The original of this mirror site is HERE. My Blogroll. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here. Other sites viewable in China: Greenie Watch, Political Correctness Watch. (Click "Refresh" on your browser if background colour is missing)
****************************************************************************************



30 April, 2004

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES

A minor eccentricity of mine is that I find amusement in a lot of things that most others don't find amusing at all. For instance I find Mein Kampf an amusing read -- because you can open it almost at random and be struck not only by what a good Leftist of his day Hitler sounds but also by what a good Leftist he was even in modern terms -- as I have previously pointed out here.

Another text I get a kick out of is about as unlikely as you can get: The "39 Articles of Religion" of the Church of England. To this day all Anglican priests have to swear that they agree with them before they can be ordained. They are the original definition of Anglicanism and go back to 1571. The main reason I enjoy them is that so many of them are very plain-spoken. They conspicuously lack the waffle, obfuscation and infinite compromise that characterizes the Church of England and its daughter churches of today. Note a few of them below. All conservatives should like the last two I quote. The meaning of some words has of course changed a bit over the centuries. "Fond", for instance, meant "deluded" in the 16th century. So being "fond" of someone originally meant being crazy about them! And a "fond hope" was a crazy hope.

The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory, Pardons, worshipping and adoration as well of Images as of Relics, and also Invocation of Saints, is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture; but rather repugnant to the word of God.

It is a thing plainly repugnant to the word of God and the custom of the primitive Church, to have public prayer in the Church, or to minister the sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people.

The Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people; for both parts of the Lord's sacrament, by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike.

Bishops, Priests, and Deacons are not commanded by God's laws either to vow the estate of single life or to abstain from marriage. Therefore it is lawful also for them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness.

The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this realm of England. The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences. It is lawful for Christian men at the commandment of the Magistrate to wear weapons and serve in the wars.

The riches and goods of Christians are not common, as touching the right, title, and possession of the same, as certain Anabaptists do falsely boast; notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his ability.

It is the English of over 400 years ago but I still think it is hard to beat for plain-speaking: Most refreshing in the present era of political correctness. There was no worry then that they might make someone feel "uncomfortable".

And the simplicity and clarity of the wording does not stem from simple-mindedness on the part of those who wrote the 39 articles. Where they feel a need to get theological -- on the difficult doctrine of predestination (Article 17), for instance -- they are as complex as any modern theologian.

**********************************

ELSEWHERE

I have recently done a long overdue cleanout of my blogroll in the green column to the Left. All the links there now should be "live". If I have missed out anybody who should be there for some reason let me know.

A day in the life of an anti-war protest Some fun pictures and commentary from Washington, DC. (Via The New Criterion)

Arlene Peck thinks that there is too much talk about Arab fundamentalism and not enough action.

Australia's cultural protectionists are getting hysterical about the effect of the U.S./Australia free trade agreement on Australian films. Maybe they think Hollywood should be protected against Australians such as Nicole Kidman, Peter Weir, Russell Crowe and Mel Gibson. Fair's fair!

Brazil once had a comparable per capita GDP to the US. Then it discovered ...corporations tax.

Academic researchers find that Fox News, typically blasted by Leftists for conservative bias, is "fair and balanced" in its reporting

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with its usual big range of good reading.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring with them a genuine concern for the welfare of their country. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



29 April, 2004

"THE AUSTRALIAN" HAS A GOOD DAY

Interesting that this article on gross Leftist bias in American universities was reproduced half way across the world in yesterday's "The Australian" newspaper (p.33 April 28th). "The Australian" is the nearest Australian equivalent to the London "Times". Rupert Murdoch owns both, of course. Excerpt: "A criminology professor asked his class to write an essay on "Why George Bush is a war criminal." One student balked and instead turned in a piece on why Saddam Hussein was a war criminal. He got an F."

Interesting admission here that the most passionate advocate of racism in Australia a century ago was the leader of the Leftists, Chris Watson. Excerpt: "McMullin doesn't deal with Watson's role in the creation of White Australia but it is revelatory. After Edmund Barton, as inaugural PM, introduced the bill in 1901, Watson led the attack seeking not a dictation test but, on Labor's behalf, a direct racial ban. He told the house his objection to the mixing of coloured and white people "lies in the main in the possibility and probability of racial contamination". And all Australia's Leftist honchos were loudly celebrating Watson's government just yesterday! Leftists change their principles as easily as they change their clothes -- as the present upsurge of antisemitism on the Left also attests. Hitler's racism simply made him a normal Leftist of his era.

Good to see "The Australian" reporting at length on the U.N. abuse of the Iraq 'oil for food' program. The Australian media have almost totally ignored the story so far. Fun to note that the author of the article in "The Australian" is American-born conservative ex-blogger, James Morrow. Excerpt: "ABC viewers were shocked to learn last week that the man who spent six years administering the UN's Iraqi oil-for-food program stood accused of receiving millions of dollars in bribes from Saddam Hussein's regime. ... But the ABC that aired the story and tracked Sevan down in Noosa Heads was not Australia's taxpayer-financed broadcaster but the American television network. Meanwhile, Australia's ABC has remained virtually silent on the story"

Again in "The Australian", a good comment on the positive news from Iraq here: "There is violence and there is progress in Iraq. Most visitors understand that, and most Iraqis are using their freedom well. Municipal elections have been held in 17 cities so far; according to Iranian-born author Amir Taheri, they have all been won by democratic and secularist parties."

Incredible illogic: The leader of Australia's major Leftist party, Mark Latham, has championned the idiotic idea that if you read books to kids, that will somehow help the kids to learn how to read! Latham's words: "if we read three storybooks a night to our infant children, by the age of five they'll be able to read". He doesn't explain how or offer any evidence, of course. But it suits the teachers' unions who seem to have "Anything but phonics" as an article of faith -- regardless of all the evidence to the contrary. Brian Micklethwait would be aghast.

This book review in "The Australian" (by a feminist author) of After Theory by (Marxist) Terry Eagleton is rightly scathing: "What I hoped to find in After Theory was ideas about what type of thinking and writing might flourish in a post-theory world. I soon discovered that Eagleton doesn't seem to be the least interested in thinking, only in potted ideas. After Theory has a strange cover featuring an aircraft, possibly a bomber. Eagleton himself is so bombastic it's hard to read him straight... After Theory takes us into a vacuum where bits of past theories collide, supported only by vacuous commentary". Needless to say, Eagleton is a huge success in the academic world.

*****************************

ELSEWHERE

Amusing: "Elton John thinks there's something "incredibly racist" about viewer voting on Fox TV's "American Idol."" He is right of course. Most whites are heartily sick of blacks (as "white flight" has always shown) but there are few occasions on which they are allowed to show it these days. Anyobody who thinks that most people don't prefer people like themselves does not know much about human nature. And no amount of preaching will alter it.

Another triumph of socialized medicine: "Although he arrived in an ambulance with a note from a doctor recommending "urgent psychiatric attention", Mr Da Pos received no medical treatment and took his own life shortly after leaving the hospital."

"Scalpism": Israeli blogger David Boxenhorn has just made up a new word. He noted my big tease of Captain Clueless and sent me the following rather amusing email in response: "It is interesting that you brought up heightism in your email to Den Beste. I have long noticed that myself - it is VERY pronounced in hiring for leadership positions. How many short CEOs can you name? I bet that they're all entrepreneurs that weren't hired by anyone! Bill Gates is usually described as short; he's 5'10" - that's AVERAGE in the US, but very short for a CEO (yes, I know he isn't CEO anymore, but he's still Chairman). While we're on the subject, what about scalpism? Most men over 40 in the US are bald. No bald man has been elected since the advent of television! Can you imagine a short, bald guy being elected US President?"

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring with them a genuine concern for the welfare of their country. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



28 April, 2004

BLACK ISSUES

Dave Huber records how his local education "experts" in Wilmington, Delaware just cannot face the fact that NOTHING they have done in the last 25 years of trying has altered low black educational achievement. They will still say anything rather than acknowledge evidence that the problem lies with the blacks themselves.

An older but very good article on the immorality and destructiveness of "affirmative action" is here. It's more dangerous than you might think and its assumptions are constantly proved wrong.

Forget about blackness: Black author Debra Dickerson argues it's time blacks stop worrying about what whites think of them.

How to help Australia's blacks: "Incentives, including the subsidisation of transport costs, should be offered to those residents prepared to move and/or to take up employment outside remote communities. If, despite this support, Aborigines are not prepared to seek employment outside such communities, that could be treated as a refusal to undergo the normal work test and hence subject to reduced unemployment benefits... Employers should be encouraged to employ Aborigines by making such employment exempt from labour market regulations, including the minimum wage."

Australian Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson identifies welfare payments as the major cause of problems for Australia's blacks: "Automatic and unconditional welfare payments must end to encourage young indigenous people to seek work. Rather than just alluding to problems of "welfare dependency", "boredom", "hopelessness" and so on, Collins says unconditional welfare payments are a problem "that's got to be addressed".

*************************************

ELSEWHERE

There is an excellent new blog here by a British policeman. Really good reading. It certainly exposes the follies of policing in Britain under their present crazy laws.

David's Medienkritik reproduces some shots from an appallingly antisemitic program being shown on GERMAN public TV. You'd think they'd learn.

Property rights essential to economic growth: "Bernard Heitger looked at data from different countries from 1975-1995. He found that compared with the more traditional determinants of economic growth -- such as physical and human capital accumulation and the growth rate of the working-age population -- the impact of property rights is quite remarkable.... It seems reasonable to classify property rights among the ultimate sources of economic growth"

Minimum wages destroy jobs: "The reauthorization of the 1996 Welfare Reform law has been put on hold over a dispute about raising the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 an hour. How quickly we forget. The proposed minimum wage boost would hurt the very ones who are most needful of jobs -- the poor."

A bit optimistic: "It is here that the importance of a free press arises most clearly. For however much journalists might be willing to commit malpractice, when they compete with one another for readers, listeners, or viewers, they cannot afford to be sloppy for very long. Competition is a kind of quality management device."

French duplicity in the run up to the Iraq war: ""The problem with you Americans," de Villepin hectored a visiting United States senator in Paris last December, "is that you don't read Machiavelli." His meaning, the senator's aide told me, was crystal clear. De Villepin and Chirac had lied to the United States during the Iraq crisis, and if we didn't like it, we should get over it. That's how the "big boys" played politics."

Hypocrite Moore: "Hollywood film producer Michael Moore, who has been an outspoken critic of President George W. Bush and his policies since he was first elected in 2000, is in hot water over outsourcing his web site design and servers to non-American companies. Moore, who has championed the cause of keeping American jobs within the borders of the United States during the recent debate over outsourcing, has himself granted a company named PLANK the job of developing and designing the look and operation of Moore's web site. Despite his vehement objections to outsourcing American jobs, Moore still hired the Montreal-based company to create his web site. In addition, the web host server for Moore's web site is also Canadian-owned by Webcore Labs, whose home office is located in Calgary, Alberta."

Anybody who thinks that it is impossible to roll back te size of government should read this account of what New Zealand did in the 1980s: "We achieved an overall reduction of 66 percent in the size of government, measured by the number of employees. The government’s share of GDP dropped from 44 to 27 percent". The Left would expect a catastrophe as a result of that but in fact of course it made New Zealanders far better off than ever before. (Via Tim Worstall)

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring with them a genuine concern for the welfare of their country. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



27 April, 2004

EDUCATION

The economics of teacher quality: "As a result of unionization, pay differentials between high-aptitude and low-aptitude teachers have disappeared over the past 50 years. According to a new study, one unfortunate consequence of this pay compression has been to push high-aptitude teachers out of the teaching profession."

More school failure: "Teenagers from poor households in England are being offered cash payments of up to 30 pounds a week to stay on at school or college as part of a new national drive to 'smash' the UK's high post-16 drop-out rate, the government announced yesterday. But it defended the high costs of the scheme to the taxpayer, in the face of evidence that nearly threequarters of the ultimate beneficiaries would be likely to stay in full-time education anyway."

School vouchers do work: "Caroline Minter Hoxby has just published a paper in the Swedish Economic Policy Review claiming that the performance of Milwaukee's public schools (measured in terms of test scores per dollar of spending) improved quite dramatically during the heat of the battle over vouchers (in the late 90's), and that the gains of that time do not seem to have fallen back... She attributes the gains to the voucher program"

M.E.Ch.A.: "Deliberately teaching young Hispanics that they are entitled to everything American without having to work for it or assimilate into our country's culture is counter productive to everything America stands for and should not be tolerated in our public school system. It is an insult to all legal immigrants who work hard to become Americans and love this land, to watch their adopted homeland tolerate the very tyranny they came here to escape."

*******************************

ELSEWHERE

America's 'mercenary' Army: "Thirty years ago, the volunteer army was a great experiment. Today, even the military has embraced it. The quality of recruits is higher than it was, and morale is strong. And the American people seem to like it, too. In a poll last year for ABC News and the Washington Post, 97 percent of the American people said they were either very proud or somewhat proud of the armed forces. Pretty good for mercenaries". The conversion to a volunteer military was of course set up by Republican President Nixon.

"The United Nations has long been a bastion of hope for the naive idealists who seek a Star Trek-like nirvana under a benevolent global government. But recent stories revealing widespread corruption in its Iraqi Oil-for-Food program demonstrate that the U.N. is little better than a third-rate banana republic where bureaucrats line their own pockets and bribery, kickbacks, and pay-offs are the order of the day."

Leftists have different brains: "Did you hear the one about the researchers who did brain scans of people watching political commercials? It's no joke: A team at UCLA is using MRI machines to study the brain's response to political images. Subjects lie down in scanners while campaign spots play on the inside of goggles, and computers map which parts of their brains are activated. Early results confirm what many have always suspected -- Democrats and Republicans have different kinds of brains. So far, for example, they've discovered that Democrats show more activity in the part of the brain that responds to danger". Wimps? See also here

Theodore Dalrymple says that so-called human rights drive out kindness, decency, tolerance and all sense of mutual obligation: "People who stand on their rights are seldom much concerned with the rights of others. There is no logical reason why this should be so, but it is a fact of human psychology. `It's my right!' is a call not of freedom, but of egotism... There is little doubt that the idea of rights has expanded dramatically in the last few years, so that no sphere of human existence is left untouched by them. This expansion is the end product of decades of what one might call resentment studies: the academic view of the human past and present as nothing but oppression, of minorities by majorities and of majorities by minorities.... The principal beneficiaries have been the lawyers, rather than those to whom the supposed rights have been granted".

Mark Steyn on Western support for terrorists: "That's the wonderful thing about multiculturalism: you can choose what side of the war you want to fight on. Just tick 'home team' or 'enemy' when the draft card arrives..." ..and you can even get the dole while you side with the enemy.

A Pakistani journalist writes: "Muslims of all hues and lands protest their so-called image problem, blaming it not on themselves, but on their detractors and perceived enemies, specifically the much-maligned Western media. It does not occur to them that their negative image could, by and large, be a reflection of reality".

There are some good comments here on the stupidity of the Leftist response to the 9/11 events.

My recipe for today is for a mustard sauce to liven up most fried meat. See here or here. That is the end of my recipe collection for now but if any readers have a family favourite recipe that they think should be more widely known, do send it in and I will post it up if I like the look of it.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring with them a genuine concern for the welfare of their country. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



26 April, 2004

SOME ICONOCLASM

Iconoclasm was an early Christian doctrine that was revived by early Protestants but these days it refers to upsetting popular beliefs. Leftists aspire to it but usually end up preaching false beliefs instead

There is a brilliant article here on the "aging population" problem. Because of better health-care and many bourgeois women considering themselves too grand to have children, there are going to be far more elderly and far fewer young people in the world of the future. So who is going to support all those old people? Almost everyone thinks that it is a blindingly obvious problem and it is one reason why people wink at illegal immigration but this article looks at the statistics a bit more deeply and shows that any problem is vastly exaggerated. For once I won't try to summarize the article. I will say what I rarely do: "Read the whole thing". It looks like the whole scare is another pratfall for the social engineers.

