Brookes News Update

The Clinton economy has lessons for President Bush: The greatest fear is that when the next recession strikes it might give the Democrats the key to the White House. Given their current views on defence and the economy the result could be a disaster for the US
Gittins and the Lowry Institute get it badly wrong about China and economic growth: China is not consuming the world's resources. Gittins and the Lowry Institute fell into the old error of confusing a recent increase in the demand for oil and other resources with a long-term increase in their prices
Liberal Party blue bloods scared to challenge Bracks' Muslim blasphemy law: While Bracks tramples on free speech at the behest of Muslim thugs the Liberal Party's blue bloods leave the little people to do the fighting
The Party of Lincoln vs the Congressional Democrats: Abraham Lincoln's inspiring defence of the Republican Party in those short days before the Civil War is just as potent and as relevant today
Protecting Muslim thuggery from criticism: Lefty journalists and their fellow-travellers will do whatever it takes to protect Muslim thugs from criticism"
Islamofascists are making us all Israelis: Islamic Jihadiis are primitive but they do understand repercussions. They are trained and 'educated' in mosques. This might be an opportune time to remind the Imams responsible for initiating these 'missions', that they also are vulnerable
Why journalists cannot be trusted with their country's secrets: Australian journalists have shamelessly lied about the Bush administration's NSA spying program. But they are also hostile to Australia's intelligence activities
Anti-market ethicist smears free trade: Simon Longstaff is an ignorant and insufferable anti-market gasbag who labours under the delusion that being the executive director of St James Ethics Centre qualifies him to make statements on economic theory
Market economics, fundamentalism and Australia's 'free-market club': Anti-market activists smear market economics by using the terms "market fundamentalism" and "economic fundamentalist". And our Free Market Club helps them, bless their tiny hearts

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There is a rather extraordinary email here to David Horowitz from a far-Leftist professor. Only if you know what egomaniacs committed Leftists are can you understand it.

Crazy British justice again: "Thousands of criminals are escaping justice as blunders by police and crown prosecutors cause chaos in the courts. An astonishing 53,000 cases - around one in every 25 - were dropped because defendants simply failed to turn up in court. A scathing report by public spending watchdogs today reveals that 173 million pounds was wasted last year on 784,000 pointless magistrates' court hearings which could not proceed. Mistakes such as lost case files and lack of properly-prepared evidence meant offenders were "getting away with their crimes scot-free" as cases collapsed, critics said. The report raises fresh concerns over the effectiveness of the criminal justice system, which is already under fire over low detection rates by police and sky-high reconviction rates for offenders leaving jail".

Mark Steyn on comparative birthrates: "My interest in demography dates back to September 11, 2001, when a demographic group I hadn't hitherto given much thought managed to get my attention. I don't mean the, ah, unfortunate business with the planes and buildings and so forth, but the open cheering of the attacks by their co-religionists in Montreal, Yorkshire, Copenhagen and elsewhere. How many people knew there were fast-growing and culturally confident Muslim populations in Scandinavia? Demography doesn't explain everything but it accounts for a good 90 per cent.... Why is this newspaper published in the language of a tiny island on the other side of the earth? Why does Australia have an English Queen, English common law, English institutions? Because England was the first nation to conquer infant mortality. By 1820 medical progress had so transformed British life that half the population was under the age of 15. Britain had the manpower to take, hold, settle and administer huge chunks of real estate around the planet".

The continuing decay of the man the USA nearly had as President: "Former Vice President Al Gore has apparently decided to become the Professor Irwin Corey of environmentalism, gibberish and misinformation. He is currently traversing the world giving comfort to Saudi princes over our alleged mistreatment of Arab men shortly after 9/11. While speaking to a Saudi audience, Gore told them that Arabs had been "indiscriminately" rounded up by U.S. law enforcement after the Islamist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.... During his speech in the Philippines, Gore claimed that up to two million Manila residents might have to be evacuated from the city from floods caused by melting glaciers and polar icecaps. Morphing between an Irwin Corey speech and the rantings of Chicken Little, former Vice President Gore's ominous warnings about Manila were scoffed at by Philippino environmental experts. Fernando Siringan, Ph.D., a marine geologist from the University of the Phillipines (UP) was troubled by Gore's factually inaccurate speech. According to Siringan, too much use of ground water by the typical Manila household is the reason why the city is sinking-not that the sea is rising. Dr. Arcilla noted that while global warming could contribute to the rise in sea levels, it would only be in millimeters, while Manila faces the more serious problem of overuse of groundwater-which has nothing to do with global warming, melting icecaps or glaciers"

Fighting back against the new union "Wal-Mart" laws: "America's retailers announced last week that they aren't especially keen to follow the steel, airline and perhaps auto industries into bankruptcy court. If Big Labor really wants a fight over mandated health insurance, it now has one. The announcement came in the form of two federal lawsuits filed by the Retail Industry Leaders Association against the state of Maryland and Suffolk County, New York. At issue are the "Wal-Mart" laws that both jurisdictions recently passed, which would require a few large companies to pay more for their workers' health care. The lawsuits argue the statutes are "discriminatory," which may be the legal understatement of the year since both target only a few employers."

