The great tug-of-war

An EXCERPT below from Arnold Kling -- who tries to make sense out of what Leftists appear to believe. That they are motivated by a wish to destroy rather than anything rational, he is courteous enough not to consider. In the full article, however, he heads his essay with a quote that shows that it is hatred that really motivates Leftists

Franklin D. Roosevelt's economic policies during the 1930's were a terrible failure. Why, then, is he so revered in history? I believe that Roosevelt's restrospective halo is derived in part from the fact that he catered to the anti-capitalist trend among intellectuals. This trend long preceded Roosevelt, and it persists to this day. Historians are predominantly anti-capitalist, which inclines them to favor Roosevelt. And if historians do nothing else, they do influence our view of history.

This essay is about the history of polarized intellectual views of capitalism. I make no claims that my thesis is original. On the contrary, it is a central theme in a number of recent books, including Jerry Z. Muller's difficult but highly rewarding treatise The Mind and the Market, Deirdre McCloskey's erudite and offbeat The Bourgeois Virtues, and Brink Lindsey's just-published perspective on capitalists, beatniks and hippies The Age of Abundance.

McCloskey talks about the anti-capitalist "clerisy," as she describes the academics and others who hold the bourgeoisie in contempt. Lindsey describes the way that post-WWII affluence in the United States helped foster widespread cultural experimentation and criticism, with protestors attacking the very capitalist institutions that enabled such experimentation and criticism. Muller offers an intellectual history of the controversy about capitalism. He shows, for example, how Joseph Schumpeter predicted exactly the sort of critical rebellion against capitalism that Lindsey chronicles.

GMU economist Robin Hanson notes that ideological positions tend to come in "clumps." He writes: "The policy world can thought of as consisting of a few Tug-O-War "ropes" set up in this high dimensional policy space. If you want to find a comfortable place in this world, where the people around you are reassured that you are "one of them," you need to continually and clearly telegraph your loyalty by treating each policy issue as another opportunity to find more supporting arguments for your side of the key dimensions. That is, pick a rope and pull on it."......

Jerry Muller points out that anti-capitalism can be traced as far back as the Greeks and to ancient religious tradition. Throughout much of human history, it was natural to see wealth as fixed, so that if one person were particularly wealthy then others would be correspondingly poor. This zero-sum perspective naturally leads merchants and profitable market activity to be viewed with suspicion and hostility.

Modern P's see market activity as positive-sum. In a voluntary trade, both sides are better off. Widespread trade makes many people better off. Competitive innovation is an extreme example of a positive-sum game, leading to very large cumulative improvements in the living standards. Nonetheless, A's still see wealth in zero-sum terms. They see the rich as having too much wealth, and they see a need for redistribution.

For the P's, business success is a good thing. For any one individual, it may represent luck, but overall business success is correlated with the introduction of innovations that improve our lives. For A's business success comes from exploitation. P's look at Wal-Mart and see efficiency and lower prices. A's look at Wal-Mart and see a large, profitable firm hiring employees at low wages and benefits. For the P's, business failure is also a good thing. In order for productivity to improve, obsolete products and inefficient processes need to disappear. A's focus on the adverse consequences of firms going out of business.

Robin Hanson is pessimistic that differences such as those that exist between P's and A's will be resolved through reasoned argument. People have their identities wrapped up in their particular sides of the tug-of-war. See my essay on trust cues. Jerry Muller reminds us that over one hundred years ago, Vilfredo Pareto was equally pessimistic. In his chapter on Joseph Schumpeter, Muller writes:

Pareto's 1901 essay "The Rise and Fall of Elites," conveys two themes to which Schumpeter would return time and time again: the inevitability of elites, and the importance of nonrational and nonlogical drives in explaining social action. Pareto suggested that the victory of socialism was "most probable and almost inevitable." Yet, he predicted...the reality of elites would not change. It was almost impossible to convince socialists of the fallacy of their doctrine, Pareto asserted, since they were enthusiasts of a substitute religion. In such circumstances, arguments are invented to justify actions that were arrived at before the facts were examined, motivated by nonrational drives

Part of the A's outlook is that the economy can no longer improve. As Amity Shlaes and Jerry Muller point out, there was a widespread belief in the 1930's that capitalism had run its course. As Muller puts it:

Analysts of very diverse political hues concluded that the era of dynamic capitalism was over and that the United States and other "mature economies" had entered into a period of long-term economic stagnation. Some argued that there were no new technologies in sight for consumers to buy. Others feared that natural resources were nearing exhaustion, or that slowing population growth translated into a lack of consumer demand. Such assumptions lay behind Roosevelt's 1932 campaign address...

For pro-capitalists, capitalism offers an endless wellspring of renewal. For anti-capitalists, there seems to be an endless wellspring of reasons for capitalism's doom. The tug-of-war between the two sides is likely to be endless.

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

ELSEWHERE

California: Homosexual Prison Visits Provide State Supported Sodomy: "The very idea of "Gay Conjugal Visits" for prisoners sounds like a bad joke, but officials of the California penal system are to worried to laugh. Because of the state's new "civil unions" law, the gay convicts who linked themselves to partners before incarceration are now entitled to scheduled sessions of intimacy, just like their married counterparts. This means that prison staffers who spend their time in desperate efforts to prevent behind-bars gay conduct, including rape, must now assist selected prisoners with trysts involving their "domestic partners." This absurd innovation exposes the true nature of the so-called gay rights agenda: it's not about equality, it's about governmental promotion of behavior that many Americans still consider disgusting and immoral.



Left Very, Very Upset Fred Thompson Finds His Wife Sexually Attractive (Deviating from the Bill/Hillary! model they favor): "Dr. Helen wants to know: "When I look at my husband with affection, am I leering? I guess not since I'm a woman and can do no wrong except for being a right-leaning libertarian. However, if you're a man, particularly a Republican man, who looks at his wife with affection, you are now accused of "leering"--especially if you are Fred Thompson. ... This is yet another example of a woman who deep down believes that men have no right to leer at women, lest it be considered a sex offense. And she is not alone, there are many other women who feel that unless one is Bill Clinton or the object of their own lecherous desires (of course, for these women, their own desire is called empowerment--not lechery!), a regular joe has no right to look at a woman--not even in pictures--with desire in his heart."

The security bureaucracy is itself insecure: "Those recently foiled terrorist attacks aimed at Fort Dix and JFK Airport underscore the critical importance of monitoring homegrown "sleeper cells" within the United States. But they're not the only internal threats to America's homeland security. Judging by the headlines, it appears the federal government is itself a security problem. In response to criticism that it failed to "connect the dots" prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI unveiled a massive database last summer that contains information culled from its own files and those of other federal agencies, including the Treasury and Homeland Security departments. The bureau's 12,000 agents can now scan hundreds of millions of records stored in the Investigative Data Warehouse and get linked, cross-matched information within minutes. That's a major improvement over the archaic system in place before Sept. 11, 2001. However, a review of the FBI's internal network conducted by the Government Accountability Office found that, much like the nation it protects, the bureau itself remains "vulnerable to insider threats." Specifically, the GAO said there were insufficient controls to prevent the same kind of "unauthorized insider access" that allowed former FBI agent Robert Hanssen to sell secrets to the Soviets undetected for years. Thus, the possible disclosure, modification or even destruction of sensitive national security or law enforcement data clearly remains a serious problem today."

