BLOGIVERSARY

My first blog post ever was on this day in 2002. I reproduce immediately below an excerpt from the post concerned:

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DENIAL OF REALITY

"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind." (H.L. Mencken)

There would seem to be some possibility that excess ego can be curbed. The traditional Christian preaching of humility certainly assumes that. It is doubtful, however, that another underpinning of Leftism can be much influenced: Denial of reality.

Denial is perhaps best known through the work of Sigmund Freud as a classical neurotic symptom or coping mechanism. Instead of dealing with uncomfortable truths, the neurotic acts as if those truths simply do not exist. This is, of course, very maladaptive and creates at least as many problems as it solves.

Sadly, however, it would seem that reality denial is far from limited to psychiatric cases. Denial would appear to be in fact much more common even than excess egotism. Human beings generally do not handle reality well. That is why humans are such a drug-using species. Whether it be alcohol, cannabis, opiates, Khat, cocaine, nicotine or merely caffeine, few of us seem able to face life without chemical crutches. Straight reality is generally too much for us.

But WHY are human beings so uncomfortable with reality? Why do they use so many means to "escape" it? Again it probably goes back to more primitive times when reality was very oppressive and dispiriting. Only those who could escape reality in some way had the heart to carry on. So a talent for ignoring unpleasant truths was adaptive. In the modern world, however, reality is much more benign and, as Freud saw, denying it can easily descend into the psychopathological.

So any attack on the reality-denying habits of Leftists would appear doomed to failure. Even such an overwhelming reality as the utter collapse of the world's 70 year experiment with Communism caused them not at all to abandon their equalitarian mania but only to change their focus somewhat.

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IS THIS THE FINAL MELTDOWN OF THE BRITISH CONSERVATIVE PARTY?

They are clearly trying to outflank Blair on the LEFT

David Cameron is to deliver an extraordinary defence of hoodie-wearing yob teenagers, insisting they needed to be loved - not locked up. The Conservative leader attacked the decision by Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent to exclude youngsters wearing hooded tops. And in a speech tomorrow, he will say: 'The hoodie is a response to a problem, not a problem in itself.'

Mr Cameron will also praise the controversial film Kidulthood, set in his own Notting Hill neighbourhood, which depicts schoolchildren taking drugs, having casual sex and 'happy slapping' - attacking random passers by in the street. He says: 'Kidulthood is not about bad kids. Even the villain is clearly suffering from neglect and the absence of love.'

The comments mark the latest breath-taking Tory U-turn on law and order. Traditionally Conservatives have defined themselves by their tough, uncompromising stance on justice. But there is no mention of punishing the criminal yobs in Mr Cameron's speech. Instead, he stresses the role of 'compassion and kindness'.

And Mr Cameron attacks Tony Blair for supporting the Bluewater hoodie ban. He says: 'The fact is that the hoodie is a response to a problem, not a problem in itself. 'We - the people in suits - often see hoodies as aggressive, the uniform of a rebel army of young gangsters. But hoodies are more "defensive" than "offensive" - they're a way to stay invisible in the street. 'In a dangerous environment the best thing to do is keep your head down; blend in. 'For some, the hoodie represents all that's wrong about youth culture in Britain today. 'For me, adult society's response to the hoodie shows how far we are from finding the long-term answers to put things right.'

Kidulthood, released earlier this year, was criticised for its gritty portrayal of West London teenagers as criminals with no sense of morality.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

The European plane-maker, Airbus, was for a time held up as an example of a government-owned enterprise that was succeeding in business -- though its reliance on big subsidies and soft loans from European governments always made that claim questionable. The excreta has now really hit the turbofan, however, with the company in deep trouble. See here.

The big-bang story of U.S. private business: "Did you know that just over the past 11 quarters, dating back to the June 2003 Bush tax cuts, America has increased the size of its entire economy by 20 percent? In less than three years, the U.S. economic pie has expanded by $2.2 trillion, an output add-on that is roughly the same size as the total Chinese economy, and much larger than the total economic size of nations like India, Mexico, Ireland and Belgium. This is an extraordinary fact, although you may be reading it here first. Most in the mainstream media would rather tout the faults of American capitalism than sing its praises. And of course, the media will almost always discuss supply-side tax cuts in negative terms, such as big budget deficits and static revenue losses. But here's another suppressed fact: Since the 2003 tax cuts, tax-revenue collections from the expanding economy have been surging at double-digit rates, while the deficit is constantly being revised downward. For those who bother to look, the economic power of lower-tax-rate incentives is once again working its magic."

Democrats wising up?: "Democrats in Congress should look outside of the capital, where some of their fellow party members are embracing tax cuts, and even supply-side economics, says the Wall Street Journal. A handful of blue states and Democratic Governors have put tax cuts in motion: Rhode Island, with Democrats holding 70 percent of the state legislature, have allowed residents the choice of a flat tax that cuts the top tax rate on high income earners to 5.5 percent from 9.9 percent. Arizona governor Janet Napolitano agreed to a 10 percent across-the-board cut in income tax rates. Oklahoma governor Brad Henry signed into law a budget that will cut rates by nearly 20 percent, from 6.25 percent to 5.25, percent and abolish the state estate tax. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson has cut the state's top income tax rate to 4.9 percent from 8.2 percent and cut the capital gains tax in half. "This was our way of declaring to the world that New Mexico is open for business," says Richardson. "After all, businesses move to states where taxes are falling, not rising." And contrary to the belief that tax cuts produce budget deficits, New Mexico has grown a half-billion-dollar surplus and seen tax revenues soar by 27 percent this year"

Estonia creates an economic miracle: "Mart Laar was barely 32 years old in 1992, when he became prime minister of Estonia, a small nation on the Baltic Sea that had just emerged from decades of Communist oppression as a satellite state of the Soviet Union. He inherited leadership of a country with 1,000 percent inflation, 30 percent unemployment, and government-owned businesses that were a shambles. Laar's government removed price controls, cut regulations and welfare programs, sold state-owned businesses, introduced a new currency, and instituted a simple, flat-rate income tax that is being emulated in countries across Central and Eastern Europe. The rate has been lowered several times over the years and is now at 20 percent. The result? Inflation in Estonia has dropped below 3 percent, unemployment has plunged below 6 percent, and foreign investment has poured in. Estonia has enjoyed the greatest growth in real per-capita income of any of the former Soviet states. Today the country is a member of NATO, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization."

Bush's border security plan decreases captures: "Unarmed National Guard, hailed as the answer to beef up border security, (surprise!) has resulted in FEWER captures along the border. As noted in the article, and evidenced by increased Minuteman sightings of illegal border crossers since October when the U.S. Senate caused the human tsunami over the border with their irresponsible rhetoric and false promises of amnesty, the flow of traffic over the border has increased, but the captures have decreased."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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THE COLOR OF RACISM IS DEMOCRAT BLUE

"Bigotry has proven, once again, to be the hallmark of Democrats and Liberals. This article from the Washington Post shows how some of one color are upset that someone of another color would DARE run for office in "their" district. The only difference between these people, such as Al Sharpton and George Wallace, is the color of their skin...racism comes in all colors--but especially in Democrat Blue.

