'Bergler' steals Clinton's credibility

[Sandy] Berger, you may recall, was President Clinton's national security adviser. Now Hillary Clinton is trying to sock it to you by employing him as her campaign foreign-policy adviser, treating Berger like a respectable foreign-policy expert - exactly what he ceased to be when he was a common criminal heisting classified documents from the National Archives in 2003. While preparing the former President Clinton for his 9/11 Commission testimony (as well as preparing his own), Berger stole top-secret national-defense documents from the National Archives, stuffing them in a briefcase and in his clothing. He destroyed documents, hid others - some at a nearby construction site. He later lied, claiming it was all a mistake, blaming the removal and destruction on "sloppiness" - "an honest mistake," he said, with former presidential backing.

Berger, for the record, wasn't stealing old lunch menus for his scrapbook. While we don't know everything he took (and in some cases destroyed), we know he did take drafts of what people familiar with it have described as a scathing "after-action report," done after the intelligence community failed to foil the millennium plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, which was instead left for an alert customs agent to discover. The report was a brutal internal review of our state of unreadiness - our vulnerability to domestic terrorism. A House government reform committee investigation revealed that Berger had unsupervised access to noninventoried original documents on terrorism for which there were no duplicates.

So perhaps Hillary Clinton is holding Berger close as a "thank you": Thanks for making sure that some hard-hitting internal analysis of the Clinton administration's poor counterterrorism performance won't become breaking news on the way back to the White House. Or maybe Berger simply knows too much of the kind of information that could hurt an aspiring Clinton running on executive experience. That's surely another reason to keep him on board. Perhaps candidate Clinton feels the need to prove that she is up for a challenge. How, after all, can she continue using the Democrats' top talking point - the claim that they are the antidote to a "culture of corruption" in Washington? If Berger's top-secret rampage isn't corrupt, I don't know what corrupt is.

Source

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Brookes News Update

Rightwing columnists stuff up labour market reform debate: A leftwing academic screws up on labour markets - and what do Janet Albrechtsen, Imre Salusinszky and Andrew Bolt do? They attack the man and in doing so reveal that they are every bit as ignorant as he is. With allies like these it's no wonder that the free market gets such a bad press down here
Hillary, Soros, Alinsky, and Rush Limbaugh: The Hillary-Soros smear machine is in top gear. Completely devoid of anything resembling morality Soros' media Brown Shirts are waging war against American democracy. These are the same thugs that that ruthlessly attacked General Petraeus' character and military standing. They are the same thugs who are trying to destroy Rush Limbaugh. And will try to destroy anyone who gets in the way Hillary and Soros' ambitions for a castrated socialist America
Islamic Economics: What Does It Mean?: Islamic economics increasingly has become force to contend with due to burgeoning portfolios of oil exporters and multiplying Islamic financial instruments (such as interest-free mortgages and bonds. But the dirty little secret is that there is no such thing as 'Islamic economics' - it's a fiction, a complete crock
Why and how the Democrats are pushing America toward socialism: Who would ever have imagined that a Democratic presidential candidate could be someone who was a willing and admiring assistant to a self-proclaimed Stalinist and Communist Party member, lawyer. We are speaking of Hillary Clinton
Congress should reject the Armenian Genocide resolution: In this case, the moral high ground should give way to considerations of realpolitik. Congress should reject the resolution at this time. It is not in America's interest to offend our Turkish allies. What's more, why is it that the Dems never seem to take the moral high ground unless it damages the US in some way?

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Stupid Europeans attack China for selling them stuff cheaply: "The European Union launched a concerted attack on China's expanding trade empire yesterday, accusing it of building up surpluses through unfair practices. In a briefing that will significantly ratchet up protectionist tensions, the EU ambassador to China said requests for the issue to be addressed had met with no response. "Apparently China's trade surplus has no limit and we do not see efficient measures," the ambassador, Serge Abou, said. "These facts are considered with a certain bitterness in our leadership" .... nerves have been frayed by an atmosphere of economic uncertainty set against Beijing's currency policies, its $1.4 trillion reserves, much of which is held in US treasuries, and the risks created by such huge imbalances. The EU's trade deficit with China grew to $184bn last year, and would rise by another 20-25pc this year, Mr Abou said.

The market works its usual magic: "The world is rediscovering "Made in USA." American exports are now coursing their way around the world at a record level. In a major shift from the past five years, the US trade deficit, after stabilizing last year, is now shrinking. US companies, faced with slower economic growth in their home market, are now targeting foreign buyers. It doesn't hurt to have the dollar sinking in value - down almost 9 percent so far this year - and a relatively strong global economy. In fact, the US economy would be flirting with recession if it weren't for the 1 percentage point of growth fueled by the export surge. "Exports have suddenly become a key source of growth at a time when the economy is looking for any growth it can get," says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. [Past deficits caused a fall in the dollar -- which led to American goods being easier to sell aboad. A surprise only to non-economists]

TSA still a joke: "Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY. Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows."

