Sunday, July 31, 2005

 
THE LATEST NONSENSE ABOUT RACE

I am not sure that this summary of a commentary by Arne Ohman, of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden is really worth mentioning but the final sentence in the extract below could mislead:

"By treating men and women like Pavlov's dogs, and giving them electric shocks while they looked at pictures of black and white men, researchers have unravelled our innate and learnt reactions to race. We have evolved to fear people from a different group to our own, in the same way they we fear spiders and snakes, it was found. But close contact can help counter this inherent fear."

Both the things found were rather like proving that grass is green. 1). That people still have some tribal tendencies and tend to be most at ease with people similar to themselves is uncontroversial. 2). The actual second finding about "close contact" was simply that New Yorkers who had dated someone from another race were less fearful of other races. How surprising! Asserting that the dating influenced the attitude rather than the other way around is is absurd.

The original research referred to by Ohman is here. There is a better summary of the work here

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ELSEWHERE

An Australian example of the "professionalism" of mainstream journalism: "Few journalists resort to fantasy, but the issue has aired publicly after The Sunday Telegraph's property writer, Cindy Martin, was accused of journalistic imaginings by the ABC's Media Watch program. The program exposed instances when Martin linked celebrities with properties on the market. Checks with the rich and famous found they had not evinced interest in homes and apartments. The Martin affair has rocked The Sunday Telegraph and starkly exposed the increasingly blurred line between fact and fantasy in some publications".

Burgess gets another Leftist scalp: "News just in: The Daily Ablution can claim its second scalp for Burgess's work the on Sassygate scandal. The Guardian's executive editor for news, Albert Scardino, has just resigned according to Burgess. Burgess reports that his source at The Guardian said Scardino's position had become "untenable" due to the split between Aslam's supporters and those who wanted him gone. Editor Alan Rushbridger has conceded that this affair and its internal repercussions constitute "a significant crisis for the paper".

As in Marxism, it is the privileged who are the vanguards of jihad: "When you read reports that the Muslim terrorists who bombed the London Underground may have gotten together for a pre-attack whitewater rafting trip in Wales, you realize that this is a very particular enemy -- and one that is recognizable to students of history. This is the revolt of the privileged, Islamic version. They have risen so far, so fast in the dizzying culture of the West that they have become enraged, disoriented and vulnerable to manipulation. Their spiritual leader is a Saudi billionaire's son who grew up with big ideas and too much money".

Muslim against Muslim: "The latest reliable report confirms that on average 33 Iraqis die every day, executed by Iraqis and foreign jihadis and suicide bombers, not by US or British soldiers. In fact, fewer than ever US or British soldiers are dying since the invasion more than two years ago. Instead, we now watch on television hundreds of innocent Iraqis lying without limbs, bleeding in the streets dead or wounded for life. If this is jihad someone got his religious education completely upside down. Palestine is on fire, too, with Palestinian armed groups fighting one another - Hamas against Fatah and all against the Palestinian Authority. All have rendered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas impotent and have diminished the world's respect and sympathy for Palestinian sufferings."

The Leftist chickens come home to roost on us all: "Being a rational thinker, it is often impossible to understand how Democrats can be so stupid. What exactly do the Democrats think is going to happen when they Balkanize America and invent categories for people so that no one is an American any longer but rather an "African-American" or an "Hispanic-American" or a woman or a homosexual whose allegiance shouldn't be to America but rather to the "cultural heritage" or the unique behavior that "defines" him or her? What do the Democrats think is going to happen when English is not the language of everyone but everyone is to speak his own language (even made up slang like "ebonics") so that communities become isolated and antagonistic and incapable of communicating with one another to solve differences and problems?... What's going to happen is exactly what has happened in London where native-born children blow the skulls off their "fellow countrymen." After all, thanks to the liberals there, what did these murderers have in common with the people they destroyed?"

European impotence fuels anti-Americanism: "Bush-hating has also given Europeans a marvelous distraction from their own failures; their failure in the Balkans, their failure to come up with a constitution for the European Union, their failure to build an independent military force, their failure to put together a single, coherent European foreign policy. In so many ways, Europeans who once ran the world now feel impotent to affect international events or even get their own house in order. They float like a lovely but rudderless old yacht in the surging wake of an American aircraft carrier. So, Europeans do the one thing that makes them feel superior: revile Bush, the lunatic cowboy, and all those gun-toting, overweight, money-obsessed, religion-crazed Americans who chose him as their president.

All Gods are not the same: "The atheist, when confronted with two distinct religious illusions does not jump to the conclusion that they are both aimed at invoking the same supreme being. Instead of looking up toward the transcendent object of the illusion, he is able to look at the quality of the illusion itself, and to the practical and concrete consequences of this illusion on the lives of those who subscribe to it. Religious illusions, when approached from this direction, clearly reveal themselves as distinctive as different forms of social organization -- as distinctive as feudalism and capitalism, communism and meritocracy. Indeed, the atheist will quickly see that few things can differ more profoundly than the diverse ways in which human beings have imagined the nature of the Divine".

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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The anti-business policies and practically all economic policies advocated by the Left are impoverishing. They waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so make the country poorer. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/31/2005 07:14:00 PM

Saturday, July 30, 2005

 
Brookes News Update

US interest rates, growth and China : It's the Fed's monetary policy that has been driving the trade deficit and interest rates and not Chinese exports. If there is ever a run on the dollar, blame Greenspan - not Beijing
US Immigration: The Wall Street Journal gets it wrong - again: Stephen Moore, a member of 'The Wall Street Journal's' editorial board, boldly and proudly supports the pro-immigrant side - and gets it badly wrong
How useful is macro-economic data?: Macro-economic indicators are fictitious devices used by governments to justify intervention with businesses. They tell us very little about wealth formation and thus individuals' well-being
The day after terrorists bombed London G8 gave Palestinian terrorists $9 billion: What a 'wonderful' gift! I wonder how many more Jews will have to die more from bombs purchased using the money from Israel's "friends"?
Separation of church and state: myth and reality: Liberals have been indoctrinating American children with lies about the First Amendment. Separation of church and state does not appear anywhere in the Constitution

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ELSEWHERE

I am rather bemused at the way an official "line" about the 7/7 London bombings seems to have taken hold. Everybody now seems to chant that they were suicide bombers whereas there are much better reasons for thinking that they were duped: They knew what they were doing but thought they would get away before the bombs went off -- as the earlier bombers in Spain did. An early version of the "duped" theory is here and I have also re-posted the story here. Recent findings that the car they left behind still had lots of unused bombs in it tend to reinforce they idea that the bombers thought they were coming back and going on to plant more bombs. Whether they thought they were coming back or not does not reduce the evil of the deed as far as I can see. British blogger Snowball thinks there is some sort of official coverup going on.

God, Leftists are thick at times! The BBC has just reported with great amazement that identical twins got identical marks in their university examinations. You'd think they had never heard of genetics! But I guess that 100 years of evidence about the huge role of genetics in what we are and do must be treated as if it did not exist.

There is an amusing explanation here of what the Dems believe in. Excerpt: "They are for a New Holocaust in Israel, a Final Solution de novo, since they are for the Palestinians, whose cultural cause, obsession, raison d'etre, is the annihilation of Israel, and they are not for Israel doing anything in self-defense. They are for a government monopoly of education, even though they are opposed to all other monopolies, except, of course, the fantasy of a Democratic monopoly on political power. They are for the outsourcing of American manufacturing jobs to any and all other countries, because they have been against all efforts to build ugly new factories in America for decades - Not In My Backyard!"

Shut down official feminism: "If Republicans are looking for a way to return to their principles of limited government and reduced federal spending, a good place to start would be rejection of the coming reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act sponsored by Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. It's a mystery why Republicans continue to put a billion dollars a year of taxpayers' money into the hands of radical feminists who use it to preach their anti-marriage and anti-male ideology, promote divorce, corrupt the family court system, and engage in liberal political advocacy. Accountability is supposed to be the watchword of the Bush administration, but there's been no accountability or oversight for the act's spending of many billions of dollars. There is no evidence that the Violence Against Women Act has benefited anyone except the radical feminists on its payroll".

What The World Owes Palestinians and The Left: "In the last few weeks, innocent men, women and children have been blown up, paralyzed, brain damaged and otherwise had their lives ruined by Muslim suicide bombers in Britain, Egypt and Iraq. Who can we thank for this man-made plague? Palestinians and the Left. We need to thank Palestinians for their major contribution to humanity -- religiously sanctioned mass murder of innocents through suicide. Prior to the Palestinians, this did not exist.... If blowing up Jewish children is OK, so is blowing up Egyptian, Moroccan, Iraqi, British, Spanish and Russian children. And that is where the Left comes in. They have provided the secular and universal justification for Palestinian Islamic terror against Jews. According to the world's Left, it's OK for Palestinians to put bombs in an Israeli student cafeteria.. But, alas, the anti-Israel Left (an almost redundant description), too, did not understand the genie it had helped unleash onto the world. Why is it all right for Muslims to blow up Israeli children, but not Russian children? Israeli buses, but not British buses? Jews in Israel, but not Muslims in Iraq?.. Like London's mayor, the Left around the world blames Israel for the Palestinian suicide bombers, and blames America for those in Iraq. Without the Left around the world, the Palestinian God-based mass murder through suicide would have been an isolated phenomenon, universally condemned as the evil it is.

Failures of intelligence: "Three weeks before the London bombings of July 7, Britain's Joint Terrorist Analysis Center advised policymakers that 'at present there is not a group with both the current intent and the capability to attack the UK.' ... Less than a month later, 52 people were murdered and 700 wounded when three subway trains and a bus were blown up in the worst act of terrorism the United Kingdom has experienced since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988. Obviously this was a serious intelligence failure. ... But the botched terror assessment raises a question for us, too: Which kind of intelligence failure is better -- the kind that badly understates a threat, such as the one in London, or the kind that overstates a threat, such as the insistent warnings before the invasion of Iraq that Saddam Hussein was armed with weapons of mass destruction?"

NASA is so hopeless that it needs to be abolished: "NASA grounded future shuttle flights Wednesday because a big chunk of insulating foam flew off Discovery's fuel tank during liftoff -- as it did in Columbia's doomed mission -- but this time apparently missed the spacecraft. 'Until we're ready, we won't go fly again. I don't know when that might be,' shuttle program manager Bill Parsons told reporters in a briefing Wednesday evening. He and other managers do not believe the flying debris that snapped off the external fuel tank harmed Discovery, threatening a safe return of its seven astronauts."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

The anti-business policies and practically all economic policies advocated by the Left are impoverishing. They waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so make the country poorer. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/30/2005 06:31:00 PM

Friday, July 29, 2005

 
LIMITS ON MULTICULTURALISM COMING

Excerpts from an article by Australian conservative columnist Janet Albrechtsen

The 1960s, the decade that became a state of mind, is finally over. With each new terrorist horror in London, as we learn more and more about British homeboy terrorists, it seems safe to declare that age of innocence is dead. It was an age where wide-eyed all-you-need-is-love romanticism inevitably spawned moral and cultural relativism. But when boys, born in British hospitals, develop allegiances that demand death to their countrymen, you know that the utopian vision of multiculturalism, urged on us with the best of intentions, has not gone as planned.

Three years ago, to suggest that multiculturalism was slowly killing us, or at least killing some of us, brought down a heavy rain of criticism. Back in September 2002, to mark the approaching first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, I wrote on this page that the West's multiculturalism created conditions that encouraged the West's fanatical enemies. We were so busy being inclusive, denigrating our own culture, that we were not noticing what was happening. I suggested that Multicultural Man and his lazy cultural relativist thinking needed to be dismantled. A few others were saying the same thing. But not many.....

How times have changed. When four young British Muslims set off from Luton, detonating four bomb blasts in London, most people were shaken out of their reverie. Eventually, it seems, reality bites. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes cruelly. Now, more than a few people are saying that tolerance is not as safe as it seems. That too much of the stuff can be a problem because it suggests to those who detest our values and our societies that we will not make judgments about what is right and what is wrong....

Now, even long-time supporters of multiculturalism, such as The Age's Pamela Bone, wonder aloud whether it is time for us to lay down some ground rules for those from different cultures who wish to live side by side with our culture. "Couscous yes, child marriage no?" she asked....

Advocating multiculturalism for people from cultures with similar values was never going to be problematic. But when cultures differ sharply, multicultural policies that promote all cultures as equal lead us in all sorts of wrong directions. A young Aboriginal woman points to tribal law to excuse her for killing her philandering husband. An educated man, the father of a group of Pakistani gang rapists, claims they did not understand our culture.

Finally, more of us are saying "Hang on, some values are non-negotiable." Perhaps we can draw a shade on the '60s view that all cultures are equal.

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ELSEWHERE

There is an article in Harpers that is getting a lot of links. It claims to show that Americans call themselves Christians but don't behave in Christian ways. They imply the rather ludicrous claim that Harpers has a better understanding of what Christianity is than America's Christian pastors do. In some cases that would not be hard of course. Almost anybody would have a better idea of what Christianity implies than Bishop John Shelby Spong does, for instance. I could go on to pick apart all the erroneous ideas about Christianity that Harpers promulgates but they are mostly just old Leftist standbys that I have already demolished on my Scripture Blog so I think I will leave it to Christian bloggers to put up a more systematic reply.

Phew! That was close. CAFTA just squeaked past the House. There is now "free trade" between the USA and Central America. It is in fact still far from free but it is freer than it was, which will be good for all the countries concerned.

Arlene Peck has some very interesting figures on the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. (See bottom of post).

I have just put up a book review from a centre-Left source on Leftists as Elitists which savages the Stalinist Hollywood elite and defends Joe McCarthy! The concluding paragraph: "So what has all this to do with the fate of the American left or American liberalism? Any movement that does not own up to its past hobbles its future. These flanks are still enchanted with the suicidal heroism of the self-deluded Hollywood communists. This twisted syndrome did not stop with apologetics and excuses for Stalinism. It continues with the tortured explanations and barely disguised extenuations for the Muslim terror war against democratic and civil society. The Radoshes have written a wise, honest, and perceptive book."

Newsweek: Truth is the First Civilian Casualty in Iraq: "But civilian killings by U.S. troops are not nearly as common as the critics of the war in Iraq would like us to believe. It has become an article of faith among them that American troops have been slaughtering Iraqi civilians indiscriminately, and that one of the consequences of the war has been an unconscionable loss of life among the civilian population. It just isn't true. The most recent entry in this campaign is a report released on July 19 by Iraq Body Count. This Web-based group (www.iraqbodycount.org) compiles news accounts of casualties in Iraq and tabulates them... The text of the report is decorated with pull quotes from news accounts of checkpoint killings and aerial bombardments. Even if U.S. troops didn't kill all these people, they're telling us, these civilians would not have died were it not for the U.S. presence. Is it the policeman's fault when the hostage taker kills his hostage? In fact, a fair reading of the report's own data could support a completely contrary conclusion. Were it not for the insurgents, there would scarcely be much of a civilian death toll in Iraq now. A few isolated cases, yes, but nothing like the 8,000 civilians the Iraqi government says have died so far in 2005 from insurgent attacks.

Military recruitment going fine: "Buried in all the mainstream media coverage this week over new terrorist bombings in London, space shuttles that didn't launch, the trashing of Karl Rove and the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice was a little-noted item about re-enlistments in the U.S. armed forces exceeding expectations. USA Today offered some prominence to the story, but it was widely ignored by most of the Fourth Estate. Perhaps that's because it's a 'good news story.'"

I am pleased to say that a few readers commented on my "woolly hat" post. One reader sent me a pic of a guy in Costa Rica (in the tropics) wearing a beanie in the middle of summer so the only thing I am reasonably sure of after that is that they are all a bit missing somewhere. And there is a picture of a well-known Australian Leftist blogger here which does not change my mind. I have even got him on my blogroll, I am rather mortified to say. I think I will delete all Lefty links soon.

Chris Brand is in fine form with another lot of posts up about British and Australian news.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

The anti-business policies and practically all economic policies advocated by the Left are impoverishing. They waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so make the country poorer. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/29/2005 06:52:00 PM

Thursday, July 28, 2005

 
THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF WOOLLY HATS

Just to take our minds off more serious concerns for once, I thought I might point out something I have noticed that other people might or might not be able to confirm from their own experience. I have noticed that people whom Australians would call "drongoes" (foolish and stupid people) are very prone to wearing woollen hats -- beanies etc. Australians very rarely wear hats of any sort even when they should (given our high incidence of skin cancer) so people wearing warm head-coverings do tend to stand out. And from listening to such people and observing them for many years I am much struck by the low-grade intelligence that seems to prevail among such wearers. No doubt that would not apply in really cold countries such as Russia where furry hats significantly enhance survival but Australia is a generally warm country where few people feel the need for top-deck insulation. So when I see a beanie-clad head in the streets, I immediately identify the person concerned as one best kept away from: as someone with a probably significant tendency to crime and violence. Having been for some years a boarding-house proprietor in a down-market suburb, I am well aware of the fact that crime and violence is a common way for drongoes to cope with life.

So why the association between social pathology and a desire to keep the head warm? I think it is no mystery at all. The brain uses up about 20% of the body's energy. It is a huge consumer of calories in relation to its mass. So the head is normally the last part of the body that feels cold. Having the brain inside the head working is like having a radiator inside it. And as far as I am aware, active brains use up more calories than less active ones. So the people with the relatively inert brains put out less heat from the head and thus feel the cold in their heads more than others do. So an unusual need for warm head-coverings suggests an unusually inactive brain. That's my theory anyway.

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ELSEWHERE

An amazing spasm of sanity from the Democratic Leadership Council: "Here's a novel idea: The war on terror should be, above all, a liberal's war. Think about it: The jihadist campaign is not some generic explosion of terrorism, but rather a calculated attack on all that liberals hold dear: tolerance, diversity, women's rights, the fundamental freedoms and protections of democracy, even trade unionism. In short, liberal values. That's why the liberal left makes a profound mistake if it concedes this war to George W. Bush and the right"

White House may sidestep Democrats on Bolton: "Frustrated by Senate Democrats, the White House hinted Monday that President Bush may act soon to sidestep Congress and install embattled nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations on a temporary basis. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush has used his power for temporary appointments when 'he has to get people in place that have waited far too long to get about doing their business.' He said that 'sometimes there's come a point' when Bush has decided he needs to act."

Archaeologists are now beginning to see evidence of human social inequalities stretching back to the Stone Age. I am only amazed that they ever thought cavemen were equalitarian. There are dominance hierarchies in ALL social animals, including all the primates, so why should man be different? Only a raving Leftist would suggest otherwise.

Genes cause autism too: "While debate still rages over the 'cause' of autism, mounting evidence suggests that genetic factors play a major role in the disease. Two recent studies led by James Sutcliffe, Ph.D., and Randy Blakely, Ph.D., investigators with the Vanderbilt Center for Molecular Neuroscience and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development, suggest that multiple rare mutations within a single gene may increase risk for autism.... "Autism has such a high genetic risk, but these new findings suggest that there may be many variants of individual genes at work," Blakely said. With such genetic testing, said Sutcliffe, "you might be able to predict which kids would respond positively to particular SSRI medications." "We now have concrete evidence in our families that the SERT gene is a risk factor in autism," Blakely said."

Racist judge: "A judge's comments in recent months that she would refuse to seat an all-white jury have raised eyebrows at Cook County Criminal Court and questions about whether the judge acted inappropriately. "Folks, you all know I have a rule; I don't seat all white jurors," Circuit Judge Evelyn Clay said as a jury was being picked to hear a murder trial last month, according to court transcripts.... Clay, who is African-American, made the remarks in chambers before three separate trials, according to transcripts reviewed by the Tribune.... Ronald Allen, a law professor at Northwestern University, called the judge's comments extraordinary. "I've never heard of a judge making such a statement, and I think it was ill-advised to do so publicly," he said. "It injects an unfortunate racial element into the matter, and quite frankly it raises very serious questions about whether [the judge] is discriminating against whites."... In a 1986 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Batson vs. Kentucky that it was a violation of the constitution to keep blacks off juries solely because of their race. The court found that the public's confidence in the fairness of the system would be damaged.

Leftist Kristof says Christians shame the Left: " But these days liberals should be embarrassed that it's the Christian Right that is taking the lead in spotlighting repression in North Korea. Perhaps no country in human history has ever been as successful at totalitarianism as North Korea. Koreans sent back from China have been herded like beasts, with wires forced through their palms or under their collarbones. People who steal food have been burned at the stake, with their relatives recruited to light the match. Then there was the woman who was a true believer and suggested that the Dear Leader should stop womanizing: after she was ordered executed, her own husband volunteered to pull the trigger. "The biggest scandal in progressive politics," Tony Blair told The New Yorker this year, "is that you do not have people with placards out in the street on North Korea. I mean, that is a disgusting regime. The people are kept in a form of slavery, 23 million of them, and no one protests!" Actually, some people do protest. Conservative Christians have aggressively taken up the cause of North Korean human rights in the last few years, and the movement is gathering steam. A U.S.-government-financed conference on North Korean human rights convened in Washington last week, and President Bush is expected shortly to appoint Jay Lefkowitz to the new position of special envoy for North Korean human rights.

