ELSEWHERE

I have had some good laughs lately, but you should read this dippy email that someone sent Keith Burgess Jackson. Keith's reply is a bit too kind. The moronic email-writer said that he could only evaluate Keith's writings by whether or not Keith's university had a chapter of a prestigious student fraternity. I would have replied that anyone who is so incapable of evaluating arguments that he can rely only on the prestige of the author's employer must be a complete mental cripple. On second thoughts, I think there is a fair chance that the email is a student joke. Keith also has up at the moment some good comments on the many defamatory things that Leftists say about Karl Rove. "The pot calling the kettle black" rather sums it up. I wonder if young people understand that analogy? How many of them have ever seen a black pot or kettle? Perhaps they think the saying should be "The pot calling the kettle Afro-American".

Rafe Champion has just scanned in a great article about the so-called cultural cringe that allegedly afflicted Australian cultural life for most of the 20th century. Knowing the robust independence of most Australians, the whole claim has always seemed rubbish to me and the article demonstrates in great detail what rubbish it is. The only basis for the claim seems to be that certain self-proclaimed Australian cultural elites were not getting as much attention as they felt they deserved. I suspect that they actually got MORE attention than they deserved. I certainly found plenty of Australian books to read when I was a kid in the '50s but I guess much of my reading at that time was distressingly "popular" -- Ion Idriess and the like. I actually think Idriess did an incomparable job of popularizing Australian and Pacific history and I am delighted to say that I think I had read every one of his books by the time I was 12. My interest in history goes back a long way. And I cannot recollect ever hearing a single derogatory word about the Australian poets -- Lawson and Patterson mainly -- whose works I enjoyed learning at school. Lawson's "The Teams" is still one of my favourite poems -- partly because I know how accurate was Lawson's description of the taciturn, hard-working teamsters. My own grandfather was one of them, I am immensely proud to say.

Iraq and Indonesia compared. An email from a reader: "I have just caught up with a friend in the Royal Australian Air Force who has recently been in the Middle East and who has been working on relief flights to Indonesia. He tells me the image we get via TV news of the Iraq situation greatly exaggerates the chaos and violence factor. He says Aceh is the opposite. Nothing on TV shows the extent of the destruction and death. He says you can easily find areas where there are dead and dismembered bodies in every direction".

There are only two Governor's races taking place in the U.S. this year -- in Virginia and New Jersey. Since there are no national campaigns, these governor's races are going to be watched intently. Commonwealth Conservative has the lowdown on the Virgina race.

Brazilian blogger, Luis Afonso reports a couple more of ratty articles about American tsunami aid. Somehow Hiroshima and Nagasaki have got dragged in! I thought my link yesterday about the tsunami being the fault of "THE JOOOOS" was the ultimate but I am beginning to wonder.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with a big selection of posts

The latest posting on MarxWords shows that Marx thought it essential to destroy human families -- nice guy!

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 put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions.

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.

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