ELSEWHERE

This article argues that universities are no longer engaged in the search for truth. I agree. It highlights the importance of other methods of information dissemination -- such as blogs. Perhaps I am having a rush of blood to the head but I think the internet is becoming the real university of today.

“Two U.S. energy experts cast more doubt on Friday on a push to develop hydrogen-powered cars as a means to cut air pollution and reduce oil imports” So much for the $1.5 billion GWB is spending on it.

No acceptance of civil liberties here: “Outraged by a Las Vegas company that claims to offer men a chance to stalk and shoot naked women in the Nevada desert with paintball guns, women's groups and government agencies were scrambling to find a way to shut down such "Bambi" hunts”.

NOW we are told (in the July 14th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine) that cutting cholesterol is bad for us! I never have listened to the food nannies anyway.

An Australian Leftist moaner really hates it that nearly a century of military alliance between Australia and the USA looks likely to give Australia a favourable trade deal with the USA.

But we know that Leftists like Fidel LOVE blacks! "Cuban dissidents yesterday accused the NAACP of a double standard in its promotion of human rights, defending those of blacks in South Africa while embracing -- rather than condemning -- the treatment of blacks in Cuba. 'I have never heard of a chapter of the NAACP taking an interest in the Cuban Negro,' said Eusebio Penalver Mazorra, a black Cuban who spent 28 of his 69 years as a jailed dissident in the communist nation."

The Wicked one has a unique posting about policing in South Africa.

I have uploaded two of my academic papers recently. The first is here (or here). It shows that white South Africans in the Apartheid era were a pretty nervous lot. They had reason to be. The second paper is here (or here). It shows the falsity of the old Leftist notion that conservatism is the politics of greed. The survey found that there were just as many greedy Leftists as Rightists.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

NAZI EFFICIENCY REVISITED

I am having a bit of a history day again today:

My post yesterday on whether Nazi Germany was economically efficient sparked a number of emails. Like many before me, I pointed out that Nazi Germany was NOT economically efficient because of the pervasive political interference with industry. A correspondent added some other details which suggest that the less politicized British bureaucracy did a better job of organizing the national war effort:

“R.V. Jones, author of "Most Secret War" has an interesting perspective on the German case. You can argue that the Germans had the best scientists, industrialists and generals of any side in WW2. Where they went badly was in coordinating those resources. The British were the first to create a coordinated scientific-military-industrial complex, with science and industry working on the real problems the military was having. German science and industry was for example working on developing new super-tanks and wonder weapons, when the Army merely wanted more tanks.

The foundations of the British scientific-military-industrial complex were laid pre-war in the 1930s as a response to fear of air attack, and Britain's need for a coordinated air defence system, something the British had anticipated since their brief exposure to the Zeppelin raids of WW1. As a result the British dominated radar research and development. Radar has been called the weapon that won the war, the atomic bomb merely ended it!”

******************************

WERE CATHOLICS THE FIRST FREE MARKETEERS?

"Those of us who know some economics are used to wincing when the typical clergyman makes a pronouncement on political economy ..... So it comes as a bit of a shock to read these religious figures, avowedly concerned first and foremost with justice and Biblical standards, and find that not only are they economically literate but that in many cases their economic theory was far more advanced than many professional economists who came after them... Tomas de Mercado wrote in 1571, "We can see that privately owned property flourishes, while city- and council-owned property suffers from inadequate care and worse management. . . . If universal love won't induce people to take care of things, private interest will"."

******************************

ELSEWHERE

The Proposition 13 tax revolt has just had it’s 25th anniversary. The 'World Socialist Web Site' tells us that tax revolts are underway in China too. Tax revolts have had enormous impacts in history. We all know of the Boston tea party and the English Parliament's struggles against King Charles and his unauthorized taxes but the French Revolution too was largely driven by countrywide discontent over sky-high taxes levied by the idle and spendthrift aristocracy and church. So Proposition 13 was a great step forward in that it cut taxes by peaceful means. We need a continuing flow of such propositions.

Leftists want immigrants to stay different: "[Massachusetts] Governor Mitt Romney yesterday chastised the Legislature for loosening the state's new voter-approved English immersion law, branding it an act of 'unfathomable arrogance' and vowing to oust legislators who backed the move. ... About 68 percent of Massachusetts voters last year approved the ballot initiative, Question 2, which required that immigrant students be placed in all- English classes instead of bilingual programs."

Alarming: "Former United States Defence Secretary William Perry has warned that the US and North Korea are drifting towards war, with an 'imminent danger' of nuclear explosions in American cities. His chilling assessment of the communist state's nuclear program came as an increasingly worried China intervened, revealing a push for talks and sending a special envoy to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il."

In the shape of Britain’s House of Lords,
a conservative institution once again defends people’s rights and liberties: "The government's hopes of a trouble-free week before Westminster's summer break were dashed last night when peers delivered a thumping defeat on already-modified plans to reduce the right to trial by jury. The 210-136 vote against David Blunkett's blueprint for restricting trial by jury in cases of complex fraud or likely jury tampering amounted to another rebuff to Labour's modernising ambitions on what peers declared is a fundamental point of principle - - 'this very touchstone of our liberty.'"

Amusing that NBC are going to “embed” their TV reporters with Democrat candidates for the election campaign. No news of them “embedding” with GOP candidates, though! I wonder why? (Don’t tell me).

The government of my home State Queensland has shown some common-sense after Australia’s High Court showed a conspicuous lack of it. The High Court said a couple must be paid the cost of raising a child that was born after a contraceptive procedure failed. The State of Queensland will legislate to prevent any further such awards.

Wow! Australia’s Uniting Church (the former Methodists plus some Presbyterians) has cut its own throat. They have voted to allow homosexual clergy. Lots of their congregations will now go over to the more scripturally-oriented Continuing Presbyterians. A revived Methodist Church might even emerge.

Amusing: Bill Clinton is now being quoted in the case of the former Marine who ran off with the 12 year old British girl.

The Wicked one has a VERY naughty joke about Rev. Jesse Jackson.

My latest academic upload here or here looks at the distinctions that psychologists make between assertiveness and authoritarianism and shows that the two things are in fact pretty much the same.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

WAS NAZI GERMANY EFFICIENT?

I received the following email from a reader:

I am having trouble seeing Hitler as a socialist when it comes to the economy. We all know that socialism is a failed economic model, yet how could Nazi Germany have been so economically successful if it was socialist state? If Nazi Germany had "a centralized collectivist economy just like the Soviet Union," how could it have been economically successful? Also, if Nazi Germany was socialist, and had a good economy, why was this success not seen in the other socialist/communist states?

There are a number of answers to that question but the first thing to note is that the Nazi and Fascist economies were more like the economies championed (and partly implemented) by "Third Way" Leftists of today (e.g. by Bill Clinton, Tony Blair et al.) than they were like the Soviet economy. In other words, the major German firms were subjected to tight political supervision and control but were still left at least nominally in private ownership. So the economy was not rendered totally inflexible. And just as today's pervasively regulated USA and Britain are still reasonably productive despite their bureaucratic load so Nazi Germany put in a middling performance too.

But there is another dimension to Nazi economics too -- as the example of the former East Germany shows: Why was the former East Germany so much more economically successful than other Communist States? I am afraid the answer has to be: Because it was German. Germans (and other Teutonic people such as the Dutch and the Scandinavians) tend to work hard even in economic systems that do not encourage it much. That is why Germany and Scandinavia are quite prosperous to this day despite their very high levels of taxation.

