More pseudo-psychology with the same old pseudo "findings"

Newsweek has just given a big plug to a book called "The Political Brain" (by Drew Westen of Emory University) that purports to tell Democrats how to win elections. The writer of the review does not know the difference between "discreet" and "discrete" so the intellectual level to be expected is not high -- and so it turns out. Note the paragraph below . It combines very old news with a bald-faced assertion:

"When voters are hooked up to brain-imaging devices while watching candidates, it is emotion circuits and not the rational frontal lobes that are most engaged. When voters assess who won a campaign debate, they almost always choose the candidate they liked better beforehand. The rationality circuit "isn't typically open for business when partisans are thinking about things that matter to them," Westen notes. Yet "this is the part of the brain to which Democrats typically target their appeals."

So emotions matter in politics! Give the writer a cookie! But what is the proof for the second assertion -- that Democrats target their appeals to rationality? As far as I can tell it is the opposite. For instance, "All men are equal" may be emotionally satisfying but it has no status as a fact.

Hot Air and Ace have some further comments.

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BUSH HAS LOST IT

Post lifted from Gates of Vienna. See the original for links

President Bush gave a speech this morning at a Wahhabist mosque called the Islamic Center of Washington DC. I listened to most of it on C-Span streaming video, and it was about what you'd expect, a mixture of boilerplate and outreach and platitudes and dhimmitude. It was too dispiriting to write much about.

However - one of the things he mentioned was a future "democratic Palestine, living side-by-side with Israel in peace".

What planet is he living on? What has he been smoking? The only democracy that will ever come to "Palestine" is the democracy of AK-47s and homemade bombs. The only peace that "Palestine" will ever allow Israel is the peace of the grave.

President Bush is either being stupid, or cynical, or is saying something he knows is not true for reasons of statecraft that are too arcane and subtle for an ignorant boob like me to understand.

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ELSEWHERE



There is some good information here about how Democrat hero FDR worsened the Great Depression by his ignorant "New Deal" policies.

Norway winks at barbarism: "For many years it has been speculated that Norwegian-Somali girls are circumcised when they go back to their homeland on the summer holiday. NRK can now document for the first time that women who work in circumcision confirm that to a great extent they circumcise girls who live in Western Europe. And not least: they say that Norwegian-Somali parents are good customers - every summer - after school ends in Norway. Parents from Norway are among those who pay best. The price for circumcising a girl is 150 kroner. Since January 1st, 1996, it is illegal to circumcise girls in Norway. It is also forbidden for people living in Norway to circumcise their daughters abroad. Breaking the law could lead up to 8 years in jail. But nobody has ever been indicted or convicted for this in Norway."

Israel: A Hotbed Of... Investment : "You might think that Israel's continuing strife with the Palestinians would be a red flag for investors. Yet amid escalating violence, many of the country's companies are thriving, pushing the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to record levels. Even the takeover of the Gaza Strip by the Islamist Hamas movement in mid-June hasn't slowed the momentum. The TA 25 index is up by 21% this year, reaching an all-time high on June 17. The market's strength is a sign of how well Israel has been able to protect its economy from the crisis. A big part of Israel's recent economic success is due to improved security. Suicide attacks have dropped sharply, largely the result of imposing walls and fences that separate Israel from Gaza and the West Bank. Nearly six years after the start of the second intifada, shoppers are feeling safer and are out in force, helping to push annual growth to 5% for the fourth straight year."

Another innocent turnip farmer is gunned down after his release from Gitmo: "Two men, who were on Russia's wanted list as suspected members of illegal armed groups, were killed in a special operation near the central mosque in downtown Nalchik, the capital city of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Kabardino- Balkaria, a local law enforcement source told Interfax. One of those killed might be Ruslan Odizhev, a former Guantanamo base prisoner, the source said."

Rice calls Hamas 'resistance movement': "U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice twice referred to Hamas as a "resistance movement" during a meeting with reporters from the New York Daily News earlier this month, but the newspaper did not report her remarks, WND has learned. Rice's interview is transcribed in full on the State Department website. Rice's statements mark the second documented time in recent months she called Hamas a "resistance movement" during unscripted chats with journalists".

Only 400,000? And many of their relatives are undoubtedly in the USA: "About 400,000 Mexican police officers are under investigation by the Attorney General's Office for corruption and suspected links to organized crime, La Jornada reported June 26, citing government sources. Most of the officers are from Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Baja California, Guerrero, Michoacan, Mexico and the federal district"

Obama's church: "A very liberal and fast declining United Church of Christ (UCC) celebrated its 50th birthday, with rousing speeches from Senator Barack Obama and PBS commentator Bill Moyers, both of whom are UCC members. Both speakers fingered the "Religious Right" as a threat to American democracy. Moyers specifically warned against the Institute on Religion and Democracy for supposedly attempting to disrupt the UCC. Neither speaker offered any criticisms that might apply particularly to their left-leaning UCC audience. The 1.2-million-member UCC has lost nearly one million members over the last 40 years. Its decline has accelerated since its formal endorsement of same-sex "marriage" two years ago."

Vote early and vote often still applies: "A Washington State woman thought that voter registration requirements were too lax so she signed up her dog to vote. Her dog Duncan voted in 3 elections and signed each time with a paw print before officials caught on."

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

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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 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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Police run riot in Arkansas

Despicable acts of police brutality appear to have been committed on Go Skateboarding Day by the Hot Springs, Arkansas Police Department. Young skateboarders were choked and knocked around for skateboarding. Video of the incident here. After you watch it, help flood their phone lines and email their police chief with complaints regarding the main policeman involved, Officer Joey Williams. Data: Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department, Phone: (501) 321-6789, Fax: (501) 321-6708, Chief of Police, Bobby Southard, 641 Malvern Avenue.

