GUN WATCH

As regular readers of this blog will mostly have noted by now, I have recently started a fourth blog -- called GUN WATCH. I thought I should explain such a major eccentricity. I think only Randall Parker rivals me for the number of active blogs he has.

I am actually not greatly interested in guns (though I am a reasonable shot and enjoyed the weapons-training in the Army). My brother Christopher is gun enthusiast enough for both of us. But what is happening in Britain does give cause for alarm to anyone in any place where crime is common. People there have now been totally disarmed and have no effective defence against violent criminals at all. And just about all that the British police do about it -- according to one who should know -- is "take statements and fill in forms in the Police Station". And gun crime has risen greatly in Britain since the post-Dunblane restrictions on gun ownership -- exactly the opposite of what the law was supposed to achieve. And the U.S. Left is always threatening and sometimes defeats the constitutional protections on gun ownership that Americans are so fortunate to have. So I have decided to bring together in one place the various gun-related stories that come my way. My brother Christopher and his local gun-owner friends will also be sending me stuff for posting. I already have a fair bit lined up so there is no doubt that I will be posting daily on the subject.

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ELSEWHERE

Sad that the limited degree of capitalism in Vietnam today does not go with any political freedom. The Vietnamese "Communists" were from their early days Fascists rather than true Communists in that a large part of their appeal was nationalistic rather than socialist. And limited capitalism under tight political control was of course also the economic recipe for Mussolini's Italian Fascism and Hitler's Nazism. So the Fascist nature of Vietnamese "Communism" is now more evident than ever. The 20th century "big lie" that Leftist intellectuals foisted on the world -- that Fascism was Rightist -- might thus have had big consequences. Would the Leftists of the 60s have been so keen to support a Vietnam that was generally identified as Fascist rather than Communist? Given their often-proclaimed anti-Fascism, it should have embarrassed them a bit at least. But, on the other hand, they pulled out all stops to support the Fascist Saddam Hussein recently so perhaps a correct identification of the Vietnam regime would not for a moment have held up their unprincipled contrarianism. More on the definition of Fascism here

An interesting example here of how Leftists don't let reality get in the way of their stream of abuse or their anti-Americanism. The author says that 2004 has been the worst year ever to be an American. Why? The only substantial reason he seems to give is that America has lost less than 1,000 troops in Iraq during it's presence there and some soldiers have treated terrorist prisoners mockingly. How naughty of them! And in lots of America's past wars, America lost many more than 1,000 troops in a DAY!

John Kerry's "resume" for his job application as President is a powerful argument for what a sleaze he is.

LOL: A great picture of John Kerry's truck here if you have not seen it by now.

"Does terrorism exist without the media? Does coverage of terrorist acts empower or encourage the people behind them? If terrorism is directed more at the audience than at its victims, shouldn't television journalists stop giving terrorists the forum they covet? ... broadcasters need to start considering new internal guidelines in order to remove hype from terrorism coverage. Excerpts from the execution of Nick Berg, an American entrepreneur in Iraq, were aired repeatedly. When terrorists gave the US 72 hours to comply with their demands before executing American contractor Paul Johnson, the cable networks breathlessly ticked down the time remaining. Network anchors lament global terrorism even as they become complicit partners".

Rather sad that it takes a philosopher to speak such common-sense as this: "If you want me to treat you as an individual, rather than as a mere member of some group, then you should treat yourself as an individual and forego attempts to derive social advantage from group-membership. Don't try to have it both ways. In particular, if you want me to judge you by the content of your character rather than the color of your skin, don't try to secure benefits from your possession of a certain skin-color." But it's still too complex for the simplistic minds of Leftists.

Leftist racism? "After a 30-year career at National Public Radio, Bob Edwards found himself sacked as host of its syndicated news show "Morning Edition." In an interview with Talkers Magazine, Mr. Edwards gave a surprising answer when asked what kind of people listen to NPR. "Bright people," he replied. "People of all economic strata. It's a whiter audience than we would like and we're trying to fix that." Now substitute "GOP Chairman Ed Gillespie" for Bob Edwards and "Republican Party" for National Public Radio and think what the reaction would be to a statement that could be read to imply that white people are somehow brighter." Leftists can see the obvious about average black IQ as well as anybody can but it is only occasionally that they let it slip out.

I have just put online (see here or here) the last chapter of my 1974 book on conservatism. The topic of the chapter -- an evaluation of the 1974 Australian Federal election -- must seem boring to all but the most dedicated political scientists but in fact a number of features of that election continue today. The government that won that election -- the Whitlam Labor government -- is generally remembered as the most Leftist Australian government of the last 50 years but even it did a lot to introduce free-market reforms. And in the absence of an Australian Reagan or Thatcher it has in fact been Labor governments generally who have done most to open up the Australian economy to market forces. What that all means is that there is a broadly conservative consensus in Australian politics (though a small loony Left exists as well of course) with the two major parties differing only on relatively minor details. The current Kerry/Bush contest in the USA is also characterized by very small differences in official policy but that seems to have been arrived at quite artificially -- by suppressing all that Kerry and his supporters have previously been known to stand for. By contrast, the market-oriented reforms instituted by various Australian Labor governments were not the subject of any election competition at all before they were introduced. They clearly arose out of a genuine understanding that they were good for Australia. The only postwar Australian government to use troops to crush a strike (in 1949) was also a Labor government.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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SOME RECENT GOOD EMAILS FROM READERS

"When my younger sister died at 59, and when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, I had new cause to curse junk science. If the money spent "proving" that more substances "cause" cancer had gone, instead, to treatment research, we would probably have a combination of earlier diagnostics and medication that would relegate cancer to being just bothersome. And I curse Carl Sagan because he went to the Dark Side of the scientific lie for a good cause. Atmospheric scientists twisted by the "Nuclear Winter" theories of the Cold War got the alarmist habit and so easily went into the new ice-age and global warming scenarios to shake loose grant money."

"As an architectural project manager, I face the silliness of committees and regulators daily. It is a silliness which goes beyond misguided good intentions. It stifles progress, costs clients inordinately, and quite frequently scares them out of building the housing and other facilities that people need and want to make their lives better. No tax-credit, warm-fuzzy, or "affordable housing incentive" could ever make up for the meddling by these people who have no care about, or personal stake in, what the people standing in front of them say they need. After all, what sort of incentive is a tax-credit other than a little *less* extortion?"

In response to my post about low Leftist IQ: "Just look to Hollywood to see Low IQ leftists. It doesn't take much in the way of brains to read a script created by someone else (the real brains in Hollywood are the producers and writers, not the actors). For example - many don't believe Sean Penn should get an Academy Award for playing himself; likewise for Jack Nicholson."

