CHINA BLOCKS BLOGS AGAIN

Shades of Mao: After a short period of "letting a hundred flowers bloom", the authorities in China have now cracked down harder than ever on access to blogs. BOTH of the backup or "mirror" sites I had been putting up to make my blogs accessible over there are now blocked in at least some parts of China. I am not giving up yet however. I have transferred one lot of my mirrors to a NEW site that is not so far blocked. You can find a list of the new links on http://jonjayray.fortunecity.com/mirrors.html. If you are in email contact with anyone in China, please give them that link.

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"I love humanity. It's just people I can't stand"

That old summary of Leftism above is brought forcefully to mind by the behaviour of an arrogant rich bitch whose multi-millionaire husband claims to represent the "little guy". That such Leftist elitists actually despise ordinary people is all too evident in the story below -- lifted from Taranto

"Elizabeth Edwards says she is scared of the 'rabid, rabid Republican' who owns property across the street from her Orange County [N.C.] home--and she doesn't want her kids going near the gun-toting neighbor," the Associated Press reports:

Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, particularly recalls the time neighbor Monty Johnson brought out a gun while chasing workers investigating a right of way near his property. The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person.

"I wouldn't be nice to him, anyway," Edwards said in an interview. "I don't want my kids anywhere near some guy who, when he doesn't like somebody, the first thing he does is pull a gun out. It scares the business out of me."

Johnson says he appropriately brandished the gun to protect himself from trespassers. Mrs. Edwards has more grievances against her neighbor:

Edwards views Johnson as a "rabid, rabid Republican" who refuses to clean up his "slummy" property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres.

Johnson, 55, acknowledges his Republican roots. But he takes offense to the suggestion he has purposefully left his property, including an old garage he leases for use as a car shop, in dilapidated condition.

Johnson said he has lived his entire life on the property, which he said his family purchased before the Great Depression. He said he's spent a lot of money to try and fix up the 42-acre tract. "I have to budget. I have to live within my means," Johnson said. "I don't have millions of dollars to fix the place."

There are two Americas, and Elizabeth Edwards would just as soon not have to look at the other one. Maybe that's why she is so eager to live in the White House, the ultimate gated community.

Taranto's comment about two Americas is a reference to an Edwards theme -- that there are two Americas and Edwards represents the downtrodden one! The Anchoress also has some scathing comments on the hate-filled Mrs Elitist. For my comments on Leftist elitism in general see here. Given the initial use of anti-Christian bloggers by the Edwards campaign, I suppose it should not surprise us that Mrs Edwards would obviously not know Christian charity if she fell over it. The claim by Edwards that he is following Christian thinking is once again shown up as a false front.

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ELSEWHERE

Vanderleun has an amusing post about the terrible problem of offensive comments on blogs. Some nerd has proposed that a "civility button" is needed. An excerpt from Vanderleun: "This is why I really have to think that O'Reilly is into the whole "civility button" business purely to improve his own scent. All bloggers already have two buttons, the edit button and the delete button. That's all we need to crush dissent within our tiny little realms. Anything else just glorifies Emperor O'Reilly and he's already lording it over wage slaves daily. I don't see why I should join up. Unless he's going to pay me."

It's not only Christmas that Target hates: "Two Marines in their dress uniforms - the ones with white hats, khaki shirts and blue trousers with red stripe - say they were accused of recruiting at a Target department store here and told to leave. "We weren't recruiting," according to Cpl. Carlos Rodriguez, 22, who said he returned in October from his second combat tour in Iraq. "I just popped in to say hi to a guy I went to high school with. He works there." But an assistant manager who saw Rodriguez and the other Marine apparently thought otherwise and showed them the door, according to both servicemen".

The left blackballs the Black Caucus: "In the battle for control of the Democratic Party, the George Soros-MoveOn.org crowd is used to getting its way. So it's revealing to watch the consternation in those precincts to the Congressional Black Caucus decision to co-sponsor a pair of Presidential primary debates this year with Fox News. Liberal activists are livid, to say the least, with one anti-Fox pressure group condemning the Black Caucus for "dancing with the devil." Color of Change, a coalition of black online activists, says the collaboration promulgates "bigoted, hate-filled worldviews." Markos Moulitsas, the DailyKos front man, calls the CBC "corrupt and compromised" for "doing Fox's bidding." His implication is that Black Caucus Members have somehow been bought off, though there is no evidence to support the slur. This is to say nothing of some of the more vicious blog chatter, much of it carrying racial connotations."

Leftist "anti-Zionism": "As any state, Israel is imperfect. When, criticism of Israel is one-sided, slanted, or knowingly factually wrong, and far worse behavior by Palestinians is ignored, excused, or lies parroted, that IS anti-Semitism."

Britain's Leftist government shafts retirees and the poor: "To the great anger of the millions who have seen their retirements ruined as a result of his infamous tax raid on pension funds in his first Budget in 1997, official documents released under the Freedom of Information Act last Friday revealed that he had been well advised by Treasury officials of the disastrous consequence of his actions but chose to pursue them regardless. Now there is another great betrayal to expose: how Mr Brown’s policies have hindered, rather than helped, the poorest and most vulnerable in society, the very people he professes to champion. The Business has discovered the smoking gun and, as with the pensions scandal, the facts make for grim reading. Statistics from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) unearthed by The Business reveal that the income of the bottom 10% of the population fell from £91 a week in 2004-2005 to £89 a week in 2005-2006, a 2.2% drop. In stark contrast, the top 10% saw their income rise from £820 to £840 a week; those in the fifth (or middle) decile saw their income rise from £283 to £286.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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A land fit for heroes

Post below lifted from Mark Steyn -- which see for links

As Britain's returning "heroes" [who gave in without a fight] are selling their stories for six-figure sums (in dollars), here's one who can't get a look-in:

Private Johnson Beharry's courage in rescuing an ambushed foot patrol then, in a second act, saving his vehicle's crew despite his own terrible injuries earned him a Victoria Cross. For the BBC, however, his story is "too positive" about the conflict.

The corporation has cancelled the commission for a 90-minute drama about Britain's youngest surviving Victoria Cross hero because it feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq.

How brave is Private Beharry? He's the first living recipient of the Victoria Cross since two Aussies, Keith Payne and Rayene Stewart Simpson, were honored with the Commonwealth's highest award for gallantry in 1969 for their service in Vietnam, and he's the first living recipient in the British Army since Lance-Corporal Rambahadur Limbu of the 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles won his in the Confrontation with Indonesia in 1965. Private Beharry is one of only 12 living Victoria Cross holders. But his story might "alienate" the British public.