Top ten reasons to privatize public broadcasting : "Republicans in Congress are debating whether to make small cuts in the funding for public broadcasting. They're not thinking big enough. Here are the top ten reasons to cut off the taxpayer dollars flowing to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting System: 10.) We live in a 500-channel world. Back in 1967, when the Public Broadcasting Act was passed, most Americans only had three television channels -- ABC, NBC and CBS. But today we have six over-the-air networks and hundreds of cable channels offering everything from news to soap operas to classic movies to history and opera. 9.) Sesame Street isn't so special any more. ..."

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with a huge range of reading.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

The anti-business policies and practically all economic policies advocated by the Left are impoverishing. They waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so make the country poorer. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/28/2005 05:35:00 PM

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

 
KIN PREFERENCE, FRANK SALTER AND EMMANUEL TODD

Frank Salter is a very popular guy in white nationalist circles. He has written a book (On Genetic Interests: Family, Ethny, and Humanity in an Age of Mass Migration) that has been widely acclaimed in those circles as giving a rational argument in favour of preferring your own race and stopping immigration. As it happens, I know Frank personally but that is not what I want to talk about here. I want to outline his ideas very briefly and then point to an alternative view. Frank rightly notes that we tend to prefer being with and helping people who are genetically similar to ourselves and that members of our own racial group are more similar to us genetically than are members of other racial groups. From my reading of the scientific literature in psychology and genetics, both those statements are clearly true and racial preference therefore probably is indeed an extension of kin preference.

Frank however extends his reasoning to say that we SHOULD prefer people who are genetically closer to us -- but I am agnostic about that. I cannot say SHOULD NOT because that would be telling most of the human population not to behave in the way that they do and I cannot say SHOULD because I see it as a basic civil liberty that people should be allowed to make their own choices about whom they should or should not associate with and prefer. I don't remotely understand bondage freaks but if their interactions with one-another help them get their rocks off, good luck to them. Similarly I think that most white women who take black lovers will regret it (ask Nicole Brown Simpson about that -- Whoops! You can't) but if it turns them on that is their business. We all take our risks in one way or another and if our bedrooms are not private where is privacy to be found?

So I will confine myself to the DO rather than the SHOULD. I want to look more closely at exactly how kin preference works. And the first thing to note is of course that kin is only one of the critieria we use in deciding whom we wish to be with and help. There are many instances where opposites attract and there are many sorts of similarity that we like other than genetic similarity. I think that is too obvious for me to bother with examples -- though I cannot help noting that most Westerners who spend time in India do come away saying that they "loved India" -- despite India's deprivations and dissimilarities.

And I owe what I think is the key fact in this matter to a French Leftist intellectual -- Emmanuel Todd. Now I know that that statement will immediately have brought on acid reflux in some readers here so let me assure you that I am in general as contemptuous of what passes for philosophy in France as I am admiring of Wittgenstein (Yes: I know that Wittgenstein was so far Left that he emigrated to Russia but it is also true that he lasted only three weeks in Russia. Nobody is wise about everything! It is not his politics but his cautious and anti-theoretical arguments about the nature of knowledge that I like -- arguments that fall squarely within the tradition of Anglo-Saxon conservatism as far as I can see).

But if even a stopped clock is right twice a day, a French intellectual can occasionally be right too. And Todd is half English anyway. And in his 1985 book The explanation of ideology Todd's approach is thoroughly empirical -- combining history and anthropology. And what he points out is that the English family has always been weird by world standards. Nobody values kin as little as the English do and they have been that way for as far back as we can follow it. I myself noted that in my Australian survey research. In one of my doorknock surveys, one of the questions I asked was: "How often do you visit relatives?" If the household was a Mediterranean one (usually Greek or Italian) the normal and immediate answer was "every weekend". In Anglo-Australian households however most people had to think hard about that and a common answer was "Never". Anglo-Saxons tend to choose their company with little or no regard to relatedness whereas family is all to most of the rest of the world.

But as it happens, those weird Anglo-Saxons seem to have got it right. It is their culture that dominates the world and it is they (together with their close relatives in North-Western Europe) who have largely created the modern world. So I think that all Anglo-Saxon ways come with some presumption in their favour. And it could be the reduced kin preference among Anglo-Saxons that is the key to their success. On Salter's reasoning, their minimal kin orientation would be part and parcel of their greater devotion to individualism, their greater racial tolerance, their greater devotion to abstract justice and their lesser tendency to corruption. That sounds like a pretty good brew to me!

And since practically every personality trait the geneticists look at turns out to have a large genetic component, it seems likely that degree of kin preference is genetically encoded too. So others may not be able to emulate the Anglo-Saxons just by trying. Though they may have advantages in other ways, of course. So it is surely some irony that the people to whom Frank primarily addresses his arguments (his fellow Anglo-Saxons) are the ones least likely to be moved by them. But it does explain why Frank needed to write his book: The desirability of people to whom one is related is instinctively obvious to most of the world. Only the Anglo-Saxons need a book to tell them that!

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ELSEWHERE

In a convincing demonstration of the Leftist disconnect from reality, that Prince of exaggeration and made-up "facts" -- John Pilger -- still seems to be respected on the Left. He has the current cover-story on the New Statesman -- alleging of course that the fault for the London bombing lies at Tony Blair's door. It is just standard Leftist "blame the West" stuff, of course, but I suppose someone has to debunk it occasionally and Spartac.us is one of those who have waded in to clean up the mess. I think Pilger's stock in trade is that he really seems to believe the crap. Leftists in general are such phonies that they badly need someone like that.

Under the heading "Evil must be fought" Rabbi Steinsaltz has an excellent brief response to the terror attack in London on July 7. Excerpt: "What happened in London recently should bring about a fundamental change in our way of seeing the world. There really is evil in the world. It has its own ideology and own organizations, and it exists not only somewhere far away, but here".

There are some amusing comments on Powerline about the rumoured takeover of Danone -- a French yoghurt-maker -- by Pepsi. Apparently the French government has been going ballistic over it. I liked this comment: "You know a country is in the throes of a deep identity crisis when its elites unanimously decide that dairy products are of the highest strategic importance, calling for nationalist wagons to circle around a firm selling such high-technology products as chocolate cookies, mineral water and fruit yogurt..."

Concerned Women for America has some good mockery of all the various Leftist objections to GWB's SCOTUS pick.

CATS: There are some absolutely amazing thoughts about domestic cats here. All cat-lovers should read it. It certainly opened my eyes and I am more a dog person. I was once a registered dog breeder, in fact -- of English Bull-terriers.

Bluto has fired back at The Guardian for treating his satire about headchopping as serious.

Chris Brand has a new lot of posts up on British and Australian issues.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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The anti-business policies and practically all economic policies advocated by the Left are impoverishing. They waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so make the country poorer. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/27/2005 07:26:00 PM

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

 
TUESDAY ROUNDUP

Once again I list what I think were the best posts on my various blogs in the preceding week.

On Dissecting Leftism I question whether Australia's immigration policy is selective enough

On Political Correctness Watch I note that homosexuality seems to trump Islam in political correctness

On Greenie Watch I note that the evidence is now in that Michael Mann committed scientific fraud in his famous "hockeystick" claims about global warming

On Education Watch I note that some Leftist teachers are so reluctant to administer any discipline that they are now calling the police to deal with 5-year-olds

On Socialized Medicine I note that lives are being put at risk as British public hospitals ignore medical alerts

On Gun Watch I note that a gun club is being sued for committing lead pollution!

On Leftists as Elitists I note that a left-leaning Australian High Court judge admitted that he was consumed by anger when he considered some cases

On Majority Rights I note opposition to black immigration in Australia

On Blogger News I note that Sweden has useful lessons for conservatives. (Post also below)

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ELSEWHERE

As the Plame/Wilson/Rove beatup continues: "As the seemingly endless spiderweb of lies spun by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV unravels, the media has gone out of its way to question the credibility of.Karl Rove. Despite Rove's demonstrable non-leak of Valerie Plame's non-secret identity, the dogs continue to gather, hungry for a second term scandal, while the Wilsons' blatant self-promotion erodes whatever basis they had for a story in the first place. Perhaps Joe Wilson's two biggest whoppers were his claim to have spoken out because of his deep, non-partisan commitment to "truth," and his inconsolable remorse that his wife's closely guarded anonymity had become "collateral damage" in the Bush administration's war against him. What is at risk of being lost in the media hype of Karl Rove's "leak" is that Plame and Wilson had deep-seated ideological opposition to the Niger trip they set up, Plame apparently spiked that trip in advance, and she had long ago blown her status as a "secret" CIA agent."

PETA are just haters: They care neither for people nor animals: Here's what PETA didn't want you to see: two PETA employees attending a court hearing Tuesday in North Carolina on charges they killed and dumped 31 cats and dogs in a shopping center's trash bins. While the court case is pending, the controversy swirling around PETA and associated animal rights extremists, is again Page One news. Veterinarian clinics and animal shelters turned the pets over to PETA in hopes they could be adopted. Instead, they were killed by an organization dedicated to "ethical" treatment of animals. It's just another example of the misguided agenda, and hypocrisy, of the animal rights movement. It's a campaign that affects not only PETA and its supporters, but hurts each and every one of us.... These folks believe there can never be any justification for animal testing. If achieving their goal means humans must suffer, then inflicting needless pain, trauma, grief and death on people is merely a necessary means to a worthwhile end. And, a report by the Anti-Defamation League -- hardly a bastion of extreme conservatism -- says radical environmental and animal-rights groups have wreaked more than $100 million in damage over the past two decades... After bombing the offices of a California company in 2003, animal rights extremists sent an e-mail claiming responsibility. Among other things, it said, "You never know when your house, your car even, might go boom ... or maybe it will be a shot in the dark." Terroristic threats don't come any clearer".

Leftist twisting about "activist" judges: "Those who want to see judges who will apply the law instead of imposing their own policies face not only political obstruction to the appointment of such judges but also calculated confusion about the very words used in discussing what is at issue. Judges who impose their own preferences, instead of following the law as it is written, have long been known as "judicial activists" while those who carry out the law, instead of rewriting it to suit themselves, have been said to be following the "original intent" of the law. But now a massive effort to muddy the waters has been launched by those who want judges who will continue to impose the liberal agenda from the bench. Words like "activists" and "intent" are being twisted beyond recognition. Senator Patrick Leahy has redefined "activist" judges to make the least activist Justices on the Supreme Court -- Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- suddenly activists by his new definition. Senator Leahy has said: "The two most activist judges we have right now are Justice Thomas and Justice Scalia, who have struck down and thus written laws of their own in place of congressional laws more than anybody else on the current Supreme Court." One of the major functions of the Supreme Court for more than two centuries has been to strike down acts of Congress, the President, or the lower courts when any of these exceed the authority granted to them by the Constitution. Calling this "judicial activism" is playing games with words and befogging the real issues. When Justices Scalia and Thomas enforce the limits set by the Constitution, that is not writing "their own new laws," no matter what Senator Leahy claims"

A good bit of satire about the British Muslim journalist who supports jihad, posted by 'dreadpundit', a right-wing New Yorker using the name 'Bluto'. He wrote: "Okay, Dilpazier, I've decided to bow to your 'logic' - sauce for the goose and all that. That's why I'm issuing a secular fatwah and asking for some loyal Briton to saw off your head and ship it to me (use Fed-Ex, please, so I can get a morning delivery, and do remember the dry ice, also, a videotape of the 'execution')."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

The anti-business policies and practically all economic policies advocated by the Left are impoverishing. They waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so make the country poorer. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/26/2005 07:31:00 PM

Monday, July 25, 2005

 
SWEDEN: AN EXAMPLE FOR CONSERVATIVES

American conservatives should be shouting the Swedish experience from the rooftops

What would American conservatives say of a country that NOT ONLY has an extensive system of government-paid vouchers for private schooling but also has an extensive system of government-paid vouchers for private hospitalization? And what if the same country had ALREADY made big cutbacks in the size of government? A dream for the distant future? Not quite. That country does already exist. It is Sweden. Probably because the mainstream media turn a blind eye to it, most people seem totally unaware that Sweden is moving steadily AWAY FROM the "Swedish model". In the early 90s, the Swedish government was spending nearly three quarters of the national income. That is now down to about half.

Sweden still has a long way to go of course. After their big economic meltdown in the early 90's (huge unemployment and welfare benefits that could no longer be paid for) they undertook an exemplary program of privatizations and made big cuts to both taxes and welfare benefits but there are still huge disincentives to work in Sweden. Incomes are kept pretty uniform regardless of what you do -- meaning that there is little incentive either to improve one's skills or to work hard -- and the sickness benefit side of the welfare system is still a huge racket. People on sickness benefits no longer get a higher income than they would by working but the benefits are still close to wages and access to the system is very easy. So huge numbers of Swedes have declared themselves too ill to work.

As a consequence, average Swedish incomes have fallen well behind American standards -- as indexed by the most objective criterion we have: GDP per capita. When purchasing power is taken into account, the picture is even worse. A cup of coffee, for instance, is likely to cost you three times as much in Sweden as in the USA. Individual Swedes do however manage their money well so there is little visible sign in Sweden of their lower incomes. Visible poverty in any modern society mainly reflects bad decisions rather than lack of income. Money now buys options rather than survival.

So Leftists who advocate high taxes and pervasive welfare need to be told that the country that went furthest in that direction hit a rock years ago and has been paddling in reverse ever since.

More here (PDF)

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ELSEWHERE

Britain's proposed new terrorism laws sound like a form of terrorism themselves. The UK: Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has called for new terrorism measures which include: "create a new offence of "inappropriate internet usage" and "have powers to "attack identified websites""

London bombing a product of British self-hate: "No, the real answer to why Britain spawned people fuelled with maniacal hate for their country is that Britain hates itself. In hating Britain, these British suicide bombers were as British as a police warning for flying the union flag. Britain's self-loathing is deep, pervasive and lethally dangerous. We get bombed, and we say it's all our own fault. Schools refuse to teach history that risks making pupils proud, and use it instead as a means of instilling liberal guilt. The government and the BBC gush over `the other', but recoil at the merest hint of British culture. The only thing we are licensed to be proud of is London's internationalism - in other words, that there is little British left about it... But self-loathing in a nation, like self-loathing in an individual, is alienating. Someone who despises himself inspires greater contempt than affection, and a country that hates itself cannot expect its newcomers to want to belong".

Terrorism about values: "Recent terrorist attacks were part of a war against western values rather than a response to the military operation in Iraq, Defence Minister Robert Hill said today. After a second wave of bombings in London overnight, Senator Hill said there had been terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists before the operations in Iraq began. Senator Hill was speaking a day after Australian bomb casualty Louise Barry asked Prime Minister John Howard, who visited her in a London hospital, if the terror attacks were linked to the Iraq war. "I can understand why someone would ask that question, but this is a war against the values we hold rather than any specific operations we're involved in," the minister told ABC radio".

Islamic ignorance prevents polio eradication: "A worldwide campaign begun in 1988 to eradicate the polio infection was on the verge of success when, early in 2003, a conspiracy theory took hold of the Muslim population in northern Nigeria. That conspiracy theory has single-handedly returned polio to epidemic proportions. The theory's source seems to be a physician and the president of Nigeria's Supreme Council for Shari'a Law, Ibrahim Datti Ahmed, 68. Dr. Ahmed, an Islamist, accuses Americans of lacing the vaccine with an anti-fertility agent that sterilizes children (or, in an alternate theory, it infects them with AIDS) and considers them, according to John Murphy of the Baltimore Sun, "the worst criminals on Earth . Even Hitler was not as evil as that." This fear of polio vaccines caught on because of the war in Iraq, explained a doctor with the World Health Organization. "If America is fighting people in the Middle East," goes the Islamist logic, "the conclusion is that they are fighting Muslims." Local imams repeated and spread the sterilization theory, which won wide acceptance despite vocal assurances to the contrary from the WHO, the Nigerian government, and many Nigerian doctors and scientists.... The common element, the New York Times notes, is that incidents of polio are now located "almost exclusively in Muslim countries or regions."

There is a marvellously Anglophilic speech here from Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India. Excerpt: "Our Constitution remains a testimony to the enduring interplay between what is essentially Indian and what is very British in our intellectual heritage. The idea of India as an inclusive and plural society, draws on both these traditions. The success of our experiment of building a democracy within the framework of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious society will encourage all societies to walk the path we have trodden. In this journey, both Britain and India have learnt from each other and have much to teach the world. This is perhaps the most enduring aspect of the Indo-British encounter.... But, if there is one phenomenon on which the sun cannot set, it is the world of the English speaking people, in which the people of Indian origin are the single largest component. Of all the legacies of the Raj, none is more important than the English language and the modern school system. That is, if you leave out cricket!

The Jamestown Foundation website is a good source of info on terrorism that endeavours to avoid bias, filter, or agenda. The Foundation has a new book out Unmasking Terror (2004) that is qualitatively ahead of all the pop and academic books on the subject as it depends on primary and indigenous sources in each country around the world. The Jamestown Foundation is leading source of info on totalitarian societies.

I have just put up here an interesting email from a reader which says that Leftists romanticise collectives because they are so bad at them: Their big egos are a serious barrier to real-life collective effort.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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The anti-business policies and practically all economic policies advocated by the Left are impoverishing. They waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so make the country poorer. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/25/2005 06:12:00 PM

Sunday, July 24, 2005

 
TAX MATTERS

Taxachusetts to cut tax?: "With state tax revenues soaring, lawmakers on Beacon Hill are advancing a proposal to lower the Massachusetts income tax rate, if state spending is restored to levels last seen before the fiscal crisis began three years ago. The Senate unanimously approved a Republican measure Thursday that would trigger a series of income tax rate reductions to lower the rate to 5 percent from 5.3 percent, but only if state spending on education and municipal services reaches 2002 levels. The fiscal crisis prompted lawmakers to slash funding that year. Passage of the bill by the Senate, where the Democrats have a large majority, is the first sign that Democrats may be warming to the idea of an income tax cut."

Globotaxes: "Most Americans have come -- correctly, if reluctantly -- to the conclusion the United Nations has been a failure. Sixty years ago, the U.N.'s founders envisioned it as an engine of freedom, an international mechanism in which sovereign nations would come together to protect liberty and to facilitate its spread throughout the world. Instead, for most of its life, the 'world body' has been dominated by the unfree. Under their influence, the U.N. has morphed into a protection racket for the world's despots and, effectively, an abettor of those who would supplant liberty with corrupt authoritarianism, or worse. In recent months, evidence of how far the United Nations has strayed from its original purpose has steadily leached into plain sight."

The Ohio lesson: "In 1970, Ohio had one of the lowest tax burdens in the Union--it now has one of the highest. As of 2005, the state's tax burden, as estimated by the Tax Foundation, is 35.8% higher than it was in 1970, the largest increase in the nation over this period. The next largest, 26.5% in Arkansas, was far smaller, and the average increase in the U.S. tax burden was just 3.1%. Over the past decade alone, Ohio's state and local government direct spending per $1,000 of personal income has risen 19.6%, by far the highest such spending growth in the region and light years beyond the 6.8% figure for all states. To finance this expansion, higher taxes have come along hand-in-hand. The consequences have been harsh. Since 1970, Ohio's share of the nation's personal income has declined from roughly 5.3% to under 3.8% today. In the first quarter of 2005, Ohio had the fifth highest unemployment rate in the U.S. at 6.2% versus the overall unemployment rate of 5.3%. Meager Ohio employment growth of 0.3% through the first quarter placed the state third-to-last nationally, far behind the U.S. overall rate of 1.7%. With falling relative incomes, high unemployment and poor job growth, it is no wonder that people are voting against Ohio with their feet. State-to-state migration shows Ohio losing residents, while total population growth of 0.2% ranks it a dismal 47th in the nation".

Panel suggests repealing alternative minimum tax : "A federal tax-reform panel advising President Bush called Wednesday for repeal of the alternative minimum tax, which has mushroomed from a law targeted on the rich to one that threatens more than 20 million taxpayers with higher taxes next year. The panel's chairman, former senator Connie Mack of Florida, cited the AMT's 'extremely negative effect' on middle-income taxpayers as the nine-member panel reached its first conclusion."