A bit of interesting gossip about the authors of David's Medienkritik: "David Kaspar is the German half of the dynamic duo and enlisted American Ray D. to help him with translation. Ray has Lived in Nuremberg for five years. When he moved there he didn't pay much attention to politics, but the distortions and public pandering of the press drove him mad with anger. He reads and watches the media to write about it, but often finds that he can't because it's SO bad that it makes him physically ill".

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ELSEWHERE

"Liberal" psychology: "Liberalism isn't a political ideology; it's a psychology - the psychology of self-satisfaction to be precise. A liberal (or a leftist; I use the terms interchangeably), is a person who only cares about politics to the extent that doing so makes him or her feel good, or avoid feeling bad, due both to external and internal factors. Their motivations can include things like a desire to feel intelligent, moral, noble, or unique, as well as a desire for peer acceptance or reverence, and aversion to being ostracized, among many other things. Now, before I go any further, I have to draw a distinction between liberals and the people who agree with them. Liberals, the people I'm referring to throughout, are the activists and ideologues; the people who truly believe in their leftist ideas and who fight for them.... Liberalism isn't a political ideology. The only common bond that truly holds liberal ideas together is their straight-forward simplicity (pass a law, raise taxes, hand out money, talk it out, etc), which is solely a consequence of the fact that liberals are completely uninterested in real solutions to real problems. It is the political activism itself that interests them, in that it makes them feel good about themselves...."

LOL: Kerry boasted that he and Edwards had better hair so I guess this comment from Dick McDonald about Mrs Kerry is fair: Dick says that her "hair looks as if it was styled by Mixmaster"

"Australians were addicted to welfare and political parties were too scared of voters to ask the junkies to quit, an academic said today. Professor Peter Saunders, from the right wing Centre for Independent Studies, has painted a scathing picture of government welfare policies over recent decades in his new book, Australia's Welfare Habit, being launched in Sydney today. Prof Saunders said Australia's welfare dependency had increased by 500 per cent in four decades. Forty years ago three per cent of working age Australians lived off welfare. Now the figure is 16 per cent".

Sowell: "Santa Monica, California, has decreed a fine of $2,500 a day for not cutting your hedges! .... Santa Monica has long been called "the People's Republic of Santa Monica" for all the far left laws and rhetoric it generates. Like other governments called "people's republic," the last thing they care about is people. The ideology, or even whims, of those in power routinely take away other people's right to live their own lives as they see fit. Santa Monica is not unique. Wherever you get enough far left people in power, you can find a similar willingness to force everyone into collectivist conformity at all costs. Too often these selfish ego trips of the left are called idealism, and issues are discussed in terms of the wonderful goals they proclaim -- "social justice," "open space" or "saving" this or that -- rather than in terms of what is actually being done and the costs entailed on others"

"Asylum seekers". Another reason why "refugees" just don't come to Australia any more: "A stateless Palestinian-born man refused political asylum in Australia could continue be held in immigration detention indefinitely, the High Court ruled today. Similarly, an Iraqi national refused an Australian protection visa could continue to be held in a detention centre because there was no reasonable prospect that he could be returned to his preferred destination, Syria. By a 4-3 majority, the High Court ruled that unsuccessful asylum seekers who could not be removed to another country, despite their wish to leave Australia, could continue to be held in immigration detention indefinitely. Both cases involved asylum seekers rejected for Australian protection visas who asked to be returned to the Middle East."

Arafat learnt from Adolf: "Since the onset of Oslo, ten years ago, the PA has established a campaign of vilification against us as part of the effort to delegitimize our presence. All of this is reinforced by a direct connection to Nazi anti-Semitism. Yasser Arafat learned at the feet of his uncle and mentor, the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who consorted with the Nazis; Mein Kampf is sold in PA stores today. The PA is the first entity since Nazi Germany to advocate the killing of people simply because they are Jews. Listen to their incitement, especially from their pulpits, and you can hear it -- Allah is pleased when Jews are killed".

Walter Williams: "During the first Reagan administration, I participated in a number of press conferences on either a book or article I'd written or as a panelist in a discussion of White House public policy. On occasion, when the question-and-answer session began, I'd tell the press, 'You can treat me like a white person. Ask hard, penetrating questions.' The remark often brought uncomfortable laughter, but I was dead serious. If there is one general characteristic of white liberals, it's their condescending and demeaning attitude toward blacks."

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH and GUN WATCH. Mirror sites here, here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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THE MORE THINGS CHANGE .....

An email from a Dutch-speaking reader

"I just acquired - for my collection of war memorabilia - a Nazi publication from around 1942: "What is the European worker struggling for?" (Waarvoor strijdt de Europeesche Arbeider?"). Apparently this was for distribution in Belgium and Holland. Most pages are taken up with pictures of the wonderful benefits of the German welfare state - free medical care, free day care, free summer camps - to show the contrast with the brutish Soviet state in the East, and the heartless Anglo-Saxon capitalist system in the West. The reason why the Soviets would like to conquer Europe is obvious enough, the writer says: to acquire the European standard of living (throughout the text, Germany is barely mentioned but can safely be substituted for "Europe"):

"The question of what the English and the American worker is striving and fighting for is also asked often, mostly in the enemy camp. In the meantime, what he MUST fight and work for has become clear: in order to, by means of conquering Europe and its advanced industry, eliminate a competitor and conquer a new market for the American gigantic (industrial) production. Europe must buy ..."

A clear echo of what we are told about the Halliburton factor in Iraq. This recycled Marxism is followed by a great deal of economic gibberish about how bad it is to buy things from other parts of the world, about the European worker's cherished social security and employment benefits, and, toward the end:

"One more thing the European worker knows: if our continent can maintain itself, i.e. if the East can be controlled and the West can be pushed back inside its own borders, then Europe will be able to continue projecting its ancient, illuminating power, and important parts of neighboring peoples will join our continent and elevate themselves to our level of culture."

Jacques Chirac, eat your heart out: Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."

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ELSEWHERE

Amusing: The Left-leaning "Prospect" magazine has just published its list of the top 100 British intellectuals. And what a laugh it is! The nutty Germaine Greer who has now reversed herself on practically everything she ever said comes second and the unrepentant Marxist historian Hobsbawm comes fourth. But some sensible people get a look in too so it's not a total writeoff. Even the leader of Britain's Conservative party gets a spot on the list (towards the bottom, of course). But I don't know anything about most of the people on the list -- for which I can probably be grateful.

I should be used to it by now but I still get amazed at the arrogance of Leftist ideologues. There is an article by a feminist here which simply asserts -- without a shred of supportive evidence and in the face of lots of contrary evidence -- that all male/female differences are "forged by decades of conditioning". The idea of inborn differences is simply sneered at. Facts are irrelevant. She just KNOWS! She is almost certainly not a mother. Feminists who have boy and girl children soon learn the reality. (Via Oz Conservative).

