RUSSIAN REVIEW

The fearsome Russian Bear appears to be coming out of a 16-year hibernation. President Vladimir Putin says he wants to regain Russia's prominence in the world community, and his actions are backing up his words. Unencumbered by Marxist dogma, he is attempting to regain Russia's superpower status by the old Soviet method of intimidation.

Putin has directed the seizure of assets of the oil giant Yukos, and restricted oil supplies to Eastern Europe. But if he can decree such gross confiscation of property, then there is no rule of law and Russia's reforms mean nothing. Moreover, Moscow has drastically raised energy prices and threatened an oil cutoff in former client nations that have had the dared to pursue economic and political independence apart from Russia.

Putin sees Russia's vast petroleum reserves as more than a means to economic growth, but as an avenue to superpower status once again. Last year, Russia was the second-highest oil producer in the world after Saudi Arabia. Their GDP has grown at an average rate of 5.5% since 2000, largely by energy exports. Now that world oil prices are high, and rising, his strategy is working. But if they fall, Russia will be in trouble, as was the USSR following the price collapse of oil in the 1980s.

Russians wearily remember the early days of democracy following the collapse of the USSR. That was a time when an erratic, and perhaps alcoholic President Yeltsin governed the country. It was a time when their money became worthless, and crime ran wild.

Most Russians would rather have a strong and secure nation than one that guarantees personal freedoms. This sentiment, and the growing economy, is the basis for Putin's broad popularity. A recent poll found only 16 percent of Russians surveyed want to see Western-style democracy remain in their country. Predictability is perhaps the greatest comfort to the average Russian.

Demographically, however, Russia is a nation that is slowly dying. The country has dwindling birthrates, and amazingly, declining life expectancy. That portends a bleak economic outlook unless they can leverage their energy resources to attain higher growth rates. This is Putin's strategy. Since he became president, rising oil revenues have allowed the Russian defense budget to grow enormously. Defense outlays for 2007 are at a post-Soviet high of $32.4 billion, rising 23 percent in the past year, and four times expenditures of 2001.....

These days, the most important political question in Russia is over who will succeed Putin when his second term expires in 2008. He is much admired, and almost certainly would be reelected if he were eligible to run. Though the Russian Constitution forbids him from running for a third term, it doesn't stop conjecture that he may do so anyway. No matter what the law or his legitimacy may be, many believe he has the support and authority to stay in power. His actions in 2008 will foretell much about which direction, whether cooperative or confrontational, the country is heading.

Russia's culture and history are tied to Western civilization. While recent events may give pause, we should encourage those foundations, and work to advance our common interests. The fight against radical Islam -- whether in Iran, Iraq, Chechnya, or elsewhere -- is one that Russia should unite with the West.

More here

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The above graphic is from Gateway Pundit -- which see for commentary -- if any is necessary.

France to get a Conservative President: "Conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy finished first in the opening round of France's presidential election on Sunday and will meet his Socialist rival Segolene Royal in a runoff vote, television polls showed. Projections by four polling institutions showed Sarkozy leading the field with from 29 to 30 per cent of the vote, Royal in second place on around 25-26 per cent and centrist Francois Bayrou in third place on around 18-19 per cent. Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who stunned France by coming second in the 2002 election, looked set to finish a distant fourth with around 11 per cent. As expected, no-one won an absolute majority, so the top two candidates will go forward to a second-round ballot on May 6. Initial estimates pointed to a huge turnout of up to 85 per cent, which if confirmed would be a record for a first-round vote in more than 40 years and stand in a sharp contrast to the 2002 ballot when the turnout was just 73 per cent.... Whoever replaces Chirac will inherit a fractured, fragile country that has the highest unemployment rate of any major industrial power, poor, multi-ethnic suburbs simmering with discontent and a dominant state sector resistant to reform. Sarkozy wants the French to work harder and pay less tax, and is promising a deluge of reforms in his first 100 days to curb some union powers, slim down the government and toughen sentencing for repeat offenders. France's head of state is among the most powerful in the West. The president is commander-in-chief, dictates foreign and defence policy, appoints the prime minister, presides over Cabinet meetings and can dissolve parliament. [Sarko will get the NF votes in the runoff so should be a shoo-in]

It takes an intellectual to be really stupid: "A third of women graduates will never have children, research has concluded. The number of highly educated women who are starting families has plummeted in the past decade, according to findings that provide the most detailed insight yet into education and fertility. While some women are making a conscious decision not to have children, others are simply leaving it too late after taking years to build their careers, buy a home and find the right partner. Graduates who do become mothers are having fewer children, and later. If the low birth rate trend continues, then the eventual rate of childlessness among graduates now aged in their twenties is likely to be even higher than a third".

Students getting high on righteousness: "Stanford University officials agreed to pay its "living wage" to all contract workers, ending a nine-day hunger strike by some student protesters. Officials on Friday revised the school's policy to include all employees hired through contractors. Loopholes in the wage policies previously allowed the university to pay less than the "living wage" - $11.15 to $12.59 per hour - to contracted employees who work less than 30 hours per week. "We're very happy to have reached this agreement," Stanford spokesman Alan Acosta said. Protesters with the Stanford Labor Action Coalition celebrated with food and music at their 10-tent encampment in the campus' White Plaza after Friday's meeting announcing the changes. "The process is not over by any means, but we felt like we have reached a point where we could stop fasting," said Daniel Weissman, 22, one of four students who began a hunger strike April 12."

WaPo now basically supports Wolfowitz: "Despite having megaphoned distortions of what happened at the World Bank for over a week after the exculpatory documents were made public, the editors of the Washington Post finally seems to be backing off and supporting Wolfowitz"

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Was Cho taught to hate?

Re: The Va. Tech. massacre:

Yes, I know. Tens of thousands of ordinary college students are lonely, full of rage, lost and frustrated. A few percent are psychotically disturbed, and some of them can kill. Our big factory colleges are alienating. Take millions of adolescents, and at any time there are bound to be quite a few confused and seething souls walking loose. Just visit downtown in any American or European city, and you can see all the lost and disturbed living in their private hells. And no, that doesn't excuse executing thirty-two innocents.

Still, I wonder --- was Cho taught to hate? Whatever he learned in his classes --- did it enable him to rage at his host country, to hate the students he envied so murderously? Was he subtly encouraged to aggrandize himself by destroying others? Was his pathology enabled by the PC university? Or to ask the question differently --- was Cho ever taught to respect others, to admire the good things about his host country, and to discipline himself to build a positive life?

And that answer is readily available on the websites of Cho's English Department at Virginia Tech. This is a wonder world of PC weirdness. English studies at VT are a post-modern Disney World in which nihilism, moral and sexual boundary breaking, and fantasies of Marxist revolutionary violence are celebrated. They show up in a lot of faculty writing. Not by all the faculty, but probably by more than half.

