CHRISTIAN TOLERANCE

A reader writes:"It would be interesting to hear CS Lewis's take on the modern 'gay marriage' debate. He was a great believer in marriage but had fairly libertarian views for his time on what the role of the state should be in all this. The following is an extract from his well-known book, "Mere Christianity":

"Before leaving the question of divorce, I should like to distinguish two things which are very often confused. The Christian conception of marriage is one: the other is the quite different question -- how far Christians, if they are voters or Members of Parliament, ought to try to force their views of marriage on the rest of the community by embodying them in the divorce laws. A great many people seem to think that if you are a Christian yourself you should try to make divorce difficult for every one.

I do not think that. At least I know I should be very angry if the Mahommedans tried to prevent the rest of us from drinking wine. My own view is that the Churches should frankly recognise that the majority of the British people are not Christians and, therefore, cannot be expected to live Christian lives. There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members. The distinction ought to be quite sharp, so that a man knows which couples are married in a Christian sense and which are not. "

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SOME HEADLINES ON BROOKES NEWS:

A scientist exposes green hypocrisy on GM foodstuffs: As a research scientist I would say that the only stumbling block to GM food has been vociferous scare campaigns waged by radical green groups such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.
Why Beijing is twisting North Korea's arm: The final irony is that it looks as if China's self-interest is going to be the means by which the fall of Kim is finally assured. The great thing about the situation for the rest of the world is that it is George W. Bush who occupies the Oval Office and not Gore, a man held in complete contempt in the capitals of Asia — and particularly in Beijing.
The Left's war against America: America's leftists are not just waging a culture war but a war against a culture. These are creatures who have nothing to offer but hate and malice. These ideologues and their media allies are the real enemy. These are ones who have to be confronted and defeated, not just in America but also in Australia.
Green attacks on GM reveal contempt for human life: We now have Dr Gyorgy Scrinis — a research associate in the Globalism Institute at RMIT University — trying to rationalise why it is preferable to allow peasants to suffer poverty and malnutrition rather than allow them access to life-improving genetically modified crops.)
How the greens kill people: The green movement has demonstrated a callous disregard for human life, especially in the Third World.

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

Those awful Israelis! There is a big Palestinian complaint here about how Israelis make Palis WAIT! How dare they? That the Israelis might be nicer if the Palis stopped blowing them up does not seem to rate a mention.

This is rich! A German Socialist politician is calling Italians racist. A German Socialist politician would know one, of course. Italians are in fact exceptionally non-racist. Even in WWII Italy was something of a refuge for Jews.

This is a bit breathtaking: Some nutty American Professor who lives in Australia thinks that Australia is not Leftist enough so Australia should fix that by becoming the 51st State of the USA! And he’s not joking. But he may have something. In some ways the USA has drifted further Left than Australia. I myself think that Americans should recognize the Queen as their rightful liege lord and rejoin the British Commonwealth!

"Public education in America is producing politically correct, properly sensitized, ignorant little socialists. Some of them can read and write and many can make change at McDonalds, given the machines that tell them what the change amount should be. All of the problems now besetting our youth can be laid at the feet of the socialist indoctrination required by the states before one can become a 'certified' teacher."

The Wicked one uses a proverb to summarize why affirmative action will never make much difference anyway.

My latest academic posting here (or here) looks at what predicts economic success among Indian famers. Surprise! Surprise! It is intelligence and drive that makes the difference. Despite all the Leftist waffle to the contrary, that is what matters most in economic life everywhere.

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I TURN 60 TODAY

Definitely time for reflection. I have big problems with skin cancer so may not have many years left but the life I have had has been a blessed one in many ways. My father was a lumberjack, I left school before completing High School and I inherited nothing from my parents except my genes. But I nonetheless have done well in academe, in business and in my personal life -- which reinforces my view that in modern Western society it is only ability and good sense that separates most of the "haves" from the "have-nots".

One amusing episode in my university career was when I got an article published in an academic journal under joint authorship with another academic whose first name translates as "God's Penis" -- see here. Another odd accomplishment was when I got praise of one of my ex-wives into an academic journal -- see here.

