CHINESE INTERNET CENSORSHIP

I have had an email from Matthew Cowie in China about how Chinese internet censorship is affecting him. I am pleased to say that my "For China" mirror site is working for him. He writes:

I can view your site at http://users.tpg.com.au/jonjayra/tripod.html. Rumor has it that proximity to Beijing figures into internet censorship, although I haven't been down south yet to see if it's the case. The funny thing is that all the blocked sites are left-wing, like the BBC. (Plus the unfiltered Blogger, Geocities, Tripod, etc.). NYTimes and Washington Post are accesible since the outset of the Iraq war, but before that they were blocked. The weekly China-bashing editorials from the Washington Times have always been available. (Although I guess most Chinese haven't heard of the Washington Times so it's not considered a problem.) My blog is not viewable in China, although I can post. Since it is aimed at the home audience it isn't much of a problem.

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MOBILE PHONE PARANOIA

The recent story of a Melbourne snowboarder lost and injured in the British Columbia high country who used his mobile to call his parents in Australia to organise a rescue suggests how silly and counterproductive current technophobia is. Future generations will surely giggle at it -- just as we find quaint the old "Red Flag Act" (see here and
here) that required all cars to be preceded by a man walking in front and carrying a red flag.

The myth of the 'risk' of using mobile phones at petrol stations is surely a huge non-threat. As this industry site says: "There has been no actual incident of fuel ignition at petrol stations that has been demonstrated to have been caused by mobile phone use, anywhere in the world." Such scares tend to divert attention from real risks. There is, for instance. evidence of filling-station fires related to static discharge from customers wearing synthetic fibre clothing. But there are no warnings against that.

As New Scientist wrote in an article entitled "Dial F for Fear" a few years back. "Never have so many people worried so much about so little."

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ELSEWHERE

Marvellous: The US government is stepping in to reverse some of the damage that has been done to the nuclear power industry by the Greenies. For those of us who REALLY want a cleaner environment, nuclear power is the answer.

Incredible: The same knives that the 9/11 hijackers used still get through security and on to Australian aircraft! Trust governments to look after you!

And you can be as mad as a cut snake and still be allowed to drive trains in Australia.

Australia is talking to the United States about a new mission to intercept North Korean vessels suspected of carrying missiles, counterfeit money and drugs

Shame: “A Danish pizzeria owner who refused service to French and German tourists because their governments didn't back the US-led war in Iraq was convicted of discrimination today.”


There is some good stuff just up on Brookes News: Leftist economic illiteracy about wage-rates and a remarkable history of Castro’s military record.

Prof. David Flint observes that the voting patterns of the local football teams are a better guide to public attitudes than are “elite” opinions or the prognostications of the media! He also says that Australia's Governors and Governors General are far from being "Rubber stamp" functionaries and that we need more of their services not less. One would have thought that Australian Leftists would realize how significant our Viceroys are by now -- after Sir John Kerr sacked their great hero -- Gough Whitlam.

Luke Slattery has some interesting comments on the Left/Right division in modern politics. He argues that Leftists today are really conservatives and that they should become more so to be true to their ideals.

China hand has the inside story of how SARS got out of hand in Hong Kong.

Chris Brand notes that female chauvinist sows are active in the London literary scene.

I have up on PC Watch an argument in favour of stopping Islamic immigration.

In my latest academic post here (or here) I show that the Protestant ethic is not dead and that to this day committed Protestants are more inclined to strive to better themselves materially.

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IMMIGRATION PERVERSITIES

An Australian reader writes:

Peter Brimelow has a great "5 point" summary of the arguments against immigration. He includes a link to an article discussing economist Peter Bauer who made some key points in the economic case. There is also some discussion of the tensions between the welfare state and immigration. This one point was apparently lost on the left who went into a headspin when "One Nation" emerged as an electoral force in Australia in the late 1990s, winning up to 10% of the vote despite (or because of?) near universal condemnation by the country's political, academic and media elite.

The left's pundits wondered aloud how Australia 1997, rightly thought of as more tolerant and cosmopolitan, could generate a mass populist anti-immigration movement, when the provincial and staidly Anglo-Saxon Australia of 1947 didn't. "Australia was not a multicultural society in 1947 when the first post-War Census was held. Indeed it recorded the lowest proportion of immigrants at any time since 1788 (among the non-indigenous) and for any time after 1947." As a result the left, who under Paul Keating's administration, often praised the Australian people for their tolerance, started to call the same people closet “rednecks”.

