ELSEWHERE

Much has been made of an article in The Lancet (summary reproduced here) which estimates that there have been more than 100,000 deaths in Iraq that were due to the invasion. Various conservative writers have criticized the study and various Leftists (e.g. here) have replied. Nobody, however, seems to have commented on the fact that the findings were a product of cluster sampling. The major fault I see with the study is that estimating low-incidence phenomena via cluster samples is inherently dodgy. I have had many findings derived from cluster samples reported in the academic journals so I know a little bit about it. You just have to get one or two clusters being a-typical (either by chance or intentionally) to arrive at totally distorted results. Basing such an important conclusion on a sample-size of only 33 is really quite ludicrous. I have used as few as 10 clusters in some of my surveys but I was concerned only to find whether some effect existed at all. I was not trying to estimate it precisely. All that aside, however, who doubts that wars kill people? And who doubts that the deaths in a war have to be offset against the deaths that might otherwise have occured if the war were not fought? If you believe that such offsetting should not be done, you would also have to say that Britain should have said "We surrender" to Hitler.

Gay Patriot has up a picture of a good doggy comment on the election.

Jobs: "Our unemployment rate, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put at 5.4 percent in September, is one of the lowest in the world and in our history. France's unemployment rate is 9.4 percent, Germany's 9.9 percent and Italy's 8.6 percent. Our Canadian neighbor's is 6.6 percent. The only reason for today's hysteria over jobs is because it is an election year, and one of the ways politicians gain power is to create fear among the electorate. The next time you hear a politician whining about our "awful" job climate, ask him which European country we should look to for guidance in job creation. The fact of business is that our country is the world's leader not only in job creation but in terms of where the world wants to invest its money.

Nazism lives: "As hard as they may try, some Muslim leaders in Western countries are unable to camouflage their hatred for Israel, even in public. Like an underground geyser, these feelings of animosity toward the Jewish state eventually burst their bonds and gush to the surface -- from behind the fa‡ade of tolerance and respectability these sham representatives know they have to adopt in order to operate in our societies. The most recent outburst of anti-Israeli enmity from a "respected" Muslim leader occurred only last week when Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, one of the largest and most influential Muslim groups in Canada, stunned television viewers with outrageous comments that supported murdering Israelis. Revealing his true colors toward the Jewish state, Elmrasy said, on The Michael Coren Show, that all adult Israelis of military age, including women, are legitimate targets for suicide bombers, since they are eligible for military service".

A Leftist's view of why he is in politics: "Although politics does not necessarily provide excitement or power, it does provide a ready-made identity, one where your sense of who you are is sharply defined against "the other". For anyone with an underdeveloped sense of self-esteem, this is a lifeline, providing a short cut to coherence and purpose. In the midst of all its supposed drama, politics provides a certainty that is enormously comforting".

Muslims a problem in China too: "Violent clashes between members of the Muslim Hui ethnic group and the majority Han group left nearly 150 people dead and forced authorities to declare martial law in a section of Henan Province in central China, journalists and witnesses in the region said today. The fighting flared late last week and continued into the weekend after a Hui taxi driver fatally struck a 6-year-old Han girl, prompting recriminations between different ethnic groups in neighboring villages, these people said. One person who was briefed on the incident by the police said that 148 people had been killed, including 18 police officers sent to quell the violence.

Conservative humorist Imre Saluszinski turns out to be an admirer of Bob Dylan. Not as strange as you think when you realize that Bob Dylan always rejected the Leftist embrace of him and was in fact in his heyday an admirer of none other than the very conservative Republican, Barry Goldwater!

Kevin MacDonald argues that members of America's majority culture should be just as keen to promote their rights and identity as members of minority groups are.

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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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LEFTIST DOUBLE STANDARDS AGAIN

Email from a reader

Here's another example-- as if you needed more-- about the ego-predominant locus of moral control among the left. Basically it is a parallel between Kerry's "outsourcing" comment about Tora Bora and abortion.

As you stated, if Kerry considers a third party as an "ally"-- collaborating, networking, dialoguing, "caring and sharing", etc.-- then the process is lionized and embraced. If he wishes to denigrate the contribution of a third-party ally, it's "outsourcing" and "the coalition of the coerced and the bribed." Never mind that the assistance from either type of ally may be identical.

With abortion the issue it is very similar. If a pregnant woman WANTS her baby, it's all about maternity leave, women-as-special, give me my paid time off (better to be for a year, as in Sweden), driving a minivan with "Baby on Board" sign in the window, play dates, preschool, and "my Devon is the most important little person in the world", etc. Let's do it all For the CHILDREN.

If this is an "undesired" pregnancy, it's just a "blob of tissue", "obligate parasite", "reproductive right" (for women only, of course), zero-population-growth, save-the-planet decision "between a woman and her doctor and her God". Never mind that these two "definitions" pertain to the same baby.

I believe the Left's incessant "For the Children" meme represents not only hiding behind the child-proxy to disguise their selfish policies, but also a reaction-formation against their desire to sacrifice a child for their own "lifestyle" AND a projection of their own childish self-absorbed desire to be protected from life's exigencies.

The Left lacks any core principle-- as you have maintained consistently-- other than solipsism. "It's all about MEMEMEMEMEMEME, and my definition of reality trumps yours. Only an idiot can believe differently from me." -- And if I change my mind tomorrow, only a rigid, inflexible idiot fails to understand my nuanced approach to life.


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ELSEWHERE

Democrats -- the "fat-cat" party: "Democrats: the party of the little guy. Republicans: the party of the wealthy. Those images of America's two major political wings have been frozen for generations.... No more. Starting in the 1960s and '70s, whole blocs of "little guys"--ethnics, rural residents, evangelicals, cops, construction workers, homemakers, military veterans--began moving into the Republican column. And big chunks of America's rich elite--financiers, academics, heiresses, media barons, software millionaires, entertainers--drifted into the Democratic Party.... It is "becoming harder by the day to take the Democrats seriously as the party of the common man," writes columnist Daniel Henninger. "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...millions to do arithmetic for a business merger."... Federal Election Commission data show that many of the very wealthiest political players are now in the Democratic column.... And the money on the Kerry side has come much more from rich individuals, while Bush has relied on flocks of small donors. So which is the party of the people now?"

Australia's big Muslim neighbour: "Newly-elected Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would consider becoming a globe-trotting advocate for moderate Islam, promoting peace in hotspots such as the Middle East. Yudhoyono said he wanted Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, to be a model for moderate Islamic democracy".

Australians and Americans know how to work: "Australia is a land of workaholics, ranking with the US and rivalling the Japanese as the world's hardest workers.... the International Labour Organisation says one in five employees in Australia, New Zealand and the US works at least 50 hours a week. Australian employees work twice as hard as Europeans, with just a 10th of European workers putting in such long working hours. Only in Japan, where 28.1 per cent of employees work 49 hours or more a week and New Zealand 21.3 per cent, do people work longer."