My only regret is that I had only one child -- but my son is a real chip off the old block so that is pleasing. There is a picture of him here -- Warning: He is not very "diverse" in U.S. Supreme Court terms.

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MORE ON LEFTIST “COMPASSION”

An Australian reader emailed me with this addition to my post about the cruelty of Leftist “compassion”: “I think the classic example of being protected by leftists is the extension of 'equal minimum wage laws' to aborigines in the late 1960s. The result was large number of aboriginal stockmen (cowboys) put out of work: A great victory for social reform. Laws giving equal access to grog and social security came in about the same time, each on their own a genuine reform. But the net result was arguably a reformer-imposed social disaster that aboriginal communities are still struggling to overcome.”

”Reality is not PC” was also moved to hit the keyboard by my “Leftist compassion” posting. He/she points out that a great Leftist cause of the 1930s was eugenics -- sterilizing some criminals and those who were deemed to be mentally ill -- and that the U.S. Supreme court upheld eugenics laws too. And here’s the killer quote: “In 1933, Nazi Germany used the US sterilization laws as the blueprint for the Nuremberg Laws under which 350,000 "unfit" German citizens were sterilized.. Get that? Hitler modelled his policies on the policies of American Leftists!!. Leftists nowadays gloss all that over and even try to deny that the eugenicists were Leftists but the 1930s eugenicists even called themselves “Progressives”. More on them here. So the cruelty and destructiveness of Leftist “do-gooding” goes back a long way even in the democracies.

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DO-GOODER STUPIDITY

The Society of St Vincent de Paul -- a large Roman Catholic charity organization in Australia -- has recently come out in favour of a range of Leftist political policies: “WE advocate a range of action, including removal of tax concessional treatment of trusts, means-testing of the baby bonus and the private health insurance rebate and the abolition of a number of tax concessions”. What qualifies do-gooders to give economic advice? All the issues are old ones. Why do “Vinnies” want to throw their weight behind one side of the debate? I guess they want to alienate that half of the electorate who do NOT vote Leftist and thus halve the donations they receive. Clever! When they’ve got brains like that, you know what to think of their advice.

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ELSEWHERE

Good comment: "There are no foreign invaders in Liberia. The people who have been killing, mutilating and brutalizing Liberians are Liberians. President Bush will not have any problem finding bad guys. His problem will be finding good guys. The people opposed to the present president, Charles Taylor, are just as bad as he is. So just what will our troops do? Shoot Liberians on a random basis?"

I believe some libertarians were wishing one-another “Happy Bastille Day” yesterday. That seems dumb to me. What is good about replacing one tyranny with a worse one?

A limited school choice program looks set to go ahead in DC. Not as good as vouchers but a step forward.

The Agitator says: “Those in the "pro-choice" crowd who are most vigilant about protecting abortion rights aren't pro-choice at all. They're pro-abortion. They'll swear they aren't, because it's of course a political loser to admit as much. But don't let them fool you. They want to see lots of abortions, and they're genuinely pissed off each time a woman actually chooses to have a baby”

Arlene Peck has a VERY skeptical post about the current Arab “ceasefire” in Israel.

Writing on his other blog, China Hand has posted some old American rules for good manners that he thinks may help modern Chinese when they go abroad.

There is a flamethrower post from Chris Brand about racial differences reproduced (with comments) on PC Watch

The Wicked one reports a case where a violent home invader got let off scot-free because he said he was high on Jasmine tea at the time! Jasmine tea is the sort of tea we all normally get in Chinese restaurants.

My latest academic posting here (or here) reports that materialistic ambition is NOT particularly high among Hong Kong Chinese -- suggesting that the great economic achievements of Hong Kong are purely the outcome of their extreme free-market economy.