Democrats tell business to pay up or else: "The late Milton Friedman used to rail against what he called corporate America's "suicidal impulse." By that he meant that the business community continually financed the very politicians who were intent on robbing their profits and slitting their throats. It's happening again. The latest quarterly Federal Election Commission Report on political giving, released this week, shows the majority of corporate money flowing to the Democrats. Firms like Comcast, General Electric, Federal Express and UPS have shifted campaign giving away from the GOP. Employees of five major defense contractors including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrup-Grumman spent $104,000 on Democratic presidential candidates, versus $88,800 for the Republican field.... Sen. Charles Schumer runs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and is playing the role of "good cop" when he dials Wall Street donors. As one hedge-fund manager tells me: "Senator Schumer says on the phone, 'I can make your problems go away.' " Of course, the Democrats created the problems. Mr. Schumer has raised at least $2 million this year from managers at leading PE firms like Carlyle and Blackstone Group"

There is a new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up -- on his usual vastly incorrect themes of race and IQ.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Immense Israeli restraint in the face of vast Arab incompetence

Two years ago, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led his country in a fateful decision to "disengage" from Gaza, uprooting 8,500 Jewish residents, many born in Gaza and some domiciled there for nearly four decades. Sharon did this because, as he put it to 1.3 million Palestinian Gazans,

"...it is not in our interest to govern you... we would like you to govern yourselves in your own country, a democratic Palestinian state."

Sharon held out hope that if things worked out in Gaza, he would move to withdraw from the West Bank as well. That this hope has turned to literal ashes is now well known.

Not only has a viable Palestinian government willing to live in peace and security with Israel failed to materialize, Hamas, a terrorist group whose charter explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel, won legislative elections and forcibly drove Fatah rivals out of Gaza. Gaza has become the locus for blatant acts of war against Israel, including repeated Qassam rocket barrages against Israeli residential areas and recurring efforts to infiltrate suicide bombers. Twelve Israeli civilians have died and countless thousands have been dislocated by these missiles. In the early hours of September 11, one rocket launched from Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza hit an Israeli basic training camp in Zikim, wounding fifty military recruits. Israeli Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped inside Israel and is being held prisoner inside Gaza. Hamas has smuggled in large quantities of weapons through the porous Egyptian border. Twenty tons of materiel entered Gaza in July 2007 alone, and the IDF now believes that Hamas possesses anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tank rockets, most likely Sagger guided missiles.

On September 18, the Israeli cabinet voted unanimously to juridically recognize these facts: it declared that a terrorist organization has turned Gaza into "hostile territory." This declaration opens the way for Israeli authorities, at a time and in a measure of their choosing, to reduce the amount of electricity, water, and fuel they have continued to supply to Gaza since Israel's departure two years ago. [Egypt, during its entire occupation of the territory from 1948-67, never developed Gaza's energy infrastructure, leaving the strip destitute and primitive. Israel's integration of Gaza into its supply grid has allowed Gazans to develop their industry and agriculture.]

Despite the deliberative tone of the cabinet's decision -- it noted that "sanctions will be enacted following a legal examination, while taking into account both the humanitarian aspects relevant to the Gaza Strip and the intention to avoid a humanitarian crisis" -- critics hastened to denounce the move. One United Nations official interviewed on Israeli Army Radio termed the decision "collective punishment," and "a violation of international law," while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared that any interruption in the utilities would be "contrary to Israel's obligations towards the civilian population under international humanitarian and human rights law."

The UN statements were, typically, hysterical in tone and dead wrong on the law. If Gaza is territory under the control of the enemy -- as it manifestly is under Hamas -- then the Israeli government is both within its rights and arguably obliged by its responsibilities to its citizens to treat the strip as "hostile territory." Siege and blockade of a hostile territory is a legitimate tactic of war, used in declared and undeclared (e.g., Cuban) conflicts and explicitly recognized by the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The Conventions' sole limitation is that there be "free passage of all consignments of food-stuffs, clothing and tonics intended for children under fifteen, expectant mothers, and maternity cases" (Fourth Convention, art. 23) -- and even this exception was conditioned on there being "no reasons for fearing... [t]hat a definite advantage may accrue to the military efforts or economy of the enemy" (for example, if resources destined for humanitarian aid will be commandeered by the enemy). Israel has carefully respected this requirement.....