This article says that the Dalai Lama is a bit of a fraud who just says whatever he thinks will make his audience feel good. There is no doubt that Buddhism as it was practiced in Tibet before the Chinese takeover was a very harsh and primitive affair compared with what Westerners do who think they practice Buddhism. I myself like the original teachings of the gentle Buddha but the superstitious version practiced in Tibet is something else again. It's a lot like mediaeval Christianity was.

Serbs say that Clinton bombed the wrong side. He should have helped the Christian Sebs against the Muslim Bosnians and Kosovars rather than the other way around. It makes some sense but, from my experience of Yugoslavs, they deserve one-another. They seem a touchy and aggressive lot and none of them seem to realize that aggression just leads to counter-aggression.

"To hear the TV Turnoff folks tell the tale, we're mesmerized from infancy onwards by the bright blinking lights and dazzling displays. In fact, this year's televisual fast has benefited from a recently released study the purports to show a link between watching TV and developing attention deficit disorder. Even though the authors of the study flatly state, 'We have not in fact studied or found an association between television viewing and clinically diagnosed ADHD,'

Shopping malls are icons of Austrian, not American, cultural imperialism: "Austrian architect Victor Gruen brought the mall concept to this country and designed the first enclosed American mall, drawing on ideas from socialist theory."

This explanation of the Columbine school killings seems reasonable. It was not about "bullying" or anything else that could have been "fixed". Eric Harris was just a common or garden variety psychopath -- a "moral imbecile". Such types typically do crazy things that go against their own self-interest -- but it makes sense to them because they lack normal emotions.

******************************

ELSEWHERE

News Flash! The Jews were behind the Madrid bombings

Bureaucratic viciousness: "The market is often accused of under-providing safety. Consider, however, that the Department of Agriculture is refusing to let a Kansas beef producer test its cattle for mad cow disease. Yes, you read that right. The producer, Creekstone Farms, is losing $40,000 a day because it exports its beef to Japan where such tests are required. The testing of individual cattle, however, runs contrary to the DOA/industry message that American beef is perfectly safe without expensive testing."

Happiness and health in a prosperous society: "Between the media's emphasis on crises and grievances, and the fears engendered by 9/11, it is common to hear that things are going to hell, that our parents had it better. But objectively, almost everyone in today's United States or European Union lives better than his or her parents did." But there are still lots of unhappy people around who seem unable to count their blessings -- Why? I have myself previously commented on that here and here and here and here. There is also a short article on the subject here

Ordinary workers are "rich": "As you filed your income tax return last week it probably did not occur to you that you are 'rich.' But, in fact, Internal Revenue Service data reveals that more Americans than ever may now be classified as 'rich,' at least based on the way Democrats define the term. The chart breaks down the income taxes paid by different earners and shows that the 'rich' includes millions of two-income couples simply living paycheck to paycheck. By simply working in a two-income family, with each person earning just $10 an hour, you are among the wealthiest half of Americans -- based upon family income. You are also among the half that actually pays income taxes -- while the other half regularly complains that you are not doing enough for them."

My recipe for today is for a Thai version of marinated and grilled chicken. See here or here. Probably a bit better for you than fried chicken -- Hey! Maybe I'll get called "racist" for saying that. It has happened!

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring with them a genuine concern for the welfare of their country. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



25 April, 2004

HUNTINGTON

For a modern and forward-looking country like the US, where today even the Cold War is seen as irrelevant ancient history, to fully understand the depth of Islamic history requires a major intellectual leap. But Samuel Huntington got it pretty right over a decade ago. If what we see now is not a clash of civilizations what is?

Samuel Huntington on 'the denationalisation of the American elite': "The central distinction between the public and elites is not isolationism versus internationalism, but nationalism versus cosmopolitanism... Yes, the number of dead souls is small but growing among America's business, professional, intellectual and academic elites... they also have decreasing ties with the American nation."

And Huntington's critique of Mexican immigration into the USA has attracted bitter criticism and the usual accusations of racism from Mexicans: "Jose Murat, governor of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, wrote an editorial for Universal (March 27th, 2004) assaulting Professor Huntington. The editorial's title was "Huntington, nueva ola fascista" ["Huntington, New Fascist Wave."]. Bear in mind that Mexican governors are big immigration boosters. Simply put, Governor Murat would like to get as many Oaxacans out of Oaxaca as possible, so they won't be hanging around demanding jobs or social services. Murat would prefer Uncle Sam provide those benefits north of the border."

*******************************

ELSEWHERE

I suppose it is predictable that peaceniks would be frothing at the mouth over Teddy bears being made out of old military camouflage material and given to Iraqi children but the reasoning they give for their opposition is typically dishonest: "the scheme is insensitive and could traumatise the Iraqi children." If Iraqis were going to be traumatized by the sight of military camouflage, they would be well and truly traumatized by now! Kids like uniforms, in fact.

Osama and al-Qaida are only a small part of the Islamic problem: "Terrorism isn't going to end, regardless of what Bin Laden decides. There are too many groups, too many weapons and potential weapons, and one all-consuming ideological motive... In July 2002, long after 9/11, an Egyptian national walked into Los Angeles International Airport with a gun and killed two Israeli citizens at the El Al counter. On his application for asylum in the United States, Hesham Mohamed Hedayet had written that in Egypt he'd confessed to being a member of al-Gama'a al-Islameya, but apparently, unless a man has Osama Bin Laden's phone number in his PalmPilot or a big "AQ" tattooed across his chest, it takes the FBI almost a year to decide he is, in fact, a terrorist.... When Tenet says that al-Qaida's influence is only recently spreading, he is telling us that no one in his office has briefed him on Sayyid Qutb's writings, the bible for a very widespread and potent ideological trend that declared war on Jews, Crusaders, and infidel Muslim rulers long before Osama Bin Laden first sprouted whiskers."

For once California makes sense to me: "Every day for the past year, Los Angeles County jail officials, who oversee the largest local jail system in the world, have been releasing prisoners before their sentence is up: as many as 600 in a day, and 47,000 in a year -- nearly enough to fill Dodger Stadium. While the offenders are nonviolent -- drunken drivers, shoplifters, car thieves -- the early releases have stirred controversy over whether the savings in tax dollars is worth what many see as a threat to public safety. As agencies report drops in violent crime, so-called 'quality-of-life' crimes are soaring. To critics, the trend goes hand in hand with weakening deterrence." Top priority should be given to keeping violent offenders inside for as long as possible -- as I argue at some length here (short PDF).

Dennis Prager: I have contempt for the United Nations. It is one of the great obstacles to goodness and decency on this planet... I regard the European Union with similar revulsion. With little opposition, Europe murdered nearly every Jewish man, woman and child in its midst, and a half-century later provides cover for those in the Middle East who seek to do to the Middle East's Jews exactly what the Nazis did to the European Jews. For the European Union to condemn Israel's killing of a Hamas leader, when Hamas's avowed aim is another Jewish genocide, is so loathsome as to border on the incredible. For Germany and France (who, unlike America, have almost never shed blood for the liberty of others) to do everything they can to undermine America's attempt to liberate Iraq is similarly repugnant

Another vicious dictator the Leftists will never condemn (He's black): "'Zimbabwe never had food shortages before. Mugabe has caused this famine' ... A flicker of Esinathi Dube's deep-set eyes is the only significant sign of life in a room where starvation has brought a pervasive fear of death. Her eldest daughter, Agnes, succumbed in February; Esinathi predicts that she will soon follow. Another daughter, Sipho, lies at her side weeping away the pain of hunger. "Agnes was a strong girl but she died because she did not eat," says Esinathi. "We could not afford to buy food and the hospitals turned us away when we looked for help...Every street of Makokoba, on the outskirts of Bulawayo, has a house like Esinathi's that has lost a family member to starvation."

I am not sure whether to classify The wicked one's latest posting as a joke or not. It sounds eerily reasonable.

My latest recipe is for a superior sort of baked meatball. See here or here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring with them a genuine concern for the welfare of their country. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



24 April, 2004

SOME ECONOMICS AGAIN

What wonderful morality! "In 1975, the Ethiopian government nationalised the land. It meant that food production was controlled not by the profit motive but by need. It put people before profits. The result was that the people starved.

What if other countries stopped "outsourcing"? "Just as American firms have been increasing their presence overseas, foreign firms have been seeking access to American markets and talent by locating here. According to the Organization for International Investment, California has been the state benefiting most from this trend, garnering more than 700,000 jobs from foreign firms' "insourcing" to the United States. Nationwide, the creation of such insourced jobs is outpacing those outsourced by U.S. firms 2 to 1, and the pay for these jobs averages 16.5 percent more than that at all U.S. firms. Creating anti-outsourcing policy based on unemployment fears makes as much sense as bemoaning the loss of American careers in the stenographer pool, slide-rule assembly line or coal shoveling. The loss of such jobs has netted us more and better-paying jobs and extended higher living standards"

Cafe Hayek points out that jobs are being destroyed all the time so why don't we protect them all? "Any - ANY - change in the pattern of consumer spending eliminates some jobs and creates others. Do we condemn the spaying of dogs because it reduces the demand for dog catchers? Ought we to stymie research on electrical cars because, if successful, such cars will cause many workers to lose their jobs in oil fields? Should we denounce the Atkins diet because it will eliminate some jobs in factories making pasta and chocolate? Are the jobs threatened with elimination by spaying, electrical cars, the Atkins diet, and the multitude of other economic changes having nothing to do with international trade, less important to workers who hold them than are jobs held by people working in industries that compete with foreign suppliers?"

Fewer workers, more production: "How should the public, economists, politicians and workers measure the relative success and failure of a particular industry? By its profits? Its stock price? By its total employment? This may seem a rather elementary question, yet a proper and clear answer would go a long way in silencing what has been the loudest protectionist cry in recent memory."

"Unless those who wish to outlaw "outsourcing" can clearly demonstrate why it is that an economy benefits from higher costs of production versus lower costs, then they have no argument at all.. Should they succeed in forcing their views into law, we can be sure that the ultimate outcome will that which befalls any society that gives into protectionism: a lower standard of living and, in the end, even more joblessness."

Free trade good for welfare spending: "The richer the country it becomes, the more likely it can afford higher levels of taxation. It is because of free trade, in part, that today's world can invest so much in welfare states"

****************************************

ELSEWHERE

As a follow-up to my posts on the U.N. yesterday, here is some more on "Kofigate": The U.N.'s "Oil for bureaucrats" program: Safire says all the money passed through Paris; The Christian Science Monitor gives details of how it worked and says 10 billion was ripped off; The Economist says everybody involved with the program is on the nose. And with billions of dollars involved, Kofi-gate isn't small potatoes either, at least when compared to some of history's major financial scandals. And these are the people who believe that Israel is "poison"!

Dumb teachers: I was alerted to this report by Dick McDonald. About 50% of Philadelphia middle-school teachers "don't know the subjects they're teaching well enough to pass a new federally-mandated test". There have been plenty of previous reports of incompetent teachers too. American education is another example of the destruction wreaked wherever Leftists get control of anything. Before the Communists took over in 1917, Russia was the world's fourth largest industrial economy. Today they are more like a Middle-Eastern economy -- with their main exports being the oil and gas that nature put underground for them. At least they can feed themselves these days.

Schoolteacher Dave Huber has seen forced desegregation of schools close up and points out how it has not remotely done what it was supposed to do: Improve black educational achievement. He documents the desperate twists and turns of the Left now that their failure is plain for all to see.

Democrats for Bush has got to be a good blog. I'd say he needs all the help and encouragement he can get.

C.J. Maloney is outraged that New York City Council is trying to make pharmacies stock "morning after" pills. It does seem an odd role for a municipality.

Michael Darby has put up some poems for us to read and reflect on in connection with Australia's only truly national day -- Anzac day (this Sunday).

My recipe for today is for Asian fruit and pork canapes. Slow to make but they go down fast! See here or here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring with them a genuine concern for the welfare of their country. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



23 April, 2004

Aha! "The day after John F. Kerry said he would make all of his military records available for inspection at his campaign headquarters, a spokesman said the senator would not release any new documents". Useful Fools gives us a good clue to what he is trying to cover up. He was on active duty in the Navy reserve from 1970-1972 -- at a time when he was aiding and abetting the enemy in Paris and elsewhere.


THE UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations: "It was in the middle of the 1970s that the late Daniel Moynihan entered and exited as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Upon his leaving he gave three definitions of that organization: 'A theater of the absurd, a decomposing corpse, and an insane asylum.' Then, giving his remarks support, he quoted a leading British journalist of the time who said that the U.N. was among 'the most corrupt and corrupting creations in the whole history of human institutions.'"

The U.N. today: "Whatever the sum involved, it vanished from the UN-administered Iraq Oil For Food programme, and unlike last year's petty looting, those at the centre of suspicion aren't lowly bureaucrats but a tight cluster of high-up insiders centred on the office, family and inner circle of Secretary-General Kofi Annan himself."

UN fraud on terror: "I simply cannot understand why President Bush keeps appealing to United Nations for its help and cooperation when that institution has proven itself to be incapable of doing anything significant in the field of human rights let alone international terrorism... I base this judgment on a long dead-letter UN resolution dated Dec. 9, 1994, passed by the General Assembly almost a decade ago, about which little is heard. In fact, few people even know it exists. And why should they, since the resolution died the day it passed? To discuss this resolution is to prove beyond a shadow of doubt the UN is a fraud, a betrayer of our hopes to establish a rule of law among nations."

The strange logic of the UN elite: "In Australia there have been calls for full recognition of same sex couples in Federal law. This was in response to the finding by the United Nations Human Rights Committee that Australia had breached Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by refusing to give a war widower's pension to Edward Young who had been the homosexual companion of a deceased war veteran. It is worth noting that only one (Finland) of the twelve countries represented on the Committee that heard this matter gives national legal recognition to same sex couples and that homosexual behaviour is illegal in three of these countries (India, Benin and Mauritius)."

**********************************************

ELSEWHERE

A fascinating short article in the WSJ pointing out that Democrats have abandoned any pretence of idealism in foreign policy and now favour stability and the status quo! I think the Democrats did once have some principles but that is all gone now. They will now advocate ANYTHING that they think will get votes. Historians will remember that J.S. Mill was a great spokesman for liberty but that he was in fact on the Left in British politics and voted in favour of government restrictions and regulation on lots of issues. Principles were very rubbery for him too.

Excellent comment on the Kurds: Why do the Palestinians get to jump ahead of the Kurds?... The Kurds meet all of the qualifications to get a state. They are a cultural and national group with strong ties to the land on which they live. They've been persecuted mercilessly for a long time.. and even better, they have quietly gone about building the institutions of statehood and a civil society pretty much on their own... Oh, one other thing. The Kurds have never blown up any buses full of civilians, never desecrated religious shrines, never mutilated 'enemy' corpses, never machine-gunned elementary schools, never sent teenagers in bomb vests to kill other teenagers at restaurants and coffee shops.. Perhaps the Kurds should do all of those things. Then they would be rewarded .... People would say that there can be no peace in the Middle East until the Kurds get a state.. That's the problem with the Kurds. They spend their energy and talents on things like economic development, education, and infrastructure.

Mike Reagan: "The 9/11 Commission is not doing its job. It is ignoring a document that shows that President Clinton was alerted in 1996 about the possibility of 9/11 style attack, while instead focusing on the August 6 Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB). Having harassed the Bush administration into declassifying the August 6 PDB, the Commission must now demand that a PDB from the Clinton administration also be declassified. Unlike the August 6 document which had no information about hijacking jets to crash into U.S. Targets, the 1996 PDB gave specifics about al Qaeda plans to carry out exactly that kind of attack."

