HAPPINESS

George Will has a good review of a recent Gregg Easterbrook book on happiness. The basic point, of course, is that making a lot of money does not necessarily bring happiness. Anybody who reads anything about the lives of filmstars would have known that at least 50 years ago but economists and Leftists seem to have discovered it only recently and are using it as a weapon to say that we should stop trying to give people what they want -- in good authoritarian style. Nicolae Ceausescu, Joseph Stalin and Marshall Tito would approve.

But I had a post last year that traces unhappiness to Leftist values and it is certainly clear that conservatives are in fact happier.

So some things DO generally make a difference to your happiness -- and HOW you spend your money is a factor: "Money can buy happiness and the best investment advice may be as simple as the sports shoe slogan: just do it. That's the conclusion drawn by researchers who set out to identify what sort of spending made people happiest"

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ELSEWHERE

An editorial in "USA Today" backs U.S. intervention in Iraq as having improved world peace and safety and rejects Leftist claims that it has been "destabilizing" etc.

In the latest City Journal, Heather MacDonald shows that some of the most violent criminals at large today are illegal aliens. Yet cops cannot use the most obvious tool to catch them: their immigration status. Reasons: fear of offending powerful immigrant lobbies

A reader comments on "global warming": "Last year, there were no roses in Montreal in June - the winter had been the worst in many years. Apparently, more of the same this year."

An encouraging article here about moderate Islam in Turkey. Very different from the Arab world. Turks are an entirely different race from the Arabs of course and until roughly a century ago held most of the Arab world in subjection.

I have said little so far about the latest GWB illegal immigration "solution" because it does seem very complex. I am however almost sure that bureaucratic incompetence will transform it into a virtual "open-door" policy. Jeff Jacoby, however, seems to have some sensible comments on the matter and his stress on putting life back into "e pluribus unum" (i.e. the policy of assimilation) I heartily agree with. Australia has successfully assimilated a huge immigrant intake and America can do the same if the Leftist "all cutures are equal" dogma is defied.

The lost Left: "An examination of the plans that former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Rep. Dick Gephardt (Mo.) and the rest of the nine dwarfs have proposed reveals just how sharply leftward the Democratic Party has tilted in recent years. Every one of the major contenders wants to raise taxes, wants to re-regulate key industries, militantly opposes private accounts for Social Security, supports the Kyoto Treaty on global warming, and would seek a much higher minimum wage. Most would create a Hillary Health Care- type plan for the nation"

About time: "People are turning increasingly to alternatives such as the Internet for news about the presidential campaign, shifting away from traditional outlets such as the nightly network news and newspapers, a poll found"

Dave Huber has a good post on the nonsense that passes for modern educational theory -- and which is all too often being imposed on our kids nowadays. I myself have taught High School under both systems -- "student directed" and "traditional" and there is no doubt which delivers students who know their subject.

The poor old Sikhs seem to have fallen foul of French anti-religious laws. For a Sikh not to wear a turban is to abandon his faith so I hope they are given an exemption -- as they so often are elsewhere. I have known Sikhs since my early youth and think they are exceptionally good citizens wherever they live.

"KOALA contraception was being considered as a way to curb population blow-outs among the marsupials in Victoria". But the Greenies still oppose any development in areas that Koalas inhabit, of course.

The Far-Leftist MoveOn.org has been goosestepping backwards with its on-again off-again hate- speech about GWB being a "Nazi".

It looks like mad cow disease has become a hobbyhorse for some pretty mad people (if a disease can be a hobbyhorse). See here

Michael Darby has put up another big selection of postings. Some of his headlines:
Yet another "bank" scam
Cathy Buckle: Deepening Disaster in Zimbabwe
French Corruption
"Beyond the Razor Wire" - the truth about asylum-seekers
Seventy-two Dark-Eyed Virgins still taught as reward for Shahada (Death for Allah)
Democracy & the Enemies of Freedom
Tough Times For Terrorists
Public Broadcasting Service, Recruiting for Islam
Prepared for war and peace on Earth
Tax Reform for the New Century

The Wicked one has an Australian elaboration of an old joke about the FBI etc.

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WINDSCHUTTLE THE REALIST

Keith Windschuttle has a good review of a book about the "Noble Savage" myth that has for so long been so popular on the Left. I noted here on 4th how ludicrous is the image of primitive societies as wonderful and peaceful and non-violent. There is also a post at Marginal Revolution showing that in primitive societies an average of about 30% of all male deaths are caused by warfare! Peaceful indeed! The post also shows that deaths from warfare in the US and Europe are the tiniest fraction of that.

Windschuttle has also of course come under continuing attack for his revelations about how Australian history has been misreported by Leftist historians. His latest "salvo in reply" pulls no punches (If a salvo can pull punches). See here.

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ELSEWHERE

Whoopee! "Australia has abandoned a major international measure aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that it is unlikely to come into effect and creates no incentive for industry to reduce such emissions"

Record Cold Freezes Northeastern States. That pesky global warming again!

An understandable wish: "An American Airlines commuter flight was diverted after a passenger passed a note to the crew demanding to be taken to Australia"

Those good old generous taxpayers again: "FORKLIFT drivers, nurses, engineers, teachers, clerks, information technology workers and architects are among the 292 "displaced" public servants costing taxpayers more than $17 million a year. They each earn an average of $61,000 a year despite having no official duties".

Those impartial librarians: "Ann Sparanese, a member of the governing Council of the American Library Association, has written a letter to the Voice criticizing my columns about Fidel Castro's prison sentences of 20 and more years for 75 Cuban dissenters, including 10 independent librarians. ... At an upcoming midwinter meeting in San Diego, from January 9 to 14, the ALA plans to decide whether it will indeed live up to its principles and finally support the locked-up independent librarians in Cuba. It has refused so far."

Unbelievable. Airline pilots still not armed: "They fly by the Capitol, but the bureaucrats won't trust pilots with guns.... "

"If American democracy is finally done in, the perpetrators will unlikely be Hitlerian figures whose strutting authoritarianism is plain to see, but a collection of well-meaning, schoolmarm-like activists who aim to restrict our freedoms for our own supposed good.

Worth remembering: GWB won the presidency without a majority of the popular vote but so did JFK. No Democrat outrage about that, though!

More conservative than GWB? "In his first speech to California's Legislature, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday touted March ballot measures aimed at solving the state's budget problems and demanded an overhaul of worker compensation laws to cut employers' costs and create more jobs. Schwarzenegger warned that painful spending cuts are coming as he outlined his agenda for 2004 in the annual 'state of the state' speech in Sacramento."

I guess I know why this is: Under US Army rule, Baghdad has a lower per capita murder rate than most US big cities. That reminds me of something else: I believe that whilst Australian troops were in Vietnam in the 60's they had a lower death-rate there than they did whilst back in Australia. One of my Army friends of that time was a case in point. He came back from Vietnam safe and sound only to die in a car accident in Australia. I am still saddened by the loss of Lt. Michael Joseph James Gillespie ("Mick") but it was drunk-driving that killed him, not the Viet Cong. I cannot imagine how his family must have felt at the loss of such a splendid young man in his prime of life. I hope their faith helped them.

Sowell: The BBC confuses neutrality with objectivity: "Objectivity refers to an honest seeking of the truth, whatever that truth may turn out to be and regardless of what its implications might be. Neutrality refers to a preconceived "balance," which subordinates the truth to this preconception". Sowell gives as an example historian Robert Conquest who objectively reported the famines and other horrors of the Soviet era -- but who was constantly accused by the Left of "bias" because of it. But we all now know that Conquest was right.