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

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

"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".

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

Open Letter to the L.A.Times

By Arlene Peck

For years, I've been a working member of the press. There was a time when I looked with pride at my life's accomplishments. Of course, those were the days when such men as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Morrow were the role models. In recent years, I've become increasingly alarmed with the trend that I've seen among those who consider themselves 'reporters' as well as those talking heads on the television's nightly news programs We listen to dumbed-down, usually attractive post-puberty 'experts' who can only speak in sound bites before they're interrupted by their co-anchor in the box. They talk about the Middle-East, but I'll bet if you put a map in front of them and asked them where that is, they wouldn't have a clue.

The CEOs of these companies wonder why their newspapers are going out of business. It's simple: it's the same as with the airlines. Lack of service. When the newspapers began to invent the news instead of reporting the news, the public had nowhere to go but to the call in to talk stations where there was at least a chance of hearing the truth.

The worst so-called" journalism" I believe, is practiced by the LA Times. For years, I've held on to my subscription if only because I am a columnist and felt that reading the morning paper was the only way to keep up with what was happening in the world so I might give my opinion on it; which is what a columnist does. A recent edition of the Los Angeles Times was the last straw! That Sunday's front page was covered with a picture of Jerusalem entitled, "The Struggle For Jerusalem." I'm surprised that they didn't use their resident anti -Semite to write the biased column against the Jewish state, but nevertheless it was pretty awful.

I'm not surprised when I see that the sympathetic slant of their series is for "the plight of the poor Palestinians." After all, that's what they do best. Everything, in my opinion, that they write has always been against Israel. For example when they write that Arab families are being "cut off for good from the city of birth" because of the "Israel barrier" which Israel "insists" is aimed at keeping out suicide bombers from entering. The concept that suicide bombers are homicidal mass murderers is foreign to the Times.

Their dumbing-down the issue is working. Israel was forced to build a fence to keep out the murderers that constantly came into Israeli cities to bomb their schools, pizza restaurants, buses and neighborhood markets at will. Prior to the barricade, we were reading in that same biased paper about how many Jews were being killed on an almost daily basis. Of course, why should I be surprised?: This is the same paper that instead of writing about how the open borders from Mexico have turned California into Mexifornia and our cities into places resembling third world countries. This same paper was also writing multi-page series about how the poor illegal immigrant families are being separated and forced to live in poverty. I wish our government had had the foresight that Israel is now showing before our country got so out of hand.

More here

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

ELSEWHERE

GWB has gone soft: "To his credit, President Bush is not the type to say raison d'ˆtre out loud, but he nonetheless gave one to his administration in the 2002 State of the Union address. Having summarized the intolerable threats that arise when terrorists, rogue regimes, and weapons of mass destruction intersect, and having christened Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and their like the "Axis of Evil," Bush made a pledge: "The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons." That resolution - forged in the flames of September 11 and tempered by the realization that there are far deadlier weapons than jetliners - has been the central mission of Bush's presidency... Five years on, how goes the fight? North Korea has tested an atomic bomb; Iran is steadily increasing the size of its uranium-enrichment operation; and the "international community," if not quite an assembly of eunuchs, is doing its best to look like one. We should not fall into the distinctly unconservative error of supposing that every problem has a solution. It may be that, in vowing to defang Iran and North Korea, Bush set an unattainable goal. But we are right to ask whether he is doing everything possible to achieve this goal: and the answer to that question must be no."

Taiwanese dignitary gives China the finger: "The former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui, despised by Beijing for asserting the self-ruled island's sovereignty, paid his respects at the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo yesterday despite China's objections. Supporters of Mr Lee, who was educated in Japan and led Taiwan from 1988 to 2000, shouted "Banzai" (long life) when he arrived at the Shinto shrine. Some waved Japanese flags, while others shouted, "Taiwan forever." Yasukuni is seen by many in Asia as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. It honours millions of Japanese war dead, among them soldiers from Taiwan and Korea who fought for Japan, their colonial ruler at the time - but also convicted war criminals. But Mr Lee, 84, said his pilgrimage to Yasukuni was intended to pay respects to his elder brother, who died fighting for the Japanese during World War II. "It is completely personal; please don't think of anything political or historical," he said, speaking in Japanese."

Why is profit a dirty word?: "At a recent press conference Sen. John Kerry was upset as he snarled, 'Oil companies in America are reporting record profits. Record profits.' When did profit become a dirty word? I wish the oil executives would face the media. They could say something like: 'What are you complaining about? What do you think we do with our profits? Buy fancy cars and homes? Well, we do, actually, but nearly all the money goes to looking for more oil and following environmental rules that you want us to follow. You should want us to make more profit. Anyway, we make less profit per gallon than your beloved government takes in taxes.'"

Oil is not well: "As spring evanesces into summer and Americans take to the road in their gas-guzzlers, leaving their homes with air conditioners on high, it is perhaps an auspicious time to consider our energy needs. The presidential candidates, hustling for their parties' presidential nominations, tell us that they are going to make us 'energy independent.' At the same time they also tell us that $3.00-a-gallon gasoline at the pump is highway robbery. Some announce that they are going to investigate the oil companies. This is political schizophrenia. We cannot approach energy independence and maintain cheap oil prices simultaneously. In fact, in the near future neither goal is possible."

Montreal man killed by his brother for being a bad Muslim: ""He is a believer in Satan," said Najib Bellari about his brother El-Medhi, just after he stabbed him to his death at a downtown restaurant where he was working on October 24, 2005. This is what two of his coworkers declared about the 36-year-old defendent yesterday, during the trial for the murder of his brother, in front of judge Marc David. According to their testimony, from Najib Bellari's point of view, his elder brother was a bad Muslim. The man, El-Mehdi, 38 years old, was the elder brother of Najib. "It's the brother who started to speak. I couldn't hear, they spoke too low in a polite manner, then I heard Najib shout Leave! Leave!," testified Mr. Ibnzakour. Mr. Ibnzakour continued pointing out that the defendant took a kitchen knife, about thirty centimeters, and pointed it towards his brother. Mohammad Ibnzakour described the defendant as a scholar of Islam. "He has a good understanding of Islam. I would regularly ask him questions about Islam. He would answer. He taught me," he remembered. But Najib was also a conservative practitioner, who qualified those who were not observant as "deviant.""

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

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

"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".