But the Reich did still suffer to a significant degree from its politically-controlled economy. It was not in fact nearly as efficient as it might have been. At the height of the Battle of Britain, for instance, the capitalist British economy was manufacturing twice as many aircraft as Germany. And even Stalin's Russia outproduced Germany in tanks by about 1943.

Where Germany WAS efficient in WWII was militarily. They overcame enormous odds right from the outset but eventually got crushed by weight of numbers. The Germans have been a warrior race for 2000 years. It was they who defeated the Roman Empire, after all. And the great military genius of WWII was undoubtedly Feldmarschall von Manstein. It is usually only military historians who have heard of him but it was he who was the architect of the Blitzkrieg through France. At the outset of the French campaign, von Manstein faced heavily entrenched French and allied forces that were in no way inferior to the German forces but his bold and innovative Panzer-led strike through the Ardennes outflanked the French and British forces and routed them completely. And later in Russia, von Manstein destroyed two Russian armies even AFTER Stalingrad. And his conquest of the Crimean peninsula is legendary among military historians: a frontal assault against superior forces who had nearly every advantage: a fortified position, command of the sea, the air, and tanks, while his army had not one tank. Compare that with the very high equipment level that characterizes the more capitalistic American forces going into battle.

So what success Nazi Germany had reflected the fact that they were German rather than the fact that they were socialist.

*******************************

ELSEWHERE

I am rather surprised that Australia is getting heavily involved with the North Korean problem. Korea is a long way from Australia. But we DID take part in the Korean war alongside the USA of course. And arms-carrying ships from Korea to the Middle East do have to pass fairly close to Australia.

Left-wing racism in The Guardian: "I have developed a habit when confronted by letters to the editor in support of the Israeli government to look at the signature to see if the writer has a Jewish name. If so, I tend not to read it."

Any idea of a World Parliament is a pipedream, fortunately. It would be a socialist and bureaucratic nightmare otherwise. Socialists would love us to have yet more government but lots of us can see that we have far too much government as it is. But lots of prominent U.S. "liberals" (such as THE senator from New York) are supporting the world parliament nightmare. Most of the world cannot govern itself sensibly. Why would we want them governing us?

"A news release from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) claims a 'New Look at Satellite Data Supports Global Warming Trend.' But the NCAR result is based on the wishful thinking of well- known global warming promoters, rather than on solid science. ..."

The rich are already paying their fair share: "[T]he richest of the rich paid more and everyone else paid less, explains Bartlett. This information is not surprising to those who know that the top 1 percent of taxpayers have increased their tax share almost annually, from 19 percent in 1980 to 27 percent in 1988, despite the Reagan tax cuts, and to 37 percent in 2000. Interestingly, the same pattern holds in other countries.... In the United Kingdom, the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 23 percent of income taxes this year."

The fatwa against fat: One of my regular readers has got very droll. He writes: "Following from recent postings about "the fat wars" and the left's fatwa against fast food, these two older articles here and here provide an interesting alternate take on this expanding issue."

Amazing: Lasagna is a British invention. They even called it that back in the 14th century.

The latest Carnival of the Vanities is here

China Hand seems satisfied with my view that Hong Kong's economic success traces back to its free market system rather than the virtues of Hong Kongers.

The Wicked one is dubious about how beneficial the contraceptive pill has been.

In my academic posting here (or here) I give a very thorough explanation and justification of the way I measure materialistic ambition.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

THE LUCKY COUNTRY

Australians are quite fond of referring to Australia as “The lucky country”. Australia is such a relaxed and pleasant place that they have good reason to. The term was originally popularized by Donald Horne, who made it the title of one of his books. Because of the agreeable title, lots of Australians bought the book but few can have read it -- as the book is NOT a celebration of Australia at all. It is a miserable, carping book that says that anything good in Australia is only an outcome of sheer luck. So poor Donald has had the ultimate humiliation of lots of people buying his book yet still thinking that he intends exactly the opposite of what he actually says.

Perhaps for that reason, few people have bothered to refute Donald’s silly negativism. Another well-known Australian, Clive James, has however recently said a few words on the subject. Excerpt:

"[Donald Horne's] central tenet, that his homeland was a lucky strike consistently mismanaged by second-rate politicians, caught on as a dogmatic aid to national self-doubt. As I read on through our recent and gratifyingly rich heritage of commentary and memoir, it became clearer to me all the time that we hadn't become a prosperous and reasonably equable democracy by the accidental dispensation of benevolent nature and a favourable geographical position. The country had been built, by clever people. Our constitution itself was the work of people who had studied history. They were readers of newspapers and periodicals, they were eternal students in the best sense, they were bookish people. They had built a bookish nation. But, as so often has been the case with Australia's consciousness of itself, the problem was to realise it."

*****************************

CHRISTIAN TOLERANCE

A reader writes:"It would be interesting to hear CS Lewis's take on the modern 'gay marriage' debate. He was a great believer in marriage but had fairly libertarian views for his time on what the role of the state should be in all this. The following is an extract from his well-known book, "Mere Christianity":

"Before leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused. The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is the quite different question -- how far Christians, if they are voters or Members of Parliament, ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for every one.

I do not think that. At least I know I should be very angry if the Mahommedans tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine. My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognise that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members. The distinction ought to be quite sharp, so that a man knows which couples are married in a Christian sense and which are not. "

******************************

SOME HEADLINES ON BROOKES NEWS:

A scientist exposes green hypocrisy on GM foodstuffs: As a research scientist I would say that the only stumbling block to GM food has been vociferous scare campaigns waged by radical green groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.
Why Beijing is twisting North Korea's arm: The final irony is that it looks as if China's self-interest is going to be the means by which the fall of Kim is finally assured. The great thing about the situation for the rest of the world is that it is George W. Bush who occupies the Oval Office and not Gore, a man held in complete contempt in the capitals of Asia — and particularly in Beijing.
The Left's war against America: America's leftists are not just waging a culture war but a war against a culture. These are creatures who have nothing to offer but hate and malice. These ideologues and their media allies are the real enemy. These are ones who have to be confronted and defeated, not just in America but also in Australia.
Green attacks on GM reveal contempt for human life: We now have Dr Gyorgy Scrinis — a research associate in the Globalism Institute at RMIT University — trying to rationalise why it is preferable to allow peasants to suffer poverty and malnutrition rather than allow them access to life-improving genetically modified crops.)
How the greens kill people: The green movement has demonstrated a callous disregard for human life, especially in the Third World.

Details here

*****************************

ELSEWHERE

Those awful Israelis! There is a big Palestinian complaint here about how Israelis make Palis WAIT! How dare they? That the Israelis might be nicer if the Palis stopped blowing them up does not seem to rate a mention.

This is rich! A German Socialist politician is calling Italians racist. A German Socialist politician would know one, of course. Italians are in fact exceptionally non-racist. Even in WWII Italy was something of a refuge for Jews.

This is a bit breathtaking: Some nutty American Professor who lives in Australia thinks that Australia is not Leftist enough so Australia should fix that by becoming the 51st State of the USA! And he’s not joking. But he may have something. In some ways the USA has drifted further Left than Australia. I myself think that Americans should recognize the Queen as their rightful liege lord and rejoin the British Commonwealth!