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"Return" -- For whom? And to where?

One of the most annoying quirks of our major media outlets involves their consistently misleading characterization of the current debate about demands for a Palestinian "right of return." ....

Tzipi Livni, Israel's popular Foreign Minister, articulates the core issue far more clearly than Prime Minister Olmert. "Just as Israel is the homeland for 800,000 Jewish refugees who fled or were expelled from Arab countries," she says, "so a new state of Palestine should be the homeland for Palestinian refugees."

Actually, the Arab League and the United Nations currently count some 4.3 million Palestinians as "refugees" or the descendants of refugees - a hugely inflated figure which, if nothing else, gives the lie to claims of Israeli "genocide." After all, if 700,000 Palestinian refugees of 1948-9 have now become 4.3 million - multiplying by some 600% in less than 60 years-it's hardly an indication of genocide. Few populations on earth - certainly not American or Israeli - have boasted that sort of explosive growth during this period. Moreover, only a small minority of the refugees (and of the Palestinian population in general) were actually land-owners. Most were tenant farmers or "fellahin" or urban tradesmen, and most had arrived only recently in the area from their homes in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, lured by the economic opportunities presented by the surging Jewish population in the 1920's and '30's. The idea that the great-great-grandchildren of such arrivals possess some inviolable connection to specific landscape in today's bustling Tel Aviv or Haifa is both illogical and altogether unenforceable.

The Israeli position may sound harsh in Prime Minister Olmert's formulation, but it remains eminently reasonable: if the Palestinians will negotiate peace, they get to decide who lives in their new state, but they don't get to decide who lives in the neighboring state of Israel. What's the sense behind the very idea of a "two state solution" if the Palestinians insist upon a similar "right" to live in both states?

No, the debate isn't about compassion for refugees, or protecting the "Jewish character of Israel" (a phrase that brings up the old, discredited "Zionism-is-racism" charge), or ethnic cleansing, or any other distracting issue cited by the American press.

The issue, as always, is Arab refusal to accept Israel's existence and sovereignty. Until the Palestinians and their Islamic allies come to terms with the reality and permanence of a restored state on the ancient homeland of the Jewish people, and drop the ludicrous demands about a "right to return," peace negotiations will go absolutely nowhere.

More here

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Scandal: the welfare state of "Palestine": "According to UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) tens of billions of dollars (one-third from US taxpayers, the rest mostly from Canada and European countries) have been spent over the last 50 years providing "Palestinian refugees" and their descendents. An estimated half million people 60 years ago, that number is now over four million and increasing daily. UNRWA's purpose: to insure the "Palestinian Right of Return" - the destruction of Israel. No Arab country except Jordan -- where they constitute more than two-thirds of the population - accepts them as citizens. Saudi Arabia, for example, recently passed a law allowing all foreigner workers in the country to apply for Saudi citizenship next year - except Palestinians. More than 400,000 "Palestinian refugees" living in UNWRA-supported "camps" in Lebanon cannot work or even go to school outside their designated areas. Ditto for Syria. Most "Palestinian refugees" listed by UNRWA (which includes Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and Gaza) in 2002, don't even live in the camps, but in nearby villages and towns. All receive free assistance and services for the rest of their life, including their children, their grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, ad infinitum".

How the Left hate media that do not suck up to them! "Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on Friday pulled out of a second debate co-hosted by Fox News Channel, saying the cable network has a conservative slant. The Edwards campaign said it will not attend the Sept. 23 debate hosted by Fox News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, but officials added that Edwards will participate in a different debate hosted by the institute and CNN. "We believe there's just no reason for Democrats to give Fox a platform to advance the right-wing agenda while pretending they're objective," said Jonathan Prince, Edwards' deputy campaign manager."

Congress shafts the world's poor: "The cotton market, which provides nearly 70 per cent of impoverished Burkina Faso's cash exports and income for more than a quarter of its 13 million people, has been brought to breaking point by factors known locally as "the monster with three heads": a weak dollar, low world prices and US cotton subsidies. This year will be crucial for the futures of 10 million West African farmers as the US renegotiates its Farm Bill, which has attracted international condemnation. America's 25,000 cotton farmers receive subsidies totalling some $4bn, allowing them to undercut their developing competitors. The subsidies were ruled illegal by the World Trade Organisation three years ago, yet only 10 per cent have been dropped so far, and Washington still pays many times more in subsidies to these farmers than it gives in aid to Africa each year. As a result, world cotton prices are now at the lowest since the Great Depression of the 1930s."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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 CONTRADICTIONS OF LEFTISM

Old hands will recognize that I am using a favourite Marxist term above. "Contradictions" were supposed to be the fatal flaws in capitalism. There never were in fact any such contradictions, merely tensions. Leftism however is replete with REAL contradictions. Projection at work again

The left, liberals and the academy are schizophrenic. One half of the split personality applies to epistemology, aesthetics and culture. In these areas "progressives" adopt a radically skeptical viewpoint, rejecting the importance of tradition, standards and culture. The ESR blog argues that this is due to Stalinist influence. However, this explanation does not explain the staying power of progressives' disdain for American culture more than a decade after the Soviet Union's fall and more than five decades after Stalin's death.

The other half of the split personality is that when it comes to public policy, the "progressives" adopt an aggressively rationalist stance, arguing that their managerial problem solving skills can solve all problems: from predicting the outcome in the war in Iraq; to running the New York City subway system; to understanding global warming; to understanding abortion; to understanding the optimal way Wal-Mart ought to run itself; to understanding how income taxation will influence capital formation. When it comes to culture, the left, liberals and the academy argue that nothing can matter and that everything is a matter of power, not reason. When it comes to public policy, the left, liberals and the academy argue that their reason is infallible.

Of course, the left's opinion that its reason is infallible is a delusion of grandeur. Hayek called this the left's "fatal conceit". In reality, most everything that the left has attempted to do has failed. Putting aside the mass murder and environmental destruction in the Soviet Union and China, even just limiting the discussion to their influence in the United States, virtually everything that liberals and the left have touched has been destroyed. New York is a shadow of its former self. The welfare system destroyed millions of lives. The health system is a pathetic joke. The education system graduates illiterates. The Federal Reserve Bank caused the depression of the 1930s...

