Liberals: Opposites of Themselves

Most agree that liberals are the opposite of conservatives, but in many respects, liberals are the opposite of themselves. This was recently demonstrated, once again, at Columbia University when left-wing students demonstrated their "tolerance" and respect for "free speech" when they stormed the stage and shut down a speech by Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist. Defenders of those that disrupted the speech claimed, "The Minutemen are not a legitimate voice in the debate on immigration." Say what? Who gets to decide which voices are "legitimate" in a policy debate? Apparently the liberals that disagree with position of the Minutemen believe they get to decide. So much for free speech.

Liberals love diversity. The more "different" people they can put together the better. Well, as long as those "different" people are all alike - espousing a liberal ideology. Conservatives need not apply to such diverse groups - there isn't any need to be that diverse.

Liberal politicians, the champions of the "little guy" and the "downtrodden" continually advocate policies that hurt those very people. A good example is the minimum wage. An increase in the minimum wage costs jobs, is inflationary and doesn't, in the long run, provide any benefit to those it is designed to help.

Liberals also say one thing and do another is when it comes to tax policy. If the examples of the past are not enough to convince liberals that high taxes hurts the economy while low taxes boost economic activity, the current state of the economy should be quite illustrative. Unemployment is at 4.7% and the stock market, as measured by the Dow Jones is at a record high.

The left is confounded as to how federal tax receipts can be pouring in at record levels despite the President's tax cuts that only favored "the rich." Maybe these rich people pay taxes too, do you think? Hint - the rich (who don't have to be all that wealthy to meet the left's definition of "rich") pay the lion's share of taxes. Left (no pun intended) to their own devices, liberals would raise taxes, not only because tax cuts "cost" the government too much, but to provide even more programs and entitlements destined to fail, only to be left wondering why the economy slows, tax receipts decline and unemployment increases. How does that help the "little guy?"

The left attacks the NSA wiretapping program but has constantly criticized the administration for not doing more to prevent the attacks of 9/11. The left assailed the administration for acting "unilaterally" in Iraq (even thought that wasn't the case), but some on that side of the aisle are now calling for one-on-one talks with North Korea instead of the six-party talks (not that talking will do any good, but that's for another column).

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ELSEWHERE

Newsweak does it again. They have done an extraordinarily bad poll from which they blithely conclude: "Two weeks till midterms, the NEWSWEEK poll shows Republicans in danger of losing a big chunk of their base. And a growing consensus for a bread-and-butter Democratic agenda". For what the poll REALLY shows, see STACLU

Muslim brutality in Britain: "Hundreds of young girls in Britain are suffering genital mutilation at the hands of women paid to come to Britain by their families. African immigrants are clubbing together to pay for practitioners to fly to Britain and circumcise their daughters in highly secretive rituals. Police believe that the trend has developed among parents who do not have passports or cannot afford to return to their home countries to have their daughters circumcised, a brutal practice that remains commonplace throughout Africa. The procedure is generally performed by elderly women, in unsterilised conditions with no anaesthetic. Children as young as five have parts or all of their clitoris or labia removed. Some have their vaginas sewn up or the flesh shrunk with corrosives... The procedure is highly dangerous and leaves many of its victims with health problems throughout their lives. Infections and cysts are commonplace, as are complications during childbirth, endangering both mother and baby. Women who have suffered genital mutilation are twice as likely to die in childbirth and three times as likely to give birth to a stillborn child. Despite the dangers, many African Muslim communities prize the ritual and ostracise women who are not circumcised. It is common in a band stretching from Senegal in West Africa to Somalia on the East coast and in many areas uncircumcised women cannot find a husband.

And the French claim they know best!: "On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized, and no arrests made. The recent ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year. One small police union claims officers are facing a "permanent intifada." Police injuries have risen in the year since the wave of violence... On Sunday, a band of about 30 youths, some wearing masks, forced passengers out of a bus in a southern Paris suburb in broad daylight Sunday, set it on fire, then stoned firefighters who came to the rescue, police said. No one was injured. Two people were arrested, one of them a 13-year-old"

Britain closes the door slightly: "Tough curbs banning tens of thousands of unskilled workers from Bulgaria and Romania coming to Britain are to be unveiled by ministers this week. The move comes as new government figures show that four out of every five existing east European immigrants earn little more than the minimum wage and pay on average half the amount Britons pay in taxes. The report claims they may not be as much of a boon to the economy as some have suggested"

More German anti-Americanism: "The war in Iraq is unlikely to be resolved by a US administration committed to a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint, according to former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose memoirs stoke his four-year feud with US President George W. Bush.... In extracts from his newly published memoirs to be published in Der Spiegel magazine, he explains what went wrong and why it will be difficult for Mr Bush to make peace. "Again and again in our private talks it became clear how God-fearing this president was and how ruled he was by what he saw as a higher power," Mr Schroeder says in the memoirs, Decisions: My Life In Politics. "The problem begins when political decisions seem to result from a conversation with God. We rightly criticise that in most Islamic states there is no clear separation between religion and the rule of law. "But we fail to recognise that in the US, the Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible have similar tendencies. If both sides claim to be in possession of the only valid truth, then there is no room for manoeuvre."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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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