THE LEFT IS NOW REACTIONARY

"If you look hard at what unites the left across Europe and the US, it is decidedly reactionary. In continental Europe, emboldened by the French vote, the Left proudly proclaims a bold objective: Back to the Future. The French Left, and its allies in the rest of Europe, stands not for some progressive dream of international solidarity for the dispossessed, but four-square behind the protection of the continent's own illusory privileges. The Left's new rallying cry is to build a protective system that would impoverish Bulgarians, Romanians, Turks, Indians and Chinese and would, of course, as do all attempts to retreat from the realities of the global market, ill serve its own workers. And it is not just the European Left. In America, too, anti-globalisation is the turf that many Democrats are eager to defend. As Governor Schwarzenegger has discovered - and as Europeans have long known - the Left is also reactionary in defending the interests of public-sector trade unions against genuine reform and progress.

Besides anti-globalisation, the other main current in the current stream of leftish theory and practice is visceral anti-Americanism, again on both aides of the Atlantic. Nothing new there, of course. Except that what really rouses the animus today is not America's supposed global mission to exploit the downtrodden worker, but its ambitious objective of spreading democracy. In the Middle East the left finds it much easier to side with the mullahs and the jihadists, the persecutors of women and the torturers of dissidents. America's flaws at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are viewed by the Left's political and intellectual leaders as morally indistinguishable from (or perhaps worse than) anything the Islamists and Arab despots have got up to.

To be fair, not all on the Left have taken their stand on the side of reaction. But the trends in political debate in the West are strikingly clear. We are well on the way to an inversion of the classic Left-Right divide. These days if you're in favour of policies designed to promote global economic integration, policies that have led hundreds of millions in Asia, Latin America, and Africa out of the misery of grinding poverty, and have significantly lifted the standard of living of workers in the West too; if you support change to topple tyrannical regimes and give some hope to people who have suffered in fledgling democracies, you're now more likely to be considered a conservative. What, exactly, is Left?"

Excerpt from The Times

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A Party Without Ideas: "What has happened to the Democrats over the past few decades is best captured by the phrase (coined by Kevin Phillips) "reactionary liberalism." Spent of new ideas, they have but one remaining idea: to hang on to the status quo at all costs. This is true across the board. On Social Security, which is facing an impending demographic and fiscal crisis, they have put absolutely nothing on the table. On presidential appointments -- first, judges and now ambassador to the United Nations -- they resort to the classic weapon of southern obstructionism: the filibuster. And on foreign policy, they have nothing to say on the war on terrorism, the war in Iraq or the burgeoning Arab Spring (except the refrain: "Guantanamo")... Take trade and Central America. The status quo there is widespread poverty. The Bush administration has proposed doing something about it -- a free-trade agreement encompassing five Central American countries plus the Dominican Republic.... You would think, therefore, that Democrats would be for CAFTA. Not so. CAFTA is in great jeopardy because Democrats have turned against it".

Greenspan warns against China tariffs "Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Congress on Thursday not to rush to impose punitive tariffs on imports from China, saying they would harm U.S. consumers and protect 'few if any American jobs.' It marked Greenspan's most blunt assessment to date that currency-related legislation that has attracted support from two-thirds of the Senate would harm the U.S. economy by driving up prices for the Chinese products Americans crave."

Geldof lies too: "one comment recently made by Geldof stands out more than any other. On Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on BBC 1 on 10 June, he told a hushed studio audience, and millions of viewers, about an island off Italy where 'thousands' of dead Africans - men, women and children fleeing poverty in makeshift boats - have washed up on the beaches.... But how accurate was Geldof's description? Not accurate at all, according to the mayor of Lampedusa. A spokesman for the mayor describes as 'absolute nonsense' the claim that Lampedusa is so packed with dead immigrants that it has no room left to bury anymore. 'There are 15 immigrants buried in the Christian graveyard in Lampedusa', he says. He also denies that dead bodies wash up on the shores of Lampedusa 'daily'."

PETA hypocrites: "While PETA lectures Americans about the "evils" of eating meat, wearing wool, taking children to the circus, and using lab rats to help cure cancer, the group puts to death most of the actual flesh-and-blood animals entrusted to it by the public.... As we're finding out from the North Carolina case, PETA picks up dogs, cats, puppies and kittens from shelters and veterinarians, often with assurances that new homes will be found for them. But in 2003 PETA killed over 85 percent of the animals it took in... If anyone else were responsible for these animals' deaths, PETA would hold a press conference to condemn them.... PETA has acknowledged killing over 10,000 animals between 1998 and 2003; recent reporting suggests PETA added 2,200 more to its body count in 2004. All while presiding over a gargantuan fundraising operation that brought in nearly $29 million last year. With that kind of money, PETA could afford to care for every single one of the animals it picks up -- if it weren't so hell-bent on spending millions turning children into vegetarians, demonizing people who don't have an all-polyester wardrobe, and misleading Americans about the medical breakthroughs that have only come about through the use of research animals... It's time for Americans who want to help animals to stop sending money to PETA, and start supporting their local animal shelters instead" See also Nathan Tabor on the same subject.

Mark Steyn has a hard-hitting article about the disgraceful aftermath to the tsunami disaster and what it shows about the hopelessness of international organizations. One excerpt: "The tsunami may have been unprecedented, but what followed was business as usual — the sloth and corruption of government, the feebleness of the brand-name NGOs, the compassion-exhibitionism of the transnational jet set. If we lived in a world where ‘it’s what you do that defines you’, we’d be heaping praise on the US and Australian militaries who in the immediate hours after the tsunami struck dispatched their forces to save lives, distribute food, restore water and power and communications".

Foreign aid bad for freedom: "Our regressions give some indication that aid decreases economic freedom... Our findings clearly can cast serious doubt on the proposition that aid increases freedom in poor countries. Given the World Bank's mission of promoting economic growth in poor countries and the strong empirical literature on the importance of economic freedom for growth, our paper indicates that since aid cannot be shown to have a positive influence on freedom, aid is unlikely to lead to development in poor countries."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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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ABORTION AND CRIME: ANOTHER INVISIBLE ELEPHANT IN THE BEDROOM

Warning: Very incorrect post coming up. It's all truth and logic, though

Steven Levitt's well-known finding that legalized abortion reduced crime in the USA is well summarized here. The summary does not mention Steve Sailer's challenge but that may be because Levitt himself has answered that challenge quite convincingly. The interesting part of the article comes at the very end however:

"I asked Don Weatherburn, director of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, about Levitt's hypothesis. He says it's plausible, but there are other plausible hypotheses too. (Some can be found in the book The Crime Drop in America, edited by Alfred Blumstein and Joel Wallman.)

