ELSEWHERE

An honest politician at last! All the newly-elected President of Argentina is offering is fresh air: “We are going to bring some fresh Patagonian air to the capital to engineer a change," he said late Thursday.”

Somewhat to my surprise, there is a rather sensible editorial in USA Today about the Jayson Blair affair. It says that it may be justifiable to let minorities in the door under affirmative action programs but once they have been accepted into the institution they should be judged by the same criteria as anyone else. That would be a big improvement on doing anything to keep the minority numbers up -- which is what the usual system seems to be.

Caerdroia has a good formulation of what he thinks is the essential nature of America. He is obviously right but much of the rest of the world is too mean and nasty to believe it.

A great way to encourage motorcycling -- should be more of it: "Motorcyclists would be free to run red lights if they exercise 'due care,' under a bill overwhelmingly approved by the state Senate yesterday. The legislation was needed because many new model motorcycles do not have enough metal in them to trigger magnetic sensors that tell some traffic lights to turn green, Sen. Bill Clabough, R-Maryville, the bill's sponsor, said. 'Many new bikes are almost all plastic, and they sit there for a long time' ..."

Wendy McElroy is very critical of male bashing -- the stereotyping of men as brutal, stupid or otherwise objectionable: "Our sons, husbands, fathers and men-friends are gleefully slandered because they are male. They are subjected to malicious jokes and attitudes that would be decried if directed at blacks, Hispanics or women."

"As we observe the current frenzy of lawyers preparing to sue McDonald's and Burger King -- and even suing Kraft Foods, the maker of Oreos -- for allegedly causing their clients to suffer from obesity, we cannot help but wonder what lunatics have taken over the U.S. legal system.

One antiwar protestor sees part of the picture anyway: “"The most unsavory part of being against the war, for me, is the company one has to keep on the barricades. It's most uncomfortable being surrounded by Greens, socialists, effete literati, Hollywood bleeding hearts, European politicians, animal-rights protesters and a vast assortment of other wacko leftists who I'd forgotten were even still alive.”

Chris Brand notes that in Britain whites are guilty if blacks fail at school.

Michael Darby notes that if you really want to protect the environment, the first thing you have to do is to protect private property rights.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with lots of interesting posts.

In my academic posting of May 17th here, I give chapter and verse on the strange contortions academic psychologists go through in order to see in their research results some shred of support for Leftist beliefs.

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PUTIN TALKS THE TALK

This should make Vlad think: "At least 14 people were reported dead in Chechnya yesterday when the second suicide bombing in two days narrowly failed to kill the Moscow- backed head of the local administration. The bombing came as Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, held talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Iraq and international terrorism, and just two days after a suicide bomber blew up an administration and security service building a few miles from the Russian border”.

And apparently it has. In his latest speech. he listed Russia's declining population, poverty, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism as among its most severe problems. He said Russia's bloated bureaucracy must be cut. But in a country that has seen political turmoil and constant change for 15 years, Putin warned against reform for reform's sake. “There cannot be a permanent revolution,'' he said. Also on Friday, Putin spoke with President Bush by phone about the need to increase joint anti-terrorism efforts.

Best of all, Russia now wants to make sure Iran does not develop nuclear weapons. Since Russia supplies Iran with its reactors, they are in a position to get their way there.

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“BOURGEOIS” BLOGGERS FRUSTRATE A LEFTY CABAL

Most amusing: A Guardian/BBC journalist purports to identify the most influential bloggers around without mentioning a single conservative/libertarian blogger that I could recognize. Apparently even Instapundit’s 100,000 hits a day do not count! He then attacks bloggers as a “a self-referential group of average intellects” and implies that they are all “bourgeois”. Finally, he compares bloggers unfavourably with “proper journalists who know what having principles means, who aim for objectivity while accepting that it is unattainable”. What a laugh!! That a cabal of Lefty hacks has principles and aims at objectivity is definitely the best joke that I have heard for a while. But clearly we bloggers are beginning to annoy the cabal so that is good.

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ELSEWHERE

The WSJ has uncovered a truly huge fraud by Leftist psychologists (in defence of affirmative action) that we will surely be hearing a lot more about. It could even shoot down entirely the University of Michigan’s current Supreme Court defence of its racial favouritism.

A German economist describes the German economy as “the sick man of Europe”. They wouldn’t have a socialist government, by any chance, would they? But they are learning something from experience: They now seem to be edging towards agreeing with the US position over Iraq.

Another big airport screening bungle in the US! The US government is clearly a very poor protecter of the US public. A good thing so many of the US public own guns to defend themselves with.

What a marvellous story: An Indian bride got her groom sent to jail on her wedding day because he demanded money for marrying her! She is now deservedly an Indian national heroine.

The French have sent out a letter saying that the USA is slandering them: A White House official said the French allegation of an organised campaign was "utter nonsense". Quickly dubbed "the French letter," the missive became an object of derision and only heightened contempt for French actions. "It would be nice if the French foreign ministry would stop spreading lies about America, saying the Iraq war was about blood for oil and control of the Middle East," said another official.

Rather a good graphic about the continuing British Labour pary infatuation with European integration here.

Privatizing fish: New Scientist reports that we are running out of fish. A solution has been known for some time, resolving the "tragedy of the commons" in favour of private property rights. See here and here

Maybe we need to think about putting 'preservation orders' on the traditional two parent families... New Scientist reports some findings on the links between "Absent Fathers and Teen Pregnancy".... And biologists Martin Daly and Margo Wilson report that "A child is one hundred times more likely to be abused or killed by a stepparent than by a genetic parent."

China hand notes that many products now available in China -- things to kill mosquitoes and cockroaches, for example -- simply do not work and are essentially frauds.

Chris Brand has an extended commentary on TATU -- the Lesbian Russian pop singers.

The Wicked one reproduces a now rather famous defence of lowering taxes. And it’s pre-Reagan!

In my academic posting of May 16th about psychopathy, I report findings that should put a bomb under a major field of psychological research. But psychologists seldom read their journals and are good at ignoring what does not suit them so I doubt if the article had any impact at all. Google certainly has no references to it by other psychologists -- even though the article was published 20 years ago in a widely-circulated academic journal.

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CASTRO: A GREENIE HERO TOO

Via Aaron Oakley and Whacking day: "Our politically-correct Luddite fascist friends at the Green Left Weekly have published this sickening apology for Fidel Castro's brutal crackdown on dissidents. Oh, and there's this stirring defense of Castro's lovely worker's paradise, which is apparently being betrayed by those horrible brainwashed bastards who flee to the USA."

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“SHALOM” FOR ISRAEL

I post a lot on this blog that is in support of Israel and critical of Islam. Many Jewish bloggers do the same. I feel, however, that I should occasionally point out that I myself have no axe to grind in the matter. My ancestry is wholly Anglo-Celtic and I am an atheist from a Presbyterian background. But I do see the cause of Israel and the Jews as just and worthy. And as for the Arabs -- if I were religious I would think that they were Satan’s children, they are so destructive of both themselves and others. So:

Jeff Jacoby points to and applauds the warm support that evengelical Christians give to the State of Israel. Such Christians these days tend to see Judaism as part of their own tradition and defend it accordingly.

