Are conservatives less "open"?

I guess I should note the latest echo of an old refrain -- a paper by John Jost titled "The End of the End of Ideology". I reproduce the abstract below:

"The "end of ideology" was declared by social scientists in the aftermath of World War II. They argued that: (a) ordinary citizens' political attitudes lack the kind of stability, consistency, and constraint that ideology requires; (b) ideological constructs such as liberalism and conservatism lack motivational potency and behavioral significance; (c) there are no major differences in content (or substance) between liberal and conservative points of view; and (d) there are few important differences in psychological processes (or styles) that underlie liberal versus conservative orientations. The end-of-ideologists were so influential that researchers ignored the topic of ideology for many years. However, current political realities, recent data from the National Election Studies, and results from an emerging psychological paradigm provide strong grounds for returning to the study of ideology. The liberalism-conservatism distinction remains a pervasive and parsimonious means of organizing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (for both laypersons and social scientists). Studies reveal that there are indeed meaningful political and psychological differences that covary with ideological self-placement. Situational variables-including system threat and mortality salience -and dispositional variables- including openness and conscientiousness- affect the degree to which an individual is drawn to liberal vs. conservative leaders, parties, and opinions. A psychological analysis is also useful for understanding the political divide between "red states" and "blue states."

The last few sentences above reflect the familiar claim (going back to at least 1950) from Leftist psychologists that conservatives are in some sense psychologically inferior or disabled. I have been rebutting such tripe for over 30 years so I cannot work up enough enthusiasm to go to the library and look up the full article but it seems from the abstract to be just another rehash of an earlier collaborative article by Jost that I have already demolished here. Jost and his colleagues don't even know what a conservative is so there is NO chance of their findings having any real-world significance.

Dr Helen has however given us an extract from the latest article by Jost in which the claim is made that Leftists are more "Open" in various ways. I wonder has Jost taken account of the findings of Van Hiel? Van Hiel is a Leftist psychologist but he works unusually hard to get data from real-world Leftists and Rightists -- as distinct from the usual practice of handing out a bunch of questionnaires to your students. And, as I point out here, Van Hiel actually found in one study that it was conservatives who were more open and in another study found that openness was not politically polarized.

As Dr Helen also points out, that real-world data can be pesky stuff!

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THE REVOLUTION THAT SORTED OUT THE IDEALISTS FROM THE HATERS

A former British Communist reflects on the Hungarian revolution:

As I walked back from the podium to my seat in the audience, screams of `Trotskyist!' hit me from all sides. Communist Party comrades who had been my friends hurled abuse at me, their faces screwed up with hatred. By the time I got back to my seat I was shouting back, telling them that, like the AVO (Hungarian secret policemen) who were then swinging on lamp posts as a result of people's anger, their time on the end of a rope was nearing. I would not recommend this as a way to win political arguments.

The scene was the old Liverpool Stadium in 1956; the Liverpool District Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain had organised a meeting to discuss the Hungarian uprising. In my intervention I had called for the Soviet troops to get out of Hungary, and demanded we pledge our full support for the Hungarian workers and students in their attempt to replace Stalinism. On returning to my seat I heard a member of the District Committee describe me from the platform as a Trotskyist provocateur. The shepherd had spoken and the witless sheep responded as the followers of Stalin, myself included, had always done in the past. The magic word was Trotsky, the revolutionary bogeyman of Stalinism.

More here

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Leftist blogger MYDD is organizing a Googlebombing campaign against GOP candidates in the upcoming election: "The utilization of Google Adwords and simultaneous, widespread embedded hyperlinks in order to drive as many voters as possible toward the most damning, non-partisan article written on the Republican candidate in seventy key US Senate and House races. The campaign will run from Tuesday, October 24th until Tuesday, November 7th. [Can an article can be both damning and non-partisan? Dubious logic there.]

In memoriam: "Ideas shape the world. Last week a very important promoter of ideas, Ralph Harris, died at the age of 81. The liberal economic ideas that he popularised in the 1960s and 1970s became the basis of the Conservative reforms of the 1980s, and have remained the accepted basis of the Blair administration. No other British propagandist of ideas in the second half of the 20th century had anything like the same influence on national policy. Lord Harris of High Cross taught Margaret Thatcher. He converted a whole generation of politicians and journalists to the free-market ideas in which he believed; he converted most economists as well. [I knew Ralph Harris myself]

Would most of the "young people" mentioned in this report be black or Muslim? "Britain is becoming a nation increasingly afraid of its young people and this trend is causing problems for children as they grow up, according to a report released overnight. Britons are far less likely than their European counterparts to stop young people committing antisocial behaviour, because of fears of reprisals, being attacked, or verbal abuse, the study by the Institute of Policy Research (IPPR) found.... The IPPR said that 1.5 million Britons now thought about moving away from the area they lived in because of "young people hanging around". It said 1.7 million people avoided going out after dark because of their worries about antisocial behaviour which the vast majority blamed on a "lack of discipline".

Will this survive appeal? " A Detroit woman says a judge forced her to choose between her small-claims case and her religious conviction. Devout Muslim Ginnnah Muhammad was contesting a charge of more than $2,700 from a rental-car company to repair a vehicle after it was broken into. Hamtramck district Judge Paul Paruk told her she needed to remove a head veil that covered everything but her eyes so he could judge her truthfulness. The 42-year-old kept the veil on and the case was dismissed. Paruk says many Muslims who have appeared before him wearing the veil do not consider it a religious symbol. Dawud Walid is the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He says the judge violated Muhammad's civil rights.

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

A report released on Wednesday on the political views of faculty members accuses professors of liberal "groupthink," a stance that the report says puts them at odds with the beliefs of most Americans on national and international issues. The report, by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, was based on an online, nationally representative survey of 1,259 professors at four-year colleges and universities in the spring of 2005. It found that, in general, professors are critical of American business and foreign policy and are skeptical of capitalism. Among other findings, the report, "A Profile of American College Faculty: Volume 1: Political Beliefs & Behavior," says that:

* Professors are three times as likely to call themselves "liberal" as "conservative." In the 2004 presidential election, 72 percent of those surveyed voted for John Kerry.

* Almost one-third of professors cite the United States as among the top two greatest threats to international stability -- more than cited Iran, China, or Iraq.

* Fifty-four percent of professors say U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is partially responsible for the growth of Islamic militancy.

* Sixty-four percent say the government's powers under the USA Patriot Act should be weakened.

Professors, says the report, are at the "forefront of the political divide" over U.S. foreign policy that has developed since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Faculty members have "aligned themselves in direct opposition to the political philosophy of the conservative base voting for the prevailing political power" in America, it says. Unlike most Americans, it adds, faculty members "blame America for world problems" and regard U.S. policies as "suspect."

The report labels the faculty's overall stance as liberal "groupthink," and says it is dangerous because faculty members "are supposed to provide a broad range of ... approaches to addressing problems in American society and around the world." Professors are role models for students and frequently are called upon to act as "pundits" by the media and as experts on foreign policy, it adds.

More here

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For what slight interest it may have, I have just put up another post on my personal blog -- under the unlikely title of "Donizetti and the 39 articles". See here or here. It might be an interesting post for Christians to read.