There is now an academic journal of Ayn Rand studies

Anti-Protester thinks Leftists work harder for their cause and are better organized. Seeing that power is their sole aim in life, that figures.

Do you fancy 'a spiritual atom bomb of infinite power'? It's Mao's little red book, of course. Fabian's Hammer notes the still great reverence in the West for history's greatest mass-murderer.

Michael Darby is online again with some notes about the dishonest character of John Kerry and some history showing that Clinton too believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

AstuteBlogger notes: "The Left trots out ACTORS to be their leading lights; Ben Affleck, Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Garofolo, Danny Glover, Jessica Lange, etc., etc., etc. and so on. WEIRD, AIN'T IT!? The Left criticizes real, experienced political leaders (Reagan had been a politician for decades before becoming president, and the Governor of California; Bush had defeated sitting governor Ann Richardson to become a two-term Republican Governor of Texas) - who lead boldly and who courageously confront and defeat tyranny, and the Left derides them for being mere "ACTORS.""

I have just put online an interesting article on the psychology of Jihad (Also here).

I have just put up on Leftists as Elitists some derogatory comments by Tom Wolfe about the Leftist elite of New York City.

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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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ENCORE MONSIEUR KOHN KERRY

John Kerry sometimes quotes the scripture: "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:17). This post points out that by that criterion Kerry's own faith is very hollow indeed.

Jeff Jacoby on Kerry's flip-flops: "Bush, unlike Kerry, has the courage of his convictions. He can take a strong stand and not run away from it when the political winds shift. On the big issues, the crucial issues, he is a decisive man who means what he says -- and who isn't afraid to say it even when his listeners disagree. For a nation going to the polls in wartime, no issue matters more than character. Kerry has much to recommend him, and Bush's flaws are many. But Bush has the character and backbone of a leader. And Kerry doesn't."

Daniel Pipes: "It has not been fully appreciated that, when it comes to the Middle East, Bush has systematically responded to the region's problems by dispatching decades' worth of accepted practices and replacing them with stunningly different approaches. In contrast, John Kerry unimaginatively holds to failed policies of the past.... It is easy to overlook Bush's radicalism in the Middle East, for in spirit he is a conservative, someone inclined to preserve what is best of the past. A conservative, however, understands that to protect what he cherishes at times requires creative activism and tactical agility."

Bigots for Kerry: "If George Bush had chosen the racist David Duke as a running mate, I'd have voted against him, almost without regard to any other issue. Instead, John Kerry chose the xenophobe John Edwards as a running mate. I will therefore vote against John Kerry. Duke thinks it's imperative to protect white jobs from black competition. Edwards thinks it's imperative to protect American jobs from foreign competition. There's not a dime's worth of moral difference there. While Duke would discriminate on the arbitrary basis of skin color, Edwards would discriminate on the arbitrary basis of birthplace. Either way, bigotry is bigotry, and appeals to base instincts should always be repudiated."

Bush did not lie: "President Bush couldn't possibly have lied about WMD unless he miraculously knew something that neither the CIA nor all the other world's intelligence agencies knew: that Saddam didn't have WMD. Now how could he have known that? Did he hire his own private investigators to dispatch some Farsi-speaking, cowboy hat-wearing paragon of erudition to comb its entire landmass to confirm there were no WMD? Frankly, it is nothing short of amazing that Democrats are still peddling this canard about Bush lying about Iraqi WMD. But they are. In the meantime we see that they really don't care about presidential lying about war, because it is they and John Kerry who are lying about it."

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Democrat hatred: "Shelby Pope is a 60-year-old small- business woman from Pasadena who, until recently, had never been in a fight. Then a Democrat spit on her. "It was horrifying,' said Pope, who puts out Bush/Cheney literature on her table at a Los Angeles flea market at Fairfax and Melrose avenues.... Pope has volunteered for Republican campaigns since the Eisenhower era, and says this year the political climate is "the worst I've ever seen.' ... "These people are calling Bush 'Hitler,' ' said Frank Napolitano, a Republican precinct campaigner from Altadena. "I didn't call Clinton 'Hitler.'' Napolitano has had several Bush/Cheney signs stolen from his front yard. He then put up a sign saying, "Please don't steal my signs.' It was stolen, too..... The experience has pushed him toward harsher language. "The Democrats are Nazis,' he said. "They don't believe in freedom of speech. They're Nazis. They're intellectual morons.'" I have put another example of an attack on a Republicans up on EDUCATION WATCH.

And Mike Tremoglie has more examples of Democrat attacks on democracy. One excerpt: "On October 19, 2004 a movie theater in Jenkintown Pennsylvania, a suburban borough just north of Philadelphia with a population of about 4500, was scheduled to show the documentary Stolen Honor. This movie features the testimony of Vietnam POW's and it is extremely critical of John Kerry. However, after receiving threats of " civil disobedience" (i.e. destruction of property and who knows what to people), the owner of the theater canceled the showing. Because of Stalinist intimidation, nearly 400 people were denied the opportunity to see a movie simply because it was critical of a presidential candidate. Jenkintown was more like Tienamen Square than Independence Mall. According to Gil Spencer, a columnist for the Delaware County Daily Times, a suburban Philadelphia paper, "Thuggish pro-Kerry "protesters" showed up at the urging of the Kerry campaign. Police had to be called to the scene to keep order."

Voting fraud: "The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it would wait until after the presidential election to investigate Republican charges that nearly 1000 convicted felons had illegally requested absentee ballots or already voted early. The state Republican Party said it had combed a list of suspected felons and found 925, mostly Democrats, who had not had their voting rights restored, but had requested ballots or voted early." There is another article here on the third-world shambles that is the American voting system. Australia's system is not perfect but it is miles more secures than America's.

Arafat: "Speaking of media bias, here's a question you won't hear in our big papers or on network TV: Does Yasser Arafat have AIDS? We know he has a blood disease that is depressing his immune system. We know that he has suddenly dropped considerable weight - possibly as much as 1/3 of all his body weight. We know that he is suffering intermittent mental dysfunction. What does this sound like?" Senior Nazis were homosexual too, of course.

Fruitcake Walter Cronkite believes Karl Rove is behind the recent bin Laden tape

Hilarious: "A Vatican-approved sex guide is encouraging churchgoers to make love more often to offset "impotence and frigidity" and address papal concerns over declining birth rates among Italian Roman Catholics. The book, "It's A Sin Not To Do It", written by two theologians, promises the reader answers to "everything you wanted to know about sex but the Church [almost] never dared to tell you". In their attempt to galvanise the faithful, Roberto Beretta and Elisabetta Broli, who write regularly for the Italian Bishops' magazine Avvenire, have written one of the raciest works ever to deal with the church and sex."

Uncivil Rights has some good posts up about the unending Democrat talent for inconsistency and self-contradiction.

Wayne Lusvardi has just done a post on the place of paranoia in Leftist politics.

