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A great letter from a U.S. Marine here: Just one excerpt: "The pre-emptive doctrine of the current administration will continue to be debated long after I'm gone, but one fact stands for itself: America has not been hit with another catastrophic attack since 9/11. I firmly believe that our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq are major reasons that we've had it so good at home. Building a "fortress America" is not only impractical, it's impossible. Prudent homeland security measures are vital, to be sure, but attacking the source of the threat remains essential".

This sounds apocryphal but I like it: "T. Bubba Bechtol, part time City Councilman from Pensacola, Florida, was asked on a local live radio talk show the other day just what he thought of the allegations of torture of the Iraqi prisoners. His reply prompted his ejection from the studio, but to thunderous applause from the audience: "If hooking up an Iraqi prisoner's scrotum to a car's battery cables will save one American GI's life, then I have just two things to say: "Red is positive, black is negative""

I have just been reading Michelle Malkin's brilliant book In Defense of Internment, which rightly says that "everything you have been taught about the World war II "internment camps" in America is wrong". A very minor bonus I got from the book is to note that her real surname is "Maglalang", which is obviously from the Tagalog language. I had always carelessly assumed that her ancestry was Japanese. From the name, it is in fact Filipino. As the WWII internments were the work of America's first socialist President (FDR), no conservative should feel much need to defend them but the facts show that what was done was both reasonable and carried out with overall humanity. And since Left-leaning historians have managed to convince just about everybody that the internments are a blot on America's honour (rather than on FDR's) it is good to find that the whole story about them is a great load of steaming dung. But I will not try to summarize a big book beyond that. Regnery are one of the few commercial publishers of conservative books so, if you are the book-buying type, log on here to read more about the book and perhaps buy it.

More glories of socialized medicine: "The healthcare research group, Dr Foster, reports today in the British Medical Journal that one in every ten patients admitted to NHS hospitals in Britain will suffer at the hands of medical errors. Such errors contribute to the deaths of 72,000 people a year, and are directly blamed for the deaths of 40,000 people. Medical errors in the NHS now constitute the fourth largest cause of death in Britain. The charity Action Against Medical Accidents states that the figures under-estimate total errors by not including those which take place at the primary care level of family doctors, and are based only on reported errors. The figures do not include hospital-acquired infections".

A pretty sensible editorial in USA Today about the importation of cheap drugs from Canada into the USA. If the U.S. administration had given the drug companies more support in their negotiations with foreign governments, the artificially high prices for Americans would never have happened.

There is a good post here pointing out that the Leftist hunger for change often leads to large costs (like death) for the individuals involved. I personally think that hunger for change for change's sake is pretty infantile. I have had a great life with lots of changes in it (including four wives) but I did not need to do anything radical in order to remain interested.

"Spectator" on Go Nuclear: Makes a good case for atomic power but it relies too much on running-out-of-oil ideas: "Rod Liddle says the answer to our energy needs is obvious: cheap and reliable nuclear power. But before we can embrace a sane future we have to overcome the Cold War superstitions of the Green Left"

Gipperism of the week: "..when Reagan was offered a ride on a submersible to get a look at the continental shelf, The Gipper turned it down, cracking, "I get claustrophobia when I draw the curtains." "

Leftist warmongers: "Contrary to the conventional wisdom, American imperialism is, at its roots, a left-wing disorder rather than a conservative impulse. A seemingly ceaseless supply of new books and radio talk-show commentary in support of George W. Bush and his foreign policy give the impression that the only controversy in America worth mentioning involves patriotic Bush supporters and knee-jerk opposition to war by liberals. Two arguments are being made here: that the Iraq War and foreign-policy aggressiveness constitute the self-evidently correct conservative position and that liberals are philosophically and historically squeamish about going to war. The first of these arguments has been addressed at length in these pages. It is the second claim, involving the American Left's alleged aversion to war, that remains to be overturned, for ever since the Spanish-American War of 1898, leftists have more often than not been at the forefront of calls for American military intervention abroad".

Promethean Antagonist is a bit unusual. He not only blogs from Japan but takes astrology seriously. He notes that astrology seems to be mostly Left-leaning but explains why "that aint necessarily so". His account of his trip to Fascist China is more outspoken than we usually hear now that everybody wants to think the best of China's reforms.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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

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BLACK ON BLACK GENOCIDE IN AUSTRALIA

On 15th., I mentioned here the summary by Windschuttle about the pygmy population that the early settlers of Australia found in the jungles of Far North Queensland. Julian Calendar in his post of 16th. has taken Windschuttle to task over the matter with the claim that the pygmies are not a remnant population but rather an adaptation to jungle life on the part of other black populations. I am no physical anthropologist but the sheer wrongheadedness of the claim seems fairly breathtaking to me -- particularly coming from an Australian. Australia not only has a halo of Melanesian nations (e.g. Papua New Guinea) to its immediate North but part of Melanesia is actually IN Australia (the Torres Strait Islands). And what do we know about Melanesia? We know that the jungles of New Guinea and its surrounding islands are as dense as jungles anywhere -- so they must all be pygmies too? The Melanesians of New Guinea and elsewhere are in fact a fine upstanding race of generally rather big men. The Fiji police force has long made female visitors to Fiji drool! And what about one of the world's most notable pygmy races -- the Bushmen of South Africa?. I suppose the Kalahari desert where they live is a jungle too? What utter rot it all is! Clearly pygmies are earlier races who have sought refuge in inaccessible places to avoid being totally wiped out by bigger and stronger races.

Further notes: Harpending & Eller (PDF) explain why even a low interbreeding rate could over time lead to the observed similarities in appearance between pygmy and surrounding tribes without at the same time wiping out all tribal distinctiveness and the rock-art record suggests a two stage immigration of primitive people into Australia.

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Powerline Blog seems to have managed to get into the thick of the Presidential election campaign. They note that political blogs generally are getting a lot more hits lately as people turn to them as an alternative to the pro-Kerry mainstream media. This blog has had a big increase in hits lately too.

Randall Parker has some news that the press seems mostly to have buried: The EU is now building a fence along its Eastern border to keep illegal immigrants from Russia and elsewhere out of the EU. In effect, the Berlin wall is being put up again -- only a lot further East this time. He rightly notes the hypocrisy of the EU in saying that Israel should not build its fence and also thinks America could do with such a fence on its Southern border. If it's good enough for those paragons of virtue in the EU, why is it not good enough for Israel and the USA?

Prominent UK libertarian Sean Gabb has an interesting history of his unusual schooldays here. He had a rough time of it and ended up largely self-taught. I too was largely self-taught (See here) but had none of the traumas he had.

Venezuela's Chavez: "For all Chavez's talk about bringing through a revolution in favour of the poor, his policies have been pretty conservative. There have been a lot of showy attacks on the old elite - he replaced judges, reshuffled executives on the state oil company, and undercut the Senate by establishing a new Constituent Assembly. But even Chavez sympathiser Richard Gott admits that he has been 'pragmatic' with the economy - bringing in an austere and orthodox economic policy, seeking to keep on the right side of international investors. Edgardo Lander, sociology lecturer at Venezuelan Central University, said: 'There has been no real redistribution of wealth, and land reform has been very timid. There's been hardly any private property confiscated...and hardly any changes in the tax structure....' In fact, the radical rhetoric is more a replacement for radical action than an expression of it".

