SCHOOL CHOICE

Eleanor Spreitzer emails me that Robert Kennedy Junior was in boarding school -- a college preparatory school -- when his father was shot. She comments:

"This is a member of a family that foams at the mouth against school vouchers and school testing. School Choice? The children in their family go to boarding schools - college preparatory schools - the children of the poor and undereducated go to failing - actually dangerous (because of no disciple) - schools. These failing schools produce the foundation of poor and undereducated needed for the children of the rich and powerful to get and maintain government jobs, salaries, privileges, pensions and most importantly - POWER.

The children of the rich and powerful learn the routine quickly and easily - promise the poor and undereducated - a better life and better education - but in reality - keep them right where they are - undereducated. Undereducated people are easy to control. Tell them anything - they are too ignorant - and too browbeaten to question any one with such a grand education. This has been going on for the last 50 years. Conservatives and Republicans want to stop this cycle - and we are called the mean spirited ones!"

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VIETNAM AND JFK

Kaplan makes a pretty weak argument that JFK would not have pursued the Vietnam War Kaplan says JFK distrusted his advisors, the same team who, under LBJ, took the US into all out war in Vietnam (see here) and then managed to lose it. If JFK had really distrusted these losers he would have sacked them. After all he didn't mind sacking CIA director Allen Dulles and Richard Bissell (see here) over the 'Bay of Pigs'. Pat Buchanan provocatively argues that once Nixon (certainly no saint but not the devil incarnate of liberal mythology either) started to turn the JFK/LBJ Vietnam disaster around, the liberal establishment got rid of him.

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ELSEWHERE

Was Saddam betrayed by his relatives in his army who ordered his army not to fight? Maybe so but there was little sign of his army fighting for him any way. Only anti-American Islamic fanatics fought. I think the claim is like the other claim that before the invasion began, U.S. special forces had gone in and bribed Iraqi generals not to fight. Both claims are supposed to cover up Arab cowardice when faced with an enemy able to defend himself. Treachery, terrorism and the stab in the back are the natural Arab modus operandi. Always have been. Always will be. Only Islamic fanaticism has ever got any more out of them.

Another Pro-Israel and anti-Muslim article from India. Good to have Indians on board. Hardly any Westerners realize it but nobody has suffered more from Muslim attacks in recent times than Hindu India. And Muslim Pakistan still occupies Indian territory in Kashmir that it seized by force in 1948.

Jeff Jacoby points out that giving preference to the children of graduates in university admissions differs from admissions under affirmative action in at least one major respect -- it spurs donations. Loyalty to the alma mater greatly reduces the fees that many colleges have to charge -- a distinct benefit to the students and their families!

I said yesterday that it was a lot of nonsense to blame Bush Administration rhetoric for the fall in value of the US dollar. Forbes seems to agree.

Tony Blair’s policy for transforming standards in inner-city schools has produced little or no improvement in pupils’ results despite 800 million pounds in spending. Funny that! Money is no substitute for discipline. Who would have thought it?

Great news: Pressure has mounted on Tony Blair to hold a referendum on the new EU constitution after Giscard himself said he would be “very pleased” to see his ideas put to the vote. A referendum almost certainly means that the British public will knock the thing on the head.

The accusations against Britain’s Colonel Collins in Iraq seem to be pretty clearly spite-motivated. The Franco-American accuser should be disciplined himself.

A fun picture of one of nature’s wonders here. Or could it be good Photoshop work?

Another reason why nobody will ever solve the problems of Africa: Well-fed African parents who let their kids starve.

Indonesian mass-murderer gets off Scot-free. A lovely lot, Australia’s Islamic neighbours.

China Hand says that Christian teaching and preaching is widely tolerated in China these days.

Michael Darby has a rather satirical excerpt about the Middle East “peace process”

Chris Brand looks at what psychological meaning can be extracted from notions of equality.

The Wicked one is delighted that some members of Britain’s House of Lords think spam comes out of a tin can.

In my academic posting of May 26th. here, I show that many people who vote for Leftist political parties are in fact conservative. They just get taken in by the better deal that Leftists appear to offer them. Leftist deceit has some rewards.

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SAUDI CENSORSHIP

Amusing: I linked yesterday to a story in the Arab News of Saudi Arabia about reformist protests in Iran. Apparently, however, the story was subsequently censored -- as the original link now gives the results of a cricket match! According to Google News, the original story was headed: Reformists Warn Khamenei Over Political Deadlock and the first line went: "The reformist members of the 290-seat Majlis blasted the conservative-controlled institutions for violently stalling reforms and denying the will of Iran's people" But all is not lost: You can still read other reports of the same story here and here

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BRITAIN IN EUROPE

There is a great site here detailing the work of a group of patriotic Brits who are challenging the legal powers of the British parliament to hand over so much power to the EU. The challenge would seem pretty thinly based legally but certainly should be made. The Guardian has a pretty desperate defence of the new EU constitution that Tony Blair is trying to ram through -- arguing that it is as yet “unformulated”. Utter rubbish, of course. The final form of it may not as yet be agreed but Giscard’s draft is well-known.