I have just put up a lot of Chris Brand's recent posts here. He has a big coverage of the cancellation by the BBC of a popular TV show because the presenter once made anti-Arab remarks. And the Arabs are gloating about it too.

Arlene Peck notes that millions of illegal Hispanic immigrants are now to be welcomed into the USA and hopes that a few million Palestinians can come too. She is sure they would be happier in the USA than in Israel.

The Wicked one has recent posts on diet fraud and sexual abstinence!

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GREENIE CORNER

A nasty dilemma for the Greenies: "an MIT study says a global tripling of nuclear power generation could avoid nearly 2 billion tonnes of carbon emissions annually".

Why Greenies like to forget that water vapor is a "greenhouse gas" "Just how much of the "Greenhouse Effect" is caused by human activity? It is about 0.28%, if water vapor is taken into account-- about 5.53%, if not. This point is so crucial to the debate over global warming that how water vapor is or isn't factored into an analysis of Earth's greenhouse gases makes the difference between describing a significant human contribution to the greenhouse effect, or a negligible one. Water vapor constitutes Earth's most significant greenhouse gas, accounting for about 95% of Earth's greenhouse effect"

The Latest "Kyoto" nonsense, aid to Saudi Arabia: "Delegates said that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, wanted promises of aid if Kyoto spurs a shift to renewable energies like tidal, solar or wind energy at the expense of fossil fuels"

GM crops becoming accepted: "The debate over Genetically Modified Organisms usually focuses on their safety. However, as study after scientific study continues to find that no unique or inherent risks arise from biotechnology, people will slowly but increasingly come to accept GM foods. Earlier this month, for example, the European Food Safety Authority announced that a particular variety of GM maize was perfectly safe for human consumption."

Unshakable Greenie religion: "Alarming predictions of mass extinctions due to future global warming, forthcoming in this week's edition of the journal Nature, represent yet another salvo in the ideological battle to frighten the public into believing in a future of catastrophic climate change. ... 'Not only are the conclusions outlandish, but the theory upon which the entire article rests has been itself thoroughly disproved,' said Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Iain Murray."

Crackpot Radio: "It is one thing to lean left politically. It is quite another to look the other way in the face of out-and-out lies, fraud, and misinformation in the arena of environmental science. The other day, I listened as my local National Public Radio (NPR) station gave a complete pass to a crackpot telling everyone in the listening audience that wind, waves, photovoltaic cells, and solar energy could easily replace fossil fuel."

A few days ago I noted with approval Randall Parker's comments on soot as a cause of global warming and had a laugh at how inconvenient it is for Greenies that it is mostly poor countries that produce lots of soot. A reader confirms that: "In 1988, at least, I would have classified Hungary as third-world. I happened to be there on a smallish economic visit. The low technology that they were using at the time made breathing the Pest air a challenge; the Buda air was better, since it sits on a bluff overlooking the Danube (Donau) .... Ditto for Bangkok, at least in the mid to late '60s. I suppose that most Asian cities are still that way". I commented jokingly in my post that Randall might end up wearing cement shoes for speaking so much truth and I am sad to say that there was an element of truth in that. Randall has emailed me to say that he has at times got hate-mail and abuse as a result of his attempts at objectivity.

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ELSEWHERE

"Former US president Bill Clinton said in October during a visit to Portugal that he was convinced Iraq had weapons of mass destruction up until the fall of Saddam Hussein, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said". Portuguese blogger Valete Fratres (post of 9th) gives a selection of quotes from what Clinton said as President that back up the story. So if Bush lied, Clinton lied too!

Maybe I am easily amused but this comment about General Wesley Clark in Opinion Journal made me laugh: "Clark, who has never run for office and has spent virtually his entire adult life in the military, has had far less contact with women than have most politicians (to say nothing of Bill Clinton)...."

Bernard Chapin is a good man. He has just "interviewed" me (via email) for Men's News Daily.

An excellent article about Rush Limbaugh's painkiller problems and the relentless media attack on him. One excerpt: "About the criminal probes, Limbaugh attorney Roy Black asks rhetorically, "Of all of the . . . millions of people who've become addicted to painkillers, some very well-known people, have you ever seen search warrants served on their doctor's offices? Have you ever watched people on television leafing through records, calling out the names of their doctors and a list of medications they were using? Has anyone ever seen that before? The first person is Rush Limbaugh. And you have to ask yourself, why is that?"

Good to see a glimmering of sense entering the discussion of the African AIDS "epidemic". I have always pointed out (e.g. here) that in Africa almost any serious disease is automatically attributed to AIDS. It seems that the official wisdom is beginning to agree. With just a little more care about their statistics, they have reduced the number of cases in Kenya from 3 million to 1 million, for instance. But what's a couple of million people between friends?

Wow! The famous Tuskegee experiment of the 1930s which left syphilitic blacks untreated is now routinely held up as an example of wicked racist deeds. BUT, someone who has looked behind the hype reports: "I also learned that the study emerged out of a liberal progressive public health movement concerned about the health and wellbeing of the African-American population" Those racist liberals! And it was only blacks who appeared to have got over the disease who were left untreated anyway.

The "Carnegie" study that strongly criticises the Iraq policies of the Bush administration has got a lot of press. The authors are presented as "experts" and "researchers". In fact, two of the authors worked for Clinton. The third author, Joseph Cirincione, has proven himself to be a hardline Bush-hater and a foe of the "neo-conservatives". David Kaspar has the details.

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THE DEMOCRATS ARE RELIGION-HATERS: WHY?

A reader has pointed me to a good background article on how polarized along religious lines American politics have become. We all know that there is a strong affinity in America between real Christians and the Republicans but the article also points out the survey evidence showing that the Democrats generally (and Democrat convention delegates in particular) are equally (and fervently) anti-religion [unless the religion is Islam, of course]. It also shows that the Leftist media consistently downplay the anti-religious nature of the Democrats. Just some excerpts:

"ANES results indicate that anti-fundamentalism appears disproportionately among secularists, the highly educated, particularly those living in big cities, and persons who strongly favor legalized abortion and gay rights, oppose prayer in schools, and who, ironically, "strongly agree" that one should be tolerant of persons whose moral standards are different from one's own .... over a quarter of Clinton's white supporters in 1992 said that they intensely disliked Christian fundamentalists... despite the reams of data documenting the alignment of secularists with the Democratic party and the countermovement of religious traditionalists into the Republican party, the media, particularly network news, has tended to emphasize only the latter phenomenon... What viewers do not hear about is the secularist vote, which has gone two to one in the Democratic direction in the past three presidential elections"

Why the Leftist media downplay the religion-hating among Democrats is a really easy question to answer: Religion is an almost universal human experience and atheists are never more than a small minority in any national population. Most people have SOME religious beliefs. So being totally and vocally anti-religion would be a big vote-loser.

But are Democrats really anti-religion? Are they not just anti-fundamentalist? The simple answer to that it that it is the fundamentalists who really are religious. To call your average Episcopalian religious would be a joke and even Catholicism is only a shadow of what it once was. But, aside from that, the article does give a lot of survey data showing that the influential core of the Democrats really are anti-religious in general. They are far more rejecting of religion than the American population at large. So why?

It is no mystery at all, really. Leftists are against ANYTHING that is "established" in the society they inhabit. They are always against the status quo, whatever that might be -- and America is a very religious country. To Leftists religion is a big, complacent target that they itch to tear down -- just as the Soviet Communists once did. Modern Leftism is just an attempt to achieve communist goals by stealth and attacking religion is an integral part of that. Leftists cannot stand any creed but their own -- with their own superior wisdom being the core of that creed.