An important reason for liberalism's, the left's, and the academy's fatal conceit is its failure to integrate time into its thinking. Economists tend to use cross sectional or limited time series-based studies to derive conclusions that may depend on many decades' worth of data. Government budgets are based on annual cycles. Decisions made in one year are forgotten only one year later. Revenues can be raised in year one without contemplating the costs in future years. For example, public sector pension funds have tended to use overly aggressive assumptions because such assumptions reduce contributions in year one while others bear the costs in future years.

Liberalism, then, is based on short term thinking and that is a critical difference between those who advocate laissez faire , i.e., those who value individual rights, and advocates of state-based solutions who favor the collective over the individual in the economic realm. The costs of state-based solutions are borne over many decades, in the end destroying the social fiber, the economy, wealth and the community. However, the benefits are typically short run.

Post above lifted from Democracy Project. The writer does not understand why Leftists are so short-sighted and contradictory. Such Leftist characteristics are however diagnostic of a psychopathic personality -- which also features the moral blindness mentioned above

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ELSEWHERE

Corn-based ethanol a crock: ""Good news: President Bush and Congress have found an energy policy they can agree on. Bad news: They both want to expand the use of ethanol. ... This mutual enthusiasm for the corn-based fuel may be good for the political environment, but not for the physical one. A new paper by The Heritage Foundation's Ben Lieberman road-tests the latest boondogglefrom Washington and finds that its earth-friendly claims are seriously overblown."

The ethanol alliance: "Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's visit to Camp David last weekend was meant to seal what is being dubbed as 'the ethanol alliance' between the United States and the South American giant. I have no idea whether ethanol will eventually deliver the grandiose promise of a clean environment or the bankruptcy of oil-rich despots. But I do know that there is a huge disconnect between the objectives of the ethanol alliance and current policy. If the United States wants to boost ethanol consumption and reduce oil-dependency, it needs to make a simple decision -- eliminate its 54-cents-a-gallon tariff. Experts tell us that corn-based ethanol, the kind being produced in the United States, is eight times less efficient than Brazil's sugarcane version of the biofuel."

Democrats still weakening America: "On Friday night, Rep. Duncan Hunter, former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and now its ranking Republican member, appeared on the Hannity and Colmes show on Fox, and I was astonished to hear him castigated for failing to see that our troops in Iraq needed equipment. He was specifically challenged on matter of the alleged lack of body armor for our troops in Iraq, and the administration's alleged failure to ensure that our troops had the protection the armor affords them. Ignored were certain inconvenient facts such as the amount of body armor that was available under Bill Clinton, which was zero. Today under President Bush and thanks to Duncan Hunter's work in the Armed Services Committee, which authorized the funds to purchase the body armor, the armed services have one million sets of body armor. That's one million! It's puzzling to see the media ignore the disastrous cutbacks in our armed services that took place under Bill Clinton, and the extraordinary efforts of the Bush administration and Hunter's committee to beef up our military. Under Clinton, for example, the number of armored Humvees available to the military was a pitiful 1,300. Under President Bush it's over 26,000. And it was not just Clinton who sapped our strength -- Congress under the Democrats has just turned thumbs down on the Pentagon's request for $4.75 billion for the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles that can safeguard our troops from the IED explosions which are responsible for a large part of the deaths and wounding of our soldiers and Marines. Instead of funding that vital request in the $124 billion supplemental bill passed this week, the Democrats were able to find billions for such things as subsidies for spinach farmers and the shrimp industry, but not a dime for a vehicle that could save the lives of thousands of our troops in Iraq"

Revolting Brits?: "The government is predicting that some 15m people will revolt against Tony Blair’s controversial ID card scheme by refusing to produce the new cards or provide personal data on demand. The forecast is made in documents released by the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act. The papers show ministers expect national protests similar to the poll tax rebellions of the Thatcher era, with millions prepared to risk criminal prosecution. Opposition MPs said the new documents proved their case that the programme would never work. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: “This will cripple the system. Fifteen million is a massive number. What the Home Office is accepting in private, but refuses to accept in public, is that a massive number of ordinary law-abiding citizens simply will not go along with their scheme.” Davis, whose party’s policy is to scrap the cards, added: “This will render it completely useless as a security or check mechanism of any sort.” The documents, quietly released during parliament’s Easter break, also show that the government is planning to make ID cards compulsory in 2014, despite the expected revolt."

China Hand has just put up a new post. Blogspot blogs are once again blocked in China so there is a backup available here.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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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HOMOSEXUALITY DRASTICALLY SHORTENS YOUR LIFE

All the research so far seems to lead to that conclusion but Indiana Libertarian Ken Gividen has found some powerful new evidence. Following is an excerpt from a recent post:

"Legally married gays have 24 less years to live than married non-gays. That's the conclusion of a study presented to the Eastern Psychological Association's annual convention March 23. The report was prepared by Drs. Paul and Kirk Cameron

In Denmark, the country with the longest history of gay marriage, for 1990-2002, married heterosexual men died at a median age of 74 while the 561 partnered gays died at an average age of 51.

In Norway, married heterosexual men died at an average age of 77 and the 31 gays at 52. In Denmark, married women died at an average age of 78 compared to 56 for the 91 lesbians. In Norway, women married to men died at an average age of 81 vs. 56 for the 6 lesbians.

By comparison, smoking lessens one's life by seven years. The gay agenda is dangerous. Encouraging young people to explore the behavioral options is an invitation to an early grave. If accepted, lawmakers may sympathize with insurance companies who view the gay lifestyle as a liability more serious than smoking or skydiving. Programs to help gays abandon homosexuality will be seen as important life-saving efforts.

People should have the right to live their lives however they choose, providing they hurt no one else. They may eat themselves to death, smoke themselves to death or indulge in other harmful lifestyles. Taxpayers have no obligation to straighten them out. However, believing in human rights does not presume we must retreat to ignorance concerning the effects of behavior."

Unsurprisingly, that little bit of truth-telling got Ken condemned as "homophobic". Yet again, the truth is "hate speech". Anyway, Ken's blog got removed from various blogrolls because of his truth-telling so pay him a visit to show that such censorship does no good. Ken recycles a lot of my posts so he is obviously a good guy!

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ELSEWHERE



Is the above pic a lot like what the Left want for us all? Pic lifted from Jules Crittenden

Taranto has a big follow-up to the post that I linked to yesterday -- in my comments about the infantile Left. It makes the excellent point that the infantile thinking concerned is largely the product of America's Left-dominated educational system.

