ELSEWHERE

There is an amusing Leftist post here called "A million tiny strands" which is particularly aimed at conservative and anti-Green journalist Marc Morano -- but also at Cybercast News service and other conservative writers. What the author "discovers" -- "gasp"! -- is that Morano and other conservatives tend to get support from people and companies who agree with them -- including companies such as Monsanto. Monsanto produces seed for genetically engineered crops so these days is apparently nearly as evil as oil companies. In a reflection of what is no doubt his own typically amoral Leftist thinking, our Leftist writer concludes from this that Morano and others are BOUGHT. They are not saying what they really think but are simply company propagandists telling lies. This is of course a totally ad hominem argument -- attacking the speaker rather than the facts and arguments he puts forward and has, as such, no scholarly merit whatever -- and suggests that the attacker LACKS arguments of substance. But ad hominem arguments do seem to have some influence on people so let me shoot back by pointing out that I personally have often run Morano's writings on my blogs and that I agree with almost all the things that the writers say whom our Leftist attacks. And just find ONE CENT that ANY company has ever donated to me. I am and always have been entirely supported by my own work and its proceeds. So in the weird world of the ad hominem arguer that must prove that what Morano says is right and correct? Search me! I guess Leftists will always find some way to escape confronting the facts so I don't exactly expect consistency there.

Americans vote with their feet too: "For the second year in a row, the Census Bureau reports, the population of Massachusetts has shrunk. During the 12 months ending July 1, 2005, the Bay State experienced a net loss of more than 8,600 residents, or 0.1 percent of its population. It was one of only three states to end the year with fewer people than it had at the start -- New York and Rhode Island were the others -- and the only one to do so for the second year running. A statistical blip this isn't. Not counting foreign immigrants, Massachusetts has been losing more people than it attracts every year since 1990, according to MassINC, a Boston-based research institute. The net outflow during the 12 years from 1990 to 2002 -- the excess of people leaving Massachusetts over those entering -- was 213,000, and the hemorrhaging has only gotten worse since then. MassINC reported in 2003 that one-fourth of Bay State residents would leave if they had the opportunity to do so. Among those who have lived in Massachusetts for less than 10 years, the proportion is even higher".

Why nobody cares about the woes of Detroit: "In the fat years of the 1980s and 1990s, U.S. companies squandered profits on misguided acquisitions and poor product decisions. Too many Americans once owned Detroit cars and believed that dealers and the companies mistreated them when their vehicles had problems. In short, a sizable percentage of the American public is not sympathetic to the plight of the domestic manufacturers. The United Auto Workers union and its members have an image problem, too. Sure, in recent years GM and Ford have made progress in working with unions and in achieving improvements in quality. However, for far too long UAW workers laughed at complaints about quality, and the union did nothing to punish workers who failed to perform. In terms of pay, pensions and health care, UAW workers are better off than most Americans in private industry.... Maybe it is time for the companies to stop their dividends. Maybe it is time for the union to tell its members how bad things are. And maybe it is time for the Governor of Michigan to understand why people don't want to build in her state".

House of Lords to the rescue again: "The Government's plan for identity cards suffered a double blow this evening after Lords ordered a detailed investigation into the cost of the scheme and demanded a more secure method of recording and storing citizens' personal information. Peers voted by 237 to 156, a majority of 81, on an amednment ordering an inquiry to put a precise figure on the revenue and capital costs of implementing the controversial Identity Cards Bill. The Government suffered a second defeat when peers voted by 206 to 144, a majority of 62, to demand a secure and reliable method of recording and storing citizens' personal data. Ministers must now either agree to the investigation or ask the Commons, where an earlier backbench revolt slashed Tony Blair's majority to just 25, to overturn the Lords' demands. The Lords' debate centred on a London School of Economics report which claimed the scheme would cost up to 19 billion pounds -- more than 30 times the Government's estimate - and that the cost of an individual ID card could be high as 300 pounds.

After five years of socialist government: "NZ business confidence has slumped to its lowest level since before the 1987 sharemarket crash, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) said on Tuesday in its quarterly survey of business opinion (QSBO). The independent organisation said a net 61 per cent of firms expected conditions to deteriorate over the next six months. This compared with a net 32 per cent of pessimists in the last survey in October. Not since March 1986 has the economy's mood been so downbeat. NZIER director Brent Layton said the survey increased the likelihood of a recession. The seasonally-adjusted figure was even more dire with a net 71 per cent pessimistic against 34 per cent in October. This is the most pessimistic in 35 years and possibly of the 45-year history of the survey, one of the most respected in the country".

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. On Social Security see Dick McDonald and for purely Australian news see Australian Politics (mirrored here).

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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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