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THE CRUELTY OF LEFTIST “COMPASSION”

That Leftist claims of compassion are a total fraud hardly needs proof for anyone who knows history. Their murderous brutality when they gain unrestrained power (e.g. Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and all of their many “revolutionary” brethren worldwide) shows that. And the admiration and support that Western Leftists regularly displayed for Communism before the Soviet implosion shows that Leftists in democratic countries share the same underlying values as the Leftist totalitarians. Since Western Leftists and Communists profess the same basic beliefs and use much the same propaganda, it would be surprising otherwise. Some American “liberals” and some Labor party supporters in Britain and Australia, however, claim that they have always deplored Communism and so are not like that. They claim that they REALLY care.

That this claim is false is displayed by the way they exercise what power they do have. For example, “tenant protection” is a great Leftist cause. A moment’s thought should show what all experience shows: That making life more difficult for landlords discourages landlording and makes rental accomodation scarce -- thus forcing the poor people who depend on it to pay much higher rents than they previously did -- where they can find accomodation at all. No Leftist could be ignorant of that. It is such an old lesson that has been repeated worldwide so many times. Yet Leftist governments still keep doing it. The deeds of such Leftists show them to care only about their own self-righteouness -- and too bad if that slugs the poor.

Another disgraceful example stems from the old Leftist rejection of heredity. To listen to Leftists even today the only thing that is inborn is homosexuality -- the so-called “gay gene”. Leftists want to change so much about the people who get into their clutches that they cannot afford to accept that some things about people just CANNOT be changed -- so they have always rejected the power of genetic heredity.

Right up until the 1990s, Leftist psychologists (psychologists are almost all Leftists) used to say that childhood autism was caused by “refrigerator mothers”. Autism is a terribly distressing affliction for parents to see in their children and the unfortunate mothers at that time were told that it was all their own fault! They were told that autism resulted from their own lack of caring. How devastating! Nowadays, of course, autism is universally acknowledged to be an inborn condition. So, for as long as they could, Leftists caused immense, needless and unwarranted distress to many already-suffering mothers solely in order to prop up their own need to feel all-powerful. That’s “compassion”? Give us a break! Even Leftists in an allegedly compassionate profession are anything but when it suits them.

Incidentally, why are most psychologists Leftist? It’s obvious: Psychology offers some prospect of power over other people and power is the drug that the Leftist craves above all others.

Another piece of Leftist cruelty is their “anti-sweatshop” activism. Through boycotts and other means, such activists have put pressure on many companies (such as Nike) to stop using labour in low-wage countries. So Nike and others did stop. They pulled out of those countries and threw hundreds of thousands of poor people out of the only work they could get -- with most reduced to begging or prostitution if they did not actually starve to death. Great! Everybody would have told the Leftists concerned what the results of their agitation would be but their hatred of big companies trumped the best interests of the poor every time. Only pseudo “compassion” there! Leftism is a great scheme for hate-filled people though: You get to express your hatred while getting praised for “compassion”. What a top deal! Too bad about all the little people who get hurt in the process, though.

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LEFTIST JUDGES

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that freed hundreds of paedophiles makes no sense at all. They ruled that prosecuting the offenders many years after the offence occurred breached the constitutional bar on retrospectivity. But the crimes concerned were crimes when they were committed. They were not made crimes retrospectively.

Only Leftists turn themselves inside-out to protect criminals so if the the recent U. Mich. affirmative action decision was not enough to make it clear that the court is predominantly Leftist, this certainly shows it. They are “limousine liberals”

Just a “scrap of paper”? “It's bad enough that teachers unions help miseducate American youngsters. Now they're waging war against constitutional government. Think we're exaggerating? The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that the Nevada Supreme Court "sets aside the state constitutional amendment requiring at least two-thirds support of lawmakers to pass tax increases. The justices ruled that the need to fund public schools, another constitutional requirement, took precedence over the need to approve tax increases by a two-thirds supermajority."

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ELSEWHERE

This article says that South Africa is now ruled by black Fascists. Excerpt: “South Africa today is not so much capitalist as corporatist or fascist, along the lines Mussolini wanted for Italy, with the masters of big business, the trade unions and the government doing coercive deals among themselves to control the whole economy”. It goes on to say that South Africa’s present black rulers respect the former Apartheid regime as fellow Fascists but despise anti-Apartheid white liberals! Once again we have two groups of Leftists hating one-another.

