LOTS OF GOOD STUFF ...

Wow! What a scandal. Most people have long suspected that charities spend more on salaries for their staff than they do on the people who are supposed to be getting the help but a leading U.S. Democrat has just put together a study that tells us how much could be saved by small reductions in charity “administration” costs -- $100 billion! What a difference it would make if charities really were charitable! The only organization that I personally give money to is the Salvation Army. I think that they make a real effort and having God as supervisor should help keep them ethical. And I would never give a cent to the antisemitic fat-cats of the Red Cross.

I must say that I cannot agree with the push among some US conservatives to keep single mothers in the armed forces out of war zones. If you are in the army you have to be prepared to fight. Otherwise you might as well be a civilian clerk employed by the army. And if single mothers do not want to fight, why do they join up? It’s their choice and nobody else’s.

Iceland has the most conservative government of the Nordic countries. Let’s hope it stays that way after today’s elections.

A new blog I rather like is Prestopundit. It is fairly scholarly with a moderate libertarian orientation.

I like it! Somebody in Britain claims to be able to diagnose your personality from the biscuits (cookies) you eat. I eat very few biscuits but I do like Digestives (a sort of wheatmeal cookie) and here is my biscuit-o-scope: "Digestives are the favourite of technical specialists or financial experts who are logical types seeking precision and accuracy." Since I have been writing statistical analysis computer programs for 35 years and have also done very well as an investor, that is pretty good.

Feminists are claiming that women are more victimized by war than men are and that women were just as much victimized by Saddam as were men. Both claims are the reverse of the truth -- as I guess we should expect.

"An Alexandria [LA] storeowner shot two burglars -- killing one of them -- early Tuesday when they entered the business through the ceiling, police said .... [The storeowner] has not been charged with a crime. The store was closed at the time, but [he] was staying inside in an effort to deter break-ins." He’d get life in prison in politically correct Britain.

Slate has a summary of North Korea's terrorist track record but they could also have mentioned the drug trade

A quote from Greenpeace founder (now apostate) Dr Patrick Moore (now of Greenspirit): " [The public] is getting the impression that by using less wood we can save the trees. But 80% of all the timber produced in the United States, for example, is from private land -- When you go into a lumber yard, you're given the impression that by buying wood you're causing the forest to be lost, when in fact what you're doing is sending a signal into the market to plant more trees. .."

Over the last two decades, black entrepreneurs have done more to improve the economic situation for 'the black community' than any black pastor or politician. Capitalism beats socialism every time. It even works for the mentally ill, believe it or not.

I liked this confession: “I am only feebly religious — feebly Episcopalian, in fact, which is feebleness squared!”

The Wicked one has evidence that “spare the rod and spoil the child” is still right for some kids today.

Michael Darby (post of 10th.) argues that the age of consent for gay sex should not be lowered.

Chris Brand (post of 10th) notes that leading geneticists duck the issue of IQ heritability -- not surprisingly in view of the big racial differences in average IQ.

In my academic posting of May 10th here, I reprint two published journal articles dealing with another scheme for finding a second dimension of politics in addition to the usual Left/Right division. I show that this scheme fails too. Left/Right is the only major dimension of politics that the psychological evidence supports. See also here.

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APPEASENIK CENSORSHIP

Arlene Peck (post of 8th.) has a rather sad story of being censored by Arab-appeasing fellow-Jews. What idiots! Like Saddam, the Palestinian Arabs can be defeated but never appeased. That any Jew can have forgotten the failed appeasement of 1939 is incomprehensible to me.

Crossposted on Israpundit

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GREENIES AND OTHER FADDISTS

Miranda Devine once again homes in on how Greens make bushfires worse. Since bushfires are a calamity for the very trees and wild creatures that Greenies profess to love, one has to wonder what part of their brain is missing. Rather a big part, it seems.

The busybodies and scaremongers are now targeting nanotechnology -- i.e. engineering on a microscopic scale. What next?