The real answer of course was obvious, and under their nose. The 1948 immigrants didn't come with a fat government welfare and multiculturalism industry price tag around their neck. In fact in 1947 refugee immigrants were required to labour for two years on public work projects. Thus "Citizen Bigot" in 1947 had less incentive to oppose immigration than did broad minded "Citizen Tolerant" in 1997 .

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ELSEWHERE

Life was meant to be cheesy: Dr Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine, says cheese is addictive because it contains small amounts of morphine from cows' liver. .... 'There's a biochemical reason many of us feel we can't live without our daily fix. Cheese, for example, contains high levels of casein, a protein that breaks apart during digestion to produce morphine-like opiate compounds, called casomorphins.'

Amusing: Carol Johnson supports the ordination of an openly homosexual bishop in the (U.S.) Episcopalian Church. But she also makes clear what sort of Anglican she is: She attends church there because they have pretty ceremonies and no stuffy dogmas: None of that silly old New Testament stuff! As an atheist myself, I wonder why she bothers.

BRITAIN is facing the prospect of co-ordinated strikes that could paralyse the public services as the country’s biggest union prepares to go to war against the Government. No doubt everyone and his dog will be comparing this with the famous “winter of discontent” that brought down the previous Labour government of Jim Callaghan. But in 1979 Callaghan had Thatcher challenging him whereas Blair’s Leader of the Opposition is a pusillanimous nobody.

Iraq: "To hear U.S. officials talk, the key to restoring livable economic conditions is the military working with regulatory agencies, international governmental bodies like the World Bank, and billions in tax dollars. That’s not true, of course. If Iraq is to be rebuilt into a functioning society again, it will be through the efforts of Haydar Hussain and other [individual Iraqis] like him."

Islamic “extremists” versus Jewish “extremists”: Hamas and Islamic Jihad want to drive Israel into the ocean, but the Jews are extremists too. They want to keep their homes!

“Canada has all but wrapped up its search through cattle country for mad cow disease without finding any cases beyond one confirmed in May, but its biggest export market, the United States, is not ready to lift a ban on Canadian shipments” Odd that! Where are your friends when you need them?

Canada's Trudeau invented multiculturalism as a clever trick to dilute Quebec secessionism.

We know from recent radio interviews (here and here) with Jerzy Zubrzycki, influential Australian immigration policy advisor, that the Whitlam govt used Canadian multiculturalism as a "model" for Australia's policies. Zubrzycki also reveals that besides Canada, another model, not publicly discussed, was 16th century Poland's Zlota Wolnoscz ("Golden Freedom") period. The subsequent history of Polish ethnic relations is hardly inspiring and probably indicates why the pioneer advocates of multiculturalism were not prepared to expose their model to public debate.

There are some skeptical comments about the inevitability of democracy here. It is certainly an undoubted historical fact that the normal human method of government is a tyranny of one sort or another. I myself think that it is only the temperament of a few closely-related races from the fringes of Northwest Europe that makes lasting democracy possible. And I don't think Iraq will surprise me.

It sounds like special pleading of the worst kind but it does seem that fox-hunting is good for the fox. For a fuller account of the fox-hunting issue see here.

Cecil Adams, author of THE STRAIGHT DOPE column has some clear thinking about DDT here. He says that Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” was not quite a pack of lies.

Michael Darby writes about the heartless bureaucrats who are supposed to be in charge of child welfare. Shooting would be too good for most of them.

Chris Brand notes that rising educational expenditure in the USA has been accompanied by falling educational standards.

I have recently noted on PC Watch that politically correct language can have the reverse effect to that intended.

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WHY THEY HATE US

Following is an interesting excerpt from a recent book review:

The designation of the US by the Iranian religious establishment as the Great Satan is something much more specific than a mere description of the US as extremely evil. Rather, the metaphor is used in the sense that Satan's role, in Islam and Christianity, is primarily to offer temptation. Satan is the great seducer, offering material and carnal delights to the faithful to tempt them away from righteous living.