It may be worth noting that Left/Right politics in Australia are NOT religiously polarized. Why? Because Australia is one of the world's most irreligious countries so religion is not a target big enough for the Left to aim at. By American rules, Australia should also therefore be frantically Leftist. It is anything but. It is also one of the world's most conservative countries with a government that is arguably more conservative than America's. It is less wishy-washy on free trade; It has STOPPED illegal immigration and -- despite Australia having had its own "9/11" in Bali -- has no special security legislation that threatens civil liberties. There have also been no notable expansions of the Australian welfare State for many years. And it is one of the few countries that DID help out in the invasion of Iraq.

So the U.S. situation is clearly the result of U.S. Leftists attacking Christianity out of their hatred of ordinary Americans. American Christians have been driven into the Republican party because only there do they find respect for themselves and their liberties.

After my post yesterday about Christianity and holiness, I received what I regard as a true Christian response from Father Mike Walsh of the Catholic Maryknoll Society. He emailed me: "God, I'm sure, doesn't mind your atheism. And neither do I. Keep up the good fight, and as to the whited sepulchres, keep giving it to them good and hard"

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ELSEWHERE

Democrat hypocrisy over tax: "Nowhere is this more striking than in the sudden scrambling of Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, who has advocated repealing all of Mr. Bush's tax cuts, including those for the middle class. Now, under heavy fire from his rivals, Dr. Dean is preparing a new tax plan that is widely expected to offer tax relief for the middle class"

More amazing hypocrisy: Free trade was supported by the Democrats as recently as Clinton -- but not now. They have no principles or guiding philosophy whatever -- but I guess the support many of them gave to a Fascist dictator (Saddam) showed us that for once and for all.

There is a very good article here on the worldwide upsurge of antisemitism in recent years.

Suzanne Fields has some examples of moronic intellectual-speak. Here's one: "Dr. Rowan Williams, who as the archbishop of Canterbury heads the established Anglican Church, demands that America show not righteous anger but sympathy for the men who murdered 3,000 of us on Sept. 11. We must recognize that these mass murderers who crashed into the Twin Towers "have serious moral goals" that Americans merely fail to appreciate. Since we can't judge what's in our best and moral interests, he says, we must let the United Nations do it for us"

Damian Thompson of the "Telegraph" says only stupid white men would believe Michael Moore

A good Winston Churchill saying: "We contend for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

An interesting blog from an American soldier serving in Iraq.

The Wicked one is back on the funnies -- with a list of top morons for 2003

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OF CHRISTIANITY AND HOLINESS

Regular readers of this blog will be well-aware that I often write on matters to do with the churches. I even had a well received article in Front Page Magazine some time back that looked at why many mainstream churches are now Leftist. And readers will also have noted how derisively I speak of "liberal" Christians. I imagine however that some readers would want to ask what right an atheist (which I am) has to to pontificate on such matters. The simple answer is that it is my remote fundamentalist past still speaking. I still have great sympathy for my former fundamentalist brothers in arms despite no longer being one of them. And I share their view of what a "real" Christian is. All that aside, however, I do think that there is an important rational distinction to be made between those on the one hand who sincerely believe that Christ is their saviour and do their humble best to follow his teachings and those on the other hand who have no real convictions but simply use the churches for social, political or even financial purposes. And I will continue to refer to the former as "real" Christians and the rest as "pretend" Christians, "impostors" and "hypocrites" -- or, as Christ called the equivalent people in his day: "whited sepulchres" (Matthew 23:27): "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchres which indeed appear beautiful outward but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness". I will never be able to better that description.

I should, I guess, make clear that it is pretend belief, not unbelief or unorthodox belief that I am condemning. I have met holy people of all faiths and no faith -- from the Greek Orthodox Church to Jehovah's Witnesses. And in my view the holiest person I know is a geriatric nurse who works in a nursing home. When her lonelier patients finally become so ill that they are sent to hospital she goes of her own accord and in her own time to visit them in hospital. Such good-heartedness leaves me awestruck. She is, as it happens, a complete atheist who says that her strong Methodist background was never anything but a burden. She also is a habitual voter for the A.L.P. -- Australia's major Leftist party -- but like many supporters of that party (including its present Federal leader) she has strong conservative views on many subjects -- in her case including a complete derision for anything to do with governments.

And what I think all of that goes to show is the one thing Leftists hate to admit -- that life is far too complex to be reduced to their simple rules, formulas, slogans and theories.

And Ann Coulter has a very amusing article on the hypocrisy about religion of the current Democrat Presidential hopefuls. Some excerpts: "When they were fund-raising, the Democratic candidates for president all claimed to be Jewish.... To ease Democrats into the Jesus thing, the Democratic Leadership Council is holding briefings for Democratic candidates teaching them how to talk about religion. The participants were warned that millions of Americans worship a supreme being whose name is not Bill Clinton... The only Democrats who go to church regularly are the ones who plan to run for president someday and are preparing in advance to fake a belief in God... "

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ELSEWHERE

Edward Feser has a powerful article on Tech Central Station about the ideal Democrat Presidential candidate. History is most awkward for the Left. I am more than pleased to see someone else saying what I have been saying for so long. For instance, Feser claims that the Left suffer from "projection" (seeing their own faults in others). I first made that claim in an academic journal in 1972 -- though I very much doubt that I was totally original in making that claim at that time.

Friedman in the NYT rightly says that the war with extremist Islam is World War III and rightly says that the Islamic nations themselves are needed to help us win it. How we get them to help is the question. Intimidating them is surely one part of the answer. The toppling of Saddam seems to have changed a lot of minds among Islamic rulers. The “carrot and stick” approach, in short.

A reader comments on my post yesterday about Hillary Clinton's racial stereotyping: "I think you (and possibly Hillary) missed the REAL MESSAGE of racial stereotyping of Indians. This is about as positive a statement of the work ethic of Indians as exists - these guys own and manage gas stations when those complaining of "lack of opportunity" buy the gas while the Indians sell it. This is the way it is for many Indians - they arrive dirt poor, work like hell, go to school, and end up OWNING the neighborhood - tha American dream at its best - and Hillary is really stereotyping them - as SMART" Yes. I have always said that Leftists do know what the racial differences are. They just won't normally admit to it.

The court case resulting from the police shooting of African immigrant Diallo has now been settled with a $3 million payout from NYC to his parents. The police concerned were exonerated as having acted out of a honest mistake but there was an understandable political furore over the event nonetheless. A reader comments: "Following Diallo's killing by police from the Street Crimes Unit, Mayor Bloomberg abandoned the unit in the interest of "eliminating police brutality" {Police brutality was eliminated - in fact, policing itself was eliminated.} Needless to say, since then, the murder rate has shyrocketed in this area - mostly Black. So these people have been sacrificed on the PC altar. Here are leftists praising themselves for the murder of large numbers of Blacks -- sacrificed for a "just cause".

I know I shouldn't gloat. I know. I know. But I cannot help feeling pleased with the excellent results of my own very conservative stockmarket investment strategy when I read about the results obtained by the Wall St high-flyers of just a few years ago that are described in part here. I got the sort of results that they wanted because I understood capitalism and they did not. Nasty of me.

Interested Participant has an excellent post on how millions of taxpayer and private dollars were spent on protecting an "endangered" species of mouse which has now been shown to be common in fact. But nobody in government is yet admitting that they were wrong, of course.

One of my readers whom I have quoted before here has now started her own blog -- primarily concerned with the idiocies of modern literary studies.

The Wicked one has recent posts saying that DDT is good for you and that there should be free trade in jobs.

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THE POLITICS OF SCIENCE

A reader writes:

"Delighted to read the article on hormesis. Interestingly, it was a health physicist called Luckey who first revived this hormesis thesis over twenty years ago -- but somehow he got the silent treatment, just like Paracelsus. The radiation protection brigade are hardly going to expand their remit if they admit that a small dose of gamma rays is the best thing since sliced pan.

