ELSEWHERE

Wow! The New York Times has really goofed again. Have they got a second Jayson Blair? In this story about Australia's tough stance against illegal immigration their fact-checking seems to be non-existent. They say that Australia "turned away a leaking refugee boat called the Tampa". What a laugh! The Tampa was a well-found Norwegian container ship. And only the NYT thinks it was leaking! They also say of Australia's policy: "many Australians say the price has been too high and the damage to Australia's image incalculable". So how many is "many"? I guess 20 people out of Australia's 20 million would be "many" to some. The Australian electorate certainly gave its conservative government a crashing election win over the policy. And as far as other countries are concerned, from what I have seen, almost anybody who has heard of it envies Australia's tough policy. And the "prominent Sydney lawyer" they quote is of course a well-known Leftist advocate for the illegal immigrants concerned. The whole article is sheer propaganda that would do Dr. Goebbels proud.

Capitalism has been good to China From 1978 to 2002, the average annual per-person income rose from $190 to $960. It's probably now above $1,000. (The U.S. figure: about $36,000.) Life expectancy increased from 61.7 years in 1970 to 71 in 2002. Adult illiteracy fell from 37 percent in 1978 to less than 17 percent in 1999. Infant mortality dropped from 41 per 1,000 live births in 1978 to 30 in 1999 (the U.S. rate: about seven).

I mentioned a couple of books about China on 4th. Samizdata has an extended review of another distressing book about China under Communism: Hungry Ghosts: Mao's Secret Famine. The details of the three year famine unleashed by Mao's "Great Leap Forward" are truly horrifying. Mao undoubtedly has the distinction of being history's biggest mass-murderer. But it was all for "the people", of course.

The wicked one has some amusing stories about technophobes.

I have just posted here the latest observations from Chris Brand about the apparent dawning of sanity about immigration in Britain.

My recipe for today is for Dhansak -- the classical dish of the Parsees (India's most affluent minority). It definitely is high-class food in every way. This recipe is for the real thing -- not the undistinguished curry that is trotted out under that name in some Indian restaurants. See here.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

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