Thus the roots of fundamentalist hatred of the US are not its support for Israel or any of the other litany of specific allegations levelled against it but that its material success offers Muslims, and Muslim societies, a great temptation to abandon the stringent practice of religion.

A more extensive excerpt from the review is to be found here.

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WILLIAM BLAKE

I mentioned recently the powerful effect that William Blake's great "Jerusalem" hymn has on me. An Indian correspondent comments:

"You may be aware that the Academy Award winning movie CHARIOTS OF FIRE is based on the poem by William Blake which you mentioned in your blog. It's about about an English Jew and a Scottish missionary in training competing in the Olympics (1924) and how their idealism at times impedes and obstructs their game but they stick to it no matter what. Incredibly inspiring -- considering today's narcissistic and dog eat dog culture. I absolutely love this movie and the movie gets me choked up as well: quite incredible considering the movie celebrates British victory at the Olympic games in the 1920's.

I mentioned this to some girls and they said that they didn't get what could be so emotional about the film. I hope they are satisfied with some retarded Meg Ryan chick flick. So apparently one doesn't have to be British to appreciate the visual translation of William Blakes poetry."

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ELSEWHERE

The latest finding from genetics researcher David Goldman at the NIH is exciting stuff for those of us who study variations in human personality. A single gene (the Catechol-O-Methyl-Transferase or COMTgene) has been found that determines whether you are a worrier or an action type. That sounds very similar to a major human trait that psychometricians call neuroticism/stability. Psychometricians have had evidence for some years now to show that the sort of person you are is mostly inherited but it is good to see the precise gene responsible for one of the major inherited traits being identified. The old Leftist whine that "education" can change everything about us is looking sillier every day.

Another good column by Jeff Jacoby. He says basically that "old Europe" has lost its cojones and that is why they hate America.

Some relentless logic that gave me a chuckle: "Either there is a justification for the war (objectively speaking) or there is not. If there is, then it doesn't matter what motivated President Bush. If there isn't, then it doesn't matter what motivated President Bush. Either way, it doesn't matter what motivated President Bush."

Lots of good stuff in the Spectator at the moment: More evidence of how much we are a product of our genetics; How bureacracy is strangling British schools; How Nike "sweatshops" are enriching the world's poor and Mark Steyn is skeptical about Iraqi democracy happening any time soon.

Amusing: A prominent Australian law professor has just realized something that social scientists have known for a long time: Prejudice can be a good thing.

There is a short, sharp and well-informed debunking of "natural" and "organic" food here. Yes, you guessed it, it can have MORE pesticide residues than normal food and it is much worse for the environment. And it tastes no better either. So there!

The 'working rich' bear virtually the whole cost of government and its extensive entitlement programs... but the left media is trying to convince us that the beneficiaries of our system are really its victims."

The Wicked one has a comment on why homosexuality among the top Nazis is denied or glossed over.

Michael Darby has a fresh lot of horror reports from Zimbabwe. Opposition still goes on there despite brutal repression.

Chris Brand reports that although IQ has been rising throughout the world and although American blacks have now had decades of interventions to help them, blacks scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test are actually falling

My latest academic posting here (or here) is one of my small number of academic philosophy papers. I look at what perception is.

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INSIDER TRADING

From FEE: “Martha Stewart has been indicted for lying about a stock sale that the government can't prove was illegal insider trading. That's bad enough, but she is also charged with securities fraud -- for proclaiming her innocence! Read all about it in "Free Martha!" by Sheldon Richman.” An Australian reader writes:

In Australia, stockbroker Rene Rivkin has just been jailed for 'insider trading' -- rather paralleling the US Martha Stewart case. Harry Browne says we are wasting public money on an absurd law based on the myth of an unobtainable 'level playing field'. William Anderson says that envy has something to do with it. Crikey makes the point that whatever the rights and wrongs of insider trading, putting Rivkin in prison is a waste of money. He's hardly a threat. A big fat community service order, say free financial advice to a public charity, makes more sense than Rivkin's weekend detention order.

One other link between Rivkin and Stewart is celebrity. This Yahoo article asks if law enforcement agencies stalk celebrities for their own PR purposes. Nobel prizewinning economist George Stigler once did an analysis entitled "Public Regulation of the Securities Market," which concluded that purchasers of new share issues fared no better (or worse) after the creation of the SEC than before. No wonder regulators feel the need to collect high profile scalps! The media, of course pull down prominent people for a living. See here for the BBC job on Martha.

