Brookes News Update

Economic growth and the credit myth : At least monetary cranks can be excused as economic illiterates but what are we to make of the great majority of economists who believe that central banks can promote economic growth by manipulating interest rates and the money supply?
Can a budget surplus really lower taxes?: Contrary to the conventional wisdom, a budget surplus i.e. a monetary surplus, doesn't automatically make room for lower taxes
Unions, capital and living standards: The continual increase in living standards is entirely due to capital accumulation, not unions or interfering politicians. In fact, politicians can exercise a malign influence on economic growth
The mid-term elections and the Colorado canary: The best outcome we can hope for is that the GOP dodges the bullet, barely, which then demoralizes the Dems so much they turn their anger against each other in recriminations
Fidel Castro's anti-Semitism : It turns out that Fidel Castro, "Hollywood's Favourite Dictator" and a media darling, is an anti-Semitic fanatic who tortures and murders his opponents, sponsors international terrorism and admires Adolf Hitler
Green fanatic wants to impose wealth destroying policies: Cathy Zoi, a former Clintonista, is another graphic example of the greens' shoddy intellectual standards. If this genius had her way we would all wind up in rags
Hillary Clintons 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

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ELSEWHERE

Realism in Canada: "Canada, an immigration-hungry nation, has ruled out amnesty for an estimated 200,000 illegal aliens within its borders because of the unfairness of such a policy. According to a letter obtained by the Toronto Globe and Mail, Canadian officials have decided it would not be fair to those immigrants who have applied legally and are waiting in line. Allowing illegal workers to stay would likely "encourage more illegal immigration," noted Linda Arseneau of Citizenship and Immigration Canada's ministerial enquiries division in a letter to the Universal Workers Union."

Vietnamese capitalism working: "In the three decades since Vietnam has gone from communism to a form of capitalism, it has begun surpassing many neighbors. It has Asia's second-fastest-growing economy, with 8.4 percent growth last year, trailing only China's, and the pace of exports to the United States is rising faster than even China's. American companies like Intel and Nike, and investors across the region, are pouring billions of dollars into the country; overseas Vietnamese are returning to run the ventures. In the latest sign of Vietnam's economic vitality, trade negotiators from around the world are preparing, after more than a decade of talks, to put the finishing touches on an agreement, possibly by Oct. 26, for Vietnam to join the World Trade Organization."

A "study" to find the obvious: "Politicians should think twice about allowing some flood-prone areas of the U.S. Gulf coast to be redeveloped in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, a top research group said after studying floods around the world. The U.S.-based RAND Corporation looked at four 20th century floods in the states of Oregon and Mississippi, on the Yangtze River in China and in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands to see what lessons could be learned for the Gulf coast and New Orleans. "It has been the experience of history that sometimes you are better off conceding land to the water (because flooding will likely reoccur)," James Kahan, author of the RAND report, told Reuters on Tuesday."

How interference with trade makes us all poorer: "No one denies that international trade has unpleasant consequences for some workers. They have to find other jobs that might not pay as much, but should we protect those jobs through trade restrictions? The Washington-based Institute for International Economics has assembled data that might help with the answer. Tariffs and quotas on imported sugar saved 2,261 jobs during the 1990s. As a result of those restrictions, the average household pays $21 more per year for sugar. The total cost, nationally, sums to $826,000 for each job saved. Trade restrictions on luggage saved 226 jobs and cost consumers $1.2 million in higher prices for each job saved. Restrictions on apparel and textiles saved 168,786 jobs at a cost of nearly $200,000 for each job saved. You might wonder how it is possible for, say, the sugar industry to rip off consumers. After all, consumers are far more numerous than sugar workers and sugar bosses. It's easy. A lot is at stake for those in the sugar industry, workers and bosses. They dedicate huge resources to pressure Congress into enacting trade restrictions. But how many of us consumers will devote the same resources to unseat a congressman who voted for sugar restrictions that forced us to pay $21 more for the sugar our family uses? It's the problem of visible beneficiaries of trade restrictions, sugar workers and bosses, gaining at the expense of invisible victims -- sugar consumers. We might think of it as congressional price-gouging."

