ELSEWHERE

Britain’s decision not to adopt the European currency is a great victory for economic rationality over political symbolism. Why would a prospering Britain want to put itself under the same rules as a stagnant Europe? It’s bad enough Britain being in the EU at all when a free trade agreement with the USA would do them a lot more good -- even if all that did was to free British industry of all the EU red tape.

The Church of England now has an openly homosexual bishop. I have got some New Testament readings for those who appointed him -- Romans 1:24-27; 1 Timothy 1:9-11; Jude 7; 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11. But I guess that the New Testament is just another fuddy-duddy old book to the Leftist clergy of the present-day Church of England.

For those who like British humour, The Times was surprisingly good yesterday -- here and here

We hear such a lot of ill of the clergy these days that this story may be needed to restore a balance.

The Leftist “educators”: Recent studies suggest as many as half of today’s college freshmen must take at least one remedial course in college, with more than four in 10 of these taking a remedial course in writing. Why would K-12 teachers put a low priority on grammar and usage skills? Because that’s what they are taught to do by their professors in schools of education.

The Wicked one has a big posting on whether or not Nazism was gay

Michael Darby quotes the 19th century Chartists in discussing how long a Parliament should be allowed to serve before facing an election.

Chris Brand has some amusing examples of PC insanity.

In my academic posting here (or here) I draw on evidence from Australians, Afrikaners and Indians to show that being proud of your own country or society does not mean that you denigrate or are prejudiced against other nations, groups or races.

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BROOKES NEWS

Gerry Jackson of Brookes News writes regarding my recent post about Oliver Wendell Holmes defending taxes:

“A couple of points about Holmes. If I recall my history correctly he made his statement about taxes and civilisation before 1910. This was before the US had an income tax and when total government spending was about 9 per cent of GDP. I find it odd that critics of high taxes never point this out when self-righteous lefties quote Holmes. Moreover, it was Holmes who said: "I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealising envy."

Some current headlines from Brookes News:

Socialism is the villain, not Nike. The communist government in Hanoi is responsible for the appalling level of wages in Vietnam, not Nike. It is that government's socialist policies that keeps living standards at an abysmal level.

Revealed: Goebbels' plan to destroy Britain's radar defences. Sixty-five years ago Joseph Goebbels hatched a devilish scheme to destroy Britain's radar defences without firing a shot.

The Dems fascist supporters. Many have expressed puzzlement at the spectacle of the very rich lavishing "soak-the-rich" Democrats with money and other means of support. Buffett is one such supporter whose recent and dishonest attack on Bush's tax cuts immediately brings this apparent paradox to mind. So why do they do it?

Why Kim's antics threaten Beijing's Pacific ambitions. One does not need a deep knowledge of Chinese affairs to realise that the last thing Beijing would welcome is a nuclear conflagration on her doorstep. It is also recognised in the Asian region that Beijing would like to see an American withdrawal.

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ELSEWHERE

Hey! Affirmative action has its uses. At least it led to the downfall of the notoriously biased Howell Raines.

Some fruitcake slashes at police with a knife and it’s the fault of the police when they shoot him? Only in San Francisco (I hope).

Taxes wasted on bureaucracy: In the British National Heath service, the National Office of Statistics found that, while resources rose by 6 per cent in real terms in 2001, treatments to patients rose by only 3 per cent

You live and learn: Like most people I thought that South Korea’s “sunshine policy” towards the North was simply designed to avert war. This article explains that it is acually a form of collaboration with the North. Reunification of the two Koreas would, of course, be a huge economic drain on the South.

Good comment: “To certain critics of U.S. policy in Iraq, the only thing worse than going to war with Saddam Hussein is the fact that we won”. Via The Federalist

Good to see that the judge in the case made a laughing-stock of the ridiculous Federal prosecution of a medical marijuana grower.

What fun: Greenies are at one-another’s throats over windmills. Maybe that fad will pass soon too. How anybody ever thought windmills could be a reliable source of power-generation escapes me.

A disturbing article in the “Speccy” by someone of Pakistani Muslim origin. He says that anti-Western Islamic TV stations are accessible worldwide through satellite and that they are widely watched by Muslims in the West. So even in the West Muslims are getting fed a diet of ferocious anti-Israel and anti-Western propaganda that glorifies terrorism. No wonder a couple of British Muslims recently became suicide bombers. Muslims everywhere are being made a danger to us.

Libertarian socialism? A prominent UK politician says that there is such a beast but goes on to advocate government dominance of just about everything. Perry de Havilland has more.

"House Majority Leader Tom DeLay sharply attacked China's leadership recently, demanding that the United States forge a trade agreement with Taiwan despite Chinese opposition. Calling China 'a backward, corrupt anachronism, run by decrepit tyrants, old apparatchiks clinging to a dying regime ...'“ He’s right but 1.2 billion people are not to be trifled with and they have liberalized an awful lot in recent years -- so much so that their capitalism is in some ways more unbridled than we ever now see in the West.

Clinton’s Energy Information Agency estimated Kyoto’s annual cost to the U.S. at up to $400 billion ..."

Understandable: While four out of five Americans would describe an unwed mother and her children as a 'family,' fewer than one in three would apply the term to a gay or lesbian couple raising children."

Michael Darby is not very happy about a government policy of shooting “brumbies” (Australian wild horses).