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COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY?

I have now commented a couple of times on the way all sorts of colleges get “verbally upgraded” to being called universities. I seem to recollect that Sinclair Lewis had a satirical comment on that in “Babbit” many years ago too. Matthew Cowie comments:

I found this link which kind of goes into the differences between a college and a university in the US. My alma mater has only 1600 undergrad students, but calls itself a University because it has a law school and a separate undergraduate business school, in addition to offering far more majors than most colleges (hence making it more like a University). I think small schools that call themselves universities always get asked why they are a university (because the word invokes images of Division 1 football and at least 10,000 students), especially by parents when they visit with their children, so they are going to have some kind of answer.

I myself take the traditional British view that in a university those who teach are all supposed to have some involvement in research and/or writing as well.

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WIND POWER

Further to my recent mention of Greenie dissension about windmills, a reader writes:

“The American Wind Energy Association has a site, (www.awea.org) with some interesting papers. One paper stated: "Installed wind energy generating capacity now totals 4,685MW and generated about 1.2 billion kWh of electricity - less than 1% of US electricity generation"

Calculation #1: US electricity generation in 2000 was 3.800 trillion kWh according to the US energy department. Dividing 1.2 by 3800 yields 0.3%. (Yea, this is less than 1%, a LOT less.)

Calculation #2: Theoretical output = 4685 MW x 24 x 365 = 41.05 billion kWh. Actual output was 11.2 billion kWh 11.2 / 41.05 yields a paltry 27% efficiency. How do they make money? In some cases, the tax benefits per kWh are actually greater than the money they get for selling the power.

As a closure, I find it so Kennedyesque that Ted has suddenly done an about face regarding wind power when it comes close to home in Martha's Vinyard. Ultimate NIMBYism.”

The really HUGE cost of wind-power generators, however, is that you have to double them up with other types of generator for use when the wind is not blowing. The whole thing is utter nonsense, in other words.

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ELSEWHERE

Remember all the shrill Leftist denunciations of the US armed forces for failing to prevent the “looting” of all the Iraq museum treasures? Will they be retracting their criticisms now that almost all the treasures have been found NOT to have been looted? Don’t hold your breath.

Chris Brand thinks it may be mainly people of Chinese race who get SARS -- but that the PC media hide that fact.

Michael Darby has a speech which sets out a vision of what conservatism is all about

The Wicked one has some criticisms of the anti-tobacco extremists.

Writing on his other blog China Hand makes a case that being unsure of yourself is better than having convictions. But he is not too sure about it!

In my academic posting here (and here) I reproduce one of my analytical philosophy papers -- which tackles the basic question of meta-ethics: What is meant by such terms as “right” and “good”? I take the unusual step of using social science methods to help answer a question in academic philosophy.

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DEVALUED CREDENTIALS

Fellow blogger Carol Johnson, has emailed me about my post in which I mentioned that many British colleges are shortly to be renamed as universities for no good reason. She points out that such “verbal upgrades” go on all the time in the USA too. She questions my claim that people soon wake up to this and are not deceived by it.

To expand my view of the matter, what I think goes on is that people start looking more and more at the institution that grants the degree rather than the degree itself. So paper credentials in general get devalued and other things -- such as your performance on standardized tests, the prestige of your background or your family connections become the real credential in hiring decisions etc. In other words, the degradation of paper credentials has the effect opposite to that intended: Able people from poorer backgrounds find fewer and fewer ways to prove their worth.

“Verbal Magic” is of course a great Leftist ploy in general. They think that renaming things can do all sorts of wonders. That it cannot was shown very well many years ago in Australia. Shortly after WWII, a Leftist Australian government wanted to encourage immigration into Australia but faced prejudice against immigrants from many native Australians. The government thought it could fix this by banning the words “immigrant” or “migrant” and replacing it by the more positive term “New Australian”. And they did succeeed in getting their new term widely adopted. What they did NOT succeed in doing, however, was to alter people’s attitudes thereby. The term “New Australian” very rapidly came to be used with contemptuous connotations. People were NOT influenced by the attempted verbal magic.