To the joy of Hamas, Gaza is now Judenrein. But it is a miserable place. Its residents, having voted for a regime that is waging war on Israel, must now suffer the consequences of their electoral (and military) support of the terrorist group. Of course, a cut-off of electricity, water, and fuel, might strengthen the extremists among them, so Israeli authorities are wise to weigh their actions carefully. But if they choose to reduce supplies to their enemy -- a measure far less aggressive than a military takeover -- they are absolutely legally entitled to do so. If Palestinians wish to claim equality among the nations of the world, they should expend energies building a state at peace with its neighbor and supplying its citizens with basic services, rather than devoting themselves to destroying their neighbor and then carping about the standard of living that Israelis allegedly owe them.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

TSA still hopeless -- after 6 years : "The Department of Homeland Security has made some progress in making air travel more secure but has yet to implement recommended improvements in screening passengers and air cargo, a Senate panel was told Tuesday. Although it has made progress in inspecting checked baggage and securing some mass transit systems, the Transportation Security Administration has not implemented a government-run program to match passenger information against terrorist watch lists, leaving some airlines to rely on foreign contractors to carry out the vetting, said Cathleen A. Berrick, director of homeland security at the Government Accountability Office. TSA also currently lacks the technology to detect explosives on passengers, carry-on baggage and foreign cargo traveling on passenger planes, she said."

Britain. Revolt against atheist bishops: "The Church of England is facing a rift similar to that in the US Church after hundreds of leading evangelical clergy were told to invite bishops from outside their dioceses to carry out ordinations. Members of the 1,700-strong Reform group were told at their conference that they must not be afraid to ignore the wishes of their diocesan bishop if he refused to ordain conservative evangelical clergy. The advice mirrors the situation in the US, where conservatives have even had their own bishops ordained by evangelical Archbishops from Global South provinces such as Uganda. The Rev Rod Thomas, the group's new chairman, urged his members to resist the Church of England's "increasingly liberal agenda".

Attack on British drinkers: "According to the report, men who drink between 22 and 50 units of alcohol per week, and women who drink between 15 and 35 are most likely to reside in middle-class suburbs such as Harrogate and Runnymede. The news has been followed by the predictable clamouring of society's new high priests – the interventionist scientists – calling for the government to raise alcohol taxes in order to discourage consumption. Fears that the health service will come under unmanageable pressure as a result have been used as arguments for new government intervention to stop this social 'crisis'. It would be refreshing if these scientific puritans would finally realise that the NHS does not exist for their own intellectual titillation, but to serve its customers – the British people. We are not there to make its life easier, but vice versa. To constantly try and mould individuals into a convenient model for a failing health system is both misguided and draconian public policy."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Africans are less intelligent than Westerners, says DNA pioneer

Fury that anybody would say publicly what every single scientific study of the subject has shown

One of the world's most eminent scientists was embroiled in an extraordinary row last night after he claimed that black people were less intelligent than white people and the idea that "equal powers of reason" were shared across racial groups was a delusion. James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in the unravelling of DNA who now runs one of America's leading scientific research institutions, drew widespread condemnation for comments he made ahead of his arrival in Britain today for a speaking tour at venues including the Science Museum in London.

The 79-year-old geneticist reopened the explosive debate about race and science in a newspaper interview in which he said Western policies towards African countries were wrongly based on an assumption that black people were as clever as their white counterparts when "testing" suggested the contrary. He claimed genes responsible for creating differences in human intelligence could be found within a decade.

The newly formed Equality and Human Rights Commission, successor to the Commission for Racial Equality, said it was studying Dr Watson's remarks "in full". Dr Watson told The Sunday Times that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really". He said there was a natural desire that all human beings should be equal but "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".

His views are also reflected in a book published next week, in which he writes: "There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so."

The furore echoes the controversy created in the 1990s by The Bell Curve, a book co-authored by the American political scientist Charles Murray, which suggested differences in IQ were genetic and discussed the implications of a racial divide in intelligence. The work was heavily criticised across the world, in particular by leading scientists who described it as a work of "scientific racism"....

Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr Watson's remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws. A spokesman for the 1990 Trust, a black human rights group, said: "It is astonishing that a man of such distinction should make comments that seem to perpetuate racism in this way. It amounts to fuelling bigotry and we would like it to be looked at for grounds of legal complaint."

More here

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Amazing projection: "In a move eerily reminiscent of the Soviet "peace offensives", 138 leading Muslim scholars have composed a letter to Christianity's leaders, with Pope Benedict's name heading the list, requesting a meeting to discuss the "common essentials of our two religions." The authors warn that "the survival of the world" is at stake if the two religions do not make peace, which, the Muslim authors believe, is possible since the basis of Islam and Christianity is "the two commandments of love." While it is at least admirable that these learned representatives of Islam acknowledge that their religion is at war with Christianity (since much of the Christian world is in denial), the main sticking point, the letter makes clear, is the aggressive nature of Christianity. The Muslim scholars emphasize that: "As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them - so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes."