The very same people that believe showing proof of ID at a polling place believe that white people or Hispanics should not run for office in a "black" district. Based on that, if you agree with the premise, Congressman Harold Ford, a black, should not be allowed to run for the US Senate from Tennessee, since that state HAS a majority of white people. Or that Ken Blackwell in Ohio, Lynn Swann in Pennsylvania or Michael Steele in Maryland, should not be allowed to run for statewide office in their home states--why? Because they are black and the majority in those three states are white. (PLUS, THEY ARE THE "WRONG" TYPES OF AFRO-AMERICANS--REPUBLICANS)

Bigotry, of the lowest form has shown itself, this time in Brooklyn. Instead of wanting the best, most competent people in office, the Jesse Jackson Wing of the Democrat Party are ONLY concerned about skin color. That is George Wallace styled bigotry. Maybe that is why they want affirmative action, set asides, quotas and special benefits, based on color or ethnicity. The Jackson Wing believes people of color are incapable of success, that it must be given to them in order to achieve anything.

Sadly, two generations of good people have been convinced they are no good without government help. We have two generations, and working on a third, that have leaders giving them low self esteem. Read this article and weep for the children and the lost opportunities. BTW, the Jackson's and Sharpton's aren't really for Afro-Americans holding high office, the person must be the "right" black person--just remember Clarence Thomas!"

From Stephen Frank

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ELSEWHERE

I love it! "Memo to Boston Globe gay and lesbian Guild employees: Get married or lose your domestic partner benefits. Globe staffers have been told that health and dental benefitsfor gay employees’ domestic partners are being discontinued. Gay couples who want to keep their benefits must marry by Jan. 1. A memo sent to the Globe’s Boston Newspaper Guild members, and obtained by the Herald, states that Massachusetts gay Guild employees can extend their benefits to their partners only if they marry. “An employee who currently covers a same-sex domestic partner as a dependent will have to marry his or her partner by Jan. 1 for the employee benefits coverage to continue at the employee rates,” the memo states. The policy change at the Globe, which devotes extensive coverage to gay issues, opens a new can of worms in the Bay State"

Peace hypocrite: "A New Zealand peace activist is facing serious assault charges after he allegedly punched a rock singer in London, leaving the man in a coma. Christiaan Briggs, 30, who spent three weeks in Iraq with the Truth Justice Peace Human Shield Action Group in 2003, appeared at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court on Tuesday to face a charge of grievous bodily harm. Police say the incident occurred on June 22 when Briggs allegedly punched 19-year-old Billy Leeson, causing the rising rock star to hit his head on the ground. Leeson, the lead singer with rock band Les Incompetents - who have supported Pete Doherty's group Babyshambles - was "still very ill", said Scotland Yard spokesman James Nadin. His condition was described as "critical but stable". Mr Nadin said an argument broke out between the pair after Briggs allegedly "made advances" towards Leeson's girlfriend."

Scruton on Leftist shrieks of "Racism": "Someone who is in a state of denial regarding his mortal illness, his wife's infidelity or his child's delinquency will turn angrily on the one who refers to the forbidden truth. Likewise, a political culture that is in denial about a serious social problem will condemn those who seek to discuss it, and try its best to silence them. For a long time now the European political class has been in denial about the problems posed by the large-scale immigration of people who do not enter into our European way of life. It has turned angrily on those who have warned against the disruption that might follow, or who have affirmed the right of indigenous communities to refuse admission to people who cannot or will not assimilate. And one of the weapons that the elite has used, in order to ensure that it is never troubled by the truths that it denies, is to accuse those who wish to discuss the problem of `racism and xenophobia'"

Big loss for the legal piranhas: "The Florida Supreme Court lifted a cloud over the tobacco industry Thursday when it refused to reinstate a crushing $144.8-billion class-action verdict that had been overturned by a state appeals court. The long-awaited ruling came in the landmark Engle class-action case, filed on behalf of up to 700,000 Florida smokers who blamed tobacco-related illnesses on an industry conspiracy to hide the risks and addictiveness of smoking. In July 2000, after a two-year trial, a state court jury in Miami ordered top cigarette makers to pay the record-breaking punitive damages award. The judgment far surpassed any civil verdict before or since and, according to tobacco executives, would have bankrupted their companies. A Florida appeals court reversed the judgment in 2003, but plaintiffs sought review by the state's highest court, leading to Thursday's decision."

British Tories veer even further Left: "The Conservatives will next week ditch hardline policies on immigration that were widely seen to have backfired at the last election. As they attempt to create a more “civilised” approach, David Cameron’s party will consult ethnic minority groups in big cities and begin to extol the benefits of migration, The Times has learnt. The change is expected to involve dropping controversial policies such as quotas for refugees, processing migrants on an island and withdrawing from the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees. These were put centre stage in the election under the leadership of Michael Howard, but the tactic was blamed for turning off some voters. Doreen Lawrence, mother of the murdered black teenager Stephen, said Mr Howard was “clearly pandering to the racists”. Damian Green, the Tory immigration spokesman, told The Times that the tone during the election campaign “was perceived by many people as harsh”. He will meet Muslims in Coventry on Monday in the first of a series of consultations towards a new policy, which he said must have the consent of ethnic minorities."

Malaria: Marvellous news: "A drug developed to treat allergies has been identified by US researchers as a potential cure for malaria. Tests in mice show that the antihistamine astemizole also kills the malaria parasite. It is already licensed for use in people, so it could be developed for use as a malaria drug in about 12 months. And because it is no longer under patent, it will be possible to manufacture it at rock-bottom prices."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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Brookes News Update

What's new about Sulzberger and the New York Times committing treason? After all, Clinton did it: It's not the first time that the craven Arthur Sulzberger has committed treason and it won't be the last. Not satisfied with aiding and abetting terrorists this collaborator authorized Bill Keller to personally target Rumsfeld and Cheney. To these political perverts' twisted minds conservative America is the real enemy - not the sadistic scum that hack off heads, butcher prisoners and murder children
The New York Times and the Democratic Party: partners in treason: The outrageous treason being openly committed by the mainstream media led by the detestable New York Times has overshadowed the treason committed by Democrats
Treason is deeply embedded in the Democratic Party and the New York Times: 'Pinch' Sulzberger, the New York Times publisher who strives to make treason respectable and patriotism a shameful word, is a putrescent specimen of the moral rot that that is eating away at the mainstream media
Is journalism and treason now joined at the hip?: In simple language treason is the act of betraying one's country to those who would destroy it and enslave its people. This definition is so simple that leftwing sophisticated journalists sneer at it. Is this why they defend our enemies?
Moscow gold: how a journalist defended treason: The New York Times' treason demonstrates not just its moral depravity but the dismal fact that the leftwing media has learnt nothing from history. Their cultish addiction to a dystopian doctrine has drained them of all moral sense and left them bereft of any loyalty to basic humanitarian values
Wealth, markets and happiness - or how the arrogance of our rightwing screwed it up again: We are still getting dopey articles from so-called economic commentators sagely telling us that wealth doesn't bring happiness, which is pretty rich coming from a pampered bunch of asses that would scream bloody murder if they had to take wage cut

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ELSEWHERE

There are a couple of thoughtful and interesting comments on the recent North Korean missile launch here and here. The only thing we can be sure of is that the response will be gutless. It already has been, in fact.

