EGO

Independent

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Martin Lindeskog brings us a unique perspective on U.S. foreign and economic policies. Located in Sweden, Martin is an “American in spirit” that holds true to the Objectivism ideology developed by Ayn Rand.

The latest addition to the Political Blog Listing comes not from the United States but from Sweden. Martin Lindeskog, the author of EGO, might not be in the United States, but he is an American at heart. When he is not discussing American politics and policies, he is exploring the American economy and markets. With that, let’s take a moment and explore Martin’s domain.

EGO derives its name from Egoist; a person who is devoted to their own interest and advancement. It is this ideal that many American’s possessed to become successful. It is also a good description of bloggers everywhere – including myself – since we strive to advance our understanding of politics while exploring our interests in a public format. In his quest for advancement, Martin provides the readers three formats to choose from in order to learn about his positions and views on economics and politics. When I first started writing this review, I wasn’t sure how to address this without including his other two sites in the review as well. This multi-site format is unique to our current list of reviewed websites, so let me take a moment to cover them in brief.

The first site is Martin’s primary blog. EGO is a multipurpose website (a “pundit style” as he calls it) covering politics, capitalism, blogging, religion, military, and more. Narrowing the scope of the review down to politics and capitalism, you get a good sense of where he would fit within the American society. With a keen interest in U.S. free-market system and philosophical references to Ayn Rand, Martin could easily find a home in the United States. If you look at his post “Christopher Cox at the Securities and Exchange Commission,” you get a feel of his pundit style. With 20 separate links in one post, Martin discusses the appointment of Mr. Cox to the SEC and the criticisms and praises Cox received for his acceptance of the philosophy of Ayn Rand towards corporations and free enterprise.

The second site in Martin’s corner of the internet is another first for the Political Blog Listing. He hosts a podcast hosted on Solid Vox. While the podcast is a new feature, with only two interviews currently uploaded, they are full-length interviews with a depth of information. If you have 27 minutes available, I would recommend you take the time to listen to his interview with political cartoonist Allen Forkum. They discuss not only the process for creating a political cartoon but also explains how you can get your hand on some original pieces of work.

The last tool is his presence on the Open Forum (powered by American Express). Most of his in-depth writing on businesses and working with the U.S. economy can be found here, and many posts from the EGO website links to these articles. While these articles might not necessarily be political in focus, U.S. policies towards the free market makes our economy a fertile field for new businesses to grow. Martin has an excellent article on “Five Reasons Why America is a Great Place to Run a Business.” Here he explores how our culture and policies are important aspects in our economic security and expansion for the future.

Be it his focus on an open economy or his Objectivism views, Martin reminds us of our can-do spirit and entrepreneurial drive. Take a few moments to visit his website and explore the wide array of topics and sources he links in his articles and get a better feel for his outside impression on the United States.

I must apologize to Martin, however. When he first contacted me about reviewing his website, my initial glance at his site gave me the impression that I could write the review within a few days and have it posted by the weekend. However, once I started reading the 6 years of material and discovering his additional work outside of the EGO blog, the more complex the task became. There are blogging tips that I discovered that I might experiment with and integrate into U.S.C.S website as a result of the additional time I spent reading his works.

This is a short post since I want to hear what you think. With the national economic crisis currently occurring, and federal tax dollars being spent in all 50 states to stimulate job creation and economic growth, do you think there will be an increase in “[insert name of state] First” political parties forming?

Say for example Alabama has a better economic condition that California, and as a result, a greater percentage of taxpayers’ funds from the state of Alabama were being sent to California than being retained locally. With the representatives in the House and Senate for Alabama being seen as incapable of putting the needs of the state ahead of other states or political party, an Alabama First Party could form and gain public appeal.

Do you think this could happen? And if so, how do you view a Congress would perform with such a diverse range of priorities outside of the two-party mindset it currently holds?

I write this article with a sad heart. As I mentioned earlier this week on this blog and over at our friends from the First Door on the Left, the controversy over the political cartoon on the New York Post last week will be fuel for those derive power from keeping the embers of racism alive. Enter the NAACP.

As mentioned in the prior article, Al Sharpton stepped forward saying, “The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys.” Today, we have NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous coming forward with the following statement:

There is consensus that if the Post does not … get rid of the journalists who are responsible for this bit of hate speech seeing the light of day, that we will move this from a local, regional issue to a very national issue.

Hate speech? The United States is prohibited by the First Amendment from regulating speech, including hate speech. What the country does have are laws that restrict speech that incites riots or is libel or slanderous. With that being said, there is no legal ground that would require the paper to fire the cartoonist from their staff. This bring us to our next quote provided by NAACP Chairman Julian Bond:

This was an invitation to assassination of the president of the United States and anyone who was not offended by it doesn’t have any sensibilities.

Threats against the President do fall under the legal jurisdiction of the Federal government. According to 18 U.S.C. § 871, threats against the President, Vice-President, or their successors (following an election) shall result in fines and/or imprisonment up to five years. Such threats would be investigated by the Secret Service. As I write this article, I cannot find any sources indicating the Secret Service has questioned the cartoonist or the paper, and there is a good reason why they shouldn’t.

As explained in the prior article, the subject that the monkey represents is not President Obama but the person(s) responsible for drafting the stimulus bill. The President signed the legislation, but he did not write it. That fell to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (and their staff). This brings me to the last quote, also from Mr. Bond:

This is tastelessness taken to the extreme.

Yes, he is correct. The fact that the cartoon displayed violence is in bad taste. The case of the chimpanzee attack is sad and unfortunate, and should not have been used to lampoon the stimulus bill. However, the cartoon is not racist and it is not a threat towards the President. While I would not expect the NAACP to retract their false accusations against the cartoonist, I do think that they should wait to see if the Secret Service does get involved before future demands against the newspaper are made.

I am troubled by this, and I hope you are too.

Related articles:
CNN – “NAACP calls for firing of N.Y. Post cartoonist”
Cornell University Law School – “§ 871. Threats against President and successors to the Presidency”
Rant Rave – “Rant: Dead Monkey Reaction Post to Siempre”
About.com - “Some Perspective on the New York Post Cartoon”

I have reactivated my forum, and have added a link to it in the navigational bar above. Since the forum operates outside of the blog, the link will open a new window. I currently have only three categories listed in the forum that are visible to the general public: General Discussion, Domestic, and International. For advanced members of the website – those that I have reviewed their blogs – there is a section for you to recommend articles the the Political Blog Weekly. If you have any recommendations or thoughts that you wish to share with me that aren’t related to recent blog articles, please feel free to use the forum.