Matthew Parris in The Times argues that Britain’s big bust up with France and Germany over Iraq has permanently ruined any hope of further UK/EU integration. Sounds reasonable. Let’s hope.

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LONDON AIR POLLUTION

Mike Kerrigan has written in to challenge my claim that the Clean Air Act was responsible for the elimination of London’s smog. I knew somebody would challenge that. Julian Simon’s point that pollution was declining in London before the Act was passed is well-known both among libertarians and among opponents of the Greenies. I mostly agree with Simon but I am myself a research statistician and I know how carefully you have to treat trend data. You have to read it in conjunction with ALL the other data on the question if you are to arrive at reasonable conclusions. What Simon overlooks in this is that trends in biological data commonly reach an asymptote (i.e. eventually level out) -- as the trend to cleaner air in London now in fact has. It is precisely the way Greenies ignore this and rely on straight-line extrapolations that normally unglues them. In the London case, the air pollution was indeed declining up to the 1950s -- mainly because of London’s de-industrialization and population decline -- but it seems clear that it is only the compulsory phasing out of domestic coal fires that has allowed the pollution to continue to decline to its present low level.

And if we look at Lomborg’s graph (p.4, PDF file) there DOES in fact seem to be a levelling out followed by sharper decline in both smoke and sulphur dioxide levels in London during the 1950’s. The Act was passed in 1956.

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THE GREAT TRAINING ROBBERY

Whenever the Australian or British governments try to rein in higher education expenditure or shift more of it to user-pays, we get all sorts of doom and gloom about dumbing down the clever country, undermining future prosperity etc. But what is the connection between education spending and economic growth anyhow? Not what we are being told, at least according to this study of US States: "Using data from all 50 states and spanning two decades... Three distinct regressions find no consistent, statistically significant impact of higher-education appropriations on states' economic growth. Indeed, a stronger relationship is found when the models are reversed, suggesting that a better case can be made that growth drives spending, rather than spending driving growth." "Comparing states' higher-education appropriations and gross state products also yields no solid evidence that spending drives economic growth."

I found similar results some time ago in Australia. See here or here

And using even broader statistical data, Ivar Berg long ago made the related point that a higher education is of questionable economic benefit to the individual being educated too.

Reference:
Berg, I. (1973) Education and jobs: The great training robbery Harmondsworth, Mddx.: Penguin.

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ELSEWHERE

A long and quite silly Reuters article by a Frenchman argues that the recent drop in value of the US dollar is due to what economists call “jawboning” -- official pronouncements. All governments wish it was that easy. The obvious truth is that the dollar was a refuge currency amid world uncertainty and now that things have settled down a bit after the Iraq war, people are looking for better returns elsewhere.

Worth reading: An excellent (9 pages!) article in the NYT about conservative students giving their “liberal” colleges a big wake-up.

A great article by Andrew Bolt on why talk is useless when it comes to dealing with Islamic extremists.

Michael Darby thinks that the many chemicals encountered in modern warfare have a serious impact on the subsequent health of the soldiers who fought.

Chris Brand notes some progress in getting the evidence about racial IQ differences recognized.

The Wicked one notes the conflict between animal rights and Muslim slaughtering practices.

In my academic posting of May 24th. here, I show that, despite their many years of studying it, psychologists still know very little about materialistic ambition.

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MACHIAVELLIANISM IN FARM POLICY

I don’t know why the penny did not drop before but it took one of my readers to point out to me that EU opposition to genetically modified food (which Americans eat without harm all the time) is just to protect the crazy EU farm policy. If EU farmers started using GM crops it would make them even MORE productive and thus bankrupt the EU farm policy -- which is obliged to buy up whatever the farmers produce. That the policy is also applied to farmers in poor countries who export to the EU and thus keeps those farmers poor does not bother the EU a bit. Better for Africans to stay poor than for the EU farm policy to collapse under the weight of its own stupidity.

The reader concerned is a good cynic. He also points to the instant US ban on Canadian beef after just one Canadian cow was found to have mad cow disease and links it to the way Canada and its Froggy Prime Minister antagonized many Americans with its repeated attempts to protect Saddam Hussein. Canada squandered a lot of goodwill over that so a bit of quiet retaliation was bound to come.

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DEATH DUTIES

Around 20 years ago, all Australian States abolished death duties but they still exist in many places elsewhere. The SCOTSMAN features a well argued attack on Death duties.