Prominent Democrat defends sexual harasser: "A former Oakland City Hall employee injected herself into the race for state attorney general on Thursday by charging that Mayor Jerry Brown "enabled" one of his former top aides, Jacques Barzaghi, to repeatedly sexually harass her and other women in the mayor's office.... She told reporters she sought a written reprimand of Barzaghi from Brown, but the mayor pooh-poohed her allegations, leading her to ultimately file a complaint against the city of Oakland in 2001.... Barzaghi, a quixotic and quirky friend of Brown's for more than 30 years, was fired by Brown in July 2004 after Barzaghi's sixth wife called police alleging domestic abuse. Lopez-Bowden's complaint was settled by the city for $50,000 in 2001. Barzaghi was suspended for three weeks without pay and ordered to attend counseling and sexual-harassment training. "I absolutely think it merited firing. He should have had no role in public service," Lopez-Bowden said. Before settling, the city hired an outside lawyer specializing in sexual-harassment cases to conduct an investigation. He interviewed 19 women who had worked with Barzaghi. The conclusion: Barzaghi had a pattern of harassing women other than just Lopez-Bowden. In a 2003 interview in the East Bay Express, Brown said he didn't think complaints by other women about Barzaghi were true. "There are different sides to the story," he said.

Oil tax insanity in California: "Now, as Californians debate the merits of Proposition 87, Clinton and Gore have forgotten their old personas to shill on television and at rallies for a clunker of a left-wing initiative that would hurt the economy, waste taxpayers' money and use Perot-style it's-that-simple arguments to claim there are easy answers to tough energy questions. The measure would tax in-state oil production to raise $4 billion for alternative-energy research. Its TV ads are beyond dishonest, asserting in baldly contradictory fashion that increasing the cost of domestic oil production would somehow lower gasoline prices and reduce dependence on foreign oil. They also imply that little alternative-energy research is under way, when in fact there is more such research than ever."

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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RACE IS A LEFTIST OBSESSION

So many people are racists, it's hard to keep up! Let's take a look at this week's charges of racism, which come from the Left. They focus on two ads in the Tennessee Senate race. This race features Republican Bob Corker and Democrat Harold Ford, Jr. Corker is a white, former mayor of Chattanooga, and owner of a successful construction business. Ford is a black Congressman from a prominent political family in the state.

Here's the TV ad in question. Go ahead and watch it. I'll be here when you get back. The alleged racism lies in the fact that a white, blonde woman says, "I met Harold at the Playboy party," and entreats him to call her at the end of the ad. The theory of those crying racism is that the idea of a white woman fraternizing with a black man was meant to conjure up some good Old South feelings about interracial dating.

It's a serious reach to assume that was the intent of the Republican National Committee. Had they featured a black woman asking him to call her, I'm sure there would have been some coded message there as well, like, "Harold Ford should stick to his kind." I don't know how the liberal mind works, but I've gotta believe if it weren't this racial overreach, it would have been another one.

People disagree with me on this. Republicans disagree with me on it. Ken Mehlman said he understands the other side's point of view and Corker disavowed the ad on the grounds that it was "tacky." Others have told me it was a Republican gaffe, racist or not, because it could be read as racist. Well, frankly, if we limit our political advertising things that won't offend liberals, we will have no political advertising.

Try the other one on for size. It's a radio ad, once again anti-Ford. Listen to it, here. Now, the "racist" story behind this one is that there are drums as soundtrack to the parts of the ad that talk about Harold Ford. Liberal blogs have referred to them as "tom-toms" and "jungle drums," and suggested that they're meant to evoke images of Africa, the Dark Continent, thus turning off lily white Southern voters. Of course, it's hard to make the argument that the anti-Ford ad is accentuating Ford's ethnic "savagery" when the ad copy refers to his prep-school education and Northeastern roots.

Is it just me or does it feel more likely that the people who see and hear these innocuous ads and immediately jump to accusations of racism are the ones with the racial hang-ups, not Republican Southerners?

More here

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ELSEWHERE

Some interesting evidence here showing that use of pornography DECREASES rape attacks. So the anti-porn warriors have a heavy load of guilt to bear.

Silver-tongued but still dumb: "Harold Ford, a handsome 36-year-old from Tennessee, has become one of the sensations of the mid-term elections in the US and a reason why Democrats are a good chance of winning back control of the US Congress for the first time in 12 years. But if Mr Ford, already a US congressman, wins his bid to become a more powerful senator, Australia had better watch out. Because according to Mr Ford, Australia has an interest in nuclear weapons and is part of the broader nuclear threat to the US."

