ARLENE PECK IS SKEPTICAL ABOUT CHANGES IN THE ARAB WORLD:

We are deluding ourselves with our mistaken belief that "the vote" is going to change the Middle East and that we're going to be liked by any one of the twenty-two Arab lands, which we largely support. That old expression holds true - you just can't buy love. The American government keeps sending those checks, and the Arab cartel keeps voting against us at every chance.

How do we rationalize with a twelfth century mentality? The Arab culture has been stuck in the Middle Ages for, what, a thousand years? Can any of you out there name me anything positive that they have done since the fourteenth century? And don't mention how they have invented algebra. All they have taught in their schools for decades is hate and how to kill. When they 'play dead' in the school yard the classmates cheer the dead 'martyrs'.

Do we actually think that a culture of 1.3 billion people, many of whom still routinely mutilate the genitals of their women and are prone to treat their farm animals a bit better, are really going to grasp the real meaning of democracy? They have never been able to excel in medicine, but they have mastered the art of surgically removing the clitoris. Gawd, what does a trip to the polls mean to them? Their entire culture is based on submission. They live for death, but possibly in a hundred years they might be ready for board meetings.

In the meanwhile, we have to contend with the wild savages that our televisions are showing us nightly, who kill everything in sight and for whom sawing off a head is a good night's work. This is not the fodder for democracy as we know it. But it is the basis for theirs.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

More Leftist intolerance: "Someone threw a pie at conservative commentator David Horowitz during a lecture at Butler University in Indianapolis Wednesday night. It's the second time in a week a conservative has been hit by a pie at an Indiana school".

Fair unions coming? "A pro-business group whose leader is closely connected to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is funding the signature-gathering effort to make it tougher for public employee unions to spend their members' dues money on political campaigns. The Small Business Action Committee has contributed $375,000 to the Coalition for Employee Rights, which is trying to get the "employee consent" measure on a possible special election ballot this November. The committee is headed by Joel Fox, the former president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association who worked as senior policy consultant to Schwarzenegger during the 2003 recall. A Schwarzenegger spokesman said that at the moment, the administration has "no intention or interest" in participating in what is shaping up as a volatile fight between unions that view the initiative as an attack on their political viability and proponents who say they are only protecting the political choices of public employees."

The British election campaign: "In Nick Herbert, Conservatives in Arundel could not have found a better prospective MP to replace Howard Flight. In choosing a radical thinker who successfully led the all-party "no" campaign against the euro, and who then created a think-tank that makes a forceful case for lowering taxes, the constituency has backed a serious candidate. The fact that he is also gay makes the constituency's choice a loud and clear statement that the Conservative Party hosts a diverse range of candidates and views. It would be ludicrous to confine political discourse to wrangling over whether public spending should be 42 per cent or more (it was 37.4 per cent in 1999-2000). Mr Herbert has eloquently made the case that this is a staggering proportion, and that the money is inevitably used less efficiently in the public sector.... It is a vital part of the Tory creed to aspire to lower public spending, and never more so than when taxes, both patent and stealth, keep rising. With almost one worker in four employed by the State, Britain is hardly the Wild West of leftist imagination, plundered by capitalist rednecks. Far from being the beachhead for a government-free economy railed against by President Chirac, Britain is burdened with government at every turn. Businesses struggle under a growing mountain of misguided, often poorly drafted, overweening regulation that attempts to determine everything from door widths to inflexible flexitime."

Corrupt Canada. A big summary of Canadian government corruption here. A small excerpt: "Captain's Quarters exemplifies the best of what blog reporting can be in its recent handling of the Canadian AdsScam case. To add context, the following analysis details more than a decade of potential corruption and media suppression by Canada's Liberal Party that likely set the foundation for such egregious abuse of power by the Canadian Government. Beginning with the election of Prime Minister Jean Chr‚tien in 1993, which crushed the Progressive Conservative opposition, Canada's liberal Party has known over a decade of scandal coupled with a suppressive attitude toward the press unimaginable within the United States. The first issue to arise went mostly unnoticed in 1994 and involved Chretien's minister of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) when it was discovered the minister had lobbied the commission he headed in support of a radio license for a supporter. The next and perhaps most appalling scandal for Canada's Liberal Party - one never widely reported within in the United States, involves the Krever Inquiry. Some may recall it as having been launched in the wake of the disastrous public blood supply issue that damaged the health of tens of thousands of Canadians by infecting them with Hepatitis C and HIV".

The media rarely mention this: "UN peacekeepers were sent to the Congo to relieve the significant humanitarian crisis faced in the region. However, they have only worsened the situation of these people since their arrival. During their stay, they have raped women and girls as young as twelve, taken hundreds of pornographic and sexually humiliating photographs and videotapes of children, coerced women into prostitution for food and money, impregnated several women, and spread the AIDS virus to many women, who afterwards spread the virus to their partners and offspring. Many of these events have been documented in film and the UN has acknowledged its members' involvement in these despicable crimes. In response to this, Kofi Annan has instituted a "zero tolerance" policy against sexual abuse and has condemned fraternization between these "peacekeepers" and local women. As is to be expected, this rhetoric has made no difference and the crimes continue".

Some revealing pictures of present-day Cuba here. Some remarkable scenes of decay.

We all remember the huge fuss the media made about the wicked capitalists at Enron. But it appears that the government sponsored Fannie Mae organization is in similar trouble but on a bigger scale. How odd that the media are not rushing to condemn a corrupt government body!

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

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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"

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