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Brookes News Update

Why the Democrats' tax program could send the US economy South: One only has to reflect on the damage the Hoover-Roosevelt tax increases inflicted on the US economy to realise how destructive the Democrats' policy on taxation and spending really is
Can expectations neutralise the side effects of loose monetary policy: According to the Austrian Business Cycle Theory the artificial lowering of interest rates leads to a misallocation of resources because businesses undertake capital projects that prior to the lowering of interest rates weren't considered as viable. This misallocation of resources is commonly described as an economic boom
Australian economy: Government confusion about productivity, growth and jobs: Despite the Government's glee over an OECD report that falling productivity was caused by falling unemployment, it is ignoring that one pillar of its labour market reform policy promised increasing productivity. For years Brookesnews has been pointing out that productivity would fall when unemployment fell while our so-called `new right' promised the opposite. So what really happened?
Stock market troubles and Macbeth's witches: The recent erratic behaviour of China's stock market has exposed the inability of market analysts to explain what is really happening. This inability can be a severe wealth hazard
Iraqi and British troops launched a successful strike at Iranian secret cell: Why is the news about always bad? Is because our `objective' journalists are deliberately spiking stories that involve economic progress and Coalition victories? This article will help put the war in perspective by telling you things our journalist keep to themselves
An Open Letter to Norway's Foreign Minister: Who would have thought that in the first decade of the 21st rabid anti-Semitism would be sweeping through Europe? It is now clear that even in this day and age hatred of Jews is just bubbling below the surface of Europe's urbane veneer. We now have Gruppenfuehrer Jonas Gahrs Store, - aka Norway's Foreign Minister - parroting neo-Nazi Jew-hatred. Thank God I live in Australia - a real liberal country
NBC's Tourism pitch for Castro: How nice and sophisticated: Andrea Mitchell and Matt lauer defending Castro, a tyrant who tortures and murders children, who allows for the sexual humiliation of women and who keeps political prisoners in the most barbarous conditions. Perhaps that's really why the left love him. He's doing what they secretly wish they could do
Anti-Semitism: Israel's weakest Link: Anti-Semitism is the world's most enduring hatred - and it's back. Leftwing British academics and journalists launched a vicious assault on Jews that even Goebbels would have admired. And what did these paragons of tolerance use to justify their hatred of Jews? Islamic terrorist propaganda. There is no doubt about - anti-Semites are utter scum Israel and Gaza: one or four states solution
There is no difference between Hamas, Fatah or any other so-called Palestinian terror group: They all want the same thing - the extermination of every Jew on the planet

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ELSEWHERE

BBC employs Hamas member: "Despite Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) opposition and per the request of the BBC, the coordinator of government activities allowed a Hamas member who works for the BBC to enter the Gaza Strip last week to assist in efforts to release kidnapped journalist Alan Johnston. Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post that a week ago, a request came from the BBC asking that a Palestinian employee of the news company who is believed to be a close associate of senior Hamas officials be allowed to enter Gaza."

Running the airport gauntlet: "A few months after 9/11, my wife and I passed through an airport on the way to some destination that escapes me now and that I would probably have preferred skipping anyway. At the gate, the security guards pulled a pretty teenage girl aside for some obviously excessive extra attention. My wife and I hung back from the boarding line to keep an eye on the guards and the girl they were fondling. We weren't subtle either. The guards let the girl board after a few minutes of attention and a couple of glances in our direction. I haven't seen anything so egregious since then, but the intrusive and pointless security procedures always grate on my nerves. My wife knows when to take a tight grip on my arm to forestall an eruption when we're being herded like cattle through the metal detectors. I've mellowed over the years, however, and there's little chance of me staging a pointless confrontation with some TSA goon unless I suddenly develop a hankering for a body-cavity search. It could be worse, I keep telling myself."

Comment on the hypocritical British boycotters of Israel: "The PACBI boycotters and their UCU fellow travellers would deny to Jews the rights that they upholds for other, comparable peoples. They adhere to the principle of national self-determination, except in the Jews' case. They affirm international law, except in Israel's case. They are outraged by the Jewish nature of the State of Israel, but are untroubled (say) by the Islamic nature of Iran or of Saudi Arabia. They regard Zionism as uniquely pernicious, rather than as merely another nationalism (just as earlier generations of anti-Semites regarded Jewish capitalists as uniquely pernicious, rather than merely as members of the capitalist class). They are indifferent to Jewish suffering, while being sensitive to the suffering of non-Jews. They dismiss anti-Semitism as a phantasm exploited by Jews to pursue their own goals."

The Radical Evil Of The Palestinian Arab Population: "Ah, the fabled Palestinian people. The Palestinian people, who simply want "a better life." The Palestinian people, who, President George W. Bush has repeatedly informed us, "long for a society in which they can raise their children in peace and hope." The Palestinian people, who support, fund and execute suicide bombings. The Palestinian people, who dress their toddlers in bomb belts and then take family snapshots. The Palestinian people, who cheered on September 11 as the World Trade Center towers fell. The Palestinian people, who followed terrorist extraordinaire Yasser Arafat, supported Saddam Hussein, shredded the blooming rose that was once Christian Lebanon, and almost toppled the Western-friendly Jordanian monarchy. The Palestinian people, who destroy relics on the Temple Mount, openly call for the destruction of the state of Israel, ally with Syria and Iran, and elect Hamas. The Palestinian people, who teach their children that the Holocaust is a fairy tale, and that Jews routinely poison Palestinian candy. The Palestinian people, who stage injuries in order to solicit Western media sympathy, and then roar madly as they hold up their hands, red with the blood of murdered Israeli soldiers.

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

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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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Obama condones antisemitism

While many Christians, notably the evangelical community, are deeply supportive of Israel, the leaders of a few Christian church groups in America have issued anti-Israel resolutions over the last few years. These are often established groups that are politically liberal (and often have become so secular that they are suffering a decline in membership). The anti-Israel Resolutions are typically one-sided and blame Israel for the problems of the Palestinians....

Among these churches is one that does not fit the mold of established liberal Protestant groups: the United Church of Christ (UCC). The UCC, primarily an African-American denomination, has taken a pronounced lead in anti-Israel invective. So pronounced that a broad coalition of major Jewish groups has publicly rebuked (usually these types of disagreements are not aired publicly) the United Church of Christ for its unbalanced treatment of Israel. The coalition noted that the UCC failed to mention Israeli peace overtures, Palestinian rejection of those overtures, and the "brutal Palestinian campaigns of terror aimed at innocent Israeli children and families".

It so happens that aspiring Presidential candidate Barack Obama is a prominent - almost certainly the most prominent - member of the United Church of Christ. Obama has made political hay from emphasizing the role that his church and his faith have played in his life and career. He has credited his Pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, for being his inspiration and spiritual mentor.

But now that Obama is in the midst of his political campaign and raising money and support from prominent Jews among many others, he has tried to bury this relationship, because Wright's philosophy and teachings have a very pronounced anti-Israel bias and are divisive on the issue of black-white relations in America. These views of Obama's church would have significant political repercussions for Obama, if they were more widely known. Even Pastor Wright recognizes that this history would be a problem, noting that he has been temporarily shunted aside because his views and relationship with Obama would hurt Obama's image....

This past Saturday, Obama spoke to a group of 300 delegates at the United Church of Christ state convention in Iowa. He delivered his usual bromides, including an attack on the "Christian Right." He did not mention Israel or the controversial anti-Israel positions that the United Church of Christ has taken. Not a word. Here is a man who preaches tolerance and the coming together of people, a man whose voice is a powerful instrument and can be used to heal wounds. He chose to remain silent about the bias within his own church.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

For what interest it may have, there is an example here (or here) of an idiotic credit-card offer from American Express. I am not sure whether I should condemn them for their negligence or give them credit for trying.