Chris Brand discusses the Spanish conservative philosopher, Ortega Y Gasset.

In my academic posting here (or here) I report a study of South African Afrikaners (whites of Dutch origin). I found that they were conservative and ambitious but not maladjusted in any way. And pro-Apartheid voters among them were not particularly conservative!

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"DISCRIMINATION" IN IMMIGRATION

A reader writes:

A thought about Australian immigration policy: The development of large ethnic sub-communities apparently unwilling or incapable to integrate into the wider Australian community and the symbiotic relationship that their unelected "leaders" have with the multiculturalism industry is really a by product of the Whitlam / Fraser immigration policy era. Whitlam claimed to be killing off what remained of the old "White Australia" policy. This was disingenuous -- as the previous Liberal administrations from Holt to McMahon were the governments that actually abolished the "White Australia policy" progressively over a decade, in favour of a programme based on integration and assimilation.

The Whitlam ministry instituted "multiculturalism" which was effectively sold to Fraser and institutionalised ever since. Neither Whitlam or Fraser ever attempted to sell multiculturalism to the electorate directly. In fact Whitlam argued that immigration of all kinds, including non-european immigration, would be reduced under his government and "family reunion" would provide a conservative alternative to "white Australia". Whitlam was trying to play both sides, defusing concerns from those concerned about radical social change by emphasising lower total numbers and maintenance of traditional sources of immigration, whilst winning support from "ethnic community leaders" and playing up his burial of a policy that was already dead.

Unfortunately 'family reunion' has turned into chain immigration and Australia's stringent criteria applied to independent immigrants (ie those lacking a family predecessor) are bypassed, sometimes by genuine or false refugees, but mainly by legitimate family union immigrants.

In current Australian politics, social conservatives are portrayed as advocates of "discrimination", where the multiculturalists portray themselves as advocates of a "non-discriminatory" immigration policy. This is also disingenuous. All immigration policies other than a completely open door or a completely closed door involve some form of discrimination, and almost no one advocates either of those positions.

In fact social conservatives, by advocating an end to the family reunion "loophole", and the application of the usual rules applied to independent immigrants, could easily argue that their policy is by far the fairest and hence the least "discriminatory" option.

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CARNIVAL

Carnival of the Vanities is particularly interesting this week. Just two posts for example:

Eric Berlin tells us why ethanol is more wasteful than thermal depolymerization. One hopes that Senator Daschle would bother actually learning the facts, too, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Jeff Medcalf blogs about the possible results of the US putting pressure on Israel. A frightening scenario, to be sure, but worth reading (and pondering at length).

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ELSEWHERE

What rot: The British government is about to start calling almost any college with more than 4,000 students a university -- whether it does research or not. Another example of the Leftist belief in verbal magic -- the belief that changing the name changes the reality. Nobody is ever fooled by it for long, fortunately.

Sounds good: "The United States is said to be developing new plans for a war in North Korean that would bypass the demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas and target the leadership in Pyongyang. The plan is based on the success of US-led forces in Iraq in quickly reaching the capital, Baghdad. US officials quoted by Reuters said the plan would involve the consolidation of the US and South Korean forces in two areas away from the demilitarised zone."

What a joke: The Australian Labor Party is distraught that Jacques Chirac is NOT going to visit Australia. Rather odd when a nominally Rightist French obstructionist becomes a hero to a nominally Leftist Australian political party. We live in crazy times.

The latest posting on Vdare is an article by Joe Guzzardi which reveals more unethical reporting at the NYT. In typically Leftist fashion the NYT seems to be an ethical vacuum -- with one revelation about their carelessness with the truth following another.

Also on Vdare, P.G. Roberts has a pretty alarming article about a new interpretation of the constitution being considered by the US Supreme Court that would assign “equal protection” to minorities only -- making most whites into second-class citizens. If the judiciary really does run amuck to that extent, I can foresee that some people might be driven to vigilante justice against them -- with the more racist judges ending up with a bullet in the head. As Juvenal said: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

There is a report on PC Watch that says many Iraqis want the U.S. to stay in Iraq but that Muslim zealots make them afraid to say so.

In his usual fearless way, Chris Brand has been writing to the papers about black penis size.

Michael Darby details one way in which the United Nations is very similar to the Roman Catholic church: Tolerance of paedophilia.

The Wicked one enjoys instant justice being done.

In my academic posting here (or here) I report some survey research findings about Germans that will surprise many. I found that Germans were far more likely than most others to have “Hippy” values -- a far cry from the goose-stepping robots of Hollywood war films. I point out some prewar history that makes the finding understandable however.

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TAX, OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES AND THE AUSTRALIAN LEFT

An Australian reader comments on an Australian Labor Party hero:

In a recent major speech, Simon Crean, Federal Parliamentary leader of the Australian Labor party, quoted with approval the American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who famously said: "When you pay taxes you buy civilisation". Of course when Holmes, who died in 1935, said that neither Australia or the US had anything like the tax rates imposed today. My guess is that Holmes paid a lesser slice of his pay packet to the government than most of us, and I doubt whether Crean would want Holmes sitting on that Australian Hign Court bench as Holmes was a strong advocate of "judicial restraint" and would have fought the judicial activism supported by the left today.

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BRITAIN

Good to see that Tony Blair is so hugely popular worldwide. Being a man of principle does pay off in the long run.