France waking up? "Authorities at Charles de Gaulle airport have stripped several dozen employees _ almost all of them Muslims _ of their security badges in a crackdown against terrorism, a government official said Friday. Four baggage handlers who lost their clearance filed a joint discrimination complaint this week, alleging they had been unfairly associated with terrorism because they are Muslims, their lawyers said. Some had been in their jobs for up to five years."

Sense at last in Sweden: "The latest media darling of Scandinavian politics is not only black, beautiful and Muslim; she is also firmly against the wearing of the veil. Nyamko Sabuni, 37, has caused a storm as Sweden’s new integration and equality minister by arguing that all girls should be checked for evidence of female circumcision; arranged marriages should be criminalised; religious schools should receive no state funding; and immigrants should learn Swedish and find a job. Supporters of the centre-right government that came to power last month believe that her bold rejection of cultural diversity may make her a force for change across Europe. Her critics are calling her a hardliner and even an Islamophobe."

Charismatic polling: "Now numbering over 500 million, and probably the fastest growing religious movement in the world, Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians are transforming the global religious demographic, especially in Latin America and Africa. They comprise nearly half of Brazil's population, and 25 percent of the United States is Pentecostal or Charismatic. Are these religious, social conservatives replicating in the Global South political trends that are present among Republican-oriented evangelicals in the United States? A new study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life tries to answer just this question."

Family time: Myths and realities: "According to critics of American capitalism the modern family is spending more and more time working and less and less time with one another. Yes, they argue, capitalism is destroying the family. Odd, actually since the old Left critique was that the family was evil and was created by capitalism. Never mind the inconsistency for now. But what about the current crop of myths spread by the Left. (Who are, as far as I can tell, as deluded as the Right.) A group of sociologist, normally a dangerous configuration, recently did a study on how men and women today spend their time compared to the 1960s. The University of Maryland researchers were shocked to find that the typical parent today spends much more time with their children."

Theo-panic! "In the 1650s, Oliver Cromwell governed England with a cadre of major generals, establishing a kind of low-church Protestant theocracy. Catholic priests were chased from the country, and Anglican clergy were suppressed. Censorship and blue laws were tightened. What does Cromwell's rule have to do with contemporary American political life? If your answer is anything other than 'nothing,' you are probably in the grip of the 'theo-panic' that is sweeping precincts of the American commentariat. They warn that America is beset by raging theocrats seeking to overturn our liberal democracy."

Don't fear the trade deficit: "The United States on track for a record capital surplus! Sounds great, right? Now consider this: the United States is on track for a record trade deficit! It doesn't sound so good, but the two mean pretty much the same thing. Whichever way you choose to say it, neither statement should be a cause for worry or celebration."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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THE PARTY OF COMPASSION, THE PARTY OF DIVERSITY

Another good comment from Boortz below:

There is a particular strain of liberal viciousness that is reserved for one particular type of individual, that being any black American who runs for political office as a Republican. If there is "treason" to a liberal, this would be it. No holds are barred, no language is forbidden, when demonizing a black person who has strayed from the Democrat leftist straight-and-narrow.

As you may (or should) know, there's quite a race going on in Maryland for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Paul Sarbanes. Maryland's Republican Lt. Governor Michael Steele is running for the seat, as is Congressman Ben Cardin. Steele is black. This hasn't made Democrats happy. This means he's as close to a traitor as one can get in the mind of a leftist.

So along comes Maryland Democrat Congressman, and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer. Hoyer is campaigning for Cardin, and since Cardin's opponent is a black Republican, all bets are off. Hoyer tells a campaign audience .. a largely black campaign audience .. that Michael Steel "slavishly" supports the Republican Party. This is pretty much par for the course for Hoyer. Four years ago he referred to Steele as a "token." Then we got one of those "out of context" excuses from Hoyer. This time we're getting an apology. Hoyer says "I should not have used those words." Yeah, right. But he did -- and the damage was done. A black campaign audience heard that the Republican candidate for Senate was acting pretty much like a slave .. and those words have grave impact in the black voting community.

If Steele is a slave, he is a runaway. He has committed the unpardonable sin .. .he has fled the Democrat plantation. Now he must be punished. Today's runaways are punished with scorn and words like "Uncle Tom," "Oreo" and others. This from the party that tells us how much it appreciates diversity. Diversity of color? Maybe. Diversity of thought? Not on your life.

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Last July, I did a brief book review of Only In America by Paul Oreffice, an Italian-Jewish refugeee from Mussolini who went on to become head of Dow Chemical. I liked the book a lot but didn't have time to say a lot about it, so I passed it over to a friend who is a political centrist for comment. He has now done his own review of the book which I have put up here. He makes some good points.

Muslim news management: "Press conferences in Indonesia tend to be catered affairs. Journalists usually receive a take-away box of food, and underneath is often slipped a brown envelope. Inside the envelope will be a wad of banknotes, in appreciation of their attendance and expectation of a positive story. They call it "envelope journalism", a custom not only practised by flash lawyers and dodgy developers: big corporations, government agencies and even charities regularly distribute cash to the local media. On a couple of occasions gifts have been given to foreign journalists but they have handed them back. This week two government ministries admitted they continued to hand out envelopes of cash to journalists who attended press events, despite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's campaign to eradicate corruption."

Destructive regulation in France: "French cafes and restaurants may be forced to shrink their already limited opening hours after a court decision on working time that has dismayed owners, waiters and the Government. Owners of the country's 200,000 eating and drinking establishments have been ordered to apply the 35-hour week that guarantees most French workers Europe's shortest working time. The bosses must also pay retroactive overtime for the past 22 months. The decision by the Conseil d'Etat, the highest civil court, was greeted with horror by owners and many of the trade's 800,000 employees amid warnings that it could force small establishments out of business. They appealed for state action to soften the impact. Under a 2004 accord, catering workers were allowed to work a 39-hour week. This had already led to restaurants cutting costs by such measures as turning away lunchtime customers who arrive after 1.30pm. The court has annulled the accord. Applying the 35-hour week could force restaurants to close three days a week or refuse a second dinner sitting, owners said.... Steep payroll charges and tight regulations have caused a shortage of waiters and cooks in the catering establishments that help France to attract more visitors than any other nation".

GOP Failure "If voters are unhappy with Republicans, it's because the party hasn't lived up to its own principles... A few Supreme Court appointments and tax cuts aside, Republicans have largely abandoned the reform agenda that swept them to power in 1994. Their zeal has instead been directed at retaining power, which explains the earmarking epidemic and the Abramoff corruption that followed. Reform of Medicare and Social Security, the death tax, immigration, health care-all fell off the map."

North Korea a U.N. disgrace: ""How to deal with a nuclear-armed North Korean rogue state, mad and bad both, is not easily addressed. The US understandably does not want to go it alone with a military option, given the way members of the Security Council played politics over the need to remove Saddam Hussein and are ducking and diving on how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions. But diplomacy does not work with the North Koreans... [T]he North Koreans have continued to up the ante, taking all the aid on offer while continuing to try to build a bomb, and a missile to deliver it. There is no doubting that the diplomacy of containment has failed. But rather than blame the Americans-imagine the outcry if the US went it alone in blockading North Korea's coasts or bombed its nuclear facilities-it is time to hold the Security Council to account. The very existence of the North Korean regime is an affront to everything the UN is supposed to stand for. Millions are thought to have died in the last famine and malnutrition is a way of life. The country is ruled by hereditary dictator Kim Jong-il, one part buffoon to many parts Big Brother. And its export income depends on running drugs and counterfeit currency and selling weapons. It is time for the permanent members of the Security Council to stop pussyfooting... The whole world is watching for a sign that the UN can do more than talk."