"Public education in America is producing politically correct, properly sensitized, ignorant little socialists. Some of them can read and write and many can make change at McDonalds, given the machines that tell them what the change amount should be. All of the problems now besetting our youth can be laid at the feet of the socialist indoctrination required by the states before one can become a 'certified' teacher."

The Wicked one uses a proverb to summarize why affirmative action will never make much difference anyway.

My latest academic posting here (or here) looks at what predicts economic success among Indian famers. Surprise! Surprise! It is intelligence and drive that makes the difference. Despite all the Leftist waffle to the contrary, that is what matters most in economic life everywhere.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

*

I TURN 60 TODAY

Definitely time for reflection. I have big problems with skin cancer so may not have many years left but the life I have had has been a blessed one in many ways. My father was a lumberjack, I left school before completing High School and I inherited nothing from my parents except my genes. But I nonetheless have done well in academe, in business and in my personal life -- which reinforces my view that in modern Western society it is only ability and good sense that separates most of the "haves" from the "have-nots".

One amusing episode in my university career was when I got an article published in an academic journal under joint authorship with another academic whose first name translates as "God's Penis" -- see here. Another odd accomplishment was when I got praise of one of my ex-wives into an academic journal -- see here.

My only regret is that I had only one child -- but my son is a real chip off the old block so that is pleasing. There is a picture of him here -- Warning: He is not very "diverse" in U.S. Supreme Court terms.

**********************************

MORE ON LEFTIST “COMPASSION”

An Australian reader emailed me with this addition to my post about the cruelty of Leftist “compassion”: “I think the classic example of being protected by leftists is the extension of 'equal minimum wage laws' to aborigines in the late 1960s. The result was large number of aboriginal stockmen (cowboys) put out of work: A great victory for social reform. Laws giving equal access to grog and social security came in about the same time, each on their own a genuine reform. But the net result was arguably a reformer-imposed social disaster that aboriginal communities are still struggling to overcome.”

”Reality is not PC” was also moved to hit the keyboard by my “Leftist compassion” posting. He/she points out that a great Leftist cause of the 1930s was eugenics -- sterilizing some criminals and those who were deemed to be mentally ill -- and that the U.S. Supreme court upheld eugenics laws too. And here’s the killer quote: “In 1933, Nazi Germany used the US sterilization laws as the blueprint for the Nuremberg Laws under which 350,000 "unfit" German citizens were sterilized.. Get that? Hitler modelled his policies on the policies of American Leftists!!. Leftists nowadays gloss all that over and even try to deny that the eugenicists were Leftists but the 1930s eugenicists even called themselves “Progressives”. More on them here. So the cruelty and destructiveness of Leftist “do-gooding” goes back a long way even in the democracies.

********************************

DO-GOODER STUPIDITY

The Society of St Vincent de Paul -- a large Roman Catholic charity organization in Australia -- has recently come out in favour of a range of Leftist political policies: “WE advocate a range of action, including removal of tax concessional treatment of trusts, means-testing of the baby bonus and the private health insurance rebate and the abolition of a number of tax concessions”. What qualifies do-gooders to give economic advice? All the issues are old ones. Why do “Vinnies” want to throw their weight behind one side of the debate? I guess they want to alienate that half of the electorate who do NOT vote Leftist and thus halve the donations they receive. Clever! When they’ve got brains like that, you know what to think of their advice.

*************************************

ELSEWHERE

Good comment: "There are no foreign invaders in Liberia. The people who have been killing, mutilating and brutalizing Liberians are Liberians. President Bush will not have any problem finding bad guys. His problem will be finding good guys. The people opposed to the present president, Charles Taylor, are just as bad as he is. So just what will our troops do? Shoot Liberians on a random basis?"

I believe some libertarians were wishing one-another “Happy Bastille Day” yesterday. That seems dumb to me. What is good about replacing one tyranny with a worse one?

A limited school choice program looks set to go ahead in DC. Not as good as vouchers but a step forward.

The Agitator says: “Those in the "pro-choice" crowd who are most vigilant about protecting abortion rights aren't pro-choice at all. They're pro-abortion. They'll swear they aren't, because it's of course a political loser to admit as much. But don't let them fool you. They want to see lots of abortions, and they're genuinely pissed off each time a woman actually chooses to have a baby”

Arlene Peck has a VERY skeptical post about the current Arab “ceasefire” in Israel.

Writing on his other blog, China Hand has posted some old American rules for good manners that he thinks may help modern Chinese when they go abroad.

There is a flamethrower post from Chris Brand about racial differences reproduced (with comments) on PC Watch

The Wicked one reports a case where a violent home invader got let off scot-free because he said he was high on Jasmine tea at the time! Jasmine tea is the sort of tea we all normally get in Chinese restaurants.

My latest academic posting here (or here) reports that materialistic ambition is NOT particularly high among Hong Kong Chinese -- suggesting that the great economic achievements of Hong Kong are purely the outcome of their extreme free-market economy.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

THE CRUELTY OF LEFTIST “COMPASSION”

That Leftist claims of compassion are a total fraud hardly needs proof for anyone who knows history. Their murderous brutality when they gain unrestrained power (e.g. Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and all of their many “revolutionary” brethren worldwide) shows that. And the admiration and support that Western Leftists regularly displayed for Communism before the Soviet implosion shows that Leftists in democratic countries share the same underlying values as the Leftist totalitarians. Since Western Leftists and Communists profess the same basic beliefs and use much the same propaganda, it would be surprising otherwise. Some American “liberals” and some Labor party supporters in Britain and Australia, however, claim that they have always deplored Communism and so are not like that. They claim that they REALLY care.

That this claim is false is displayed by the way they exercise what power they do have. For example, “tenant protection” is a great Leftist cause. A moment’s thought should show what all experience shows: That making life more difficult for landlords discourages landlording and makes rental accomodation scarce -- thus forcing the poor people who depend on it to pay much higher rents than they previously did -- where they can find accomodation at all. No Leftist could be ignorant of that. It is such an old lesson that has been repeated worldwide so many times. Yet Leftist governments still keep doing it. The deeds of such Leftists show them to care only about their own self-righteouness -- and too bad if that slugs the poor.

Another disgraceful example stems from the old Leftist rejection of heredity. To listen to Leftists even today the only thing that is inborn is homosexuality -- the so-called “gay gene”. Leftists want to change so much about the people who get into their clutches that they cannot afford to accept that some things about people just CANNOT be changed -- so they have always rejected the power of genetic heredity.

Right up until the 1990s, Leftist psychologists (psychologists are almost all Leftists) used to say that childhood autism was caused by “refrigerator mothers”. Autism is a terribly distressing affliction for parents to see in their children and the unfortunate mothers at that time were told that it was all their own fault! They were told that autism resulted from their own lack of caring. How devastating! Nowadays, of course, autism is universally acknowledged to be an inborn condition. So, for as long as they could, Leftists caused immense, needless and unwarranted distress to many already-suffering mothers solely in order to prop up their own need to feel all-powerful. That’s “compassion”? Give us a break! Even Leftists in an allegedly compassionate profession are anything but when it suits them.

Incidentally, why are most psychologists Leftist? It’s obvious: Psychology offers some prospect of power over other people and power is the drug that the Leftist craves above all others.