I have just put up on LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS an article from a major Leftist publication that is absolutely dripping with thinly disguised contempt for ordinary people and their entertainments.

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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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LOOK AT WHOM A WIN BY GWB WOULD SHAFT!

This article gave me a laugh

I have to say it is his enemies who most justify Mr Bush's re-election. The list of those whose world could be truly rocked [by a Bush win] on Tuesday is just too long and too rich to be ignored. If you think for a moment about those who would really be upset by a second Bush term, it becomes a lot easier to stomach.

The hordes of the bien-pensant Left in the universities and the media, the sort of liberals who tolerate everything except those who disagree with them. Secularist elites who disdain religiosity except when it comes from Muslim fanatics. Europhile Brits who drip contempt for everything their country has ever done and long for its disappearance into a Greater Europe.Absurd, isolationist conservatives in America and Britain who think the struggles for freedom are always someone else's fight. Hollywood sybarites and narcissists, self-appointed arbiters of a nation's morals.

Soft-headed Europeans who think engagement and dialogue with mass murderers is the way to achieve lasting peace. French intellectuals for whom nothing has gone right in the world since 1789.

More here

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Psychologist Tanya Dineen thinks that GWB has got more EQ (emotional intelligence -- ability to relate to other people emotionally) and Kohn Kerry has got more IQ. On the evidence I have seen, she is wrong. GWB has got more of both. It's silly to think that the two are very different anyhow. IQ helps you to solve ALL problems -- including how to relate to other people. That's what IQ is: General problem-solving ability -- and figuring out how to get on well with other people is one of the most important things to solve that there is. And it always amuses me when people say GWB is stumble-tongued and inarticulate. We had a guy like that as Premier of my home State of Queensland not too long ago. And how long did he stay in power? 20 years! He won election after election. He got up to 59% of the popular vote. For ordinary sensible people, genuineness trumps a slick tongue every time.

Steve Sailer's careful study of the IQ of both Bush and Kerry got so much publicity that it was even reported in the New York Times. Having ANY mention of IQ in the N.Y. Times has greatly miffed many Leftists. The very idea of IQ is a frontal assault on their "all men are equal" gospel. Note how this Leftist site treats the matter. There is not even a shred of discussion of the evidence Steve presented. It is all an ad hominem attack: Sailer is a bad man so what he says cannot be right. And the evidence for Sailer being a bad man? He is RIGHT WING! That proves it! Ad hominem attacks, of course, have no scholarly merit whatsoever and this particular one is particularly stupid. It completely closes off debate by inviting the obvious riposte: "I am going to believe nothing that YOU say because you are LEFT WING! But I guess that Leftists WANT to close of debate. Full consideration of the evidence on something is always dangerous for them.

I note that the same site is boycotting (or girlcotting) Paypal. Apparently Paypal has been acting high and mighty with Leftists too. The Bill Quick affair has soured conservative bloggers on Paypal so one wonders whether Paypal wants any business at all. It's all good news for Amazon's alternative service.

A scientist involved in embryonic stem cell research nails John Kerry's lies about the matter.

In case there are one or two readers of this blog who have not yet heard of the way legalized abortion is giving conservatives the victory of the cradle (more conservatives than Leftists being born), there is a useful summary of the matter here. The article plays safe by saying that it is only "socialization" that causes children to have similar politics to their parents but the fact of the matter is that genetics is an even bigger influence in that direction. Your politics are largely inborn -- probably because high ego-need (Leftism) is inborn.

Krauthammer has an excellent article about America's victory in Afghanistan -- that everyone seems conveniently to have forgotten when they predict the impossibility of converting Iraq to democracy. One quote: "John Kerry has managed to transform our Afghan venture into a failure -- a botched operation in which Bush let Osama bin Laden get away because he "outsourced" bin Laden's capture to "warlords" in the battle of Tora Bora..... "Outsourcing" is a demagogue's way of saying "using allies." (Isn't Kerry's Iraq solution to "outsource" the problem to the "allies" and the United Nations?)".

There is a good article here showing that the Left have been against the normal two-parent family at least as far back as Karl Marx -- without any evidence to support their criticism of it and without any real alternative to it. The evidence shows of course that children raised in two-parent families do significantly better in all sorts of ways than do children reared under other arrangements. So it again just boils down to Leftists hating normal people.

Front Page Magazine have a good "War Blog" covering current issues in the Presidential election.

GWB as a boon to culture? "He's the least culturally savvy US president of the modern era. And the least articulate. But somehow the 43rd leader of the world's only superpower has detonated a global explosion of creativity." [A leftist version of "culture", anyway]

There is a fun story here of how one of the "Nigerian" email scammers met his match. The "Nigerian" scam is an old one now but it just keeps rolling along.

Keith Burgess-Jackson has just put up some good thoughts about the blogosphere.

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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 ECONOMICS

The U.S. economy grew at 3.7% p.a. in the most recent quarter. Compared to the near-zero growth in Europe and most of the rest of the world, that is an outstanding performance that any government would be pleased about. The USA is already much richer than any other large country and is continuing to pull further ahead! Cause to congratulate both the businesspeople and technologists of America whose innovations made it happen and a President whose policies gave them an encouraging framework for it.

How the media spins the economy. It depends on who's President: "Summer was proclaimed a time of 'strong economic growth and low unemployment' by Jerry King of ABC's World News Tonight. King was right. Declining unemployment, low inflation and landmark homeownership all point to great news for the economy. There's just one problem: King wasn't talking about this summer. That story aired on Aug. 4, 1996. ... Business Week chief economist Michael J. Mandel made an excellent case that 'today's economic environment looks positively rosy' in the magazine's Sept. 6 issue. Mandel argued that there are strong similarities between the summer of 1996 and 2004. Both had incumbent presidents running for election. Both saw declining unemployment, an increase in jobs, and strong economic growth. Some of the numbers are so similar it's eerie. Yet the major media covered those two time periods as differently as night and day."

Sounds good to me: "With all the hoopla over the presidential election, gone almost unnoticed are measures that will be on ballots all over America next Tuesday to limit or roll back property taxes. It's the biggest tax revolt since the 1970s. No wonder. Property taxes across America have been soaring -- according to Deloitte and Touche, by an average of more than 10 percent between 2001 and 2003 alone. They're rising mainly because more and more responsibility has been heaped on towns and cities -- which rely on property taxes to pay for a lot of things that states and the federal government used to help pay for. Call it trickle-down taxes. The federal tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 left a big hole in the federal budget, meaning that the feds can't or won't fully fund programs like No Child Left Behind, which requires schools to take sometimes expensive steps to improve themselves. Federal support for states has also dropped, so there's less state aid to towns and cities. Well, someone's got to pay for schools and roads and parks and public safety. So by default, the tax burden has fallen to the bottom of the food chain. Local property taxes have borne a lot of the brunt."

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ELSEWHERE

Steve Sailer has an extensive article which punctures pretty well the Democrat claim that their Presidents are bright and GOP Presidents are dumb. Looks like it is the other way around. So we have another example of that pervasive Leftist "projection".