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

A REFLECTION ON THE STORY THE NYT IGNORED

This time it was John F. Kennedy International Airport. Nothing new about big-city airports - seven years ago, Los Angeles International Airport was targeted. Nothing new about New York City, either. The World Trade Center was bombed in 1993, and finally destroyed in the 9/11 attacks. The United Nations complex, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, the FBI's Lower Manhattan headquarters, the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Terminal - they've all been on the hit list. Big Western cities, in fact, are the hit list. New York, L.A., Chicago, Washington, London, Paris, Madrid . . . on it goes.

And, of course, there is nothing new about the culprit. The story is always the same: radical Islamic terror. The storyline is the same, too. But an element of Western opinion always wants to obscure it, turning a blind eye to the ideology of hate that motivates these would-be murderers. The root-causes crowd has little interest in that root cause. No, it must be poverty (even when the terrorists turn out to be comfortable, well-educated, and fully employed); or the Palestinian issue (even though organizations like al Qaeda have barely mentioned the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and some terror targets, like Bali, had no rational connection to it); or, it goes without saying, George W. Bush and "his" war in Iraq (no matter how many attacks occurred before his presidency).

A growing chorus, weary of the war at home and abroad, some of its voices resistant even to the reality that we are at war, is quick to reject the use of both military force and heightened domestic surveillance. The War on Terror is, they maintain, a war only of ideas.

The enemy's ideas are frightful: for example, its notion that mass murder is a legitimate means of pressing a socio-political agenda. This is not an aberrational belief espoused by a fringe of jihadist operatives. It is mainstream in Islamic countries and disturbingly common among growing Muslim populations in the United States and Europe.....

But even if the grand design was beyond the cell's competence, an attempt could well have killed hundreds of people. As with the recent thwarting of a jihadist plot on Fort Dix, this intended atrocity appears to have been prevented by the cooperation of federal and local law enforcement, who managed to infiltrate the conspiracy with an informant - proving, yet again, that if we are to stop terror attacks rather than react to them, there is no substitute for human intelligence.

The deepest lesson here, though, is that we are at war with an enemy that hates us, that will stop at nothing - even death - to harm us, and that we must understand in order to defeat. That is the first step in the real battle of ideas.

More here

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

Why Aid to Africa Should End

"In "Aid: Can It Work?" a frustrated Kristof has detailed many a failed effort to convince Southern Africans, for example, "to grow sorghum rather than corn, because it is hardier and more nutritious." But because it has been given "out as a relief food to the poor. sorghum [has] become stigmatized as the poor man's food, and no one wants to have anything to do with it." Hand out infant formula to HIV-infected women so they don't transmit the virus to their babies via breast milk, and the women, without exception, all dump the formula before they reach home: "Any woman feeding her baby formula, rather than nursing directly, is presumed to have tested positive for HIV, and no woman wants that stigma." As a former AIDS counselor in South-Africa, I was told by my female clients what the use of prophylactics portends: African patriarchs don't like protection; African women risk battery, and worse, should they insist on their, "like, reproductive freedoms."

"In the heart of poverty-stricken Congo," avers Kristof, "wrenching malnutrition exists side by side with brothels, beer joints, and cigarette stands." Kristof admits reluctantly that the men spending their money in these fleshpots cannot be persuaded to put it, rather, toward their children. Kristof cites disturbing research suggesting education programs in Africa, also the cornerstone of anti-AIDS efforts, are ineffective. Giving people a pill, conversely, works quite well-only there is no pill against HIV/AIDS. In Africa, HIV/AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease afflicting heterosexuals, predominantly. The fight against it invariably entails the teaching of caution, restraint, and the curbing of instant gratification, to which too many Africans appear indisposed."

More here

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

Brookes News Update

The international consequences of the Federal Reserve: It now appears that the current account deficit might start to shrink as US exports expand. Nothing surprising here. It is an established fact that when a country's currency devaluates its exports will expand because their prices fall in terms of other currencies.
Stock prices and the phony `wealth effect': There's an awful lot of sloppy economic ideas in our papers being passed off as economic analysis, one of which is the stock-prices-growth fallacy. That share prices can be a very misleading indicator of economic health is something that is never referred to in the media
Luis Posada Carriles: Terrorist or Freedom Fighter?: On re-entering the US anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles was charged as a terrorist by the Justice Department. Federal Judge Kathleen Cardone the case out, accusing the J-D of committing "Fraud, deceit and trickery". So the same government department that refused to act against Sandy Berger had an enemy of Castro arrested. Now ain't that curious
Can technology prevent a recession?: One of the major factors contributing to a misdirection of resources is the falsification of price signals by means of loose monetary policies of the central bank
Al Gore's insolent assault on reason: Gore calls for government control over political speech. Because reason is being `assaulted' by a free and unfettered debate in the media - and particularly by the fact that Gore has to contend with opposition from the right-leaning media
US economy: 2010 Dem tax hikes a ticking time bomb: Both the Senate and House of Representatives have approved the majority Democrats' budget proposal, which contains over $200 billion in tax hikes, the largest in American history. Under their budget, this decade's astoundingly successful tax cuts will be allowed to expire in 2010
US economy, immigration and the fallacy of cheap labour: There is little doubt that illegal immigration has had a negative impact on US wage rates, particularly of the unskilled. A study by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center concluded that the flow of illegals drove down local wages by 11 per cent

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

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

"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".

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

Leftist whiner sends himself up

The Huffington poster excerpted below is complaining about too much choice in the supermarket. But he starts out with a complaint that he could not find HIS choice of what he wanted! HIS choice is OK. It is all those other horrible people around that are the problem. He is a typical Leftist elitist but it just comes naturally to him. He shows absolutely no awareness of what a creep he is

Have you tried buying orange juice at a supermarket lately? The other night, I visited our nearby Gristedes, an average-sized urban supermarket -- but strictly a mom-and-pop store compared to its giant suburban counterparts. I was looking for orange-tangerine juice. Couldn't find it. But, what I did find was orange juice with ... pulp, no pulp, some pulp, lots of pulp, MOST pulp, calcium, antioxidants, fiber, added Vitamin C, calcium & vitamin D. There was traditional, original, grovestand, grower's style, homestyle, low-acid, OJ light, light & healthy, farm fresh, healthy heart with Omega-3s, and healthy kids (I am NOT making this up). There was orange juice, orange-grapefruit (golden or red), orange-pineapple, orange-strawberry-banana, orange-peach-mango, orange-kiwi (okay, maybe not orange-kiwi, but, in a bigger store... ). There were also dozens of other juices, juice combos, juice "beverages" and juice drinks

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

Idiot Compassion

The term "bleeding-heart liberal" has been bandied about for years, in an effort to illustrate the faux or at least hyperbolic sense of compassion attributed to those on the left. The lefties in America and Europe would like to be known as those who care, unless you happen to be a Bible-following Christian, a conservative or a fetus....

The most intriguing and brilliant analyst of the world history of spiritual practice and the melding of East and West today is undoubtedly Ken Wilber. Wilber`s insight into Buddhism in general and compassion in particular is unmatched in the West. ( Read A Brief History of Everything, for instance.) In One Taste, Wilber responds to a student's question about compassion with an illuminating view:

"[Most] confusion... in spiritual circles ....comes from confusing compassion with idiot compassion."