Another piece of Leftist cruelty is their “anti-sweatshop” activism. Through boycotts and other means, such activists have put pressure on many companies (such as Nike) to stop using labour in low-wage countries. So Nike and others did stop. They pulled out of those countries and threw hundreds of thousands of poor people out of the only work they could get -- with most reduced to begging or prostitution if they did not actually starve to death. Great! Everybody would have told the Leftists concerned what the results of their agitation would be but their hatred of big companies trumped the best interests of the poor every time. Only pseudo “compassion” there! Leftism is a great scheme for hate-filled people though: You get to express your hatred while getting praised for “compassion”. What a top deal! Too bad about all the little people who get hurt in the process, though.

*******************************

LEFTIST JUDGES

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that freed hundreds of paedophiles makes no sense at all. They ruled that prosecuting the offenders many years after the offence occurred breached the constitutional bar on retrospectivity. But the crimes concerned were crimes when they were committed. They were not made crimes retrospectively.

Only Leftists turn themselves inside-out to protect criminals so if the the recent U. Mich. affirmative action decision was not enough to make it clear that the court is predominantly Leftist, this certainly shows it. They are “limousine liberals”

Just a “scrap of paper”? “It's bad enough that teachers unions help miseducate American youngsters. Now they're waging war against constitutional government. Think we're exaggerating? The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the Nevada Supreme Court "sets aside the state constitutional amendment requiring at least two-thirds support of lawmakers to pass tax increases. The justices ruled that the need to fund public schools, another constitutional requirement, took precedence over the need to approve tax increases by a two-thirds supermajority."

****************************

ELSEWHERE

This article says that South Africa is now ruled by black Fascists. Excerpt: “South Africa today is not so much capitalist as corporatist or fascist, along the lines Mussolini wanted for Italy, with the masters of big business, the trade unions and the government doing coercive deals among themselves to control the whole economy”. It goes on to say that South Africa’s present black rulers respect the former Apartheid regime as fellow Fascists but despise anti-Apartheid white liberals! Once again we have two groups of Leftists hating one-another.

A Brooklyn, New York, US Federal Judge tossed out a 1994 murder conviction against Rodney Cox, a man who admitted shooting his victim in the head, because, the judge says, there is no evidence that Cox actually meant to kill his victim "rather than injure him," or "scare him" when aiming for his head. See NY Daily News 13-Jun-03. This is the sort of thing we have to expect where Leftists are constantly portraying criminals as victims and as not being responsible for their own actions. (Via Jerry Lerman).

There is a new blog with a similar focus to this one here. Some good postings on the self-appointed food police recently.

The Wicked one says that JFK was a conservative who actually got on well with Nixon.

My latest academic posting here (or here) shows that political stance is not determined by degree of interpersonal dominance. Some Leftists are wimps and some are dictators. The same goes for conservatives. I have argued elsewhere that it is strong ego needs, not personal assertiveness, that makes someone a Leftist.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

WHY SO MUCH AIDS IN AFRICA?

A reader writes:

"With President Bush going to Africa, the AIDS crisis there is getting renewed media interest. Recent articles indicate that dirty needles may have had more to do with the HIV epidemic than is usually admitted. See here, here and here. This is in many ways a stance like the boy who said, "the emperorer has no clothes". This controversial approach, if confirmed, amounts to an indictment of the way the African AIDS epidemic has been 'sold' over the last 20 years. It has been sold as due to normal heterosexual sex, when it may not be.

The cynical explanation is that agencies already promoting birth control pushed a half-baked 'heterosexual hypothesis' for African AIDS because it gravied their train. It also suited western AIDS lobbyists keen to highlight any non-gay, non-drug user AIDS to harness public fear for funding purposes. The dirty needle argument has some parallels to the much more radical stance taken by HIV-does-not-cause-AIDS skeptics like Peter Duesberg and Perth's Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos. They argue that the definition of "AIDS", especially as applied on the ground in Africa, has been drawn so broadly as to allow for a host of unrelated diseases to be cast under the AIDS net. See here, here and here“

One thing that nobody seems to be mentioning is that anal sex is the most commonly used form of contraception in Africa. That alone would explain the epidemic. But is anybody telling Africans that? It seems not. Better for Africans to die than to be told stuff that is inconvenient to Western Leftists!

********************************

THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE FAT CATS

Fascinating. The millionaires donate to the Dems, the little people donate to the GOP:

"'The Nine Dwarfs' pursuing the Democratic Party presidential nomination have been relentlessly asserting that the Republican Party is beholden to the wealthy. It turns out, however, that it is the Democratic Party that has been addicted to the million-dollar contributions from the nation's fat cats. "A recent study by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a nonpartisan campaign-finance research organization, reveals that the Democratic Party gobbled up an astounding 92 percent of all individual contributions totaling $1 million or more during the 2001-02 election cycle. Meanwhile, it was the Republican Party that received 64 percent of all individual contributions less than $200 per donor."

From The Washington Times via The Federalist. I guess that wealthy people often like the idea of bossing other people around and the little people value their liberties.

***************************

ELSEWHERE

Pat Buchanan has another interesting history lesson for us. He points out that FDR relied on dubious evidence to get the USA into WWII: "Stephenson's forgery was a triumph and served a backdrop for Clare Luce's remark that Roosevelt 'lied us into war because he did not have the political courage to lead us into it.' ... not only has FDR been forgiven, he has been celebrated. His lies, it is said, were noble lies, to rouse an isolationist America into doing its duty and ridding the world of Adolf Hitler”. But GWB is not being forgiven for mentioning evidence about Saddam’s nukes that later turned out to be fabricated. The familiar Leftist double standard.

I am pleased to see that my favourite American has had a tremendous instrument of America power named after him. Very appropriate for a man who made such constructive use of American power.

Clinton does something useful: Hosing down the crazy Left of the British Labour Party.

I’m inclined to agree with this Arab self-description: “In light of ongoing events, it appears that the Arab psychology has become addicted to the dictatorial model of life. Indeed, all the Arab peoples-- all of them-- have become completely addicted to dictatorship, oppression, and regimes that beat [the people] on their heads with their shoes, and hit them below the belt.” (Via The WSJ)

The recent U.S. Supreme Court treatment of the Nike case was appalling. Now a company cannot say anything that “might” mislead. The Leftists have succeeded in wiping out free speech for companies.

One lesson the Leftist panic merchants will never learn: “There is no such thing as a poisonous substance, per se. Even drinking water can kill you, if you drink enough of it. It's the dose that makes the poison.”

Great if it’s true: “All parties and institutions are affected by a climate of cynicism and mistrust in which society is disinclined to believe whatever it is told by authorities and experts.”

Hear here! “I cannot think of many more positive recommendations than abolishing the Equal Opportunities Commission and leaving men and women to work out their minor 'inequalities and differences' themselves.”

Chris Brand has been writing to the papers about the root causes of Africa’s problems again. See here.

The Wicked one has some amusing quotes from Oscar Wilde.