Google protest: "As lovers celebrated Valentine's day worldwide on Tuesday, Internet hunk Google lost hundreds of sweethearts who broke off with the web search engine in outrage over the censoring of information related to Tibet to placate China. Over 2,000 people from all over the world joined the Google boycott campaign launched by Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), a rights organisation based in New York that does not accept Beijing's annexation of Tibet. SFT has created a new web site, www.NoLuv4Google.com, asking people to boycott Google on Valentine's Day and express their anger with Google at the new site."

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)

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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SOME CLEARER EXAMPLES OF GOOGLE CENSORSHIP:

My post about Google yesterday got an unusually big response from readers. Apparently I am far from alone in being dubious about Google. I wouldn't put it past them to arbitrarily delete this blog. So do take note of my mirror sites now in case that happens.

A New Zealand reader duplicated my three searches of yesterday and was given links to my backup copies for two of the blogs concerned but nothing at all for the third blog. In all three cases however, Google could not find the blogspot sites! I myself have just repeated the searches and got nothing at all for all 3 blogs. Very bad!

There are extensive details here of how Google has censored "Jihad Watch" and below are a couple more examples that were emailed to me which resulted from queries made using Google Blog Search:





Google seems to have got its act together after the two searches immediately above were done but it does look as if certain search terms have to be "approved" by someone in authority at Google before responses to them can be allowed. It does inspire the thought that if a big-time blogger like Michelle can be so censored, what hope is there for little guys like me? Go MSN Search!

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RACIST BABIES

I was not going to comment on this article (summarizing research by David J. Kelly reported in Developmental Science and Yair Bar-Haim reported in Psychological Science ) but perhaps I should. What it shows is that babies are "racist" from 3 months old. White babies prefer white faces and black babies prefer black faces. But it all depends on exposure. White babies exposed to an equal mix of black and white faces in their early weeks show no preference.

That finding was actually highly predictable from what we already knew about developmental psychology. It is a safety mechanism for babies to know when they are in the "wrong" hands and they turn on their alarm (cry) when they detect it. Any mother who has given her babe to a stranger to hold will have experienced that. So babies learn rapidly what is normal to them and prefer that. And, like all human beings, babies are quick to generalize (Read, 1983; Hamill, Wilson & Nisbett, 1980) in search of safety. The one thing they know much about is faces and they usually know more than one safe face so it helps to find what is general to the "safe" faces. And if there is a prominent feature (such as colour) that is NOT general, they react accordingly.

The reason why I am making this comment, however, is the wrongheaded response that could arise from the findings. It could be argued that the findings present a perfect case for "diversity". Perhaps all white babies need to be given extensive exposure to blacks from early on. That would of course be a fairly Orwellian proposal but, surprisingly enough, it has been tried. White babies in South Africa are normally cared for most of the time by black nannies and maids. And yet white South Africa produced what is arguably the second most racist (apartheid) government of the 20th century! As any conservative will tell you, nothing about human society is simple. And it is certainly hard to predict.

For a more systematic account of what goes on in racial generalizations, see here and here

References:
Hamill, R., Wilson, T.D. & Nisbett, R.E. (1980) Insensitivity to sample bias: Generalizing from a-typical cases. J. Personality & Social Psychology 39, 578-589.
Read, S.J. (1983) Once is enough: Causal reasoning from a single instance. J. Personality & Social Psychology 45, 323-334.

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Famous homosexual bishop is a drunk (but that's fine of course): "The Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson, has started treatment for alcoholism. "I am writing to you from an alcohol treatment center where on February 1, with the encouragement and support of my partner, daughters and colleagues, I checked myself in to deal with my increasing dependence on alcohol," Robinson wrote in an e-mail to clergy Monday that was released Tuesday by the Diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson's assistant, the Rev. Tim Rich, said Tuesday there was no crisis that led to Robinson's decision to seek treatment but rather a growing awareness of his problem".