There is a good post here pointing out that talk of a Pax Americana and America as an empire shows the total ignorance of history that one has to expect from the Left. It also rightly points out how strange it was to have the recent Democrat convention virtually glorifying the Vietnam war -- the same war that previously they always condemned utterly. "History, Schmistory! Who cares about history?" might almost be the Leftist slogan. It almost has to be: History is so inconvenient for them.

An attack on John Kerry from a "liberal" viewpoint: Just one excerpt: "It is always difficult, when you look closely at the speech of a Democratic Party candidate, to determine what is a lie and what are mere words. I think the most obvious lies in John Kerry's case are his pledges about healthcare and trade. Take this passage: And when I'm President, America will stop being the only advanced nation in the world which fails to understand that health care is not a privilege for the wealthy, the connected, and the elected -it is a right for all Americans. If you honestly think that Americans will have easier access to healthcare under John Kerry, raise your hand. At best, Kerry's federal reinsurance plan sounds like a hugely complex legislative fiasco that will die in committee sometime around Lebron James' 30th birthday. At worst, it sounds like a means of funneling enormous amounts of taxpayer money to insurers and employers without guaranteeing that the cost benefits will be passed on to the consumer".

Liddy has a great list of events proving that Leftists have no standards, principles or consistency at all. The same things that were good under Clinton are suddenly bad under Bush.

Good comment about the attacks on Iraqi Christians: "Will al-Jazeera dedicate the same outrage to the bombing of Christian churches as it did to imaginary U.S. attacks on mosques? There's the difference: Even in wartime, our soldiers went to great lengths to spare religious facilities, despite their cynical use by terrorist criminals. Nor did the Israelis destroy the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem when Palestinian militants used it as a bunker. Relativists may whine all they want, but such restraint is the hallmark of a superior civilization - cultures are not all equal."

EU Referendum notes that EU officials are complaining about a peculiarity of the British -- They have a free press! How awful for the EU socialists.

A good graphic here that explains Israel's security fence very simply.

I have just transferred a new lot of Chris Brand's exceedingly incorrect postings here. He includes a quote from Bertrand Russell which discounts Islamic "civilization". For more on that topic see this classic article

A couple of new postings on GUN WATCH. I hope to be posting daily there in future. There is a lot of stuff on that topic that I have been passing by in the past.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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FROM BROOKES NEWS

Anti-Semites find a home in John Kerry's party Why do Kerry and his fellow Democrats value the services of this pro-terrorist and anti-Israeli bigot?
Capitalistic wolves in liberal sheep's clothing Stop lining the pockets of liberals who dress up as innocent lambs and expose them for what they really are: opportunistic, socialistic and divisive
The '90s boom and the '60s - what you don't know but should Some Democratic commentators are still drawing comparisons with the Clinton years and the 1960s - and still getting it wrong
George McGovern's bloodstained ties to Castro For years George McGovern has been pouring praise on a sadistic mass murderer
Religious persecution in China China's unfortunate experience of religious rebellions and cults in no way excuses the regime's persecution of religion
Prof. Krugman attacks Dick Cheney and gets it wrong It's time the Republicans fully accepted the grim fact that they are now at war on all fronts. Professor Krugman is another bitter example of this reality
Partisan media is getting heat from the Net Matt Drudge is a staggering example of what one man with a net connection can achieve. His success has aroused the jealousy of journalists and set alarm bells ringing

Details here

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ELSEWHERE

Hmmm.. I think I need to come to the aid of one of my fellow Australian conservative bloggers. A Leftist blogger by the name of "Darp" (?) attacked Mike Jericho over his enjoyment of guns and such things -- a rather common theme among conservative bloggers (the esteemed Kim Du Toit does rather spring to mind as another example). And Mike was hornswoggled enough to replace some of his martial graphics with a picture of some nice mountain scenery. Leftist attacks on gun usage are of course ho-hum stuff on the political scene (even I get hate-mail for my occasional pro-gun postings) but they also figure in psychology -- with the claim being that people who like guns are "death merchants" etc and are also of course thoroughly deranged. I review and attack one such claim in the psychological literature here. What our trembling Leftists overlook of course is that man evolved as a hunting animal and a liking for hunting and weapons (lacking aggressive teeth and claws, mankind unfortunately needs weapons for hunting) is therefore throroughly NORMAL. Mike is the normal one and he needed to make no apologies for it. And we won't mention the Molotov cocktails, clenched fists etc that feature so often in Far-Leftist iconography. They are pretty death-oriented but have no redeeming connection to hunting. And all the megadeaths of the 20th century were the work of socialists so if "death-merchants" are deranged, it is pretty clear who the deranged ones are.

Buchanan: "While Kerry delivered the speech of his life at Boston, the man is simply not credible. When the basic math is done, the gap between his promises and what he can plausibly deliver is so transparently huge he ought to be hauled before the Federal Trade Commission for consumer fraud."

Conservative black columnist Larry Elder has some great stories from the Democrat convention -- noting their total reliance on abuse rather than rational argument.

V.D. Hanson has a good reply to the loony Lefties who think that the USA has "provoked" the Islamic fruitcakes: "The [9/11] commission has helped to resurrect the fable that we are hated for what we do or don't to Muslims rather than who we are. But the collective brain power of the commissioners could not adduce a simple explanation as to why French and Germans are busy rooting out plots to blow up their own citizens - despite billions of EU money sent to terrorist organizations like Hamas, support for Arafat, and cheap slurs leveled at America in Iraq. Why do Muslim radicals hate Europe when Europeans have no military power, no real presence abroad, give billions away to the Middle East, despise Israel, will sell anything to anyone anywhere at anytime, and have let millions of Arabs onto their shores? Are daily threats to Europeans earned because of what Europe does - or is the cause who they are?"

Race doesn't exist, of course: "A heart drug being tested in black patients is on course to become the first medicine approved for use in a specific ethnic group, challenging those scientists who believe that race is a bad basis for prescriptions. The drug, made by Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company NitroMed, was abandoned after a trial in the 1980s produced unimpressive results. But, because the data hinted at differences between white and black patients' responses, in 2001 NitroMed decided to carry out a further clinical trial using only African Americans. This week NitroMed announced that the trial, in over 1,000 black heart-failure patients, has been stopped early because it appears so effective when used on top of normal therapy. "I'm so thrilled about it," says study leader Anne Taylor of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. If the drug, called BiDil, receives regulatory approval, the company says it will aim to launch it in early 2005.

Ben Stein's latest book seems pretty good. He documents how hate-filled the contemporary American Left are. God help us if the American Left were ever to get the power that the Left had in Soviet Russia! He explains such Leftism as psychologically juvenile -- an explanation some others give too (see here and here) but, although that is true enough as a description, I think we can go a bit deeper than that and see the juvenility as just one symptom of a broader psychopathic syndrome. See here and here.