Overweight people and heavy smokers would have to sign contracts promising to diet or give up cigarettes in return for Health Service treatment, under radical new plans being drawn up by the British Labour Party. And if they break their contracts they get charged the full costs of their treatments. I expect that a lot of people will be outraged by that but we do not live in an ideal world and the fact is that health care is universally rationed these days -- only the way it is rationed varies. And a rationing system that gives preference to people who are ill through no fault of their own makes sense to me.

The British government has declared war on the huge and obscene payouts that company bosses now often get when their companies go broke. As a shareholder myself, I just hope the Brits start a ball rolling there that gets to other countries as well. Shareholders seem to have no power in the matter so I think this is clearly one area where governments do have a proper role. I actually think a chief executive’s pay should be cut to zero when his company goes under. Why should shareholders be the only ones to suffer? They are the ones who have least control over anything but they always get the penalty.

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ELSEWHERE

A LUTHERAN priest was suspended today after his remarks that God doesn't exist and there is no eternal life rankled many of his peers in Denmark's state church. They would have made him a bishop in the Church of England.

New blogger FreeSpeech points out that the Bush tax cut gives little to the poor because the poor already pay almost no tax in the USA anyway.

This article says that opposition to the FCC easing of U.S. media ownership regulations is mainly driven by Leftists who hate Rupert Murdoch and his Fox News. Sounds right.

Prime Minister John Howard told the mining industry his government was committed to Kyoto greenhouse gas emission targets, but he would not sign the Kyoto Protocol. I suppose we must be thankful for small mercies.

A black intellectual comments on trends in black music: “The staged alienation of the hip-hop scene shows black Americans celebrating attitude over action at best and violence over civility at worst. For 350 years white America told blacks they were beasts. Now a black-generated pop music presents us to whites and ourselves as beasts.”

Very clever of American interrogators to pressure captured Baathists in Iraq with heavy metal music to make them talk. It would drive me around the bend too. Give me Mozart any day.

Keith Windschuttle shows how the (new) National Museum of Australia perpetrates outright deception in lieu of history. It is truly amazing how things like the emancipation of Australia’s blacks and the abolition of the White Australia policy are routinely attributed to the Leftist Whitlam government when they were in fact initiatives of conservative governments.

Also from Windschuttle, the text of his latest debate with Henry Reynolds discussing the so-called genocide of Tasmanian aborigines by British settlers.

Turns out the Florida woman who is suing for the right to wear a Muslim headdress in a driver's license photograph has previously been subjected to an, um, unveiled government portrait. Following her 1997 conversion to Islam, Sultaana Freeman (formerly Sandra Keller) was arrested in Decatur, Illinois for battering a foster child.

Great! The G8 leaders urged Iran to co-operate with weapons inspectors, and President Putin promised to suspend Russian nuclear exports to Iran until it had complied,

I suppose everyone has seen this picture of the latest “nude protest” by Leftists -- this one at the G8 summit on May 31st. Yahoo postings do not stay up long so I am also posting the picture here to provide a more lasting reminder of how desperate Leftists are to draw attention to themselves. Talk about weak egos!

The Wicked one points out that, far from being a pollutant, carbon dioxide is good for us.

Michael Darby has a sad story from Zimbabwe

Chris Brand quotes figures showing that poorly educated immigrants cost the taxpayer heaps.

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PRIVATIZING ENVIRONMENTALISM

A reader writes:

This article discusses some of the wins of 'Stewardship Partners', a US conservationist group that works with, not against, private land owners, to forward 'down to earth' conservation aims.

The Australian Land Care movement is probably the most successful environmental group in Australia. Mainly because it focuses on practical measures to improve environmental quality at the local level, and avoids green politics and doomsday scaremongering, most of which has next to nothing to do with what used to be called 'quality of life' issues. Campaigns to encourage farmers to plant more trees have been quite successful. Fostering conservation stewardship on private land is also the path most likely to succeed.

Historically it has been the largest and usually richest private land owners, often aristocrats, that have been the main wildlife preservationists in the long settled countries. Many aristocrats were also hunters, in fact the longest running 'conservation program' in the world protected the Chinese Père David’s deer, which survived exclusively in the Imperial Hunting Park in Beijing for nearly 1,800 years. Few 'national parks' in Australia or the US are likely to survive shifting political fortunes that long. Having government as land manager of large national parks for instance is no guarantee that park authorities will have the resources or political will to protect their conservation value. In Australia, national parks as often as not provide refuges for feral animals as much as native species.

One genuine environmentalist I know says we should consider the heresy of selling off one or two of our national parks to pay for adequate fencing and feral animal control in the remainder. Under current politics, more national parks, the rallying point for green voters, will not equate to better biodiversity protection. At the same time recreational users of national parks, whose interests sometimes compete with conservation, are getting better organised politically.

Environmentalists in Australia are currently campaigning against land clearance, something that brings them into conflict with land owners. A more useful tactic would be to change the incentives private land owners face so as to encourage more conservation. Most of our land taxes and local government rates are based on the assessed market value of land. This puts private owners who want to conserve at a financial disadvantage. The solution would be to replace property value based rates and land taxes with user pays charges for local government services. Of course our green politicians oppose user pays. This site has several case studies of private conservation projects in the US..