This term was first used by Chogyam Trungpa, a Tibetan Rinpoche who helped bring Buddhism to the West in the 70`s. Wilber continues:

"Idiot compassion" thinks it is being kind, but it's really being cruel. If you have an alcoholic friend and you know that one more drink might kill him, and yet he begs you for a drink, does real compassion say that you should give it to him? After all, to be kind you should give him what he wants, right? Giving him the drink would therefore show compassion, yes? No. Absolutely not.

"Real compassion includes wisdom and so it makes judgments of care and concern; it says some things are good, and some things are bad, and I will choose to act only on those things that are informed by wisdom and care."

Of course, here Wilber illuminates the missing ingredient in liberal "compassion." The world, viewed through the liberal's gray colored, politically-correct glasses, makes no discerning judgments, or at least incorrect ones. Hence, we get addle-brained protesters picketing to save the lives of serial killers on death row or human shields willing to give up their lives to protect suicide bomber cults and Islamic terrorists. Since all killing is bad, it must be bad to kill Islamic terrorists or convicted murderers. This idiot view, foregoes the greater good and lapses into solipsism.

The biographies of the Buddha reveal that in one of his early incarnations, he met a murderer of 1000's of men. Acting correctly and with compassion for all sentient beings, the Buddha's incarnation killed the murderer to prevent additional suffering. That is true compassion!

The "compassionate" left would rather have us believe that the detainees at Guantanamo, the murderers and rapists in our prisons, the violent Palestinians and other Islamo-fascists are the rightful and primary objects of our care and concern..... It's time we revealed this sham pretension of compassion for what it is: a reckless disregard for reason and judgment, disguised in the touchy-feely cover of political correctness. When you spot liberals pretending compassion under the guise of idiot compassion, out them!

More here

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

ELSEWHERE

Media coverup: I think that the whole world has now heard of an evil New Zealand electricity company that cut off the electricity to a home where an ill woman was depending on an electrically powered machine to breathe -- killing the lady. People have been left to see this as an evil of capitalism. What almost no media reports have mentioned is that the electricity company concerned is owned by the "compassionate" socialist New Zealand GOVERNMENT. Details here.

What we are losing: "Two passengers helped subdue a passenger who was frightening Northwest Flight 720. "Hayden, a 65-year-old former police commander, had enlisted a gray-haired gentleman sitting next to him to assist. The man turned out to be a former US Marine. "I had looked around the plane for help, and all the younger guys had averted their eyes. When I asked the guy next to me if he was up to it, all he said was, 'Retired captain. USMC.' I said, 'You'll do.'"

Pensions for congressional jailbirds: "So Democratic Congressman William "the Refrigerator" Jefferson of New Orleans was indicted. Big deal. Even if he is convicted and sentenced to all 235 years that the 16 counts against him carry, taxpayers will get screwed. Congressman Jefferson will get a $47,000-a-year pension while in prison, despite his criminal activity. One congressman called the pensions a "jailhouse ATM." According to the National Taxpayers Union, at least 20 congressional crooks receive pensions, both in and out of prison. Democrat Dan Rostenkowski now receives nearly $125,000 a year despite being one of the biggest crooks in congressional history."

Iran behind planned attack on USA? "The thing that caught our eye in the plot to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport and its oil lines concerns a detail in respect of the arrest of one of the key Guyanese suspects. It was the fact that the former member of the Guyanese legislature who was fingered in the plot, Abdul Kadir, was arrested in Trinidad on his way to Caracas, Venezuela. According to Mr. Kadir's wife, who was quoted in the Guyanese press, he was there to pick up an Iranian visa that would enable him to attend an Islamic conference in Tehran."

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

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

"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".

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

The Democrat Presidential candidate debate: The ignored financial elephant

There have of course been innumerable blogospheric comments on the debate but I thought that the following comment on the financial implications made some rather overlooked but central points. I think it does highlight the usual Leftist assumption that money grows on trees

Three points about last night's Democratic debate in Manchester, N.H.:

1) Imagine a Democratic presidential debate about foreign policy where Iraq was never mentioned. That was pretty much the case at last night's candidate face-off when it came to domestic policy. Little was said about the long-term direction of the U.S. economy and what could be done to make it more innovative, competitive, and productive-the keys to raising our standard of living as we compete with China and India in the 21st century. Out of roughly 20,000 spoken words, mentions of "innovation," zero; "competitive," one (Richardson); "productivity," zero; "trade," six (Kucinich); "growth," one (Dodd); "China," six (Dodd, Kucinich, Richardson); "India," none; "middle class," three (Edwards, Clinton); "technology," three (Dodd, Obama, Richardson).

2) At one point, the candidates were asked what they would do about high gasoline prices. Most gave answers about what could be done to achieve energy independence in the long term. But as for right now, no one had much of an answer other than investigating the oil companies for collusion or price gouging. Nothing was said about the lack of refining capacity being the cause of the latest price surge. Also, none of the candidates-other than megadarkhorse Mike Gravel-suggested that high gas prices were, in fact, a good thing. If you are concerned about climate change, as the Dems say they are, shouldn't you cheer higher gas prices, since they might cause Americans to a) drive less and b) encourage greater investment in alternative energy sources?

3) The Democratic candidates continue to strangely double-spend the money they intend to get from raising taxes on Americans making over $200,000 a year. At one point, both Edwards and Obama said they would help pay for their healthcare plans by taxing the so-called rich to the tune of $50 billion a year. But guess what, advocates of reforming the alternative minimum tax-and Edwards, Obama, and Clinton certainly have that goal-usually point to higher taxes on the rich as a way of paying for AMT reform. So, AMT or healthcare: Which is it? A recent analysis by the Urban Institute put it this way:

"Blame whomever you want for today's current fiscal mess, but don't cling to any myths about how far rescinding recent tax cuts for the rich would go toward meeting the nation's many budgetary shortfalls. Our elected officials simply cannot get around the most fundamental of political dilemmas. Even if they enact additional taxes on the rich-and that would not be easy-they still must either retract many of the promises made to the middle class, increase its taxes, or both."

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

ELSEWHERE



Newspaper meltdown in California: "The great majority of the 60 departing Los Angeles Times journalists made their exits this week from the downtown L.A. headquarters once known as Times Mirror Square. They wrote and edited their final stories. They packed decades' worth of files into cardboard boxes in an exodus that has become painfully routine in the newspaper business of late. The San Francisco Chronicle announced recently that it would reduce its news staff by a quarter. Reports circulated last Friday that the once-robust San Jose Mercury News would pare its staff again. At the Times, the latest departures will leave the paper's news staff at roughly 850 people, about three-quarters of its peak. "We all are caught in the greatest upheaval our industry and the institution of journalism has ever faced," Chronicle managing editor Robert Rosenthal told the newsroom last week as he tendered his own resignation."