"Death tax" in final throes? "Final repeal of the estate tax is high on the agenda of the White House and congressional Republicans. It has already passed the House, but vote counters are not sure they have 60 votes needed in the Senate to avoid a filibuster. This has emboldened estate tax supporters, who want to keep it alive any way possible. There is a lot of pressure to resolve the issue one way or another this year. Under current law, the estate tax is repealed for one year, 2010, but comes back again in 2011. This nonsensical law is the result of Senate budget rules that prohibited enactment of permanent repeal in 2001. But the result makes estate planning almost impossible, since no one has any idea what the tax regime will be after 2010."

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ELSEWHERE

We all know how Communist Parties always enforced ideological uniformity on their members. It should therefore be no surprise that the Left side of the blogosphere has similar conformist impulses. The top Lefty bloggers have got together to form something called Blogpac which will ensure that they all march in lockstep with one-another -- thus defeating the chief attraction of blogs -- which is their individuality. I wish them success. It will just make people turn to conservative blogs for genuine originality, creativity and independent thought. Wizbang has more.

The stupid wing of the Presbyterian church is digging its own grave: "The Presbyterian Church (USA), the nation's leading Presbyterian congregation, is helping to advance the absurd agenda of the slave reparations movement which demands that whites compensate African Americans for the suffering of their slave ancestors.... the Presbyterian Church (USA) is rapidly losing members. Church leaders are committed to pursuing reparations, as well as other left-wing fads, while everyday church-goers just want to worship the orthodox faith. In 2003, the Presbyterian Church (USA) reported that membership totaled 2.4 million, a sharp decline from 4.2 million in 1983. Church leaders argue that they aren't losing members to other churches but to "the secular society." Not true. Presbyterian Churches that remain true to Christian orthodoxy, such as the Presbyterian Church in America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, are growing, due in part to disillusioned exiles from the Presbyterian Church (USA). This is what happens when a "mainline" Protestant denomination abandons the traditional faith and embraces liberal causes such as the ordination of homosexuals and same-sex marriage."

Still some restraint on police powers in Britain: "A key part of the Government's policy for cracking down on antisocial behaviour was ruled unlawful in a judgment that stops police officers using indiscriminate power to detain children. Two judges, sitting at the High Court in London yesterday, upheld the right of a 15-year-old boy to be out on the streets at night unless the police suspected him of criminal or anti-social behaviour. The boy, who comes from Richmond, south-west London, and can only be identified as W, was challenging the new police powers to detain and forcibly return home any child who ventures into a designated curfew zone after 9pm. Lawyers for W, who has never been in trouble with the police, told the court that in a democracy, only those suspected of wrongdoing should be subject to curfews and police arrest."

Property decision galvanizes the right: "Property rights have become -- quietly and suddenly -- the battle cry for conservatives in the brewing fight over replacing retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Conservatives say last month's Supreme Court ruling that expanded the government's power of eminent domain is now Exhibit A for their case that the high court has abandoned the original meaning of the Constitution and is in desperate need of more conservative jurists. 'It's so bad, it's good,' said Sean Rushton, executive director of the conservative Committee for Justice, which is dedicated to getting President Bush's judicial nominees confirmed. 'Property rights is now the number one issue.' In Kelo v. New London, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the government can seize private property from its lawful owner and give it to a private developer who promises to generate more tax revenue with it."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/24/2005 09:54:00 PM

Saturday, July 23, 2005

 
THE WAR WITH ISLAM

Leftists as battered wives: "The aftermath of the London terrorist bombings has demonstrated that the antiwar Left is severely afflicted by the political equivalent of battered-wife syndrome. With each new beating, the scarred and bruised victims of spousal abuse tend to excuse and rationalize the actions of their tormentors. A stubborn unwillingness to accept the proposition that their partners are violent louts plunges these woeful women into a morass of self-deception that spawns only further violence. The far Left has similarly proved unable to liberate itself from the web of rose-tinted delusions that it has spun about the nature of Islamic extremism. After each al Qaeda outrage, leftist ideologues are quick to castigate their own countrymen for a catalogue of sins, both real and imagined.. The streets of Britain's capital city were still damp with innocent blood when the same obscene dance of political self-flagellation began... In the world according to radical Islam it's the jihadist way or the highway, and these 7th-century dogmas represent the only acceptable outcome to al Qaeda... Fixated by a knee-jerk hostility towards all things American, the likes of Ali, Fisk, and Galloway refuse to recognize the existence of this conflict, much less the stakes that are involved. Their primal instinct is to appease bin Laden and his cohorts rather than oppose them. But Winston Churchill defined an appeaser as "someone who feeds the crocodile in the hopes of being eaten last." The sooner we accept the fact that this is a war; then the sooner we can get about the task of winning it".

The Marx-Muslim pact: "In 1939, the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact cleared the way for Hitler to start World War II. The Pact caught the world by surprise, because it was an alliance between two bitter enemies, Nazi Germany and Communist Russia. Similarly, what made possible the recent bombings in London, and the many more that will follow in Europe and the U.S., is the Marx-Mohammed Pact. Once again, two sworn enemies, Marxism -- specifically the cultural Marxism commonly known as Political Correctness -- and Islam, have made a Devil's bargain whereby each assists the other against a common enemy, the remnants of the Christian West. From a Fourth Generation war perspective, the most important fact about the London bombings is that they were carried out by legal residents of the British Isles.... This fact in turn points to what may be the West's biggest strategic blunder, namely its immigration policies. European and American immigration policies have imported, and continue to import, millions of immigrants who are deeply hostile to the traditional cultures of their new homelands... Obviously, these immigrant Moslem communities pose a clear and present danger to the Western countries they now inhabit. Equally obviously, given its history and what its adherents are doing around the world, Islam itself is a threat. Europe, and the United States, need to stop more Islamics (and, in the U.S., Hispanics) from coming, and at least some of the Islamics now in residence must go".

Seems reasonable: "The home secretary, Charles Clarke, yesterday widened the worldwide net that will allow him to exclude or deport from Britain Islamist militants whose inflammatory language or behaviour is judged to foment or provoke terrorism. He told MPs that intelligence, foreign and home office staff would compile a database of individuals which may lead to them being refused entry to the UK, or even being removed. Civil liberties groups last night said that they were alarmed by the list's catch-all nature. Under the plan, a systematic index will be drawn up of what the home secretary called 'unacceptable behaviours.' Included on it will be anyone preaching, running a website or writing articles which are 'intended to foment or provoke terrorism.'"

There is a rather idiotic article here (PDF) by some State Department hack, arguing that peace in Europe depends on Europe making (unspecified) accomodations to its Muslim population. Since Europe has already bent over backwards to accomodate the Muslims and got only aggression in response, I cannot even imagine what more the dolt thinks Europe could and should do. I think it is time for the Muslims to be making some changes, not the other way around. If they don't like European ways, they should be given a one-way ticket back to their ancestral homelands.

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ELSEWHERE

I normally read Brian Leiter only for laughs but I found this post oddly reassuring. There have been quite a few doubts expressed about whether John Roberts really will be conservative if he is elevated to SCOTUS. His whole career could be interpreted as aimed at sliding himself into a seat on SCOTUS by not revealing anything much about what he really thinks. But Leiter actually mounts some reasonable arguments for believing that Roberts IS conservative -- though almost anybody would be to the Right of Leiter, of course. I also liked this flash of honesty from Leiter: "on a range of issues the U.S. Supreme Court is unavoidably a super-legislature". I have a feeling that I will be quoting that again sometime. Kudlow and Manuel Miranda of the WSJ are also reassuring about Roberts.

A disturbing record: "Seven of the nine current Justices were appointed by Republican Presidents. ... Earl Warren, the father of modern judicial activism, was an Eisenhower appointee. So was William Brennan, who inherited Warren's mantle as the Court's liberal giant. Harry Blackmun, the author of Roe v. Wade, was a Nixon appointee. The most liberal member of the current court, John Paul Stevens, was a Gerald Ford selection. David Souter, a George H. W. Bush and Warren Rudman choice, told the Senate he saw himself in the tradition of the great Justice John Harlan, who revered precedent. But on the court he's arguably been more of a liberal activist than either of Bill Clinton's two justices (Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer). Anthony Kennedy, selected by Reagan after Robert Bork was defeated, was said at the time to share 80% of Mr. Bork's philosophy. But Mr. Kennedy's jurisprudence has proven to be nearly as malleable as Justice Souter's, especially on the cultural and church-state issues where the Court has become the de facto national legislature. ... Our objection to Roe and to Lawrence, the Texas sodomy case, isn't on the underlying policy. It is that the Court has hijacked those social disputes from democratic debate, preventing the kind of legislative compromises that would allow a social and political consensus to form. ... But there are many other issues on which the post-Warren justices have arrogated to themselves an almost legislative authority: overturning voter-passed Congressional term limits by 5-4, dictating racial and gender preferences in law, extending the Commerce Clause to encompass virtually any federal authority as in last term's Raich medical-marijuana decision, or expanding eminent domain in Kelo. ... But the larger goal should be to...restore the High Court to its more restrained historical role. In a phrase, this means putting an end at last to the judicial legislating that was unleashed in the Warren era and that has slowed only on occasion ever since."

GIs criticize Dems: "Soldiers from Massachusetts and Hawaii who work at the U.S. military detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gave visiting home-state senators a piece of their mind last week. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, met with several soldiers during a visit led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican. Pentagon officials said soldiers criticized the harsh comments made recently by Senate Democrats... "They got stiff reactions from those home-state soldiers," one official told us. "The troops down there expressed their disdain for that kind of commentary, especially comparisons to the gulag".

Logical Meme has a horror-story about an out-of-control welfare system in Hartford, Ct.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/23/2005 07:40:00 PM

Friday, July 22, 2005

 
PATRIOTISM, IMMIGRATION AND THE SUDANESE

After having lived for various periods of time in the USA, the UK and India, I am firmly convinced that Australia is the best place in the world in which to live. I imagine that 99% of Australians would agree with that. But I have never been patriotic. I have always seen faults as well as advantages. I am pleased to be an Australian but not proud to be Australian. If I identify with any group at all, it is with the Anglo-Saxon population worldwide. The Anglos versus the non-Anglos seems to me the differentiation that is most useful in identifying locations of civility and moderation.

But I don't see even the Anglos as a whole as being the pinnacle of anything. Most things in this life could be improved (with the exception of J.S. Bach) and I think that applies to populations as well. But how? I see some role for eugenics as long as it is voluntary and the success of the NYC Ashkenazim in almost eliminating Tay-Sachs disease from their community is a shining example of that. And human genetic engineering will undoubtedly in the future be a great boon too.

One thing I would particularly like to see is the minimization of the "Yobbo" or "Chav" component of Anglo-Saxon communities. And I think that SELECTIVE immigration is the only way of doing that which is currently feasible on a large scale. Just because the percentage of "good" genes (however defined) in one population is slightly higher than the average does not mean that there are no similarly "good" genes elsewhere. So a rational immigration program would aim to bring in the bearers of those good genes from wherever they are found and thus dilute the percentage of "bad" genes in the immigration-receiving country. And that I think is broadly what Australia's past immigration policy has done. We have very civilized Asian minorities which greatly enhance the amenity of our country.

The "refugee" component of our immigration program is however a worry. There appears to be some degree of selectivity even in that component of our program but only time will tell if it is sufficient. The disastrous situation in Sudan has led the Australian government into allowing into Australia a considerable number of Sudanese and I see them even in the streets of suburban Brisbane. Given the social pathologies that are uncontrovertibly associated with populations of African origin worldwide, I think it is most likely that the quality of life in Australia will be diminished by the Sudanese presence. I make no apology for predicting that Australian kind-heartedness will have been to our detriment in this instance.

So I am glad Prof. Fraser has raised the issue for debate here in Australia.

In case anybody thinks that I get it wrong above by attributing to genes what should be attributed to culture, I can only say that studies come out almost daily which show that more and more human attributes are genetically determined. Read here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here just for starters.

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The latest example of genetic differences at work: "The belief that chronic fatigue syndrome is "all in the mind" may finally have been laid to rest with the discovery that sufferers have biological abnormalities, researchers claim today. There are between 120,000 and 250,000 sufferers in Britain. The syndrome has been designated a neurological condition by the World Health Organisation. Also known as ME, it has confused scientists for years, with some clinicians dismissing it as a figment of the patients' imagination. Dr Kerr and his team now intend to examine a larger sample of sufferers. He said: "The involvement of such genes does seem to fit with the fact that these patients lack energy and suffer fatigue. This research will open the door to development of pharmacological interventions.".... Dr John Gow, a senior lecturer in clinical neuroscience at the University of Glasgow, is carrying out similar work, using DNA micro-analysis to examine differences in active and inactive genes in sufferers. His preliminary findings support those of Dr Kerr's group."

Five myths about Gitmo: "If the only news you had read about the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, (Gitmo) came to you the past month, you might believe detainees were being brutalized at best, killed at worst. The chorus of critics peaked with the ridiculous: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., noted a "historic parallel" between American treatment of detainees with the way Soviets in their gulags treated prisoners..... A Pentagon investigation presented to the Senate last week found no link between alleged misconduct and Defense Department policy. Although investigators identified the tactics as "creative" and "aggressive," they concluded that they did not constitute "torture." Cooperating with his U.S. captors, one detainee drew diagrams of bombs he designed and built. He provided critiques of the design of "improvised explosive devices" used by insurgents in Iraq. Based on his critique, U.S. forces have a tool to combat these increasingly sophisticated devices, according to the Gitmo task force. The bottom line: A small amount of physical abuse emerges from individual behavior more than official policy, and the intelligence from interrogations is valuable in the war against terrorism.

Thomas Friedman gets it pretty right: "On the question of whether China's Cnooc oil company should be permitted by the U.S. government to purchase the U.S. oil and gas company Unocal, my view is very simple: let the market rule. Oil is fungible. It is all one global market. And if China wants to overpay for a second-tier U.S. energy company, that's China's business.... You know that cheap mortgage you just got? Well, who do you think subsidized it? In many ways it was China. Americans don't save anymore, and import more than they export. Normally, a nation that did that as long and lavishly as the U.S. has would have to raise interest rates to get other countries to hold its currency. But America has not had to do that, in part because China has been willing to hold most of the dollars it has been accumulating - gained from all the goods it is selling America - despite the low interest paid on those dollars and the fact that they have been depreciating against other major currencies."

Pius XII, a truly holy Pope: On Monday, July 25th, Rabbi David Dalin's book entitled The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews From the Nazis will be released and will surely start some controversy. The book examines the myth that has been generated by a handful of "liberal" journalists who have taken the liberty to rewrite the history of WWII, smearing the name of one of the most influential leaders of the early half of the 20th century, while using this controversy to attack the Catholic Church as a whole. David Dalin sets the record straight on who Pope Pius XII really was - a man who risked everything to help shelter and save thousands of Jews from Hitler's Final Solution.

Raise your right hand and swear to tell the truth ... on the Koran?: "As Muslim-Christian relations are under the spotlight around the world,US judges sometimes face a vexing question: Can witnesses raise their right hand and swear to tell the truth ... on the Koran? The recent refusal by a Guilford County, N.C., judge to allow a Muslim woman to swear upon Islam's holy text before testifying is, in part, a new First Amendment challenge. And here in the Tar Heel state, the idea of swearing on books other than the Bible has reinvigorated a debate on the relationship between faith and truth that goes back to the founding documents of both the Carolinas and the country."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/22/2005 09:49:00 PM

Thursday, July 21, 2005

 
Brookes News Update

US economy, production and jobs : Explains why America's unemployment rate remained very low in late 2000 even as manufacturing employment continued to fall
Liberal Party labour market reform founders on ineptitude: Liberal Party advisers have clearly failed to grasp the fact that significant and lasting labour market reform is unlikely to be implemented unless the union myth of raising real wages for everyone is demolished in the public mind
Liberal Party won't defend labour market reform against ignorant priests: Economic growth is the only real safety net the poor have, not unions, clerics or political hacks. So why can't the Liberal Party get this fundamental fact out among the public?
The Anniversary of Fidel Castro's Massacre of the Innocent: On 13 July 1994 the sadistic Castro ordered the massacre of a group of children. And to think this monster is the hero of Western intellectuals
The London bombings and the reaction to jihad: At least there are some in the media who are not afraid to speak out against those who excuse Islamofascist barbarism
Human slavery and pornography, at home and abroad: As pornography moves into the mainstream trafficking in women and children for purposes of sex is increasing

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It looks like GWB's nomination of John Roberts to SCOTUS is sound. There seems a good chance that he will be more conservative than previous GOP nominess such as O'Connor and Souter. I thought it would be good for the GOP if a black or Hispanic were nominated but that could have been seen by white voters as unacceptably politically correct. So GWB has looked after his base. There is an interesting analysis of why past GOP nominees have drifted Left here. Michelle Malkin has links galore on the Roberts nomination. Robert Koons has an excellent suggestion about what GWB could do if this appointment is filibustered.

A teethgrinder for Leftists: "Despite early predictions that the religious book market was just a flash-in-the-pan literary phenomenon, the growth of Christian books outpaced the adult trade category in 2004, with sales expected to soar in coming years. "People kept asking themselves, 'Is this a bubble? A temporary trend?"' said Albert Greco, a consultant with the Book Industry Study Group who has tracked the book business for 20 years. "No, it is a significant trend in the marketplace.""

Private airport screeners outperform government counterparts: "Privately employed airport screeners do a better job than government airport screeners, according to a recent U.S. government report, prompting a key lawmaker to call for a return to private airport screeners and other changes to the nation's aviation security system. 'Over the last three-and-a-half years we have spent billions of dollars creating a Soviet-style, centralized bureaucracy that has resulted in great inefficiencies and inflexibility with little improvement in screener effectiveness,' said Rep. John Mica (R-FL), chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Aviation. Mica was a lead author of the aviation security legislation approved by Congress after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks."

Wanted: More choices for consumers: "It is sad but not surprising that cable companies across the country are marshaling all their political resources and lobbying might to halt the advance of cutting-edge technology that would offer consumers an alternative way to receive video and Internet service in their homes. IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) is the next generation of technology that can provide video and Internet service to consumers through upgraded fiber optic telephone lines. Verizon, SBC and other telephone companies -- big and small -- are now preparing to spend billions to make these necessary upgrades and improvements to their lines to bring their IPTV services to local residents in the coming months. ... If this technology is allowed to progress, tens of millions of residents in communities across the country could benefit from the first phase rollout of these new high-speed, ultra high-tech video services."

Moral illiteracy on the Left: "The bombings in London on July 7, which killed 53 people and injured many more, were a powerful reminder that terrorism remains a clear and present threat in our cities. But they were also, to me, a reminder of something else... the response to terrorism even on the moderate left remains an egregious moral muddle. Perhaps the starkest illustration of this mindset is the fact that, only a couple of days after the bombings, the British Broadcasting Corporation reverted to its policy of avoiding the use of the word ''terrorist." According to BBC guidelines, the T-word ''can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding," and ''careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments" ought to be avoided.... Juan Cole, professor of history at the University of Michigan and a leading left-of-center commentator on the Middle East, argues on his website and in an article at Salon.com that the London bombings are ''blowback" from the US and its allies' misguided policies. Cole pooh-poohs the idea that Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is a product of hatred for the West's democratic values. In his view, it is a response to specific Western policies that are perceived as a war against Muslims, from Israeli oppression of the Palestinians to the military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, took place before the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan..."

What we mean by individualism: "Brad Stone recently delivered a lecture at the Mises Institute concerning the relevance of the work of Robert Nisbet to the libertarian movement (audio | video). He argued that it is important for libertarians to also be "communitarians," defending traditional social institutions from the state. He cautioned against the valorization of the individual and any position that acknowledges only individual rights as ideas that lend themselves to a growth in state power."

UK: New terror laws by December: "Charles Clarke said today that the Government has cross-party support for its anti-terrorism legislation and expects to have a range of new powers signed into law in December. The Home Secretary made the announcement after a meeting with David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, and Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman, this afternoon.Mr Clarke said there were 'no main outstanding issues of difference' on the Government's proposed Counter-Terrorism Bill which would criminalise the acts of planning or training for terrorist attacks, as well as 'indirectly inciting' terrorist acts."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/21/2005 09:23:00 PM

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

 
SOME MORE ECONOMICS

Laffer must be laughing: "So the deficit-the federal budget deficit-is declining sharply, more sharply than just about anyone in mainstream media anticipated. According to figures from the Office of Management and Budget, the deficit is projected to decline from $412 billion in 2004 to $333 billion in 2005, a 19 percent decline. OMB further projects, obviously with less certitude, that it will decline to $162 billion in 2008. If so, that will mean that George W. Bush will have more than kept his promise to cut the deficit in half in his second term. Back in February, OMB projected a 2005 deficit of $427 billion".