More here

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Britain does NOT support its troops: "The defence secretary, Des Browne, is facing accusations that the government has put cost-cutting before the welfare of the services by failing to remedy safety faults that led to a Nimrod spy plane blowing up over Afghanistan. The Sunday Times has established that a fleet of refurbished Nimrods will contain the same ageing and leaking fuel systems that caused last year's disaster in which 14 crew died. The decision to keep the system, which will reduce the cost of the revamped jets, comes despite repetitions of the leaks that caused the explosion. A Nimrod returned to base recently with seven tons of fuel "sloshing around" after it leaked into its bomb bay. Andy Knight, whose brother Sergeant Ben Knight, 25, was one of the men killed, said: "The Ministry of Defence was prepared to risk the loss of a 70 million pound-plus jet and its crew, rather than spending the money needed to make the fleet safe. "I have seen nothing since the accident that suggests it has changed its stance."

Huge British voting fraud: "More than 1m "ghost" voters have been uncovered who threaten to undermine the result of next month's local council elections. An analysis by Britain's electoral watchdog has estimated that there are at least 1m and possibly up to 3.5m people whose names appear on the electoral roll even though they are ineligible to vote. The disclosure will fuel concerns over the extent of electoral fraud, which critics claim the government has down-played in order to extend postal voting, which benefits Labour candidates. The names include illegal immigrants, bogus voters, foreign residents and those who are registered at more than one address. Officials fear that in marginal areas, election results could be affected by abuse of "ghost" votes. The Electoral Commission is using pollster GfK NOP to interview thousands of voters to accurately quantify the level of fraudulent voting"

It's the Joooos' fault: "The 59th Annual Jefferson Jackson Bailey Dinner was held last night in Hartford, Connecticut with special guest Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It was a grand time... A standing ovation for failed candidate Ned Lamont, no pictures or mention of former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and war defender Joe Lieberman, more attacks on Lieberman, and anti-Semitic remarks to the press! It was a great evening for all involved! .... Lieberman, who did not attend the fundraising dinner because of his customary observance of the Jewish Sabbath, also was notably absent from the long list of party leaders cited in Democratic State Chairman Nancy DiNardo's welcoming remarks. ..... Matt McLaughlin, a 22-year-old college student from Glastonbury, said Democrats should be more vehemently against the war. "If they didn't pass a bill authorizing more money, our troops would be out of there within a month," he said. "The problem is all the vested interests in Washington like the energy lobby and the Israel lobby."

Iraqi insurgents now fighting each other: "At least two major insurgent groups are battling al-Qaida in provinces outside Baghdad, American military commanders said Friday, an indication of a deepening rift between Sunni guerrilla groups in Iraq. U.S. officers say a growing number of Sunni tribes are turning against al-Qaida, repelled by the terror group's sheer brutality and austere religious extremism. The tribes are competing with al-Qaida for influence and control over diminishing territory in the face of U.S. assaults, the officers say. The influx of Sunni fighters to areas outside the capital in advance of the security crackdown in Baghdad may have further unsettled the region. "This is a big turning point," U.S. Maj. David Baker said Friday in the Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba. "If they are fighting against each other, it's better than them fighting against us." Even Sunnis who want to cooperate with the Shiite-led government are becoming more emboldened to speak out against al-Qaida. In Anbar province, more than 200 Sunni sheiks have decided to form a political party to oppose the terror group, participants said Friday."

The madness of gettinging ethanol from corn: "The U.S. ethanol boom could push lofty natural gas prices even higher as the explosion of new distilleries and a soaring corn crop raise industrial and agricultural demand. Ethanol refineries tend to use natural gas-fueled boilers, and natural gas is also used in the production of fertilizer for corn, which is the main feedstock for ethanol in North America. (Sugar cane is the main feedstock in South America.) "It's another way we're becoming dependent on natural gas," said senior analyst Christopher Jarvis at Caprock Risk Management. "A rise in gas demand is in the cards for this year, and next, and an additional uptick from ethanol could definitely have a material impact." Experts said that the ethanol boom - which has already contributed to inflation in the prices of bread, meat and diesel fuel - could add roughly 1 percent to U.S. natural gas demand within a year and a half, magnifying an already tight balance between production and rising consumption from homes" [Getting ethanol from sugarcane requires NO external fuel source!]

L.A. Times sagging: "About 150 jobs at the Los Angeles Times are expected to be cut next week amid a recent earnings report from parent Tribune Co. that show slumping revenue, the newspaper reported Friday. The cuts, expected to be announced Monday, would constitute more than 5 percent of the work force and include 70 newsroom positions, unnamed Los Angeles Times executives said in a story posted on the newspaper's Web site. Newspaper executives believe many of the cuts will come through voluntary buyouts." [It might help to ease up on the Leftist bias!]

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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ANOTHER BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL IS HEAVILY POLITICIZED: "Lancet" meddles in Australian politics!

Though anybody who knows of their absurd "600,000 Iraqi deaths" claim will not be surprised. The BMJ has also of course long been known for its frantic Leftism. This politicization does of course explain the very low intellectual standards in both journals that I have repeatedly noted on FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC. With their openly avowed contempt for the truth ("There is no such thing as right and wrong") and their failure to consider ALL the facts of most matters, Leftists corrupt everything they touch

A leading international medical journal has denounced the Prime Minister and urged its Australian readers to vote against him in the election. In an editorial titled "Australia: the politics of fear and neglect", The Lancet said John Howard had jeopardised Australia's enviable reputation in medical science with his suggested ban on HIV-positive migrants. It also censured the Health Minister, Tony Abbott, for saying those who spoke up for indigenous health were "simply establishing politically and morally correct credentials", and criticised the Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, for his stance on climate change. It said Australian politicians were scoring below par on health.

The journal said Australian clinical and health research was "an emblem of excellence" in the Asia-Pacific: "That enviable position is being put at risk by Prime Minister John Howard's indifference to the academic medical community and his profound intolerance to those less secure than himself and his administration."

The latest example was his comment last week that HIV migrants should not be allowed, says the journal, whose editor, Dr Richard Horton, spoke at a conference on global health in Sydney this month. "To any visitor, Australian culture feels progressive and inclusive," The Lancet says. "This attractive exterior belies a strong undercurrent of political conservatism, which Howard is ruthlessly tapping into." The Lancet has a significant readership throughout the world and regularly takes a stand on key medical issues.

Source

Any lingering doubts about the political motivation behind their "600,000 Iraqi deaths" claim should now be completely at rest. The editor makes clear that for him the term "conservative" is a term of abuse. Definitely the impartial scientist!