Maybe it is wicked of me but I must say that I get a good laugh out of the scathing way Keith Burgess Jackson zaps that disgusting Leftist abusenik, Brian Leiter. Here is a recent paragraph: "Leiter is really quite feebleminded if he thinks linking to a blog that abuses me bothers me. Remember: Any person can create a blog for free in a couple of minutes, using Blogger. Someone can create a blog right now devoted to attacking you, without disclosing his or her identity. Leiter has said many times that he doesn't like anonymous blogging or blog commenting, but notice that he is more than happy to facilitate anonymous blogging (or commenting) when the cowards who do the blogging or commenting do his dirty work for him. What a man! A person's character is revealed in his or her actions. Read Leiter's blog for a few days; it will tell you everything you need to know about him. Yale law professor Jules Coleman, who knows Leiter well, describes him as "complicated." Hint: That means nuts. It's no accident that Leiter idolizes Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche went insane. Leiter and Nietzsche are peas in a pod: both abusive, both disturbed." Keith certainly gives Leiter a taste of his own medicine

Those evil businessmen at work: "Love Canal": ""In 1947, Hooker Chemical bought the site and used it for their own waste until it was filled in 1952, when they closed the site and backfilled the canal. The local school board tried to buy part of the site from Hooker, on which they wanted to build an elementary school. Hooker refused to sell, and went to extreme lengths to convince city officials that the site was unsafe for public use. Eventually, with the threat of eminent domain, the city forced Hooker into selling the property for a dollar. Hooker complied, only with their thorough explanation of why it was a disastrous idea. Hooker had sealed the area carefully, but the city forced their way through the seal, built the school, dug sewers, and approved construction of homes ... with no warnings to the homebuyers."

A German Comment on Germany's Angela Merkel: "The planned wave of tax hikes and contribution increases has nothing to do with her election manifesto pledges. It has nothing to do with what Germany really needs. The additional billions of euros in revenue won't help anything new flourish, it will just seep away into the old system. What's more, the welfare net is even being expanded. Increased benefits for the long-term unemployed in eastern Germany and generous payments for new parents are nourishing the individual's claim on society, a claim Merkel originally wanted to curtail for good reason... Her "breakthrough in health policy"announced at the weekend is a breakthrough in the wrong direction. German labor, already struggling to compete in an international price war, will be made even more expensive rather than cheaper. The stranglehold the welfare system has on paid employment is being tightened, not loosened. And bureaucracy faces a boom through the creation of a new health fund authority to oversee a new system of health contributions."

Homosexual marriage out: "The highest courts in two states dealt gay rights advocates dual setbacks Thursday, rejecting same-sex couples' bid to win marriage rights in New York and reinstating a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Georgia. Activists had hoped to widen marriage rights for gays and lesbians beyond Massachusetts with a legal victory in liberal New York, but the Court of Appeals ruled 4-2 that the state's law allowing marriage only between a man and a woman was constitutional. The decision comes two years after gay and lesbian couples, supported by gay-rights groups who saw a chance for a major court win in a populous state, sued for the right to wed.

NY court: State can deny driver's licenses to illegal immigrants : "A state appeals court ruled Thursday that New York's Department of Motor Vehicles can require immigrants to prove they are in this country legally before they are allowed to have driver's licenses. The 5-0 ruling by the Appellate Division in Manhattan reversed a decision by Justice Karen S. Smith, who ordered the DMV last year to stop denying driver's licenses to immigrants who did not have Social Security numbers or proof they were in the country legally."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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ABOUT OUR 'DICTATOR'

Excerpt from Jeff Jacoby

In many quarters it has long been taken for granted that George W. Bush is an aspiring dictator, ravenous for power and all too willing to shred the constitutional checks and balances that restrain presidential authority. Of course this kind of paranoia is routine in the ideological fever swamps, where anyone to the right of Michael Moore is tagged a fascist. But you can hear such things said about Bush even in respectable precincts far from the fringe... So when the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld last week, Bush's reaction was easy to foretell: He would show the ruling all the respect of a monster truck rolling over a VW Beetle....

A five-justice majority held the military commissions created by the administration to try the Guantanamo detainees are invalid, since they were never authorized by congressional statute. The justices seem to have repudiated Bush's claim that the Constitution invests the president with sweeping unilateral authority in wartime. "The court's conclusion ultimately rests upon a single ground," Justice Stephen Breyer pointedly notes in a concurrence. "Congress has not issued the Executive a 'blank check.' "

Whereupon Bush says -- what? "The justices have made their decision; now let them enforce it"? Something even more acid? Perhaps he repeats a statement he has made previously -- "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best"? Not quite. He says he takes the court's decision "seriously." A few moments later he says it again. And then comes this: "We've got people looking at it right now to determine how we can work with Congress, if that's available, to solve the problem." There is no disdain. No bravado. No criticism. Just an acknowledg ment that the Supreme Court has spoken and the executive branch will comply. Some dictator.

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ELSEWHERE



Crazy court confers unearned rights: "Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, as of yesterday the Geneva Conventions no longer offer an incentive for terrorist thugs to abide by the rules of war. The court has afforded al-Qaida members the protections of a treaty their leaders never signed and they have never followed. The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 yesterday that the military tribunals used to try prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were both unconstitutional and illegal under the Geneval Conventions. The court made some sense with its constitutional argument, but none at all when it applied the Geneva Conventions to al-Qaida.

New Vatican realism about Islam: "Obtaining the same rights for Christians in Islamdom that Muslims enjoy in Christendom has become the key to the Vatican's diplomacy toward Muslims. This balanced, serious approach marks a profound improvement in understanding that could have implications well beyond the Church, given how many lay politicians heed its leadership in inter-faith matters. Should Western states also promote the principle of reciprocity, the results should indeed be interesting."

EU protectionism hurts the poor: "Peter Mandelson, the European Union trade commissioner, was accused yesterday of hurting low-income families by imposing a new EU surcharge on children's shoes imported from Asia in an attempt to protect jobs in the ailing shoe industries of southern Europe. Under intense pressure from countries including Italy, France and Spain, Mr Mandelson has drawn up plans for anti-dumping tariffs on certain categories of leather shoes made in China and Vietnam."

Patriotism strong in the USA: ""In . . . interviews conducted during the July 4 weekend, words such as love and loyalty toward America flow easily, as do expressions of belief in the ideals of freedom and democracy. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that the latest global survey on national pride, a close cousin of patriotism, found that Americans ranked No. 1 among the 34 democracies polled."