Will Wilkinson summarizes the voter fraud situation. GOP hyper-vigilance is made necessary by deliberate Democrat attempts to rig the results. You have to do something to stop all those dead people voting: "Lindsay bitches about GOP voter suppression in Ohio. I don't believe I remember her complaining (correct me if I'm wrong) about DNC voter suppression (successful or not) in every state in which they tried to cripple democracy by sueing Nader off the ballot. (If I ever hear high-toned democracy rhetoric from Larry Tribe, I'll throw up a little in my mouth.) Second, Lindsay simply assumes that stationing people in polling places to challenge fraudulent voters from voting is an ploy to suppress Democratic votes. But why not assume instead, or in addition, that the huge Democratic voter-registration drives really were riddled with malfeasance. Indeed, I assume both. The Democrats have been signing up dead people, felons and non-citizens in an attempt to steal the vote. The Republicans want to stop Democrats from stealing the vote, and so want to guard against dead and illegal voters, and, as a bonus, to suppress the legitimate Democratic vote--in an attempt to steal the vote. Now, I want to emphasize that I don't think any of these shenanigans even approaches the seriousness of the DNC's effort to make it impossible for American citizens to vote for a candidate who represents their views".

Kerry's Tax hypocrisy: "Sen. John Kerry keeps telling us that 'the rich' need to pay more in taxes. The senator and his wife are among the 400 richest Americans. He says that he has 'a plan to tax the rich.' Under the senator's tax plan, what percentage of the Kerrys' income do you think they would pay the IRS? (a) 50 percent, (b) 40 percent, (c) 30 percent, (d)15 percent. The correct answer is (d) 15 percent. According to an analysis by the Argus Group, a well respected tax law and economics firm, the Kerrys' average tax rate would only increase by 1.8 percentage points to 15.2 percent under the senator's plan, while many small business people would see their average rate rise by 4.0 percentage points, resulting in effective rates as high as 35 to 40 percent, including certain deduction phase-outs."

There is a new blog which has up a comprehensive account of the New Age nuttiness preached by Mrs Heinz-Kerry. Apparently "alternative" health fads will solves all our problems: "If you have a child who eats the wrong things, is denied adequate health care and is deprived of a stimulating environment, it follows of necessity that he will turn out to be a criminal or other form of psychopath, sociopath or mental defective, Teresa teaches. From this she believes it follows naturally that if society seriously intends to prevent criminality and all other forms of social pathology, then all we have to do is provide our children with the right nourishment and sunlight and stimulation-and, poof!, instantly you have healthy and well-adjusted children who grow into intelligent, law-abiding and well-adjusted adults".

The Yes Bush Can site and its accompanying mailouts would seem to be the latest bit of Democrat play-acting. It may now have been taken down. It was allegedly by a group of Bush supporters who had switched to Kerry. It might fool some people, I guess. But after the biggest bit of play-acting of all -- "John Kerry as war-hero" -- it is pretty last-ditch.

Chez Joel has a very amusing post about how to talk to terrorists. He's not being sarcastic or anything!

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

Wicked Thoughts has put up a very wicked post about Yasser Arafat

I have just put up on LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS some excerpts from a good article by V.D. Hanson which says which says that elitism is now the main thing that undergirds Leftism. A post on the megalomaniac Soros too.

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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 brings in former communist agent to slime Vietnam vets and smear Sinclair Broadcast Group John Kerry asked Lerach to deal with Sinclair and the vets. He did. He brought a former paid communist agent to the dirty deed
George Soros' slimy attack on President Bush The sooner the Americans wake up to this bargain-basement Machiavelli and the sleazy political ambitions of his super rich mates the safer they will be
John Kerry moves to censor the Sinclair Broadcast Group Despite the lying propaganda that the John Kerry campaign and its media lackeys are spreading the Sinclair documentary did contain dissenting views
The 2004 Nobel prize in economics: getting it wrong Since the Great Depression of the 1930's and until the early 1970s most economists viewed economic fluctuations as the outcome of shocks to aggregate demand. They are wrong
John Kerry tries to censor Vietnam vets and former POWs John Kerry sent in his attack dogs to intimidate Sinclair Broadcast Group and slime Vietnam vets who had been POWs
Another Murdoch journalist bends the facts to support John Kerry Why do so many people despise George Bush while supporting John Kerry? I believe the problem lies with the mass media, meaning journalists
Libertarian Party endorses President Bush There is a belief that a Bush administration would be undesirable. Such a notion could not be farther from the truth, or potentially more harmful to the cause of liberty
Indigenize Iraq's reconstruction The brutal violence in Iraq requires not only accelerating the training of indigenous security forces, but giving the Iraqi people responsibility for their own communities' reconstruction

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

Great news: My home State of Queensland has just delivered control of our Senate for the next six years to Australia's conservative government.

Vietnam peaceniks ride again: "On Sunday, the New York Times featured a political ad counseling defeatism in Iraq – a counsel that has become commonplace in its pages. It was sponsored by an organization called "Church Folks for A Better America," and based in Princeton. The signatories included the same "church folks" – among them William Sloane Coffin Jr., Robert Drinan, and Robert Edgar (National Council of Churches) who counseled defeat in Indo-China, aided the torturers of American POWS in North Vietnam, and fronted for the Soviet dictatorship’s "nuclear freeze" campaign".

This article points out that the dreaded neoconservatives were major advocates of American intervention in Muslim Bosnia and Kosovo --- interventions which are now generally applauded. That rather puts the lie to the constant Leftist claim that the neocons are just lackeys of Israel.

Glenn Reynolds has rather cleverly managed to get one of his articles into The Guardian -- an article in which he extolls the Anglosphere and says that the French hostility towards America relects osssified French fear of American dynamism.

Peg Kaplan has found more Leftist "projection": "In November of 1938, through a carefully orchestrated plan that included support from both newspapers and radio, Germany's Nazi leaders touched off an outburst of violence throughout the regime aimed at destroying Jewish property and facilitating the implementation of Hitler's "final solution." It is perhaps the ultimate irony that the American left, which has long excoriated conservatives by comparing them to the Nazis, has so completely aligned itself with Hitler's methods and his totalitarianism".

An amusing feminist screech at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club. All abuse. No facts. Excerpt: "Across the ocean, another generation of poorly paid, satin-eared bunnies is suiting up to serve drinks and dodge the roaming hands of boozy middle-aged men, and the nepotistically appointed Christie Hefner chairs an otherwise all-male board of directors".

Jeff Jacoby: "Kerry is a liberal Democrat, but in this campaign he is running as a reactionary: as one who wants to reverse course, to go back to the attitudes and practices that guided US policy when Clinton and the elder George Bush were in office. The younger Bush may be a Republican, but he is running this year as a radical. Profoundly transformed by 9/11, he sees the old playbook as feckless and dangerous, and is determined to set a revolutionary new course."