The primitive roots of Leftism: "Two years ago, economist Paul Rubin published a paper called Folk Economics. As this description points out, Rubin suggests that in a hunter-gatherer tribe, goods are exchanged mostly through sharing and reciprocal altruism. There were no visible gains from impersonal trade or economic growth. In this zero-sum environment, people evolved an instinct to resent and punish those who took too much. Rubin's thesis is that the instincts that evolved in prehistoric tribes account for the misguided "folk economics" that many people believe today. Anti-globalization and opposition to free trade reflect the fear of strangers that was inherent in tribal society. Resentment of the rich and a belief in redistribution reflect the hunter-gatherer's zero-sum thinking."

The tax-eaters are powerful: "Steven Malanga shows how coalitions of public employee unions, workers at government-funded social service organizations, and recipients of government benefits have seized control of the politics of the big cities that make up the heart of Blue America. In New York City, this coalition has helped roll back some of the reforms of the Giuliani years. In California cities and towns, it is thwarting the expansion of private businesses. In nearly 100 municipalities, it has imposed higher costs on tens of thousands of firms by passing "living-wage" laws. Whereas the New Left of the 1960s believed-idealistically, if somewhat naively-that government could solve the biggest problems of our times, this New New Left is much more narrowly and cynically focused on expanding government programs to increase its own power, pay, and perks. And, as Malanga shows, the New New Left is emerging as the most powerful element of the national Democratic Party coalition."

Egypt gives the GOP a lesson in tax cuts: "Egypt is introducing sharply lower rates of corporate and personal taxation from 1st July. Under the new code, which has been working its way through the debate and drafting process since September, most companies will pay 20% tax on their profits. Under the previous tax system, industrial and export firms paid 22%, while most other companies paid 40%. The new tax code preserves tax exemptions for profits from stock exchange investments, on dividends paid to shareholders and on interest payments from banks and bonds. Current exemptions given to companies in free trade zones and industrial zones will be abolished, however, at least for new entrants. For individuals, the maximum tax rate is now 20% instead of 40% and the thresholds for each tax bracket have been raised. Individuals will pay 10% tax on income between 5,000 and 20,000 Egyptian pounds ($862 and $3,448) a year, 15% on income between 20,000 and 40,000 pounds a year and 20% on any income above 40,000 pounds. Under the previous system, the maximum rate of 40% kicked in at a threshold of 16,000 pounds."

Realism about child labour creeping in: "When he started working on child labor issues six years ago, Professor Edmonds said in an interview, "the conventional view was that child labor really wasn't about poverty." Children's work, many policy makers believed, "reflected perhaps parental callousness or a lack of education for parents about the benefits of educating your child." So policies to curb child labor focused on educating parents about why their children should not work and banning children's employment to remove the temptation. Recent research, however, casts doubt on the cultural explanation. "In every context that I've looked at things, child labor seems to be almost entirely about poverty. I wouldn't say it's only about poverty, but it's got a lot to do with poverty," Professor Edmonds said. As families' incomes increase, children tend to stop working and, where schools are available, they go to school. If family incomes drop, children are more likely to return to work... "Child labor does not appear to vary with per capita expenditure until households can meet their food needs, and it then declines dramatically," Professor Edmonds wrote"

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A lot of people have got their knickers in a knot about Rep. Tom Tancredo saying that a nuclear attack on the USA by Islamics could be responded to by the USA nuking Mecca. But that threat seems to me to be just the sort of thing that kept the peace during the cold war. "Mutual Assured Destruction" they used to call it.

An email from Ralph Zwier of ICJS: "Over the past few weeks I have been reading article after article on the London bombings. None of them have really fired me up. But today there are two articles which I found interesting: Lipstick lesbian daring to confront radical imams and Transcript of BBC4 interview. One is an unequivocal condemnation by a Muslim Canadian, Irshad Manji. The other is a waffle of semi condemnation by an English Muslim leader in a BBC4 interview. You need to read them both to contrast (a) the unequivocal condemnation (and a fun read on a serious theme) and (b) the more typical equivocation by the peak bodies in the British Muslim world. You'll probably find the BBC4 interview quite uninteresting, but I think it's necessary to persevere with it for an understanding of the magnitude of the problem facing UK".

Immigration law irrelevant in Britain: "More than a quarter of a million failed asylum-seekers are still living in Britain, despite the Government's drive to increase the number of removals. A highly critical report by the National Audit Office exposes the chaos of the asylum system, with a catalogue of failings including financial mismanagement and near-shambolic record keeping. The report states that the Immigration and Nationality Directorate is struggling to meet the Government's latest target that by the end of the year the number of monthly removals should exceed applicants rejected. The number of failed applicants removed from the country fell last year."

UK: Six arrested under anti-terror act: "Ten days after Islamic radicals carried out deadly attacks on the London transport system, Britain's largest Sunni Muslim group today issued a binding religious edict, a fatwa, condemning the July 7 suicide bombings as the work of a 'perverted ideology.' In the northern city of Leeds, which has been a focus of the investigation into the bombings, six men were arrested under Britain's anti-terror law. West Yorkshire police said the men are not believed to be involved in the bombings, but offered no further details on why the six were arrested."

The Guardian, Britain's top Leftist paper, has come under a lot of fire over the fact that it employs a Muslim extremist as a journalist. Scott Burgess has the lowdown. Tim Blair comments too.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/20/2005 07:33:00 PM

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

 
TUESDAY ROUNDUP

Once again I list what I think were the best posts on my various blogs in the preceding week.

On Dissecting Leftism I note that conservatives foresaw the Islamic menace from within British society

On Political Correctness Watch I note that journalists are being penalized for wanting to mention blackness

On Greenie Watch I note that bird droppings are the mnajor cause of chemical contamination in the Arctic. Ban those polluting birds!

On Education Watch I submit that "white guilt" education in British schools was a major cause of the London bombings

On Socialized Medicine I note that those wonderful regulators whose job it is to protect you are allowing mentally ill doctors to practice

On Gun Watch I note that George Soros wants your gun

On Leftists as Elitists I note that the Leftist British elite are still protecting terrorism

On Majority Rights I note evidence of genetic determinism for social behaviour

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More evidence that happiness is a stable trait: "In a boost for exam-flunkers everywhere, a study published yesterday in the British Medical Journal found the levels of satisfaction with life recorded by 550 Scottish men and women aged 84-85 were unaffected by their mental abilities, either when they were young or much later.... The study group, all born in Lothian, Scotland, in 1921, were remarkable for the fact they had all undergone tests of mental ability when they were about 11 years old, and the records had been preserved. The tests were repeated a few years ago, when they were about 79. They each ranked their happiness on a scientifically validated satisfaction scale."

Police enforce the law! "One day in April, Jorge Mora Ramirez stopped his car on the side of a road in the small southern New Hampshire town of New Ipswich and was making a cell phone call when a New Ipswich police officer approached him. The officer questioned Ramirez, 21, a Mexican who acknowledged he was in the country illegally, and the New Ipswich police tried to get federal immigration authorities to arrest him. But when immigration officials demurred, not considering Ramirez enough of a priority for their scarce enforcement resources, the New Ipswich police took the highly unusual step of charging Ramirez with criminal trespassing. 'I wanted the federal government to understand that I was going to take some type of action,' said New Ipswich Police Chief W. Garrett Chamberlain. 'If I can discourage illegal aliens from coming to or passing through my community, then I think I've succeeded.' At minimum, Chamberlain has succeeded in creating a storm of controversy, as well as interest in his idea. Hudson, NH, Police Chief Richard Gendron has charged 10 illegal immigrants with criminal trespassing in recent weeks."

Judges should judge, not legislate: "Like killer bees they will swarm in droves. No nominee will be safe. Ultra-Conservative. Stealth Liberal. Anti-(insert special interest here) Ideologue. Extreme Judicial Activist. The labels ascribed to whomever President Bush nominates to the United States Supreme Court will be legion. And they will be entirely useless in assessing whether that man or woman is fit for the Court. This is no postmodernist-gibberish screed on how words don't mean anything. Indeed, the usual carping about labels in the law and in politics is considerably overwrought. Justice Rehnquist is generally conservative, and Justice Stevens is generally liberal. Labels often fit. But such generalizations are detriments to the impending debate because they obscure what really matters. Fidelity to the original intent of the Constitution must be the sole ideological criterion used to evaluate any nominee. Everything else is noise."

Black Muslims a danger too: "The FBI had reportedly arrested last week four American Muslims who were planning an attack on the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, Channel 2 News reported Friday evening. According to the report, the four - all African-Americans who had converted to Islam - admitted to attaining a map of the consulate, as well as address of synagogues in the Los Angeles area. Cell members also gathered information on El Al flights to and from LA".

The Vast Left-wing conspiracy: "Byron York was in Washington covering an anti-war rally for the conservative National Review, and the protesters were members of International ANSWER, a far-left fringe group whose acronym stands for "Act Now to Stop War and End Racism." "There were actually communists there," York recalls. "It was kind of amazing. They were calling each other `comrade.' In 2003, it was almost like `Jurassic Park,' seeing real, living, breathing communists walking around." And it occurred to the Vestavia Hills native that International ANSWER wasn't the only organization opposed to the war in Iraq in general and George W. Bush in particular. Rather, it was just one cog in a well-financed political machine that included such groups as MoveOn.org and America Coming Together and activists like billionaire George Soros, humorist Al Franken and filmmaker Michael Moore. Their mission: Dump Bush and jump-start the Democratic Party. So York began to connect the dots and put the pieces together for his recent book, "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy"".

A downhill slide: "Is the American tradition of self-reliance disappearing? That's a painful question for conservatives to ponder. After all, we're dedicated to reducing the role of government and promoting individual freedom and opportunity. But the facts, while sad, are clear: More Americans today depend more heavily on government than ever before. We've long sensed that was true, but now we have proof. Recently, The Heritage Foundation created an objective measure called the Index of Dependency, and it paints a frightening picture. Since 1980 -- the year that Ronald Reagan's election seemed to signal a coming shift in public policy -- our reliance on government has doubled."

There is a new lot of postings up from Chris Brand with more on the IQ and PC scene, particularly in Britain.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/19/2005 07:31:00 PM

Monday, July 18, 2005

 
THE ISLAMIC MENACE

Nobody else seems to be saying it so I will: Do not the London bombings prove for once and for all that Enoch Powell was right?

British multiculturalism has fanned the flames of Islamic extremism: "That old racist notion of identity has thankfully crumbled. But nothing new has come to replace it. The very notion of creating common values has been abandoned except at a most minimal level. Britishness has come to be defined simply as a toleration of difference. The politics of ideology has given way to the politics of identity, creating a more fragmented Britain, and one where many groups assert their identity through a sense of victimhood and grievance. This has been particularly true of Muslim communities. Muslims have certainly suffered from racism and discrimination. But many Muslim leaders have nurtured an exaggerated sense of victimhood for their own political purposes. The result has been to stoke up anger and resentment, creating a siege mentality that makes Muslim communities more inward-looking and more open to religious extremism - and that has helped to transform a small number of young men into savage terrorists".

Conservatives foresaw the British problem: "The discovery that the four London bombers were British Muslims has ensured that one of the great social debates of the next few years will be on the sensitive issues of racial ghettos, integration in schools and multiculturalism. Fear of being labelled racist has helped to ensure that few have dared to put their heads above the parapet and challenge the orthodoxy that Britain is a multicultural nation and must behave like one. Ray Honeyford, a Bradford headmaster, was one of the first and most significant critics to challenge publicly multiculturalism's central tenet that all cultures in Britain are equally valid and no single tradition should be dominant... In a series of articles published in the Right-wing Salisbury Review in the early 1980s, he criticised Bradford city council's policy of educating ethnic minority children according to their own culture, predicting that the move would create divisions between white and Asian communities.... His views provoked an outcry among the anti-racism lobby. Some picketed the school and Mr Honeyford was subjected to personal abuse and accused of racial prejudice - leading to his early retirement in December 1985 to save his family from further harassment".

Appeasement in WW2 and today: "Appeasement did not end with the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Even afterward, many in Britain (and even more in the U.S.) opposed active resistance. Conservative worthies like Lord Halifax sought a negotiated settlement. Fascists like Sir Oswald Mosley sought to bring Nazism to Britain. And communists and their fellow travelers opposed fighting Stalin's ally until Hitler invaded Russia. Even in January 1942, when German armies were at the gates of Moscow, George Orwell wrote in Partisan Review that "the greater part of the very young intelligentsia are anti-war . don't believe in any 'defense of democracy,' are inclined to prefer Germany to Britain, and don't feel the horror of Fascism that we who are somewhat older feel." ... The problem was that Hitler's stated demands were a pretext for his maniacal ambitions. He was unappeasable. So is Osama bin Laden, who wants to avenge centuries of humiliation supposedly suffered by Muslims at Christian hands and who dreams of establishing a Taliban-style caliphate over all the lands once dominated by Muslims, from western China to southern Spain. Pulling out of Iraq would only whet his insatiable appetite for destruction, just as giving up the Sudetenland encouraged Hitler to seek more"

Deportation: "The average American knows the so-called war on terror is not really a war on terror. He knows in his gut that what's happening is that we are fighting another war with Islam. That's what it is, no matter what the politicians say. This war against Islam is the flaring up again of a conflict that has been going on for 1,500 years... The West against Islam is nothing new. What's new is that because of oil, the conflict has now expanded to the New World. There are no radical Muslims, nor Islamo-Fascists, there are just Muslims doing what they have always done--spreading Islam by force and terror. Compare the spread of Islam with that of Buddhism, and the truth of this history becomes obvious.... Deportation of Muslims from Western societies is not a picture the liberal press wants to see, but it may be necessary to do this. With their reluctance to assimilate, more so in Europe than in the United States, Muslim ghettos are breeding grounds for terrorists. Given the threat the practice of Islam poses to the West, it is not wrong to see it as a dangerous faction. Today, the Federal Republic of Germany sees nothing wrong with making the practice of Nazism illegal, so, someday the same may be the case for Islam in some Western societies."

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

ELSEWHERE

I have just paid the fees for my son's first year at a major Australian university. They totalled $4,000 in U.S. dollar terms. That seems very modest to me. Most costs must be borne by the taxpayer. Middle-class welfare again. I would be interested to hear how that compares with good U.S. and U.K. universities.

The Plame/Rove "scandal": "Mr. Wilson presented himself as a courageous truth-teller who was being attacked by lying partisans, but he himself became a Democratic partisan (working with the John Kerry presidential campaign) who had a problem with facts. He denied that his wife had anything to do with his assignment in Niger, but Senate investigators found a memo in which she recommended him. Karl Rove's version of events now looks less like a smear and more like the truth: Mr. Wilson's investigation, far from being requested and then suppressed by a White House afraid of its contents, was a low-level report of not much interest to anyone outside the Wilson household... For now, though, it looks as if this scandal is about a spy who was not endangered, a whistle-blower who did not blow the whistle and was not smeared, and a White House official who has not been fired for a felony that he did not commit. And so far the only victim is a reporter who did not write a story about it".

Today's installment of Leftist hysteria: "Young liberals this week flocked to the nation's capital to hear, among other things, liberal television pundit and Democrat political strategist Paul Begala accuse Republicans of wanting to kill him and his children to preserve tax cuts for the rich." [Such a burst of absurdity rather leaves one at a loss for words but Six Meat and Aldaynet have some appropriate comments.]

Michael Darby is online again with a variety of posts of Australian and international interest. Michael's past posts can be accessed here and here.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/18/2005 06:51:00 PM

Sunday, July 17, 2005

 
SOME ECONOMICS

High minimum wages create unemployment: "For the past decade, some of the least-skilled and lowest-paid workers in America have benefited from controversial programs known as living wage ordinances. Under these laws, companies with city contracts are forced to pay workers enough to live in that city, often $2 to $3 more than traditional minimum wage. But a new study shows the initiative as having mixed results in combating poverty. ... A 6 percent employment decline in cities that require a living wage, according to the study. Critics say it's no surprise that making companies pay higher wages results in their hiring fewer employees. 'They [the laws] don't work. They don't help the people that they are intended to help,' said Anthony Archie of the Pacific Research Institute. 'They're supposed to help low-skilled workers and they actually crowd them out from getting jobs.'"

Death tax bad for economy: "Permanently repealing the estate tax would save the government money in the long term and could produce 200,000 new jobs a year, according to a study released today that challenges the official congressional estimate that says the government would lose money. The study by the American Family Business Institute (AFBI) contends that congressional actuaries have continually underestimated how a cut in taxes increases economic activity and results in an increase in revenues collected by the government. The study says the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) wrongly claims repealing the estate tax would cost $140 billion in federal revenues. "The JCT is grossly overestimating the cost of repealing the death tax," said Dick Patten, executive director of the AFBI".

Finns doing well: "Fifteen years ago, Finland faced a full-scale depression, brought on by the loss of the country's most important markets as the Soviet Union disintegrated. Unemployment soared to 20 percent. But the Finns took control of their future, made painful adjustments and came out of the crisis with an economy that the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, ranks as the most competitive in the world.... A relatively backward agricultural country became a high-tech powerhouse with labor productivity as good or better than that in the United States, but also a welfare state as generous as any in Europe. Perhaps the most revealing statistic behind this transformation is Finland's commitment to research and development. The Finns put 3.5 percent of their domestic product into R&D last year, second in the world to Sweden (about 4.3 percent) and far ahead of the United States (about 2.6 percent) or the E.U. as a whole (less than 2 percent).... Finland steadily increased government spending on R&D throughout the 1990s, when all other spending was either cut or frozen... Funding from public institutions constitutes only about a third of R&D expenditures; the rest comes from businesses"

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

ELSEWHERE

A California Latino conservative says: "Much has been said about the Hispanic�s contribution to this great nation and to the state of California. Many came to this great country of ours to create a better life not only for themselves but for their children. Unfortunately, the Democrats� message has been misleading and has taken the Hispanic vote for granted.... Seems like the depressed Democrats will sink to any level to stir the pot creating discontent and hatred. What the liberals do not understand is that while they view us as needy, poverty stricken or social service seekers, we as a people are in reality, entrepreneurs, and hard workers in pursuit of the American dream. Sure many of us started by working in the fields, picking, pruning, cultivating the crops. But many have pulled ourselves out of poverty by acquiring education or skilled trades that have helped us be successful... In 2004 there were over two million Hispanic owned businesses that generated $247 Billion dollars in the United States. A testament that the Republican philosophy of giving a �hand up� and opportunity, is far better than any �handout� the Democrats can contrive. We are basically entrepreneurs by nature and are not afraid of hard work."

Islamic totalitarians: "Seeing Islam as the basis of a political system touching every aspect of life, fundamentalists are totalitarian. Whatever the problem, "Islam is the solution." In their hands, Islam is transformed from a personal faith into a ruling system that knows no constraints. They scrutinize the Qur'an and other texts for hints about Islamic medicine, Islamic economics, and Islamic statecraft, all with an eye to creating a total system for adherents and corresponding total power for leaders. Fundamentalists are revolutionary in outlook, extremist in behavior, totalitarian in ambition. Revealingly, they vaunt Islam as the best ideology, not the best religion-thereby exposing their focus on power. Whereas a traditional Muslim would say something like, "We are not Jewish, we are not Christian, we are Muslim," the Malaysian Islamist leader Anwar Ibrahim made a very different comparison: "We are not socialist, we are not capitalist, we are Islamic." While fundamentalist Islam differs in its details from other utopian ideologies, it closely resembles them in scope and ambition. Like communism and fascism, it offers a vanguard ideology; a complete program to improve man and create a new society; complete control over that society; and cadres ready, even eager, to spill blood".

Leftist hatreds distort their response to terrorism: "In my estimation, the Left can't get past its overwhelming "Bush hatred" and "blame America first" attitude that predisposes it to have sympathy for America 's enemies. Unfortunately, the political Left is rife with terrorist sympathizers who can't fully fathom the heinous nature of evildoers that target innocent civilians for death. Denial, in my opinion, is an element when considering the Leftist mentality. In the wake of the London terrorist attacks, Bill O'Reilly's comments to a Leftist journalist were spot-on. The journalist thought that we needed to understand the perspective of terrorists: O'Reilly replied, "Serial killers have perspectives, too! We don't take their point of view!" Exactly. Arab grievances? Why should we make any excuses for murderers?"

Public broadcasting is socialist nonsense: "Congress is once again debating the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which partially funds the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). Public broadcasting doesn't require fine-tuning. Like most other remnants of the Great Society, it needs to be killed. Much of the discussion centers on the question of public broadcasting's bias. That question was settled long ago. PBS' and NPR's programming has had an obvious leftist tilt since their inception."