Leftist judges thwart justice: ""People in the good state of Missouri need photo identification to cash a check, board a plane or apply for food stamps. But the state Supreme Court has ruled that a photo ID requirement to vote is too great a burden on the elderly and the poor. Go figure. Public polls consistently show that an overwhelming majority of Americans-regardless of age, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status-favor voter ID laws. And nearly half of the nation's states have passed them. Yet a string of recent court decisions has blocked their implementation in some places, thus siding with Democrats and liberal special interest groups who would rather turn a blind eye to voter fraud... Showing ID is an incidental cost of voting, like having to buy a postage stamp for an absentee ballot, or feed the parking meter when you go to the polling booth."

Danish court rejects cartoons suit: "A Danish court has rejected a civil lawsuit against a paper that published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The 12 cartoons sparked violent protests around the world after Jyllands-Posten published them in 2005. Seven Muslim organisations launched the lawsuit against the newspapers' editors, alleging defamation. But the City Court in Aarhus said there was not enough reason to believe the cartoons were intended to be insulting or harmful to Muslims. The organisations brought it in March after the Danish attorney-general's decision not to make criminal charges against the newspaper under racism and blasphemy legislation."

Some good things!: "All this focus on government and its misdeeds throughout the ages and around the globe can give the wrong impression. It is as if nothing good happened anywhere. But that is to confuse government with the rest of society. And in most societies there is ample good going on. Most human relations apart from government are pretty decent, even admirable. All the creativity and productivity we have around us -- those activities that enhance efficiency, those that contribute to beauty and comfort, those that heal and cure -- come not from government but from individuals cooperating in society. (I hesitate to call it the 'private' sector because strictly speaking these social undertakings are not private but very much cooperative.)"

Still in the market for reforms : "A year ago, Central Europe seemed like an example for others to follow. Today, it is a region marked by growing extremism and political instability. Some blame liberal reforms, claiming that capitalism concentrated too much money and power in the hands of the few. In fact, reforms did not go far enough. The business sector is overregulated and governments spend too much money. This fuels corruption and public dissatisfaction with the democratic process."

Giving chase in cyberspace: "In the debate over identity theft and online security, commentators often note that markets and private actors are better equipped than regulators to counter cybersecurity breaches and instances of copyright infringement. This paper considers an extreme instance of cybersecurity self-help: that of attacking the attackers. Internet vigilantes are already at work: The 419 Flash Mob, for example, works to disable and report to authorities the websites of 'phishers' who trick users into entering their information on phony websites made up to look like those of real banks and merchants."

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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Are Leftists Men Without Chests and Women Without Breasts?



The second picture above is of an Australian conservative politician. Below is an excerpt from Gagdad Bob which is probably meant to be metaphorical as much as literal but I kind of doubt that Leftists and Rightists are in general physically differentiated in the way he says -- though I have little doubt that physical unattractiveness is ONE of the motivations for Leftism:

Even--or especially--if you are a moonbat who hates the classical liberalism embodied in the conservative movement, you will no doubt agree that it espouses scary masculine virtues such as competition, maintaining the rule of law, standards over compassion (i.e., not changing the rules for members of designated liberal victim groups), delayed gratification, and respect for the ways of the father--that is, conserving what has been handed down by previous generations of fathers, and not just assuming in our adolescent hubris that we know better than they.

Contemporary left-liberalism, on the other hand, has come to represent the realm of maternal nurturance--compassion over standards (i.e., racial quotas), idealization of the impulses (just as a mother is delighted in the instinctual play of her child), mercy over judgment (reduced prison sentences, criminal rights, etc.), cradle-to-grave welfare, a belief that we can seduce our enemies in a feminine way and not have to defeat them with manly violence, and the notion that meaning, truth and values are all arbitrary and subject to change (which is true of the fluid world of emotions in general).

Now, I am not one of those modern space age a go-go people who imagine that gender is irrelevant to our destiny. But nor do I think that our destiny can be reduced to gender. Rather, our destiny is influenced by several archetypal factors that go into our "blueprint" and inform who we are: sex (for each sex emphasizes different divine qualities), age (i.e., season of life), intellect (not its content, but its height, depth and breadth), temperament (e.g., Jung's useful system), caste (e.g., priest, warrior, menial/intellectual laborer, merchant, etc.), and even zodiacal type (in the archetypal sense, not the debased "predictive" variety found in newspapers and most books on the topic).