Stupid airline "security" in Australia: "American rocker and writer Henry Rollins was reported to the National Security hotline during his recent Australian tour because of a book he was reading on a flight to Brisbane. A furious Rollins was informed he was "nominated as a possible threat" for reading Jihad: The Rise Of Militant Islam In Central Asia, writes Kathy McCabe. The incident happened on a flight from Auckland on the recent Big Day Out tour. Rollins told Australian fans during his tour that he received a letter from a "nice woman" who worked "in one of those government areas that deals with anti-terrorism matters." He posted the letter on his website. "Please tell your Government and everyone in your office to go f... themselves. Baghdad's safer than my hometown and your PM is a sissy," he wrote".

Crazy Leftist judges in Germany: "German fighter jets have been banned from shooting down hijacked passenger aircraft, even if it looks as if they are about to be used in a terrorist attack against crowded buildings or football stadiums. The ruling yesterday, imposed by the Constitutional Court, weakens the ability to guard the airspace over the 12 German football stadiums that will be used to stage the World Cup, which will run from June 9 to July 9".

I have just put online here an interesting email from Canada's "Western Standard" newspaper. Apparently they published the Mohammed cartoons and are under attack over it. They must be the first Canadian newspaper to have the courage of their convictions.

There is a pretty pathetic example of Texas justice just up on Strange Justice

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)

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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GOOGLE IS REALLY SICK

It's not just Chinese material they censor but also stuff appearing on their own Western blogspot blogs

Paste the following search string into Google: "Nothing in their present policies will affect illegally acquired firearms". MSN Search (http://search.msn.com/) finds it here:

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_gunwatch_archive.html#113318688717459799

But when I tried last night, Google did not find it, even though it is on one of their own blogspot blogs! And it is not just any old blog. According to Technorati, it is a blog that 28 other sites link to. You sure must have to be big-time to attract the attention of Google!

Or try the string of text: "MORE PUBLIC HOSPITAL NEGLIGENCE". MSN Search correctly found it here:

http://socglory.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_socglory_archive.html#113595149870927208

but Google could not find it at all. And 13 other sites link to that blog according to Technorati

Or try the following string of text: "UC SECRECY ABOUT CORRUPT DEAL". MSN Search does not record the blogspot site concerned (http://edwatch.blogspot.com) but it does instead record a backup copy here:

http://jonjayray.bravehost.com/eddec05.html

Google did not record it at all. Yet, according to Technorati, 21 sites link to that blog.

I think Google is on the skids. All the blogs above are mine and they are of course very anti-Leftist. Is that why they are ignored even though they have lots of links leading to them? And my blogs are not just raves either. I have a massive academic background in the field I cover. When will I be good enough for Google? And note that all the searches are of 2005 posts. Google have had plenty of time to find the stuff.

Bill Gates owns MSN Search and it seems that he is a lot less evil than Google. Isn't competition great? So scrap your Google toolbar and get a MSN toolbar.

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ELSEWHERE

An interesting snippet: "My father used to shoot Marxist Chinese propaganga, and I was shocked to see Farenheit 9/11 packed with the most basic techniques of Eisenstein and Griffith. Being a Marxist for 25 years, I developed quite an appreciation for Soviet cinema. Tarkovsky is probably the best of the non-propaganda auters. Eisenstein was the best Marxist propagandist, while, all the way over in the U.S, D.W Griffith did a hell of a job for the anti-black, anti-semitic Klansmen propaganda with Birth of a Nation. Propaganda probably alienates people, so I'll knock that off, but, short of going to Yale University, I have yet to see a good Propaganda course taught. I mention the science of propaganda because it is practically inseparable from Soviet film". [The name of the writer "Xuefei24p" suggests that he is Chinese]



Instinctive allies: "Both the Left and the mujahedin envision a totalitarian state that cleanses the world of evil by force, establishing a just society at the price of an unspecified number of dead. Both are advocates of a supremacist ideology that is immune to self-criticism and unable to tolerate criticism from others. And now as the European Union contemplates new laws that will, in the words of Franco Frattini, who bears the Orwellian designation of EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom, and Security, "give the Muslim world the message: We are aware of the consequences of exercising the right of free expression," the marriage of the European Left and Islamic jihad can proceed all the more speedily"

Two religions of death: "Both Islam and Marxism were concocted by the uberparasites of their times, Karl the First Trustifarian and the Big Moh'. Both doctrines must deny the Right to Life -- and thus the subsidiary Rights of Liberty, Property, Free Speech, Et Cetera -- of all persons. Both ideologies must do so in order to establish and maintain the reign of terror and death, in order to control and exploit the productive population, that their parasitic adherents need to sustain their otherwise useless lives. To accept the concept of the Right to Life that underlies the society of consent is for the Marxist and the Mullah the first step in an act of suicide."