China has blocked blogspot again but China Hand is keeping on blogging. There is a mirror of his blog that IS readable in China here.

I have for some time had up on the web reproductions of original Nazi posters that show how Leftist Nazism was (See here or here). I also have up some similar information on Nazism in the Netherlands during the period of Nazi control there. I have just added to the information on the Netherlands a reproduction of a 1941 official Dutch newspaper announcement that was sent to me by a reader who actually had his birth announcement in the same issue of the newspaper. The official newspaper announcement could just as well have been Soviet as Nazi. See here or here

One Leftist who still likes Hitler: "You could argue that even the world's worst fascist dictators at least meant well. They honestly thought were doing good things for their countries by suppressing blacks/eliminating Jews/eradicating free enterprise/repressing individual thought/killing off rivals/invading neighbors, etc. [The Huffington Poster who wrote that is Peter Mehlman, one of the Hollywood Left]

NYT says it's all Israel's fault: "Here he blames Israel and America for the failure of the Palestinians and the rise of Hamas. How does Israel in particular play into this dynamic? By "bombing Gaza last summer (in retaliation for the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers), a move that further weakened Abbas and his Fatah party". Feldman does not even deign to report the fact that Israel had completely removed itself from Gaza, turning it over to the Palestinians, lock, stock, and barrel. Nor does he mention that any bombing attacks against Gaza were not acts of "retaliation" ( a word with pejorative connotations), but were meant to suppress the thousands of missiles launched into Israel from the Gaza that were meant to terrorize, maim and kill Israelis. His wording makes it seem as if Israel were engaging in collective punishment and was indiscriminate in its targeting. In fact, Israel exposes its pilots to greater danger by trying to be very precise and deliberate in its targeting-only aiming to stop the terrorist and focusing on minimizing the damage while trying its utmost to minimize civilian casualties. He did not even mention these endless rounds of rocket attacks; not a single word."

Unusual sense for San Francisco: "Citing environmental concerns, Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order prohibiting city departments from buying bottled water. In a decision announced yesterday, Newsom says the ban will go into effect July first and extend to all city and county water coolers by December first. A spokesman for the San Francisco public utilities commission says Newsom's decision will save tax payer money and combat global warming."

African brains less active: "Slow wave activity (SWA), a stable trait dependent marker of the intensity of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, is lower in young healthy African-Americans compared to Caucasians who were matched for age, gender and body weight, according to recent research. Dr. Esra Tasali and colleagues at the University of Chicago collected overnight polysomnographic data from 12 African-Americans and 12 Caucasians, none of whom had any sleep complaints or disorders. The authors found that African-Americans had markedly lower SWA as compared to Caucasians."

Economic ignorance often goes with economic arrogance: "Interview with Bryan Caplan, author of The Myth of the Rational Voter. Caplan: "I[f] people were merely ignorant about economics, I wouldn't be worried. After all, if you never studied a subject, we'd expect you just to be agnostic about it. The real problem is that people have strong opinions about economics even though they've never studied it -- and their strong opinions tend to be the opposite of what you'd learn in an economics class. As you indicate, I identify four main ways that people's beliefs about economics tend to go wrong. I call them anti-market bias, anti-foreign bias, make-work bias, and pessimistic bias."

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

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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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Baltic beacon of economic sanity

Anyone interested in seeing first-hand what a simple and fair tax system can help accomplish should visit Estonia. After gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the little Baltic country first tried its luck with the kind of progressive tax system so popular in the West. Productive people were punished with higher tax rates, and savings and investments - the lifeblood of future prosperity - were subject to double-taxation. Not surprisingly, Estonia did not prosper. To be fair, the tax system was just one of many problems plaguing the nation. But it was ironic that Estonia hindered its economic recovery from communist enslavement by using a fiscal regime - progressive taxation - advocated by Karl Marx. No less ironic is the fact that most capitalist economies have adopted that counterproductive taxation model as well.

Seeking a new approach to jump-start its economy, Estonia adopted a 26% flat tax in 1994 and never looked back. Combined with other free-market reforms, the flat tax has helped Estonia become one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Tallinn is now a boom town, filled with expensive cars, elegant shops, trendy restaurants and new construction. Estonia's system is not a completely pure version of the flat tax model. But it is remarkably free from distortions, exemptions, loopholes and penalties. The flat rate applies to both personal income and business income. And since one of the key principles of a flat tax is that income should be taxed only once, there is no death tax, no wealth tax and no double-taxation of savings or dividends.

With such a simple and fair tax system, it is hardly surprising that Estonia is now the Baltic Tiger, growing faster than every other post-Soviet economy. In the last six years, growth has averaged nearly 9%. And that's after adjusting for inflation.

More here

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Brookes News Update

Getting it right on recessions and the 'wealth effect': I honestly cannot think of a single conservative commentator who recognizes the fundamental role money supply plays in the so-called boom-and-bust cycle. This failure to understand the power of money can have devastating consequences for an economy
Utility, means-ends and consumer choices: Contrary to mainstream thinking the Menger-Mises framework shows that it is the importance of various ends that determine the selection of goods by individuals. The means-end framework also shows that the prices of goods are not set mechanically by some kind of supply demand curves but by goal seeking individuals
US recession and technology: another economic fallacy: When every so-called technological breakthrough and invention immediately attracts investment think of the South Sea Bubble. John Stuart Mill sadly remarked that these booms left many businessmen and eager investors "to repent at leisure". And that was written about 178 years ago
Economic growth is under attack by greens: The two great power cults of the last century were Marxism and Nazism. Between them they probably killed some 150 million people. Another power cult has now emerged and it's called green movement and it has already killed millions of Third World peasants
Yeah, the Media are the Message - A Lying, Stinking, Deceitful One: The American media are the most powerful force on Earth. They can make the world hate George Bush and love the tragedies that are Jimmy Carter and Billy Clinton. They can hide the story of Muslims killing 2 million Christians in the Sudan in the 90s and displacing millions of "Black" Muslims in Sudan's Darfur
I'm suing gayHarmony: It looks like homosexual militants are getting nastier and nastier: attacking the right of free speech, free association, freedom of religion - and even attacking those who want stronger laws against sexually molesting children
Does a fall in the US saving rate point to troubles ahead?: According to US Government data the personal savings rate stood at negative 1.3 per cent in April against a negative rate of 0.7 per cent in February. This was the 25th consecutive negative savings rate. Do these figures presage trouble for the US economy?