The death-rattle of American car manufacturing? "FORD paid its new chief executive, Alan Mulally, $US28.18 million ($34.43 million) in his first four months on the job, the car maker said on Thursday. Mr Mulally's compensation included an $US18.5 million bonus that Ford - which reported a record $US12.7 billion loss last year - disclosed in September when it hired him from Boeing. Figures in Ford's annual proxy statement show that his pay was more than three times that of any other executive at the company. That includes the executive chairman, William Clay Ford jnr, who has kept a promise made in 2005 not to accept any new salary, bonus or stock awards until Ford can consistently earn a profit. Executive compensation at all three Detroit car makers has been closely scrutinised since they began revamping plans to close dozens of factories and eliminate tens of thousands of jobs. The companies are trying to overcome multibillion-dollar losses and become more competitive with foreign rivals like Toyota and Honda."

Pandering to nutters pays off. Prius powers Toyota to top: "New-vehicle sales fell in March at the three domestic automakers, but Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. continued to outperform the industry and posted its best month ever in the U.S. Toyota sold 242,675 vehicles, 12 percent more than a year ago, and showed strength on both the car and truck side of the business. Passenger-car sales jumped 19 percent as the Prius hybrid more than doubled, to 19,156, and the Camry, the industry's best-selling car, rose 8 percent as gasoline prices climbed during March. Prius sales have soared 80 percent this year after Toyota boosted production capacity for the car in Japan."

Auctioning off power in Washington: "Between the two party primaries and the general election, spending on the 2008 presidential race likely will exceed $1.5 billion (it topped $1 billion for the first time in 2004). Toss in congressional elections, and it's likely that total spending for control of the federal government in 2008 will top $5 billion (it was just under $4 billion in 2004). That doesn't include state and local races, nor does it include the money spent on lobbying, which topped $2 billion in 2004, a 35 percent jump from 2001. I tend to agree with many of the editorial boards and campaign reformers troubled by the escalation in the money we spend on federal elections. Unfortunately, campaign finance reformers (and lobbying reformers) seem to be troubled for all the wrong reasons. The problem with increasing amounts of money spent on lobbying and politics isn't that Americans are spending more and more money to buy some influence in Washington; the problem is that we're giving Washington more and more influence to sell."

It takes a Hillage: "In any free society, millions of people will have different ideas about how to form families, how to rear children, and how to associate voluntarily with others. Those differences are not just a result of a lack of understanding each other; no matter how many Harvard seminars and National Conversations we have, we will never come to a national consensus on such intimate moral matters. Clinton implicitly recognizes that when she insists that there will be times when 'the village itself [she means the federal government] must act in place of parents' and accept 'those responsibilities in all our names through the authority we vest in government.' She fundamentally rejects the American tradition of liberty. She says that government must make the decisions about how we raise our children."

Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims: "We are a group of Muslim apostates who have left Islam out of our own conviction when we discovered that the religion of Islam is not a religion at all. Most of us had taken a prolong period of time to study, evaluate, reflect and contemplate on this religion of our birth. Having scrutinized this religion with meticulous attention, we concluded that Islam is not at all a religion of peace as touted by many smooth-talking, self-serving Islamists and the Islamic apologists. The core of Islam, that is, the Qur'an, Hadis and Sharia are filled with unbound hatred for the unbelievers, unbelievably intolerant and exceptionally cruel and merciless to those who dare to deviate an iota from its doctrine. We discovered that Islam is beyond alteration, because Muslims who attempt to modernize and reform its unremitting bigotry, mindless rituals and its barbaric and draconian punitive measures are targeted for annihilation. Our verdict was that the only way to escape from the tyranny of Islam is to leave it for good. That is why we discarded Islam from our lives-to be free, to enjoy a normal, pleasant and humane life, in complete harmony with all people on earth irrespective of their religion, race or creed."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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 INFANTILE LEFT

As Evan Sayet has repeatedly argued, (see here and here) there is much about Leftists that appears infantile. The "Mommy look at me" syndrome is very evident among them at times, for instance. Ben Stein, V.D. Hanson and Dennis Prager, too point out a variety of ways in which Leftists would appear to be fundamentally juvenile. I have myself previously commented on the phenomenon here and here and here.

The following excerpt from Taranto exhibits the "me, me" infantilism vividly -- as well as being childishly incoherent. And the infantilist got a standing ovation from other Leftists! Note that the addled speaker ADMITS she is not an adult even though she is 22!

"Rush Limbaugh has a fascinating transcript from a town-hall meeting John and Elizabeth Edwards held at the University of New Hampshire Monday. They were questioned by an undergraduate named Jenny Ballantine, who had this to say:

I need to be able to look to my leader and see words of encouragement, words of hope. I need to be able to trust that person. I need to be able to know that I'm going to be grow [sic in transcript] in a world that's not going to be full of hate and prejudice and racism and to know that I matter, that I wasn't just dumped in this world for no particular reason whatsoever.

I'm busting my ass in school, I work 25 to 30 hours a week, and it's just me and my dog. So what can you do for the people that are in my situation, that are trying their damnedest in school, wanting to go to grad school, is going to be hit with the loans--and, uh, I have no idea what I want to do when I grow up. I don't know what I want to be when I'm an adult. But I'm 22 right now, so people are like, "Honey, you are an adult." You know what? It's about me. It's about me voting for you or supporting somebody who's going to be the next president. So it's all about me right now. Just give me something.

Here is how the Edwardses responded:

Edwards: God bless you. If I were choosing a president, uh, that's what I'd be doing. I'd be looking for the specifics of what they want to do, because that matters, but I would also be judging them personally, because we need to trust our president.

Mrs. Edwards: I want to say something, too. I was really impressed with you, Jenny Ballantine, and I think probably everybody in this room was, and I want everybody in this room who believes that Jenny Ballantine is going to be able to do it to give her a round of applause.

According to Foster's Daily Democrat of Dover, N.H., the audience gave Miss Ballantine not only a round of applause but a standing ovation."

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A New Civil Right: Not Having To Pay Your Bills

Post lifted from New Editor

This could have far-reaching unintended consequences.

Civil rights groups called Wednesday for a six-month moratorium on foreclosures resulting from high-risk loans given to people with shaky credit, arguing that lenders should help borrowers refinance their mortgages or face lawsuits...

They also said lenders, real estate agents and investors who bought subprime loans could face lawsuits under a federal law prohibiting housing discrimination.