Twin threats to European culture : "Europe is facing two distinct threats to its culture and liberties. These twin threats are very different on the surface, and have little in common, though there are aspects that are deeply intertwined. The twin threats are Europeanism and Jihadism.... The problem that we face is not to ask ourselves why the eurofanatics want to destroy our culture, or why the Jihardists are so violent, but to understand the way in which over the past 70 odd years both groups have put together ideologies that are both so successful and so inimical to our way of life.... The key similarity is the capture by our opponents, of the academic and intellectual high ground. Our government and media, by necessity, take advice on both subjects from experts. And these experts are those that have been trained in our institutions of higher education. It is hard to blame a minister or a journalist if, due to time constraints and the pressure of deadlines, they defer their serious thinking to those who have spent their life's work studying these areas of public policy."

Scott Norvell, the main blogger at Tongue Tied (I just fill in there) is doing a great job of following the cartoon upheavals and all the frantic apologies being uttered by gutless weasels everywhere. The following post gave me a laugh: "Following the lead of the Iranians, a group of Israeli graphic artists has announced their own contest for the best anti-Semitic cartoon. "We'll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew-hating cartoons ever published!" said organizer Amitai Sandy. "No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!" Among the prizes: the famous Matzo-bread baked with the blood of Christian children".

Democrat flip-flops over "spying": "In what can only be called a major reversal, two Democratic leaders, Rep. Jane Harman and former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, admitted the controversial NSA surveillance program was necessary for fighting terrorism... Please don't miss the significance of this turnaround. It is reminiscent of the many flip-flops the Democrats made over the U.S. invasion of Iraq. One month they approved, the next they were appalled at the thought, the next they were on board again".

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)

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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Gun-toting USA is the LEAST violent

"Historians, world leaders and assorted pundits with Yankee bashing in mind have long cultivated the idea that America is a violent place. Not so, says Gallup, which released a report yesterday revealing that the nation is not necessarily Dodge City: The impact of crime is lower in the U.S. than in Britain, and in many cases Canada. "The U.S. is often seen from abroad as a relatively lawless society, with murders and gun-related crimes aplenty. But a series of Gallup surveys in Great Britain, Canada and the U.S. suggest the image is somewhat distorted," noted David W. Moore of the Gallup News Service.

It's close, but the United States emerged as the least crime-ridden. In three polls of 3,025 persons -- about 1,000 in each country -- 32 percent of the Americans said they or someone in their households had been a victim of crime of some type within the previous year. Among Canadians, the figure was 33 percent; among Britons, 36 percent. About 71 percent of both Canadians and Britons, compared with 67 percent of Americans, said there had been more crime in their respective countries in the previous 12 months.

Gallup also asked respondents whether they had been mugged, assaulted or had property stolen, among five other unpleasant experiences. Overall, Britain proved the most dangerous, with a quarter of the respondents reporting that they or a family member had been a victim of crime. Canada and the United States were tied at 21 percent. On specific crimes, 22 percent of the British reported their home, car or property had been vandalized. The figure was 17 percent among Canadians and 15 percent among Americans."

More here:

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Is this the last word on the cartoon Jihad? If not, it should be. Bill Kristol, writing in "The Weekly Standard", says that the "anguish" caused by the Danish cartoons is phony -- and he says it very sarcastically. I have an idea that this might be the first time the cartoons have been reproduced in an American newspaper too.

I have just put up here an English translation of the latest article -- "Rejsende i islam" -- from Denmark on the cartoons issue. The article is from the now "infamous" Jyllands Posten itself. It gives a fairly detailed account of how the uproar was provoked by Denmark's Imams -- with enthusiastic help from peak Muslim bodies in Arab countries.

Islamofascists not primarily religious: "We were in a London mosque, discussing the sermons the sheik delivers at Friday congregations. I had asked why God almost never featured in (or, at best, got a cameo role) in sermons that focused almost exclusively on political issues. For the sheik, what mattered was "the sufferings of our brethren under occupation." In other words: In our Islam, we don't do God - we do Palestine, Kashmir and Iraq! Here we have a religion without a theology, a secular wolf disguised as a religious lamb. How did this neo-Islam - a political movement masquerading as religion - come into being, and how can those who know little about Islam distinguish it from the mainstream of the faith?"

A British biologist on the genetics of the male/female difference: "Some have a dream that, one fine day, there will be equal numbers of men and women in all jobs, including those in scientific research. But I think this dream is Utopian; it assumes that if all doors were opened and all discrimination ended, the different sexes would be professionally indistinguishable. The dream is sustained by a cult of political correctness that ignores the facts of life—and thrives only because the human mind likes to bury experience as it builds beliefs. Here I will argue, as others have many times before, that men and women are born different.