So what about Australia, which Levitt suggests has had a similar experience to America? Abortion was legalised here at about the same time as in the US, but Weatherburn says that most crime increased in Australia during the 1990s. He wonders if Australia's more generous welfare provisions meant that legalised abortion had a different impact here. Whatever the reason, our criminal class has remained free of the (unintended) eugenics Levitt says occurred in the US"

The unmentioned elephant is that Australia has very few negroes. And in America it is negroes who are both heavy users of abortion and a hugely disproportionate source of crime. So what the Australian result shows is that the effect is a negro effect, not an underclass or poverty effect generally. I guess I can understand that nobody wanted to confront that obvious inference but it does show that crime-reduction cannot be used as a GENERAL justification for abortion. It only works with negroes.

NOTE: Even though I am Australian blogging from Australia and the High Court of Australia has recently ruled that even the word "nigger" is not offensive in Australia, I do realize that the word "negro" is pretty unmentionable in polite American circles today. If I had however said that Australia has few people of African origin here I would be lying. We have a lot of them -- white refugees from Zimbabwe, South Africa and East Africa.

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My best wishes to a great pastor: "The Rev. Billy Graham, hobbled by age and illness, opened his final American revival Friday, greeted with a standing ovation as he used a walker to reach the pulpit. Graham, 86, was supported while he moved onstage by his son and successor, the Rev. Franklin Graham, who then sat nearby, ready to step in if his father was unable to finish".

More Leftist hate: "American students are quitting Queensland universities in the face of hate attacks by Australians angry at US President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. One university has launched an investigation into claims an American student returned to the US after suffering six months of abuse at a residential college in Brisbane. American students have told The Sunday Mail the verbal attacks are unbearable and threatening to escalate into physical violence. Griffith University student Ian Wanner, 19, from Oregon, said abusive Australian students had repeatedly called him a "sepo" – short for septic tank. "It is so disrespectful. It's not exactly the most welcoming atmosphere here," he said. The Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commission has described the abuse as "horrible" and says it could be classed as racial vilification".

The sick British welfare system: "The second revelation, by the economist Professor Bob Rowthorn, was the absolutely staggering size of the financial incentive for parents to separate. A couple on average earnings are taxed to the tune of 7,600 pounds per year; but if the same couple live apart, they receive 400 pounds in benefits. That's an astounding 8,000 pound incentive for parents to split up - and yet the disintegration of the family, with the number of lone parents tripling over the past thirty years, is the single most important factor behind our culture of incivility, disorder and crime"

In case you have not seen the excellent Karl Rove speech that has sent the Democrats into a fit, the relevant bits are here. Truth hurts. Reliapundit has proof that Rove was right.

Muslim hate-preaching in Australia: "Books sold at the store attached to the Brunswick mosque tell Muslims they should "hate and take as enemies" non-Muslims, reject Jews and Christians, and learn to hate in order to properly love Allah. The texts say Muslims should learn military tactics and suggest that if a person speaks ill of Islam it is acceptable to kill them. They urge Muslims to strike back against "the barbaric onslaught from their enemies -- the Jews, Christians, atheists, secularists and others". Pages are devoted to legitimising episodes of violence against Jews who insult Islam. "A Jewish woman used to abuse the Prophet and disparage him. A man strangled her till she died. The Apostle of Allah declared that no recompense was payable for her blood," one book recounts. A similar example is given of a man killing the mother of his two children because she "disparaged the Prophet"; he also was declared clear of any crime". As LGF says: "In the same Australian state where two Christians have been convicted of “religious vilification” thoughtcrimes for criticizing Islam, the so-called “mainstream” Brunswick Mosque is preaching Islamic supremacism and Dark Ages hatred of infidels and Jews"

James Z.Smith has an excellent comment on vegetarianism. I think he has got the vegetarians nailed on consistency grounds. But like Leftism, I suspect vegetarianism is not so much logical as a claim to virtue. I wonder if there are many Christian vegetarians? Genesis 1: 29,30 seems to indicate that vegetarianism was what the creator intended. Having "dominion" over the animals is a long way from eating them.

There is an excellent site here that has pictures from Iraq that you are most unlikely to see in the mainstream media.

I have just put up here some outspoken comments about the present situation in Zimbabwe extracted from Michael Darby's most recent report. Michael has had the honour a couple of years ago of being kicked out of Zimbabwe but he still has very good contacts there.

There is a sad and disgraceful story on SOCIALIZED MEDICINE today.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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 MORE ECONOMICS

Debt relief is largely bank relief: "Make no mistake. This not a bailout of Africa's poor or Latin American peasants. This is a bailout of the IMF, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. They will get the money to replace their lost loans. As in a Monopoly game where the rules are thrown out, they will be handed new money to play with. Bush and Blair are bailing out failed global institutions run by the highest-paid bureaucrats on earth."

The 250th anniversary of the discovery of economics: "There are those who have claimed Ludwig von Mises to be the greatest economist of the 20th century, particularly the first half of the century. Others have claimed that Murray Rothbard is the greatest economist or social scientist of the second half of the 20th century. I agree with both of these claims. These men were great in many different respects. However, the title of the best economist in history, I would give to Richard Cantillon.... But first, who was Richard Cantillon? Cantillon was a man of mystery. His biographer Antoin Murphy can only date his birth sometime between 1680 and 1690. He was born into an Irish Catholic family that had been dispossessed of its lands by Cromwell's forces. Ironically, his first job was as a clerk for the British Paymaster General during the War of Spanish Succession (1701-13).... Rothbard loves Cantillon stating that he "was the first theorist to demarcate an independent area of investigation -- economics -- and to write a general treatise on all its aspects."

Poverty that defies aid : "Tony Blair arrived recently in Washington to ask President George Bush to increase substantially U.S. aid to Africa. His visit came a few months after Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs unveiled his own plan to end extreme poverty around the world by 2025. 'In The End of Poverty,' Mr. Sachs argues rich countries should commit themselves to transferring some $1.5 trillion over the next decade to the poorest nations -- primarily in Africa. But, in truth, foreign aid is unlikely to succeed, because most of Africa's problems are internal."