Leftist blogosphere bad for Democrats: "While Moulitsas recognizes that the left-wing blogosphere is a world unto itself, if establishment Democrats have any awareness of that fact they have yet to betray it. Where Trudeau feels bloggers are a bunch of shut-in half-wits, the Democratic party seems to be under the impression that bloggers are an enormous, important constituency--and that it must go to whatever lengths necessary to win the hearts and minds of this virtual community. This seems like a major miscalculation, because the politics of the left-wing blogs are far out of the American mainstream. Where most of the 120 million Americans who voted in the last election bear a benign indifference to political matters, the left half of the blogosphere seethes with hatred for George W. Bush and his supporters. What's more, the blogs take numerous positions that would strike all but the most passionate Democratic partisans as patently preposterous. For example, several of the left-wing blogs recently ran an advertisement that referred to West Virginia Senator and former Ku Klux Klan Kleagle Robert Byrd as an "American Hero.""

Chris Brand has just put up a VERY incorrect proposal for how to deal with suicide bombers on buses and trains.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/17/2005 09:10:00 PM

Saturday, July 16, 2005

 
Forgotten blogiversary

I seem to be good at forgetting my blogiversary. I missed it last year, too, I think. I first started blogging on July 10, 2002. I reproduce part of that very first post below:

DENIAL OF REALITY

"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind." (H.L. Mencken)

There would seem to be some possibility that excess ego can be curbed. The traditional Christian preaching of humility certainly assumes that. It is doubtful, however, that another underpinning of Leftism can be much influenced: Denial of reality.

Denial is perhaps best known through the work of Sigmund Freud as a classical neurotic symptom or coping mechanism. Instead of dealing with uncomfortable truths, the neurotic acts as if those truths simply do not exist. This is, of course, very maladaptive and creates at least as many problems as it solves.

Sadly, however, it would seem that reality denial is far from limited to psychiatric cases. Denial would appear to be in fact much more common even than excess egotism. Human beings generally do not handle reality well. That is why humans are such a drug-using species. Whether it be alcohol, cannabis, opiates, Khat, cocaine, nicotine or merely caffeine, few of us seem able to face life without chemical crutches. Straight reality is generally too much for us.

But WHY are human beings so uncomfortable with reality? Why do they use so many means to "escape" it? Again it probably goes back to more primitive times when reality was very oppressive and dispiriting. Only those who could escape reality in some way had the heart to carry on. So a talent for ignoring unpleasant truths was adaptive. In the modern world, however, reality is much more benign and, as Freud saw, denying it can easily descend into the psychopathological.

So any attack on the reality-denying habits of Leftists would appear doomed to failure. Even such an overwhelming reality as the utter collapse of the world's 70 year experiment with Communism caused them not at all to abandon their equalitarian mania but only to change their focus somewhat.

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

ELSEWHERE

British idiocy: "The main spokesman for the Metropolitan Police on Thursday was Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick. He also complained about attacks on "purely innocent members of the public", thereby making one think that there might be other people (police? soldiers? politicians?), who are not purely innocent and should have been attacked instead. Asked about the nature of the terrorists, Paddick said: "Islam and terrorism don't go together.... Embedded in modern government are too many advisers who believe in a quietist policy. To them, the most important thing is to avoid a "backlash" against Muslims. But the truth is that the backlash only threatens because the terror strikes"

Principled Leftists: "The war in Iraq is a neo-conservative project, right? Yes, in the sense that in the aftermath of 9/11, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have come to believe that �the defense of freedom requires the advance of freedom.� But little noticed is the fact that some of the strongest supporters of this revolutionary idea are on the left. Prime Minister Tony Blair, leader of Britain's Labor Party, is the most obvious example. "A democratic Iraq,� he insisted earlier this year, �is not just a giant step forward for Iraq itself; it is a blow right at the heart of the global terrorism that seeks destruction not just in Iraq but in Britain and every major country in the world." Blair may be a rare figure on the left � but he is hardly alone, as has now been demonstrated by Thomas Cushman, Professor of Sociology at Wellesley and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Human Rights. Cushman has edited �A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq,� a collection of essays by two dozen liberal/left thinkers, all of whom, Cushman writes, represent �what might be called a third view. The basic elements of this perspective are a strong liberal commitment to human rights, solidarity with the oppressed, and a firm stand against fascism, totalitarianism and tyranny.�"

Why isn't there more of this?: "A prominent Islamic scholar who exhorted his followers after the Sept. 11 attacks to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops was sentenced today to life in prison. Ali al-Timimi of Fairfax was convicted in April of soliciting others to levy war against the United States, inducing others to aid the Taliban, and inducing others to use firearms in violation of federal law. The cleric addressed the court for 10 minutes before his sentencing."

Proof that Islamic terrorism is all because of Israel: "Thailand plans to replace 3,600 civilian teachers in the country's violent south with graduate soldiers and police. Deputy Education Minister Rung Kaewdaeng says only 1,000 of the mostly Busddhist teachers, who have requested transfers, will actually leave the region.The rest will move to town schools in remote areas. Most of Thailand's six million Muslims live in the south of predominantly Buddhist Thailand. An insurgency has flared sporadically in the region for decades, with more than 800 people killed since the latest unrest began in January 2004. Education Ministry data shows about 1,000 teachers have already left the region, where schools have been frequent militant targets as symbols of the government. As incentives to stay, the Education Ministry is offering 3,000 free flak jackets and faster licences for 1,700 teachers waiting to buy pistols."

An outbreak of commonsense: "As planning for terrorism becomes a part of daily life in the Western World, a growing number of disaster experts are calling for a dramatic reassessment in the way the nation plans for emergencies. The problem, they argue, is that the current top-down approach views the public as a problem to be managed rather than an asset to be utilized. Officials don't take into account people's natural willingness to help or address their most basic needs -- like concern about the safety of their spouses and kids. This upstart group of sociologists, physicians, and terrorism experts contends that the use of ordinary citizens during a large-scale emergency could save hundreds if not thousands of lives. And they are determined to ensure the public is properly prepared before the next catastrophic event."

Les Bates has an amusing example of sheer Leftist ignorance. I find that sort of thing in emails I get from Leftists too. Their ignorance of the facts is so vast that I do not know where to start sometimes. Not that facts bother them.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/16/2005 07:35:00 PM

Friday, July 15, 2005

 
Happy birthday to me! I turn 62 today



Brookes News Update

Government MPs plan to rip millions off in subsidies for ethanol producers : Trade Minister Mark Vaile and Nationals senator-elect Barnaby Joyce are proposing ethanol subsidies that will rip millions out of taxpayers' pockets
What is NAIRU?: Explains why the concept of the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment (NAIRU) is an economic fiction
Market reality vs. socialist myths: Despite the collapse of the Soviet Empire and China's move to a capitalist oriented state socialist ideas still plague much so-called economic thinking
Free trade, manufacturing and wages: In the 1920s continental unions argued that their countries needed tariffs to protect their members' jobs from high-wage American labour
G8 bows to Islamic terrorism: USAID from spending millions on helping Arab Palestinian terrorist organisations

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

ELSEWHERE

When Hitler bombed London, was Churchill to blame? "Last Thursday's London massacre of almost three score innocent people who were simply smashed to bleeding fragments on their way to work, has thrown a harsh light on the British Left. Normal people learned something from the horror - the shocking inhumanity of the attackers, perhaps. Not so the Left. Within twenty-four hours, the Guardian of London was pumping out its daily propaganda line: Don't blame the killers. Blame Bush and Blair for knocking over Saddam Hussein. Which makes me wonder whether the editors' own parents blamed Winston Churchill for the Nazi bombings of London. The Brit Left continues to mix up "the fire and the fire brigade," in Churchill's phrase. That is not by accident. In the upside-down prism of the Left there are no criminals, only police brutality. There are no hard-working achievers, only exploiters of the poor."

Dennis Prager on SCOTUS: "We don't know who President George W. Bush will nominate to succeed Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. But this is certain: Democrats will smear the nominee. It will not matter how personally honorable, how intellectually honest, how legally profound this nominee is. Indeed, the greater the individual, the greater the personal attacks will be. Why? There are three reasons. First, Democrats believe that conservatives by definition are bad people.... The reason they see conservatives this way is that most people on the Left are certain that they mean well; therefore their opponents do not mean well. Moreover, liberals tend to assess policy positions on that basis -- are the motives good? -- rather than on the basis of what actually does good".

The Left does NOT support the troops: "Liberals, Democrats and others on the Left frequently state that they "support the troops." For most of them, whether they realize it or not, this is not true. They feel they must say this because the majority of Americans would find any other position unacceptable.... But most of the Left does not want the troops to win in Iraq. The Left's message is this: "You troops may think you are winning; you may think you are doing good and moral things in Iraq; you may believe you are fighting the worst human beings of our age and protecting us against the scourge of Islamic terror. But we on the Left believe none of that. We believe this war is being fought for oil and for Halliburton and other corporations; we believe you are waging a war that is both illegal and immoral; we believe you have invaded a country for no good reason and have killed a hundred thousand Iraqis [the Left's generally mentioned number] for no good reason; but, hey, we sure do support you."

Antisemitic graduate students: "A new survey of attitudes toward Israel among graduate students at top U.S. universities offers a disturbing if not frightening picture of increasing sympathy for the Palestinian cause and blame on the Jewish state for the lack of peace.... Titled How The Next Generation Views Israel, the report was written by Frank Luntz, a pollster who has conducted a number of surveys on the attitudes of young people toward Israel and Jewish life for the Israel Project and other groups. It was based on "face-to-face group interviews" Luntz conducted with nearly 150 students under age 30 in New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. They attended law, business, journalism or government programs at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and UCLA.... What's more, Luntz found a thin line between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment among "these young elites," noting that "they may not be in the `Zionism is racism' camp, but they're not all that far away." He said the students "view any U.S. support of Israel as generated by wealthy Jewish special interests rather than as a reflection of the national interest.""

Welfare and foreign aid: "The world just witnessed a major campaign by well-intentioned individuals to shower billions on dictators and tyrants who use the money to exploit their own people. The West calls it compassion. One thing you can say about foreign aid is that is welfare writ large. It is the dole on the grand scale. And it has the same effects. When you pay people to be dysfunctional the amount of dysfunctionality will increase."

Surprisingly well done! "On 7/8, Markos Moulitsas announced at Daily Kos: "Today I did something I've never done before (not even during the Fraudster mess), and wish I'd never had to do. I made a mass banning of people perpetuating a series of bizarre, off-the-wall, unsupported and frankly embarrassing conspiracy theories. ... You know the ones -- Bush and Blair conspired to bomb London in order to take the heat off their respective political problems. I can't imagine what f---ing world these people live in, but it sure ain't the Reality Based Community."

An interesting question about the London bombings: "Let's see, have we heard anything from Senator Durbin? Maybe his cell phone went down. Maybe he can't get to the Senate floor to decry the London attacks and those who did so as being of the same ilk as Adolf Hitler, the Soviet Gulags and the murderous Pol Pot."

I loved this headline: "Study: Blacks in LA lag in many areas" [And grass is green too]

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/15/2005 10:31:00 PM

Thursday, July 14, 2005

 
SOME HISTORY

A Leftist at work: "Mao was an early radical but he was driven by an overwhelming lust for domination. He championed women in his early writings but he exploited, betrayed, and consumed droves of them and drove into madness or despair three of his four wives. He had scorn or contempt for peasants and cared little if they died of hunger. Far from being a great guerrilla leader, he often commanded his forces into losing situations. Most of his closest colleagues feared his murderous tendencies and did what he wanted not out of loyalty but ultimately-Zhou Enlai is the outstanding example here-out of fear. Mao opposed fighting the Japanese despite the urgings of Josef Stalin, and never forgave the commanders of the only two battles against them. During the guerrilla period Mao encouraged the production of opium whose sale greatly swelled his treasury. His policies led to the death of up to a million landlords. He encouraged Kim Il Sung to attack South Korea. His economic policies and contempt for the peasantry led to the world's greatest famine in 1959-1961, in which at least 37 million people died. He provoked the Cultural Revolution and demanded detailed accounts of the torture and killing of its victims."

Leftists think nothing of lies: ""I am not and have never been a member of the Communist Party," Alger Hiss said under oath on Aug. 5, 1948, and calmly refuted the accusation of former Soviet agent Whittaker Chambers. The House Un-American Activities Committee had subpoenaed Chambers two days before. Then a senior editor at Time magazine, Chambers had testified reluctantly. Hiss, however, was not content to deny his communist ties. "So far as I know," he added, "I have never laid eyes on [Chambers], and I should like the opportunity to do so." The unruffled demeanor of Alger Hiss unnerved the HUAC members, who had trusted Chambers, but it did not surprise Chambers. He knew from experience that Hiss had the strength to be a communist, "that sense of moral superiority which makes communists though caught in crime, berate their opponents with withering self-righteousness." What would have shocked Chambers is if Hiss had yielded and wept and told the truth".

The murderous Che Guevara: "It's safe to assume that many people now sporting radical-chic Che T-shirts oppose capital punishment, but Che Guevara served as an executioner for Castro, as Guevara himself admitted in some of his diary entries... But Che Guevara's killing spree didn't reach its apex until after the corrupt Bautista regime collapsed and Castro put Guevara in charge of the San Carlos de La Cabana prison. Jos, Vilasuso, a lawyer and professor in Puerto Rico who had served with the group in charge of the judicial process at La Cabana prison, told Vargas Llosa that one night in 1959 he witnessed the execution of seven political prisoners. Another witness, Javier Arzuaga, a clergyman more inclined toward the liberation theology of Leonardo Boff than the conservatism of the former Cardinal Ratzinger, told Vargas Llosa that Che Guevara never overturned a sentence. He said he personally witnessed 55 executions, including that of a young boy named Ariel Lima. Estimates of the number of executions of political prisoners during the six months that Che Guevara was in charge of La Cabana vary. Economist Armando Lago has compiled a list of 179 executions. Pedro Corzo, who is making a documentary about Che Guevara, puts the number at 200. Vilasuso told Vargas Llosa that 400 political prisoners were executed under Guevara's command. Whether Che Guevara executed 400 political prisoners or "only" 200, it's hard to see how self-styled "progressives" can continue to justify their worship of the murderer".

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and America's support for the Afghans: "Just as radicals today like to think of themselves as "anti-anti-Saddam" so then they were anti-anti-Communist. In practice this meant they were the mainstay in the West for the Soviet empire and its expansion into vulnerable nations on its periphery like Afghanistan. The United States provided training and arms for the Muslim mujahideen in Afghanistan because its conscience was roused by the Soviet invaders whose scorched earth policies killed a million defenseless Afghan civilians before the resistance, with America's help, was able to stop them..... the victory of the mujahideen, made possible by America's gift of missiles, not only defeated the Red Army, but triggered the chain of events which led to the fall of the Marxist empire. In other words, U.S. support for the mujahideen eventually liberated a billion people whom the Soviet comrades of American and European leftists had enslaved for fifty and seventy years. In other words, America's support for the Palestinian, Egyptian and Saudi terrorists (Osama among them) who flocked to the cause was a somewhat bad deed in the service of a very great good one. It was not as bad a deed for example as saving and arming their friend Joe Stalin and his Marxist butchers in order to defeat Hitler, but it was an equally good one"

The Catholic "Treasure Chest" comics from the 1960s are reproduced here. The anti-Communist series is still pretty close to the mark.

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

ELSEWHERE

A true hero: "A Danish pizzeria owner was jailed Tuesday for refusing to serve French and German tourists in protesting their countries' opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. A Danish court found Aage Bjerre guilty of discrimination and fined him $900. Bjerre refused to pay, and will now serve an eight-day sentence. "I'm doing it to show my sympathy with the United States. It shows how seriously I mean it," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "But one should also remember that eight days is a small price to pay when American soldiers go to Iraq and risk their limbs and lives." In February 2003, before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Bjerre posted two signs barring Germans and French from his pizzeria on Denmark's western island of Fanoe. His refusal to serve them drew criticism in this Scandinavian country, where the government supported the war while its citizens were split. The 46-year-old received hundreds of fan letters from the United States, but had to sell the pizzeria after repeated vandalism and a large drop in sales. He is bringing a photograph of President Bush and Laura Bush, as well as an American flag, to decorate the walls of his prison cell: "I think that will brighten up the room," he said.

San Francisco's Mark Morford is good for a laugh at times. I still get a blast out of his description of "Good" Christians: "They are streaming into huge beautiful nonjudgmental buildings all over San Francisco and Chicago and New York and Boston, etc., places that welcome gays and oddballs and spiritual nomads and pantheists and anyone else who might be feeling a divine pull, and please leave your Jesus extremism at the door and let's talk about Sufism" but his latest post is something one hears more commonly. He pisses on people who have routine jobs and extols those who drop out to engage in "spiritual" pursuits. It's a celebration of immaturity though. Most of us have to do routine things at some time in our lives and the world would be a sorry place if nobody did them. And who says that people in routine jobs don't enjoy their work? Routine can be very relaxing and reassuring and I think it is just Leftist arrogance to look down on people who do routine work. And as for the alternative activities that Morford extols, they sound like nothing more than overinflated egos at work to me.

A new lot of posts from Chris Brand have just gone up here -- including his acerbic comments on the London bombings.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with a big range of select reading

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/14/2005 06:10:00 PM

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

 
SOME ECONOMICS

Economy shames prophets of doom: "We were told at the beginning of the year that the American economy was in trouble. The boom in house prices was producing a bubble that would burst. The dollar would fall, and the federal budget deficit rise, increasing inflationary pressures and forcing a growth- stifling rise in interest rates. And soaring oil prices would be the final straw that broke the back of the economy. In the event, the housing market remains strong, with sales at record levels. Instead of falling, the dollar has risen, helped along by the sag in the euro as it becomes apparent that the eurozone economic model is on the road to nowhere. The budget deficit has declined, thanks to robust tax receipts and in spite of a battle between President George Bush and Congress to see who can be the most profligate. Inflation has remained tame, and long-term interest rates have not responded significantly to the Federal Reserve's attempts to force them up by raising short-term rates."

CAFTA opponents ignore NAFTA: "Last week's 54-45 U.S. Senate vote in favor of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) was a modest step forward for U.S. taxpayers and consumers.... liberal voices from the past continue to echo through Washington. "CAFTA contains inadequate protections for workers' rights and will only increase the power of corporations to exploit workers," the International Brotherhood of Teamsters website exclaims.... This rhetoric is mild compared to so-called "progressive" opinion outlets that equate CAFTA with corporate-sanctioned murder.... Over ten years ago, before the inception of NAFTA, Canada had a GDP of $617.7 billion. Since then, its GDP has expanded over 65% to $1.023 trillion. In addition, Canada's December 2003 unemployment rate was 11%; in 2004, its unemployment rate had dropped to 7% (a 36% decrease). Mexico's economic numbers since the signing of NAFTA do not reveal a "brutal exploitation" either, but measured progress, and a higher standard of living. In 1994, Mexico had a GDP of $740 billion. Ten years later, Mexico has seen its GDP expand over 35%, to $1.006 trillion today. In addition, its 1993 GDP growth rate was .4%. In 2004, it boasted a 4.1% annualized growth rate. These numbers are hardly indicative of the dangers of free trade. Like Canada and Mexico, the United States has witnessed similar economic prosperity since NAFTA".

Labor unions: "The truth is that unions are essentially parasitic organizations that thrive only by draining and ultimately destroying the companies and industries they control. The essential goal of the unions is to compel the payment of higher wages for the performance of less work and less productive work. Unions are notorious for their hostility to labor saving machinery and to any form of competition among workers, for featherbedding practices, indeed, for "making work" by deliberately and arbitrarily increasing the number of workers required to accomplish a given task and sometimes even by compelling the disassembly or destruction of products already produced. It should be no wonder that the percentage of the labor force controlled by unions tends progressively to decline. Where the unions hold sway, companies cannot compete. Their market share falls and they ultimately go bankrupt. The only way that unions can maintain any given share of the labor force is by finding new victims to replace the ones they have sucked dry".

Fabulous news from Greece: "The government is seriously considering introducing a single, 25 percent income-tax band as part of its broader effort to boost the economy. The rate would be the same for both individual and corporate earnings, and would be introduced on January 1, 2007, applicable to incomes earned in 2006. Should the government go ahead with the reform, which appears likely, it will be announced by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis in early September at the Thessaloniki International Fair, where premiers traditionally announce the government's policy for the following year. Under the present system, annual income up to 11,000 euros is tax-exempt, while the portion of the income between 11,000 and 13,000 euros is taxed at 15 percent, between 13,000 and 23,000 at 30 percent and above 23,000 euros at 40 percent. According to sources, introduction of the flat rate will be accompanied by a rise in the tax-exempt portion of the income to 13,000 euros. The government, meanwhile, has already begun decreasing corporate taxes, from 35 percent to 25 percent."

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

ELSEWHERE

It looks like the conventional theory that comets are "dirty snowballs" is beginning to be accepted as wrong after the mission to Tempel 1. Tempel 1 seems to have been just a dust-covered rock: ""The major surprise was ... [data] that suggests the dust excavated from the comet's surface was extremely fine, more like talcum powder than beach sand. And the surface is definitely not what most people think of when they think of comets -- an ice cube," said Deep Impact's principal investigator." That means that conventional theories of the origins of the solar system are called into question too -- not that that would be a surprise to Andrew Prentice or to These people.