Whites to be a minority in London in only 4 years time: "Whites will be an ethnic minority in Britain by the end of the century. Analysis of official figures indicate that, at current fertility rates and levels of immigration, there will be more non-whites than whites by 2100. It would be the first time in history that a major indigenous population has voluntarily become a minority, rather than through war, famine or disease. Whites will be a minority in London by 2010. In the early 1950s there were only a few tens of thousands of non-whites in the UK. By 1991 that had risen to 3 million - 6 per cent of the population. The population of ethnic minorities has been growing at between 2 and 4 per cent a year. Net immigration has been running at record levels, with 185,000 newcomers last year".

Why are the Oscars and Hollywood no longer relevant?: "It is hard to come up with a more appropriate sentiment for a media and entertainment culture that ignores the murder of Theo Van Gogh and the ongoing intimidation of the Danes even as it prepares to honor the following: Moral equivalency in the war against terror (Munich); Racial tension (Crash); A deeply flawed writer (Capote); the wholesale breaking of marriage vows (Brokeback Mountain); And, let's have one more round of applause for ourselves, another retelling of the McCarthy hearings that fails to note the communist threat was real (Good Night and Good Luck)".

A French Leftist says American Leftists are empty-headed: "Nothing made a more lasting impression during my journey through America than the semi-comatose state in which I found the American left.... But at the end of the day, my progressive friends, you may coin ideas in whichever way you like. The fact is: You do have a Right. This Right, in large part thanks to its neoconservative battalion, has brought about an ideological transformation that is both substantial and striking. And the fact is that nothing remotely like it has taken shape on the other side--to the contrary, through the looking glass of the American "left" lies a desert of sorts, a deafening silence, a cosmic ideological void... "

There is a good article here about the sad state of modern Britain. Some of the things he says are a bit over the top but most of it is pretty right -- the low standards of service and civility, the tax-driven high prices, the crowding, the Kafka-esque idea of what constitutes justice etc.

There is an interesting site called Watching America which translates foreign news about the U.S., to enable Americans (and all English speakers) to read what is being written about them and their country throughout the world. Much of the content is available nowhere else in English.

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)

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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CUBA AS A SPANISH TOURIST FOUND IT

"We arrived in Cuba without political prejudices, without any intention of setting foot in Varadero Beach, intent on seeing the country outside the much-lauded tourist areas, recalls Spanish backpacker Isane Aparicio Busto. "The blow was shocking. We left with our perceptions about the reality of the Cuban Revolution - and even with our prior social and political principles - demolished.

"All we'd heard about from many Europeans who traveled to Cuba was the rum, the happiness, the salsa, the Caribbean party atmosphere. But they hadn't mentioned the prostitution either - so we should have known they weren't totally leveling with us. We'd traveled to Mexico City and Caracas and known the horrible slums on the outskirts of these cities. But through old Havana we found ourselves walking constantly through a miasma of pestilential odors, with morose faces looking at us from decrepit doorways. My friend and I kept looking at each other asking, 'Where in the hell have all the people traveled who kept telling us poverty doesn't exist in Revolutionary Cuba?'

"We saw police everywhere. And it soon became obvious that Cubans are the victims of the 21st century's version of apartheid. Hotels for foreign tourists, stores for foreign tourists, buses for foreign tourists - a world apart that Cubans themselves are prevented by the police from entering. So we asked a few Cubans how they felt about this system.

And they all answered - while looking around - that it was fine, had to be done that way. That it was the proper way to protect tourists because many Cubans are scoundrels. So was this that proud nationalism of Revolutionary Cuba we'd heard about? The nation's impoverished people forced to treat foreigners with such meekness and deference - to grovel before them? ....

"We learned that the Cuban system is nothing but misery, moral mendacity and abuse. The system simply smothers you. And yet this revolution (with its Che Guevara banners) has sold itself to the youth of the world as a paradigm of equality, liberty and national liberation. And the leaders of the government that governs my country (Spain) simply refuse to come out and call this place a dictatorship. The Cuban people's personal aspirations seemed completely mutilated. I've never felt such anguish about a nation and a people in my life. If I were a Cuban, I'd certainly be on a raft."

More here

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The charming Hillary above. The lucky old USA could have her as its President in two year's time.

Bomb Iran! "Pentagon strategists are drawing up plans for bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks on Iran's nuclear sites as a "last resort" to block Tehran's suspected efforts to develop an atomic bomb. US Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon loads and working on logistics for an operation. They are reporting to the office of the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, as the US updates plans for action if the diplomatic offensive fails to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions... "This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," a senior Pentagon adviser said. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months."... the steady flow of disclosures about Iran's secret nuclear operations and the virulent anti-Israeli threats of its President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has prompted the fresh assessment of military options by the US. The most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers, each armed with up to 18,000 kilograms of precision weapons, including the latest bunker-busting devices. They would fly from bases in Missouri and refuel in flight."