I covered real estate for business information provider Hoover's in the late 1990s, and I recall that at that time, lenders were being threatened with civil rights lawsuits for not making mortgage loans to people with lower credit scores, who were disproportionately African-American and Hispanic.

One of the Clinton administration's best efforts was its successful drive to increase homeownership nationwide. Forcing lenders under threat of lawsuit to refinance bad loans may help some people in the short-term, but in an already shaky market, could have a counterproductive chilling effect on homeownership rates in the future.

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ELSEWHERE

Publius Pundit takes a look at the Iran hostage crisis, but not as it has been seen elsewhere. Publius contends that Iran's strategy was to treat the sailors well; that the confession videos and ensuing media attention upon their arrival to Britain, is all a ploy to convince the European public that Iran is not as bad as their governments tell them it is. Public support for UNSC sanctions will drop precipitously. If history is any indication, this will probably happen. Score one for Iran.

NY to Wal-Mart: We prefer unions, high prices, snobbery: "New York City citizens (Manhattanites), who have cried themselves to sleep at night hoping to have nearby Wal-Marts like most of the rest of us, can now, in the words of The New York Times, 'fuhgeddaboudit.' Actually, the way the paper words it in a subhead is: 'Wal-Mart to New York: fuhgeddaboudit,' implying that the world's largest retailer is thumbing its bent nose at the city. The facts, as outlined in the article, tell a different story."

Leftist "flexibility" again: "The Democrats claim that the November 2006 election gave them a mandate to end the war in Iraq. That isn't what they were saying late last year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said the following on November 30, 2006: "Now he's the commander in chief, and we're not going to anything to limit funding or cut off funds, even though there are some on the outside who suggest that." Now, on April 2, 2007, Reid said he supports a new bill that would set a March 31, 2008 deadline for withdrawing all troops and stopping most military spending in Iraq. To that end, both the House and Senate passed an Iraq spending bill that includes a troop pullout date by September of 2008."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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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"NOBLE SAVAGES"

Such is the hatred that Leftists feel towards their own society that they very often idealize primitive cultures (a rather comprehensive example of that here). They no longer use Rousseau's term "Noble savages" but they share Rousseau's fantasies. To show just how addled such beliefs are, I thought it might be instructive to reproduce part of a report by Louis Nowra about how "noble" one continent-wide group of primitives are: The Australian Aborigines. No-one who knows Aborigines well (as I do) will dispute the reality of what is described below:

In 2005 I spent several days in the Alice Springs hospital after falling ill while attending a friend's wedding. I shared a ward with a middle-aged Aboriginal man who was quite proud that he had raped a 13-year-old girl. As he said, "She wouldn't say yes, so I f---ed her hard." It did not surprise me. A few years before, I was in Alice Springs talking to two Aboriginal men in their early 70s. They were preparing to go into town to buy plastic toy dinosaurs. This was to pay a 12-year-old girl for having sex with both of them at the same time.

What amazed me was their lack of shame or even simple embarrassment. What disturbed me even more was that the most common sight in the hospital was Aboriginal women and girls with severe injuries suffered during domestic violence. Some of their faces looked as though an incompetent butcher had conducted plastic surgery with a hammer and saw. The fear in their eyes reminded me of dogs whipped into cringing submission. The confronting evidence of what men had done to the women was almost unbearable.

About 20 years ago an Aboriginal woman told me she had been raped at the age of seven by her uncle and grandfather on a town rubbish tip. As I was to discover as my circle of Aboriginal friends and acquaintances grew, sexual abuse was not uncommon -- and in some communities it was rife -- from the 1960s onwards. Another friend told me that at the age of 10 he had been thrown into a wardrobe where his uncle masturbated him and then forced him to perform oral sex. Several other "uncles" also abused him through the years. I heard of many more such incidents and not one of these men ever had to go to court for their actions.

After I had recovered from my stay in Alice Springs hospital I was alarmed to read of a middle-aged Aboriginal man who anally raped a 14-year-old girl whom, he said, had been promised to him. Northern Territory Chief Justice Brian Martin sentenced him to detention for the duration of the court session. It seemed to me that Aboriginal men were using the defence of cultural traditions to get away with rape and murder. But it's not only that. The statistics on Aboriginal domestic violence and sexual abuse are so much worse than in the general population, as has been highlighted in the 40 reports produced on the issue since 1999. All the statistics and case studies I refer to in this piece are sourced from federal and state government reports, court proceedings, newspaper articles and books, and are expanded on in my new book, Bad Dreaming (Pluto Press), which also contains an extensive bibliography.

The Alice Springs hospital provides a clear example: about 800 Aboriginal women were treated for domestic assault last year, up from 351 in 1999. The rate of domestic assault in indigenous communities is eight to 10 times that of non-indigenous communities and the sexual abuse of girls is so widespread that one-third of 13-year-old girls in the NT are infected with chlamydia and gonorrhoea. In fact, the situation has become a calamity.

But even more disturbing is that while some Aborigines are being recognised as wonderful painters, photographers, actors, filmmakers, footballers and dancers, indigenous communities are breaking down under the strain of male violence and sexual brutality. As Aboriginal elder Mick Dodson has said: "This is not just our problem; this is everyone's problem."

After the arrival of the First Fleet explorers and settlers wrote about the violence they saw Aboriginal men inflict on women. They also observed how the men kidnapped women from other tribes, raped them and forced them to become their wives.

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ELSEWHERE



It would be interesting to know what threats against Iran were made behind the scenes: "Iran released 15 British sailors today as a "gift" to the people of Britain in a dramatic end to a two-week ordeal that had triggered a new diplomatic crisis between Tehran and the West. As relatives and friends popped champagne corks in Britain, the naval personnel were seen on state television chatting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after his surprise announcement of their release. British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed their release and thanked "our friends and allies in the region who played their part" amid unconfirmed reports that Syria and Qatar had helped bring about a peaceful resolution. He said Britain, which took the issue to the UN Security Council last week, had taken a "firm but calm" approach, "not negotiating but not confronting either". However, Iran's hardline president - who saved his dramatic announcement until nearly the end of the press conference - still lashed out at Britain over its handling of the crisis and decorated a Revolutionary Guards officer who commanded the operation in which the Britons were seized. The overnight development followed the release in Baghdad of an Iranian diplomat kidnapped in Iraq in February in an abduction Tehran had blamed on US forces."