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`I found Saddam's WMD bunkers'

It's a fair bet that you have never heard of a guy called Dave Gaubatz. It's also a fair bet that you think the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found absolutely nothing, nada, zilch; and that therefore there never were any WMD programmes in Saddam's Iraq to justify the war ostensibly waged to protect the world from Saddam's use of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

Dave Gaubatz, however, says that you could not be more wrong. Saddam's WMD did exist. He should know, because he found the sites where he is certain they were stored. And the reason you don't know about this is that the American administration failed to act on his information, `lost' his classified reports and is now doing everything it can to prevent disclosure of the terrible fact that, through its own incompetence, it allowed Saddam's WMD to end up in the hands of the very terrorist states against whom it is so controversially at war.

You may be tempted to dismiss this as yet another dodgy claim from a warmongering lackey of the world Zionist neocon conspiracy giving credence to yet another crank pushing US propaganda. If so, perhaps you might pause before throwing this article at the cat. Mr Gaubatz is not some marginal figure. He's pretty well as near to the horse's mouth as you can get. Having served for 12 years as an agent in the US Air Force's Office of Special Investigations, Mr Gaubatz, a trained Arabic speaker, was hand-picked for postings in 2003, first in Saudi Arabia and then in Nasariyah in Iraq. His mission was to locate suspect WMD sites, discover threats against US forces in the area and find Saddam loyalists, and then send such intelligence to the Iraq Survey Group and other agencies.

Between March and July 2003, he says, he was taken to four sites in southern Iraq - two within Nasariyah, one 20 miles south and one near Basra - which, he was told by numerous Iraqi sources, contained biological and chemical weapons, material for a nuclear programme and UN-proscribed missiles. He was, he says, in no doubt whatever that this was true. This was, in the first place, because of the massive size of these sites and the extreme lengths to which the Iraqis had gone to conceal them. Three of them were bunkers buried 20 to 30 feet beneath the Euphrates. They had been constructed through building dams which were removed after the huge subterranean vaults had been excavated so that these were concealed beneath the river bed. The bunker walls were made of reinforced concrete five feet thick.....

The Republicans won't touch this because it would reveal the incompetence of the Bush administration in failing to neutralise the danger of Iraqi WMD. The Democrats won't touch it because it would show President Bush was right to invade Iraq in the first place. It is an axis of embarrassment.

More here

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Islamic fanatics beat journalist in Canada : "A journalist for the Mississauga, Ont.-based newspaper The Pakistan Post was assaulted by two men, one armed with a cricket bat, who warned him to stop "writing against Islam" and a Pakistan-based religious organization, the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) reported Thursday. Journalist Jawaad Faizi was attacked on the evening of April 17 while sitting in his car outside the home of the newspaper's editor, Amir Arain. The two men smashed the car windows, and repeatedly hit Faizi. They fled when they saw him call 911 on his cell phone. During the attack, Faizi said, the men told him to stop writing critically of the religious organization Idara Minhaj-ul-Quran and its leader, Cleric Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri. Allama Tahir-Ul-Qadri is a frequent visitor to Canada, CJFE said."

Spanish appeasement not working: "The emergence of a new al-Qaeda-linked organization in Northern Africa is alarming Spain, which is concerned about Islamists' calls for the reconquest of the country they regard as a lost part of the Muslim world. "We will not be in peace until we set our foot again in our beloved al-Andalus," al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said on claiming responsibility for an attack which killed at least 24 people in Algiers on Wednesday. Al-Andalus is the Moorish name for Spain, parts of which were ruled by Muslims for about eight centuries until the last Moorish bastion, Granada, succumbed to the Christian Reconquest in 1492. The terrorists will undoubtedly attempt to extend their offensive from Northern Africa to European soil, anti-terrorism judge Baltasar Garzon warned, cautioning that Spain was at a "very high risk" of suffering an Islamist attack."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Brookes News Update

What is behind the anti-American Jack Hitt, the man who embarrassed the New York Times: No one should be surprised that Jack Hitt cooked up a story libelling El Salvador's Government. Hitt is a vicious anti-American leftist who despises the US and its allies. Like others of his kind he was born in America, schooled in America and speaks with an American accent - yet he is not an American
The Age attacks free-market economics: A genuine free-market economist knows that you cannot, and should not, regulate human choices. GDP is not a measure of the creation of wealth. It is production, and not consumption, that is the engine of increased wealth accumulation and future prosperity
Defending economic growth against leftwing fanatics: If anyone doubts for a moment that socialism is a cult they need look no further than Ted Trainer. Full-blooded socialism has been an utterly brutal failure that killed more than 100,000,000 people yet lefties still clamour for more. To get what they want they even attack the living standards of the masses
Understanding Personal and Economic Liberty: Ronald Kitching is a life member of the Mont Pelerin Society who made a major contribution to F.A. Hayek's lecture tour of Australia in 1976. He is thus eminently qualified to write a book on Austrian School free market economics

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Feel the peace and tolerance



Students at an Islamic madrassa chant anti-American slogans while burning thousands of DVDs, videos and music CDs at the Lal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Via Jihad Watch)

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A Horror Story the Major Media Have Tried To Bury



These two [above] were out on a date minding their own business when they were car jacked and this is what happened to them. The animals pictured below raped Christopher Newsom, cut off his penis, then set him on fire and fatally shot him several times while they forced his girlfriend, Channon Christian, to watch. An even more cruel fate awaited her! Channon Christian, was beaten and gang-raped in many ways for four days by all of them, while they took turns urinating on her. Then they cut off her breast and put chemicals in her mouth . and then murdered her.



Compare and contrast this with the vast media circus over the Duke University "rape", where the black accuser came to no harm at all. More details here and here

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ELSEWHERE

Chris Brand thinks the Virginia massacre was a product of political correctnes.



US Marines to send Osprey aicraft to Iraq: "The US Marine Corps will send MV-22 Ospreys to Iraq this year in the first combat mission for the hybrid aircraft expected to carry troops in and out of battle at unprecedented speed. "It is our fervent feeling that this aircraft is the most capable, survivable aircraft that we carry our most important weapons system in, which is the Marine or rifleman," said Lt Gen John Castellaw, the Marines' deputy commandant for aviation. The Marines expect speed to protect the Osprey from the ground-fire Iraqi insurgents have used to down US helicopters this year, the Marine Corps said on Friday. The Osprey hovers like a helicopter and flies like a plane. "If you've ever gone rabbit hunting, you know that it's harder to shoot a rabbit that's running than the one that's sitting still," Castellaw said. The Osprey has had a long and sometimes troubled development process, including two deadly crashes, but Marine commanders said they had full confidence in the aircraft."