Now the feminist movement of the 1960's and 70's had very little to do with comprehending, much less honoring, divine femininity, but generally degraded and devalued it. In the long run, it represented nothing more or less than the flight from a temporary or at best "pseudo problem" in exchange for a real and abiding one. It largely became a vehicle for the expression of female envy, giving existentially angry and maladjusted women license to imitate the men they envied. After all, few women are less feminine than the typical NOW activist.

Nor are they masculine, however. A woman cannot actually become a man, but can only become a monstrous blending of male and female. They become "women without breasts," except perhaps for plastic ones. (If you ever want to hear the archetypal voice of a woman without breasts, try listening for a few moments to Randi Rhodes on Air America. If you have ears to hear, you will know in an instant what Petey is talking about. Woe to her luckless child and, one assumes, luckily ex husband. Only a man with no chest at all could have survived in such a shrill atmosphere.) (Importantly, this is not to even remotely suggest that a woman cannot develop her masculine side or a man his feminine side. What we are talking about is a complete nullification of sexual polarity, a kind of magical, self-imposed blindness, so that these critical differences are effaced.)

Because they have disassociated their own devalued femininity, these women without breasts will try to locate them elsewhere. In the deepest layers of the unconscious explored by psychoanalysis, the breast is associated with the source of life and of being itself. How could it not be? The infantile mind does not separate breast, milk, love, life, being, or mother into separate existential categories. Rather, these categories will only gradually emerge from the harmoniously mixed-up intersubjective diad of mother-baby. But not always. The primordial edenic memories of the perfect breast-paradise remain.

For some, these dreams of a non-friction life with unlimited abundance are transferred onto an inanimate object called the government, which becomes the great existential teat for all of us. It will heal us when we are sick, rescue us from hurricanes, take care of us when we're old, educate us, and generally shield us from the vicissitudes of fate.

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ELSEWHERE

Two-faced Arab intellectuals: "The Arab intellectual behaves like a despotic father. No internal family matter may be exposed to the outside world; regardless of what the reality may be, a facade of unbroken unity must be maintained. This is especially evident with respect to such matters as relations with Israel, the scandal over the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the attacks of 9/11, the Danish cartoons of Muhammad, or the recent war in Lebanon. In private talks with such people, one hears opinions that are radically different from what they publish in the newspapers the next day. It is as if the views propounded in the Arab media are not based on independent thinking, but formulated as opportunistic statements for public consumption."

Illegals bad for blacks? "Immigrants have been accused of debasing our culture, overcrowding our schools and hospitals, and lowering our wages. Now a Harvard professor is blaming them for sending African-Americans to jail. George Borjas of Harvard University, a Cuban immigrant, writes in his latest National Bureau of Economic Research paper that "As immigrants disproportionately increased the supply of workers in a particular skill group, we find a reduction in the wage of black workers in that group, a reduction in the employment rate, and a corresponding increase in the incarceration rate." The story goes as follows. Low-skilled immigrants arrive in America and take jobs away from African-Americans. Due to the lack of job opportunities, African-Americans are drawn into illegal activities, get arrested, and are then put in prison."

The great pension swindle: "Our employer-based savings system is a mess. Everywhere you look, you see mismanagement, malfeasance, and meltdown. Collectively, private-sector pension funds are underfunded to the tune of $450 billion. State and local pension funds are short some $800 billion. That's $1.25 trillion in total! This situation didn't happen by accident. The federal government, with its own $11 trillion unfunded Social Security liability, has condoned the underfunding of private pensions for decades. It's also encouraged pension funds to invest in risky assets to cover their funding shortfalls. Those gambles generally haven't paid off. And it has sat silent as state and local governments turned pension underfunding into an art form."

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 PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE

(He is so out of touch he must be the partridge in the pear tree)

Thanks to Keith Burgess Jackson, I have come across another post by the amusing Leftist "philosopher" Ernest Partridge. I have commented on the philosophical one's vast ignorance previously. I note that he is still harping on his amusing contention that "progressives" are really "conservative". I pointed out some of the peculiarities of his claim about that in my previous post. A few of his latest gems:

"Soros, for example, has commendably donated billions to "promote democracy" in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. How about a few million of a billionaire's pocket change to defend - better, restore - democracy in the U.S. of A? ...

The regressive right, taking careful note of this, has consolidated and muffled the mainstream media (with a few honorable and courageous exceptions), and the GOP presidents since Nixon have packed the courts with like-minded judges....

The only available way for a disapproving public to halt this headlong rush into Fascism is to vote for the Democrats.

