ELSEWHERE

The New York Sun Endorses GWB: "By all these measures Mr. Bush strikes us as the far better candidate - more intelligent, more principled, more trustworthy." Good to have a loud conservative voice in NYC.

Holocaust deniers are now welcome in Germany. Muslim ones, that is. See here.

He's probably pissing into the wind but the ideas are good: "Tony Blair demanded an end to the decades-old Franco-German domination of Europe yesterday as he called for the EU to forge a "common agenda" with the United States to solve the world's problems. He suggested there was a danger that this year's eastward enlargement of the EU could open fresh divisions if the community's founding members did not accept new countries from the former communist east as equals.... Mr Blair told a conference of centre-Left leaders in Budapest that it was essential to build an outward-looking Europe of "equal partners" which regarded America as an ally rather than a "rival"..... Allies of Mr Blair said he wanted to ensure that the 10 new member states who joined the EU in May - eight of them former communist nations - felt part of a pro-Atlanticist club and not inferiors in an elitist inward-looking community. Mr Blair also chose the Budapest meeting to demand that the EU modernise its economy and abandon its reliance on heavily regulated labour markets based on the post-war social model".

A good comment from "Bag of Worms": "For craftsmen [mediocre professors], colleges and universities are models of the collectively organized, subsidized, noncompetitive welfare state endorsed by radical politics. Craftsmen professors live a middle class life without having to work hard for it. No doubt some professors do work hard; it is necessary, if a professor desires to be a star, to work 60 hours week. If the professor has no desire to be a star, she can work a 30 hour week; so many professors simply coast. They have nine-month contracts. They supplement their income with junior level administrative jobs that could be done by a community college graduate. A significant portion of the craftsmen professor's career is thereby subsidized like welfare. In this situation, the political affiliation of professors is not the result of their special insight about America. Their affiliation does not spring from supposed gifts of natural genius. College professors align themselves with the Democratic Party simply as an expression of their self-interest in enjoying a welfare state.

Another comment on the most famous book about IQ: "Most of TBC consists of summaries of research in the field of psychometry - that is, the measuring of various attributes of the human mind. The rest is thoughtful commentary on the possible implications of those results for the future of American society. The authors take a broad and humane point of view on this latter topic, arguing that a good society is one in which every person, even a person of limited intellectual powers, can live a useful and satisfying life. They assert that present-day U.S. society is trending away from this ideal, towards a sort of oligarchy dominated by a "cognitive elite" of intellectually gifted lawyers and administrators, ruling over and practicing a sort of smug paternalism toward those less successful than themselves in the meritocratic rat race".

Feminist dogma on partner abuse: "October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which should be an opportunity for some meaningful and informative discussion of how to deal with this important issue. Unfortunately, it looks like we are going to get a lot of boilerplate rhetoric that will generate far more heat than light. ... Once again, partner violence is being defined exclusively as male victimization of women and as a society-wide epidemic. In fact, the National Violence Against Women Survey conducted for the National Institute of Justice in 1996 found that about 22 percent of women had been physically assaulted by an intimate partner -- mostly pushed, grabbed or slapped -- at least once in their lifetime. By these standards, I am a 'victim' too: Some 20 years ago, during a tumultuous breakup, my then-boyfriend slapped me. Of course, by these standards, I am also an 'abuser,' since I had slapped him first. I'm not especially proud of it, and neither, I'm sure, is he; but this is not the kind of problem societal resources should be marshaled to combat."

For a variety of reasons I have always liked Iceland (though I have never been there). This post reinforces my views. It shows how well Iceland is doing despite its poor natural resources. Why? Mainly because of less bureaucracy combined with a Norse population.

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

**************************

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftism is for most Leftists a desire to sound good rather than a desire to do good

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

********************************