ELSEWHERE
There is an excellent article in the NYT about a long-overdue movement to make psychology more scientific. Exposing quackery in clinical psychology has in fact a much longer history than the article notes. One of the first people to apply scientific methods to evaluate conventional forms of psychotherapy was Hans Eysenck -- with whom I was associated for many years in various ways -- and Eysenck's work goes back to the 1940s. Still, it is good to see the torch being taken up now that Eysenck is no longer with us. The problem of unscientific psychology is particularly bad in political psychology -- which is overwhelmingly comprised of Freudians. You just have to read almost any issue of the journal Political Psychology to see that. Still, Political Psychology has published quite a few articles of mine over the years so they are not totally sectarian. They wouldn't take a really outspoken article from me, though, even though I was the relevant expert.
I have recently had an article accepted for publication in "SOCIETY" -- a well-established journal of social science and social commentary that has always been unusual in having some political balance in what it presents. I gather that it will "hit the streets" April 15-20 so you might like to keep an eye out for it. The title of my article is: "Explaining the Left/Right divide".
The "Invest in the U.S.A. Act," seems a good idea. Cutting tax on company profits will undoubtedly turn Leftists purple with rage but it should create lots of American jobs. Leftists would rather have people welfare-dependant, I guess. Having a black group approve the measure might help give it some legs, though.
An egotist caught at last? "The FBI arrested a California Institute of Technology student Tuesday for investigation of arson and vandalism that destroyed or damaged 125 sport utility vehicles at San Gabriel Valley car dealerships and homes last year in apparent support of radical environmentalism. William Cottrell, 23, of Pasadena was held without bail during a court appearance... If convicted, he faces a maximum of 40 years in prison"
The British Conservatives have at long last discovered the school vouchers idea. Will wonders never cease? They might finally be overcoming the trauma of having Tony Blair steal their thunder on most issues. (Link via The Applicant).
Martin Sieff says Russia is moving towards the Chinese model -- authoritarian central government combined with free-market economic policies. Similar systems in Singapore, Taiwan and Korea have worked out pretty well in the end.
The leader of Australia's major Leftist party talks a lot of conservative talk in saying that boys need more male role models but his deeds tell a different story -- oddly enough!
Steve Sailer on social statistics. It's Southern whites, not blacks, who are most likely to end up on death row. (More detail here). From the same article: "the Department of Education and other sensitive sorts have reduced the percentage of children eligible for special education from 2.2% in 1977 to 1.3% in 1997. Why? Because retardation (as defined by the Supreme Court as an IQ below 70) is found about five times more often in blacks than whites. Liberal bureaucrats prefer to cover up this embarrassing fact by tossing a lot of retarded black kids into mainstream classes to sink or swim."
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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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Thursday, March 11, 2004
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
GREENIE CORNER
Econot has some good postings up at the momnent. The mass transit one is particularly interesting. Some headings:
* Cash & Kerry: Which major funder of green and leftist causes launders money from John Kerry's wife into his campaign efforts -- including those protests by "9/11 families" against Bush's campaign commercials?
* The deadly threat to koala bears -- from animal rights activists!
* Mass transit = death by environmentalism?
* Oceana's hypocrisy -- It seems some "corporate interests" are more equal than others.
* Which green group's campaign director watched Jaws -- and sympathized with the shark?
"The Green Revolution in agriculture (mainly the introduction of hardier and higher-yielding rice varieties bred by Western scientists) has to be seen as one of the great achievements of our time. It has been the driving force behind the spectacular increases in global food supply over the last half century. " No wonder the 'Greenies' have made it a "villain of choice"
Thomas Sowell, a former Nader fan, says Ralph is unsafe at any speed: Starting his public career Nader "...denounced the Corvair in particular and blamed "engineering and management operations within General Motors" which led to such an unsafe vehicle...Years later, extensive government tests showed that the Corvair's safety was comparable to that of similar cars of its era. But, by then, the Corvair was extinct - killed off by the crusade that earned Nader a place as a kind of secular saint in the media."
Very encouraging to see the headline No future in Kyoto protocol on an article in Australia's national newspaper. The writer points out the inaccuracy of the methods used to estimate global warming effects by the IPCC (the United Nations body that is the chief support for global warming theory).
Globalization and life expectancy: "Some critics claim that globalization impoverishes...(yet) people in the more global countries tend to live the longest. The same holds true when only developing countries are examined"
***********************************
Econot has some good postings up at the momnent. The mass transit one is particularly interesting. Some headings:
* Cash & Kerry: Which major funder of green and leftist causes launders money from John Kerry's wife into his campaign efforts -- including those protests by "9/11 families" against Bush's campaign commercials?
* The deadly threat to koala bears -- from animal rights activists!
* Mass transit = death by environmentalism?
* Oceana's hypocrisy -- It seems some "corporate interests" are more equal than others.
* Which green group's campaign director watched Jaws -- and sympathized with the shark?
"The Green Revolution in agriculture (mainly the introduction of hardier and higher-yielding rice varieties bred by Western scientists) has to be seen as one of the great achievements of our time. It has been the driving force behind the spectacular increases in global food supply over the last half century. " No wonder the 'Greenies' have made it a "villain of choice"
Thomas Sowell, a former Nader fan, says Ralph is unsafe at any speed: Starting his public career Nader "...denounced the Corvair in particular and blamed "engineering and management operations within General Motors" which led to such an unsafe vehicle...Years later, extensive government tests showed that the Corvair's safety was comparable to that of similar cars of its era. But, by then, the Corvair was extinct - killed off by the crusade that earned Nader a place as a kind of secular saint in the media."
Very encouraging to see the headline No future in Kyoto protocol on an article in Australia's national newspaper. The writer points out the inaccuracy of the methods used to estimate global warming effects by the IPCC (the United Nations body that is the chief support for global warming theory).
Globalization and life expectancy: "Some critics claim that globalization impoverishes...(yet) people in the more global countries tend to live the longest. The same holds true when only developing countries are examined"
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EDUCATIONAL DEPRIVATION
I recently discovered to my horror that my 16 year old son had never even HEARD of such great English poets as Wordsworth and Coleridge. He is in his last year of high school but the only poets he has ever encountered are various indigenous poets and others who were selected on their political rather than their artistic merits. So yesterday evening I got out my old GRADE 6 school reading book (from the 1950s) and read him from it three old favourites of American, British and Australian poetry -- "Hiawatha's Hunting", "Sea Fever" and the "Song of Cape Leeuwin". He enjoyed all three -- particularly the non-Greenie ending of "Hiawatha". When I remarked to him that it looked like he had been deprived of his entire cultural heritage, he commented, quite rightly: "It's racism -- racism against the English". It looks like it's up to parents these days to introduce their kids to the great cultural heritage that schools now deliberately conceal. Perhaps that's not such a bad thing, in a way. It should help engender disrespect for the corruption that passes for compulsory education these days.
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I recently discovered to my horror that my 16 year old son had never even HEARD of such great English poets as Wordsworth and Coleridge. He is in his last year of high school but the only poets he has ever encountered are various indigenous poets and others who were selected on their political rather than their artistic merits. So yesterday evening I got out my old GRADE 6 school reading book (from the 1950s) and read him from it three old favourites of American, British and Australian poetry -- "Hiawatha's Hunting", "Sea Fever" and the "Song of Cape Leeuwin". He enjoyed all three -- particularly the non-Greenie ending of "Hiawatha". When I remarked to him that it looked like he had been deprived of his entire cultural heritage, he commented, quite rightly: "It's racism -- racism against the English". It looks like it's up to parents these days to introduce their kids to the great cultural heritage that schools now deliberately conceal. Perhaps that's not such a bad thing, in a way. It should help engender disrespect for the corruption that passes for compulsory education these days.
***********************************
ELSEWHERE
In case you have not seen it, the "Robin Williams" peace plan is here. Item 1 of it is: "The US will apologize to the world for our "interference" in their affairs, past & present........ You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Noriega, Milosovich and the rest of those 'good ole boys.' We will never "interfere" again."
David Friedman has a great description on how debates about the deterrent effect of capital punishment or the relation of guns to crime are handled in the media. He says these debates go through three phases: Amateur statisticians comment, Professional statisticians comment and Amateurs abuse the professionals for their inconvenient conclusions.
Power corrupts: "The part of the truth Lord Acton did not realize when stating 'power corrupts' is that the corrupted seek power. Only people not able to grow tall from their own efforts and achievements seek to subdue their fellow man; only people not being able to find comfort in their own mind seek to silence others; those who are unable to produce their own wealth aim to confiscate the wealth of others." Actually, Acton did realize that. The next part of what he said is: "Great men are almost always bad men".
Yassir Arafat, Soviet disinformation agent (For a brief history of Soviet disinformation see here): "Arafat had begun his political career as leader of the Palestinian terrorist organization al-Fatah, whose fedayeen were being secretly trained in the Soviet Union. In 1969, the KGB managed to catapult him up as chairman of the PLO executive committee."
The intellectual decline of Araby...? "No more than 10,000 books were translated into Arabic over the entire past millennium, equivalent to the number translated into Spanish each year."
What the Martha Stewart case means to you: "The Martha Stewart guilty verdict is more than troubling. It is an outrage. The very case itself typifies today's government -- an entity that is free to intrude in any area of your life, free to make up the rules as it goes along, free to allow prosecutors to make names for themselves in high-profile cases without facing any personal consequences, no matter what harm they do."
Arlene Peck says: "What does it take to realize that the Arabs have a plan and we don't -- their plan being: once they destroy the Saturday people, then the Sunday crowd is next." The holy day for Muslims is of course Friday.
The wicked one explains why men die first.
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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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
THAT FILM AND MIDDLE-EASTERN MINORITIES
"It's only a movie": "Jews have far more to fear than Mel Gibson. Jews have far more to fear from the International Judicial Court in the Hague as it condemns Israel for putting up a security fence to protects its citizens from homicide bombers. Jews have far more to fear from university campuses that refuse to protect them from violence from Palestinians"
Defending Mel Gibson's movie: "If the movie and the Gospels on which it's based are anti-Semitic, then why are those Christians most faithful to the New Testament among the strongest supporters of Israel?"
Mel Gibson is crying all the way to the bank. And he may make some money in the courts too.
It is also the first movie to allow Aramaic speakers to hear their language on the big screen. "Use of the Aramaic language had become common by the period of the Chaldean Empire (626-539 B.C.). It became the official language of the Imperial government in Mesopotamia and enjoyed general use until the spread of Greek (331 B.C.). Although Greek had spread throughout these Eastern lands, Aramaic remained dominant and the linqua franca of the Semitic peoples. This continued to be so until Aramaic was superseded by a sister Semitic tongue, Arabic, about the 13th century A.D. to the 14th century A.D., when Arabic supplanted Aramaic after the Arab conquest in the 7th Century. However, the Christians of Mesopotamia (Iraq), Iran, Syria, Turkey and Lebanon kept the Aramaic language alive domestically, scholastically and liturgically. In spite of the pressure of the ruling Arabs to speak Arabic, Aramaic is still spoken today in its many dialects, especially among the Chaldeans and Assyrians."
With all the attention being given to Mel's movie you wonder why so few commentators, so quick to sniff out any anti-semitism in the movie, haven't wondered aloud what form of imperialism suppressed Aramaic?
As this article points out, Aramaic was the parent language of Assyrian. "Today, the Assyrian presence in the Middle East is under immense pressure. In the past 30 years, Assyrians have fled from their native lands in record numbers with more than 1.5 million having emigrated to over 30 different countries, mostly in theWest. The predominant reason for this flight is because of Assyrian religious and ethnic distinctiveness vis-a-vis their Arab, Persian, Turkish or Kurdish neighbors. Because of these differences, Assyrians are severely discriminated against and are denied basic civil, human, and political rights. In most Middle Eastern countries,Assyrians are not even recognized as a people In Turkey, Iraq, and SyriaAssyrians are officially recognized only as a religious minority, either as "Turkish" or"Arab Christians." Even in the so-called UN protected "Safe Haven" of northern Iraq, Assyrians are referred to as "Christian Kurds."In Iran, Assyrians haverecently been semi-officially recognized as a people but only after more than 90%have emigrated over the past 30 years."
As the ethnic and religious cleansing of non-Muslim minorities (mostly Christians) from the Middle East continues, the Left's selective passion for the Palestinians is all rather sickening.