From a review of Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support The Jewish State: "These examples demonstrate the deeper spiritual relationship between Jewish and Christian Zionists. As the world, through the UN and other forces, now attempts to make Israel the international scapegoat, it is time to bury the unimportant differences that divide us. Those who share Judeo-Christian values must join hands in support of Israel our beloved. Standing With Israel is a most welcome and timely call for Jewish and Christian Zionists to let go of mutual distrust, agree to disagree on other matters and to work together to ensure a safe and prosperous future for Israel. David Brog not only bears witness to this historic Jewish/Christian reconciliation that is taking shape, but contributes towards it with this illuminating and highly readable book."

Line up for welfare, unpaid Mufti is told: "Australia's Muslim spiritual leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has lost his $40,000 cleric's allowance and been told to apply for the dole because the bitterly divided national Islamic council can no longer pay him. The high-profile sheik has been instructed to "contact your local Centrelink office" by the nation's peak Muslim body, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, which is locked in a legal dispute over its leadership and has been denied access to its bank accounts".

Kuwaiti student quick to invoke all-American alibi: "Last week, a young Kuwaiti woman who was lucky enough to avoid jail time after leaving the scene of a fatal accident told a local TV reporter that she had been victimized by the justice system because of her Arab roots. 'It's been hell,' 20-year-old Reem Bishara said. 'I've been to hell and back. ... I was treated very unfairly. I shouldn't be paying the price for this. I'm not the one who did anything.' Actually, she did. Bishara's attitude illustrates exactly why so many people are put off by her. It isn't because she was born a Kuwaiti. It's because she behaves like an American. Not like the early patriots whom we celebrate each July Fourth, but like the 2006 variety, who would rather blame others for their troubles than own up to them."

Put the "independence" back in Independence Day: "'Independence Day' is a critically important title. It signifies the fundamental meaning of this nation, not just of the holiday. The American Revolution remains unique in human history: a revolution -- and a nation -- founded on a moral principle, the principle of individual rights. Jefferson at Philadelphia, and Washington at Valley Forge, pledged their 'lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.' For what? Not for mere separation from England, not -- like most rebels -- for the 'freedom' to set up their own tyranny. In fact, Britain's tyranny over the colonists was mild compared to what most current governments do to their citizens. Jefferson and Washington fought a war for the principle of independence, meaning the moral right of an individual to live his own life as he sees fit."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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BOOK REVIEW of "Only in America" by Paul Oreffice

Published by Stroud & Hall, Macon, Georgia. H.B. $25

This book is a lot better than it sounds at first. Happily, stories about immigrants making good in America are so common that they have become almost boring. But this is a very un-boring book. As the son of an Italian/Jewish father who fled Italy to escape Mussolini, Paul Oreffice certainly started out at the bottom of the ladder. And when he became head of America's vast Dow Chemical company, he certainly reached the top of the ladder.

But much of the book is about the times before he even arrived in America and that certainly transports you to a different and unfamiliar time and place. Oreffice senior was a brilliant and courageous Jewish businessman in Italy who was so unwise as to tell all and sundry about his contempt for Mussolini. Many Jews for many years have seen the advantages of keeping a low profile -- particularly in political matters -- but Oreffice senior was one who ignored that and allowed his passions to show. The Fascists did of course eventually arrest and maltreat him so he fled Italy to escape further problems with them. But the story of how all that happened is a vivid human-interest story that is as good as any novel. And the story goes on from there in similar fascinating style.

Of his time in America, I particularly liked the accounts of how Dow chemical responded to attacks on it from the Left. Paul Oreffice had the burden of doing a lot of that responding and he actually managed to turn a lot of his opponents around by sticking to the facts and keeping his cool. That seems to have been very effective in undermining Leftist emotionalism and misinformation. I think there is a lesson for us all in that.

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ELSEWHERE



Depressing: Read here the appallingly ignorant description of how the internet works given by Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee of the US Senate. It's like having an illiterate in charge of education.

Boeing buries Europe: "Airbus will confirm tomorrow that it has lost the lead in aircraft orders to its rival Boeing after five years of dominance, The Times has learnt. The beleaguered jet builder will collate its half-year order book at a sales meeting in Toulouse tomorrow and a yawning gap between the two companies will become apparent. Airbus has definitive orders for 145 to 150 aircraft so far this year. In May it had 105 orders. Boeing has three times as many with 445 (358 in May). The disparity in sales figures emphasises the difficulties facing Airbus, which announced production delays in its flagship A380 project last month."

Parenting discouraged in Germany: "Low birth rates and the ageing population in Germany have dominated media in discussions about how to pay for health care and social security. Now, a study says it is men who are primarily responsible for fewer births. In its study, the Robert Bosch Foundation found that "men are scared to start families," said Ingrid Hamm, managing director of the foundation.... Hamm said another reason for fewer children in Germany is that people feel too much pressure. They have long career training periods and then "have to do everything at once between the ages of 30 and 40: get married, have kids, build a house, pursue their careers and save money for retirement," she said. "All that pressure makes people put off having children until later or not at all." ... Hamm said the study showed that having children is just one of many values among Germans; it is not a top priority. Parents with many children are viewed critically, while "it is completely socially acceptable to not have kids here."

An Overdue Tribute Unveiled: "According to the Albanian concept of besa, a sort of code of honor, a person in need must be provided with every possible measure of protection and assistance. It was thanks in no small measure to this idea that nearly all of Albania's 2,000 Jews - and hundreds of foreign Jewish refugees - were spared as World War II tore through Europe. In April, journalist and amateur Holocaust historian Jack Goldfarb witnessed the unveiling of a granite monument devoted to Albania's heroism, thus fulfilling his own personal pledge of besa that began more than eight years ago. The monument is displayed at a Holocaust memorial park in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.... "This is a story that needs to be told," Fischer told the Forward this week. "There were actually more Jews in the country after the war than before - thanks to the Albanian traditions of religious tolerance and hospitality. In Albania, when someone crosses the threshold of your home, your honor depends on defending him."

British Muslims very divided: "A significant minority of British Muslims believe they are at war with the rest of society, the largest poll of Muslims in this country suggests. The Populus survey for The Times and ITV News has found that more than one in ten thinks that the men who carried out the London bombings of 7/7 should be regarded as "martyrs". Sixteen per cent of British Muslims, equivalent to more than 150,000 adults, believe that while the attacks were wrong, the cause was right. But the poll also revealed a stark gulf between this group and the majority of British Muslims, who want the Government to take tougher measures against extremists within their community."

Leading Australian Leftist admits to rubbery principles: "Reconnecting Labor - one of several books dealing with the state of the federal ALP - was launched yesterday by Julia Gillard, touted as a future leader, who said: "It is said if sharks don't swim they die, but if progressive forces don't debate ideas, then they may as well die." She said there was a "lively debate within Labor about what our traditional values are, whether we are honouring those values, or whether in truth we have sold them out". To laughter, she quoted Groucho Marx: "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them ... well, I have others."