Arlene Peck says: "England has always had such a welcoming attitude to her Muslim immigrants too. In fact, they had such a warm, huggy relationship with "the immigrants" that everyone thought Britain was immune from Islamist violence, because of it's more than acceptable behaviour toward Muslims who live within her borders. In fact, long before the recent horror of the bombings, Britain had allowed itself to become a breeding ground for hate..... Muslims make up 9% of the city's population and the attacks occurred near districts where they are concentrated. Now, these same "peaceful Muslims" living in Britain are concerned that the recent "incident" just might upset the delicate balancing act they have been performing all these years. I hope it turns out to be a wake-up call; that roaches must be exterminated and not embraced."

Tomorrow belongs to the GOP: "Migration from liberal bastions in the Northeast and Midwest to the Sun Belt states will boost Republican electoral strength in the coming decade, making it tougher than ever for Democrats to win the presidency without carrying states in the South or Southwest. The Census Bureau's latest projection of population shifts, the first in eight years, shows a dramatic movement from the North to Southern and Western states over the next 30 years. The study points to a political movement as well. Heavily Democratic states such as New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Michigan will go on losing congressional seats and thus electoral strength in presidential elections, political analysts say. At the same time, they say, Republican states such as Florida, Texas, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada likely will gain congressional and electoral clout. "The net beneficiary of this will continue to be the Republican Party because the population shift is moving into an environment that is heavily dominated by the Republicans," says Merle Black, a professor of politics and government at Emory University and author of books on political shifts in the South."

Right Wing News has a very good post titled: "Debunking 8 Anti-War Myths About The Conflict In Iraq"

I have just posted here a libertarian defence of America's Iraq intervention.

There is a particularly outrageous story up on Strange Justice at the moment.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/13/2005 08:05:00 PM

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

 
TUESDAY ROUNDUP

Once again I list what I think were the best posts on my various blogs in the preceding week.

On Dissecting Leftism I give some history of Leftist racism

On Political Correctness Watch I note that cake is now incorrect

On Greenie Watch I note the significance of the fact that the House of Lords has rubbished Britain's climate change policies

On Education Watch I note that a five-week teacher training course gets better results than a four year teaching degree

On Socialized Medicine I note the first official announcement of medical vouchers

On Gun Watch there is a spirited defence of gun rights from English libertarian Sean Gabb

On Leftists as Elitists I note that Democrat self-love is their undoing

On Blogger News I ask is the term "liberal" still meaningful? (Also posted on Conservative Philosopher)

On Majority Rights I note that feminism seems to be faltering

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ELSEWHERE

The motive behind the London bombings: "The post-modern liberal mind cannot make sense of terrorism -- why would anyone want to kill women and children? What would drive someone to do such things. Surely, our political system can provide a safe outlet for their grievances. Don't we have departments of multiculturalism? Don't we give foreign aid? Don't we have racial affirmative action? .... Such a response does not understand the terrorists. To understand them is simple, if terrifying: Read their writing and listen to their speeches. They want the world to be ruled by sharia law, where the only constitution is the Qu'ran. They want a theocracy, like Afghanistan was and Iran is, where infidels are killed, or kept in a state of submission, called dhimmitude. Read Osama bin Laden's speeches, not those of his lawyers and psychologists in the media. Like Hitler's Mein Kampf, bin Laden is plain about his intentions. There was no half way, no compromise, no win-win possible with Hitler. The Jews didn't do any one thing in particular to him -- he hated their very existence. The West didn't do any one thing to bin Laden that caused his hate -- other than to live freely and outside his authority. Sixty-five years ago, Britain understood Hitler was evil, and responded with Spitfires, not psychologists. Here's hoping Britain today has the same clarity of thought."

Australia's treasurer points to bias against conservative churches: "Treasurer Peter Costello yesterday lashed out at the hypocritical treatment of churches in politics, saying conservative churches were seen as sinister while Left-wing clergy won nothing but praise. Mr Costello strongly defended the Hillsong Church from charges it was "a danger to democracy". The Treasurer supported the mass-member Pentecostal worship in Sydney's outer suburbs against establishment churches. He said Left-wing leaders within the Anglican and Uniting churches were given more credence on social issues than conservatives from organisations such as Hillsong. "Everyone goes around and says, 'well we are worried about the influence of the Pentecostal churches'," Mr Costello said. "You know, they might get involved in politics, but we will defend the right of Anglican Archbishops to engage in politics. And the difference is the general view in the media is a churchman is entitled to speak on a social issue as long as he has a Left-wing perspective."

Commo-loving black "Democrat": "Congressman Charles Rangel-a frequent, forthright defender of civil liberties on national television-has long been a paladin of black political and human rights in this country... Because of his record, I was surprised when-as nonviolent Cubans had the courage to gather in Havana on May 20 for the first public mass meeting for their freedom during Castro's 46-year dictatorship-Rangel was among the only 22 members of the House of Representatives who voted against a resolution (392 in favor) supporting this "historic meeting." Then, as noted in last week's column, Rangel attacked American politicians who "refuse to give the [Castro] government the respect that it deserves." And he dismissed the Cubans defying the dictator-who, in 2003, locked up for long sentences more than 70 dissenters".

Radioblogger is an interesting site. Go there for all your transcripts of Leftists making fools of themselves on air. I liked this excerpt from an interview with Ronald Reagan junior -- who made the usual Leftist claim of "no connection" between Saddam and terrorism. Christopher Hitchens replied: "When I went to interview Abu Nidal, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, in Baghdad, he was operating out of an Iraqi government office. He was an arm of the Iraqi State, while being the most wanted man in the world. The same is true of the shelter and safe house offered by the Iraqi government, to the murderers of Leon Klinghoffer, and to Mr. Yassin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993".

There is an article from last year here that traces the origins of Al Qaeda back to the Arab Nazis of WW2

That abuse expert and mini-Chomsky, Brian Leiter, has just copped another well-deserved blast for his anti-intellectualism. Leiter's highly intellectual response was to "out" his critic as homosexual. Charming!

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/12/2005 08:20:00 PM

Monday, July 11, 2005

 
A MARXIST WET DREAM OR A DEMOCRAT WET DREAM?

The following bit of fantasizing comes from Sam Webb, who is/was the "chair" (I hope someone sits on him) of the Communist Party of the USA. But it could just as well be Democrat propaganda. Neither has any idea of how their projected paradise might be brought about. Conservatives and anybody else in touch with reality know that it cannot. The Left had half the world to experiment on for most of the 20th century and made things infinitely worse there rather than better. In the excerpt, Comrade Webb is talking about what America would be like "after the revolution"

"I would expect that the economy would be a mixed one, combining different forms of socialist and cooperative property as well as space, within clear limits, for private enterprise. While democratic planning would begin to play a role in organizing economic life, market mechanisms would probably operate over sectors of the socialized economy for much longer than I thought years ago....

I have confined myself to the day after the revolution, but extending the time frame a bit further into the future brings additional images and possibilities. Homelessness and joblessness would be eradicated. Toxic dumps would be cleaned up and replaced with gardens and playgrounds.

Our skies would be blue and pollution free. Our neighborhoods would become places of rest, leisure, culture, and green space. The whole panoply of oppressions that scare our people and nation would be on the wane. Human sexuality and sexual orientation would be enjoyed and celebrated. The audiences at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall would look as diverse as the people of our city.

The prisons systems would be emptied and the borders demilitarized and opened. Women would be regularly receiving Nobel prizes in the sciences. The Pentagon would be padlocked and the swords of war would be turned into plowshares and we would study war no more. And, finally, the full development of each would be the condition for the full development of all."

And here is the current Democrat dream, only marginally less realistic and self-defeating:

If the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is probably the closest thing Bay Area liberal Democrats have to a government in waiting, were to take over in Washington, these would become national policy:

Access to affordable, high-quality health care would be universal. Social Security benefits would be protected, along with private pensions. The minimum wage would be raised, and workers' rights to form unions would be protected. Expiring sections of the Patriot Act wouldn't be renewed, and Congress would fight media consolidation. U.S. troops would be brought home from Iraq "as soon as possible,'' and the government would work to "restore international respect for American power and influence.''

All these points are part of the "Progressive Promise,'' an effort by the 59-member caucus of liberal House Democrats and one independent to reinvigorate the 15-year-old organization and make it more of a player in a capital city where conservative Republicans are solidly in charge

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

ELSEWHERE

More strangeness from Arkansas: The retiring Republican governor of Arkansas (where Clinton hails from) Mike Huckabee, recently made a "joke" that has aroused a lot of anger. He seemed to think it amusing that "Southern white guys" like himself may soon be a minority in the State -- a State which has had a large influx of illegal Hispanic immigrants. Since large numbers of Americans are not at all amused by illegal immigration, the attitude to law enforcement revealed by the "joke" is pretty surprising in a senior Republican. There is an article here which has a sinister explanation of Huckabee's thinking. From an Australian viewpoint, the toleration of illegal immigration by America's political elites of both the Right and Left seems pretty contemptible. The Australian government has cracked down very heavily on illegal immigration.

Children of illegals NOT citizens by right: "We well know how the courts and laws have spoken on the subject of children born to non-citizens (illegal aliens) within the jurisdiction of the United States by declaring them to be American citizens. But what does the constitution of the United States say about the issue of giving American citizenship to anyone born within its borders? As we explore the constitutions Citizenship Clause, as found in the Fourteenth Amendment, we can find no constitutional authority to grant such citizenship to persons born to non-American citizens within the limits of the United States of America".

The Left never do care about reality: "The most fascinating thing about President Bush's speech on Iraq last week was the reaction of many on the left, whose weird mind-set was best captured by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Bush's speech, she said, tried to "exploit the sacred ground of 9/11, knowing that there is no connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq." In effect, Pelosi was accusing Bush of failing to join in her favorite delusion, which is pretty funny when you think about it. It was a reminder that for Bush haters, the no-connection-with-9/11 canard has hardened into something like a religious belief. But to repeat the cliche, on Sept. 11 our world changed. We were at war - not a war in the conventional sense, against an identifiable regime with control over territory. But as in any war, we suddenly knew we had reason for heightened fear of what we did not know. Those of Pelosi's ilk, by contrast, cling to the world of Sept. 10. They have refused to accept that we had to change our posture toward potential threats - such as Saddam Hussein's Iraq. A corollary to the left's no-link-to-Sept. 11 delusion is the belief that Hussein's regime had no relationship with al-Qaida. Certainly, there's little or no evidence that Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 attack. But the relationship between al-Qaida and Hussein's regime was fairly well-developed, as the Sept. 11 commission report made abundantly clear".

Can this be true? "Surveys completed in recent months by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that nearly a fifth of teens who have access to the Web have their own blogs. And 38 percent of teens say they read other people's blogs. By comparison, about a tenth of adults have their own blogs and a quarter say they read other people's online journals." [If it is true that is one hell of a lot of blogs. No wonder Technorati is overloaded into uselessness most of the time]

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/11/2005 06:48:00 PM

Sunday, July 10, 2005

 
IMMIGRATION TO THE USA -- LATEST FIGURES:

Analysis of birth records shows that in 2002 almost one in four births in the United States was to an immigrant mother, legal and illegal, the highest level in American history. The enormous number and proportion of children from immigrant families may overwhelm the assimilation process, making it difficult to integrate these new second-generation Americans. At present, the U.S. government automatically gives American citizenship to all people born in the country, even the children of tourists and illegal aliens.

Among the study's findings:

In 2002, 23 percent of all births in the United States were to immigrant mothers (legal or illegal), compared to 15 percent in 1990, 9 percent in 1980, and 6 percent in 1970.

Even at the peak of the last great wave of immigration in 1910, births to immigrant mothers accounted for a slightly smaller share than today. After 1910 immigration was reduced, but current immigration continues at record levels, thus births to immigrants will continue to increase.

Our best estimate is that 383,000 or 42 percent of births to immigrants are to illegal alien mothers. Births to illegals now account for nearly one out of every 10 births in the United States.

The large number of births to illegals shows that the longer illegal immigration is allowed to persist, the harder the problem is to solve. Because as U.S. citizens these children can stay permanently, their citizenship can prevent a parent's deportation, and once adults they can sponsor their parents for permanent residence.

The large number of children born to illegals also shows that a "temporary" worker program is unrealistic because it would result in hundreds of thousands of permanent additions to the U.S. population each year, exactly what such a program is suppose to avoid.

Overall, immigrant mothers are much less educated than native mothers. In 2002, 39 percent of immigrant mothers lacked a high school education, compared to 17 percent of native mothers. And immigrants now account for 41 percent of births to mothers without a high school degree.

The dramatic growth in births to immigrants has been accompanied by a decline in diversity. In 1970, the top country for immigrant births - Mexico - accounted for 24 percent of births to immigrants, by 2002 it was 45 percent.

As a share of all births in the country, Mexican immigrants accounted for one in 10 births in 2002. No single foreign country has every accounted for such a large share of births.

Source

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

ELSEWHERE

Robert Mandel has a very good history lesson for the Islamic morons. If they really want to get Mecca nuked, we may eventually oblige them. (HT Les Bates)

National Association of Scholars responds to the Ward Churchill affair: "In the wake of the Churchill affair, the Regents of the University of Colorado intend to oversee a comprehensive review of the workings of the tenure process, probably the first within a major university since the formalization of the modern system in 1940. Their opportunity is not simply to avoid being stuck with more Churchills, but to restore to the process the integrity it was originally supposed to possess, or to change it as necessary. Tenure's weak point has always been its susceptibility to favor-trading-the all-too-human inclination to help the other guy if he'll be equally nice in return. Academe was once thought too high-minded for such cheapening accommodations, but apparently that is no longer so. If tenure is to be preserved in its present form, means need to be found for restoring the primacy of intellectual criteria over political ones, and frustrating the reciprocal "rent seeking" that drives down all standards. Given the strength of vested interests, this won't be easy to do. But it is an opportunity that still beckons".

Canada: Court orders US extradition of environmental terrorist: "One of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives, a suspected eco-terrorist known as Tre Arrow, was ordered extradited back to the United States on Thursday to face charges of firebombings. Arrow, born Michael Scarpitti, is accused of participating in the 2001 firebombing of logging and cement trucks in Oregon. The FBI claims he is associated with the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), a group that has claimed responsibility for dozens of acts of destruction over the past few years."

At the movies: "Ordinarily I am not a paranoid person, so this hypothesis of mine is not the usual type. But recently I have noticed that when I see serious American movies, mostly the ideological take in them tends to be anti-capitalist, anti-free market, against free trade, anti-business, anti-corporate -- in short against most things associated with the United States of America. Granted, there are policies by the US Government that I, too, find very upsetting but these aren't what these movies tend to go after -- like increasing meddling in people's personal lives, Court decisions that favor the government over the private sector, preoccupation with political correctness and so forth. No, the targets of these movies tend to be ordinary American values.'

Leftist solutions have not helped blacks: "Civil rights leaders like 57-year-old Prentice McKinney, who fought to free Milwaukee's blacks from the ghetto, say gangs, drugs and violence have left those who still live in the nation's urban cores in fear of the next generation. "Back then, the enemy was clear, it was white racists, and racist police officers," said McKinney, who was a black teen-age "commando" in the 1960s and now runs a tavern once frequented by fellow activists. "It was a legalized system of segregation. And so, the challenge was between the white establishment and the African-American population. Today, the African-American population is being destroyed by its own youth ... an enemy from within." He and others interviewed before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's six-day meeting beginning on Saturday see a changed city where a generation of blacks freed from the shackles of yesterday's legalized discrimination are held hostage by today's crime and poverty.... "We marched for fair housing, and now we have homelessness," Martin said. "I remember when there was good housing stock and families thrived. Now there is empty lots. I remember business districts that were as busy as any shopping mall and now they are vacant stores."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/10/2005 07:57:00 PM

Saturday, July 09, 2005

 
FROM BROOKES NEWS

The US trade deficit with China and protectionist myths The US trade deficit with China has rekindled cries about the "level playing field" and "fair trade" that are becoming ever more strident
Clerical hypocrisy takes aim at the Liberal Party It should be obvious, even to left-wing clerics, that if the churches insist on engaging in economic debates then they have a grave responsibility to educate themselves in economic theory
The Brotherhood of St. Laurence and its anti-job agenda The self-righteousness Brotherhood of St. Laurence claims that wage flexibility only "promotes greater poverty and misery for low wage workers and their families"
Union economist denies economic laws If your raise the price of any product above its market clearing value demand will fall and a surplus will emerge and vice versa. That is, unless you are a trade union
Unions, unemployment and wages Union leaders, social workers, clerics, labour politicians and 'journalists' are claiming that the Government's proposed labour market reforms will have terrible consequences for real wages

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

ELSEWHERE

Will hard-Leftist Ken Livingstone admit he goofed? Unlikely "London Mayor Ken Livingstone's previous support of a Muslim cleric who advocates suicide bombings may cause him some embarrassment as he now must speak for the city in the wake of Thursday's terrorist bombings.... Livingstone has in the past labeled Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi a "man of peace" and a "moderate," despite the fact that Al-Qaradawi has supported suicide bombings and the targeting of American allies. Livingstone invited Al-Qaradawi to London's City Hall last year as an honored guest, and the mayor appeared in a video shown at a solidarity conference for the sheikh on Feb. 17 of this year in Doha, Qatar. Livingstone has publicly defended the sheikh against critics in the media and various grassroots organizations. The Anti-Defamation League has labeled Al-Qaradawi the "Theologian of Terror," while the website GayEgypt.com has dubbed him the "Dr. Goebbels of modern Egypt," for Al-Qaradawi's anti-homosexual rhetoric... Al-Qaradawi's theological justification for suicide bombings is entitled, "Hamas Operations Are Jihad and Those Who [Carry it Out and] Are Killed are Considered Martyrs" and appears on a website linked to the Hamas terror organization".

Northeastern Intelligence Network has a lot on the London bombings

Reliapundit has an apt comment on the London attack: "How long before the Left blames Bush"?

We had an eloquent warning over a year ago about the bombing proclivities of British Muslims. A pity the types concerned were not rounded up long ago. I imagine that nothing will be done about them even now.

The Australian government did NOT kowtow to China: "The former Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin, who defected from his post in Australia, has been granted a protection visa today. A spokesman for the Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says the visa will give Mr Chen all the entitlements of a permanent resident, and the visa will also apply to his wife and daughter. Chen Yonglin says he's delighted with the outcome, and has thanked the Australian Government for granting him asylum. Mr Chen claimed the Chinese Government has up to 1,000 spies operating in Australia who've been kidnapping Chinese nationals. Chin Jin from the Federation for a Democratic China, which is a political group set up after the Tiananmen Square massacre, has welcomed the news"

Muslims becoming Christians: "In the past few years, increasing numbers of Westerners have been converting to Islam. Agence France Presse recently reported annual figures in France alone of 30,000 to 50,000. But a new phenomenon - largely unreported in the Western media - is occurring: Muslims, especially in the Maghreb (north-west Africa) are becoming Christians... According to most reports, the culprits are American evangelical missionaries operating in major cities such as Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech and Fez to remote areas in the mountains or the countryside. The statistics differ wildly: Missionaries are reported to number anywhere from 150, according to French weekly newsmagazine Le Nouvel Observateur, to the 800-plus figure most often used. Converts are said to number anywhere from 7,000 to 58,000. These discrepancies are easily explained by the fact that both missionaries and converts have to stay constantly below the radar. Even though Morocco is a much more tolerant country than say Saudi Arabia regarding freedom of religion, it nonetheless imprisons anyone trying to convert a Muslim for up to three years."

The Supreme Court's decision on eminent domain in Kelo v. City of New London has sparked almost universal condemnation among conservatives. I myself could not see much wrong with the decision as long as just compensation was given and Hinderaker says much the same -- but more eloquently and in greater detail than I could. Anyone interested in balance should read Hinderaker's article. I liked his conclusion: "The principal threats to property rights lie elsewhere. In particular, regulatory actions often severely limit what an owner can do with his property. Unlike urban development projects, such regulations are often adopted in forums that are remote from, and unresponsive to, the political process. And what an owner generally hopes for in such situations is to be covered by the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of compensation for the loss of use of his property, which is automatic in the case of a condemnation. So it is a good thing that the Kelo decision has focused attention on the erosion of property rights; but, despite the critical consensus that has formed among conservatives, it is far from clear that the case was wrongly decided". There is also a libertarian defence of the Kelo decision here, rather surprisingly.