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"It's only a movie": "Jews have far more to fear than Mel Gibson. Jews have far more to fear from the International Judicial Court in the Hague as it condemns Israel for putting up a security fence to protects its citizens from homicide bombers. Jews have far more to fear from university campuses that refuse to protect them from violence from Palestinians"
Defending Mel Gibson's movie: "If the movie and the Gospels on which it's based are anti-Semitic, then why are those Christians most faithful to the New Testament among the strongest supporters of Israel?"
Mel Gibson is crying all the way to the bank. And he may make some money in the courts too.
It is also the first movie to allow Aramaic speakers to hear their language on the big screen. "Use of the Aramaic language had become common by the period of the Chaldean Empire (626-539 B.C.). It became the official language of the Imperial government in Mesopotamia and enjoyed general use until the spread of Greek (331 B.C.). Although Greek had spread throughout these Eastern lands, Aramaic remained dominant and the linqua franca of the Semitic peoples. This continued to be so until Aramaic was superseded by a sister Semitic tongue, Arabic, about the 13th century A.D. to the 14th century A.D., when Arabic supplanted Aramaic after the Arab conquest in the 7th Century. However, the Christians of Mesopotamia (Iraq), Iran, Syria, Turkey and Lebanon kept the Aramaic language alive domestically, scholastically and liturgically. In spite of the pressure of the ruling Arabs to speak Arabic, Aramaic is still spoken today in its many dialects, especially among the Chaldeans and Assyrians."
With all the attention being given to Mel's movie you wonder why so few commentators, so quick to sniff out any anti-semitism in the movie, haven't wondered aloud what form of imperialism suppressed Aramaic?
As this article points out, Aramaic was the parent language of Assyrian. "Today, the Assyrian presence in the Middle East is under immense pressure. In the past 30 years, Assyrians have fled from their native lands in record numbers with more than 1.5 million having emigrated to over 30 different countries, mostly in theWest. The predominant reason for this flight is because of Assyrian religious and ethnic distinctiveness vis-a-vis their Arab, Persian, Turkish or Kurdish neighbors. Because of these differences, Assyrians are severely discriminated against and are denied basic civil, human, and political rights. In most Middle Eastern countries,Assyrians are not even recognized as a people In Turkey, Iraq, and SyriaAssyrians are officially recognized only as a religious minority, either as "Turkish" or"Arab Christians." Even in the so-called UN protected "Safe Haven" of northern Iraq, Assyrians are referred to as "Christian Kurds."In Iran, Assyrians haverecently been semi-officially recognized as a people but only after more than 90%have emigrated over the past 30 years."
As the ethnic and religious cleansing of non-Muslim minorities (mostly Christians) from the Middle East continues, the Left's selective passion for the Palestinians is all rather sickening.
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ELSEWHERE
"Greece's opposition conservatives scored a convincing win in general elections, ending more than 10 years of Socialist Party rule as Greeks voted for change amid widespread discontent over low incomes, poor public services and corruption scandals". Who would have thought it? Leftists responsible for low incomes, poor public services and corruption?
An optimistic cartoon version of how to convert Muslims to Christianity here. Only for Christians.
French nutritionists give Big Mac the thumbs up: "The relative fat-to-protein content of a Big Mac is considerably healthier than classic French snacks such as quiche lorraine and better than many other sandwiches or fast foods on the market, the authors say."
Keith Windschuttle points out that assimilationist policies have economically helped Australia's native blacks, whereas 'multiculturalist' policies have perpetuated poverty. No surprises which policy the left favours.
Pathetic envy: "A painting that featured the words Israel and the United States and replaced each 's' with a Nazi swastika was removed from an Oslo art exhibition." How is it possible to confuse the tiny Jewish state with the vast Nazi empire that attempted to exterminate the Jews? And how is it possible to confuse the United States, which liberated Europe from Nazi shackles, with the Nazis themselves? This would appear to be a phenomenon that French author Jean-Francois Revel has called "reversal of culpability." It is particularly disturbing when it is propagated not at secret meetings of Osama-worshiping jihadis but at an "art exhibition," in Oslo, the cosmopolitan capital of Norway, an exceedingly civilized country."
If you have not seen the exchange between Rumsfeld and Senator Kennedy in Scrappleface you must read it. You will only get the joke if you know what Chappaquiddick stands for, of course. I gather that the exchange is satire but it could well have been fact.
Pat Buchanan on "Who started the culture war?": "Who is on the offensive? Who is pushing the envelope? The answer is obvious. A radical Left aided by a cultural elite that detests Christianity and finds Christian moral tenets reactionary and repressive is hell-bent on pushing its amoral values and imposing its ideology on our nation."
Why Haiti won't get any better: "Haitian government appears to have no "core," to use the economist's term for instability. Most of the population is illiterate but extremely smart and distrusting of their governments. The distrust is so strong as to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. No leader can command lasting popular support or form a stable political coalition."
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
"Greece's opposition conservatives scored a convincing win in general elections, ending more than 10 years of Socialist Party rule as Greeks voted for change amid widespread discontent over low incomes, poor public services and corruption scandals". Who would have thought it? Leftists responsible for low incomes, poor public services and corruption?
An optimistic cartoon version of how to convert Muslims to Christianity here. Only for Christians.
French nutritionists give Big Mac the thumbs up: "The relative fat-to-protein content of a Big Mac is considerably healthier than classic French snacks such as quiche lorraine and better than many other sandwiches or fast foods on the market, the authors say."
Keith Windschuttle points out that assimilationist policies have economically helped Australia's native blacks, whereas 'multiculturalist' policies have perpetuated poverty. No surprises which policy the left favours.
Pathetic envy: "A painting that featured the words Israel and the United States and replaced each 's' with a Nazi swastika was removed from an Oslo art exhibition." How is it possible to confuse the tiny Jewish state with the vast Nazi empire that attempted to exterminate the Jews? And how is it possible to confuse the United States, which liberated Europe from Nazi shackles, with the Nazis themselves? This would appear to be a phenomenon that French author Jean-Francois Revel has called "reversal of culpability." It is particularly disturbing when it is propagated not at secret meetings of Osama-worshiping jihadis but at an "art exhibition," in Oslo, the cosmopolitan capital of Norway, an exceedingly civilized country."
If you have not seen the exchange between Rumsfeld and Senator Kennedy in Scrappleface you must read it. You will only get the joke if you know what Chappaquiddick stands for, of course. I gather that the exchange is satire but it could well have been fact.
Pat Buchanan on "Who started the culture war?": "Who is on the offensive? Who is pushing the envelope? The answer is obvious. A radical Left aided by a cultural elite that detests Christianity and finds Christian moral tenets reactionary and repressive is hell-bent on pushing its amoral values and imposing its ideology on our nation."
Why Haiti won't get any better: "Haitian government appears to have no "core," to use the economist's term for instability. Most of the population is illiterate but extremely smart and distrusting of their governments. The distrust is so strong as to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. No leader can command lasting popular support or form a stable political coalition."
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Monday, March 08, 2004
CHRISTIAN ETHICS
A very small meditation
Although any idea of "God" ceased to be meaningful to me over 40 years ago, I have never abandoned Christian ethics. I don't claim to be any Abou Ben Adhem but I have always found that if I do the "Christian" (kind, helpful, forgiving, generous etc.) thing, I get a reward for it -- usually quickly and it is often a substantial reward. For me, Christian ethics work. They work so well that I do well understand how Christians would see in such things the hand of their God. I myself see such rewards as evidence that Christ was a very wise teacher who had an understanding of human psychology that is still better than what most modern professional psychologists have.
An instance of how Christian ways have worked for me is one most readers of this blog will know by now. When Keith Burgess-Jackson had just started his blog, I read it and noted with pleasure the philosophical clarity of his writing (Anglo-Saxon philosophy aims to clarify; Continental philosophy aims to obfuscate). When I therefore also noted that he was having trouble with his template, I immediately offered to help and was able to do so. As a result Keith was very appreciative and has always since been quick to link to my postings -- and I of course also link back to his. So we have been able to steer our respective readers to one another -- which some readers at least appreciate. So my initial Christian deed (which took me only a couple of hours) has benefited Keith, me and our respective readers! Beat that for an ethical system that works!
As an aside, it is perfectly consistent with Keith's energetic and extraverted style (a style I enjoy greatly) that he posts up some of the congratulatory emails that he receives. But I would never be able to do that. Perhaps it is my traditional British reserve. I only post on this blog emails that address some topic that I think has general interest. I do in fact receive congratulatory emails all the time and every one of them is greatly appreciated so I hope my readers understand my reserve about posting any of them.
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FROM BROOKES NEWS
Homosexual marriage and incest: the time has come If homosexual marriage is recognised then Ferdinandsen must be freed and his incestuous relationship with his daughter recognised as a legitimate marriage, and their defiance of the law treated as an act of civil disobedience that advanced the cause of civil rights.
US economy and recession: theory and counter theory Although the causes of the recession are still being hotly debated, with some focusing their attention on monetary factors, the overwhelming number of commentators still haven't got it right.
Homosexual marriage and judicial tyranny join hands When we look at what is really happening regarding homosexual marriage we see that Bush had little choice. Bullying Democratic judges forced the issue when they wilfully exceeded their authority and turned the issue into a battle for the rule of law.
Bunny chats with Saddam and then joins Hillary on the Jerry Springer Show Bunny relates how President Bush called on him to help with Saddam. As if that was not enough for our hero, he found himself sharing the sheets, as well as Jerry Springer's stage, with her Royal Highness Princess Hillary.
Forgetting the economic lessons of history It's necessary to resort to economic history if mistaken economic policies are to be avoided. But in order to do this successfully policy makers, or at least their advisers, should have an understanding of the economic forces at work.
Hong Kong's freedom virus causes pain in Beijing If the men in Beijing are wise, they will accommodate themselves to what is unfolding before them and embrace it. To do otherwise could bring an enormous amount of misery to hundreds of millions. And China has already suffered enough this century.
Mao's aura can't help CCP bosses Nearly three decades after his death, Mao Tse-tung's tarnished halo is being polished by Chinese Communist Party leaders and their critics alike, albeit for different reasons.
Details here
*******************************
A very small meditation
Although any idea of "God" ceased to be meaningful to me over 40 years ago, I have never abandoned Christian ethics. I don't claim to be any Abou Ben Adhem but I have always found that if I do the "Christian" (kind, helpful, forgiving, generous etc.) thing, I get a reward for it -- usually quickly and it is often a substantial reward. For me, Christian ethics work. They work so well that I do well understand how Christians would see in such things the hand of their God. I myself see such rewards as evidence that Christ was a very wise teacher who had an understanding of human psychology that is still better than what most modern professional psychologists have.
An instance of how Christian ways have worked for me is one most readers of this blog will know by now. When Keith Burgess-Jackson had just started his blog, I read it and noted with pleasure the philosophical clarity of his writing (Anglo-Saxon philosophy aims to clarify; Continental philosophy aims to obfuscate). When I therefore also noted that he was having trouble with his template, I immediately offered to help and was able to do so. As a result Keith was very appreciative and has always since been quick to link to my postings -- and I of course also link back to his. So we have been able to steer our respective readers to one another -- which some readers at least appreciate. So my initial Christian deed (which took me only a couple of hours) has benefited Keith, me and our respective readers! Beat that for an ethical system that works!
As an aside, it is perfectly consistent with Keith's energetic and extraverted style (a style I enjoy greatly) that he posts up some of the congratulatory emails that he receives. But I would never be able to do that. Perhaps it is my traditional British reserve. I only post on this blog emails that address some topic that I think has general interest. I do in fact receive congratulatory emails all the time and every one of them is greatly appreciated so I hope my readers understand my reserve about posting any of them.
********************************
FROM BROOKES NEWS
Homosexual marriage and incest: the time has come If homosexual marriage is recognised then Ferdinandsen must be freed and his incestuous relationship with his daughter recognised as a legitimate marriage, and their defiance of the law treated as an act of civil disobedience that advanced the cause of civil rights.
US economy and recession: theory and counter theory Although the causes of the recession are still being hotly debated, with some focusing their attention on monetary factors, the overwhelming number of commentators still haven't got it right.
Homosexual marriage and judicial tyranny join hands When we look at what is really happening regarding homosexual marriage we see that Bush had little choice. Bullying Democratic judges forced the issue when they wilfully exceeded their authority and turned the issue into a battle for the rule of law.
Bunny chats with Saddam and then joins Hillary on the Jerry Springer Show Bunny relates how President Bush called on him to help with Saddam. As if that was not enough for our hero, he found himself sharing the sheets, as well as Jerry Springer's stage, with her Royal Highness Princess Hillary.