A Brooklyn, New York, US Federal Judge tossed out a 1994 murder conviction against Rodney Cox, a man who admitted shooting his victim in the head, because, the judge says, there is no evidence that Cox actually meant to kill his victim "rather than injure him," or "scare him" when aiming for his head. See NY Daily News 13-Jun-03. This is the sort of thing we have to expect where Leftists are constantly portraying criminals as victims and as not being responsible for their own actions. (Via Jerry Lerman).

There is a new blog with a similar focus to this one here. Some good postings on the self-appointed food police recently.

The Wicked one says that JFK was a conservative who actually got on well with Nixon.

My latest academic posting here (or here) shows that political stance is not determined by degree of interpersonal dominance. Some Leftists are wimps and some are dictators. The same goes for conservatives. I have argued elsewhere that it is strong ego needs, not personal assertiveness, that makes someone a Leftist.

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WHY SO MUCH AIDS IN AFRICA?

A reader writes:

"With President Bush going to Africa, the AIDS crisis there is getting renewed media interest. Recent articles indicate that dirty needles may have had more to do with the HIV epidemic than is usually admitted. See here, here and here. This is in many ways a stance like the boy who said, "the emperorer has no clothes". This controversial approach, if confirmed, amounts to an indictment of the way the African AIDS epidemic has been 'sold' over the last 20 years. It has been sold as due to normal heterosexual sex, when it may not be.

The cynical explanation is that agencies already promoting birth control pushed a half-baked 'heterosexual hypothesis' for African AIDS because it gravied their train. It also suited western AIDS lobbyists keen to highlight any non-gay, non-drug user AIDS to harness public fear for funding purposes. The dirty needle argument has some parallels to the much more radical stance taken by HIV-does-not-cause-AIDS skeptics like Peter Duesberg and Perth's Eleni Papadopulos-Eleopulos. They argue that the definition of "AIDS", especially as applied on the ground in Africa, has been drawn so broadly as to allow for a host of unrelated diseases to be cast under the AIDS net. See here, here and here“

One thing that nobody seems to be mentioning is that anal sex is the most commonly used form of contraception in Africa. That alone would explain the epidemic. But is anybody telling Africans that? It seems not. Better for Africans to die than to be told stuff that is inconvenient to Western Leftists!

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THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE FAT CATS

Fascinating. The millionaires donate to the Dems, the little people donate to the GOP:

"'The Nine Dwarfs' pursuing the Democratic Party presidential nomination have been relentlessly asserting that the Republican Party is beholden to the wealthy. It turns out, however, that it is the Democratic Party that has been addicted to the million-dollar contributions from the nation's fat cats. "A recent study by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a nonpartisan campaign-finance research organization, reveals that the Democratic Party gobbled up an astounding 92 percent of all individual contributions totaling $1 million or more during the 2001-02 election cycle. Meanwhile, it was the Republican Party that received 64 percent of all individual contributions less than $200 per donor."

From The Washington Times via The Federalist. I guess that wealthy people often like the idea of bossing other people around and the little people value their liberties.

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ELSEWHERE

Pat Buchanan has another interesting history lesson for us. He points out that FDR relied on dubious evidence to get the USA into WWII: "Stephenson's forgery was a triumph and served a backdrop for Clare Luce's remark that Roosevelt 'lied us into war because he did not have the political courage to lead us into it.' ... not only has FDR been forgiven, he has been celebrated. His lies, it is said, were noble lies, to rouse an isolationist America into doing its duty and ridding the world of Adolf Hitler”. But GWB is not being forgiven for mentioning evidence about Saddam’s nukes that later turned out to be fabricated. The familiar Leftist double standard.

I am pleased to see that my favourite American has had a tremendous instrument of America power named after him. Very appropriate for a man who made such constructive use of American power.

Clinton does something useful: Hosing down the crazy Left of the British Labour Party.