Remembering the Clinton holocaust at Waco: "Twenty-seven of the 74 [victims] incinerated at Waco were black, age 6 to 61. In fact, more than half of those gun-toting rednecks were minority rednecks, 39 out of 74 to be precise - six of them Hispanic, six of Asian descent. Truth be told, Waco represented the single greatest organized - if largely unwitting - slaughter of black people on American soil since the Battle of Fort Pillow in 1864. And no, this is not something I read on the Internet. I found a verifiable list of the dead, broken out by age and ethnicity, and counted them. The FBI had given the Branch Davidians video cameras. The Clinton White House knew who was in the buildings. So, almost assuredly, did the major media. Although usually eggshell sensitive to the concerns of racial minorities, the media turned a strategically blind eye to their very presence at Waco, not to mention their deaths. As intended, scarcely a black person in America knew the hell visited on his brethren in those early uncertain months of the Clinton era. That knowledge would surely have strained black affection for the Clintons and maybe even party loyalties. The media were not about to encourage such a schism."

Les Bates also details the deep criminality of what happened at Waco under Clinton and Janet Reno.

Polygamous husbands settling in Britain with multiple wives can claim extra benefits: "Polygamous husbands settling in Britain with multiple wives can claim extra benefits for their "harems" even though bigamy is a crime in the UK, it has emerged. Opposition MPs are demanding an urgent change in the law, claiming that the Government is recognising and rewarding a custom which has no legal status and which is "alien" to this country's cultural traditions.... Officials said yesterday a review was now under way into whether the state should continue to pay out income support, jobseeker's allowance and housing and council tax benefits to 'extra' spouses."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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More on the strangeness of Google

What have Google got against "The Times" of London? I noted on 17th. that an interesting historical article from the "Times" could not be found via Google and I have encountered another example today. I tried to find this article via Google today but they had no record of it at all -- both via a web search and a news search. I DID however find a copy of the article in an Indian newspaper!

The article I could not find today was about immigration so maybe it fell foul of Google's notorious "hate-speech" filters. The article is a report of a speech by a British government minister, however, so only Google would see it as "hate speech".

Another possibility is that Google have been fine-tuning their algorithms lately to cut out duplicated content and the algorithms have got too smart for their own good -- cutting out far too much. Cutting out Britain's most famous newspaper is just ludicrous.

Google's censorship of my 200+ academic articles still seems to be absolute. I did find a record of one of them online today but it was given as a "Supplemental Result" -- meaning "no longer online". It IS however still online at the address given and always has been. I think the bosses at Google must be slowly losing their marbles.

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HITCHENS ON THE FORTHCOMING FRENCH ELECTIONS

The most salient fact about the French elections is the degree to which they show a France that is moving steadily to the right. "Sixty-five per cent to the right, in fact," as I am told by Louis Dreyfus of the Nouvel Observateur. Only 30 percent of even the dwindling blue-collar electorate can now be counted upon to vote Socialist or Communist. The surprise "centrist" figure in the contest, Francois Bayrou, is an upper-crust Catholic from the elite ranks of Giscard d'Estaing's rump conservative faction. The front-runner, Nicolas Sarkozy, is a "law-and-order" hard-liner who promises to get tough with young Muslim slum-dwellers and rioters. The superficially glamorous Socialist, Segolene Royal, who got the nomination only by forcefully repudiating her party's Old Left, has pitched herself as the spokeswoman for the holy trinity of the tricolor, the Marseillaise, and Joan of Arc.

M. Le Pen smirks broadly and says that everyone is moving his way in one form or another. And he isn't completely bluffing. There is a reason why the French Communist Party, which used to dominate the working class, the unions, and much of the lumpen intelligentsia, is now a spent force that represents perhaps 3 percent of the electorate. And that reason, uncomfortable as it may be, is that most of the Communist electorate defected straight to the National Front. Moreover, as Louis Dreyfus adds rather gloomily, none of Le Pen's last-time voters (who put him in the second round against Chirac and knocked the Socialist candidate out of the race) have any reason not to vote the same way this time.....

All this comes at a time when the French political elite is discredited and enervated to an amazing degree. There is general agreement that the country cannot afford any more featherbedding, but the Socialist program is only the most egregious in promising to pay people more than they earn. Anti-Americanism has reached a point of diminishing returns. A society that has benefited hugely from EU subsidies now resents the very bureaucracy at whose tit it has so long nursed. Amazing insularity is demonstrated in almost every presidential debate, with Mme. Royale the most astonishing in her apparent innocence of a world beyond the landlocked French district of Poitou of which she is regional president. (In the latest of many gaffe-strewn interviews, she seemed to be blissfully unaware that the Taliban was no longer the official government of Afghanistan. And which French Socialist does not know how to snigger at George Bush for his lack of sophistication in foreign affairs!)....

I don't think it is sufficiently appreciated that France has now become the most conservative major country in Europe, where different defenses of the status quo are at war only with different forms of nostalgia and even outright reaction.

More here

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I have critiqued some pretty awful nonsense on FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC yesterday and today. I sometimes think there is nearly as much BS in the medical literature as there is in the political literature.

Ethel knows best: "A world authority on cybersex has warned teenagers against posting rude or sexually explicit images of themselves on internet chat sites because of their potential to be used by people who view child pornography. Ethel Quayle, a consultant with the research organisation COPINE (Combating Pedophile Information Networks in Europe), is in Sydney to hold seminars for NSW detectives attached to the Child Protection and Sex Crimes Squad. She said images that children and teenagers believed would remain with their friends found their way on to the internet and became fodder for men who viewed child pornography. "Self-produced material is a huge concern," Dr Quayle said yesterday. She said the material could never be removed from the internet and could become a source of future embarrassment and distress to young people."

Must be all those pesky Nazis (wouldn't be Muslims): "Great Britain, France and Canada saw a sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks and vandalism last year, a World Holocaust Day report revealed Sunday. Reported incidents of anti-Semitism rose worldwide -- the highest total number since 2000, said a study by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism and Racism at Israel's Tel Aviv University. The report, written with the World Jewish Congress, was released on Sunday to correspond with Holocaust Memorial Day, Haaretz reported. In all, 590 incidents of violence or vandalism were reported in 2006 against Jews, Jewish property and Jewish institutions, the study said. In Great Britain, more than 100 Jews were attacked -- the highest number in the 20 years -- while the number of violent incidents in France rose by 45 percent and doubled in Canada".

The boom continues: "Yesterday, we had news that retail sales rose 0.7 percent in March, with February sales being revised upward to a 0.5 percent gain from 0.1 percent previously. So despite all the concern that consumers will stop spending now that they're tapping less and less into their home equity, they are continuing to spend... Clearly, Americans are somehow failing to fully comprehend the message put out by the naysayers that incomes are falling, all the new jobs are low-paying, and millions of existing jobs are headed overseas. They're too busy shopping!"