This pro-death duties article outlines some of the history of Australia's death duties abolition.

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ELSEWHERE

Extra anti-terrorist police patrolling London's streets have been given orders to shoot to kill suspects. Good to see that the British police can get serious sometimes.

Good to see that the Iranians are trying hard to neuter their Mullahs.

A good summary of feminism -- at least as it once was: "Feminism proclaimed that for women to be fulfilled they had to adopt the career ambitions of workaholic men, the sexual promiscuity of John F. Kennedy, and the cynicism of Gloria Steinem (the pre-married one, that is). Can you think of any demographic group other than women who would have bought into this prescription for complete disaster and then cried victim when the Bunker Buster of Inevitable Biology crashed through the roof and blew up in their faces?"

Christopher Hitchens has a very acerbic attack on the way Leftists betrayed their own supposed values over Iraq. He uses their own jargon to good effect: "The government and people of these United States are now at war with the forces of reaction." "Reactionaries" are what Leftists call conservatives but the Muslim fundamentalists are of course REAL reactionaries. They really do want to take us back to the Middle Ages.

Amusing: In the anti-smoking debate, the Arab News has come out in favour of "personal choice". How about personal choice for Saudi women who want to drive a car etc.?

A remarkable research report here about black under-achievement at school. An extremely thorough black researcher found that black kids from wealthy black homes do not do well at school because they are lazy! Gasp!

Good to see that Israel, the USA and India are beginning to see one-another as natural allies. All three are strong democracies that have big problems with Islamic fruitcakes.

Interesting that blacks are now more often prosecuted for lynching than whites are.

Cuba: “The recent round of crackdowns has not only brought a new wave of international criticism -- as it rightly should have -- but it has once again thrust the issue of what to do with Castro's Cuba back to the forefront of American politics."

After the avoidable loss of two shuttle crews, even NASA now realizes that its credibility is just about zero.

Leftists often seem to think that even the mentally ill are “equal” and “victims”. The Misanthropyst has an amusing link that tells of one of the do-gooders getting a dose of reality about the matter.

The NYT's Jayson Blair falsifications seems small time compared to their Duranty affair in the '30s. There are some other unsavoury NYT episodes listed here

The Wicked one is pretty scathing about Lew Rockwell’s hatred of the “neoconservatives”.

Michael Darby has an extract from a V.D. Hanson article in which VDH argues that there is no problem with us understanding the Islamic world. It is the Muslims who do not understand the modern world.

Chris Brand sees the proposed new European constitution as yet another hope for causing a big bustup in the British Labour party.

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CHEAP DRUGS FOR THE POOR

In response to my recent note about the attempt in Maine to force drug prices down for the uninsured, one of my readers who is a medical specialist writes:

This drug price control will just result in a shortage of drugs - for "the poor" - NPR had a good discussion of this issue. One way the drug companies can wiggle around this is to restrict their supply; and the insurance companies can apply restrictions on distribution, like requiring pre-approval; when "the poor" realize that they will have to make another trip to the doctor's office to obtain pre-approval, etc.. many will not go back and simply will not get their drugs.

There is no free lunch. Following all the pressure to discount anti-AIDS drugs for Africa's "poor", there has been a great reduction of new such drugs - no surprises here. Likewise - there have been few new drugs for malaria - most of the people who need them the most can't afford them. Of course, "need" is simply not a market force - some people are just out of luck.

Fortunately, some have developed common sense in this area - South Africans have re-discovered DDT and the incidence of malaria has dropped greatly - again, no surprises - except to Greenies like Christie Whitman; I always believed she was an airhead when, as Governor of NJ, she fired the chief of the NJ State Police when he said "of course, we profile"

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SMOKING

A smoker among my readers has reproached me for saying that people have a “right” to breathe unpolluted air. To clarify: I am not an anarcho-capitalist -- though I did once trifle with the idea. Like most libertarians I am a Minimal Statist -- which means that I see some role for laws. It seems to me that air pollution is a case in point. 300 years of capitalism did nothing to clear up London's smog but the Clean Air Act did the trick. So I support restrictions on air pollution -- whether emanating from factories, cars or smokers. Breathing is pretty basic and so therefore is pollution of it.

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THE LATEST FROM BROOKES NEWS

Why does Ralph Nader bat for Arafat against Israel?: Nader is more than just a hypocrite. His support for Arafat was a backdoor way of denying the right of Israel to exist _ and what would that mean for Jews everywhere? Bunny Champers: media corruption and the Iraqi war.: It still pains an old battle scarred war correspondent like myself to recall how his fellow scribes refused to report the truth about Saddam and how they lied about the looting and the hospitals so as to make the Yankee Doodle Dandies look bad. Oil prices and energy taxes: another green con.: Free markets, not taxes, conserve resources. This is really basic stuff. When the supply of any resource falls its price rises. Eventually the price reaches a point where the cost of producing an additional unit exceeds the demand. This is why we never run out of resources in a free market.