Forgetting the economic lessons of history It's necessary to resort to economic history if mistaken economic policies are to be avoided. But in order to do this successfully policy makers, or at least their advisers, should have an understanding of the economic forces at work.
Hong Kong's freedom virus causes pain in Beijing If the men in Beijing are wise, they will accommodate themselves to what is unfolding before them and embrace it. To do otherwise could bring an enormous amount of misery to hundreds of millions. And China has already suffered enough this century.
Mao's aura can't help CCP bosses Nearly three decades after his death, Mao Tse-tung's tarnished halo is being polished by Chinese Communist Party leaders and their critics alike, albeit for different reasons.
Details here
*******************************
MORE ON IMMIGRATION
A reader writes: "Check out these posts by the Republican Party base voters and tell me that Bush is not in trouble over immigration. These are the little people that pay the taxes and send in $25.00 year to the Party."
Gary Bezowsky replies: "I read the comment from one of your readers claiming the Republican base is in turmoil over the immigration reform proposals and Bush would lose if the election were held today. This may be so. But it boggles the mind to believe any intelligent rightward leaning voter would prefer a Bush lose and a Kerry victory. Kerry is further to the left on immigration and would go far beyond anything Bush would propose. This is insanity. Immigrant bashing doesn't win at the polls. Look at the state of the Republican party in California. After the party became tied to anti-immigrant proposals, it lost election after election, unable to influence policy. Only the disaster that is Gray Davis allowed Arnold the opportunity to claim the governor's chair. These Republicans and their anger would inflict the same damage on the national level. Electoral success is about coalition building, the largest coalition wins. The winners make public policy. If they are upset about the policy, the only way to change it to their liking is from inside the governing party."
Australia has thousands of miles of uninhabited and largely unguarded coastline so it should be even easier for illegal immigrants to come here than it is for them to go to the USA. In fact, illegal immigrants have virtually given up coming to Australia. Why? Because Australia's conservative government does its best to catch them and locks up any it catches. Illegal immigration can be controlled if there is the will to do it.
*******************************
A reader writes: "Check out these posts by the Republican Party base voters and tell me that Bush is not in trouble over immigration. These are the little people that pay the taxes and send in $25.00 year to the Party."
Gary Bezowsky replies: "I read the comment from one of your readers claiming the Republican base is in turmoil over the immigration reform proposals and Bush would lose if the election were held today. This may be so. But it boggles the mind to believe any intelligent rightward leaning voter would prefer a Bush lose and a Kerry victory. Kerry is further to the left on immigration and would go far beyond anything Bush would propose. This is insanity. Immigrant bashing doesn't win at the polls. Look at the state of the Republican party in California. After the party became tied to anti-immigrant proposals, it lost election after election, unable to influence policy. Only the disaster that is Gray Davis allowed Arnold the opportunity to claim the governor's chair. These Republicans and their anger would inflict the same damage on the national level. Electoral success is about coalition building, the largest coalition wins. The winners make public policy. If they are upset about the policy, the only way to change it to their liking is from inside the governing party."
Australia has thousands of miles of uninhabited and largely unguarded coastline so it should be even easier for illegal immigrants to come here than it is for them to go to the USA. In fact, illegal immigrants have virtually given up coming to Australia. Why? Because Australia's conservative government does its best to catch them and locks up any it catches. Illegal immigration can be controlled if there is the will to do it.
*******************************
ELSEWHERE
I mentioned yesterday the knee-jerk reaction of the L.A. Times to the term "pro-life". A reader writes: "That's nothing compared to an edit I remember from some years ago by a Boston paper. In an article about the State's budget deficit, after their automagic rewrite, the Governor was quoted as saying, "I promise to put the State's budget back in the African American!"
Michael Darby has a new lot of posts up: On Zimbabwe, Pinochet, France and many Australian issues.
I have just put up here a short article by Dick McDonald about pro-Democrat media bias in the run-up to the Presidential election.
And I have just put up on PC Watch an email from a Sydney reader about the annual "Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras" that was held in Sydney over the weekend. The reader notes that, as usual, the number of homosexuals taking part was vastly exaggerated.
The wicked one has just put up a very incorrect picture.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.
********************************
I mentioned yesterday the knee-jerk reaction of the L.A. Times to the term "pro-life". A reader writes: "That's nothing compared to an edit I remember from some years ago by a Boston paper. In an article about the State's budget deficit, after their automagic rewrite, the Governor was quoted as saying, "I promise to put the State's budget back in the African American!"
Michael Darby has a new lot of posts up: On Zimbabwe, Pinochet, France and many Australian issues.
I have just put up here a short article by Dick McDonald about pro-Democrat media bias in the run-up to the Presidential election.
And I have just put up on PC Watch an email from a Sydney reader about the annual "Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras" that was held in Sydney over the weekend. The reader notes that, as usual, the number of homosexuals taking part was vastly exaggerated.
The wicked one has just put up a very incorrect picture.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Sunday, March 07, 2004
IN DEFENCE OF FREE TRADE
"The United States must not hide its economy behind a protectionist wall, President George W. Bush said today, during a joint press conference with visiting Mexican President Vicente Fox. "We must reject economic unilateralism," Bush said after talks with Fox at his private ranch in Crawford, Texas. He said the United States would "gain nothing in building walls".
Politics and trade: "Years divisible by four are not good for free trade. When Americans go about the quadrennial chore of choosing a president, the candidates seeking their votes know one thing: everyone disadvantaged by the free international movement of goods and services and jobs knows who they are. But the winners -- consumers who get cheaper goods, shareholders in businesses that profit from free trade, workers whose jobs are created by free trade -- are a diffuse group, often unaware that their good fortune is a result of free trade."
An email from a reader: "Outsourcing, the practice of moving jobs from domestic to foreign locations, has been and will continue to be a major political issue in the upcoming presidential election. But once you get past the rhetoric of "two million jobs lost since GWB took office", what are the facts about job loss, particularly factory jobs since they have been the subject of so much recent debate? Robert Reich, who served for 4 years as secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration, and hardly a "right-wing extremist", wrote an interesting article in December , 2003, for the "The American Prospect Online", a far-Left magazine. Surprisingly, while the USA lost 11% of our factory jobs between 1995 and 2002, we weren't the biggest losers. Japan and China lost 16% and 15%, respectively. Brazil lost 20%. Unlike the liberal establishment looking to make this an issue in the election, Secretary Reich blames the loss of these jobs around the world to productivity gains, not "corporate greed", as has so often been espoused by our good friends on the Left." A good quote from Reich's article: "We should stop pining after the days when millions of Americans stood along assembly lines and continuously bolted, fit, soldered or clamped what went by".
"Jobs protection has become the rallying cry of the Democratic presidential campaign. Yet Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards never present a clear-headed plan on how they would create new jobs. Instead, they vow to tear down growth-producing free trade treaties, an effort that would impoverish, not expand, the U.S. work force. Among the many flaws of this year's Democratic argument on jobs is the total absence of facts to back up the claims. Take the Democrats' position on jobs outsourcing, their idea that the country is bleeding away a finite number of jobs to far-off places like India. Outsourcing is not a new issue, but its one that Democrats are using to circumvent the reality that the U.S. economy is surging toward a new boom cycle and that it's President Bush who has us headed that way."
"So now I wonder: when they write the history of the world 20 years from now, and they come to this chapter "Sept. 11, 2001, to March 2004" what will they say was most important? The attack on the World Trade Center and the Iraq war? Or, as Mr. Rao suggests, the convergence of PC's, telecom and work-flow software into a tipping point that allowed India to become part of the global supply chain for services the way China had become for manufacturing -- creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, India and China, and giving both nations a huge new stake in the success of globalization"
Dishonest Dobbs does it for dollars. Some excerpts: "Not too long ago, the people who watch Lou Dobbs's evening business program on CNN tuned into see someone who looked just like Lou Dobbs ranting about free trade and corporations that outsource jobs--"Exporting America," he calls it. It's as if whatever made Linda Blair's head spin around in "The Exorcist" had invaded the body of Lou Dobbs and left him with the brain of Dennis Kucinich. No public figure has moved so far left so fast since the transfiguration of Arianna Huffington. What's weird is what a lonely fight it turns out to be. This Tuesday, after Lou described "the shipment of hundreds of thousands of high-tech jobs to cheap foreign labor markets," a CNN reporter's piece on the outsourcing of computer jobs bowed in Lou's direction, then quoted an industry source who says they still can't meet the demand here for programmers. Later, after Lou teed up Ohio's manufacturing job losses, a CNN reporter found evidence to blame Ohio itself--its crummy educational performance and an uncompetitive tax structure with nine income-tax brackets"
U.S. manufacturers say that constant lawsuits and burdensome environmental regulations are the main destroyer of U.S. factory jobs.
The Happy Carpenter has more on what the Government COULD do to keep jobs at home -- WITHOUT going the failed socialist route of restrictive legislation.
**********************************
ELSEWHERE
One of my readers replies as follows to the email by Gary Bezowski that I put up yesterday: "Mr. Bezowsky should read Steve Sailer's statistics about Hispanic voting habits over the past 30 years before he throws out the old, old bromide about Hispanic conservative values. 80% of Americans want this damn invasion stopped yesterday! I can assure you as someone who works in my State Republican Party that this immigration insanity by the Bush administration has depressed his base. I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying that most of the astute Party workers that I have run into on a National or State level concede now that if things remain as they are today Bush will lose. You might want to check out www.freerepublic.com and read the immigration threads; the Party base is going insane"
Peg Kaplan has now joined the ranks of the Krugman demolishers. Perhaps I am being a Pollyanna but my impression is that the new editor of the New York Times is trying to swing the paper back closer to middle ground. Quite a bit that is congenial to conservatives appears there these days. If they really want to get away from their reputation as a Leftist propaganda outlet, however, they will have to do something about columnist Krugman. Giving Donald Luskin a column too would be one idea.
The last item on "Best of the Web" of 5th. shows that the Los Angeles Times also has a long way to go in easing its Leftist bias. Apparently, their sub-editors automatically change "pro-life" to "anti-abortion" -- with sometimes hilarious results.
There is a carefully-reasoned article by a Bible Christian here arguing that Islam is a Satanic religion. If I were a Christian I think I would agree with him.
I am pleased to say that one of my German readers has responded to my request yesterday for a copy of one of my academic articles that I had lost. See here or here. The findings in it throw into a cocked hat almost all of the research into attitudes that psychologists have ever done. No wonder it has been thoroughly ignored!
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
Comments? Email me here or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.
********************************
"The United States must not hide its economy behind a protectionist wall, President George W. Bush said today, during a joint press conference with visiting Mexican President Vicente Fox. "We must reject economic unilateralism," Bush said after talks with Fox at his private ranch in Crawford, Texas. He said the United States would "gain nothing in building walls".
Politics and trade: "Years divisible by four are not good for free trade. When Americans go about the quadrennial chore of choosing a president, the candidates seeking their votes know one thing: everyone disadvantaged by the free international movement of goods and services and jobs knows who they are. But the winners -- consumers who get cheaper goods, shareholders in businesses that profit from free trade, workers whose jobs are created by free trade -- are a diffuse group, often unaware that their good fortune is a result of free trade."
An email from a reader: "Outsourcing, the practice of moving jobs from domestic to foreign locations, has been and will continue to be a major political issue in the upcoming presidential election. But once you get past the rhetoric of "two million jobs lost since GWB took office", what are the facts about job loss, particularly factory jobs since they have been the subject of so much recent debate? Robert Reich, who served for 4 years as secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration, and hardly a "right-wing extremist", wrote an interesting article in December , 2003, for the "The American Prospect Online", a far-Left magazine. Surprisingly, while the USA lost 11% of our factory jobs between 1995 and 2002, we weren't the biggest losers. Japan and China lost 16% and 15%, respectively. Brazil lost 20%. Unlike the liberal establishment looking to make this an issue in the election, Secretary Reich blames the loss of these jobs around the world to productivity gains, not "corporate greed", as has so often been espoused by our good friends on the Left." A good quote from Reich's article: "We should stop pining after the days when millions of Americans stood along assembly lines and continuously bolted, fit, soldered or clamped what went by".