African Anglicans think homosexuality is an abomination and they have not hesitated in saying that to their alleged co-religionists among American Episcopalians and members of the Church of England. We see at the end of this article the response of the Western Anglicans: "We will cut off your funding". Apparently, catering to homosexuals matters more than spreading the Christian gospel in Africa.

Pygmy remains discovered in Indonesia (just North of Australia). It rather fits in with the pygmy element still alive in Northern Australia but nobody seems to want to make that connection. The reconstructed picture of the Indonesian pygmies tooks a lot like the Tasmanian Aborigines, who also seem to have had pygmy (negrito) ancestry: "This hobbit-sized creature appears to have lived as recently as 18,000 years ago on the island of Flores, a kind of tropical Lost World populated by giant lizards and miniature elephants". See also here. And see here for why the Australian Left try to hide the very existence of Australia's pygmies.

Some recent articles on Think Israel:
JIHAD, APOCALYPSE, AND ANTI-SEMITISM: An Interview with Richard Landes
THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM
A CLOSER LOOK AT EGYPT
SAUDI ARABIA'S RELIGIOUS HATRED
THE NEW NEO-COLONIALISM: The Arab-Moslem Invasion Of France
UNITED NATIONS VOTE PRESAGES STATE SPONSORED GLOBAL ANTI-SEMITISM
IS ISRAEL'S LEGAL SYSTEM ACTING ILLEGALLY?
GETTING GAZA WRONG
ARAB TIME BOMB: The Demographic Argument
THE PEOPLE, THE PEOPLE'S ARMY, THE STATE AND THE REGIME

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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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MONSIEUR JEAN KOHN KERRY

Traitor Kerry: "The nation's most highly decorated living veteran told a hometown audience in Sioux City, Iowa, Democratic Party presidential candidate John Kerry "will go down in history as the Benedict Arnold of 1971." Col. George "Bud" Day, an Air Force pilot who spent 67 months in a North Vietnamese prison and was awarded the Medal of Honor among other decorations, visited Sioux City to campaign against Kerry. "The notion that his guy would think he is qualified to be president of the United State when he has already pledged his allegiance to North Vietnam makes absolute zero sense,'' Day told the Sioux City Journal. "My view is he basically will go down in history sometime as the Benedict Arnold of 1971.'' "

Jeff Jacoby has a good article on how much John Kerry has usually given to charity: NIL. His "compassion" only extends to giving other people's money away.

Jeff Jacoby is also having a laugh at John Kerry's sudden discovery of religion.

The liars' liar: "Since his very first appearance on the national scene - as a water carrier for the communists of North Vietnam - Kerry has continuously LIED and EXAGGERATED. And he's been caught, over and over and over again... He slandered the US military in 1971; he lies about being at World Series games, about meeting with foreign leaders or UNSC members, about being in Cambodia - to name just a few! Yet his LYING has not ever hurt him. WHY? HOW? Because since WW2 the Leftist meme has included a basic tenet of the post-modernist meme: a belief that there is no such thing as REAL TRUTH; they believe that truth is just subjective or culturally relative. People who do not believe in truth have no problem lying or voting for liars if it advances their cause. The Leftist cause is as it has always been: making the state bigger; having the state run by elites"

Kerry a N. Vietnamese stooge: "I think what we've discovered is a smoking gun," Corsi said. "We knew when we wrote 'Unfit for Command' that Kerry had met with Madame Binh and then promoted her peace plan. "This document enables us to connect the dots," he emphasized. "We now have evidence Madame Binh was directing the antiwar movement ... and the person who implemented her strategy was John Kerry."

Mark Steyn: "There are legitimate differences of opinion about the war, but they don't include Kerry's silly debater's points. On the one hand, the Tora borer drones that Bush "outsourced" the search for Osama bin Laden to the Afghans, though at the time he supported it ("It is the best way to protect our troops," he said in December 2001. "I think we have been doing this pretty effectively."). But, on the other, he claims he's going to outsource Iraq to the French and the Germans, though neither of them wants anything to do with it. As for this Bush-failed-to-get-bin-Laden business, 2-1/2 years ago I declared that Osama was dead and he's never written to complain. There's no more evidence for his present existence than there is for the Loch Ness monster, which at least does us the courtesy of showing up as a indistinct gray blur on a photograph every now and again. Osama is lying low because he's in no condition to get up".

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ELSEWHERE

A good summary: "The liberal base hates George Bush for one reason; they know he places American interests first. The interests of France, Germany, Russia and the whole Hee Haw gang at the U.N. place a far distant second. It is no surprise then that so many of the left will cast their vote for John Kerry, a man who as a Senator has consistently voted against ANY military action that might safeguard American soil. It is no surprise that they applaud a man who believes that Europe is always superior to America, a man whose character was no doubt formed during the halcyon summers of his childhood spent mostly at the Forbes family chateau in France. It is no surprise they grovel at the feet of a man whose entire career has revolved around taking food from the mouths of those that work, sweat and produce, and giving it to bums and parasites. Kerry's dream world is that of a welfare state presided over by a collection of tin-pot foreign dictators in K-Mart suits. He is the champion of those who are incapable of making a decision, who wish to be cared for from cradle to grave".

Florida voting myths: "During a speech, September 11th, John Kerry implied that Republicans will keep blacks from voting in November. "We are not going to stand by and allow another million African American votes to go uncounted in this election," ... Kerry said that the Democrats prepared to monitor the polls on election day. "What they did in Florida in 2000, some say they may be planning to do this year," The flaw in Kerry's and the Democratic Party argument is that there was no policy to prevent blacks from voting. There was no such policy by the Republican Party or the Florida government.... the final report by the USCCR stated the Commission "does not find that the highest officials of the state conspired to disenfranchise voters. Moreover, even if it was foreseeable that certain actions by officials led to voter disenfranchisement, this alone does not mean that intentional discrimination occurred." .... The report pronounced, "Disenfranchised voters are individuals who are entitled to vote, want to vote, or attempt to vote, but who are deprived from either voting or having their votes counted." Using this standard then, military personnel and Republican voters in the Florida panhandle were the voters who were disenfranchised. However, the USCCR made no mention of them in their report.."

Marxism in academe: "Marxism is an emotional disorder, not a political philosophy. Wealthy people sometimes accept Marxism, not because it has ever worked, but because they feel guilty about having more than other people. But, more often, it is accepted by those with less who are angry, usually because they lack the talent and drive to succeed in a capitalist society. This realization often occurs at a ten-year high school reunion after they see people with less schooling and fewer degrees but with more money than they have. They don't want to compete with these people. They just want the IRS take their wealth and "redistribute" it against their will under the threat of incarceration."

