ELSEWHERE

An email I posted yesterday tended to give the impression that U.S. forces in the Vietnam war condoned prisoner abuse by allied South Vietnamese forces. Another reader who was there rejects that. He says: "I served as an advisor to a Vietnamese Infantry Battalion in the Mekong Delta. Concerning the claim that ARVN routinely cut off the VC's gonads: I NEVER heard of such a thing! We were trying to win the hearts and minds, etc. We actually punished our soldiers when they committed some crime (usually theft of something from a villager's hut). We didn't abuse, there were no rapes and no torture! I have seen my boss threaten to pull his advisory team when we thought that the ARVN were picking up too many villagers for questioning! Without an advisory team, the ARVN unit would not have been protected by American air support! I have seen an ARVN 1st Sgt beat the crap out of one of his soldiers for stealing from a villager in a village that was way out in VC controlled territory!" And, speaking of prisoner abuse, we won't mention Palestinian prisons and torture will we?

There is a good email here about antisemitism in Australia that notes the erosion of Australia's traditional tolerance by Muslims and their Leftist supporters.

Keith Burgess-Jackson has a good post on the sheer mindless evil of America's Left.

Amusing: "The National Women's Law Center has released its annual exercise in Bush-bashing in the guise of a state-by-state report card on women's health. Why, precisely, is the president at fault if women in some states don't eat their veggies?"

Steve Sailer has more on the 'story' doing the rounds on the web that Gore-voting US States have higher average IQs than Bush-voting states. It is a hoax of course but Steve has some REAL data showing that educational achievement does differ from State to State. So what characterizes the high-achieving States? Democrat voting? No. A higher percentage of whites in their population -- unsurprisingly.

Random Observations has a good essay on what conservatism is and why libertarians are wrong about Leftists. He seems however to have overlooked that many libertarians are Minimal Statists (as I am) rather than Anarcho-capitalists -- which is why they get on with conservatives. Both conservatives and Minimal Statists see SOME need for a State but the Minimal Statist wants to cut it back a lot further.

Iceland has libertarians too and this one blogs in English. I always think Icelanders must be pretty smart. They have kept out of other people's wars for around 1,000 years.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and 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.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring with them some concern for the welfare of their country. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion. Voters, unfortunately, often believe the compassion is genuine

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