Arlene Peck has some pointed comments about the absurd “Roadmap” for Isaeli/Palestinian peace and sees in it an attempt at betrayal of Israel in the name of political correctness.

Writing on his “other” blog, China hand makes the important point that radical Islamists are a problem wherever they exist -- even in Islamic states. They always are and always will be vicious malcontents.

An Arab writes: "What makes Iraq's defeat a humiliating one, is not only the way the US chose to fight this dirty war, collect the spoils or reveal its 'wanted list' of Iraq's top alleged war criminals on decks of playing cards. The defeat was especially difficult because it exposed our incompetence." You said it buster

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ELSEWHERE

Concerning the NYT scandal, one of my readers writes: “Concerning the NY Times, here is an E-mail I sent to Clarence Page, a Black reporter from the Chicago Tribune: Last night on CNBC, you said you didn't believe Jayson Blair was treated differently than other reporters. If this is so, then the problem is much worse than I thought. If Affirmative Action was at fault, only 1/6 of stories from the Times would be suspect. If Affirmative Action is not at fault, 6/6 stories are suspect.”. I go for 6/6 myself!

I like this: The Harvard Divinity School is guilty of crimes against Arab literature: It published Jimmy Carter's autobiography in Arabic.

?????: A three-judge panel ruled that the word 'people' in the Second Amendment does not mean individuals."

LOL: "Those struggling to distinguish the small alpine country in Europe from Australia were dealt a blow when a kangaroo was hit by a car and killed in central Austria," the Associated Press reports from Vienna.

There is a rather appalling account of child-abuse in the name of political correctness on PC Watch.

It is interesting to compare how this story of child abuse within the Aboriginal community has been handled by the left liberal establishment compared with the Governor General situation. Has anyone been made to resign yet?

BARONESS Thatcher returned to politics last night with an attack on the French, whom she accused of collaborating with "enemies of the West" for short-term gain. In a one-off comeback speech in New York, which broke a medical ban on speaking in public, the former Conservative Prime Minister attacked those who use environmentalism, feminism and human rights campaigns to fight capitalism and the nation state. She praised Tony Blair, but above all President Bush, for overriding the "rot" that "paralysed" the United Nations.

What a heap of nonsense: "As the Senate begins debate on taxes today, the White House and its Senate allies have resurrected a plan to phase in a sharp reduction in the tax on dividends and then to undo the tax cuts after five years -- a proposal they believe could break the deadlock over the linchpin of President Bush's economic growth plan."

The Wicked one celebrates how a gun enabled a 75-year-old man to defend himself.

Chris Brand writes on the psychology of aging.

Michael Darby observes the anniversary of the sinking of an Australian hospital ship by the Japanese in WWII.

In my academic posting of May 15th here, I reproduce an article that showed Australian patriotism to be strong even in the ‘70s and shows that it is NOT allied to racism. It was however somewhat allied with various types of conservatism.

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DID THE LEFT WIN?

A good bit of sarcasm from Christopher Hitchens:
“So it turns out that all the slogans of the anti-war movement were right after all. And their demands were just. "No War on Iraq," they said_and there wasn't a war on Iraq. Indeed, there was barely a "war" at all. "No Blood for Oil," they cried, and the oil wealth of Iraq has been duly rescued from attempted sabotage with scarcely a drop spilled. Of the nine oil wells set ablaze by the few desperadoes who obeyed the order, only one is still burning and the rest have been capped and doused without casualties. "Stop the War" was the call. And the "war" is indeed stopping. That's not such a bad record. An earlier anti-war demand -- "Give the Inspectors More Time" -- was also very prescient and is also about to be fulfilled in exquisite detail.”

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ELSEWHERE

More glories of socialized medicine: A Welsh hospital has apologised to a mother today after doctors mistakenly stitched her three-year-old daughter's tongue to her gum.

Among the world’s larger economies, Australia is second only to the United States in competitiveness.

The WSJ has an encouraging range of reports suggesting that the big suicide attack in Saudi Arabia may have turned most of the Arab world against not only suicide bombers but even against the preachers of hate who encourage them.

"Prices for medical services have been rising faster than prices of other goods and services for as long as anyone can remember. But not all health care prices are rising. Although health care inflation is robust for those services paid by third-party insurance, prices are rising only moderately for services patients buy directly". Funnily enough!

The idea that communism gave us SARS seems a bit extravant at first but it is true when you look into it.

How awful for the Leftists. It looks like the Arab street might be becoming more sympathetic to American values now that Saddam has been toppled.

I never thought I would agree with that famous Leftie twister, Robert Fisk but he seems to have got it right when he refers to “The corrupt, feudal world of the House of Saud” and says that “The Saud family is a real House that Jack built. Its thousands of princes are sublimely unworthy of rule”. Hear here!

What fun! Saddam's favourite artist was an American -- and an American woman at that!

More strangeness in British politics: A prominent Conservative passionately wants Britain in the Eurozone and Labour figures are keeping Britain out! British Tories have totally lost touch with their own traditions.

The U.S. Congress looks set to approve the construction of Tactical nukes. Might be useful against North Korea. Nukes saved a lot of lives when used against Japan in WWII.

How sad for the Greenies and other “alternative” types: A “natural” herbal medicine used by the wise African natives seems to give heaps of their kids cancer.

Lots of bloggers seem to like this report from France -- about the coming doomsday for the French economy

Uganda's answer to corruption: “Inside the hot, stuffy hearing room, already two months into the case of forgotten bank accounts and unexplained fleets of luxury four-wheel drive vehicles, Justice Julie Sebutinde loses her temper - again. She wags her finger at the witnesses, employees of Uganda's notoriously corrupt tax authority. "Today, I am going to have you for lunch and supper," she barks”
Good to hear but too little too late I fear. The efforts of the good lady judge really just serve to show how universal corruption is there.

New Policy in Iraq to Authorize G.I.'s to Shoot Looters. About time!

The NYT had a gloat about This story because a Christian college got caught out having a fraud for a president but it is also a good example of Christian ethics rising above political considerations.

Michael Darby has a disturbing report about Western women enslaved in the disgusting kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Chris Brand (post of 14th) has his say about the corrupt black reporter on the NYT.

The Wicked one thinks Neal Boortz has got something when he says that the USA is now to a significant degree a police state -- mainly courtesy of the “liberals”, of course.

In my academic posting of May 14th here, I try to make my fellow psychologists think a bit outside the box -- unsuccessfully. The article never got published.

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IS ETHANOL BAD FOR YOUR CAR?

A reader has found that Leftists can oppose the use of ethanol as motor fuel when it suits them:

Although I certainly consider myself a "greenhouse skeptic" and am opposed to environmentalism-as-a-religion, I certainly have no objection to measures aimed at reducing air pollution or promoting energy conservation and energy security, ... provided they meet the normal economic and effectiveness criteria we should subject all government programmes to. Unfortunately the messy world of politics tends to make even common sense projects go astray. For a fascinating "micro" story about how politics and the media work. See this story about ethanol as a fuel substitute. Even if the greenhouse models of the IPCC were ultimately proven true, it is situations like this that make me cynical about politicians ability to resolve the problem in any case. The pillorying of nuclear energy by self described 'green' advocates is another larger example of perverse politics at work.