So the USA has ceased to be a democracy. Why is everybody bothering about that non-event on Nov. 7th, then? Obviously, America as a whole has not yet benefited from the wisdom of the man in the pear tree. And conservatives have muffled the media? I guess the New York Times does not get delivered up pear trees. I am inclined to agree with him about the headlong rush into Fascism, though. The GOP seem to be only slightly slower than the Donks at expanding the size of the State. And we know that Mussolini famously defined the State as the be-all and end-all of Fascism: "Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato". It's unlikely that you will ever get force-fed castor oil for criticizing George Bush, though.

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ELSEWHERE



In Duke rape case, justice relies on jurors: "On Sunday on CBS's '60 Minutes,' the key witness against the three Duke University students accused of rape flatly contradicted the story their accuser gave to police. Prosecuting District Attorney Mike Nifong now has exculpatory DNA tests, a solid alibi for one defendant, a string of contradictions from the accuser, an irredeemably tainted police identification and a witness who benefits the defense. Nevertheless, charges are unlikely to be dropped in the immediate future -- at least not until the election for D.A. is concluded. Politics, not justice, will be done."

Past Union Threats Now Cause Retirees Harm: "The folks hurt that are now getting hurt are those that said, "give it to us or we will strike". Well, they got it, they didn't strike, now the companies are getting their revenge-killing off pension plans and health care benefits for the retirees. But they have no choice, cut the plans or go bankrupt. These folks counted on the pensions and health care-now most will get little or nothing. The alternative is to pay these folks that threatened to strike, pay them off, and then close the businesses and thrown tens of thousands of current employees out of a job."

Another violent peacenik: "A smirking peace activist who left a rising rock star fighting for his life after a row over his girlfriend was jailed for eight months today. Christiaan Briggs, 30, attacked 19-year-old singer Billy Leeson and left him in a coma, after Mr Leeson asked him to stop staring at his girlfriend on a late night number 29 bus. After punching the teenager Briggs, who went to Iraq as a peace activist in 2003, walked away "smirking". Mr Leeson fell into a coma when he hit his head in the pavement and the judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court said: "It was obviously a miracle that he lived." .... New Zealand-born Briggs, a technician at a major firm of chartered surveyors who turned himself in to police following publicity about Mr Leeson's injuries, had previously acted as a human shield in Iraq in 2003 in the hope of warding off a US attack. He pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodly harm when he appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court in East London on September 25. The East London court heard Briggs was staring at Mr Leeson's girlfriend and was confronted by the musician on June 22 last year.... William Leeson was walking away when, without warning, the defendant punched him on his left cheek. He walked off and was described by two witnesses as smirking as he walked away." Mr Leeson crashed to the pavement "with a really loud crack" and was in a coma by the time a London Ambulance arrived."

A too-late admission: "New York Times ombudsman Byron Calame has initiated what we can only hope will be a trend in America's holier-than-thou media -- that overwhelming and influential part of our nation's news business that feigns objectivity, fairness and interest in our national well-being while relentlessly pursuing partisan and destructively anti-American agendas. Calame, in the throes of some inexplicable crisis of conscience, has admitted his newspaper was wrong to reveal a secret U.S. government program to monitor bank transactions of terrorists, and that he was not only wrong but hypocritical to defend it".

Debtors prison: "On the campaign trail, I get a lot of quizzical looks when I tell people that the Federal government should use the same accounting standards that it requires of business. Last August, USA TODAY detailed the difference between the keeping books for business and the Federal government. Instead of a $318 billion budget deficit in 2005, under the government's accounting rules, the Federal budget deficit as measured by business accounting rules was actually $3.5 trillion for that single year."

Economic progress: "As the U.S. population crossed the 300 million mark sometime around 7:46 a.m. Tuesday (according to the U.S. Census Bureau), the typical family is doing a whole lot better than their grandparents were in 1967, the year the population first surpassed 200 million. Mr. and Mrs. Median's $46,326 in annual income is 32% more than their mid-'60s counterparts, even when adjusted for inflation, and 13% more than those at the median in the economic boom year of 1985. And thanks to ballooning real estate values, average household net worth has increased even faster. The typical American household has a net worth of $465,970, up 83% from 1965, 60% from 1985 and 35% from 1995. Throw in the low inflation of the past 20 years, a deregulated airline industry that's made travel much cheaper, plus technological progress that's provided the middle class with not only better cars and televisions, but every gadget from DVD players to iPods, all at lower and lower prices, and it's obvious that Mr. and Mrs. Median are living the life of Riley compared to their parents and grandparents."

