ELSEWHERE

USA Today really sinks the boot into the mainstream media over their "hiding" the news that GWB did NOT lie or twist the truth over Iraqi attempts to buy uranium: "But now that the Wilson case has been debunked, it is interesting to note that the news media, so eager to build him up, and tear Bush down, now seem reluctant to tell the rest of the story, or at least the next chapter. Wilson, who had been a fixture on television, now seems to have disappeared. Democrats are silent. Why were the media so willing to believe Wilson when he was an obvious Democratic partisan?" They don't want to mention that it is Democrat operative Wilson who was the "liar". Safire In the NYT does however do his bit to set the record straight. And Michael Barone also takes apart the "Bush Lied" lie.

An excellent essay in the WSJ about Americans being called "cowboys": "When foreigners see us as cowboys, they are not mistaken. As a people, we still exhibit a high degree of courage, independence, aggressiveness, competence, and spirit. Diplomatic Europeans have responded to tyranny over the latest century mostly with accommodation... Cowboy Americans, on the other hand, have hungered to confront and defeat tyrants, in real life as in legend". The whole essay is an excellent evocation of the American spirit.

Sign of the times: There is a big article on Iraq in the WSJ by an Australian blogger! They had another article up by Australia's Foreign Minister a few days before. Bloggers in the same company as top government officials? The WSJ even has Prime Ministers writing for it at times.

A recent Australian government white paper seems to pour cold water on the Leftist claim that Al Qaeda terrorism is linked with the Palestine/Israel conflict. "It ...challenges the furphy of a link between al-Qaeda and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As the scholar of political Islam Olivier Roy has pointed out, the new generation of radicals did not flock to Palestine to fight, they went to Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia and more recently to New York and Madrid. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians may starve the fire of some fuel, but it won't put it out."

France fears being left with Muslim dregs: "France has denounced a call by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to French Jews to emigrate to Israel because of the level of anti-Semitism in the country. "We immediately made contact with the Israeli authorities to ask them to explain these unacceptable comments," a foreign office statement said. Earlier, Sharon told a meeting of an American Jewish association in Jerusalem: "Altogether I have to advocate to our brothers in France: move to Israel as early as possible. That's what I say to Jews all around the world, but there (France) I think it's a must. They have to move immediately.""

Pathetic: "It's probaby not the most pressing issue of the day, but it's typical nanny state activism. A consortium of fire safety groups wants a federal ban on consumer fireworks."

I have revised slightly the photos on my home page. So there are now two photos of me in ethnic dress! See here or here

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

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Puzzle 1: Leftists always say that human nature is fundamentally good and that people can be trusted. So why do they say that whilst at the same time wanting to regulate everybody to death and take as many decisions and choices out of the hands of the individual as they possibly can? Easy: They say that about human nature because, if it is true, then THEY are good at heart and can be trusted -- and, given their destructive deeds, they need all the propaganda help they can get in that regard.

Puzzle 2: Why do "postmodern" Leftists make the strange claim that everything ever written has to be interpreted in terms of how it serves power? Easy: Because everything THEY say is directed towards getting themselves power

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