I’m inclined to agree with this Arab self-description: “In light of ongoing events, it appears that the Arab psychology has become addicted to the dictatorial model of life. Indeed, all the Arab peoples-- all of them-- have become completely addicted to dictatorship, oppression, and regimes that beat [the people] on their heads with their shoes, and hit them below the belt.” (Via The WSJ)

The recent U.S. Supreme Court treatment of the Nike case was appalling. Now a company cannot say anything that “might” mislead. The Leftists have succeeded in wiping out free speech for companies.

One lesson the Leftist panic merchants will never learn: “There is no such thing as a poisonous substance, per se. Even drinking water can kill you, if you drink enough of it. It's the dose that makes the poison.”

Great if it’s true: “All parties and institutions are affected by a climate of cynicism and mistrust in which society is disinclined to believe whatever it is told by authorities and experts.”

Hear here! “I cannot think of many more positive recommendations than abolishing the Equal Opportunities Commission and leaving men and women to work out their minor 'inequalities and differences' themselves.”

Chris Brand has been writing to the papers about the root causes of Africa’s problems again. See here.

The Wicked one has some amusing quotes from Oscar Wilde.

My latest academic posting here (or here) is another one of many in which I show how wrong the Leftist theory of authoritarianism is. I show that there is nothing wrong with dominant personalities. My second recent academic posting here (or here) points out a lack of scientific care that is all too common among psychologists.

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LIBERTARIANS AND AUTHORITARIANISM

From my academic publications I have just posted two papers that might have some interest for libertarians. They both go back to the common perception that the extremely pro-market views of libertarians make them very right-wing or even "fascist". The first posting is of only the most minor interest. It is a letter to an editor of an academic journal written during my anarcho-capitalist days in which I defend myself from just such an accusation. The second posting is an article in a libertarian journal in which I explain the psychological research into authoritarianism for the benefit of libertarians. I point out that although their pro-market views give libertarians something in common with conservatives, their anti-authority attitudes give them a lot in common with the rebellious attitudes commonly expressed by Leftists. (Unlike Leftists, however, libertarians are suspicious of ALL authority, not just some existing authorities). The article also points out that you can be pro-liberty as regards society as a whole and still be dictatorial in your personal life. Certain prominent libertarians do rather spring to mind in that connection.

A later research article dealing with the relationship between libertarianism and the Right/Left divide can be found here. If any of the above links are not responding, alternative links are here, here and here.

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HOPE FOR THE BRITISH TORIES?

It looks like the U.K. Conservative leader might have some balls after all. He seems to want to rein in the all-engulfing bureaucratic monster that the EU has become:

“Mr Duncan Smith made his most important speech so far on European policy. He went to Prague to call for a "democratic revolution" to achieve his vision of a "new Europe" of national democracies, and not of "soulless supranational institutions". In a fierce attack on the Franco-German axis, he accused "old Europe" of trying to bully the rest into believing that they had to accept their cherished ambitions, such as the euro and the new constitution, or else. But Mr Duncan Smith tried to put himself at the head of a campaign by Europe's Centre Right to rally the incoming entrants to the EU to a future in which they did not have to sign up to the euro, the constitution or the common foreign and defence policies of the EU.”

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ELSEWHERE

A disgraceful story here of so-called British justice. Being anywhere around when a crime occurs is dangerous in Britain but it is not criminals who are the danger. It is the lax British police. If they cannot find who actually did the crime, anyone who was around at the time will do. It is the same in Australia -- as the Barry Mannix case (PDF) showed. Mannix only got out of jail when the real murderer turned up at a police station and confessed. Nobody should have to rely on that degree of luck. And note that the police who extorted a false confession from Mannix have not been disciplined to this day. So how many more innocent people have they sent to jail?

Let’s hope other moderate Leftists listen to Tony Blair: “Blair said it would be wrong for centre-left governments to oppose globalization and be anti-American in their outlook.”

There’s a big article here comparing economic development in India and China. It seems that the more Westernized Indian economy relies on local entrepreneurship a lot more than does China and could well pull ahead in terms of future economic growth.