The latest collection of nutty conspiracy theories from the Left is a book called The New Pearl Harbor. Guess why the twin towers of the WTC fell down on 9/11? Because George Bush blew them up, of course! There is a hilarious send-up of both that book and the whole of the current Left here. Excerpt: "Some attribute the Left's inability to argue coherently to laziness. Others blame the NEA. Whatever the cause, Lefties don't bother to read anymore because reading is hard. It's a lot easier and more fun to fire up a blunt and listen to Rage Against the Machine and Bono for all your political insights. Plus there's all these "facts" that get in the way of a strongly held emotional reaction to things like poverty, crime, terrorism and why conservatives think they have a right to keep at least half their income."

Snowball is pretty irate at how the left-leaning British traffic planners always treat the individual car driver as some kind of enemy to be thwarted and forced onto nice socialist buses -- when there is much that they could and should be doing to make the road network more efficent instead.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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THE EDUCATION DEBACLE

A great cry that regularly emanates from politicians who want to sound "caring" is the need for more "investment" in education (which means of course more of that lovely government spending and hence more taxes). The cry is usually justfied as an investment in "human capital". The claim is that more education leds to more capable people (don't laugh!) and hence more productivity and a wealthier community generally. It has been known since the 1973 work of Ivar Berg (review here) that this is utter horse-sh*t. The educational system has long been so airy-fairy that most of it is already more a hindrance than a help to worker productivity and income generation. If we wanted to do something useful for people we would be cutting education-spending back to the low level that actually works (like such revolutionary policies as making sure nobody gets out of grade school until they can read and write) -- not increasing it. Berg's studies (recently updated and reissued) focused on microeconomic indices (differences between people within a given population), however, so it is a welcome update to read this recent article, focusing on macroeconomic comparisons (differences between countries). The different methodology, however, leads to the same conclusions. For an extended look at the dubious value of a humanities education in particular see here.

And here is the latest example of such a boneheaded cry -- a summary of the promises from the recent Democrat convention: "George Bush's increase in national education spending, the largest since the program's inception, wasn't enough. The Democrats want to raise elementary spending at least $27 billion but, of course, spend nothing on educational vouchers for those who need to escape the failed government monopoly school system. And Democrats want the same priority for college education spending, at least $25 billion more yearly."

Reality finally bites: "Chicago is closing 60 failing schools, opening 100 new schools and letting private managers run most of the new schools with no union contract. Chicago business leaders used the prospect of federal sanctions under No Child Left Behind "to pressure the city to put many schools into private hands, outside union jurisdiction," reports the New York Times. The local teachers' union is distracted by charges of fraud in the recent election for union president. With nobody in charge, the union hasn't done much to fight the plan."

Degrees for sale: "Cash-strapped British universities are awarding degrees to students who should be failed, in return for lucrative fees, The Observer can reveal. The 'degrees-for-sale' scandal stretches from the most prestigious institutions to the former polytechnics and includes undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, foreign and home students. In the most extreme case, The Observer has evidence of a professor ordering staff to mark up students at risk of failing in order to keep the money coming in. Lecturers at institutions across the country, including Oxford, London and Swansea, told The Observer the scandal is undermining academic standards, but they cannot speak publicly for fear of losing their jobs." This sort of thing has long been an ongoing scandal in Australian universities too. Why should government employees care about degrading their product?

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ELSEWHERE

A fabulous example of Leftist thinking from the current Socialist government of Spain. They are trying to get Gibraltar back off the British even though virtually every last Gibraltarian wants to remain British. So listen to the Spaniards here: "The interests (not the wishes) of the colony's inhabitants should be taken into account," the Foreign Ministry said in a background paper given to journalists." The reliance on brute force that the Spaniards showed in the era of Pizarro and Cortez seems still to be alive and well. We won't mention their civil war and its aftermath but it is almost comical what they have done to persuade Gibraltarians to rejoin Spain: They have done every last thing they could to make life difficult for the Gibraltarians. And they wonder why the Gibraltarians loathe them!

Gun control at work: The full scale of law and order breakdown in Britain was revealed last night. Gun crime has soared by 35 per cent, .... In the 12 months to March last year there were 9,974 offences involving firearms. Handgun use rose by 45 per cent, said official Government statistics. The figure has doubled since the post-Dunblane ban on such weapons from 2,636 in 1998 to 5,871... But the Government shrugged off the shock figures... The number of males murdered in shootings was up 41 per cent this year.... Paul Hampson of the Association of Chief Police Officers added: "The rise in gun offences concerns us all."... The number of gun crimes recorded in London was 4,192 versus 2,817 in the previous year.

Ban kitchen knives! "A Japanese man confessed to stabbing seven of his relatives to death early Monday with a kitchen knife and setting fire to a family house, a grisly spree rare in a country that takes prides in a low crime rate."

And ban all security guards too: "A knife-wielding security guard at a Beijing kindergarten went on the rampage yesterday, slashing 15 young children and killing one of them -- a four-year-old boy, Chinese state media and medical sources said. Three teachers were also injured when the security guard attacked children and staff at the Beijing University Number One Hospital's kindergarten with a kitchen knife, they said".

Australian Leftists OPPOSE homosexual marriage: "The gay and lesbian lobby has accused federal Labor of betrayal, after the shadow attorney-general, Nicola Roxon, told a gathering of Christians her party's views on homosexual marriage were identical to the Government's. Ms Roxon told the 1000- strong crowd at the "Why marriage matters" forum, held yesterday at Parliament House in Canberra, that Labor would support a Government bill to outlaw gay and lesbian marriage by the end of next week." Australia is a more conservative country than the USA in many ways -- despite being much less religious.

A most interesting excerpt from the Wall St. Journal "Political Diary" of 3rd (not generally online}: "The Boston Democratic convention featured a rich side menu of interesting seminars. One of the most controversial was a workshop for new Democratic campaign press secretaries that sounded like a call to arms in its advice on how to deal with the new media universe. Lecturers urged press secretaries to confront what one warned was "media that are no longer tilted in your direction." Bullying was openly encouraged. "When it comes to the media," suggested Democratic strategist James Carville, "intimidation works." I am sure Dr. Goebbels would agree.

The Bunyip is a good read -- as ever. His talent for humorous writing is worthy of the sadly missed Punch. So it is no mystery why my blast at the holocaust-denying Philip Adams did not get the attention the Bunyip's did.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

New rubric added immediately below. Thanks to Marc Miyake

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Leftists acclaim "diversity" yet say "All men are equal". Figure that one out.

Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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BLOGGER.COM SHENANIGANS

Recent email from a reader: "I visit your web sites on close to a daily basis. Obviously, I enjoy them. However, for some time I have had a problem which occurs only with your sites. When I follow a link from http://dissectleft.blogspot.com and then return, I return not to the current page of the site from which I departed but to one for April 4!"