A common theme they report is echoed by Fred Hebard, from the American Chestnut Foundation, an outfit dedicated to reviving the american chestnut from a devastating fungus, "government funding is too fickle to support a long term project like restoring the American chestnut."

The lesson of all this would seem to be that greens would be more successful if they put their money where their mouths are. If they want to preserve wilderness they should buy land themselves.

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LEFTIST THUGS

I have just put up here and here a copy of a paper I had published over 30 years ago during the Vietnam war era. It is worth reading to see how little has changed in the interim. In that paper I reproduced many reports of gangs of thugs going on an orgy of destruction and violence in the name of: “Peace”! The points I made then about the great gap that exists between what Leftists say they believe in and what they do are still true today. Leftists are by their nature full of hate and that shows itself when they think they can get away with it -- it shows itself in the way hate usually does -- through violence and destruction.

Here is an equivalent from present times: "Thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets Sunday to protest the Group of Eight summit across Lake Geneva in the French town of Evian, some battling with police and looting shops and gas stations. Anti-riot agents struck back with tear gas, water cannons and rubber pellets, as clashes continued into the evening."

What has looting shops and gas stations to do with the high-minded ideals Leftists profess? Nothing. What does it show? Everything we need to know about Leftists -- that they are hate-filled, thieving, dangerous thugs. Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were no accidents. They show what Leftists are really like when not restrained by more decent people. Ignore their fancy talk. Watch their brutish deeds. The “activists” reveal vividly the basic motivations behind Leftism generally.

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ELSEWHERE

What a joke: “The Group of Eight nations yesterday pledged to "fully commit themselves" to boost development in Africa and help build an African peacekeeping force on a continent where civil wars still spawn death, hunger and poverty.”
All of Africa has gone only one way after the colonial powers left -- backwards. What magic wand is anybody going to wave that will change that?

China Hand now has a Mirror Site that evades the Chinese censorship of Blogspot and is therefore viewable in China itself. If you have any contacts in China, please let them know. It should also be faster to load than Blogspot is at the moment.

Michael Darby reproduces a report of a vast underground nuclear complex that was discovered early on in the Iraq war. One wonders why we seem to have heard nothing of it since.

Chris Brand notes mockingly some of the dangers of sexuality.

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ISRAEL TOO PASSIVE

Arlene Peck's latest column is up here (post of June 1st.). Arlene says that Israel is being treated like a banana republic at the moment and should not put up with that. Also: Last time she was in Israel she had some photos taken that she is very proud of. You can see them here. Arik looks a bit bemused in the second one, though.

Crossposted on Israpundit

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AIRCRAFT SECURITY

A reader writes:

It's interesting to note how the press are turning the recent aircraft hijacking story into a human interest story about what a nice chap the hijacker is, , mowing his neighbours lawns etc., rather than focusing on the systems failures the hijack attempt represents. These articles from Jeff Tucker here and here written after 9-11 argues that excessive regulation in the aviation industry has prevented and politicised one of the most basic private property rights, the right of the property owner to take their own steps to secure his property. When the average big city McDonalds or suburban 7-11 store has better security than a multi-million dollar airliner, you can bet government bureaucrats have stuffed up again.

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MORE ON OGBU

Referring to the Ogbu findings that even affluent black kids are too unmotivated to do well at school, an article in Front Page comments: “Many ethnic groups have found ways to combine pride in group identity with pride in individual academic striving. Moreover, the African-American community was once an outstanding example of just that synthesis of effort. Why has the African-American community succumbed to this particular pathology? McWhorter's answer in Losing the Race is that affirmative action -- especially racial preferences in college admissions -- are operating as a perverse incentive to value group identity over individual performance.” Sounds logical. Why strive to do well when affirmative action will give you what others have to work for?

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ELSEWHERE

There is a very powerful article here that exposes how enormously bigoted educated Democrat supporters tend to be.

Another example of the disgraceful behaviour of the Red Cross here -- this time over the Bali bombing.

A smart-ass act from Sweden: They are refusing to hand over an Islamic terrorist because they have no law to enable it. How about passing such a law?

Good to see that Germany’s socialists are finally doing something about Germany’s economic problems. Pity it took 5 million unemployed to convince them that their bloated welfare system needed cutting, though.

GWB might be another Reagan yet: "The Bush administration issued new rules Thursday making it easier for businesses to compete for government work, an effort that could lead to the privatization of nearly half the nation's 1.8 million federal jobs. 'For quality service at the best price, competition beats monopoly every time,' said Mitch Daniels, outgoing director of the Office of Management and Budget. Government studies show that competition for jobs can save the government almost a third of the cost."

Interesting news: "The Iraqi military came within seconds of possibly wiping out the headquarters of the coalition ground forces with a missile on March 27, U.S. military officials said. The missile was intercepted and destroyed by a U.S. Patriot missile shortly before it could have hit its target. A CNN crew embedded at ground forces headquarters witnessed the incident. At the time of the incident, the material from the crew was embargoed under an agreement with the U.S. military until major hostilities in Iraq were over."

Anyone for government schooling? “More than four in 10 teachers (43 percent) say that in their schools, teachers spend less time teaching than they do trying to keep order in the classroom."

The black mayor of Washington D.C. has thrown his weight behind school vouchers, realizing that increasingly vocal parents demand more options and will not want to wait for the public school system to improve the schools.