Antisemitism in the Church of England: "The Archbishop of Canterbury has written to the Chief Rabbi regretting as "unfortunate" the Church of England's decision to review its investments in Israel. In his carefully crafted letter, Dr Rowan Williams, who voted in favour of the motion, denies that it represented a decision to disinvest at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise and a Hamas administration committed to the destruction of Israel is preparing for power. The General Synod is facing wide criticism from senior church leaders, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey of Clifton, for voting to disinvest from Caterpillar, the US company that manufactures the tractors used in land clearance in the Occupied Territories.... In the motion, Keith Macouronne of the Guildford diocese, moved that the synod "heed the call from our sister church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, for morally responsible investment in the Palestinian occupied territories and, in particular, to disinvest from companies profiting from the illegal occupation, such as Caterpillar Inc, until they change their policies." The synod voted overwhelmingly in favour."

The ostriches of Australia's arty Left: "Last Sunday, as Muslims enraged by cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed torched Danish diplomatic missions in Lebanon and Syria, Melbourne's artists rallied to defend free speech.... As The Age noted in a profile of comedian Dave O'Neil, another of the stars, "it's the cartoonists and comedians who are the first" to be punished when we lose the right to speak our mind. Too true. Pity now the Danish cartoonists, several now in hiding. Or their editor, now under guard, and facing an inquiry by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights.... Daring Dave knew well the risk he was running by turning up on Sunday to defend free speech, but welcomed martyrdom: "I'd love to get locked up for doing this." Dave and his artist friends weren't defending that right to free speech. No, they weren't defending that right against the very real threat of violence by Muslims. They were there to defend free speech instead from the completely imaginary threat of prosecution by the Howard Government, under sedition laws we've actually had for decades. Here again was our cultural elite at play, pretending our greatest danger comes not from radical Islam, but those protecting us from it".

Miserable Leftists again: "Is it aircraft noise, John Howard's long reign, or being overworked and underpaid that makes the so-called chardonnay socialists of Sydney's inner west the most disgruntled people in Australia? A new survey that compares the wellbeing of people in all 150 federal electorates reveals the safe Labor seat of Grayndler, covering Annandale, Leichhardt, Petersham, Newtown, Marrickville and Summer Hill, tops the national list for all-round unhappiness".

Memo for British and European libertarians: The Libertarian International Spring Convention -- one of the high points of the year for freedom lovers -- is on again. The conference will take place in Brussels on 25-26 February to coincide with the Capitalist Ball. As always, there will be exciting talks by some of the best thinkers and activists in the movement and plenty of time for socialising. Register now for a week-end of fun, friendship and freedom building. Contact Christian Michel

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)

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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The New Slavery of American blacks

Over the last several decades, Liberals and Democrats have been pulling off the greatest scam of all time -- rewriting history itself. It's amazing how, in a free society, they have managed to hijack the past, twisting the truth by subtle manipulation. Somehow the Left has convinced a sizeable portion of Americans that lowered expectations and government coddling are their birthright by reason of their African ancestry. The new slavery is an enslavement of the mind, and its victims willingly embrace their chains.

Multiculturalists (those who preach self-segregation) have convinced many black Americans to believe they even have a different history from the rest of the country. This is a distortion of reality that has already caused much damage to our national identity. What is "black history month" supposed to represent, anyway? All those people and events singled out for special recognition as being part of "black history" were, in fact, AMERICAN events and AMERICAN people. Every American should celebrate the achievements of Americans who made a positive impact on our shared history, without dividing them according to skin color. All Americans have equal reason and right to be proud of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin as well as Booker T. Washington and Benjamin Banneker.

Race-baiting demagogues use hate and fear to keep blacks from considering candidates from any political party but Democrats when in the voting booth. Yet it was Democrats who seceded from the United States in order to preserve their "right" to own other human beings. It was Democrats who formed the Klu Klux Klan and instituted Jim Crow laws, Democrats who fought for "separate but equal" treatment of black Americans, Democrats who stood in the doorways of schools to keep blacks out and Democrats who turned fire hoses on blacks to keep them from voting. And it has been Democrats who have worked to pin all those injustices on Republicans, who have been the true "party of inclusion" all along.

Most important, it was Democrats who founded and preserved and continue to push for social programs designed to destroy autonomy and self-reliance. Lowering standards for education and employment based on race or sex sends the message "you aren't good enough to compete" to members of the "favored" group. So-called "affirmative" action programs and racial quotas only send the message, "you can't make it without help." Yet an overwhelming number of minorities vote for those who continue to push race-based condescension. How do Democrats keep fooling the people they have been oppressing into voting for them, year after year?...