My reply:

Yes. Blogger.com does peculiar things at times. Their latest trick is to say some site does not exist. Then when you do a retry it is there! I suggest using one of my mirror sites instead e.g. http://users.tpg.com.au/jonjayra/tripod.html

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ELSEWHERE

As most readers of this blog will be well aware, my primary interest is in the psychology of Leftism. I have been studying and researching the psychology of politics generally for around 40 years, however, so I also have some pretty firm ideas about what conservatism is and what motivates conservatives. I have put my account of that into a long article here. As it is pretty clear by now just where GWB fits into the history and philosophy of conservatism, I have recently added to my article a substantial section on him. So click here to go straight to an account of where GWB fits into the history of conservatism. I think it is pretty interesting, myself.

LOL: Talk about "projection" (seeing your own faults in others)! The Democrats are now accusing Republicans of being unpatriotic! Even that most anti-American of anti-Americans, Michael Moore, is doing it. It's not mentally ill, though. It has always been a useful strategy to confuse the issue and divert attention from your own faults. I am pleased to note that an awareness of projection as a Leftist tactic is catching on. See here, for example.

Mike Tremoglie has a good article on far-Leftist Janeane Garofalo -- showing what an elitist she is. Leftists really loathe the ordinary people they claim to be "compassionate" about. When Leftist accuse conservatives of lacking compassion, that's projection too. And as I noted two days ago, when Leftists say conservatives are dumb, even that is projection.

Gigot on the hypocrisy of the Democrat convention: "I had to rub my eyes sometimes to make sure these were Democrats. Some of the rhetoric was so hawkish I half expected Donald Rumsfeld to show up. "You cannot run. You cannot hide. And we will destroy you," said John Edwards about "al Qaeda and the rest of these terrorists." Whatever happened to all that shouting over the last year about Iraq? What about the reckless folly of pre-emption, the "illegality" of the war because we haven't found WMD, and the necessity of U.N. approval? Last week all that vanished. Joe Wilson and Paul Krugman were kept in undisclosed locations, while someone must have slipped Howard Dean a Prozac".

Prager on the hypocrisy of the Democrat convention: "The show-stealer was Oakland's Ilana Wexler, 12, who brought down the house with her suggestion that Vice President Dick Cheney get a 'timeout' for using foul language. Within hours she became an international star, media outlets clamoring for her attention, fans seeking her autograph." And yet it is the Democrats who laugh at conventional morality and mock any notion that there is such a thing as obscene language!

LOL: Limbic Nutrition thinks that John Kerry is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and may be a "nut about to crack"!

Hitchens on Leftist moral dishonesty: "A few years ago, many ... liberals and leftists were quoting improbable if not impossible numbers of dead Iraqi children, murdered by the international sanctions imposed on Saddam Hussein. Even at its most propagandistic, this contained an important moral point: Iraqi civilians were suffering for the sins of their dictatorship... OK, then, we'll remove the regime and lift the sanctions. Happy now? Not at all! It turns out that 1) the Saddam regime was only a threat invented by neo-cons and that 2) we don't owe the Iraqi people a thing. Also, we could use the money ourselves. This would mean that all the protest about dead and malnourished Iraqi infants was all for show". (Via Common-Sense & Wonder)

Don't Vote for the Party of Racism: "Four decades ago, Congress passed landmark legislation mandating equal rights for all races-- the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Today, there is a political party that vigorously opposes the principles espoused in that legislation. When you enter the voting booth in November, you would do well to consider whether you want to support such an organization".

In case you have not seen it already, here is a link to the now famous and highly amusing article about GWB by Leftist Tom Junod. He hates GWB even though he thinks GWB is right about major questions! You may have to refer back to my post about Bush-hatred of a few days ago to understand such irrational behaviour.

I must confess that this story gave me a laugh: "A Malawian court convicted a Catholic priest and a nun of disorderly conduct Thursday after they were caught engaged in a sexual act in a parked car with tinted windows. "These people were caught in a sex act," Assistant Superintendent Kelvin Maigwa told Reuters. Officials in the Roman Catholic Church, whose priests are barred from sex or marriage, declined to comment. Passers by alerted police at Lilongwe International Airport after the parked Toyota Corolla, which had tinted windows, began shaking in what police described as "a funny manner.""

"Godless" at Gene Expression rightly makes the point that the New York Times are holocaust deniers in the sanitized way they describe the Mao era in China.

I have just transferred Chris Brand's latest postings on multicultural lunacy in Britain here. I am getting lazy in my old age so I have not included the few hyperlinks that Chris has given -- but you can find them at the bottom of Chris's original page here if you want to follow anything up.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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THE LAW

"Some 'taxes' are invisible, hidden in the higher prices of things we buy. One such 'tax' is huge, costing the average American family of four at least $2,884 every year .... Call it the 'Lawsuit Tax,' the huge cost that lawsuits and the threat of lawsuits adds to everything. One member of Congress has done more to increase this secret tax on Americans than has any other lawmaker. John Edwards is a Democratic U.S. Senator from North Carolina, elected to his first and only term in 1998 with massive financial backing from his fellow trial lawyers."

Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly: In this issue: "Jury Ignores Science Panel In Maine Trial;" "Disability Laws Fleece Mom & Pop Shops;" "California Cap Law Lowers Malpractice Awards;" "Lawyer Forced to Apologize for Frivolous Suit;" "Trial Lawyers Triumphant--For Now;" "Senate Sends Tort Reform Down the Tubes;" "Now Here?s a Law that Needs Changing!;" and, "Your Cheating Heart Turns Into Gold"

Some courts do respect the law: "San Francisco's 20-year-old program to promote women and minorities in city contracts suffered a potentially fatal blow Tuesday when a judge ruled that it violated Proposition 209, the voter-approved state initiative banning preferential treatment based on race and sex. Judge James Warren of San Francisco Superior Court said the city's contracting law giving bidding advantages and preferences to women and minorities is similar to a San Jose ordinance that the California Supreme Court struck down in 2000 because it violated Prop. 209. Based on that ruling, Warren barred San Francisco from enforcing the law 'or any other public contracting law that discriminates against or grants preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.' City officials said they will appeal."

Buchanan knows the constitution: "[The Marriage Protection Act] will be a critical test of the GOP majority in the Senate. If it stands with the House and President Bush, the first and second branches of the U.S. government will be telling the third, the U.S. Supreme Court: Your right of review of all U.S. law is not absolute, but subject to our restrictions. You are hereby instructed to return to the stall into which the Founding Fathers placed you."