So-called "record" deficit is one-third below historic average: "Apparently pioneering the adage that 'you can fool enough of the people enough of the time to regain political power,' liberal politicians and commentators constantly allege a 'record' budget deficit. For instance, the House Democratic Budget Committee's website explicitly asserts 'record deficits,' and Virginia's Democratic Senate candidate James Webb attempts to parlay deficit claims into an excuse to raise taxes. Don't buy it for a second."

Wal-Mart now helping even more of the poor: "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday said it would begin selling $4 generic prescriptions in 14 additional states, including New York and Texas, speeding up the roll-out of a plan that has put pressure on rival retailers. Wal-Mart said the $4 program covers a 30-day supply of 143 different drug compounds, representing nearly 25 percent of the prescriptions it currently dispenses in pharmacies nationwide. The program, initially launched in Florida last month, will be available in an additional 1,264 stores throughout Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas and Vermont".

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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Brookes News Update

Hillary Clinton's treasonous record on national defence: Does anyone really believe Hillary Clinton has changed? Does anyone think that if she were president she would not bring in the same ratbag America-haters as before with all that that entails
Medieval booms and historical and economic amnesia: According to Alan Wood of The Australian Robert Shiller has discovered what causes the boom-and-bust cycle. Its newspapers! Unfortunately for Mr Shiller and his media admirers booms and busts were also a feature of late Medieval Europe long before the appearance of newspapers
How Edmund S. Phelps, Nobel Prize winner, got it wrong on stagflation: Phelps chose to stick to the current bankrupt economic framework on stagflation. Contrary to orthodox economic thinking we suggest that his amendments have done nothing to further our understanding of such economic conditions as stagflation
Monopsony v labour: our rightwing lets us down again: Once again our rightwing screws up the case for deregulated labour markets. Incredible as it may seem, they actually supported the unions claim that the market place keeps wages and employment lower than they would otherwise be. Therefore unions should be allowed to correct this situation
Allah is dead: Islam is so debased that it is irretrievable. Christianity will survive and triumph because the nexus between God and Man is Mans Essence, that which makes him both human and in the image and likeness of God his capacity for reason and rational self-examination
Mark Foley scandal reveals Democrats double standards: Republicans caught in sex scandals either resign or are voted out of office. Democrats caught in sex scandals stay in office and are re-elected time and time again by their constituents. In the case of Mel Reynolds, he got a get out of jail free card from Clinton
Deconstructing Bill Clinton: Clinton knows that he is an intellectual and moral sham and that there are moral absolutes

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ELSEWHERE



Ayn Rand prize. Note that entries for the Chris R. Tame Memorial Prize close on 19th November 2006. Contestants are invited to submit essays under the title "The Achievements of Ayn Rand". Essay Length: 2000 words excluding notes. The prize will be 1000 pounds. The winner will be announced at the Libertarian Alliance Conference, which will take place in London this coming 25-26 November 2006 at the National Liberal Club in London: Send entries by e-mail to sean@libertarian.co.uk

UK Muslim veil row teacher loses case: "A British tribunal ruled that a Muslim teaching assistant had not been discriminated against when the school where she worked asked her to remove her veil. The case of 24-year-old Aishah Azmi against Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire, northern England, has attracted nationwide interest after former foreign minister Jack Straw said Muslim women who wore full veils made community relations difficult."

Government benefits boost French fertility: "While falling birthrates threaten to undermine economies and social stability across much of an aging Europe, French fertility rates are increasing. . . . France heavily subsidizes children and families from pregnancy to young adulthood with liberal maternity leaves and part-time work laws for women. The government also covers some child-care costs of toddlers up to 3 years old and offers free child-care centers from age 3 to kindergarten, in addition to tax breaks and discounts on transportation, cultural events and shopping."

More Democrat dishonesty: "Democrats in Congress bristle when Republicans accuse them of wanting to "cut and run" in Iraq. But in terms of the politics of the war, that's exactly what they're doing. Democrats have decided the Iraq conflict is one ugly baby, and they're right. But from their rhetoric and short memories, you'd never know they were directly involved in its conception. That became evident when Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sat down for a meeting with the editorial board of the San Diego Union-Tribune. When asked what might happen in Iraq if Democrats reclaimed the House of Representatives next month, and possibly the White House in 2008, Davis tried to temper expectations by blaming Republicans for botching the war effort. "Well," she said, "you know, it's always difficult to clean up someone else's mess." Let's recap. A majority of Democrats in Congress voted to give President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq in 2002, and then voted -- more than once -- to continue to fund the effort.

Courts soft on terrorism: "The Democrats claim they want to treat terrorism as a criminal law problem, but when we give them an American citizen convicted of aiding terrorists -- as happened this week -- a Democrat judge gives her a slap on the wrist. Or he was going to give her a wrist slap until someone told him that wrist-slapping was banned under the Geneva Conventions, so he let the wrist off with a warning. Last year, a New York jury found Lynne Stewart guilty of helping her former client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, communicate with his Egyptian-based group of murderous terrorists, appropriately known as "the Islamic Group." The blind sheik needed to instruct his followers to abandon a truce and resume murdering innocents, but he couldn't get the message through because, by sheer coincidence, he was in prison for conspiring to murder innocents here in America by plotting the first World Trade Center bombing. So Stewart and a "translator" met with her former client in prison and took his messages for transmission to his followers in Egypt. With the full constitutional protections Democrats want for terrorists in Guantanamo, Stewart was convicted by a New York jury last year. This week, Judge John Koeltl -- appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994 -- spurned the prosecution's request for a 30-year sentence and gave Stewart 28 months for being a terrorist's mule. Now she'll clog up the criminal justice system with endless appeals for the next several years -- using procedures that liberals also want for Guantanamo detainees."

BBC wastes public money: "The BBC's 18 million pound contract with Jonathan Ross is an indefensible use of licence-fee money, a leading talent agent said yesterday. Unjustifiable pay deals are creating an inflationary spiral among talent, according to Anita Land, who represents BBC presenters such as Jeremy Paxman and Louis Theroux. Mrs Land is the sister of Michael Grade, the BBC chairman. She is a showbusiness veteran with a reputation for tough bargaining and her decision to speak out over top broadcasters' pay will infuriate fellow agents. It also heaped more pressure on the BBC, which has been criticised for demanding an above-inflation licence-fee increase while paying commercial rates to retain star talent. Mrs Land wrote about Ross's 18 million deal - a three-year exclusive contract signed this year - in Shooting Stars, a compilation of essays about television talent. "It is difficult to justify such large sums," she said. "Frankly, I don't think Jonathan does deserve it; nobody in his position could deserve it. I am amazed the BBC managed to get away with it without landing more flak." Paxman earns about 100 pounds a minute for presenting Newsnight, where he enjoys a three-day week, and about 7,500 for each edition of University Challenge."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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A NICE PIECE OF SARCASM FROM BOORTZ:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is now claiming that there is a rise in anti-Muslim harassment and whatnot across the country, and it's all because of the Internet and talk radio! Now CAIR has launched a campaign that is "designed to counter anti-Muslim hate on radio talk shows." They're calling their campaign "Hate Hurts America"

Yeah ... right. It's all talk radio. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that in 50 different countries around the world you have Muslims involved in some sort of a shooting war with non-Muslims. Additionally, while it can certainly be said that not all Muslims are terrorists, all terrorists do seem to be Muslims.