Fallujah Gets Loud Silence From World's Muslim Leaders: "Western Christians were near unanimous in their support for Muslims as they faced (backlash) bigotry after Sept. 11, 2001; when will these Christians hear comparable expressions of support from Muslim leaders now that they are increasingly under threat from the Islamists? "

Tiger Woods on the U.S. military: "I'm just trying to hit the ball into a little bitty cup that's 400 yards away," Woods said on Friday. "These people here are putting their lives on the line. That to me is the ultimate dedication. They're doing it for our country to keep all of us safe."

Tim Worstall has some fun posts up -- like why Coca-Cola produced in the USA is more fattening than Coke produced elsewhere (It's true!) and what the word "truck" originally meant.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with lots of good postings.

Another Thai recipe today: Pork and seafood salad with water chestnuts. See here or here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring some principles with them. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



22 April, 2004

FROM BROOKES NEWS

How a Murdoch reporter twisted the news about the 9/11 commission Rodney Dalton, New York correspondent for Rupert Murdoch's 'Australian' is walking proof of how dishonest the mainstream media has become, especially with respect to the Bush administration.
Bunny Champers meets Al Franken for the Bunny and Al show Bunny Champers meets Al Franken to join Air America. Unfortunately for Franken, and his Hollywood weirdoes, he didn't know what Bunny meant by liberal.
Clinton's media outing to China and the media's harassment of Bush Watching America's leftwing media hound President Bush reminded me of their simpering treatment of the Clintons. I recall in particular when the Clintons returned in triumph to Washington from China.
How Rupert Murdoch's Australian carrion leapt on Linda Chavez Some readers think I've been too harsh on our heroic journalists, particularly Roy Eccleston. If only that were so.
Free trade does not lower wages or cause persistent unemployment There is nothing new in the current hullabaloo about free trade, jobs, and trade deficits. Senator Kerry, please note.

Details here

***********************************

BABOONS R NOT US

This story about a troop of baboons showed that if you remove all the aggressive, dominant males, everybody remaining has a more peaceful life. Trying to apply that to humans would be a laugh though. Look at all the fuss caused by knocking out just ONE aggressive and dominant male -- Saddam Hussein! Not to mention Herr A. Hitler. Keith Burgess-Jackson worries that such findings may cause feminists to engage in selective breeding designed to produce less aggressive males. He shouldn't worry too much. It is the dominant males that most normal women tend to like best! "Bastards" the women call them but they still find it hard to resist such men. Wimps don't get far with women. Even quite feminist heterosexual women are attracted to a dominant male. I know. There will always be plenty of babies sired by dominant men. And feminist women are often themseves dominant and aggressive and some of them do have sons -- as my mother did. And guess what sort of sons they tend to produce? Complex creatures, these human beings -- as conservatives have always said.

**********************************

ELSEWHERE

Despite all the detail in THAT film, there is still little evidence outside the New Testament about the events of Jesus's life and death -- as is pointed out here and here. But so what? Even from an atheist viewpoint, what the critics overlook is that the New Testament is a COLLECTION -- made very early on -- of quite different documents by different authors on the subject. And to have all four histories (Gospels) plus the Pauline epistles telling much the same story -- despite differences of detail -- is in fact remarkably good evidence that events pretty much like what was described did in fact happen. Of course to Christians faith fills any gaps. But exactly the same goes for the Left. Their faith is that the early documents, the traditional Christians and 2,000 years of belief are wrong. Most Leftist intellectuals (such as the post-modernists) explicitly reject the quest for hard evidence in any event. To them traditional Christians beliefs are just examples of argument from authority and blindly following a historical consensus. But recent fashions and modern elite opinions are authoritative, of course!

Socialized medicine again: Patients have to wait so long to see a doctor in Queensland public hospitals that they get aggressive towards any hospital staff that they DO see. So what is the government going to do about it? Hire more doctors? No way! They are going to spend more money on security to keep the patients away from the staff! What would a business do if it had a similar upsurge of customers?

Good for the French!: "An Algerian-born imam who said wife-beating was justified in cases of adultery, was expelled from France yesterday... The Interior Ministry said: "The Government cannot tolerate words contrary to human rights, detrimental to human dignity and in particular to the dignity of women." " More Western countries should follow suit.

Sudan is in flames: No Leftist outrage of course. The imperialists there are Muslim Arabs. See also here

Dick McDonald has got a lot of good postings up -- most of which I could have written myself.

My recipe for today is another fried chicken recipe from Thailand. This is an easy one. See here or here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring some principles with them. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



21 April, 2004

SOME MORE ECONOMICS

Amusing: The two almost universally-known icons of American business are arguably McDonalds and Coca Cola. McDonald's is now headed by an Australian and the outgoing head of Cocal Cola, Douglas Daft, is also an Australian. Watch out KFC! The international marketplace in skills certainly produces results that no planner would ever dream of.

Marginal Revolution points out two new Hayek sites. One of them is CafeHayek -- which has this comment on the many millions of Americans who pay zero tax: "But the political economy of large numbers of people paying little or no tax is a bit frightening for the long-run growth of government. When you pay little or nothing for something, you tend to want a lot more of it."

Charles Murray on how to give taxpayers more say over where the dollars go. Marginal Revolution on where US tax dollars actually go. Health and welfare is the big item -- nearly three times bigger than defence spending.

"Free trade is again under assault. If there is one reason for the perennial attack it is likely the one Frederic Bastiat made so much of: the failure to look for what is "unseen." The costs of free trade (temporary job loss, closed firms) are easily traced to the free movement of goods, services, and capital. The benefits (lower-priced goods, new products, new job opportunities), though great and impossible to produce any other way, are not readily traceable to that movement.... Bastiat illustrated the point with his tale about Crusoe and the plank that washes ashore. Crusoe had intended to make a plank. Should he destroy the free one in order to protect the plank-making job he anticipated? Or should he welcome the good fortune because now the hours earmarked for plank-making are free for coconut-gathering, hammock-weaving, or leisure? The answer is obvious.... Import restrictions intended to protect jobs inevitably reduce foreigners' export-buying power; that costs Americans well-paying jobs. The restrictions also tend to provoke protectionist retaliation, which harms still more Americans. Living standards just don't stagnate; they drop."

"They call him 'rightwing extremist' and 'xenophobic' among many other epithets but this hasn't stopped Switzerland's Christoph Blocher from standing tall in his love of limited government, independence and sound finances. Just last week, he made the tourist promotion people upset by suggesting that the government reduce the subsidy it gives them to a mere 30 centimes (about 25 US cents). Their sceaming and name calling echoed all through the Gotthard tunnel but the message was clear. Why should the taxpayer subsidize any industry?"

*******************************

ELSEWHERE

Another triumph of socialized medicine: They left a large pair of scissors inside a woman after surgery and only a demand for X-rays by the woman herself finally revealed them. And it was NOT human error. It was a careless system. Careful surgery would count everything in and everything out but who cares about public patients? And the "Health Care Complaints Commission" refused to look into it until the media got involved! But you can always rely on your government to protect you, can't you? That's what all those regulations and all that bureaucracy is for!

Unarmed robbery is not a serious offence according to California judges! I guess that means that "hate speech" and pollution must be no crimes at all! Or am I being naive here?

Conservative Truth points out in detail why and how the 9/11 Commission has become a kangaroo court rather than a serious judicial body.

Good stuff from a Leftist leader: "The federal Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, has unveiled a new conservative vision for an Australian identity that redefines multiculturalism. In a wide-ranging, landmark speech delivered in Sydney yesterday, Mr Latham said Australians had moved on from the concept, which he said risked being frozen in time.. Multiculturalism needed to be redefined to prevent it being a policy that separated people from each other, he said. A "new and realistic way of thinking about multiculturalism" was necessary, he said, emphasising that "social cohesion is as important as respect for difference"."

Australia's federal system fights tax too: "Victoria is expected to lure property investors with a $1 billion tax reduction, just as NSW buyers have been hit with higher land taxes. The real estate industry is predicting investment dollars could also move south as a result of the changes, which the Victorian Government claims will mean 96 per cent of Victorian property owners paying less land tax than they would in NSW.

My recipe for today is another Thai chicken recipe -- for when you are tired of KFC. See here or here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



20 April, 2004

THE BRITISH DISEASE

Tony Blair's U.K. government has been caught ENCOURAGING massive immigration fraud: "It is hard to exaggerate the scale of the crisis that now faces Tony Blair and his Home Secretary. They are confronted with a failure of public policy of massive dimensions". And This is the sort of thing Blair's policies have brought about: "Dozens of refugees were living on Wrexham's Caia Park estate before the two nights of rioting that earned the place its notoriety last June. Now the old, white monoculturalism is back; the refugees have all but vanished without trace. At the Red Dragon pub, the scene of last summer's battles, a man was set upon a few weeks ago on the mere suspicion of being an Iraqi."

Peter Hitchens details why Britain's Leftist "New Labour" government has winked at mass illegal immigration. "One, it provides a constant excuse to censor the past and change the future. The false argument is made, for example, that migrant minorities will be offended if British history is taught as it should be, or if specifically Christian ceremonies are retained...Two, it props up the economy ...messed up welfare benefits at one end and penal taxation at the other mean that it simply isn't worth it for most British people to work for low-wage jobs. What's more, restrictive laws make it hard for small employers to create such jobs. .."

UK poll: "80% say that government policies on immigration and asylum are "not tough enough". ..a mere 4% share the view of some of the Government's critics that its policies are "too tough" and "76% back the expulsion or imprisonment of Muslim preachers who support extreme Islamic fundamentalism". It reminds one of a 1996 poll in Australia: "According to the results of a Herald-AGB poll released on June 19, Australians think their country is accepting too many immigrants, especially from Asia. About 65 percent of 2,063 people polled thought that immigration was too high; three percent favored more immigration..." 1996 was the year anti-immigration politician Pauline Hanson arrived on the Australian political scene and challenged the major parties to respond to popular rather than elite opinion. Hanson's popular challenge was eventually taken up by the major parties but still has many of Australia's Leftists in denial. Will the UK Leftist elites be the next to feel the shock treatment? A few British National Party victories in the North have certainly rattled them.

Another triumph of British bureaucracy: "Britain spent 259 million pounds ($400 million) on a fleet of unusable military helicopters that can't fly through clouds, a public spending watchdog revealed today. Eight advanced Chinooks designed to carry troops and equipment in all conditions were grounded in the "massively botched" deal."

****************************

ELSEWHERE

There is an intellectually rigorous paper from some economists here (short PDF) which treats Islamic martyrdom as a supply and demand phenomenon. The important conclusion from it is that the "payment" martyrs receive (fame, promises of paradise etc) is the main motivation. You have to stop communities from offering such rewards. Punishing (e.g. bombing) the community as a whole may be the only quick way to do that.

Most Shi'ite Muslims are moderate: "Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most recognizable and respected Shi'ite leader in Iraq, firmly believes in the separation of mosque and state. His belief is also held by mainstream Shi'ite Islam, which believes in the separation"

There is an excellent article in the WSJ on the old chestnut that blacks do poorly on IQ tests because of lack of motivation. The truth is that blacks try harder: When given unlimited time to do tests, blacks tend to stick at it longer. All that seems to be forgotten in the latest bout of weird reasoning, however. Leftist psychologists now say that "Stereotype threat" causes the low scores. The claim is that blacks try less because they fear that their poor results will reflect badly on blacks generally. One would have thought that such fears would cause them to try HARDER but all that is brushed aside. The WSJ concludes: "Lack of evidence and grave methodological defects haven't prevented the stereotype threat industry from taking off. Distortions are now pervasive." My fellow psychometrician, No. 2 Pencil, liked the article too.

There is a good conservative humour site called The Hatemonger's Quarterly. They have plenty to laugh at. From the beginning of one post: "A correspondent from our Boston (M.A.) office recently sent us a flyer from the dubiously titled "Boston School of Herbal Studies" Apparently, this veritable Vegetable University sponsored a fete called "Shamanic Plant Journeying", which was under the careful tutelage of one Tommy Priester, professional herbalist..."

My recipe for today is a Thai classic that is also easy to make: Pork with garlic and pepper. See here. Some readers have reported problems with getting my recipe blog to load lately. If that happens, there is a mirror site here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH.

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



19 April, 2004

STERNBERG'S "TRIARCHIC" THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE

Although I am a psychometrician by trade, my specialty is the measurement of attitudes and personality rather than the measurement of ability so I don't regularly follow the academic literature on IQ. I have been doing a bit of catch-up reading lately, however, and continue to be amazed at the gyrations Leftist psychologists go through in order to reach ideologically acceptable conclusions. One of the people best known for disparaging the importance of IQ (general problem-solving ability) is Robert Sternberg. He acknowledges the reality of IQ but says it is only one of three types of important mental functioning that can be measured.

But the other two he puts forward are pretty desperate proposals. The second one he himself summarizes as "street smarts" so is nothing more than knowledge of a particular culture or environment -- and nobody has ever disputed that you need both intelligence and knowledge to solve problems well. So while knowledge is important, to refer to it as an "ability" is evasive. And his third alternative is creativity -- which again seems reasonable at first. The problem with creativity, however, is that there appears to be no such thing. Different indices of creativity often fail to correlate with one another. You can be creative in one field and not in another. I myself, for instance, am highly creative at scientific writing or I would not have 250+ academic papers in print -- but I would not be able to write a novel for nuts. So although problem-solving ability is demonstrably general -- which is why we have the concept of IQ -- creativity is not. So Sternberg is still left with IQ as the single useful generalization about abilities.

And the criticisms of his work simply seem to have driven Sternberg to retreat further and further into dishonesty. He simply ignores whole bodies of data -- including things he had acknowledged in his own earlier work -- as Linda Gottfredson (PDF) points out.

******************************

FROM BROOKES NEWS

Iran's role in the recent uprising in Iraq Iraq uprising planned and funded by Tehran's murderous Mullahs who have put al-Sadr on their payroll.
"My Battalion is Right in the Middle of Sadr's Challenge" Iraq is not the disaster bad news that you are seeing on CNN and other networks.
How the left debased the 9-11 tragedy and turned it into a Bush-bashing media carnival Not content with politicizing the deaths of their own loved ones, these people had the gross indecency to try and politicise the deaths of others whose closest relatives are still grieving.
No Excuse This Time Around It's so bad it's almost impossible for any speaker who is Jewish or from Israel to speak on campus. The Arab coalition and their clueless, Jew-hating supporters are strong and the universities have been greatly weakened by the politically correct dribble that is being taught to the students there.
A socialist journalist bags laissez faire and tax cuts Defending the free market from a journalist's vicious libels.

Details here

******************************

ELSEWHERE

Under the heading "The wimps of war" Dick McDonald points out in his latest posting that those who blame GWB for lack of foresight about Iraq were themselves spectacularly wrong in their predictions about Iraq.

Energy bill illusions: "Why must the government establish a 'coherent energy policy?' Generally, we've left decisions about energy investments to private investors. Five- or ten-year economic plans are traditionally the stuff of Russian Politburos, not American presidents. It's amazing to hear Republican politicians argue that, absent some guidance from Washington, businessmen will blindly stumble through the marketplace, unable to intelligently invest in the energy sector absent some sort of congressional blueprint. It's also insulting to one's intelligence to hear politicians claim that, absent political interference in the marketplace, consumers will not have the faintest idea how to conserve energy or even be aware of the benefits of doing so in the face of high prices."

Leftists think they are superior beings: "Will Hutton, Britain's foremost critic of capitalism and an outspoken advocate for affordable social housing, is married to a property developer who has made a fortune out of selling and renting inner-city properties, often at rates which local council housing officers describe as exorbitant."

I have just put up here Chris Brand's most recent postings -- on sex differences, Leftist universities, Muslims, Femiloons and a BIG climbdown from Leftist theory by British teachers. Teachers don't like enforced equality when it puts them out personally.

The wicked one has some Irish jokes. Get them while they are still legal.