Details here

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BRITAIN

Wow! Britain is to get a national ID card. I thought only the Europeans went in for that sort of thing. When the Hawke Labor government tried to bring one in for Australia there was a huge outcry that finally knocked the idea on the head. Though I must say that I cannot see what honest people have to fear from it. But at least the new UK legislation will include a further clampdown on the appeal rights of rejected asylum seekers and measures to tackle those who destroy their documents on arrival in Britain.

This EU constitution that Britain looks likely to adopt will essentially make Britain no longer an independent country and will remove from its Parliament most of its powers in favour of dictates from Brussels. If the British accept that they deserve what they get. An Indian reader has emailed me with the claim that Indians under the British Raj had more rights and independence than Britain would have under the new EU constitution. No wonder Tony Blair does not want to put the thing to a referendum. He knows it would be rejected.

All that antiterrorism experience in N. Ireland may come in handy: "Coalition chiefs plan to send 5,500 British paratroopers to Baghdad to save US troops from losing control of the Iraqi capital."

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ELSEWHERE

Clever! Israel has accepted the nutty US “roadmap” for peace. Why? Because they know the Palis will never fulfil their part of it so the whole thing will fall in a heap anyway.

What fun! The “diversity” mania of American colleges and universities is now causing better-qualified girls to be excluded in favour of boys! Feminists will love that. Will we now see feminists AGAINST affirmative action?

James Glaser makes a persuasive case for the view that there is still NOTHING stopping more terrorists and their deadly cargo from entering the United States.

Chris Brand notes that eugenics has just found some support on the Left and that Enoch Powell is getting new respect.

Michael Darby wonders at the continued glamorization of the brutal Fidel Castro.

China hand discusses the merits of renting versus buying in China.

The Wicked one is critical of both the Federal Reserve banking system and the FBI

In my academic posting of May 23rd. here, I try to inject a bit of psychometric sophistication into the measurement of chronic anxiety.

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SLOW LOADING?

Blogspot blogs often seem to be very slow to load lately. If you are finding this blog difficult to access, however, you have options. Both of my mirror sites (see the links top left on this page) should be faster-loading. Try both and bookmark the one that seems to work best for you. The Lycos network seem to have overcome their problems so I have also revitalized my Tripod site lately.

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THERE ARE MANY HOLOCAUSTS

I certainly do not agree with all of Henry Makow’s views but the point made in his post of 19th ( “The other side of holocaust denial”) that there have been many recent holocausts as reprehensible as the Jewish holocaust is undoubtedly true -- and that millions of Germans died AFTER World War II as a result of deliberate Allied policies seems also to be true. It does seem about time that these other holocausts became better known. Maybe the recent mini-holocausts in the Balkans (Kosovo, Bosnia) could have been prevented somehow if we had all long ago realized and accepted that it is in fact common for human beings to perpetrate mass slaughters of those they perceive as “other”. I personally grieve at the Jewish holocaust most because of the vast talent that was lost to the world in that terrible event but for Christians ALL human life is supposed to be sacred.

This article points out that many “holocaust revisionists” are Leftists and that only a minority are at all sympathetic to Nazism. It also tries to explain why such revisionism matters. But for the life of me I still do not get why it matters. If it was 1 million rather than 6 million Jews that the Nazis killed, how does that make the deed any more excusable?

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STATE EDUCATION WATCH

British socialism has now got so bad that they cannot even afford to pay all their schoolteachers and are having to sack some of them. Sounds like Russia. One of their headmasters put his finger on the problem, though: "There is more money going into the system, but so much of it is taken up by bureaucracy that it is not finding its way to schools". You can bet that there will not be any bureaucrats sacked.

By lowering testing standards, some U.S. States hope to evade the penalties that a federal law imposes on schools whose students fare poorly on standardized tests. Anything rather than actually educate the kids!

Jeff Jacoby is pretty plainspoken about teachers’ unions and tells us that we need to recognize that first and foremost: “Teachers unions, like all unions, want to make money and amass power. Those are the motives behind everything they say and do. They're not in business "for the children." They're in business for themselves.”

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ELSEWHERE

A great victory for the USA/UK in the U.N. As big as the military victory in Iraq in a way. Russia too is once again decidedly friendly to the USA. Marvellous!

Arlene Peck's latest column -- commenting on the absurd "roadmap" for peace in Israel -- is up here (post of 22nd.)

The media love a panic. But another one has quietly faded away: The British Mad Cow death toll prediction has now been cut from 50,000 to 40. That might be some small comfort to the frantic Canadians.