Obviously, Clinton and other Democrats -- black and white -- use emotionally loaded slavery references to paint their political opponents as oppressors. They gamble on the ignorance of history that constitutes a public education these days. The fact that the Left continues to oppose true education reform -- abolishing tenure and subjecting schools to competition through vouchers -- comes as no surprise. If public schools were run more efficiently and competitively, those who attend them might learn more about American history -- the real history -- than the Left wants them to know. The chains of the new slavery are forged from ignorance, after all.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Those pesky genetics again: "Genetics can play a bigger role in determining a child's reading ability than teaching, an Australian researcher says. An international study showed some children were born with "an unfortunate deal of the genetic deck" when it comes to reading skills, said study co-author Brian Byrne, professor of psychology at the University of New England in northern NSW. No "magic bullet" of encouragement and tutoring would fully improve their reading abilities, he said. Published in the latest issue of the British-based Journal of Research in Reading, the study showed the influence of parents reading to their children diminished significantly a year or so after they started school. "The home environment doesn't leave its mark much on children as they start to go through school, which is surprising to a lot of people," Byrne said. "What seems to determine most of the differences amongst children, just in the normal school setting in terms of their reading skills, are genetics." [Anybody who knows the high correlation between IQ and early reading ability will of course not be at all surprised by the finding. Chris Brand comments on the finding too]

Bogus rights: "Do people have a right to medical treatment whether or not they can pay? What about a right to food or decent housing? Would a U.S. Supreme Court justice hold that these are rights just like those enumerated in our Bill of Rights? In order to have any hope of coherently answering these questions, we have to decide what is a right. The way our Constitution's framers used the term, a right is something that exists simultaneously among people and imposes no obligation on another. For example, the right to free speech, or freedom to travel, is something we all simultaneously possess. My right to free speech or freedom to travel imposes no obligation upon another except that of non-interference. In other words, my exercising my right to speech or travel requires absolutely nothing from you and in no way diminishes any of your rights."

The gas-lines in Iraq are due to price controls, nothing else: "As I say, this isn't some controversial point in theoretical economics. The failure of price controls has been documented (literally) for a period of thousands of years. For an anecdotal bit of evidence, my colleague (who worked at a gas station in the 1970s) said that the gas lines disappeared within one week of the abandonment of price controls. And when I asked what took so long, he said that the owner didn't immediately raise prices because of feared public backlash".

Lost job for backing GOP, ex-trooper says: "A former veteran state trooper from Knoxville, who has filed a federal lawsuit against the Tennessee Department of Safety, told members of the state Senate's Transportation Committee yesterday he lost his job in 2004 because his family supported Republican candidates. 'The gist of my story was I was run out of the highway patrol,' former THP Lt. Charles B. Farmer said. Appearing with his lawyer, Farmer presented supporting documents to the committee which is investigating claims of cronyism in the department. Among them were contribution disclosures showing how much Farmer's wife and father-in-law had donated to Republican candidates in the 2002 statewide election."

A rather alarming post here about a cat parasite that is present in about 40% of human brains. Apparently it alters your behaviour -- including making you less able to concentrate. I think I am going to get tested for it.

It takes Ann Coulter to give us a laugh out of the cartoon uproar. I guess I must like sarcasm.

Strange Justice has just reported a disturbing case where Chicago prosecutors jailed a man they apparently knew from the beginning to be innocent. The case stank so much that the guy eventually got a damages award of $9 million!

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)

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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SOME FEARS ARE REALISTIC AND SOME ARE CRAZY

(Post excerpted from Reliapundit)

Yesterday, Hillary "socialized medicine" Clinton charged that the GOP is playing the "fear card" - as if we shouldn't be afraid of terrorists. She said:

"... the GOP election message is: 'All we've got is fear and we're going to keep playing the fear card.'"

When she makes this charge she's as NUTTY as the LOONY-LEFTIST/DOVE comrades - who are now the base of the party, (if not the rank-and-file). I think it is REASONABLE to be afraid of the terrorists who: Fly jets into skyscrapers; bomb Israeli pizzerias and Muslim weddings and funerals; riot and burn embassies over CARTOONS; blow up bars in Bali; behead charity workers; torch train-cars of Hindu pilgrims; destroy 1000 year old Buddhist monuments and behead Thai Buddhists; murder Russian school-children; condemn rape-victims to hanging; dress up their children as genocidal suicide bombers; deny the Holocaust; bomb subways in London and trains in Madrid; murder filmmakers; put fatwas on novelists; and generally try to establish tyranny and theocratic totalitarianism through intimidation and terror.