A charming case of media bias in Australia. Sydney "Sunday Telegraph" columnist Diana Simmonds is apparently in Athens for the Olympic games and refers to Australia's Prime minister under the heading "Not a PM in sight" as follows: "I LOVE the Olympic Games -- the cathartic effect of a good bellow and leap up and down, followed by a bit of a snivel and a good blow is just the thing as winter drags on. And on. And on. And, as much as I adored Sydney and wouldn't have been anywhere else for quids, I'm loving Athens even more. Know why? Because there's no need to keep the thumb poised over the "off'' button in case the Kirribilli Squatter leaps into the picture to shower Our Kids with his appreciative spittle". [Kirribilli House is the Sydney home of Australian Prime Ministers]. Quote from p.123 -- not online.

An interesting email from a Canadian reader referring to my third post yesterday: "I am very impressed with the idea of the militants and leftists both embracing the idea of "dhimmi", it makes sense to me; unfortunately some of the people I know here seem psychologically ready to capitulate to Islam, and I wouldn't be surprized if some of the women I know convert in the next few years [they are single and way past the age of marrying] -- when I foresee pressure being put on Canadian municipalities where there is a large Islamic population being pressured to broadcast the call to prayer daily [and silence the church bells at the same time!] Let us hope it is just my paranoia!"

Further to my mention of film-maker Elia Kazan yesterday, there is more on the courage of Kazan here. Excerpt: "But for many of us he will not only be remembered for his art but also as a courageous man who fearlessly stood his ground against La-La Land's undercurrent of Stalinism and its mindless support of anti-American causes".

The policeman is a very funny guy if you like British humour. I do. Example: "I thought I would prepare for the forthcoming terrorist attack by manufacturing some ammunition. Above is a picture of my nine year old son holding the mould, while I filled it with molten lead (don't worry he's wearing gloves). The balls were allowed to cool and then inserted into shotgun cartridges, we later fired the 12-gauge lead balls into a tree trunk as a test. It worked, we are now fully protected from Al-Quaeda and social workers". He has a good cartoon in the same post as well.

Alan McCann responds to my post about St. Thomas Aquinas -- pointing out that NOTHING Thomas said justifies government redistribution of wealth.

I have just transferred here a new lot of Chris Brand's postings. As usual, he has found quite a few chinks in the armour of political correctness.

I have just put up a new post on LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS and there is an amusing post on GREENIE WATCH about Greenies contradicting one-another. GUN WATCH has a link to a great speech by Charlton Heston. On POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH there is a post which says that official anti-racist policies in Britain in fact make racism worse.

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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

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SOME MORE INTERESTING EMAILS FROM READERS

"I wonder if the current Arab militancy is motivated by the thought that oil will eventually run out, and that their influence and wealth will then cease. If they believe the dire predictions of the Greenies, they might just think that this is their last chance to be a force in the world."

"I just read an account of Lynddie England's testimony about Abu Ghraib. Apparently, her original testimony was that she dreamed up this stuff by herself with a few friends -- to have fun taking naked photos etc. Not difficult to believe. Of course, after consulting with liberal attorneys who hate Bush, she changed her story to "I was just folllowing orders". The attorneys argued that England simply wasn't smart enough to think of this stuff on her own. Where are the Bra Burners? Isn't this an insult to just about any woman anyhwhere -- that England wasn't smart enough to dream up this scheme of taking dirty pictures without someone else telling her what to do?"

"It is more than obvious to me that the "Dhimmi" idea of Islam rather suits modern Leftists. Both the Muslims and the Leftists want to subjugate other people. Apart from slight modifications and the obvious technological changes of today, the intention at least is to return us all to the mediaeval Dhimmi era. And then what? This Utopian crap is hard to fathom. But both Leftists and Islamists want the new worlds such as America and Australia -- the last frontiers, lands of opportunity, and a chance to a real start in a new life -- to end up the same basket-cases as in Europe and elsewhere."

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"Sampan incident" belies Kerry heroic image: "John Kerry invented a 'war hero' persona in his private journals and in the home movies he filmed and staged in Vietnam. Playing the lead role, he developed a past intended to advance his future political ambitions. In reality, Kerry was regarded by his Navy peers as reckless with human life. Although Douglas Brinkley's biography 'Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War' recalls that Kerry used the call sign 'Square Jaw' for a short time, it doesn't mention the sign he actually used for most of his four months in Vietnam: 'Boston Strangler.'

What would Lincoln or FDR have done to someone like John Kerry who undermined the war effort in Vietnam? Answer here.

This article says that Kerry could lose because of the "dirt" associated with passionate New Jersey governor McGreevey.

Non-independence day: "Tomorrow marks the 40th anniversary of one of the major turning points in American social history. That was the date on which President Lyndon Johnson signed legislation creating his 'War on Poverty' program in 1964. Never had there been such a comprehensive program to tackle poverty at its roots, to offer more opportunities to those starting out in life, to rehabilitate those fallen by the wayside and to make dependent people self-supporting. Its intentions were the best. But we know what road is paved with good intentions. The War on Poverty represented the crowning triumph of the liberal vision of society -- and of government programs as the solution to social problems. The disastrous consequences that followed have made the word 'liberal' so much of a political liability that today even candidates with long left-wing track records have evaded or denied that designation."

Not only has France banned vending machines from schools, the country also now requires all food companies to include health warnings with their advertisements, or fork over 1.5% of their respective advertising budgets to the French equivalent of HHS.

Self-help: "On July 20th, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) introduced legislation to reform Social Security the right way -- with large personal retirement accounts and without tax increases or benefit cuts. These reform measures would allow all workers the option to invest up to half of their payroll taxes into personal retirement accounts and harness the impact of compounded interest -- what Einstein called the most powerful force in the universe."

Another triumph for America's Leftist educators: "He said Americans had a reputation for being ignorant of world affairs. The annual National Geographic Survey had thrown up the sad fact that only 23 out of 56 young Americans knew the whereabouts of the Pacific Ocean".

Marlon Brando's recent death has reminded many of his superb performance in "On The Waterfront". Less well known is that the movie's director Elia Kazan, who blew the whistle on communists operating in Hollywood, used 'Waterfront' to explain why he felt it necessary to expose his former party comrades. (See also here for more on the Hollywood Blacklist and recent findings that there WERE in fact Red operatives in tinseltown)

LOL: An hilarious excerpt here from the latest translation of the Bible -- recommended by the Archbishop of Canterbury. (Via Maverick Philosopher). How these alleged Christians hate New Testament Christianity! Although I am the most utter atheist you will ever meet (I don't even think the idea of God is meaningful) I have no hesitation in saying that the single book which has influenced me most is the New Testament -- so it saddens me to see it distorted out of all recognition.

Verbum Ipsum gives some interesting quotes about private property from the great Catholic theologian St. Thomas Aquinas (I read a fair bit of Thomas myself in my teens). From my reading of it, Thomas was much more respectful of private property than the present Pope is. Thomas sounds rather a lot like a modern conservative thinker, in fact.