For more on biofuels see here and here

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IS CYCLING "GREEN"?

A Sydney reader writes:

Note this article about cycling in Sydney. It makes the point that pro-cycling policies aren't necessarily green.. although they are sold that way. For example in the Sydney Eastern suburbs where both I and the author (Tim Dare lives) ... promoting cycling mainly impacts public transport passenger flows ..not cars. In fact I would say foot travel and public transit would be the main "losers" to cycles as it would mainly be relatively short haul trippers who would be impacted.

Although bikes don't generate smog themselves presumably they can still add to it especially where bike/car traffic interfaces add to congestion, traffic hold ups etc. A lot of these "green solutions" when examined in detail are often not that green. Dare is quite correct in saying a lot of the forecast increase in cycle traffic is sheer hokum. For example in my area kilometres of new cycleway have been added... so the numbers look good... but most are merely painted "lanes" running on odd road stretches that were for one reason or another wider than normal lanes anyhow.. so these "new cycleways" are just spare roadspace that cyclists used before anyhow! I'm not against cycling or cycling being genuinely encouraged to improve transport or smog problems, just pseudo-solutions!

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ELSEWHERE

What a lot of pansies the British police have become: “Judges ordered a British teenager to pay $160 to a policeman for "mental anguish" after calling him "fat," He is not doing his job unless he is routinely called worse than that.

The various island nations of the Pacific receive more foreign aid per capita than almost anybody else. But, as usual, it has not helped their economic progress any. They are totally stagnant in fact.

Barbara Amiel does a detailed rebuttal of the Drabble dribble here. Excerpt: “when it comes to facts or ratiocination, she should be put in care”.

Paul Sheehan has some good criticisms of the media crusade against the unfortunate Peter Hollingworth. Excerpt: “A vast edifice of smears, accusations and fabrications has been constructed”.

The British Tories are total lost souls. They seem to think that the way to beat Labour is to be more Leftist than Labour! Their latest caper is a promise to abolish all university tution fees -- while Labour is taking the economically responsible course of putting the fees up! Britain is a strange place these days.

Shooting the messenger: A small group of minority politicians and prominent religious leaders in Florida is threatening a boycott of some of the state's largest industries in the hope of forcing the suspension of an achievement test that thousands of high school seniors (particularly blacks and Hispanics) recently failed. Sadly, however, scrapping the test will not make them any smarter or more employable.

And in New York even a lot of the teachers cannot pass basic competency tests!

"From a military perspective, the case for American withdrawal from NATO seems to have already been made. A number of commentators ... have pointed out that NATO is an anachronism rendered helpless by distrust and infighting. But there are also compelling economic grounds for American withdrawal. Simply, the American security guarantee perpetuates the continuation of the European welfare states and thus encourages economic sclerosis across the European continent. Thus NATO is not only useless, it's harmful”.

The Misanthropyst has a link to a truly breathtaking bit of stupidity about economics. It might have sounded sensible in 100 years ago but most of us have learnt a few things since then.

Michael Darby has high praise for John Howard.

The Wicked one thinks the Spanish Greenies have got their priorities right -- sex!

In my academic posting of May 13th here, I do my best to be polite about the bias against conservatives in academe.

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THE HOUNDING OF BISHOP PETER

I have forborne from commenting on the latest media circus about Australia’s Governor General because of its sheer absurdity but I suppose I should devote a few words to it. What has just happened is that he has been forced to take leave of absence because some woman identified him in a group photograph as the man who raped her 50 years ago. Not only is the claim an unsubstantiated allegation which any woman could have made against any man for any reason but it now emerges that he was not even in the photo she identified! The earlier charges against him were equally flimsy. From the very moment that John Howard recommended the appointment of an archbishop to such a senior governmental role the media sensed a “story” in it and were out to get him -- despite his outstanding and lifelong devotion to charitable works.

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ELSEWHERE

Great! Saddam’s appalling “Dr. Germ” has now been captured.

One thing that the now-famous Drabble dribble does clearly show is that you are not dealing with rationality when you are dealing with Leftism.

"After the Avondale Estates [GA] Historic Preservation Commission rejected Pike's plan to add a rounded front stoop to a house he's renovating, he called two painters Wednesday to paint the front of his house lime green, with large, purple polka dots .... Pike doesn't plan to stop at dots. Scattering old toilets filled with geraniums tops his to-do list." Good man!

Buchanan knows his history: "Why do they keep digging up the corpse of Joe McCarthy for a ritual flogging? The Wisconsin senator died in 1957. He never killed anyone. He never sent anyone to prison. Harry Truman dropped atomic bombs on two defenseless cities of a prostrate nation and sent 2 million Russian prisoners back to Stalin to be murdered in Operation Keelhaul. Yet Truman remains a hero to those who despise McCarthy with an undying hatred."

There is a newish New Zealand blog that ridicules life in that particular “worker’s paradise” rather well. To give you the flavour of it, he habitually refers to the New Zealand Herald as “The Daily Marxist”. I do find it pretty amazing that a “worker’s” government is spending millions on yacht racing -- particularly since they lost the last race to the Swiss, of all people.

U.S. airport security screening becomes a joke once again. Having the government protect you is very little protection indeed. They only want to look good. They don’t care about anything else.

"The leader of Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim group denounced the U.S.- led occupation forces Sunday and demanded they pull out. Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, made the call in this predominantly Shiite city despite the presence of a squad of U.S. Marines who were protecting him." Is there any hope for these loonies?

Poor old Michael Totten! The only thing he could think of that the Left could teach the Right is the desirability of Persian film festivals. The mind boggles!

“Two men came into Junkers Tavern ... wearing disguises. ... Within a few seconds, one of the men was pointing a gun in Emmons' face and grabbing $16 off the bar while the other gunman ran behind the bar trying to get money from the cash register. About that time a customer ... pulled out a handgun and shot the nearest robber in the head. ... The bar patron ... was charged with felonious assault and having weapons in a liquor establishment." Whose side are the police on? Don’t tell me. I know. Their own.

Europe’s biggest maker of computer chips is planning to move from Germany to Switzerland to move from a German tax rate on profits of 40% to a Swiss rate of 10%. It will be a big come-down for Germany if it happens. Why more German firms do not moved is the mystery. Switzerland is living proof that a country can be a great place to live WITHOUT high taxes.

God! What a lot of wimps people are about this smallpox vaccine. 30 years ago it was a routine vaccination for anyone travelling overseas!

One Hand Clapping summarizes the church scene in much of the USA as a religious and patriotic laity being not very impressed with a Leftist and irreligious clergy. What a strange world we live in!

What fun! “Security guards smashed their way into an official limousine with sledgehammers on Monday to rescue Thailand's finance minister after his car's computer failed”

“The gap between rich and poor in Britain is at its largest in 13 years and poverty levels under Tony Blair exceed those under Margaret Thatcher” So much for socialism!