Would you like to know a little bit more about this group ... CAIR ... that is calling out talk radio? Well, WorldNetDaily provided us with some interesting information last week. Just a few items from that story:

The CAIR board chairman is Omar Ahmad. In 1998 a California newspaper quoted Ahmad as declaring that the Quran should be America's highest authority. That would put the Constitution where? Second place? Third?

Ibrahim Hooper is the chief mouthpiece for CAIR. You'll see him on television from time to time. In 1993 the Minneapolis Star Tribune interviewed the loving, peaceful Ibrahim Hooper. During that interview Hooper is quoted as saying that he wants to see America become a Muslim country. Here's your quote:

"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future," Hooper told the paper. "But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."

How nice. Well, that's what talk radio is doing, Mr. Hooper. Educating. Sorry you find that so troubling.

AND I GUESS THIS WAS TALK RADIO'S FAULT TOO:

Another story about the wonderful, loving, peaceful religion of Islam. This one from Australia's Gold Coast. It seems that Dr. Muhammad Hussain got just a little bit less than loving and peaceful when he learned that his 17-year-old daughter was going to convert to Christianity. Well, according to this story from the Herald Sun, when a son or daughter does something that is wrong for a Muslim, it is the child's mother who is automatically at fault. So, Dr. Hussain, a wonderful, peace-loving Muslim if ever there was one, took a knife and stabbed the girl's mother to death.

Now I'm sure that if CAIR were to go to Australia and investigate this incident they would find that some Australian radio talk show host was actually behind the entire bloody incident. The Quran does, by the way, state that anyone who leaves the Muslim faith must be killed. My guess is that part was written by a radio talk show host.

Source

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Stupid immigration bureaucracy: "Loling Song is one of thousands of immigrants each year whose permanent residency applications are held up because of FBI background checks. But in her case, that delay has consequences that go beyond a life held in limbo: Song, who was born in China, is a scientist at Harvard Medical School, and the recipient of a $750,000 grant for breast cancer research from the National Cancer Institute. Unless her application for permanent residency is approved by Nov. 30, Harvard Medical School will lose Song's research funding. The biophysicist sued officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in US District Court in Boston last week to try to bring a successful conclusion to her quest for a green card, which began in April 2004."

Paying to be coerced: "Would you be outraged if you knew your taxpayer dollars were being used to lobby for more government subsidies and higher taxes? Well you should be, because that is exactly what is happening. Over the years there have been many cases of government agencies lobbying Congress for more funds and/or higher taxes. As a result of earlier abuses, Congress prohibited this misuse of taxpayer money but, unfortunately, the practice has not gone away."

End the farm dole once and for all: "A new program to require the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay the cost of inspecting meat from emus and ostriches. A plan to spend $200 million to buy surplus cranberries, black-eyed peas, and other crops. A $100 million proposal for payments to producers of cottonseed. At this writing (June), these were among a bundle of agricultural subsidy schemes either passed by or under serious consideration in both houses of the U.S. Congress.... A funny thing happened on the way to a free market in farming. Commodity prices on world markets took a dip, farm-state interests started agitating again for bailouts, and our courageous Congress blinked. In 1999 federal payments to American agriculture soared to a record $22.7 billion-no less than three times what the figure was when the Freedom to Farm Act was passed in 1996. Quotas on foreign sugar already translate into a sugar tax of about $1 billion annually, paid for by every American consumer."

Permission to travel: "Should you have to ask for permission from the government before you are allowed to get on a plane or cruise ship? ('Mother, may I?')The USA Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed that airlines cruise lines, and operators of all other ships and planes -- including charter flights, air taxis, fishing vessels, etc. -- be required to get individual permission ('clearance') from the DHS for each passenger on all flights or ocean voyages to, from, or via the USA. Unless the answer is 'Yes' -- if the answer is 'no' or 'maybe,' or if the DHS doesn't answer at all -- the airline wouldn't be allowed to give you a boarding pass, or let you or your luggage on the plane."

Spinimum wage: "The blogger Max Sawicky has highlighted a letter being sent to economists. The letter asks them to sign and affirm the desirability of raising the minimum wage. Sad to see such an obviously bright gentleman pushing such profoundly silly economic nostrums. Raising the minimum wage is precisely and exactly what should not be done -- due both to predictable ill-effects and to the questionable morality of such an action."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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THOSE WHO WILL NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY.....

We read:

"Ned Lamont uses it in his Connecticut Senate race. President Clinton is scheduled to speak on the idea in Washington this week. Bob Casey Jr., Pennsylvania candidate for Senate, put it in the title of his talk at The Catholic University of America - then repeated the phrase 29 times. The term is "common good," and it's catching on as a way to describe liberal values and reach religious voters who rejected Democrats in the 2004 election. Led by the Center for American Progress, a Washington think-tank, party activists hope the phrase will do for them what "compassionate conservative" did for the Republicans. "It's a core value that we think organizes the entire political agenda for progressives," said John Halpin, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress."

What would Hitler have to say about that? We don't need to guess. The term can be translated into German as "Gemeinnutz" and that lovable German-speaking rogue used the term a lot -- as encapsulating what HE stood for: "Gemeinnutz vor Eigennutz!" was one of his great slogans ("Common use before personal use!", literally).

And who preceded Hitler in such ideas? Friedrich Engels (Karl Marx's co-author) at one stage ran a publication called Gemeinnuetziges Wochenblatt ("Common-use Weekly"). The Democrats sure make it clear where they fit into history.

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"655,000 DEAD IRAQIS" FOLLOW-UP

Iraq Body Count have responded to the Lancet "survey" of Iraqi deaths. Excerpt: "Between January and June 2006, there were 91 violent deaths recorded by the Lancet survey. This would correspond to over 180,000 deaths in the first 6 months of 2006, and an average rate of 1,000 per day. The daily death rate over the same period based on UN reports (which sum Baghdad morgue and Ministry of Health data) is 80 violent deaths per day. Cumulated media reports provide a somewhat lower figure. If the Lancet extrapolation is sound, this would imply a further 920 violent deaths every day (1000 minus 80) which have been recorded by neither officials nor the media. As these are averages, some days would see many more deaths, and others substantially fewer, but in either case, all of them would remain unnoticed."

There is also an article by survey professional Steven Moore in the WSJ which points out how very strange the Lancet study was. Those guys were not even trying to do real research. It was just a propaganda circus. I strongly support Moore's point about the survey's lack of demographic information. That is so unthinkable in survey research that the article would never have been published in an academic journal that knew anything about survey research. The Lancet should stick to medicine.

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ELSEWHERE



If you don't believe that the above is a real situation, read this

Doug Ross has some good graphs on the effects of the Bush tax cuts. They sure gave job-creators (investors) a lot more confidence -- as the stockmarket graph below shows:



Wal-Mart does China: "America's Wal-Mart Stores has agreed to acquire a Chinese supercentre chain for about $US1 billion ($1.33 billion) in a move that would give the world's largest retailer the biggest food and department store network in China, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The deal is for the 100 Chinese supercentres owned by Trust-Mart, a Taiwanese company, the paper reported in its online edition. A Wal-Mart spokeswoman declined to comment. If approved by Chinese regulators, the deal would push Wal-Mart past Carrefour for the most supercentres in China. Supercentres, also known as hypermarkets, are giant shops that sell a wide range of general food and merchandise.... Wal-Mart has made no secret of its ambitions in China. The retailer has said that its operations there could be as big as its US business in 20 years. Wal-Mart has more than 3700 US stores but only about 60 in China."

