On Tue, Dec 10, 2002 at 01:39:31AM -0500, H. Curtiss Leung wrote:
> Michael:
>
> I don't know that story, but I think I'd like it too. The denouement is
> akin to Dashiell Hammett's story "The Golden Horseshoe." The plot is
> more than I can recall, but at the end, Hammett's nameless detective
> narrator works out a way to punish a killer with an airtight alibi:
>
> "I can't put you up for the murders you engineered in San Francisco;
> but I can sock you with the one you _didn't_ do in Seattle--so justice
> won't be cheated. You're going to Seattle, Ed, to hang for Ashcraft's
> suicide."
>
> And he did.
> --
> Curtiss
>
> >
> > Question: 30 years ago I read a detective story (or was it a movie?) where
> > a guy came into an office and found someone he hated more than anyone in
> > the world lying on the floor, shot dead by his own hand, the gun lying on
> > the table. Overcome with jubilation, he picked up the gun and shot the
> > corpse three more times. Standing there deep in thought, he went over his
> > entire history with the dead man (which comprised the bulk of the story).
> > At the end of his reverie he put the gun down on the desk, walked toward
> > the door -- and in burst the police, saying they'd caught him red-handed,
> > and Look Sarge, the gun's still warm!
> >
> > Does anyone recognize this story? I feel like reading it again.
> >
> > Michael
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 18:23:09 -0500
> > From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
> > Subject: Re: Body Count
> >
> > >On Mon, 9 Dec 2002, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> > >> >For such a neo-colonial empire, you don't need Colonel Massus.
> > >> >Local colonels do just fine.
> > >>
> > >> Not if the salaries of local colonels have to be paid for by the
> > >> empire, rather than by taxes on the colonized natives.
> > >
> > >That argument has even more force when turned against colonialism: if you
> > >are spending than you are taking in, it's not worth it. And since
> > >colonialism costs more, this is an argument for preferring WTO-style
> > >neocolonialism. (And for preferring stability to tumult.)
> > >
> > >This is not to say you can't have an imperialism that's capitalistically
> > >irrational. But then by definition it isn't following capitalistic laws.
> > >It's following some other kind of logic.
> > >
> > >Michael
> >
> > (1) Remember, capitalism socializes production and its
> > "externalities" while profits remain privatized. A few capitalists
> > manage to benefit from the whole fucking mess out there in the Stan.
> > They don't mind paying for Karzais and sepoys, because they are
> > paying them with "other people's money": taxes paid by Americans
> > whose unions are getting busted and whose social programs are being
> > cut; and tributes from vassals of the empire, like Japan, who will
> > also be made to pay for higher fossil fuel costs due to the
> > Anglo-American war on Iraq. Imperialism pays for some capitalists,
> > but, for everyone else, it's a losing proposition, as it has always
> > been the case.
> >
> > (2) More importantly than (1), while the logic of an individual
> > capitalist may be quarterly cost-benefit calculations, the logic of
> > the capitalist mode of production (whose guardians imperialists are)
> > isn't. Conrad put the logic of imperialism in this way: "Those
> > Englishmen live on illusions which somehow or other help them to get
> > a firm hold of the substance" (_Nostromo_, Part 2 "The Isabels,"
> > Chapter 7). Ironically, what is a firm hold at one point may later
> > become a quicksand, for imperialists don't have all the cards
> > necessary to win once and for all. When threatened, imperialists may
> > very well prefer an assertion of class power to profit. In
> > _Nostromo_, rather than allowing the populist rebels to take over the
> > silver mine that he inherited from his father, Charles Gould would
> > prefer to blow up the mine and half the country with it: "'I have
> > enough dynamite stored up at the mountain to send it down crashing
> > into the valley' -- his [Charles's] voice rose a little -- 'to send
> > half Sulaco into the air if I liked.'...'Why, yes,' Charles
> > pronounced, slowly. 'The Gould Concession has struck such deep roots
> > in this country, in this province, in that gorge of the mountains,
> > that nothing but dynamite shall be allowed to dislodge it from there.
> > It's my choice. It's my last card to play'" (_Nostromo_, Part 2 "The
> > Isabels," Chapter 5).
> > - --
> > Yoshie
> >
> > * Calendar of Events in Columbus:
> > <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
> > * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
> > * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
> > * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > End of lbo-talk-digest V1 #7097
> > *******************************
> >
>
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu