ELSEWHERE

There is an article in Harpers that is getting a lot of links. It claims to show that Americans call themselves Christians but don't behave in Christian ways. They imply the rather ludicrous claim that Harpers has a better understanding of what Christianity is than America's Christian pastors do. In some cases that would not be hard of course. Almost anybody would have a better idea of what Christianity implies than Bishop John Shelby Spong does, for instance. I could go on to pick apart all the erroneous ideas about Christianity that Harpers promulgates but they are mostly just old Leftist standbys that I have already demolished on my Scripture Blog so I think I will leave it to Christian bloggers to put up a more systematic reply.

Phew! That was close. CAFTA just squeaked past the House. There is now "free trade" between the USA and Central America. It is in fact still far from free but it is freer than it was, which will be good for all the countries concerned.

Arlene Peck has some very interesting figures on the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. (See bottom of post).

I have just put up a book review from a centre-Left source on Leftists as Elitists which savages the Stalinist Hollywood elite and defends Joe McCarthy! The concluding paragraph: "So what has all this to do with the fate of the American left or American liberalism? Any movement that does not own up to its past hobbles its future. These flanks are still enchanted with the suicidal heroism of the self-deluded Hollywood communists. This twisted syndrome did not stop with apologetics and excuses for Stalinism. It continues with the tortured explanations and barely disguised extenuations for the Muslim terror war against democratic and civil society. The Radoshes have written a wise, honest, and perceptive book."

Newsweek: Truth is the First Civilian Casualty in Iraq: "But civilian killings by U.S. troops are not nearly as common as the critics of the war in Iraq would like us to believe. It has become an article of faith among them that American troops have been slaughtering Iraqi civilians indiscriminately, and that one of the consequences of the war has been an unconscionable loss of life among the civilian population. It just isn't true. The most recent entry in this campaign is a report released on July 19 by Iraq Body Count. This Web-based group (www.iraqbodycount.org) compiles news accounts of casualties in Iraq and tabulates them... The text of the report is decorated with pull quotes from news accounts of checkpoint killings and aerial bombardments. Even if U.S. troops didn't kill all these people, they're telling us, these civilians would not have died were it not for the U.S. presence. Is it the policeman's fault when the hostage taker kills his hostage? In fact, a fair reading of the report's own data could support a completely contrary conclusion. Were it not for the insurgents, there would scarcely be much of a civilian death toll in Iraq now. A few isolated cases, yes, but nothing like the 8,000 civilians the Iraqi government says have died so far in 2005 from insurgent attacks.

Military recruitment going fine: "Buried in all the mainstream media coverage this week over new terrorist bombings in London, space shuttles that didn't launch, the trashing of Karl Rove and the nomination of a new Supreme Court justice was a little-noted item about re-enlistments in the U.S. armed forces exceeding expectations. USA Today offered some prominence to the story, but it was widely ignored by most of the Fourth Estate. Perhaps that's because it's a 'good news story.'"

I am pleased to say that a few readers commented on my "woolly hat" post. One reader sent me a pic of a guy in Costa Rica (in the tropics) wearing a beanie in the middle of summer so the only thing I am reasonably sure of after that is that they are all a bit missing somewhere. And there is a picture of a well-known Australian Leftist blogger here which does not change my mind. I have even got him on my blogroll, I am rather mortified to say. I think I will delete all Lefty links soon.

Chris Brand is in fine form with another lot of posts up about British and Australian news.

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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The anti-business policies and practically all economic policies advocated by the Left are impoverishing. They waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so make the country poorer. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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