"We'll say this much about activists who devote their lives to opposing genetically modified (GM) foods: they don't let a little thing like reality slow them down. Despite a biotech crop boom in Asia, the continued acceptance of GM foods by U.S. consumers and European governments ... and a grain-belt mainstream here at home that is increasingly savvy about tuning out these unscientific scaremongers, the lunatic fringe of the anti-biotech movement is ramping up its propaganda campaign."

There is no evidence to support claims that organic food is any better for you. So sad.

A recent attack on "junk" foods in the New Scientist is exposed here as junk science. There is a link in the article to a highly abusive reply from the editor of New Scientist which fails to budge the basic point that they ran a scare based on very flimsy evidence.

”Vitamin and mineral supplements could cause more harm than good, the Food Standards Agency will say today. It is calling for one supplement to be banned and says that six other substances could damage health irreversibly”

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ELSEWHERE

“Leading evangelical Christians for the first time have publicly condemned assaults on Islam by the Rev. Franklin Graham and other fellow religious conservatives.” Any Bible-believing Christian worth his salt would see Islam as Satan’s religion -- an evil mockery of Christianity.

As Jeff Jacoby says: "Three Cubans who attempted to escape Castro's island gulag by hijacking a ferry to Florida... were killed by firing squad.... the whole international community should be condemning Cuba. But it isn't. Last week Cuba was elected to a new three-year term on the UN Commission on Human Rights."
I really do wonder why we put up with EITHER Castro OR the UN.

Speaking of the Iraq war, Sir John Keegan asks: "The allies got it so right: how did the pundits get it so wrong?" He says it was obvious from the start that the Iraqis were way outclassed militarily and blames the pundits for looking at everything except that. He also notes that despite their many detractors, the British and American tanks proved themselves in this war. He also says: "The dash from Kuwait to the vicinity of Baghdad was done at a speed unequalled in military history."

Oregon claims that Attorney General John Ashcroft has no right to interfere with doctor-assisted suicide there. I must say I am on the side of Oregon on that one. Denying mercy killing really is merciless.

"Reformist Iranian MPs warned the country's powerful and entrenched clerics yesterday to give way to reforms and normalise relations with the outside world or suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein." In other words, democratic Iranians are using the US army next door to scare the Ayatollahs. Saddam's downfall may yet liberate Iran too!

Under the latest super-generous GOP proposals, shareholders would not pay taxes on the first $500 of dividend income. Pathetic! I receive many thousands in dividend income every year and pay no tax on it because the Australian government recognizes that the companies paying the dividends have already been taxed on the earnings concerned.

China hand has some amusing stories about going to the beach in China and adapting to Chinese toilet arrangements. He has some rather Turner-esque photos of the seaside there too.

The Wicked one has some funny stories about stupidity.

Chris Brand (post of 9th) dissects the current arguments for affirmative action.

Michael Darby (post of 9th.) has an article arguing that the Palestinian Arab suicide bombers show the primitivism of Arab civilization.

In my academic posting of May 9th here, I present a better way of measuring what psychologists claim to be “pre-Fascist” ideology -- but which I claim is no such thing. Marxism is historically the pre-Fascist ideology.

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GLOBAL WARMING AND ASTROPHYSICS

Astrophysicists Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas have recently trashed global warming. See here and here (PDF documents). Excerpt:
"There is no convincing evidence that the 20th century was unusual. On balance, the evidence indicates that the 20th century falls within the range experienced during the past 1,000 years....".

Soon is physicist at the Solar and Stellar Physics Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and an astronomer at the Mount Wilson Observatory, and Senior Scientist at the George C. Marshall Institute. Sallie Baliunas is an astrophysicist formerly affiliated with the Mount Wilson Institute. Her awards include the Newton Lacey Pierce Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the Bok Prize from Harvard University and in 1991 Discover magazine profiled her as one of America's outstanding women scientists.