A good article here comparing the looting losses at the Iraqi museum with the destruction inflicted on Western museums by multiculturalism -- showing that the protests about Iraq and the non-protests about the Western losses are both motivated by hatred of Western success and pre-eminence.

The Wicked one has four appalling examples of what passes for justice in the USA today.

Michael Darby commemorates Italy’s national day with some surprising information about World War I.

Chris Brand is mocking about the outrage over Russian “lesbian” Pop duo “Tartu”.

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OBL LOVES AUSTRALIA TOO

According to Yossef Bodansky, Osama Bin Laden was known as a serious terrorist threat long before 9/11. And, as it says here and here Australia went very close to being his first major target in the West. A reader comments:

I remember reading about this in Yossef Bodansky's pre 9-11 book on Osama Bin Laden. Bodansky's book was available in most chain book stores in Australia and discussed OBL related threats to the Olympic Games, Lucas Heights reactor, visits by OBL 'afghanis' to Melbourne and NZ arrests of 'afghanis' on illegal immigration charges. The book's claims received nil media coverage in the Australia of the immediate post 9-11 period when there was 'wall to wall' coverage of terrorism issues, yet Bodansky's book was probably for sale at the corner bookshop. This absence of discussion or coverage presumably reflects a failure to perform the most basic level of background research by our "media professionals".

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GREENIE WATCH

"It has become Standard Operating Procedure in climate change hype to never bother with inconvenient facts. Tons of tornado data are only a few mouse-clicks away. And they show that Toles was dead wrong in his implication that the recent storms show any link to the slight warming of the atmosphere that has occurred in recent decades. In fact, just the opposite may be occurring despite a perception of increased storminess."

"Efforts in the Senate to amend the bill with aggressive global warming policies make for a long, hot summer. Should the proponents of these measures succeed, American consumers could be in for a shock." And more on the latest Greenie nonsense from the U.S. Senate: “A renewable energy portfolio mandate would require each energy provider to ensure that 10 or 20 percent of its delivered energy comes from a renewable energy source."

"John Holdren, a Clinton-era leader of energy technology task forces, and now the leading academic member of the National Commission on Energy Policy, was one of four authors to hurl accusations of incompetence and worse at Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, in the pages of Scientific American. Energy expert Rob Bradley, Jr. rebuts Holdren's criticisms of Lomborg. Indeed, Bradley's review of Holdren's publications over a 30-year period documents a penchant for exaggeration, error, and now wholesale intolerance of reasoned dissent."

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ELSEWHERE

How about that: The latest scientific work shows that it is NOT the Gulf stream that keeps Western Europe warmer than North America.

"Thomas Paine is primarily remembered for his fiery rhetoric in favor of American revolution and independence. But in The Rights of Man, in which he tries to 'establish a system of principles as a basis on which government ought to be erected,' he shows that commerce, or free trade, is not only deducible from those principles, but interference with such commerce impoverishes the nations involved as well. We would do well to return to that understanding he expressed over two hundred years ago."

“Russia supplies Iran with nuclear technology and advanced conventional weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles. After the vote in the UN, Washington does not need to placate Moscow as much as before, and pressure is mounting to force an end to the construction of the nuclear power reactor at Bushehr on the Persian Gulf. In fact, the Bush administration seems to be moving toward sending the Kremlin an ultimatum: End Bushehr or we will bomb it to bits anyway."

We hear of the Jewish diaspora, the Greek disapora, the Chinese diaspors etc. but how often to we realize that the Australian diaspora is huge too. 5% of our people now live abroad. Young Australians really do see the world as their oyster.

A great letter to Senator Byrd from a US navy man about his commander in chief.

"During an anti-income tax protest recently, a friend of mine and I discussed fact that for some unexplained reason, modern democracies tend to have high tax rates. Later, I found out this phenomenon is known as 'Wagner's Law.' Wagner could not explain it either. The only possible explanation I can come up with is this: taxpayers in wealthier countries can afford to give more and still maintain a comfortable lifestyle. In other words there is a bigger pie; the politicians can take more of the pie and redistribute it; and still leave the populace with enough to live on."

Ambrose Bierce in 'The Devil's Dictionary' had the last word on protectionism: "TARIFF, n. A scale of taxes on imports, designed to protect the domestic producer against the greed of his consumer. " (See here).

Chris Brand has some thoughts on the low birthrate among highly intelligent people.

Michael Darby reports that there has been an almost total collapse of food production in Zimbabwe.

The Wicked one reports on the vast unemployment problem in France.

In my academic journal article here (post of May 31st), I report survey evidence showing that Leftists are sensation-seekers -- people motivated by a desire for change and novelty of almost any sort.

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SOLVING AIRCRAFT HIJACKING

In response to the recent aircraft hijacking attempt in Australia, a U.S. reader has sent me an excellent comment:

Actually, what the latest hijacking attempt demonstrates is that Australians have in effect the only anti-hijacking safety precaution that's been demonstrated to work: Crew and passengers who refuse to be hijacked. The only reason the 9-11 hijackings actually worked was that a generation of Americans had been trained to surrender to hijackers. How, short of strip downs and cavity searches, were you planning on keeping a hijacker from carrying a sharpened stick on board?

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BLOGGER HINT

Blogspot has been so inaccessible lately that I hope most of my readers have moved to one of my mirror sites by now. If not, you are highly likely to be experiencing long delays before the site loads up. One hint that seems to help with ALL slow-loading Blogspot sites, however, is to send the “cache bypass” command (Ctrl+F5) from your keyboard. That sometimes brings up the “stuck” site almost immediately.