Michael Darby (post of 12th.) takes a comprehensive swipe at the La Rouche nonsense.

The Wicked one (post of 12th) is amused by the unmentionability of blackness.

Chris Brand (post of 13th) notes that even photos of blackness are now non-PC

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NON-CAUSES OF RACISM

Psychologists have given much thought to the fact that some people seem to be more racist than others and have put forward various theories about it. A still widely-held view is that racism is a consistent personal disposition -- if you dislike one outgroup you will tend to dislike all outgroups. Another view is that it is the wicked conservatives who are racist. A third view is that people with a hostile or “authoritarian” personality are highly likely to be racists.

I have just put up here (post of 11th) three research reports that test those three theories. The survey research on which the reports are based was carried out in 1987 by an Australian postgraduate student in order to gather data for her dissertation. She designed a questionnaire with some reference to prior work of mine and administered it to a community sample of 250 Australians. When the work was done she handed the data to me for computer analysis and I wrote the three articles mentioned on the basis of what came out of the computer. The findings were unfavourable to all three of the psychological theories mentioned.

None of the articles were accepted for publication in the academic journals despite the research being unusually soundly based. Psychologists base most of their published generalizations about human behaviour on studies of white rats or studies of college students so data derived from a human general population survey should have been unusually interesting, one would have thought. The fact that the findings upset preconceptions popular among psychologists would therefore seem to have had some role in the non-acceptance of the articles.

It may be of some interest to note in passing that the lady who did the research has generally Leftist views and is married to an Australian Aborigine.

For what DOES cause racism see here.

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One of my regular readers has sent me a large collection of thoughts which I reproduce below:

MINORITIES & IMMIGRATION

This VDARE article says that Black Congressional leaders are selling out the interests of poor African Americans rather than confront the possibility that illegal immigration harms the interests of poor black Americans. The author says many black leaders in the past, including Booker T Washington and W.E. Du Bois, quite openly opposed immigration as competition for their community.

This article has some quotes from Frederick Douglas and Booker T Washington criticising immigration's impact on black Americans..

Roy Beck, the director of US immigration reduction outfit “NumbersUSA” even says "...the most racist policy in this country for the past 25 years has been our immigration policy ..it has been the worst thing that has happened to the Blacks from the federal government since slavery."

Maybe the Congressmen should follow the example of Winston Peters, New Zealand's most prominent Maori politician, who founded the centre-left New Zealand First party which receives most of its support from Maoris and older voters. Peters and his party have long been critics of open door immigration ....

Of course not all criticism of immigration policy from minority leaders is defensible. Ron Brunton in this old article points out comments from (now deceased) Australian aboriginal activist Charles Perkins.

A bit of trivia. The term "melting pot" is widely used in immigration discussions. Interestingly the origin of the term goes back to a 1908 play called "The Melting Pot". The author of this item says the play has some lessons for 2003.

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KIDS AND PC BOOKS

This survey finds "Politically correct" books are just boring students to tears.

One series of novels, incredibly popular with Australian teens is the John Marsden “TOMORROW WHEN WAR BEGAN” series. John Marsden is Australia's no 1 bestselling writer for teenagers. The books feature a mixed group of teens struggling to survive and grow up in a future Australia under foreign military occupation. The book features resistance drawn from "pre-war" gun owners. Considering the way 'the gun lobby' has been portrayed in Australia in recent years, this is probably a small victory against PCness.

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ELSEWHERE

The French are experiencing lower demand for the latest releases of their wines so the prices they get are dropping. Seems fair to me.

Chris Brand (posts of 11th and 12th) very cheerily notes how his nemesis (Edinburgh University) has slipped in the latest rankings of UK universities.

Michael Darby (post of 11th.) gives us a report of April’s economic disasters in Zimbabwe.

The Wicked one has a very pleasing report on Australia/U.S. relations.

China hand is rather pleased that public servants in China -- even police -- can get sacked for slacking off.

I have just put up here (post of 11th) an article that I originally wrote some years ago but which I think is still as relevant as ever. It points out that the high failure rate among Australian small businesses is richly deserved.

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LOTS OF GOOD STUFF ...

Wow! What a scandal. Most people have long suspected that charities spend more on salaries for their staff than they do on the people who are supposed to be getting the help but a leading U.S. Democrat has just put together a study that tells us how much could be saved by small reductions in charity “administration” costs -- $100 billion! What a difference it would make if charities really were charitable! The only organization that I personally give money to is the Salvation Army. I think that they make a real effort and having God as supervisor should help keep them ethical. And I would never give a cent to the antisemitic fat-cats of the Red Cross.

I must say that I cannot agree with the push among some US conservatives to keep single mothers in the armed forces out of war zones. If you are in the army you have to be prepared to fight. Otherwise you might as well be a civilian clerk employed by the army. And if single mothers do not want to fight, why do they join up? It’s their choice and nobody else’s.

Iceland has the most conservative government of the Nordic countries. Let’s hope it stays that way after today’s elections.

A new blog I rather like is Prestopundit. It is fairly scholarly with a moderate libertarian orientation.

I like it! Somebody in Britain claims to be able to diagnose your personality from the biscuits (cookies) you eat. I eat very few biscuits but I do like Digestives (a sort of wheatmeal cookie) and here is my biscuit-o-scope: "Digestives are the favourite of technical specialists or financial experts who are logical types seeking precision and accuracy." Since I have been writing statistical analysis computer programs for 35 years and have also done very well as an investor, that is pretty good.

Feminists are claiming that women are more victimized by war than men are and that women were just as much victimized by Saddam as were men. Both claims are the reverse of the truth -- as I guess we should expect.

"An Alexandria [LA] storeowner shot two burglars -- killing one of them -- early Tuesday when they entered the business through the ceiling, police said .... [The storeowner] has not been charged with a crime. The store was closed at the time, but [he] was staying inside in an effort to deter break-ins." He’d get life in prison in politically correct Britain.

Slate has a summary of North Korea's terrorist track record but they could also have mentioned the drug trade

A quote from Greenpeace founder (now apostate) Dr Patrick Moore (now of Greenspirit): " [The public] is getting the impression that by using less wood we can save the trees. But 80% of all the timber produced in the United States, for example, is from private land -- When you go into a lumber yard, you're given the impression that by buying wood you're causing the forest to be lost, when in fact what you're doing is sending a signal into the market to plant more trees. .."

Over the last two decades, black entrepreneurs have done more to improve the economic situation for 'the black community' than any black pastor or politician. Capitalism beats socialism every time. It even works for the mentally ill, believe it or not.

I liked this confession: “I am only feebly religious — feebly Episcopalian, in fact, which is feebleness squared!”

The Wicked one has evidence that “spare the rod and spoil the child” is still right for some kids today.

Michael Darby (post of 10th.) argues that the age of consent for gay sex should not be lowered.

Chris Brand (post of 10th) notes that leading geneticists duck the issue of IQ heritability -- not surprisingly in view of the big racial differences in average IQ.

