ELSEWHERE

“Leading evangelical Christians for the first time have publicly condemned assaults on Islam by the Rev. Franklin Graham and other fellow religious conservatives.” Any Bible-believing Christian worth his salt would see Islam as Satan’s religion -- an evil mockery of Christianity.

As Jeff Jacoby says: "Three Cubans who attempted to escape Castro's island gulag by hijacking a ferry to Florida... were killed by firing squad.... the whole international community should be condemning Cuba. But it isn't. Last week Cuba was elected to a new three-year term on the UN Commission on Human Rights."
I really do wonder why we put up with EITHER Castro OR the UN.

Speaking of the Iraq war, Sir John Keegan asks: "The allies got it so right: how did the pundits get it so wrong?" He says it was obvious from the start that the Iraqis were way outclassed militarily and blames the pundits for looking at everything except that. He also notes that despite their many detractors, the British and American tanks proved themselves in this war. He also says: "The dash from Kuwait to the vicinity of Baghdad was done at a speed unequalled in military history."

Oregon claims that Attorney General John Ashcroft has no right to interfere with doctor-assisted suicide there. I must say I am on the side of Oregon on that one. Denying mercy killing really is merciless.

"Reformist Iranian MPs warned the country's powerful and entrenched clerics yesterday to give way to reforms and normalise relations with the outside world or suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein." In other words, democratic Iranians are using the US army next door to scare the Ayatollahs. Saddam's downfall may yet liberate Iran too!

Under the latest super-generous GOP proposals, shareholders would not pay taxes on the first $500 of dividend income. Pathetic! I receive many thousands in dividend income every year and pay no tax on it because the Australian government recognizes that the companies paying the dividends have already been taxed on the earnings concerned.

China hand has some amusing stories about going to the beach in China and adapting to Chinese toilet arrangements. He has some rather Turner-esque photos of the seaside there too.

The Wicked one has some funny stories about stupidity.

Chris Brand (post of 9th) dissects the current arguments for affirmative action.

Michael Darby (post of 9th.) has an article arguing that the Palestinian Arab suicide bombers show the primitivism of Arab civilization.

In my academic posting of May 9th here, I present a better way of measuring what psychologists claim to be “pre-Fascist” ideology -- but which I claim is no such thing. Marxism is historically the pre-Fascist ideology.

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