"Jobs protection has become the rallying cry of the Democratic presidential campaign. Yet Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards never present a clear-headed plan on how they would create new jobs. Instead, they vow to tear down growth-producing free trade treaties, an effort that would impoverish, not expand, the U.S. work force. Among the many flaws of this year's Democratic argument on jobs is the total absence of facts to back up the claims. Take the Democrats' position on jobs outsourcing, their idea that the country is bleeding away a finite number of jobs to far-off places like India. Outsourcing is not a new issue, but its one that Democrats are using to circumvent the reality that the U.S. economy is surging toward a new boom cycle and that it's President Bush who has us headed that way."
"So now I wonder: when they write the history of the world 20 years from now, and they come to this chapter "Sept. 11, 2001, to March 2004" what will they say was most important? The attack on the World Trade Center and the Iraq war? Or, as Mr. Rao suggests, the convergence of PC's, telecom and work-flow software into a tipping point that allowed India to become part of the global supply chain for services the way China had become for manufacturing -- creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, India and China, and giving both nations a huge new stake in the success of globalization"
Dishonest Dobbs does it for dollars. Some excerpts: "Not too long ago, the people who watch Lou Dobbs's evening business program on CNN tuned into see someone who looked just like Lou Dobbs ranting about free trade and corporations that outsource jobs--"Exporting America," he calls it. It's as if whatever made Linda Blair's head spin around in "The Exorcist" had invaded the body of Lou Dobbs and left him with the brain of Dennis Kucinich. No public figure has moved so far left so fast since the transfiguration of Arianna Huffington. What's weird is what a lonely fight it turns out to be. This Tuesday, after Lou described "the shipment of hundreds of thousands of high-tech jobs to cheap foreign labor markets," a CNN reporter's piece on the outsourcing of computer jobs bowed in Lou's direction, then quoted an industry source who says they still can't meet the demand here for programmers. Later, after Lou teed up Ohio's manufacturing job losses, a CNN reporter found evidence to blame Ohio itself--its crummy educational performance and an uncompetitive tax structure with nine income-tax brackets"
U.S. manufacturers say that constant lawsuits and burdensome environmental regulations are the main destroyer of U.S. factory jobs.
The Happy Carpenter has more on what the Government COULD do to keep jobs at home -- WITHOUT going the failed socialist route of restrictive legislation.
**********************************
ELSEWHERE
One of my readers replies as follows to the email by Gary Bezowski that I put up yesterday: "Mr. Bezowsky should read Steve Sailer's statistics about Hispanic voting habits over the past 30 years before he throws out the old, old bromide about Hispanic conservative values. 80% of Americans want this damn invasion stopped yesterday! I can assure you as someone who works in my State Republican Party that this immigration insanity by the Bush administration has depressed his base. I don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying that most of the astute Party workers that I have run into on a National or State level concede now that if things remain as they are today Bush will lose. You might want to check out www.freerepublic.com and read the immigration threads; the Party base is going insane"
Peg Kaplan has now joined the ranks of the Krugman demolishers. Perhaps I am being a Pollyanna but my impression is that the new editor of the New York Times is trying to swing the paper back closer to middle ground. Quite a bit that is congenial to conservatives appears there these days. If they really want to get away from their reputation as a Leftist propaganda outlet, however, they will have to do something about columnist Krugman. Giving Donald Luskin a column too would be one idea.
The last item on "Best of the Web" of 5th. shows that the Los Angeles Times also has a long way to go in easing its Leftist bias. Apparently, their sub-editors automatically change "pro-life" to "anti-abortion" -- with sometimes hilarious results.
There is a carefully-reasoned article by a Bible Christian here arguing that Islam is a Satanic religion. If I were a Christian I think I would agree with him.
I am pleased to say that one of my German readers has responded to my request yesterday for a copy of one of my academic articles that I had lost. See here or here. The findings in it throw into a cocked hat almost all of the research into attitudes that psychologists have ever done. No wonder it has been thoroughly ignored!
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Saturday, March 06, 2004
IN DEFENCE OF THE REPUBLICAN "LEFTWARD DRIFT"
Gary Bezowsky writes:
"I don't think it's entirely correct to assign a leftward drift to the Republican efforts during the Bush term. Sure, we have carping from the right wing against the Bush policies on immigration reform, the deficit and prescription drugs. However, I would defend immigration reform and prescription drugs on conservative grounds and the deficit on economic grounds. Bush ran on a platform that included support for prescription drugs. It should be no surprise that he championed this bill in his first term.
It should be noted this bill includes features with a decided market oriented twist. It allows certain Medicare eligible beneficiaries the right to use private insurers. Additionally, it allows for the first time everyone to establish tax friendly private insurance accounts to cover major medical expenses and pay for minor medical expenses out of pocket.
Immigration reform is the first real effort to offer any policy changes in this area. It brings these people out of the shadows, provides background checks and forces the illegals to pay fines but does not offer automatic citizenship. The illegal are not going away. Americans are not going to chase after the illegals employers. Bush has recognized the Mexican voting block will only grow in the future and is determined to bring this naturally conservative constituency into the Republican's fold.
The anger over the deficit is misplaced. It's appropriate to run deficits during periods of slow growth and it will go away as spending slows and the economy grows from the proper fiscal policy prescriptions of lowering marginal tax rates. Deficits are now running at 4% plus of GDP. At this level, they are not a problem.
I think Bush is taking a page out of the left's playbook. Get a little bit of what you really want each year. A single bill is never the cumulation of the effort. It's just the first step of a long journey. I'm ok with the strategy.
Look for making the tax cuts permanent, privatizing social security and more Medicare reform with more market oriented elements in the second term. Just watch the economy boom with this brew. I think the efforts on the war on terror will increase in the second term. Although I don't have a prediction about the direction.
I'm more upset with the steel tariffs (since rescinded) and a lackluster effort to get a better free trade agreement with Australia. These suffer from domestic politics"
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Gary Bezowsky writes:
"I don't think it's entirely correct to assign a leftward drift to the Republican efforts during the Bush term. Sure, we have carping from the right wing against the Bush policies on immigration reform, the deficit and prescription drugs. However, I would defend immigration reform and prescription drugs on conservative grounds and the deficit on economic grounds. Bush ran on a platform that included support for prescription drugs. It should be no surprise that he championed this bill in his first term.
It should be noted this bill includes features with a decided market oriented twist. It allows certain Medicare eligible beneficiaries the right to use private insurers. Additionally, it allows for the first time everyone to establish tax friendly private insurance accounts to cover major medical expenses and pay for minor medical expenses out of pocket.
Immigration reform is the first real effort to offer any policy changes in this area. It brings these people out of the shadows, provides background checks and forces the illegals to pay fines but does not offer automatic citizenship. The illegal are not going away. Americans are not going to chase after the illegals employers. Bush has recognized the Mexican voting block will only grow in the future and is determined to bring this naturally conservative constituency into the Republican's fold.
The anger over the deficit is misplaced. It's appropriate to run deficits during periods of slow growth and it will go away as spending slows and the economy grows from the proper fiscal policy prescriptions of lowering marginal tax rates. Deficits are now running at 4% plus of GDP. At this level, they are not a problem.
I think Bush is taking a page out of the left's playbook. Get a little bit of what you really want each year. A single bill is never the cumulation of the effort. It's just the first step of a long journey. I'm ok with the strategy.
Look for making the tax cuts permanent, privatizing social security and more Medicare reform with more market oriented elements in the second term. Just watch the economy boom with this brew. I think the efforts on the war on terror will increase in the second term. Although I don't have a prediction about the direction.
I'm more upset with the steel tariffs (since rescinded) and a lackluster effort to get a better free trade agreement with Australia. These suffer from domestic politics"
*******************************
ELSEWHERE
As a libertarian who sees no need for government in regulating marriage anyhow, I have no dog in the current fight over homosexual marriage. I think that marriage should simply be a personal and private contract that can be enforced like any other contract. As Tibor Machan says here: "Sure, the Massachusetts Supreme Court affirmed the right of gays to get married. Did that shove anything down anyone's throat? Not by a long shot, no more so than a court's affirming the right to be free of enslavement or some other government imposed restriction shoves anything down anyone's throat." But, unlike Machan, I DO find objectionable that unelected judges can legalize homosexual marriage just because they feel like it. They have now "liberated" themselves from all constraints. Judges have always made law. The Common Law consists of nothing else. But the Common Law evolved over hundreds of years as the judicial expression of what the community as a whole saw as just. But note how things have changed: "The Defense of Marriage Act, which became law eight years ago, was enacted overwhelmingly by Congress, with margins of 342-67 in the House and 85-14 in the Senate. Public opinion polls show similarly high support among Americans for defending marriage." Judges who try to usurp democracy by making the law up as they go along clearly are one of America's biggest problems. The homosexual marriage issue is only a sideshow to that more basic problem. I think the constitutional amendment that GWB should be concentrating on is one that would allow the people to vote any judge out of office. People might eventually take to shooting them otherwise. They are pure power without responsibility at the moment. That cannot go on forever.
NYT gets real about poverty: "Now many scholars from across the political spectrum agree that money alone will not significantly improve the lives of poor families. "Not only does behavior matter," Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution wrote in The Public Interest last year, "it matters more than it used to. Growing gaps between the rich and poor in recent decades have been exacerbated by a divergence in the behavior of the two groups." If you graduate from high school, wait until marriage to have kids and work full time (at whatever job), it is almost certain that you will not remain poor. Sawhill's research indicates that we could double the amount we spend on welfare programs, and we would not make an important dent in poverty."
Hugh Hewitt says that current Leftist beliefs are simply silly: "John Kerry... stated bluntly that George W. Bush heads the "most inept, reckless, and ideological foreign policy in the history of this country." No matter how one evaluates recent events in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya--and they look pretty good to me--they cannot seriously be compared negatively with losing a war in Vietnam, watching Iran slide into virulent Islamism, or allowing Osama bin Laden to nest and metastasize in Kabul and its precincts. Still, millions of Americans will believe Kerry's outlandish excess not because of evidence that he has presented, but because they want to." For those who do not know their history, the last three disasters Hewitt lists happened under Democrat Presidents (LBJ, Carter and Clinton).
Communist Vietnam has a new friend: Germany, of course. Communists are MUCH easier to get on with than that "Hitler" George Bush.
Carnival of the Vanities is a little late this week but as good as ever.
I have just posted here the latest observations from Chris Brand. He is enjoying the divisions among feminists over the publicity-hungry Naomi Wolf.
The wicked one has just put up some light-hearted comments about Israel, improbable though that may seem.
I have just posted up what seems to be just about the last of my published academic journal articles. See here or here. It shows that criminals have very anti-authority attitudes -- which should be no surprise -- but psychologists generally seem to believe the opposite! I do have one other article in print but no lonnger have a copy of it so cannot post it up. It is: "Acquiescent response bias as a recurrent psychometric disease: Conservatism in Japan, the U.S.A. and New Zealand" It is in a German journal that no library in Brisbane seems to hold: Psychologische Beitraege of 1985 (pages 113-119) so if anyone can dig a copy out of THEIR university library and either scan it in or mail me a xerox of it, that would be appreciated.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
As a libertarian who sees no need for government in regulating marriage anyhow, I have no dog in the current fight over homosexual marriage. I think that marriage should simply be a personal and private contract that can be enforced like any other contract. As Tibor Machan says here: "Sure, the Massachusetts Supreme Court affirmed the right of gays to get married. Did that shove anything down anyone's throat? Not by a long shot, no more so than a court's affirming the right to be free of enslavement or some other government imposed restriction shoves anything down anyone's throat." But, unlike Machan, I DO find objectionable that unelected judges can legalize homosexual marriage just because they feel like it. They have now "liberated" themselves from all constraints. Judges have always made law. The Common Law consists of nothing else. But the Common Law evolved over hundreds of years as the judicial expression of what the community as a whole saw as just. But note how things have changed: "The Defense of Marriage Act, which became law eight years ago, was enacted overwhelmingly by Congress, with margins of 342-67 in the House and 85-14 in the Senate. Public opinion polls show similarly high support among Americans for defending marriage." Judges who try to usurp democracy by making the law up as they go along clearly are one of America's biggest problems. The homosexual marriage issue is only a sideshow to that more basic problem. I think the constitutional amendment that GWB should be concentrating on is one that would allow the people to vote any judge out of office. People might eventually take to shooting them otherwise. They are pure power without responsibility at the moment. That cannot go on forever.