My recipe for today is for Korma -- a classic Indian curry. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



18 April, 2004

THE "SHORT AMERICAN" NONSENSE

I am rather surprised that the story about some Europeans being taller than Americans has attracted such a lot of attention without anyone (as far as I can see) tumbling to what the finding really shows. Even the careful Iain Murray missed it. The finding, in brief, was that the average American height has stopped increasing but average heights in some European countries have not. And some Europeans -- such as the Dutch -- are much taller than Americans on average. The data underlying the finding may not be all that sound but let us assume that they are:

Anti-American commentators have linked the finding to nutrition -- saying that it shows Americans to be poorly nourished. Given the "obesity epidemic" in America, that is a pretty hilarious explanation but it does contain the grain of truth that there is some connection between nutrition and height. As the geneticists (such as Eaves et al., 1999) have shown, final height is a product of genetic potential plus environmental influences -- and nutrition is undoubtedly one of those environmental influences. Putting it another way, your full genetic potential is realized only when the environmental conditions are ideal. So what the data really show is that ONLY IN AMERICA have the ideal environmental conditions for height maximization been realized. That is why Americans have stopped growing. America ALREADY has gained all it can from nutrition etc. The fact that European heights are still growing shows, then, that they still do not have ideal conditions there for realizing their maximum height. They are still catching up. In short, the data show exactly the opposite to what has been claimed: It is Europeans who are lacking in something that influences height. The traditional European habit of consuming fruit and vegetables in preserved and pickled form rather than in fresh form may be the nutritional factor involved.

An immediate objection to my account is of course the fact that SOME Europeans are much taller than Americans on average. How can they be so tall if they have bad nutrition (or whatever else has been holding them back)? Once again the answer is to be found in the Eaves et al (1999) study: The MAIN influence on height is genetics so if coastal North Western Europeans (such as the Dutch and the Scandinavians) have good genetics for height they will still be taller on average even if their nutrition is not ideal. And that coastal North-Western Europeans tend to be very tall has been known at least since the Viking age. Why they have long been among the world's tallest people (along with some very dubiously nourished East Africans) nobody knows for sure but only a small percentage of the American population is of coastal North Western European ancestry so the final American average must be much lower. And the fact that the legionaries of the ancient Roman empire were real shorties suggests that average national height is a very minor factor (if it is a factor at all) in national achievement and felicity.

Reference
Eaves, L.J., Martin, N.G., Meyer, J.M. & Corey, L.A. (1999) "Biological and cultural inheritance of stature and attitudes". In: Cloninger, C.R., Personality and psychopathology. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press.

**********************************

ELSEWHERE

Big surprise for the Democrats: "The Tax Foundation recently announced Tax Freedom Day fell on April 11 this year. Tax Freedom Day is the day when Americans will finally have earned enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year. The April 11 date is the earliest Tax Freedom Day since 1967 and continues the downward trend in tax burdens enjoyed by Americans under the Bush administration. Tax Freedom Day had hit an all-time high in the last year of the Clinton administration, falling on May 2.... the numbers show the wealthiest Americans shouldering more of the federal tax burden. The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans (average income of $259,000) bear an even 50 percent of the total federal tax liability."

Taxes and jobs: "America's complicated tax system needs a complete overhaul, not minor fixes. The large role that system plays in many of the political dramas dominating the daily headlines shows why. Republicans and Democrats, for instance, are fighting over the 'outsourcing' of jobs to foreign countries. But instead of sniping at each other, they should look at the corporate tax system. Our 35 percent corporate tax rate is one of the highest worldwide -- higher even than the rate in socialist countries such as France and Sweden. Should we be surprised that some jobs leave America when the tax code punishes investors for creating jobs here?"

Are Mosques holy places? Not in our sense they are not. It is perfectly "holy" in Islam for them to be used as bases for terrorism -- which they often are. So they should in many cases be bombed as the military installations that they are.

A good omen: "There was a remarkable event last Friday evening in Moscow. Several of the world's most prominent free-market reformers spent more than four hours in a spirited dialogue about economic reform with Russian President Putin.

Misrepresenting the militia: "It's true that some Reservists and National Guardsmen enlisted while never expecting to actually deploy. However, my personal experience as a Reservist who deployed is that for every soldier who fought deployment, there were 10 more that jumped at the chance to serve their country in Iraq." It was the same in the Australian Army in the Vietnam era. There was an informal policy that conscripts did not have to go to Vietnam. They could spend their two years doing paperwork at a BOD (Base Ordnance Depot -- i.e. an Army storage depot) instead. Almost all chose to go to Vietnam.

My recipe for today is for Thai meatballs. Quick and easy and very tasty. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Greenie Watch includes a big post on that naughty depleted uranium today.

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



17 April, 2004

DON'T FORGET HISTORY: MAKE IT

Chuck Colson has this very reasonable warning:

"We Westerners forget history. We forget that from the time Muhammad began writing the Qur'ÿn in 610 A.D., Islam and the Christian West were engaged in armed conflicts that lasted for a thousand years. Islam even occupied Spain during much of this period, and it wasn't until 1683 that the Ottoman Empire was finally defeated at Vienna.

We see what is happening today as an isolated case of terrorists taking a misguided reading of the Qur'ÿn. I wish it were that simple. The truth is there's an element in Islam-some estimate as high as 20 percent-who see this battle as a resumption of the thousand years of war. In fact, Osama bin Laden was a student of Mohammed Qutab whose brother, Saeb Qutab, a radical Egyptian Islamist, argued for a resumption of this conflict with the West. Saeb Qutab was thoroughly anti-Semitic, had a burning hatred of the West, and saw its destruction as the world's only hope. And that's what filled the mind of Osama bin Laden.

We're kidding ourselves if we think that containing a few terrorists will allow America to live in peace and safety. We're kidding ourselves if we think we can bring troops home from Iraq and that's the end of the war. This war is going to be with us for generations. Millions of followers of Osama bin Laden and those like him believe that it is their manifest destiny as Muslims to bring about the utter destruction of Jews, Christians, and Western civilization."

What Colson does not mention is that we could end the war with Islam in a couple of months if we chose to. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, GWB announced a doctrine of community responsibility: Not only the terrorists themselves but the communities that supported them would be held responsible for their deeds. It was that doctrine that took the USA into Afghanistan. It would therefore be a simple implementation of that doctrine to start heavy bombing of communities -- such as Fallujah, Tikrit and Qom -- which supported terrorists. Once the members of such communities got it into their heads that terrorist attacks would be very likely to lead to THEIR deaths, the whole situation would turn around very rapidly. Israel could then do the same with heavy bombing of Gaza, Jenin etc.

******************************************

ELSEWHERE

Canada's National Post newspaper has started a blog for its editorial board which is surprisingly conservative. They haven't got permalinks yet but I gather from a couple of postings dated 16th that Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Martin recently said: "Until such time that an election is called, I'm going to govern. That is my priority." That reminds me of a well-known observation by another Leftist: "Our programme is simple. We want to rule Italy" -- the words of Benito Mussolini, the founder of Fascism.

Democrat politicking a danger to America: "Instead of trying to chart a path of progress, many of the president's critics have devoted themselves to fomenting public despair over a war that, they keep repeating, should never have been fought.... The global war on terrorism is not a game from which we can simply walk away when it seems it isn't going our way.... the only deterrent to terrorism is strength... What is weakness? Weakness is when America's leaders compare Iraq to Vietnam, announcing to the world a faltering resolve to see our mission through. To our allies in the Middle East and beyond, these predictions of defeat send a clear and chilling message to hedge their bets, because the United States cannot be counted on. And to our enemies, they send an equally clear message: You can win".

Your government will protect you: "After the 9/11 attacks, the nation's disparate intelligence and law enforcement agencies pledged to team up to create a centralized "terror watch list." The goal: to ensure that al-Qaeda members could not slip into the USA undetected as they did before Sept. 11, 2001. Yet as recently as last month, a top Homeland Security official told Congress the list was still a "work in progress.""

Dick McDonald on Democrat deception: "John Kerry and his media pimps continue to rant about unemployment. He calls it the worst since Hoover. The media splashes his rant all over the planet. Are Kerry and the media that uneducated? FDR had finally got unemployment down to 14% before WWII bailed him out. Bush's 5.7% unemployment factor was "full employment" in my econ 101 class. But times have changed. One can't find truth in today's newspapers or television. The public has to get the truth from other sources. What a sad ocuntry whose only town criers are deeply prejudiced socialists bent on destroying the capitalist system."

It would be more logical to ask Islam to apologize: "The president was asked at least four times at his press conference whether he wanted to take the opportunity to apologize for the 9-11 attacks. It was the press corps in full baying mode". Tyrrell has a good sarcastic comment: "As soon as the press conference ended, I decided that I would ask these know-it-alls if they remembered President Franklin Roosevelt's touching apology to the American people after our Navy and Air Corps were caught utterly unprepared at Pearl Harbor".

The wicked one has some old Chinese proverbs that will be news to most Chinese.

My recipe for today is for chicken tikka, not to be confused with chicken tikka masala. Tasty Indian chicken kebabs (not curried). See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



16 April, 2004

SOME ECONOMICS AGAIN

How outsourcing creates jobs: "Job creation is the number-one issue in the Presidential election. And yet, the creation of jobs is a mysterious, little understood process -- especially among politicians.... Labor legislation has the goals of fairness and job stability, but the more "protective" the legislation, the less efficient labor markets become. Anyone familiar with academic tenure or government employment knows that well-protected jobs also mean low productivity and limited flexibility. The IMF study found that employment protection legislation was a primary factor in job creation. Where protection is strong, new job creation is almost nonexistent (.25%), but where job protection is relatively weak, job creation is five times greater (1.50%). Where it is easy to fire employees is precisely where you will find the higher rates of job creation because employers face a lower cost and risk when they hire a worker. Freedom in the labor market keeps employees productive because they know that employers can easily fire them... By outlawing or restricting the outsourcing of jobs to cheap foreign labor you would greatly discourage the establishment of new jobs in the U.S. and encourage current employers to move overseas... Putting limits on foreign outsourcing will make the U.S. a less desirable location for employers and would put American companies at a disadvantage"

Tyler Cowen (of 'Marginal Revolution') is an economist specialising in the economics of culture & globalization. Here is his take on how French cultural protectionism has driven French films from the world's cinema screens: "American movies account for 80 percent of European box office receipts, although European movies have won only 5 percent of the American market .. No government can legislate artistic success. Film culture, like all culture, is dynamic. It isn't protection that it needs; it is stimulation. Without it, the form atrophies. If Europeans treat their films as weak, those films will become permanently weak."

The bigger European states can't handle serious economic reform: "Whether it is ... 'Lula' da Silva in Brazil, Leszek Miller in Poland or Gerhard Schroeder in Germany, the core dilemma is the same. Governments from the left get elected by campaigning against the policies of the financial elite - yet then find themselves constrained to adopt the very policies they campaigned against... In part, this ... reflects the economic stagnation that has crippled Europe since 2001. Unemployment is now 9.3 per cent in Germany, 9.4 per cent in France, 16.7 per cent in Slovakia and 19.1 per cent in Poland. That's a tough environment for any government to be clawing back welfare entitlements.... But to economists and the elite, those high taxes and regulation are holding Europe back - and threatening to pull it under in the future, as an ageing society will have even fewer workers supporting far more retirees. In smaller economies such as Australia and the Netherlands, voters accept that governments must tighten their belts"

*********************************

ELSEWHERE

Comment from a reader about the 9/11 "Commission": "John Ashcroft just told it like it was yesterday - he said the "intelligence failure" was due to insane policies introduced by prior administrations. Especially good was Ashcroft's stab at a member of the Commission - who ordered the greatest weakening of intelligence in many years. Just great - the Dems are getting salt in their self-indlicted wounds".

It really is pathetic to hear film-maker Oliver Stone's evasions and apologies for Fidel Castro. "There are none so blind ...." In Stone you can hear today's American "liberalism" in full flight.

All the 9-11 victims families deserve our sympathy and support, however some of them are venting their anger at the wrong target. "Who, listening to them, would not be struck by the fact that all their fury and accusation is aimed not at the killers who snuffed out their husbands' and so many other lives, but at the American president, his administration, and an ever wider assortment of targets including the Air Force, the Port Authority, the City of New York?" Did the British civilians in World War II blame Churchill for the lives they lost to German bombing? Leftists really are disgusting.

Bunker Mulligan agreed with the article about Defense Dept. schools that I linked to yesterday. He grew up in those schools, sent his son to one and became himself an instructor at the Air Force Academy. He has posted on his experiences here and here

Rather surprising that the very conservative Peter Hitchens started out as a far-Leftist too. I must be one of the few life-long conservatives who are both intellectually oriented and politically outspoken. I think my first conservative act was when, at age 13, I used my saved pocket-money to buy a subscription to "Reader's Digest".

I wonder if Captain Clueless has grown up yet? He used to think that anyone who disagreed with affirmative action was a "white supremacist". But he also voted for Al Gore and lived to regret it so there is hope.

Today's recipe is another Thai one: Spicy chicken in peanut sauce. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



15 April, 2004

EDUCATION

"Defense Department schools offer valuable lessons, particularly in educating low-income, minority students. Their successful strategies deserve wider application... Each year, for instance, about 35% of the student population turns over. Half the students qualify for free and reduced lunches. And only 20% of the students' parents have more than a high school education. In spite of these challenges, the black and Hispanic students in Defense Department schools lead the nation in minority test scores. The successes aren't limited to minority students, either. On federal writing tests, eighth-graders rank second nationally. Studies by researchers at Vanderbilt University reveal that such success comes by holding students to high expectations. All students - not just top achievers - are required to take demanding courses. Other reasons for success include focused teacher training. About 25 years ago, Defense curriculum experts selected an effective writing program and stuck with it. Each teacher receives elaborate training in teaching that program".

Sowell: The idea of providing black students with "role models" is counterproductive because it insinuates the notion that you can be inspired only by people who look like you. How in the world did the Nisei generation of Japanese American children ever learn, when their fathers were mostly farmers and these children seldom, if ever, saw a Japanese American teacher, much less Japanese American engineers, scientists or other professionals in fields in which these children went on to excel?

Education and class stratification: "True, under market education, the wealthy would spend more money on their children's education. News flash: that's already the case. Today, however, both the poor and the rich are taxed to subsidize grossly inefficient, bureaucrat-heavy, and less-than-optimal schools, and today mostly the rich are able to pay double for private schools. (The rich are also better able to put pressure on their government schools to perform.) So the poor are forced to pay for schools that serve them poorly."

Daniel Pipes looked at the latest list of books published by the University of California Press. Every conceivable Leftist cause was covered but out of the 140 titles, not one was conservative. The UC is the new USSR.

Affirmative action advocates assume all ethnic groups can produce equal outcomes given equal opportunities, but they can't prove it. Thomas Sowell wades through the empirical evidence. "The reality...is very different. In fact, for a host of reasons, some of which we know and some of which we do not know, some of which spring from malign oppression and many of which do not, ethnic and racial groups behave differently, perform differently, learn differently, and exhibit greatly different talents and temperaments. That is not crude stereotyping; it is plain fact. Justice will not be done if this fact is denied or goes unrecognized. "

**********************************

ELSEWHERE

Even Loony Toohey has got the point of what the Bush administration COULD have done to prevent the 9/11 attacks -- nix. Michelle Malkin also points out that GWB is a victim of a Democrat "Catch 22".

Wow! GWB is getting real about Israel: "President Bush on Wednesday endorsed Israel's retention of part of the West Bank in any final peace settlement with the Palestinians.... Bush also ruled out Palestinian refugees ever returning to Israel". He is finally recognizing the difference between friends and enemies. Well done, Osama!

I am pleased to say that one of my articles has just come out in dead tree format -- my first for a while. It is in Society -- one of the major outlets for intellectual conservatism (vol. 41, no. 4). They let me have nine of their large pages to set out my account of what underlies the Left-Right divide. It's online to subscribers only but it is essentially a severe condensation of my monograph on the subject. There is less severe but still considerable condensation of the monograph here which includes coverage of the psychological research on the subject.