A great quote: "You don't understand the class structure of American society," said Smetana, "or you would not ask such a question. In the United States, the working class are Democrats. The middle class are Republicans. The upper class are Communists." (from Witness by ex-Communist Whittaker Chambers, p. 616). Lots more good quotes here

The daily blog of "Enter Stage Right" is back online at a new location. See here

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/09/2005 10:14:00 PM

Friday, July 08, 2005

 
Wow! The London horror seems to have overloaded a lot of the internet. Blogger.com was slow to respond and I cannot get into Hotmail at all -- after several hours trying. Gmail is still accessible, though.



RACE AND POLITICS

In what must be one of the best coverups of all time, most people today are totally unaware that Leftists were great racists before World War II. Racist beliefs were almost universal at that time but Leftists were the great preachers of it. Even Marx and Engels were furiously racist and if they were not Leftists, who would be? I have documented all that at length here and here and here and here.

Conservatives, by contrast, have generally been moderate in their racial views -- which is why the British Conservative party made an outspoken Jew their Prime Minister at the height of the British empire. And to this day conservatives take a moderate view of race -- rejecting for instance the Leftist claim that the problems of blacks are all the fault of whites. As always, conservatives think in terms of individuals rather than in such crude racial terms. Leftists have now reversed the polarity of their racism but they are still the ardent racists they always were. It is just another instance of their characteristic simplistic thinking. The dreadful Hitler episode made pro-white racism unmentionable just about everywhere but since they really believe in nothing at all other than their own entitlement to power, sophisticated Leftists immediately became anti-white without a qualm. Because of their claim to have an explanation for everything, they NEED simplistic thinking.

Less sophisticated and more down-to-earth Leftists could not do a backflip so quickly or easily of course -- as we saw in the American South. The opponents of racial integration in the 1960s American South (George Wallace, Orval Faubus etc) were of course prominent Democrats, members of America's mainstream party of the Left. And the Southern Democrats had not long before been the great bastion of support for the socialist FDR. Even in 1932, Roosevelt won all the southern states. Even the Ku Klux Klan was basically a Democrat organization. A former Klansman (Byrd) sits in the U.S. Congress as a Democrat to this day.

And as for FDR, note this quote showing that FDR too was a typical (racist) Leftist of his era:

"For an excellent illustration of just how little FDR cared for the desperate plight of southern blacks, you can study what happened to the Scottsboro Boys, eight young black men unjustly accused of raping two white women in 1931 Alabama. Even the more level-headed Southerners eventually came to see that no rapes had occurred and that the accused were innocent. But given the region's fierce pride, untangling the legal mess created by their conviction took many years. FDR could have waved it all away with a single signature on a federal pardon, knowing that the party's southern leadership would see that it never became a political issue. Instead, he did nothing."

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

ELSEWHERE

The London outrage: This is of course the sort of multiple attack that Bin Laden specializes in so there is no doubt of its origin. Hostility to the West is so widespread among Muslims in Britain, however, that catching the culprits and preventing recurrences seems unlikely to be achievable by normal police methods. London already had extensive security measures in place which appear to have achieved nothing. It seems to me that Britain could only make itself safe from more of this sort of thing by exporting all its Muslims to their ancestral homelands. Given the enormous British tradition of restraint and moderation, that won't happen this time but a drastic response such as that will surely happen if such attacks continue.

Another crooked poll. Look at the source: "A vast majority of Americans disagree with President George W. Bush's stance on global warming, a new poll said Tuesday amid reports of a widening rift over climate change between the United States and its partners in the Group of Eight (G8) dominant countries. ''Going into the G8 Summit, nearly all Americans feel that the U.S. should not be a laggard, but should be ready to do as much as most other developed countries to reduce emissions that cause climate change,'' said Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), which surveyed 812 people late last month." The Locker Room has some germane comments too.

Good comment from The Locker Room: "As they say on lucianne.com when a particularly offensive lefty-bias story is posted, "Barf alert!" This latest one is from The Guardian and it reports on a UN "human development report" that finds that rich countries spend 25 times more on their defense budgets than they give away to benighted socialist hell holes in the Third World (that's my characterization, not The Guardian's). First reaction: This is news? You might as well write a story saying that American middle-class families spend 10,000 times more on their kids' educations than they give to burnt-out winos begging at freeway ramps. That "study" would be just as relevant to anything in the real world".

There is a good brief summary here of the issues surrounding the next Supreme Court appointment. It notes that even a thoroughly conservative appointment would not mean a reliable conservative majority.

There has long been a view that the American Indians were unlikely to have been the first human occupants of the Americas. It looks like we now have proof of that. So the American Indians were "invaders" too. I guess that that should upset the simplistic moralizing of the Left a bit.

Bureaucrats determined to get Scrushy: "The Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to press its civil fraud case against HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy despite his acquittal on criminal charges of orchestrating a $2.7 billion accounting fraud. The SEC's case, seeking nearly $800 million from Scrushy, has been on hold for two years because it was deemed to be in conflict with the Justice Department's criminal prosecution of HealthSouth, the medical rehabilitation services chain he once led."

I have just had posted on Conservative Philosopher a brief article about the meaning (or lack of it) of the word "liberal". I would be interested in any comments on it. Note that you have to register first to use the comment boxes on that site. Emailing me might be easier for those who do not regularly visit that site.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/08/2005 08:00:00 PM

Thursday, July 07, 2005

 
AID TO AFRICA?

African economist says aid is poisonous: "The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.... Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa's problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn't even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid"

Africa already choking on aid: "Rambak threatens to become a bitter example of how development aid doesn't really help. Again and again finance is hurriedly provided for one project after another, without any evidence of a convincing overall concept. The money is just thrown at projects as quickly as possible. In this case, Norway has made $500,000 available for just 500 refugees in the camps. The windfall immediately sparked off further need and a second camp, this time home to 345 people, has sprung up. It is the Italians who are footing the bill for the new camp. Money is, for the Europeans, the solution to all of Africa's problems. But despite yearly payments of, at last count, some $26 billion, the majority of the continent resembles something approaching one big emergency military hospital. Already today there are increasing numbers of Africans who call for an end to this sort of support"

Even the L.A. Times says it: "Africa is filled with good intentions that ended badly. Half-completed hydroelectric dams covered with weeds, empty irrigation pipes decaying in the equatorial sun and roads that literally lead to nowhere dot the continent, testaments to corruption and bad judgment. Despite billions of dollars in aid, Africa has gone backward since the 1970s on every measurable level"

Africa's vast corruption: "The example of Nigeria says it all. Figures released last month by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, as reported in the London Daily Telegraph, reveal that in the 45 years since Britain granted independence in 1960 a succession of despots squandered $387 billion (that's a "b," not an "m"), almost to the dollar the sum of all Western aid to all of Africa between 1960 and 1997. One of the despots, Gen. Sani Abacha, now safely dead, is believed to have looted Nigeria's vast oil reserves of more than $5 billion in just five years. William Bellamy, the U.S. ambassador to neighboring Kenya, startled the guests at his Fourth of July garden party yesterday with just the kind of bluntness needed to keep African aid in realistic perspective. "Turning on the fire hose of international compassion and asking Kenya and other African nations to drink from it is not a serious strategy for promoting growth or ending poverty."

A view from South Africa: "African countries, including South Africa, have refused to give even the vaguest criticism of the almost unimaginably abusive Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe, maintaining that the crimes committed by that government are an internal matter. It is difficult to understand why no African leader will speak out and condemn such a clear case of evil, but in remaining silent they give their tacit approval and encouragement of the destruction of peoples' lives and livelihoods. Perhaps African leaders are just so removed from the lives of ordinary Africans that they cannot fathom any individual's need to provide for him or herself, to be self reliant and to take pride in what he or she produces.... So when the G8 countries, encouraged by Geldof and his platitudinous popstar friends, give money to Africa, they are rewarding the very people that cause poverty, destruction and death. If Africa wants to advance, it does not need more money.... They should be removing the harmful laws that give power to brutal policemen and frustrate enterprise and self-reliance. But of course it suits this political elite to get handouts from rich countries as it means they have to do less work to reform themselves and means they don't have to muddy their shoes by being concerned with the little people"

Australia thinks handouts are no answer: "Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has strongly defended Australia's foreign aid contributions, amid opposition claims the nation is not doing enough to eliminate global poverty..... Mr Downer said setting financial targets alone would not solve the problem of global poverty. "We think that the central issue here is targeting the quality of governance in countries and the quality of public administration, because that is why these countries are poor," he told ABC radio. "It's not the volume of aid, it's the quality of government on the ground which is the issue. "If governance is bad, if corruption is high, then issues like the volume of aid or debt relief ... they're just going to be meaningless."

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

ELSEWHERE

Phenomenal!: "Japan's lower house of parliament has narrowly approved plans to privatise the country's huge postal system. The move is set to create the world's largest bank, as Japan Post controls 350 trillion yen ($3.2 trillion) in savings and insurance funds. The 233-228 vote was a victory for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who had pledged to push the reforms through before leaving office in 2006. But it was a tight call, with members of his own party voting against him. Under the proposed reforms, Japan Post would be split into four entities in 2007 in the hope of stimulating competition. Its savings and insurance arms would have to be sold by 2017. Advocates of the reforms claim that privatisation will make more efficient use of the service's huge funds for investment. But the country's 300,000 postal employees - a powerful lobbying group who are also instrumental in mobilising rural voters - opposed the bill, fearing for their jobs."

The Iranian election: Most Westerners seem to have accepted the recent election as in some sense legitimate and as representing the will of the Iranian people. That is incredibly naive. The election was thoroughly rigged. Some of the overlooked factors: "Most of the Iranian people rejected the elections and even stayed home in order to avoid being forced to go to the polls; The minimum age requirement to vote was reduced from sixteen to fourteen; The use of food coupons and admission in high school, college and university examinations required a seal on one's birth certificate indicating that the person had participated in the elections; Threatening hospitalized patients that if they did not vote, they would not receive their medications and other services; Threatening government employees that if they did not vote, they would lose their jobs; Increasing the hours of voting during the last minutes of the election day and transporting regime agents by bus from one polling place to others in order to increase the number of votes; Printing more than three million birth certificates with fake names and announcing that birth certificates without pictures would also be accepted as well as passports; Cheating in counting of votes which caused different voting results being announced by the Guardian Council and the Interior Ministry".

In case you have not seen it, there is a 2002 report here from country music star Charlie Daniels about what he saw when he visited Guantanamo Bay to entertain the troops. One thing I had not realized is that the Red Cross have people there watching everything.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/07/2005 06:25:00 PM

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

 
INTRODUCING THE ICJS

"ICJS Research formed to express the concerns of Australian citizens about a broad range of issues such as terrorism, appeasement, tolerance, war and justice in society. We note that these issues are not debated in the media, and where they are dealt with it is often done in an imbalanced manner. We struggle to redress imbalance in the media. ICJS Research has focused on Australian Broadcasting Corporation's recurring patterns of imbalance in many areas, such as the Iraq War, Middle East affairs, Green issues. ABC reporters and programming heads consistently make incorrect judgements on what is relevant to report in the Middle East".

Below are some of the more popular articles available on their site:

"T" is for Freedom fighter
Speech made at Columbia Uni by Brigitte Gabriel
Muslims join Jews to celebrate Passover
Daniel Scot's (in)credible testimony
Rabbi Groner
PA Corruption
ABA unwilling to confront imbalance
Faith in the path of the Tsunami
The question is: Can the ABC control its troops?
Secretary General's political capital
DiCaprio devastated by Tsunami
Pipes criticises Middle East leaders
Aunty won't be pleased!

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

ELSEWHERE

How to piss on the Fourth of July . From a well-known anti-American rag: "There is an unwelcome comfort with the inequitable distribution of freedom even in our own country. There is a poisonous tolerance for the idea that freedom encompasses only the right to say positive things about America and its mission in the world". [Yech! HT Keith Burgess Jackson. That the NYT editorialist can freely say such poisonous things disproves what he says!]

British TV has just broadcast an interview with GWB in which they were absolutely determined to wrong-foot him. They failed. He gave some excellent blunt answers, particularly at the beginning. Worth a read.

Americans already donate hugely: "Private American citizens donated almost 15 times more to the developing world than their European counterparts, research reveals this weekend ahead of the G8 summit. Private US donors also handed over far more aid than the federal government in Washington, revealing that America is much more generous to Africa and poor countries than is claimed by the Make Poverty History and Live 8 campaigns. Church collections, philanthropists and company-giving amounted to $22bn a year, according to a study by the Hudson Institute think-tank, easily more than the $16.3bn in overseas development sent by the US government".

The latest Doonesbury cartoon has inspired Iraq Now to make some pointed comments on attempted put-downs of bloggers by journalists and others. Since an awful lot of journalists are now bloggers as well, such attempts are pretty amusing anyway. And, as "Iraq Now" points out, bloggers are often a lot more expert than journalists. I for instance blog a lot on political psychology and I have more academic expertise in that subject than any journalist I have ever heard of.

La Shawn Barber reports: "I told him the liberal media propped up [Sharpton, Jackson etc.] because it's easier to get quotes and sound bites from so-called black leaders speaking for a group than it is to actually deal with blacks as individuals. In response, the caller said as a person of African descent, he appreciates what Jackson and Sharpton do. I interrupted him (rude, I know) and said as someone also of African descent, I did not, and I resented the white media's perception that they represent me and my interests. I asked: Are we sheep? Why don't other racial groups have leaders? Why only blacks? Are we children who can't think for ourselves and be responsible for our own lives? I don't think he answered me

EU stupidity: "Patients' lives are being put at risk because thousands of doctors working in the UK may not have sufficient English language skills, doctors warn. All medics from outside Europe are tested by the General Medical Council before being allowed to work, but those from within Europe are exempted. The British Medical Association is seeking legal opinion on whether the EU labour law ruling can be overturned".

The party of defeat: "Col. Charles Beckwith, founder of the Delta Force, tells a story about White House planning in April 1980 for the mission to rescue our 53 hostages in Tehran. Beckwith had visited the White House Situation Room to brief President Carter. In the meeting, according to one writer, "Charlie mentioned that his Delta shooters would 'take out' the hostage guards. "Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher looked over at Charlie, eyebrows raised. 'Take them out,' Colonel?" Beckwith replied: "Yes, Mister Deputy Secretary. We're going to double-tap 'em. Shoot 'em each in the head - twice." Christopher protested: "Couldn't you just shoot them in the shoulder or something?" And liberals wonder why conservatives consider them weak. ... Karl Rove was 100 percent accurate with his June 22 comments: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9-11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9-11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." Liberals are livid, mainly because, secretly, they know Rove has them nailed.... Democrats forbid America to fight. For 70 years, they refused to take communism seriously. Now, they refuse to take terrorism seriously."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

********************************
posted by JR 7/06/2005 07:00:00 PM

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

 
TUESDAY ROUNDUP

Once again I list what I think were the best posts on my various blogs in the preceding week.

On Dissecting Leftism I look at Leftism as motivated by a primitive longing for the hunter-gatherer tribe

On Political Correctness Watch I look at the naughty Mexican stamps with a Mexican "Sambo" on them.

On Greenie Watch I note that European governments are giving up on energy-use targets

On Education Watch I note that private schooling works best -- even in Africa

On Socialized Medicine I report that British public hospitals are seen as "war zone" by some of their staff

On Gun Watch I tell of a Trinidad granny defeating a gunman by sitting on him

On Leftists as Elitists I note that H.G. Wells was a very nasty Leftist elitist

On Majority Rights I discuss Booms and Busts and how to do well in real estate

On Blogger News I respond derisively to feminist claims about female friendships

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I have known for years that psychologists are not really interested in the evidence for or against their theories and in recent years I have had to add most climate scientists to the league of the evidence ignorers. But yesterday's collision with comet Tempel 1 finally forces me to add astrophysicists to that list. In astronomical circles the description of comets as "dirty snowballs" is as regular as "global warming" talk is among research-grant-seeking climate scientists. So what happened to the dirty snowball when NASA flung a lump of metal at it? Did the lump sail right through the snowball without missing a beat? Far from it! It crashed into a big lump of rock, not a snowball. Rebel scientists have been producing evidence for years (e.g. here) proving that comets are electrically charged lumps of rock but the evidence keeps getting ignored. In the latest commentary, the orthodox crowd say of the blast triggered by the Tempel 1 impact that "Geez, and we thought it was going to be subtle... How a washing-machine sized impactor could produce such a large disturbance is going to take some explanation". It sure is -- for them. But they are STILL calling it a dirty snowball! I give up! Science and Voodoo have a lot in common. They both have fixed beliefs that are almost impossible to change.

Great news: "American troops on the Syrian border are enjoying a battle they have long waited to see - a clash between foreign al-Qa'eda fighters and Iraqi insurgents. Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for al-Qa'eda jihadists being smuggled into the country. The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code. Shops selling music and satellite dishes had been closed. Women were ordered to wear all-enveloping clothing and men forbidden from wearing western clothes. Anyone considered to be aiding coalition forces was being killed or kidnapped. That included those with links to the government - seen as a US puppet - such as water or electricity officials. As a result local services had collapsed."

LOL: "Bush should nominate Ann Coulter [to SCOTUS]. She is constitutional scholar with a J.D. from a respectable law school. That's more than most of our Justices have had, historically. I'm serious. Either they confirm her, or they raise hell. Assuming they raise hell enough to block the nomination, anyone else Bush puts up as a replacement looks moderate by comparison. Then, he can name someone in the mold of Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas, and the opposition will have to give in, since the replacement will be soooooo much better than Ann Coulter. Heh".

Good post on poverty from Samizdata: "Next time you see a starving African child on the television, remember the culpability of Make Poverty History. MPH's will cause more poverty and more deaths than would otherwise have occurred. Socialism is killing the third world and Make Poverty History is going to make it worse. In a report by the Globalization Institute called More Aid, Less Growth, we learn that "for every 1% increase in aid received by a developing country, there is a 3.65% drop in real GDP growth per person. Contrary to the conventional wisdom in the aid industry, the study finds that even where recipients have good governance, the effect is also negative." So there you have it. The increase in aid prompted by Make Poverty History is going make things worse, not better."

More media fakery in Israel: "A young Palestinian boy lynched by Jewish rock-throwers is in mortal condition." So repeated public Israeli news reports late last week - while in fact, the entire affair was staged by reporters.... Israeli television stations showed footage of an Arab lying on the ground and then two Jewish boys running towards him and throwing rocks at him. "That's not the story!" said A.D. "I saw this same Arab get hit in the head with a rock - and yet he continued to throw rocks, like a tiger, for the next 15 minutes! And then I saw some reporters go over to him and tell him to lie down and act as if he was unconscious. Later on, he was taken out walking on his own, holding on to a soldier; all this talk of his being mortally wounded is total nonsense."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/05/2005 06:46:00 PM

Monday, July 04, 2005

 
THE PEOPLE'S ROMANCE (TPR)

There is an interesting article by Daniel Klein here (PDF) that gives Leftism a somewhat more creditable motivation than I am usually inclined to give it. Klein argues that because of our evolutionary past, people long to be part of one big group or "community". They in fact like to feel that everyone around them is on their side in some sense. It is a sort of genetic memory of the hunter-gatherer tribe supporting one-another against the elements. So people in whom that need is strong try to convert the whole of their country into one big brotherly tribe. To me as an instinctive individualist, it all seems rather pathetic and I have myself never knowingly felt that way. Being on good terms with just a few like-minded individuals is plenty for me. Nonetheless it is easy to see how such feelings must have evolved and I suppose the wonder is that such feelings are not strong among us all. So the idea is that Leftists are really trying to satisfy their primitive yearning for unity at the expense of all those who want no part of any such social straitjacket. It certainly helps explain the straitjacket societies developed under Hitler's national socialism and Stalin's "socialism in one country". An excerpt from the article:

Many people, particularly ones who in the American context would tend to vote Democrat or Green, are inclined to support economic restrictions such union privileges, occupational licensing, the minimum wage, housing market-controls, the postal monopoly, and import restrictions. Yet knowledgeable economists agree that these restrictions are bad for humankind.

Perhaps their support arises because TPR requires, as Bukharin and Preobrazhensky put it, that activities be statified. [not stratified] What seems primary is not often how well the program or policy achieves stated goals of improving education, mobility, opportunity, and so on but instead the collective endeavor itself.

Why do people who claim to be concerned for the poor so often support or go along with policies that are obviously and predictably bad for society and especially the poor? Why do they support government schooling, antidevelopment land-use policies, rail transit projects, and policies to discourage the use of the private automobile? TPR provides an explanation: these policies bind people together (like a bundle of sticks).

Many populists, right and left, oppose free trade, alleging that it will hurt low-skilled workers. Even if that claim were true, however, why do they leave out of their consideration low-skilled Chinese or Brazilians? Answer: TPR is about we Americans. "The People" excludes "the other people." TPR helps explain why "distributive justice" reaches only to the border. If you scratch an egalitarian you'll often find TPR.

