ELSEWHERE

One of the most pervasive Leftist doctrines is what they call moral relativism -- which they use to attack any and all standards for behaviour. "There is no such thing as right and wrong", they say. The doctrine is a corrupt form of what philosophers would call "ethical naturalism" and I too am an ethical naturalist. I have therefore put up a very brief essay setting out my version of ethical naturalism and showing that ethical naturalism does NOT lead to the abandonment of standards that Leftists pretend it does.

Speaking of ethics, who do these professional "ethicists" think they are? What authority do they have for the rules that they apply? The only authority they seem to work on that I can see is whether or not something fits in with Leftist prejudices. A case in point: A noteworthy recent example of what most would see as unethical behavior comes from a professional ethicist at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics -- dealing with the half-baked plagiarism smear launched against frontier historian Keith Windschuttle. Without having actually read Windschuttle's book, merely a precis prepared by a hostile Leftist critic, this ethics teacher gave his "thumbs up" to the smear. At least he apologised a few days later. However the apology, unlike the original attack, was buried on newspaper back pages.

John Ralston Saul has pompously and at great length declared globalization to be "dead". A pity about the constant expansion of world trade! This is the sort of statement he makes: "Then came the explosions of September 11, 2001. In the following days, the world economy began plummeting into a depression. Corporate leaders hunkered down to their businesses, forgot about world leadership and, with a classic desire to reduce risk, slashed their investment programs, thus accelerating society's economic plunge". What total ignoring of the facts! A day or two after 9/11 my highly diversified share portfolio had lost one eighth of it value only and in six months it was back to where it had previously been. And it is now much higher than it has ever been. Some depression!

That Leftist hunger for publicity again: "The American feminist Naomi Wolf has accused a noted Yale University professor of sexually harassing her while she was an undergraduate, and alleged a long history of such events at Yale. Camille Paglia accused Wolf of staging a witch-hunt similar to those that swept New England in the 17th century and, in distinctly unfeminist fashion, of exploiting her looks to advance her career. Paglia said it was "indecent" of Wolf to wait for 20 years "to bring all of this down on an elderly man who has health problems, to drag him into a 'he said/she said' scenario so late in the game"."

Another feminist myth bites the dust: "Yet there's no evidence that most older men recoil from women of their own age. On the contrary, older men who remarry generally pick a woman from their own age-group — a trend that appears to be strengthening."

The charade of American education: "The advent of high-stakes testing is revealing more than just information on what American high school students know and are capable of doing; it is also revealing a significant shortfall between that assessment of actual skills and what schools have been telling students about their achievement and ability. For some students, the failure to pass a high school exit exam is the first warning signal they may be sorely unprepared for the demands of college."

Democrat Zell Miller's tribute to GWB has been reprinted all over the place so if you have not read it by now maybe you should. It is a portrait of a genuine, humble and decent man.

Amazing! Some lies about pre-invasion WMD intelligence originally put out in the Australian media have been taken up by the German press. David's Medienkritik nails the lies concerned. If it's anti-Bush, the German media will even go all the way to Australia for their distortions.

Krauthammer is very good on the amazingly hypocritical Democrat complaints about the Republicans engaging in "negative" advertising -- when the Democrats themselves have been nothing but negative in their comments about GWB.

My fellow psychometrician Kimberly Swygert has a powerful post on the follies of affirmative action in college admissions.

Wayne Lusvardi has put together two most revealing lists about how Democrats and Republicans are approaching the upcoming Presidential campaign -- emotionalism and abuse versus rational discourse.

The Wicked one has just put up some more jokes.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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FROM BROOKES NEWS

More myths about Clinton's boom & bust economy The '90s boom owed absolutely nothing to Clinton's policies and neither did the recession. In short, he had nothing to do with either. The responsibility for these events lies entirely with the Federal Reserve.
Hollywood sickoes want hatchet murderer freed What kind of sickness has infected those Hollywood celebrities who defend mass murderers and sadists? A number of them have now demanded the release of Kevin Cooper, a homicidal thug who used a hatchet to massacre a family as they slept.
Why the Bush victory still worries China's militarists I have but one question for my American readers. Would you really vote for a group of politicians for whom China's generals are rooting? If so, perhaps Euripides was right after all: 'Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.'
America has changed the world for the better Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, former dean of the Faculty of Islamic Law at the University of Qatar has publicly endorsed President Bush's actions in Iraq.
Dr. Caldicott's Soviet connection CBC has financed a documentary about Helen Caldicott. What it does not contain is a report on her pro-Soviet activities and support for Leonid Brezhnev, the thug who ordered the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan.
Taiwan 'free'; China 'not free': Freedom House technical study Taiwan is a free country - according to a technical analysis published recently by Freedom House - but not China.
Bush's deficit: fact and fiction The increasing ratio of spending and taxation to GDP has given many politicians the impression that the US economy can accommodate significant and permanent increases in government spending without impairing economic growth. This is a dangerous delusion.

Details here

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"Feminist" defends rapist -- and it wasn't even in a Muslim country: "Last July, a 20-year-old thug named Stewart Pearson soaked a rag in toilet bowl cleanser and Ajax and used it to smother 17-year-old Tina Phan while she was sleeping in her Terra Linda, Calif., home... Pearson raped and brutalized her. According to Phan, Pearson told her he had committed the same crime before and planned to do it again. Enter Rep. Woolsey. As first reported by the Marin Independent Journal, the outspoken feminist and anti-violence-preaching Democrat attempted to intervene in the case. She used her official stationery to send a letter to the local presiding judge in support of the convicted rapist"

Americans in France are now regularly abused: "While the number of Americans who visited France dropped in 2003, a great part of those who live in, or pass through France complain of a genuine harassment. "We've had it," they say." Americans should stop going there altogether. The howls from the huge French tourist industry would be really amusing.

Cambridge's religion researcher Phillip Jenkins notes that traditional Christianity is growing fast in Africa and South America while it is waning in Europe and much of North America. It is no longer a mainly European religion and the wishy-washy "modern" Christians are sidelining themselves. On another issue: Jenkins makes the interesting claim that the incidence of pedophilia seems to be no higher in Catholic priests than in other occupational groups -- and note that Jenkins is not himself a Catholic. He seems to miss the point that it is the habitual CONDONING of pedophilia by the Church hierarchy that is the towering offence. It is the bishops and Cardinals who allowed it to go on who should be in jail.

A brain-dead theologian:: "A. Roy Eckardt, emeritus professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, suggested that Christians ought to abandon the resurrection of Jesus, since it "remains a primordial and unceasing source of the Christian world's anti-Judaism."" He may be a theologian but he is no Christian. For 2000 years, the resurrection of Christ has been the central tenet of Christianity.

Outsourcing (ie U.S. firms locating some part of their production process out of the U.S.) is an emerging election theme in the U.S. Yet "Insourcing" (i.e. foreign firms outposting some of their jobs into the US) also is big -- roughly as big as the outsourcing. If you were stupid enough to stop the one you might lose the other -- and so gain nothing but disruption and impoverishment for all your meddling. But Leftists would like that, of course. Destruction is their only talent. Reason certainly isn't.

Computer programming jobs going to India: "Now I do not doubt that there are many computer programmers in the West who will, in the short run and maybe if they can find nothing else to do in the longer run as well, suffer severely. But it is also true that the availability to the West of much cheaper Indian programming power will create massive new economic opportunities in the West, and everywhere else."