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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STRANGE ATTITUDES TOWARDS ISRAEL

Excerpt from Arlene Peck

In retrospect, frankly, I think that the last time I trusted the "powers that be" was when Yitzhak Shamir was running Israel . Now, I shake my head in amazement at the mentality or lack of it that is seemingly running things. For instance, Gaza is once again receiving massive amounts of anti-tank missiles to be used against Israel. If that weren't enough, the Hamas terror organization recently ordered and received Soviet-made SA-7 surface-to-air missiles. What are the Israelis going to do? Wait until they fall onto a Tel Aviv dicso before doing something? Now would be the time to have an offensive but, naw..they'll wait. In the meanwhile, the terror group Hezbollah are busy little bees using their broadcaster TV station, Al Manar, to recruit homicide bombers, have fund-raising campaigns to gather money for terrorist operations, conduct pre-attack surveillance and oh, did I mention, incite violence in various ways. Hamas is not far behind. However, who in the liberal media is paying attention to any of this? Do they even care? ....

Hell, I "almost" don't even have the energy to say I told you so with issues like "the security wall" that Israel built to the tune of raging protest and resolutions in the United Nations and the EU and voices against them in The Hague. That topic has died down though. Not because it was instrumental in stopping homicide bombers from entering their malls, restaurants, busses and schools to kill Jewish children. Why? Because we, in the United States, are chomping at the bit to start building a fence on our Southwestern border to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens invading our country into Arizona and California every day. China has already erected a massive fence along its border with North Korea India on its borders with Pakiastan, Saudi Arabia next Yemen and so on. You probably didn't even know about those though, as not even anyone from the liberal left are out there protesting.....

Jews, a minuscule dot in the world census, have made and continue to make an enormous contribution to the benefit of humankind as reflected by the dozens and dozens of Noble Prizewinners. We excel in medicine, arts, science, and political science, among others, yet are blind to the dangers that face us. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bush's mouthpiece, made a speech at the American Task Force of Palestine's inaugural dinner in Washington . The world clapped when she stated, "There could be no greater legacy for America than to help to bring into being a Palestinian state." This, folks, gives me shivers when the so-called Palestinians go all out to prove themselves to be the most overtly pro-jihad, terrorist society in history and no one in our government is willing to see reality for what it is. These "people" are clearly evil, genocidal and terrorists, whether active in Fatah, Force 17, or a supporter . Yet Dubya and Condi see no evil and hear no evil but speak evil. It brings back shades of Neville Chamberlain. Yet, where are the cries from either the Jewish or the Christian communities (other than the Zionist Organization of America), for that matter fighting against what is the beginning of the end of the Jewish State?

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Scottish disgrace: "We must thank the University of St Andrews for that rare opportunity - the chance to employ with a straight face the clich‚ "it's like Caligula appointing his horse as consul". How so? Because Scotland's oldest university has decided to award an honorary doctorate of law to former President Khatami of Iran "in recognition of his efforts to encourage interfaith dialogue". I kid you not. No less a person than Sir Menzies Campbell, the university's Chancellor, will bestow the accolade on the acceptable face of violent, arbitrary clerical rule. It will come to be seen as one of the most shameful days in the university's history - on a par with the honorary degrees granted by the University of Edinburgh to Robert Mugabe, of Zimbabwe, or the Central London Polytechnic to Elena Ceaucescu, of Romania. They, too, were once fashionable items among the appeasing classes, of which Sir Menzies is the contemporary personification."

Lessons from the poor: "Nobel Peace Prizes are not supposed to go to those who believe the poor can fend for themselves. Yet this year's worthy winner, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, is essentially a commercial operation and its founder, Muhammad Yunus, has clearly spelled out politically incorrect views regarding poverty: 'Grameen believes that charity is not an answer to poverty. ... It creates dependency. ... Unleashing of energy and creativity in each human being is the answer to poverty.' The bank lends tiny amounts of money to village-dwellers so they can start small businesses. The scale can be so modest as to involve the purchase of a cow in order to sell milk. Since no collateral or credit history is required, the system works on the basis of trust and peer pressure: Lenders are placed in groups of five, with part of the group guaranteeing the loans of the rest. If a loan is not repaid, the community shuns the borrower."