Here's a radiation hormesis site you might be interested in. See also here and here. The final paragraph of this essay says it all:

"In August 1985, a Conference on Radiation Hormesis in Oakland, California, recognized the reversal in concepts of radiation effects. Its Proceedings, published in the Health Physics journal in 1987, finally recognized that low dose radiation is not only good for you, it is essential to life. But how will Health Physicists now earn a living? ""

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ELSEWHERE

Kristof in the NYT does the usual performance for that rag of appearing fair and unbiased -- as long as you don't think too much. He clearly hates it that so many Americans are real Christians (as distinct from the pretend Christians who are so common among Episcopalians etc) and tries to excuse Howard Dean's lie about his Bible knowledge this way: "Anyone who cites Job as a New Testament book should be scolded not just for religious phoniness but also for appalling ignorance of Western civilization _ on a par with Mr. Bush's calling Greeks "Grecians." Dean made his gaffe after explicitly claiming to know the Bible well. So according to Kristof, poor grammar by GWB equates with an outright lie by a Democrat! But I guess that's the sort of senseless judgment that the U.S. Supreme Court would uphold.

David Brooks has an amusing article in the NYT about the "neocon" conspiracy theories that are so popular even among the mainstream Left as an "explanation" of GWB's foreign policy. This "definition" gave me a chuckle: "con is short for "conservative" and neo is short for "Jewish"". Some of the letter-writers to the NYT got very huffy about their antisemitism being described so blithely but you don't have to read many recent Leftist rants to know the truth behind what Brooks said.

GWB's latest proposals to give official recognition to illegal immigrants is clearly another abandonment of conservatism on his part. In practice, it is nothing more than a total abandonment of immigration controls. I am glad I live in a country with a real conservative government that controls illegal immigration effectively. One can only hope that GWB's proposal is a temporary political expedient like his steel tariffs and that he is secretly hoping that it will get overruled in Congress the way his steel tariff was overruled by the WTO.

A leading Democrat engages in public racial stereotyping. But she's a Democrat so that's OK. "New York Senator Hillary Clinton has felt obliged to apologise for making a joke about Indian independence hero Mahatma Gandhi having worked as a gas station manager in Saint Louis, Missouri"

Have I missed something? Where are all the protests against China from the Greenies and animal libbers? "Animal merchants watched aghast as government SARS fighters descended on China's largest wildlife market Wednesday and hauled off bagfuls of squirming civet cats for slaughter"

Christians in general, and evangelicals in particular, have been leaving the Democratic Party in droves. And why should they not, given how openly hostile the party of the left has become to every social issue embraced by Christians as well as the most trivial public expressions of Christianity? Were significant elements within the Democratic Party to have their way, every mention of Christmas would be banned, every Christian would be barred from public service and every homeschooler would be forcibly thrown to the lions of the public schools.

One impostor down: "Archbishop Peter Carnley has announced he will step down as the head of the Anglican Church in Australia early next year... Dr Carnley, 66, was a controversial choice for primate when he was elected by his peers four years ago because of his liberal views on gays, the ordination of women and his strong stand on Aboriginal land rights"

Opinion Journal draws attention to yet another instance of the constant Leftist claim that they are the smart ones and conservatives are dummies. Just have a look at my comments on the work of five prominent Leftist intellectuals in my field of academic expertise here and here and here and here and here and decide for yourself how smart they are. If those five are not enough, there's lots more here.

But one thing that DOES differentiate conservatives and Leftists is happiness. There is a long history of evidence showing that conservatives are happier. The latest is from Gallup: "Even when accounting for partisan differences in marital status and household income, Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats and independents to be very happy." Leftists are miserable sods, to put it plainly -- but you just have to hear their constant whining about everything in our society to know that.

Extremist Islam in America: "Just as a Florida Islamic conference was trying to recover from one media controversy, they were mired in another when Islamic speakers who have voiced support for suicide bombers and referred to Jews as "Jewish crackers," "apes" and "pigs" freely addressed the crowd and were warmly embraced by conference leaders. The speakers addressed the crowd just hours after Islamic leader Dr. Sayed M. Saeed assured media that those present represented "mainstream" Islam"

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with a heap of good links.

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THE LEFTIST DEMOGRAPHIC DISASTER

The welfare state versus the family: The Swedish experience: If the author's arguments are correct, the long term effect of the welfare state is the depopulation of the nation, the erosion of its tax base and possible influx of peoples from cultures where extended family and ethnic bonds are put before national bonds, thus undermining the 'social compact' that democratic welfare states rest on.

And as Sowell says: "These countries have also been importing large numbers of immigrants from other countries and other civilizations, people with values at cross purposes -- often dangerously so, as we learned last September 11th. Because these culturally different immigrants typically have a much higher fertility rate than the populations of the countries to which they are moving, the very composition of the Western world is changing in irreversible ways that threaten the survival of the existing culture.... the sheer magnitude of today's immigration into Western countries threatens to overwhelm any society's ability to absorb so many strangers and so many incompatible cultures. As just one example, the virtue of tolerance has been extended to cultures that are unabashedly intolerant. As Pat Buchanan says, try setting up a Christian church in Istanbul! Do we want to import people who are preaching hatred toward other American groups, such as the Jews, who are already here?

Steve Sailer looks at the statistics in more detail

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GROWING OLDER AND WISER

Keith Burgess-Jackson has a great article out that presents in his usual breezy style the story of how he moved from being a Leftist to being a conservative. It is a very common move over a lifetime of course -- with Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan being the best-known examples -- and Keith does strongly associate the move with gaining increasing experience and understanding of life's realities. I liked this sentence: "The good news is that as long as one lives, one can be saved into conservatism". Keith is an atheist but obviously he uses evengelical language to describe what a big and beneficial change the move from Left to Right can be. As a lifelong conservative myself, I have never experienced that "conversion" -- I have had a lifetime of poking fun at Leftists instead. There are of course heaps of lifetime conservatives but you rarely hear from them. They are just happily getting on with their own lives and doing their best to dodge being bothered by all the busybodies and meddlers of the world. I myself have always spoken up (for the last 40 years) because I have always found Leftism to be so incredibly at variance with the facts -- and for some reason that has always bothered me greatly.

Incidentally, for the origin of the saying about heartless youth that Keith quotes at the beginning of his article, see under "Leftist Youth" here

Once again experience brings a move from Left to Right: "When I was growing up, the family dinner was a tradition. Above the clatter of plates, my parents discussed the world around us from their perspectives at either end of the great oak table. Together, we'd review the news of the day put into context by the events of yesterday, and always we'd think about tomorrow. Politics was a main course, and being a working-class family from Massachusetts, we were fed a healthy serving of Democratic Party principles. ... But I expect to break with that tradition. Come November, I'll be casting my vote for George Bush."

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ELSEWHERE

A Texas funeral for a fallen soldier. I was moved to tears. I hope you will be too. There is so little we can do to comfort bereaved families but on this occasion all that could be done was done. Leftist intellectuals may be indifferent to loss of human life but decent people are not.

A review of In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr: "Hard as it may be for outsiders to imagine, a lingering affection for communism remains part of American university life.... American leftists insisted for decades that Hiss was falsely condemned. When a mountain of evidence proved the case against him (and many others), the defenders began suggesting that maybe spying actually didn't matter.."

Australia has nothing remotely like the race problems of the USA but lots of parents (including myself) still send their children to private schools. And Government statistics expose the myth that private schools are for the rich. "A breakdown of parental income shows 9 per cent of Australia's 3.3 million students live in families where the average annual income is less than $20,800. Almost one in five of these students - about 50,000 children - go to a non-government school". People just like to have choices about how their children are educated. But the advocates of government education don't like that one bit.