Political theatre: "Pennsylvania Republican congressional candidate Raj Peter Bhakta, demonstrated what a joke border security is by riding an elephant across the Rio Grande - with a mariachi band! (see his Fox News interview here.) Sure it's a stunt, but stunts matter, like the College Republican affirmative-action bake sales or Horowitz's "reparations are racist" ads. The Left has been better than us at political theater for a long time; maybe we're starting to catch up."

Leftist voting fraud in Britain: "Britain is to be investigated for the first time by the Council of Europe for alleged human rights breaches because of concerns over postal voting fraud. Scandals arising from Tony Blair's strategy to improve turnouts by giving everybody the right to vote by post risk placing Britain in the same league as newly toppled dictatorships. Bridget Prentice, the Constitutional Affairs Minister who has just steered an anti-fraud Bill through Parliament, reacted angrily, saying that the move was unnecessary, unwarranted and unfair... The final straw for Britain was the decision by a judge last year that widespread voterigging by Labour in Birmingham's local elections "would disgrace a banana republic".

More Leftist deceit: "Never play poker against Claire Shipman. Anyone who can keep a straight face while claiming that 'Women's Voices. Women Vote' is "non-partisan" could surely bluff you out of a pot while sitting on a busted flush. On this morning's Good Morning America, Shipman [or shall we call her 'DC Slim'?] narrated a segment spotlighting WVWV's efforts to get single women voters to the polls. Since it is obvious that single women lean heavily Dem, voting for Democrats by a more than 2/3 margin as Dem pollster Celinda Lake acknowledged, my BS-detector started screeching when I saw a straight-faced Shipman slip in her claim that WVWB is "non-partisan.".... The clincher? WVWV is a project of The Tides Foundation, the organization founded to promote a variety of leftist causes whose driving financial force is . . . Teresa Heinz Kerry. Some further digging reveals that WVWV is directly promoting leftist politics. On its FAQ page, WVWV suggests that people who want to get involved "download the National Council of Women's Organizations voter's guide." I did, and found a predictable compendium of leftist position-mongering on everything from affirmative action to abortion. Query whether promoting a partisan voter's guide bring's WVWV's non-partisan tax-exempt status into question."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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FABULOUS! LEFTIST DISHONESTY ON PROUD DISPLAY

Selectivity about the facts is the hallmark of Leftist discourse. They wax hysterical over things they think they can get mileage out of and ignore everything that undermines their false and simplistic accounts of the world.

There was a marvellous example of that in the world of global warming research recently. When a study came out which suggested that the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic was slowing down and that this might lead to disastrous cooling in Britain and North America, the media were all over it. (In the weird world of the Greenhouse religion, a slowdown of the Gulf stream proves global warming). But when two better studies came out recently which showed clearly that there had been NO slowdown in the Gulf stream, there was a deathly silence about it. The Left-leaning MSM did not want to know about it, even though they had covered the contrary story extensively. For all the general public are to know, they are all still in danger of freezing due to global warming (!).

And now in my own humble corner of the world I observe another instance of a Leftist ignoring anything that does not suit him. My post of 16th about the alleged 655,000 Iraqi deaths directly challenged a blogger at "Liberal Avenger" to respond because he has blogged extensively on the matter. He claims to show that all the criticisms of the study are insubstantial. So I sent him a link to my post to make sure that he knew of it.

The result? Deathly silence! An argument that upsets your views is ignored, not taken account of, in the heavily fortified mental fortress that is needed to sustain Leftism.

"Liberal Avenger" is however a group blog and one of the other bloggers there (probably the one I crossed swords with previously) HAS commented. He left a comment on the copy of my blog that I put up on Mens News Daily -- in which he directs attention to his own post on the matter. And his own post is VERY humble about the 655,000 claim! So it seems clear that the other would-be "Avenger" has actively chosen to ignore facts that do not suit him. Psychologists refer to such behaviour as the "Denial" defence-mechanism: Very maladaptive.

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ELSEWHERE

Lawsuit to stop illegals? "A federal judge has ruled that workers can file a class-action suit against Tyson Foods Inc. for depressing wages by hiring illegal aliens. Howard W. Foster, a Chicago lawyer for the Tyson employees, described the ruling in Winchester, Tenn., as a "very big step," allowing him to seek damages for thousands of workers at eight plants -- including one in Glen Allen, Va. -- instead of just the four original plaintiffs. The case, filed in 2002 under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), is one of a growing number across the nation challenging illegal aliens in the workplace. In August, a temporary agency in California sued its competitors under the state's unfair-competition laws. Mr. Foster has represented U.S. citizens seeking damages for wage depression caused by employment of illegal aliens in other cases, including one against Mohawk Industries and a class-action case against Zirkle Fruit Co., which has been settled."

Studds Had to Die to Get NBC to Recall His Sex with a Teen Page: "Gerry Studds had to die for NBC Nightly News to inform viewers of how the former Democratic Congressman had a sexual relationship with 17-year-old male congressional page, misconduct for which the House in 1983 censured him, but did not prompt Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill and other leaders to force his resignation -- nor raise calls for O'Neill's resignation. Despite the Democratic hypocrisy given their current calls for Speaker Hastert's resignation and investigations of who knew what and when about Mark Foley, Saturday night -- two weeks into the media-fueled scandal -- was the first time, according to Nexis, any NBC News program mentioned Studds' name."

An Islamic car!: "But perhaps most remarkable, given Iran's tumultuous relationship with the world in the past 25 years, is that its car industry has survived at all in a sector dominated globally by the same American behemoth that's sanctioned Iran since the US embassy siege in Tehran in 1979. Iran's car industry, employing 150,000 Iranians and comprising 4 per cent of its GDP, has survived, but it hasn't progressed. Indeed, there's a distinct retro air to Iranian traffic, where half the vehicles are jerry-built versions of the "National Car", the Paykan, a boxy knock-off of a 1960s Hillman Hunter in production for almost 40 years - with the emission standards of that era to boot.... Once proud symbols of progressive Islamic commerce, the [manufactuers have] become pariahs reduced by sanctions to scrounging parts to keep their 1970s era plants operating, with restricted access to markets, their cars a joke. "Paykan" is Farsi for arrow but it's hardly apposite. It splutters along Iran's snarled roads, lucky to reach 80kmh. It guzzles petrol at an appalling rate, about three kilometres a litre, though that's not much of an issue in a country where juice costs one-third the price of drinking water. Paykan exhaust has made Tehran one of the world's most polluted cities. Rare is the journey where a Paykan isn't seen hood-up with Iranian heads disappearing beneath the bonnet, or one being pushed to the side of the freeway"

Insane bureaucracy: "Federal safety rules are preventing wider use of a major advance in firefighting -- a jumbo jet modified to drop 10 times more flame retardant than the typical air tanker. The DC-10 first flew this fire season, opening its belly and releasing torrents of pink liquid in a spectacular string of sorties that helped halt blazes threatening state land in California and Washington. The aircraft is all but prohibited from federal land, however, meaning it cannot be dispatched over vast swaths of the West -- 50,000 square miles in California alone. The reason for the no-fly rule: The plane has not passed an extra U.S. Forest Service safety check. Federal officials say they are not sure when it will, because they have not received important performance data from the plane's private owners. ``What a horror story to see fires burning out of control and knowing that the aircraft aren't available,'' said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach".