This could be a description of government buses almost anywhere: "Metrobus, which carries 500,000 passengers a day across the region, is a dilapidated system that suffers from weak supervision, old equipment and buses that travel in bunches, wrecking schedules and service, a panel of bus experts told Metro directors yesterday.... Some mechanical breakdowns could be avoided if drivers properly inspected the buses before they begin their routes, as required by federal law, Scanlon said. "It will help you before you get a piece of equipment out on the road that then becomes a road call," he told Metro officials. "Your own audits and our observations show your operators are not doing it." Metro managers said they have begun to require operators to perform the inspections and about 70 percent are complying. The panel also found that bus service could run more smoothly with better supervision. Metrobus routes are plagued by "bunching," in which several buses on a route travel in a pack, Scanlon said. Bunching often occurs if traffic or some other problem causes the first bus to slow down and the following buses to catch up"

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There is a new article out in the American Political Science Review by John R. Alford, Carolyn L. Funk, and John R. Hibbing under the heading "Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted?". The article is not online but there is a summary of it in the NYT. Excerpt: "As found in previous studies, attitudes about issues like school prayer, property taxes and the draft were among the most influenced by inheritance, the researchers found. Others like modern art and divorce were less so. And in the twins' overall score, derived from 28 questions, genes accounted for 53 percent of the differences.... Although the two broad genetic types, more conservative and more progressive, may find some common ground on specific issues, they represent fundamental differences that go deeper than many people assume, the new research suggests." The finding is of course old hat among geneticists. I have summarized some of the previous evidence here

Amazing: "By yesterday morning, Mr Blair had become the toast of Europe. The British may have become cynical about his Honest Tony oratory and big-tent politics, but on the unsuspecting mainland, they still worked their magic. Just as Mr Blair is most enfeebled at home, across the EU he is being hailed as the natural leader of the continent: the only man who can save Europe from itself.... Most worryingly for President Chirac and Herr Schröder is that their own countries’ newspapers fell under Mr Blair’s spell".

That those great seekers of acclaim -- Leftists -- should have infiltrated and taken over organizations with real claims to righteousness -- such as Amnesty and many of the churches -- should be no surprise. But by their inherent lack of concern for truth and balance, the Leftists concerned soon destroy the credibility of what they have taken over. The one-eyed condemnation of Israel by the United Methodist Church that I mentioned yesterday and the equating of Gitmo with the Soviet Gulag by the most senior representatives of Amnesty are recent examples. If anybody needs a refresher course in just how divorced from reality the Gitmo=Gulag accusation is, see here

Another loon: "Yes, my friends, it is now obvious to me how Adolph Hitler seized power in Germany, because the same principles that Hitler used in the 1930's are being used by America's leaders today."

GWB the inspirer: "A reader living in Moscow," writes National Review's Jay Nordlinger, "sent me a photo from a rally in Azerbaijan, which showed a youth holding up a poster of President Bush with the words, 'We Want Freedom.' The reader commented, 'It's good to remember whom people turn to when they're desperate -- and it ain't Kofi Annan."' Indeed. It is fashionable in some circles to invoke the United Nations as the touchstone of moral authority, but realists know better. They look to the United States, not the UN, as the great moral engine in world affairs. Like the Lebanese who waved a US flag during the demonstrations in Beirut earlier this year, like the "Goddess of Liberty" in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the young Azerbaijani with his poster is a reminder that America and its message of freedom and individual dignity have an almost limitless capacity to inspire those who are denied them".

Good to see that Taranto is having a go at the puffed-up and hysterical Andrew Sullivan. Lots of little-known bloggers such as myself have long pointed to Sullivan's dubious standards (my earliest comment on him was here) but Sullivan routinely ignores such challenges. He could not ignore someone as widely read as Taranto, however.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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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LEFTIST EGOTISM

I recently pointed out that Leftist anti-Americanism makes most sense if it is understood as mainly serving a feelgood purpose for the Leftist. A reader has reminded me of an August 2002 article by Lee Harris which makes a similar point about the Vietnam activism of the 60's. I remember noting the article at the time it came out but it is well worth revisiting. A short excerpt:

"My first encounter with this particular kind of fantasy occurred when I was in college in the late sixties. A friend of mine and I got into a heated argument. Although we were both opposed to the Vietnam War, we discovered that we differed considerably on what counted as permissible forms of anti-war protest. To me the point of such protest was simple - to turn people against the war. Hence anything that was counterproductive to this purpose was politically irresponsible and should be severely censured. My friend thought otherwise; in fact, he was planning to join what by all accounts was to be a massively disruptive demonstration in Washington, and which in fact became one.

My friend did not disagree with me as to the likely counterproductive effects of such a demonstration. Instead, he argued that this simply did not matter. His answer was that even if it was counterproductive, even if it turned people against war protesters, indeed even if it made them more likely to support the continuation of the war, he would still participate in the demonstration and he would do so for one simple reason - because it was, in his words, good for his soul.

What I saw as a political act was not, for my friend, any such thing. It was not aimed at altering the minds of other people or persuading them to act differently. Its whole point was what it did for him.

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Methodist disgrace: "While the United Methodist Church has been quick to condemn Israel for alleged human-rights abuses, the denomination's General Conference has refused to consider resolutions on human-rights violations in China, North Korea, Iran, Vietnam, Pakistan, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, and Egypt. The religious Left is so concerned about Israeli human-rights violations, real or perceived, but has nothing to say about Arab human-rights violations -- even when those violations include persecution of Christian minorities"

Yippee!: "The Anglican Church moved closer to schism yesterday when members of its central administrative council formally asked the Churches of Canada and the US to go. Unconvinced by the justifications offered by both Churches on Tuesday for their actions in ordaining an openly homosexual bishop and authorising same-sex blessings, members of the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Nottingham asked them to leave the council and its central finance and standing committees."

Pretty good stuff from Mr Brown: "Gordon Brown called on the European Union last night to end its integrationist ambitions and make the radical economic reforms needed to turn it from a trade bloc into a force able to compete in the world. The Chancellor urged a "pro-European realism" whereby the Union rose to international challenges while accepting that identities remained rooted in the nation-state. Mr Brown outlined in his annual Mansion House speech how he and the Prime Minister would make economic reform the centrepiece of Britain's six-month presidency of the EU. Mr Brown went on the offensive over the European budget and called for sheltered markets to be opened up, "starting with agriculture". Tony Blair will repeat that message when he addresses the European Parliament today, seeking to dispel the "caricature" advanced at the recent EU summit of Britain being a Dickensian economy.""

Dems blame the messenger: "What's infuriating is that whenever a Democrat luminary goes before the cameras to initiate damage control he ends up sounding hopelessly immature. [Democrat Chairman Howard] Dean blamed the controversy over his uncouth remarks on the Republicans, because its 'exactly what [they] want.' Democrat Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, responding to Mr. Durbin's unfortunate analogy, said, 'The noise machine from the far right never stops. ... This is all a distraction by the White House.' For his part, Mr. Durbin has also blamed the 'right-wing media.' So, the Republicans and the White House are supposedly to blame for what Democrats say. No doubt it's all part of some insidious Karl Rove plot. As for the 'right-wing media,' Democrats apparently think it's incredibly unfair that reporters actually report what a politician has said. Here's some free advice to Democrats: Stop saying stupid things."