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ELSEWHERE



Paul Krugman has recently drawn attention to the fact that people in at least some European countries are now on average taller than Americans. He couples that with the undoubted fact that severe nutritional deficits stunt growth and concludes that Americans must be doing something wrong -- with a bony finger pointed at McDonalds, of course. That is pretty hilarious, however. Far from suffering from hunger, Americans are clearly OVER-nourished, as their waistlines attest. One thing Krugman would appear to be ignoring is the large number of people now living in America from South of the Rio Grande. Nobody denies that they are often short (See above) and must hence drive down the average American height. I looked at the issue in more depth three years ago.

More daring Danes: "Today is Midsummer's Day - Saint Hans' Day in Denmark - and the traditional Danish midsummer custom is to burn an effigy of a witch in order to banish evil from the country and ensure the good fortune of the people in the coming year. This year there's going to be a slight variation on the usual ritual. According to SIAD, a previously secret group is planning to burn an effigy of Mohammed instead of a witch, to symbolize the need to rid Western Europe of a new kind of evil. Tomorrow the group will release a video of tonight's Midsummer bonfire."

It is our traditions and customs that have made us rich: "Douglass North's economics looks at the formal rules and informal norms that affect economic behavior. As I pointed out in the previous essay, North refers to these rules and norms as institutions. (This use of the term "institutions" differs somewhat from ordinary language, where we tend to use institutions to refer to tangible enterprises, such as universities or hospitals.) Institutions change slowly. They are conditioned on the past and on other institutions. Therefore, when better outcomes depend on institutional improvement, the challenge is much more difficult than is assumed in standard economics.

There is a new lot of postings by Chris Brand just up. Chris notes that the British "Conservatives" are now to the Left of Labour in many ways.

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

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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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THE SOURCE OF MUSLIM HATRED

Here's why much of the region is so unhinged - and it's not because of our policy in Palestine or our efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. First, thanks to Western inventions and Chinese manufactured goods, Middle Easterners can now access the non-Muslim world cheaply and vicariously. To millions of Muslims, the planet appears - on the Internet, DVDs and satellite television - to be growing rich as most of their world stays poor. Second, the Middle East either will not or cannot make the changes necessary to catch up with what they see in the rest of the world. Tribalism - loyalty only to kin rather than to society at large - impedes merit and thus progress. So does gender apartheid. Who knows how many would-be Margaret Thatchers or Sandra Day O'Connors remain veiled in the kitchen?

Religious fundamentalism translates into rote prayers in madrassas while those outside the Middle East master science and engineering. Without a transparent capitalist system - antithetical to both sharia (Muslim law) and state-run economies - initiative is never rewarded. Corruption is.

Meanwhile, mere discussion in much of the region of what is wrong can mean execution by a militia, government thug or religious vigilante. So, Middle Easterners are left with the old frustration of wanting the good life of Western society but lacking either the ability or willingness to change the status quo to get it. Instead, we get monotonous scapegoating. Blaming America or Israel - "Those sneaky Jews did it!" - has become a regional pastime.

And after the multifarious failures of Yasser Arafat, the Assads in Syria, Muammar Gaddafi, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Saddam Hussein and other corrupt autocrats, many have, predictably, retreated to fundamentalist extremism. Almost daily, some fundamentalist claims that the killing of Westerners is justified - because of a cartoon, a Papal paragraph or, most recently, British knighthood awarded to novelist Salman Rushdie. The terrorism of Osama bin Laden, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Taliban is as much about nihilist rage as it is about blackmailing Western governments to grant concessions.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

Britain gives up control of its own foreign policy: "While Blair left Brussels insisting he had preserved Britain's control over its foreign policy, the small print of the treaty prepares the way for a powerful new EU diplomatic service with ambassadors worldwide. They will report to a "high representative" who will be vice-president of the European commission and will chair meetings of EU foreign ministers. The treaty commits the EU to a "common foreign and security policy". Member states must support the policy "actively and unreservedly, in the spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity". They are barred from taking any action -- such as launching military strikes or declaring war -- that could damage the EU's standing. Downing Street said an annex to the treaty ensured it would not affect foreign policy. But opposition politicians said the annex was a "declaration" rather than a legally binding "protocol". They demanded the treaty be put to a referendum."

Gentleman Fred: "In the battle for the women's vote, Fred Thompson has a secret weapon against Hillary Clinton - the legions of former girlfriends who still adore him and who want him to be president. The Hollywood actor and former Tennessee senator racked up an impressive list of conquests during his swinging bachelor days in the 1990s, but he appears to have achieved the impossible and kept their friendship and respect. Lorrie Morgan, a country singer who dated Thompson and considered marrying him in the mid1990s, told The Sunday Times: "I couldn't think of a bad word to say about Fred if somebody put a gun to my head. "Fred is a perfect example of chivalry. He's the kind of man little girls dream about marrying, who opens doors for you, lights your cigarettes, helps you on with your coat, buys wonderful gifts. It's every woman's fantasy."

The British airforce is still relying on the military version of the De Havilland Comet -- the first passenger jet ever flown (in 1952): "The station commander of a Nimrod spyplane that exploded over Afghanistan warned a year earlier that an "unexpected failure" was likely with a similar ageing plane already 10 years past its out-of-service date. The comments were made in August 2005 at the end of an internal report into a leak of superheated air in the bomb bay of a Nimrod. In the report, an unnamed group captain says the leak was "a particular concern as the ageing Nimrod MR2 is extended beyond its original out-of-service date" of 1995. The leak of the hot air was not the first time there had been an unforeseen failure of a piece of equipment on board a Nimrod "in recent months" as a direct result of the aircraft's age, he added." [OK: I know the B52 has been going since 1955]

The brave Taliban "freedom fighters": "A group of girls returning home from school in Afghanistan's Logar province recently did not for a moment expect what lay ahead. As they walked down a dirt track, insurgents sprang out of the parched farms and began firing on them. Some of them fled into the farm, but two girls, one aged 13, the other 10, were killed in the ambush. Three of their friends were wounded. ... In the past 13 months, 226 schools, many run from tents, have been burnt down by the insurgents. A total of 110 teachers and students have been killed in incidents of indirect violence and another 52 wounded, officials say."

Gaza got what it voted for: "There's an old saying cynics invoke whenever complaints arise about the shoddy state of our public life: You get the politicians you vote for. Someone should tell that to the Palestinians. Last week, the Sword of Islam conquered the Gaza strip, that miserable stretch of land that will be made all the more miserable now that religious fascists rule the roost. If any lesson can be learned about the Arab-Israeli conflict these past few weeks, it's that Palestinian terrorists are just as happy to kill their fellow Palestinians as they are those perfidious Jews. But before the world sheds a collective tear on behalf of the Palestinians - a people who have received more foreign aid, per capita, than Europeans under the Marshall Plan - we ought to remember that they brought this horror upon themselves. In January 2006, Hamas overwhelmingly won the Palestinian legislative election, taking 56 percent of the seats in the legislature."