Amusing: There is a rock music video here that says: "Bush was right". Good to see some real "diversity" in the popular music industry. I am a Bach and Mozart man myself but to my inexpert ears the song sounds a good one.

Dick Mac on his home-town paper: "The Los Angeles Times is a leftist rag. It spews such liberal propaganda that it is hard to find actual news in its pages. To say that it is anti-American, anti-war, anti-business, anti-Republican is just scratching the surface of this pathetic excuse for communication. Today they scold Harvard Business School for turning out the embarrassment of all embarrassments, their MBA, George W. Bush. To give some authority to their scolding, they enlist the services of Charles R. Kesler, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. After a reading of the article I seriously doubt this academic is any more qualified to opine on the subject than my pet poodle."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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IMMIGRATION NOT AN ECONOMIC BENEFIT

A British article excerpted below

'We recognise the positive contributions immigration makes to the country and the economy," the Prime Minister's official spokesman said last week. "If we don't have migration, we don't have the growth from the economy that we all benefit from." He was responding to some concerns about the rate of immigration raised by Frank Field, the Labour MP for Birkenhead - but Downing Street's claim that "if we don't have immigration, we won't have economic growth" has been stated over and over again since Labour took office in 1997.

If you repeat something often enough, you can perhaps make people believe it. What you cannot do is turn it from being false into being true. And the Government's claim about the economic benefits of immigration is false. As an academic economist, I have examined many serious studies that have analysed the economic effects of immigration.

There is no evidence from any of them that large-scale immigration generates large-scale economic benefits for the existing population as a whole. On the contrary, all the research suggests that the benefits are either close to zero, or negative.

Immigration can't solve the pensions crisis, nor solve the problem of an ageing population, as its advocates so often claim. It can, at most, delay the day of reckoning, because, of course, immigrants themselves grow old, and they need pensions.....

We desperately need an honest debate on the issue. But if the Government's record is anything to go by, it will do everything it can to prevent one.

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ELSEWHERE

Mary Beth Oliver is a professor of communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at Penn State University. She has written an amusing article here that cautiously blames the media for the common perception that blacks are more likely to be criminals. The possibility that blacks ARE more inclined to criminality is not of course considered -- despite all the official statistics showing that vastly higher rates of crime among blacks. And blaming the media is about as desperate as you can get. Via my Gun Watch blog, I track crime reports in America at great length and it is usually only the fact that race is NOT identified that tells you a criminal is black! She also makes some comments on stereotypes which suggest that stereotypes are usually false. The academic literature shows the opposite. See here and here. But we can't expect an academic to be influenced by the academic literature can we? Mary Beth obviously prefers her prejudices.

Report from South Africa: It really is as bad as you think. My house in the leafy suburb of Melville resembles a fortress. I live behind a 10ft wall topped with a 10,000 volt electric fence. There are iron bars over all my windows and doors. I have an alarm system of bewildering complexity which not only makes a terrible racket but also summons an “armed response unit” to deal with any intruder (They would probably kill him – but I try not to think about that). I even have infra-red beams in my garden. And I’m not paranoid. This is all standard stuff."

How sad that anybody had to "discover" this: "Playing with your young children is the best way to make them into smart adults, researchers say-beating trendy toys, classes or music as a brain-building strategy for preschoolers. Children's foremost need is a secure relationship with an adult who loves them, said Eric Knudsen of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif. "It's all about playing with your child," he added. A paper appearing in the June 27 advance online issue of the research journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences details the findings, by Knudsen and three other members of the U.S. National Scientific Council on the Developing Child."

The ultimate pro-Wal-Mart article: "Wal-Mart is one of the great shining examples of what a market economy can achieve. If I were to give a tour of the United States to visitors from a socialist country, who are used to experiencing chronic shortages of almost everything, Wal-Mart would be one of the first places I would take them. It is a perfect symbol of one of the most remarkable things that we have - an enormous variety of high quality, low cost products that are available to virtually everyone throughout the United States. Wal-Mart stores are indeed impressive sights, housed in gigantic structures, capable of serving many thousands of customers every day. Wal-Mart's most common type of store - the Supercenter - offers customers an indoor, air-conditioned shopping area larger than three football fields. These shopping behemoths provide so much - such a staggeringly huge range of well-made products - that a person could practically live his whole life without having to shop anywhere else. Walk into a Wal-Mart Supercenter and look around; the place is amazing! It boggles the mind to think of the enormous complexity that must be involved in running a store that accomplishes all this, which is truly responsible for an improvement in our standard of living"

Supporting the troops incorrect in Canada: "The annual Canada Day parade in the seaside community of Parksville will have one less float Saturday because a local group opposes what it calls the American-dominated military theme of this year's parade. The decision by parade organizer, the Parksville and District Chamber of Commerce, to sell T-shirts with the message Support Our Troops has started an ideological war of words in this normally tranquil tourism and retirement community located about 150 kilometres northeast of Victoria. The decision to sell T-shirts, for $10 each, was made to raise money to offset parade costs and send a message to Canadians serving in the military that people in Parksville were thinking about them on Canada Day, said chamber president Cheryl Dill on Tuesday. But the Oceanside Coalition for Strong Communities says the T-shirts are an open endorsement of American military policy, which many Canadians do not support even though Canadian troops are stationed in Afghanistan".

American manufacturing dying?: "Someone forgot to tell American manufacturers the bad news. Most of them have enjoyed roaring success of late. Net profits have risen by nearly 9% a year since the recession in 2001 and productivity has been growing even more rapidly than is usual during economic expansions (see chart). The country's various widget-makers, moreover, show no sign of losing their innovative edge. Even in the automotive industry, GM and Delphi are arguably the exceptions. America has hundreds of car-parts makers, most of which are profitably supplying the plants of foreign carmakers such as Toyota and Honda, which this week announced that it will build a new plant in Indiana, to open in 2008. Caterpillar, which drove a harder bargain than GM and Ford did a few years ago with the United Auto Workers union, has since achieved huge gains in efficiency."

If there are any car freaks among my readers, they may be interested to see some more pictures of my recently-acquired 1963 Humber Super Snipe. I have posted some photos here.

