ELSEWHERE

The Iranians are learning that it is easy to put the Islamic fundamentalists in charge but a lot harder to get rid of them. It seems that only the USA can do that.

The latest Australian legal provisions for questioning of terrorism suspects seem to offer a reasonable balance between preserving individual liberties and protecting our security.

India seem to be on the brink of approving use of a genetically-engineered potato with potential huge benefits to hundreds of millions of poor Indians -- but the Greenies are still condemning it on their usual flimsy grounds.

There is a rather silly criticism of the “Anglosphere” idea here. Michael Duffy implies that Anglospherists are racists and that they believe that “in our international dealings we have the right to impose our values on others” etc. The fact is that advocates of the idea say the exact opposite. They aim in fact simply to promote greater international co-operation. The political, cultural and social values of the English-origin countries are spreading rapidly throughout the world anyway regardless of what anyone does -- much to the fury of the Muslim fundamentalists! See The Anglosphere Primer.

American conservatism is traditionally isolationist but that has taken quite a battering in recent years. One U.S. college student who still thinks that way, however, is Ryan Thoryk. He has been casting a beady eye on the internationalists here.

The French government is at least doing the conservative thing on the home front: “THE French Government vowed to push through pension and education reforms in the face of widespread opposition, which last night sparked sporadic clashes between riot police and masked protestors. “

This article points out that "the Enron syndrome" (fraud) is rife in our society, and actually worse outside of the big business world: Especially in the academic and media worlds and among Leftists generally. At least in the marketplace, competition helps keep big guys honest. Of course lying has been around for a long time. Is it any more popular today? Do we tolerate it more now that "God is dead"? For a 'brief history of lying' see here.

“The punk was 17. Dangerous. Mixed up in drugs, with a nasty habit of robbing prostitutes and roughing them up. Judge James P. Gray was sitting on the Municipal Court bench back then, enforcing a plea bargain that was worked out up the food chain, in Superior Court. The kid would be behind bars for a few weeks. It was nothing. 'He had gotten away with it, and he knew it,' Gray says. 'It was wrong.'"