Am I a stark, raving, mad liberal?

Hmm. I may get accused of that for linking Nathan Newman (via Jaq).

My friend, Diana (Hi, Diane!), accuses me of being a liberal because I've never had an economics class. While it's true I never had such a (college-level or above) class, my rejoinder is that there are economically savvy people who have who are left of conservative. Brad DeLong leaps to mind. Nathan Newman is another one. (There are lots, of course.)

Anyway, enough hemming and hawing. One of the things that caught my eye about Newman is that he is coincidentally the author of the sim from my previous link. That seems like a non-partisan tool he's created to me. That's a good thing, right?

Newman's got a long post on War, Globalism & Sectarianism. Things I like about it:

- he eschews rhetoric and stays away from the extremes.
- his views are not overly simplistic: 'I hate violence but, pragmatically I'm not a pacifist.'
- I think the 'global justive movement' has some merits and that the behavior of the IMF and the World Bank and their constituents needs to be examined.
- 'I side with regular working Americans'
- 'Real Security is Global Justice'. The bumper sticker 'If you want peace, work for justice.' has a lot of truth to it.

I'm less willing to demonize corporate interests than Newman. I 'hope' that many of these dynamics I agree with come from ignorant self-serving as opposed to wilful profitting at the expense of millions of poor people.

Don't forget, I'm not advocating everything Newman says. I'm not commenting on the Let's Beat Bush ads on his site or supporting the comments of those who comment there. But you knew all of that, right?