A suburban Washington woman was in a Maryland jail Monday on charges of assaulting a 4-year-old after he spilled ice cream on her in a fast-food restaurant. Unbelievable. A little 4-year-old! I hope they give the bitch years inside.

Tobacco: A Florida court threw out the landmark $145 billion punitive award of 2000, saying the suit against cigarette makers should never have gone forward as a class-action. Great! I loathe smoking but blaming other people for your own bad decisions stinks even more.

The House gave final approval to President Bush's $15 billion global AIDS initiative on Wednesday. The US taxpayer must not have much to do with his/her money!

Tax cuts: Congressional Republicans have shown themselves just as willing to spend as Democrats. These bipartisan big spenders are the real source of deficit concerns -- not a modest tax cut.

President Bush said that the ban on genetically modified food had discouraged third world countries from using that technology, undermining efforts to end hunger in Africa. Good to hear that at least GWB is not captive to the Greenie lunatics.

Replacing Whitman: A new EPA director will have to confront the erroneous assumption that more federal regulations are the key to achieving greater environmental quality and that government can be expected to act as a better guardian than private individuals."

Chris Brand says that social class is not as important as sociologists think it is.

Michael Darby points to the heartless government policy that denies grandparents the right to be foster parents to their own grandchildren.

In my academic posting of May 22nd. here, I again look at the Leftist claim that conservatives are maladjusted and report survey evidence showing it to be false. The study concerned was done in conjunction with a prominent (Leftist) sociologist.

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LEFTIST DECEPTION ABOUT CANADIAN ATTITUDES

Opinion pollsters can certainly talk some garbage. There is an absurd bit of work here by a Canadian pollster which examines average Canadian attitudes WITHOUT taking into account the large French population in Canada. So -- surprise, surprise -- he finds that average Canadian attitudes to Iraq etc differ from average American attitudes. What a lamebrain! You don't need to be a sociologist to know that French and English Canadians have their differences. Had he tabulated the averages for French and English Canadians separately it might have told us something. And he concludes that the minority of Canadians who support the USA "are fortunate to live in a country where minority opinion is encouraged" -- as if the USA did not allow dissent! What a puffed-up nincompoop!

Note this more objective report of Canadian attitudes: "Opposition to the United States was heavily concentrated in French-speaking Quebec. In English Canada, a clear majority supported the liberation of Iraq, and two-thirds wanted Canada to help the allies"

And those Canadians who DO think that Canada is too good for the rest of us must have been getting a little rocked lately -- with Toronto recently quarantined over SARS and now Mad Cow disease in their beef herds.

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ELSEWHERE

Christie Whitman resigns. Good riddance to a Greenie dupe.

It looks like the US Federal government is getting involved in the anti-smoking push. Seems a bit excessive getting the Feds involved, let alone international treaties. In Australia it is a matter decided at State government level. I think that in much of the developed world we are not far off the point where smoking will be permitted only between consenting adults in private -- which seems to me a fair balance between respecting the right of the unfortunate addicts who need to smoke and the rest of us who have the right not to have have their air polluted.

Why on earth is the USA supposed to be responsible for the unending disasters of every African tinpot country?

Carnival of the Vanities is up again. Worth a look.

Tony Blair faced his fourth rebellion in two months last night as 34 Labour MPs defied government whips and voted against plans to curb the right to trial by jury Good show!

The Indonesians now have a 30,000- member force in Aceh trying to crush 5,000 poorly armed guerrillas in a dense, mountainous forest. The sides have been fighting since 1976, making this one of Asia's longest-running conflicts. I would normally be on the side of the independence fighters but since they are Muslim fanatics being opposed by Indonesia's secular government, I am rather on the government side this time -- despicable though the Indonesians were in East Timor.

"A federal children's health agency is funding a study of the sex habits of old men.
That's government for you.

Maine will use Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor, to force drugmakers to lower the costs of prescription drugs for uninsured residents, regardless of their income." So people who pay for their health insurance will have to subsidize the free-riders who do not! That's Lefty justice for you.

"Any charge that the U.S. military misrepresented the facts of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch's rescue on April 1 from an Iraqi hospital to make the mission appear more dramatic or heroic is 'void of all facts and absolutely ridiculous' the Pentagon said Monday -- Responding to a BBC report that called the Pentagon accounts of the rescue 'one of the most stunning pieces of news management ever conceived,' Knowing the frantic Leftist and anti-American bias of the BBC I am inclined to believe the Pentagon.