Wicked Thoughts has some good stuff up at the moment: An excellent poem about media bias by a former member of the military and a humorous but thought-provoking projection of the news from the year 2035.

As there seems to be a bit of an oil crisis on at the moment, I have just uploaded a chapter by Milton Friedman from my 1974 book. What he says about the oil crisis of the '70s is still worth bearing in mind today. See here

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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

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SOME EMAILS FROM READERS

"Liberals" often reject any similarities between themselves and Communists. They reply "You should not label people with such a broad brush" or some such. My response: " YOU seem to do a lot of labeling: Labeling anyone who supports God (e.g. Bush) as a Christian fundamentalist; Or anyone who is on the Religious Right the "Christian Taliban". A tad hypocritical? Also: Liberals, Socialists and Communists hate being labeled as "fascists" by the Right, but they think that it's okay to be dependent on big government and label anyone different from that as a "fascist". Gee, how nice! I have also noticed that the Right is less conformist than those on the Left. Just look at anyone on the Left who has a different opinion on Bush and the war in Iraq (e.g. Joe Lieberman): They get booed by the crowd, because that crowd all conforms to the anti-war and anti-Bush position. The Right is more individualistic. The Right allows the Old Right to voice their opposition and don't seem to boo them the way the Left boo at anybody who disagrees with them -- even those from among their own ranks, such as Tony Blair. Consistently with their belief in the individual, the Right allows individualism in their ranks while the Left does not".

"I have met many lefties over the years who seemed completely oblivious to the very existence of any intellectual challenges to their position. This has included both the overtly political, even intellectual types as well as many far less-versed or even interested. It is this tendency on their part, I believe, which founds the core of their belief that their political opposition is essentially malicious, conspiratorial, and populated by those motivated by personal gain in association with business interests or as bribed apologists for such interests. On the other hand, I have met few conservatives (of any subdivision) similarly blinkered or intellectually isolated. Even conservatives of the most rigid and uncompromising sort are generally well-acquainted with most arguments contra and have reasoned responses, whether or not these are entirely satisfactorily constructed. Indeed, a significant portion of all those on the conservative side formerly occupied positions further to the left-- from which they had moved on the basis of quite rational considerations, sometimes occurring as a result of deliberate inquiry, sometimes gained through reflection on experience."

"To those who embrace the reigning conspiracy theory that the Iraq War is phony, that intel was at best bungled and at worst manipulated, that the U.S. lacks European alliances and can't go it alone in Iraq, that the abuses at abu Ghraib prison were suppressed, that courageous firefighters saved New York, that WMD's weren't used in Iraq (but apparently were in New York), that unlike Churchill or Roosevelt, Bush is an inept and uninspiring leader, but that we could get behind a real morally justified war like World War II but not a pre-emptive war like Iraq, I offer the following realities: In 1940 Britain was badly losing a war with Germany which had overrun Europe due to lack of pre-emption, did not believe Churchill was an inspiring leader, journalists were told to suppress knowledge of the fiasco of the British Expeditionary Force retreat across the channel from Dunkirk to Britain, the government fabricated German casualties figures, despite their heroism small fishing boats did not save many British troops in retreat from Dunkirk, the German Luftwaffe destroyed 800,000 homes in London, people were locked up for 5 years for criticizing the war, the only European ally Britain had was France which collapsed in the face of the Blitzkreig, and Churchill's famous speeches ("I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" and "we will fight on the beaches") were written by propaganda officers in the British Ministry of Information and delivered on the radio by a voice impersonator who was really a children's hour actor (like Mr. Rogers on TV in the U.S.). Later this was all considered Britain's "Finest Hour." All this is documented in the book 1940: Myth and Reality by Clive Ponting (1990). So much for the reigning preconception".

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Dick McDonald is blogging up a storm about John Kerry. Lots of good stuff.

The system's working! "U.S. Sen. Edward M. 'Ted' Kennedy said yesterday that he was stopped and questioned at airports on the East Coast five times in March because his name appeared on the government's secret 'no-fly' list."

This is an amusing Leftist article to read. Take a look at the angry face of its author first. The core assertion of the article is that: "In fact, liberal bias in the academy is a fiction". And, in good Leftist fashion, that is just given as an assertion without proof or evidence. No mention is made of the fact that something like 9 out of 10 professors in the humanities and social sciences are registered Democrats. I guess Democrats are not liberals! Pathetic! But since when did Leftists ever care about the evidence? The one half-way reasonable point the author makes is that there are some academic disciplines -- e.g. accountancy, engineering etc -- that do tend towards the Right. But a careful academic study of just how far they tend to the Right is instructive. Nakhaie & Brym found that professors of accounting, finance and mechanical engineeering are indeed to the Right of centre but only marginally so. They are in fact centrists rather than Rightists. Disciplines such as sociology of course were way to the Left. More details of just how far Left academe is in general can be found here.

A fascinating piece of new research by some economists here confirms the Lynn & Vanhanen finding that national average IQ is an important predictor of national economic prosperity: "we show that national average IQ has a robust positive relationship with economic growth". So brains matter and not all human groups are equally brainy. In general, the countries with the brainiest people are not only the ones who are already richest (which is what Lynn & Vanhanen showed) but are also the ones who are getting even richer.

Arnold Kling hits back at the latest bout of drug-company bashing. One excerpt: "Marcia Angell is outraged that pharmaceutical companies earn profits and use advertising to encourage people to use their products. To her, these are evil forms of incentives. However, the alternative to using profits and advertising is to use taxes and regulation. Those are even more coercive forms of incentives. I can choose not to buy pharmaceuticals, but taxes are unavoidable. I can ignore drug company advertising, but I cannot ignore government regulation."

The drug bureaucracy at work: "On February 1, 2002, Cecil Knox was seeing patients in his Roanoke, Virginia, clinic when more than a dozen federal agents burst through the doors with guns drawn. Helmeted, shielded, and wearing bullet-proof vests, they terrified waiting patients and employees. ... Knox, a pain management specialist who had been practicing medicine in Roanoke for seven years, was dragged out in handcuffs and leg irons."

In case anybody is interested, I have just put up here some photos from my recent vacation in Far North Queensland.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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

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FROM BROOKES NEWS

John Kerry and his Cambodian lie - why it is important John Kerry and his Cambodian lie reveals a dishonest man who will show weakness in the face of terrorism that would surely invite even more terrorism. Without a doubt, he is a very dangerous and very stupid man
John Kerry and the Bruce Springsteen cavalcade of hatred Bruce Springsteen, the John Kerry groupie, is a moral poseur who gets his jollies from making sympathetic noises about the poor while raking in millions of dollars by politicizing his music
The Washing Post slants tax report to favour John Kerry The dirty little secret that the Democrats' bigwigs and their media enablers keep from the public is that the party's super rich friends like Soros, Heinz Kerry, Buffet, etc., would not be affected by the Democrats' tax grab because the party would leave open the sort of tax loopholes that only the super rich can exploit
John Kerry has his vet pal slime the Swift Boat Veterans Perhaps the bottom line here is that Rassman's article reads as if it was taken from one of Beth Cahill's media releases. And that reminds me: if anyone gets involved in the Kerry campaign they are likely to end up lying next to Cahill, 'Mad Dog' Carville and Bully Boy Davis staring up at the sewer
Globalism and living standards Paul Craig Roberts argues globalism is lowering living standards. Is he Right?
Michael Moore slimes Cuban-Americans to curry favour with Castro To please Castro the cowardly Michael Moore smeared American Cubans as terrorists, gangsters, dope smugglers, burglars, and wimps
The Democrats' running theme One can't help but note the running themes of the Democrats: a penchant for relational dysfunction that plays itself out in hackneyed scripts of sexual domination, an inability to grasp base concepts of adult responsibility, and a disregard of fundamental tenets of national security