Wal-Mart answers healthcare critics: "Linda Dillman, an executive vice president in charge of benefits and other functions, touted a recently introduced program that offers relatively inexpensive health insurance for employees. She also presented internal data showing that more than half of employees who signed up for health insurance through Wal-Mart had previously been uninsured, and 7.8 percent had come off Medicaid. Company executives also argued that Wal-Mart is seeking solutions to health care issues on a larger scale, beyond just its own employees. They pointed to plans to open more in-store health clinics as a way to provide less expensive basic health care to people who might otherwise go to emergency rooms and deal with much bigger bills. And they said the company's $4 generic prescription drug program, which many other retailers have emulated, makes some basic medications more affordable to low-income people. But executives also conceded they have good business reasons for wanting to put clinics in stores. Bill Simon, Wal-Mart's chief operating officer, said the clinics are as profitable, if not more so, than the space they are replacing in the company's big discount stores."

Trinidad, terror and terminals for LNG: "An unappreciated aspect of the NYC airport plot is that Trinidad, which seems the focus of the terror plot, is a large supplier of natural gas to America ( 65% of America's imports of Liquefied Natural Gas-LNG.) Trinidad and its sister island of Tobago have a Muslim population estimated to range from 10-15% of their total population-including a recent influx of immigrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan-two fertile sources of terrorists. LNG has always been considered a dangerous material; it is a highly combustible substance that is shipped to America in cryogenic form in large ships. The potential for an explosion of these ships has long haunted American experts since such an explosion not only would kill many people but render inoperable for years to come some of our busiest ports. These explosions do happen periodically"

JFK plot tip of iceberg: "The alleged conspiracy to blow up John F Kennedy airport, in New York, and a recent plot to kill soldiers at a nearby United States Army base represent only the "tip of the iceberg" of terrorist plots against America, according to US officials. "There's a lot of activity out there," a counter-terrorism official said yesterday. "Obviously, you don't want to tip off every suspect that they are being monitored. On the other hand, we are not going to wait until the fuse is lit." He said that the airport plot, which sparked a lengthy FBI sting operation, was first detected by CIA operatives in the Caribbean and South America nearly 18 months ago."

CAIR gets some legal scrutiny at last: "Federal prosecutors have named CAIR and two other Islamic organizations, the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust, as "unindicted co-conspirators" in a criminal conspiracy to support Hamas, a designated terrorist group. In a filing last week, prosecutors described CAIR as a present or past member of "the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations." They listed ISNA and NAIT as "entities who are and/or were members of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood." Josh Gerstein of The New York Sun reports that spokesmen for CAIR did not respond to requests for comment. This development occurred in connection with the trial, scheduled to start on July 16 in Dallas, of five officials (Shukri Abu-Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain, Ghassan Elashi, Mufid Abdulqader, and Abdulraham Odeh) of the now-defunct Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, accused of sending funds to Hamas. This court filing listed some 300 individuals or organizations as co-conspirators."

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

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

"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".

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

EVEN SAN FRANCISCO'S HAIGHT/ASHBURY HIPPIES ARE TURNING CONSERVATIVE AS THEY GET OLDER

Sorta makes me glad I have been conservative as far back as I can remember. I got it right first time. Some excerpts below:

From his second-floor apartment at the counterculture crossing of Haight and Ashbury streets, Arthur Evans watches a new generation of wayward youth invade his free-spirited neighborhood. The former flower child was among the legions of idealistic wanderers who migrated here during the Vietnam War to "tune in, turn on and drop out." But Evans, who has lived at the same address for 34 years, says he has never seen anything like this crowd, who use his flower bed as a bathroom and sell pot outside his window.

They're known as gutter punks, these homeless kids with dirty dreadlocks and nose rings, lime-green mohawks and orange spray-painted faces, who panhandle with cardboard signs that riff on their lifestyles. "Please Help Us Get Un-Sober," one reads. Another: "Please Give Us Weed, Beer or Money." Sometimes aggressive, they block sidewalks as they strum guitars or bang on bongos. Gangs of them skateboard down the middle of Haight Street. Some throw used hypodermic needles into a nearby pond they call Hep-C Lake.

Evans, 64, says they should get help, clean up or go home. "I used to be a hippie. I wore beads and grew my hair long," he said. "But my generation had something these kids do not: a standard of civilized behavior."....

But a lot of ex-hippies-turned-homeowners are weary of the youthful intruders. They want the Haight to adopt a more mature demeanor, just as they have. Outreach services, they say, only draw more young people to the area. Many suggest sending the homeless to centers in other areas, including the inner-city Tenderloin district. "I'm sick of stepping over gangs of kids, only to be told 'Die, yuppie!' A lot of us were flower children, but we grew up," said Robert Shadoian, 58, a retired family therapist. "There are responsibilities in this world you have to meet. You can't be drugged out 24/7 and expect the world to take care of you." ...

Recently, the stance against the homeless has hardened. Residents last year resurrected the Haight Ashbury Improvement Assn. to push the city to crack down on loitering. They have started a "court watch" program to monitor cases and push judges to sentence offenders to community service and order them into treatment.

Police have also cracked down. The department has sent teens home on its own dime and maintains two full-time outreach officers to coax youths into seeking help. But now officers ticket for "quality of life" offenses, including illegal camping and drinking in public.

Source

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

Israel can trust no-one but itself

An excerpt from Charles Krauthammer on the 1967 war that Israel won against all odds

On May 16, 1967, Egyptian President Gamal Nasser ordered the evacuation from the Sinai Peninsula of the U.N. buffer force that had kept Israel and Egypt at peace for 10 years. The United Nations complied, at which point Nasser imposed a naval blockade of Israel's only outlet to the south, the port of Eilat -- an open act of war.

Why is this still important? Because that three-week period between May 16 and June 5 helps explain Israel's 40-year reluctance to give up the fruits of that war -- the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza -- in return for paper guarantees of peace. Israel had similar guarantees from the 1956 Suez war, after which it evacuated the Sinai in return for that U.N. buffer force and for assurances from the Western powers of free passage through the Straits of Tiran.

All this disappeared with a wave of Nasser's hand. During those three interminable weeks, President Lyndon Johnson did try to rustle up an armada of countries to run the blockade and open Israel's south. The effort failed dismally.... we forget how perilous was Israel's condition. The victory hinged on a successful attack on Egypt's air force on the morning of June 5. It was a gamble of astonishing proportions. Israel sent the bulk of its 200-plane air force on the mission, fully exposed to antiaircraft fire and missiles. Had they been detected and the force destroyed, the number of planes remaining behind to defend the Israeli homeland -- its cities and civilians -- from the Arab air forces' combined 900 planes was . . . 12.

Israelis are cautious. They remember the terror of that June 4 and of that unbearable May when, with Israel in possession of no occupied territories whatsoever, the entire Arab world was furiously preparing Israel's imminent extinction. And the world did nothing.

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

ELSEWHERE

China Hand says that central government control of China was weak even in the Communist period and that China is now ruled by corruption rather than law.