Islamic Tolerance in the Islamic Republic: "A Christian couple were flogged in Iran for participating in an "underground Church", an Iranian Christian group said in a report on its website earlier this week. The unnamed couple were arrested on September 21, 2005, the report said, adding that a Revolutionary Court reviewed their case in July 2007. Even though the couple had decided to marry seven years ago, the country's marriage laws - which prohibit the union of ex-Muslims and members of other religious minorities -- prevented them from obtaining a certificate of marriage. The report said that the woman was born a Christian in an Assyrian-Iranian family and the man was a convert to Christianity prior to getting married. The court ruled that both the man and the woman were Mortad, a description of someone who has committed apostasy by leaving Islam."

US loses cotton subsidies fight: "The US could face billions of dollars in trade sanctions for failing to scrap illegal subsidies paid to American cotton growers. The World Trade Organisation ruling is a victory for Brazil's cotton industry and for West African states which say the payments harmed their producers. Brazil hailed the ruling, saying US subsidies had hit world prices, hurting farmers in Brazil and elsewhere. But US officials believe the payments comply with international trade rules."

San Francisco jail folly: "While the public clamors for safer streets and a crackdown on quality-of-life crimes, San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey is quietly allowing scores of drug users and petty thieves to walk out of jail early so they don't have to sleep on the floor. The early releases were ordered last week even as all but one wing of a 360-bed County Jail at San Bruno sat empty, the result of budget and staff shortages. It's just the latest wrinkle in San Francisco's revolving-door justice system, and it helps explain why - despite the public furor - it's so hard to keep petty criminals behind bars. "If they keep bringing more people in for low-risk crimes, at some point I'm not even going to take them," Hennessey said. "And that point is coming up pretty darn soon."

Frequent abuse of the Violence against Women act: "The restraining order issue is a nightmare. The father is booted out of the marital home and pushed to the margins of his children’s lives. The orders are often based on false accusations, and are used as custody maneuvers or as punitive measures by angry soon-to-be-ex-wives. Some judges simply rubber stamp protection order requests. One example is the David Letterman case from a couple years ago, where a judge granted a lunatic woman a restraining order against Letterman because she said he was sending her harassing messages through his TV broadcasts. District Judge Daniel Sanchez, who issued the order, explained, “If [applicants] make a proper pleading, then I grant it.” As if what matters is not the accused’s guilt or innocence, but instead whether the accuser knows how to fill out a form properly. Other judges may doubt the veracity of the charges but nevertheless decide to “err on the side of caution” by granting them. VAWA and VAWA-funded DV service providers have contributed greatly to the restraining order problem."

Gore rules out presidential bid: "Former US Vice-President Al Gore has ruled out again making a late entry into the 2008 presidential race. ... Gore, the beaten Democratic candidate in the 2000 election, had repeatedly stated he had no interest in standing again for president. But a national organisation which has campaigned for him to stand once more for the White House said traffic on its website had surged in the wake of his Nobel triumph."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Feminists are sexy, rubbishy study finds

Stupid propaganda only below:

Popular stereotypes of feminists as unattractive and sexually unappealing are wrong -- in fact feminism may improve romantic relationships, a new study suggests. The findings, by Laurie Rudman and Julie Phelan of Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J., appear this week in the research journal Sex Roles.

Rudman and Phelan surveyed 242 American college students and 289 older adults. They examined people's perception of their own feminism and its link to relationship health, measured by a combination of overall relationship quality, agreement about gender equality, relationship stability and sexual satisfaction.

Feminism was linked to healthier heterosexual relationships for women, they found, while men with feminist partners reported more stable relationships and greater sexual satisfaction.

The findings provided no evidence for the notion that females who champion women's rights are likelier to be single or lesbian than others, Rudman and Phelan added. Indeed, they found that feminist women were more likely to be in a heterosexual romantic relationship than nonfeminist women.

Source. Journal abstract here.

This study is a prize example of how deeply unserious and totally unscholarly most psychological research is. It draws inferences about whole population subgoups ("feminists") from groups of respondents that are ludicrously unrepresentative of any known population. The use of an accessible group of undergraduate students is simply boring. We all know that students can usually be relied on to give the "right" answers to questionnaires. But in this case an even more unrepresentative group of respondents was also used: 289 respondents to an online questionnaire. Who answers online questionnaires? Heaven knows. That their responses will differ from the vast majority who do not answer computer surveys seems more than a little likely, however.

The plain boring old truth is that facts about a group can only be gleaned either by surveying the whole group or a representative sample of them. As there was no attempt at any kind of representative sampling on this occasaion, no inferences can be drawn from the results. In my own psychological research, I almost invariably used general population sampling but I was one of the very few who were interested enough in truth to do so.