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BRITAIN

I thought I should mention that there is ONE page on the web which has unchanging content but which I still keep logging on to over and over again. It is “England” and you may have to be born a British subject to appreciate it -- I don’t know. I mostly log on for the words and music of “Jerusalem” -- William Blake’s marvellous British Israel hymn. It makes me weepy every time. What wonderful, wonderful words, so fittingly set to music by Parry!

Interesting that the
British have had better success in running Basra than the US has had in running Baghdad. British experience at running other places has paid off.

The more I hear about Britain’s Blunkett the more I like him. Now that Iraq is free he wants all the Iraqi refugees in Europe sent home: “British Home Secretary (Interior Minister) David Blunkett warned that if voluntary measures did not work then "compulsion" could be used”.

A lot of conservatives are criticizing Blunkett’s law reforms but I cannot see much wrong with them. British justice has become so irrational that something had to be done to give crime victims a chance.

There is a long but interesting article by Dominic Lieven. which endeavours to draw out lessons from the British empire and other empires of the past that might help the USA today now that it seems to have had something of an imperial role thrust upon it. It might be noted that the British empire too is often said to have been acquired “in a fit of absence of mind”. One rather provocative observation:

“Among the empires of the day, the Habsburgs stood out for their protection of the civic, cultural and political rights of minorities, Jews included....” and “The economic and cultural interests of indigenous peoples were usually safer under bureaucratic or aristocratic imperial rule than under settler democracy”.

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ELSEWHERE

Miranda Devine says Greenie opposition to feral dog control in the largest national park in New South Wales is imposing enormous cruelties on nearby domestic livestock.

Surprise, surprise! The Red Cross is keeping 64c out of every dollar it makes from fundraising. Don’t give a cent to the antisemitic scum.

Some Good sense from Ross Gittins: “Those dreaded multinationals often speed a country's growth. The unceasing claim of the mainly youthful protesters against globalisation is that it involves the rich countries - via "trans-national corporations" such as Nike - ripping off the poor countries. But it ain't necessarily so. Indeed, recent research - much of it prompted by the protests, I suspect - suggests that this claim is the opposite of the truth. The developing countries that have done most to open up to trade and foreign investment are enjoying faster economic growth, rising real wages, falling poverty and, eventually, greater environmental protection.”

Interesting: Blacks, unionists and Hispanics are slowly deserting the Dims for the GOP. A very useful trend. Minority support is about all the Dims have going for them.

Jeff Jacoby points out the hypocrisy of the Middle East “roadmap”. Everything is expected of the Jews but the Palestinians can do anything they like without protest.

There is a good coverage here of how slippery “natural medicine” advocates are when subjected to scientific scrutiny.

The Wicked one says we might need genetically engineered crops to save the banana from extinction!

Michael Darby puts the case for having diiferent ages of consent for heterosexual and homosexual intercourse.

Chris Brand points out that “thought crime” is alive and well in modern-day Germany.

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LOTS OF GOOD STUFF TODAY:

Another example here of US stockmarket portfolios continually declining in value. You have to be mad to put your money into a managed fund. It is cheaper to make your own mistakes. My portfolio of Australian stocks has a very successful spread of relatively safe companies that also tend to GROW in value. Details of it are available FREE to anybody. Here are the stocks I hold:

(Australian stockmarket abbreviations): ADB AGL AMC AMP ANN ANZ BBG BOQ BPC BEN BWA BRZ CBA CCL CDO CNN COA CRG CSR DJS FFL FLT FOA FWD GFD GNS GUD HWI ION JHX JUP LDW MCP MPB MRL MTT NAB NFD PPK PPX RIC RIN SHV SMS SSX SGB SUN TAH WWA WBC WOW. Copy my portfolio and you instantly become your own fund manager with a very successful medium-term track record! I am hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead. I put my money where my mouth is as far as capitalism is concerned.

Bob Hope has just turned 100! What a marvellous man.

Whoopee! An arrogant Leftist ”human shield” got shot! There should be more of it. They endanger the safety of others as well as themselves.

The latest hijacking attempt shows that safety precautions are virtually non-existent on Australian aircraft but our bureaucratized government assures us that “talks are continuing” on the matter! Great that the flight crew in the latest incident were not seriously hurt, anyhow.

Wow! A Right to Die judgment in an Australian court. Let’s hope it is just a first step in giving back people control over their own lives.

Watch their deeds, not their words: The US Democrats do NOT believe that “diversity” is good for you.

Auditors are refusing to sign off the British Conservative Party’s accounts because they fear that it is no longer a going concern. Amusing! I don’t think they are a going concern either. They seem to have totally forgotten what conservatism is all about.

This research finding will upset the Lefties. They hate anything that ordinary people enjoy -- from McDonalds to video games: Video games that require players to knock off enemies that pop out of nowhere sharply improve children’s visual attention skills. How awful! Violent games are actually beneficial!

The Communist News Network (CNN) recently aired a demonstration of an illegal versus a legal 'assault weapon' that showed the illegal one blowing apart cinder blocks, while the legal model did no apparent damage. After the NRA accused CNN of 'faking' the presentation -- since both rifles should cause the same damage CNN conceded their demonstration was misleading! Soviet-style lies live on among the American Left.