"Root cause" nonsense: "For the Democratic constituency-at least at its top, New York Times-reading, latt,-drinking, NPR-listening end-is largely composed of the "root causes" school of politics. These are people who consider it proof of intelligence to treat as axiomatic the proposition that the real cause of all social evils, from drunkenness to murder to obesity, lie not with the behavior of the drunks, the murderers, or obese people, but in poverty, ignorance, large corporations, and George W. Bush.... For such people, root-causeism is a natural corollary of their own self-conceit as smarter than those they disagree with. Does one deal with crime by putting criminals in jail? Perish the thought! One deals with the root causes of crime by eradicating poverty and injustice so that there will be no more criminals." A pity it's all a delusion!

"Animal rights zealots will do anything for attention, even if it means attacking a fundraiser for cancer research. The misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a front group for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is protesting the American Cancer Society's 'Cattle Barons' Ball' events. The western-themed galas have raised more than $20 million for cancer research over the past 30 years. But PCRM will do anything to advance its vegetarian-only, animal rights agenda -- even jeopardize the search for a cancer cure and endanger Americans' health."

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with lots of pretty pictures this time.

The wicked one says Iraq is a fiction -- a "made up" country.

Today's recipe is for some yummy curry puffs. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



14 April, 2004

GOOD STUFF FROM THE LATEST CITY JOURNAL

Theodore Dalrymple thinks backwardness and aggression is built into Islam: "the problem begins with Islam's failure to make a distinction between church and state. Unlike Christianity.. Islam was from its inception both church and state, one and indivisible, with no possible distinction between temporal and religious authority... In the West, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment ... liberated individual men to think for themselves, and thus set in motion an unprecedented and still unstoppable material advancement. Islam, with no separate, secular sphere where inquiry could flourish free from the claims of religion, if only for technical purposes, was hopelessly left behind: as, several centuries later, it still is. The indivisibility of any aspect of life from any other in Islam is a source of strength, but also of fragility and weakness, for individuals as well as for polities. Where all conduct, all custom, has a religious sanction and justification, any change is a threat to the whole system of belief. Certainty that their way of life is the right one thus coexists with fear that the whole edifice-intellectual and political- will come tumbling down if it is tampered with in any way. Intransigence is a defense against doubt and makes living on terms of true equality with others who do not share the creed impossible."

Dalrymple also has an article on the complete collapse of any sexual morality among the British working class. Sexually active girls aged 11 seem to be seen as normal.

The conflict between privacy and the intelligence-gathering needed for national security: "The privocrats only grudgingly acknowledge that terrorism exists, and they never concede that a gain in the public good may justify a concession in "privacy." Their operating principle can only be formulated as: no use of computer data or technology anywhere at any time for national defense, if there's the slightest possibility that a rogue use of that technology will offend someone's sense of privacy.

VD Hanson thinks the USA has brought Islamic attacks on itself by being too weak in its response to the many attacks BEFORE 9/11: "in the decade since 1991 the Middle East saw us as a great power that neither could nor would use its strength to advance its ideas-that lacked even the intellectual confidence to argue for our civilization before the likes of a tenth-century monarchy. The autocratic Arab world neither respects nor fears a democratic United States, because it rightly senses that we often talk in principled terms but rarely are willing to invest the time, blood, and treasure to match such rhetoric with concrete action".

Kay Hymowitz says America's youth are returning to traditional values: "Yessiree, family values are hot! Capitalism is cool! Seven-grain bread is so yesterday, and red meat is back! Wave away the colored smoke of the Jackson family circus, Paris Hilton, and the antics of San Francisco, and you can see how Americans have been self-correcting from a decades-long experiment with "alternative values" ... During the last ten years, most of the miserable trends in crime, divorce, illegitimacy, drug use, and the like that we saw in the decades after 1965 either turned around or stalled. Today Americans are consciously, deliberately embracing ideas about sex, marriage, children, and the American dream that are coalescing into a viable-though admittedly much altered-sort of bourgeois normality. What is emerging is a vital, optimistic, family-centered, entrepreneurial, and yes, morally thoughtful, citizenry."

**************************************************

ELSEWHERE

An excellent summary of American "liberalism" from Keith Burgess-Jackson: "Please keep in mind that I was a liberal for a long time. I know the liberal mentality and tactics. Liberals have no shame. They're unfulfilled totalitarians. Their only goal, despite their declared concern for the disadvantaged, is power. Think about it. If liberals truly cared about the disadvantaged, as they say they do, they'd dispose of their wealth. There are enough wealthy liberals in this country to feed, clothe, shelter, and medicate every poor person. Don't hold your breath waiting for this to happen. The Kennedys are still wealthy, aren't they? John Kerry is more than happy to take advantage of the Heinz fortune. Liberals insist on forcing others to pay for their hare-brained social-engineering schemes. This suggests that they're driven by envy and spite, not benevolence".

Interesting that even a heavily biased Leftist author is arguing that U.S. "liberalism" was optimistic and forward looking under the Kennedys but that it now is dark and gloomy. He says that conservatives are the new optimists. (But then again Kennedy was pretty conservative in many ways!)

Arab Fascists: "O'Rourke told his audience that the Ba'athists were, quite simply, fascists--and that "the purpose of fascism is to turn people into a mob". A mob, of course, will eagerly do the unspeakable, things no individual would dream of doing. Hence Fallujah."

I have not been following the media brouhaha about Justic Scalia "ordering" the erasure of a tape but Peg Kaplan has the goods.

Individual Thoughts has a lot of good posts up. He deserves more readers.

My recipe for today is another Thai favourite. Thais have a brilliant cuisine. This is stir-fried chicken with wood fungus! It tastes as good as it sounds bad. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



13 April, 2004

ABORTION

Abortion realities "In my four pregnancies - the first of which ended in a traumatic five-month miscarriage, the last three of which resulted in gorgeous, healthy children - I always felt, right from the start, that this was someone else taking up residence within me. Never did I imagine this was "my body" or my property to dispose of as I wished. Equally, it was not my husband's. This was not abstract Life, with a capital L; this was someone else's fragile and vulnerable life, growing slowly. The terrible grief I felt at the miscarriage was not because my body had evacuated a waste product, but because I mourned a human spirit never to be incarnated, who would never be, never know this world. And when my living children were born, I was overwhelmed not only by their beauty, but also by their otherness. They were not me, and never had been, from the very moment of their conception."

**************************************

ELSEWHERE

Comment from a reader: "I don't know if you had a chance to see the Condi Rice testimony this week. I thought the Democrats' treatment of her was rather revealing. Ms Rice is an extremely accomplished person - at one time she was the youngest Provost of Stanford University, and she worked in the previous Bush administration as a Soviet expert. She is intelligent, eloquent, attractive, modest, and a strong advocate for her positions. She is at this moment the most powerful black woman in the world, and to my knowledge has not gotten anything via affirmative action. I would have thought that the Democrat left would view her as an example of exactly the kind of people they hoped would emerge from the black community after they forced down the barriers of discrimination. Instead, they attacked her credibility. Cartoonists mocked her. It demonstrated vividly that Leftists really don't care about black people, or any of the other groups they claim to champion. They are only tools the Left uses to gain and hold power".

Gutless Bishop: "Democrat John Kerry -- a pro-choice Catholic whose abortion views have prompted some Catholic leaders to say they want to bar him from Communion -- yesterday received the sacrament during Easter Mass in Boston. ... St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke and Nebraska Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz say they'd refuse Communion to Kerry. Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley has said all pro-choice officials should voluntarily 'refrain' from Communion but has refused to comment on Kerry specifically." Not a patch on Thomas a Beckett.

Falluja: "The United States last night robustly defended its controversial siege of Falluja which has cost the lives of more than 600 people over the past week, by claiming most of those who died were militants picked off with precision by US marines.

Leftist racism: "another form of not-so-crypto-racism: the tendency of Western liberals to lower the moral bar for Palestinians and others in the Middle East. How else can we explain the dearth of speechless outrage in the face of recent events? When Fallujah erupts, when "insurgents" (read: savages) threaten to burn innocent people alive, the response in the New York Times is an op-ed sneering at the administration"

Revel: "The anti-American cult provides its legions of drooling adherents with the crucial element of any faith: the illusion of meaning in an otherwise meaningless existence. That priceless psychological salve, in this case, is the comforting delusion that, no matter how hypocritical, backward, bigoted, ignorant, corrupt or cowardly the cult's followers might otherwise be, at least they are better than those awful Americans..... Thirty-four years ago, Revel was "astonished by evidence that everything Europeans were saying about the US was false"; sadly, this situation has not changed in the slightest in the intervening time".

Aside from their Iraq policy, the Australian Labor party does seem to be moving rightwards. First, they defied the soft line on illegal immigration passionately espoused by their own Left-wing. Second, Labor has made an unexpected "about face" on the failed organization for blacks that it itself created. And now the femocrats are losing out in favour of families.

Socialized medicine again: "Up to 55 per cent of patients needing admission to emergency departments are being forced to wait more than eight hours for a hospital bed, new figures show." Fortunately, Australia has a large private medical system as well.

Dick McDonald has just put up a lot of good posts. I liked this one on the advantages of federalism: "The minute Tiger Woods turned pro, he moved from California to Florida. Only the blind won't recognize that rather than pay California income tax of $10 Million per year, why not move to Florida that doesn't impose any income tax?" In Australia a similar thing happened. My home State of Queensland abolished inheritance taxes. Result? Elderly Australians flocked here. Upshot? The other States had to abolish their inheritance taxes too!

My recipe for today is a Thai classic: Larb moo. It is their version of savoury pork mince. Simple, quick and tasty. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



12 April, 2004

SOME HISTORY

Interesting historical comment from a reader: "Europe is startlingly different from the rest of the world when it comes to intellectual and social development. It is not that it "got lucky" once with Britain's industrial revolution. It has repeatedly developed structures and ideas which have not existed elsewhere. We find this in the intellectual and political ideas of classical Greece, the Roman Republic and Empire, the papacy, the Renaissance, the Reformation, Parliamentary government, the enlightenment and the industrial and scientific revolutions".

Maturin sees Napoleon as a kind of early Stalin: "Yes, I do agree with Maturin. Buonaparte did France -a country that he hated as a youth- very great harm indeed, not only because he brought about the death of vast numbers of Frenchmen, far more than even Louis XIV, but because he left the country with a curiously vulgar notion of glory, which Louis did not. I do not think he restored French national identity at all, but superimposed upon it a trashy chauvinism that is still sadly active"

Ludwig von Mises writing in 1944 on Marxism and Nazism: "The Nazis have not only imitated the Bolshevist tactics of seizing power. They have copied much more. They have imported from Russia the one-party system and the privileged role of this party and its members in public life; the paramount position of the secret police; the organization of affiliated parties abroad which are employed in fighting their domestic governments and in sabotage and espionage, assisted by public funds and the protection of the diplomatic and consular service; the administrative execution and imprisonment of political adversaries; concentration camps; the punishment inflicted on the families of exiles; the methods of propaganda. They have borrowed from the Marxians even such absurdities as the mode of address, party comrade (Parteigenosse), derived from the Marxian comrade (Genosse), and the use of a military terminology for all items of civil and economic life. The question is not in which respects both systems are alike but in which they differ..."

V.D. Hanson on General Patton in World War II: "D'Este was too much the scholar not to see that beneath Patton's repugnant crudity there was both talent and, in the end, humanity- and a tactical genius that simply overshadowed Eisenhower's and Bradley's combined... Sixty years later, however, it is hard to see as all that crazy Patton's claim that World War II had started to save Eastern Europe from autocracy, and had ended by consigning it to autocracy."

Steve Sailer points out that farm labour organiser Cesar Chavez has been adopted as a hero by pro-illegal immigration lobby in the US. Yet in fact Chavez was opposed to illegals at both a philosophical and practical level. ""Cesar Chavez, a labor leader intent on protecting union membership, was as effective a surrogate for the INS as ever existed. Indeed, Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union he headed routinely reported, to the INS, for deportation, suspected illegal immigrants who served as strikebreakers or refused to unionize.""

****************************************

ELSEWHERE

An amazing email from a reader here about the "energy vampires" at UCLA. It shows that Leftism is just deadly to any intellectual or academic standards -- not to mention common-sense. I guess Leftists never have been very good at distinguishing fantasy from reality.

Further to my mention yesterday of Killington, Vermont -- where a whole town wants to leave a high tax State -- Interested Participant has a post on the same subject. He notes that the citizens in Killington are primarily East Coast "liberals" who believe in income redistribution, just as long as it's not their income that's being redistributed!

Jeff Jacoby summarizes what the current post mortem into the 9/11 events shows: "Everyone got it wrong before 9/11". It would take a Leftist not to see that.

Now that the "antisemitic" characterization of THAT movie seems to have worn thin, the criticism that one hears most at the moment seems to be that it is "sado-masochistic". A reader comments: "My guess is that the "S-M" accusation is actually someone's idea of what they think is a clever bit of conservative-Christian baiting. The clever-dick movie critics must think that calling something "S-M" will shock conservative Christians or suburban mums & dads away from seeing Mel's movie. As if they read movie reviews anyhow."

I have just put up here a selection of Chris Brand's most recent postings. From them, one gathers that there does seem to have been a real awakening in Britain -- even on the Left -- about the big problems being caused there by hordes of unassimilating and mostly illegal Muslim immigrants. Rather amazingly, multiculturalism is now being officially disowned, in fact. The awakening is very late in the day -- as is usual for the British -- but if words are transformed into action soon, some return to the previous quality of life in Britain may be possible. To see all of Chris's recent postings, go to the BOTTOM of his page here.

My recipe for today is for Vietnamese lemon chicken. It is NOTHING like Chinese lemon chicken -- it is miles better in my view. Despite the proliferation of Vietnamese restaurants, you will rarely find it there. Perhaps they keep the best for themselves. It is quick to cook, too. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



11 April, 2004

YET MORE ECONOMICS

Federalism fights taxes:"Ronald Reagan said people vote with their feet. They choose to live where there is more freedom. This was most striking when he pointed to those fleeing communism in Cuba and the old Soviet Union. But Reagan also pointed to taxpayers moving from state to state for more economic freedom. And he was right. There has been significant migration to states without an income tax, for example. But have you ever heard of a whole town wanting to move? Welcome to Killington, Vermont."

Unfair distribution "Last week a woman ranted at me about the unequal and unfair distribution of wealth in this country. Her attitude is widely held. There are several errors in logic contained in this lament... In a way we are lucky to have lived through the century that saw such monumental foolishness exposed for what it is. Too bad some slow witted folks still don't get it."

Lord Bauer was right: "It is tempting to think that aid can be targeted to countries with good policies and have a positive impact. However, once we recognize that all aid is political, since it is government-to-government assistance, we should not be surprised that it has either no effect on development or a negative effect. Moreover, the World Bank continues to give substantial aid to countries with poor policies."

Globalization and free trade "Freedom of trade is really a very simple concept. Each individual should be at liberty to buy from and sell to whomever he wishes on mutually agreed-upon terms. Whether the partners to this trade live next door to each other or are separated by thousands of miles should make absolutely no difference to the logic of the idea."

Ignoring the fear-mongering about outsourcing: "From the way some people talk in this political season, you'd think all the good jobs are being shipped to India, leaving nothing for Americans to do but flip hamburgers and shine shoes. Don't expect to hear sensible talk about economics in an election year. It doesn't fit into sound bites."

Last week, Senate Democrats successfully filibustered the nation's most important anti-poverty measure -- welfare reform. It is thus Democrats who are effectively opposed to lifting people out of poverty and, in the process, make insulting assumptions about minorities, particularly minority women. The success of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act is now so well-established that its liberal doubters are increasingly pathetic flat-earthers. Welfare rolls nationwide have fallen by roughly 60 percent since the mid-1990s.