I showed years ago that a major feminist myth was the reverse of the truth when examined on a general population sample so I have little doubt what a serious examination of the hypothesis allegedly examined above would show.

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ELSEWHERE

Money not good for marriage: "Wealth has many perks: great vacations, beautiful houses and nice cars. But if its marital bliss you're looking for, don't expect money to help. Almost half of America's rich say they're unhappy in marriage, a study found. What's worse: More than that say they've been unfaithful in the last three years. Of those confessing to an affair, more were women (61%) than men (43%). The reason cited most frequently by both sexes: variety. That's according to Prince and Associates, a Connecticut firm that tracks the habits of the rich. They asked 433 breadwinners (56% male and 44% female) with a net worth over $1 million about their relationships. Thirty-eight percent of the participants had a net worth of $10 million or more. So it's probably not a surprise that 30% of Prince's survey group said they were considering a divorce. Most men responding to the Prince & Associates survey (75%) said cost is their main obstacle to getting a divorce, and 61.5% said they feared it would hurt business dealings and opportunities. Just 7.7% of men cited harm to the kids" [Caution: No information about sampling method]

GWB defends free trade: "Alarmed by slipping support for free trade even among Republicans, President Bush is arguing that protectionism will cut Americans out of chances for more - and better - jobs. Bush has launched a blitz on behalf of pending free trade pacts with four nations. He continued the push Saturday in his weekly radio address "More exports support better and higher-paying jobs," the president said. "And to keep our economy expanding, we need to keep expanding trade."

Norwegian Government to Companies: Include 40 % Women on Boards or be Dissolved: "The left-leaning government of Norway has issued an ultimatum to businesses: increase the number of women on the board of directors or be dissolved. 140 Norwegian companies must increase the number of women on their boards of directors to 40 per cent or face state-enforced dissolution, according to the Norwegian news service Aftenposten".

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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The Leftist hatred of Israel IS antisemitism (Jew-hatred)

And Jews who hate their Jewish identity are all too common. They don't like being in a hated group so they join the haters in an effort to cast off that identity

Antisemitism (AS), like any other prejudice, is the unfair treatment of individuals based on group characteristics. In academia, antisemitic prejudice operated in various vicious forms before the defeat of Hitler, the most notable example being the prejudicial treatment of German Jewish academics. In the years after the war, and until recently, this sort of prejudice was essentially eliminated at least at an organizational or institutional level not only in European and Australian universities, but also in North American universities..... During the last decade, however, some subtle forms of AS have arisen in the democracies of the free world. I regard the move by various academic organizations and institutions to boycott all Israeli academics in such matters as academic contacts, appointments to editorial boards, and collaboration in internationally funded research, as underpinned by antisemitism, even though some Jews have supported the boycott.

Let me give you the background, which you might like to supplement with the list of boycott highlights I have provided at the end of your handout. The academic anti-Israeli boycott began in April, 2002 on British soil, when The Guardian published an open letter from Professors Steven and Hilary Rose (both are Jews). The letter, signed by over 120 people, advocated a moratorium on all cultural and research links with Israel until Israel changed its internal policies which were labeled an apartheid regime, and its external policies such as the way it dealt with the problem of the so-called militant Palestinian freedom fighters. A few weeks later, a similar initiative was begun in Australia, headed by a Jewish and a Christian Lebanese academic, and this letter initially secured some 90 signatures. The proposers set up a petition online, which is still registering signatures (about 3000 so far).

The first thing that struck me about this proposed boycott is that this action against individuals because of the policies of their government is not proposed for academics living under governments whose policies are far more objectionable than Israel's. It is this feature that makes me suspect that this boycott is antisemitic rather than merely anti-Israel or anti-Zionist. For example, no boycotts have been proposed of Chinese academics on account of the Chinese government's policies toward Tibetans and the Falun Gong. This boycott applies a double standard, in a prejudicial way, and singles out members of the Jewish state for special treatment.

We are all familiar with double standards when it comes to judgments of Israel. A particularly notable application of the double standard occurred when Louise Arbour the U. N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Canadian member of the Supreme Court argued that if Israeli (but no other soldiers) accidentally killed civilians, they should, in her expert opinion, be charged with war crimes. The 2nd and 3rd web references under the first claim analyse Arbour's opinion in some detail, and I think this is justified, given the status and supposed legal expertise of this former supreme court judge.

But rather than cite other examples of the double standard that is applied to Israel, let me just refer to a recent statement by Nobel prize winning physicist Steven Weinberg, who declined an invitation from the Imperial College London because of its support for the boycott. This Nobel laureate wrote: "I know that some will say that these boycotts are directed only against Israel, rather than generally against Jews," he wrote. "But given the history of the attacks on Israel and the oppressiveness and aggressiveness of other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, boycotting Israel indicated a moral blindness for which it is hard to find any explanation other than anti-Semitism."

