** Leo Strauss - the intellectual spine of the PNAC? Another crazy white man taking Hobbes' natural state literally leading to a reactionary application of the Leviathan to IR. The possibility of absolutist and bellicose abuse of this 'work of peace' is fairly obvious after all. Reminiscient of 'the Macchiavellian moment' in republicanism.

Truthout sheds light on his persona:

''The Weimar Republic (in Germany) was his model of liberal democracy for which he had huge contempt,'' added Drury. Liberalism in Weimar, in Strauss's view, led ultimately to the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews.

Like Plato, Strauss taught that within societies, ''some are fit to lead, and others to be led'', according to Drury. But, unlike Plato, who believed that leaders had to be people with such high moral standards that they could resist the temptations of power, Strauss thought that ''those who are fit to rule are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right, the right of the superior to rule over the inferior''.

More here.


** And yes, it's true. Bush, Blair nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

"A Norwegian parliamentarian nominated President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday, praising them for winning the war in Iraq.

'Sometimes it's necessary to use a small and effective war to prevent a much more dangerous war in the future,' Jan Simonsen, a right-wing independent in Norway's parliament, told Reuters."

Now why am I not really surprised? Still disgusted though...