Prof. Brignell on Tony Blair's malign "legacy": "It is nothing less than quite amazing that one man has wrought so many changes in a mere decade... Some writers even claim that he made no difference. On the contrary, he has made a bigger change to his nation than any other leader who employed non-violent means. Ourselves ten years ago would not recognise the British society of today. Blair suffered from the Genesis Delusion. He thought he merely had to say "Let there be X" and there would be X. He never quite cottoned on to the truth of Bismarck's dictum that "Politics is the art of the possible." It is the inevitable outcome of electing a leader who has never run anything, but no doubt the British will do it again. In turn this is the inevitable outcome of the youth and celebrity culture." [Prof. Brignell then goes into detail]

High-tax Britain: "A triple whammy of soaring council tax, stamp duty and inheritance tax has helped Chancellor Gordon Brown raise the burden to its highest ever - with Middle Britain particularly badly hit. ...Friday June 1 marks this year's Tax Freedom Day, the date from which workers are deemed to start earning for themselves, having handed over every pound earned so far this year in tax.

U.S. poor getting richer: "A new study by the Congressional Budget Office says the poor have been getting less poor. On average, CBO found that low-wage households with children had incomes after inflation that were more than one-third higher in 2005 than in 1991. The CBO results don't fit the prevailing media stereotype of the U.S. economy as a richer take all affair -- which may explain why you haven't read about them. ...The poorest even had higher earnings growth than the richest 20%. The earnings of these poor households are about 80% higher today than in the early 1990s."

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

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

"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".

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

DOES LEGALIZED ABORTION REDUCE CRIME?

This has long been a debate between John Lott and Steven Levitt. Following is a short extract from John Lott's new book "Freedomnomics". I have been following the argument since Levitt first put it forward. I think Lott has some good points but I find it hard to get past the point that anything which limits the black population (which free abortion certainly does) must also limit crime -- given the undisputedly very high rate of criminality among blacks. Lott seems to be arguing that blacks brought up in two-parent families would be less prone to crime. But that is probably true only to a small degree. As far as I know ALL black populations everywhere in the world have hugely high crime-rates by white standards

So the opposing arguments are clear-one stresses that abortion eliminates "unwanted" children, while the other emphasizes that abortion increases out-of-wedlock births. Both effects, conceivably, could be occurring at the same time. The question is: which one has the bigger impact on crime?

This must be answered empirically. Unfortunately for advocates of the "abortion decreases crime" theory, Donahue and Levitt's data were undermined by methodological flaws. As The Economist magazine noted in an article entitled "Oops-onomics," "Donohue and Levitt did not run the test that they thought they had." Work by two economists at the Boston Federal Reserve, Christopher Foote and Christopher Goetz, found that when the tests were run correctly, they indicated that abortion actually increases violent crime. I co-authored a study with John Whitley that found a similar connection between abortion and murder-namely, that legalizing abortion raised the murder rate, on average, by about 7 percent.

We find particularly troublesome problems with the "abortion decreases crime" theory when we analyze the population according to age group. Suppose that liberalizing abortion in the early 1970s can indeed explain up to 80 percent of the drop in murder during the 1990s, as Donohue and Levitt claim. Then the impact of deregulating abortion, undoubtedly, would first reduce criminality among age groups born after the abortion law was changed, when the "unwanted," crime-prone elements of these groups began to be weeded out through abortion. Yet, looking at the declining murder rate during the 1990s, Whitley and I found that this is not the case at all. Instead, the rate of committing murder began falling first among an older generation-those twenty-six and older-who were born before the Roe v. Wade decision.39 It was only later that criminality among those born after Roe began to decline as well.

This pattern is more consistent with the theory that legalizing abortion led to a rise in crime. In fact, those born in the four years after Roe were much more likely to commit murder than those born in the four years prior to Roe. This was especially the case when they were in their teens-in other words, in their "criminal prime."

And that's not all. The "abortion decreases crime" argument encounters further inconsistencies when we compare U.S. crime and abortion trends to those in Canada. While crime rates in both the United States and Canada began declining at the same time, Canada liberalized its abortion laws much later than the U.S. did. Although the province of Quebec effectively legalized abortion in late 1976, it wasn't until 1988, in a case originating in Ontario, that the Canadian Supreme Court struck down limits on abortion nationwide. If the legalization of abortion in the U.S. caused crime to begin dropping eighteen years later, why did the crime rate begin falling just three years after the comparable legal change in Canada?

In sum, even if one effect of abortion were to lower crime by culling out "unwanted" children-a conclusion derived from flawed statistics- the effect is greatly outweighed by the rise in crime that abortion causes by increasing out-of-wedlock births. It should be noted that African Americans are disproportionately harmed by the crime stemming from legalized abortion. That population has seen the biggest increases in abortion, premarital sex, and out-of-wedlock birth rates, resulting in more African Americans being raised by single parents and eventually committing crimes, mostly against other African Americans.

Thus, "legalized" abortion actually served to increase crime since the 1970s. However this effect--both among African Americans and the population at large-was more than offset by other factors that caused the massive drop in crime of the 1990s

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

ELSEWHERE

There is an excellent bit of sarcasm here about the recent call by British professors to boycott Israel.

There is a new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up.

Smart Germans fleeing high taxes and unemployment: "For a nation that invented the term "guest worker" for its immigrant labourers, Germany is facing the sobering fact that record numbers of its own often highly-qualified citizens are fleeing the country to work abroad in the biggest mass exodus for 60 years. Figures released by Germany's Federal Statistics Office showed that the number of Germans emigrating rose to 155,290 last year - the highest number since the country's reunification in 1990 - which equalled levels last experienced in the 1940s during the chaotic aftermath of the Second World War. ... Stephanie Wahl, of the Institute for Economics, based in Bonn, said that those who are leaving Germany are mostly highly motivated and well educated. "Those coming in are mostly poor, untrained and hardly educated," she added. Fed up with comparatively poor job prospects at home - where unemployment is as high as 17 per cent in some regions - as well as high taxes and bureaucracy, thousands of Germans have upped sticks for Austria and Switzerland, or emigrated to the United States."

Swedes fleeing high taxes: "Many individuals with good jobs understand that they can significantly increase their standard of living if they move to the US or the UK. Indeed thousands of Swedes with good educations already take advantage of this realization, often settling in London. .competition from the Baltic nations might very well be a more important factor for Swedish enterprise. These countries are in many ways similar to Sweden and the geographical distance is slim. Wages are still much lower than in Sweden and the traditional working ethics that to a large degree has eroded in the Swedish welfare system is very much alive on the other side of the Baltic Sea. Already many Swedish companies are choosing to establish themselves in the Baltic countries, a trend that very well might accelerate with time. .it might very well become a common phenomenon for Swedish high income takers to settle in Tallinn rather than Stockholm.