One reason why astro-physicists seem so willing to challenge "Greenhouse" may be their knowledge of the sun spot cycle, the 'Maunder Minimum' and the Little Ice Age. See the interview with Sallie Baliunas here

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POLITICAL CORRECTNESS KILLS

Theodore Dalrymple in the Spectator points out how the suicide rate in British prisons has exploded since the UK's abolition of the Death Penalty. He thinks the two are not unrelated and the reformers may be part of the problem:

"Until the 1980s, when the suicide rate rose, it was an offence in prison to harm yourself or to make a suicidal gesture. Unless the doctor considered that you had a bona fide illness that led you to act in this fashion, you were charged with wasting medical time, and lost remission. The abolition of this harsh-sounding regulation was replaced by a more 'caring' attitude, and conferred certain advantages in prison upon those who claimed to be suicidal, which resulted - as any sensible person would have expected - in a large increase in acts of self-harm, of which there are now at least 20,000 per year in our prisons. But the abolition of punishment for self-harm achieved its most important end: the gratification of the reformers' narcissistic urge to feel humane..."

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LEFTISTS FAIL TO SUPPRESS ENGLISH PATRIOTISM

The English are starting to rediscover some national pride, both as English: "With a bit of luck, it will be remembered as the World Cup that brought rehabilitation to the flag of St George. After years of association with football hooligans and the racist far Right, the simple red cross of England's patron saint has been recaptured by ordinary Englishmen and women."
... and as Brits: "Led by an imposing figure of St George on a horse clad in his colours, protesters marched through the streets of Telford yesterday after their local council insisted on flying only the European flag from its buildings. Telford and Wrekin council has enraged many local people by refusing to fly permanently the Union flag or the Cross of St George"
.. so it must be banned of course: "An English university has banned students from flying the flag of St George before or after the World Cup in case it causes racial tension."

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ELSEWHERE

The US Administration thinks that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons and wants punitive action by the United Nations! Why on earth do they bother? The United Nations?? The Israeli Osirak raid of decades ago shows what should be done.

There is a new British blog called "We the undersigned" which does a good job of skewering Britain's hordes of crazy Lefties.

Arlene Peck (post of 7th.) has recently been to London and found it a lot different from California. She notes the anti-Israel sentiment there and had some fun with the BBC.

Australia-UN relations hit new low Great!

Tony Blair is making commendable efforts to introduce some rationality into Britain's floundering hospitals but he is getting more opposition from his own party than from the Tories. Can it be long before we see some sort of regular arrangement between the Tories and the rational element of Labour?

Great news: US internet service provider EarthLink yesterday said it had won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against a man who sent more than 800 million junk emails over the internet. "Obtaining a judgment against a spammer like Carmack benefits all Internet users, and the judge's decision today is a significant victory against spam," said EarthLink. EarthLink said the injunction prevents Carmack from "ever again illegally spamming any internet user"

Chris Brand is rather pleased that his critics appear to be becoming unstuck.

The Wicked one has a shocking post about a Chicago hospital that refused to save a life when it was in an ideal position to do so.

Michael Darby has an expose of how CNN covers Cuba -- confirming the view of many that CNN stands for "Communist News Network".

In my academic posting of May 8th here, I have another article about how best to measure how ambitious people are.

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THREE CHEERS FOR BLIND BLUNKETT

British Home Secretary David Blunkett may be physically blind but he can see some things a lot more clearly than many of the whining Leftists of his party. He plans to change the law so that the most depraved killers die in prison. The Times has learnt that he will outline a “highly prescriptive” set of principles under which anyone who abducts and kills a child would never be freed. So-called whole life terms would also be imposed for terrorist murders and for premeditated, sexual or sadistic multiple murders. Judges would also have to fix minimum tariffs for other murderers. These would range up to 50 years, with terrorists, people who murder police or prison officers or witnesses, and contract killers all having to serve at least 30 years.

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HOW SICK CAN BRITISH JUSTICE GET?

No wonder Blunkett is taking on the Brirtish justice system. Look at this:

"Government lawyers trying to keep the Norfolk farmer Tony Martin behind bars will tell a High Court judge tomorrow that burglars are members of the public who must be protected from violent householders. The case could help hundreds of criminals bring claims for damages for injury suffered while committing offences. ... Home Office lawyers dispute Mr Martin's contention that he poses no risk to the public because he only represents a threat to burglars and other criminals who trespass on his property."