Failure rewarded: "The Federal Emergency Management Agency will replace the American Red Cross as the agency in charge of coordinating the provision of shelter, food and first aid to victims in disasters under an agreement disclosed by a Senate panel yesterday. The change in the government's emergency plans, formalized in letters between FEMA and Red Cross leaders Feb. 21, follows criticism of the way they cooperated after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and a new law that bolsters FEMA's role in providing emergency housing, human services, case management and financial help."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Nancy Pelosi Chamberlain

I don't know if Nancy Pelosi ever attended Woodstock, but she acts as though she never quite got over that one "bad trip". Her eyes fluttering and she's always wearing some kind of weird smile. Maybe it is just a natural high. To me she is the modern feminist version of Neville Chamberlain. Her and her party are willing to concede Iraq to whomever, the same way that Chamberlain gave up Czechoslovakia to Hitler. So much for freedom. What country will be next? And then? And then... I guess it just isn't worth it when so much can be gained politically by retreating. After all there is no more Global War on Terror. The dems just declared it. Puff. Gone. Just sit down with Assad, place a daisy in the barrel of his AK, kiss his tookis. Problem solved.

Nancy took this oath: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Does she care one iota about the Constitution? After all, it was written by dead white guys a long time ago. It appears that the job of most politicians today is to dissolve the United States of America as quickly as possible. We are the problem. Not China, Russia, Iran, Syria, or Islamists. Nancy, are you going sharia on us in the name of "peace"? You looked great in the Khimar. You'd look so much better with the standard black niqab, though.

Where are the feminists in NOW concerning Islamic women and children? Nowhere. That's because you are FOS. You got your power. You made out OK. How about the women in the Middle East? You say "that's their culture". You say that because you are FOS. If you really cared about women you'd be marching on embassies and the UN demanding women not be treated as property and submitted to female circumcisions.

My contempt for this generation of "liberals" is utterly immense. Freedom is an archaic term to them now.

Source

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There are several more articles here, here and here pointing out that World Bank chairman Wolfowitz did nothing wrong and that the current attacks on him are a setup by members of a corrupt organization.

Another Leftist antisemite: "Don't call left-wing media star Cindy Sheehan an anti-Semite just because she's funded by a group that advocates the destruction of Israel. Call her an anti-Semite because she believes that a dark cabal of Jews is running the US government"

Sweden plans to scrap decades-old wealth tax in move to stay competitive: "Maybe the next Bjorn Borg won't feel compelled to move to Monaco now that Sweden plans to scrap a decades-old "wealth" tax that imposes levies on assets - not just on income. The tax, which a handful of developed countries retain, was designed to keep the rich from getting richer - but is increasingly seen as harming primarily the not-quite-rich upper middle classes. The move, expected to be approved by parliament later this year, underscores the country's efforts to keep successful Swedes and their capital at home by changing its fabled but costly welfare state. "It's not sustainable to keep taxes that radically diverge from other countries," Finance Minister Anders Borg, who is not related to the tennis great, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "Not if you want the money to stay in the country." Several European countries have dropped taxes on wealth in the last decade, including Denmark, the Netherlands and Finland"

Negotiate with this??: "Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan delivered a hate-filled sermon calling for the "liberation of Palestine" through terrorism rather than through inter-Arab and international conferences. Delivered two days after the Riyadh Summit, the sermon, which included a call to slaughter the Jews, was broadcasted on Palestinian television, controlled by Abu Mazen"

The religion of peace again: "Norwegian-Somalian Kadra, who became famous in Norway for exposing imam support of female circumcision, was beaten unconscious on Thursday. Kadra was attacked and beaten senseless by seven or eight persons of Somali origin, newspaper VG reports. "I was terrified. While I lay on the pavement they kicked me and screamed that I had trampled on the Koran. Several shouted Allah-o-akbar (God is great) and also recited from the Koran," Kadra told VG. Kadra linked the attack to recent remarks in VG where she said that the Koran's views on women needed to be reinterpreted. Kadra said that the gang of Somali men attacked her around 3 a.m. in downtown Oslo on Thursday. A medical examination found that she had several broken ribs"

Christians under attack in Iraq: "An unidentified Islamic group has been threatening the Chrisitan Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) in the Dora district of Baghdad, a traditionally Assyrian area. The Islamic group issued an ultimatum yesterday to Assyrian families, telling them to leave Christianity and convert to Islam within 24 hours or they would all be killed. The Islamic group also issued a fatwa (a religious edict) to confiscate the property of all Christians, to force Assyrian women to veil themselves, to forbid genuflection (making the sign of the Cross) and the wearing of the Cross. Earlier the same Islamic group forcefully removed the Cross from the churches of St. John and St. George. An affiliated Islamic group in Northern Iraq occupied the Assyrian monastery of Raban Hormuz. The persecution of the Assyrians in the Dora district has been relentless"

Brit "journalists" shaft Israel: "The British reporters union just voted to boycott Israel. The boycott is intended to de-legitimize Israel's right to exist in peace and freedom. It is an endorsement of the Arab-Iranian war against Jerusalem, based on the South African model where the white minority gave up power after an international boycott. But as usual, the Left has its head where the sun shineth not. Contrary to the malevolent Jimmy Carter, Israel is at least as far from an "apartheid nation" as Norway or America. But facts don't count when ideology (and oil dollars to the Jimmy Carter's Center) are at stake. Nobody who follows the British media, like BBC and the Guardian, can be surprised. Today anti-Israel hatred is the disease of the Left, making common cause with Islamofascism. Well, National Socialism was also a kind of Socialism. That's why they called it that. The neo-Fascist Left is not new, but its return to power is very disturbing."

Leftist propaganda bears fruit: "The South Korean student behind the bloodiest school shooting in US history railed against "rich kids", "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" in a note he left behind, US media has reported. The 23-year-old student wrote: "You caused me to do this," in a several-page-long note that he left in his dorm room, ABC News reported."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Stephen Hicks on Left and Right

The very hard-working Stephen Hicks is a philosopher who takes a great interest in history. He wrote a book some time ago which I critiqued. He subsequently wrote a reply to my critique but my intention to reply to his reply got crowded out by other things. But I would like at long last to address some of what he said.

His point that the political polarities in 19th century Europe were different from the political polarities we see in the English-speaking world today is in my view both true and trivial. I would go further and say that the political polarities in Europe and in the English speaking world are STILL different. There are even considerably different polarities in some parts of the English speaking world -- Ireland particularly. I have for that reason limited myself in my monograph on the meaning of conservatism to the Anglo-Saxon countries. The fact that Left and Right are common political terms in both Europe and in the English-speaking world does suggest some convergence and some convergence can in fact on some occasions be discerned but I think that is incidental to an understanding of what Left and Right are in the English speaking world. So I re-iterate my criticism that it is absurd to say, as Hicks does, that you can be of the political Right and also be a socialist! Whether or not such strange terminology was once used in Europe, it makes no sense in current political discussions of the English-speaking world. In our world, the two terms are about as opposite as you can get.

And, just as the denotation of Left and Right is different between nations, it has varied over time. It is a sign of how badly history education has been corrupted that most people in the English speaking world are blissfully unaware of how changeable Leftist policies have been. The basic underlying theme of Leftism -- a hatred of the world they live in and a desire to tear it down and replace it with something more to their liking -- has not changed but the policies they advocate in order to get themselves into power are as changeable as women's fashions. In the first half of the 20th century, for instance, they saw nationalism and racism as the path to power -- precisely what they now deride. Details here.