I suspect that a large part of the impetus behind the welfare state is the yearning for a collective enterprise: "We" taking care of "Ourselves." In this theater, some have to be cast as the needy, helpless, disadvantaged, inferior, and so on. I suspect that one reason coercive egalitarians feel that "the disadvantaged" deserve government support is that the scheme demeans and exploits them, so that the assistance is a sort of compensation.

Why are people uneasy about globalization? The communitarian Alasdair MacIntyre rightly says: "Patriotism cannot be what it was because we lack in the fullest sense a patria. . . . In any society where government does not express or represent the moral community of the citizens . . . the nature of political obligation becomes systematically unclear (1984, 254). Globalization blurs the "we," dissolves political obligation, and deflates TPR.

Why are government officials and enthusiasts often hostile to leading corporations like Microsoft, McDonald's, Wal-Mart, and Martha Stewart? Why are they often hostile to other bases for independent private cultural power such as private builders, private schools, and talk radio? Part of the answer may be that they are jealous in guarding their role as medium and focal point in TPR. Why are they hostile to placeless "suburban sprawl," private communities, private shopping malls, the private automobile (especially big ones), gun ownership and toting, and home schooling? Because these practices are means of withdrawing from TPR and creating an autonomous circle of authority, power, and experience.

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It is the 4th of July in Australia as I post this so apologies if this note seems a bit premature. But, as always, Ronald Reagan said it best. There is nothing I can say that would improve on his tribute.

There is a wonderful story here about Ann-Margret and her support for U.S. troops in Vietnam -- quite the opposite of the despicable Jane Fonda. A must-read.

And see if you can read about Lt. Brian Chontosh USMC without a tear in your eye. America still produces real warriors.

Something nasty is happening to the Google listing of Steve Milloy's "Junk Science" site. See here. It looks at first like an ordinary Googlebomb but Steve's site does not come up among the top listings at all. The googlebombers must have linked heaps of sites as well as their main spoof site. Oddly enough, when I Google directly from Australia, Steve's site comes up first -- as it should. The above link uses an anonymizer so Google cannot tell where the query is coming from. That makes it look a bit as if Google themselves are involved in the prank. Anybody reading this who has a site should immediately link to Steve to help him out. Just reproducing this post would do the trick.

Amazing article here. A prominent American "liberal" journalist (Daniel Lazare of "The Nation") was asked: "Do you feel some sympathy for the so-called insurgents in Fallujah?" His reply: "Oh, absolutely yes, total sympathy, total solidarity." Next question to him: "So you're sticking with this comparison of the United States to Nazi Germany?". His reply: "I believe it. I believe it entirely". So how can anyone deny that the American Left is not only anti-American but also pro-Jihadi?

The disgusting Durbin not off the hook: "More than two weeks after citing Nazis and other brutal regimes in criticizing U.S. tactics at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) remains under fire from critics who claim the lawmaker's subsequent apology was insufficient. Move America Forward, a group affiliated with the conservative political public relations firm Russo Marsh & Rogers, is planning a national ad campaign that scolds Durbin for his June 14 statements and what the organization refers to as his "non-apology.".... Durbin's Senate floor remarks addressed the details of an FBI agent's e-mail describing heavy-handed interrogation tactics at Guantanamo. Among other things, the e-mail described detainees being chained to the floor in severe temperatures and denied food or water for excessive periods. "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/04/2005 07:08:00 PM

Sunday, July 03, 2005

 
BARRACKING FOR OBAMA

Although he has no slave ancestry (unlike Condoleeza Rice), Barack Obama seems to be the great black hope of the Democrats

The puffed-up Obama: "This week comes the previously careful Sen. Barack Obama, flapping his wings in Time magazine and explaining that he's a lot like Abraham Lincoln, only sort of better. "In Lincoln's rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat--in all this he reminded me not just of my own struggles." Oh. So that's what Lincoln's for. Actually Lincoln's life is a lot like Mr. Obama's. Lincoln came from a lean-to in the backwoods. His mother died when he was 9. The Lincolns had no money, no standing. Lincoln educated himself, reading law on his own, working as a field hand, a store clerk and a raft hand on the Mississippi. He also split some rails. He entered politics, knew more defeat than victory, and went on to lead the nation through its greatest trauma, the Civil War, and past its greatest sin, slavery. Barack Obama, the son of two University of Hawaii students, went to Columbia and Harvard Law after attending a private academy that taught the children of the Hawaiian royal family. He made his name in politics as an aggressive Chicago vote hustler in Bill Clinton's first campaign for the presidency."

Obama's stale New Deal: "Barack Obama's rousing oration at the August 2004 Democratic convention established America's favorite son of a goatherd as the shining hope of his desperate party. After humiliating the hapless Alan Keyes in November, he took his seat in Washington as the junior Senator from Illinois and set himself immediately to the thankless service of the workingman. On June 4, Obama appeared in Galesburg to deliver a commencement address at Knox College that has liberal scribes writing love poems and doodling hearts inscribed 'Obama 2008.' ... Jared Bernstein of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute quotes Obama, and asks, 'Did someone just open the window? Where's that breeze coming from?' A quick whiff suggests that it is coming from 1935 or thereabouts, which approximates the 'sell-by' date of Obama's vintage insights."

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ELSEWHERE

Stupid generalizations about America: "In fact while today's armchair critics in Europe see America as a bloodthirsty warrior, its enemies have always seen precisely the opposite. Hitler thought Americans' Aryan purity had been fatally weakened by immigration and ethnic diversity. The Russians thought years of capitalist decadence had sapped its resolve. Whatever else bin Laden and Saddam Hussein may or may not have had in common, they both believed Americans were essentially soft, would not have the stomach for a fight once engaged. Hit them hard and they may lash out at first, but they will bend and retreat at the first sign of a serious struggle - as they did in Beirut and Mogadishu".

The real abuse at Gitmo: "After speaking with soldiers, sailors, and civilians who collectively staff the Joint Task Force - Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on my recent visit to that base, I left convinced that abuse definitely exists at the detention facilities. But not the slander and hyperbole about alleged mistreatment of the unlawful combatants confined there that we've all heard. There is far more serious abuse: the relentless, merciless attacks on American servicemen and women by these same terrorist thugs. Many of the orange jumpsuit-clad detainees fight their captors at every opportunity. They attack guards whenever the soldiers enter their cells, trying to reach up under protective face masks to gouge eyes and tear mouths. They make weapons and try to stab the guards or grab and break limbs as the guards pass them food."

America's perverse "public" media: "The Soviet Union had no free press, privately owned, politically independent, competing publications dealing with ideas and whatever else readers would find of interest. The old USSR had Pravda and other state run newspapers and broadcast outlets. This kind of media exists in other parts of the world but the United States of America was to be a haven for a completely free press. Sadly, even there broadcast media fell into the hands of government .... Still, even with this intrusiveness, radio and TV do not get funded by monies extorted via taxation. There is still a pretty good semblance of competition on the airwaves, especially with the arrival a few decades ago of cable TV and the Internet. One thing is, however, way over the top in American media affairs. This is the prominence of National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service."

Homosexuals in the Islamic world: "This weekend's Gay Pride festivities in New York City climaxed with Sunday's 36th annual parade down Fifth Avenue. As usual, the raucous affair thrilled some and rattled others, but everyone walked away intact. One would have to fantasize about such an occasion, however, in most Muslim nations where homosexuality remains as concealed as a bride beneath a burqa. When it peeks through, it isn't pretty. While many liberals (and President G.W. Bush) call Islam a religion of peace, 'celebrating diversity' is hardly on its agenda."

Compulsory time-wasting for tenants with children: "Six newspapers in New Hampshire have agreed to stop running real estate ads that suggest children aren't welcome at the properties following complaints that the ads violated federal law. Several dozens landlords and real estate agents also agreed to stop placing ads targeting adult tenants and to submit future ads to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmentfor review. Federal law prohibits landlords from discriminating against children. The ads included promotions like 'one mature person,' 'quiet adult location' and 'great for a single person.' They are discriminatory because they make it harder for families to rent out the locations, said Christine Lavallee of New Hampshire Legal Assistance." [All it will do is make it harder for families with children to find out that they will not be accepted]

Racial disadvantage fostered by Democrat "welfare" : "If you listened to the rhetoric of black politicians and civil rights leaders, dating back to the Reagan years, you would have been convinced that surely by now black Americans would be back on the plantation. According to them, President Reagan and later Presidents Bush I and II would turn back the clock on civil rights. They'd appoint "new racists" in three-piece suits to act through the courts and administrative agencies to reverse black civil rights and economic gains. We can now recognize this rhetoric as the political equivalent of the "rope-a-dope.".... The strategy liberal Democrats have chosen, to prevent loss of the black vote, is to keep blacks paranoid and in a constant state of fear.... Only 30 percent to 40 percent of black males graduate from high school. Many who do graduate emerge with reading and math skills of a white seventh- or eighth- grader. This is true in cities where a black is mayor, a black is superintendent of schools and the majority of principals and teachers are black... In 1960, only 28 percent of black females between the ages of 15 and 44 were never married. Today, it's 56 percent. In 1940, the illegitimacy rate among blacks was 19 percent, in 1960, 22 percent, and today, it's 70 percent".

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/03/2005 06:50:00 PM

Saturday, July 02, 2005

 
INTERESTING REPORT FROM "THE PEOPLE'S CUBE" (A SITE SATIRIZING THE LEFT)

"This site, as well as the Mother Site (CFK) has been bombarded with righteous anti-American, Republican-bashing posts written in good English, without mentioning the posters' nationality. But site administrators have a way of checking IP addresses. Some of them came from the Netherlands, some from Germany, and all of them point to RIPE Network Coordination Centre in Amsterdam:

Good job, European activist comrades! The enemy is more tractable if he is confused about the source of the attack and thinks it may be coming from his next-door neighbor. We were forced to delete a few dozen of such posts as spam - they had no intrinsic value and added nothing to the site. As of late, however, angry spam has been replaced by "neutral" advertisements for the U.S. Democratic Party, which the DNC Chairperson, Howard Dean (a.k.a. Hao Tse-Dean), has initiated. But the IP addresses behind the posts are the same, ending up in Europe.

Why would the anti-American European Left support the American Democratic Party? Apparently for the same reason they support the anti-American Iraqi insurgency and Islamofascists. They don't? Oh yes they do! U.S. News & World Report writes about their latest campaign - "10 Euros per person for the Iraqi resistance." Observe European fundraising sites here and here. No need to mention the Left's propagandistic effort to give moral support to terrorists in the Middle East and around the globe, in which they thoroughly fill the gigantic shoes of the erstwhile KGB, picking up Stalin's methods and networks.

Why would they do that? To win, the Left needs to discredit and defeat the very idea of capitalism, individualism, and personal freedom. The simple litmus test here is this: would you like to own your government, or would you like your government to own you? This is the basic fault line and the starting point of all reasoning. America was the world's first nation to set up a system in which individuals owned their government - as opposed to the rest of the world were people remained slaves to their rulers. To exist, the American system requires capitalism, individualism, and personal freedom. These are the American values. The only significant force in today's world that still fights for them are American conservatives. The Left's ultimate model, on the contrary, implies that the individual is owned by the state. In such state humans become mere beasts of burden and are routinely sacrificed for the mythical "common good." This ideological divide makes the American conservatives the Left's worst enemies and best punching bags.

It's ironic that in order to make the world accept its "historically optimistic" vision, the Left needs to instill nihilism, fear, uncertainty, cynicism, and despair. In practical terms, that means to defeat the spreading of American values worldwide (by supporting Islamofascists) and at home (by supporting the U.S. Democratic Party represented by Howard Dean and Dick Durbin). And it looks like the desperate DNC leaders try their best to live up to such a high honor.

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ELSEWHERE

Whoopee! The dreadful Sandra Day O'Connor is going from SCOTUS. Now the hijinks start. I predict Estrada will be GWB's nominee to replace her. GWB has already renominated "rejects" for the circuit courts.

Do you know what the ultimate symbol of Republican corruption is? Have a guess: Money? Power? Sex? Nope. You've got it all wrong. It's golf! Yes. Golf. Don't believe me? It's all explained here. Seems to me a pretty big compliment, actually. If a love of golf is all the Left can dredge up to criticize, then the GOP are doing very well indeed. I wonder what the ultimate symbol of Leftist corruption is? Multi-million dollar fortunes, perhaps? Think John Kerry, John Edwards, George Soros, Ted Kennedy, Ted Turner, etc etc.

There is a big comment thread here about that sad mini-Chomsky, Brian Leiter. Leiter admits that his blog is just a Leftist rant that makes no attempt at rational persuasion on political matters. I am actually quite amused by Leiter's far-Left dogmatism. It means he has despaired of persuading anybody. All he can do is preach to the choir. It is a confession of defeat. And it is no good saying that nobody can be persuaded. There are heaps of libertarians in the blogosphere who could (and do) go either way on Left/Right issues. But I am sure that Leiter is getting his rocks off over just the fact that people are discussing him -- no matter how derisive the comments might be (and generally are). [Links from Keith Burgess-Jackson]

A claim of good intentions can excuse anything: "Now will someone explain the moral difference between enthusiasm for Fidel Castro and enthusiasm for Augusto Pinochet? Both are appalling Latin American dictators. Both have bad human rights records. Both have had their misdeeds winked at, one way or another, by Uncle Sam. Tell me, O ye coolers and groovers, why is it OK to wear a badge with Fidel on it, but very much not OK to wear a badge showing Pinochet? How is it possible that in Lithuania there is now a Stalin theme park, complete with 13 giant effigies of Lenin (remember: he killed five million)? Why is it somehow post-modern and ironic and slick to commemorate these thugs, while any theme park in honour of the Nazis would be rightly denounced as mad and in the height of bad taste? Why is it so obvious to everyone that [Soviet spy Melita Norwood] should be left to a quiet old age in Bexleyheath - with not even a whiff of a prosecution - when we continue to chivvy out every last collaborator with the Nazis, now matter how decrepit, and herd them into the courts? Lefties are somehow assumed to be doing things for idealistic reasons, and for the collective good, and their high motives excuse their appalling solutions. That is why the servants of communist tyranny get sympathetic obits, and modern British girls wear CCCP T-shirts, and that is why a Labour Government can enact a series of authoritarian measures that a Conservative government could not contemplate. I cannot explain this injustice: I merely point it out".

The Irish triumph: "Here's something you probably didn't know: Ireland today is the richest country in the European Union after Luxembourg. Yes, the country that for hundreds of years was best known for emigration, tragic poets, famines, civil wars and leprechauns today has a per capita GDP higher than that of Germany, France and Britain. How Ireland went from the sick man of Europe to the rich man in less than a generation is an amazing story.... In a quite unusual development, the government, the main unions, farmers and industrialists came together and agreed on a program of fiscal austerity, slashing corporate taxes to 12.5 per cent, far below the rest of Europe, moderating wages and prices and courting foreign investment. In 1996 Ireland made college education basically free, creating an even more educated workforce. The results have been phenomenal. Today, nine out of 10 of the world's top pharmaceutical companies have operations in the country, as do 16 of the top 20 medical device companies and seven out of the top 10 software designers. And overall tax receipts are way up. In 1990 Ireland's workforce was 1.1 million. This year it will hit 2 million, with no unemployment and 200,000 foreign workers (including 50,000 Chinese)."

Chris Brand has just done a new post on causes of wealth and poverty. See here.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/02/2005 06:03:00 PM

Friday, July 01, 2005

 
THINK ISRAEL

There is a BIG selection of essays up on Think Israel at the moment. Just a few of them:

U.S. SHOWING LACK OF UNDERSTANDING - OR HONESTY by Douglas J. Hagmann
ISLAM AND THE WEST: THE THREAT, THE DEFENSE Interview with Srdja Trifkovic by Al Kresta
JIHAD THROUGH HISTORY by Daniel Pipes
SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE ANTI-SEMITES! by Julia Gorin
KINGDOM'S RELIGIOUS WRONGS by Nina Shea
HAMAS AND THE REBIRTH OF ILLUSION by Jonathan Spyer
NAZI HAVENS ENDORSE KILLING JEWS by Beth Goodtree
THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S CONQUEST OF EUROPE by Lorenzo Vidino
THE NEED TO HATE THE JEWS by Emanuel A. Winston
ON THE FUTURE OF THE JEWS: And its dependence on the future of Christianity by Barbara Lerner
WHAT IS ALL THIS INSURGENT/MILITANT STUFF? THEY ARE TERRORISTS! by Arlene Peck
WHAT CAUSED THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE? by Yashiko Sagamori

I was amused by this quote from the site: "It has no heart. It has no spine. Its mouth serves as its anus. It has a diffuse net of nerves instead of a brain. Is it a jelly fish or an Israeli politician? Pick one. Whichever one you picked, you were right." -- Eliezar Edwards, June 20, 2005

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Socialist nonsense lives: "The House on Wednesday rejected a big proposed cut in Amtrak subsidies that would have led to major cutbacks in rail service. By voice vote during debate on a spending bill that covers Amtrak's budget, the House approved an amendment by Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, to add $626 million for Amtrak. That would bring Amtrak's budget to its current level of $1.2 billion."

More good economic news: "The US economy buried fears of an oil-related slowdown to grow by a robust 3.8 per cent in the first quarter, the US government said overnight. The Commerce Department's third and final release for gross domestic product (GDP) equalled the 3.8 per cent posted in the final quarter of 2004, and was up on the two previous estimates of 3.1 per cent and then 3.5 per cent.... "The economy is showing solid and sustained growth and job creation. The policies we have put in place are working and our economy is growing stronger," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said."

British Methodists scrap the Bible: "The Methodist church yesterday became the first big Christian denomination in Britain to offer the prospect of blessings services for same-sex couples. Although adamant that such services would not be regarded by the church as marriages, officials admitted that they could well be seen as such by the couples themselves and by the wider society. In stark contrast to the Anglican communion, which is tearing itself apart over its attitude towards homosexuality, the annual Methodist conference voted unanimously to continue its 'pilgrimage of faith' towards gay people."

Change coming in China? "Thousands of Chinese rioted in a dispute sparked by a lopsided roadside brawl, set fire to cars and wounded six police officers in an outburst likely to worry communist leaders in Beijing desperate to cling on to power.The official Xinhua news agency, in a rare report on a local disturbance, blamed Sunday's riot in Chizhou in dirt-poor eastern Anhui province on a few criminals who led the 'unwitting masses' astray. The violence was the latest in a series of protests which the Communist Party, in power since 1949, fears could spin out of control and become a channel for anger over corruption and a growing gap between rich and poor."

Banish Spanish!: "Like most Americans, I am sick and tired of being force-fed all things in Spanish, and being Hispanified and Latinized as part of my everyday experience. ... As a European-American who is fluent in Spanish (and English), thanks to our now rapidly disintegrating public school system, I say: Banish Spanish! The truth is, Spanish is a classist, elitist, sexist language reflecting a social structure that has no place in America. Spanish is as un-American as ... well, Montezuma. 'Non-Hispanic White' is the outrageous, insulting label that U.S. federales now use ... to define [me], a descendant of our nation's courageous, hardworking, liberty-loving Anglo-Saxon Protestant Founders. ... I and many self-respecting American will not tolerate being defined by the failures of the Spanish Armada and Conquistadors to conquer and dominate us. No thanks, we're Yanks. Comprende?"

Surprise! Cuba cannot house its people: "Cuba says it was facing a massive housing shortage and must build a half million homes over the next decade to deal with the crisis, according to a government report. The National Housing Institute said in a report released Monday at a conference that despite the need for about 50,000 new homes a year, only about 15,000 were built during 2004. Parliament Speaker Ricardo Alarcon said at the opening of the U.N.-sponsored conference, which deals with sustainable development, that housing has become one of the communist government's most serious challenges. According to the report, some 43 percent of Cuban housing is in mediocre or poor shape. Population growth, tropical weather and poor maintenance contribute to the crisis."

New Victorian notes that "diversity" can now include a diversity of European backgrounds. Progress? I always thought "diverse" meant "black".

Good summary by Ollie North: ""Those on the far left are employing the same kind of rhetoric and tactics that worked during the Vietnam War -- where overheated rhetoric and the most vile slander are acceptable if they tarnish the president and hurt our war effort. They have no shame. They play politics like the Islamo-fascists conduct warfare -- dirty, ruthless and reckless, with no discernible rules, no regard for fact and no compunction about stabbing people in the back."

More Australian Leftist backbiting: "Senior Labor figure John Faulkner has attacked the "toxic" culture of his own party in NSW for lacking "civility, decency, honesty, humanity and even legality" as it struggles to find direction after the failed Mark Latham era. Launching a tell-all book on Mr Latham's leadership, Senator Faulkner said yesterday that bullying and thuggery in Labor's NSW faction system often became lazy substitutes for party debate"

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with lots of reading

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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posted by JR 7/01/2005 06:30:00 PM