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GREENIE DREAMING

A reader writes:

There is an article here listing all sorts of everyday measures "you can take to prevent global warming.... if only one third of the US population did the same". It includes nonsense about not raking up lawn clippings, using fluorescent light bulbs and getting your old clunker of a car tuned more often. Of course we can respond by pointing out that their goal of getting 1/3rd of the population to agree voluntarily to do something and keep doing it, without being prompted to by market incentives, would actually be a bigger miracle than stopping global warming with a roomful of Kyoto hot air; and of course fluorescent light just ain't the same; if our better tuned cars lower our gas bills, we might just drive more; and that by spending 15% less on "small packages" of groceries, we may only need to buy bigger fridges and homes for the preferred bulk stores; .and of course any cash savings all this green belt tightening offers may only give us more cash to spend on fun stuff like overseas holidays, drag racing and snow mobiles.... but "why bother" is the best response.

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ELSEWHERE

Great! Condoleezza Rice has virtually threatened Syria with war if they are found to have Saddam’s WMDs. That might make them come clean peacefully if they do have WMDs.

Jonah Goldberg says: "Elections should be the last on a long list of priorities for Iraq. In the United States we've fetishized democracy to the point where it means essentially 'all good things.' But this sentiment runs completely counter to the intent of the U.S. Constitution. The Founders were just as afraid of too much democracy -- the tyranny of the majority -- as they were of too little -- the tyranny of the minority."

And why Freedom and Democracy are not always on the same team

A senior Berlin diplomat was reported to have told Foreign Ministry colleagues that America was turning into a 'police state.' It is Germany, not the USA that has national identity cards for everyone -- cards that you need for almost everything you want to do.

Gay rights should not include the right to adopt children. That is the message Australia’s Tasmanian Government has been hearing from the public.

The right of citizens to discriminate is a fundamental freedom.

The very guy who invented global warming theory said not to believe the numbers he produced because they were unreliable as a picture of what actually goes on in the real world!

Another nasty one for the Greenies: Estimates of Canada's oil reserves jumped this year from 4.9 to 180 billion barrels. Canada has a huge amount of “oil sands” and thanks to technology advances that lower the transportation cost of the sands, production costs are now estimated at around $8 a barrel -- which makes it very profitable to use them if the Kyoto-obsessed Canadian government every gets around to allowing it.

It looks like those clever Japanese still like nuclear power and are about to build a lot of new reactors. That will give the Greenies heartburn too.

Michael Darby has an explanation of why intellectuals hate both the USA and Israel.

Chris Brand (post of 6th.) lists some of the amazing examples of political correctness unearthed by Diane Ravitch and points out that book publishers are in fact the chief accomplices to the abuses concerned.

The Wicked one says that most poor people are poor simply because they do not work.

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with the usual smorgasbord of blog wisdom.

In my academic posting of May 7th here, I point out how silly are some of the big words psychologists use for simple things.

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!!!
PLUTONIUM IS GOOD FOR YOU: NO JOKE

Wonders never cease when you look at the realities behind what the Greenies preach at us. There have been three big US government research projects that showed LOWER death rates among people exposed to plutonium:

The studies are in the report: "Toxicological Profile for Plutonium," prepared for and issued by Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia, in collaboration with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, December 1990:

**A 37-year study (as of 1990, the year of the report) of 26 plutonium workers at Los Alamos laboratory during World War II with plutonium deposition ranging from 2,000 to 95,000 picocuries plutonium with a mean of 26,000 picocuries showed mortality of 2.0 vs. 6.6 in a comparable number of the general population. In addition, no malignant neoplasms have occurred in this group during this extensive follow-up.

**Study begun in 1974 of an additional 224 Los Alamos workers with average whole body deposition of 19,000 picocuries plutonium showed 43 deaths compared to 77 in a comparable number of the general population. The number of deaths due to malignant neoplasms was 8 vs. 15 in the general population, including only one lung cancer vs. five in the general population.

**Study of 7,112 workers employed at the Rocky Flats plutonium facility during 1952-1979 showed comparable results. Observed deaths of workers were significantly less than those in comparable numbers of general populations (452 vs. 831). Malignant neoplasms were also less (107 vs. 167).

And anybody who knows anything about hormesis will not be surprised that plutonium was so beneficial.