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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HAPPY JULY 4 TO MY AMERICAN READERS

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CURRENTLY UP ON ICJS

Radical Islamic conference at university
Comments on Ed O'loughlin
Investigate the tunnel fiasco
Why I love Australia
Israel admitted to Red Cross
Spreading Hate, Destruction & Terrorism
The Middle East: The war of images
This time the crocodile won't wait
The Palestinian disease: Who Is to Blame for Grief on a Gaza Beach
Summary Report on Human Rights Watch
The seductive beat of the militant, Islamic drum
Summary of IDF investigation of incident on the Gaza beach
About the ABC's "expert"
Uncertainty shrouds Gaza beach tragedy
As Islamists Grow Confident, It's Time for the West To Stand
Come to Londonistan, our refuge for poor misunderstood Islam

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ELSEWHERE



Martin Frost on Why liberals must lead War on Terror: "And now along comes Peter Beinart's new book, "The Good Fight - Why Liberals - and only Liberals - Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again." Beinart, a young, articulate editor and writer for the New Republic, has explained in great detail why liberals who adhere to their traditional pro-defense position can successfully lead our country in the war against terror. It's something I have been thinking about for a long time..... liberals should be at the forefront of the fight against terrorists like Usama bin Laden-- just as liberals fought communists for control of American labor unions in the 1940's, and just as liberals kept communism out of western Europe following World War II. We truly live in a dangerous world and the United States should lead the way in ridding the world of Al Qaeda. To accomplish this, liberals should support a strong U.S. military and significant funding for homeland security. Many traditional liberals, both in Congress and in the general public, have done just that.

Oil prices artificially high due to lack of economic freedom: "While the world has enough proven and unproven reserves of oil to meet demand for the next 100 years, much of it lies under countries with economies that do not provide market incentives to encourage production, according to a new report by the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA),. The report also points out that the lack of incentives increases the importance of tapping resources in countries with free economies, such as Canada and the United States. "We have the oil to fuel our future energy needs," noted NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett, who authored the report. "Unfortunately, a lot of it is artificially out of reach due to a lack of economic freedom in the Middle East and South America, or a hyper-sensitivity to environmental activists in the U.S."

Kudlow: Surprise drop in oil price?: "The Energy Department just announced that crude oil supplies rose 1.4 million barrels to 347.1 million for the week ended June 16. Analysts had been expecting a drawdown, so this news caught them by surprise. More, crude oil supplies in the U.S. are now at their highest levels since May 1998, when oil was trading around $15 a barrel. Add in the fact that Canadian oil inventories are fully stocked, and the more imminent reality is of a sizable oil-price decrease - not a huge increase. Recently I interviewed four oil-tanker executives who control a combined 85 percent of the oil coming into the United States. They confirmed market rumors that the amount of oil being stored on large carriers on the high seas is abnormally high. One of the CEOs even predicted the possibility of $40 to $50 oil in the next 6 to 12 months"

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE HOMELESS? "We haven't heard much--anything, really--about the homeless since, oh, roughly January 20, 1993," Andrew Ferguson noted in January 2001, predicting that with Bush replacing Clinton, the media would soon rediscover them. As if on cue, days later the Washington Post ran a 2,000-word opus on the plight of the homeless in the nation's capital. But does the reverse hold? If the Bush administration makes progress on homelessness, does it make news? The answer, all too predictably, is no. At a remarkably underreported conference in Denver in May, advocates for the homeless met to discuss a pattern of falling homeless populations across the country. In the past six months, New York has announced a reduction of 13 percent, Denver 11 percent, Portland 20 percent, Miami 30 percent, Philadelphia 50 percent. The story merited squibs in the Denver Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Rocky Mountain News. The New York Times ran a page 19 story almost a month later. Beyond that, silence."

Vatican firm on homosexual marriage: "A Vatican authority on family values spelled out the Roman Catholic Church's uncompromising opposition to same-sex marriages in a newspaper interview published today as a Catholic meeting on the family began in Spain, where such unions are legal. "There are not several models (for marriage), there is only one, which comes from God and is irreplaceable," the Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, organiser of the fifth Catholic World Meeting of Families, said. "Marriage is not a project of parliament or institutions, which are here today and gone tomorrow," said Mr Trujillo, who is also president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family.

Good news: "David Cameron is to lead a campaign to bar MPs with Scottish seats from voting on English legislation in an attempt to thwart Gordon Brown's ambitions of becoming Prime Minister. The Conservatives are preparing to back a constitutional change that would stop Mr Brown from taking part in votes on Bills relating to English schools, hospitals and a host of other policies. MPs with Scottish constituencies can no longer vote on legislation for such policies in Scotland as, since 1998, these have been the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament"

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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THE NYT HAS BEEN A PROMOTER OF TYRANTS FOR A LONG TIME

We all know about the lying Duranty and Stalin but here is more:

The late New York Times journalist Herbert L. Matthews is now an almost forgotten name, except, perhaps, among journalism students and those who remember the earliest days of the Cuban Revolution. It was Matthews who, while covering Cuba for the Times in February 1957, got the scoop of a lifetime. Fulgencio Batista, Cuba's authoritarian ruler, had announced that Castro and his small band of rebels had been killed by Batista's troops three months earlier. Not trusting the official sources, Matthews sought out the truth. Claiming to be a tourist, he penetrated Batista's military lines and made a harrowing journey through the jungle on foot, eluding government troops and eventually holding his now-famous rendezvous with the young revolutionary.

Matthews's front-page story altered the fortunes of Castro and his beleaguered rebels. Opponents of Batista's regime smuggled copies of the banned paper into Cuba, and within a short time Cuba's people learned that Castro had not been defeated, and that he had more troops and followers than anyone had believed. For Americans, the story offered proof that conditions in Cuba were not as stable and calm as Batista had claimed, and that the charismatic young bearded guerrilla fighter was the new democratic hope for a nation tired of tyranny. Castro, after all, had told Matthews he sought only democracy, and was not interested in power for himself. Smitten by Castro, Matthews saw him as a heroic future liberator, a man whose cause he could make his own; Matthews would not just write a newspaper story, but help to make history.

Nor was this the first time that Matthews saw himself as the chronicler of activist heroes. In the 1930s, biographer Anthony DePalma points out, Matthews was a supporter of Mussolini, whose invasion of Abyssinia he backed and whose Fascist armed forces he extolled. By 1936, the civil war in Spain was the new hot story, and - moved by the valiant effort of the defenders of Madrid against Franco - Matthews switched his allegiances and wrote accounts meant to awaken the sympathies of American readers to the Republic's cause. His stories won him the lifelong friendship of the American Communist volunteers who fought Franco in the so-called Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

As a boy, Matthews had admired the danger-defying journalist Richard Harding Davis, whose reporting on the Spanish-American War came to define Theodore Roosevelt's reputation as the hero of San Juan Hill. Castro offered the perfect opportunity for Matthews to make his own left-wing version of TR. Moreover, Matthews was candid that his sympathies lay with Castro's rebellion. "I feel about Cuba somewhat as I did about Spain," he confessed. "One . . . wants to share . . . if only as a sympathizer, what the Cubans are suffering." Thus Matthews, in his own words, became "the man who invented Fidel." Of course, as DePalma notes, that was simple bragging. Castro did not need Matthews to create him; he needed Matthews as a propaganda and publicity tool in Cuba.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Leftist Susan Estrich attacks the NYT: "Turn to the editorial page of the same day's paper and what you'll find is not the objective media wrapped in the First Amendment, but a sad exercise in name calling by the local bullies who own the biggest microphone around."