In my academic posting of May 10th here, I reprint two published journal articles dealing with another scheme for finding a second dimension of politics in addition to the usual Left/Right division. I show that this scheme fails too. Left/Right is the only major dimension of politics that the psychological evidence supports. See also here.

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APPEASENIK CENSORSHIP

Arlene Peck (post of 8th.) has a rather sad story of being censored by Arab-appeasing fellow-Jews. What idiots! Like Saddam, the Palestinian Arabs can be defeated but never appeased. That any Jew can have forgotten the failed appeasement of 1939 is incomprehensible to me.

Crossposted on Israpundit

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GREENIES AND OTHER FADDISTS

Miranda Devine once again homes in on how Greens make bushfires worse. Since bushfires are a calamity for the very trees and wild creatures that Greenies profess to love, one has to wonder what part of their brain is missing. Rather a big part, it seems.

The busybodies and scaremongers are now targeting nanotechnology -- i.e. engineering on a microscopic scale. What next?

"We'll say this much about activists who devote their lives to opposing genetically modified (GM) foods: they don't let a little thing like reality slow them down. Despite a biotech crop boom in Asia, the continued acceptance of GM foods by U.S. consumers and European governments ... and a grain-belt mainstream here at home that is increasingly savvy about tuning out these unscientific scaremongers, the lunatic fringe of the anti-biotech movement is ramping up its propaganda campaign."

There is no evidence to support claims that organic food is any better for you. So sad.

A recent attack on "junk" foods in the New Scientist is exposed here as junk science. There is a link in the article to a highly abusive reply from the editor of New Scientist which fails to budge the basic point that they ran a scare based on very flimsy evidence.

”Vitamin and mineral supplements could cause more harm than good, the Food Standards Agency will say today. It is calling for one supplement to be banned and says that six other substances could damage health irreversibly”

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ELSEWHERE

“Leading evangelical Christians for the first time have publicly condemned assaults on Islam by the Rev. Franklin Graham and other fellow religious conservatives.” Any Bible-believing Christian worth his salt would see Islam as Satan’s religion -- an evil mockery of Christianity.

As Jeff Jacoby says: "Three Cubans who attempted to escape Castro's island gulag by hijacking a ferry to Florida... were killed by firing squad.... the whole international community should be condemning Cuba. But it isn't. Last week Cuba was elected to a new three-year term on the UN Commission on Human Rights."
I really do wonder why we put up with EITHER Castro OR the UN.

Speaking of the Iraq war, Sir John Keegan asks: "The allies got it so right: how did the pundits get it so wrong?" He says it was obvious from the start that the Iraqis were way outclassed militarily and blames the pundits for looking at everything except that. He also notes that despite their many detractors, the British and American tanks proved themselves in this war. He also says: "The dash from Kuwait to the vicinity of Baghdad was done at a speed unequalled in military history."

Oregon claims that Attorney General John Ashcroft has no right to interfere with doctor-assisted suicide there. I must say I am on the side of Oregon on that one. Denying mercy killing really is merciless.

"Reformist Iranian MPs warned the country's powerful and entrenched clerics yesterday to give way to reforms and normalise relations with the outside world or suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein." In other words, democratic Iranians are using the US army next door to scare the Ayatollahs. Saddam's downfall may yet liberate Iran too!

Under the latest super-generous GOP proposals, shareholders would not pay taxes on the first $500 of dividend income. Pathetic! I receive many thousands in dividend income every year and pay no tax on it because the Australian government recognizes that the companies paying the dividends have already been taxed on the earnings concerned.

China hand has some amusing stories about going to the beach in China and adapting to Chinese toilet arrangements. He has some rather Turner-esque photos of the seaside there too.

The Wicked one has some funny stories about stupidity.

Chris Brand (post of 9th) dissects the current arguments for affirmative action.

Michael Darby (post of 9th.) has an article arguing that the Palestinian Arab suicide bombers show the primitivism of Arab civilization.

In my academic posting of May 9th here, I present a better way of measuring what psychologists claim to be “pre-Fascist” ideology -- but which I claim is no such thing. Marxism is historically the pre-Fascist ideology.

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GLOBAL WARMING AND ASTROPHYSICS

Astrophysicists Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas have recently trashed global warming. See here and here (PDF documents). Excerpt:
"There is no convincing evidence that the 20th century was unusual. On balance, the evidence indicates that the 20th century falls within the range experienced during the past 1,000 years....".

Soon is physicist at the Solar and Stellar Physics Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and an astronomer at the Mount Wilson Observatory, and Senior Scientist at the George C. Marshall Institute. Sallie Baliunas is an astrophysicist formerly affiliated with the Mount Wilson Institute. Her awards include the Newton Lacey Pierce Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the Bok Prize from Harvard University and in 1991 Discover magazine profiled her as one of America's outstanding women scientists.

One reason why astro-physicists seem so willing to challenge "Greenhouse" may be their knowledge of the sun spot cycle, the 'Maunder Minimum' and the Little Ice Age. See the interview with Sallie Baliunas here

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POLITICAL CORRECTNESS KILLS

Theodore Dalrymple in the Spectator points out how the suicide rate in British prisons has exploded since the UK's abolition of the Death Penalty. He thinks the two are not unrelated and the reformers may be part of the problem:

"Until the 1980s, when the suicide rate rose, it was an offence in prison to harm yourself or to make a suicidal gesture. Unless the doctor considered that you had a bona fide illness that led you to act in this fashion, you were charged with wasting medical time, and lost remission. The abolition of this harsh-sounding regulation was replaced by a more 'caring' attitude, and conferred certain advantages in prison upon those who claimed to be suicidal, which resulted - as any sensible person would have expected - in a large increase in acts of self-harm, of which there are now at least 20,000 per year in our prisons. But the abolition of punishment for self-harm achieved its most important end: the gratification of the reformers' narcissistic urge to feel humane..."

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LEFTISTS FAIL TO SUPPRESS ENGLISH PATRIOTISM

The English are starting to rediscover some national pride, both as English: "With a bit of luck, it will be remembered as the World Cup that brought rehabilitation to the flag of St George. After years of association with football hooligans and the racist far Right, the simple red cross of England's patron saint has been recaptured by ordinary Englishmen and women."
... and as Brits: "Led by an imposing figure of St George on a horse clad in his colours, protesters marched through the streets of Telford yesterday after their local council insisted on flying only the European flag from its buildings. Telford and Wrekin council has enraged many local people by refusing to fly permanently the Union flag or the Cross of St George"
.. so it must be banned of course: "An English university has banned students from flying the flag of St George before or after the World Cup in case it causes racial tension."

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ELSEWHERE

The US Administration thinks that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons and wants punitive action by the United Nations! Why on earth do they bother? The United Nations?? The Israeli Osirak raid of decades ago shows what should be done.

There is a new British blog called "We the undersigned" which does a good job of skewering Britain's hordes of crazy Lefties.

Arlene Peck (post of 7th.) has recently been to London and found it a lot different from California. She notes the anti-Israel sentiment there and had some fun with the BBC.

Australia-UN relations hit new low Great!