NYT digging dirt on Murdoch: "The New York Times is currently undertaking a major news investigation, led by managing editor Jill Abramson, into News Corp.'s business dealings throughout the world, according to a source with knowledge of the project. Currently, Ms. Abramson is working outside of the newsroom, recovering from injuries sustained during a traffic accident last month. But, as she told The Observer in an e-mail on May 26, executive editor Bill Keller has kept her quite busy. 'Bill has asked me to lead an investigative project for the next month, which I'll mainly do from home,' Ms. Abramson wrote at the time."

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

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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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ISRAELI VERSATILITY TURNS EVEN WAR INTO AN ASSET

The writer of the excerpts below has tried to turn it into a "Hate-Israel" piece but the facts marshalled are in fact another wonderful Gideon story -- of how high human quality can grab triumph from a much more numerous enemy. SCA has a fisking of the pathetic anti-Israel component in the article, mostly not reproduced below

Gaza in the hands of Hamas, with masked militants sitting in the president's chair; the West Bank on the edge; Israeli army camps hastily assembled in the Golan Heights; a spy satellite over Iran and Syria; war with Hizbullah a hair trigger away; a scandal-plagued political class facing a total loss of public faith. At a glance, things aren't going well for Israel. But here's a puzzle: why, in the midst of such chaos and carnage, is the Israeli economy booming like it's 1999, with a roaring stock market and growth rates nearing China's?

Israel's economy isn't booming despite the political chaos that devours the headlines but because of it. This phase of development dates back to the mid-90s, when the country was in the vanguard of the information revolution - the most tech-dependent economy in the world. After the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, Israel's economy was devastated, facing its worst year since 1953. Then came 9/11, and suddenly new profit vistas opened up for any company that claimed it could spot terrorists in crowds, seal borders from attack, and extract confessions from closed-mouthed prisoners.

Within three years, large parts of Israel's tech economy had been radically repurposed. Put in Friedmanesque terms, Israel went from inventing the networking tools of the "flat world" to selling fences to an apartheid planet. Many of the country's most successful entrepreneurs are using Israel's status as a fortressed state, surrounded by furious enemies, as a kind of 24-hour-a-day showroom, a living example of how to enjoy relative safety amid constant war. And the reason Israel is now enjoying supergrowth is that those companies are busily exporting that model to the world.

Discussions of Israel's military trade usually focus on the flow of weapons into the country - US-made Caterpillar bulldozers used to destroy homes in the West Bank, and British companies supplying parts for F-16s. Overlooked is Israel's huge and expanding export business. Israel now sends $1.2bn in "defence" products to the United States - up dramatically from $270m in 1999. In 2006, Israel exported $3.4bn in defence products - well over a billion more than it received in American military aid. That makes Israel the fourth largest arms dealer in the world, overtaking Britain.

Much of this growth has been in the so-called homeland security sector. Before 9/11 homeland security barely existed as an industry. By the end of this year, Israeli exports in the sector will reach $1.2bn, an increase of 20%. The key products and services are hi-tech fences, unmanned drones, biometric IDs, video and audio surveillance gear, air passenger profiling and prisoner interrogation systems - precisely the tools and technologies Israel has used to lock in the occupied territories.

Next week, the most established of these companies will travel to Europe for the Paris Air Show, the arms industry's equivalent of Fashion Week. One of the Israeli companies exhibiting is Suspect Detection Systems (SDS), which will be showcasing its Cogito1002, a white, sci-fi-looking security kiosk that asks air travellers to answer a series of computer-generated questions, tailored to their country of origin, while they hold their hand on a "biofeedback" sensor. The device reads the body's reactions to the questions, and certain responses flag the passenger as "suspect". Like hundreds of other Israeli security start-ups, SDS boasts that it was founded by veterans of Israel's secret police and that its products were road-tested on Palestinians. Not only has the company tried out the biofeedback terminals at a West Bank checkpoint, it claims the "concept is supported and enhanced by knowledge acquired and assimilated from the analysis of thousands of case studies related to suicide bombers in Israel".

Another star of the Paris Air Show will be Israeli defence giant Elbit, which plans to showcase its Hermes 450 and 900 unmanned air vehicles. As recently as last month, according to press reports, Israel used the drones on bombing missions in Gaza. Once tested in the territories, they are exported abroad: the Hermes has already been used at the Arizona-Mexico border; Cogito1002 terminals are being auditioned at an unnamed American airport; and Elbit - also one of the companies behind Israel's "security barrier" - has set up a deal with Boeing to construct the Department of Homeland Security's $2.5bn "virtual" border fence around the US.

Source.

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Vast Israeli inventivesness in the civil sector too

Sat-nav and voicemail are just two of the technologies born in a country approximately the size of Wales

Think of technological innovators and you think of Japan, Korea, the United States. Possibly Germany. You probably don't think of Israel. But you should - Israel produces more innovative ideas and new start-up companies than almost any other country in the world. Every time you send a text, or power up your sat-nav system to plan your route, you're using a piece of kit that has its roots in Israel. Not bad going for somewhere roughly the size of Wales, with a population of seven million, and which didn't even exist as a nation state 60 years ago.

In 2005, venture capital investment in Israel was US$1.34 billion - Britain, by comparison, has almost ten times the population but less than twice the venture-capital investment. This is due in part to the Israeli government, which contributes heavily towards funding start-up companies, and which has, for the past 10 years, run a venture-capital fund through the office of the chief scientist. It believed that if it kick-started funding domestically, foreign capital would follow.

The risk paid off: a Morgan Stanley report published in January showed that foreign capital flows to Israel rose from $3.2 billion in 2002 to $11.6 billion in 2005, and then to a massive $23.4 billion just a year later. There are 75 Israeli companies on the Nasdaq, more than from any other country except the US.

The reasons for Israel's success in the technology arena are complex [Rubbish! It's just another example of the power of IQ]. Cultural, social and political factors all play a role, as does the investment ploughed into the country's military, and the training and expertise acquired by Israelis through compulsory national service.

Ronen Saffer, chief technology officer at Telmap, a digital navigation company founded in Israel, blames fruit. "There's only so much you can do with oranges," he says. "We produced all we could out of those in the 1960s and 1970s, then we had to come up with something else in order to make a living." Telmap is the epitome of this new approach - it provides mapping software for the likes of AOL, Ericsson, Palm, Nokia and BlackBerry. Helen Davis, author of Israel in the World: Changing Lives Through Innovation, agrees. "There's no alternative. There are no natural resources at all, except what is between the ears of the country's people. That is Israel's only raw resource." .....