Buying freedom from the UAW: ""Indiana became the winner yesterday in a short five-way race to land the Honda Motor Company's newest assembly plant in North America. . . . The project will cost the State of Indiana about $140 million. Of that, $40 million will go directly to Honda; about $45 million will be spent on roads and other infrastructure to serve the plant, and another $50 to $55 million will go to improvements in the region in anticipation of growth caused by the plant."

The elderly Japanese: "Japan has overtaken Italy to become the world's most elderly nation, fuelling concern over the effects of a rapidly aging population on the world's second-largest economy. Census results released yesterday have outdone even the most pessimistic projections. Having spent their lives on a healthy diet of fish, green-tea and rice, Japan's increasingly long-lived ranks of over-65s now constitute a record 21 per cent of the population - an army of 26.82 million pensioners in a country where the birth-rate continues to sink well below replacement levels. A record 25,606 people are over 100 years old, a segment of the population that has been expanding for 35 years. One in every 5,000 Japanese is now a centenarian."

Libertarians should embrace the Christian Right "Yet despite their political impotency, the libertarian Right appears bent on bringing down the one political movement that has tolerated its know-it-all-ism and has in fact dragged it into the halls of political power along with it, rather like a ball and chain: the Christian Right. It is beyond arguing that a Democrat Congress would ever grant a hearing to small government libertarians come budget time. Under a Republican majority, made possible by the rise of politically active conservative Christians, the libertarian Right has had every opportunity to appeal for smaller government. That its appeals have been -- and continue to be -- unpersuasive cannot be the fault of Religious conservatives."

The Duke case keeps unravelling: "With a judge's decision to reduce the bond for one of the three Duke University lacrosse players charged with raping an exotic dancer in March comes the first sign that the criminal justice system can, and will, self-correct the ongoing travesty in Durham. District Attorney Mike Nifong had a threadbare case weeks ago and now, in light of new information, it is clear that he is straying into prosecutorial misconduct. "Unless he has a player from the team who is going to testify that this rape occurred, there is no way he will win this case and there is no way this case should have ever been brought," Mark Edwards, a Durham criminal defense lawyer tells the Raleigh News & Observer."

Lenin's expulsion of the Russian intellectuals: "On September 29 1922, the Oberburgermeister Haken left Petrograd and sailed into the Baltic, destined for Stettin. Six weeks later, a sister ship, the Preussen, set out on the same course... Aboard were 50 or so of the most eminently qualified men in Russia, plus family members. Handpicked by Lenin for deportation, they were - as Lesley Chamberlain puts it - the victims of a process of "deliberate negative selection" of an intelligentsia that was "erudite, professional and cosmopolitan as never before". And yet the Philosophy Steamer (as the two transports came to be known) slipped moorings with little more than a brief mention in Pravda and a huff and a puff in the Times. It was a scandalous event, the more so for being ignored. As Chamberlain grimly notes: "What Leninism stripped out of the Russian fabric was what those ships carried away, in terms of cultural decency and intellectual independence." The unwilling passengers included writers, lawyers, historians, an agronomist, a railway specialist and a number of engineers"

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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ANOTHER CLINTON FANTASY



Post lifted from Taranto. For previous fantasies, see here

CNN reports on a speech by New York's junior senator:

Appearing before a religious conference earlier this week, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) told the audience that as a child attending Sunday school she would baby-sit the children of migrant workers so that their older siblings could join their parents at work. "I was fortunate that at an early age, through my church, I was given the opportunity to expand my horizons," Clinton told the 600 adults and teenagers attending the Sojourners "Covenant for a New America" conference.

Mrs. Clinton grew up in Park Ridge, Ill., a tony Chicago suburb that as of 2000, according to census data, was 95.4% white, had a median family income of $87,795, and had a grand total of 174 families (1.7%) below the poverty level. How many migrant workers could there have been for her to baby-sit for?

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ELSEWHERE

Frank Ellis Bows Out: One of the most hotly debated free speech issues in Britain this year has been the Frank Ellis affair. Ellis is a senior academic at an English university who recently declared publicly his acceptance of the common scientific finding that, on average, blacks have lower IQs than whites. His university suspended him from teaching as a result -- which violated academic freedom as well as free speech generally. But some settlement of the matter has now been reached. Richard Lynn advises by email that: "The university of Leeds has allowed Frank Ellis to take early retirement with a modest but adequate pension. He asks me to thank you all for support in the press that likely contributed to encouraging the university to settle." I posted about the matter on March 13th.

Australian government slams Boeing: "Defence Minister Brendan Nelson has used the podium of the Pentagon to blast Boeing, accusing the giant defence contractor of letting the Australian Government down. Standing next to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday, Dr Nelson criticised the aircraft-maker for the "significant delays" in the delivery of the new surveillance planes it is building for Australia. As first reported in The Australian this week, the $3.5billion Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control project is about 18 months behind schedule after problems with radar and sensor computer systems. [Fancy anybody believing that a defence contract will be delivered on time!]

Historic Conservative Welfare Reform Finally in Place: "Republicans swept into Washington in 1994 promising among other things to reform welfare. The nanny state under the Democrats was treating the symptom with no attempt at a cure. In 1996, Republicans switched the emphasis to the cure: work. Strangely (only to Democrats) 60% of the welfare recipients disappeared from the welfare rolls. On October 1, 2006, new welfare regulations will go into effect to further reduce those rolls by stopping the distortions the bureaucracy(loaded with Democrats) has invented to circumvent the work requirement. Bed rest, shopping, motivational reading and massage will no longer count toward a recipient's work requirement. In many cases the recipient will actually have to show up for 30-hours of training/week in a specific skill in order to get their benefits."

Ignorant politics block free trade: "Rich countries promised 4 1/2 years ago to make the global trade system fairer for poor countries, changing rules to help them reap the rewards of international commerce. Now the negotiations launched then are reaching a do-or-die stage, but prospects are bleak for a deal that would bestow much benefit on the poor. . . . Farm trade, though by no means the only issue, is the chief focus of the Doha round of trade talks, named for the Qatari capital, where they were launched in 2001. That is because agricultural goods, the mainstay of many poor countries' economies, face steep tariffs and other obstacles in the markets of many rich countries. Another major grievance of developing nations is the billions of dollars in subsidies that farmers in rich countries receive from their governments. The payments encourage excess production of crops, which leads to gluts on world markets, depressing prices."

A surprising racial difference: "Things add up differently for native English speakers, compared with people who learned Chinese as a first language. Simple arithmetic was easily done by both groups, but they used different parts of the brain, a new study shows. Researchers used brain imaging to see which parts of the brain were active while people did simple addition problems, such as 3 plus 4 equals 7. All participants were working with Arabic numerals, which are used in both cultures. Both groups engaged a portion of the brain called the inferior parietal cortex, which is involved in quantity representation and reading. But native English speakers also showed activity in a language processing area of the brain, while native Chinese speakers used a brain region involved in the processing of visual information, according to the report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

Appalling: "Beware of travel feature stories posing as invitations to terror. "The New York Times points cranks, radicals, al-Qaida operatives and would-be assassins to the summer homes of [V.P. Dick] Cheney and [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld" writes FrontPage Magazine's David Horowitz, who sees the June 30 Times feature article as an apparent retaliation for administration "criticism of the Times' disclosure of classified intelligence to America's enemies." In the "Escapes" section of the June 30 edition, the N.Y. Times printed huge color photos of the vacation residences of Cheney and Rumsfeld, "identifying the small Maryland town where they live, showing their front driveways and, in Rumsfeld's case, actually pointing out the hidden security camera in case any hostile intruders should get careless," Horowitz writes."