My latest academic posting here (or here) is another one of many in which I show how wrong the Leftist theory of authoritarianism is. I show that there is nothing wrong with dominant personalities. My second recent academic posting here (or here) points out a lack of scientific care that is all too common among psychologists.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

LIBERTARIANS AND AUTHORITARIANISM

From my academic publications I have just posted two papers that might have some interest for libertarians. They both go back to the common perception that the extremely pro-market views of libertarians make them very right-wing or even "fascist". The first posting is of only the most minor interest. It is a letter to an editor of an academic journal written during my anarcho-capitalist days in which I defend myself from just such an accusation. The second posting is an article in a libertarian journal in which I explain the psychological research into authoritarianism for the benefit of libertarians. I point out that although their pro-market views give libertarians something in common with conservatives, their anti-authority attitudes give them a lot in common with the rebellious attitudes commonly expressed by Leftists. (Unlike Leftists, however, libertarians are suspicious of ALL authority, not just some existing authorities). The article also points out that you can be pro-liberty as regards society as a whole and still be dictatorial in your personal life. Certain prominent libertarians do rather spring to mind in that connection.

A later research article dealing with the relationship between libertarianism and the Right/Left divide can be found here. If any of the above links are not responding, alternative links are here, here and here.

****************************

HOPE FOR THE BRITISH TORIES?

It looks like the U.K. Conservative leader might have some balls after all. He seems to want to rein in the all-engulfing bureaucratic monster that the EU has become:

“Mr Duncan Smith made his most important speech so far on European policy. He went to Prague to call for a "democratic revolution" to achieve his vision of a "new Europe" of national democracies, and not of "soulless supranational institutions". In a fierce attack on the Franco-German axis, he accused "old Europe" of trying to bully the rest into believing that they had to accept their cherished ambitions, such as the euro and the new constitution, or else. But Mr Duncan Smith tried to put himself at the head of a campaign by Europe's Centre Right to rally the incoming entrants to the EU to a future in which they did not have to sign up to the euro, the constitution or the common foreign and defence policies of the EU.”

**************************

ELSEWHERE

A disgraceful story here of so-called British justice. Being anywhere around when a crime occurs is dangerous in Britain but it is not criminals who are the danger. It is the lax British police. If they cannot find who actually did the crime, anyone who was around at the time will do. It is the same in Australia -- as the Barry Mannix case (PDF) showed. Mannix only got out of jail when the real murderer turned up at a police station and confessed. Nobody should have to rely on that degree of luck. And note that the police who extorted a false confession from Mannix have not been disciplined to this day. So how many more innocent people have they sent to jail?

Let’s hope other moderate Leftists listen to Tony Blair: “Blair said it would be wrong for centre-left governments to oppose globalization and be anti-American in their outlook.”

There’s a big article here comparing economic development in India and China. It seems that the more Westernized Indian economy relies on local entrepreneurship a lot more than does China and could well pull ahead in terms of future economic growth.

The African nation of Benin has apologised for its past role in slavery: “It's so easy to say white man did it to us, but we share in the responsibility,'' Ambassador Cyrille Oguin told an audience Friday at Southern University”. Will they now be included as co-defendants in reparations claims?

This story shows how good the Left-dominated U.S. educational system isn’t. Note that the librarian who wrote the letter would undoubtedly have a college or university degree.

A new survey shows that landowners who support hunting conserve more wildlife than those that don't -- something that lovers of hunting have always pointed out.

A great post on Samizdata about the incidence of liberty in the world. It is still the Anglo-Saxon nations that are on top of that tree. The post is based on CATO's annual international survey of economic freedom (PDF) -- which also shows that there is a correlation between economic freedom and prosperity. It also shows that “increased economic freedom does not lead to greater income inequality”, contrary to what the Left would have us believe.

A Baltimore cop speaks from experience about the 'war on drugs'. He says: “Eighty years of failed drug prohibition have destroyed swaths of urban America.”

UK Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, is advocating turning Martian exploration over to private millionaires: "Mars needs millionaires"

At last! A conservative blogger in Ireland. Visit him soon.

The NEW CRITERION now has a blog here. The New Criterion is a culturally-oriented conservative site.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

THE LEFTIST FEEDING FRENZY

The term “feeding frenzy” refers to the way a pack of sharks eat. But the incessant Leftist attacks on the food that ordinary people eat surely deserves that term too. Note that Leftists show their great sympathy for poor people these days by claiming that food is too cheap!

Theodore Dalrymple says that anti-fast food crowd seem to assume that if it weren't for corporations and advertising ...we'd all be eating "health" food. This conclusion of course is nonsense. Traditional British dinners were loaded with fat.

EUFIC, The European Food Information Council adds a note of common sense:

"...when judged by changes in life expectancy, health in our modern society is improving all the time and is not, as is often suggested, getting worse. Progress in medical care, better living conditions and hygiene, better food supply, improved nutrition and the importance of physical activity can be associated with this development."

Of course Hippocrates said much the same in the 5th Century BC:

"Positive health requires knowledge of man's primary constitution and the powers of various foods, both those natural to them and those resulting from human skills. But eating alone is not enough for health. There must be exercise, of which the effects must likewise be known. The combination of these two things makes regimen, when proper attention is given to the seasons of the year, the changes of the winds, the age of the individual and the situation of his home".

But this demented woman and her cohorts agree with none of that: “Diet scold Marion Nestle, who was the keynote speaker at last month's obesity lawsuit conference and complains that food is too cheap in America, went off the deep end yesterday. Echoing the lawsuit-happy John Banzhaf, who told a May 2003 food policy conference that personal responsibility is 'crap,' Nestle said on CNN that she doesn't support 'balance, moderation and exercise' when it comes to food choices. Nestle also argued that parents probably can't be expected to exercise any authority over their children's diets."

And “PETA’s gang of lunatics filed an injunction with the California Superior Court today to prevent the popular chicken restaurant chain from defending itself against PETA’s attacks. Without a hint of irony or self-reflection, the group that covertly supports arsonists claims that KFC is making 'deceptive statements' regarding their treatment of future three-piece dinners."

*****************************

NAUGHTY TREES

Wow! What a come-down for the Greenies. A new study has just shown that trees grow twice as fast in New York City, when compared with trees growing in the surrounding countryside. The Greenies have come up with the totally twisted explanation that pollution in cities cancels itself out but that the cities still pollute the countryside and stunt tree growth there. It’s logic only a Greenie could understand. If urban pollution cancels itself out, how is there any left to get into the countryside? Obviously pollution is in the eye of the beholder and what Greenies see as pollution, trees see as fertilizer. The higher carbon dioxide level in cities is the obvious explanation for the finding -- as carbon dioxide is a basic plant food -- but Greenies are committed to demonizing carbon dioxide as a “greenhouse” gas so admitting that it might be beneficial is to be avoided at all costs.

But regardless of what is responsible for the finding, the fact that trees THRIVE in a “polluted” urban environment strikes at the very heart of Greenie claims about the “threat” of pollution. If the only “threat” is that it makes greenery grow faster, shouldn’t Greenies be wanting MORE of that “pollution”?

**********************************

ELSEWHERE

Sad: After the recent elections, Mexico is still in the grip of its old fascistic Left. The PRI kept Mexico poor for most of the last century and it looks like it will keep up the performance.

Amusing: The French government has banned use of the word “email”. It would make more sense for the Germans to ban it. “Email” is an old German word meaning “enamel”.

As always, Buchanan knows his history -- and the conclusions he draws can be startling. The idea that Congress can simply REMOVE the jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court from moral and racial issues was certainly a surprise to me.

The Left are still at their old game of calling anyone stupid who disagrees with them. It shows how much they hate ordinary Americans, though: “Americans, whether consciously or unconsciously, actually pride themselves on their ignorance. It reflects their break with the overly complicated intellectual tradition of 'old Europe.' It's also a source of satisfaction that they have a president who's no smarter than they are. All this is bad news for the American anti-war movement which needs to enlarge its ranks. 'Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens,' wrote Schiller. 'With stupidity even the gods struggle in vain.'"