Much more here

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Big rise in serious British crime: "Deployments of armed police have increased by 53 per cent in a decade, according to the Home Office. The number of incidents rose from 12,379 in 1996-97 to 18,891 in 2005-06. In London, the number rose from 2,439 to 4,711 while in the West Midlands it went from 270 to 1,044."

Oh to be a Muslim in Britain, and to enjoy the fruits of being a protected class: "Politically correct MoD officials are to issue free hijabs to female Muslim troops - while front line soldiers are having to buy their own kit. Under new service dress regulations, six of the Islamic hijabs will be given to each Muslim servicewoman wanting them. But it has sparked fury amid an MoD cash crisis. Squaddies also claim the hand-out is unfair as they pay out of their own pockets to observe strict military dress rules. The Sun can also reveal that so far, NONE of the ten serving female Muslims even wants to wear hijabs at work. But MoD officials have ordered a batch of 95 - costing hundreds to the taxpayer - just in case new recruits do. One serving NCO told The Sun last night: "It's stupid officials being too PC again, spending money on pointless things rather than on the front line."... Earlier this year squaddies in Iraq were forced to buy their own kit. One dog handler forked out 85 pounds for new boots after his feet were left in agony by ill-fitting kit."

Israeli medics treat Iraqi Arabs: "Israeli doctors screened 40 Iraqi children suffering from heart disease Tuesday - a rare case of direct cooperation between the Jewish state and the Arab country. The doctors said they hoped their work would help improve relations between the two Mideast nations and ease tensions between Israel and the rest of the Arab world.... The Iraqi children and their parents gathered at an outpatient clinic in the Red Crescent Hospital in the Jordanian capital, Amman. Most of the families were Sunni Muslims of Kurdish origin who live in northern Iraq. Also among them were three Sunni families who live in Baghdad. One child screened Tuesday was 4-year-old Mustafa, who Houri said was diagnosed with crossed arteries and would need two surgeries in Israel soon to unfold them before they harden. Mustafa's mother, a Kurdish woman who identified herself only as Suzanne because she feared reprisals from militants in Iraq, said traveling to Israel made her "anxious. Not because I'm going to a country considered an enemy of Iraq, but because I'm afraid of retribution by Iraqi militants, by the terrorists back home." "Israel is a good country. It's a country that has mercy on other people," she added. Abu Ahmed, 36, a taxi driver from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said his 12-year-old daughter, Basita, underwent a successful surgery in Israel last year. "The Israeli doctors, bless their hearts, stitched a notch in her heart," he said. "They told me today that she recovered completely, and I'm grateful to them and their country for helping us out."

Why the Left hates America: "America has been enormously beneficial to the World. Technological and scientific contributions aside, she saved the World in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War with her own blood, stamina, resolve, convictions and material resources. One of the results was the effective democratization of Germany, Italy and Japan, the three bestial aggressors of WWII. Another result was the effective containing worldwide of Soviet Expansionism and the collapse of the Soviet Empire, along with the democratization of Eastern Europe. In a period of about ten years, America had liberated diminutive Grenada and little Panama, stopped pro-Soviet-communist expansionism in Central America, expelled Saddam Hussein’s hordes out of Kuwait, and defused the conflict in the Balkans. In less than a two-year span, America had freed 30 million Afghanis from the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and 27 millions of Iraqis, from Saddam Hussein. In the process, America had given Afghanis and Iraqis the opportunity to, for the first time in their more than 5,000 years of history, breathe the fresh breeze of effective democracy".

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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RECENTLY UP ON ICJS

Dawkins's views on the Jewish Lobby
The Camel in the Tent
Martyrs of the middle classes
JI splinters now threaten Aussies
Security and Defense: Goodwill gesture or kiss of death?
Academic Freedom and sloppy research
Rudd vows to charge Iran leader
Bring him to justice
Young Somalis lured home by Al-Qa'ida
The Left among us like victimhood
Islamic cleric preaching 'extremism, hate'
YUSRA

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ELSEWHERE



One reason why you should make the subject line on your emails short and to the point: "When her computer pinged the arrival of her 30,000th unanswered e-mail, Vanessa Fox dared to fulfil the office worker's darkest fantasy: she declared "e-mail bankruptcy" and deleted them all. Fox, an internet strategist for online property company Zillow, said she felt both "terror and relief" as her inbox registered zero for the first time in a decade, then horror as it started filling up again at a rate of 1,000 e-mails a day. The Seattle-based strategist, who formerly worked for web giant Google, says e-mail overload is a problem she cannot easily solve. "Anyone working in an office knows the feeling of guilt about not answering all the serious e-mails," said Fox, 35."