Fraudulent American historians: "In his new book, "Past Imperfect: Facts, Fictions, Fraud -- American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin" (PublicAffairs), Hoffer contends that his profession "has fallen into disarray" and aims a polemical blast at his fellow historians for condoning sloppy scholarship and an anything-goes ethical climate.... Hoffer accuses the American Historical Association (AHA), where he has served as an adviser on plagiarism and a member of its professional standards division, of abdicating its responsibility to enforce basic scholarly principles in both realms... But Hoffer reserves his bitterest jibes for the AHA, which last year gave up adjudicating cases of scholarly misconduct"

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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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ECONOMIC ISSUES

Astute Blogger has a good short post on the idiocy of farm subsidies -- pointing out that when New Zealand abandoned its subsidies, it actually gave New Zealand agriculture a new lease of life.

Lawsuit industry has hurt America "Americans are concerned about where the good jobs are going to come from -- and about their health coverage. These are understandable concerns. They should prompt voters to take a closer look at which would-be presidential administration is likely to take the nation in which direction. One of the things that is clearly hurting American manufacturing is litigation. Not only must U.S. companies compete in a tough world marketplace, they must constantly defend themselves here at home."

The aging "problem": "While the pessimists fret about the problems to come as if ageing is some new challenge, they ignore the fact that this has been a remarkably constant feature of industrialised countries since the latter part of the nineteenth century, and societies have had no difficulties 'coping' with it in the past.

Health, wealth and happiness : "How do we know when we're happy? Strange as it may seem, this philosophical question could come back to haunt you one April 15. Psychologists and 'happiness researchers' are using the finding that Calcutta slum-dwellers and Masai nomads are as happy as American businessmen to argue not only that wealth doesn't necessarily make you happy, but that this shows that investment in economic growth should be replaced by social programs. The trouble is that one conclusion doesn't necessarily lead to the other." [See also my post of Sept. 14th]

UK invents another way to discourage people from employing anybody: ""The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, is attempting to block a new law that would punish negligent employers with heavy fines or imprisonment in cases of deaths or injury at work. The Guardian has obtained details of a letter sent by Mr Straw 10 days ago to John Prescott, deputy prime minister and chair of the domestic affairs cabinet committee. In it, the foreign secretary casts doubt on the need to create a new crime of corporate manslaughter. ... The unexpected intervention into a domestic controversy will infuriate trades unions which have been campaigning for the reform for many years. The commitment for a draft bill was a cornerstone of the agreement between the government and unions reached at this summer's crucial Warwick forum."

What's the answer for high gasoline prices? Nothing: "What, if anything, should government do about the sustained increase in gasoline prices? Not a thing. For both practical and theoretical reasons, politicians and regulators should resist the temptation to monkey around with fuel markets. No matter how well intentioned, intervention to protect consumers will only make matters worse."

Stupid socialists: "A wave of regulation is burdening Britain's financial services industry and threatening its ability to compete internationally, the UK's biggest business group has said. In the next two years, more than 20 European Union measures will be imposed on companies, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said in a report on Monday. The CBI called for a moratorium on new rules, to let firms concentrate on their businesses. "Companies are being battered by the impact of relentless new legislation," CBI Deputy Director John Cridland said in a statement. "It's forcing a dramatic and wasteful diversion of effort away from the daily battle to keep the UK ahead of its competitors." Britain's finance industry employs more than 1 million people and contributes 5.3 percent to gross domestic product, the CBI said."

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ELSEWHERE

The Islamicist/Nazi connection: "It should be pointed out that National Socialism had a profound impact on the political philosophies of many radical Islamic political organization, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood (founded in Egypt in 1928), Nasser`s Young Egypt movement, the Social Nationalist Party of Syria founded by Anton Sa`ada, and the Ba`ath Party of Iraq. One of the main leaders of the 1941 pro-Nazi coup in Iraq was Khairallah Tulfah, the uncle and guardian of Saddam Hussein. When Saddam failed in his attempt to assassinate the Iraqi leader Abdel Karim Qassim in 1959, he fled to Egypt where he was given protection by Grand Mufti-protege Nasser and ODESSA-connected former Nazis. The rest, as they say, is history."

There is a painful letter from Iran here about the tyranny inflicted on innocent Iranians by the Muslim theocracy there.

Media silence about Kerry: "Here we are, on the brink, possibly, of electing a self-confessed war criminal to the Oval Office -- a man who, as an American officer, parlayed with the enemy, and... nothing. No questions, no stories. No thoughts, no curiosity. We contemplate a new wartime leader whose political epiphany -- the famous Christmas in Cambodia, "seared, seared" into Mr. Kerry's memory -- never happened. Questions, stories in the MSM? Not a one. We consider trusting our very lives to a man who has consistently hewed to the wrong side of history, favoring appeasement and disarmament over democratic principle and strength, but we know nothing of his current thinking on those old positions."

Why Howard Stern got outsourced: "I'm not sure about this, but judging from the college students I teach, few people know why Howard Stern decided to leave the country and send us his show from 'abroad' -- he is moving to satellite radio. Most folks do not realize, I think, that this country has a socialist broadcast system."

Blogger "Let's Try Freedom" used to be "pro-choice". Having seen ultrasound pictures of his daughter in the womb, he is now pro-life. He also has a good post on why all Americans now must be citizen-soldiers.

One of my Australian readers has got very irritated at the pro-Palestinian slant of our television. She wrote our "60 Minutes" program a letter of protest. You can read the letter here

Wayne Lusvardi says that it was FDR who originally got America involved in the Middle East.

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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 HISTORY

American Leftists claim to be deathly afraid that a second term for GWB will allow him to appoint Supreme Court judges who uphold the constitution instead of making the law up as they go along. I would like to think it is true but from the way the Senate Democrats recently filibustered Estrada, I fear it is unlikely. And you don't always get what you expect with judicial appointments. Power can easily go to the head of the enthroned one. We might recollect the time when a Republican President appointed a Republican governor to the court and the nation got out of it one of its most determined judicial dictators -- Earl Warren.

Condemnation of the President: "What has [the president done] to entitle him to re-election? We contend he has done nothing to earn this high distinction but that, on the contrary, in the conduct of the war, his deplorable mismanagement of our most important armies, with the disastrous and alarming consequences, have furnished evidence sufficient to convince the country he is not the pilot to carry us through the perils of this war..." But the President concerned was Lincoln, not Bush.

"Neocons" in 1944: "Jewish government officials secretly manipulating the president? That accusation, heard recently in connection with the decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein, was also raised sixty years ago, in the heat of the 1944 presidential race. The lightning rod for criticism in 1944 was Sidney Hillman, a prominent labor leader and aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt."

There is some discussion here of how the welfare state "colonised" Britain's formerly self reliant and mutually supporting working class: "the extensive culture of privately run working-class schools was destroyed by the board-schools founded by the 1870 Education Act, which were not free, but were effectively subsidised to a point where they put their private competitors out of business. All of this was part of a process in which 'the working classes are firmly tagged as the patients, never the agents.'... The state,... by taking away the working classes' means of providing for themselves, and especially by creating catastrophic "Downer" ghettos in housing estates, has created a culture of dependency.