Details here

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"What is liberalism all about?: Regardless of whether the particular issue is race, agriculture, housing, or a thousand other things, liberalism is about the government telling people what to do in their lives and work.... It has been said that knowledge is power but, politically, power trumps knowledge. When government agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the courts take statistical differences in the "representation' of various ethnic groups in an employer's work force as evidence of discrimination, they don't have to prove their belief to anyone. They have the power. Employers have to try to prove their innocence to them. When the people who run our schools and teachers colleges prefer the "whole language' and "whole math' approaches to teaching English and mathematics, it doesn't matter how many studies show that these approaches don't work. The education establishment has the power and power trumps knowledge".

Leftists afraid to be themselves: "John Passacantando, the executive director of Greenpeace USA, believes in confrontation. A prot,g, of Mike Roselle, co-founder of the radical environmentalist group Earth First, he's led Greenpeace to push the limits of civil disobedience..... So one might expect Passacantando to be thrilled by the prospect of bad behavior, and a lot of it, at the Republican National Convention late this month. Tens if not hundreds of thousands are planning to take to Manhattan's streets in protest, and plans are being hatched for widespread disruption.... But Passacantando isn't happy about what's about to happen in New York. In fact, he's terrified. Like a host of intellectuals, '60s veterans and activists desperate for a John Kerry victory in November, Passacantando worries that the delicious, so-close prospect of defeating George Bush in November will be swept away in the citywide chaos that anarchists have promised to bring to New York."

Welfare as power: "Most European politicians, bureaucrats, and even intellectuals will, of course, favor the massive and now virtually bankrupt welfare state there, in part because it keeps them in power. Europe, from where I originally hail, is to all intents and purposes a politically elitist continent and, sadly, most ordinary folks put up with this because, well, bad habits are hard to shake."

Still no feminist outcry? "The Greek organizers of this summer's Olympics, which began in Athens yesterday, claim that more women athletes are competing than ever before.... According to officials in Athens, the number of Muslim women participating in this year's game is the lowest since 1960. Several Muslim countries have sent no women athletes at all; others, such as Iran, are taking part with only one, in full hijab. And state-owned TV networks in many Muslim countries, including Iran and Egypt, have received instructions to limit coverage of events featuring women athletes at Athens to a minimum.... The Khomeinist version of the hijab, invented in the 1970s and now popular in many countries, including the United States, covers a woman's entire body but allows her face and hands to be exposed. Hijab theoreticians agree on one claim: a woman's hair emanates dangerous rays that could drive men wild with sexual lust and thus undermine social peace".

"Hispanic" Maths? 2+2=5?: "The University of Arizona will be the site of a Center for the Mathematics Education of Latinos and Latinas. The National Science Foundation has awarded a $10 million grant to create the center, which will team math and education researchers at the University of Arizona with the Sunnyside and Tucson unified school districts. The goal of the five-year grant is to advance math education by developing a model that connects math instruction and learning to the cultural, social and linguistic contexts of Hispanics, UA officials said"

What a laugh! Germany wants its "warmongers" (U.S. troops) back.

There is a great spoof site about North Korea here

This site has an excellent scriptural quotation about Right and Left on it

Gary Gravett is a very kind person. He hosts a whole list of Australian conservative bloggers. He has however had technical problems recently and I for one could not get on to any of his sites for several days. Everything seems to be working again now though so here is a list of his currently active sites if you want to check them out:

Mangled Thoughts
Bizzare Science
The Yobbo
Paul & Carl
Alan Anderson
Israelly Cool
Steve Edwards Daily Slander
The House of Rats

LOL: Keith Burgess-Jackson thinks my son Joe may become a bleeding heart "liberal". Joe does however seem to be like me: A born Tory. He was the cautious type even when he was aged 2. And at 17 he already defends conservative views at his school.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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

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SOME PATERNAL PRIDE

My 17-year old son Joe just got his certificate last night for completing his advanced placement course in Mathematics. He got a mark of 6 where the highest score is 7. But the University of Queensland is too PC to use the term "advanced placement" for university courses that selected High School students are allowed to enroll in. They call it an "Enhanced Studies Program". "Advanced" would offend against everybody being equal so you are only allowed to be "enhanced", you see. Anyway, Joe has just been named dux of his school in Information Technology too so there is no doubt how advanced he is. And he's no isolated nerd, either. After last nights ceremonies, lots of other students came over to talk to him and he soon became the social centre of the evening. Matthew 25:29.

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ELSEWHERE

How GWB "attacks the poor": "A recent study by the Tax Foundation puts the number of tax filers who will pay no federal income tax at a record 44 million. The Bush tax cuts expanded this group from 29 million in 2000, an increase of 50 percent. Prior to the Bush tax cuts, 23.1% of filers paid no federal income tax. It is estimated that in 2004 that number surged to 33%, shifting the tax burden to the higher brackets."

Teacher's union misrepresents Charter schools: "Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the nation's report card, show students in charter schools doing less well than the nationwide public-school average, which includes middle class students from well-heeled suburbs.... Big deal. These results could easily indicate nothing other than the simple fact that charter schools are typically asked to serve problematic students in low-performing districts with many poor, minority children. Indeed, if the AFT believes these findings, it must also concede that religious schools excel. According to the same NAEP data from which the AFT study is taken, religious schools outperformed the public schools nationwide by nine points, a gap that is as large as the public school-charter school difference AFT is trumpeting".

The NYT has an unusually frank account of Saddam's abuse of the U.N. oil-for-food program: "Congress's Government Accountability Office, formerly the General Accounting Office, has estimated that the Iraqi leader siphoned at least $10 billion from the program by illicitly trading in oil and collecting kickbacks.... How did Mr. Hussein amass so much money while under international sanctions? An examination of the program, the largest in the United Nations' history, suggests an equally straightforward answer: The United Nations let him do it".

Elitist enemies of America: "Fighting to send arms to Saddam, resisting post-9/11 attempts to toughen visa requirements, struggling to keep American parents from rescuing their kidnapped kids in foreign countries, doing everything it can to shut down the Iraqi democracy movement -- amazingly enough, this is the record of the U.S. State Department, an often out-of-control organization that acts at odds with our nation's best interests more often than most Americans realize".