EU crooks crying foul: "The European Commission will today launch a pre-emptive strike against the EU auditor, accusing it, on the eve of publishing its opinion on the EU's 2005 accounts, of being "unfair". The European Court of Auditors' review is expected again to qualify its opinion in relation to large areas of EU spending, but the European Commission will criticise the auditor's procedures and methodology. The Commission will also call on member state governments to take more responsibility for their role in handling the majority of EU financial transactions. Anger is mounting in Brussels over the ECA's annual reports, which every year provoke widespread criticism of the Commission's handling of its finances that are widely believed to be vitiated by error and fraud."

Bush bad, Putin good: "To push the sales of his new book, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder - now with Gazprom Inc. - made a number of interviews with German media outlets. He calls Putin "a flawless democrat", draws a link between the policies of President Bush and the faith based political system of Islamic states and describes as "pre-democratic" criticism of his decision to start working for a foreign company immediately after his departure from German politics."

Arizona ranked dumbest in US: "Arizona has the dubious distinction of being the dumbest state in the Union, according to an independent research and publishing company in Kansas. The finding quickly made the rounds of morning talk shows and Internet postings, but a closer look at the methodology used for the survey suggests the rankings deserve more serious scrutiny. Morgan Quitno Press, which compiles state- and city-ranking publications, used a variety of measurements to create their list, including money spent on students, standardized test scores, graduation rates, teacher salaries and teacher/student ratios. It is, in short, a comparison of the education systems in the 50 states and not a measure of a state's intelligence."

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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GOOGLEBOMB

Dont take too much notice of the post below. As you may or may not know, Leftist Chris Bowers from MyDD is organizing a massive Googlebomb for the 2006 elections. The sad reality is that is an effort that could, at least in a few close races, move a few hundred votes away from a Republican candidate to a Democrat. So, in an effort to level the playing field, John Hawkins has put together a list of 45 key races that right-of-center
bloggers can Googlebomb as well. So, in the interests of to achieving Googlebomb parity with our comrades on the left in the search engine arms race, I have posted the links he recommends below:


Senate

Connecticut: Ned Lamont
Maryland: Ben Cardin
Michigan: Debbie Stanbenow
Missouri: Claire McCaskill
Montana: Jon Tester
New Jersey: Bob Menendez
Tennessee: Harold Ford
Virginia: James Webb

Democrat Held Seats

(CO-03): John Salazar
(GA-03): Jim Marshall
(GA-12): John Barrow
(IA-03): Leonard Boswell
(IL-08): Melissa Bean
(IL-17): Phil Hare
(IN-07): Julia Carson
(NC-13): Brad Miller
(PA-12): John Murtha
(WV-01): Alan Mollohan

Republican Held Seats

(AZ-08): Gabrielle Giffords
(CT-04): Diane Farrell
(CT-05): Chris Murphy
(CO-07): Ed Perlmutter
(IA-01): Bruce Braley
(IL-06): Tammy Duckworth
(IN-02): Joe Donnelly
(IN-08): Brad Ellsworth
(IN-09): Baron Hill
(FL-13): Christine Jennings
(FL-16): Tim Mahoney
(FL-22): Ron Klein
(KY-03): John Yarmuth
(NC-01): Heath Shuler
(MN-06): Patty Wetterling
(NM-01): Patricia Madrid
(NY-20): Kirsten Gillibrand
(NY-24): Michael Arcuri
(NY-26): Jack Davis
(OH-15): Mary Jo Kilroy
(OH-18): Zack Space
(PA-06): Lois Murphy
(PA-08): Patrick Murphy
(PA-07): Joe Sestak
(PA-10): Chris Carney
(VA-02): Phil Kellam
(WI-08): Steve Kagen

Liberals: Opposites of Themselves

Most agree that liberals are the opposite of conservatives, but in many respects, liberals are the opposite of themselves. This was recently demonstrated, once again, at Columbia University when left-wing students demonstrated their "tolerance" and respect for "free speech" when they stormed the stage and shut down a speech by Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist. Defenders of those that disrupted the speech claimed, "The Minutemen are not a legitimate voice in the debate on immigration." Say what? Who gets to decide which voices are "legitimate" in a policy debate? Apparently the liberals that disagree with position of the Minutemen believe they get to decide. So much for free speech.

Liberals love diversity. The more "different" people they can put together the better. Well, as long as those "different" people are all alike - espousing a liberal ideology. Conservatives need not apply to such diverse groups - there isn't any need to be that diverse.