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WHAT WE STAND FOR

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has just summed up well what both the USA and Australia stand for:

"Australia and America are close friends because above all we have similar values. In the end, the thing that binds nations together more than anything else is the commonality of their values and we have a view of the world that puts freedom and individual liberty, a belief in market outcomes where appropriate at the centre of the activities of both our nations."

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MUSEUM TREASURES NOT LOST

"The vast majority of the Iraqi trove of antiquities feared stolen or broken have been found inside the National Museum in Baghdad, according to American investigators who compiled an inventory over the weekend of the ransacked galleries. A total of 38 pieces, not tens of thousands, are now believed to be missing .... The inventory, compiled by a military and civilian team ... refutes reports that Iraq's renowned treasures ... had been scattered or lost during the U.S.-led war against Iraq."

So much for THAT "scandal"!

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ELSEWHERE

Most amusing report today: The crazy Leftist Australian journalist John Pilger was on Tuesday awarded the 2003 Sophie Prize, a Norwegian award honouring “environmental or development efforts”, for his work which “helped the public examine the real causes of the war in Iraq”. They obviously do not want their prize to be taken seriously.

Estonia is a great example of how rapidly a country can forge ahead once it is liberated from socialism.

City Journal reports that 70 percent of NY convicts are re-arrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within three years of their release -- but that there are ways of cutting that right down if all the deliberately blind do-gooders can be bypassed.

A good story from "The Atlantic" about the great glut of Soviet tractors in Cuba and why Cuban farmers prefer Oxen

After twice being successfully sued for defamation, the editor of Crikey.com.au has “implemented a new early apology strategy“. Should be more of that in the media generally. They get pretty arrogant at times.

A recent book review by Freeman Dyson really puts a spoke in the wheel of the "Greenhouse" scare-mongers. He points out that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is rapidly grabbed by plants who use it for growth and simply convert it into more topsoil in the end. So rather than doing any harm it simply becomes plant food. And Greenhouse theory seems to totally overlook the possibility that plants will gobble up any extra carbon dioxide.

Chris Brand has some skeptical thoughts about psycho-social engineering.

Michael Darby thinks there are Islamic terrorists in West New Guinea -- immediately to Australia's North.

The Wicked one thinks we need MORE global warming, not less.

In my academic posting of May 6th here, I look at a claim that people with old-fashioned views are "hostile" and show that it is not so.

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AN INDIAN VIEW OF INDIANS IN BRITAIN

I have received the following email from an Indian now living abroad but originally from Hyderabad in Southern India:

Though I am not exactly an Anglophile, I definitely do not want Britain to drown in the sea. There is much in British culture and people that is worthy of admiration and preservation -- yes worth fighting and killing for (in the past I used to think that the only worthy contribution of Britain was their TV comedies like Monty Python, Blackadder, Yes Minister etc. but you get older and wiser..). I would advise Britain to restrict Indian immigration as the Indians who move to Britain are mostly Punjabis and Gujaratis. Both communities have notorious reputations for fraudulent behavior in India and in other countries like Kenya, Hong Kong, U.S etc.

Here is an interesting piece of information for you: The Indian state of Gujarat is named after the invading tribe of Khazars (Indians to Gujjar, plural being Gujjarat). The Khazars also gave their name to the Caucasian country of Georgia. My Russian friend informs me that most "Russian gangsters" are actually Georgian and he abuses Georgians in the vilest terms as being "crooks, frauds" etc!

Punjabis are a hodgepodge of every invader that passed through their state as if it were a lily field! Sikh militarism is a very recent phenomenon.....

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AFFIRMATIVE NONSENSE

Some further comments from a reader about "affirmative action":

There was a college prof from Delaware that wrote a gut-splitting funny column on affirmative action. He announced to his class that, for future exams, he would average the points for the white males, then subtract 5 points from their scores. These same 5 points would then be redistributed to enhance the scores of minorities and women. It was the best comment yet on the nonsensical nature of this policy. Yet the "smartest legal minds in the land" (Alias - liberal Supreme Court justices) have spouted absolute nonsense about this.