"A Hamilton County grand jury today declined to indict Harold McKinney, a Citizens on Patrol Program member who police say shot a man May 8 as the man was robbing a Northside bar. Grand jurors ignored charges of felonious assault and carrying a gun in a liquor establishment, charges police had brought against McKinney." Thank goodness for the Grand Jury system! McKinney should never have been charged. The Police were just peeved that he was on their "turf" in the matter.

Michael Darby has a contemptuous letter to the French in which the writer points out what shalom means in Hebrew.

Chris Brand notes that the US Senate wants to give $15 billion to provide for programmes in Africa for "reducing sexual violence and coercion, including child marriage, widow inheritance and polygamy." That seems a lot of US taxpayer money for what is hardly a US vital interest.

The Wicked one points out some possible implications of the recent finding that Chimps and humans are almost identical genetically.

In my academic posting of May 21st here, I look at international levels of chronic anxiety (neuroticism) and find that the average level is surprisingly uniform from country to country -- consistent with the view that this basic personality variable is genertically determined rather than being the outcome of circumstances or environment. If you are the sensitive, worrying type, it is because you were born that way.

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AUSTRALIA’S IMMIGRATION POLICY STILL TOO PERMISSIVE

Although Australia’s policy on illegal immigration has been a brilliant success -- stopping illegal immigration just about stone dead -- Australia still accepts large numbers of legal immigrants on compassionate grounds -- including lots of Muslim “refugees”. And they bring with them the attitudes that have messed up their own countries. As a reader writes:

It is interesting that with the upcoming Rugby world cup all the visiting teams are being housed here in Sydney, except for the US team which is being put up out at Bowral for security reasons because the security authorities are concerned about their safety from ethnic minorities in the Homebush region.

Regardless of one's views on the rights/wrongs of US foreign policy or the Iraq war, the fact that guests to this country can no longer be safe because of ethnic groups that our own authorities let in shows that something is quite wrong with our multiculturalism policies and the mindset of those communities. Whilst all the political focus is on refugees and mandatory detention, the basics of immigration policy ..what kind of country do we want.. get pushed out of view.

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BRITISH IMMIGRATION POLICY A FARCE

The UK government gave, after only four hours of effort, a British reporter "asylum status," meaning he now gets free housing, food and travel in the UK, when he came to them faking an East European accent and claiming that the government of Moldova would kill him if he returned to Moldova.

When they asked him for an ID he said he had none because it was too dangerous to carry any which was a good enough explanation for the Home Office Asylum Screening Unit, in Lunar House, Croydon, Surrey, for those of you who want someone to take care of you the rest of your life and who can fake an East European accent.

“Lunar House” -- sounds well-named in the circumstances.

The UK Sun 19-May-03. Via Jerry Lerman.

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DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA

"Marijuana advocates across Canada are celebrating a May 16 Ontario court decision, which effectively legalized possession in Canada's largest province.

The Canadians are pretty incensed about pressure from the USA to abandon their permissive stance on Marijuana. I must say that I think the Canadians are right on this one. US Prohibition on alcohol did more harm than good. Why anyone thinks Marijuana use is any different escapes me. Though I myself have never used ANY illegal drug -- nor do I intend to.

And it has just been anounced in Australia that “Legalised cannabis will be prescribed to people suffering from chronic pain or wasting illnesses”

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ELSEWHERE

A 17-year-old German was convicted and sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail on Tuesday on charges of taking four children hostage at gunpoint at their school last fall . 3 1/2 years? Surely any parent would want that garbage put away for life!

Surprise, surprise: United Nations officials looked the other way as Saddam Hussein's regime skimmed $2 billion to $3 billion in bribes and kickbacks from the UN Oil-for-Food Program

An amusing article on the new German/French/Belgian military force -- or was that “farce”?

John Derbyshire reminds us that mass-murderer Idi Amin -- with only 300,000 dead Ugandans to his “credit” -- is living a life of ease and luxury these days -- where? In Saudi Arabia. Strange that he has not been extradited to be tried as a war criminal, isn’t it? More about Amin here.

Daniel Pipes has a pretty appalling but well-documented story about how the Saudis BUY “protection” in Washington.

Big scientific discovery: politicians lie. “Politicians need to be more honest about lying," he told the newspaper.” (??).

Michael Darby notes how the Zimbabwe police now have no regard for the law.

Chris Brand notes recent false accusations of rape and the damage they have done.

The Wicked one does not think much of Martin Luther King.

In my academic posting of May 19th here, I show that older women tend to misrepresent themselves.

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THE WICKEDNESS OF CHEAP COFFEE

Where you get your coffee beans from seems to have become something of a cause among Leftists looking for something with which to inflate their claims of “compassion”. Now that Vietnam has become a big producer of coffee-beans, the worldwide supply has increased greatly and the price, of course, has tumbled. So lots of coffee-bean producers in poor countries have had drastic cuts in their already low income. The big brains of the Left blame the problem on the coffee-roasting companies of course and try to heavy them in various ways.