Arlene Peck: "Anti-Semitism is alive and well, and, today it's not just in those red-neck areas of Georgia where I grew up. Now they're more polished.... I've given up trying to understand why everyone hates the Jews. Although I tend to think I have a pretty good idea. I think it's because we gave the world a conscience with the Ten Commandments. Until then, they were perfectly happy coveting other people's wives and sleeping with their sisters or sheep. It annoys the Muslim world and EU that in fifty-six short years the Jewish nation has accomplished far more than most of them put together... People who get to be too successful aren't always liked. Those with no accomplishments and sub-human savage mentalities and actions are resentful of those whose technological and economic gains are light years beyond their comprehension."

American libraries: "the traditional mission of these august institutions of learning for generations of Americans is disappearing as they gradually turn into indoctrination centers against the United States and Israel. One of the main reasons for this tragic and disturbing turn of events is the American Library Association, where a clique of leftists has taken over, dedicating itself to padding libraries across America with anti-Israel books, videos and other materials, excluding both sides in the Israel/Palestine dispute".

"Morning sickness -- the nausea and vomiting that afflicts more than half of all pregnant women -- can be debilitating. There used to be an excellent prescription medication to treat it, but the manufacturer stopped selling the drug in the United States. Safety problems? Unprofitability? Not at all. Frivolous, debilitating lawsuits killed this drug."

Being "insensitive" to lawbreakers is out? "The Department of Homeland Security wants to restrict the U.S. Border Patrol's arrest of illegal aliens in the nation's interior, concerned that the recent apprehension of 450 illegals by agents in inland areas of Southern California failed to consider the 'sensitivities' of those detained. According to department sources, a formal written policy under review would limit Border Patrol arrests to areas along the nation's 7,000 miles of international border and give U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws in the nation's interior."

Hilarious! Canada's socialized medicine system is failing badly at providing medical services. So what are they going to do about it? Hire more doctors at whatever price it takes to get them? No way! They want to spend a BILLION dollars to "set up an institute" to study the problem! Excerpt: "Canada needs to invest $1 billion over the next five years to reverse its serious shortage of doctors and ensure there will be enough health-care providers in future to reduce long waiting lists plaguing hospitals, the Canadian Medical Association says. The association wants Ottawa to create a national health human resources reinvestment fund, which would plan for future personnel needs and "help end the health human resources boom-and-bust planning cycle," outgoing president Dr. Sunil Patel told a news conference at the annual meeting in Toronto yesterday.... The proposed $1 billion fund would set up an institute to determine what the needs would be in various categories"

PID points out that Islamic economics has been about as successful as Nazi physics or Soviet agriculture.

A report in The Guardian links pollutants to a three-fold increase in brain diseases since 1970. Eugene Rants has an appropriate response.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again in fine fettle. Lots of good reading.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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

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LUDWIG VON MISES AND "AUSTRIAN" ECONOMICS

Leftist economists have now admitted that the conservative economists such as Von Mises and Hayek were right: "As late as 1989, Samuelson claimed that "The Soviet economy is proof that, contrary to what many skeptics had earlier believed, a socialist command economy can function and even thrive." But then, following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and Soviet communism in 1989-90, economist Robert Heilbroner shocked his colleagues in the socialist world by boldly declaring that the long-standing debate between capitalism and socialism was over. "Capitalism has won, " he confessed. "Socialism has been a great tragedy this century." Furthermore, Heilbroner was forced to change his mind about Mises and the debate over socialism. Following the unexpected collapse of communism, Heilbroner admitted, "It turns out, of course, that Mises was right." And it wasn't long before Paul Samuelson did an about-face in his textbook, labeling Soviet central planning "the failed model."

Great turnabouts in economics: "The gradual transformation of Paul Samuelson from Keynesian to classical economics ... is a major chapter in famous cases of economists changing their minds. Nobody likes to admit he's wrong. You can probably count on your fingers the number of times scholars have renounced their theories and switched positions... Three prominent economists have admitted error and changed their thinking, and we can learn much from their experience."

There is an amazing story here about how the Nazis seized all the papers of Von Mises after he got out of Europe just ahead of them. But the papers were not lost. The Soviets confiscated heaps of Nazi archives after the war and archived them all nicely. And after the fall of the Soviets, Western economists were able to get copies of all of them! More here

And there is even a Batman & Robin episode featuring the "lost" Mises papers: "A female Robin describes in a postscript, "Von Mises' anti-authoritarian ideas were first a threat to the Nazis, then the Soviets, and to all increasingly regulatory governments in our own times. He was against socialism in all its many forms. He was an advocate of individual liberty, free speech, and free thinking"

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ELSEWHERE

An amazing article here about how the restoration of phonics to the teaching of reading and writing was the personal project of GWB when he was governor of Texas. Minorities in Texas were basically just not learning to read at all before the restoration of phonics but now they almost all do learn to read. As a current Bush advisor said: ""It is amazing to me that Bush is thought of as a right winger who doesn't care about minorities... He saved so many of their lives."

Interesting to read what Mark Twain wrote about his visit to Israel in 1867 -- before the Jews started returning there. There is no mention of the "Palestinians" we are always hearing about in the media these days. As far as Twain could see, the Arabs there were all just Syrians -- indistinguishable from the inhabitants of Syria -- which is on today's Northern border of Israel. There certainly is a Jewish people but not a Palestinian one. The only meaning to the term "Palestinian" is "the Arabs who live in Palestine". And the concept of Palestine itself is essentially a British creation -- what they called that part of the old Ottoman empire that corresponded to the ancient land of Israel. For those who have forgotten, Britain ran most of the Middle East after the defeat of the Turks in World War I.

There is a good article by Richard Dawkins here suggesting that post-modernism in the humanities is a deliberate fraud. I completely agree. These guys are just gaming the system and deceiving the gullible.

The school textbook war: "In few countries are the texts so consistently critical of the United States as they are in Canada, but in a couple of cases the rhetoric is alarming. For national security purposes, we should have read Saudi textbooks years ago, for even while Saudi diplomats were cooing to American officials, Saudi students were reading rants about "Crusader" and "Neo-imperialist" attacks on Islam."

There are almost twice as many female psychiatric patients as men, and more than half of these are prescribed psychiatric drugs... Young or old, women who take tranquilizers and antidepressants are at greater risk than men. So why do adult women willingly take these risks? One answer appears to lie in the obsessions of a sex-and-youth culture that is also beset by feminism. The notion that they can- and, indeed, should -"have it all" has resulted in women feeling defeated, whether they are married with children, "in relationships," or pursuing college and careers. The numerous changes in society, including sexual "freedom," have negatively affected women, contrary to advertisements portraying carefree women using "easy" birth-control patches... Ironically, many women want to perform certain functions, like grocery shopping and caring for children. This was not anticipated when the feminist movement began, and now that females make up half (or more) of the workforce, the results are in: Women on tranqs are overwhelmed by the enormity of their tasks.

A new book, Stalin's British Victims (reviewed here and here), reveals the extent to which members of Britain's Communist Party knew of Stalin's Terror even while it was going on - - and how, even when their own families were among the targets of the Soviet leader's bloodthirsty regime, they still defended his actions for the sake of their dream-world. It shows the power of their inhuman vision for the world and their utter lack of normal human feeling.

The work ethic wanes in the EU while time on the job increases in U.S. "In Europe, nothing happens in August. It is not, of course, that absolutely everyone is on holiday. There are still an unhappy few slogging in to work. But the commuter train is half empty, the flow of traffic at rush hour is uncannily smooth. Virtually no serious decision can be taken in a London office throughout this month because there is always at least one key executive on holiday. See also here.