Norway worse than Sweden: "There are not many countries in which Sweden would be considered a tax haven, but one wealthy Norwegian says she plans to move across the border now that the government has scrapped wealth tax. Caroline Hagen is the daughter of Norwegian financier Stein Erik Hagen, and plans to take advantage of the less severe taxes under the new centre-right government. Her sister Camilla could soon follow. Stein Erik Hagen, whose family-owned holding company Canica has major shareholdings in a number of retail companies and consumer goods firms, said that Sweden's decision to axe wealth tax would encourage many more wealthy Norwegians to cross the broder.

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

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

"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".

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

Another example of Red Cross antisemitism

The International Committee of the Red Cross is supposedly "an independent, neutral organization ensuring humanitarian protection and assistance for victims of war and armed violence". That's what they have stated for many years despite voices protesting their bias against some groups, their affinity for others. Their vaunted claims of independence and neutrality and assisting victims of war has taken another hit with the discovery that:

The passport used by notorious Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann to enter Argentina in 1950 has been found by accident in an archive in Buenos Aires. The passport, still in good condition, was issued by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Eichmann was one of the main executors of Adolf Hitler's 'final solution', the Nazi genocide of Jews during World War II.

But that fits in with the ICRC's real activities which helped many Nazis escape justice after World War ll. That was then and this is now; the bias continues. As explained on their home page, they accept three emblems: a cross, a crescent and a diamond. The cross is the symbol of Christianity, the crescent represents Islam but what is that diamond? Some members of that "independent, neutral organization" totally objected to the Jewish star that is the emblem of the Israeli equivalent, Magen Dovid Adom (Red Shield of David) thus barring them from ICRC acceptance until they devised that diamond as camouflage.

Could it be that the organization isn't as neutral, as independent as they claim? And as for their humanitarianism in war zones, the victims in Darfur haven't benefited. And the ICRC still complacently accepts, without an accompanying international outcry, the refusal of the Arab countries and their ngo deadly militias to deny them access to the three Israeli hostages kidnapped last year.

Source

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

In praise of money

Perhaps the world's most misquoted Biblical verse is "money is the root of all evil". The actual words are "the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10). But this has not stopped people from demonizing money and those who exchange and loan it. Throughout history, bankers and those involved in finance - ranging from the Medici family, the Rothschilds, to modern hedge funds - have received a generally negative press. Even a Nobel laureate in economics, former World Bank Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz, has used the expression "dictatorships of international finance" to describe the malign influences he believes are exerted by Western financiers over Latin America and Africa.

Unfortunately such rhetoric encourages us to forget what may be called the miracle of money and the benefits it brings to our lives. In this instance, familiarity has not only bred contempt, but ignorance. Historians continue to debate money's origins and when money-based economies began to supersede barter-orientated systems. What is not disputed is how useful societies find money once it begins to replace barter, especially when it assumes forms such as commodity-money, fiat-money, credit-money, and fiduciary media.

One of the architects of West Germany's post-war economic recovery, the Swiss-German economist Wilhelm R"pke, once wrote that it is impossible to understand civilization's emergence without the rise of money - an event which truly merits the adjective "revolutionary." It is difficult to think, for example, of a similar instrument more capable of simultaneously fulfilling so many varied purposes. Money has, for example, macro-economic functions: it provides the framework for market allocation that we call prices; it is a causative factor in the economy; it is also a liquid asset. But money also possesses micro-economic utility. It is a medium of exchange, a store and measure of value, a means of payment, a unit of account, and a standard of deferred payment.

Perhaps one way to grasp money's crucial importance is to imagine a world without it. Most obviously, we would find ourselves faced with all of a barter-economy's limitations. Everyone would be compelled to directly exchange one or more concrete goods, such as food and tools, for other physical commodities. In barter-systems, it is easy to exchange a small number of goods without a common standard of value. The problem, as noted by the nineteenth-century economist William Stanley Jevons, is that any increase in the variety and number of commodities makes it increasingly difficult to calculate the comparative exchange-value of goods. Eventually such calculation becomes impossible, and economic growth is consequently stunted.

More here

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

Some articles recently up on ICJS

ICJS is devoted to countering media antagonism to Israel -- particularly antagonism emanating from Australia's public broadcasters. It assembles articles from various sources

The Islamic Reconquest of Palestine
Lebanon a launch pad for al-Qa'ida's new phase
Correspondence from Salah Choudhury to Naomi Ragen
George Soros and the problem of self-hating Hebrews
One on one: "you want to die but don't"
Interesting Times: Which occupation
Jerusalem - 40th Anniversary of reunification
The Koranic quotations trap
The Sarkozy Victory
Worrying begins at home
Infidel
The new demographic balance in Europe and its consequences



Above: Law & Order star and former Senator Fred Thompson mingles at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington on Saturday, April 29, 2006. At right is his wife Jeri Kehn, a (former?) political media consultant at the Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, and McPherson law firm in Washington, D.C. Fred is my hope for next Prez

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

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

"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".

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

ISLAMIC TORTURE COVERED UP BY THE MEDIA

The same media who splash the smallest examples of abuse -- whether true or not -- by American forces have still not mentioned what blog readers have known for days. Comment by conservative journalist Don Surber below:

IF you know about the torture manual used by al-Qaida, then you did not learn about it by reading the Washington Post, the New York Times or sadly, this newspaper. Neither the Associated Press nor Reuters picked up on the story. Fox News was the only major outlet with the story. Rupert Murdoch's newspapers in Australia republished the Fox report. The handbook was posted at the Smoking Gun Web site. It showed -- with drawings -- how al-Qaida uses drills, irons, vises and other devices to mutilate their captives. This is true torture, the same kind employed by Saddam Hussein's henchmen at Abu Ghraib. The handbook helped explain why a few days later, U.S. forces liberated 42 victims of al-Qaida torture from a location in Iraq.

But while they ignored the handbook story, the New York Times and Washington Post did not hesitate to publish a press handout from the United Nations condemning Guantanamo Bay. Why? Because the jihadis we captured are not given lawyers quickly enough. Will someone tell me the name of Daniel Pearl's lawyer? This is the same United Nations whose "human rights council" includes every dictatorship from Burkina Faso to Zimbabwe.

Gitmo has been demonized in part by the false and preposterous allegation that a guard flushed an inmate's Koran down the toilet. The New York Times published no less than 29 stories about this lie. Small wonder most Americans think Torquemada, chief of the Spanish Inquisition, runs Gitmo. Then again, the New York Times is the home of the infamous "Memos on Bush Are Fake But Accurate, Typist Says" headline. That was the headline a copy editor slapped on a story that grudgingly conceded that Dan Rather's memo disparaging George Walker Bush's military service was a fraud, a phony -- another lie.

Publishing 29 stories about a lie about a flushed Koran is bad enough. But when a newspaper then refuses to publish one story about a very real handbook on torture that is used by the enemy, that newspaper is no longer being objective. It is taking sides. And not the right side, at that.