More BBC deception: "The creative director of the BBC is embroiled in a new crisis over alegations that he presented the film of an American director as his own work. Alan Yentob has been accused of presenting a film about a reclusive 1960s pop star as his own when the interview was in fact conducted by Stephen Kijak, a US film-maker. Viewers who have seen the film on Scott Walker, part of Yentob's Imagine series on BBC1, claim the programme was a "shameful deception" because it left the impression that Yentob had done the interview. The BBC insists Yentob - who has said there can be "artifice without deception" - has done nothing wrong and used standard industry practice by editing Kijak out of his own film. The controversy, however, raises new questions about widespread broadcasting techniques."

The unhappy French: "It is sometimes the case that Britons living in France, or dreaming of doing so, are blissfully unaware of the extent to which France is a stressed and unhappy nation. Seduced by summer images of elderly men playing boules, the cafe culture, and lunches of seemingly limitless duration, it is easy to forget that France is a functioning society with all the problems and complexities that that entails. The French are popping anti-depressants at an extraordinary rate. It is estimated that 3.5 per cent of the population are taking medication for depression at any given time. While this might be good news for the drug manufacturers (some of whom are French), it does paint rather a worrying picture of the general mental state of the nation. The suicide rate in France is amongst the highest in the industrialised world. At 17.6 per 100,000 head of population it is around 2.5 times the rate of the UK." [Unsustainable arrogance has its price]

FEMA aiming for even bigger bungles: "The Federal Emergency Management Agency is quietly drawing up plans for a handful of disasters: devastating earthquakes beneath San Francisco and St. Louis and catastrophic storms in South Florida and Hawaii, FEMA's chief said Thursday. In a departure from its traditional expectation that states develop such responses, the agency is forming "base plans" for responding to specific calamities, FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. FEMA officials expect to finish plans for a massive Bay Area quake by the end of the year and are at work on another response blueprint for a large quake on the New Madrid fault, which runs from southern Illinois to northeastern Arkansas and lurks beneath St. Louis, Paulison said."

Unionists taking last chance to get realistic: "Two labor strikes this fall have been short, but the outcome is still tough for auto workers: After years of rising pay and benefits, the tide has turned the other way. The next generation of United Auto Workers will receive lower pay and benefits than their predecessors, judging by the contracts reached or ratified this week. If there's a big pattern in the current round of auto-industry bargaining, that's it. Officially, pay cuts aren't part of the deals. But the launch of a two-tier system, offering many new hires lower wages, raises the curtain on an era when overall pay will be lower. In benefits, a new contract ratified by UAW workers this week allows General Motors to contribute to a cash-balance retirement plan for new entry-level workers, rather than providing a guaranteed pension. Meanwhile, in deals cut this year and in 2005, union workers and retirees will be shouldering more of the rising costs for healthcare, and the companies less. All this marks a major shift for a union that has often set a standard for organized labor nationwide. This time, too, the labor trend in Detroit could have spillover effects beyond the auto industry."

The religion of peace in Nigeria: "Militant Islamists in this city in the northern state of Borno have sent three letters to a church warning that members would be attacked in the next few days, raising tensions where 50 Christians were killed and 57 churches destroyed last year. Leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria told Compass that the letters were dropped onto the premises of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN), in the Polo Area of Maiduguri, on separate days last week. Mosque calls to prayer were sounded at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. last night, hours when Muslims do not usually observe prayers, putting police and security agencies on alert. By 6 this morning, police armored tanks were patrolling the streets to thwart any plans to attack Christians."

There is a big new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up -- on his usual vastly incorrect themes of race and IQ.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL 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 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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Is Hillary stealing the GOP's thunder?

Not sure about this but it's a theory

The person who is elected president will need concrete proposals, but the G.O.P. contenders scarcely have them. Mike Huckabee has some sketchy plans. John McCain answered one element of middle-class anxiety yesterday with his new health care plan. Others seem to have decided concrete proposals are for geeks. In this way, the Republican Party has abandoned the Hamiltonian ground. It has lost intimate contact with the working-class dreamer who longs to make good.

Instead this ground is being seized by a Democrat. Over the past few months, Hillary Clinton has issued a string of specific policy programs aimed directly at members of the aspiring middle class. Yesterday, it was a tax credit for college. Earlier in the week, Clinton offered a plan to give families down the income scale access to 401(k)-style plans. Right now, 75 million workers have no employee-sponsored pension accounts. The way our tax code is structured, people up the income ladder get big tax incentives to save, while working people, who have the most trouble saving, get the smallest incentives.