Michael Darby has just put up a new budget of reading for us here -- with particular emphasis on Zimbabwe, as usual.

If you don’t get a laugh out of the latest offering from The Wicked one you’ve got no sense of humour.

My academic postings here and here have been a bit technical lately. Only for psychometricians.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

BLOG BIRTHDAY

This blog began exactly one year ago today. Below is an extract from the first post I made -- on July 10th, 2002. I think it is still pretty relevant:

DENIAL OF REALITY

"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind." (H.L. Mencken)

Denial is perhaps best known through the work of Sigmund Freud as a classical neurotic symptom or coping mechanism. Instead of dealing with uncomfortable truths, the neurotic acts as if those truths simply do not exist. This is, of course, very maladaptive and creates at least as many problems as it solves.

Sadly, however, it would seem that reality denial is far from limited to psychiatric cases. Denial would appear to be in fact much more common even than excess egotism. Human beings generally do not handle reality well. That is why humans are such a drug-using species. Whether it be alcohol, cannabis, opiates, Khat, cocaine, nicotine or merely caffeine, few of us seem able to face life without chemical crutches. Straight reality is generally too much for us.

But WHY are human beings so uncomfortable with reality? Why do they use so many means to "escape" it? Again it probably goes back to more primitive times when reality was very oppressive and dispiriting. Only those who could escape reality in some way had the heart to carry on. So a talent for ignoring unpleasant truths was adaptive. In the modern world, however, reality is much more benign and, as Freud saw, denying it can easily descend into the psychopathological.

So any attack on the reality-denying habits of Leftists would appear doomed to failure. Even such an overwhelming reality as the utter collapse of the world's 70 year experiment with Communism caused them not at all to abandon their equalitarian mania but only to change their focus somewhat.

Those who know the erratic nature of Blogspot archives will be surprised to find that the full archive of my earliest postings still exists exactly where it is supposed to be -- here. I forget now why I did so but for the first month or so I used to delete the whole blog and create a new one every time I added a new posting! But I always appended the old postings below the new posting. Complicated.

*************************************

SOVIET UNIVERSITIES LIVE ON -- IN THE USA

Stalin once said that there is complete freedom of speech in Russia -- “as long as you agree with me”. Modern day American universities are the same:

"On Nov. 12, 2002, Steve Hinkle, an undergraduate at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, was walking around campus, posting fliers advertising a speech by Mason Weaver, author of 'It's OK to Leave the Plantation'. In that book, Weaver -- an African-American -- traces his own journey "from Berkeley militant to conservative businessman," and argues that dependence on government welfare programs puts many modern African-Americans in circumstances akin to slavery. .... Today, Steve Hinkle remains under threat of expulsion from this hideous institution of 'learning' for trying to post a factual, constitutionally protected flier."

More here

***************************************

ELSEWHERE

Incredible, astounding and unbelievable! “United States President George W. Bush has expressed confidence in the manner in which [South African] President Thabo Mbeki is handling the Zimbabwean crisis.” Handling it? He’s not handling it at all! Zimbabwe is getting more and more disastrous by the day. Mbeki has done NOTHING.

I must say that I had a bit of a laugh when I heard that German Kanzler Gert Schroeder is cancelling his holiday in Italy because of the bad things Italians have said recently about Germans. Pretty childish. It’s he who will be the loser. Italians and Germans have always scorned one-another but the fact that 10 million Germans holiday in Italy every year shows that most Italians and Germans still manage to get on with one-another.

V.D. Hanson has a good article here on the Mexicanisation of California and on multiracialism versus multiculturalism. He says "The problem is not one of "race". He considers it a virtue that America is a multiracial society. What concerns him is the danger of what he calls "a multicultural" society, one that has lost its sense of common political and civic values. A multiracial society "welcomes all races to learn one language and heritage," while a multicultural society "encourages separate but purportedly equal languages and traditions, and is a prescription for disaster - as we have seen in Bosnia."

A good comment on the ridiculous International Criminal Court that GWB has rightly boycotted: “A US academic has claimed that the International Criminal Court's definition of "crimes against humanity" is vague enough to try the POPE for his stand on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.”

David Flint has a good article on why our intellectuals see themselves as an elite who are alone fit to rule us and points out how they do their best to exclude conservative views from all debate.

An interesting explanation here of why Communists rose to power in so many countries throughout the world in the 20th century. Ignorance among the population was one of the pre-requisites. You can fool such people for some of the time.

From NewsWeekly, not apparently covered elsewhere.. Climate scientists reject the Kyoto treaty on “Greenhouse” gases.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with its usual select range of thinking.

China Hand has just put up a couple of snippets about corruption and media censorship in his part of China.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

LIES IMAGINARY AND REAL

I have not so far commented on the shrill Leftist accusations that Bush, Blair and Howard "lied" about Saddam having WMDs because it is so obviously the cry of sore losers. But since even some sensible people seem now to have been sucked in by the Leftist claims over the matter, let me point out that the allies did NOT lie about WMDs. They said that they THOUGHT Saddam had WMDs and that his many years of obstructing UN weapons inspectors meant that there was only one way to make sure that he did not have WMDs. They were right.

And Rumsfeld brought some unanswerable logic to bear on the matter some time ago when he pointed out: "We haven't found Saddam Hussein either, but that doesn't mean he didn't exist."

The real liars are the Left. They lied about Stalin and the Soviets for decades and now they are lying about what GWB and his allies said. Because they are such liars themselves they see it in others at the drop of a hat.

*****************************************

ON BROOKES NEWS

Howard Dean: patriot or anti-American. Howard Dean and his fellow Leninist hardcore Democrats hate the war against Saddam because they believe it promoted US interests. This is their litmus test for condemning any foreign policy: will it benefit the US?
Green economic blueprint is a recipe for tyranny. The greens' economic system could only be enforced at the point of a bayonet and the threat of a Gulag. (Perhaps they are going to lift a few chapters out of Pol Pot's Manual for Economic Autarky).
Why the left support the BBC's neo-Stalinist agitprop that defends treason. The BBC production The Cambridge Spies boils down to a piece of neo-Stalinist agitprop that reveals the moral and ideological bankruptcy of the BBC, an institution that was once even respected by it totalitarian enemies for its integrity.
Arab politicians stayed silent on Saddam's killings fields. Arab parliamentarians spent comfortable nights in luxurious hotels in Beirut, refusing to utter a word of sympathy for the victims of Saddam's mass graves.

Details here

**********************************

ELSEWHERE

One of my American readers reports on the aggressive nature of his local "wage peace, not war" organization: "July 3, on the way to Austin TX I came across a "Pacifica Radio" broadcast from Houston. WOW - these people were full of venom - Prosecute George Bush and Colin Powell and Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney for war crimes against the Iraqi children; abolish private schools; provide better housing for "the poor" - the most arrogant, self-righteous crowd I have ever heard. Again, these people are well-funded. They are extremely hostile to anything conservative - and very enthusiastic about forcing their cause on others"

The recent BBC TV series "Cambridge Spies" portrays British supporters of Stalin during the 1930s as innocent young idealists. That is wilful deceit. As this article points out, Stalin's unprecedented crimes against humanity were already well-known at the time. Even that famous "Fabian" socialist George Bernard Shaw knew and approved of Stalin's methods. As Shaw said: "Every Russian knows that if he will not make his life a paying enterprise for his country ... an agent of the OGPU [Soviet secret police] will take him by the shoulder and will conduct him to the cellar of this famous department and he will simply stop living." It is amazing that Nazi Holocaust deniers like David Irving get blasted yet Leftist intellectual heroes who openly acknowledged and supported the Stalin Holocaust still get lauded. The Left simply airbrushes the inconvenient quotes from public memory.

