ELSEWHERE

David Boxenhorn thinks that Europeans are more submissive to State power because they were for centuries tenant farmers whilst Americans were originally independent farmers. There could be something in that. David's view that Leftists advocate what they do because they do not foresee the ill effects of their policies suggests to me that he has been conned, however. Conservatives point out all the follies way in advance but the Left just will not listen. They don't WANT to know about the consequences of their actions. They just want to feel good by sounding big and kind at the time. At best they are irresponsible. At worst, frauds.

New book out: "Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man features expanded, in-depth analysis of Bowling for Columbine, Stupid White Men, and more, but it is also a compilation and extension of more than 15 years worth of research, analysis, and proof that exposes the real truth about Michael Moore"

"I've got another reason why Kerry doesn't have a prayer in November. My reason is neither infallible nor earthshaking, and it's based on one of those "iron laws of history" that have a bad habit of melting away once you notice them. But it has considerable support when one looks at the history of US presidential elections. Call it the Alamo Principle: When troops are in the field, in sufficient enough numbers for the nation to consider itself "at war," the candidate who looks more convincingly hawkish will always win."

A British Muslim says that the British government's "tolerance" of Islam leads to hardship for the children of British Muslims. She says the British government should take the Mullahs on for the sake of the children.

Kerry vs. Kerry : "Presidential candidate John Kerry is his own worst enemy. On the one hand he has pledged to increase jobs by 10 million in four years and reduce the offshoring of jobs. On the other, he proposes a minimum wage increase that will lower employment and encourage shipping jobs overseas. On June 18 Mr. Kerry proposed a 36 percent increase in the federal minimum wage, from the present $5.15 an hour to $7 an hour by 2007.... What he hasn't said is who would lose jobs or not get hired because of a higher minimum wage."

Sowell on 'outsourcing': "When the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect a decade ago, there were dire predictions of "a giant sucking sound" as American jobs were drawn away, to Mexico especially. In reality, the number of jobs in the United States increased by millions after NAFTA went into effect and the unemployment rate fell to low levels not seen in years. Behind the radically wrong predictions was a simple confusion between wage rates and labor costs. Wage rates per unit of time are not the same as labor costs per unit of output. When workers are paid twice as much per hour and produce three times as much per hour, the labor costs per unit of output are lower. That is why high-wage countries have been exporting to low-wage countries for centuries".

People are sometimes surprised that Mahatma Gandhi is a great hero of mine. But why would not a libertarian hail the man who liberated India? And he did it peacefully! He was not perfect of course and his "back-to-the-village" economics would be hilarious if they had not misled so many. It had escaped my attention that would have opposed things like affirmative action, though. Wendy McElroy notes: "Gandhi once said that the means are the ends in process. It is not possible to achieve equality and tolerance by instituting policies of preference and exclusion. The result will only be more preference and more exclusion.

In response to my post yesterday about Michael Moore, Marc Miyake emailed me the good comment that Moore's fans "are not genuinely concerned about America but are more concerned about feeling superior to the masses brainwashed by Bush. A comic book fan mailing list I am on has recently turned into a Mike al-Moor fan club list. I have received literally hundreds of e-mails over the past week praising Full-of-Hate 9/11 to the sky and beyond. What is really disturbing is the *joy* these people feel at watching al-Moor attack America. A true patriot moved by genuine criticism would feel pain and the urge to set things right. But these people are just looking for a "hate high". Mike al-Moor is selling it ... and making a fortune in the process". Yes. The Leftist need to feel superior really is pathetic. It completely dominates their thought processes.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with its usual range of selected blogospheric reading.

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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