Hateful Leftist abuse of the 9/11 atrocity: "Less than four years after America was sucker-punched by terrorists, we are again under a vicious attack. Only this time, those who would destroy our way of life are working from within. Here, at the spot known as Ground Zero - where Michael Diehl was killed, along with nearly 2,800 human beings - planners are busy developing an "International Freedom Center." ... Planners entrusted with developing the Ground Zero memorial have determined that this city needs some sort of "cultural" - their word - component to the site. The idea is to build an educational center - more like an indoctrination center, it seems to me - with exhibits examining unrelated outrages of the past, many of them committed by Americans. Slavery and the treatment of American Indians, just to name two.... It seems the advisory committee for the Freedom Center is peppered with folks who brandish leftist political agendas. These include a Columbia professor who said, three weeks after 9/11, that he didn't know what was scarier - the terror attacks or the White House's response to them."

George Neumayr on Democrat non-standards: "If Terri Schiavo had been dehydrated to death at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Dick Durbin would be reading her autopsy report from the Senate floor. ... Instead, Democrats -- even as they spent part of the week crassly celebrating, with news of Schiavo's autopsy report in hand, the human rights abuse of euthanasia against the disabled -- are in a moral lather over the paucity of air conditioning terrorists receive at Guantanamo Bay."

Ovi Magazine issue 5 is online from Finland. "The team has worked hard to produce nearly forty articles on a wide range of subjects, including graduation, disability, Michael Jackson, the E.U., handshakes, homemade cards, backgammon and so much more".

Libertarian Eddie thinks a lot of libertarians are being suckered by pseudo-moderate Leftist sites like tompaine.com

Strange Justice has an amazing story from Illinois. They framed an innocent guy and sent him to death row for murder. Fortunately he has now been exonerated. But they still have not got around to prosecuting the heavy criminal who actually confessed to the murder! Do they only prosecute innocent people?

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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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BOOK REVIEW: THE END OF TIME BY DAVID HOROWITZ

Published by Encounter Books, San Francisco, 2005

David very kindly sent me an autographed copy of this book. I get lots of books for one reason or another but rarely read much of them. I have read so many books in my 61 years on this earth (when I was aged 8 I was already reading three books a week) that I mostly just read articles now. So when I picked up David's book, I expected just do do a quick scan. Instead I sat down and read it right through. The book crams an immense amount of thought into 155 pages but it is all expressed with such simplicity and clarity that it is for all that not the slightest labour to read. I have always said that obscure writing betrays confused thinking and that clear thinking yields clear expression. David's book is an excellent example of the latter.

The book is basically a reflection on life in general and David's own life in particular. As such it is not a directly political book but, given David's life in politics, there are many penetrating reflections about politics in it. So I think I will here mainly share a few quotes that I particularly liked as accurate summaries of the world:

"If you look long and hard enough, you will find that a lie is at the root of most human wrong"

"The desire for more than is possible is the cause of greater human misery than any other"

"How can utopians dream of changing the world when it is so difficult to lose an inch off one's waistline?"

"My father's prophet was Karl Marx, who was himself descended from a long line of Rabbis"

"What Mohammed Atta and my father wanted was an escape from this life"

"My father was a decent man who was not prepared to harm others ... But along with millions of decent progressive souls, my father abetted those who did just that. Progressives looked the other way and then endorsed murder of untold innocents for the same reason that Mohammed Atta and the Islamic martyrs did: to make the new world possible"

"This very envy and the cruel desire for revenge that accompanied it were Joseph Stalin's most human traits"

"To the devoted [Leftist] the source of human misery cannot be located in a deficiency of self [i.e. a deficiency in himself], let alone the wish to escape it [i.e. escape his own deficiencies]"

"Self-loathing is the secret revolutionary passion"

"Social redeemers ... cannot live with themselves or the fault in creation, and therefore are at war with both. Because they are miserable themselves, they cannot abide the happiness of others"

"The Devil they [Leftists] hate is in themselves"

"The personal dream of every revolutionary is to be at the center of creation and the renewal of the world"

"Here is why you cannot change the world: Because we -- all 6 billion of us -- create it"

"The lack of respect for immovable differences is the cause of endless human grief, and is why my father's dreams have failed"

Because the book is largely autobiographical, we read a lot about the type of person David is and the type of person his father was. And the thing that stands out starkly is what an unhappy soul David's Marxist father was and what a gluecklich (lucky, happy) person David comes across as being. This of course fits in perfectly with what heaps of survey evidence shows -- that conservatives are happier people than Leftists (see e.g. here). And how happy you are is a fairly stable part of what you are -- almost regardless of your objective circumstances -- as this shows. Where David ended up ideologically, then, was predictable from his personality. And ditto for his father. Nature certainly triumphed over nurture in David's case.

It is always impressive how much personality -- what you basically are -- is central in the end. David and I have very similar views politically but we could not have had more different life-histories. I am a lifelong conservative from parents whose main attitude to politics was skepticism, for instance. But I too see myself as having had a full and blessed life and that obviously underlies my views. Happy people have no axe to grind and they have no need to deny reality.

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ELSEWHERE

Wow! The Terri Schiavo controversy is not over yet. Sherry Eros M.D. critiques the autopsy report and comes to some pretty savage conclusions.

I received a number of interesting email comments in response to my post yesterday about conservative blogs falling behind. I have posted three of the comments here

I have also received some interesting comments in response to my post about the motivations of Jewish Leftists. I reproduce two of them here.

The latest Leftist hysteria: "Gays are the new Jews". What an insult to Jews! Jews really are under attack in much of the world today (not least from Leftists) -- while homosexuals are mostly pandered to these days.

There is an interesting outline here of what Arnie's special election in California is all about. It should certainly stop some Democrat abuses if the voters support it.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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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CONSERVATIVE BLOGS FALLING BEHIND?

There has been a bit of discussion (e.g. here) of this article, which notes that the Leftist blogosphere now gets lots more hits than does the Conservative/libertarian blogosphere. The article says that the reason for the difference is that there are few conservative group-blogs and that few of the top conservative bloggers allow comments. There may be something in that. It certainly seems to be broadly true that group blogs attract more hits -- presumably because of a greater variety of material on them. And comments are very popular too. And I do myself contribute voluminously to a group blog that has very active comments and gets a lot of hits -- Majority Rights.

