SOME PATERNAL PRIDE

My 17-year old son Joe just got his certificate last night for completing his advanced placement course in Mathematics. He got a mark of 6 where the highest score is 7. But the University of Queensland is too PC to use the term "advanced placement" for university courses that selected High School students are allowed to enroll in. They call it an "Enhanced Studies Program". "Advanced" would offend against everybody being equal so you are only allowed to be "enhanced", you see. Anyway, Joe has just been named dux of his school in Information Technology too so there is no doubt how advanced he is. And he's no isolated nerd, either. After last nights ceremonies, lots of other students came over to talk to him and he soon became the social centre of the evening. Matthew 25:29.

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ELSEWHERE

How GWB "attacks the poor": "A recent study by the Tax Foundation puts the number of tax filers who will pay no federal income tax at a record 44 million. The Bush tax cuts expanded this group from 29 million in 2000, an increase of 50 percent. Prior to the Bush tax cuts, 23.1% of filers paid no federal income tax. It is estimated that in 2004 that number surged to 33%, shifting the tax burden to the higher brackets."

Teacher's union misrepresents Charter schools: "Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the nation's report card, show students in charter schools doing less well than the nationwide public-school average, which includes middle class students from well-heeled suburbs.... Big deal. These results could easily indicate nothing other than the simple fact that charter schools are typically asked to serve problematic students in low-performing districts with many poor, minority children. Indeed, if the AFT believes these findings, it must also concede that religious schools excel. According to the same NAEP data from which the AFT study is taken, religious schools outperformed the public schools nationwide by nine points, a gap that is as large as the public school-charter school difference AFT is trumpeting".

The NYT has an unusually frank account of Saddam's abuse of the U.N. oil-for-food program: "Congress's Government Accountability Office, formerly the General Accounting Office, has estimated that the Iraqi leader siphoned at least $10 billion from the program by illicitly trading in oil and collecting kickbacks.... How did Mr. Hussein amass so much money while under international sanctions? An examination of the program, the largest in the United Nations' history, suggests an equally straightforward answer: The United Nations let him do it".

Elitist enemies of America: "Fighting to send arms to Saddam, resisting post-9/11 attempts to toughen visa requirements, struggling to keep American parents from rescuing their kidnapped kids in foreign countries, doing everything it can to shut down the Iraqi democracy movement -- amazingly enough, this is the record of the U.S. State Department, an often out-of-control organization that acts at odds with our nation's best interests more often than most Americans realize".

Arlene Peck: "Anti-Semitism is alive and well, and, today it's not just in those red-neck areas of Georgia where I grew up. Now they're more polished.... I've given up trying to understand why everyone hates the Jews. Although I tend to think I have a pretty good idea. I think it's because we gave the world a conscience with the Ten Commandments. Until then, they were perfectly happy coveting other people's wives and sleeping with their sisters or sheep. It annoys the Muslim world and EU that in fifty-six short years the Jewish nation has accomplished far more than most of them put together... People who get to be too successful aren't always liked. Those with no accomplishments and sub-human savage mentalities and actions are resentful of those whose technological and economic gains are light years beyond their comprehension."

American libraries: "the traditional mission of these august institutions of learning for generations of Americans is disappearing as they gradually turn into indoctrination centers against the United States and Israel. One of the main reasons for this tragic and disturbing turn of events is the American Library Association, where a clique of leftists has taken over, dedicating itself to padding libraries across America with anti-Israel books, videos and other materials, excluding both sides in the Israel/Palestine dispute".

"Morning sickness -- the nausea and vomiting that afflicts more than half of all pregnant women -- can be debilitating. There used to be an excellent prescription medication to treat it, but the manufacturer stopped selling the drug in the United States. Safety problems? Unprofitability? Not at all. Frivolous, debilitating lawsuits killed this drug."

Being "insensitive" to lawbreakers is out? "The Department of Homeland Security wants to restrict the U.S. Border Patrol's arrest of illegal aliens in the nation's interior, concerned that the recent apprehension of 450 illegals by agents in inland areas of Southern California failed to consider the 'sensitivities' of those detained. According to department sources, a formal written policy under review would limit Border Patrol arrests to areas along the nation's 7,000 miles of international border and give U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws in the nation's interior."

Hilarious! Canada's socialized medicine system is failing badly at providing medical services. So what are they going to do about it? Hire more doctors at whatever price it takes to get them? No way! They want to spend a BILLION dollars to "set up an institute" to study the problem! Excerpt: "Canada needs to invest $1 billion over the next five years to reverse its serious shortage of doctors and ensure there will be enough health-care providers in future to reduce long waiting lists plaguing hospitals, the Canadian Medical Association says. The association wants Ottawa to create a national health human resources reinvestment fund, which would plan for future personnel needs and "help end the health human resources boom-and-bust planning cycle," outgoing president Dr. Sunil Patel told a news conference at the annual meeting in Toronto yesterday.... The proposed $1 billion fund would set up an institute to determine what the needs would be in various categories"

PID points out that Islamic economics has been about as successful as Nazi physics or Soviet agriculture.

A report in The Guardian links pollutants to a three-fold increase in brain diseases since 1970. Eugene Rants has an appropriate response.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again in fine fettle. Lots of good reading.

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

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

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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