Some links on Australia's mini-race riot recently here and here and here -- including a very conservative response from the leader of Australia's major Leftist party. Clearly, police behaviour in the matter was just the reverse of the usual old Leftist accusations made about them.

A bit of optimism from the NYT: "One major criticism of the Iraq war is that by invading Iraq, the U.S. actually created more enemies in the Arab-Muslim world. I don't happen to believe that, but maybe it's true. What the critics miss, though, is that the U.S. ouster of Saddam Hussein has also triggered the first real "conversation" about political reform in the Arab world in a long, long time. It's still mostly in private, but more is now erupting in public."

The Mufti of Australia has denied calling for a jihad in Lebanon this week and said that "he didn't support suicide bombing . . . in no circumstances".

Even the solidly democrat "Washington Post" seems to have become fed up with John Kerry's rubbery "policies" -- if you can call them that: "John Kerry has become the favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination without a detailed or clarifying debate on many issues.... Now, with the nomination seemingly within his reach, the Massachusetts senator must begin to more fully explain where he stands on the major challenges facing the country. That task is particularly important for Mr. Kerry because of his fuzziness on issues ranging from Iraq to gay marriage"

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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WE WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY!

I have lost track of where I got this quote about happiness from and Google doesn't know it so maybe it is behind a subscription wall somewhere. I have commented on this subject previously myself here and here:

"In a recent New York Times op-ed touting his book, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, psychology professor Barry Schwartz criticized political reforms aimed at expanding choice. He argued that "for many people, increased choice can lead to a decrease in satisfaction. Too many options can result in paralysis, not liberation."... There is much to be said against this thesis. First, if choice makes us unhappy, why do so many of us stop patronizing mom-and-pop stores and rush to Wal-Mart the moment we get the chance?... Choice in the marketplace grows out of individual freedom. I want shoes. Many people are free to sell me shoes. That presents me with choices, requiring me to pay attention and to discriminate. What's the alternative? Government control aimed at limiting choice. Where's the evidence that that makes people happy?... Schwartz is a professor. If someone were to suggest that too many books, journals, and magazines crowd the shelves, that all this choice makes people unhappy, and that government could serve us better by restricting the number of choices, Schwartz and his ilk would scream like banshees".

There is a more reasonable article on what makes us happy here.

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Leftists have always hated free speech. The facts are deadly to them: "If reaction to Daniel Pipes' lecture on Tuesday (2/10) was any indication, fascism is alive and well at UC Berkeley. Pipes was invited by the Israel Action Committee and Berkeley Hillel to speak at the college campus known for its leftist politics. But ironically, the home of ''free speech'' and ''tolerance'' has shown itself to be distinctly intolerant to those who express political views other than their own. And Daniel Pipes happens to fit that description.... All of these combined make Daniel Pipes public enemy number one according to UC Berkeley leftists and especially radical Muslim students. Indeed, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) was out in full force on Tuesday, acting like the thugs and bullies they routinely accuse Pipes of supporting. There were about 50-70 of them, amidst a crowd of 700, and after failing to prevent Pipes from speaking, they did their best to try and disrupt the lecture and intimidate the audience.... The fact is, radical Muslim students and their leftist counterparts are the most domineering, destructive, and dangerous forces in higher education today. If we're to win the War on Terrorism, we may have to start with our own college campuses." {Pipes's own account of the matter is here}

Redoubtable economist Arnold Kling has another explanation of why so many academics are Leftist: "If your temperament favors freedom without responsibility, then there are certain occupations that are a good fit. Academic life is one of them.. The trick to having freedom without responsibility is to get paid without having to worry about where the money comes from. Most professors do not worry about fundraising or attracting tuition-paying students... Thus, we should not be surprised that their ideological bent is toward modern liberalism, which translates this personal preference into a political platform".

Red Cross criticizes Israel. How unusual! Antisemitism is nothing new to them. But the Red Cross is a European organization and antisemitism is of course very European -- even today

An unbelievable verdict. Australia has insane judges too.

The light begins to dawn: Dutch plans to expel up to 26,000 failed asylum seekers have sparked protests across Europe and led to threats of hunger strikes by those denied refugee status. The moves came as Britain finalised emergency measures to tighten welfare eligibility for immigrant workers before May 1, when the European Union admits 10 new countries.

Front Page has some extracts from speeches by made the Mufti of Australia (Sheikh Al-Hilali) in Lebanon which reveal him as being very anti-Israel. No surprises there. In Australia, however, he is viewed as a strong force for peace between Muslims and other Australians -- as this speech shows. We are probably lucky to have him. There is more on the matter here. My guess is that he is like any politician -- he says different things to different audiences. What he says to Australian Muslims is probably as good as we can hope for, however.

This article is presented as a commentary on just one American university. But most of it seems to be true of America's Left-dominated education system as a whole. Note that even Harvard needs to give around 20% of its "Freshers" remedial instruction in English. .

Peter Hitchens, a historian of crime amongst other things, sees Britain's new "FBI" as ending up more like a KGB: "Britain doesn't need an FBI abseiling all over the place, smashing down doors, clad in armour, waving Glock automatics and yelling 'Freeze!' It needs large, veteran coppers plodding the streets, radiating reassurance to the good and scaring the bad... since MPs were overtaken by collective madness after September 11, these PC police forces can now arrest and detain people in ways we used to think only happened abroad. Mr Blair, who does not care a damn for English liberty, keenly seeks to get convictions on 'lower standards of proof' while Mr Blunkett works away to get rid of jury trial".

Britain's "Saddam-gate": "Money illicitly siphoned from the UN oil-for-food programme by Saddam Hussein was used to finance anti-sanctions campaigns run by British politicians, according to documents that have surfaced in Baghdad. Undercover cash from oil deals went to three businessmen who in turn supported pressure groups involving the ex-Labour MP George Galloway, Labour MP Tam Dalyell, and the former Irish premier Albert Reynolds"

Carnival of the Vanities is up again -- though in a rather compressed form.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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ISRAEL'S RIGHT TO BE JEWISH

A good imaginary conversation with a Leftist over at Crusader War College:

Leftist: "Israel should accept the One State solution demanded by the Palestinians!"

Me: "Israel doesn't want the Palestinians as citizens".

Leftist: "That's terrible, cruel, and unjust of Israel! Where could they go?"

Me: "The territories used to belong to Egypt and Jordan. They could become Egyptian and Jordanian citizens again, like they used to before the 6 Day War".

Leftist: "But Egypt and Jordan doesn't want them!"

Me: "So when Egypt and Jordan says they don't want the Palestinians as citizens, you accept THAT with nary a murmur, complaint, or suggestion that THEY are terrible, cruel, and unjust. BUT, when Israel says the same thing, you scream, holler, and jump up and down in "righteous" indignation, despite the fact that, since these people either used to be Egyptian or Jordanian Citizens, or born to former Egyptian or Jordanian citizens, makes the obligation fall upon Egypt and Jordan more than Israel! Or does Egypt and Jordan, in your eyes, have rights that YOU DENY ISRAEL?"