Is "free" education and medical care too expensive? This excerpt from a National Review article (not online) by Stephen Moore (titled "Nice goin' Uncle Sam") suggests that it is: "According to Department of Labor consumer-price index (CPI) data, since the creation of Medicare in the mid 1960s the health-care component of the CPI has grown at roughly twice the rate of economy-wide inflation. But in the 15 years prior to Uncle Sam's taking on the role of health insurer, medical inflation grew at about the same rate as inflation in other sectors of the economy. There are only two industries in America today that suffer from rampant inflation: health care and education. In virtually all other sectors of the economy, prices are relatively stable, or even falling. So why do prices in these two industries gallop out of control? In both cases, government plays a domineering role."

Leftist meddling reaches a new height. In Britain you now need a licence to MEDITATE! If you don't believe it, Scott Burgess sums it up in The Daily Ablution.

What fun! "Genetic testing confirms that the cow diagnosed with the first U.S. case of mad cow disease was born in Canada"

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GREENIE CORNER

The Greenies will hate this one: Because of a long-known effect called "hormesis", most poisons and pollutants (even radiation) are actually good for you in small amounts -- which is a nasty shock for the simplistic Greenie approach that wants "zero" of practically everything modern. Life is always more complex than the know-it-all theorists imagine. Hormesis is actually the theoretical basis of homeopathic medicine -- though all that homeopaths normally give you in their "medicines" is distilled water. Under the heading "Naughty Radiation" I first blogged on hormesis back in 2002. (Scroll down a little). See also here under "Nice Toxins".

The indefatigable Randall Parker at Future Pundit has a blockbuster post on global warming. He say that IF global warming exists, it is very difficult to know it and that programs to reduce soot and methane emissions would be much more effective and cheaper than the Kyoto nonsense in reducing global temperature. But here's the really awful bit for the Greenies: U.S. soot levels have already halved in recent years just as a result of normal technological progress, without governments doing a thing! And even worse, the big soot-production offenders are Third World countries! Randall will end up wearing cement boots if he is not careful! Speaking so much truth all at once could be dangerous!

Panic! The Earth's magnetic field is weakening! I wonder how long it will take the Greenies to blame the Bush administration for that? Judging by their record on ozone and global warming, any possibility that planetary events might be natural fluctuations is always dismissed.

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MORE ON NATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN IQ

The book on national differences in IQ by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen (IQ and The Wealth of Nations) is finally getting a bit of media attention and their findings have also now been used academically (Voracek M. "National intelligence and suicide rate: an ecological study of 85 countries". Personality & Individual Differences, 2003, in press) so I thought I might add a small contribution to the discussion.

I have just uploaded to the web an article by Nathaniel Weyl which was written nearly 40 years ago and which is now very little known (though it is referred to here). It reports a large and comprehensive body of data on white Rhodesians -- as they then were. They were one of the most intelligent Caucasian populations ever -- now of course thoroughly dispersed and destroyed by the Mugabe regime. Weyl explains the selective pressures that produced such high IQs among whites in what is now Zimbabwe. Details here or here

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ELSEWHERE

How hilarious! Frontrunning U.S. Democrat Presidential candidate Howard Dean needs Bible-belt votes so claimed to know the Bible well -- then immediately proved his utter ignorance of it. GOP supporters should now have a new motto available to them: "Dean Lied"!

Antisemitism is alive and well on German Public Radio. History IS slowly repeating itself. Hitler was a German socialist too.

I tend to like Jews -- mainly because of their intelligence, I guess -- and every regular reader of this blog will be aware that no Gentile could be more pro-Israel than I am. But none of that means that I think Jews and Gentiles are the same. I think that there are some things that are typically (though not of course universally) Jewish. I came across an amusing example of it recently in my correspondence with the very Zionist Arlene Peck (whom I quote often). She asked me why I just quote her without adding any comment of my own. I said that she and I see eye to eye so there is nothing for me to add. Her reply? Essentially it was "Well, why don't you quote me more often, then?" I guess that sort of "never satisfied" response might annoy some Gentiles but I was still laughing about it half an hour later. People don't have to be exactly the same as you for you to like them. It would be a sad day for men and women if that were the case.

Why the Left hate Bush: "His fiercest detractors don't loathe him merely because they think he's mediocre, hypocritical and simplistic. What they truly resent is that his popularity suggests that the country might be more like him than it is like them. They fear he's exiling them politically. On one level, their embrace of hatred aims to make others share their outrage; but on another level, it's a self-indulgent declaration of moral superiority"

Tim Blair has a dreadful story about how Leftist hate-speech against GWB led to actual deaths in Turkey. Not that deaths have ever bothered Leftists, though.

Bernard Chapin has a blog that espouses a lot of traditionalist values but is still very lively and full of fun. He is also exasperated with the foolish behaviour of women seeking a mate. He finds a lot of them so up themselves that he wonders why they bother. Women in their 30s and late 20s seem to be the main target of his ire. I myself ran a popular singles group for a couple of years once so I recognize the behaviour of which he speaks. It is just self-centredness as far as I can see and that is crippling to anyone -- male or female. And it is the self-centred ones who tend to get left on the shelf and so are the main frequenters of singles venues. Bernard's story about "Evil Chuck" is amusing. I used to have a much simpler line for the same purpose. I used to walk up and say (with a smile): "Can I join this meeting?" It always worked. I personally have no complaints about women at all. Women have been more than kind to me in my life.

The Wicked one thinks that Christians are too fearful of biotechnology.

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MY FRENCH DINNER PARTY

As you will see from the link below, anti-Americanism is rife in France, particularly among the more intellectual strata of French society, and all sorts of batty things are eagerly believed there about Britain and America. I will never attend a dinner party in France but here are the some of the things that I would probably say if I did:

"Europe invented both Communism and Fascism and it took the Anglo-Saxons to rescue them from both -- so it is the Europeans who are the moral cripples, not the Anglo-Saxons"

"France originated both Communism and Fascism. The revolution led to Communism and Napoleon was the first Fascist. He ran a police State, he waged great wars of conquest. He preached the national glory of his country and all he achieved in the end was the death of millions of his people -- all of which is exactly what Hitler and Mussolini later did"

I would no doubt at some point be accused of ignorance of the profundities of French philosophy so I would say: "French philosophers think that creating confusion is clever. Anglo-Saxon philosophy aims to clarify things. Confusion is childish. Getting things clear is what you do as you grow up.

Wouldn't that be rude of me? But Australians are in general a blunt lot. I would probably get tossed out before I got my dinner, though.

French thinker Jean-Francois Revel says that French and other European anti-Americans are out of it mentally. Excerpt:

"Revel, for example, doubts that anti-Americanism seriously can be challenged by rational thought and a careful mustering of facts. Overwhelming the anti-Americans with reason, he believes, would be a formidable and perhaps impossible task "doomed to failure, since the disinformation in question is not the result of pardonable, correctable mistakes, but rather of a profound psychological need" ... "The mechanism of the Great Lie that fences in America on every front, and the rejection of everything that might refute it," Revel says, "evokes the equivalent lie that surrounded the Soviet Union ever since 1917 - not to the detriment, but to the advantage of the Communist empire. Here again, among those who fed from the idealized and falsified images of 'existing socialism,' a sort of mental flyswatter swiped away at facts that were too threateningly real."

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ELSEWHERE

"Americans give over two-and-a-half times more of their income to charity than do than Canadians." Just like Republicans in the USA when compared to Democrats. It's all explainable by the secret socialist motto: "We don't care so you have to".