Source

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

Brookes News Update

US economy, immigration and the fallacy of cheap labour: There is little doubt that illegal immigration has had a negative impact on US wage rates, particularly of the unskilled. A study by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center concluded that the flow of illegals drove down local wages by 11 per cent
Electronic money and the money supply: another fallacy emerges: Many economists and financial markets commentators hold that in de-regulated markets whenever a central bank tries to impose control, markets create a new form of money, thereby bypassing central bank supervision. This is a serious error
Is China trying to colonise Zimbabwe?: There is something very odd indeed about Chinese goods flooding the Zimbabwe economy. Thanks to Mugabe's stupidity the economy has been devastated, the currency is worthless and unemployment is massive. So who is really paying for these goods and what's the payoff for Beijing?
Still true - Arab men treat their farm animals better than their women: Women suffocating in the black burkasthat they are forced to wear has convinced me that their humiliating circumstances has yet to change. As `special' as the Saudis are in their primitive attitude towards women, they really are not unique
The ignorance and sheer bigotry of lefty journalists: The stupidity, ignorance and outrageous bigotry of leftists journalists continues unabated. Geoffrey Barker of the Sydney Morning Herald is a fully paid-up member of that nauseating breed of so-called journalists who not only think America stinks but also their fellow Australians
Internet racing insanity to extinction: The absurd liberal belief that everyone can be reasoned with (including Islamofascists but not evil conservatives) is leading us to a disaster of gargantuan proportions
Falwell's death reveals the left is consumed by hate and self-loathing: The recent media tempest surrounding the passing of Reverend Jerry Falwell has blown away the mask of sublime compassion and tolerance worn by members of the mainstream left
Working families need a break: It's time that working families were given a fair go. Perhaps one day a Labor politician will have the guts to suggest income splitting. Furthermore, Labor could come down on state governments - all of which are labor - and demand that they stop driving up the price of land and housing

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

ELSEWHERE



Surprise, surprise: "More than a quarter of Israel's Arab citizens believe the Holocaust never happened, and nearly two thirds of Israeli Jews avoid entering Arab towns, a poll by a University of Haifa sociologist showed Sunday. The poll, conducted by Sami Smoocha, a prominent sociologist at the University of Haifa, showed a wide gap of mistrust, anger and fear between Israel's majority Jews and its Arab citizens, who make up a fifth of Israel's citizens. In its most dramatic finding, the poll showed that 28 percent of Israeli Arabs did not believe the Holocaust happened, and that among high school and college graduates the figure was even higher - 33 percent."



Thompson will run! "Fred Dalton Thompson is planning to enter the presidential race over the Fourth of July holiday, announcing this week that he has already raised several million dollars and is being backed by insiders from the past three Republican administrations, Thompson advisers told The Politico. Thompson, the "Law & Order" star and former U.S. senator from Tennessee, has been publicly coy, even as people close to him have been furiously preparing for a late entry into the wide-open contest. But the advisers said Thompson dropped all pretenses on Tuesday afternoon during a conference call with more than 100 potential donors, each of whom was urged to raise about $50,000."

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

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

"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".

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

Americans will die for liberty

Excerpts from a British writer:

We are inclined, in our snobbish way, to dismiss the Americans as a new and vulgar people, whose civilisation has hardly risen above the level of cowboys and Indians. Yet the United States of America is actually the oldest republic in the world, with a constitution that is one of the noblest works of man. When one strips away the distracting symbols of modernity - motor cars, skyscrapers, space rockets, microchips, junk food - one finds an essentially 18th-century country.

The sense of entering an older country, and one with a sterner sense of purpose than is found among the flippant and inconstant Europeans, can be enjoyed even before one gets off the plane. On the immigration forms that one has to fill in, one is asked: "Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offence or crime involving moral turpitude?" Who now would dare to pose such a question in Europe? The very word "turpitude" brings a smile, almost a sneer, to our lips.

The quiet solicitude that Americans show for the comfort of their visitors, and the tact with which they make one feel at home, can only be described as gentlemanly. These graceful manners, so often overlooked by brash European tourists, whisper the last enchantments of an earlier and more dignified age, when liberty was not confused with licence.

But lest these impressions of the United States seem unduly favourable, it should be added that the Americans have not remained in happy possession of their free constitution without cost. Thomas Jefferson warned that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots. To the Americans, the idea that freedom and democracy exact a cost in blood is second nature...

The Americans are prepared to use force in pursuit of what they regard as noble aims. It is yet another respect in which they are rather old-fashioned. They are patriots who venerate their nation and their flag.

The idea has somehow gained currency in Britain that America is an essentially peaceful nation. Quite how this notion took root, I do not know. Perhaps we were unduly impressed by the protesters against the Vietnam war. It is an idea that cannot survive a visit to the National Museum of American History in Washington, where one is informed that the "price of freedom" is over and over again paid in blood.... when the Americans speak of freedom, we should not imagine, in our cynical and worldly-wise way, that they are merely using that word as a cloak for realpolitik. They are not above realpolitik, but they also mean what they say. These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for.

Source

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

ELSEWHERE

There is a new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up.

China Hand has just put up a new post on the 6 power negotiations with North Korea -- designed to get the Koreans to give up their nuclear ambitions.

"Wicked Dox" is an unusual new blog. It aims to keep in circulation good older articles of a conservative bent that have either already vanished from the net or seem to be on the way out. The Anchoress notes how often reports that the Left do not like simply vanish from the net.

Those pesky genes again: "An unexpected link between genes and language suggests that humanity's earliest conversations were conducted in a tonal language. Unlike non-tonal languages such as English, tonal languages such as Chinese and Thai use changes in pitch to convey the meaning of words. Now British researchers have discovered that although there are no "genes for Chinese" or "genes for English", people who possess older versions of two brain development genes - ASPM and microcephalin - are predominantly speakers of tonal languages. When combined with evidence that modern humans arose in Africa about 200,000 years ago and the observation that nearly all sub-Saharan African languages are tonal, University of Edinburgh linguists Robert Ladd and Dan Dediu argue their finding suggests that the first languages were tonal."

More pointless and futile legislation -- just for show: "Have no fear, summertime drivers. Now that gasoline prices are hovering at a national average of $3.22 per gallon, Congress is ready to pounce on oil companies that allegedly charge you more than you should be paying at the pump. Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would impose fines of up to $150 million for oil companies that are found guilty of price gouging. The Senate will take up a similar measure after the Memorial Day recess. Wait--haven't we seen this before? Yep. During the last two decades, dozens of bills have been introduced that would freeze gas prices, prevent price gouging or punish oil and natural gas companies that engage in this behavior"

Find the missing words: "I'd like to draw attention to today's AP article entitled "Miss. Murder Cold Case Under Way." It concerns the trial begun today to prosecute Ku Kux Klan killers for the 1964 racial-terror torture-murders of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. The article notes that since the FBI was preoccupied with the "Mississipi Burning" investigation in 1964 they turned the investigation and prosecution of the killers over to the local authorities who promptly threw out all charges and released the suspects without further ado. Of course, the AP does not trouble to remind its readers that the Democratic Party had complete control of Mississippi government at all levels in that era."

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 INTERNATIONAL 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

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

"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".

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