*****************************************

ELSEWHERE

A recent show on "Dateline NBC" called "Pattern of Suspicion" (summarized here by the Left-leaning Seattle PI) repeated the old allegations that "driving while black" is an offence in the eyes of American police. Former police officer Mike Tremoglie is something of an expert on that allegation and he emailed them as follows: "Your report - like the issue itself - was replete with fallacies and deceptions. For example, you extensively interviewed David Harris. However, you did not identify that Mr. Harris claims to be the leading authority about racial profiling YET HAS SAID HIMSELF, *** "I lack the kind of systematically gathered and analyzed data anyone making such a statement would prefer to have. This is because virtually no one . has ever kept comprehensive statistics on who police stop . there may be race-neutral explanations for the statistical pattern (racial disparity in traffic stops)" *** Since this did not comport with your preconceived notions you did not report this. As I said I have written about this issue and would be glad to provide you with more information. However, given the prejudicial tone of your report and the fact that you have a history of contrived and staged reporting ( i.e. your reports about GM gas tanks, tractor trailer drivers, and loggers in Idaho just to name a few) I do not think that is likely."

The State will protect you: "A grade 1 girl was sent home with her father just hours after he knocked her to the ground at her Brisbane school. Teachers, parents and students watched as the man struck the girl, believed to be aged five. Several blows to the face and head drove the child to the ground. A witness said the man then picked her up and hit her again. The attack was at St Edward's Catholic school at Daisy Hill in Brisbane's south on Tuesday morning. Alerted by a teacher and at least two parents who saw the incident, the school's principal Mike Norris notified the Department of Family Services and police.After interviewing the child, her father and Mr Norris, authorities ruled it was safe for her to go home that afternoon. The decision to allow the child to return to her father so soon after the attack has outraged child protection workers"

The libertarian solution -- a private army emerges in Iraq "Under assault by insurgents and unable to rely on U.S. and coalition troops for intelligence or help under duress, private security firms in Iraq have begun to band together in the past 48 hours, organizing what may effectively be the largest private army in the world, with its own rescue teams and pooled, sensitive intelligence. Many of the firms were hired by the U.S. government to protect its employees in Iraq."

An interesting comment from a reader noting that GWB's national security staff in the run-up to 9/11 were mostly holdovers from the Clinton presidency.

My recipe today is for one of my favourite foods: Spanish Paella. It takes a bit of time to cook but it is worth it. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



10 April, 2004

Dick McDonald has picked up on a good point from Condolezza Rice's recent 9/11 testimony. She pointed out that it took many years for America to become fully democratic -- i.e. a place that treated blacks as people -- so it was absurd to expect an overnight transformation to mature democracy in Iraq.

MORE ECONOMICS

The socialist love of the State still flourishes: "A famous theory about taxes has it that wealth belongs to society and taxation merely determines how much of it the citizenry may use. This is what is argued in The Myth of Ownership by co-authors Thomas Nagel and Liam Murphy (Oxford, 2002). You and I do not own even our labor. It belongs to society and government is in charge of telling what we get to use and what remains in its coffers. According to this socialist view of wealth, there are no private property rights at all, only government grants."

There is a most illuminating and very fully referenced article here about the "Dickensian" British factory system of the 19th century and how it "abused" child labour. Economic historian Bill Hutt shows that the accounts of the system we almost always hear come from its opponents -- the romantics and do-gooders of the day. And that more objective evidence is readily available that shows factory work to have been the preferred employment of the day -- as it was "lighter" (less physically demanding) and better paid than the main alternative then available -- agricultural labour. And the health of factory workers was at least no worse than that of the general community at the time.

Icelandic blogger Willy Sutton has a good lesson in pictorial economics up. It takes a little while to load all the pictures but they certainly educate

Outsourcing is a natural force in the free market "Free markets provide what the great economic historian Joseph Schumpeter called a process of 'creative destruction.' Always dynamic, always progressive, free markets constantly generate new products, new jobs, and new wealth on the foundations of earlier creations. In the end, they replace these earlier creations. Free markets propel society forward."

Corruption: "To put it in very simple words, countries that have a free market policy are the least corrupt, whereas countries that are dependant on government are the most corrupt. This then is the simple truth about corruption. ... The government is not the solution for corruption, but it is definitely the precursor of corruption."

****************************************

ELSEWHERE

Is there anything John Kerry won't say? "Democrat John Kerry said yesterday that if he is elected president, he will not let government programs outside of security and education grow beyond the rate of inflation. Kerry pledged to abide by spending caps, even if it means cutting some of his own campaign promises and existing government programs."

Australian Labor Party leader Mark Latham has really blotted his copybook by calling for Australia to do a Spain and withdraw its troops from Iraq. Not only is the Australian public generally against it but so are many Leftists. Even such rabid Leftists as Margo Kingston are now urging Latham to keep the troops in: "I don't know about you, but when I saw Latham say we had to bring our 850 troops home after June 30 "to defend Australia" I was disgusted. Pure populism it was, and I thought Australians would see through it big time, which they have.... Is Latham really saying the danger to Australia is so acute that we need 850 troops to join the 51,0000 troops stationed in Australia? That's scare mongering at its worst. As Howard rightly said speaking to his motion in the House of Representatives today that troops should not be withdrawn before the job is done, that would mean hauling back our troops from East Timor and the Solomons too. Stupid. .... But we did invade, and we're there now trying to secure the peace, a vital task for the West to stop Iraq being over run by al Qaeda and company."

With a film about the Alamo just released, the WSJ reminds us of the point that the Left would seemingly like us to forget: "Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, in the inclusive view, is a neutral figure, even though he set himself up as a military dictator after being elected president of Mexico in 1833 and jailed those who peaceably petitioned to protest his violations of the 1824 constitution. And then there was his brutal putting down of the rebellion in Texas. Lest we forget, the rebels who captured San Antonio and the Alamo against superior forces were trying to separate themselves from Santa Anna's dictatorship. His efforts to curtail-- if not obliterate-- trade, immigration and democracy are what sparked the rebellion in the first place.

See here for a typical Leftist bleat about "poverty" being the cause of Islamic terrorism -- together with a pointed reply from one of my readers.

A good last word on Spain: "Climaxing over three centuries of defeat and decline on the world stage, Spaniards bowed to terrorism when they voted. Americans are considerably less likely to make that choice".

The wicked one has an idea that Texans should like.

Today's recipe is for Parsee Pillau. Forget fried rice. Forget steamed rice. This is the best rice. Goes well with any Indian food. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



9 April, 2004

SOME ECONOMICS

"The number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in more than three years" -- and that's only part of the good news: "It turns out that since last May, when all of the president's tax cuts finally got implemented, the payroll survey finds 675,000 new jobs. Here's the kicker- that's the pessimistic survey; the one that tends to miss new start-ups because it's based on established businesses. The other one, the household survey, shows an increase since last spring's tax cut of almost 800,000 new jobs. Some "jobless recovery", huh?"

Globalization fights high taxes: "In a competitive global economy, the United States cannot continue to ignore the mounting costs of doing business at home. Other countries are liberalizing their economies, providing a more business-friendly environment. Ireland is a perfect example of a tax-friendly country. The government reduced its corporate tax rate from 16 percent to 12.5 percent in 2003, well below the EU average rate of 30 percent and lower than the 35 percent federal rate in the United States."

Marginal Revolution points out that the NY Times has started to talk some common sense about trying to impose international child labour standards: "It's appalling that Abakr, like tens of millions of other children abroad, is working instead of attending school. But prohibiting child labor wouldn't do him any good, for there's no school in the area for him to attend.... And that's the problem when Americans get on their high horses about child labor, without understanding the cruel third world economics that cause it."

Overlooked factor in oil hike: Falling dollar: "Gasoline and heating-oil prices in the US are at an all-time high and rising. But it may surprise Americans to learn that in Europe, they've essentially remained steady. Why the cost difference? Experts have a lot of good reasons to explain it, among them unrest in the Middle East, gas-guzzling cars, and greed among oil-producing nations. But there is another culprit that is being ignored and that is making the problem far, far worse in the US: the decline in the value of the dollar."

There is a rather depressing article here about the vast damage FDR's "New Deal" did to the American economy in the 1930s. What made the "Great" depression "great"? Why did it last so much longer than previous depressions? Mainly it was the anti-business economic interventions of FDR and his Congressional allies. FDR was of course a great admirer of his fellow Leftist economic bungler, Benito Mussolini.

**************************************

ELSEWHERE

More glories of socialized medicine: Sharon Brophy was just 34 when she died waiting for treatment in Campbelltown Hospital emergency department. The hospital's records say that Ms Brophy arrived at 1pm and was assessed by a triage nurse. However, another patient who arrived at 1pm says that Ms Brophy was already there. The same witness says that some time before 1.30pm Ms Brophy had approached the receptionist and said something like: "I feel really, really sick, can I please see a doctor?" When Ms Brophy was told she would have to wait longer, as emergency patients were being treated, she replied that she was going to be sick and went into the nearby toilet. By Mrs Madden's account, at 2pm a woman with a toddler walked into the waiting room from another part of the hospital and went into the toilet. "She came out and told the receptionist there was a woman collapsed in the toilet. That's when everybody came running out of emergency." Brigitte Ashford ... also heard Ms Brophy approach the receptionist for help. "She said, 'Please I feel really sick, I feel like I'm going to pass out, can I have somewhere to lie down.' She [the receptionist] just said, 'You wait your turn'."

If you have not seen it already, this letter from a soldier in the middle of the current Iraqi strife is a much-needed corrective to what the sensationalist media are telling us -- as is his earlier backgrounder on what is going on. Where do the mainstream media tell us: "Every day the Iraqi people stream out into the streets to cheer and wave at us as we drive by. When I'm on a foot patrol, walking among a crowd, countless people thank us -- repeatedly"?

It looks like Israel is beginning to use the Muslim horror of pigs to good advantage. Putting lard (pig fat) on buses could mean an end to bus bombings. "Though the pig is considered a defiled animal strictly forbidden in Jewish dietary laws, the Muslims forbid any contact with the animal. Any contact with the pig is punishable by denial of entry to paradise."

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with a big range of selected readiing

My recipe for today is an old Australian country recipe for rabbit pie. See here. As Mrs Beeton nearly said: "First catch your rabbit..."

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



8 April, 2004

FROM BROOKES NEWS

Getting it right on recessions and the 'wealth effect' If anyone wants the real explanation for our housing boom they need look no further than the Reserve Bank of Australia's monetary aggregates that show M1 rising from 81,943 in January 1996 to 162,135 in January 2004.
They Kill Only Jews It's illogical to try and negotiate with a culture of people who, in large part, have become 'killing machines.' At the very least, they believe in a creed of evil and death.
Bunny Champers takes on Professor Krugman over terrorism During the whole ten years of Clinton's presidency Wankerman -- or is it Krugman -- never once attacked Clinton for not tackling bin Laden, Saddam or the Taliban, despite the number of terrorist attacks against the US.
Reporter does hit job on Condi Rice The leftwing Marian Wilkinson, Washington correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald (aka The Saddam Times), has dropped any pretence at objectivity to become a media mouthpiece for the Democrats.
Washington Post lefties try to stitch up Condi Rice Leftwing journalists are worse than hyenas when they think they smell Republican blood. Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus of the Washington Post wrote as if there was something unusual if not sinister in Condi Rice's refusal to testify in front of the 9/11 commission.
Pincus and Milbank: the low-down on two Washington Post Bush-hating reporters During the Clinton years walter Pincus was consider to a mouthpiece for NSA adviser Sandy Berger who was also a former China lobbyist. Pincus' was wife also a Clinton Administration official. On two occasions Pincus was given time off by the Washington Post to work for J. W. Fulbright.

Details here

*********************************

ELSEWHERE

The French connived at genocide! How surprising for a nation with such a high moral tone! "Rwanda's President Paul Kagame launched a new attack on Paris in a speech to mark the genocide's 10th anniversary. He accused the French of arming and training the extremist Hutu government in power in 1994 and of being aware that they intended to commit genocide".

Air America, the new liberal talk radio network, is sending minorities to the back of the bus. The network, owned by former Democratic National Committee executive Mark Walsh, debuted March 31. Ironically, the three radio stations broadcasting Air America's programs were all stations with formats featuring black and Hispanic culture. By preempting black and Hispanic cultural programs to promote their own ideology, Air America is very much in concert with the liberal policy of using minorities for their own purposes.... Now instead of communicating the needs and concerns of minorities they communicate the needs and concerns of rich white people. Instead of employing minorities they employ white liberals -- about 90% of Air America's hosts are white people.

"I suppose it would be considered lacking in nuance to nuke the Sunni Triangle. But so goes the unanimous vote around my household - and I'm betting millions of others - in the aftermath of what forevermore will be remembered simply as "Fallujah" ... If we were but creatures like those zoo animals we witnessed gleefully jumping up and down after stomping, dragging, dismembering and hanging the charred remains of American civilians whose only crime was to try to help them".

Econometricians have discovered that racially diverse areas are more crime prone: "The results from my econometric analysis confirm the predictions of my industrial organization theory of racial competition. The theory suggests that diversity increases both inter and intra-racial crime as racial groups compete."

There are some pretty amazing quotes from animal liberationists over at Mosaic. Here's one: ""The life of an ant and the life of my child should be granted equal consideration."

Arlene Peck: "Europeans aren't just after Israel, they're after the USA too. They know you don't negotiate with people whose only reason for living is killing. Yet, terrorism is terrorism, everywhere in the world. Except of course, when it happens in Israel. Then, it s reported as "incidents"... the Jewish State is fighting a real, honest-to-goodness war.... I think, however, that we in the United States are finally beginning to realize that Israel's problem is now a global one."

Iraq's new constitution is a gem: "IF I were a terrorist interested in Iraqi affairs, I would certainly reach for the plastique after reading Iraq's interim constitution because it would make me feel insecure, if not desperate."

Dick McDonald has bitten the bullet and started his own blog. It is early days yet but he already has some good reading up. He hasn't mastered hyperlinks yet but he is working on it.

The wicked one has put a lot of jokes up lately.

My recipe for today is for a salad with a difference: Parsee Kachumbar (onion salad). It goes well with any Indian food but particularly well with Parsee Dhansak -- for which I also gave the recipe recently. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



7 April, 2004

"OUTSOURCING" AND FREE TRADE

Is the attack on "Outsourcing" Leftist racism?: "Media bias is sometimes found not only in what makes it into print but also what doesn't. This is evident in the campaign theme of "outsourcing." There probably isn't a Democratic politician who hasn't used the term to attack President Bush, and this has resulted in a flurry of news stories about the subject. But in all the media coverage, have you heard anyone refer to outsourcing as a "racial code word"? For the uninitiated, racial code words are words politicians (usually Republicans) are accused of using to supposedly help them win votes by raising whites' fears of minorities. ... To the extent that outsourcing is a racial code word, the code isn't all that secretive. An organization calling itself Make America Work For Us, which is affiliated with the 527 group Media Fund, is running an attack ad that begins, "During the past three years, it's true that George W. Bush has created more jobs. Unfortunately, they were created in places like China." As the commercial proceeds, the camera pans out to reveal a factory covered with Chinese symbols. One can only imagine the outrage that would occur if a conservative group had run such an ad."

Call center employees replaced by lower-wage workers in India don't "deserve" to lose their jobs. But that does not mean they have a right to keep them, any more than candle makers had a right to block electric lighting or blacksmiths had a right to prevent the introduction of the automobile. In all of these cases, the need to make a profit in the face of competition drove people to produce better goods or services or to produce them more cheaply. The upshot of this process has been lower prices, higher productivity and a standard of living unparalleled in history. Economic progress requires a constant shifting of resources to their most productive uses

Fighting back on outsourcing: "What has been seriously lacking in the outsourcing debate thus far is hard data. Now, at last, we are starting to get some serious studies with good numbers. They paint a very different picture of the outsourcing phenomenon ..Global Insight found that the total number of jobs lost to IT outsourcing last year was only 104,000; this amounts to just 2.8 percent of IT jobs in the United States. A much larger number were lost due to unrelated factors, including the collapse of the dot-com boom in 2000, the recession, and rising productivity. The most important finding of the Global Insight study is that the cost savings from outsourcing don't just flow into higher corporate profits. They contribute significantly to higher output in the United States, which leads to job increases elsewhere in the economy"

The hot-button issue for the Democratic Party this year is "outsourcing," the latest political euphemism that seeks to stigmatize companies voting with their feet and escaping high taxes and onerous regulations that drive up the cost of labor, increase the cost of capital and drive down rates of return on investment... The enemy of American jobs is not Japan, India or China, but rather stupid policy made in Washington, D.C. Therefore, a more apt metaphor is "refugee CEOs" who are fleeing punitive government policies that hurt both capital and labor.