Leftist changes subject

Arlene Peck has a good column about Walid Shoebat, the former Palestinian terrorist who became a Zionist when he found out what lies he had been fed as a child. Another report about him is here

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ELSEWHERE

Edward Feser gives part 2 of his explanation of why so many academics are Leftist. He says that FEAR of Christianity and morality is a major motivator for such people. Problem: I share the philosophical views that Feser says are Leftist (atheism and moral naturalism) but am nonetheless generally conservative. So how come? Because I respect Christianity rather than fear it. So why don't I fear it? Because I am completely CONFIDENT in my atheism and moral naturalism -- which is probably a rarity. It should be stressed that Feser is talking about academics rather than the general public. In Australia, for instance, there is little overall association between religion and politics but among Australian academics in the social sciences and humanities, both Leftism and religious skepticism are overwhelmingly the norm.

There is another take on what makes Leftist intellectuals tick in Paul Hollander's book "Political Pilgrims: Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society". To quote one Amazon reviewer: "Political Pilgrims is the amazing story of how Western intellectuals embraced Marxist tyrants at the very moment their colleagues were rotting in prison cells, and the common people everyone claimed to be concerned for, were starving. The book relates how cultural and religious leaders from the West, including familiar names, visited the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and other communist countries, and told the most appalling lies"

And even at the local government level the Soviet mentality never dies. This was the Leftist mayor of Brisbane (my home city of about 1 million people) yesterday: "Population targets were needed to guide where people lived in southeast Queensland, Brisbane Lord Mayor Tim Quinn said yesterday. Cr Quinn said population targets should be developed across the region as part of a comprehensive regional plan, aimed at housing new arrivals in the right areas".

And some of the most barefaced Leftist liars are the teachers' unions. See here: Australian teachers' unions are publishing advertisements crying that government schools do not get as much money from the Federal government as private schools do -- completely ignoring the fact that most taxpayer funding for Australian government schools comes via the State governments not via the Federal government. The private schools, by contrast, get almost all their taxpayer funding via the Federal government. When you count in the State government money that the unions deliberately ignore, the situation is exactly the reverse of what the unions would have you believe. Can you imagine what a great education the lying low characters responsible for these advertisements are giving to the kids entrusted to their care? "How to deceive in ten easy lessons" would be an obvious curriculum item. No wonder a third of Australians send their kids to private schools.

Eleanor French Spreitzer has a good post about why America's Leftist elites send their kids to private schools while hypocritically telling everyone else about what a good thing public schools are.

Michael Ross has some background on the recent race riot in a predominantly black area of Sydney (Australia). One quote: "I know an Aborigine ... And he used to brag about how he would do pretty well whatever he wanted at school knowing the teacher could not do anything because he was an Aborigine". See also here

I have just put up on PC Watch a news release about BBC censorship that does not seem to have made it into the mainstream media. Blacks are apparently allowed to accuse whites of racism but whites are not allowed to question that.

"When [we] decided to send John 'Sue the Bastards' Banzhaf a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day, we ran into an obvious problem: How to avoid being sued by Banzhaf for contributing to his obesity? Here's a guy whose signature law school course is nicknamed 'suing for credit' and whose license plate reads 'SUE-BAST.' His crusade to cash in on our nation's love handles has reached such outlandish proportions that he has threatened to sue milk companies, pork farmers, school boards, fast food restaurants and perhaps even mom with her apple pie. Luckily, a solution presented itself. Before sending Banzhaf the chocolates, we asked him to sign a 'Valentine's Day Chocolates Liability and Indemnification Agreement.'" More here

The Wicked one has a whole lot of new funnies up -- mostly about getting old.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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FREE TRADE HAS ENEMIES EVERYWHERE -- ALL SHORT-SIGHTED

GWB not excepted: He protected U.S. steel makers and thereby shafted U.S. steel users; He protected U.S. sugar producers and thereby sent U.S. candy manufacturing jobs off to Canada and Mexico

But it mainly seems to be Leftists who are trying to make a big deal out of the fact that lots of jobs are done overseas these days. In Australia, it is the Australian Labor Party and in the USA it is the Democrat Presidential hopefuls. The Italian Fascist dictator Mussolini did the same 80 years ago too. He tried to make Italy self-sufficient ("autarky") -- which greatly increased Italian poverty. John Kerry, however, is the last one who should be bringing up the subject: "The Kerry family business, H.J. Heinz Co. of Pittsburgh, operates 22 factories in the United States and 57 in foreign countries. I don't think that Kerry should shut down The Heinz 57, but he might drop the rhetoric and talk about trade responsibly. He should support, not trade's contraction, but its expansion, like George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and every president since Herbert Hoover."

There is, however, a difference between 'good politics' and 'good economics'. One of Bush's economic advisors, Gregory Mankiw (Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers) has got a lot of flak for noting the basic economic truth that 'outsourcing' (moving manufacturing and service jobs offshore) is ultimately good for Americans' job prospects. Why? Because the lower costs mean there is a bigger surplus to reinvest (and you need investment to create jobs) and the lower costs also mean that the American companies who move their operations to where it is cheapest are more likely to withstand international competition. This good economics seems regrettably to be bad politics -- as the argument has always been too complicated for many voters to understand. That the whiners are all trying to force everyone to pay more for all the goods and services that they buy might help some people to realize what is at issue, however. The basic reality is that jobs come and go all the time and trying to change that is like trying to hold back the tide.

Very often, of course, industry moves elsewhere because of excessive red tape and bureaucratic controls, something 'liberals' usually add to -- but you won't hear them mentioning that!

Free trade has done wonders for electic guitars. Most of them are now made in Korea and are both better and cheaper.

And many classes of jobs are a dodo everywhere: "A strange idea has taken hold that if jobs are lost in one place, then some other place must have gained them. Somebody somewhere must have gained the millions of farm jobs we have lost, for example. Lou Dobbs of CNN appears as obsessed with this bizarre notion as he once was with space.com. Even stranger, those afflicted with Dobbsian trade phobia assume the places that gained jobs must be other countries, not other counties. Yet manufacturing jobs could not possibly have moved to another country, since every industrial country lost manufacturing jobs since 1995 -- particularly China, Japan and South Korea. And the United States has a huge surplus in business services with every region in the world -- that is, the United States sells much more 'outsourcing' to other countries than it buys from them."

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David's Medienkritik has a series of photos that prove that John Kerry is getting younger. We have all heard about the botox but the varying hair-colour is amusing too.

George Will has 28 excellent questions for the rubbery John Kerry. Just two of them: "You say the rich do not pay enough taxes. In 1979 the top 1 percent of earners paid 19.75 percent of income taxes. Today they pay 36.3 percent. How much is enough? You say the federal government is not spending enough on education. President Bush has increased education spending 48 percent. How much is enough?

A coverup uncovered: "The University of Newcastle's two top executives are to be replaced in the wake of a plagiarism scandal that has plagued the institution for more than a year." In my time teaching at a major Australian University, I was appalled at the lack of standards.

Jean-Francois Revel's recent book "Anti-Americanism" has a number of reviews on amazon.com. The last reviewer on the list makes a number of good points: "Revel concludes that the lunatic ravings of hatred for America and the opinionated ill will in much of the European media will only lead to Americans rejecting the idea of consultation. He believes that the USA's mistakes should always be subject to vigilant criticism but that the gross bias currently reigning will only weaken its exponents and encourage American unilateralism. The most important lesson from this book is that anti-Americanism is a disease, not a position. The prognosis is not good - Revel believes that countering this attitude with facts and reason will not work: " ... the disinformation in question is not the result of pardonable, correctable mistakes, but rather of profound psychological need.""