Wal-Mart to take on NY: "After a number of false starts, Wal-Mart Stores is planning to launch in New York City--the five boroughs, and especially the juicy, consumer-driven world of Manhattan. "I think New York will be good for us, and we will be good for New York," says H. Lee Scott, Wal-Mart's CEO. And Philip Serghini, a company spokesman, says the nation's largest retailer is actively looking for sites in the five boroughs."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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NEW POLL: IMMIGRATION KEY ISSUE IN CONTESTED RACES

Public Wants Illegals to Go Home, Enforcement, No Immigration Increase

A new poll, using neutral language, finds intense voter concern over immigration in 14 tight congressional races. The surveys were conducted by the polling company inc. for the Center for Immigration Studies. In addition to a national survey, detailed polling on immigration was conducted in four contested Senate races: Missouri, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Montana; and in 10 contested House races: Arizona 5th, Connecticut 4th, Indiana 8th, Kentucky 4th, Pennsylvania 6th, Texas 17th, Louisiana 3rd, Georgia 8th, Colorado 7th, and Ohio 6th. The complete results are online at www.cis.org. Among the findings:

* Immigration is a big issue throughout the country. Of likely voters nationally, 53 percent said immigration was either their most important issue or one of their top three issues, while just 8 percent said it was not at all important. With the exception of CT-4th, in races surveyed only about 10 percent of voters said it was not important at all.

* When told numbers, voters want less immigration. When told the actual number of immigrants here (legal and illegal) and the number coming (legal and illegal), and asked to put aside the question of legal status, 68 percent of voters nationally thought immigration was too high, 21 percent about right, and just 2 percent thought it was too low. In every congressional race surveyed, the share who said overall immigration was too low was in the single digits.

* Voters less likely to vote for immigration-increasing candidates. Experts agree that the bill passed by the Senate earlier this year would at least double future legal immigration, yet 70 percent of voters said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who wanted to double legal immigration. Overwhelming majorities in every battleground race feel the same way.

* Voters reject both extremes -- legalization or mass deportations. Some previous polls have shown support for legalizing illegal immigrants. But those polls have given the public only a choice between large-scale deportations or ''earned legalization,'' and not the third choice of across-the-board enforcement, causing illegals to go home. This third option, which is the basis of the bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, is voters' top choice.

* House immigration plan by far the favorite. Enforcement approaches with no increase in legal immigration were the most popular policy option -- 44 percent wanted enforcement that causes illegals to go home, the House approach, and another 20 percent wanted large-scale deportations. Just 31 percent supported legalization of illegal immigrants.

* Intensity greater among enforcement supporters. Nationally, 32 percent of voters said they would be much more likely to vote for a candidate who would enforce the law and cause illegals to go home, compared to just 15 percent who said they would be much more likely to vote for a candidate who supports legalization. This same pattern holds in battleground House contests.

* Voters skeptical of need for unskilled immigrant labor. More than 70 percent of voters nationally agreed that there were ''plenty of Americans to do low-wage jobs that require relatively little education, employers just need to pay higher wages and treat workers better to attract Americans,'' compared to 21 percent who said we need immigrants because there were not enough Americans to do all such jobs. The results were very similar in all the contested states and districts surveyed.

* Voters think lack of enforcement is reason for illegal immigration. Three out of four voters in the nation agreed that the reason we have illegal immigration is that past enforcement efforts have been ''grossly inadequate.'' Voters strongly reject the argument that illegal immigration is caused by overly restrictive legal immigration policies. Strong majorities in every battleground contest surveyed felt this way.

* Numbers make a difference. One key finding is that when told the scale of immigration (legal and illegal), voters overwhelmingly thought it was too high. Also, when told how much the Senate bill would increase legal immigration, voters tended to reject it. This would seem to undermine the argument that voters are only concerned about illegality and not the level of immigration. The levels of immigration used in the questions are those widely agreed upon by experts based on government data.

Source

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ELSEWHERE



China Hand has just put up some photos of spectacular scenery in China. Remarkably beautiful.

Leftist eugenics lives on: "The North Korean regime's obsession with racial purity has led to the killing of disabled infants and forced abortions for women suspected of conceiving their babies by Chinese fathers, according to a growing body of testimony from defectors. The latest description of Kim Jong-il's policy of state eugenics came from a North Korean doctor, Ri Kwang-chol, who escaped last year and told a forum in Seoul that babies with deformities were killed soon after birth. "There are no people with physical defects in North Korea," Dr Ri said. Such babies were put to death by medical staff and buried quickly, he claimed. He denied ever committing the act himself."

More on the religion of peace: "About one in 10 Indonesian Muslims support jihad and justify bomb attacks on Indonesia's tourist island of Bali as defending the faith, a survey shows. Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country, with 220 million people, 85 per cent of whom follow Islam, giving the Asian archipelago the largest Muslim population of any nation in the world. "Jihad that has been understood partially and practised with violence is justified by around one in 10 Indonesian Muslims," the Indonesian Survey Institute said in a statement."

FEMA is itself a disaster: "Two West Virginia University economics professors are drawing national attention for their recent research suggesting a link between natural disasters and political corruption. "Natural disasters create resource windfalls in the states they strike by triggering federally provided natural disaster relief," write Peter T. Leeson and Russell S. Sobel in their paper titled "Weathering Corruption." "Like windfalls created by the `natural resource curse' and foreign aid, disaster relief windfalls may also increase corruption," they say. When the Federal Emergency Management Agency sends relief funds of $1 per capita into a state, it boosts corruption in that state by nearly 2.5 percent, according to the research, which was published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Washington. Eliminating all FEMA relief funds, the authors found, would cut corruption by more than 20 percent in a typical state, they say... The biggest boondoggles unfolded after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A new study by the federal General Accountability Office estimates that $1 billion was stolen - nearly 19 percent of the $5.4 billion in funds FEMA sent to Gulf Coast states... Their statistical analysis showed other government funds flowing into a state did not have the same effect. "Both non-FEMA-related state discretionary spending and federal spending are insignificant. Only FEMA relief impacts public corruption."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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

A NEW HOLE IN THE "655,000 DEAD IRAQIS" CLAIM

I have not yet commented on the latest Lancet report of huge post-invasion mortality ("about 655,000" extra deaths) in Iraq as it seemed perfectly obvious from the outset to me and to many others that it was just a piece of agitprop that would have done the old Soviets proud. You would have to be a Leftist to believe that nobody else noticed 655,000 corpses. I have googled up quite a few comments on the study now, however, and I have not so far found anybody who has noticed the really glaring defect in the study.