I doubt that different formats are the principal explanation for the recent upsurge of hits on Leftist blogs, though. I think that the recent conservative advance in the Anglosphere -- decisive election wins by GWB, John Howard and Tony Blair in America, Australia and Britain -- is the reason. Leftists are getting demoralized and are looking more and more for talk that will help prop up their views. They NEED blogs more than conservatives do. And I wouldn't mind betting that as GWB gets more and more of his judicial nominees through the Senate, more and more Leftists will be turning to the Left blogosphere for comfort. [Yes. I know that Tony Blair is more a centrist than a conservative but the Left hate him nonetheless].

Let me take this opportunity, however, to say that I would welcome co-bloggers for GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS if anybody of libertarian-conservative views is interested. The first three of those get respectively about 250, 350 and 100 hits a day at the moment. I don't have counters on the others. Their current ranking according to the Bear are respectively 2884, 1967 and 5369 -- which is certainly humble -- but all three are still ahead of around 8 million other blogs so they are a hell of a lot better than starting from nowhere.

Who knows? You could be another Chrenkoff and go from nowhere to 2 million hits in your first year! And Chrenkoff lives in the same quiet little backwater that I do -- only about 15 minutes drive away, in fact. Chrenkoff has got some fabulous pictures up at the moment, by the way.

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ELSEWHERE

There is a rather fun article here that interprets America as a country driven by hypomania -- the sub-clinical version of manic-depressive psychosis. It's not a bad theory in isolation but rather falls down when you look at other nations. The Chinese, for instance, are even more hard-driving and entrepreneurial than Americans. Are they utter fruit-loops? And Australia has a similar history to America but is also one of the world's most laid-back countries.

The Dems are blocking the appointment of Bolton as U.N. ambassador once again. Serve them right if GWB left the position unfilled. That WOULD be fun. It would mean a virtual withdrawal of the USA from the UN. Yippee!

Blair tries to force rationality on the French: "Britain is trying to turn the tables on President Chirac by drawing up plans to trade in its rebate from Brussels in return for guaranteed cuts in farm subsidies. Tony Blair, who takes over the EU presidency in ten days, is confident that he can win enough allies to force the French President, his main adversary at last week's Brussels summit, to accept fundamental reforms of Europe's farming budget.... Under the British plan the Government would agree to scale back its œ3 billion-a-year rebate in return for a fundamental review of EU spending in 2008, leading two years later to substantial cuts in the annual 50 billion Euro (34 billion pound) Common Agricultural Policy."

The hero of British intellectuals hasn't changed: "His influence may have waned on the global political stage, but Karl Marx seems certain to be voted the world's greatest philosopher in a new poll. He is racing ahead of rivals two weeks before voting ends in the poll of listeners to the BBC Radio 4 discussion programme In Our Time".

Marx the false prophet: "All of Marx's major predictions have turned out to be wrong. He said that societies based on a market economy would suffer spiraling class polarization and the disappearance of the middle class. Every society lucky enough to enjoy the fruits of a market economy shows that Marx was wrong about that. He predicted the growing immiseration and impoverishment of the working class in capitalist societies. (Actually, he didn't merely predict that it would happen, he predicted that it would happen necessarily and inevitably-thanks, Hegel!) The opposite has happened. Indeed, as Kolakowski notes, "in the second edition of Capital Marx updated various statistics and figures, but not those relating to workers' wages; those figures, if updated, would have contradicted his theory." Marx further predicted the inevitable revolution of the proletariat. This is the very motor of Marxism. Take away the proletarian revolution and you neuter the theory. But there have been no proletarian revolutions. The Bolshevik revolution, as Kolakowski points out, "had nothing to do with Marxian prophesies. Its driving force was not a conflict between the industrial working class and capital, but rather was carried out under slogans that had no socialist, let alone Marxist, content"

Jihadist shatters Leftist myths: "Note how in this one Washington Post story how almost every one of our Western myths promulgated by the antiwar Left is shattered by a candid jihadist himself. First, there was always radical Islamic anti-American hatred that preceded Iraq. Indeed, celebrations were spontaneous immediately after September 11 on the mere news of slaughtered Americans.

Lost Tooth Society is rightly aggrieved that he has for so long been deceived by Leftist propaganda into believing that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder. He summarizes a few of the studies which show that it is a BIG deterrent to murder.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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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TUESDAY ROUNDUP

Once again I list what I think were the best posts on my various blogs in the preceding week.

On Dissecting Leftism I explain that Leftist America-hatred can only be understood psychologically, not logically.

On Greenie Watch I note why solar power will remain a fantasy

On Political Correctness Warch I note that an aggressive black Muslim was hired to give "sensitivity training"!

On Education Watch I note that Britain's equivalent of charter schools are making a big difference

On Socialized Medicine I note that Canada is sending some pregnant women to the USA for medical care

On Gun Watch I tell of a guy who tried to rob a ladies' beauty college but who got a lot more than he bargained for

On Leftists as Elitists I note the amazing arrogance of the French elite

On Majority Rights I tell three inspiring stories about how civil three English-speakling countries have been

On Blogger News I say why I am a monarchist

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ELSEWHERE

The Dutch talk tough: "Immigration and Integration Minister Rita Verdonk has ordered three imams accused of being a threat to public order and national security to get out of the Netherlands. The trio have been accused of preaching a militant anti-western message at Al Fourkaan mosque in Eindhoven and allowing young people to be recruited for Jihad. They will be expelled if they do not leave the country voluntarily, Verdonk has vowed. She has given them a month in which they can challenge her order but they cannot stay in the Netherlands pending the outcome of any appeal.... The Dutch intelligence service AIVD indicated that the imams "contribute to the radicalisation of Muslims in the Netherlands", the Justice Ministry said earlier this year. The ministry claimed the imams tried to recruit, or tolerated the recruiting, of Muslims for Jihad, or holy war. They are also accused of using their sermons to urge Muslims to "isolate" themselves from the rest of Dutch society".

Republican Dan has a big post on what a disaster the recruitment of women into the U.S. military has been. Just one excerpt: "At Annapolis, a female midshipmen was allowed to graduate and receive her commission despite having refused to complete the mandatory 34-foot jump into water, simulating abandon ship, because of her fear of heights. As Stephanie Gutmann wrote in The Kinder, Gentler Military (2000) women in Army basic training often begin to cry when they have to descend from a rappelling tower, and some women are so panic-stricken that they cannot rappel at all. In perhaps the most reckless display of feminism, women are allowed to serve on shipboard even though a 1981 Navy study showed that they are not capable of handling heavy fire equipment, carrying stretchers, or advancing hose lines. Needless to say, such incompetence puts the lives of men and the safety of the ship at risk. It is an immoral thing to allow. Integration was billed as a tremendous success while men behind the scenes worked overtime to prevent its failure from coming to light".