Looks like the Roman Catholic Church is still covering up for pedophile priests. The entire church hierarchy should be taken to court and be charged with the offence of being accessory to a crime. Honesty and decency seem to be beyond them. They've got the consciences of a maggot. You begin to understand the extreme Protestants who have always said it is the Devil's church, not Christ's church.

Australia's version of affirmative action has just given us race riots. When will the do-gooders ever learn? Strict and impartial policing is needed, not handouts for doing nothing.

Against UN influence in schools: In the 1960s, Dr. Robert Muller, U.N. deputy secretary-general, prepared a "World Core Curriculum." Its first goal: "Assisting the child in becoming an integrated individual who can deal with personal experience while seeing himself as a part of 'the greater whole.' In other words, promote growth of the group idea, so that group good, group understanding, group interrelations and group goodwill replace all limited, self-centered objectives, leading to group consciousness." Not much room for the individual there.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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GREENIE CORNER

The very idea of climate engineering is a horror to the Greenies. "Don't change anything" is their fearful mantra. The fact that humanity has done NOTHING BUT change the natural environment ever since civilization was invented passes them by. Yet the beloved Greenie "Kyoto" treaty on global warming is just that -- an attempt to change our climate by turning back the clock. Since even its advocates admit that the Kyoto treaty would have virtually zero effect on climate, the real aim of the treaty is probably to turn back the clock rather than do anything about our climate but if the Greenies really are concerned about our climate, they would not be asking IF we should do climate engineering but rather HOW we should do it. And surely any global-warming believer would be looking at alternative ways of engineering our climate. Don't hold your breath, of course. This article looks at why alternative solutions are not being considered:

"Among environmentalists, adaptation is less popular than cutting back. But even less popular is the idea that we should find ways to intervene positively in order to create a better climate... There have been a number of proposals put forward for climate engineering. The simplest idea is to inject dust into the upper atmosphere using artillery shells or aircraft. The dust would then scatter some of the sun's rays back into space, cooling off the Earth. Another proposal is to add iron to the oceans, which would suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by encouraging algae to grow.... Why have we cooled on the idea of climate engineering? One explanation is that we have become more aware of the difficulties involved. .. But history suggests a more complex reason. The reaction against climate engineering began in the 1970s, at the same time that environmentalism became a widespread outlook. The new environmentalism was not a simple response to scientific facts. Rather it was informed by a particular moral position, which prioritised the natural environment and problematised human intervention... It is an aversion to intervening with nature that explains climate engineering's bad reputation today, more than any practical difficulties. Leading climate scientist Stephen Schneider is strongly suspicious of what he calls 'geoengineering'. Although he cites scientific uncertainty as the reason, it is clear that he sees human consumption as a habit to be stemmed rather than aided.... For the moment, our capacity to intervene on a planetary scale remains relatively puny. Our ability to detect a human effect on climate is testimony to the sensitivity of our instruments and the sophistication of our theories more than the scale of our mastery of nature. Global warming may yet cause us problems, but compared to geological forces such as volcanic eruptions or asteroid impacts, humanity barely registers... However, there is increasingly some truth to the idea that humanity can have an effect on a planetary scale... Our knowledge of climate is not yet sufficiently advanced to undertake real planetary geoengineering. We have neither a precise enough understanding of global warming nor the confidence to understand the effects of intentional interventions. But as research on climate change advances, this is changing. It is entirely sensible to start the experiments with technologies - and the political discussions - needed for global engineering now".

There is more on iron-seeding of the oceans as a means of soaking up any "excess" carbon dioxide here. The iron-seeding experiments so far HAVE worked but only temporarily -- the problem is to deliver the iron in a form that does not sink to the bottom so quickly. Since nature manages it, however, we should be able to do so eventually as well. Note how the National Geographic takes the same facts and turns them into blatant and emotional Greenie propaganda. Their argument -- if you can call it that -- seems to be that because nature does it one way, there is no other way to do it. Pathetic.

Farmers trump Greenies: "An effort to save two rare fish more than a decade ago could come back to haunt environmentalists after a recent court decision awarded millions of dollars in compensation to farmers who lost water in the process. ... The case stemmed from the government's efforts to protect endangered winter-run chinook salmon and threatened delta smelt between 1992 and 1994 by withholding billions of gallons from farmers in California's Kern and Tulare counties. Court of Federal Claims Senior Judge John Wiese ruled that the government's halting of water constituted a 'taking' or intrusion on the farmers' private property rights. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from taking private property without fair payment."

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ELSEWHERE

Chris Lawrence summarizes the discussion so far about the "conservatives are stupid" claim. Most bloggers have rejected the claim on the basis of survey evidence that Republican voters are better educated and have more political knowledge. None of them seem to have picked up my post referring to published evidence of a link between Leftist attitudes and low IQ. I suppose academic journal articles can be a bit daunting.

NewsWeekly has a good summary of why the post-Iraq war controversy is based on fallacies.

Iraq War: "The right mistake to make" says The Atlantic: "A policeman shoots a robber who has killed in the past and who brandishes what seems to be a gun. The gun turns out to be a cellphone. The policeman expects a thorough investigation (and ought to cooperate). In the end, if he is exonerated, it is not because he made no mistake but because his mistake was justified. Reasonable people, facing uncertainty, would have thought they saw a gun.... The war was based on lies. Not Bush's or the CIA's; Saddam Hussein's."

Should be a lot more prosecutions of "alternative" egotists: "A naturopath convicted of the manslaughter an 18-day-old baby who had a critical illness -- which he claimed herb drops had cured - - was today sentenced to five years jail. ... Mitchell was born with critical aortic stenosis, a heart defect which could be treated only by surgery. He died just days before surgery was to be carried out, after his parents -- on advice from Fenn that herbal drops had cured the baby -- cancelled the operation."

Those pesky genetics again: "People with hostile or aggressive personality traits may have genetic tendencies that make them "born to smoke," researchers at the University of California, Irvine, reported Thursday. Brain-imaging studies suggest that the same genetic variations that give people hostile personality traits may also make them more likely to become addicted to nicotine, said Dr. Steven Potkin, a professor of psychiatry and a brain-imaging specialist who led the study".

Unusual good sense from Harvard: "New York's government should also go beyond the tax waivers and credits it now provides and actually reduce the taxes on small businesses. This would ensure that costs of operating in New York do not prevent companies from expanding - and it would also increase the rate of tax collection because fewer businesses would dodge taxes. Finally, the Bloomberg administration should reduce the bureaucracy and red tape that often make running a legitimate enterprise in New York City a logistical nightmare."

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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U.S. "LIBERALS" ARE JUST LEFTISTS SAILING UNDER A FALSE FLAG

Joe Willingham emailed me as follows about my contention (post of 11th.) that all U.S. "liberals" today are in fact Leftists:

"American liberalism is in such a degenerated state today that it is easy to lose sight of some of the complexities of its history. FDR and Harry Truman, for all their faults, were great men who led the nation through World II and the beginning of the Cold War. Their liberalism was about security and a better life for the working man, and it had little in common with the demented "multiculturalist" victimology that passes for liberalism today. Don't forget that in 1948 American liberalism split into pro-Soviet and pro-western camps, and that to their credit the majority of liberals adhered to the latter. With the debacle in Vietnam liberalism fell apart, leaving only the pitiful caricature we see today".