I have been very skeptical about "diversity". So I contacted Peter Wood (an anthropologist from Boston U, who has studied "diversity" as much as anybody) and I asked the obvious question: Is there ANY scientific evidence that "diversity" improves any measurable index of education - and he gave me the obvious answer - to his knowledge (and he knows as much as anyone about this issue) NO.

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ELSEWHERE

Well how about that! It has taken the European Central Bank to spell out to the Brits that their creaking National Health Service is doomed as the British population ages. The bank points out that "free" (in reality "rationed") health care will at some stage have to be replaced by a system where patients pay some of the costs.

Great news! India and Pakistan are at least talking about scrapping their nuclear arsenals.

There have been a lot of sensational accusations from Australia's Left-leaning media about Dr. Peter Hollingworth, Governor General of Australia and former Archbishop of Brisbane. I know him personally to a small degree and am pleased that he is one of the few Anglican prelates who actually seems to be a believing Christian. The full story that most of the media forget to mention is available here

It looks like Canada's CBC is trying to beat Britain's BBC when it comes to political bias. The blatant dishonesty of their recent broadcast about "Greenhouse" makes a mockery of any idea that they are a "public service" broadcaster. They are a "Left-loving" broadcaster.

Great! South Africa has resumed using DDT to control mosquitoes (scroll down). And guess what? They have virtually eliminated malaria -- thus saving thousands of lives that would otherwise have been lost if they had listened to the Greenies. There has of course never been any good evidence that DDT is harmful.

There is a list here of the major myths about “Greenhouse” and climate change -- plus a scientific demolition of each.

The Australian PM has rightly just rejected any FORMAL “Anglosphere” grouping of Australia, Britain and the USA. When you have the underlying reality already there, there is no need for treaties and the like.

I mentioned the methodologically ludicrous work of Marxist anti-economist Michael Pusey yesterday. A more detailed demolition of his work can be found here (PDF file).

China hand once again tells us of the massive real estate developments -- both residential and commercial -- going on in his part of China. No more village life there! Modern high-rise apartment buildings are common.

On his other site China Hand makes the point that libertarians such as myself should embrace freedom of immigration -- though he acknowledges that the Australian government’s very successful control policy has almost universal support in Australia. He does make a good case, however, for Asian maids being allowed to work in Western countries.

Michael Darby (post of 4th) pays tribute to the remarkable work being done among impoverished Ugandan children by an Australian woman teacher.

The Wicked one has accounts of blockheaded official behaviour from both Taxachusetts and Canada.

Chris Brand has posts on British nationalism and British antisemitism.

In my academic posting of May 5th here, I offer my fellow psychologists a better way of measuring materialistic ambition.

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HAVE THE BRITISH MISSED THE POINT ON IMMIGRATION CONTROL?

The flood of 100,000 "asylum-seekers" arriving in Britain every year is immensely unpopular with British voters for very good reasons and the British government is of course keen to do something about it. But wringing their hands seems to be the main thing that they have done about it so far for fear of the Leftists in their midst who frown on anything that might be considered "inhumane". That the Leftists are just hypocrites who did not at all mind the infinitely more inhumane Saddam Hussein regime seems not to be noticed. The latest British proposal is to try and make the problem go away by sending all "refugee" arrivals to processing centres in Russia. That is of course a copy of the Australian policy of sending such arrivals off to remote Pacific Islands for processing.

What they overlook, however, is that it is not the "Pacific" policy that has worked for Australia at all but rather the fact that Australia sends all such arrivals straight to gaol -- whether in the Pacific or in Australia itself. The gaols concerned are very modern and humane but illegal immigrants are often held there in limbo for long periods before having any prospect of release and this regularly causes dramatic protest riots among the inmates. These riots are of course great fodder for the media and receive worldwide TV coverage. And after a few of these riots were publicized, guess what happened? The refugees just stopperd coming! Australia now has essentially no illegal immgrant problem to deal with! Would-be illegals did not like what they saw of Australia on TV and so have gone elsewhere to impose themselves on more weak-willed governments.

So the British proposal MIGHT work -- as long as there are plenty of riots among the illegals sent for "processing" to Russia.

