Tuesday morning dribs and drabs

- In advance of the State of the Union speech tonight from President Bush, the idea of demand-side conservatism has been put forward, which is basically another way of looking at the term "ownership society". As the theory goes, when individuals are given the freedom to choose how they'll run their lives, they won't look to the state to fill in the gaps. (Needless to say, this idea will never catch on in Canada.)

- Also on the State of the Union, various commentators will be looking for a signal that the Administration is going to promote energy independence. I sure hope so.

- On Hamas, spokesperson Khalid Mish'al says that they are prepared to work towards peace if Israel basically denies its own right to exist. Hitchens takes on the corruption explanation, but I find it suprising that he says that Israel should have granted a state to the PLO twenty years ago. That would assume that the PLO actually wanted a state rather than the elimination of Israel altogether. Warnings here and here about those who would downplay Hamas' intentions, while Jack Kemp says

(t)he short answer to the gloaters and the basis for crafting a policy to deal with the situation is there is more to democracy than simply voting. Elections without the accompanying institutions of democracy - the rule of law, individual liberty and civil rights, private property, civil society, functioning government institutions - is "all sail and no rudder." The political system scuds along at a frightening pace in whatever direction the wind is blowing, but it lacks any institutional steering mechanism to drive the system into the political winds to reach its ultimate destination of security and efficient delivery of government services.

- And finally, the Chicago Tribune looks at moves by the UN to isolate rights abusers by creating a new council on human rights to replace the spectacularly ridiculous Human Rights Commission.