The USA is doing better in Afghanistan than we normally hear from the media. Note this quote: “'I have two messages,'' says Ahmmad Nabi Mohammadi, leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Movement of Afghanistan, which has followers in all 32 provinces. ''One is that we strongly request the USA to continue supporting the government of Hamid Karzai. . . . The other is that everyone understand this is the exact government that Afghanistan needs now and to support that government.''

There are some good pictures of life in Iraq before Saddam and during the Saddam era here

There is a good catalogue here of the arrant nonsense that has been used by European intellectuals to justify their jealous hatred of the USA. How DARE a country give such freedom, such opportunities and such a good life to ordinary people! And Americans respect practical men a lot more than they respect intellectuals. Horrors!

Paddy McGuinness on Leftist censorship: He points out that sex is about the only thing Leftists do not want censored and comments: "By all means, let us screen any kind of pornography offered. But then why not let the forces of tobacco, alcohol, fast food, racism, sexism and homophobia loose to speak just as freely?"

Global warming comes unstuck again: "An analysis of more than 240 studies of the Earth’s climate over the past 1,000 years suggests the twentieth century was NOT the hottest and that climate varies naturally. The analysis adds to the growing body of knowledge challenging previous assessments, based on less comprehensive data, that suggest climate was relatively stable until a sharp warming in the late twentieth century."

The Wicked one tells it like it is about Liberia -- where the USA may soon be sending troops.

Rather to the annoyance of libertarians such as myself, the old Left/Right divide seems to be the major way in which people group their political attitudes. In my academic posting here (or here) I list some of the opinions that are grouped in that way.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

HOMOSEXUAL BISHOPS

The Archbishop of Sydney gives a very clear statement of the traditional Anglican stance on homsexuality and points out that it is not the traditional Anglicans who are provoking schism over the matter. If there is eventually a schism, the example of the vibrant and very traditional Sydney diocese shows which way the congregations will go. The Times blames “rich evangelical parishes” for forcing the backdown by a homosexual bishop-designate in the Church of England but omits to mention how the parishes concerned got rich. They got rich by having big collections and they have big collections because they have lots of churchgoers. Without the evangelicals, the Church of England would be a small group of atheistic Leftists in funny hats talking to themselves.

*********************************

THE LATEST AUSTRALIAN GREENIE NONSENSE

A reader writes:

“In Victoria the State Government is introducing regulations that require all new houses built to be equipped with solar hot water heaters and / or rainwater tanks. See here and here.

Solar heaters and rain tanks are great ideas but forcing people to buy them is not. The government is playing up the great energy savings these regulations will provide and selling the new laws as a 'win' to the environment. But if the savings were really as great as they say, you just wouldn't need to force home owners to adopt these systems. Householders could see the benefits of microwave ovens and adopted them quickly without being forced.

In order to win green votes, mainly from people who are not building new homes, and who are keen to enforce their green faith on others, (see here) the government has forgotten common sense. Solar hot water heaters don't save energy ...people do. And people respond to incentives.

Churchill said “If you destroy a free market you create a black market. If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.” In economic terms this legislation adds up to taxing new home builders to provide them with 'free' energy. Pretty nonsensical and certainly not very persuasive.

And the rainwater tanks and solar heaters will require backup from traditional systems, and over time will require more maintenance and cleaning. Homeowners will need to spend more time up ladders.

Having duplicate systems is in fact a waste of resources. Householders will face higher initial costs, even if there is some a longer term payoff. And the new homebuilders will in all likelihood revert to using the traditional systems as their primary system in the long run. If there are any environmental benefits from these measures at all, they are likely to be much less than the politicians are saying.”

*********************************

ELSEWHERE

All this furore about same-sex marriages seems a storm in a teacup to me. Marriage arose as basically a reproductive contract so a homosexual union can NEVER be a real marriage no matter how often you call it that, as far as I can see. But Jeff Jacoby has an argument against homosexual “marriages” that does make at least some sense.

I was amused by the picture of authentic Basque culture on the Jennings blog. Apparently Michael has been to Spain recently.

A good bit of sarcasm from the WSJ: “As many as 50 Shiite Muslims are dead after a Friday terrorist attack on a mosque in Quetta, Pakistan, the Associated Press reports. Meanwhile, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports a pair of suicide bombers murdered at least 13 people at an open-air rock concert in Moscow Saturday.... Boy, it's lucky for the Pakistanis and the Russians that they opposed the liberation of Iraq, or the terrorists would have been really mad at them”.

A fightback against traffic cameras: “A clear spray called Photoblocker can be applied to license plates to make them hyper-reflective and unreadable when the camera flashes."

"The European Commission and the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Paris) are reprimanding and threatening several low tax countries with blacklisting or other sanctions because of their LOW taxes! Lowering taxes is “unfair” according to these insane bureaucrats

A strange one from Chris Brand: MARITAL CHOICE. In a dramatic breakthrough for the concept of ‘families of choice’ an American businessman began to offer wives for a rent of around $50,000 annually. Both parties sign a contract setting out terms on which they insist, and men are presented with a variety of women from nymphomaniancs through bluestockings to homemakers.

Writing on his other blog, China Hand has a good comment on the uselessness of many university degrees. The article in The Economist that he is referring to is here. Excerpt: “On average, Arts degrees show a negative return. In other words, those graduates earned less than if they hadn't done their degree at all.”

In my academic posting here (or here) I look at the Leftist theory that people who express approval of conventional authority are prone to behaving in an aggressive, domineering way. I show that there is in fact no relationship between such attitudes and such behaviour.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

REPARATIONS

I have not heard much about "reparations" lately but no doubt it will resurface if ever Iraq becomes boring. The whole idea is of course just another scam to rip off white taxpayers but in case anybody thinks it is an issue that is worth seriously debating, let's have a brief look at it. As far as the USA is concerned, the argument seems to be that Africans suffer a "psychological burden" because their ancestors were brought to America in chains against their will and were subsequently subjected to forced labour. And that burden disables them from achieving much and so needs to be compensated for by giving them lots of money.

There are many reasons why that argument is a nonsense but let me mention two: I am a WHITE person whose ancestors came to my country chained up in the holds of ships and who were subsequently subjected to forced labour. I am descended from two British convicts who were transported to Australia for minor crimes. I even know the names of the ships they came in and my convict great-great grandmother was until very recently within living memory. But has that imposed an awful psychological burden on me and prevented me from achieving? I think you can guess the answer.

And I suppose that several millennia of persecution imposes a terrible psychological burden on Jews and makes THEM unable to achieve too??? But Leftists never do care about evidence or logic!

One of my U.S. correspondents has some good observations on the matter too:

Today, I saw a clip of Condelleza Rice talking to some Palestinian woman-hating macho men telling them to cut out their terrorism. This was just priceless -- these racist sexist subhuman Muslim fanatics taking orders from a Black American female. This was almost too much to handle. This was probably the first time in their lives that they were talked down to by a woman - and a Black one at that. I just love it. And these guys say we are racists.