And it so happens that the American Left of that era (the "Progressives") had comrades in arms in Europe -- people in Europe who had very similar beliefs. We know those people as Fascists and Nazis. That great hero of the American Left, FDR, decribed Mussolini as "that admirable Italian gentleman". So, regardless of the terminology one might use in Europe, in OUR terminology the Fascists and Nazis were Leftists by the standards of their day and to call them Rightists is simply unhistorical.

And it was the Nazis and Fascists rather than the Marxists and the Bolsheviks that the American "Progressives" had an affinity with. American Leftists may have been filled with anger at the world about them and have seen it as in need of much reform but the Bolsheviks and Marxists were filled with RAGE at the world about them and wanted to tear it down utterly and rebuild it from scratch. The Fascists and Nazis, by contrast, were more moderate -- as were the Progressives. They saw the need for big change and for big government to carry it out but they saw enough of value in their existing society not to want to upend absolutely everything.

And it is not only unhistorical to describe the Nazis and Fascists as Rightists but it is also misleading in the context of today's politics. There are certainly people who hold similar racist views today. And it is again on the Left of contemporary American politics that we see constant outpourings of antisemitism. American conservatives want nothing to do with antisemitism and are generally supportive of Israel.

There is also of course a tiny minority who are antisemites but who see themselves as being on the Right. As it happens, I spent a number of years studying just such people intensively. See here and here. And I can assure everyone of two things: 1). Conservatives won't have a bar of them and kick them out of any conservative political party they try to join; and: 2). The policies they favour are collectivist and authoritarian, just as Hitler's policies were. And again like Hitler, the way they differ from the Marxists is that they don't hate their fellow citizens. They want to see a lot of change but they also see much of value in their traditional society that is worth preserving. But to say that their views define the Right is to define the dog by its tail. There is a connection but the dog would still be a dog and get on well without its tail -- as many dogs do.

There is much more I could say on these matters but I have already said much of it here, here and here so I will call a temporary halt at this stage.

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My comment on the Virgina Tech shootings is on GUN WATCH. The gun banners bear a heavy load of guilt today.

SCA has a good comment too: "The escalation of gun violence and the kind of hate to leads to that kind of violence in this country is can be attributed to one cause and one cause alone. When violence or threats of violence are considered legitimate forms of political or social expression, inevitably violence or threats of violence will manifest themselves.Terror has becomes an accepted form of political and social expression, that status granted by those who most profess to be non violent or peaceful. The terror we see here has it’s origins in faraway places brought to our TV screens every day. Those in this country who defend, apologize and legitimize the terror and evil committed elsewhere have facilitated the introduction of terror in this country. They will sooner defend the perpetration of evil and violence than those who would fight that evil ideology that embraces that kind of evil."

"Getting" Wolfowitz: "Wolfowitz was absolutely right to say that the bank had been too tolerant of the risk of corruption for too long, out of the best of intentions - the desire to keep the money flowing and the fear that impoverished societies would suffer if they were penalised for the sins of their leaders. But he did point out, more bluntly than the bank has often acknowledged in the half-century of its existence, that there is such a thing as wasting all the money - not a tenth, not a half, but all of it. No, he wasn't the first person in the bank to say it; yes, he was abrasive; that didn't make him wrong.... Much of the criticism of Wolfowitz's supposedly preferential treatment of his girlfriend looks like an opportunist attempt to hit at an executive who was always too controversial and too resented to be as effective as he might have been. The e-mails that have been released show that Wolfowitz, on his appointment, alerted the bank to the potential conflict of interest with Shaha Riza ... It is not the real cause of the opposition ... That stemmed from opposition to his reforms... But the danger is that the attacks on him will deflect attention from his attempt to change the bank. There is plenty of sign that this is the express aim of some of his critics."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Brookes News Update

The US economy: is manufacturing and the yield curve signalling recession?: The signals are mixed about the immediate direction of the US economy. So before anyone starts making predictions I strongly suggest that they recall their economic history and continue to bear in mind the monetary power of central banks
Chinese economy: purchasing power and production: If Chinese economic progress is to be comparatively smooth then the government needs to learn not only the lessons of economic history but also the wisdom of the so-called classical economists whose understanding of fundamental economic forces has been largely forgotten
Putting the Hayekian horse back before the Keynesian cart: an Austrian approach to the business cycle, part I: Mainstream economic analysis starts and often finishes with mutterings about what the 'consumer' will or will not do. But consumption does not drive the economy - only business spending can do that. Policies that promote consumption are actually undermining the capital structure and hence future living standards
Supply-side economics and the money supply, part I: According to supply-siders the key to economic growth and prosperity is low marginal tax rates. However, the supply-side school also maintains that a low marginal tax rate will not be sufficient, that it must be accompanied by a monetary policy that aims at achieving price stability This is a surefire recipe for creating booms and busts
The anti-enlightenment left: This culture war is not a battle of ideas. It's a war against truth being waged by the left. Since religion is the effort to be right morally and spiritually while science is the effort to be right in the physical world, it is not surprising to find the left so passionately against both
Dallas is Bush country and leave your guns at the door!: I covered the war in Beirut in June of '82. I was there for several weeks. During that time I saw first hand how Islamofascists think. They don't know how to read and write but are experts at making bombs. Meanwhile liberal Hollywood Jews, such as Spielberg and Geffen, are throwing money at Obama
Is the US economy still picking up steam?: US economy: manufacturing is not signalling recession - at least not yet. Nevertheless, there is much to worry about, including Bernanke's gross error on capital and credit growth

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Tax cuts mean growth

BY FRED THOMPSON

The results of the experiment that began when Congress passed a series of tax-rate cuts in 2001 and 2003 are in. Supporters of those cuts said they would stimulate the economy. Opponents predicted ever-increasing budget deficits and national bankruptcy unless tax rates were increased, especially on the wealthy.

In fact, Treasury statistics show that tax revenues have soared and the budget deficit has been shrinking faster than even the optimists projected. Since the first tax cuts were passed, when I was in the Senate, the budget deficit has been cut in half. Remarkably, this has happened despite the financial trauma of 9/11 and the cost of the War on Terror. The deficit, compared to the entire economy, is well below the average for the last 35 years and, at this rate, the budget will be in surplus by 2010.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this success story is where the increased revenues are coming from. Critics claimed that across-the-board tax cuts were some sort of gift to the rich but, on the contrary, the wealthy are paying a greater percentage of the national bill than ever before. The richest 1% of Americans now pays 35% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay more taxes than the bottom 60%.

The reason for this outcome is that, because of lower rates, money is being invested in our economy instead of being sheltered from the taxman. Greater investment has created overall economic strength. Job growth is robust, overcoming trouble in the housing sector; and the personal incomes of Americans at every income level are higher than they've ever been.