None of the comments I saw appeared to be by people who are experienced users of cluster sampling -- the method used for the Lancet study. I am a VERY experienced user of cluster sampling -- with many of my academic publications based on it. And the glaring error which rather explains why the study appeared in a medical journal rather than a more statistically sophisticated journal is that there was NO VALIDATION of the survey results. That your survey-takers might just sit down under a tree and "make up" their "interview" results is a routine peril and it is routine to take precautions against it -- usually by going back on a later occasion and checking with the alleged respondents a proportion of all interviews handed in. Just the awareness that a sample of the respondents will be re-interviewed tends to keep the interviewers honest -- though not always so, regrettably. So the results reported in the Lancet study have no credibility at all and must be regarded as garbage.

It is astounding that the authors of the study were so naive. Perhaps they WANTED their interviewers to "fudge" the results -- making clear what the desired results would be, of course.

Another oddity in the Lancet article that suggests something peculiar about the authors is the claim that their interviewers were all DOCTORS -- and not just any doctors but doctors bilingual in Arabic and English. I have never seen the like of that before. Experienced interviewers of some kind were what was needed and that is what is usually used, not doctors. Can we really believe that a whole corps of these rare doctors abandoned their medical duties for so long in order to do something outside their normal expertise? If true it certainly suggests a heavy political committment on the part of the doctors concerned -- exactly what one would NOT want in a study claiming to be objective. To me the whole claim seems like the sort of "gilding the lily" that con-men engage in.

Other critics have noticed other vast implausibilities in the results reported -- the amazingly high (98%) success-rate at getting people to consent to an interview, for instance --- garbage, garbage garbage. And the lie about the death certificates actually shows how bogus the results were.

I wonder what my old friend the Liberal Avenger will make of this post? He is firmly convinced that no sound criticism of the Lancet study can be made. I predict much huffing and puffing from him. I know the sort of thing he will say: That doctors ARE experienced interviewers, for instance. He has however never been door-to-door if he thinks people respond to doorstep callers the way they respond to a doctor they go to.

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SOME LEFTIST AMERICAN JEWS ARE TRYING TO WEAKEN ISRAEL

It's that poisonous Leftist hate of success in others again

Perhaps most upsetting is the central role that a tiny minority of American Jews has played in souring ties between Jerusalem and Washington. That minority has undermined support for Israel in the Democratic Party and now seeks to undermine Israel's position in the US in general. The Democratic Party's sharp turn leftward in recent years has been a major factor in weakening the US-Israel alliance. The ideological transformation of the party is the fruit of a collaborative effort by leading financiers, radical-leftist ideologues and political activists. Together these forces built organizations that dictate the party's agenda; finance the campaigns of politicians who embrace this agenda; and work to defeat conservative Republicans and Democrats who disagree with their agenda.

MoveOn.org is the most influential organization of this type established in recent years. Its principal financiers are American Jewish billionaires George Soros and Peter Lewis. MoveOn.org first gained national prominence during the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries. Howard Dean, a previously undistinguished governor of Vermont, was an eminently forgettable also-ran with a reputation among the few who knew of him as a political moderate who was hawkish on national security. Then he was discovered by MoveOn.org.

As the group began pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into his campaign,Dean veered to the left and began roundly condemning the war in Iraq. Caught off-balance by Dean's challenge, all but one of the other candidates shifted left as well and joined him in criticizing the war. For his principled refusal to disavow the war in Iraq, Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman earned the enduring enmity of MoveOn.org.

This summer, MoveOn.org played a central role in Lieberman's defeat in the Democratic primary for his Senate seat. It contributed funds to Lieberman's opponent, Ned Lamont, and its Web site served as a clearinghouse disseminating anti-Lieberman propaganda. Propaganda posted on the Web site was laced with blatant anti-Semitic attacks. Postings repeatedly referred to Lieberman as "the Jew Lieberman," and "ZioNazi Lieberman." These attacks were by no means unusual. Indeed, anti-Semitic slurs against Israel and Jewish Americans, and belittlements of the Holocaust, appear regularly in MoveOn.org Web forums....

According to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency report, Soros and his wealthy Jewish American friends have now decided to aim their fire directly at Israel. Soros has invited Lewis and other North American Jewish plutocrats like Charles and Edgar Bronfman to join forces with him and leftist Jewish American organizations including American Friends of Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum, Brit Tzedek v'Shalom, and the Reform movement's Religious Action Center to form a political lobby that will weaken the influence of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.

Source

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CANADIAN JEWS ARE LEARNING

One of the most significant phenomena in current Canadian politics - i.e. the growing shift of Canada's Jewish community from the Liberal to the Conservative Party - took a major stride last week when the top contender for the Liberal leadership accused Israel of committing a war crime.

Michael Ignatieff, a longtime Harvard authority on human rights and international law who came back to Canada two years ago to seek the Liberal leadership, seemed to stumble into the accusation. In an interview with the Toronto Star last August, he was asked about the Israeli bombing of the Lebanese town of Qana during the Israel-Lebanon war. He replied that it was a "dirty war," and he wasn't "losing sleep" over Qana. But when this remark was condemned in Quebec as heartless, Ignatieff backtracked, saying he had erred in making it. Asked last Sunday on Quebec's top-rated talk show for further explanation, he landed himself in hotter water: "I demonstrated a lack of compassion. It was a mistake. And when you make a mistake like that you have to admit it. And I admit it because I was a human rights professor, and I'm a professor of the laws of war, and what happened at Qana was a war crime."

With that, the roof fell in. Susan Kadis, a Toronto-area MP and co-chairman of his leadership campaign, resigned: "Michael is an intelligent person and I would think that he would have a better handle on the Middle East, given his years of experience on human rights and international law. I find his comments very troubling, since the Israeli response came in the light of the unprovoked brazen kidnapping by Hezbollah of Israeli soldiers." The Canada-Israel Committee expressed "profound concern" and demanded "clarification." If clarification was not forthcoming, they added, they "would feel obliged to convey that message to our constituency."

Ignatieff hastened to provide a somewhat confusing explanation. He described himself as "a lifelong friend of Israel," and went on to say that "war crimes were committed in the war in Lebanon. I don't think there's any question about it, and war crimes were visited on Israeli citizens and on Lebanese citizens." His conclusion: "We've got to be determined, as Canadians, to do whatever we can to make sure that military solutions are not sought in this conflict, because the consequences are more civilian deaths."

This did not satisfy the Canada-Israel Committee, and the Israeli ambassador to Canada called the statement "upsetting and disappointing." Bob Rae, Ignatieff's leading opponent for the leadership, commented that it was "not wise" for him "to rush into such judgments." But this was not the first time leaders in the Canadian Jewish community have jumped into the leadership campaign. Heather Reisman, boss of Indigo Books and chairwoman of the Liberal Party's national policy committee in the 1980s, announced in August that she was leaving the party to support Stephen Harper and the Tories. Her announcement followed a similar statement by film producer Robert Lantos that he was taking off his "lifelong Liberal hat." Ms. Reisman e-mailed a friend: "I'm right there alongside Robert. After a lifetime of being a Liberal, I have made the switch. It feels strange, but it is totally and unequivocally right."

Her husband, Gerry Schwartz, head of the giant Onex Corporation, another senior Liberal and a confidant of ex-Prime Minister Paul Martin, followed the same path. He and his wife's were among eight signatories to an ad in a Cornwall, Ontario, newspaper warmly supporting the Tories. Also in August, another senior Liberal, Sen. Gerry Grafstein, publicly criticized Liberal house leader Bill Graham for his attack on Tory Prime Minister Stephen Harper over Harper's outspoken pro-Israel policy. Harper has reversed Canada's 50-year record as a neutral "broker" in the Middle East, said Graham. But neutrality on Israel is not Canada's historical record, Grafstein tartly commented.

