government, the trade unions, industry, health, education, the police, the armed forces, and radio and TV are designed to strengthen the powers of the executive, i.e., of himself and of the merry men who believe in Dr...

...Stan Langland Belmont, California Free Trade Follow-Up I was appalled, though not surprised, at the attacks made against Anthony Harrigan by Louis Gasper and Bill Anderson over trade policy (Correspondence, TAS, May 1985...

...Papandreou is the latest great comedian of the land...

...Yes, conservatives may become as self-absorbed as the liberals...

...Americans...

...The electorate may have abandoned the New Age liberal at the polls, but in the movie houses and on the television screens, the fantasies of New Age consciousness reign supreme...

...Atwa in fact did more...

...Now it's Uncle Sam...

...From Alexander Hamilton to Henry Cabot Lodge and beyond, industrial policy was a mainstay of conservative/Federalist/Republican policy as the U.S...

...Your reviewer is mistaken in saying that he died suddenly...

...Well put...

...The reason Constantine Tsimas is so funny is his title: Secretary General of Greece's Ministry of Public Order, and Coordinator of Anti-Terrorist Activities...

...Professor Ulmer makes me nervous, as do most conservative economists, in his implication that taxes are evil...

...In export industries, the aim is to expand the market beyond what could be reached domestically...

...A trade surplus is a stimulus to the entire economy and a trade deficit is a depressant...

...If I were CBS I'd give him one hour a week during prime time, co-starring with Andreas, Tsimas, and of course Rodney, who would have his work cut out for him...

...In the four years he's been in power he has not been idle in seeking to do legally what many before him have done through the use of tanks, i.e., become ajefe for life...

...Is there a New Age undertow just below the surface...

...And yes, they tend to live for the battles of the moment and the past...

...which still suffers 7.2 percent unemployment despite a strong recovery...

...My guess is a substantial part of the increase was from the entitlement programs, such as Social Security...

...This is hard to say, especially as I'm a Greek and we are supposed to fear the Turks...

...The hijacking could have easily been avoided if the Greeks had acted on the general alert issued throughout the Mediterranean three weeks before...

...Why are Greeks so anti-American...

...William R. Hawkins Assistant Professor of Economics, Radford University Radford, Virginia Gaitskell's Death I was interested to see in your May issue the reference to Hugh Gaitskell [in John Train's review of Chapman Pin-cher's Too Secret Too Long...

...In general, conservatives are big on government theory but short on government practice...

...It is now a matter of "put up or shut up": a sobering thought for a lot of folks who believe that with Reagan elected a second time the conservative cause is won...

...And with unemployment rising-it is already the highest in Europe-a recommendation for a job from the local branch office is essential...

...That is why in national income accounting, a deficit is subtracted from GNP and a surplus is added to it...

...In fact, old Papadoc did the contrary...

...Suffice to say that Greeks have always blamed others for their self-induced disasters...

...It never occurs to him that they may see something he has overlooked...

...And believe me, I hate to write this, since my few remaining devalued drachmas come from the tourist industry, mostly provided by the long-suffering American tourist-innocent abroad...

...Since last June he's been replaced by one of my countrymen, a man who gets even less respect than poor old Rodney...

...Tsimas's funniest line was the one he delivered immediately following the hijacking of the TWA flight last June...

...Well, that question would take more space to explain than I, a poor little Greek boy, am allotted in this august organ...

...Just before the election (yes, at the time the airlines were clamoring for more security, which leads me to think that Papadoc wouldn't have minded a good hijacking to distract attention from his vote stealing) he brazenly went back on his word to support the re-election of the president and head of state, Constantine Karamanlis, and then manipulated parliament to produce his chosen man of straw in a manner that would have shamed Castro, or maybe even a Sandinista...

...Yes, Jimmy Carter himself, the man who saved the hostages and made America's enemies tremble with fear...

...When the Reagan Administration chid-ed it over airport security, the government of Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou accused the United States of a "defamatory campaign" against Greece...

...He was re-elected last June on more of the same...

...Terrorism can be dealt with quietly...

...But why blame Papandreou...

...I was doing postgraduate work in London at the time, and remember that his illness was a popular topic of conversation in hospital common rooms for some weeks...

...Only one month after the murder of Robert Stethem, guess who landed on Greek soil, invited by the Greek government, and thereupon accused Reagan of using unnecessary force...

...In consequence, one is tempted to doubt the depth of the conservative tide...

...Alcibiades was another great Greek comedian...

...An inspection team from the Federal Aviation Administration combed the airport and has also voiced approval (most likely because after the hijacking the Papandreou regime relented and now allows airlines to provide their own security...

...Lawrence Scrivani Cupertino, California RET's excellent book review for July closes with some lines which merit comment...

...President Reagan recently rejected a Senate proposal for changing Social Security cost-of-living adjustments which would have reduced future increases in this area of expenditures...

...However, the diagnosis was delayed for a long time by unusual clinical features and the absence from his blood of anti-nuclear factor, present in almost all cases of true systemic lupus erythematosus...

...But this hardly means traveling to Greece is safe-for Americans, that is...

...sells Japan mainly agricultural and forestry products and raw materials like coal...

...Which just so happens to be the modus operandi of the head comedian himself, Andreas Papandreou, formerly of the economics department at the University of California at Berkeley, later on a Canadian denizen, at present the greatest anti-American west of Teheran...

...In view of the fact that Athens Taki Theodoracopulos is a European editor of The American Spectator...

...Marx...

...Too many have only a superficial grasp of either politics or government, and this being so, the timorousness RET mentions is inevitable...

...George Obenshain Perrysburg, Ohio...

...It seems that the long years when conservatives were in exile from the centers of power allowed too many economists to fall prey to the simple slogans of abstract theory at the expense of a realistic attitude towards industrial rivalry between nations...

...Paid the price for it, too...

...The main feature of his domestic policies is the construction of a welfare state, at a time when the rest of Europe is trying to reduce not expand social services...

...And it may well be that "too many flinch from showing the assurance and autonomy that are the characteristics of a governing party," and they feel inferior to some others...

...This suggests that Gaitskell's death may indeed have not been a natural one...

...By August of this year he had brought the country's institutions under his absolute control by weeding out anyone not loyal to the socialist party...

...Neither critic mentioned the composition of trade and industry...

...Indeed, they are fundamentally uncomfortable with government and suspicious of the political process to the point of embarrassment...

...Two months before the hijacking, nearly forty airlines sent a telegram to Papandreou expressing deep concern about the total inadequacy of airport security at Athens...

...Or better yet, read on...

...hiites and others of that ilk do not by Taki take liberties with tourists and diplomats in Athens simply on a whim...

...The "sound and fury" you mention is, in a sense, expression of political/government theory, or ideology...

...CORRESPONDENCE (continued from page 7) There is evidence that Americans are coming to their senses in terms of the practical outcomes of electoral politics, but where are the signs that they are fully prepared to roll back that immense range of relaxed standards introduced by the 1960s into every sphere of our lives from family to school to work place...