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GREY GOO

In response to fear recently expressed by the Prince of Wales that micro-robots might one day turn the world into grey goo, a reader writes:

"Spiked" suggests that fears about nanotechnology or "Grey Goo" are probably just part of overall the green technophobia -- Fear of what you don't understand. The "Grey Goo" threat is also known as "The Star Trek scenario".

The term was coined by Eric Drexler, a kind of self promoting pioneer and prophet of nano-tech. Drexler is either a prophet or a nut depending on whom you talk to. His biographer Ed Regis says the public should just ignore his weird "Grey Goo" scenarios and look at the practical real world nano applications.

Nonetheless there have been some interesting advances in the nanotech world -- for example Nanotechnology May Help Overcome Current Limitations Of Gene TherapyFreeman Dyson also talks about Grey versus Green too. But he considers nano-technology, biotechnology and Genetic Engineering to be the true "green" technologies, not windmills and compost bins. These 'true' green technologies may revolutionise our "grey technology" and help overcome mass rural poverty around the world. See "Freeman Dyson envisions biotech solutions to rural poverty".

Some more of Dyson's surprisingly different take on the future are that Aeroplanes will become obsolete and we will have trees with leaves made of silicon and "Things are going amazingly well"

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ELSEWHERE

Britain’s decision not to adopt the European currency is a great victory for economic rationality over political symbolism. Why would a prospering Britain want to put itself under the same rules as a stagnant Europe? It’s bad enough Britain being in the EU at all when a free trade agreement with the USA would do them a lot more good -- even if all that did was to free British industry of all the EU red tape.

The Church of England now has an openly homosexual bishop. I have got some New Testament readings for those who appointed him -- Romans 1:24-27; 1 Timothy 1:9-11; Jude 7; 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11. But I guess that the New Testament is just another fuddy-duddy old book to the Leftist clergy of the present-day Church of England.

For those who like British humour, The Times was surprisingly good yesterday -- here and here

We hear such a lot of ill of the clergy these days that this story may be needed to restore a balance.

The Leftist “educators”: Recent studies suggest as many as half of today’s college freshmen must take at least one remedial course in college, with more than four in 10 of these taking a remedial course in writing. Why would K-12 teachers put a low priority on grammar and usage skills? Because that’s what they are taught to do by their professors in schools of education.

The Wicked one has a big posting on whether or not Nazism was gay

Michael Darby quotes the 19th century Chartists in discussing how long a Parliament should be allowed to serve before facing an election.

Chris Brand has some amusing examples of PC insanity.

In my academic posting here (or here) I draw on evidence from Australians, Afrikaners and Indians to show that being proud of your own country or society does not mean that you denigrate or are prejudiced against other nations, groups or races.

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BROOKES NEWS

Gerry Jackson of Brookes News writes regarding my recent post about Oliver Wendell Holmes defending taxes:

“A couple of points about Holmes. If I recall my history correctly he made his statement about taxes and civilisation before 1910. This was before the US had an income tax and when total government spending was about 9 per cent of GDP. I find it odd that critics of high taxes never point this out when self-righteous lefties quote Holmes. Moreover, it was Holmes who said: "I have no respect for the passion of equality, which seems to me merely idealising envy."

Some current headlines from Brookes News:

Socialism is the villain, not Nike. The communist government in Hanoi is responsible for the appalling level of wages in Vietnam, not Nike. It is that government's socialist policies that keeps living standards at an abysmal level.

Revealed: Goebbels' plan to destroy Britain's radar defences. Sixty-five years ago Joseph Goebbels hatched a devilish scheme to destroy Britain's radar defences without firing a shot.

The Dems fascist supporters. Many have expressed puzzlement at the spectacle of the very rich lavishing "soak-the-rich" Democrats with money and other means of support. Buffett is one such supporter whose recent and dishonest attack on Bush's tax cuts immediately brings this apparent paradox to mind. So why do they do it?

Why Kim's antics threaten Beijing's Pacific ambitions. One does not need a deep knowledge of Chinese affairs to realise that the last thing Beijing would welcome is a nuclear conflagration on her doorstep. It is also recognised in the Asian region that Beijing would like to see an American withdrawal.

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ELSEWHERE

Hey! Affirmative action has its uses. At least it led to the downfall of the notoriously biased Howell Raines.