Protests about homosexual "marriage" in Spain: "Hundreds of thousands of people led by 20 Catholic bishops and conservative opposition leaders clogged downtown Madrid yesterday to demonstrate against the Socialist government's Bill to legalise gay marriage and let gay couples adopt children. About 500,000 people chanted in favour of the family and children's rights in a march called by a lay Catholic group the Spanish Forum for the Family. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega accused protesters of discrimination and of wanting to deny to others they rights they enjoyed. The new law "does not oblige anyone to do anything they don't want to do", Ms Fernandez de la Vega she said. The gay marriage Bill is expected to be law in a matter of weeks. It has been passed by the lower chamber of Parliament and will be voted on next week by the Senate".

Freedom requires responsibility: "During a talk with Simon Bilo, former Mises Institute fellow and one of the organizers of the conference, I was informed that the Communist Party in the Czech Republic got more than 20% of the total votes in the last political elections. It is now the second largest party in the country. I knew that Communist Parties in Eastern Europe remain a strong power and enjoy some measure of popular support. Still, it is strange. It cries out for explanation. Why do some wish for slavery? Why do people still support Communist Parties?.... When democratic or communist institutions have been established for several decades, the way back to liberty is very difficult. People become used to safety nets and responsibility shifting... But Eastern European countries have experienced in recent years the transition from irresponsible societies (under communist regimes) to partially responsible ones (under democratic regimes). From these transitions, we've learned that people cannot learn to be responsible overnight. The more a society loses touch with mechanisms of cause and effect, the more there is going to be a demand for shifting blame. This demand might take the form of votes to Communist Parties. Freedom is not easy to cope with once people have become accustomed to slavery".

Michael Darby is online again with another series of posts about Zimbabwe, global warming, Gitmo, alternative fuel nonsense and much more (PDF).

Strange Justice has an appalling story of politically correct injustice in Britain.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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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SAYET RIGHT

Evan Sayet is doing a great job of showing up the follies and inconsistencies in Leftism. His analyses of Leftist thinking are in many ways spot-on. And I encourage people to have a read of his blog right now. You will note that he freely admits, however, that some things about "liberals" are just incomprehensible to him. He is not alone in that. Leftists are incomprehensible to a lot of people. And the reason they are incomprehensible is that we treat Leftists with more courtesy than they deserve. We take seriously statements they make that are not at all serious. We assume that Leftism is a set of ideas or even a philosophy when it is neither of those things. Leftism is a posture, not a set of ideas. And as such it can only be understood psychologically rather than logically. The Leftist is not at all bothered by his inconsistencies or failures to recognize reality. So to discover inconsistencies and unreality in his utterances is both easy and irrelevant. A Leftist utterance is not aimed at any sort of serious explanation of the world at all. It is aimed simply at making the Leftist feel good -- and hopefully of persuading others that he is a good guy too.

So the Leftist can quite cheerfully say that there are no genetic influences on human behaviour when discussing IQ and then go on immediately to say that homosexuality is genetically inherited ("the gay gene"). To conservatives that sounds like inconsistency and it is certainly logically inconsistent. But the Leftist isn't really bothered about logic. What he says is psychologically consistent. In both cases he is casting himself in the heroic role of the defender of the underdog.

In the case of homosexuals, the disgust that most normal people feel about homosexuality means that they will always to some extent be underdogs so the Leftist aims to show how much kinder and wiser he is by defending them. And if "they can't help it" ("the gay gene" theory) seems to be the best defence of them he will say that. But in the case of IQ the idea that there is an inborn disposition to be good or bad at solving most problems implies that people who prosper may be prosperous for a good and just reason. And that conflicts with the Leftist's desire to feel and look kind and wise by championing the poor. So in this case he has to DENY that the poor "can't help it". It sounds a lot better to say that poverty is the result of wicked and unkind people conspiring to keep poor people down. And saying that shows the Leftist as "caring" about the poor and as being so wise as to see causes of poverty that others cannot. So he denies that there is any such thing as IQ, let alone an inherited IQ. He claims that poverty is the result of "oppression" and "injustice", not of lesser ability to make good decisions in life. A century of evidence about the reality, importance and heritability of IQ does not bother him because evidence is not what he is concerned about. So let us apply that understanding to two of the things that puzzle Evan.

1). He cannot understand how his New York liberal relatives are so reflexively anti-American: But he tries foolishly to apply logic to their statements when there is no logic there. Their anti-Americanism is a CLAIM on their own behalf, not a rational proposition. It is a claim to being superior. They are in effect saying: "We are good and smart and wise -- not like all those other dumb Americans around the place". They knock Americans as a way of feeling better about themselves -- just as Europeans do. And, like Europeans, such knocking shows that they secretly fear that they may in reality be inferior. If they really were demonstrably superior they would not feel any need to put other people down.

2). He cannot understand why American Jews are so Left-leaning when the Left is so antisemitic. But again what we see there is a claim: "We are superior -- We are not like all those ignorant Goyim who infest the place". So again their anti-Americanism takes precedence over everything else. Their egos are more important to them than gratitude for the safety that only those dumb Americans give them. One should really feel sorry for people whose egos are so weak as to need propping up in that way. But I guess that thousands of years of persecution should be expected to engender some defensiveness.

Just to be totally clear, I should stress that I am above talking about Left-leaning Jews, not Jews in general.

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ELSEWHERE

Stephen Eric Bronner is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. He is also the modern-day equivalent of a Soviet apparatchik. Take this bald assertion, for which not a shred of evidence is offered: "Leaders of all the "great powers" who built the postwar compact were complicit, some perhaps more and others perhaps less than their predecessors and successors, in shaping the nightmare of poverty and instability that still hovers over the once colonized world.". When Britain gave independence to its former African colonies, it handed over well-organized, stable and generally peaceful countries. Since then all of the countries concerned have descended into repeated orgies of bloodshed and violence -- with the poverty that must result from that. That was the doing of the British? And in Singapore and Malaysia, the British followed much the same policies. And those countries have prospered mightily since independence. So if it is British policies that stuffed up Africa, how come the same policies did not stuff up Singapore and Malaysia? And how come Hong Kong prospered so mightily under British rule? Bronner is a perfect illustration of how Leftists ignore any facts that don't suit them.