I largely agree with that. I think there was once a core of conservative values that almost all Americans shared. But that is all gone now, of course, and optimists like Porphyrogenitus are just living in the past.

Oddly enough, it is the other way around in Australia. Australia was once much more polarized than it now is. The two major parties in Australia today seem to share a broadly conservative consensus in most of the policies they put forward. Australia's two major parties have just agreed on measures to cut the taxpayer-funded perks of politicians. I may have missed something but I think that in the USA today, a similar proposal would be only a dream.

Mike Tremoglie has a very good sarcastic explanation of why HE is a "liberal".

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ELSEWHERE

The courageous Edward Feser looks at why academics are overwhelmingly Left-leaning. He lists a number of explanations which do undoubtedly play a part but he omits what I think is the major factor: From my observations, Leftist academics are basically second-rate thinkers. Originality is the Holy Grail of academe but most academics in fact have nothing new to say at all -- so they say silly things just in order to appear different. They use perversity to create a false impression of profundity. It was precisely because I DID have something different to say that I got so many articles published in the academic journals. Even though my articles generally undermined Leftist views, their having that all-important originality got them published. And how my fellow academics hated me for it! In most years I got more articles published than the rest of my university department put together. That I could do easily what they found so hard to do was real heartburn for them.

Fun! The philosophy professor who said conservatives are stupid has now backed down!

Inequality -- the statistics: "The main reasons some families earn more than others are not as shocking as politicians would have you believe. Consider these horribly shocking Census Bureau facts about inequality: -- Families with two people have incomes at least three times larger than families in which nobody works. .... Mature, experienced employees earn at least three times as they did when they were young apprentices and trainees. Average family income was $16,014 among families in which the household head was younger than 24, but $45,978 when the household head was 45 to 54.... College grads earn at least three times as much as middle-school dropouts. For family heads with a bachelor's degree, median income was $78,518; for those with less than a ninth-grade education, median income was $25,077. If all this rampant inequality strikes you as grossly unfair, you should indeed consider electing politicians promising to do something about it. But they can't really do much unless they promise to take money from two-earner families and give it to no-earner families, to take money from those who go to college and give it to those who didn't bother attending a free high school... "

The National Center for Public Policy Research answers the ignorant Leftist nonsense about how bad it is for jobs to move overseas. It seems commonsense at first to think job loss is bad -- and Leftists of course play on that -- but it only takes a few minutes of thinking to see that getting rid of old jobs and replacing them with better ones is actually how we got to be so much better off now than we once were. You can't have economic progress and stand still at the same time. But what Leftist wants economic progress? Economic destruction is more their specialty.

George Will gives examples to show what any economist knows: Protecting jobs in one industry just leads to job losses in other industries. GWB's determination to "protect" America from half-price Australian sugar, for instance, just drives American candy-manufacturing jobs to Mexico and Canada. Clever!

"As for George Bush's military service, he served honorably and we submit that flying F-102s is dangerous business regardless of what hard-deck you're over. McAuliffe, Cleland and his opportunistic Leftist cadre should take note that every time they denigrate the service of Guardsmen and Reservists, they spit in the faces of hundreds of thousands of citizen-soldiers -- and their families -- who make enormous sacrifices whether serving on the front lines in Iraq or the home front."

Amusing. The NYT says that French cultural hero Albert Camus (not Irving Kristol et al.) was the first "neocon". Even though once a member of the French Communist Party, "Camus found himself ever more repulsed by Communism, which he called "the modern madness." He saw Communism as a desperate attempt to create meaning and certainty. He wrote, "Those who pretend to know everything and settle everything finish by killing everything."". This led to him being dumped by the Left.

In case you missed it, here is the direct link to the confession of Leftist bias on America's ABC TV news network. There is also a summary here which notes that the same has been shown to be true of CBS.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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WHY HITLER WAS AN ANTISEMITE

The most commonly heard "explanation" for Hitler's antisemitism is that he was "insane" or "evil". These are are however little more than the usual abuse that the Left uses in lieu or argument and explanation. Since antisemitism pervaded the whole of Northern Europe in Hitler's day (and still seems to, in fact), such explanations tend to implicate the most influential section of the human race as insane and evil. You can believe that if you like. Fortunately, it is quite easy to do better than such childish "explanations". Hitler himself explains it all at some length in the early part of Mein Kampf. It is of course true that Mein Kampf is unreliable as objective history but there can be little doubt that it is good psychological history -- i.e. it might not be a good guide to what really happened but it is a good guide to Hitler's perception of what happened.

And you might be surprised to learn that Hitler for quite a long time had a good cosmopolitan's contempt for antisemitism. He saw it as ignorant and stupid in his early years and it was quite a wrench for him when he realized "I had become an antisemite". So what changed his mind?

To answer that you first have to know the secret of why the Germans followed him so devotedly right to the bitter end. There were of course a number of factors involved in that but to any open-minded reader of Mein Kampf one answer stands out like dog's balls (forgive the Army language): The whole of Mein Kampf is in effect a love-song to the German people (Volk). Hitler loved his people and -- surprise, surprise -- they loved him back (or many did anyway). But how could Hitler love all of a people who were so bitterly divided among themselves -- who hated one another probably about as much as U.S. Democrats and Republicans do today? There was only one possible answer to that: Somebody had to be manipulating and deceiving them into fighting with one another. But who could that be? To Hitler the answer was obvious -- and it was NOT the Jews. It was the Marxists. The Austro-Hungarian Empire in which Hitler lived was in its death throes in Hitler's youth and that gave an opening for lots of radical agitation. And the military defeat of Austria in World War I only increased the radicalism. So throughout Hitler's time in Vienna the Marxists had a big following. And what were the Marxists preaching? Class warfare! They were preaching that one section of Hitler's beloved people should make war on another section of it. That was of course a horror to Hitler and he struggled to understand such folly and error. How could Germans preach such hatred of one another?

The answer came when he noticed that the prominent Marxist preachers and leaders of Marxist organizations in the Vienna of his day were just about all Jews. To this day, of course, Jews tend to the Left politically so there is no reason to doubt that there was considerable substance in what Hitler saw at that time. So that was the "out" Hitler needed to explain why Germans were so at odds with one-another -- they were being manipulated by people who were NOT really Germans. So it was his idealized and romantic love of his own German people (Volk) that caused him to see the Jews as evil and destructive manipulators who were the underminers of German strength and unity. And so he adopted the antisemitism that -- through jealousy -- was already common around him. He however saw antisemitism as a rational deduction from what he had seen and he pursued it with the zeal of a convert and the huge political passion that was characteristic of him. Tragically, he does seem to have genuinely believed that the destruction of the Jews was essential for the salvation of the German people. And he devoted his huge political talents to that end. To him, everything else became secondary to that.

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ELSEWHERE

There is a good cartoon here that ties in with my post yesterday about some Leftism being the outcome of low-grade psychosis.

Democrat blogger, Blogfonte has some amusing comments about the philosophy professor (See my post of 12th) who thinks that conservatives are too stupid to be philosophers. {Via Naive Humanist}. Spoons has some reasonable thoughts on it too

Good to see that the French attack on Muslim demands extends to a lot more than the rather trivial ban on headscarves.