Tony Blair is making commendable efforts to introduce some rationality into Britain's floundering hospitals but he is getting more opposition from his own party than from the Tories. Can it be long before we see some sort of regular arrangement between the Tories and the rational element of Labour?

Great news: US internet service provider EarthLink yesterday said it had won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against a man who sent more than 800 million junk emails over the internet. "Obtaining a judgment against a spammer like Carmack benefits all Internet users, and the judge's decision today is a significant victory against spam," said EarthLink. EarthLink said the injunction prevents Carmack from "ever again illegally spamming any internet user"

Chris Brand is rather pleased that his critics appear to be becoming unstuck.

The Wicked one has a shocking post about a Chicago hospital that refused to save a life when it was in an ideal position to do so.

Michael Darby has an expose of how CNN covers Cuba -- confirming the view of many that CNN stands for "Communist News Network".

In my academic posting of May 8th here, I have another article about how best to measure how ambitious people are.

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THREE CHEERS FOR BLIND BLUNKETT

British Home Secretary David Blunkett may be physically blind but he can see some things a lot more clearly than many of the whining Leftists of his party. He plans to change the law so that the most depraved killers die in prison. The Times has learnt that he will outline a “highly prescriptive” set of principles under which anyone who abducts and kills a child would never be freed. So-called whole life terms would also be imposed for terrorist murders and for premeditated, sexual or sadistic multiple murders. Judges would also have to fix minimum tariffs for other murderers. These would range up to 50 years, with terrorists, people who murder police or prison officers or witnesses, and contract killers all having to serve at least 30 years.

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HOW SICK CAN BRITISH JUSTICE GET?

No wonder Blunkett is taking on the Brirtish justice system. Look at this:

"Government lawyers trying to keep the Norfolk farmer Tony Martin behind bars will tell a High Court judge tomorrow that burglars are members of the public who must be protected from violent householders. The case could help hundreds of criminals bring claims for damages for injury suffered while committing offences. ... Home Office lawyers dispute Mr Martin's contention that he poses no risk to the public because he only represents a threat to burglars and other criminals who trespass on his property."

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GREENIE DREAMING

A reader writes:

There is an article here listing all sorts of everyday measures "you can take to prevent global warming.... if only one third of the US population did the same". It includes nonsense about not raking up lawn clippings, using fluorescent light bulbs and getting your old clunker of a car tuned more often. Of course we can respond by pointing out that their goal of getting 1/3rd of the population to agree voluntarily to do something and keep doing it, without being prompted to by market incentives, would actually be a bigger miracle than stopping global warming with a roomful of Kyoto hot air; and of course fluorescent light just ain't the same; if our better tuned cars lower our gas bills, we might just drive more; and that by spending 15% less on "small packages" of groceries, we may only need to buy bigger fridges and homes for the preferred bulk stores; .and of course any cash savings all this green belt tightening offers may only give us more cash to spend on fun stuff like overseas holidays, drag racing and snow mobiles.... but "why bother" is the best response.

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ELSEWHERE

Great! Condoleezza Rice has virtually threatened Syria with war if they are found to have Saddam’s WMDs. That might make them come clean peacefully if they do have WMDs.

Jonah Goldberg says: "Elections should be the last on a long list of priorities for Iraq. In the United States we've fetishized democracy to the point where it means essentially 'all good things.' But this sentiment runs completely counter to the intent of the U.S. Constitution. The Founders were just as afraid of too much democracy -- the tyranny of the majority -- as they were of too little -- the tyranny of the minority."

And why Freedom and Democracy are not always on the same team

A senior Berlin diplomat was reported to have told Foreign Ministry colleagues that America was turning into a 'police state.' It is Germany, not the USA that has national identity cards for everyone -- cards that you need for almost everything you want to do.

Gay rights should not include the right to adopt children. That is the message Australia’s Tasmanian Government has been hearing from the public.

The right of citizens to discriminate is a fundamental freedom.

The very guy who invented global warming theory said not to believe the numbers he produced because they were unreliable as a picture of what actually goes on in the real world!

Another nasty one for the Greenies: Estimates of Canada's oil reserves jumped this year from 4.9 to 180 billion barrels. Canada has a huge amount of “oil sands” and thanks to technology advances that lower the transportation cost of the sands, production costs are now estimated at around $8 a barrel -- which makes it very profitable to use them if the Kyoto-obsessed Canadian government every gets around to allowing it.

It looks like those clever Japanese still like nuclear power and are about to build a lot of new reactors. That will give the Greenies heartburn too.

Michael Darby has an explanation of why intellectuals hate both the USA and Israel.

Chris Brand (post of 6th.) lists some of the amazing examples of political correctness unearthed by Diane Ravitch and points out that book publishers are in fact the chief accomplices to the abuses concerned.

The Wicked one says that most poor people are poor simply because they do not work.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with the usual smorgasbord of blog wisdom.

In my academic posting of May 7th here, I point out how silly are some of the big words psychologists use for simple things.

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!!!
PLUTONIUM IS GOOD FOR YOU: NO JOKE

Wonders never cease when you look at the realities behind what the Greenies preach at us. There have been three big US government research projects that showed LOWER death rates among people exposed to plutonium:

The studies are in the report: "Toxicological Profile for Plutonium," prepared for and issued by Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia, in collaboration with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, December 1990:

**A 37-year study (as of 1990, the year of the report) of 26 plutonium workers at Los Alamos laboratory during World War II with plutonium deposition ranging from 2,000 to 95,000 picocuries plutonium with a mean of 26,000 picocuries showed mortality of 2.0 vs. 6.6 in a comparable number of the general population. In addition, no malignant neoplasms have occurred in this group during this extensive follow-up.

**Study begun in 1974 of an additional 224 Los Alamos workers with average whole body deposition of 19,000 picocuries plutonium showed 43 deaths compared to 77 in a comparable number of the general population. The number of deaths due to malignant neoplasms was 8 vs. 15 in the general population, including only one lung cancer vs. five in the general population.

**Study of 7,112 workers employed at the Rocky Flats plutonium facility during 1952-1979 showed comparable results. Observed deaths of workers were significantly less than those in comparable numbers of general populations (452 vs. 831). Malignant neoplasms were also less (107 vs. 167).

And anybody who knows anything about hormesis will not be surprised that plutonium was so beneficial.

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WHAT WE STAND FOR

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has just summed up well what both the USA and Australia stand for:

"Australia and America are close friends because above all we have similar values. In the end, the thing that binds nations together more than anything else is the commonality of their values and we have a view of the world that puts freedom and individual liberty, a belief in market outcomes where appropriate at the centre of the activities of both our nations."

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MUSEUM TREASURES NOT LOST

"The vast majority of the Iraqi trove of antiquities feared stolen or broken have been found inside the National Museum in Baghdad, according to American investigators who compiled an inventory over the weekend of the ransacked galleries. A total of 38 pieces, not tens of thousands, are now believed to be missing .... The inventory, compiled by a military and civilian team ... refutes reports that Iraq's renowned treasures ... had been scattered or lost during the U.S.-led war against Iraq."