The law is not your friend: Harris County, Texas, Resident Blair Davis found himself staring down the barrel of a pistol after his door flew open and 10 members of the Harris County Organized Crime and Narcotics Task force came tearing in, guns drawn, and yelling at him to get down, which he did, for about an hour, as the police searched his home for drugs after mistaking the common Texas Star hibiscus plant on his front lawn for a marijuana plant. Yes, the Harris County Narcotics officers do not know the difference between a marijuana plant and the common native growing Texas Star hibiscus plant. At one point, Davis said, the officers were discussing amongst themselves whether the red and gold bamboo plant in his window might be marijuana. They also asked Davis what he did with the watermelons and cantaloupes growing in his back yard. They eventually left . without apologizing.

Your police "service" "A government scientist finishing a candy bar on her way into a subway station where eating is prohibited was arrested, handcuffed and detained for three hours by transit police. Stephanie Willett said she was eating a PayDay candy bar on an escalator descending into a station July 16 when an officer warned her to finish it before entering the station. Both Willett and police agree that she nodded and put the last bit into her mouth before throwing the wrapper into a trash can. Willett, a 45-year-old Environmental Protection Agency scientist, told radio station WTOP that the officer then followed her into the station, one of several in downtown Washington. 'Don't you have some other crimes you have to take care of?' Willett said she told the officer. Washington has been under heightened security because of the continuing threat of terrorism. And last week, police declared a citywide crime emergency over rising juvenile crime."

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ELSEWHERE

In John Kerry's nomination speech he said: "As president, I will bring back this nation's time-honored tradition: The United States of America never goes to war because we want to; we only go to war because we have to. That is the standard of our nation." As it points out here, that is a typical Leftist barefaced lie, justified only by its sounding good. The USA has in fact mostly gone to war when it did NOT have to -- on humanitarian grounds etc -- and often at the behest of Democrat Presidents, including Clinton in Yugoslavia. Qando has some good comments on the matter too -- including the excellent point that the Kerry doctrine is simplistic -- which is exactly what the Left accuses conservatives of being. That good old Leftist "projection" again.

There is a most amusing article in the NYT reporting that America's millionaire Leftists (or as they self-congratulatingly call themselves: "Progressives") have become frustrated at the lack of any new ideas or new Leftward moves in the Democratic party. They have apparently decided that they need to create new Leftist ideas by spending hundreds of millions to encourage fringe Left groups! I liked this quote about how they see the present scene: "Now, you're a 32-year-old Democratic state legislator, and what you do is you learn how to check boxes," he continued. "You learn how to become pro-choice. You learn how to become pro-labor. You learn how to become pro-trial lawyer. You learn how to become pro-environment. And you end up, in that process, with no broad philosophical basis. You end up with no ideas about national security. You end up with no ideas about American history and political theory. You end up, frankly, with no ideas about macroeconomics and economic policy, other than that it's scary."" Who am I to argue with that? Hate and anger and envy are what Leftism has always been about, not ideas.

And here is another Leftist who is depressed at the Left's failure to achieve much in America recently -- despite their dominance of education, the media etc. At least he puts his finger on one of the big problems of the Left -- their elitism: "Can they rid themselves of a nagging contempt for the unhip, the poorly educated, and the God-fearing? If the left is not a movement of and for working people— blemishes and all— then it has little chance to regain its previous influence".

More Leftist encouragement for crime: "Inmates in California prisons may not be learning any job skills to help them stay straight once their terms end, but at least they're being taught to feel good about themselves. In a policy shift so irrational it could only have been designed by the state prison guards union, 300 vocational education classrooms in state prisons were shuttered at the beginning of the year. This might be understandable if it were a cost-cutting move, but the state is saving little or nothing by closing the courses. The instructors who formerly provided inmates a chance to succeed in the outside world are now conducting self-esteem "modules" instead. These use workbooks hammering the sort of feel-good lessons that some prison experts believe increase, not decrease, recidivism... Research shows that California inmates who spend more time in vocational programs are less likely to return to prison. Unless we're prepared to support such programs, we'd better be prepared to build a lot more prisons".

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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REALITY: IT IS LEFTISTS WHO HAVE LOWER IQs

I note that Keith Burgess-Jackson has once again tackled the common Leftist claim that Leftists are more intelligent than conservatives. Keith however simply answers assertion with assertion. Leftists say that they are obviously more intelligent and Keith replies that there is obviously no difference. Nobody ever seems to quote any research findings on the subject. But there ARE findings in the academic literature that bear very directly on the question. I know. I had a minor part in writing them up. They have been in the academic literature for over 30 years and are also on the internet. So why are they never quoted? I suspect that I hardly need to mention one reason: Because they show LEFTISTS to be less intelligent! Another reason, however, is that academic papers are very hard for most people to decipher. So I have just posted a fresh copy of the paper on the net to which I have added an explanatory addendum that explains the findings in layman's terms. To go straight to the addendum click here.

Note that no correlation is ever perfect in the social sciences so it is perfectly consistent to have some very intelligent Leftists even though most Leftists are of lesser intelligence. Note also that the finding is yet another example of Leftist "projection" (seeing your own faults in others). If you want to know what is true of Leftists, just read what they say about conservatives.

And the Conning Tower gives a few examples of how clueless even prominent Leftists can be. Given how much Leftists fail to take account of (in human nature and much else besides), there is certainly zero difficulty in seeing Leftist policies as unintelligent.

The sheer arrogant prejudice involved in the Leftist claim of superiority is clearly revealed in the recent claim by a
major German news magazine that John Kerry may be too smart for America. They have convinced themselves that America as a whole is dumb. I think the history of the last 100 years reveals who the dumb ones are!

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ELSEWHERE

"If Vietnam veterans speak out against John Kerry but the media doesn't cover it, does anyone hear them? In a convention report about Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's relationship with his fellow Vietnam veterans, Dan Rather did not talk to a single one who opposes the Massachusetts Democrat's quest for higher office. That's especially odd considering that a new book featuring the accounts of a number of veterans who served with Kerry has been in the news of late".

The troops don't like Kerry: "John Kerry's heavily hyped cross-country bus tour stumbled out of the blocks yesterday, as a group of Marines publicly dissed the Vietnam War hero in the middle of a crowded restaurant.... "He imposed on us and I disagree with him coming over here shaking our hands," one Marine said, adding, "I'm 100 percent against [him]." A sergeant with 10 years of service under his belt said, "I speak for all of us. We think that we are doing the right thing in Iraq," before saying he is to be deployed there in a few weeks and is "eager" to go and serve."

Typical Leftist reliance on deception: John Kerry is doing his damndest to prevent people from knowing about the book he wrote when he was an antiwar activist. His team threatens people with lawsuits if they even reproduce the cover of the book. But it tells you here how to get a look at it while you can.