On the other hand the things the Left is afraid of ARE TOTALLY INSANE: Man-made global warming is the biggest threat we face; we're running out of oil and other natural resources; federal bureaucrats deliberately withheld hurricane rescue services to New Orleanians; the NSA is illegally intercepting all of everyone's international phone calls - (all 200+ BILLION yearly minutes worth!); the FBI is intimidating librarians; Afghanistan was going to be a QUAGMIRE - we weren't supposed to defeat the Afghans since the USSR couldn't; we weren't going to be able to defeat Saddam - because the strategy was wrong - we went in too fast and our supply lines were too strung out; pharmaceutical companies, Wal Mart and the oil companies are ripping us off BIGTIME; off-shore oil-drilling and oil-drilling in ANWR is desecrating the environment; the Bush Tax Cuts will destroy our economy - (Bush has the worst jobs record since Hoover - it's the worst economy since Hoover); abortion will become illegal and unconstitutional if you vote GOP; and the GOP will take away your right to have a living-will (even though ALL the Bush's have one!); Bush and the GOP are trying make America into an Iranian religious state.

The list of unreasonable fear-mongering by the Left goes back in time too. Remember these "golden oldies": Reagan would start WW3; there will be mass global starvation; we're going to run out of oil; NAFTA will ruin our economy; Bobby Kennedy's ol' boss Joe McCarthy was evil personified and Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs were innocent; "ending welfare as we know it" will put millions of people on the streets; the Reagan tax cuts will ruin the economy.

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ELSEWHERE

Reagan, Reaganomics and the future: "Ronald Reagan, it has been said, was elected on six words: Strong defense, smaller government, less regulation. With that, came a moral compass, happy nature, septuagenarian's sure stride and an unwavering will to make the world safer for freedom and America's destiny. As a party, we would do well to reset our bearings by his North Star. If we allow ourselves to forget, we will drift into dangerous waters. House Republicans have just elected John Boehner, from Ohio's 8th District, as their new majority leader. He will now be No. 2, under the seasoned leadership of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. The new team offers a new start. That said, 2006 be a decisive election year, and 2008 will be upon us before we know it. It is time to throw open the barn doors and take a hard look inside. Today, the Republican Party inherits the legacy of Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln."

The huge ripoff of middle-class welfare: "Ronald Reagan memorably complained about "welfare queens," but he never told us that the biggest welfare queens are the already wealthy. Their lobbyists fawn over politicians, giving them little bits of money -- campaign contributions, plane trips, dinners, golf outings -- in exchange for huge chunks of taxpayers' money. Millionaires who own your favorite sports teams get subsidies, as do millionaire farmers, corporations, and well-connected plutocrats of every variety. Even successful, wealthy TV journalists."

Doubling jail time would cut burglary: "Giving thieves longer jail sentences would dramatically reduce the crime rate, says new research that has found the average burglar commits 152 robberies in four years. The study by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics found increasing the average prison sentence for burglary from one to two years could prevent up to 10,000 burglaries each year in NSW, a reduction of 8percentage points. And doubling the percentage of burglars who went to jail when convicted -- from 44per cent to 88per cent -- could prevent 14,000 burglaries a year in NSW. But such a move would be expensive. Reducing the burglary rate by 10per cent would mean 34per cent more burglars in jail at any one time, with an extra cost of $26million a year. Spending $26million on prevention could result in a saving of $156 million -- the cost in insurance claims".

Mexican incursions inflame border situation: "Armed men in Mexican military uniforms have illegally crossed into the United States to provide cover for drug smugglers, and have fired upon U.S. Border Patrol agents on several occasions, a congressional panel was told Tuesday. Border Patrol Union President T.J. Bonner detailed three incidents since 2000 in which U.S. agents were chased and fired upon by what he characterized as Mexican soldiers operating inside U.S. borders. Bonner testified before the House Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee on Tuesday."

How to support the troops: " "The last time 1st Lt. William 'Eddie' Rebrook IV saw his body armor, he was lying on a stretcher in Iraq, his arm shattered and covered in blood. A field medic tied a tourniquet around Rebrook's right arm to stanch the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. Soldiers yanked off his blood-soaked body armor. He never saw it again. But last week, Rebrook was forced to pay $700 for that body armor, blown up by a roadside bomb more than a year ago. He was leaving the Army for good because of his injuries. He turned in his gear at his base in Fort Hood, Texas. He was informed there was no record that the body armor had been stripped from him in battle. He was told to pay nearly $700 or face not being discharged for weeks, perhaps months."

Ed Driscoll seems to be a guru on many things. In a recent post he even gets it spot-on about Hitler being a Leftist. I have added him to my blogroll.

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)

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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