So much for THAT "scandal"!

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ELSEWHERE

Most amusing report today: The crazy Leftist Australian journalist John Pilger was on Tuesday awarded the 2003 Sophie Prize, a Norwegian award honouring “environmental or development efforts”, for his work which “helped the public examine the real causes of the war in Iraq”. They obviously do not want their prize to be taken seriously.

Estonia is a great example of how rapidly a country can forge ahead once it is liberated from socialism.

City Journal reports that 70 percent of NY convicts are re-arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within three years of their release -- but that there are ways of cutting that right down if all the deliberately blind do-gooders can be bypassed.

A good story from "The Atlantic" about the great glut of Soviet tractors in Cuba and why Cuban farmers prefer Oxen

After twice being successfully sued for defamation, the editor of Crikey.com.au has “implemented a new early apology strategy“. Should be more of that in the media generally. They get pretty arrogant at times.

A recent book review by Freeman Dyson really puts a spoke in the wheel of the "Greenhouse" scare-mongers. He points out that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is rapidly grabbed by plants who use it for growth and simply convert it into more topsoil in the end. So rather than doing any harm it simply becomes plant food. And Greenhouse theory seems to totally overlook the possibility that plants will gobble up any extra carbon dioxide.

Chris Brand has some skeptical thoughts about psycho-social engineering.

Michael Darby thinks there are Islamic terrorists in West New Guinea -- immediately to Australia's North.

The Wicked one thinks we need MORE global warming, not less.

In my academic posting of May 6th here, I look at a claim that people with old-fashioned views are "hostile" and show that it is not so.

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AN INDIAN VIEW OF INDIANS IN BRITAIN

I have received the following email from an Indian now living abroad but originally from Hyderabad in Southern India:

Though I am not exactly an Anglophile, I definitely do not want Britain to drown in the sea. There is much in British culture and people that is worthy of admiration and preservation -- yes worth fighting and killing for (in the past I used to think that the only worthy contribution of Britain was their TV comedies like Monty Python, Blackadder, Yes Minister etc. but you get older and wiser..). I would advise Britain to restrict Indian immigration as the Indians who move to Britain are mostly Punjabis and Gujaratis. Both communities have notorious reputations for fraudulent behavior in India and in other countries like Kenya, Hong Kong, U.S etc.

Here is an interesting piece of information for you: The Indian state of Gujarat is named after the invading tribe of Khazars (Indians to Gujjar, plural being Gujjarat). The Khazars also gave their name to the Caucasian country of Georgia. My Russian friend informs me that most "Russian gangsters" are actually Georgian and he abuses Georgians in the vilest terms as being "crooks, frauds" etc!

Punjabis are a hodgepodge of every invader that passed through their state as if it were a lily field! Sikh militarism is a very recent phenomenon.....

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AFFIRMATIVE NONSENSE

Some further comments from a reader about "affirmative action":

There was a college prof from Delaware that wrote a gut-splitting funny column on affirmative action. He announced to his class that, for future exams, he would average the points for the white males, then subtract 5 points from their scores. These same 5 points would then be redistributed to enhance the scores of minorities and women. It was the best comment yet on the nonsensical nature of this policy. Yet the "smartest legal minds in the land" (Alias - liberal Supreme Court justices) have spouted absolute nonsense about this.

I have been very skeptical about "diversity". So I contacted Peter Wood (an anthropologist from Boston U, who has studied "diversity" as much as anybody) and I asked the obvious question: Is there ANY scientific evidence that "diversity" improves any measurable index of education - and he gave me the obvious answer - to his knowledge (and he knows as much as anyone about this issue) NO.

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ELSEWHERE

Well how about that! It has taken the European Central Bank to spell out to the Brits that their creaking National Health Service is doomed as the British population ages. The bank points out that "free" (in reality "rationed") health care will at some stage have to be replaced by a system where patients pay some of the costs.

Great news! India and Pakistan are at least talking about scrapping their nuclear arsenals.

There have been a lot of sensational accusations from Australia's Left-leaning media about Dr. Peter Hollingworth, Governor General of Australia and former Archbishop of Brisbane. I know him personally to a small degree and am pleased that he is one of the few Anglican prelates who actually seems to be a believing Christian. The full story that most of the media forget to mention is available here

It looks like Canada's CBC is trying to beat Britain's BBC when it comes to political bias. The blatant dishonesty of their recent broadcast about "Greenhouse" makes a mockery of any idea that they are a "public service" broadcaster. They are a "Left-loving" broadcaster.

Great! South Africa has resumed using DDT to control mosquitoes (scroll down). And guess what? They have virtually eliminated malaria -- thus saving thousands of lives that would otherwise have been lost if they had listened to the Greenies. There has of course never been any good evidence that DDT is harmful.

There is a list here of the major myths about “Greenhouse” and climate change -- plus a scientific demolition of each.

The Australian PM has rightly just rejected any FORMAL “Anglosphere” grouping of Australia, Britain and the USA. When you have the underlying reality already there, there is no need for treaties and the like.

I mentioned the methodologically ludicrous work of Marxist anti-economist Michael Pusey yesterday. A more detailed demolition of his work can be found here (PDF file).

China hand once again tells us of the massive real estate developments -- both residential and commercial -- going on in his part of China. No more village life there! Modern high-rise apartment buildings are common.

On his other site China Hand makes the point that libertarians such as myself should embrace freedom of immigration -- though he acknowledges that the Australian government’s very successful control policy has almost universal support in Australia. He does make a good case, however, for Asian maids being allowed to work in Western countries.

Michael Darby (post of 4th) pays tribute to the remarkable work being done among impoverished Ugandan children by an Australian woman teacher.

The Wicked one has accounts of blockheaded official behaviour from both Taxachusetts and Canada.

Chris Brand has posts on British nationalism and British antisemitism.

In my academic posting of May 5th here, I offer my fellow psychologists a better way of measuring materialistic ambition.

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HAVE THE BRITISH MISSED THE POINT ON IMMIGRATION CONTROL?

The flood of 100,000 "asylum-seekers" arriving in Britain every year is immensely unpopular with British voters for very good reasons and the British government is of course keen to do something about it. But wringing their hands seems to be the main thing that they have done about it so far for fear of the Leftists in their midst who frown on anything that might be considered "inhumane". That the Leftists are just hypocrites who did not at all mind the infinitely more inhumane Saddam Hussein regime seems not to be noticed. The latest British proposal is to try and make the problem go away by sending all "refugee" arrivals to processing centres in Russia. That is of course a copy of the Australian policy of sending such arrivals off to remote Pacific Islands for processing.

What they overlook, however, is that it is not the "Pacific" policy that has worked for Australia at all but rather the fact that Australia sends all such arrivals straight to gaol -- whether in the Pacific or in Australia itself. The gaols concerned are very modern and humane but illegal immigrants are often held there in limbo for long periods before having any prospect of release and this regularly causes dramatic protest riots among the inmates. These riots are of course great fodder for the media and receive worldwide TV coverage. And after a few of these riots were publicized, guess what happened? The refugees just stopperd coming! Australia now has essentially no illegal immgrant problem to deal with! Would-be illegals did not like what they saw of Australia on TV and so have gone elsewhere to impose themselves on more weak-willed governments.

