ELSEWHERE

There is an article from GQ here that says GWB's record in the Air National Guard is a bit murky because he was engaged in undercover work at that time. It gives a lot of detail and argument to support the claim. Excerpt: "Bush was serving his country elsewhere, in a clandestine military unit: the Special Undercover Missions Service (SUMS), an elite air-force agency specializing in national security and acts of espionage"

"Even if Kerry's Vietnam record is every bit as heroic as he presents it, the notion that this makes him fit to be president is ludicrous. The man spent four months in combat as a junior officer; he's not exactly Eisenhower." -- James Taranto

That wonderful "public" (free-rider) medicine: "Los Angeles County, which has lost six emergency rooms in a little over a year, is on the brink of a far more serious problem, facing more closures that could jeopardize emergency care for tens of thousands of residents, according to public officials and independent analysts".

An interesting article here on the close convergence between Australian and U.S. policy -- with a suggestion that U.S. interest in reducing income tax and replacing it with a national sales tax may have been sparked by the successful Australian introduction of just such a change.

Currency Lad has a good reply to the charge that Australia's present conservative government has made Australia "racist": He quotes famous anti-Asian remarks from two of Australia's most prominent Leftist leaders. He also has this delightful story of George Bush Senior trusting and welcoming a young woman purely because she was Australian! Good man!

Michael Darby is on the web again with a few new posts -- in particular he takes on the accusation that Australian conservative politicians are "chickenhawks" by listing the considerable number who have military connections.

Laugh at liberals has a comprehensive demolition of most of the dumb Leftist accusations that are routinely hurled at GWB.

I came across this good Reagan quote on the website of the dynamic Prodos: ""How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin." Lots of other good stuff there too.

Squander Two has an amusing article about British customer service. Everything he says is true with knobs on.

A new blog by a physicist who describes himself as a "warmongering neo-conservative, NRA life member, and professional laser-weapon designer... Supporter of nuclear power, the militarization of Space, and Microsoft's Freedom to Innovate" seems to be shaping up well.

One blog that I think might have a rather small "market" is a Catholic blog devoted to chastity, yes, chastity -- an apparently outmoded concept even among the Catholic clergy, to judge by their behaviour. But this post on sexual equality as a cause of fertility decline is interesting.

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

Wicked Thoughts has a good John Kerry joke.

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

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The vast hatred of President Bush coming from the Left seems to focus almost entirely on his Iraq policy and a claim that it is "stupid" or dishonest. Yet the world's most successful and influential Leftist intellectual -- the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom -- is a vigorous supporter of that policy. It shows that everything said to justify the Leftist hatred of Bush is mere camouflage. What they really hate is someone non-Leftist wielding great power. The hatred is purely emotional and envious -- with only the slightest pretense to reasoning tacked on. As usual, principles have nothing to do with it.

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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