ELSEWHERE

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with a big range of reading

The junk-science candidate: "As newly announced vice-presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards' record is scrutinized, political critics are re-examining claims the former trial lawyer amassed much of the personal fortune that financed his political career by winning legal cases based on "junk science." CNSNews.com first reported in January how Edwards won record jury verdicts and settlements in cases alleging that the botched treatment of women in labor and their deliveries caused infants to develop the brain disorder cerebral palsy. But the cause of cerebral palsy long has been debated, and two new studies in 2003 further undermined the scientific premise of Edwards' cases... "There are some cases where the brain damage did occur at the time of delivery. But it's really unusual. It's really quite unusual," Dr. Murray Goldstein, a neurologist and the medical director of the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Educational Foundation, told the news agency.... From judgments or settlements related to medical malpractice, Edwards built a personal fortune estimated at between $12.8 and $60 million."

Islamic lies . "Following the recent beheadings of Americans and other foreigners in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the U.S. press turned to various experts to identify a precedent in the Quran or Islamic history for this kind of gory murder. "Beheadings are not mentioned in the Koran at all," Imam Muhammad Adam El-Sheikh, co-founder and chief cleric at the Dar Al Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va., told USA Today... Yet it says in the Koran: "God revealed His will to the angels, saying: "I shall be with you. Give courage to the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, strike off the very tips of their fingers." (Sura 8, Verse 12) and "When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads." (Sura 47, Verse 4)"

Sudan ironies: Newsday's James Pinkerton reports growing pressure for the US to "do something" about the ongoing massacre of black Sudanese Muslims by Arab Sudanese Muslims What is interesting is that one of the voices leading the pro-intervention chorus is Donald Payne, Democrat, "liberal" and leader of the black caucus in Congress. Payne voted against intervention in Iraq and Kosovo. But isn't his position similar to that of Jewish Americans who advocate pro-Israel intervention in the Middle East? Will it be subject to equal criticism from the Left? Will Payne be seen as part of a black "cabal"? I wonder when a caucus becomes a "cabal"? And where were the voices for intervention when the North Sudanese Arab Muslims were massacring South Sudanese black Christians? That civil war has been going on for 16 years now.

Who is this guy? "Throughout the Vietnam War, he traveled numerous times to France and to North and South Vietnam, meeting with Communist officials and advising them on how best they could defeat the United States. He also organized aid shipments to the Communists, called upon fellow leftists to wage war against American imperialism, and backed the Communist cause around the world." Answer: One of America's most acclaimed academic historians -- Gabriel Kolko. More here. Only academics would take him seriously, though.

Randall Parker has an interesting post on the effects of Muslim polygamy. He says it is a major cause of angry young men and tyrannical governments in Islamic societies. The rich guys get all the women and leave lots of young men angry, frustrated, full of fight and ready to do crazy things -- like become suicide bombers.

Black blogger La Shawn Barber has an acid comment on the Leftist explanation for underperforming blacks: "As for "past injustices", I'd like to hear from black, middle class American-born-and-bred college-bound 18 year-olds who've suffered from the effects of slavery or Jim Crow. Please, feel free to comment on this blog." She is commenting on the better performance of overseas blacks which I mentioned here.

What a laugh! There is a puff-piece in the L.A. Times saying how wonderful modern-day South Africa is: "South Africa has been quite successful in the first phase, the political transformation". I wonder why every single white person I met when I was there a few years ago wanted to get out of the place if they could? That South Africa now has crime rates normal for Africa and that whites are heavily discriminated against in employment and everything else might have something to do with it I guess.

I followed a link from Marc Miyake to start reading some of the columns of the "War Nerd". He really is an amazingly talented writer -- totally amoral realism told humorously! Have a look at this column about Kosovo, Yugoslavia and all that benighted part of the world. I think he clarifies lots of things even if you don't agree with all his judgements.

One of the articles I read recently when I was trying to figure out what Straussianism was all about was this informative summary by Karl Jahn. Jahn also has a very thoughtful blog -- short on graphics but big on intellectual content. He is an ex-Lefty turned American nationalist. He out-Buchanans Buchanan. He is no racist, though.

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

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Leftism is more popular with young people than with older people largely because Leftism is itself juvenile: They criticize what they don't understand. Which makes it ironic that "We know best" and "It's for your own good" are the basic Leftist messages. Leftists have never got past the simplistic thinking or the arrogance that are the characteristic limitations of youth

"Created" equal in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence is a religious way of saying that people are NOT equal but start out with the same rights.

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