The usual Leftist love of violence and coercion: "Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, was heckled and pelted by protesters after an appearance last night on the campus of American University in Washington, according to local media reports. WRC-TV, the NBC affiliate, says "Rove was on the campus to talk to the College Republicans, but when he got outside more than a dozen students began throwing things at him and at his car, an American University spokesperson said. The students then got on the ground and laid down in front of his car as a protest." [See my post of 4th.]

Yale teaches them well: "Three Yale University students are charged with burning an American flag hanging from the porch of a Chapel Street home early Tuesday in the Wooster Square neighborhood. When detained by police a few blocks away, they allegedly acknowledged it was a "dumb thing to do," according to a police report on the incident. Hyder Akbar Said, 23, Nikolaos Angelopoulos, 19, and Farhad Anklesaria, also 19, were arrested on a range of charges including two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, third-degree criminal mischief, second-degree arson, breach of peace, and conspiracy to commit second-degree arson."

A typical Leftist ostrich: ""If Pelosi believes, as she told the [Israeli] Knesset, that Iran must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons, she must explain how that is to be done without at least the possibility of recourse to military action. This she cannot do, because of the anti-Iraq war sentiment that has swept her own party's precincts. Instead she plays domestic politics at Israel's expense, despite warnings from our own state department that visiting Syria is a recipe for trouble. Ms. Pelosi will be fortunate if she, unlike the royal marines, is allowed to return home to America, though it is an open question where she can do more damage, over there or over here."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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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Who can blame them?

Christians are fleeing Lebanon to escape political and economic crises and signs that radical Islam is on the rise in the country. In a poll to be published next month which was exclusively leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, nearly half of all Maronites, the largest Christian denomination in the country, said they were considering emigrating. Of these, more than 100,000 have submitted visa applications to foreign embassies. Their exodus could have a devastating effect on the country, robbing it of an influential minority which has acted as an important counter-balance to the forces of Islamic extremism.

About 60,000 Christians have already left since last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah. Many who remain fear that a violent showdown between rival Sunni and Shia factions is looming. "If we love our children we have to tell them to get out," said Maria, a Christian mother of one from the northern city of Tripoli, who refused to give her surname for fear of reprisal. "When my daughter finished her high school I sent her to Europe, and I will follow her if I can."

Christine, another Christian woman, said that all of her family's younger generation had left the country, adding that Tripoli had become increasingly Islamised in recent years. There is a rising number of veiled women and religiously bearded men on the streets - although she blamed economic and political instability for much of the emigration. Christians, who make up 22 per cent of the population, have historically played a major role in the development of Lebanon's political, social and cultural institutions. Currently the president, the army commander and the head of the central bank are all Maronites, and under the agreement which ended the civil war in 1989, half the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament are reserved for Christians.

"Lebanon has always been a bastion of religious tolerance, but now it is moving towards the model of Islamisation seen in Iraq and Egypt," said Fr Samir Samir, a Jesuit teacher of Islamic studies at Beirut's Universit‚ Saint-Joseph.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

French Right promises to impoverish France: "Nicolas Sarkozy, the leading candidate for the French presidency, has emerged as an unabashed economic patriot.... Sarkozy ripped into the takeover of Arcelor, Europe's largest steelmaker, by Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian steel magnate. A "mistake," declared Sarkozy: "Look at the waste of Arcelor, which we sold off on the cheap because we believed the steel industry was history. They got it wrong. They lied." Calling free trade a policy of naivete, Sarkozy promised an "industrial policy." He has in mind retaining industry and restoring manufacturing jobs to a France that has been losing both. France's economic destiny cannot be left to the market, he told young entrepreneurs in Paris."

Census data unsafe: "Despite decades of denials, government records confirm that the U.S. Census Bureau provided the U.S. Secret Service with names and addresses of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The Census Bureau surveys the population every decade with detailed questionnaires but is barred by law from revealing data that could be linked to specific individuals. The Second War Powers Act of 1942 temporarily repealed that protection to assist in the roundup of Japanese-Americans for imprisonment in internment camps in California and six other states during the war."

The big initiative chill: "Sometimes citizens need to bypass state legislators when they decline to pass a law that voters like but politicians don't. Citizens can be wrong, of course. But it's not as if legislators pass only good laws. Besides, citizens are, often, right. Representative Kirk Adams has introduced measures to 'solve' the 'problem' of citizens having too much say. The proposals include giving lawmakers the power to gut it a few years after it has passed, letting lawmakers write the title of a measure, making it harder to fund an initiative, making it harder to collect signatures, making it harder to pay signature gatherers for actually gathering signatures. Representative Adams simultaneously tells reporters that he's not trying to undercut the power of people to make laws -- and that if his measures aren't accepted, lawmakers will have to consider ... more drastic measures."

The power of freedom: "Of the almost 7 billion people on this planet, only 300 million are Americans. To put that in perspective, less than 5% of the population of this planet are Americans- and yet, the world is obsessed with our existence and what we represent. In the course of just over 200 years, we have provided the world with ideas, contributions and realities that are in the consciousness of every human being on the planet. Given our numbers and short history, we should not have had this profound influence on history and mankind- and yet, we have. The secret to our our successes and influence can be attributed to one powerful word: Freedom. The notion that all men are created equal, is a biblical concept. It took America to make that a reality, in those ideas called freedom and democracy. "They will beat their swords into plowshares.nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore," can only come about as the result of freedom and democracy for all mankind. It is folly to believe that anything less will bring about peace"

Iraq: Jihadists behead, roast Christian toddler: ""When they cook a dish in the Middle East, it is traditional to put the meat on top of the rice when they serve it. They kidnapped a woman's baby in Baghdad, a toddler, and because the mother was unable to pay the ransom, they returned her child - beheaded, roasted and served on a mound of rice." The infant's crime was to be an Assyrian, but this story, reported by the Barnabus Fund, went unnoticed in the West, like so many other horrific accounts of Christian persecution in Iraq. Since the invasion of Iraq, Muslim militants have bombed 28 churches and murdered hundreds of Christians."

Muslim taxi-drivers at work in Norway: "Blind woman Gry Berg, accompanied by her guide dog, was denied entry into four taxis in the center of the city of Oslo, Norway, this March. Three of the drivers claimed that their unwillingness to accept her dog was due to allergy, while the fourth one simply locked the car doors and refused to give an explanation for why he wouldn't let Ms. Berg into his cab. Andreas Strand, leader of the youth organization of The Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted, reacts strongly to this treatment. "It makes it difficult for blind people to live a social life," he says. Strand claims that it has become an increasingly common problem that blind people accompanied by guide dogs are denied access to taxis, and has written a letter of complaint to the three companies whose drivers were involved in this particular incident."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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 Leftist cry of "peace"

Now that the U.S. Congress seems intent on "peace at any price" in Iraq, it may be instructive to take a look at Leftist cries for "peace" generally -- cries that have in fact always been cries for America's defeat.