Some interesting statistics about the lead-up to World War II from Jim Lindgren: A Gallup poll taken in 1938 showed that the support for an anti-Jewish campaign was quite low in America but that Democrat voters were 50% more likely to support such a campaign than were Republicans (14.7% versus 9.8%). Those "racist" conservatives again!

"Genghis Khan may not sound like a compassionate conservative, but Weatherford argues that his subject was a great deal more tolerant and far-sighted than his barbaric reputation suggests. Suborned peoples, of all creeds and cultures, were permitted to conduct their affairs autonomously - so long as they recognized his paramountcy. He was the first of the great free traders, a meritocrat, and, by the lights of his time, a nicely enlightened despot. You could do worse than being ruled by Genghis Khan, and many did".

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ELSEWHERE

In academe, Brian Leiter is probably second only to Noam Chomsky for half-truths and twisted reasoning. Because he seems to be widely-read, it is probably time someone took on the job of shooting him down regularly -- as various people do for Chomsky. Being a humble psychologist rather than a high-flying lawyer, I am not the man for the job but even I am tempted to point out the odd bit of shallow rhetoric emanating from him. Take this post. He says the very name "Constitution Restoration Act" is Orwellian. The U.S. constitution is Orwellian? How twisted can thinking be? The provisions of U.S. constitution are about as opposite to a socialist dictatorship (which is what Orwell describes) as you can get! And restoring elements and assumptions of that constitution that have been eroded by an arbitrary "progressive" judiciary must surely be similarly anti-Orwellian. So it is Leiter who is Orwellian. He is calling black white. Once again we note that familiar Leftist "projection" -- seeing your own faults in others. Leiter also heads up his discussion of the Act as "Theocracy anyone?" -- implying (apparently) that the Act concerned is designed to introduce some sort of Christian dictatorship. The whole point of the Act, however, is simply to protect people from being harassed in the courts just because they are Christians. So in Leiter's strange world protecting people from official harassment is equivalent to setting up a dictatorship! Again, he claims something is the opposite of what it is. With scholarship as atrocious as that, it is clear that Leiter's popularity derives from his Leftist ideological correctness rather than any intellectual stature. His reasoning is such garbage that I suppose it is no wonder that nobody bothers to critique it regularly.

The poll of conservative bloggers says that George Bush will defeat John Kerry hands-down.

Another stupid (psychopathic) lie: "U.N. ambassadors from several nations are disputing assertions by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry that he met for hours with all members of the U.N. Security Council just a week before voting in October 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq."

The myth of the disenfranchised: "Already, in state after state, the Democrats have said that voter confusion over how to vote constitutes voter disenfranchisement. But, as George Will recently noted, disenfranchisement is something the government does to you. It's not something you do to yourself. If you can't figure out how to fill in the ovals or punch the chads -- and some minority of voters will always botch it -- that doesn't mean your right to vote was rescinded. It means that you didn't take your right to vote seriously enough to pay attention to the instructions."

Sweden "As early as 1977, Swedish relative income fell below the average for the twenty-three rich OECD countries. Swedish economic growth has been below the OECD average since 1970. The accumulated effect of the slower growth rate is large. From 1970 to 1998, fifteen countries surpassed or caught up with Sweden in terms of GDP per capita, while Sweden did not overtake a single one.... In the early 90's Sweden's extensive sick-leave system resulted in 30% of the working population being "sick" at any point in time. Unemployment rose to 13%. Taxes rose to 55% of GNP, with deficits of 15% of GNP.... It isn't difficult to conclude that Sweden took a resource-rich land, a hardy and resourceful citizenry, avoided the expense and destruction of wars, and then proceeded to smother those advantages with a socialistic welfare state. It's hard to imagine a more ideal testing ground for an ideological experiment, yet socialism has failed there as well".

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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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UNIONS VERSUS THE WORKERS

A good email from Australian philosopher/economist Rafe Champion below:

"With John Howard's recent victory in the elections, the stage is set in Australia for a re-run of all the arguments about the use and abuse of trade union [labor union] power and influence. As I write, I hear the voice of former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke pleading to save the priviliges of the trade unions on the specious argument that giving the workers more power over their own pay and conditions is confrontational and divisive!

The late Bill Hutt is one of the most important writers on these matters and some of his work can be found on line. For an overview of Hutt's career, see here. Below is an extract from Hutt's book on collective bargaining where he draws upon statements from the working class leaders to indicate that the combinations of workers at that time generally disadvantaged the mass of workers. He wrote:

"This should not allow the modern student to ignore the fact that the interests of the unionists were almost universally antagonistic to those of the labouring masses. Had historians of the trade-union movement been orthodox economic theorists they might have laid the strongest emphasis on this point. As it happens, however, they have been practically without exception persons with an undisguised hostility to orthodox theory; and this may account for their failure to stress what might have struck other economists most forcibly. The Webbs frankly admit the frequent existence of monopolistic tendencies on the part of unions, but the general impression they leave is misleading for they have obviously written as union advocates."

One of Hutt's major books was The Strike Threat System which is the history of the trade union use of strike action to undermine the rule of law and disadvantage the poor and indeed all of society apart from the favoured few in the most powerful and reckless unions. The paradigm case in Australia is the waterside workers (longshoremen). Central to the trade union defence is the myth of the "bitter struggle" that workers had to fight against capital and management to get a fair go. This myth is subjected to devastating historical appraisal in this chapter from the book. The chapter begins with some turgid prose, but do persist!"

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ELSEWHERE

I have just put up on LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS a few comments about the British journalist who has recently called for President Bush to be assassinated.

The Left have recently put out another "survey" that purports to prove that GOP voters live in fantasyland and Kerry supporters are realists. Evangelical Outpost demolishes it nicely. The whole thing was blatantly rigged of course. Distortion is just normal for the Left. The straight truth would be too awkward for them.

A ringing endorsement of GWB from a newspaper in the heart of the Left Coast. A small excerpt: "This election year, America is at a crossroads. Under the current president, we forwarded America's duty to both beat back the forces that would end democracy here and abroad and sent a strong message to those who would destroy our way of life: "Don't tread on me.'"

If anyone is an intellectual, it would have to be David Gelernter (He is a professor of computer science at Yale University, among other things, and in German/Yiddish his surname even means "learned"!) yet he is voting for GWB because he sees Bush as having a sense of humour where Kerry has none. He sees humour as humanizing and as a sign of genuine humility.

Fun: "A report recommending English become a compulsory subject in all schools in France has raised the ire of teachers' unions and supporters of linguistic diversity. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin is said to back the proposal, which was put forward a week ago by a commission looking into the future of France's education system, according to Le Monde. Such a move would help French pupils catch up with their counterparts in other EU countries who enjoy a big lead in using what the commission's report called the language of "international communication"."