Mustn't joke about the French: "Canada's government on Friday condemned a show by U.S. late-night television host Conan O'Brien that insulted people in French-speaking Quebec and seemed to suggest everyone in the province was homosexual."

Anti-Americanism in Iran is running out of steam, thanks to the US Army: "Iranian pilgrims returning from Iraq are spreading admiring stories of their encounters with American troops. Thousands of Iranians have visited the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala since the war ended. Many have expressed surprise at the respectful and helpful behavior of the U.S. soldiers they met along the way."

I have just put up Chris Brand's latest postings here. He notes some signs of realism on race, IQ, education and immigration in Britain.

Michael Darby has just put up a lot of new posts. Some of his headings:
Recalling 1991 - the Year of Liberty
Yet another "bank" scam
Monetary Policy in Zimbabwe.
Cathy Buckle: Deepening Disaster in Zimbabwe
Professors for Alger Hiss
The Global Warming Censors
Wise Words from Professor Flint
Archive of terrorist websites with links
Blind Alley of Nihilism
My Minute with President Bush
WMDs: 'Kay' Sera, Sera
WMDs - Helpful Quotations

I have just put up here a book review of Civilization and Its Enemies: The Next Stage of History by the straight-thinking Lee Harris.

Readers will have noticed that I have just changed my font to one that is bigger and easier to read (I in fact just copied Keith Burgess-Jackson's stylesheet holus bolus). I think the new setup looks quite elegant in high resolution but in medium resolution (which I imagine a lot of readers still default to), all characters seem to come out as bold. There is no distinction between bolded and ordinary text -- which is a bit pesky. I would appreciate emails from anyone who feels strongly that I should either stay with the new or revert to the old.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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GREENIE CORNER

How biotech will save billions from starvation: "Today, most people around the world have access to a greater variety of nutritious and affordable foods than ever before, thanks mainly to developments in agricultural science and technology. The average human lifespan -- arguably the most important indicator of quality of life -- has increased steadily in the past century in almost every country."

Now it's parking lots: "So why are a tiny but growing number of atmospheric scientists taking a hard look at parking lots? Because, they say, land-use changes have at least as much, and perhaps even greater, impact on climate change than CO2. It's a radical idea that has heated up the scientific community and is prompting a wider look at the forces behind climate change. The effect on public policy could be enormous."

From The Federalist: "The Kyoto Protocol, that international environmental treaty to limit "greenhouse emissions," will cost Canada an estimated $1 billion this year alone, and $4,700 per taxpayer per year for the next five years, according to The Heartland Institute's Dr. Kenneth Green -- and that's to meet only the first 8% of Canada's emission-reduction requirements. "Of course, that's probably a low estimate, since some studies suggest even higher compliance costs for industry; other forms of taxation increase the cost of raising money; and it's likely to cost more for each succeeding set of reductions," says Green. "While the first 8% might cost $1 billion, the next 8% is likely to cost more, and so on with each succeeding step toward the target." The Kyoto Protocol was originally signed by then-President Clinton but was subsequently rejected by the Senate, 95-0, in an eye-popping display of bipartisanship. Now we know why." See here for the original report.

"The Food and Drug Administration has issued a new warning to pregnant women about mercury in seafood. You can 'protect your baby' from developmental harm by following three rules, the agency claimed. But there's no evidence the rules will protect anyone, and they're likely only to foster undue concern about an important part of our food supply."

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ELSEWHERE

A couple of days ago I noted that the weird mental gymnastics of Leftists are best explained as the outcome of a dishonest character rather than any mental defect. A reader has however emailed me to tell of an interesting case he knows where someone developed a paranoid mental disorder -- which is a type of psychosis and would normally stem from a chemical imbalance in the brain, with too much dopamine being present. Before the disorder developed, the person concerned was conservative. As his paranoia developed, however, his politics drifted to the left. He now thinks that all members of his family should pool their wealth and then re-distribute it equally. Of course, he would contribute nothing and benefit greatly. He is now very opposed to Bush even though he formerly voted for Reagan. So is an excess of dopamine in the brain generally associated with leftist political leanings? It's a testable hypothesis. I must say that some of the emails I get from Leftists do have all the hallmarks of psychotic thought disorder. It is hard to make head or tail of some of them. And loss of reality contact would seem to be characteristic of both schizophrenics and Leftist ideologues so it does seem a lively possibility to me that SOME Leftists are suffering from a low-grade psychotic disorder.

My post yesterday about the "missing" homosexuals in Britain's most recent census moved one reader to email me with the observation that there OUGHT to be very few of them: Since they channel their sexual impulses into non-reproductive behaviour, they should in fact all eventually die out. That assumes, of course, that homosexuality is passed on genetically -- which is what homosexuals themselves now seem generally to claim. Probably some homosexuality, however, is learned behaviour rather than being inevitable. In the past, fear of condemnation made many homosexuals pretend to be normal, and to prove that they married and had children, which probably accounts for there being still some of them around. Modern-day tolerance of homosexuals however has mostly removed their need to reproduce so the "born" homosexuals should die out quickly now. I have also just put up on PC Watch some good comments by Peter Hitchens that were inspired by the discovery of how few homosexual couples there in fact are in Britain.

The widely-read Chronicle of Higher Education has at last given coverage to the problem of Leftist bias in academe and what David Horowitz is doing to overcome it. There is also a site here run by students themselves which gives even more information on how huge the problem is. There is an article from last year here by David Horowitz that makes clear that there is actually what amounts to a blacklist against hiring conservative professors at almost all U.S. universities. The Chronicle has an attempted reply by a Leftist to Horowitz which admits that the Left "have won the curricular battle" (meaning that what is taught at U.S. universities is Leftist) but goes on to such absurdities as claiming that political correctness is used by Leftists as "irony". He must be the only one in the world who thinks it is a joke!

John Kerry's anti-American activities during the Vietnam war era are outlined here

And John Kerry shows the usual Leftist hypocrisy and lack of any principles. As Jeff Jacoby writes: "In the 2004 presidential field, there is a candidate for nearly every point of view. His name is John Kerry. Equivocating politicians are sometimes accused of trying to be "all things to all people," but few have taken the practice of expedience and shifty opportunism to Kerry's level. Massachusetts residents have known this about their junior senator for a long time. Now the rest of the country is going to find out..... "

Scientifically-assisted production of a real living human clone seems to be a way off yet but when one comes I will welcome it. Why the random cloning of nature (twins) is OK but scientifically assisted cloning is not has always escaped me. But as the father of an IVF child I have a bias there perhaps. That conception too was scientifically assisted and I am profoundly grateful for it. But I think that good people will always differ over the use of cloning to produce "spare parts" -- which is what the latest announcement is about. People who favour abortion, however could have no rational objection to it so the only debate SHOULD be among conservatives. No doubt, however, Leftists -- with their usual rubbery principles -- will try to get mileage out of it.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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RACIAL SHENANIGANS

More deceitful "education" being practiced on High School students: A group of students were shown how to examine one particular genetic marker that was already known to be widespread among different races. When they found that people of all different races in their class had the marker, that was presented as "proof" that there is no such thing as racial differences. Pity about all the OTHER millions of genetic markers that were NOT examined! The old nonsense about all races sharing more than 99% of their genes was also trotted out as proving that there is no such thing as race biologically. Somehow they forgot to mention that we share nearly as high a percentage of genes with chimpanzees. So by that reasoning humans and chimps are really the same too. Let's reserve more college places for chimps! Down with chimpism! The truth of course is that percentage of shared genes is a total red herring. Differences in just ONE critical gene out of millions of genes can make a huge difference to one's life -- as many people with genetic illnesses have sadly found. The students were also apparently told that "scientists know that traditional notions of race no longer hold up". I guess they must have just overlooked what these geneticists found! There are a lot of comments on the matter on the Joanne Jacobs site for anybody who thinks there is anything more worth saying about such nonsense.