Is Wal-Mart Good for the American Working Class?: "The short answer is yes - it is largely the "working class" that benefit from Wal-Mart's low prices. A range of studies has found that Wal-Mart's prices are 8 percent to 39 percent below the prices of its competitors. The single most careful economic study, co-authored by the well-respected MIT economist Jerry Hausman, found that grocery sales by Wal-Mart and other big-box stores made consumers better off to the tune of 25 percent of food consumption.... Together with a few sister "big box" stores (Target, Best Buy, and Home Depot), Wal-Mart accounts for roughly 50% of America's much vaunted productivity growth edge over Europe during the last decade. Fifty percent! Similar advances in wholesaling supply chains account for another 25%! The notion that Americans have gotten better at everything while other rich countries have stood still is thus wildly misleading. The US productivity miracle and the emergence of Wal-Mart-style retailing are virtually synonymous"

In his latest lot of posts Chris Brand advises that he has now accepted a teaching job in Taiwan.

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Pages are here or here or here.

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Capitol Criminals

Excerpt from Nathan Tabor

Since the Clintons left office, Democrats have been a little dull, resisting the urge to engage in high crimes and misdemeanors. But, lo and behold, now we're recovering from a Democratic crime wave in Washington. And, what's so fascinating about the situation is that the self-proclaimed party of peace and love has members who are engaging in downright dangerous, even violent acts. And they're getting off scot-free.

First, there's the case of Patrick Kennedy-one of the few impaired drivers in the U.S. who apparently never has to worry about failing a field sobriety test, since Capitol Police refused to administer one to him... And so, a drunk/drugged driver walks free, without any type of punishment. Given the number of Americans who die each year from drug or alcohol-related crashes-nearly 17,000 in 2004-the kid-glove treatment of Kennedy is a national disgrace. It also makes you wonder-why should any D.C. teen stop indulging in drugs and alcohol, when he knows that a Congressman can easily indulge and not pay the penalty?

But Capitol criminal activity does not begin and end with Kennedy. There's also the case of Rep. Cynthia McKinney, who slugged a police officer but was not indicted. What makes this injustice all the more appalling is that McKinney blamed the incident on racial profiling. As House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) indicated, this embarrassing situation was not the result of profiling, but the result of an ego in overdrive. Physical assaults are inexcusable. An attack on a law enforcement officer is reprehensible. Why should any D.C. teen respect police, when a Congresswoman doesn't-and gets away with it?...

In the end, it really doesn't matter if a Congressional representative presents himself or herself as a champion of the poor, the downtrodden, the addicted, the mentally ill, the learning impaired, and the disabled. If he or she engages in criminal conduct and is not punished, he or she is, in fact, an elitist, believing that laws to protect public welfare are for the little people-not those who work under the Capitol dome.

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Brookes News Update

Will skilled immigrants drive down US high-tech wage rates?: Irrespective of how many skilled workers the US imports, an overall increase in the workforce without any accompanying increase in investment will still depress wage rates in general. It should never be forgotten that ultimately it is savings that fuel an economy and entrepreneurship that drives it
The Democrats' Jack Murtha wants to surrender Iraq to the terrorists: Jack Murtha is beyond contempt. What kind of man would callously hand over 20 million human beings to a bloodthirsty gang of sadistic killers? Yet this is what he demands that President Bush do to the Iraqi people
Our strategy for a democratic Iraq: Iraq's Prime Minister lays out the Government's economic and military policies to establish Iraq as the Middle East's first democratic republican Arab state
Wage rates and risk: more economic nonsense: The proposition that flexible labour markets mean that businesses are shifting their risks on to labour should be too ludicrous for anyone to take seriously, including unioncrats
Now that Liberal Party politicians have defected maybe they should go all the way and exit the Party: Several Coalition members crossed the floor to vote against the government on immigration laws and to support the use of human embryos for stem cell research. What we have here is a bunch of self-serving ignoramuses seeking the approbation of the country's despicable latte set
It's the behavior, stupid! - and other observations of a so-called `homophobe': It's time for blacks and other genuine minorities to take back the language of true civil rights, which has been hijacked by radical homosexual activist in an effort to further the fraudulent concept that any and all sexual behavior must be fully accepted without question
Attack of the bloggers: I have to wonder, why do media commentators devote so much attention to radically left-wing blogs - especially when these blogs hardly represent the views of SUV-driving, church-going, baseball-loving moms and dads?

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ELSEWHERE

Your bureaucracy will look after you -- Malaria: "Paltry budgets, faulty strategies and government mismanagement have hamstrung past efforts to combat the disease. In Uganda, population 28 million, not one of the 1.8 million nets approved more than two years ago by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has yet arrived. The World Bank, after pledging to halve malaria deaths in Africa six years ago, had let its staff working on the disease dwindle to zero. And the United States Agency for International Development admitted to outraged senators last year that it spent more on high-priced consultants than on life-saving commodities, like mosquito nets that cost $5.75 apiece and last up to five years.

Muslims jail religious nut: "The Central Jakarta District Court jailed the leader of a minority religious sect for two years Thursday for blasphemy against Islam, a judgment quickly condemned by her lawyers and moderate religious leaders. The sentence for the Kingdom of Eden leader Lia Aminuddin was three years lighter than the term recommended by prosecutors, who said they would appeal against the verdict.... Lia and dozens of her followers were arrested on Dec. 28 after hundreds of hard-line Muslims protested outside the Kingdom of Eden headquarters in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. Lia, who believes she is both the Angel Gabriel and the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, was declared a suspect along with her close confidante Abdurrahman. Her other followers were later freed by police".

Another triumph of British bureaucracy: "Attempts to reform the troubled Child Support Agency have been a "complete disaster", costing more than 1 billion pounds and ranking "among the worst public administration scandals in modern times", the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee said last night. Edward Leigh said that it "beggared belief" that the reforms, introduced in 2003 in an attempt to simplify the child support system and speed up payments, had in fact made matters worse on every single measure of performance... There are now some 500 defects in the IT system... The CSA has been troubled since it was first introduced in 1993. The original system required agency staff to deal with 100 pieces of information to work out a maintenance payment. The Government has now indicated that the agency might be replaced with a new slimline body that will "track and enforce" payments only in the most complex cases... Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said that the failure of the agency reforms had caused hardship and distress for many of the poorest families

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and AUSTRALIAN POLITICS. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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