ELSEWHERE

Cheeesh!! Why is Colin Powell being so soft on the Syrians -- asking them nicely if they will please some day get around to closing down the offices of undisputed terrorist organizations that operate in Damascus?

Hooray! Libertarian though I am, I cannot help hoping that this bit of government activity works: “WEEKS after the Australian government flagged new anti-spam laws, US regulators have vowed to take swift action against bulk unsolicited email.”

Good to hear that the visit to the GWB ranch by Australia’s John Howard went unusually well

Good! The US plans to deploy an international “stabilization force” in postwar Iraq -- excluding France and Germany

Hmmm... I always thought that the Village Voice was a Leftist rag but I cannot find much to disagree with in Nat Hentoff's columns there. Jolly good stuff in fact.

One of the greatest obsessions of both Leftists and Greens these days is the "precautionary principle" -- the idea that scientists and society in general should do nothing new or different if there is any chance that some bad effects could come out of it. Fortunately, the world has not always been so lily-livered. "Spiked" lists some of the things we would not have today had the precautionary principle prevailed in the past: vaccines, penicillin, antibiotics, aspirin, X-rays, heart surgery, the contraceptive pill, aeroplanes, railways, cars, bicycles, electricity, pesticides etc.

Peter Hitchens writes: "In the the end, the Communists won the Cold War, not with tanks but with ideas. People who hate Britain and love socialism now run the Government, the schools, the Civil Service and most of our broadcasting.”

Michael Darby has a rather hilarious blurb about 9/11 from the LaRouche outfit.

Chris Brand notes some signs of sanity emerging from the People’s Republic of Scotland.

The Wicked one has some amusing stories about kids.

China hand says there is still no sign of SARS in his part of China.

In my academic posting of May 3rd here I note that, despite their Leftist inclinations, psychologists have in fact found some good evidence in favour of capitalist thinking.

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