Interested participant is very sarcastic in reporting a story of fighting between two groups of blacks: "The cause of the whole circumstance is inexplicable. Since the tension is between two African-American student populations, it can't be racially motivated. And, since it's generally recognized that only white people are capable of intolerance, this can't be a case of intolerance. It also can't be a case of lack of diversity since everyone involved is African-American which would indicate total diversity." Joking aside, there is in fact an interesting aspect to the story. The fighting is between Afro-Americans of slave descent and people of Somali origin -- i.e. people who are racially West African versus people who are racially East African. Aside from their common blackness, the two groups do differ quite visibly. East Africans tend to be tall and thin with thin lips whereas West Africans tend to be heavily built with highly everted lips. So the fact that they don't get on well with one-another is, I am afraid, all too human. Not that races exist, of course.

"Reparations" hypocrisy: "The rally was significant for no other reason other than it provided an indication of the real motives and objectives of the reparations movement - cash. No matter what else is said reparations are not about black civil rights or social justice. Reparations are about green dollars."


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ELSEWHERE

A stupid philosopher: This bit of wisdom is from a Duke University philosophy professor -- commenting on why he does not hire conservatives to teach philosophy: "We try to hire the best, smartest people available," Brandon said of his philosophy hires. "If, as John Stuart Mill said, stupid people are generally conservative, then there are lots of conservatives we will never hire. Mill's analysis may go some way towards explaining the power of the Republican party in our society and the relative scarcity of Republicans in academia". So he takes an attack by Mill on his political opponents that Mill made in Victorian-era Britain and treats it as good information about the USA today. And even if that were a reasonable thing to do, note the non sequitur: Even if stupid people are generally conservative (and there is no EVIDENCE offered of that; I have met a lot of stupid Left-voters in my time), it does not follow that conservatives generally are stupid. Note the usual Leftist elitism too. Brandon is clearly implying that society generally is stupid. Nice type! Just to REALLY ruin Brandon's party, however, let the FACT be noted that the correlation in the general population between anti-authority attitudes (which Leftists pride themselves on) and low IQ is quite substantial. Survey research shows that it is in fact Leftist attitudes that are associated with stupidity!.

Federal Communications Commission a useless "New Deal" monstrosity: Some of the most significant "accomplishments" of the FCC include protecting AT&T from competition for decades by granting the company monopoly privileges, similarly protecting television broadcasters for years by restraining cable television, and delaying the entrance of cellular phones into the marketplace for more than a decade. Such bureaucratically inflicted stagnation on the communications industry has cost the economy tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars. Bringing the cumbersome FCC into the mix is unnecessary in the Timberlake-Jackson controversy. If the pop stars defied a contract with CBS in their salaciousness, the market will handle it in the best possible way and CBS can always seek legal damages. It is not in the network's interest to offend viewers or to pull so much attention away from the game itself, which happened to be quite exciting this year. Contractual promises and fear of losing work will have more influence on celebrities than will government harassment of the networks on which they appear

The strange case of the missing homosexuals: The recent UK census indicated that the homosexual population is tiny -- only one 750th of the 10% that is sometimes quoted. The homosexual activist response to the low count is that it indicates most homosexuals are still afraid to come out of the closet. Ticking a box on a confidential census form is coming out of the closet? Definitely one for Sherlock Holmes.

Fleeing socialism: "Germany's brightest and best qualified young professionals are leaving the country in droves and securing lucrative positions abroad. ...Every seventh person with a doctorate in science leaves Germany for the United States, The Scientist magazine has reported. Three of the four German Nobel Prize winners work in the United States".

Porphyrogenitus has an analysis of Leftist psychology that is similar to mine but he thinks there is still some life in the old story that some U.S. "liberals" are not Leftists. I am sorry to say that I think he has been had on that one. Are there ANY "liberals" who don't believe in using government coercion to increase "equality"? If they do believe in it they are just slowed-down Communists and if they don't believe in it they are conservatives as far as I can see.

Keith Burgess-Jackson has put up a good letter from the NYT about the "Bush lied" chant.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with its usual big range of selected reading.

True love is forever? Diamonds are forever? The Wicked one says that only herpes is forever.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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SOME BASICS OF LEFTIST PSYCHOLOGY

I get a lot of email in connection with this blog and my other writings. Most of it is from fellow conservatives and most of it is highly supportive -- which I appreciate very much. One theme that I often notice in the emails I get is how crazy and incomprehensible my readers find Leftists to be so I thought I might make a brief comment on that here. For instance, an email I received recently said in part:

"I noticed certain "errors of thought" occuring with those to the left of me -- logical errors, or a disinterest in fact, and quick switches to emotionally-based arguments. I wondered if there was actually some kind of thinking impairment going on, if there was some kind of brain defect or differing cognitive structure.

I replied

You are right that Leftists SEEM to think differently but they don't really. They are just dishonest about what they think. Arriving at a self-serving conclusion is all that they care about and they will slip and slide all over the place to do that. Their defect is of character, not of the mind. They know perfectly well what they are doing but their own ego matters more to them than the truth.

In other words, puffing themselves up as wise and benevolent is their overriding aim -- not confronting and dealing realistically with harsh facts -- and they will duck and weave and say anything convenient that occurs to them to achieve their aim. So most of the time it is pointless even to argue with them. They are just not interested in the facts -- only in their own warm inner glow of righteousness and wisdom. They will allow nothing to threaten that. It is generally only middle of the road people who have been hoodwinked by the Left who are worth your breath.

I do also get some email from Leftists and a recurrent theme in that is to say that I overgeneralize. They that say that not all Leftists are as nasty as Stalin, Hitler, Castro, Pol Pot, Mao, Kim Jong Il and all the other lovely "socialists" who have gained unrestricted power. Some American "liberals" even say (through gritted teeth?) that they hate such "totalitarians" or "authoritarians". I have dealt with that argument at some length elsewhere so I will just mention the basics here. Perhaps the easiest answer is that if "liberals" hate Communists, how come they were apologizing for the Soviets and praising them and trying to protect them almost up to the day that the Soviet Union imploded? Even to this day, to have been a Communist in the past is treated most indulgently in "liberal" intellectual circles -- as no more than excessive idealism or as having been "a liberal in a hurry". And what American "liberal" has ever said a bad word about Castro? I got an email from a Leftist just a few days ago saying what a good and wise man Castro is -- despite his police State, his political prisons, his political executions and his suppression of free speech and any opposition. So it is "liberals" themselves who make it clear that the only real difference between Communists and themselves is how much power they have. U.S. "liberalism" is just an attempt to achieve the old Communist goal of enforced "equality" in a gradual, step-by-step way. They are just "slowed down" Communists and like the Communists, their real motive for seeking equality is not "compassion" but hatred of other people's success.