"People driving or riding in a sport utility vehicle in 2003 were nearly 11 percent more likely to die in an accident than people in cars, the figures show. The government began keeping detailed statistics on the safety of vehicle categories in 1994."

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me 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 DRIVE

Well, I did the drive yesterday -- from Cairns to Port Douglas. About 35 miles. For about half of the time the road runs right alongside the ocean, with beaches large and small scattered all the way along. It is one of the world's most scenic drives and the wonder is that you can stop at almost any of the many unspoiled beaches and find yourself alone there. If people like to go on vacation amidst crowds, good luck to them, but if you fancy the deserted tropical island experience with none of the inconvenience of a deserted tropical island, you should be booking a flight to Cairns International Airport. It's a longer plane journey than most but droves of the notoriously quality-conscious Japanese seem to think it is worthwhile.

I also spotted another pygmy yesterday. I was sitting on the pavement beside the main street of Port Douglas having a nice cup of tea when a very small dark person walked right by my table: Less than 5' tall with legs like broom-handles. There are obviously still plenty of negrito (pygmy) genes in the area that was until recently dense tropical jungle.

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MEDICAL MAYHEM

Socialized medicine from one who knows: "In 1970 I created the first NHS group practice in the South Kensington area. I believed in the NHS. I was a politically active member of the Labour Party. I was on the Inner London Local Medical Committee of the British Medical Association. I was the education secretary of the South London faculty of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Within ten years, after a total of sixteen years working for the NHS, I was back in single-handed practice, exclusively in private practice... The philosophical ideas upon which the National Health Service is based are wrong. It is not lack of finance that has destroyed the NHS as an instrument of health care. Nor is it faulty organisational structure. Nor is it over-administration. It is the ideas that are wrong. Over a generation we have seen the provision of health care in the United Kingdom degenerate into a free and comprehensive rotten shambles".

This is an old story but it still illustrates the perils of a government medical service: "About 30 years ago, when I was in the navy, stationed in Charleston, S.C., navy "doctors" had a reputation for being "less than efficient" in most instances. This theory was born out when a friend of mine's wife, who had been pregnant while wearing an IUD, went to the Emergency Room of the Charleston Naval Hospital. She had been told that the IUD may have slipped into the womb, and may still be there, and could cause complications. She was told that if she experienced any of certain symptoms, i.e. rise in temperature, cramps, nausea, etc, to make it to the E.R. right away. Sure enough, one night, she experienced all of the symptoms and went straight to the E.R. The "doctor" who was on duty promptly took her record, without looking at it, moved it from the "in" box to the "out" box. Asking her what her problem was, he explained, "Well, you've got to expect these things when you're 5 months pregnant." She left the Naval Hospital, went straight downtown to the Charleston County Hospital Emergency Room, where she suffered a miscarriage, due to the IUD having been in the womb". (From Jerry Lerman).

Racist doctors? "The Institute of Medicine (IOM) published "Unequal Treatment," a much-heralded report arguing that doctors-- acting deliberately or unconsciously--were giving their minority patients inferior care.... Skeptics of the biased-doctor model, and I count myself among them, do not dispute the troubling existence of a health gap. But we argue that the examining room is not the place to look for its origins..... This argument just got a big boost from researchers at Manhattan's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Center for the Study of Health Care Change in Washington. They showed that white and black patients, on average, do not even visit the same population of physicians-- making the idea of preferential treatment by individual doctors a far less compelling explanation for disparities in health. They show, too, that a higher proportion of the doctors that black patients tend to see may not be in a position to provide optimal care. The dramatic finding, published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine, should incite a fundamental shift in thinking. Whether it actually does that is another matter, so entrenched are the pieties about America's racist inclinations"

Long overdue: "Doctors cannot be arrested for properly prescribing narcotic painkillers that are the best treatment for millions of suffering patients, according to new guidelines from pain specialists and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The guidelines, written by leading pain specialists together with the DEA, come because many doctors hesitate to prescribe the powerful drugs, which are heavily regulated because they can be abused by addicts."

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ELSEWHERE

I don't expect that it is really any surprise to anyone but Jeff Jacoby gives details of how Arafat's PLO uses violence to suppress reporting of anything unfavourable to the Arabs. There is no free press where Arafat holds sway. Even Western journalists are routinely intimidated. Israel, by contrast, has all sorts of media outlets that are fiercely critical of the Israeli government. And the moron Left calls Israel "fascists" and "Nazis". It is clear who the real Fascists are.

"Contrary to widespread belief, it was more likely American voters in Israel, not Florida, who put George W. Bush in the White House four years ago.... Those who doubt that Americans living abroad could tip the balance in 2004 might consider this: Various chads aside, Al Gore received 202 more votes than George W. Bush on Election Day 2000 in Florida. Only after all the overseas votes were counted, including more than 12,000 from Israel alone, was Bush's election victory certified. The margin was 537 votes. In 2000, according to King, Israel was one of the keys to Bush's success. No other foreign country's U.S. citizens contributed more to Bush's narrow Florida victory, he said.... Once in Israel, Zober said, Jewish voters are no longer guided by a presidential candidate's position on domestic issues. Instead, he said, they vote for whoever they think will serve Israel's interests."

Australian philosopher Rafe Champion has a good slapdown for the whine by cultural elites that they do not get nearly as much recognition as elite sportsmen do. Excerpt: "The so-called cultural elites who are subjected to criticism are not generally cultural performers, they are left-wing intellectuals and commentators. For the most part they have not achieved excellence by any objective standard and they are not railed against in those aspects of performance where they have achieved excellence. Cultural performers who take on the role of left-wing commentators are likely to attract criticism on specific points, but not on account of their achievements in their own fields". More here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me 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.

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

MISSED ANNIVERSARY!

As almost any woman will tell you, most men are very bad at remembering anniversaries, birthdays, etc. Wise women just issue lots of reminders. I am a particularly bad case of poor memory for such things. And I can now prove that it's not ill-intended. I forgot to note the anniversary of this blog when it occurred over a month ago! -- on July 10th. So I have now been blogging for just over two years. It actually feels like I have been blogging forever. And I think I can by now say that there is no chance of me suffering from "burnout", as many bloggers do after a while. I am quite taciturn in everday life but I never find any shortage of things to blog about. I am a sort of Marcel Marceau in reverse. Marceau is famous for not speaking on stage but is/was apparently quite a chatterbox when not on stage.

That reminds me: I started out blogging on a different address from this and I have in the past used quite a number of blogspot sites to put up stuff -- most of which I have now deleted in favour of simple files here or here. I notice however that some kind soul has taken over one of my abandoned blogspot addresses and reposted there some selections from my writings. If he wants to contact me, I might be able to give him something more recent to post.