Leftists fancy themselves as intellectuals but I have always said that they are only second-rate intellectuals and in my own field I have repeatedly shown that to be true. But this article about Marxist Terry Eagleton makes "second rate" look like a vast overestimate. The guy has gone from being a big defender of postmodernism to now saying it is all wrong but still calls himself a Marxist and is still treated worshipfully by other Leftists. How desperate can you get? They've got about as much intellectual rigor as a flea! It's not what you say but whom you hate that counts. But we read: "Nowadays Mr. Eagleton lives the life of an academic superstar" so I think that tells you all you need to know about Leftist intellectuals. They are just con-men but the mugs lap it up.

And another much more trivial case in point: The Annals of Improbable Research reports a study by a Prof. Trinkaus showing that 'modern kids don't smile when they see Santa'. Trinkaus admits that he does not know why they do not smile or if they ever did but still draws big conclusions about the evils of modern society from his "findings".

There is an amusing and very pro-Democrat article in the NYT which, despite all its biases, ends up admitting that the Democrats are mushy on national security and that they will lose votes over it. And the author didn't mind slipping in a few untruths to bolster his anti-Bush hatreds. For instance he says: "Zakaria noted that ''with the exception of Britain and Israel, every country the administration has dealt with feels humiliated by it.''" I guess Australia and Poland don't exist to Democrat eyes. Both unhesitatingly sent troops to help depose Saddam and have supported American policy solidly. Poland is a European country as big as France and Australia is the only nation to have an entire continent to itself -- but we know how often large realities can be invisible to Leftists.

U.S. Army snipers in Iraq seem to be doing a good job of giving the terrorists a bit of their own back.

"The first of January will mark ten years of NAFTA [The North American Free Trade Agreement]. There is little doubt it has helped the United States and Canada, but how about Mexico? Foreign investment in Mexico has increased dramatically. It now stands at $12 billion a year, more than India receives. Exports have grown by a factor of three, up to $161 billion. Mexico's per capita income has risen 24%, to $4000 a year"

One of the Leftist historians whom Keith Windschuttle has attacked for "fabricating" Australian Aboriginal history -- the same one who defended herself by saying that historians make things up all the time (!) -- has another defence of herself here -- the core of which is that other "independent" historians have agreed with her account. What a laugh! There is only ONE "independent" historian of that subject in Australia -- Windschuttle! That Leftists stick together is extremely unsurprising but proves nothing. You have to look at the evidence itself and that is exactly what the wicked Windschuttle has done.

Conservative German blogger David Kaspar is having a good laugh (in English) over the fact that the European space probe sent to Mars failed but the American one worked.

The Wicked one has a post on how the Left still hate the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover and the amusing lies that they tell about him.

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THE CONTINUING "NOBLE SAVAGE" MYTH

Keith Windschuttle points out how nonsensical are the Leftist claims about how wonderful primitive people were. Aside from the mythical Tasaday, they were usually extremely brutal and selfish in fact. Windschuttle reports for instance the "frequently murderous level of violence Tasmanian men heaped on their women" .

He notes that even historians who criticize him in fact confirm his account: "How violent, Clendinnen asks, were Aboriginal men toward their women? "Very", she answers. "What the newcomers saw as remarkable --what I would think would be remarkable anywhere --were the blows Australian men publicly, casually, dealt their women for trivial offences, and their ready resort to weapons. Their women were, literally, browbeaten."

And, as it happens, it still goes on today. I myself have had a fair bit to do with Australian Aborigines in my time and I have SEEN them treat their women in exactly the same way today. I have SEEN Aboriginal men casually knock their women across the room for such minor offences as interrupting them. There is absolutely no doubt that Windschuttle has got it right. And it is a work of art the way he demolishes his Leftist critics.

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THOSE PESKY NUMBERS

More from mathematician Brignell's Numberwatch site. He has a discussion of the work of AIDS/HIV skeptic Gordon Stewart -- whose predictions on the course of the AIDS epidemic seem to have been more accurate than those of the establishment:

"(In) 1989 Gordon Stewart wrote a paper challenging the official view that AIDs cases in the UK would reach tens of thousands by 1992. His paper remained unpublished during a four-year correspondence in which referees wrote comments such as "Why should I read a paper by someone who believes the earth is flat?" Stewart's paper, which was rejected by Nature, Science, the New England Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal, was proved to be correct to within a remarkable 10%. The "experts" were out by several orders of magnitude. The establishment ignored their shame and simply moved on.

The same process is now taking place with the Global Warming Myth. The reward for conforming is millions of dollars worth of grants. The penalty for dissenting is being relegated to a remote corner of the World Wide Web (among the cranks and pornographers), which is the last home of scholarship, as practised by such lone battlers as John Daly."

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ELSEWHERE

Charles Murtaugh has a fascinating post on the biological role of prions (the probable cause of “mad cow disease” or CJD). Apparently they have very important natural functions in the brain but, like everything else, can go awry sometimes -- a bit like cells going wrong and turning into cancer. So hundreds of unlucky people get CJD spontaneously every year and there is NOTHING that governments can do about it. So the logic is that America’s sole mad cow could have got it spontaneously too.... Hey! That would let those complacent Canadians off the hook! Clayton Cramer has a post suggesting that existing government research into the problem may be misdirected anyhow.

I have always liked the Poles and this article tells what a hero nation Poland is -- and it may even be the world's most pro-American nation. They know the importance of liberty from experience.

The is an amusing NYT article by David Brooks here that says that in the next election the GOP can no longer advocate reducing the size of government (because they don’t reduce it) so will have to advocate change. That proposal is of course meant to be provocative and one hopes that it is. It might help drive out the last remnants of the nonsensical claim that conservatives oppose change. Brooks is right. There is a whole heap of Democrat nonsense enshrined in U.S. law that badly needs changing. Abolishing the entire U.S. public school system and replacing it with vouchers would be one nice change. No alternative school system could be worse than the present one as far as I can see. No doubt it won’t happen but it gives you an idea of the scope for change that exists. And how about legislating for more “diversity” on campus by setting quotas that say the percentage of conservative professors on campus must mirror the percentage of conservatives in the community?

Britain: Shuffling the deckchairs on the "Titanic": "Downing Street advisers are pressing for the Government to take over direct funding of schools, which could spell the end of local education authorities. Two of Tony Blair's senior aides want him to 'nationalise' school spending, channelling money to headteachers and governors through a central agency that would 'cut out the middle man.'"

A little bit of conservatism in a big lot of socialism: "For advocates of consumer-driven health care, the most positive part of the new law has little to do with Medicare. It is the section that expands medical savings accounts, renamed Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Such accounts empower consumers by allowing them and their employers to choose higher-deductible insurance plans, with the savings from lower premiums going into tax-sheltered savings accounts that are the property of the consumer."

An Australian public broadcaster is running a Hanoi government (Communist) news program against the wishes of the local Vietnamese community. So much for their charter...

Australian blogger Esoterica is definitely interested in all the big questions. I like his post about obedience and the Left. I wonder if he knows about the Milgram experiment? Milgram showed that it is not only Germans who are prone to obey authority, no matter what.

The Wicked one has recent posts on the evils of inflation, labor unions and condoms.

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WHAT HILLARY CLINTON WANTS FOR THE USA:

On socialized medicine in the UK: "Harriet Sergeant's investigation of the NHS, the final part of which we publish today, is as frightening as it is infuriating. It describes a healthcare system in which the most fundamental rules of hygiene and patient care are ignored, the costs of basic supplies run out of control for sheer lack of common sense, and incompetent staff cannot be disciplined"

And another NHS report: "Whether you enjoy attentive nurses, a proper diet and clean wards is simply pot luck. Nor can this arbitrary standard of care be blamed wholly on staff shortages; rather, it is a catastrophic failure of management, combined with substandard training, that has brought about a crisis in the wards."