History can be both suprising and puzzling. There are probably few people alive today who remember that Leftists were once the most nationalistic side of politics (for the evidence that they were, see here). How could the people who now regard patriotism and nationalism as puerile once have been red-hot for conquest and national glory? Similarly, how can the sort of people who, from Robespierre to Pol Pot, have murdered people in droves, also be the ones who go out on the streets and demonstrate for "peace"?

Both those phenonena are part of the larger truth that Leftism is consistent only at the psychological level. It will always be driven by hate, anger and envy but the way in which such feelings are given a hopefully plausible outlet will vary with the times. Leftists may often resort to talk of high principles but they will abandon those principles in a moment if that seems convenient. The way the far-Left of American politics were pro-Hitler during the Hitler/Stalin alliance and then immediately proceeded to march in the opposite direction when Hitler invaded Russia is a notorious example of such "flexibility" but there are many such examples in modern times.

Perhaps the most amusing example of that in the 21st century so far is the way in which Leftist intellectuals dug up the principles of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 to justify their opposition to the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein (e.g. here). Something as antique and "establishment" as the Peace of Westphalia would once have been responded to by Leftists with at best a raised eyebrow.

The Vietnam era (the 1960s and 1970s) marked one of the big changes in Leftist thinking. America's involvement in Vietnam was initiated by an old-fashioned patriot, J.F. Kennedy, perhaps best known today for his quote from Pericles: "Ask not what your country can do for you; Ask what you can do for your country". And patriotism remains strong among the American people generally to this day -- which is why mainstream Democrat politicians always have to huff and puff about people "questioning their patriotism" -- questions which are normally well justified.

Among Leftist thinkers, however, Kennedy was a holdover from the pre-1945 world in which Leftists were the great asserters of American supremacy, authority, glory etc. One only has to remember the founder of the "Progressive" party, Theodore Roosevelt, to know what American Leftists were like from the late 19th century onwards. TR was a great critic of business and arguably the most successful Greenie of all times (America's national parks are mostly his doing) but he also put his trust in battleships and managed to get America to undertake two successful wars of conquest in Cuba and the Philippines. He even took part in the first of those personally and was a great propagandist for war as an ennobling enterprise that cleansed the national spirit -- a theme later taken up enthusiastically by a certain German leader.

The antics of that German leader did however greatly discredit aggressive nationalism in the eyes of the world so Leftists could not continue with it. They would have looked like dinosaurs if they had -- and very dangerous dinosaurs at that. So a reversal was needed. But such a far-reaching reversal could not be achived overnight and the American Left remained at least patriotic for some time -- with Kennedy being just about the last significant holdover.

In general, however, the memory of past beliefs and attitudes had faded by the 1960s -- particularly among the young -- and the new anti-nationalist stance that seemed more in tune with the postwar era could reach full flower. So we had the "peace" movement of that era, which was much more a rejection of American assertiveness and wisdom than it was about peace.

The idea that Leftists favour peace is of course absurd. The hate, anger and envy that drive Leftists make them inherently aggressive and bloodthirsty -- as we see whenever they gain absolute power -- from the French revolutionaries onward through Trotsky, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot -- not to mention more minor revolutionaries. And the great violence that often characterized "peace" demonstrations of the Vietnam era (see e.g. here) gave the lie to any claim that these Leftists were any different from their predecessors.

When Leftists of the post-1945 period have advocated peace, it has had one purpose only -- to curb the strength, options and influence of their own country. It is an anti-nationalist and anti-patriotic stratagem. It is intended to show them as the wise and benevolent ones who know better than the national leadership.

And the long buildup to the invasion of Iraq by Anglo-Saxon forces in 2003 saw a great upsurge in Leftists taking to the streets to demonstrate for "peace". In this respect the new Left is very similar to the old Left of the cold-war era. Throughout the Cold War era, a great cry of Leftist demonstators and their supporters was "Peace" -- which essentially meant: "Do not attack our friends, the Communists -- or even prepare to defend yourself against them".

But in typically hypocritical fashion, few Leftists were straightfoward in admitting their motivations. The peaceniks of the Vietnam era usually justified their opposition to that war by promoting the fantasy that they were the only ones who could see the evils of war and accused anyone who supported any military action of being a "warmonger".

But in fact one of the most revealing evidences of the dishonesty and hidden agendas of the Left is the way that "antiwar" demonstrations to this day commonly erupt into violence. Below is an excerpt about one of the fairly routine events of the Iraq war era:

Two reports of the March 20 2007 "peace" protests in Milwaukee near the University of Wisconsin campus

Police reported arresting at least four people and questioning about 20 more after protesters damaged an Army recruiting office on Milwaukee's east side Monday night. Milwaukee police Sgt. Eric Pfeiffer said officers were called to the area when Iraq War protesters wearing black clothing and ski masks were reported to be carrying torches, setting off smoke bombs and throwing paint while approaching the recruitment center. Pfeiffer told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel someone threw an object through a window at the recruitment center and spread what appeared to be feces inside before running away.

http://www.twincities.com/searchresults/ci_5479244

Peace Action Wisconsin does not condone violence, said the group's project organizer Julie Enslow, but some anti-war protesters might feel the need to be violent to get their point across. "We do not use those tactics ourselves, but the movement is very broad, and as this war continues, the anti-war movement is going to take many forms - not all of which everyone feels comfortable with," Enslow said.

An anti-war rally at O'Donnell Park on Saturday drew a large crowd that listened to several speakers, including U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee), before marching to the Reuss Federal Plaza, Enslow said. The peaceful gathering contrasted sharply with the arrests Monday night at the Army recruiting center near the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus, where protesters broke a window and threw smoke bombs, paint and human excrement, police said. There were no injuries reported.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=580318

I have given the links to the original stories above but such stories do not stay online for long of course. Gateway Pundit has more details - plus some pictures.

Leftists are clearly such violent people that they cannot restrain themselves even when it makes a mockery of what they claim to stand for. They truly are Stalin's heirs.