Some fruitcake slashes at police with a knife and it’s the fault of the police when they shoot him? Only in San Francisco (I hope).

Taxes wasted on bureaucracy: In the British National Heath service, the National Office of Statistics found that, while resources rose by 6 per cent in real terms in 2001, treatments to patients rose by only 3 per cent

You live and learn: Like most people I thought that South Korea’s “sunshine policy” towards the North was simply designed to avert war. This article explains that it is acually a form of collaboration with the North. Reunification of the two Koreas would, of course, be a huge economic drain on the South.

Good comment: “To certain critics of U.S. policy in Iraq, the only thing worse than going to war with Saddam Hussein is the fact that we won”. Via The Federalist

Good to see that the judge in the case made a laughing-stock of the ridiculous Federal prosecution of a medical marijuana grower.

What fun: Greenies are at one-another’s throats over windmills. Maybe that fad will pass soon too. How anybody ever thought windmills could be a reliable source of power-generation escapes me.

A disturbing article in the “Speccy” by someone of Pakistani Muslim origin. He says that anti-Western Islamic TV stations are accessible worldwide through satellite and that they are widely watched by Muslims in the West. So even in the West Muslims are getting fed a diet of ferocious anti-Israel and anti-Western propaganda that glorifies terrorism. No wonder a couple of British Muslims recently became suicide bombers. Muslims everywhere are being made a danger to us.

Libertarian socialism? A prominent UK politician says that there is such a beast but goes on to advocate government dominance of just about everything. Perry de Havilland has more.

"House Majority Leader Tom DeLay sharply attacked China's leadership recently, demanding that the United States forge a trade agreement with Taiwan despite Chinese opposition. Calling China 'a backward, corrupt anachronism, run by decrepit tyrants, old apparatchiks clinging to a dying regime ...'“ He’s right but 1.2 billion people are not to be trifled with and they have liberalized an awful lot in recent years -- so much so that their capitalism is in some ways more unbridled than we ever now see in the West.

Clinton’s Energy Information Agency estimated Kyoto’s annual cost to the U.S. at up to $400 billion ..."

Understandable: While four out of five Americans would describe an unwed mother and her children as a 'family,' fewer than one in three would apply the term to a gay or lesbian couple raising children."

Michael Darby is not very happy about a government policy of shooting “brumbies” (Australian wild horses).

Chris Brand discusses the Spanish conservative philosopher, Ortega Y Gasset.

In my academic posting here (or here) I report a study of South African Afrikaners (whites of Dutch origin). I found that they were conservative and ambitious but not maladjusted in any way. And pro-Apartheid voters among them were not particularly conservative!

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"DISCRIMINATION" IN IMMIGRATION

A reader writes:

A thought about Australian immigration policy: The development of large ethnic sub-communities apparently unwilling or incapable to integrate into the wider Australian community and the symbiotic relationship that their unelected "leaders" have with the multiculturalism industry is really a by product of the Whitlam / Fraser immigration policy era. Whitlam claimed to be killing off what remained of the old "White Australia" policy. This was disingenuous -- as the previous Liberal administrations from Holt to McMahon were the governments that actually abolished the "White Australia policy" progressively over a decade, in favour of a programme based on integration and assimilation.

The Whitlam ministry instituted "multiculturalism" which was effectively sold to Fraser and institutionalised ever since. Neither Whitlam or Fraser ever attempted to sell multiculturalism to the electorate directly. In fact Whitlam argued that immigration of all kinds, including non-european immigration, would be reduced under his government and "family reunion" would provide a conservative alternative to "white Australia". Whitlam was trying to play both sides, defusing concerns from those concerned about radical social change by emphasising lower total numbers and maintenance of traditional sources of immigration, whilst winning support from "ethnic community leaders" and playing up his burial of a policy that was already dead.

Unfortunately 'family reunion' has turned into chain immigration and Australia's stringent criteria applied to independent immigrants (ie those lacking a family predecessor) are bypassed, sometimes by genuine or false refugees, but mainly by legitimate family union immigrants.

In current Australian politics, social conservatives are portrayed as advocates of "discrimination", where the multiculturalists portray themselves as advocates of a "non-discriminatory" immigration policy. This is also disingenuous. All immigration policies other than a completely open door or a completely closed door involve some form of discrimination, and almost no one advocates either of those positions.

