ELSEWHERE

A "humanist" dinosaur expert masquerading as a social scientist (Gregory Paul) has recently published a much-noted article in the Journal of Religion and Society which declares that religion is bad for you. His main evidence for that seems to be that the USA is both heavily Christian and has higher crime rates than less religious European countries. The fact that the USA has a higher percentage of blacks (with their attendant high crime-rates) seems not to have been mentioned. If he had been a REAL social scientist, he would have "partialled out" the effect of race from all his correlations -- but he probably would not even know what "partialling out" means. See here for more about the author of the article.

Wowee! "Language Log" sure has some nuclear strikes on French. See here and here for things you cannot express well in French. I know more about German and I think the score is about 50/50 there. We cannot translate adequately words like "Reich" and Volk" and they cannot adequately translate (amazingly) "happiness" or "pink". Given the penchant that English-speakers have for "stealing" words from all around the world, it is rather a wonder that "Reich" and "Volk" have not come into much use among English-speakers but their prominence in a certain very regrettable historical episode probably accounts for that. We did however manage to steal "ersatz" from that selfsame historical episode, though our use of it is more derogatory than it is in German. A thousand years ago, we did of course have in English a form of the word "Reich" but it survives today only as part of the word "bishopric". Schoolboy hilarity aside, a bishopric is the Reich (ric) of a bishop. And the Swedes still use the word too. The very word for Sweden is in Swedish "Sverige" -- the "rig" of the Svea. The Svea were the Southern Swedish tribe that eventually came to dominate all Sweden.

The DNA of Race: There is no topic on which Americans are more muzzled than race. Even mentioning the word is almost taboo. About the only thing you can safely say on the subject is the monotonous Leftist chant that "race does not exist". Yet Americans not only notice racial differences but they respond very strongly to them -- as the "white flight" phenomenon shows. So in such circumstances it is perhaps encouraging that some geneticists (many of whom seem to be Asian) are resolute enough to continue their studies of the matter. And what they find is that the different races (which Leftists assure us are all "a social contruct") are genetically very distinct. You can predict from a person's DNA which "social" race he belongs to -- and you can predict it with a very high probability of getting the prediction right. The Abstract (scientific summary) of the latest research report is here and you can find some interpretative commentary from an anthropologist here

Dems cover up dirty tricks used to attack black Republican candidate: "Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, a rising star in the party, is considering a Senate bid for the Maryland seat being vacated by Democrat Paul Sarbanes next year. Apparently threatened by the prospect of a strong, popular, black Republican candidate, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee got down and dirty. Two of Schumer's staffers on the committee, including a former top researcher for David Brock's left-wing "think tank," obtained Steele's confidential credit report by using his Social Security number, which they had reportedly culled from court records. Under federal law, it is illegal to knowingly and willfully obtain a credit report under false pretenses. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes a maximum two-year prison sentence for the crime.... Law enforcement officials are taking this criminal intrusion into private records deadly seriously. But left-wing partisans are nowhere to be found. Steele's staff tells me that longtime crusader against identity theft Sen. Schumer, who denies having any knowledge of the scheme, has still issued no apology for the abuse of Steele's personal data. And there has been no outcry from the ACLU, the champions of clean campaigns, or any major national newspaper editorial board".

Ovi Magazine has a new issue out with forty-five new articles, over 26,000 words of text and a PDF packed with colourful text and imagery

There is a pretty disgusting story up on SOCIALIZED MEDICINE today. The British pay their health insurance premiums to their government. But their government often won't deliver -- even when life is at stake. You sometimes need a newspaper publicity campaign to get life-saving drugs.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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Practically all policies advocated by the Left create poverty. Leftists get the government to waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so load the burden of providing most useful goods and services onto fewer and fewer people. So fewer useful goods and services are produced to go around. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that they 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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