ELSEWHERE

Google seems to be having problems lately. Quite a few times lately I have been unable to log onto them and have had to use clusty.com for my searches instead. And I have been unable to access my Gmail mailbox for about 48 hours. So if anybody has sent anything urgent to me via Gmail, they should resend it to my hotmail address: jonjayray@hotmail.com. Update Ha! I have just found that deleting all cookies restored my access to Gmail. That was the solution to the last bug at blogger.com too.

Another good comment on a worthless public opinion poll: "The poll of 1,003 adults, taken June 6-8, found that 59 percent of those surveyed think the United States should withdraw all or some of its troops from Iraq and only 36 percent think current troop strength ought to be maintained or increased..... Anyone with a functioning brain and a heart wants to see this nation's young men and women home safe and sound. Anyone who has ever witnessed one of those homecomings at an airport and watched as strangers applauded this person in uniform knows how very deeply those feelings run. Yes, we all want them home as soon as reasonably possible. And isn't that the key - reasonably possible? That's what polls never ask. They never ask if the choice is bringing the troops home now and abandoning a newly democratic nation to terrorists and thugs, should we bring them home now? They never ask if the choice is bringing the troops home now and leaving Iraq to once again become a threat to the region and to our own safety and security, should we bring them home now?"

This African (from Africa) author thinks that there are African solutions to Africa's problems but that they have to emerge from Africa's own traditions. But the traditions he is talking about sound a lot like democracy to me and that has definitely not caught on in Africa.

Some great quotes from Judge Janice Rogers Brown here. No wonder the socialists hate her.

More Leftist lunacy from Amnesty: "The human rights group Amnesty International - which accuses America of running a "gulag" at Guantanamo Bay - apparently aided in the escape of a key al-Qaida member who's suspected of helping plan the 9/11 attacks. Just two months after the World Trade Center was destroyed, Amnesty issued one of its "URGENT ACTION" reports on behalf of Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, who was then being detained by Jordanian security forces in connection with a planning session for the 9/11 attacks.... "Pressure from Amnesty and Saddam Hussein worked," the Journal said. "Mr. Shakir was released and hasn't been seen since.""

Arnie acts for real: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday called a special election for November to try to change the way California spends money, picks its politicians and hires its teachers. He said the election would continue momentum from the historic 2003 recall that brought him to power, saying he was elected to put 'California's financial house in order and reform a government that no longer listened to the people.'"

Free speech under attack in Italy: "These are dangerous times for writers or artists who tread into the always sensitive territory of religion.... it is disheartening to see representatives of democratic government take the side of those who believe respect for religion justifies censorship. That's what happened when an Italian judge, citing a law forbidding "outrages against religion," ordered the journalist and writer Oriana Fallaci to stand trial over a book that includes provocative assertions about Islam. Fallaci had already drawn considerable ire from Muslims, and many others, over "The Rage and the Pride," an angry book written in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks in which she questioned the ability of Islam and Western society to be reconciled, and excoriated Europeans for failing to defend their culture.... Far from everyone will agree with Fallaci or with the way she expresses her opinions. But the right to make unpopular or intemperate statements is a hallmark of a free society.... Even in these volatile times, Western judges and politicians must do all they can to make it clear that freedom of expression is nonnegotiable."

Good to see that NY AG Eliot Spitzer looks like coming another cropper.

The current Leftist hysteria about U.S. income inequality: "The Trunk and I got our start in pundrity rebutting liberal critiques of the economy of the 1980s. The Democrats, frustrated by the fact that the Reagan administration's policies had restored American economic dominance by slashing inflation and unemployment rates, resorted to income inequality as the basis of their critisism. The data in our article "The Truth About Income Inequality" need to be updated, but the concepts are all there, and what we wrote ten years ago is equally applicable today. Once again, the Democrats are unable to criticize the economy on the usual grounds, and therefore must fall back on inequality, as Paul Krugman did in the column that appeared in the New York TImes on Friday. As usual, Krugman is hysterical. He writes, "The middle-class society I grew up in no longer exists" .... Underlying the invective, of course, one would usually expect to find some facts. Normally if one were to proclaim the extinction of the middle class--a surprise to the 80% or more of Americans who inhabit it--one would look for some solid data to back up the claim. But Krugman has no such data. His column is almost fact free."

I have posted here a VERY interesting account by an Iranian exile about the large-scale defiance of their Islamic rulers by the people of Iran.

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. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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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"

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.

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