Many of the technologies used all over the world today were either invented or developed further in Israel, or by Israeli companies. From voice components developed for combat systems, an Israeli company called Efrat Systems created voicemail; eventually it became Comverse, one of the largest voicemail companies in the world today.

Instant messaging, an application used by millions today, came from a small Israeli business called Mirabilis, which developed a project called ICQ ("I seek you"). Vardi was the founder investor of Mirabilis, while his son was one of the three jobless youngsters who started the company. Less than two years after its formation, it was bought by AOL, which wanted ICQ. The instant-messaging craze was largely born out of this deal.

Unsurprisingly, much of this technology has its roots in the military, which focuses on developing cutting-edge hardware and software. Israel operates a system of compulsory military service, and students are cherry-picked by the military from high schools across the country in order to match conscripts to the roles that best utilise their talents.

Roy Timor-Rousso, vice president for product marketing at Fring, a VOIP company (VOIP allows you to make phone calls over the internet via services such as Skype) that has its roots in Israel, says: "The military can pick who it wants. A lot of young, very talented Israelis go through special units where they are exposed to a lot of responsibility, trained and given the top military technologies early on in their careers, while they are still creative."

Telmap's Ronen Saffer says that the military research and development budget has been responsible for developing things such as GPS, maps and communications technology. The people involved in creating these tools of war have had the foresight to understand their potential as everyday applications, and have gone about tweaking the technology for the mass consumer market upon being demobbed from the services.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Another example of NYT deception here. This time by carefully selected images.

There's a link here to "Indoctrinate U" -- the film about Leftist bias in U.S. colleges and universities. You may not see it in a movie theatre near you. They will only have time for Michael Moore's latest bit of fact-free nastiness. The site does however have a way for you to request a local screening so that may do some good.

NYT slowly going broke: "Like some robber baron capitalist of yore, the New York Times is telling the remaining full price readers of its print product that they will pay more and get less, the same message it has been sending advertisers for years. But far from a sign of strength, this move is an indicator that the slow motion business collapse of the New York Times Company may be picking up its pace."

Duke 3 Want Nifong In Jail: "Beleaguered and disbarred former District Attorney Mike Nifong, who prosecuted the Duke University lacrosse rape case, could wind up in jail if a motion is granted asking that criminal charges be filed against him, FOX News has learned. The three Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape by a stripper plan to file the motion Friday against the ex-Durham County district attorney who built the case against them. If the motion asking for criminal sanctions against Nifong is granted, the prosecutor could land in prison. The players, who have been exonerated, are also asking for financial reimbursement."

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

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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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'Live and let live' is a foreign idea to the Left

Excerpt from Ted Nugent

Especially here in the great Republic of Texas, a smiling, drooling preference for succulent, protein-rich, nutritious backstrap over aromatic mesquite coals is as American and natural and right as Mom, apple pie and the flag. It's beautiful, really. But a culture war rages against such universal, self-evident truths. It would be laughable if it were not so deranged. Some weirdos actually are on a crusade to outlaw the consumption of flesh.

I have musical touring associates who have been fired from their jobs with ex-Beatle Paul McCartney for sneaking a hamburger. You heard that right. Fired for eating meat by an animal-rights maniac, hard-core vegan bass player. The entire agenda of the gazillion-dollar-financed joke known as PETA literally is dedicated to outlawing meat.

Neither I, nor any hunter or meat eater on the planet, has any desire whatsoever to influence any vegetarian's choice of diet or to force them to eat meat. We are the friendly, tolerant Americans. This is but one of many issues that represent the line drawn in the sand between liberals and conservatives.

Our own intrepid opinion editor at the Trib, my friend John Young, doesn't want to simply make the choice to be unarmed and helpless for himself. He has again recently insisted that you and I must also comply with his soulless condition of unarmed helplessness in "gun-free zones." Nobody from our side wants to force anybody to have a gun or defend themselves. It is us, the conservatives, who are for individual choice.

As for the American left: One hears the words of Mao Tse-Tung come broiling out of the mouths of its heroes, when Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton et al unflinchingly push for "redistribution of wealth." Central Texas' own Chet Edwards has the audacity to support taxing the after-tax life savings of American families following the death of a loved one. The unfair, un-American, unconstitutional death tax literally destroys mom-and-pop businesses across the land. Think about it.

The wall that once symbolized communism is down, yet some still want to give it a shot. Dear God in heaven, help us.

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ELSEWHERE

Charlie Foxtrot has a most graphic example of how the media manipulate the news.

Obama's macaca moment (or it would be if the media played it the same way it played Senator Allen): "'Obama Just Got Less 'Brown' Friendly,' reads the Indian American blog Sepia Mutiny. The US-India Political Action Community, having elicited one tepid pseudo-apology from the Barack Obama campaign, then demanded an acceptably contrite expression of contrition. Barack Obama's macaca moment is hardly the campaign killer that George Allen's proved to be, but the spectacle of a Kenyan Kansan would-be president deflecting criticism from pro-trade Indian Americans is at least more interesting. Last week, Obama's campaign sent out a not-for-attribution memo to media professionals, slamming Hillary Clinton for courting Indians and the Indian American Community. The dossier, delicately titled 'Hillary Clinton (D-Punjabs)'s Personal Financial and Political Ties to India,' suggests that Clinton's pro-trade, pro-India proclivities will compromise her commitment to Americans. It's Lou Dobbs-level rhetoric, straight from the platitudinous fluff-factory known as the Barack Obama Campaign. Obama has since apologized for the memo, calling it a 'screw-up on the part of our research team.'"

At Wal-Mart, a Back Door Into Banking : "Wal-Mart said yesterday that it would rapidly expand the financial services offered in its vast network of stores, extending the reach of its retailing empire into its shoppers' wallets and the traditional turf of the American banking industry. Over the next year, the company plans to introduce a prepaid debit card, intended for low-income consumers, and install money centers - which currently offer check cashing, bill paying and money order services - into at least 1,000 stores, up from 225 now. The moves are seen as a precursor to even wider offerings, like mortgages and home equity loans, which could turn Wal-Mart into a significant force in the banking world... The introduction of such services is something of an end run around the federal government, which was considering Wal-Mart's application to open a bank last year when the retailer withdrew its bid. The new products, like the prepaid debit card, will be offered through third-party partners, allowing Wal-Mart to sell banklike services without a government license. Given Wal-Mart's penchant for squeezing costs out of every business it enters - from changing oil to dispensing prescription drugs - the move is expected to jolt the financial services industry.... Analysts said there was ample evidence that Wal-Mart would lower the costs of banking in the United States. The chain has already cut the cost of cashing checks by 50 percent, and its financial services saved customers $245 million last year, according to company executives.