Source

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Fred for Prez: "When his daughter Betsy died, Fred Thompson, a genial 6ft 6in senator for Tennessee, lost his enthusiasm for the rough and tumble of politics. Shortly afterwards he announced that he would not run for reelection.... It dawned on him this year that he could ride back into town as president only when, one by one, the conservative choices for the 2008 Republican ticket revealed their flaws. They seemed out of sync with the party or the country or both. Thompson's name began to be aired by old friends and party power-brokers and, suddenly, the idea of Fred Thompson for president caught fire. Thompson, a good ol' Southern boy with bags of charm to match those under his eyes and chin, is already known to millions as a tough district attorney in the hugely popular TV series Law and Order and has appeared in films such as In the Line of Fire, with Clint Eastwood, and The Hunt for Red October with Sean Connery. A national poll last week put Thompson, 64, in second place behind Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and three points ahead of Senator John McCain - and he hasn't even declared yet that he is running or spent a cent on campaigning. It suggests that he has the potential to be frontrunner in the Republican field.

Bill Whittle on conspiracy theorists: "No, what fascinates me is the emotional motive of people who, presented with overwhelming evidence that the events that transpired on November 22nd, 1963 or September 11th, 2001 really happened exactly the way it appeared, continue to spin ever more elaborate webs in order to get to a place they need to be emotionally. Who are you going to believe: them or your own lying eyes? ... I've met a number of these people. I know this is harsh, but I'm sick of watching the damage they are doing to this civilization: these people are, to a man, complete losers. Losers. They are desperate and sad people who need to believe in some dark secret to give meaning to their lives."

Google listens -- a little: After my big grumble of last Friday about Google not indexing many of my writings, I find today that all of my more recent articles and all chapters in my 1974 book are now findable via Google! There are still some huge gaps in their coverage, however. They no longer seem to archive my older academic papers, for a start. And with my interest in history I found this article from "The Times" of London very interesting -- which live.com reveals is also reproduced here -- but Google has apparently searched neither site. Weird! I wonder when people will realize that Microsoft's live.com is a much better search engine.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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Animal welfare roundup

PETA is not alone

More "animal rescue" fraud: "Noah's Wish, an animal rescue group based in Placerville, has closed operations and is being investigated by the California attorney general's office for how it spent and accounted for millions of dollars that poured in after Hurricane Katrina. The organization, which was founded in 2002 by Terri Crisp, rescued animals in disasters and drew widespread publicity for its work in the days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Before Katrina, the group brought in between $100,000 and $200,000 a year, according to financial nonprofit records filed with the state. After the hurricane, a staggering $8.5 million in cash and other contributions poured in, according to financial documents obtained by The Bee."

Animal Rescue Workers Face Trial Over Shelter Conditions: "LONG BEACH, Calif. -- A judge Thursday ordered a pair of animal rescue workers to stand trial on animal cruelty charges stemming from the discovery of nearly 300 sick cats and dogs in a shelter they ran. Long Beach Superior Court Judge J.D. Lord found sufficient evidence for Alexia Selma Tiraki-Kyrklund and Gloria Ramos to go to trial on 13 felony counts of animal cruelty. The women, both 39, ran Noah's Ark Animal Rescue. Animal control officers found 152 dogs and 147 cats in the company's warehouse after a police officer responding to an alarm smelled a foul odor. Most animals were emaciated and covered in urine and feces and at least one animal had to be euthanized, said Deputy District Attorney Lakeri Patankar.

Massachusetts fat-cats: "Before the Animal Rescue League of Boston opened its Pembroke shelter in 2002, animal welfare advocates criticized the nonprofit organization for sitting on its money, taking a decade to build a shelter and spending too little on animal care and services. Now, as the League prepares to walk away from the shelter after only five years, critics question the organization's spending habits, including investments and executive salaries. In 2005, the most recent year for which a tax return is available, the League brought in almost $7.2 million in revenue and spent nearly $8.9 million. That year, $6.8 million went to program services and nearly $4 million to salaries. The League's outgoing president, Arthur Slade, was paid $203,909 in salary plus $14,846 in pension contributions and deferred compensation. The incoming president that year, John Bowen, earned nearly $15,000 for his first month's work, starting Dec. 1, 2005. The League's chief operating officer earned about $151,000 and at least four other top employees, one of them a veterinarian, earned between $84,000 and $94,000. The League also paid 12 other employees $50,000 or more."

Anti-fur crowd lecture Pope about "sacredness": "An Italian animal rights group today asked Pope Benedict XVI to stop wearing fur out of "respect for the sacredness" of animals' lives. The Italian Anti-Vivisection League said the Pope should not wear a fur hat the Vatican has ordered from a manufacturer in the northern city of Pavia ahead of his visit to a university there on April 22. "Out of respect for the sacredness of the lives of all living species, we invite the Holy Father to arrive at a choice of high religious and ethical value by giving up fur clothing for that occasion and for the future," the group's vice president, Roberto Bennati, said. Benedict XVI, who will celebrate his 80th birthday on Monday, regularly wears clothing with fur, particularly during outdoor ceremonies in the winter."

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ELSEWHERE

Emptyheaded Obama flagging: "To Democrats expecting repeats of his breathtaking speech to the 2004 party convention, which launched his national political career, Obama has appeared low-key and tired at times during the early stages of his campaign. In meetings across the country he rarely wins more than one or two polite standing ovations. One Hollywood supporter recently noted that the crowd at one of his events "seemed to me unmoved, frankly" and "Barack seemed a little tired, to be honest". A Gallup poll on Friday, taken as news of an astonishing $25m fundraising haul was announced, showed support for him at 19%, well behind Clinton on 38%.... Pressure is growing on the Illinois senator to unveil more policies. While Sorenson said that Obama reminded him of the young Kennedy, another guest said: "It's all very well to talk about hope and idealism and values, but what about specific programmes?"

Globalization and free trade: "Freedom of trade is really a very simple concept. Each individual should be at liberty to buy from and sell to whomever he wishes on mutually agreed-upon terms. Whether the partners to this trade live next door to each other or are separated by thousands of miles should make absolutely no difference to the logic of the idea."

A rare spasm of realism from the Left: "Abolish all agricultural subsidies... This is one of those rare topics that unites right and left. It is also one of the few remaining free lunches in economics from which practically everyone gains. It would galvanise developing countries' agriculture while freeing more than $300bn currently being spent by governments - over $200 per capita - every year on subsidies for other purposes. There will inevitably be transitional problems for some western farmers but nothing like the structural change other industries have experienced. And in the long run it will be of benefit to them, too. They will be able to grow crops they are good at rather than those attracting subsidies. All that the developing countries are seeking is a level playing field on which to compete. Is that too much to ask?"