Australia's Cardinal Pell sums it up: "Recently, I was interviewed on radio about the role of religion in public life. The suggestion seemed to be that if you were irreligious, that was okay, that being secular meant you were fair and reasonable, but religious principles should not intrude into public affairs. I pointed out that Christians had the same rights as anyone else in our democracy and could propose whatever policies they chose. If people didn't like their policies, they could vote for another party. The interviewer professed to be scared of the prospect of Christian political parties, although he didn't say why. He then moved on to George W. Bush who, he claimed, not only set out to do God's will, but claimed to be given special godly instructions or revelations. I do not claim that all President Bush's policies are prudent and right. They may or may not be. But he must not be condemned simply because he's a serious Christian. The interviewer conceded there was no evidence that Bush was claiming to hear voices, and lapsed into silence when I explained that for me, it was a consolation if a world leader was trying to do God's will rather than setting out to do whatever he could get away with. Isn't it better, I asked, to have a leader who believes that in the next life, he will have to answer for the decisions he makes in the here and now?"

Satanic Presbyterians: "I am neither an 'end-timer' nor a messianic, but these groups do have the most accurate way of describing recent events. And who knows, maybe they're right. This week, a group that does not follow the core precepts of Christianity yet call themselves 'Christians' had a friendly meeting with one of the most heinous Islamist terror groups on the planet. Those people who call themselves 'Christian' yet ignore a very core belief of that religion are the Presbyterians, and the group they had a comfy sit-down with is Hizbollah."

Although the U.S. Congress defeated the U.S. military in Vietnam, Lancelot Finn has got a good argument to say that the larger strategic objectives of that war were still attained. In the big picture, America did win.

A good comment on the recent conservative victory in the Australian elections: "I was once a bit concerned about bookshops flooded with tottering towers of tomes attacking the Howard Government and the Bush Administration. I have since come to the conclusion that seeing large bundles of them unopened, unsold and unread in the bookshops might actually be the best possible outcome".

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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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FROM BROOKES NEWS

The hatred and loathing that the media are expressing for President Bush has astonished many people. This week's issue reproduces seven articles from the 2000 election. These articles show that media hatred of Bush goes back many years. We believe that this hatred stems from a hatred of America. It is, in fact, the brutal end product of several decades of vicious anti-Americanism that has corrupted the media to the extent that their dishonesty and ideologically driven reports and commentary now threaten the democratic process.

Another Rupert Murdoch journalist maligns Bush and his record Susan Mitchell is another particularly nasty example of that breed of leftwing reporters who makes no attempt to hide the hate and sneering loathing she feels for George Bush
A Borgia journalist strikes at Bush The US election has helped expose just how bigoted and dishonest many of our journalists really are, which brings me to the 'The Australian Financial Review'
Murdoch's Australian roots for Gore again Cameron Forbes' squalid and bigoted report on the Florida recounts
Murdoch journalist libels Bush and his Texas record The malevolence of the Australian press toward Bush is striking in its intensity. One is even tempted to call it pathological
Aussie journalist joins Gore's election campaign Roy Eccleston, from Rupert Murdoch's 'Australian' railed against Republican demonstrators, falsely accusing them of intimidation
Media hack spins for Gore The American election has provided graphic and somewhat sickening examples of just how ideologically corrupt most of our journalists are
Al Gore's shameless journalists Leftwing journalists are relentless. No matter how much one exposes their political bigotry and hypocrisy they still continue to push the party line. And that brings me back to Gay Alcorn, 'Sydney Morning Herald'

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

There is an article here reporting the ongoing claims by psychologists to the effect that conservatives are nutty --- yet another example of Leftist "projection" of course. The spotlight this time is on claims by a buffoon called Altemeyer. Altemeyer's claims were demolished academically long ago but that is conveniently ignored. See here. Psychologists have always been good at ignoring their own literature if it suits them. See here and here.

I mentioned yesterday an ignorant Leftist "intellectual" who thought that conservatives want to abolish all government. A reader commented: "I took at look at that Matt Young post on "The Panda's Thumb" ... oy vey. More straw men than in your average Nebraska wheatfield"

Such "loving" relationships! "The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association is launching a first-of-its-kind "LGBT Relationship Violence Project" to educate medical professionals about domestic violence in lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender communities.... "Domestic violence is a hugely ignored health issue in the LGBT communities, affecting one in three LGBT relationships," said Susan Holt, an expert on LGBT domestic violence prevention.... The upcoming presentations in Palm Springs will "mark the beginning of GLMA's essential work to educate the medical community about the often-hidden but brutal reality of <> relationship violence," said GLMA President Kenneth Haller, MD.

Great to be welfare dependant: "A woman stayed on hold for more than six hours when she rang her benefits office. Patricia Pattison, 54, clung on to the phone while doing housework, chatting to a friend and having her nails painted. The Leicester grandmother said: 'They said they were busy but I'm not looking forward to my phone bill. The Department for Work and Pensions has apologised.'"

ADHD is genetic too: "Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the controversial "bad behaviour" syndrome, are suffering from a medical condition linked to abnormal development of the brain, scientists said yesterday. Brain scans of children with the disorder - which some critics allege has been invented or exaggerated by drug companies seeking lucrative markets - have revealed a common pattern of changes, providing evidence that ADHD is a genuine biological phenomenon. According to studies, its origins are largely genetic and it is not the result of poor parenting. Growing up in a "chaotic environment", to which parents with poor skills can contribute, may trigger the condition among children who are already genetically susceptible. The condition, which involves restlessness, impulsive behaviour and a short attention span, is thought to affect up to one in twenty British children"

Lancelot Finn on Andrew Sullivan. One excerpt: "If you have guessed by now that the reason I am bringing up Judas Iscariot in an essay about Andrew Sullivan is because Sullivan has turned against Bush, that's not quite it. For one thing, George W. Bush is certainly not Jesus Christ, nor did Sullivan's support for Bush ever amount to discipleship, nor should it have. But when I think about my erstwhile hero Andrew Sullivan, the rock star of the blogosphere, it seems that he and Judas Iscariot share certain fatal flaws. Each was too impetuous, too willful. Each seemed idealistic, principled at any given moment, yet in the end his path was zig-zagging and contradictory and led him nowhere. Judas destroyed the cause he believed in. Andrew Sullivan may yet do so".

Libertarian Party stalwart, Prof. John Hospers has endorsed President Bush on the grounds that America is in great danger and that Kerry cannot be relied upon to act decisively. I actually met Hospers once. He seemed very level-headed. He is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California and was also for 17 years a professor of astronomy

About flaming time! "Federal prosecutors charged three Kansas City-area residents Thursday with using fraudulent records to vote in both Kansas and Missouri in the Nov. 5, 2002, general election."

A nasty one for the Democrats. It seems that Kerry has a lower IQ than GWB

The best conservative site in Portuguese now has an English version. For anyone who wants the truth about what is going on in Brazil...

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

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftists is perfectly shown by the Kerry campaign. They have put up a man whose policies seem to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though they have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftists are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions

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