***************************

ELSEWHERE

John Leo points out that the recent activities of The Anti-Defamation League (the best-known American Jewish organization) include support for abortion and gay rights, backing the effort to remove Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore from the bench in the Ten Commandments case, and opposing school vouchers in Washington, D.C. One might also note its role as a critic of THAT Christian film and conclude that organized American Jewry just does not know what side it's bread is buttered on -- considering that conservative Christians are the bedrock of America's support for Israel and considering that many Leftists are once again openly antisemitic (as they were in Hitler's day). John Leo goes on to point out however that the ADL is only one example of a special interest group that has drifted Left over time. I guess that a narrow mental focus just IS Leftist.

There is a good summary here of what a treasure the world has in Israel.

It's only a "lie" if a Republican says it: "When John Kerry says he supports the Kyoto Treaty even though he voted for a bill that declared the United States would never ever ratify it, that doesn't mean he's a 'liar,' it just means that ... well, to be honest, I haven't a clue what it means. You better to take it up with him."

There's no mystery why there are so few male teachers. Take this case. A male teacher was sacked because of accusations of sexual impropriety even though a court agreed that there was no evidence of impropriety. Who would want to risk entering a system as unjust as that?

Today's recipe is a simple way to make a hearty meal of chili con carne. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



6 April, 2004

NEW BLOG

A lot of the postings I have put up recently concern Greenie issues so I have decided to give such postings a blog of their own. You can find it here. Greens and Leftists have a lot in common in that they both want to use the power of the state for pervasive and irrational interference with other people's lives. Neither gives a damn for individual liberty. But their motivations differ. Where the Leftist ideologue's main aim is to make himself look warm and wise and wonderful (in the absence of any real claims in that direction) Greenie ideologues are frank misanthropists. They hate and despise people and are not slow to say so. The Leftist by contrast at least keeps up a pretence about caring for other people. As the old summary of Leftist thought says: "I love humanity. It's just people I can't stand". So the two types of would-be tyrant do deserve separate consideration.


SOME "FORGOTTEN" HISTORY

Amusing: Richard Wolin's book, The Seduction of Unreason appears to be a good critique of postmodernist irrationality but he makes his book politically correct by noting -- correctly -- that in the 1930s what we now call postmodernism was primarily a Fascist doctrine. So he says that postmodernism is "Rightist" too, you see: It is not only a mental confusion of the Left. The fact that Fascism was a development of Marxism and that Hitler was a socialist seem to be "forgotten" by Wolin. It would indeed be surprising if a Rightist philosophy suddenly became the guiding light of the Left but no such thing has happened. "Postmodern" thinking has ALWAYS been a Leftist escape-hatch from reality. Although both Marxism and Fascism may be long dead in most people's minds, both are variants of socialism and both still flourish among Leftist intellectuals -- not that they are honest about it, of course.

There is an interesting article on the "forgotten" George Schuyler in Policy Review. Schuyler was an astringent black conservative writer and satirist who ridiculed the claim that black art was distinctive: "Schuyler argued that black artists in America were equally as diverse as white artists, and that to expect a uniform style or subject matter was as insulting as the stereotypes that were being rejected." He was also a conservative within the NAACP who fought that organisation's socialist ways from within". Called one of the great anti-communist writers of the 20th century, he has now largely been airbrushed from the historical record for not conforming to black victimhood.

******************************************

ELSEWHERE

Wow! The New York Times has really goofed again. Have they got a second Jayson Blair? In this story about Australia's tough stance against illegal immigration their fact-checking seems to be non-existent. They say that Australia "turned away a leaking refugee boat called the Tampa". What a laugh! The Tampa was a well-found Norwegian container ship. And only the NYT thinks it was leaking! They also say of Australia's policy: "many Australians say the price has been too high and the damage to Australia's image incalculable". So how many is "many"? I guess 20 people out of Australia's 20 million would be "many" to some. The Australian electorate certainly gave its conservative government a crashing election win over the policy. And as far as other countries are concerned, from what I have seen, almost anybody who has heard of it envies Australia's tough policy. And the "prominent Sydney lawyer" they quote is of course a well-known Leftist advocate for the illegal immigrants concerned. The whole article is sheer propaganda that would do Dr. Goebbels proud.

Capitalism has been good to China From 1978 to 2002, the average annual per-person income rose from $190 to $960. It's probably now above $1,000. (The U.S. figure: about $36,000.) Life expectancy increased from 61.7 years in 1970 to 71 in 2002. Adult illiteracy fell from 37 percent in 1978 to less than 17 percent in 1999. Infant mortality dropped from 41 per 1,000 live births in 1978 to 30 in 1999 (the U.S. rate: about seven).

I mentioned a couple of books about China on 4th. Samizdata has an extended review of another distressing book about China under Communism: Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. The details of the three year famine unleashed by Mao's "Great Leap Forward" are truly horrifying. Mao undoubtedly has the distinction of being history's biggest mass-murderer. But it was all for "the people", of course.

The wicked one has some amusing stories about technophobes.

I have just posted here the latest observations from Chris Brand about the apparent dawning of sanity about immigration in Britain.

My recipe for today is for Dhansak -- the classical dish of the Parsees (India's most affluent minority). It definitely is high-class food in every way. This recipe is for the real thing -- not the undistinguished curry that is trotted out under that name in some Indian restaurants. See here.

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



5 April, 2004

GREENIE WATCH

Both Biddle in The American Spectator and Peter Brimelow comment on the big split within the ranks of the Greenie "Sierra Club". It is the "Old Guard" -- essentially old socialists just looking for another way of pushing people around -- versus deep-green environmentalists. The big divide between them is over immigration. The deep-green environmentalists oppose immigration on their usual anti-people grounds while the old guard see immigrants as potential victims for them to "support". Australian "Green" politicians seem to be like the Sierra "Old Guard". They get involved with a lot more than the environment. They are at least as anti-American and anti-capitalist as pro-environment. The Australian Greens, for example, opposed the Australian government's moves to halt illegal immigration whilst embracing multiculturalism and a holy war against all forms of racism real and imagined. How on earth they imagine they could run any kind of population policy with open borders is a mystery. Of course when you realise that they are more interested in social control and increasing state power than actually improving environmental quality, the paradox disappears.

This article by the courageous Michael Fumento reminds us all how bad the AIDS scare was for many years. Millions of American heterosexual deaths were predicted. It is obvious to all who know anything at all about it now that widespread AIDS among heterosexuals just did not happen, but Fumento said the scare was a hoax in 1987! -- based simply on looking at the basic science of the matter. The parallels with the scare over global warming are extensive and instructive -- particularly the way both the media and the scientists directly involved profit from such scares.

Here's another report from Fumento: The Peruvian government had a huge silver, lead and zinc mine that was injecting huge amounts of dangerous pollutants into the environment (just like similar operations in the old Soviet bloc). Things got so bad that Peruvian government gave up and sold the mine to a private mining American company -- who promptly reduced the pollution enormously. So who are the Greenies now harassing over the mine's pollution? I don't need to tell you.

Biodiversity: The decline of British butterflies does not put us on the brink of a man-made mass extinction: "Thomas also told me that there had been much debate between the nine authors of the paper about the interpretation of their findings... In its concern about preserving the 'natural' world, the biodiversity agenda stigmatises human activity. The natural is valued indiscriminately, almost religiously... The diversity of species has never been richer than during the relatively brief period that humans have been around".

********************************

ELSEWHERE

Saddam DID have WMDs. "For seven years, before he was tortured and sentenced to death, Rashid (not his real name) worked at the top of Iraq's scientific establishment. He says he regularly met Saddam Hussein and his cousin and strongman deputy prime minister Abdul Tawab Huweish. After the Gulf War he was put in charge of a taskforce code named "Al Babel" to develop stealth technology to make aircraft and missiles undetectable on radar. Rashid, who now lives in Melbourne, also claims to have had access as a trusted insider to secret underground bunkers where chemical weapons were stored."

Poverty is in the eye of the deceiver: "Last month the Senate released the report of its inquiry into poverty in Australia. It is the most dishonest document of its kind I have ever seen in Australia... the only way they could pretend poverty is booming is to define it as inequality. From this flawed start the report descends into farce. Some of its more outrageous errors are documented in a paper from the Centre for Independent Studies called Lies, Damned Lies and the Senate Poverty Inquiry Report" For the CIS Media release on the matter see here.

I never thought I'd feel sorry for Ralph Nader but the arrogant treatment he got on Air America really was a disgrace. Yet another example of the Stalinist fear of free speech that typifies American "liberals", of course.

A former terrorist speaks : "The "Palestinian refugee" problem, [Walid] Shoebat said, results from international hypocrisy. Fifty-six years after the first Arab-Israeli war, Arabs continue to live in deplorable squalor in camps maintained by UNWRA, he said. Past Israeli governments often proposed replacing the camps with apartment buildings, he said. But Palestinian and Arab UN general assembly members vociferously rejected each such plan as "provocative." Meanwhile, Shoebat said, Middle Eastern Arab and Muslim governments expelled more than 900,000 Jews after Israel's 1948 war of Independence-and confiscated their homes, bank accounts, even their clothing- without recompense. Israel resettled Jewish refugees, he said. They became productive citizens. Arab League member states, by contrast, refused to help their brothers in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Instead they exploited the "refugee" camps as a propaganda tool that even today perpetuates the international jihad with a myth of Arab and Muslim victimhood, he said. "

Hitler made Germany Judenrein ("Jew-free") by killing all Jews he could find. Arab countries did the same after the establishment of Israel by expelling all Jews they could find. Jewish families have been able to claim off Germany for at least their financial losses and at long last there is some prospect that similar claims against Arab countries may get somewhere.

Britain's own terrorists "Eight young Muslims, all British-born citizens of Pakistani descent, have been detained and half a ton of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, a basic ingredient of home-made bombs, was discovered in the west London suburb of Hanwell. .. Something like the horror inflicted on holidaymakers in Bali may have been narrowly averted; ...instead of teaching a bland, rights-focused multiculturalism ... our educators should think hard about their failure to inculcate our values, be they religious or secular or a combination of the two, in the minds of Britain's very own generation of terrorists"

Bill Keezer points to the sheer dogmatism of academic Leftist arguments against the Iraq war. How amusing that the academic Left try to tar conservatives with dogmatism! See also today's posting on PC Watch.

The wicked one has a Jewish joke up (Risky!) and a thought-provoking comment on the complete pervasiveness of globalization.

Today's recipe is for Korean spring rolls. Very different from any other spring rolls you know and very more-ish. See here.

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



4 April, 2004

CHINA

Fighting China's silicon curtain Numerous efforts are under way in the West to help Chinese web users get around China's censorship of the internet

China does have some conservative traditions: "Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu advised political rulers to rule with the lightest touch: Administer the empire by engaging in no activity. The more taboos and prohibitions there are in the world, The poorer the people will be. The more laws and orders are made prominent, The more thieves and robbers there will be. Therefore the sage [ruler] says: I take no action and the people of themselves are transformed. I engage in no activity and the people of themselves become prosperous."

Christopher Lingle's review of "EAST AND WEST: China, Power, and the Future of Asia", by Christopher Patten: "Patten exposes the proponents of "Asian values" as apologists for authoritarian rule. He stresses that it is inappropriate to attach regional adjectives when discussing essentially universal human values and human (individual) rights. Such references only reinforce racial divisiveness and do little to enhance our understanding of how Asia's economies have developed"

Autocratic Ghosts and Chinese Hunger" by Bryan Caplan: "Only twelve years into his thirty-year reign, Mao Zedong surpassed Joseph Stalin as history's leading mass murderer, according to evidence released recently by the People's Republic of China."

************************************

ELSEWHERE

SPAM: Those sad and jealous souls who hate Microsoft are not going to want to face this but Microsoft do a brilliant job of blocking spam. I have two main email boxes that I use -- with Yahoo and Hotmail. But the address that I use all the time and which has for years been plastered up in many places on the internet (I have around 500 files online) is the Hotmail one. So which one gets the most spam? The Yahoo one by far. Both Yahoo and Hotmail let very little junk though to my main inbox (less than ten emails a day in both cases) but I get at least 100 emails a day in my Yahoo junk-mail inbox. I just empty the box without looking at them. In my Hotmail junk-mail inbox, by contrast, I get around a dozen emails in one day -- few enough for me to at least scan the subject line before I delete the lot. And I have rescued quite a few genuine emails by being able to scan them first. So the number of junk emails that Microsoft block without my seeing them at all must be enormous. They are obviously very confident in and very successful with their spam-blocking algorithms and procedures these days. So I think the cure for spam has already arrived: Get a Microsoft Hotmail box. May Google-mail be as good.

The New York Times agrees with President Bush!: "The Arab world's need to defy Washington and revile Israel is not a valid excuse to perpetuate medieval autocracies and repressive dictatorships. The claim that the Middle East is somehow immune to democracy, whether through tradition, history or religion, is equally spurious. Striking evidence of this was provided by a gathering of Arab intellectuals and nongovernmental organizations at the Alexandria Library in Egypt in mid-March. The statement they issued is a ringing proclamation of universal democratic values and the urgent need to spread them through the Arab world."

Washington DC surprises no-one: "The report card, required by the No Child Left Behind Act, indicates that most of the District's schools have fallen way short of national standards in math and reading in the 2002-03 school year. In fact, 83 of 151 schools tested failed to make adequate progress on last year's standardized tests"

Dumbed down teachers: "Despite the exalted rank implied by the term 'National Board Certified,' the content knowledge required of K-12 teachers who want to earn such a title through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is only that of an advanced high school class, according to a recent commentary published in the Teacher College Record under the title, 'National Board Certification of Teachers: A Billion Dollar Hoax.'"

A good comment from a reader on the large Muslim presence in Europe: "These "kind and gentle Europeans" who just can't deal with violence because "peace" is morally superior - have let Muslims take the place of the Jews that were expelled or killed -- not a good trade, considering the declining economics of Muslim communities as compared to the thriving economies of Jewish "Ghettos" both before and after the Holocaust. I don't believe "God did it", but if I did, I would believe that God replaced the expelled Jews with Muslims to punish the Europeans for their ancestors' sins".

Don't believe this hype about OPEC oil cartel being good for the economy by 'stabilising prices'. It in fact is a major reason why the price of motor fuel fluctuates so much.

Weaselteeth has a good human interest story about a very large man.

Some excellent quotes about the old Soviet system. One example: "Stalin famously said: "Death solves all problems. No man, no problem.""

Doctors flee Illinois: "In key Illinois counties -- including Madison, which has become infamous as perhaps the most plaintiff-friendly venue in the United States -- doctors, hospitals, and some local elected officials are warning of a medical system collapse. They are taking their warning and a plea for tort reform to the most powerful voters in the state: the elderly, who are also the biggest health care consumers."

We don't hear much about one of the Arab world's largest countries -- Egypt -- a country that receives billions in American aid and would probably starve otherwise. So are they appreciative of America? Anything but. If you want to read the most obscene anti-American propaganda, read this summary of what appears in the Egyptian media. Americans just make fools of themselves by supporting these poisonous loonies.

The Atlantic has just heard about Edmund Burke: "Edmund Burke understood before anyone else that revolutions devour their young -- and turn into their opposites"

There is just no need for government financed sport stadiums "privately financed sports stadiums pay for themselves"

My recipe today is for Keema -- curried mince (ground beef). See here.