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THE TURKISH CONUNDRUM

Hmmm... I have mixed feelings about this one: The Vatican opposes Turkey's accession to the EU on the apparent grounds that it wants to keep Europe Christian. A number of thoughts spring to mind: 1). Europe is now much more post-Christian than Christian so is it not a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted? 2). Who cares what the EU does? 3). As the only genuine Islamic democracy, Turkey needs all the encouragement it can get; 4). Turkey would probably be better off out of the highly bureaucratic EU anyway. But on the other hand I can see the Vatican's point that a common culture is important in fostering social harmony -- a point that even Leftist intellectuals such as Kojeve have occasionally perceived. And there is no doubt that Muslim traditions and values are very different from values and traditions formed by Christianity.

More importantly, however, Turkey's accession would mean a virtually uncontrolled flood of Muslims from throughout the Middle East into Europe. If I were a European, I think I would most certainly oppose that. Allowing Muslims who have made a godawful mess of their own countries to import their destructive ways into Europe seems madness to me. And I cannot see that we can expect Turkey to exert any effective border control over its long borders with many other Middle Eastern countries when even the USA cannot control its border with Mexico. So once Turkey was in the EU, half the Middle East would in time end up as EU residents and thus be free to move to any other part of the EU if and when they chose. Lots of lovely Iraqis and Syrians and Iranians for Britain!

And how could Turkey possibly be accepted as a good European citizen when it is already holding down by military force a large part of another European country (Cyprus) that it seized only a few decades ago? It should withdraw its army from Cyprus before discussions even begin!

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ELSEWHERE

Der Spiegel ("The Mirror") is a major German newsmagazine. It is frantically anti-American. David's Medienkritik shows how utterly deceitful is the account it gives of Larry King's interview with President Bush. David's Medienkritik also has a good laugh about the effects of the planned big withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany.

On 8th., I put up a brief extract from an excellent article by Eric Alan Beltt which contends -- as I do -- that Leftism is a psychological state rather than any coherent political philosophy or set of ideas. The article was originally published on his blog and received a lot of comments. His answers to the comments make a very useful extension to the original article and are well worth reading. See here.

Political pretenders: "Sometimes little things can tell you about big things. While Sen. John Kerry and his running-mate Sen. John Edwards were recently photographed at lunchtime at Wendy's, to show what regular guys they are, their real lunch was from a local yacht club, which is more their speed in real life. There is nothing wrong with eating lunch from or at a yacht club. What is wrong is being phony -- and thinking the American people need to be conned. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president four times while never pretending to be anything other than what he was, a born member of the elite class."

"Racist like me": "One reason for bigotry's maddening intractability is that a determination -- however knee-jerk, superficial, or unthinkingly made -- that something or someone is racist ends the discussion, as happened with my friend. The verdict is 'guilty' and the only punishment is forfeiture of the right to consider yourself a decent human being. Better to be a necrophiliac than an admitted bigot. Yet if we are to evolve on the issue of race, the notion that you, or someone else, is racist ought to function as the beginning of the attainment of full humanity, not the proof that you've relinquished it."

Blogging while black: "Right-of-center black bloggers, in fact, seem to be entering that public eye almost daily. That shouldn't be a surprise, given statistics on growing Internet usage among black Americans, and the revelation that a quarter of young blacks consider themselves conservative .... the Internet is suddenly full of great black writers whose views aren't monolithic -- you'll find almost-daily disagreements about affirmative action, President Bush or the morality of gangsta rap -- but instead offer a vibrant, hip-hop generation alternative to the broken record of the civil-rights establishment."

"The world of celebrity and the world of the Democratic Party are now joined at the hip. They are one. Their interests, presumably, coincide.... Isn't it becoming harder by the day to take the Democrats seriously as the party of the common man and the left-out? Besides these people, the party's primary sources of support have become trial lawyers and Wall Street financiers. It is becoming a party run by a new class of elites who make fast money--$25 million for 30 days work on a movie, millions (even billions) winning lawsuits against doctors or asbestos users, millions to do arithmetic for a business merger. But they're all running against "Halliburton." ... The days when in the same breath you said AFL-CIO, blue-collar and Democrats are gone. The industrial unions, which connected the party to its authentic roots, are downstairs and out of sight of the nouveau arriviste Democrats."

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH leads off with a pretty horrific story today.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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

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STEAM TRAINS AND PYGMIES

Either you "get" steam trains or you don't. I do. So I was mightily pleased yesterday to be sitting on a bench at Kuranda railway station (in the mountains above Cairns) when a great black old steam engine came panting in -- hauling a train of passenger carriages. It has been dragged out of retirement for the tourist trade so that makes me grateful for tourists. Stream engines don't handle inclines well, however, so the trip from Cairns to Kuranda takes twice as long as if the train were hauled by a modern diesel-electric. Anyway, it really choked me up as it slowly pulled out again amid much steam and panting. It was magnificent. Steam buffs would understand.

An historical interest of Kuranda that is now almost completely unknown to almost anybody -- and which is certainly not mentioned to the tourists -- is that the last survivors of Australia's pygmy race were found in the jungles around there. There are still quite a few striking photos of them from around a century ago, but intermarriage between them and other blacks since then has eliminated any obviously distinct modern population of them. Yet 99.9% of Australians would think that there has only ever been one indigenous race on the Australian mainland. The existence of the pygmies used to be mentioned in the history textbooks but is now almost nowhere to be found. Why? Because the indigenous Australian blacks (Aborigines) that we know today appear to be mainly the descendants of a later wave (or waves) of immigration into Australia -- which means that they are not truly the first "owners" of the country. They are just as much invaders as the whites. And they did a pretty good genocide job on the pygmies -- so, as in Africa, the pygmies survived only in the deep jungle. And that TOTALLY undermines the Leftist guilt industry which says that whites as invaders owe the Aborigines something for being the original inhabitants here. More woes for Australia's Leftist historians. And, yes, it IS the wicked Windschuttle who has shown their deceptions up in this matter as in others.

So what did I see in Kuranda yesterday? I saw only about a dozen Aborigines there but two were remarkably short. Isn't that surprising?

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ELSEWHERE

Proof here that it is John Kerry who is the latter-day Benedict Arnold.

John Kerry's ancestral home in France is rooting for him. How unsurprising.

Jeff Jacoby on there being "too few" minority people in journalism: "The notion that race is a proxy for thought and belief is as odious as the Nuremberg Laws and South Africa's former Racial Classification Law, and has no more business in American journalism than they do. It would be nice to report that Bush and Kerry used their time at the Unity podium to condemn the organization's obsession with skin color, and to remind the journalists in the room that true diversity, the only diversity worth fighting for, is intellectual diversity: the diversity of minds.... What the convention should have been told is that it is neither moral nor progressive to view the world through a racial prism. Unity's "journalists of color" should have heard the blunt message that journalism does not need more reporters and editors of color. It doesn't need more white journalists, either. What it needs are men and women of talent and integrity -- adults who have no interest in a "diversity" that is merely skin-deep"

Excellent: "A Hofstra law student has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against the New York Times alleging the publication's use of the slogan, 'All the news that's fit to print' is false advertising and constitutes a deceptive practice. He claims that the Times' use of 'push-polling' is a violation of the FTC Act. Jonathan Stein said he filed the complaint because he believes the NYT has abused its power and abdicated its responsibility to be objective. He told Talon News, 'The New York Times has enormous power to shape public opinion and the FTC must review the paper's claim that it is an objective news source.' He accused the NYT of using 'push-polling' to obtain results that support a particular position or affect public opinion with the wording of the questions."