NYT gets real about poverty: "Now many scholars from across the political spectrum agree that money alone will not significantly improve the lives of poor families. "Not only does behavior matter," Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution wrote in The Public Interest last year, "it matters more than it used to. Growing gaps between the rich and poor in recent decades have been exacerbated by a divergence in the behavior of the two groups." If you graduate from high school, wait until marriage to have kids and work full time (at whatever job), it is almost certain that you will not remain poor. Sawhill's research indicates that we could double the amount we spend on welfare programs, and we would not make an important dent in poverty."
Hugh Hewitt says that current Leftist beliefs are simply silly: "John Kerry... stated bluntly that George W. Bush heads the "most inept, reckless, and ideological foreign policy in the history of this country." No matter how one evaluates recent events in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya--and they look pretty good to me--they cannot seriously be compared negatively with losing a war in Vietnam, watching Iran slide into virulent Islamism, or allowing Osama bin Laden to nest and metastasize in Kabul and its precincts. Still, millions of Americans will believe Kerry's outlandish excess not because of evidence that he has presented, but because they want to." For those who do not know their history, the last three disasters Hewitt lists happened under Democrat Presidents (LBJ, Carter and Clinton).
Communist Vietnam has a new friend: Germany, of course. Communists are MUCH easier to get on with than that "Hitler" George Bush.
Carnival of the Vanities is a little late this week but as good as ever.
I have just posted here the latest observations from Chris Brand. He is enjoying the divisions among feminists over the publicity-hungry Naomi Wolf.
The wicked one has just put up some light-hearted comments about Israel, improbable though that may seem.
I have just posted up what seems to be just about the last of my published academic journal articles. See here or here. It shows that criminals have very anti-authority attitudes -- which should be no surprise -- but psychologists generally seem to believe the opposite! I do have one other article in print but no lonnger have a copy of it so cannot post it up. It is: "Acquiescent response bias as a recurrent psychometric disease: Conservatism in Japan, the U.S.A. and New Zealand" It is in a German journal that no library in Brisbane seems to hold: Psychologische Beitraege of 1985 (pages 113-119) so if anyone can dig a copy out of THEIR university library and either scan it in or mail me a xerox of it, that would be appreciated.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Friday, March 05, 2004
THAT MOVIE AGAIN
Ann Coulter has a very acid comparison between the Leftist reaction to the Gibson movie and their reaction to Islam.
I myself am pleased that (Australian) Mel Gibson's film about the crucifixion is helping the Christian faith of many and may even bring some people into the Christian fold. Even some conservatives, however, are concerned about the film on the grounds that it will inflame antisemitism. Monica Charen, for instance says: "It grieves me to object to Mel Gibson's movie because I know that millions of Christians in this country and around the world will be moved and possibly even transformed by it -- and that is a welcome thing. As a Jew, I can unhesitatingly declare that the world would be a better place if it contained more believing Christians. And yet Gibson has seeded his film with images of Jewish guilt and perfidy that will fall on fertile anti-Semitic soil around the world." Dick McDonald has sent me an email that begs to differ:
I am sure someone will accuse Dick of antisemitism for mentioning Jewish differences -- particularly that Jews "stick together" -- but they should note that various studies sponsored by the Anti-defamation League of B'nai B'rith (e.g. Quinley & Glock, 1979) came to conclusions similar to Dick's. Here is a quote from Quinley & Glock: ""Another common stereotype of Jews is that they are clannish... The perception of Jews as clannish has some basis in fact and can thus be accepted without necessarily being a symptom of prejudice." There is a long (and unsympathetic) catalogue here of Jews acknowledging Jewish differences and Jewish tribalism. My own sympathetic account of Jewish differences and tribalism is here.
Reference:
Quinley, H.E. & Glock, C.Y. (1979) Anti-semitism in America. N.Y.: Free Press.
***********************************
Ann Coulter has a very acid comparison between the Leftist reaction to the Gibson movie and their reaction to Islam.
I myself am pleased that (Australian) Mel Gibson's film about the crucifixion is helping the Christian faith of many and may even bring some people into the Christian fold. Even some conservatives, however, are concerned about the film on the grounds that it will inflame antisemitism. Monica Charen, for instance says: "It grieves me to object to Mel Gibson's movie because I know that millions of Christians in this country and around the world will be moved and possibly even transformed by it -- and that is a welcome thing. As a Jew, I can unhesitatingly declare that the world would be a better place if it contained more believing Christians. And yet Gibson has seeded his film with images of Jewish guilt and perfidy that will fall on fertile anti-Semitic soil around the world." Dick McDonald has sent me an email that begs to differ:
"Monica Charen criticizes Mel Gibson's "Passion" as an antisemitic hate piece because it will ignite those feelings in many people around the world who hate the Jews for killing Jesus. Oh, were the case that simple! Having been reared in a Christian minority among a Jewish majority in the Fairfax district of West Hollywood, I have some insight into why they are hated, the least of which is that they killed Jesus.
The first indictment about Jews I've known is they are smarter than any other oppressed minority on the face of the Earth. In general, they are smarter than any majority. Whether we like it or not, envy is the blight on intelligence.
Secondly, they compete for money and power, with the ferocity and guile reserved to those who have been chased from almost every land on Earth. As a whole they are immensely successful, knowing their time might soon come to leave. Their business success everywhere has bred the brutal side of envy.
Thirdly, they stick together. Whenever possible they do business with each other to the exclusion of others. I was chided that we gentiles had only produced Jack Kemp during my time in school, whereas they (the Jews) had hundreds of millionaires. They honor the old tradition of exclusion of other sects thus creating animosity and envy.
Now, there are many other areas we could talk about but just these three traits and the scorn they precipitate have got them in more trouble than their scriptured complicity in Christ's death. I went through my minority as a minority among Jews and can't recall or remember ever discussing their alleged complicity with Christ's death. The "Passion" is a convenient excuse to deflect from the real problem Jews have: SUCCESS. Unfortunately, everyone takes potshots at the guys on the top."
I am sure someone will accuse Dick of antisemitism for mentioning Jewish differences -- particularly that Jews "stick together" -- but they should note that various studies sponsored by the Anti-defamation League of B'nai B'rith (e.g. Quinley & Glock, 1979) came to conclusions similar to Dick's. Here is a quote from Quinley & Glock: ""Another common stereotype of Jews is that they are clannish... The perception of Jews as clannish has some basis in fact and can thus be accepted without necessarily being a symptom of prejudice." There is a long (and unsympathetic) catalogue here of Jews acknowledging Jewish differences and Jewish tribalism. My own sympathetic account of Jewish differences and tribalism is here.
Reference:
Quinley, H.E. & Glock, C.Y. (1979) Anti-semitism in America. N.Y.: Free Press.
***********************************
ELSEWHERE
No double standards for Israel: "Look who's preaching to Israel: Last Wednesday, the U.S. State Department released its annual report on the state of human rights around the world. ... A country that is holding 660 Afghan detainees at Guantanamo without trial and depriving them of basic rights is in no position to criticize administrative detentions carried out by other countries. A country that is holding members of the Iraqi political leadership in detention without trial, far from view, is in no position to complain about the conditions of detention in the prisons of other countries. And a country that is maintaining a tough military occupation regime in Iraq doesn't have the right to fulminate against a different occupation regime, however cruel it may be, in the Palestinian territories."
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" no more? "Israeli police said on Thursday they had arrested an ultra-nationalist Jew who had confessed to a three-year bombing campaign against Arabs and to plotting the assassination of Israeli Arab lawmakers". The troubles there would probably be over now if there were more like him.
Once again, they're praising Hitler with impunity in Germany
A general Leftward drift: "For some decades now, it has been axiomatic to say that the two American political parties have become increasingly polarized along ideological lines - the Republicans becoming more conservative and the Democrats more liberal.... What seems to be happening in 2004 is the Democrats are whirling around more liberal than ever, while the Republicans are abandoning their conservative principles on a daily basis...The Democrats, having flirted for months with nominating the extreme liberal Howard Dean, have abandoned him in favor of John Kerry, who is in fact more liberal than Dean. Kerry is.. more liberal than anyone the Democrats have ever nominated for President. He is also more liberal than any of the other candidates in this year's field, if you will allow me to dispense with the burden of classifying Al Sharpton... And what of the Republicans? Have they, in mirror image, moved rightward in 2004? Heck, no. The biggest complaint about George W. Bush is that he has abandoned the conservatives in his party, on immigration reform, the prescription drug program, deficit spending and other issues".
Jeff Jacoby has an appalling story about those wonderful humanitarian Canadians. How they hate anti-Communists!
A former member of the U.S. army in Vietnam ridicules the observations about U.S. Army misbehaviour that John Kerry claims to have made from his Navy boat.
Texas Conservative delivers a fisking of John Kerry's recent UCLA speech on terrorism.
The wicked one has just put up some facetious diet advice that could make us all vegetarians.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
No double standards for Israel: "Look who's preaching to Israel: Last Wednesday, the U.S. State Department released its annual report on the state of human rights around the world. ... A country that is holding 660 Afghan detainees at Guantanamo without trial and depriving them of basic rights is in no position to criticize administrative detentions carried out by other countries. A country that is holding members of the Iraqi political leadership in detention without trial, far from view, is in no position to complain about the conditions of detention in the prisons of other countries. And a country that is maintaining a tough military occupation regime in Iraq doesn't have the right to fulminate against a different occupation regime, however cruel it may be, in the Palestinian territories."
"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" no more? "Israeli police said on Thursday they had arrested an ultra-nationalist Jew who had confessed to a three-year bombing campaign against Arabs and to plotting the assassination of Israeli Arab lawmakers". The troubles there would probably be over now if there were more like him.
Once again, they're praising Hitler with impunity in Germany
A general Leftward drift: "For some decades now, it has been axiomatic to say that the two American political parties have become increasingly polarized along ideological lines - the Republicans becoming more conservative and the Democrats more liberal.... What seems to be happening in 2004 is the Democrats are whirling around more liberal than ever, while the Republicans are abandoning their conservative principles on a daily basis...The Democrats, having flirted for months with nominating the extreme liberal Howard Dean, have abandoned him in favor of John Kerry, who is in fact more liberal than Dean. Kerry is.. more liberal than anyone the Democrats have ever nominated for President. He is also more liberal than any of the other candidates in this year's field, if you will allow me to dispense with the burden of classifying Al Sharpton... And what of the Republicans? Have they, in mirror image, moved rightward in 2004? Heck, no. The biggest complaint about George W. Bush is that he has abandoned the conservatives in his party, on immigration reform, the prescription drug program, deficit spending and other issues".
Jeff Jacoby has an appalling story about those wonderful humanitarian Canadians. How they hate anti-Communists!
A former member of the U.S. army in Vietnam ridicules the observations about U.S. Army misbehaviour that John Kerry claims to have made from his Navy boat.
Texas Conservative delivers a fisking of John Kerry's recent UCLA speech on terrorism.
The wicked one has just put up some facetious diet advice that could make us all vegetarians.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Thursday, March 04, 2004
BLOG BACKGROUND
I thought I might say a few things about this blog in case anybody is curious about it. I think any blogger will tell you how time-consuming blogging is and in my case I would spend an average of about 8 hours a day or more preparing posts for this blog. As a retired man I can easily afford to do that. I usually put up my posts only once a day at around 9am Queensland time (equivalent to 3pm the previous day in California time). Most of the time I spend is spent reading links sent to me by readers. I do very little reading of my own accord. Even blogs that I like to keep up with -- such as England's Sword and the Bunyip -- I log onto only occasionally. The only blog I read nearly every day is the analytical philosopher -- perhaps because he is a professional analytical philosopher while I am only an amateur one!
One reader in particular sends me so many links that he is in effect a silent partner in this blog. Because he wishes to remain anonymous (though he does have an irregular blog of his own) I get the credit for his broad reading. Around half the links I put up are in fact from him. I wish I could thank him by name here but I thank him anyway.
While I am mentioning personal things, I might also mention that my 16-year-old son Joe has just started an advanced placement course in mathematics at the University of Queensland. He is in his final year at a large private Catholic high school but is allowed to do one subject at university level. The University of Queensland is one of Australia's oldest and largest universities and is where I got my first degree. Joe actually has classes in exactly the same big old sandstone building where I first had classes exactly 40 years ago. I am pretty pleased about it all -- particularly as he is the only one in his school doing advanced placement. And he arranged it all for himself, too. I had no hand in it.