Are libertarians more highly evolved? "Are libertarians higher evolved politically? One California professor thinks so. In 'The People's Romance: Why People Love Government,' Daniel Klein says that humans have an instinct for big government. Klein, an Associate Professor of Economics at Santa Clara University, argues that humans have a communal urge that is an evolutionary vestige which should be discarded in favor of individual freedom. In his 50-page paper in The Independent Review, Prof. Klein quotes Adam Smith (Wealth of Nations, 1776 & Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759) and Karl Marx to explain his thesis. Prof. Klein argues that people have a 'yearning for encompassing sentiment coordination.' This means that people have a primal instinct to be part of One Great Clan; we naturally want a common experience of shared values and we need 'focal points' for this togetherness, and government is a natural focal point."

An excellent article here on how the Bush tax cuts have led to a big INCREASE in government revenue. It's a plain fact but don't expect any Leftist to acknowledge it.

Some group of loopy Leftist do-gooders have just published a pie-in-the-sky "Manifesto of Wellbeing". There is a satirical look at it here.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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 ECONOMICS

"Unfair" dismissals help the unemployed: "First, less employment protection will mean more hiring and more firing and, hence, more job churning. For those with jobs, this may not sound like a particularly enticing prospect. But for the unemployed, it matters a lot. The flip side of greater certainty that those with jobs will remain employed is greater certainty that the unemployed will remain unemployed. With decreased hiring, those without work are likely to remain jobless for longer. Indeed, cross-country evidence shows a robust relationship between employment protection and higher long-term unemployment. Making hiring and firing easier will help spread the burden of unemployment across the workforce. Since we know that the worst results of unemployment come from the de-skilling and depressing effect of prolonged joblessness, this provides a powerful equity argument for reform. Moreover, this also yields an important efficiency argument: if adverse macroeconomic shocks cause long-term unemployment to rise, it can take decades for the economy to recover.... Research by Olivier Blanchard and Justin Wolfers finds that countries with less strict firing laws recover more robustly following adverse economic shocks. Those who benefit most from a rapid recovery are the most disadvantaged in Australian society".

Economics at work on births: "Tough child support laws may dissuade men from becoming unwed fathers, a new study shows. Researchers at the University of Washington and Columbia University found that states with the most stringent child support laws and strict enforcement have up to 20 percent fewer unwed births. Child support laws' power to prevent single parenthood is an unintended consequence of a policy designed to help children and cut public welfare costs, the researchers said Friday. "Often the unintended effects are bad, so it's refreshing to see that," said lead study author Robert Plotnick, University of Washington professor of public affairs. "Women living in states that do a better job of enforcing child support are less likely to become an unwed mother."

The names of Smoot and Hawley will live in infamy: "Only a few economic historians are likely to notice June 17 marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Hawley-Smoot tariff bill.... the same kind of thinking that led to the Hawley-Smoot tariffs is still alive and well -- and in full youthful vigor -- in the media and in politics today. At the heart of past and present arguments for restricting imports that compete with American-made products is the notion these imports cost American jobs.... If 9 percent unemployment was troublesome in 1930, when the Hawley-Smoot tariff was passed, it was nothing compared to the 16 percent unemployment the next year and the 25 percent unemployment two years after that. The annual U.S. unemployment rate never got back down to 9 percent again during the entire decade of the 1930s. American industry as a whole operated at a loss for two consecutive years. Farmers, who had strongly supported the Hawley-Smoot tariffs, saw their own exports cut by two-thirds as other countries retaliated against U.S. tariffs by restricting imports of American industrial and agricultural products. The economists' appeal had warned of "retaliatory tariffs" setting off a wave of international trade restrictions that would hurt all countries economically. After everything these economists had warned of came to pass, tariffs began to be reduced. But throughout the 1930s they remained above the pre-Hawley-Smoot levels -- and so did unemployment".

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ELSEWHERE

That pesky IQ again: "People with bigger brains are smarter than their smaller-brained counterparts, according to a study conducted by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher published in the journal "Intelligence." The study, published on line June 16, could settle a long-standing scientific debate about the relationship between brain size and intelligence. Ever since German anatomist and physiologist Frederick Tiedmann wrote in 1836 that there exists "an indisputable connection between the size of the brain and the mental energy displayed by the individual man," scientists have been searching for biological evidence to prove his claim. "For all age and sex groups, it is now very clear that brain volume and intelligence are related," said lead researcher Michael A. McDaniel, Ph.D., an industrial and organizational psychologist who specializes in the study of intelligence and other predictors of job performance".

EU falling apart: "The EU summit to agree a budget collapsed last night amid some of the most bitter recriminations ever seen between European leaders, with Jacques Chirac denouncing the British position as pathetic and tragic, and Tony Blair describing the French defence of agricultural subsidies as bizarre."

The sick man is Europe: "That Europe as an entity is sick and the European Union as an institution is in disorder cannot be denied. But no remedies currently being discussed can possibly remedy matters. What ought to depress partisans of European unity in the aftermath of the rejection of its proposed constitution by France and the Netherlands is not so much the foundering of this ridiculous document as the response of the leadership to the crisis, especially in France and Germany. Jacques Chirac reacted by appointing as prime minister Dominque de Villepin, a frivolous playboy who has never been elected to anything and is best known for his view that Napoleon should have won the Battle of Waterloo and continued to rule Europe.... Europe, which grew rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, before the EU got going, has slowly lost pace since Brussels took over its direction and imposed convergence. It is now stagnant".

Gitmo: "The general leading the force to free the captive enemy from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, and inflict a humiliating defeat on the United States is so-called "civil rights" and "Constitutional" attorney Michael Ratner. It was Ratner who led the way in recruiting elite lawyers to defend the enemy combatants being interrogated at Gitmo. But Ratner is a long-time leader of two pro-Communist and anti-American organizations who have for decades have lent aid and comfort to America's enemies in the Cold War and beyond. Michael Ratner is a lawyer who began his legal career in the late 1960s at the National Lawyers Guild, a Soviet created front group which still embraces its Communist heritage"

Race card out, class card in! "Mr. Cosby is black, so charging him with the vice of racism would not work too well. It could carry no punch with which to silence what he suggested, namely, that black parents can and ought to straighten up their parental acts. Had his words been spoken by some prominent white commentator, that ploy would still have been appealing to the modern liberal establishment. Call the messenger a racist and thus squash the truth about what parents can and should do for their kids. But what to do now, when a prominent black figure delivers this piece of sensible insight? How can it be squelched, neutralized so we can keep going to government to answers? Come to the rescue The New York Times .... The problem with Bill Cosby isn't that he is white -- no, it's that he belongs to the upper black classes. The class card, thus, takes the place of the race card."

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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

That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

Comments? Email me here (Hotmail address). 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.