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



3 April, 2004

Dick McDonald of the California Republicans should really do his own blog but in the meanwhile I have posted his three most recent emails here. If you like his stuff, tell him so. His email is: RAMcDonald@aol.com

GREENIE CORNER

"The Kyoto Protocol has become a well-known political slogan. President Bush has called it "fundamentally flawed," while some environmentalists in America and Europe have said it is essential for saving the Earth's climate and the future of humanity itself. Many on the right have called it economic madness, while for many on the left it is an ecological article of faith.... But the facts have always made it clear that Kyoto would be outrageously costly and completely ineffective -- as designed, it would not even noticeably influence the climate. And more importantly, in light of recent developments, the treaty is essentially defunct". In other words, it is the Greenie version of a hair shirt -- an exercise in self-punishment and nothing more. Its motivation is religious, not scientific.

"Commissioner Margot Wallstrom insists that the Kyoto Protocol is 'the only existing effective international framework for combating global warming.' This questionable argument -- Kyoto neither exists yet, nor has any scientist claimed it would yield a detectable climatic impact"

The whole global warming scare is based on work by a group of scientists headed by Dr. Michael Mann, of the University of Virginia. Climate scientist David Legates examines Mann's claim that the climate record of the last 1000 years is shaped like a hockey stick (i.e. flat until recently) and shows that the claim is based on fudged data. It is a publicity-grabbing fraud, in other words: "Our analysis, as well as independent research by Canadian scientists Mr. Steven McIntyre and Dr. Ross McKitrick, highlights many statistical flaws present in Mann's `hockey stick' reconstruction, which is why it is being challenged on scientific grounds by a number of serious scientists. We must take a closer look at the science of the "hockey stick" and, in this case, ask the question, "How much of the warming of the 20th Century was `man-induced' and how much of it is `Mann-induced'?".

What have been the real-life consequences since the world adopted the basic ideas of environmentalism? How about millions of documented human deaths? Incredible? Read this before you decide.

The imaginary Greenie paradise: "Free trade and civilization may contribute to disease transmission, but these activities also create the economic growth that grants access to the essentials of healthy living: food, pesticides, sanitation, and water disinfectants. Those suffering the most from disease epidemics need more trade and economic growth to escape from -- not return to -- the life of the primitive."

"The message from the environmental groups grew more shrill and hostile. As the environment actually improved, predictions turned more dire. Environmentalists first taught us how greedy, evil corporations were destroying the planet, and then taught us how we were all responsible for destroying the planet. Fortunately, the extreme environmentalists had a solution in mind. This solution is in accord with that of today's Muslim fundamentalist terrorists: both clubs want you and your miserable capitalistic existence exterminated. Except the environmentalists are worse--they would just as soon see all of humanity exterminated, not only the capitalists. You are the enemy. (I suppose the environmentalists somehow see themselves as a better class of humans, otherwise they'd help the cause by killing themselves first.).... The environmentalists screamed about the falling sky and the population explosion more than 30 years ago. There was no way we would be able to feed all the billions of extra hungry mouths come the turn of the century.... We did solve world hunger! We can now feed vast amounts of people on far less land with far less waste through modern agriculture.... And I was wrong about the intentions of the environmentalists. Damn the hungry, they only wanted less people; they wanted millions of starving, fly-plagued third world peasants to stop breeding and die."

Recent ecoNOT postings:
* The radical new "Manifesto for Earth": an inhuman rejection of human nature
* Environmentalists are waging war against our nation's military
* The Yellowstone controversy: is it only about snowmobiles or something far more serious?
* Citigroup sacrifices the Third World poor to kowtow to the greens

*********************************

ELSEWHERE

Hitler's Brownshirts are not dead: "The group is called "National People's Action."... A more accurate description is left-wing goon squad.. what distinguishes NPA from other liberal advocacy groups is its tactics. The group engages in what it calls "direct action" -- publicizing the home addresses of business and government leaders it wants to shake down and then busing in protesters and schoolchildren (using public school buses) to invade the private property of their victims and intimidate their families... After meeting in Washington for its annual convention this weekend, NPA members descended on the Washington, D.C., homes of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and White House adviser Karl Rove... after chanting and knocking on Rove's door, the "crowd then grew more aggressive, fanning around the three accessible sides of Rove's house, tracking him through the many windows, waving signs that read 'Say Yes to DREAM' and pounding on the glass.""

The Happy Carpenter is a small businessman and he thinks he knows why fewer American jobs are being created at the moment than the economic upturn would lead one to expect. He thinks that many small businessmen (the major creaters of jobs) have hit a tipping point. He says that the incredible labyrinth of government regulations that the "liberals" have created has now got so bad that many small businessmen are too fearful to hire anybody -- in case they inadvertently fall foul of some regulation and it ends up sending them broke. So that, even if they are doing well, they will not expand their business if it means taking the risk of hiring someone. It's safer to stay small. For many small businessmen, in other words, the "liberals" have largely killed off the American Dream of making it big. No doubt gamblers, optimists and the legally savvy will continue to hire but limiting job creation to them means a lot of people will stay unemployed.

Michael Darby is back online with a big lot of postings: Some headings:
East Timor: Poverty and Hunger Osama & Friends
U.S. Institute of Peace Stumbles
We are Finishing the War
Iraq is free at last
Terror and tolerance
Depths of a Depraved Culture
Iraqis Say "War Was the ANSWER"
The Threat to the Flag

Today's recipe is for my pick of Japanese cuisine -- Ton Katsu (Don Kats to the Koreans). Actually, the Japanese say they got this off the Germans but it must have been a long time ago. See here.

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



2 April, 2004

THE ATTACK ON FATHERHOOD

On Disposable Fatherhood: "Men are now being scolded for failing to shoulder the collective responsibility of a declining birthrate. But why should men be interested in fathering children? Confronted with the very strong societal message that children do fine without fathers, is it so surprising that some men decide the risks of having children are just too high? Every week we see pregnant celebrities flaunting their decision to bear children on their own. There are howls of outrage when governments try to confine access to IVF services to families with fathers."

One of the reasons that so many women can't find a husband is that millions of men have declared a Marriage Strike. Men believe that family courts have become so unfair that in case of divorce, they will lose custody of their children and their ex will take them for all they're worth.

American injustice: "A parent pulled into divorce court against his will also must submit to questioning about his private life, questioning that Abraham has characterized as an "interrogation." He can be forced to surrender personal diaries, correspondence, financial records, and other documents normally protected by the Fourth Amendment. His personal habits, movements, conversations, writings, and purchases are subject to inquiry by the court. His home can be entered by government agents. His visits with his children can be monitored and restricted to a "supervised visitation center." Anything he says to his spouse or children as well as to family counselors and personal therapists can be used against him in court, and his children can be used to inform on his compliance. Fathers are asked intimate questions about how they "feel" about their children, what they do with them, where they take them, how they kiss them, how they feed and bathe them, what they buy for them, and what they discuss with them. According to Abraham, fathers against whom no evidence of wrongdoing is presented are ordered to submit to "plethysmographs," a physical-response test in which an electronic sheath is placed over the penis while the father is forced to watch pornographic films of children... A parent who refuses to cooperate can be summarily incarcerated or ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.... In family court, it is not unusual for a father earning $35,000 a year to amass $150,000 in attorney's fees... One of the most astonishing practices of family courts is ordering fathers to pay the fees of attorneys, psychotherapists, and other officials they have not hired and summarily jailing them for not complying."

*****************************************

ELSEWHERE

What has gone right in Iraq: "Here is a detail you might have missed: A few weeks ago, the United Nations shut down the Ashrafi refugee camp in southwestern Iran. For years Ashrafi had been the largest facility in the world housing displaced Iraqis, tens of thousands of whom had been driven from their homes by Saddam Hussein's brutality. But with Saddam behind bars and his Baathist dictatorship crushed, Iraqi exiles have been flocking home. By mid-February the camp had literally emptied out. Now, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports, "nothing remains of Ashrafi but rubble and a few stones." Refugees surging *to* Iraq? That isn't what the antiwar legions told us would happen if George Bush made good on his vow to end Saddam's reign of terror. Over and over they warned that a US invasion would trigger a humanitarian cataclysm, including a flood of refugees *from* Iraq.

Barbara Amiel points out that the Democrats and their media allies would never have allowed ANY President to act decisively against Islamic terrorism before 9/11: "What administration could, before 9/11, have sent in American boys to fight a regime in Afghanistan because it was implementing the ideas of an old man with a long white beard, sitting crossed-legged in the mountains talking about Satan America? Had I been in Congress before 9/11, knowing everything that was knowable about the Islamists, I still doubt if I would have voted to send troops to the Hindu Kush to topple the Taliban. Eardrums would have exploded all over Capital Hill from outcries of racism and imperialism if there had been serious efforts, pre-9/11, to round up suspected Muslim militants in the United States and tighten security on Muslims entering the country."

Another example of the bare-faced dishonesty of the Left: A Leftist blogger read this by Keith Burgess-Jackson: "'Conservatism is committed to a presumption in favor of tradition. Presumptions by their nature are rebuttable" and commented: "So BJ calls on us to follow tradition dogmatically" -- which is the opposite of what Keith actually said. If you regard a presumption as rebuttable, you are NOT following it dogmatically! Perhaps the Lefty blogger is such a lamebrain that he does not know what "rebuttable" means. Just to confuse him further, I might note that the claims about conservative psychology that he also refers to are rebutted here. And if he wants to get straight about dogmatism, he could look here.

Boring Radio: "If ever a talk show defines hate speech Randi Rhodes' show is it. The woman had difficulty saying two sentences without using the words President Bush and Nazis.... Randi will be one of the hosts of the new Democratic Party radio propaganda network called Air America"

USA Today hits the nail on the head: "Major cause of joblessness lies within U.S. schools". Millions of kids cannot get even the Mickey Mouse diplomas that most U.S. high schools hand out these days. I cannot blame the kids for getting tired of unending lessons in political correctness, though.

Ann Coulter shows from history how past Democrat responses to Islamic terrorism led to the 9/11 attacks. There is a similar posting here which also asks the interesting question: "There are two men, both extremely wealthy. One develops relatively cheap software and gives billions of dollars to charity. The other sponsors terrorism. That being the case, why was it that the Clinton administration spent more money chasing down Bill Gates over the past eight years than Osama bin Laden?"

Dick McDonald says that "mainstream" Islam has no religious reason to denounce terrorism because what the terrorists do is perfectly Islamic.

The wicked one has recent postings on gun control, women soldiers and the spiritual side of capitalism!

Thanks to Colonel Sanders and KFC, just about the whole world has tried Southern fried chicken. So here is something different -- Balinese fried chicken -- featuring some herbs and spices that the good Colonel probably never heard of. See here. Bali is a mainly Hindu island near Australia so is heir to a great cuisine.

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************



1 April, 2004

RACE RELATIONS

Arguing for immigration restrictions seems to be no longer politically incorrect in most of the West. Was this change a result of fresh thinking or maybe the fact that unemployment is now no longer mainly a blue collar phenomenon? When professors start getting the sack anti-immigration politicians like Australia's Pauline Hanson may become heroes to the intelligentsia.

Booker T. Washington knew the only road to black advancement: "In reading Booker T. Washington's words, I found someone who inspired me with both his actions and his character. His emphasis on rejecting coercion of others, and relying instead on self-improvement and voluntary arrangements is exactly what we, as parents, try teach our children today, regardless of race"

"Acting black", the pop culture celebration of underclass norms, is hurting black children

Steve Sailer says ethological researchers have confirmed that people are more charitable to their own ethnic group. Multiculturalism and the welfare state are on a collision course. This may explain why during the 20th century relatively homogeneous Scandanavia was able to build a welfare state, where melting pot America baulked. British leftist David Goodhart bucked from the leftist establishment when he argued that increasing diversity in Britain was undermining the communal consensus needed for welfare.

R J Stove on the Australian Left's failed fatwa against distinguished conservative historian Geoffrey Blainey: "Debate is once again permitted on the role of immigration in Australia". Some leftist critics of Blainey have accused him of spending so much time studying the 19th century that he has adopted 19th century ideas. Considering the gory mess various forms of leftism made of the 20th century, this is really a back-handed compliment! To sample some of the depth of Blainey's thinking a good place to start is his 2001 Boyer lectures

The Australian Labor Party is moving away from the dream of Aboriginal self government. See here. As Keith Windschuttle has pointed out, the majority of Australian Aborigines have voted with their feet against the separatist agenda pushed by a self interested minority. After 20 years of failure it looks like the lessons are finally being recognised. Of course conservatives have always been skeptical of so-called "self governing agencies" (like the Aboriginal organization) that dispense monies extracted from the general taxpaying public with a minimum of taxpayer control over their distribution. The problems of corruption, incompetence and ineffectiveness they have generated could have been easily predicted by any 18th or 19th century classical economist. And of course Aboriginal welfare bodies and their ilk reverse the old revolutionary and classical liberal idea of "no taxation without representation". Many of these so called "progressive reforms" are really reactionary to the core.

Shakespeare was warning against the evils of racism before there were any post-modernists or liberals. The fact that the greatest figure in English literature fought against prejudice makes a mockery of the view that earlier generations were blinded by prejudice "Anti-Semitism and racial prejudice against black Africans are two of the uglier maladies in the history of the West, but in the work of its greatest dramatist we see that these evils are not integral to its civilization, and that in the West's critical spirit lie the means of its continual reform."

The UK government's immigration policy is so crazy that even some British Indians don't like it: "I think the government has lost it. I am a 2nd generation Bradfordian. The number of new faces I see in Bradford city centre - all eastern Europeans has significantly increased over the past few years. I lose over o600 from my pay packet every month in taxes and when I go to the post office I see queues of eastern European queuing for state handouts without having contributed anything to society. Is there any wonder that there is quiet discontent in the country? -- Tendukar Gill" Of course, if they played cricket it might be a different matter .....

**********************************

ELSEWHERE

I have just put up here some excerpts from an anti-individual, pro-Green rant by an Australian professor that nonetheless had this good point in it: "The findings fit those of other studies that have shown people for whom "extrinsic goals" such as fame, fortune and glamour are a priority tend to experience more anxiety and depression and lower overall well-being than people oriented towards "intrinsic goals" of close relationships, self-understanding, acceptance, and contributing to the community. These results are, in turn, consistent with other research that shows materialism - the pursuit of money and possessions - breeds not happiness but dissatisfaction, depression, anxiety, anger, isolation and alienation. In short, the more materialistic we are, the poorer our quality of life." And that is where capitalism comes in. Because it makes us all richer, it enables us to concentrate more on non-material things instead of spending all our time scrabbling for a living. And anyone who thinks that having gold handles on his car door is the highroad to happiness can only be pitied.

The deceptions attempted by Left-leaning historians are sometimes quite breathtaking. Take this: "Fascism was ultimately born out of, and supported by, conservatism" Any reader of history knows that the founder of Fascism, Mussolini, was a firebrand socialist and Marxist ideologue at the time he developed the Fascist variant of his thinking! For more details of the Leftist history and nature of Fascism, see here.

There is a hopelessly biased article by Alan Wolfe that goes to torturous lengths to explain why an old Nazi philosopher, Carl Schmitt, is popular on the American Left at the moment. One quote: "Schmitt's admirers on the left have been right to realize that after the collapse of communism, Marxism needed considerable rethinking. Yet in turning to Schmitt rather than to liberalism, they have clung fast to an authoritarian strain in Marxism represented by such 20th-century thinkers as V.I. Lenin and Antonio Gramsci. And it hasn't just been Schmitt. Telos, in particular, developed a fascination with neofascist thinkers and movements in Italy". Anybody who knows the historically socialist nature of Fascism and Nazism would find that no surprise.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with its usual wide range of reading all in one place.

I have just put up a gourmet recipe for that good old standby -- Welsh rarebit. See here.

********************************

The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************