In this report, however, the real solution to the problem is left to a single sentence at the end: Coffee-growers have to start diversifying into growing something else. Unforunately, however, even if they do, the determination of Western governments (USA, EU, Japan) to protect their own high-cost farmers with huge subsidies and tariffs makes it difficult for third-world farmers to get ANY of their their produce into our markets. So bring on free-trade! THAT is how to help third-world coffee growers. But how often do you hear of Leftists pushing for free-trade? The anti-globalizers are certainly dead against it.

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THE EU BAN ON GM CROPS -- A CRUEL GREENIE HOAX

"After months of anticipation, the U.S. government is expected to file a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization against the European Union's five-year moratorium on new genetically modified crop varieties. Critics often deride GM crops with built-in pest, weed, and disease resistance as helpful only for wealthy farmers in industrialized nations but developing countries could benefit tremendously from the adoption of GM crops. As much as 40 percent of conventional crop productivity in Africa and Asia is lost to insect pests, weeds, and plant diseases. But many of the same GM crops available in North America are already helping poor farmers in South Africa, India, China, and the Philippines combat often-voracious insects while reducing the amount of insecticides or eliminating them altogether".

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"FREE" MONEY

Matthew Lesko has built a lucrative career on exploiting the government's recklessness with and waste of taxpayers' money. Lesko's "Free Money From the Government" book series does nothing but show people how to apply for and receive for themselves the money that you work for. Among the offerings the "Guru of Government Giveaways" promotes are the government sources and methods to apply for: $100,000 in grants to start a home based business; $75,000 housing grants to remodel your house and $3,000 in grants to help buy a car. Lots of people get angry with him but I think he does libertarians a big favour by highlighting how irresponsible government is with taxpayer funds.

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ELSEWHERE

I am reluctant to believe any reports from the perennially biased Reuters but it does seem that the US administration of postwar Iraq is one huge bureaucratic bungle.

Great stuff: “For the first time, members of the US Congress have established a caucus devoted to Australia. The Friends of Australia Congressional Caucus was set up last week with the immediate aim of supporting the US-Australia free-trade agreement now being negotiated."It's broader than that, but at this juncture that's its primary focus," said Jen Burita.”

An excellent article arguing that Britain's future lies over the Atlantic - not the Channel from Dick Morris -- a former leading staffer for Bill Clinton. Britain should forget about the miserable EU and go for a free-trade agreement with the USA -- as Australia is.


Another excellent column from Paul Sheehan discussing opposition to the bridge to Hindmarsh Is. in South Australia and 'secret women's business' and how the media and academia treated it. The truth is the first casualty where Leftists are involved, of course.

Midnight muncher sows seeds of suspicion: Three stands competing for gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show were damaged by a mystery crisp eater on the eve of a visit by the Queen today. Dotty Britain lives! Good to see that such things can still get a headline in The Times.

The House is considering a bill that could force the nation's foundations to give away more of their money to charity each year. About time! There is a huge tendency for charitable foundations to become little more than a honey-pot for their staff.

The Mike Hawash case should be pretty disturbing to any American who thinks he has any rights. The fact is that your government can lock you up without trial for as long as it likes and there is not a thing you can do about it.

Michael Darby has an excerpt from an article by Anne Coulter which pokes fun at the way Leftists fear having US Christians in Iraq and marvels at the Leftist arrogance in claiming that they know what “true” Islam is.

Chris Brand looks at the psychology and biology of sex differences.

In my academic posting of May 19th here, I look at a claim by Leftist psychologists that Leftists are love-motivated and report a survey which shows the opposite.

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THE ABUSED ARCHBISHOP

A reader writes:

“These claims about Archbishop Hollingworth overlooking 'child abuse' are amazing. Child abuse is the last moral barrier and the Left goes to town on anything remotely associated with it, whilst giving their intellectual blessing to social changes, like the breakdown of the traditional family, that if anything expose thousands of children to risk.

At the same time they can be completely blind to what looks like systematic abuses in the Aboriginal community that if inflicted under the auspices of Church missionaries or orphanages would lead to cries for a Royal Commission into a new 'abused generation'. I think Paul Sheehan is right, the Hollingworth witch hunt is being fuelled by republican and anti-Howard agendas that have very little to do with the Bishop himself.

Personally I don't think it is a good idea to appoint a clergyman to a vice regal position. However wasn't it the Leftist South Australian Premier Don Dunstan who initiated the practice with the appointment of a clergyman Sir Douglas Nicholls? I don't remember a lot of the Left-leaning people who object to this alleged mix of church and state objecting then. Of course Nicholls was not a Bishop -- and he was an Aborigine!”

