ELSEWHERE

I am still getting mail about my recent posts pointing out that Hitler was a socialist. Most of it is from Leftists who have obviously not read a single link that I put up in that connection but the following email from a regular correspondent gave me a bit of a laugh: "Your recent post about Leftists not accepting the fact that Hitler was a socialist raises a question that has puzzled me for a long time: just what do socialists think socialism is? In the broadest strokes I think their reasoning is essentially something like this: "socialism is all that is good and lovely. Hitler was not good and lovely. Therefore Hitler cannot be a socialist." Sometimes I think it's no deeper than that, really.... But on a deeper level I think there is something else at work here: the Nazis were too organized and far too snazzy dressers to be contemporary leftists. Contemporary leftists these days seem to have a built-in suspicion of things like cleanliness and order and a weird worship for the criminal, the nutcase, the generally messed-up".

The new bankruptcy bill, which now looks like becoming law, has attracted enemies among both Leftists and Rightists (see e.g. here and here and here and here and here). There seems to be a general view that it is too harsh. I disagree. I think it is not tough enough. I do not see why anybody should EVER be discharged from bankruptcy until they have paid their debts. Why should anybody be legally allowed to thumb their nose at people who have provided them with goods and services in good faith? Debtors should work to repay their debts -- even if it takes years. Though I would exempt debts arising through tort law as such debts are largely random hazards these days and usually arise without any benefit being received by the debtor. One of my readers has written in on this subject too. See here. Bring back personal responsibility!

The usual Leftist substitution of abuse for discussion still seems to be going strong at Columbia University -- where far-Leftists are defending Islamist professors against student attempts to get balance into the classroom.

What a klutz English journalist Simon Jenkins is! He is best known for publishing an article claiming that there was no terrorist threat to Europe just a day or two before the Madrid bombing. Now he has published an article in The Times saying how ignorant and uninformed bloggers are compared to wise print journalists like himself. But he totally undermines his own case by showing his complete ignorance of blogs and blogging. The howlers in his article are innumerable. His article demonstrates exactly the OPPOSITE of what he asserts -- he shows by example that it is the print journalists who are the ignoramuses. Scott Burgess has the sorry details.

Young women yearn for 1950s role as stay-at-home mums: "They are the generation of women who grew up expecting to have it all. No longer forced to choose between children and a career, they were set to embrace superwomanhood by doing both - while holding down a perfect relationship and keeping a spotless home in their spare time. But modern woman has taken a reality check. The average 29-year-old now hankers for a return to the lifestyle of a 1950s housewife. The daughters of the "Cosmo" generation of feminists want nothing more than a happy marriage and domestic bliss in the countryside, according to a survey. Research into the attitudes of 1,500 women with an average age of 29 found that 61 per cent believe "domestic goddess" role models who juggle top jobs with motherhood and jet-set social lives are "unhelpful" and "irritating". More than two-thirds agree that the man should be the main provider in a family, while 70 per cent do not want to work as hard as their mother's generation. On average, the women questioned want to "settle down" with their partner by 30 and have their first child a year later".

Black-white gap in death rate: " Middle-age black men are dying at nearly twice the rate of white men of a similar age, reflecting lower incomes and poorer access to healthcare, a study says. But mortality among black infants is dropping. While overall longevity for both black and whites has improved during the past 40 years, the gap between the races has narrowed little, former Surgeon General David Satcher said in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs ..... One reason for the differences is that gains in healthcare access generally have not included black men unless they were older or disabled, Satcher said. For example, when Medicare became law, the average black man did not live long enough to become eligible, he said. Other factors include the relatively low incomes of black men compared with whites, a rise in gun-related deaths among blacks, their disproportionately high death rate from AIDS, and higher rates of heart disease and diabetes, Satcher said..... ''Strikingly, the homicide rate of black males in the highest education category exceeds that of white males in the lowest education group,'' Jackson and Williams wrote." [Looks like it's not all the fault of whites this time!]

America's Ayatollahs: "It is painfully ironic that we should be promoting the spread of democracy abroad when democracy is shrinking at home. Over the years, the outcomes of our elections have meant less and less, as judges have taken more and more decisions out of the hands of elected officials. Judges have imposed their own notions on everything from school administration to gay marriage, and have ordered both state and federal agencies to spend billions of dollars to carry out policies favored by the judges or have even ordered a state legislature to raise taxes. This naked exercise of judicial power has been covered by the fig leaf of pretense to be "interpreting" laws and the Constitution by stretching and twisting words beyond recognition.... While people in various countries in the Middle East are beginning to stir as they see democracy start to take root in Iraq, our own political system is moving steadily in the opposite direction, toward rule by unelected judicial ayatollahs, acting like the ayatollahs in Iran".

Wayne Lusvardi points out the junk science behind the latest claim that passive smoking causes breast cancer.

My latest posting on MarxWords notes that Marx ripped off his own father. My latest posting on "A scripture blog" has a bit more on the Anglican churches.

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

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 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.

Leftist ideologues 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 and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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