Heroic manipulator: "Mr. Kerry was assigned to Swiftboat 44 on December 1, 1968. Within 24 hours, he had his first Purple Heart. Mr. Kerry accumulated three Purple Hearts in four months with not even a day of duty lost from wounds, according to his training officer. It's a pity one cannot read his Purple Heart medical treatment reports which have been withheld from the public. The only person preventing their release is Mr. Kerry.... And within four days of his third Purple Heart, Mr. Kerry applied to take advantage of a technicality which allowed him to request immediate transfer to a stateside post."

It looks like I was right about Jason Soon yesterday. See towards the bottom of this article. A definite hater. A hater of those with more power and influence. Very Leftist but always sad to see when an intelligent person falls into such folly. But highly educated people are particularly prone to such hatreds. I set out why here.

A fabulous pro-American colmn by a Canadian here. (Via Peg Kaplan). Too good to excerpt. It always amazes me how anybody can overlook the basic truths about America. It just shows the dismal motivations of the critics.

An excellent statement here from a U.S. Marine about the importance of acknowledging evil in the world. Leftists HAVE TO deny that there is evil in people to cover up the evil that is in their own hearts -- as we see whenever Leftists get complete power (Stalin, Pol Pot etc.)

Arrogant Leftist elitism still thriving in Germany: "Michael Muller, deputy head of the Social Democrats' parliamentary party: Rejecting the idea of a referendum, he loftily declared, "Sometimes the electorate has to be protected from making the wrong decisions."

The memoir of the Iraq invasion by American commander General Tommy Franks sounds like good stuff. The American forces were CLEVER! How awful for the critics.

Wayne Lusvardi has given us a quick guide to who and what the current Islamic "Z Men" are

Dick McDonald reports a priceless bit of Democrat arrogance and elitism from the wife of the Iowa governor. She even dissed Black English! Imagine the explosion if a Republican did that! More here

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

New rubric below:

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Perhaps the original example of Leftist "projection": Marx condemned conventional religion as the "opium of the masses". Why? Because he had an opiate to peddle.

Why can those who claim to understand the dangers of meddling with a complex ecosystem like the natural environment, not understand that government interference with a complex system like the economy is perilous too?

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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

WHY THE LEFT LOATHE GWB

The Left may have lost the Cold War but they have won the culture war. They and their politically correct assumptions dominate in the bureaucracy, the media, the educational system and Hollywood. Even business has largely been forced to kowtow to what Leftists think is a good thing. And that is why Leftists hate holdouts from the old order -- such as George W. Bush, Christianity and Fox News. The complete domination that they pant for is so close and yet still not complete. It is being spoilt by these stupid and evil renegades who cannot and will not see what is obviously right and proper. And Bush is a Texas oil-man, for God's sake! How incorrect can you get? A genuine robber baron from the 19th century who has somehow grabbed the levers of power that belong to them! And he looks and sounds so ordinary! He has no high-flown interests, likes sports, mangles his speech and does not have a head full of theories. He sounds more like a shoe-shine man than someone who can talk the feelgood Leftist talk -- as Clinton can. And worst of all, he is an old-fashioned Bible Christian! He is the exact opposite of the elite that should be running the show. He is the spoiler, the barrier, the last obstacle to their "brave new world".

Simple, isn't it?

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ELSEWHERE

Leftist compassion a fake: "When the labels "conservative" and "liberal" are brought into a political discussion, the common perception is that Democrats, or liberals, are inherently more compassionate than Republicans, or conservatives. However, in the first study to test whether this perception conforms to reality, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher finds that liberals do not show any more compassion than conservatives in similar settings.... Mr. Milyo, along with colleagues Lisa Anderson and Jennifer Mellor at Virginia's College of William and Mary, examined differences in the behavior of liberal versus conservative subjects in two experimental settings".

Minimum wage turnabout "In academia, when scholars change their minds about something, they admit it publicly and explain why, even if the previous error causes a bit of embarrassment. Thus we recently saw renowned physicist Stephen Hawking say he was wrong in his theory of 'black holes.' He knew it was a necessary, if painful, thing for him to do so research on these celestial objects can move forward. I believe public opinion leaders have the same responsibility to explain themselves when they switch gears. If I were suddenly to endorse a higher minimum wage, after opposing it for many years, I would owe my readers an explanation. ... This is not the view of the New York Times. For decades, the paper carefully and consistently editorialized against the minimum wage. But five years ago, for no apparent reason, it reversed a policy dating to 1937 and suddenly endorsed a higher minimum wage."

Whoopee! "A panel created by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing a top-to-bottom overhaul of state government that would leave virtually no piece of the state's sprawling bureaucracy intact. It would wipe out more than 100 boards and commissions, consolidate a tangle of state services and give departments fresh mandates in an ambitious bid to make government leaner and improve its performance"

What a laugh! "The continuing decline in numbers in the Anglican Church has prompted calls for leaders to consider potentially radical changes in the way the church ministers to the faithful, including implementing cafes in churches. A report from Wayne Brighton, a researcher with the General Synod Office of the Anglican Church, has painted a bleak outlook for the church, with a diminishing and greying congregation." Cafes indeed! They should learn from the vibrant Sydney diocese. THEY preach the Gospel.

Ecumenical economic ignorance: "Conservative Protestants are wary of ecumenical organizations because these groups are so often predisposed toward radicalism and extremism. This disposition may strike some as odd, given that ecumenical bodies are forever issuing blanket affirmations and urgent appeals for the unity of the faith. But Protestants suspicious about the ecumenists will have plenty to worry them later this week when the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, an umbrella group based in Geneva, takes up the issue of economics and global trade."

Maybe pigs do fly! "World Trade Organization members approved a plan Sunday to end export subsidies on farm products and cut import duties across the world" Marvellous if it happens.

Rip van Winkle awakes: "The Vatican on Saturday denounced feminism for trying to blur differences between men and women and threatening the institution of families based on a mother and a father."

Arnold Kling: "To prevent future acts of terrorism, we have to kill people. This is not a good thing. War is horrible. It is repulsive. In every war, soldiers commit atrocities and die senselessly, often because of the mistakes of their superior officers. If World War II were shown to the American people in slow-motion freeze frame, it would look every bit as ugly as the war against Islamist terrorism... For all practical purposes, most of the Muslim world is undecided between Islamism and America. If we adopt a more aggressive approach, some of these Muslims will jump off the fence and onto the other side. But passivity and weakness on our part would be even worse. To regain support of moderate Muslims in the long run, we will have to take steps in the short run that risk upsetting them.... We could not have won World War II with "soft power," trying to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Germans as a way of defeating the Nazis... Eventually, I believe that we can win over the hearts and minds of most Muslims to the concepts of peace and moderation. But not before we have eliminated most of the radicals."

There is a good cartoon about Fascism here

Peg Kaplan has an excellent post on the REAL two Americas.