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SALLY SATEL

Sally Satel, author of "HOW POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IS CORRUPTING MEDICINE" has a recent article on the growth of the psychological "trauma" industry in which she points to evidence casting great doubt on all the repressed memory stories we hear. There is an archive of Satel's recent articles here. She has an interesting article discussing recent attempts by lawyers to turn "fast food addiction" into a basis for lawsuits and regulation of the fast food industry. She says that Fast food 'addiction' feeds only lawyers.

Satel's article on race and medicine is particularly good -- noting that there are medically important differences between blacks and whites and showing that the “Race is a myth” mantra is itself a myth.

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ELSEWHERE

A rather amazing story of an Australian soldier who took on 20 Iraqis and won despite coming under heavy fire. It’s like a tale out of the wars of the old British Empire. True grit still exists among us.

An equally amazing story of politically correct stupidity in some Australian schools is just up on PC Watch. ALL discipline looks like being banned in the State of New South Wales.

The New York Police Dept. kills an innocent woman in her own home and all they do is APOLOGIZE??

And one wonders at the mentality of these Australian prosecutors who went for and got a conviction even whilst holding evidence that would have proved the accused to be innocent. It’s the prosecutors who should be in jail.

The Misanthropyst has dug up another example of the vast disconnect that exists between what Leftists say they believe in and what they actually do when given the opportunity. In this case a leader of a teachers’ union who was very militant about getting more money for his members whilst at the same time ripping them off for vast sums.

This should be a joke but it isn’t: “The pair wants a city ordinance stating 'that all brewed coffee sold in town must be brewed from coffee beans that are organic, fair-trade, shade-grown or a combination.'.

And this is no joke: There really is a Voluntary Human Extinction Movement -- Greenies of course. I have always said that Greenies hate people but I am still a bit surprised about anybody being so blatant about it.

After successful fights against asbestos and tobacco companies, some top plaintiffs' lawyers are taking on drug makers, claiming they hid the dangers of some of their pills. This really ought to be stopped. We need drug companies to be spending their money on research, not on lawyers.

Jim Kalb points out that There are some amazing similarities in the way the NYT handled repeated evidence of misbehaviour by its rogue black reporter and the way the RC church handled priests accused of pederasty. Lefties will not like the comparison.

Michael Darby has some notes on the nutty types at the Greenie “Biodevastation” conference just held.

Chris Brand notes that the equally nutty Zimbabwe regime is now taking a real risk -- kicking out a Guardian reporter. That will sink them -- the way killing thousands of their own citizens never would!

The Wicked one notes that there is one Greenie who comes to some rather conservative conclusions.

In my academic posting of May 18th here, I look at what influences the distance from one-another that we adopt during conversation.

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CAPITALIST RECYCLERS

The view that most of us have of Britain's Victorian era is strongly shaped by the dramatic novels of Charles Dickens. Dickens was however a reformer in his day so focused on the worst things in his environment. There is a very interesting article here that shows -- surprisingly -- that the Victorians were in fact great recyclers. But they did it for profit, not under government compulsion. That constitutes pretty powerful evidence that even recycling should be left to the marketplace. Modern-day government recycling programs almost always cost money rather than make money.

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THE DISHONESTY OF NOAM CHOMSKY

Keith Windschuttle provides a very carefully documented demolition of Noam Chomsky and his very popular (among Leftists) defence of terrorism against the USA. Excerpt: "In fact, Chomsky was well aware of the degree of violence that communist regimes had routinely directed at the people of their own countries. At the 1967 New York forum he acknowledged both "the mass slaughter of landlords in China" and "the slaughter of landlords in North Vietnam" that had taken place once the communists came to power. His main objective, however, was to provide a rationalization for this violence."

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BROOKES NEWS

There are some great headlines on Brookes News at the moment. Try these for a sampling:

A British academic defends Saddam's regime. What is it with lefties? No matter how vicious, dangerous and monstrous a regime is one can guarantee that some group of lefties will find some justification in its existence, provided, of course, that it is anti-American.

The minimum wage rise con and the failure of our right. The minimum wage has been increased in the name of social justice. I for one cannot see any justice in pricing some people out of work in order to raise wages of who are fortunate enough to keep their jobs.

Kim Jong-il is also Beijing's problem — so what will she do? There are those in Beijing who realise that it is in China's interests to have a unified and prosperous Korea free of foreign (read American) political and military influence than one divided by hostile armies.

China's growth is no threat to the world's resources. China's economic development is not a threat to the world's resources or its environment.

Warren Buffet's stupid economics. Buffet may be brilliant when it come to picking stocks but in the field of economics he is a dangerous buffoon who allows his loyalty to the Democrats and his contempt for Bush to distort his judgment.

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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.