So the British proposal MIGHT work -- as long as there are plenty of riots among the illegals sent for "processing" to Russia.

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THE “PAIN” OF MIDDLE-AUSTRALIA

Craig McGregor has written a rather sycophantic review of Michael Pusey’s latest book The experience of middle Australia. The book’s basic thesis is that economic reform has caused great anguish to middle-class Australians. Both the book and the review have such a strong and evident Leftist bias that I was going to leave it to other conservative bloggers to “fisk” both as I like to put my efforts into making my own points rather than demolishing somebody else’s obvious nonsense. Since I know the author of the book quite well, however, China hand has persuaded me that I should put up a few notes.

The first laugh I had when I read the review was: It's a bold and formidable achievement (with endorsements from Noam Chomsky and others on the cover). That should be enough for most people who are wary of bias.

But anyway: Up to 1983 I had an office next to Michael Pusey at the University of N.S.W. and found him to be a most pleasant, bright and friendly fellow. He was however a keen Marxist at that time so his claim now that he is a "middle-of-the-road social democrat" is at least not the whole truth.

I have not read the book nor do I intend to as I gather that it is based on face-to-face interviews and anybody who knows anything about social research knows how much room for observer bias that data gathering of that sort enables. And that the researcher was biased McGregor clearly tells us. He says that Pusey is “an absolutely committed critic of economic and structural reform and globalisation, using his research results to mount a passionate condemnation of the social impact of these reforms.” Pusey gets a bit much even for for McGregor in the end -- he says that the epilogue to the book “descends into an anti-American rant. "The United States has gone mad," he writes”.

That researchers find what they expect to find is known among psychologists (Pusey is a sociologist) as The Rosenthal effect. It is an amazingly powerful effect and not easily avoided. One reason why psychometricians such as myself rely heavily on multiple choice questionnaires is that it enables the researcher to have NO contact with the people being studied -- thus precluding a major source of bias. In most of my research career, until the numbers came out of the computer I had no idea what I was going to find. Questionnaires have their limitations, too, of course, but that is another story.

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ELSEWHERE

It seems that Iraq's former information minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf was actually quite brave to do what he did.

Fascinating: “THE director of a Paris theatre that staged a play critical of US President George W. Bush, has been beaten and slashed across the face with a box cutter.” Apparently, the assailants associated anti-Bush sentiments with pro-Arab sentiments and LOTS of Frenchmen do not like the large Arab minority foisted on them by their governments.

Good if it happens: “AN effusive and appreciative US President George W.Bush has set a personal deadline for a historic free trade agreement by Christmas, after thanking Australia for its courage and sacrifice in the war in Iraq.”

“With 900,000 citizens living in foreign countries Australia has one of the largest diasporas relative to population of any nation in the world”. That’s nearly 5% of the population. We do get around.

Chris Brand notes that eugenics has worked well in Cyprus.

China hand says that a restaurant offering Western food is being set up near him. I guess even the Chinese can have enough of Chinese food -- good though it is.

The Wicked one is rather pleased that “natural” medicines are often poisonous.

Michael Darby points out that under the Australian constitution, the Governor General is our “Head of State”.

In my academic posting of May 3rd here, I look at the popular claim that racists are maladjusted and point to evidence contradicting that claim.

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BLACK REALITIES

In response to the story of the “whites only” prom that I mentioned yesterday, one of my readers in Texas (a professional man who deals with blacks regularly) writes:

How can anyone ask White students to treat Blacks as equals when everyone knows that Blacks are not held to the same standards for either academics or behavior?

In a related story, in Austin TX (as elsewhere) the behavior of Blacks in high school is noticeably worse - this is just a fact. So, there are more Black students disciplined - along comes the NAACP complaining that there is just too much disciplining of Black students. Solution? Essentially, eliminate all discipline [This was the worst system I have seen - my wife quit after two months when students threatened her, called her names out loud, were physically violent in the classroom, etc.- and the principal simply didn't want to hear complaints].

Predictably, some Black thug with a long history of behavior problems killed a girl with a knife on school property. In rides the NAACP on its white horse to investigate an "unsafe environment" in the schools.

These "paleo-activists" just think they are still in the 1960's. They just can't call a spade a spade - and they just can't figure out why Blacks are still not treated as first class citizens

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IMMIGRATION CAN AND SHOULD BE CONTROLLED

A good article by Anthony Browne arguing that Britain has to call a halt to accepting “Asylum-seekers”. Excerpts:

A hundred years ago, most people in the west rarely moved even to the next village; now whole villages from Bangladesh are relocating to northern England. People once, at most, moved to their neighbouring country, one often culturally and ethnically similar, whereas now they move around the world to radically different cultures whose populations have a completely separate history and character. Immigration is historically rare. The fact that there were virtually no border controls until the 20th century illustrates this: there was no need to control borders because so few people ever wanted to cross them

Pro-immigration campaigners who tell the people of Europe that “mass immigration cannot be stopped, so it must be welcomed” are adopting the policies of despots through history of quelling opposition by telling opponents that resistance is futile. The evidence is otherwise. All that is needed is political will.

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ELSEWHERE

Cheeesh!! Why is Colin Powell being so soft on the Syrians -- asking them nicely if they will please some day get around to closing down the offices of undisputed terrorist organizations that operate in Damascus?

Hooray! Libertarian though I am, I cannot help hoping that this bit of government activity works: “WEEKS after the Australian government flagged new anti-spam laws, US regulators have vowed to take swift action against bulk unsolicited email.”

Good to hear that the visit to the GWB ranch by Australia’s John Howard went unusually well

Good! The US plans to deploy an international “stabilization force” in postwar Iraq -- excluding France and Germany

Hmmm... I always thought that the Village Voice was a Leftist rag but I cannot find much to disagree with in Nat Hentoff's columns there. Jolly good stuff in fact.

One of the greatest obsessions of both Leftists and Greens these days is the "precautionary principle" -- the idea that scientists and society in general should do nothing new or different if there is any chance that some bad effects could come out of it. Fortunately, the world has not always been so lily-livered. "Spiked" lists some of the things we would not have today had the precautionary principle prevailed in the past: vaccines, penicillin, antibiotics, aspirin, X-rays, heart surgery, the contraceptive pill, aeroplanes, railways, cars, bicycles, electricity, pesticides etc.

Peter Hitchens writes: "In the the end, the Communists won the Cold War, not with tanks but with ideas. People who hate Britain and love socialism now run the Government, the schools, the Civil Service and most of our broadcasting.”

Michael Darby has a rather hilarious blurb about 9/11 from the LaRouche outfit.

Chris Brand notes some signs of sanity emerging from the People’s Republic of Scotland.

The Wicked one has some amusing stories about kids.

China hand says there is still no sign of SARS in his part of China.

In my academic posting of May 3rd here I note that, despite their Leftist inclinations, psychologists have in fact found some good evidence in favour of capitalist thinking.

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