Police officers and firefighters ... or stupid laws: "How do you feel when you see a police car behind you on the road? Would you be worried if you had a knock on the door and saw a police officer standing there? Now, how do you feel when you see a fire truck behind you on the road? Other than being worried your house was on fire, would you be uneasy to see a firefighter standing at your door? I believe that the only reason the average American has different feelings toward firefighters and police officers, both of whom are there to protect us, is our government has burdened our police officers with stupid laws to enforce."

British police scam: "Motorists whose cars are stolen are being told they must pay the police at least 105 pounds if they want them to recover their vehicle when it is found and check it for forensic clues. The scheme - being implemented by forces across the country - has been attacked by angry motorists. Only car owners who agree to pay the fee, which in theory is to cover storage, are assured their cars will be "forensicated" - which means dusted down for fingerprints or swabbed for DNA. A police letter approved by the Home Office warns motorists who recover their own vehicles that the cars will not be checked for clues. It states: "[The police force will accept] no further responsibility and will be unable to take further action to identify the person who took it." Opposition MPs this weekend attacked the charges, which often cannot be recovered under car insurance policies, for penalising the victims of car crime. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: "Taxpayers already pay twice for policing, through central taxation and council tax. "It's ludicrous to charge them a third time for the police to do their normal job when their cars have been stolen through no fault of their own."

"Star wars" system works: "The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] conducted another successful flight test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system today, intercepting a unitary target in THAAD's second flight test at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kauai, HI. This hit-to-kill intercept demonstrated THAAD's precision against in-bound threats and its ability to provide increased protection for troops and assets."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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LET EUROPE SECURE ITS OWN OIL SUPPLIES

Excerpt below from American Thinker. Note that with Western hemisphere oil -- from Mexico, Venezuela, Alaska etc., the USA does not really need Arab oil. Most Alaskan oil goes in fact to Japan

Europe gets forty percent of its oil through the Persian Gulf. But by an accident of history (and civilized policy -- ours, that is) it is the United States that guards the Gulf from madmen like Ahmadinejad. Well, so be it. We gain from world peace and free trade, and it is better to keep the maniacs far away from our shores.

But it is now way past time for Europe to step up to the plate again. They have the economic might, the population, the brains -- but not the guts -- to behave as a decent actor on the world stage. And the British "hostage crisis" -- which was not a crisis at all, but a staged provocation, an invitation for the Brits to kowtow, which they did -- should spell the end of our patience.

Europe's response to Ahaminejad's game tells us all we need to know. Tony Blair tossed the hot potato to the UN, which tossed it right back again. Then he tried his good friends in the EU, and they ducked it altogether. Then, secretly, he got George W. to trade Iran's Quds thugs, who were imprisoned in Iraq for directing IED attacks on Americans, in trade for those 15 clueless Brits. Result: The West looked helpless against the ruthless blackmailers of Qom. So in the end, Europe got away again with letting Uncle Sam do it.

We can shrug off the screaming anti-American hate mongering of the media in Germany, France and (on the Left) in Britain. We can ignore the fact that Britain is selling its sovereignty to the EU, about as feckless a bunch of political con artists as ever exploited a badly indoctrinated population. What we cannot allow, over the long term, is to get stuck with all the adult work of maintaining the peace around the world, while the Europeans exploit our generosity and we pay the price in blood and treasure. It's past time for Europe to grow up.

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THIS DISGRACE HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR DECADES

How dumb and irresponsible can military bureaucrats get? Every soldier or ex-soldier knows the answer to that: VERY. For decades the U.S. army has been issuing its troops with a rifle that constantly refuses to work -- despite unending complaints and despite the danger to the lives of the troops. No wonder lots of U.S. troops in Iraq keep an AK47 handy!

It's a debate that's gone on for years - and now it's finally coming to a head. The compact M4 carbine - a shortened version of the M16 - that is now standard issue for most Army troops, some Marines and other specialized units is facing increased criticism because of its tendency to malfunction with even the minutest exposure to the elements. Some ground communities, including special operations forces, have begun to sideline the M4 in favor of newer, gas-piston operated variants such as the Heckler & Koch-manufactured 416 and the FNH-built Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle, or SCAR....

The 416 is used by the Army's elite Delta Force, and a recent Army Times investigation showed the service's top equipment buyers ignored data from the spec ops community showing the M4 had fundamental flaws. Enamored by the development of futuristic weapons such as the XM29 and, later, XM8 - neither of which were ever fielded - the M4 stayed in the hands of Soldiers deploying to hot, dusty, austere environments like Iraq and Afghanistan....

So far, however, the Army is unwilling to buy what the special operations community believes is a clearly superior system and is still spending money looking for another technology while Soldiers use what many say is an inferior weapon in harsh combat conditions.

More here

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ELSEWHERE

The hypocrites who condemn Imus: "Sharpton and Jackson have now highlighted something they never intended to address, i.e., the vile and disgusting content of much hip-hop and rap music. Conservative talk show hosts don't play this stuff on the air. It's the bread-and-butter of Urban radio stations. Hollywood celebrates it ("It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Original Song—lyrics here) Sharpton and Jackson have never picketed an Urban radio station; they've never called for boycotts of the record labels that produce this filth; they've never asked the FCC to investigate the playing of these recordings on the public airwaves; and they've never demanded the firing of any DJs or executives who promote it."

Possible Imus backlash?: "It's possible CBS, MSNBC and other advertisers forgot something. Imus's fans. He had about 3 million listeners, and if the local affiliate call in show is any indication, people are PO'd as hell about how CBS and MSNBC handled this. So far not a positive call one about Sharpton, with callers using all the well known names he is know by. While a lot of callers cite that he was wrong about making the statement, they are outraged that CBS and MSNBC bowed to race pressure and blackmail. A lot of the talk is of fan letter writing campaigns and stuff to force CBS to put the show back up on the air. Anyone knows, 3 million people can bark real loud at sponsors. This could get good".

A good quote from Taranto: "The news media, supposedly vigilant against racial stereotypes, actually are relentless in promoting politically correct ones: privileged whites, victimized blacks. As with all stereotypes, these have a degree of truth--but as the Duke case shows, stereotypes also can obscure the truth, sometimes with unjust results."

Waste and mismanagement are the hallmarks of government: "As many as 6 million prepared meals stockpiled near potential victims of the 2006 hurricane season spoiled in the Gulf Coast heat last summer when the Federal Emergency Management Agency ran short of warehouse and refrigeration space, according to agency officials."

UK: Govgoons to raid homes over parking tickets?: "The UK parliament is considering legislation that would authorize bailiffs to break into the homes of motorists accused of not paying parking tickets. Under legislation currently making its way through the House of Commons, bailiffs would seize items out of the home in order to pay off the amount owed in tickets, plus hefty fees. Any homeowner that attempting to stop the bailiff would face up to a year in prison."

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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

"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here.

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) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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