Ken Hamblin has a talk show. One of his favorite quotes is: "I can't thank those slave traders enough for bringing my ancestors here; if they didn't, I wouldn't be driving this twin engine plane."

In the US, a Black woman with a college degree earns slightly more than Wnite women. This is about as "equal" as it gets. And the Palestinians call us racists. I hope Rice really rubs it in (I would bet she loves it too). This is the best form of "reparations".

And here is another relevant comment:

"What is uniquely Western is not slavery but the movement to abolish slavery. There is no history of anti-slavery activism outside of Western civilization. Of course in every society, slaves have strongly resisted being slaves. Runaways and slave revolts occurred frequently in all slave cultures. But only in the West did a movement arise, not of slaves, but of potential slave-owners, to oppose slavery in principle."

And another reader comment:

"Just recently, some poor Black man in SC was told his land would be declared "Nature Preserve" by the Sierra Club. This family has farmed this land since the Civil War, and now that farming small plots is not productive, he wants to sell it for Urban Sprawl which is reaching out. This poor sucker may not be able to sell his land because of the Democratic-supporting Sierra Club. Yet this guy still votes Democratic. This family has long ago left the Slave plantation - but are now living on another one - the Democratic Plantation. [Hopefully, getting shaken up enough by not being able to sell his land may convince him to vote Republican]."

**********************************

ELSEWHERE

A most amusing story of a BBC reporter sleeping with the enemy on Tim Blair’s blog. The BBC know who their enemies are.

Another great Church of England “fudge”: The homosexual nominee for the post of bishop, “voluntarily” withdrew his acceptance of the post. Anglicans make evasion of issues an art-form.

Great stuff: The UK government is stepping up its attack on the Leftist bias at the BBC. Lets hope it is a prelude to putting the BBC back onto a path of greater objectivity.

While I understand their feelings, I think the Jewish community is unwise in its efforts to block the airing of holocaust skepticism. It only creates the impression that they have something to hide and there is already enough paranoia about Jews out there as it is. And I do think freedom of speech is too important to be abridged even over this issue.

More black racism: "'Clarence Thomas is my color, but he's not my kind.' So sneered Al Sharpton, the black preacher and presidential hopeful during a recent Democratic candidates forum sponsored by Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH coalition. Sharpton's remark reportedly elicited one of the loudest applause lines. The decidedly Democratic audience apparently shared the insinuation that Thomas is a traitor to the race, not the least because the Supreme Court justice opposes racial preferences."

I have just put up here some safety hints for women that I think all women should read in these dangerous times.

The Wicked one has a big post from an American libertarian that yearns for King George III. He makes the very good point that George III allowed far more liberty to Americans than the present American government does.

In my academic posting here (or here) I look at attitude to authority among schoolchildren.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************

ANOTHER GREENIE WAKES UP

A reader writes:

Environmentalist Jack Hollander has come to the conclusion that "the real environmental crisis" is poverty ..and promoting affluence, not retarding it, is the best way to promote environmental quality. See here and here. Hollander's conclusion is not so radical, even if it is news to the environmentalists. In economic terms, 'wilderness conservation' and 'quality of life' issues are both "luxury goods". Items people demand more of as their incomes rise. The term "luxury goods" in economics is not the same as the common usage and does not necessarily mean Rolls Royces or diamond tiaras. Of course environmentalists assert wilderness is a fundamental need and will bite at the mere suggestion it is a 'luxury good' . However if you look at the way people actually behave (not necessarily how they should behave) these are luxury goods. So Hollander's conclusion merely confirms textbook economic analysis. Originally environmentalists, when the movement first arose in the 1970s, were noted for their desire to promote 'quality of life' issues and promote wilderness conservation. That was of course before the collapse of Communism. Then the rechristened "green" movement was taken over by refugees from the far left ...more interested in promoting foreign policy and social agendas irrelevant to the environment, whilst spinning any real conservation issues in an anti-corporate direction: Thus undermining our most successful method of improving environmental quality. I wonder how long it is before Hollander joins the growing list of Green heretics, like Bjorn Lomberg, Garrett Hardin and Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore? All three have been sent to coventry for not treading the party line.

***************************************

SOME ECONOMIC MYTHS DEBUNKED

The "exporting jobs" myth: "As U.S. trade deficits continue to pile up, and as the economy continues in its slow-growth patterns, a number of economic commentators have been accusing American corporations of causing the trouble by "exporting jobs." Now, given the bounty of economic myths that economists and media pundits seem to foist upon us, one should not be surprised at anything we read in the academic literature or popular press, but the newest set of fallacies that we are hearing is especially insidious."

"In the Austrian school's theory of the business cycle, the 'boom' (even though it sounds good) is the cause of the business cycle and all its attendant problems. The 'bust' (even though it sounds bad) is the recovery, where all the problems of the business cycle are put right. The Austrian view is shared by many economy and stock market professionals who dub any retreats from overdone conditions as 'corrections'."

Only the economic ignoramuses would be surprised: "Opponents of NAFTA warned of a 'giant sucking sound' of jobs and investment heading south if the agreement were enacted, but all the evidence points the other way. Since 1994, Arizona's exports to Mexico and Canada have doubled, including more than $1.5 billion in computer and software exports to Mexico in 2001 alone. Arizona's farm exports to Mexico have also soared."

**************************

ELSEWHERE

“Lawrence vs. Texas is not a 'gay rights' victory nor is it an attack on traditional values or marriage. Lawrence vs. Texas is a victory for personal liberty and for the Constitutional restraints that bind the government from violating individual freedom."

”The opponents of biomedical progress .... are making the mistake that the ideal of political equality rests on the notion of actual equality. That's nonsense."

I must say I sympathize with those Corsicans who want their island to be independent of France. Their language is not even French. It is an Italian dialect. And even history’s most famous Corsican -- Napoleon -- had no love of France until he came to rule it.

Scotland has just marked the 400th anniversary of the union between the Scottish and English crowns. It was always a dubious advantage for England in my view and is certainly so now. Way back then it did not even put a stop to wars between England and Scotland and caused a civil war in England when Scottish kings would not respect English liberties. And in the here and now the over-represented Scottish electorate has often been instrumental in putting socialist governments in charge at Westminster. No wonder it is only the Scots who are celebrating!

Stupidity gets an apt reward: “A holidaymaker narrowly escaped death when lightning struck her tongue stud in an electrical storm. Becky Nyang, 26, was temporarily blinded, unable to talk and badly blistered by the bolt of electricity that surged through her body via the piercing.”

Some interesting facts: Of 34 Mars missions since the start of the space age, 20 have failed ... Intel has shipped its 1 billionth computer chip ... when you misinterpret the words to a song it's called a Mondegreen. Kids are great victims of Mondegreens. When I was a kid I used to think that there was a line in “Silent Night” that said: “Round John Virgin, mother and child”!

Rafe Champion has a brief note about something that is often overlooked -- George Orwell’s socialist economics.

The Wicked one has a post about hidden cameras in High School locker rooms.

A couple of psychologists have claimed on the basis of very flimsy evidence that Australians are particularly “authoritarian”. In my academic post here (or here) I report much more substantial evidence showing that not to be so.

*********************************

Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

**********************************