*****************************
I thought I might say a few things about this blog in case anybody is curious about it. I think any blogger will tell you how time-consuming blogging is and in my case I would spend an average of about 8 hours a day or more preparing posts for this blog. As a retired man I can easily afford to do that. I usually put up my posts only once a day at around 9am Queensland time (equivalent to 3pm the previous day in California time). Most of the time I spend is spent reading links sent to me by readers. I do very little reading of my own accord. Even blogs that I like to keep up with -- such as England's Sword and the Bunyip -- I log onto only occasionally. The only blog I read nearly every day is the analytical philosopher -- perhaps because he is a professional analytical philosopher while I am only an amateur one!
One reader in particular sends me so many links that he is in effect a silent partner in this blog. Because he wishes to remain anonymous (though he does have an irregular blog of his own) I get the credit for his broad reading. Around half the links I put up are in fact from him. I wish I could thank him by name here but I thank him anyway.
While I am mentioning personal things, I might also mention that my 16-year-old son Joe has just started an advanced placement course in mathematics at the University of Queensland. He is in his final year at a large private Catholic high school but is allowed to do one subject at university level. The University of Queensland is one of Australia's oldest and largest universities and is where I got my first degree. Joe actually has classes in exactly the same big old sandstone building where I first had classes exactly 40 years ago. I am pretty pleased about it all -- particularly as he is the only one in his school doing advanced placement. And he arranged it all for himself, too. I had no hand in it.
*****************************
ELSEWHERE
Christian libertarian Vox Day has some cogent arguments for getting the government out of marriage altogether: "There is a significant difference between marriage - the religious commitment between a man and one or more women - as it has been known in every historical society for at least 6,000 years, and the modern concept of state-granted civil marriage. Self-styled conservative "defenders of marriage" justify their support for state involvement, mostly in the form of tax breaks and social security benefits, in much the same way that left-liberal justify everything - it's all for the children. As usual, however, this mistaken notion has worked out about as well as every other government intrusion into the economy and culture. The number of children being produced in the United States has dropped to its lowest level since 1909...."
Christopher Hitchens: "One good thing about gay nuptials: It'd drive the mullahs mad."
It seems that George Soros too has that vast ego that motivates so many Leftists and leads them to hate those who already are in the positions of power and influence that they covet. Soros is almost a caricature of an egomaniac in fact. No wonder he hates George Bush.
Europe would vote for Kerry if it could. And they're rooting for him. Another bunch all twisted up by envy. They know America would be weak under Kerry.
Jeff Jacoby: "John Kerry is going to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. And that means that President Bush is one step closer to reelection."
Two good quotes via The Federalist: "I have seen gross intolerance shown in support of tolerance." and: "It is completely legitimate for President Bush's campaign to cite Mr. Kerry's voting record and public words in an attempt to prove that the senator's military and foreign policy judgments of the last 30 years have been unwise and unrealistic". The quote about tolerance is from Coleridge (1772-1834) -- a famous poet and one of the many who moved from radicalism to conservatism as he went through life. He could have been writing today.
Rubbery French principles: "France said on Wednesday it was ready to review advertising restrictions on wine producers to encourage the French to drink the industry out of a sales slump."
What fun! "COCA-Cola's new 'designer water" is not the real thing at all and its ingredients are not so special that they are a well-kept secret. For the drink is nothing more than tap water".
Government does something useful: "Citing an array of financial abuses at charitable foundations, federal officials and the Massachusetts attorney general's office plan to push new legislation and tougher regulations designed to curtail excessive salaries, lavish spending, and conflicts of interest by some foundation directors. US Senator Charles E. Grassley [R-IA], chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called the improprieties at foundations detailed in a recent Globe series 'wrong and outrageous,' and said new laws and more stringent rules are needed to ensure that the billions of dollars in foundation assets are used for charitable purposes and not to enrich insiders."
Lula's Leftist authoritarianism is showing: "Thirty thousand people took part in a march in Sao Paulo to protest a decision by Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to close down bingo halls and ban slot machines nationwide. The march was led by the Fuerza Sindical union, whose leader Paulo Pereira da Silva says the ban will bump 100,000 people out of work just in Sao Paulo and possibly more than three times that number in all of Brazil. Lula ordered the closing down of bingo halls after corruption allegations surfaced in February concerning a former adviser to the government."
I have just posted here some more observations from Chris Brand -- noting some increases in realism about race.
The wicked one has just put up another big collection of funnies. I liked the one about diarrhoea.
In the last two days I have put up critiques of work in psychology by Adorno disciples. Criticism is no substitute for doing better, however, so I have today put up one of my published academic articles that provides better data for testing the Adorno theories. See here or here.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Christian libertarian Vox Day has some cogent arguments for getting the government out of marriage altogether: "There is a significant difference between marriage - the religious commitment between a man and one or more women - as it has been known in every historical society for at least 6,000 years, and the modern concept of state-granted civil marriage. Self-styled conservative "defenders of marriage" justify their support for state involvement, mostly in the form of tax breaks and social security benefits, in much the same way that left-liberal justify everything - it's all for the children. As usual, however, this mistaken notion has worked out about as well as every other government intrusion into the economy and culture. The number of children being produced in the United States has dropped to its lowest level since 1909...."
Christopher Hitchens: "One good thing about gay nuptials: It'd drive the mullahs mad."
It seems that George Soros too has that vast ego that motivates so many Leftists and leads them to hate those who already are in the positions of power and influence that they covet. Soros is almost a caricature of an egomaniac in fact. No wonder he hates George Bush.
Europe would vote for Kerry if it could. And they're rooting for him. Another bunch all twisted up by envy. They know America would be weak under Kerry.
Jeff Jacoby: "John Kerry is going to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. And that means that President Bush is one step closer to reelection."
Two good quotes via The Federalist: "I have seen gross intolerance shown in support of tolerance." and: "It is completely legitimate for President Bush's campaign to cite Mr. Kerry's voting record and public words in an attempt to prove that the senator's military and foreign policy judgments of the last 30 years have been unwise and unrealistic". The quote about tolerance is from Coleridge (1772-1834) -- a famous poet and one of the many who moved from radicalism to conservatism as he went through life. He could have been writing today.
Rubbery French principles: "France said on Wednesday it was ready to review advertising restrictions on wine producers to encourage the French to drink the industry out of a sales slump."
What fun! "COCA-Cola's new 'designer water" is not the real thing at all and its ingredients are not so special that they are a well-kept secret. For the drink is nothing more than tap water".
Government does something useful: "Citing an array of financial abuses at charitable foundations, federal officials and the Massachusetts attorney general's office plan to push new legislation and tougher regulations designed to curtail excessive salaries, lavish spending, and conflicts of interest by some foundation directors. US Senator Charles E. Grassley [R-IA], chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called the improprieties at foundations detailed in a recent Globe series 'wrong and outrageous,' and said new laws and more stringent rules are needed to ensure that the billions of dollars in foundation assets are used for charitable purposes and not to enrich insiders."
Lula's Leftist authoritarianism is showing: "Thirty thousand people took part in a march in Sao Paulo to protest a decision by Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to close down bingo halls and ban slot machines nationwide. The march was led by the Fuerza Sindical union, whose leader Paulo Pereira da Silva says the ban will bump 100,000 people out of work just in Sao Paulo and possibly more than three times that number in all of Brazil. Lula ordered the closing down of bingo halls after corruption allegations surfaced in February concerning a former adviser to the government."
I have just posted here some more observations from Chris Brand -- noting some increases in realism about race.
The wicked one has just put up another big collection of funnies. I liked the one about diarrhoea.
In the last two days I have put up critiques of work in psychology by Adorno disciples. Criticism is no substitute for doing better, however, so I have today put up one of my published academic articles that provides better data for testing the Adorno theories. See here or here.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
ON WELFARE AND ECONOMICS
An American tragedy: "One out of 17 white homeowners owns a luxury home, but only one out of 33 minority homeowners has such a costly house". And one out of 33 million Bangladeshis has such a house.
Welfare destroys community: "Cohesion develops from the bottom-up. It emerges when families, workmates and neighbours come together to share common interests and to solve common problems. But people come together only when they have a reason to do so. The more the welfare state takes care of our needs, the less remains for us to do for ourselves. The result is that the bonds between us begin to fray... crime rates plummeted during the 1990s at precisely the same time as the government cut back on welfare spending and income inequality increased significantly". All of which is the opposite of Leftist orthodoxy.
Sowell on the "Big Lie of the Year": "It may be too early in this election year to determine which will be the biggest of the Big Lies in this political campaign. However, my feeling is that it may be 'the working poor.' While there are working people who are poor, most poor people are not working full time, not working very long, or not working at all... By focussing on those who work hard all their lives and still remain poor - no more than 3 percent of the population - and telling their personal stories endlessly, liberals can present the Big Lie with a human face. There is an even bigger lie behind all this. That lie is the implication that the purpose of all this hand-wringing is to help the poor. But the poor are just the bait in a political bait-and-switch game. ....The fraud becomes apparent the moment anyone suggests that there be means tests, so that the taxpayers' money will be spent only on the poor. Those who pose as the biggest champions of the poor are almost invariably the biggest opponents of means tests. They want bigger government and the poor are just a means to that end. "
The Left-leaning "Atlantic" to its credit highlighted the same economic mythology that Sowell refers to last year: "lack of money was more an effect of poor people's other, more-fundamental problems than a cause in its own right; and so handing out more cash would be of little help. Other research similarly pointed away from money and toward the importance of two-parent families, education, and work". And Peter Hitchens compares the welfare state to heroin addiction.
On business 'down sizing': The facts show it's mainly restructuring and "..about half of all downsizing firms end up with at least as many laborers within a few years' time... Manufacturing is fifteen percent of the U.S. labor force and thus only a small part of the downsizing story. Retailing and services have been upsizing considerably for many years."
There is an amusing article here about Lou Dobbs, the financial expert who knows nothing about economics -- or pretends not to in his hunger for popularity. The article suggests that he is actually quite a good investment guide -- if you do the opposite of what he recommends.
Should the whole US Senate be investigated for insider trading? "US senators' personal stock portfolios outperformed the market by an average of 12 per cent a year in the five years to 1998, according to a new study. "The results clearly support the notion that members of the Senate trade with a substantial informational advantage over ordinary investors," says the author of the report, Professor Alan Ziobrowski of the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University."
Good news for Israel: "Mr. Netanyahu has tackled economic reform with the zeal and single-mindedness that has marked his career, drawing comparisons to New Zealand's Roger Douglas, the finance minister who liberated his own nation's economy in the 1980s. Mr. Netanyahu's emergency economic plan spared no holy cows: It included cuts in government expenditures, welfare entitlements and public-sector jobs. It also sought to lower taxes and jump-start a stalled privatization program"
*****************************
An American tragedy: "One out of 17 white homeowners owns a luxury home, but only one out of 33 minority homeowners has such a costly house". And one out of 33 million Bangladeshis has such a house.
Welfare destroys community: "Cohesion develops from the bottom-up. It emerges when families, workmates and neighbours come together to share common interests and to solve common problems. But people come together only when they have a reason to do so. The more the welfare state takes care of our needs, the less remains for us to do for ourselves. The result is that the bonds between us begin to fray... crime rates plummeted during the 1990s at precisely the same time as the government cut back on welfare spending and income inequality increased significantly". All of which is the opposite of Leftist orthodoxy.
Sowell on the "Big Lie of the Year": "It may be too early in this election year to determine which will be the biggest of the Big Lies in this political campaign. However, my feeling is that it may be 'the working poor.' While there are working people who are poor, most poor people are not working full time, not working very long, or not working at all... By focussing on those who work hard all their lives and still remain poor - no more than 3 percent of the population - and telling their personal stories endlessly, liberals can present the Big Lie with a human face. There is an even bigger lie behind all this. That lie is the implication that the purpose of all this hand-wringing is to help the poor. But the poor are just the bait in a political bait-and-switch game. ....The fraud becomes apparent the moment anyone suggests that there be means tests, so that the taxpayers' money will be spent only on the poor. Those who pose as the biggest champions of the poor are almost invariably the biggest opponents of means tests. They want bigger government and the poor are just a means to that end. "
The Left-leaning "Atlantic" to its credit highlighted the same economic mythology that Sowell refers to last year: "lack of money was more an effect of poor people's other, more-fundamental problems than a cause in its own right; and so handing out more cash would be of little help. Other research similarly pointed away from money and toward the importance of two-parent families, education, and work". And Peter Hitchens compares the welfare state to heroin addiction.
On business 'down sizing': The facts show it's mainly restructuring and "..about half of all downsizing firms end up with at least as many laborers within a few years' time... Manufacturing is fifteen percent of the U.S. labor force and thus only a small part of the downsizing story. Retailing and services have been upsizing considerably for many years."