And the British taxpayer is SO kind to foreigners: "All asylum seekers who have an illness for which they cannot get treatment in their own country, have under Human Rights Legislation, the right to stay in this country and to receive free treatment. So if you are HIV positive, you have an automatic right to asylum in the UK.... Applicants from Eastern Europe and the Third World have recently received two thirds of student visas, and the majority of work permits. Unfortunately TB, Hepatitis B and HIV are all endemic in these parts of the world. They are contagious, life-threatening diseases and are now taking hold in the UK. For example, 95% of all new cases of Hepatitis B in this country come from abroad. Each patient costs the NHS about œ10,000 a year. HIV is now a heterosexual disease. Rates of TB in London have doubled over the last 15 years. London is now the TB capital of Europe"

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THAT MAD COW

Americans do not yet seem to be panicking about their "mad cow" case and nor should they, apparently. Prof. John Brignell, the author of the UK site "NUMBERWATCH" has released his "number of the year" for 2003. It's 137...

"This is the total number of vCJD ["mad cow"] deaths recorded ever. It was meant to be millions, but something went wrong somewhere. It all but destroyed the British beef industry. If this is not exciting enough how about the total of 774 deaths ever from SARS? That caused a temporary economic collapse in South East Asia. For a really boring comparison consider the 20 million deaths from influenza in 1918 alone. The important thing to remember is that Panic Sells Papers." (Quote from the end of this article). Prof. Brignell also adds some comments on the British NHS.

But that mad cow is great for propaganda: "PETA's quasi-medical front group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, has purchased a sponsored link that appears when you type 'mad cow' into the Google search engine. Unsuspecting Google users simply see a page called 'mad cow facts,' but they may quickly find themselves bombarded with unabashed anti- meat propaganda."

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ELSEWHERE

A marvellous post on environmentalism here from someone who has taken great trouble to look into it.

Regarding my "Town and Gown" posting yesterday, a reader reminded me of G.B. Shaw's saying: "Those who can do, and those who can't, teach". There is a later extension of that applying to universities: "And those who can't teach, teach the teachers!"

Almanacs are dangerous? The FBI is not what it used to be: "The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning. In a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations, the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs 'to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning.'"

A survey here of what Islamic clergy in Europe have been telling their congregations lately: "With one exception, they are sermons that incite to hatred. The end of Ramadan was marked by the legitimization of Islamic terrorism in Iraq and the whole world"

An improved climate: "Every year, environmental alarmists claim we have taken another step on the road to ruin. This year, they claim 2003 was the third-hottest year ever, and that its heat waves, floods, and tornadoes are evidence of global warming that will bring global catastrophe. But, despite their claims, statist environmentalists will remember 2003 as a very bad year for their credibility. Above all, we should remember 2003 as the year that saw the death of the most economically damaging idea ever to come out of the United Nations, the Kyoto Protocol on climate change."

I have often made the point that the idea of conservatives opposing change is an inversion of the truth. What IS true is that Leftists LOVE change. Conservatives can take it or leave it. This account of Australia's shortlived but very Leftist government of the '70s shows just HOW frantic for change that government was.

German blogger "Davids Medienkritik" (he posts in both English and German) is very amused at Chancellor Schroeder being invited to attend French D-Day celebrations. I must say that I am surprised that the arrival of Anglo-Saxon liberating forces is even mentioned in France today. Isn't that "unilateral" or something?

As I do occasionally link to Leftist sites, I suppose I should link to extreme-Right sites occasionally too. This one is classic in its nuttiness. Though it could equally well be from the extreme Left, come to think of it.

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TOWN AND GOWN

I put up a link recently to one of Thomas Sowell's articles about how business, profit and commerce generally seem to be decried and scorned by the intelligentsia. And having spent much of my life in academe, I often noted myself the scorn many academics express for the world of business. Why that enmity? I think it might help if I note that this is not exactly a new phenomenon. For hundreds of years in Europe there was always a "Town and Gown" rivalry -- where "Gown" meant the students and academics of the local university and "Town" were the ordinary businesspeople of the city. So at least in part it is yet another version of the natural group prejudice that I have been alluding to recently in my comments on America's "hegemony". People like their own group best and are suspicious of outsiders. People who live very different lives develop different values and do usually consider their own values to be the best. Academics are "prejudiced", in short (horrors!).

Another obvious factor is that old green-eyed monster again -- envy. Lots of people in business make lots of money but few academics do. And since academics tend to consider themselves to be better in all sorts of ways, what is that usually going to lead to? Rage and hate of course! Childish but all too common, I am afraid. I suppose I should be glad that I have never had that conflict. I am one of the few who have been successful in both business and academe. I preach capitalism and I practice it too. And the realities of practicing it are a pretty good innoculation against the impractical nonsense of the Left.

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GREENIE FRAUD

At NUMBERWATCH, British mathematician John Brignell has some interesting correspondence with one of the critics of global-warming skeptic John Daly:

"We are invited to accept the IPCC report, and particularly the Summary for policy makers, as the Holy Writ and reject the Daly contributions as Apocrypha. What I see is a bunch of hypocritical Green politicians and bureaucrats getting up to all sorts of dishonest shenanigans to foist an economically damaging myth on a gullible world, contrasted with an honest jobbing lone scholar with limited resources trying to establish that there is an alternative view. They ask "Which would you rather believe?" I reply "Daly!" The alterations made to the IPPC report, in particular, are tantamount to downright fraud.

John Daly gets many things wrong. I am prepared to make allowances for this, as he is a lone amateur scholar. I make no allowances for the likes of CRU, with 40 staff and millions of pounds of taxpayer money. 40 was our number of the month for August 2001 in their honour. The likes of Daly have as opposition not only the whole of the "scientific" establishment, but also the whole of the media establishment. Times Newspapers and the BBC, for example, go in for large scale ratchet reporting of warm weather and completely ignore devastating examples of cold. They also cold-bloodedly fake their charts, as O'Ronain and Daly cogently pointed out. Why, if they think they are right?"

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ELSEWHERE

There is now a mirror site for "PC Watch" that is viewable in China. See HERE. The webspace I upload it to is very carelessly managed so I may not be able to update it every day but I will update it several times a week at least, I hope.

An interesting article here on the great flexibility and tolerance of American Christianity and the irrelevance of religious denomination. One cannot help reflect on the contrast with Islamic or Leftist fanaticism.

French culture: "In what has become one of France's least agreeable annual customs, vandals torched 324 automobiles during New Year celebrations"

Colin Powell has just set out the New Year resolutions of the Bush administration. And it's a real no-nonsense program! I notice that even Castro seems to be in their sights. Not before time!

Generous people from a generous nation: "The top 400 American earners in 2000 provided nearly 7 percent of all the charitable gifts reported on income tax returns for that year, well in excess of their roughly 1 percent share of overall income"

How FDR's New Deal harmed millions of poor people: "For defenders of the New Deal, perhaps the most embarrassing revelation about New Deal spending programs is they channeled money AWAY from the South, the poorest region in the United States. The largest share of New Deal spending and loan programs went to political 'swing' states in the West and East - where incomes were at least 60% higher than in the South. As an incumbent, FDR didn't see any point giving much money to the South where voters were already overwhelmingly on his side."

Arlene Peck points out that it is not only Jews who are under attack in Israel but Christians too.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again. It is quality not quantity this week.

"Precautionary Tales" tells us that George Monbiot (UK Leftist pundit) is really a reactionary who even hates aircraft.

One of Chris Brand's latest postings says that if you can "tube" your tongue it is a sign of high IQ!