This exodus of Jews from the Liberal Party is an historic switch. All through the 20th century the dominant Liberals could count on strong Jewish support. While there were certainly some Jewish Conservatives, the community as whole tended leftward, as did Canadian academe. Within the last decade, however, Canada's socialists have increasingly opposed Israel, much to the consternation of their long-time Jewish allies. Meanwhile, it was not immediately apparent how seriously the Ignatieff incident might damage his leadership prospects at the convention in early December. A delegate count earlier this month gave him 30 percent of the committed convention delegates and Rae 20 percent, with the other six candidates ranging from 1 percent to 17 percent.

Source

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ELSEWHERE

There is a good video of "The DNC song" here -- in music-hall style.

Ted Turner as Neville Chamberlain: "Thirteen months before North Korea exploded a nuclear bomb, CNN founder Ted Turner predicted that such an event would never happen. "I think we can put the North Korea and East Asia problems behind us," Turner confidently proclaimed in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer back on September 19, 2005. Referring to the North Korean regime's claim they were "committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs," Turner, having just returned from a trip to North Korea, found those promises to be 100 percent credible. "I am absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are absolutely sincere," he told an incredulous Blitzer on The Situation Room."

Islamic hackers fail: "Islamic computer hackers tried to disrupt the Vatican web site earlier this week, but failed, according to a report in the ANSA news service. In an online forum for militant Muslims, a group announced plans for an assault on the Vatican computer network, which was said to be a form of retribution for Pope Benedict's criticism of Islam in his Regensburg speech. Police later confirmed that there had been a concerted effort by hackers to penetrate the Vatican site, but computer-security experts were able to detect and repel the attack"

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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IDEOLOGY MASQUERADING AS HISTORY

Three recent books about the "fiasco" in Iraq - "Cobra II" by Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor, "State of Denial" by Bob Woodward and just plain "Fiasco" by Tom Ricks - have attracted a lot of attention, and sales. All three well-written exposes repeat the now well-known argument that our government's incompetence and arrogance have nearly ensured America's failure in birthing democracy in Iraq.

It's worth noting, though, that many of the authors' critical portraits rely on private conversations and anonymous sources. The most damning informants in these books are never identified and so can't be questioned.....

In "Fiasco," often verbatim quotations are not cited with specific attribution, but only vaguely noted in the text as "said a Bush administration official" or "recalled one officer." Among the endnotes in "State of Denial," we are apprised, "The information in this chapter comes primarily from background interviews with seven knowledgeable sources." But who are these "seven knowledgeable" sources? Since Woodward so far won't name them, how do we really know that they are "knowledgeable" or even "primarily" used? Is the answer because they talked to Woodward (and not to others?), or were pre-selected because they happened to agree with his own views?

In "Cobra II," we wonder why one "former Centcom planner" would talk while others (more numerous?) choose not to. And in "Fiasco," is the talkative but unnamed "Bush administration official" getting even at his rivals by offering only his interpretation of shared past conversations?

There are a number of other things wrong with all this gossip. First, note the disturbing pattern in this resorting to anonymity. Usually the unidentified source supports the author's critique - and thus is almost always critical of the present policy in Iraq. Rarely do these journalists quote unnamed sources who dissent from their own views, although there are surely pro-U.S. Iraq policy candid voices among the thousands of retired generals....

These past couple of weeks, current and former officials have been protesting that they were unfairly characterized in Woodward's book - and have argued that conditions in Iraq are not as bad as alleged by anonymous sources. And while there have been on-the-record critics of all three books, none of the unnamed accusers cited in them has come forward.

These virtual histories all allege a "state of denial" and lack of accountability on the part of government officials. Perhaps - but how odd then that the authors of "Cobra II," "Fiasco" and "State of Denial" have used the very secrecy and subterfuge they claim to deplore in their targets.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Israel ramps up Gaza offensive: "Israel stepped up its offensive in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least four people in a series of attacks throughout the coastal area. The fighting brought the death toll in the offensive to 13 Palestinians, including a young girl, since Thursday. The army has been carrying out an offensive throughout Gaza since June, when militants linked to the ruling Hamas militant group tunneled into Israel and captured an Israeli soldier. The soldier remains in captivity. After a recent lull, the fighting has picked up in recent days. Israel TV said the operation in Gaza Friday was the largest there in weeks."

Attack ads are good for you!: "Negative campaigning is an issue across the country this fall, in campaigns from Massachusetts to Hawaii and in races down the ballot from U.S. senator to county assessor. As wounded politicians whine that such speech is out of bounds, it's time to stand up in defense of the much-maligned attack ad. In this age of instantaneous information via blogs, round-the-clock cable coverage, and other media, political attacks can be swiftly countered. Any opinion offered about a candidate, no matter how mean, vile, or sinister, can be rebutted immediately and globally. Thanks to such exchanges, voters this year will know a lot about prospective elected officials if they are willing to process multiple sources of information and draw their own conclusions."

The communitarian conundrum: "The great moral difficulty with communitarianism is that, if taken to extremes, it treats individuals as though they were little more than cells of a larger organism. Just as when doctors kill cells to prevent cancer from spreading, communitarianism readily justifies state intrusion into the private sphere in the name of some communal good. Worse yet, communitarian societies require a standard of behavior more demanding than most members of an unredeemed society are unable or unwilling to meet most of the time, and that all are unable to meet all of the time. Hence, it is hardly surprising that world history is littered with the failures of communitarian utopia."

America, 300 million strong: "One day this month an immigrant will arrive or, more likely, a baby will be born who will make the United States a nation of 300 million. This demographic milestone has prompted hand-ringing among environmentalists on the left and immigration opponents on the right, all of whom are misguided. Passing the 300 million mark should be cause for celebration: Never in the history of mankind have so many people lived such free and prosperous lives in one country."

"Wal-Mart Laws" harm black communities: "The 'big-box ordinance' passed on July 26 by the Chicago City Council would require national retail chains such as Wal-Mart and Target to pay their Chicago employees at least $9.25 an hour plus $1.50 in benefits, to increase to $10.00 an hour and $3.00 in benefits by the year 2010. The law would apply only to retail stores with at least 90,000 indoor square feet, owned by national companies with annual revenues of $1 billion or more. ... Advocates of the ordinance, both black and white, claim it will help poor black Americans. But support for this ordinance did not begin in the black community, nor would its effect be to benefit blacks."

Christians and big government: "There was a day when social conservatives were united with economic conservatives in the belief that small, limited government was not only good for our economy and the prosperity of American families, but essential to protect traditional family values. We all fought for a limited federal government -- a government that had the decency to respect the American people by staying out of their lives. Small government meant that all Christians could practice their faith as they saw fit. Big government violates those rights by meddling in our lives, misusing our hard-earned money, and dictating cultural norms to us."

For more postings, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and EYE ON BRITAIN. (Mirror sites here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).

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"All the worth which the human being possesses, all spiritual reality, he possesses only through the State." -- 19th century German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Hegel is the most influential philosopher of the Left -- inspiring Karl Marx, the American "Progressives" of the early 20th century and university socialists to this day.

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" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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 Pages are here or here or here.

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