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BrookesNews Update

Is the US economy still picking up steam? : US economy: manufacturing is not signalling recession - at least not yet. Nevertheless, there is much to worry about, including Bernanke's gross error on capital and credit
Mainstream economists don't think money is important in causing inflation: Mainstream economic commentary is still getting it wrong on the nature of inflation and the damage it does to economies. Dr Shostak explains what inflation really is and how it can be defeated
Fidel Castro says adios to foreign reporters: The Castro regime - with firing-squads, prison beatings and starvings, among other methods - has killed 102,000 Cubans. Virtually every Cuban-American family has had relatives kidnapped and held-ransom. Yet journalists and media networks like AP, CNN and Reuters are still whitewashing Castro
Defending economic growth against green bigotry: The greens' assertion that a free market cannot "maintain sustainability across generations" has no foundation in theory or history, and is nothing more than a club with which to attack market economics
Michael Scheuer: the CIA's former expert on Bin Laden: Like Valerie Plame, Michael Scheuer is a symbol of the incompetence, ignorance and moral corruption that is rampant among the guardians of the CIA. It also suggests that Democrats like Plame are only loyal to the Democrat Party and not the USA
Corn cobs and energy independence: Are corn cobs part of the answer to energy independence? It seems so, believe it or not. With Russia on the verge of creating a cartel to control world production and manipulate world prices of natural gas - a Natural Gas OPEC - it is more critical than ever that we focus again on using natural gas to achieve American energy independence
Congressional Democrats vote "Disgrace and Defeat" for the United States and its military: The leftwing leadership in Congress is trapped in a quagmire of appeasing the anti-American leftists who helped get them elected by strapping domestic spending earmarks to the backs of our troops. They called this sort of behavior a 'culture of corruption' just a few months ago, but that's changed since they became the bosses
The US economy: the coming recession and what to look for: Every credit boom ends with a bust. Although it is impossible to predict the precise timing of an impending recession, one can look out for certain danger signals. Let us begin with the fallacy that consumer spending drives economic growth

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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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Passover Seder

My best wishes to my Jewish readers at this holy time. I hope they have had or will be having (timezones are pesky) a good and fortifying Seder that helps them to deal wisely with the many follies and false gods of this world.

I like the idea of the four cups of wine at the seder. In my Presbyterian days, all we got at Communion was a tiny glass of unfermented grape juice! Quite pathetic.

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Leftists in the Middle East betrayed by Western Leftists

SKIMMING through the Middle Eastern press these days can produce unexpected results. It's not rare to see a virulently anti-American article by an American or Western European leftist - and, alongside it on the same page, a pro-American article from an Arab, Iranian or Afghan progressive figure....

Having all but abandoned its traditional opposition to capitalism and the bourgeois democratic system, much of the Western Left is forced to cling to anti-Americanism as its backbone....

In the Middle East, however, a good part of the Left, while not especially enamored of the United States, sees it as an ally against Islamist and totalitarian pan-Arab movements. "Anti-Americanism is a luxury we cannot afford in the Middle East," says Adnan Hussein, a leftist Iraq writer recently picked by the Financial Times as one of the 50 most influential columnists in the world. "Blinded by anti-Americanism, the Left in the West ends up on the same side as religious fascists and despots."

Parviz Khosravi, a veteran of Iran's Communist movement, cites history as justification for the Left's rejection of "banal anti-Americanism." "During the Second World War, all movements of the Left supported an alliance with the Western democracies led by the United States because the common enemy was Fascism," he says. "Today, we are in a similar position. Progressive forces in the Middle East are threatened by an Islamist version of Fascism. An alliance with Western democracies is not only desirable but necessary."

PRESIDENT Bush, the bete noire of liberals and leftists in the West, might be surprised to learn that he has a better image among liberals, leftists, secularists and even moderate Islamists in the Middle East. While Chomsky and Moore see the United States as "an evil power," many leftists in the Middle East see it as a force for good that ended the tyranny of the Taliban in Afghanistan, dismantled the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and forced the Syrians out of Lebanon after 30 years of occupation.

More here

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Income Inequality, Monetary Policy & The Left

Some words of wisdom from Sweden. Post below lifted from Stefan Karlsson's blog, which see for links. Leftists won't even try to understand it, though. It's easier being ignorant

The New York Times reports that income inequality in America rose sharply in 2005, to its highest level since 1928. This was also noted by the leftist Economic Policy Institute. What is missed is why inequality has increased. Leftists typically blame foreign trade and Bush's tax cuts, while paleoconservatives , in addition to trade, often blame immigration. Yet while there may be some limited truth in these explanations, the perhaps most important explanation is left out.

What explanation, you might wonder. Well, ask yourself, what was special about 1928? The answer is that it was the peak of a stock market bubble and strong cyclical boom. Income inequality then fell sharply during the great depression. Similarly, income inequality previously peaked in 1999, at the height of the tech stock bubble, and then fell back in 2001-2003.Only to rise again in 2004-2005. See the pattern here? Income inequality rises during booms and falls during busts, as the prices of assets mainly held by the wealthy rise druing booms and falls during busts.

This is the way it has always been, and it is predictable from a theoretical perspective. Because newly created money tends to affect asset prices before product prices and product prices before wages, monetary driven booms will tend to increase relative income for the wealthy and reduce it for the poor.

So if the left really thinks rising income inequality is so bad, why don't they fight for hard money? In reality, Economic Policy Institute and other leftists typically supports inflationary monetary policy, see for example here. The idiots at EPI in fact seems to be under the illusion that inflationary monetary policies will reduce income inequality, when basic economic theory and all historic evidence shows that it will increase it.

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ELSEWHERE

There is a fascinating article here by Charles Murray which looks at the reasons behind the exceptionally high average IQ among Jews. Unlike Cochran et al., he argues that high IQ is not recent among Jews. He goes far back into history in his explanations and certainly ends on an amusing note for the serious scientist that he is.

Germans NEED to demonize America: "Anti-Americanism is hypocrisy at its finest. You can spend your evening catching the latest episode of "24" and then complain about Guantanamo the next morning. You can claim that the Americans have themselves to blame for terrorism, while at the same time calling for tougher restrictions on Muslim immigration to Germany. You can call the American president a mass murderer and book a flight to New York the next day. You can lament the average American's supposed lack of culture and savvy and meanwhile send off for the documents for the Green Card lottery. Not a day passes in Germany when someone isn't making the wildest claims, hurling the vilest insults or spreading the most outlandish conspiracy theories about the United States. But there's no risk involved and it all serves mainly to boost the German feeling of self-righteousness."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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