Random observations has proof that esteemed academic qualifications can go with severe looniness. Lesson: Don't judge people by the worthless bits of paper that most academic credentials have become these days.

"Blithering Bunny" on Australia's "history wars": His post of 4th mocks the responses of Leftist academic historians to the way Keith Windschuttle has shown them up as typical Leftist liars. He notes that Windschuttle "published The Killing of History, a book acclaimed throughout the world, and that he is regarded in America as one of the world's foremost intellectuals of the current time. So Waterhouse is probably right: the Australian historians have no right to treat him as their intellectual equal".

Keith Burgess-Jackson has a post about frugality that I am generally sympathetic to. I lived a life nearly as simple as his when I was young but as soon as I started acquiring wives that quickly came to an end. My using a dialup connection to the internet is only slightly motivated by frugality. What I really like about dialup is its simplicity. You just plug your laptop into anyplace where there is a phone and that's it! The speed I normally get is 52,000 kbs and that is only a problem with graphics-intensive sites -- which I rarely visit.

PID is a lapsed Catholic and has some good comments on my using a Papal encyclical as holiday reading. Excerpt: "Although I can think of alternative holiday reading, I can also think of something much weirder than an atheist studying papal encyclicals on the beach. It would be the Catholic intellectual architects of those same papal encyclicals deriving their social doctrines, not from their own Church's scholastic tradition, which in many ways layed the groundwork for classical economists like Adam Smith, but from the then "new fangled" economic ideas of German historical school, also known as the "intellectual bodyguard of the House of Hohenzollern.".

I have just transferred here a new lot of Chris Brand's exceedingly incorrect postings about the appalling interaction between race and political correctness in Britain. But Chris has in his usual way found a few signs of emerging sanity there. He notes that the Conservatives there are at long last beginning to criticize political correctness and speak up for a saner legal system. There is also an excerpt from what the British Conservative leader said on today's POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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

Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me 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.

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

DESERTED BEACHES -- AND PAPAL ENCYCLICALS

I may be wrong but I have the strong impression that the ideal image of a tropical beach that most people have in mind is an image of a deserted beach. "Getting away from it all" largely means freedom from having to deal with other people all the time. Yet, as far as I can see, that does not happen with most tourist destinations. The crowds follow you. Yet in Australia's far North you can find plenty of long, wide, white, tree-lined, sandy beaches with hardly a soul on them for most of the time. That was certainly true yesterday when I looked in at Cowley beach, Kurrimine and Mission beach. And the smaller beaches in between them are normally absolutely deserted. The dream CAN become reality. Australia certainly makes a laugh out of the Greenie idea that earth is "overcrowded".

My vacation reading has been pretty weird. I have just read (well, most of it) the Papal encyclical Centesimus Annus by John Paul II (1991). Have you ever heard of any other atheist who reads Papal encyclicals on his vacations? There was for me one surprising bit in Centesimus Annus. The Pope supports Sabbath observance: "In this regard, one may ask whether existing laws and the practice of industrialized societies effectively ensure in our own day the exercise of this basic right to Sunday rest". I wonder why we never hear of that?

Like the famous encyclical it commemorates (Rerum novarum), however, Centesimus Annus is a thoroughly conservative balancing act. It says Communism is no good but neither is unbridled capitalism. It says there is a right to private property but not an unrestriced right. It says the State should interfere to look after the poor but it should not interfere too much. As I point out elsewhere, conservatives have always undertaken that difficult balancing. Simplistic all-or-nothing theories and systems are only for the ideologues of the Left. Because Centesimus Annus is a balancing act, however, both Left and Right can find bits in it that they like. It does nothing to check the increasingly Leftist nature of the church hierarchy. The hierarchy can use it to defend any degree of Statism except outright Marxism as being for the good of anyone who is at a disadvantage in any way. So I would call Centesimus Annus an unsuccessful balancing act. It is too vague to be useful. At least Rerum novarum took on Marxism at a time when it was a growing threat. I cannot see that Centesimus Annus does anything similarly useful.

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FROM BROOKES NEWS

John Kerry gets his Vietnam comeuppance from Vietnam Veterans - and a reporter squeals Now that the truth is coming out about John Kerry's Vietnam war record his sycophantic media groupies are losing their grip
The mass media's love affair with the traitor Wilfred Burchett The mass media's favourable treatment of traitors like Wilfred Burchett helps explain its hatred of President Bush
Green economist wrong on globalization and free trade Free trade (aka globalization) always gets a bad press from greenies"
Keynes fails North Korea and Kim Jong-il Last year Kim Jong-il decided to take his cue from Maynard Keynes and attempted to inject some life into what is jokingly called the North Korean economy
The Japanese economy: A lesson for the US economy? Some commentators thought there was an ominous parallel between the US economy and the state of the Japanese economy in the late '80s
Oil: Where does it come from? How, one may ask, can coal arise in one place and petroleum in another?

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

Kerry caught in a lie: "I was startled to read the Aug. 10 issue of the editorial page of The Washington Times concerning the assertion attributed to Sen. John Kerry that he had spent Christmas 1968 aboard his swift boat some five miles inside Cambodia and had been shot at by our Vietnamese allies, as well as the Khmer Rouge.... concerning the assertion that Mr. Kerry was shot at by the Khmer Rouge during his Christmas 1968 visit to Cambodia, it should be noted that the Khmer Rouge didn't take the field until the Easter Offensive of 1972".

Kerry has of course now backtracked about what he originally claimed was a "searing memoy" of his time in Cambodia. Are we seeing early-onset Alzheimer's here? Will his memories of routines abuses conducted by American troops in Vietnam also now be withdrawn? But that would be too decent, I think.

GWB good on John Kerry's Iraq policy: "Now, almost two years after he voted for the war in Iraq, and almost 220 days after switching positions to declare himself the anti-war candidate, my opponent has found a new nuance," Bush said. "After months of questioning my motives and even my credibility, Sen. Kerry now agrees with me." Bush added sarcastically that Kerry still had time to change his position: "There are still 84 days left in the campaign.""

One hundred percenter has a John Kerry Christmas poem that is very much to the point.

Abortion horrifies me but I agree with this: "Britain granted its first license for human cloning yesterday, joining South Korea on the leading edge of stem-cell research, which is restricted by the Bush administration but which many scientists think might lead to new treatments for a range of diseases."

Eugene Rants is getting pretty enraged at some Leftist distortions about the elderly and about health care.

Diary of an anti-Chomsky-ite is worth a look if you have not seen it already. He posts fairly often.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with informative links to a whole host of varied bologospherical reading.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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

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CLINTON TOO!

Well bugger me! I rarely use crude language but this is an occasion for it: Bill Clinton is here in Far North Queensland at the same time as I am. I guess his taste in vacation spots is better than his taste in wives. He has been here before so he knew where he was going when he decided to come here for a vacation. I gather he is here for a few days at least. I saw an all-black Learjet on the tarmac as I flew into Cairns International Airport but now I know whom it delivered here. I hope that is all I see of Mr Amorality.

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