Under the Clinton plan, if a family making up to $60,000 a year put $1,000 into a new 401(k) account, they would get a $1,000 matching tax credit. The plan would create millions of new investors. Struggling families could choose mutual fund options and participate in the capital markets. They'd be encouraged to move away from a month-to-month mentality to a saving-for-the-future mentality.

Clinton's plan poaches on economic values that used to be associated with the Republican Party. Moreover, it undermines the populist worldview that is building on the left of her party. Instead of railing against globalization and the economic royalists, Clinton gives working people access to Wall Street and a way to profit from the global economy.

No Republican would design asset-building plans the way Clinton does. No Republican would pay for them the way she does. But at least she has a middle-class agenda. Right now, the general election campaign looks like it's going to be a replay of the S-chip debate. The Democrats propose something, and the Republicans have no alternative.

Source

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Fascist airports in America: "I do a tremendous amount of flying commercially, most of it internationally, and there is almost nothing about air travel that promises the convenience and relaxation it had many years ago. But, beyond all of this unpleasantness it is today painfully obvious that an air passenger--once inside the confines of an airport in any part of the world--has no rights whatsoever. This includes not even the right to be protected from security and law enforcement personnel who do not seem to understand any force other than deadly force. Security, police, and passenger screening personnel in any airport have near-dictatorial powers and almost limitless discretion to decide who needs to be put into a chokehold and thrown into a windowless room until someone can decided what set of ridiculously overblown charges need to be leveled against them".

Iran's War on Women: "When the women of Iran risk their own lives and that of their children and husbands to commit an illegal act of assembly for a peaceful demonstration against the unjust laws of the Islamist regime, they hope that the world is listening and supports them in their struggle for freedom and emancipation. But the world seems to be turning a blind eye to their pleas and when they get beaten, arrested and thrown in prisons, not a single government or NGO make an attempt to speak out in defense of their human rights."

Circumventing regulatory corruption in Chattanooga: "The Driver chuckled at the question. He liked chatting with new people. He enjoyed being on the move. He wanted to start a business where he could be self-sufficient, set his own hours, and build towards something a little bit bigger than he started with. "I used to drive a regular cab and wanted to keep doing it, but the hoops they make you jump through to get certified are crazy and way out of my budget," he said. The more he tried to play by the rules, though, he said, the more the city regulators seemed to enjoy shutting him out. The board that grants licenses in Chattanooga is partially run by local cab company owners -- would-be competitors, in other words. It's a process that, if not actually corrupt, at least gives the impression corruption is a distinct possibility, as even local press and politicians have begun to note. So he bought a limousine instead. The regulations are much less onerous, and he now happily ferries gobsmacked travelers in absurd luxury for the same rate as a cab.

Condy gets it: "Rice, on her way to Moscow, accused Iran of "lying" about the aim of its nuclear program and deceiving the U.N.'s atomic watchdog about its intentions. "There is an Iranian history of obfuscation and, indeed, lying to the IAEA," Rice said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency. U.S. officials long have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons behind the facade of a civil atomic energy program, charges Tehran denies. The Bush administration is pushing for new sanctions to punish Iran, but has yet to gather enough backing at the U.N. for such a move."

Democrat elite show their opinion of the workers: "They are worlds apart: the brash, gun-loving, God-fearing, Southern fans of Nascar racing, and the button-downed, suit-wearing political elite in Washington. But the loathing of the Nascar crowd for the inhabitants of Capitol Hill has reached new heights after the decision by Washington political aides to get inoculated before attending a race this weekend. To compound the error, the aides in question are Democrats, a party that has been so keen to regain the votes of white Southern males that it has even given them their own demographic term: "Nascar Dads". The decision to get immunisations, against hepatitis, tetanus and diphtheria, is as much a political blunder as a cultural clash."

Some cojones in Germany after all: "Ashkan Dejagah, the Iranian-born German soccer player who sparked an international controversy for his refusal to play in Israel, has been permanently suspended from the German Under-21 team, Theo Zwanziger, the president of the German Football Association (DFB) announced on Thursday. In his meeting with Israel Football Association chairman Avi Luzon, Zwanziger seemingly backtracked from a statement he made earlier in the week in which he supported the Dejagah's right to refuse to play, saying instead that the DBA "will not let this slide; he will be taken care of and suspended." The decision comes one day after a spokesperson for the German government condemned Delagah's position."

No cojones in Britain. They aim to desecrate Christian graves on behalf of Muslims: "A third of a million bodies could be dug up from a historic east London cemetery to make way for a new Muslim burial site. Tower Hamlets council is considering reopening its Cemetery Park in Mile End in response to a long-running campaign for a Muslim graveyard in the area. The park, off Bow Common Lane, was deconsecrated as a Church of England cemetery by Parliament in 1966, after being deemed full with about 350,000 bodies buried there...."

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