Bibi not losing focus on Iran: "Opposition leader and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday will embark for the U.S. on a visit aimed at increasing financial sanctions against Iran to get it to drop its nuclear program. During his visit, Netanyahu is slated to meet a New York State financial official, asking him to withdraw or freeze hundreds of millions of dollars the state pension funds have invested in Iran. Netanyahu will then arrive in Washington where he will meet for talks on the Iranian issue with Vice President Dick Cheney, Democratic Party presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, and Republican Party presidential hopeful Fred Thompson. The Likud chairman was recently involved in Florida's State assembly's passing a law sanctioning investments in Iran."

Brits lose another al Qaeda suspect after turning him loose with a "control order" : "A suspected Al Qaeda recruiting sergeant is on the loose in Britain after becoming the seventh control order suspect to abscond. The Iraqi asylum seeker, a follower of dead Al Qaeda warlord Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, vanished from his home on Monday. His disappearance leaves the policy of using control orders to monitor terror suspects in tatters. A minister admitted that the orders cannot prevent "determined" suspects escaping. The missing man is alleged to have been part of a six-man recruitment team sent to Britain by Al Qaeda in Iraq to enlist volunteers to join attacks on British and U.S. troops serving there. He managed to gain a foothold here by claiming to be fleeing persecution in Iraq."

Scottish nationalism peeping out: "This, apparently, is the beginning of Scotland and Northern Ireland becoming a force or, maybe, two forces in the world: asking for more money from the poor benighted English taxpayer. It is at times like this that I begin to appreciate the arguments in favour of an English parliament, though I remain at heart a Unionist. Anyway, so far Alex Salmond, temporary leader of the Scottish Assembly (his share of the vote is considerably less than overwhelming) has not said anything of any interest on his ideas for foreign policy, beyond pointing out that the Nordic countries have an alliance and it has a certain clout in the world. Of course, the Nordic countries pay for their own alliances and diplomatic services. One assumes that is at the heart of this and subsequent statements. Scotland wants its own diplomatic service and its own negotiators. Who will pay for this? Need you ask?"

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

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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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Serious debate on the Right. Simplistic formulas on the Left

From Jeff Jacoby

What do liberal Democrats think about the war in Iraq? That's easy: It was a blunder that has become a debacle, and it should be brought to an end as soon as possible. What do conservative Republicans think about the war? That's not so easy.

The right has been fighting over the war since well before it began. The American Conservative -- a biweekly magazine launched in 2002 by Pat Buchanan, a former aide to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan and twice a Republican presidential candidate himself -- has vehemently opposed the Iraq campaign, regarding it as the worst kind of nation-building, a squandering of blood and treasure for no vital American interest. By contrast, The Weekly Standard -- a conservative journal edited by William Kristol, an influential Republican strategist -- was among the earliest advocates of invading Iraq, and continues to vigorously defend what it calls "The Right War for the Right Reasons."

Tune in to a Republican presidential debate, and you'll hear views on Iraq that range from John McCain ("if we fail and we have to withdraw, they will follow us home") to Sam Brownback ("we've got to put forward a political plan to create a three-state solution") to Ron Paul ("it was a mistake to go, so it's a mistake to stay"). The Democratic candidates, on the other hand, debate only the purity of one another's antiwar stance: Whose denunciation of the war came first? Whose goes the furthest? They squabble over style, but when it comes to substance, as Hillary Clinton said during a recent debate, "the differences among us are minor."

Iraq is not an anomaly. On one important issue after another, the right churns with serious disputes over policy and principle, while the left marches mostly in lockstep. Liberals sometimes disagree over tactics and details, but anyone taking a heterodox position on a major issue can find himself out in the cold. Just ask Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat dumped by his party for the sin of supporting the war.

In the liberal imagination, conservatives are blind dogmatists, spouters of a party line fed to them by (take your pick) big business, their church, or President Bush. (A classic expression of this idea was the Washington Post's description of evangelical Christians in a Page 1 story some years back as "poor, uneducated, and easy to command.") Yet almost anywhere you look on the right these days, what stands out is the lack of ideological conformity.

Take immigration. National Review, an old and distinguished address on the map of American conservatism, has long championed a restrictionist immigration policy and a tough-minded crackdown on illegal immigrants; it furiously opposed the recent Senate immigration bill. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, an equally venerable conservative voice, favors more immigration, not less, and regards the crusade against illegal immigration as contrary to America's best interests. On May 31, in an editorial on their popular website, the editors of National Review threw down the gauntlet: "We hereby challenge the Journal's editors to debate the immigration bill in a neutral venue with a moderator of their choosing -- two or three of us versus any two or three of them. . . . We urge them to come out of the shadows, and hope defending the bill in this forum is not another one of those jobs that no American will do."

It isn't only within the conservative media that immigration policy is hotly debated. The GOP presidential field runs the gamut from McCain, co-author of the immigration bill, to hard-liner Tom Tancredo, who calls the bill "the worst piece of legislation to come down the pike in a long time." In the think-tank world, a leading advocate of a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants is Tamar Jacoby (no relation), an expert at the conservative Manhattan Institute. One of the most implacable voices *against* any such "amnesty" is Heather Mac Donald -- also of the Manhattan Institute.

Another example: abortion. The GOP platform has been pro-life for decades, yet the unabashedly pro-choice Rudy Giuliani leads most of the Republican preference polls. Try to imagine a pro-life Democrat as a front-running candidate for the White House. Or health insurance: The Massachusetts healthcare law that takes effect next month is highly praised by the Heritage Foundation and fiercely critiqued by the Cato Institute, two of Washington's most influential right-of-center think tanks. From school vouchers to stem cell research to racial preferences to torture, the American right bubbles with debate and disagreement, while the left, for all its talk about "diversity," rarely seems to show any.

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ELSEWHERE

If the attackers had been white it would have been a KKK event!: "A Texas man was beaten to death by enraged onlookers after the car in which he was riding struck a four-year-old girl, said police in Austin. Investigators believe David Rivas Morales, 40, was beaten by two or three men on Tuesday night after the girl was struck in the car park of an apartment building, said an Austin police commander. The girl was treated at an Austin hospital and released. The men initially attacked the driver of the car but turned on Mr Morales after he got out of the vehicle to try to stop the assault, said Commander Harold Piatt of the Austin police homicide unit. The driver was able to leave the area in his car and was cooperating with homicide detectives. While Mr Morales is Hispanic and his attackers were black, police said they don't believe the attack was racially motivated. "This wasn't a hate crime," [OH NO! Blacks don't commit hate crimes!] Cdr Piatt said. "This wasn't a racist crime. There is absolutely no reason to think race had anything to do with this."