In fact social conservatives, by advocating an end to the family reunion "loophole", and the application of the usual rules applied to independent immigrants, could easily argue that their policy is by far the fairest and hence the least "discriminatory" option.

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CARNIVAL

Carnival of the Vanities is particularly interesting this week. Just two posts for example:

Eric Berlin tells us why ethanol is more wasteful than thermal depolymerization. One hopes that Senator Daschle would bother actually learning the facts, too, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Jeff Medcalf blogs about the possible results of the US putting pressure on Israel. A frightening scenario, to be sure, but worth reading (and pondering at length).

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ELSEWHERE

What rot: The British government is about to start calling almost any college with more than 4,000 students a university -- whether it does research or not. Another example of the Leftist belief in verbal magic -- the belief that changing the name changes the reality. Nobody is ever fooled by it for long, fortunately.

Sounds good: "The United States is said to be developing new plans for a war in North Korean that would bypass the demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas and target the leadership in Pyongyang. The plan is based on the success of US-led forces in Iraq in quickly reaching the capital, Baghdad. US officials quoted by Reuters said the plan would involve the consolidation of the US and South Korean forces in two areas away from the demilitarised zone."

What a joke: The Australian Labor Party is distraught that Jacques Chirac is NOT going to visit Australia. Rather odd when a nominally Rightist French obstructionist becomes a hero to a nominally Leftist Australian political party. We live in crazy times.

The latest posting on Vdare is an article by Joe Guzzardi which reveals more unethical reporting at the NYT. In typically Leftist fashion the NYT seems to be an ethical vacuum -- with one revelation about their carelessness with the truth following another.

Also on Vdare, P.G. Roberts has a pretty alarming article about a new interpretation of the constitution being considered by the US Supreme Court that would assign “equal protection” to minorities only -- making most whites into second-class citizens. If the judiciary really does run amuck to that extent, I can foresee that some people might be driven to vigilante justice against them -- with the more racist judges ending up with a bullet in the head. As Juvenal said: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

There is a report on PC Watch that says many Iraqis want the U.S. to stay in Iraq but that Muslim zealots make them afraid to say so.

In his usual fearless way, Chris Brand has been writing to the papers about black penis size.

Michael Darby details one way in which the United Nations is very similar to the Roman Catholic church: Tolerance of paedophilia.

The Wicked one enjoys instant justice being done.

In my academic posting here (or here) I report some survey research findings about Germans that will surprise many. I found that Germans were far more likely than most others to have “Hippy” values -- a far cry from the goose-stepping robots of Hollywood war films. I point out some prewar history that makes the finding understandable however.

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TAX, OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES AND THE AUSTRALIAN LEFT

An Australian reader comments on an Australian Labor Party hero:

In a recent major speech, Simon Crean, Federal Parliamentary leader of the Australian Labor party, quoted with approval the American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who famously said: "When you pay taxes you buy civilisation". Of course when Holmes, who died in 1935, said that neither Australia or the US had anything like the tax rates imposed today. My guess is that Holmes paid a lesser slice of his pay packet to the government than most of us, and I doubt whether Crean would want Holmes sitting on that Australian Hign Court bench as Holmes was a strong advocate of "judicial restraint" and would have fought the judicial activism supported by the left today.

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BRITAIN

Good to see that Tony Blair is so hugely popular worldwide. Being a man of principle does pay off in the long run.

Overweight people and heavy smokers would have to sign contracts promising to diet or give up cigarettes in return for Health Service treatment, under radical new plans being drawn up by the British Labour Party. And if they break their contracts they get charged the full costs of their treatments. I expect that a lot of people will be outraged by that but we do not live in an ideal world and the fact is that health care is universally rationed these days -- only the way it is rationed varies. And a rationing system that gives preference to people who are ill through no fault of their own makes sense to me.

The British government has declared war on the huge and obscene payouts that company bosses now often get when their companies go broke. As a shareholder myself, I just hope the Brits start a ball rolling there that gets to other countries as well. Shareholders seem to have no power in the matter so I think this is clearly one area where governments do have a proper role. I actually think a chief executive’s pay should be cut to zero when his company goes under. Why should shareholders be the only ones to suffer? They are the ones who have least control over anything but they always get the penalty.

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