The Wicked one has recent posts about the autism scare and one way that Clinton was better than Bush.

An amusing Xmas story on No. 2 Pencil. Excerpt: "I woke up my boyfriend so that we could open our gifts. And then I poured a nice large shot of liqueur into my coffee. Boyfriend wondered aloud why I was hitting the booze so early; I reminded him that it was necessary because I was getting ready to open gifts from my family".

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THE HEGEMON IN IRAQ

In response to my post yesterday about America being doomed to being unloved by many, Wayne Lusvardi writes:

Perhaps we can learn from two old jokes for the New Year from Iraq circa 1925. From 1914 to 1932 Britain occupied Iraq under a Mandate from the League of Nations to abolish the old Ottomon Turkish-British imperialism and create a modern state out of its urban Sunni, rural Shiite, and mountain Kurdish tribes. Britain ruled mainly by the then new air power of the Royal Air Force and the use of expert "advisers." By 1932 Britain abandoned Iraq. What the U.S. might learn from that experience comes from two popular Iraqi jokes of that time:

Joke 1 - There are only two things to fear - Allah and the Hakumat al tayarrat (government by aircraft).

Joke 2 - (A). Men say that a certain religious Mullah has prophesied the immediate second coming of the Mahdi (savior).

.............(B). What good would that be? Christ will come too and he'll be the Mahdi's Adviser.

Borrowing from the thoughts of Niccolo Machiavelli, history may not necessarily repeat itself but it laughs at any American expectation that we can be both loved and respected in Iraq and the Middle East. The dilemma is that we can't be loved unless we are first respected, but can't be respected by merely trying to be loved. It is probably not coincidental that love is a central Christian concept that is at best marginal to the Islamic religion. The U.S. might just have to accept that it is a sufficient partial victory to get its troops out of Iraq and Saudi Arabia and to be respected by other terrorist states or rogue terrorists, and give up any expectation of being loved or setting up any form of democracy in Iraq.

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MY LAST WORD ON THE OZONE "PROBLEM"

I have decided that ozone depletion theory is a bit too arcane a subject for me to continue my series of postings on it here but there is a heap of stuff on the net from climate scientists who have always disputed the ozone-CFC connection. Start here for instance. From my reading of the evidence, ozone fluctuations, as with global temperature fluctuations, are a product of solar variation -- though in the case of Antarctica some scientists also implicate micrometeorites.

Before I leave the subject, however, I have received what I regard as an interesting email on it from Rogue Pundit -- which I reproduce here for the record.

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ELSEWHERE

For those who have not already seen the story, the huge death toll (now 40,000) in the recent Iranian earthquake was essentially the doing of the mad mullahs in the rag hats, believe it or not.

Sounds good to me: "Washington's hawks have sent a public manifesto to President George Bush demanding regime change in Syria and Iran and a Cuba-style military blockade of North Korea backed by planning for a pre-emptive strike on its nuclear sites."

One reason why NASCAR fans like the GOP: "NASCAR is a daredevil sport. It's all about risk-taking and nerve. Not unlike President Bush's Iraq policy, and his tax cuts and his plans to remake Medicare and Social Security. Not necessarily reckless, but bold and nervy. "NASCAR fans feel like the president is one of them," Hunter said. Democrats, on the other hand, have become the party of the safety net. At NASCAR events, there are no safety nets."

Amusing: "The Domino's Pizza poll found the day of Saddam's capture provided delivery drivers with their biggest "tips night" of the year"

Amazing: The favourite New Year TV viewing of Germans is a British play broadcast in English!

Economist and former anarchist Johan Norberg says people are dying because the West talks free markets but doesn't live it internationally. He says MORE globalization is needed, not less: "Take just about any statistic, any indicator of living standards in the world, and you can see the progress that has been made over the exact period that worries globalization critics. In the last 30 years we've seen chronic hunger and the extent of child labor being halved. In the last 40 years, we've seen life expectancy going up to 64 years in developing countries.... What's more, the most progress is found in the countries that increased trade and contacts with the outside world. "

There is a very frank article here about the disgusting way the U.S. Congress decides what to do with the taxpayer's money. Big government is inbuilt.

Lee Harris points out that the stupid Leftist search for simple formulas to solve all life's problems is now even more pointless than ever in the age of terrorism. There ARE no simple answers or sure-fire remedies for terrorism, much as we all no doubt wish there were. Conservatives, however, have ALWAYS said that the world is a complex place.

We have recently had some unintended compliments from an Australian Leftist. About the new leader of Australia's major party of the Left, Robert Manne says: "Mark Latham is probably the most right-wing leader the ALP has ever had. On economic questions he is a low tax, neo-liberal. On political questions he has shown consistent contempt for the values of the inner suburban, chardonnay socialist set." And about our immigration policy "Of all Western societies, Australia is now almost alone in having no asylum claims from unauthorised arrivals. Since Tampa, there has been, quite simply, no asylum seeker "problem" here."

I have found another blogger who liked the Queen's Christmas message -- N.Z. blogger PNN

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THE HEGEMON WILL ALWAYS BE UNLOVED

There is some amusing handwringing at The NYT over America's failure to achieve a good image elsewhere in the world. What on earth do they expect? Was the British Empire ever loved by others when it was powerful? Of course not! Everybody tends to dislike people different from themselves and even the tiniest differences can generate great passions.

Let me give an example that shows exactly what I mean but which is so far from world awareness that it can only be seen as amusing: In Australia's island State of Tasmania, the two biggest cities (though both are small as cities go) are Hobart and Launceston. Hobart is the bigger and is the State capital. And guess what? Launceston residents loathe Hobart and all who live there. They perceive haughtiness, arrogance and all sorts of faults in people who are really totally indistinguishable from themselves. Why? Because Hobart is in a different place from Launceston and seems more successful in some ways. Relative to Launceston it is the hegemon (leading, out in front).

So what hope is there of America ever being generally loved abroad? Nil! The differences between Hobart and Launceston residents that arouse great passions are totally imaginary. If even imaginary differences arouse great passions, how much more powerful are going to be the REAL differences between the USA and elsewhere? Even in America's most reliable ally -- Australia -- there is plenty of anti-American sentiment -- almost all just as silly as the anti-Hobart sentiment in Launceston. People just have to live with that sort of thing and fortunately the great commonality of heritage between the USA and Australia ensures that there are many Australians who are mature enough to say that Americans are different but that's still OK.

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OZONE FOREVER!

Chris Vinall has given some answers to my earlier posts about the ozone layer that seem reasonable, though I have yet to absorb the mass of data he has pointed me to. At first glance, however, it STILL seems to me that the 2002 shrinkage was NOT predicted so still shows the models used for it as inadequate.

Here's another point that would seem to question our understanding of the phenomenon: Ozone is a highly reactive chemical that reacts not only with CFCs but also with nitrogen oxides. And guess what produces huge amounts of nitrogen oxides in the upper atmosphere? Nuclear explosions. And between October 1961 and December 1962, the USA and the U.S.S.R. between them exploded 340 megatons of nuclear devices into the atmosphere. So that produced a drastic reduction in the earth's ozone layer and gave millions of people skin cancer -- right? Wrong! Nobody noticed any such effect and, according to Foley and Ruderman of Columbia University Physics Department, by ten years after that period average ozone levels had actually increased! That ozone layer seems to be a lot more resilient than we think! So once again earth's climatic phenomena seem far too complex for prediction by simple laboratory models and what the models tell us to be bad for the atmosphere may even be good for it.

And I still can't see how anybody can get past the fact that the hole is still at least as big as ever DESPITE CFCs having been banned 12 years ago. Maybe Chris will explain it to me in short words.

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