Aside from that, the public opinion survey data I have gathered over the years also make clear that there is only one Left/Right dimension -- with people differing on it only in matters of degree. See here

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ELSEWHERE

I normally agree with Jeff Jacoby but I have a lot of problems with his latest posting. He is undoubtedly right that what is going on in North Korea at the moment rivals what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany but where I have the problem is with his conclusion that the USA should "do something" about it. Why does it always have to be the USA? Is there no humanity left anywhere else in the world? America is having big problems at the moment with ensuring its own security against the Islamic madmen without taking on any more of the world's probems. Who made it the world's policeman? And it never gets thanked for anything it does anyway. I personally think that what America should be doing about North Korea at the moment is hectoring Europe to live up to its supposedly "humanitarian" ideals and offering them support if they do decide to do something. Europe killed millions of Jews (and don't forget that most of Europe helped the Nazis out with that) so let them make up for that by saving millions of Koreans. Russia alone could push North Korea over in a day if it wanted to -- and they are North Korea's neighbours -- unlike the USA.

Amusing: A Leftist blogger (of all people) has recently criticized me for being an atheist! Of the more than 200 conservative bloggers who have linked to me (many of whom I know to be Christians) not one has to my knowledge ever criticized me in that way. It's another example of the hypocritical way the Left will seize on and advocate anything no matter what they themselves personally believe (if anything). His ground for criticizing my atheism is that "you cannot prove a negative". Presumably he argues that people who refuse to believe in unicorns are being foolishly dogmatic too! As I have said before, all the Christians I know have given great thought to their beliefs and think that there is overwhelming evidence for them. They have clearly considered the evidence carefully -- even if I personally think they have come to the wrong conclusion. Unlike Leftists, I do not have to agree with their conclusion to respect it. I think it is the anti-religion people like Richard Dawkins who are the true dogmatists. To me it seems obvious that religions can be good or bad -- depending on what is believed.

Legalize incest! "So, in redefining marriage to mean something brand new, why didn't the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court say prohibiting brothers and sisters from marrying would 'have the effect of maintaining and fostering a stigma of exclusion?' Or parent and child? If you are going to change an ages-old meaning of an institution, why not also mandate that a legislature allow polygamy?"

An interesting article here about people going overseas for cheaper surgery. A lot of people come to Australia for surgery too -- particularly from Japan. A common example: a boob job in one of Australia's resort areas costs about $3,500 in U.S. dollars.

I love it! "Dr. Atkins, the founder of the Atkins diet was apparently obese when he died (aged 72)".

The Wicked one has a post about the Swiss getting tough on crime.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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FROM BROOKES NEWS

Bush's deficit: fact and fiction The increasing ratio of spending and taxation to GDP has given many politicians the impression that the US economy can accommodate significant and permanent increases in government spending without impairing economic growth. This is a dangerous delusion.
Richard Dreyfus and Hollywood's hateful left There are two Americas: there is one that believes in the constitution and the inherent goodness of America; then there is the other 'America' that would trash our constitution and our traditions in the belief that our America is a racist, sexist, unjust and exploitative society.
Why Beijing will not attack Taiwan Beijing's continued sabre rattling should be seen for what it is - sabre rattling. Beijing has no intention of launching an attack on Taiwan, at least not for some considerable time. The name of one almost forgotten island tells it all - Iwo Jima.
President Bush is a victim of America's political civil war The length, intensity and moral turpitude of the Democrats' hate Bush campaign is probably unprecedented in American history, and reveals the Democrats' hateful intolerance of conservatives.
Murdoch's resident Bush-hater sticks it to Steyn and sucks up to Kerry the Quisling Stephen Romei from Rupert Murdoch's Australian is at it again, sucking up to Sen. Quisling Kerry, sliming Bush and targeting Mark Steyn.
The Age maligns Bush's NMD proposal Why are reporters bitterly opposed to President Bush's national missile defence proposals and where do they get their phony facts?

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

Men are people too: "In the age of feminism, she argues, we have paid a lot of attention to women's complaints about men and criticized men for not meeting women's needs -- but we've forgotten that men too have needs and women too have faults. Somehow, we've even developed the notion that a woman who seeks to meet her husband's needs is subservient (but a husband who fails to meet his wife's needs is a pig)."

When will we get affirmative action for men? "Here is a consequence of egalitarianism. According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, men's life expectancy is on the average about 7 years less than women's. There is thus an inequality between men and women....Egalitarians, thus must see it as a requirement of justice to equalize the life expectancy of men and women. This can be done, for instance, by men having more and better health care than women; by employing fewer men and more women in stressful or hazardous jobs; and by men having shorter work days and longer vacations than women..."

Oh boy! It doesn't take long for my prophecies to come true. Just two days ago I predicted that Yale's Skull and Bones society would appeal to conspiracy theorists and what do I read now? -- "The Order of the Skull and Bones is far from the fratty, fun-and- games milieu that uninformed people think it is. The fact is, Skull and Bones may be the world's most bizarre, and exclusive, secret society. Therefore, if both the President of the United States and the top Democratic contender for the job are devoted members of this Order, and they are, the American public ought to know more..... "

The most popular cry at Democratic rallies was against 'special interests'. Thomas Sowell asks about the Dems' own special interests: "When Senator Kerry gives examples of special interests, do not look to see the teachers unions included. When Senator Kerry votes against school vouchers, sacrificing the future of millions of children for the greater glory of the National Education Association, that is not called serving special interests because the NEA supports Democrats. Still less will the trial lawyers be called special interests. Presidential candidate Senator John Edwards made his fortune as a trial lawyer, winning huge damage awards from doctors and hospitals, thereby contributing to the rising costs of medical care, which he now so much laments".

Leftist financier George Soros first says Bush is another Hitler -- then denies it when he realizes how stupid it makes him look. So he's he's a fruitcake and a liar as well as a parasite. No wonder he's a Leftist!

Sounds like a Fox News convert: "If you believe in limited government; if you argue that lower taxes spur economic growth; if you want our borders protected; and if you are a white man ... then, according to the media elite, you are the source of all that is wrong with America... We don't like to switch on TV and hear everything that we value somehow put down and vilified. We don't like you trying to make us feel stupid because we believe in God, freedom, family and the flag. That's why we're taking our remote control and turning you off."

Vin Ferrari has a post noting how much bloggers rely on traditional news media for their information. He is pretty right but not totally. I myself have on occasions put up news that has come to me in emails from my correspondents and Instapundit seems to do it often. It is early days yet but I do think blogs are evolving into being a SOURCE of news as well as giving commentary on it. And blogs of course can draw worldwide attention to stories that might otherwise lapse into obscurity.

PID points out that the comic-book hero Tin-Tin was exposing the evils of the old Soviet system at the same time as the New York Times was covering up the same evils. It rather reminds me of the way Homer Simpson gives political incorrectness a wide audience that it would not otherwise have. I think the lesson is that only a wide diversity of information sources will stymie the Left's incessant attempts to control the information that reaches us. Viva blogs!

In the Germany of Hitler's day it was quite common for young political thugs to change allegiances from the Communists to the Nazis. A bad attitude to other people cloaked in a rhetoric of loving the worker was the obvious common denominator. According to David's Medienkritik, it happens in modern-day Germany too.

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Another example of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries!

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.

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