Brookes News Update

When will the Bush boom crack?: Unfortunately every credit fuelled boom ends in recession. Although no one can really predict the actual timing of a recession one can look out for certain danger signals, the major one being manufacturing
How conservative columnists damage the free market case: The history of economic thought has a twofold function; to explain the past and to help us to understand the present. By examining the economic theories of the past we can learn to see the problems of earlier times, as it were, through the eyes of their contemporaries
It's the Democrats who are selling out America: The Democrats and their media pals have spent years peddling the canard that the Republicans are the party of the rich and is funded by "plutocrats". Any journalist worth his salt - and that ain't many - could easily provide evidence that in fact it is the Democrats who are the party of the rich and special interest groups
Wages, unions and leftist ignorance: People who ardently defend the thoroughly discredited myth that unions can raise real wages for everyone can do so only by ignoring the lessons of economics and history
Achieving a truly pro-American foreign policy: For the tragic political truth about America today is that it is no longer a democracy, with a government run by people elected by voters. Our government is run by unelected federal bureaucracies
Prius outdoes Hummer in Hummer damage: The Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it. So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB

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ELSEWHERE



An announcement above that I would like to see.

Military Recruiting Exceedingly Strong: "All branches of the military met their active duty recruiting goals for fiscal year 2006 and, despite Murtha, have met or exceeded their recruiting goals for every month since, but that doesn't stop the democrats from making bogus claims about our military and proposing a draft."

Paying rent for the dead in Berkeley: "For those of us in the business of highlighting the absurdities and outrages of the Left, Berkeley, California is the gift that keeps on giving. Staff at Berkeley's Housing Authority paid federal rent subsidies to landlords for at least 15 dead tenants - some for at least two years - according to two city reports that recommend firing all 22 employees in the department. The reports list 13 other instances of blatant misuse of some of $25 million in federal funds and claim that city staff "actively thwarted" an investigation by a new director who discovered the misspending after starting work last summer."

End it, don't mend it: "No government agency, no matter how well-funded and extravagantly staffed, can possibly have all the knowledge to manage markets efficiently; it is better that they get out of the business altogether. That's easier said than done though, as anyone who has seen the powerful farm lobby in action can attest. But a confluence of events this year -- a Doha round of free trade agreements in need of a kick-start, budget pressures and renewed commitment to fiscal responsibility from the Democrats in Congress, and growing public awareness of the failures of farm programs -- all point to the need for reform. The question is: with what do we replace the current expensive and outdated programs? How about nothing?"

Careless people want others to pay for their folly: ""Spooked by devastating wildfire seasons, the nation's top insurers are inspecting homes in high-risk areas throughout the West and threatening to cancel coverage if owners don't clear brush or take other precautions. The inspections have angered homeowners and watchdog groups that accuse the companies of trying to cut risk at the expense of customers, even while industry profits soar. 'It certainly isn't fair for these insurers to be dumping these last-minute requirements on homeowners,' said Carmen Balber of the Foundation for Taxpayer & Consumer Rights. 'It does make sense to require homeowners to take reasonable precautions, but some of the excessive demands that we've heard from homeowners are over the top.' The requirements can range from clearing brush to cutting down trees or even installing a fireproof roof."

Decentralizing Iraqi governance is the last hope: "After initially spurning the Iraq Study Group's (ISG) recommendations, President Bush now seems inclined toward the ISG's recommendation of transforming the U.S. military's role from fighting insurgents and militias into a smaller force that would train Iraqi forces in seeming perpetuity. Although this solution would lower U.S. casualties, and perhaps increase Republican chances in the 2008 elections, it will do little to dampen the combination of guerrilla and civil war in Iraq. A more radical solution is needed: a dramatic decentralization of Iraqi governance."

Does welfare diminish poverty?: "Does government-provided poor relief decrease the amount of poverty? That it does is an assumption at the heart of our nation's very large antipoverty programs. In fact those programs were instituted for the purpose of making themselves obsolete. Shortly before passing the Social Security Act in 1935, for example, Franklin Roosevelt declared to Congress, 'The Federal Government must and shall quit this business of relief .... Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration, fundamentally destructive to the national fiber.'"

Democrat backdown: "Democrats yesterday abandoned their demand that a war funding Bill contain a withdrawal date for US troops from Iraq, thereby handing President Bush a victory in his fight with Congress over how to end the conflict. The decision to back down and give Mr Bush almost $90 billion, which he had requested in February to continue paying for the war, brought only a temporary end to the legislative showdown over Iraq, with Democrats vowing to renew calls for troop withdrawal this summer. The Democrat capitulation was a reminder that despite their takeover of Congress after the November mid-term elections, which many in the party saw as a popular call to end the war, their slim majorities in the lower house and Senate still leave them powerless to override a presidential veto."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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