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THE “PAIN” OF MIDDLE-AUSTRALIA

Craig McGregor has written a rather sycophantic review of Michael Pusey’s latest book The experience of middle Australia. The book’s basic thesis is that economic reform has caused great anguish to middle-class Australians. Both the book and the review have such a strong and evident Leftist bias that I was going to leave it to other conservative bloggers to “fisk” both as I like to put my efforts into making my own points rather than demolishing somebody else’s obvious nonsense. Since I know the author of the book quite well, however, China hand has persuaded me that I should put up a few notes.

The first laugh I had when I read the review was: It's a bold and formidable achievement (with endorsements from Noam Chomsky and others on the cover). That should be enough for most people who are wary of bias.

But anyway: Up to 1983 I had an office next to Michael Pusey at the University of N.S.W. and found him to be a most pleasant, bright and friendly fellow. He was however a keen Marxist at that time so his claim now that he is a "middle-of-the-road social democrat" is at least not the whole truth.

I have not read the book nor do I intend to as I gather that it is based on face-to-face interviews and anybody who knows anything about social research knows how much room for observer bias that data gathering of that sort enables. And that the researcher was biased McGregor clearly tells us. He says that Pusey is “an absolutely committed critic of economic and structural reform and globalisation, using his research results to mount a passionate condemnation of the social impact of these reforms.” Pusey gets a bit much even for for McGregor in the end -- he says that the epilogue to the book “descends into an anti-American rant. "The United States has gone mad," he writes”.

That researchers find what they expect to find is known among psychologists (Pusey is a sociologist) as The Rosenthal effect. It is an amazingly powerful effect and not easily avoided. One reason why psychometricians such as myself rely heavily on multiple choice questionnaires is that it enables the researcher to have NO contact with the people being studied -- thus precluding a major source of bias. In most of my research career, until the numbers came out of the computer I had no idea what I was going to find. Questionnaires have their limitations, too, of course, but that is another story.

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ELSEWHERE

It seems that Iraq's former information minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf was actually quite brave to do what he did.

Fascinating: “THE director of a Paris theatre that staged a play critical of US President George W. Bush, has been beaten and slashed across the face with a box cutter.” Apparently, the assailants associated anti-Bush sentiments with pro-Arab sentiments and LOTS of Frenchmen do not like the large Arab minority foisted on them by their governments.

Good if it happens: “AN effusive and appreciative US President George W.Bush has set a personal deadline for a historic free trade agreement by Christmas, after thanking Australia for its courage and sacrifice in the war in Iraq.”

“With 900,000 citizens living in foreign countries Australia has one of the largest diasporas relative to population of any nation in the world”. That’s nearly 5% of the population. We do get around.

Chris Brand notes that eugenics has worked well in Cyprus.

China hand says that a restaurant offering Western food is being set up near him. I guess even the Chinese can have enough of Chinese food -- good though it is.

The Wicked one is rather pleased that “natural” medicines are often poisonous.

Michael Darby points out that under the Australian constitution, the Governor General is our “Head of State”.

In my academic posting of May 3rd here, I look at the popular claim that racists are maladjusted and point to evidence contradicting that claim.

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BLACK REALITIES

In response to the story of the “whites only” prom that I mentioned yesterday, one of my readers in Texas (a professional man who deals with blacks regularly) writes:

How can anyone ask White students to treat Blacks as equals when everyone knows that Blacks are not held to the same standards for either academics or behavior?

In a related story, in Austin TX (as elsewhere) the behavior of Blacks in high school is noticeably worse - this is just a fact. So, there are more Black students disciplined - along comes the NAACP complaining that there is just too much disciplining of Black students. Solution? Essentially, eliminate all discipline [This was the worst system I have seen - my wife quit after two months when students threatened her, called her names out loud, were physically violent in the classroom, etc.- and the principal simply didn't want to hear complaints].

Predictably, some Black thug with a long history of behavior problems killed a girl with a knife on school property. In rides the NAACP on its white horse to investigate an "unsafe environment" in the schools.

These "paleo-activists" just think they are still in the 1960's. They just can't call a spade a spade - and they just can't figure out why Blacks are still not treated as first class citizens

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