BBC supports those it calls "freedom fighters": "Politicians reacted in disbelief to the revelation that for over two hours yesterday, the BBC News website carried a request for people in Iraq to report on troop movements. The request was removed from the website after it sparked furious protests that the corporation was endangering the lives of British servicemen and women. According to accounts last night, a story on a major operation by US and Iraqi troops against al-Qa'eda somewhere north of Baghdad contained an extraordinary request for information about the movement of troops. Last night the BBC confirmed the wording of the request was: "Are you in Iraq? Have you seen any troop movements? If you have any information you would like to share with the BBC, you can do so using the form below. A spokesman was unable to offer a detailed explanation of why anyone at the BBC should be seeking such information"

This will REALLY help lower gasoline prices: ""A proposal to hit oil companies with $29 billion in new taxes advanced in the Senate on Tuesday, targeting the money to energy conservation, wind turbines, electric hybrid cars and clean coal technology. The massive tax package, double what Democrats had discussed as recently as last week, is 'designed to promote clean and sustainable energy,' said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Finance Committee that approved the measure by a 15-5 vote. It is expected later this week to be added to energy legislation being considered by the full Senate." [Has anybody ever told these morons that it is Joe Average who pay these taxes in the end?]

Mass democracy fails in Gaza: "The civil war between the Fatah and Hamas parties in Gaza and the victory by Hamas militants is yet another example of the dismal failure of mass democracy. The main purpose of democracy is to prevent civil war. Large communities require leadership, and the two ways of selecting the leaders are with force or with choice. Democracy provides a means for the people to peacefully choose their leaders. But for that to work, the people must agree to accept the outcome. For democracy to work well, the population must sympathize more with the concept of democracy than with their favored parties, ideologies, and policies."

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

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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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LEFTIST PRINCIPLES

From Tom Delay

In one controversy after another, Democrat leaders in the last 40 years have shown themselves almost wholly without any compass other than partisanship.

Nixon obstructed justice to cover up a scandal, Democrats hounded him from office; Clinton did the same thing, Democrats rallied to his defense.

G. Gordon Liddy tried to steal stuff from the DNC, he's a pariah; Sandy Berger successfully stole stuff from the 9/11 Commission, he's a hero.

Ronald Reagan says he wants to reform welfare, he's a racist; Bill Clinton says he wants to reform welfare, he's a visionary.

Sen. Robert Torricelli quits his reelection race in New Jersey, Democrats demand the party replace him with a better candidate; I quit my reelection race in Texas, Democrats demand that Republicans not be given the same opportunity.

Clarence Thomas is incredibly accused of sexual harassment, Democrats fly into a rage; Bill Clinton is credibly accused of sexual assault, Democrats play deaf.

Bill Clinton says Saddam Hussein needs to go, Democrats rattle their sabers; George W. Bush actually does something about it, Democrats howl.

Source

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ELSEWHERE



(Above) How low can you go? (H/T Texas Fred)

I have up on FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC some rather amazing news about blood transfusions that has tremendous civil liberties implications. Laws were passed in many places to force transfusions on Jehovah's Witnesses despite their religious objections. But it now seems that survival rates in similar illnesses are better WITHOUT blood transfusions. The Old Testament wisdom that the JWs followed was right after all. What that says to me is that we MUST resist the constant attempts to force official wisdom (about "obesity", "global warming" and much else) upon us.

Nifong again: "A judge suspended District Attorney Mike Nifong effective immediately Tuesday after learning the prosecutor disbarred for his handling of the Duke lacrosse rape case intended to stay in office for another month. The sheriff immediately stripped Nifong of his badge and the keys to his office. Durham County Sheriff Worth Hill went to Nifong's house with a deputy to serve the order Tuesday morning. "We took his keys and his badge that gave him access to the building," Hill said. "We'll make arrangements to help him get his personal belongings later." Candy Clark, Nifong's legal assistant, said the one case he was handling was being reassigned... Dick Ellis, a spokesman for the state Administrative Office of the Courts, said Nifong will still be eligible for his full retirement benefits - a pension and health care - that he accrued while working as a state employee for nearly 30 years."

Supreme Court: 4th Amendment covers passenger searches: "Police who illegally stop a car can't hold the passengers for questioning and possible searches, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today in a case from Northern California. The unanimous decision said a passenger has the same right as a driver to argue in court that police had no legitimate reason for a traffic stop. The California Supreme Court ruled in the same case last June that only the driver can challenge the legality of the stop. If the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed, police who stopped vehicles illegally or at random could have detained any passengers for at least a brief period. Police could have conducted a pat-down search if they had reason to believe a passenger was carrying a weapon, and they could have arrested a passenger if they saw incriminating evidence in the car."

Six states defy law requiring ID cards: ""Six state legislatures are defying a federal law requiring new driver's licenses that aim to prevent identity theft, fraud and terrorism. The states have passed laws in the past two months, saying the federal law has a steep cost and invades privacy by requiring 240 million Americans to get highly secure licenses by 2013. The 9/11 Commission urged the first standards for licenses to stop fraud and terrorists such as the Sept. 11 hijackers, who lied on residency statements to get licenses and state IDs."

Despite promises, few in House make earmark requests public: "Despite the new Democratic congressional leadership's promise of 'openness and transparency' in the budget process, a CNN survey of the House found it nearly impossible to get information on lawmakers' pet projects. Staffers for only 31 of the 435 members of the House contacted by CNN between Wednesday and Friday of last week supplied a list of their earmark requests for Fiscal Year 2008, which begins on October 1, or pointed callers to Web sites where those earmark requests were posted."

Paris Hilton a victim of hate? "Hilton was sentenced to 45 days' imprisonment for driving with a suspended license. When the local sheriff did something that has been done for thousands of other nonviolent offenders in L.A. County's overcrowded jails, releasing her early to serve her term under house arrest, the cry went up that this was unconscionable, and a tearful, hysterical Hilton was hustled back to a cell. After L.A.'s city attorney joined the chorus calling for her reimprisonment, it came out that his wife had gotten off with a fine after committing a similar offense. He insisted the situations were not comparable, and indeed they weren't: When his spouse got in trouble, no mob was baying for her blood."

Slow-motion Tet: "Last week, a group of tribal leaders in Salah-ad-Din, the mostly Sunni province due north of Baghdad, agreed to work with the Iraqi government and U.S. forces against al Qaeda. Then al Qaeda destroyed the two remaining minarets of the al-Askariya mosque in Samarra, a city in the province. Coincidence? Perhaps. But al Qaeda is clearly taking a page from the Viet Cong's book. The terrorists have been mounting a slow-motion Tet offensive of spectacular attacks on markets, bridges, and mosques, knowing that the media report each such attack as an American defeat. The fact is that al Qaeda is steadily losing its grip in Iraq, and these attacks are alienating its erstwhile Iraqi supporters. But the terrorists are counting on sapping our will as the VC did, and persuading America to choose to lose a war it could win."

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

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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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