The African nation of Benin has apologised for its past role in slavery: “It's so easy to say white man did it to us, but we share in the responsibility,'' Ambassador Cyrille Oguin told an audience Friday at Southern University”. Will they now be included as co-defendants in reparations claims?

This story shows how good the Left-dominated U.S. educational system isn’t. Note that the librarian who wrote the letter would undoubtedly have a college or university degree.

A new survey shows that landowners who support hunting conserve more wildlife than those that don't -- something that lovers of hunting have always pointed out.

A great post on Samizdata about the incidence of liberty in the world. It is still the Anglo-Saxon nations that are on top of that tree. The post is based on CATO's annual international survey of economic freedom (PDF) -- which also shows that there is a correlation between economic freedom and prosperity. It also shows that “increased economic freedom does not lead to greater income inequality”, contrary to what the Left would have us believe.

A Baltimore cop speaks from experience about the 'war on drugs'. He says: “Eighty years of failed drug prohibition have destroyed swaths of urban America.”

UK Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees, is advocating turning Martian exploration over to private millionaires: "Mars needs millionaires"

At last! A conservative blogger in Ireland. Visit him soon.

The NEW CRITERION now has a blog here. The New Criterion is a culturally-oriented conservative site.

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THE LEFTIST FEEDING FRENZY

The term “feeding frenzy” refers to the way a pack of sharks eat. But the incessant Leftist attacks on the food that ordinary people eat surely deserves that term too. Note that Leftists show their great sympathy for poor people these days by claiming that food is too cheap!

Theodore Dalrymple says that anti-fast food crowd seem to assume that if it weren't for corporations and advertising ...we'd all be eating "health" food. This conclusion of course is nonsense. Traditional British dinners were loaded with fat.

EUFIC, The European Food Information Council adds a note of common sense:

"...when judged by changes in life expectancy, health in our modern society is improving all the time and is not, as is often suggested, getting worse. Progress in medical care, better living conditions and hygiene, better food supply, improved nutrition and the importance of physical activity can be associated with this development."

Of course Hippocrates said much the same in the 5th Century BC:

"Positive health requires knowledge of man's primary constitution and the powers of various foods, both those natural to them and those resulting from human skills. But eating alone is not enough for health. There must be exercise, of which the effects must likewise be known. The combination of these two things makes regimen, when proper attention is given to the seasons of the year, the changes of the winds, the age of the individual and the situation of his home".

But this demented woman and her cohorts agree with none of that: “Diet scold Marion Nestle, who was the keynote speaker at last month's obesity lawsuit conference and complains that food is too cheap in America, went off the deep end yesterday. Echoing the lawsuit-happy John Banzhaf, who told a May 2003 food policy conference that personal responsibility is 'crap,' Nestle said on CNN that she doesn't support 'balance, moderation and exercise' when it comes to food choices. Nestle also argued that parents probably can't be expected to exercise any authority over their children's diets."

And “PETA’s gang of lunatics filed an injunction with the California Superior Court today to prevent the popular chicken restaurant chain from defending itself against PETA’s attacks. Without a hint of irony or self-reflection, the group that covertly supports arsonists claims that KFC is making 'deceptive statements' regarding their treatment of future three-piece dinners."

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NAUGHTY TREES

Wow! What a come-down for the Greenies. A new study has just shown that trees grow twice as fast in New York City, when compared with trees growing in the surrounding countryside. The Greenies have come up with the totally twisted explanation that pollution in cities cancels itself out but that the cities still pollute the countryside and stunt tree growth there. It’s logic only a Greenie could understand. If urban pollution cancels itself out, how is there any left to get into the countryside? Obviously pollution is in the eye of the beholder and what Greenies see as pollution, trees see as fertilizer. The higher carbon dioxide level in cities is the obvious explanation for the finding -- as carbon dioxide is a basic plant food -- but Greenies are committed to demonizing carbon dioxide as a “greenhouse” gas so admitting that it might be beneficial is to be avoided at all costs.