We all now know how crooked CNN was in its coverage of Saddam’s regime but this suggests that ALL the Left-leaning media distorted the truth about Saddam’s Iraq.

Cato says: "There already are early warning signs that the United States can ill afford to linger in Iraq and overstay its welcome. Thousands of Muslims -- Shiite and Sunni -- have protested against the U.S. military presence. American troops, saddled with peacekeeping duties they are not trained to perform, have fired on crowds and killed civilians in Mosul and Fallujah. The lesson is clear: The United States must leave Iraq at the earliest possible opportunity." Hear here!

Oregon folly: “Voters clearly value education, but this new money will largely benefit the teachers' union, not the students. Rather than help the schools in a positive way, the new tax will allow the school system avoid doing two things it must eventually do: control spending and become accountable for learning outcomes."

The Greenie response to complaints from people about wildlife pests (such as noisy crows): "If you just leave them alone, they'll leave you alone". The birdbrain concerned ignores the fact that people are complaining precisely because the pests are NOT leaving them alone.

Arlene Peck's latest column is up here (post of 29th.). She points out that all Jews have been forced out of most Arab countries and asks why, in such circumstances, Arabs have to be given their own State within the borders of Israel. Jews must be tolerant but Arabs don’t have to?

Michael Darby has an article that takes on the “funny money” theorists of “Social Credit” -- theorists who have had a significant following in New Zealand and British Columbia. The Social Creditors mistake the (true) statement that the banking system creates money (because of the velocity of circulation) for the (false) statement that individual banks create money. It is perhaps an understandable mistake.

Chris Brand notes a World Bank report that says many African countries are worse off now than they were at independence in the 1960s.

The Wicked one is glad that a mad Yugoslav was shot dead.

In my academic posting of May 29th. here, I show that standard psychological techniques for detecting lying normally work pretty well.

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BLOGGER.COM BLUES

Ever since Google took over Pyra, the blogspot archives seem to have become progressively more and more of a shambles. Nothing seems to archive automatically now. You have to manually republish all the time. And even manual republishing does not work sometimes. All my posts on this blog from last year, for instance, seem to have vanished. I think that this sort of thing must bother most bloggers. Most of us, I fancy, do want our words of wisdom to remain accessible for some time. I certainly think that my efforts have some permanent worth. Fortunately, I do have copies of all my posts so I have now republished the ones from last year in the only way I can -- not as archives but as front-page posts on new blogpot sites that I have created especially for the purpose.

So my posts for July, August, September and October 2002 can now be found on http://lostleft.blogspot.com;

My posts for November 2002 are on http://lostlef2.blogspot.com

and my posts for December 2002 are on http://losleftdec.blogspot.com

My archives for this year are in better shape (at the moment) but, just in case, I have put them up elsewhere too. See http://jonjayray.tripod.com/archive.html.

In creating the new sites I needed I was automatically directed into the new version of the blogger.com software. What a shambles! I have always said that Blogger was the most bug-prone software that I have ever had the misfortune to get entangled with but I now take that back. The new version of the software is even worse! It takes the patience of Job to get it to do anything at all and when you do get some response out of it posts disappear, edits disappear and you keep getting error messages. In creating one of the new sites I needed I just could not get it to post properly and had to delete the whole blog and start all over again from scratch. I spent hours on doing what should have taken 10 minutes.

Dread the day when Pyra makes all users convert to the new software. One hint though: If you click all buttons about 8 times in rapid succession instead of the usual once or twice, you are more likely to get something to happen.

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OGBU WAS RIGHT

I noted recently that Prof. Ogbu, a black researcher, has found that black students from affluent homes do poorly at school because they are lazy and think that doing well is "acting white". A reader comments:

“Black underachievement is such a disaster that it is almost unfixable. In Florida, the NAACP has threatened a boycott if students are not given a high-school diploma even if they fail the exit exam - given 6 times to pass the same exam. Ant Gov Jeb Bush has actually spent the time of day to discuss this issue. This is a no-brainer - stupid people shouldn't get a diploma - and we need more people like Prof Ogbu to tell these 'race warlords" to take a hike.

My daughter (graduate student in Sociology at UC) is familiar with Prof Ogbu's work - she actually admitted that he might be right - this is a milestone in my battle against her Communist indoctrination.

Personal experience reinforces my belief in Prof Ogbu's work. Years ago (before the Prof coined the term "acting white"), a Black friend confided in me that her two sons had faced harassment in school for "acting white" - a major stress in her life had been to convince her sons to do well in school inspite of this harassment. This is not a fantasy of a professor - this is real life.”

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LOONY WATCH

These loonies are just as bad as Islamic Terrorists and should be treated accordingly. Excerpt:

"The radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front is claiming responsibility for fires that destroyed two houses near Ann Arbor [MI] in March. The slogan 'ELF, no sprawl' was spray painted on the garage door of a house next to one of those burned March 21 in the Mystic Forest subdivision. On its Web site, the group claims responsibility for the fires, which it says caused $400,000 in damage. The group also takes responsibility for burning luxury homes being built near Philadelphia late last year. A picture of a burning home is featured on the Web site, along with instructions on how to start fires."