There is an amusing article here about Lou Dobbs, the financial expert who knows nothing about economics -- or pretends not to in his hunger for popularity. The article suggests that he is actually quite a good investment guide -- if you do the opposite of what he recommends.
Should the whole US Senate be investigated for insider trading? "US senators' personal stock portfolios outperformed the market by an average of 12 per cent a year in the five years to 1998, according to a new study. "The results clearly support the notion that members of the Senate trade with a substantial informational advantage over ordinary investors," says the author of the report, Professor Alan Ziobrowski of the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University."
Good news for Israel: "Mr. Netanyahu has tackled economic reform with the zeal and single-mindedness that has marked his career, drawing comparisons to New Zealand's Roger Douglas, the finance minister who liberated his own nation's economy in the 1980s. Mr. Netanyahu's emergency economic plan spared no holy cows: It included cuts in government expenditures, welfare entitlements and public-sector jobs. It also sought to lower taxes and jump-start a stalled privatization program"
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ELSEWHERE
John Kerry's Senate votes put him farther Left than Ted Kennedy
Here is another generally conservative writer who doesn't give a hoot whether homosexuals "marry" or not. What they do only matters if you think they are important.
OK. I'll call a spade a spade: Israel's "disengagement" plan is apartheid. Except that Israel has no other peaceful choice left. Keeping the Jews and the Arabs apart is the the best way to protect the security of the Jews. But it will leave the Arabs free to do what they like in their part of Israel so it is nothing like the South African apartheid of yore.
Hostility is bad for your heart and can kill you. I showed something similar 20 years ago. Being an angry type of person is clearly not good for your cardiac health. I wonder if Leftists have more heart attacks? I must try to look that up one day.
I'd flog them too! "Thousands of Indian Muslims flogged themselves as they marched peacefully through the communally sensitive western Gujarat state to mark the Shi'ite Muslim mourning day of Ashura"
Most of the usual Leftist slurs against GWB ("Hitler", "moron" etc) are demolished here.
Adam Smith, neuroscience pioneer? Smith said "The ability to appreciate other people's agony is achieved by the same parts of the brain that we use to experience pain for ourselves" and it appears that he was right.
I have just posted here some more observations from Chris Brand -- including a comment about genetics and eugenics. My own view of eugenics is here.
I mentioned the Marxist theoretician Adorno yesterday and noted that I had just posted to the net one of my published articles demolishing the work of one of his disciples in psychology. I have just put up another article demolishing the work of yet another of his disciples. See here or here.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
John Kerry's Senate votes put him farther Left than Ted Kennedy
Here is another generally conservative writer who doesn't give a hoot whether homosexuals "marry" or not. What they do only matters if you think they are important.
OK. I'll call a spade a spade: Israel's "disengagement" plan is apartheid. Except that Israel has no other peaceful choice left. Keeping the Jews and the Arabs apart is the the best way to protect the security of the Jews. But it will leave the Arabs free to do what they like in their part of Israel so it is nothing like the South African apartheid of yore.
Hostility is bad for your heart and can kill you. I showed something similar 20 years ago. Being an angry type of person is clearly not good for your cardiac health. I wonder if Leftists have more heart attacks? I must try to look that up one day.
I'd flog them too! "Thousands of Indian Muslims flogged themselves as they marched peacefully through the communally sensitive western Gujarat state to mark the Shi'ite Muslim mourning day of Ashura"
Most of the usual Leftist slurs against GWB ("Hitler", "moron" etc) are demolished here.
Adam Smith, neuroscience pioneer? Smith said "The ability to appreciate other people's agony is achieved by the same parts of the brain that we use to experience pain for ourselves" and it appears that he was right.
I have just posted here some more observations from Chris Brand -- including a comment about genetics and eugenics. My own view of eugenics is here.
I mentioned the Marxist theoretician Adorno yesterday and noted that I had just posted to the net one of my published articles demolishing the work of one of his disciples in psychology. I have just put up another article demolishing the work of yet another of his disciples. See here or here.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
FROM THE MIDDLE-EAST
Iraq mass graves: "Since the Saddam Hussein regime was overthrown in May, 270 mass graves have been reported. In November 2003 the remains of 400,000 people had been discovered. "If these numbers prove accurate, they represent a crime against humanity surpassed only by the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Pol Pot's Cambodian killing fields in the 1970s, and the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.":
Watch points out that the UN report about Israel's security fence "does not describe a single terrorist act against Israelis". How can you report on something without looking at the cause of it? The U.N. can!
What's new in the Palestinian press? "Despite continuing United States and Western European support for Palestinian political aspirations, the tightly-controlled official Palestinian Authority (PA) media relentlessly incites hatred and violence against the US and the West... President Bush, in this global war context, is depicted not merely as a leader of the "enemy United States", but is the enemy of all civilization, the "Fuhrer of the globalization era," a greater danger than Hitler, leading the world to destruction" Sounds rather like U.S. Leftists.
A former go-between for Iraq's Saddam Hussein says: "I don't think there was any Arab in the seventies who did not want Saddam Hussein to have an atomic weapon. They wanted him to have military parity. Israel had atomic weapons. The Arabs wanted an Arab country to have atomic weapons. Iraq was the head of the pack and therefore all Arabs supported Saddam Hussein."
Arlene Peck thinks that Israel should treat the world like women treat men. Arlene has obviously been a handful in her time.
************************************
Iraq mass graves: "Since the Saddam Hussein regime was overthrown in May, 270 mass graves have been reported. In November 2003 the remains of 400,000 people had been discovered. "If these numbers prove accurate, they represent a crime against humanity surpassed only by the Rwandan genocide of 1994, Pol Pot's Cambodian killing fields in the 1970s, and the Nazi Holocaust of World War II.":
Watch points out that the UN report about Israel's security fence "does not describe a single terrorist act against Israelis". How can you report on something without looking at the cause of it? The U.N. can!
What's new in the Palestinian press? "Despite continuing United States and Western European support for Palestinian political aspirations, the tightly-controlled official Palestinian Authority (PA) media relentlessly incites hatred and violence against the US and the West... President Bush, in this global war context, is depicted not merely as a leader of the "enemy United States", but is the enemy of all civilization, the "Fuhrer of the globalization era," a greater danger than Hitler, leading the world to destruction" Sounds rather like U.S. Leftists.
A former go-between for Iraq's Saddam Hussein says: "I don't think there was any Arab in the seventies who did not want Saddam Hussein to have an atomic weapon. They wanted him to have military parity. Israel had atomic weapons. The Arabs wanted an Arab country to have atomic weapons. Iraq was the head of the pack and therefore all Arabs supported Saddam Hussein."
Arlene Peck thinks that Israel should treat the world like women treat men. Arlene has obviously been a handful in her time.
************************************
ELSEWHERE
That old Marxist fraud, Theodor Adorno, still gets lots of respect in Leftist cultural circles so Denis Dutton's review of Adorno's book about astrology is a welcome corrective: "Karl Popper's famous critique of pseudoscience lumps Freud, astrology, and Marxism together. The difficulty with these theories, Popper said, is not that they don't explain enough, but rather that they explain too much. There is no imaginable human event which they cannot seize upon and place neatly in their theoretical scheme; they are unfalsifiable by experience. Despite my deep sympathy with Adorno's contempt for the occult, there is something similar going on here. If Adorno doesn't like something, no matter how inane or innocuous, it isn't long before he begins to detect in it the seeds of fascism." An amusing story: Theodor's original surname was "Wiesengrund" -- after his father -- but he obviously disliked such an obviously Ashkenazi name and adopted his dancer mother's Spanish stagename as his surname. So, translated into English, he went from being Theodor Meadowland to being Theodor Ornament: About as nutty as his theories. Adorno still has his disciples in psychology too. I have just put up (here or here) one of my published articles demolishing one such disciple.
This article says that public language has become full of waffle and obscurity these days. It's true. But you will find all straight talk on this blog. Even in my academic journal articles I always tried my best to put things simply and plainly and other academics often used to say to me things along the lines of: "We mightn't agree with you but at least we understand what you are saying".
French antisemitism: "During demonstrations in May 2002 organized by France's mainstream antiracist organizations, protesters shouted anti-Semitic slogans and tried to attack a couple of passers-by whom they believed to be Jewish... Since then, the Chirac government has made the crackdown on anti-Semitism a top priority. It has taken a series of emergency steps, from tighter policing of Jewish sites to quicker investigation and prosecution of hate crimes to proposing a heightened focus on the Holocaust in the public school curriculum." It should be noted thyat the Chirac government is a conservative one in French terms and that it was the preceding socialist government that did nothing about antisemitism.
France being such a hotbed of antisemitism, I can see their point on this one: "French cinema chains are refusing to distribute or screen Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of the Christ because of fears that it may spark a new outbreak of anti-Semitism."
No freedom of religion on the Left coast: "A Roman Catholic charitable organization must include birth control coverage in its health care plan for workers even though it is morally opposed to contraception, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday."
A statistical fluke if ever there was one: "Research from the University of Chicago's Centre on Ageing shows that daughters born to fathers in their late 40s or older live, on average, three years less than other women, yet their brothers are not affected."
Sending call-centre jobs to India: "It is inevitable in a networked world that our economy is going to shed certain low-wage, low-prestige jobs. To the extent that they go to places like India or Pakistan -- where they are viewed as high-wage, high-prestige jobs -- we make not only a more prosperous world, but a safer world for our own 20-year-olds."
Homosexual "marriage": "How about government simply getting out of the marriage-license-granting business? (Ditto for government licenses necessary to cut hair, drive a taxi, open a business or enter a profession.) Leave marriage to non-governmental institutions, like churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship or private institutions. Adultery, although legal, remains a sin subject to societal condemnation. It's tough to legislate away condemnation or legislate in approval. Those who view same-sex marriage as sinful will continue to do so, no matter what the government, the courts or their neighbors say."
VD Hanson: "Preemption is a concept as old as the Greeks. It perhaps was first articulated in the fourth book of Thucydides's history... What is new is the absolutist, blanket condemnation of the strategy altogether. In short, preemption is now a politicized, debased word. It is part of the anti-Bush lexicon and has lost any real meaning for the foreseeable future of its usage. The same may be true of "multilateralism" and "unilateralism... The Left's problem is not our embrace of the concept of "unilateralism" per se - or it would have attacked Clinton's U.N.-be-damned use of force in Iraq, Kosovo, and Haiti. No, the rub is something altogether different. A Christian, southern-accented, conservative Republican president, coming off a disputed election, has chosen to preempt. "
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
That old Marxist fraud, Theodor Adorno, still gets lots of respect in Leftist cultural circles so Denis Dutton's review of Adorno's book about astrology is a welcome corrective: "Karl Popper's famous critique of pseudoscience lumps Freud, astrology, and Marxism together. The difficulty with these theories, Popper said, is not that they don't explain enough, but rather that they explain too much. There is no imaginable human event which they cannot seize upon and place neatly in their theoretical scheme; they are unfalsifiable by experience. Despite my deep sympathy with Adorno's contempt for the occult, there is something similar going on here. If Adorno doesn't like something, no matter how inane or innocuous, it isn't long before he begins to detect in it the seeds of fascism." An amusing story: Theodor's original surname was "Wiesengrund" -- after his father -- but he obviously disliked such an obviously Ashkenazi name and adopted his dancer mother's Spanish stagename as his surname. So, translated into English, he went from being Theodor Meadowland to being Theodor Ornament: About as nutty as his theories. Adorno still has his disciples in psychology too. I have just put up (here or here) one of my published articles demolishing one such disciple.
This article says that public language has become full of waffle and obscurity these days. It's true. But you will find all straight talk on this blog. Even in my academic journal articles I always tried my best to put things simply and plainly and other academics often used to say to me things along the lines of: "We mightn't agree with you but at least we understand what you are saying".
French antisemitism: "During demonstrations in May 2002 organized by France's mainstream antiracist organizations, protesters shouted anti-Semitic slogans and tried to attack a couple of passers-by whom they believed to be Jewish... Since then, the Chirac government has made the crackdown on anti-Semitism a top priority. It has taken a series of emergency steps, from tighter policing of Jewish sites to quicker investigation and prosecution of hate crimes to proposing a heightened focus on the Holocaust in the public school curriculum." It should be noted thyat the Chirac government is a conservative one in French terms and that it was the preceding socialist government that did nothing about antisemitism.
France being such a hotbed of antisemitism, I can see their point on this one: "French cinema chains are refusing to distribute or screen Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of the Christ because of fears that it may spark a new outbreak of anti-Semitism."
