HAPPINESS

George Will has a good review of a recent Gregg Easterbrook book on happiness. The basic point, of course, is that making a lot of money does not necessarily bring happiness. Anybody who reads anything about the lives of filmstars would have known that at least 50 years ago but economists and Leftists seem to have discovered it only recently and are using it as a weapon to say that we should stop trying to give people what they want -- in good authoritarian style. Nicolae Ceausescu, Joseph Stalin and Marshall Tito would approve.

But I had a post last year that traces unhappiness to Leftist values and it is certainly clear that conservatives are in fact happier.

So some things DO generally make a difference to your happiness -- and HOW you spend your money is a factor: "Money can buy happiness and the best investment advice may be as simple as the sports shoe slogan: just do it. That's the conclusion drawn by researchers who set out to identify what sort of spending made people happiest"

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ELSEWHERE

An editorial in "USA Today" backs U.S. intervention in Iraq as having improved world peace and safety and rejects Leftist claims that it has been "destabilizing" etc.

In the latest City Journal, Heather MacDonald shows that some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet cops cannot use the most obvious tool to catch them: their immigration status. Reasons: fear of offending powerful immigrant lobbies

A reader comments on "global warming": "Last year, there were no roses in Montreal in June - the winter had been the worst in many years. Apparently, more of the same this year."

An encouraging article here about moderate Islam in Turkey. Very different from the Arab world. Turks are an entirely different race from the Arabs of course and until roughly a century ago held most of the Arab world in subjection.

I have said little so far about the latest GWB illegal immigration "solution" because it does seem very complex. I am however almost sure that bureaucratic incompetence will transform it into a virtual "open-door" policy. Jeff Jacoby, however, seems to have some sensible comments on the matter and his stress on putting life back into "e pluribus unum" (i.e. the policy of assimilation) I heartily agree with. Australia has successfully assimilated a huge immigrant intake and America can do the same if the Leftist "all cutures are equal" dogma is defied.

The lost Left: "An examination of the plans that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Rep. Dick Gephardt (Mo.) and the rest of the nine dwarfs have proposed reveals just how sharply leftward the Democratic Party has tilted in recent years. Every one of the major contenders wants to raise taxes, wants to re-regulate key industries, militantly opposes private accounts for Social Security, supports the Kyoto Treaty on global warming, and would seek a much higher minimum wage. Most would create a Hillary Health Care- type plan for the nation"

About time: "People are turning increasingly to alternatives such as the Internet for news about the presidential campaign, shifting away from traditional outlets such as the nightly network news and newspapers, a poll found"

Dave Huber has a good post on the nonsense that passes for modern educational theory -- and which is all too often being imposed on our kids nowadays. I myself have taught High School under both systems -- "student directed" and "traditional" and there is no doubt which delivers students who know their subject.

The poor old Sikhs seem to have fallen foul of French anti-religious laws. For a Sikh not to wear a turban is to abandon his faith so I hope they are given an exemption -- as they so often are elsewhere. I have known Sikhs since my early youth and think they are exceptionally good citizens wherever they live.

"KOALA contraception was being considered as a way to curb population blow-outs among the marsupials in Victoria". But the Greenies still oppose any development in areas that Koalas inhabit, of course.

The Far-Leftist MoveOn.org has been goosestepping backwards with its on-again off-again hate- speech about GWB being a "Nazi".

It looks like mad cow disease has become a hobbyhorse for some pretty mad people (if a disease can be a hobbyhorse). See here

Michael Darby has put up another big selection of postings. Some of his headlines:
Yet another "bank" scam
Cathy Buckle: Deepening Disaster in Zimbabwe
French Corruption
"Beyond the Razor Wire" - the truth about asylum-seekers
Seventy-two Dark-Eyed Virgins still taught as reward for Shahada (Death for Allah)
Democracy & the Enemies of Freedom
Tough Times For Terrorists
Public Broadcasting Service, Recruiting for Islam
Prepared for war and peace on Earth
Tax Reform for the New Century

The Wicked one has an Australian elaboration of an old joke about the FBI etc.

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