"'Hey, hey, ho, ho, drugs in meat have got to go' chanted protestors outside a McDonald's in Maine. The oh-so-clever rabble held up massive 'pill burgers' (hamburgers with a big pill inside) and were joined by the Union of Concerned Scientists' Michael Khoo, who recently penned an article entitled 'Want drugs with those fries?' for the insanely self-important TomPaine.com. While Khoo tries to scare the public about antibiotics in hamburgers, the organization he works for declares that it's a non-issue."

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ELSEWHERE

Disgraceful: San Francisco's Irvine Foundation is dedicated to improving the quality of life for Californians. But the foundation has improved life for one individual in particular: a previous president. He got $717,000 in pay, retirement and perks. I have noted previously that charities often become little more than a honeypot for their staff. Congress seems to be doing something about it but I doubt if it will improve things much.

There is a fairly comprehensive report here about the now controversial Jessica Lynch rescue. Leftists blame US troops for being cautious! In the middle of a war!

Germany supports India in its war against Muslim terrorism! I suppose that's something.

Threatening budget cuts, the Howard Government has savagely attacked Australia's public broadcaster, accusing it of being blatantly biased and anti-American in its Iraq war coverage. About time!

The Dean Esmay version of the Carnival of the Vanities is now up. Much to read.

China Hand is rather peniternt for disparaging the pastoral work of the (Roman Catholic) Maryknoll Society in China.

Chris Brand says that elitism in UK universities is soundly based.

Michael Darby says that attacks on Australia's former Governor General were unjustified but that our constitution showed its worth in how the matter was handled.

The Wicked one points out some surprising facts about heroin.

In my academic posting of May 28th. here, I show that there are many influences on how people vote in Australian Federal elections.

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GOOD ARTICLES FROM BROOKES NEWS

Why regulating gas prices doesn't really work. Recent events in Australia and California have brought government intervention in prices and production back on to the political scene. Gas is a particularly good example for Australia regarding the dangers of price-fixing regulations.

Anti-growth nonsense from lefty lecturers. The world's present population owes its existence to economic growth. Stopping growth would literally be a sentence of death for several billion people. But as Dr Van den Bosch, another greenie, said, "They're only little brown people in poor countries."

The trade balance and the value of the dollar — what is the relationship? Explains why the dollar has fallen. And guess what? It has nothing to do with the balance of payments or the balance of trade.

Details here

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MATTERS OF RELIGION

I am a great admirer of the Sydney diocese for showing that real Christianity can still flourish within the Anglican communion but I do regret that they are betraying one of their core traditions by denying the significance of the priesthood -- and with it the whole notion of the Apostolic Succession.

"Culture Wars" sees the pedophilia crisis in the Catholic Church as in part a product of its defection (after Vatican II) from its traditional values and its adoption instead of quack psychological dogmas (especially Reich and Rogers) from the secular world.

This VDARE writer says US Roman Catholicism is really post-Catholic these days and that its pews would be steadily emptying except for poor immigrants with a traditional Catholic background.

An interesting article on Euthanasia here. Australia's Dr. Nitschke seems to be the main successor of Dr Kevorkian. Giving Dr. Kevorkian a long jail term for his work of mercy is a grotesque crime in my view.

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ELSEWHERE

As a former Army man myself, I am pleased to see that most Americans now trust and respect their military. The military is the one branch of government that it takes real committment to belong to.

Hey! Is this sympathy for Bush from the NYT? “The Mideast is once again testing American leadership in ways that would tax any administration.”

Krugman is finding Nazis under the bed again. His latest conspiracy theory is as absurd as most: The Bush administration is setting the country up for a financial crisis so social programs can be cut.

Globalization is a great boon for third world scientists -- putting their ability to communicate their ideas on a par with that of First World scientists.

Something that the economic irrationalists of the Left should bear in mind: "The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups." -- Henry Hazlitt; and: "Trade barriers are an excellent means to higher wealth for the few but lower wealth for the many." --Walter Williams. Via The Federalist

Whether you get fat or not is surely an individual decision but US government control-freaks now feel they must protect people from getting too fat.

NIKE workers in Indonesia need to be saved from Michael Moore and the anti-globos trying to save them from multinational corporate greed. Moore presumably wants worse things to happen to them.. like not working for Nike.

There is a good article by Jason Soon on unfair dismissal laws that makes a point that would be obvious to almost anybody who thought about it but which Leftists nonetheless ignore: If you make it difficult for employers to fire someone they are not happy with, their only defence against getting saddled with a drone is to be a lot more cautious about hiring people in the first place -- i.e. unfair dismissal laws increase unemployment.

A good comment on Lefty regard for the truth from Jim Kalb: “Among the claims Professor Bellesiles made in his Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture — a book once acclaimed and now thoroughly discredited — was that there was no significant market for guns in early America. Clayton Cramer, one of Bellesiles’ most effective debunkers, describes the results of a quick look at 18th and early 19th c. newspapers: you just can’t avoid the gun ads. As Cramer asks, why did the experts, many of them specialists in the period, who praised the book and gave Bellesiles the Bancroft Award get taken in so easily?

Chris Brand looks at the relationship between freedom and justice

Michael Darby commemorates the Dunkirk evacuation.

The Wicked one has an interesting post under the heading: Nazism was gay

In my academic posting of May 27th. here, I look at a theory that Leftists are “life-loving” and conservatives are “death-loving”. Needless to say, the survey data showed no such relationship.

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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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