But regardless of what is responsible for the finding, the fact that trees THRIVE in a “polluted” urban environment strikes at the very heart of Greenie claims about the “threat” of pollution. If the only “threat” is that it makes greenery grow faster, shouldn’t Greenies be wanting MORE of that “pollution”?

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ELSEWHERE

Sad: After the recent elections, Mexico is still in the grip of its old fascistic Left. The PRI kept Mexico poor for most of the last century and it looks like it will keep up the performance.

Amusing: The French government has banned use of the word “email”. It would make more sense for the Germans to ban it. “Email” is an old German word meaning “enamel”.

As always, Buchanan knows his history -- and the conclusions he draws can be startling. The idea that Congress can simply REMOVE the jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court from moral and racial issues was certainly a surprise to me.

The Left are still at their old game of calling anyone stupid who disagrees with them. It shows how much they hate ordinary Americans, though: “Americans, whether consciously or unconsciously, actually pride themselves on their ignorance. It reflects their break with the overly complicated intellectual tradition of 'old Europe.' It's also a source of satisfaction that they have a president who's no smarter than they are. All this is bad news for the American anti-war movement which needs to enlarge its ranks. 'Mit der Dummheit kaempfen Goetter selbst vergebens,' wrote Schiller. 'With stupidity even the gods struggle in vain.'"

Michael Darby has just put up a new budget of reading for us here -- with particular emphasis on Zimbabwe, as usual.

If you don’t get a laugh out of the latest offering from The Wicked one you’ve got no sense of humour.

My academic postings here and here have been a bit technical lately. Only for psychometricians.

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BLOG BIRTHDAY

This blog began exactly one year ago today. Below is an extract from the first post I made -- on July 10th, 2002. I think it is still pretty relevant:

DENIAL OF REALITY

"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind." (H.L. Mencken)

Denial is perhaps best known through the work of Sigmund Freud as a classical neurotic symptom or coping mechanism. Instead of dealing with uncomfortable truths, the neurotic acts as if those truths simply do not exist. This is, of course, very maladaptive and creates at least as many problems as it solves.

Sadly, however, it would seem that reality denial is far from limited to psychiatric cases. Denial would appear to be in fact much more common even than excess egotism. Human beings generally do not handle reality well. That is why humans are such a drug-using species. Whether it be alcohol, cannabis, opiates, Khat, cocaine, nicotine or merely caffeine, few of us seem able to face life without chemical crutches. Straight reality is generally too much for us.

But WHY are human beings so uncomfortable with reality? Why do they use so many means to "escape" it? Again it probably goes back to more primitive times when reality was very oppressive and dispiriting. Only those who could escape reality in some way had the heart to carry on. So a talent for ignoring unpleasant truths was adaptive. In the modern world, however, reality is much more benign and, as Freud saw, denying it can easily descend into the psychopathological.

So any attack on the reality-denying habits of Leftists would appear doomed to failure. Even such an overwhelming reality as the utter collapse of the world's 70 year experiment with Communism caused them not at all to abandon their equalitarian mania but only to change their focus somewhat.

Those who know the erratic nature of Blogspot archives will be surprised to find that the full archive of my earliest postings still exists exactly where it is supposed to be -- here. I forget now why I did so but for the first month or so I used to delete the whole blog and create a new one every time I added a new posting! But I always appended the old postings below the new posting. Complicated.

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SOVIET UNIVERSITIES LIVE ON -- IN THE USA

Stalin once said that there is complete freedom of speech in Russia -- “as long as you agree with me”. Modern day American universities are the same:

"On Nov. 12, 2002, Steve Hinkle, an undergraduate at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo, was walking around campus, posting fliers advertising a speech by Mason Weaver, author of 'It's OK to Leave the Plantation'. In that book, Weaver -- an African-American -- traces his own journey "from Berkeley militant to conservative businessman," and argues that dependence on government welfare programs puts many modern African-Americans in circumstances akin to slavery. .... Today, Steve Hinkle remains under threat of expulsion from this hideous institution of 'learning' for trying to post a factual, constitutionally protected flier."

More here

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