Final Word from Friday, January 11, 2008
One of our readers noted that Václav Klaus's op-ed article in the Financial Times about the risk posed to freedom by "ambitious environmentalism" was the No. 3 most-read comment & analysis piece on FT.com in 2007. Klaus was nestled between James Carville and Michael Bloomberg, two heavy hitters. This nonscientific click-poll somewhat refutes Jan Švejnar's insinuation that Klaus, unlike him, isn't a world-class thinker. In a sense, Klaus is a sort of Central European version of Ron Paul, the U.S. presidential candidate with libertarian views who likes to shock by warning about the deterioration in our rights and freedoms. Both of them talk about the need to challenge the "established" truth. In another way, Klaus himself has been the "established" truth in the CR for 15 years. If he loses his reelection bid (30% chance, we'd say), it will be because the time to challenge his truth has arrived.[Czech Republic presidential elections]
Glossary of difficult words
op-ed - a commentary or feature printed on the page opposite the editorial page in a newspaper;
nestled - to be settled snugly and comfortably;
James Carville - a U.S. Democratic political strategist;
Michael Bloomberg - mayor of NYC, possible independent candidate for U.S. president;
heavy hitter - an important or powerful person;
insinuation - a suggestion of something negative;
thinker - a person with highly developed intellectual powers;
libertarian - a person who favors only minimal state intervention in the lives of citizens;
deterioration - decay, weakening;
established - recognized and generally accepted.