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

AN EXCELLENT COMMENT ON DEMOCRAT HATE-POLITICS

"When Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean said the other day that the Republicans were pretty much a "white, Christian party," I must admit I felt a guilty sense of self-recognition. He had nailed me cold, dead to rights. I looked in the mirror and confessed, "Yes, I am a white Christian, and I am a Republican."...

... and here's where Dean has overlooked something important - we were white Christians, but we were not Republicans. Republicans were mostly Protestant, wealthy and members of country clubs. We were Catholic, middle-class and Democrats. For most of my adult life, I considered myself a Democrat and voted for Democrats for president - from John F. Kennedy in 1960 to Bill Clinton in 1992. I began voting for Republican presidential candidates, and thinking of myself as Republican, only after it became abundantly clear that people with my views on abortion, prayer in school and other moral issues were no longer considered welcome in the Democratic Party. A whole lot of us crossed over, taking our whiteness and our Christian beliefs into the party of the country-club set. We didn't feel so much that we had abandoned the Democratic Party as it had abandoned us. Borrowing the spirit of the "No Irish Need Apply" mentality of my grandparents' time, the Democrats posted a "no pro-lifers need apply" sign on their party doors....

So if the Republican Party has become the "white, Christian party," as Dean charges, it's partly so because the Democratic Party has made white Christians feel so uncomfortable in its ranks. The Democrats have bent over backwards to please minority groups - blacks, gays, angry feminists and atheists - at the expense of us old white guys (and gals - yes, we're not afraid to call our wives that) who grew up not feeling guilty about being white or Christian.

Of course, Dean is also overlooking an important fact, and that is the only successful Democratic presidential candidates in recent times were two white Christian guys - Jimmy Carter and Clinton, both red-state good ole boys with Southern accents and some familiarity with Scripture. So when Dean vaguely implies that "white Christian" is a pejorative term, he's playing to a Democratic base that's growing narrower and narrower - non-white, non-Christian, non-Southern and non-winning.

As a crossover Republican, I applaud Dean's take-no-prisoners approach to distilling his party into its purest essence. Displaying barely concealed contempt for white Christians is Dean's formula for ethnic and theological purity in the party, and I say, "Pour it on, Howard!" Keep it up and the Democratic Party will be confined to a few zip codes in Manhattan, Hollywood and San Francisco".

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Strict ethics un-German: "A German court has upheld the right of Wal-Mart staff in Germany to flirt at work, a spokesman said overnight, showing that Germany's restrictive labor laws also have their permissive aspects. The court rejected parts of Wal-Mart's code of conduct relating to employees' love lives, alcohol and drug use and a requirement for staff to report code violations via a so-called ethics hotline, the spokesman said. He could not immediately confirm the grounds on which the Wuppertal employment court had ordered the clauses to be removed for German staff, saying the judge's opinion was still in the process of being written. The Financial Times Deutschland said the court had found the clauses, including one banning "any kind of communication that could be interpreted as sexual," contradicted German labour law, in its ruling on the case brought by Wal-Mart's works council"

NYC liberals NYC's worst enemy: "Do you miss the good old days of rising crime in New York City? If so, don't worry: they're coming back - courtesy, once again, of liberal judges and limousine politicians. The mostly liberal New York media have deliberately underplayed the news that a federal judge ruled last week that city cops had violated the "constitutional rights" of "peaceful panhandlers." You know "peaceful panhandlers," don't you? All they want is to exercise their First Amendment freedom to speak and stare at you, so long as they don't actually assault you. Nothing wrong with that, right? And so justice was done, right? That's what The New York Times thinks. Its Friday headline read, "Police Charged Panhandlers Under Unconstitutional Law." So in The Times' view of the world, which is the view from the back seat of a limousine, this court ruling is a victory for the Constitution, pure and simple. And what of the commonsense right of people to walk the streets unmolested? The lead plaintiff-panhandler, for example, is currently facing felony raps for crack cocaine. So best get a limo"

Leftist-supported American eugenics outlasted Hitler: "Beneath the surface of this Southern town, with its lush evergreens and winding riverbanks, is a largely forgotten legacy of pain, secrecy and human indignity. "My heart still bleeds, and it will forever bleed, because of what had happened to me," local resident Elaine Riddick said. Riddick was one of thousands of people secretly sterilized by the state between 1929 and 1974. From the early 1900s to the 1970s, some 65,000 men and women were sterilized in this country, many without their knowledge, as part of a government eugenics program to keep so-called undesirables from reproducing. "The procedures that were done here were done to poor folks," said Steven Selden, professor at the University of Maryland. "They were thought to be poor because they had bad genes or bad inheritance, if you will. And so they would be the focus of the sterilization."... Riddick went on to earn a college degree and raise the son she had at 14. He now is an engineering consultant." [Background here]

The Leftist media don't REALLY care about blacks: "Western media generally do not cover the ongoing war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo... What the world media are missing is one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II: 3.8 million people have died in the Congo since 1998, dwarfing not only the biggest of natural catastrophes, such as December's South Asia tsunami, but also other manmade horrors, such as Darfur. With so many dying and so much at stake, it is simply astounding that Congo isn't in the newspapers and on nightly news regularly. Even a nonlethal car bombing in Iraq or a kidnapping in Afghanistan gets more Western media coverage in a day than Congo gets in a typical month of 30,000 dead. So much for the old TV news editors' saw, "If it bleeds, it leads." News editors have long assumed "no one is interested in Africa," supposing their audience sees only hopeless African problems eternally defying solution and thus not worth attention".

The latest news from the California health-nut front: Potato chips give you cancer! Is there anything that doesn't?

How embarrassing. Only an American aircraft has the range needed: "Air France has launched a second daily flight between Paris and Beijing. The new flight is operated with Boeing B777-300 aircraft, with a seating capacity of 310 and is equipped with the new Air France Travel Concept".

Amusing: My Leftist imitator seems to have lost his juju. He has not posted for nearly two weeks now. And he never did figure out how to put his archive links onto a separate page, as I do. Hint: It's really easy!

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE and LEFTISTS AS ELITISTS. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. And on Social Security see Dick McDonald

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That power only, not principles, is what matters to Leftist movers and shakers is perfectly shown by the 2004 Kerry campaign. They put up a man whose policies seemed to be 99% the same as George Bush's even though the Left have previously disagreed violently with those policies. "Whatever it takes" is their rule.

Leftist ideologues are phonies. For most of them all that they want is to sound good. They don't care about doing good. That's why they do so much harm. They don't really care what the results of their policies are as long as they are seen as having good intentions and can con "the masses" into giving them power.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist"

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