Liberal politicians, the champions of the "little guy" and the "downtrodden" continually advocate policies that hurt those very people. A good example is the minimum wage. An increase in the minimum wage costs jobs, is inflationary and doesn't, in the long run, provide any benefit to those it is designed to help.

Liberals also say one thing and do another is when it comes to tax policy. If the examples of the past are not enough to convince liberals that high taxes hurts the economy while low taxes boost economic activity, the current state of the economy should be quite illustrative. Unemployment is at 4.7% and the stock market, as measured by the Dow Jones is at a record high.

The left is confounded as to how federal tax receipts can be pouring in at record levels despite the President's tax cuts that only favored "the rich." Maybe these rich people pay taxes too, do you think? Hint - the rich (who don't have to be all that wealthy to meet the left's definition of "rich") pay the lion's share of taxes. Left (no pun intended) to their own devices, liberals would raise taxes, not only because tax cuts "cost" the government too much, but to provide even more programs and entitlements destined to fail, only to be left wondering why the economy slows, tax receipts decline and unemployment increases. How does that help the "little guy?"

The left attacks the NSA wiretapping program but has constantly criticized the administration for not doing more to prevent the attacks of 9/11. The left assailed the administration for acting "unilaterally" in Iraq (even thought that wasn't the case), but some on that side of the aisle are now calling for one-on-one talks with North Korea instead of the six-party talks (not that talking will do any good, but that's for another column).

Source

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ELSEWHERE

Newsweak does it again. They have done an extraordinarily bad poll from which they blithely conclude: "Two weeks till midterms, the NEWSWEEK poll shows Republicans in danger of losing a big chunk of their base. And a growing consensus for a bread-and-butter Democratic agenda". For what the poll REALLY shows, see STACLU

Muslim brutality in Britain: "Hundreds of young girls in Britain are suffering genital mutilation at the hands of women paid to come to Britain by their families. African immigrants are clubbing together to pay for practitioners to fly to Britain and circumcise their daughters in highly secretive rituals. Police believe that the trend has developed among parents who do not have passports or cannot afford to return to their home countries to have their daughters circumcised, a brutal practice that remains commonplace throughout Africa. The procedure is generally performed by elderly women, in unsterilised conditions with no anaesthetic. Children as young as five have parts or all of their clitoris or labia removed. Some have their vaginas sewn up or the flesh shrunk with corrosives... The procedure is highly dangerous and leaves many of its victims with health problems throughout their lives. Infections and cysts are commonplace, as are complications during childbirth, endangering both mother and baby. Women who have suffered genital mutilation are twice as likely to die in childbirth and three times as likely to give birth to a stillborn child. Despite the dangers, many African Muslim communities prize the ritual and ostracise women who are not circumcised. It is common in a band stretching from Senegal in West Africa to Somalia on the East coast and in many areas uncircumcised women cannot find a husband.

And the French claim they know best!: "On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized, and no arrests made. The recent ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year. One small police union claims officers are facing a "permanent intifada." Police injuries have risen in the year since the wave of violence... On Sunday, a band of about 30 youths, some wearing masks, forced passengers out of a bus in a southern Paris suburb in broad daylight Sunday, set it on fire, then stoned firefighters who came to the rescue, police said. No one was injured. Two people were arrested, one of them a 13-year-old"

Britain closes the door slightly: "Tough curbs banning tens of thousands of unskilled workers from Bulgaria and Romania coming to Britain are to be unveiled by ministers this week. The move comes as new government figures show that four out of every five existing east European immigrants earn little more than the minimum wage and pay on average half the amount Britons pay in taxes. The report claims they may not be as much of a boon to the economy as some have suggested"

More German anti-Americanism: "The war in Iraq is unlikely to be resolved by a US administration committed to a fundamentalist Christian viewpoint, according to former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose memoirs stoke his four-year feud with US President George W. Bush.... In extracts from his newly published memoirs to be published in Der Spiegel magazine, he explains what went wrong and why it will be difficult for Mr Bush to make peace. "Again and again in our private talks it became clear how God-fearing this president was and how ruled he was by what he saw as a higher power," Mr Schroeder says in the memoirs, Decisions: My Life In Politics. "The problem begins when political decisions seem to result from a conversation with God. We rightly criticise that in most Islamic states there is no clear separation between religion and the rule of law. "But we fail to recognise that in the US, the Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible have similar tendencies. If both sides claim to be in possession of the only valid truth, then there is no room for manoeuvre."

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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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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ELSEWHERE

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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ELSEWHERE

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)

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