No freedom of religion on the Left coast: "A Roman Catholic charitable organization must include birth control coverage in its health care plan for workers even though it is morally opposed to contraception, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday."
A statistical fluke if ever there was one: "Research from the University of Chicago's Centre on Ageing shows that daughters born to fathers in their late 40s or older live, on average, three years less than other women, yet their brothers are not affected."
Sending call-centre jobs to India: "It is inevitable in a networked world that our economy is going to shed certain low-wage, low-prestige jobs. To the extent that they go to places like India or Pakistan -- where they are viewed as high-wage, high-prestige jobs -- we make not only a more prosperous world, but a safer world for our own 20-year-olds."
Homosexual "marriage": "How about government simply getting out of the marriage-license-granting business? (Ditto for government licenses necessary to cut hair, drive a taxi, open a business or enter a profession.) Leave marriage to non-governmental institutions, like churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship or private institutions. Adultery, although legal, remains a sin subject to societal condemnation. It's tough to legislate away condemnation or legislate in approval. Those who view same-sex marriage as sinful will continue to do so, no matter what the government, the courts or their neighbors say."
VD Hanson: "Preemption is a concept as old as the Greeks. It perhaps was first articulated in the fourth book of Thucydides's history... What is new is the absolutist, blanket condemnation of the strategy altogether. In short, preemption is now a politicized, debased word. It is part of the anti-Bush lexicon and has lost any real meaning for the foreseeable future of its usage. The same may be true of "multilateralism" and "unilateralism... The Left's problem is not our embrace of the concept of "unilateralism" per se - or it would have attacked Clinton's U.N.-be-damned use of force in Iraq, Kosovo, and Haiti. No, the rub is something altogether different. A Christian, southern-accented, conservative Republican president, coming off a disputed election, has chosen to preempt. "
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Monday, March 01, 2004
GREENIE CORNER
The Greenies will love this one: "Prolonged exposure to low-level magnetic fields, similar to those emitted by such common household devices as blow dryers, electric blankets and razors , can damage brain cell DNA, according to researchers in the University of Washington's Department of Bioengineering. The scientists further found that the damage from brief exposures appears to build up over time." Is there anything that is NOT bad for us? Odd that people are living longer all the time, though.
Climate science or science fiction? "Proponents of policies to control human-induced global warming cite science as the basis for their claims and proposals. There is only one problem -- as much as they claim otherwise, there is no scientific consensus for their theories. Here's a quick refresher. Science pursues knowledge through testing, observation and the systematization of facts, principles and methods. Progress is made when a hypothesis is proposed to explain or understand certain phenomena, and which is then tested against reality. A particular hypothesis is considered superior to others when, through testing, it is shown to have more explanatory power than competing theories and when other scientists can reproduce the results. The theory humans are causing global warming does not work this way, however."
Science in the service of power: "I am not convinced, actually, that ecology is much of a science apart from offering some explanations of how the globe's living systems behave. But just as most of the natural sciences cannot give us any direction as to how we should conduct ourselves, what we should aim for in our lives, but only tell us about certain limits and possibilities, so with ecology. This is especially so when it comes to the constant finger-wagging environmentalists engage in with the supposed backing of ecologists."
It's just another Greenie hoax: "When a 'scandalous' story breaks in the United States, makes no waves, resurfaces a few weeks later in the left-wing British press, and only then do liberal activists start haranguing people about it, it is safe to say that the story should be treated with a little suspicion. That is certainly the case with the environmental cri du jour, that the Pentagon is alarmed by the national-security aspects of global warming and recommends immediate action."
****************************************
The Greenies will love this one: "Prolonged exposure to low-level magnetic fields, similar to those emitted by such common household devices as blow dryers, electric blankets and razors , can damage brain cell DNA, according to researchers in the University of Washington's Department of Bioengineering. The scientists further found that the damage from brief exposures appears to build up over time." Is there anything that is NOT bad for us? Odd that people are living longer all the time, though.
Climate science or science fiction? "Proponents of policies to control human-induced global warming cite science as the basis for their claims and proposals. There is only one problem -- as much as they claim otherwise, there is no scientific consensus for their theories. Here's a quick refresher. Science pursues knowledge through testing, observation and the systematization of facts, principles and methods. Progress is made when a hypothesis is proposed to explain or understand certain phenomena, and which is then tested against reality. A particular hypothesis is considered superior to others when, through testing, it is shown to have more explanatory power than competing theories and when other scientists can reproduce the results. The theory humans are causing global warming does not work this way, however."
Science in the service of power: "I am not convinced, actually, that ecology is much of a science apart from offering some explanations of how the globe's living systems behave. But just as most of the natural sciences cannot give us any direction as to how we should conduct ourselves, what we should aim for in our lives, but only tell us about certain limits and possibilities, so with ecology. This is especially so when it comes to the constant finger-wagging environmentalists engage in with the supposed backing of ecologists."
It's just another Greenie hoax: "When a 'scandalous' story breaks in the United States, makes no waves, resurfaces a few weeks later in the left-wing British press, and only then do liberal activists start haranguing people about it, it is safe to say that the story should be treated with a little suspicion. That is certainly the case with the environmental cri du jour, that the Pentagon is alarmed by the national-security aspects of global warming and recommends immediate action."
****************************************
ELSEWHERE
Christopher Nelson says that he too is an academic and he therefore knows why Keith Burgess-Jackson criticizes Andrew Sullivan a lot: Keith is envious of Sullivan's big readership. I think that shows that Nelson is a very young academic indeed. Academics traditionally care little about getting a wide public audience. It is their fellow academics they want to address. They want a high-level audience, not a mass audience. We academics are probably incapable of addressing a mass audience effectively anway. You have to be a politician or a film-maker for that. And among academics I would warrant that Keith already has a much bigger audience than Sullivan -- simply because Keith writes at a consistently academic standard. I myself have never found Sullivan very original and so never now read his blog unless someone points me to something on it but Keith is obviously optimistic enough to think he can talk sense into Sullivan where he needs it. The readership of this blog is small too when compared with Sullivan's readership but I know from the many emails I get that it is a thinking and intelligent audience and that certainly suits me.
Keith has a good comment on Leftist objections to THAT film: "And isn't it odd to see liberals, who usually defend the most obnoxious speech and art, come down so hard on a film?"
One of the great triumphs of the Australian Left has been to convict white Australians of the "stolen generation" crime -- the alleged forcible removal of 100,000 black children from their families so they could be brought up by white foster-parents instead. There has even been a film made about the subject -- Rabbit-proof fence -- which claims to be a documentary. The whole story is however just another Leftist lie -- as Andrew Bolt sets out at length here. The slender basis of fact that the story relies on is that some 1930s official do-gooders -- predecessors of the modern LEFT -- did place a few mixed-race children in white foster homes to give them a better chance in life -- but the placement was always made with written parental consent. There was NO forced removal. Nobody and nothing was "stolen". And that's not just Andrew Bolt's opinion. It is the finding of a year-long $10 million Australian court case about the claim. Officialdom acted only when the parents either did not want the children or felt that they could not care for them adequately.
Keith Windschuttle is again upsetting the Leftists and their view of Australian blacks: "Remote Aboriginal communities are a "failure" and their inhabitants should be moved to mainstream towns for their own good, historian Keith Windschuttle has claimed. Windschuttle told a conference in Perth yesterday the indigenous communities were the legacy of a 100-year-old policy of segregation that was continuing to fail Aboriginal people. He said Aborigines would be better off in urban centres where they could have access to jobs and social services. "On every measure of human wellbeing - employment, health and education - remote communities are a failure," he said". As Windschuttle also points out at length here, the do-gooders have always wanted to keep Australia's indigenous blacks in a sort of permanent anthropological zoo rather than treating them as real people.
RALPH NADER INC: "U.S. traffic fatalities per 100 million miles traveled had fallen rapidly throughout the century, from 24 in 1921 to 5.3 in 1965". All without Ralph Nader's help -- despite what his supporters claim. See also here: Ralph's ties with anti-import textile magnates and plaintiff lawyers, ...the best-paid lawyers in America..., undermine his claim to champion the 'little guy'
What "liberalism" has wrought: "In the wake of a fatal shooting, the security for a D.C. high school was officially turned over to the city's police department last week. Armed officers will patrol the halls. This is one more indication of the severe problems haunting the public school system: violence, illegal drugs, the mandating of medication such as Ritalin, low academic achievement, controversial curricula, perceived prejudice against boys."
"Cato the Elder" links to an article by Ion Mihai Pacepa (former Soviet bloc spymaster) saying that the absurd accusations made by John Kerry about the U.S. army in Vietnam look like being lifted directly from KGB propaganda of the time.
David's Medienkritik has excellent excerpts from two speeches by former V.P. Spiro Agnew showing that Leftist bias in the media was already pervasive in the 1960s.
********************************
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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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.
********************************
Christopher Nelson says that he too is an academic and he therefore knows why Keith Burgess-Jackson criticizes Andrew Sullivan a lot: Keith is envious of Sullivan's big readership. I think that shows that Nelson is a very young academic indeed. Academics traditionally care little about getting a wide public audience. It is their fellow academics they want to address. They want a high-level audience, not a mass audience. We academics are probably incapable of addressing a mass audience effectively anway. You have to be a politician or a film-maker for that. And among academics I would warrant that Keith already has a much bigger audience than Sullivan -- simply because Keith writes at a consistently academic standard. I myself have never found Sullivan very original and so never now read his blog unless someone points me to something on it but Keith is obviously optimistic enough to think he can talk sense into Sullivan where he needs it. The readership of this blog is small too when compared with Sullivan's readership but I know from the many emails I get that it is a thinking and intelligent audience and that certainly suits me.
Keith has a good comment on Leftist objections to THAT film: "And isn't it odd to see liberals, who usually defend the most obnoxious speech and art, come down so hard on a film?"
One of the great triumphs of the Australian Left has been to convict white Australians of the "stolen generation" crime -- the alleged forcible removal of 100,000 black children from their families so they could be brought up by white foster-parents instead. There has even been a film made about the subject -- Rabbit-proof fence -- which claims to be a documentary. The whole story is however just another Leftist lie -- as Andrew Bolt sets out at length here. The slender basis of fact that the story relies on is that some 1930s official do-gooders -- predecessors of the modern LEFT -- did place a few mixed-race children in white foster homes to give them a better chance in life -- but the placement was always made with written parental consent. There was NO forced removal. Nobody and nothing was "stolen". And that's not just Andrew Bolt's opinion. It is the finding of a year-long $10 million Australian court case about the claim. Officialdom acted only when the parents either did not want the children or felt that they could not care for them adequately.
Keith Windschuttle is again upsetting the Leftists and their view of Australian blacks: "Remote Aboriginal communities are a "failure" and their inhabitants should be moved to mainstream towns for their own good, historian Keith Windschuttle has claimed. Windschuttle told a conference in Perth yesterday the indigenous communities were the legacy of a 100-year-old policy of segregation that was continuing to fail Aboriginal people. He said Aborigines would be better off in urban centres where they could have access to jobs and social services. "On every measure of human wellbeing - employment, health and education - remote communities are a failure," he said". As Windschuttle also points out at length here, the do-gooders have always wanted to keep Australia's indigenous blacks in a sort of permanent anthropological zoo rather than treating them as real people.
RALPH NADER INC: "U.S. traffic fatalities per 100 million miles traveled had fallen rapidly throughout the century, from 24 in 1921 to 5.3 in 1965". All without Ralph Nader's help -- despite what his supporters claim. See also here: Ralph's ties with anti-import textile magnates and plaintiff lawyers, ...the best-paid lawyers in America..., undermine his claim to champion the 'little guy'
What "liberalism" has wrought: "In the wake of a fatal shooting, the security for a D.C. high school was officially turned over to the city's police department last week. Armed officers will patrol the halls. This is one more indication of the severe problems haunting the public school system: violence, illegal drugs, the mandating of medication such as Ritalin, low academic achievement, controversial curricula, perceived prejudice against boys."
"Cato the Elder" links to an article by Ion Mihai Pacepa (former Soviet bloc spymaster) saying that the absurd accusations made by John Kerry about the U.S. army in Vietnam look like being lifted directly from KGB propaganda of the time.
David's Medienkritik has excellent excerpts from two speeches by former V.P. Spiro Agnew showing that Leftist bias in the media was already pervasive in the 1960s.
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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.
Three more examples 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! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!
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