Hmmm... I used to think that Australian blogger Jason Soon was conservative-leaning but some of his/her recent posts suggest Leftist elitism more than anything else -- such as this one -- where he/she dismisses one of Australia's most brilliant and successful business entrepreneurs as a "vulgarian". Why? On the basis of a conspiracy theory. Yuk! I think we have a nasty little envier there.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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Puzzle: Leftists always say that human nature is fundamentally good and that people can be trusted. So why do they say that whilst at the same time wanting to regulate everybody to death and take as many decisions and choices out of the hands of the individual as they possibly can? Easy: They say that about human nature because, if it is true, then THEY are good at heart and can be trusted -- and, given their destructive deeds, they need all the propaganda help they can get in that regard.

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

Comments? Email me or here. If there are no recent posts here blame Blogger.com and visit my mirror site here or here. My Home Page is here or here.

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THE MAN OF THE MOMENT

And hopefully for not too much longer than that

Email from Wayne Lusvardi: "From the just released excerpts of John Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in Boston on July 29, 2004: "I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as President. Let there be no mistake: I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response. I will never give any nation or international institution a veto over our national security. And I will build a stronger American military." From the above can be deduced what might be called The Kerry Doctrine: Once the U.S. is clobbered, he will figure out a way to strike back. Call this the Kerry's Klobbered Policy. Contrast this with the Bush Doctrine: Pre-emptive actions to prevent further attacks. The Bush Doctrine is not some reckless policy of a wild cowboy. It is the reluctant intervention after decades of provoking attacks on U.S. embassies, military barracks, navy ships, diplomats, tourists, FBI agents, and civilian aircraft. Which one would you choose? Which one do you believe the U.S. public is going to vote for?"

A rather nauseating story here. Apparently John Kerry took a portable movie camera with him to Vietnam and kept filming himself there to generate proof of how heoic he was.

Sowell lands some heavy hits: "Much of what is being said and done at the Democratic convention in Boston is so 1960s. The old favorite songs of the left, the old rhetoric, the old gestures, the delegates swaying together, all take you back to a time 40 years ago when the liberal vision seized the imagination of so many who were young then -- and who are now old enough to know better. After all, we now know with hindsight what the heady ideas of the 1960s actually led to in practice -- declining test scores and rising rates of teenage pregnancy and venereal disease, while rates of crime in general and murder in particular skyrocketed, along with unprecedented waves of riots that devastated city after city across the country, while families began a disintegration from which they may never fully recover in our lifetime".

When Lee Harvey Oswald shot John Kennedy, where was Oswald's Russian wife living? You won't believe it -- At John Forbes Kerry's place. What a happy little Leftist family!

"The Democrats have traditionally relied on a simple technique: appeal to the values of American individualism, while actually selling the American people the virtues of the all-powerful collective. That is the theme that emerges from the first three nights of speeches at the Democratic convention. Note the pattern of this bait-and-switch philosophy... The man who made this technique most explicit was Ted Kennedy. Speaking Tuesday night, he freely invoked Boston's Revolutionary War heritage. But what, in his view, is that heritage? "Ideals like freedom and equality and opportunity and fairness and common decency for all-ideals that all Americans yearn to reclaim." .. Equality" had a specific meaning to the Founders: equality of rights. It meant that no class of aristocrats possessed special rights at the expense of other citizens. They never endorsed egalitarianism. But you wouldn't know that by listening to Ted Kennedy... In fact, the Constitution exists to protect our rights and to limit the power of government. But Kennedy believes it exists to "bind us together" to collect our "common wealth" for the "common good." This is not an appeal to American values, but a total inversion of them".

Outspoken Left frustrated: "So far, the Democratic National Convention has been a gathering to drive the ideologues to distraction. Since Howard Dean's candidacy collapsed, the Democrats' angry left wing has contented itself with the notion that Dean had breathed fire into a moribund party. And that he had proved that what was important was not courting swing voters but rather energizing the party's base. (No matter that, as consultant Bill Carrick quips, any more energy and the left might well have a collective heart attack.)"

The media know what side they are on: "During live coverage of tonight's speech by Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, Dan Rather referred to Vice President Dick Cheney as "a hitman for their side." Here's the full quote: "Question, Bob Schieffer. We know after considerable consideration, the Bush-Cheney campaign decided to send Vice President Cheney out this week as a kind of hitman for their side, believing it was time to frontally assault the Kerry-Edwards ticket."

And you would never know it from John Kerry's advertisements but only 2 out of 23 of his fellow Swift boat commanders from Vietnam support his candidacy. See here for the details.

Dick McDonald has blanket coverage of Kerry's failings.

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ELSEWHERE

Further to my post yesterday about the Leftist origins of Fascism, a reader has pointed me to another excellent essay that probably makes the point better than I do. It is called "American Fascism" and is originally from "The Laissez Faire City Times", whatever that may be. It starts out well: "But the issue of who is a Fascist can't be addressed by any measure from the modern philosophical left because their fundamental tenet is the lie. For them, that's the first principle of the art of war. They use it, they excuse it, and they in fact worship at its feet".

David Boxenhorn has also taken up the discussion of what Fascism is with a note that Arab regimes generally are very similar to historic Fascist regimes -- though they don't seem to have the same strong welfarist orientation or the rhetoric of looking after the worker in particular.

Good to see Christopher Hitchens taking on Australia's chief Leftist ratbag -- Philip Adams. ("ratbag" is Australian slang for a person obsessed with improbable ideas). Adams doubts all the evidence that Saddam was a mass murderer. He has joined the ranks of the holocaust deniers. He will be saying that Ausschwitz, Buchenwald and Treblinka are a fairy-tale next. If it became widely realized that Hitler was a Leftist, he would no doubt argue just that. Leftists have never had much interest in the facts. They have conclusions that they want to reach and only see evidence that supports those conclusions. They argue backwards from their conclusions, not forward from a full consideration of the facts. They are impenetrable to reason. That's why I personally rarely talk to them at all. I talk only to people who are interested in the facts -- people who can handle how complex and surprising the facts often are.

Multicultural England: "A festival to celebrate a city's multiculturalism ended with rival ethnic groups involved in running street battles. The East of England Anand Mela festival was organised by the Indian community in Peterborough to demonstrate its culture, music and food. But about 90 Pakistani and Iraqi youths exchanged blows and hurled chairs on Saturday night." Coppersblog has some amusing background to it.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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Puzzle: Leftists always say that human nature is fundamentally good and that people can be trusted. So why do they say that whilst at the same time wanting to regulate everybody to death and take as many decisions and choices out of the hands of the individual as they possibly can? Easy: They say that about human nature because, if it is true, then THEY are good at heart and can be trusted -- and, given their destructive deeds, they need all the propaganda help they can get in that regard.

The conflict between conservatives and Leftists is not usually a conflict between realists and idealists. Mostly it is a conflict between realists and people who will say anything to win applause

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